Ooh! Look over there!

A shiny object!

Apparently I am easily distracted.

Oops.

This week, the shiny objects have taken several forms, but the most distracting of them is this:
What's that? Why, that is some absolutely gorgeous handspun yarn from Cheryl. It's her Bunny Patch Yarn, from NewHue Handspun Yarns. She dyes the fiber herself and then spins it into a lovely fingering weight yarn; a soft and cozy merino/angora yarn, no less (80/20). And the colors are gorgeous. That yarn is her Oasis colorway, and it's a deeper, richer, more mossy colorway than these two pictures show, with the colors running through the plies of the yarn.
Cheryl has been spinning for years, and has spun for several other producers during that time, but she's decided to go into selling her own line (that's her etsy link above). Cheryl asked Anne if she'd think of something along the mitt/scarf line to knit with the yarn (which is going to be amazing; this stuff is soft soft), and then asked me if I'd knit her a pair of socks with it so she could see how well it wears as socks. How could I say no? Look at the Joseph's Coat colorway that I'll be knitting into something for myself very soon:
It's more burgundy in real life,but you get the idea. So I sat down and tried and tried to figure out what kind of sock pattern I could knit that would show off the lovely color changes without obscuring either the colors or the pattern. I was pretty sure that either moss or seed stitch would have to come into it somewhere, but I wasn't sure where. I poked around in Barbara Walker's books, and thought that something in the eyelet family might also be nice, but I was feeling pretty attached to the seed stitch idea, especially with the lovely mossy colors in the Oasis yarn. I found a beautiful little motif from BW (the Wildflower Knot Stitch) that I thought would look nice, but I needed something more. I finally decided that I could wing something, that I had faith in myself, and I went with a series of travelling stitch diamonds, filled with seed stitch, running down the sides, and the knots along the front and back. I'm half a diamond repeat in, and I think I like.
That's much truer to the color, btw. I love the way this looks. I love this colorway (might have to get some for myself), and I'm feeling pretty proud of myself for figuring this thing out. I haven't decided if I'll keep doing the knots on the instep of the foot, the way I usually would, since I'm not sure how comfortable that would be, but I have some time. Maybe I'll just carry the diamonds down the side of the foot instead.

Meanwhile, I have not forgotten Rick's sweater, which I am knitting while reading and talking and watching TV (I always forget how nice it is to have one stockinette stitch project OTN for just vegging out with). I'm making some progress.
I realized that in my hysteria while writing my last post, I misstated the inches of the yoke; it's more like 22 than 29, but that's still a gracious plenty. This yarn is astonishing, though -- a cotton that I love and that doesn't hurt my hands. Wow.

I'm also working on another scarf from my handspun for another friend's birthday. I'm using the same stitch as last time (the cabled feather and fan) because I liked it so much (and because, let's face it, I'm a little lazy).
Now that I have a needle size I like on this one (three tries later) I think it'll go fairly quickly.

And last but not least, I got another package in the mail last night (Rick asked whether I've joined the "fiber a day" club; all I want to know is how do I sign up?). To be completely fair, I bought this with a gift certificate from The Loopy Ewe, so I'm not sure it really counts as part of my fiber budget.
What's coming out as a white/yellow in the picture is actually a deep gold, and the oranges are more pumpkiny. The final product will either be for me or for my mom; I haven't decided yet if I'm going to be able to give it up...

So, that's the week in fiber. Several projects going on, and a burning desire to spend some time at the wheel. Lucky for me it's a relatively quiet weekend, and if it stays as cool and grayish as it was today, it's going to be a good weekend for holing up with some needles and spindles. Meanwhile, I'm off to take Tilly for a walk while Younger Daughter goes to soccer practice.