Wanna Play?

Kim (how many Kim's are there out in Blogland?) came to Salt Lake bearing gifts (you are so generous grrl!).  One side benefit of a guest coming to stay is my room has been straightened up and piles of 'stuff' put away. In this picture you can see the rug that Kim crocheted with yarn she hand dyed and spun.  Gifts made by a friends hand are always extra special and having this rug in my junque room studio reminds me of her visit and our growing friendship.  Part of the clean up included a new bin for my fiber acquisitions.  Rovings from Amy and Teyani arrived late last week and were added to the small fiber stash.  You can see Amy's 'Bubblegum' (pink/blue superwash merino), Teyani's 'Satisfaction' behind it (also superwash) and Amy's 'Chocolate Dipped' (BFL) behind the big pile of white roving.  Speaking of that white roving, Kim also brought it along as a gift, too.  It's merino top, that feels like butta, from her friend Chloe's farm, and it holds so much potential and inspiration! It's hard to not spend hours petting it and I spend hours throughout the day thinking about how wonderful it is.  All that lovely white fiber screams to be dyed and spun...it just screams!! What until you hear what I have in mind for it (and for you, too!). 

Now this this post is more like thinking out loud, but I want you to be thinking about this, too.  My thoughts are to have a Dye-Spin-Knit Along, in which you would create your own sock yarn based on the book "The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook".  Some of the ideas running around in my head are...

• Dye your own or purchase already dyed roving.

• Spin your own yarn.  Hand spindling will be highly encouraged (you can consider me anew  zealot of the spindle) but, spinning on a wheel will be allowed.

• Knit any sock you like and there are many cool ideas in the book.

• The KAL will run from October 2006-March 2007. 

• There will be a blog and Blogless Karen (not to be confused with Carole's Blogless Sharon) will be the co-host.  She has experience in dyeing, spinning and knitting.

• The assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to practice spinning (or learn to spin) on a spindle, amass needed supplies (plus the book), and get ready to have the most fiber fun ever.
  

We'll have more details, sign ups and a blog some time in September, with the kick off on October 2nd.  Get ready, get set.....

Comments

[vanessa]

yipee, that sounds like fun :-)

[Vera]

That does sound cool.

[Kelly]

Ya know just the other day I was thinking that there really wasn't many spinning related alongs or swaps. This sounds great!

[Lolly]

It might be a good tie-in with Socktoberfest too! :)

[AmyP]

That does sound very interesting. Especially since I've got the book, a spindle and some fibre. And I'll need something to do when my uni work is finished in Septemeber!

[Chris]

Waaay cool!! I'll have to force myself to use a spindle. I have several but am still a real novice on them. I'm much better on the wheel, so this will give me a good push to improve on the spindle!

[Lauren]

I am so in! I need to get back on the spindle anyway, what a fun idea!

[Beth]

I'm ahead of the curve - just finishing my first handspun pair. Just a heel and foot to go.

[janine]

Count me in :-) I've jus ordered the book ;-)

[Carole]

Count me in. Except for the spindle spinning part. I think it's best if I use one of my wheels. Mmmmkay?

[janine]

Oops sorry about the spelling, that's what you get for typing one handed with a spinning spindle in the othe :-)

[Cara]

Hehehehe. Zealot doesn't even come close. ;-)

[Jenny Raye]

This sounds like a great winter project! Must find the book.....

[beverly]

Count me in! I love the idea of doing this with a group!!

[Kathleen]

Heck no!!

[Norma]

I suck so bad at alongs. I'll just watch and encourage, k? :)

[Kim]

Oh man, you're really gonna go it---a Twisted KAL if ever I've heard o' one. ;)

LOVE the phiber photo, girlphriend. Who can get anything else done when there's all that wonderful stuff to play with?!

Your studio full of books is so wonderful. You're definitely the hostess with the mostess. Thank you so much! xoxo

[Stitch-n-Snitch]

I'd better get practicing on my spindle!!!

[Marcia]

Like Norma, I seem to be Along Challenged, but since something along these lines was already on my To Do List (Honest..I went to bed last night with internet directions for Kool Aid dyeing and the Twisted Sisters Sock book!) I will have to give it a spin, forgive the pun! Spindle? Probably not. I am a FIRM believer in the Judith MacKenzie sock yarn rules: three ply worsted, and that ain't gonna happen on MY spindles! Wheel it is.

[chris]

Ooh, yay, this sounds fun . . . I'm usually really bad at "alongs", but I may give this one a shot and try and break the curse.

[Anne]

Hm.... nope, nope. Do not tempt me - I want to do this, and I have so not the time. Sigh. Great idea tho!

[jessie]

That Twisted Sisters book is my FAVORITE. My husband got it for me thinking it was a sock book, but it's how I (a) learned to spin on a spindle, even though I hard already learned on a wheel and (b) started dyeing.

Confession: My spindle was one made of two cd's and a dowel and a hook. Therefore, if I want to take this challenge to the ultimate, I must purchase a real spindle. Right?

I think this is a fantastic challenge, despite the fact that my wheel spinning project has not moved in 3 months at least and I have two WIPs on the knitting needles.

Anyone who doesn't have this book should get it just to see all the cool color combinations.

I am SO in on this one. :-0

[Jennifer]

Wow! That is a great idea. I'm really going to have to practice my spinning though! Better get started.

[Wendy]

This sounds like an easy one for me, since this is what I mostly spin anyway. But you never know! I'm not terribly good at these -along things. But count me in! I'm all ready to go!

[Martha]

I think this sounds like a lot of fun, and might even do it as my very first a-long (I'm really not a joiner). But I feel a need to speak out on behalf of the CD spindle--I think they should count. They may not be pretty, but they're darn fine spindles.