I am so happy.

My happiness stems from a number of things.

First and foremost, I finished up shedir a few days ago - here are a couple of less-than-gorgeous pictures of a hat that actually turned out really neat.

It was a fun, quick knit, despite all of the twisted stitches. It only took 2 or three days to do the entire thing! I've been getting all sorts of compliments on it, even from a woman working in the yarn shop. Nathan wanted one, so I picked up some yarn (Silky Wool, mmmm) today. It's a greenish grey heathered yarn, and when I showed it to him, he yelled: "YEAH! That is such a F***in cool color!" So...I think he likes it.

Also at the LYS, I picked up a few little bags of some plain old wool (not sure exactly what type of wool, the package just read "wool". I chose shockingly ridiculous colors, and picked up a half ounce of each (barbie pink and bright teal). These were prepared rovings, and ohmygod when I spun them I finally experienced that "ah ha!" moment. THAT is what spinning is supposed to feel like. It was so much easier to maintain the correct amount of twist on my yarn, so much easier to draft...so much easier to do everything. So I've decided I need to transform the remainder of my alpaca into Alisha-friendly roving. I'm on a tool hunt.

Here's what I spun today. These are the singles, sitting in their own little cups, while I prepare to ply (for the first time!).

The pink one was a bit overtwisted, but the teal came out just about right. It's so satisfying to see it all get better, little by little. Here's the plied yarn, still on the spindle:

And then I turned it into a skein, stuck it in one of those teeny little cups, and put a penny in it (so you havea better idea of how thick the stuff is). I didn't make very much out of this stuff - somewhere around 10-15 yards, I think.

It was so much fun! I have to wash the skein to set the twist, and then maybe I'll knit a teeny swatch so that I can say I have officially knit with yarn I spun myself. It'll be a giant ego boost. I will revel in my own awesomeness.

Today was also the day of the next big update by pigeonroof studios. I was watching like a hawk for the perfect roving. A few I liked came and went (quickly! you people are FAST!). But finally, I saw the drift roving. I had seen it before, and I loved it. I fell head over heels the first time I saw it on her blog, and then it popped up on her shop page, and I lost it. I HAD to have it. So I got it. Here's a picture of the beauty that is my soon-to-be new roving love.

I can't wait! She still has (at the moment of this post) some more DELICIOUSLY beautiful things up for sale, so definitely check it out. I swore that I would only pick one thing for this purchase, and it was a hard decision, but I'm definitely looking forward to getting my squishy package in the mail.

I've been working on the cable luxe sweater, but I don't have any updated pictures. The yoke is done and I've been working my way down the back. I've been figuring the math for the modifications I want to make...and it seems like it's all going to work out fairly simply. I look forward to wearing it!

Until then...I'm going to be spinning my ass off. Whoever turned me on to spinning should be ashamed. They have created a monster. A monster!

Who cares, this is fun. I love fibers. So much.