Thank you, Gina

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful Cormo Ewe named Gina.  She gave me her fleece a couple of Springs ago, and I've never been the same since.

Yesterday I finished spinning all my Gina's fleece.  It feels like at the finish of a really good book.  I knew it would be over soon, but I still wasn't really ready.  Now I'm not quite sure what to do with myself.  Not that I have any shortage of projects, you understand; it's quite the opposite.  I'm just a little melancholy that this one is finished.

Of course, it's not as if I don't still have the yarn, though.  There are 2,774 yards of it here.  And naturally, I'm thinking about what I'll knit from it.  But I will miss the spinning.

Good thing I have plans to learn more about Aran knitting...

I can't believe it's mine (all mine!).  How many blissful hours I've spent with it already.  How often I've petted it and squished it and imagined what it might become.  It really is true that spinners who knit get to play with their wool twice. 

Of all God's creatures who give us their best, there must be a very special place in heaven for the sheep.  Gina, especially.

Have You Any Wool?

Remember when I hatched the cunning plan to knitalong to Janet Szabo's F.L.A.K recipe?  Looks like there are quite a few takers.  And I *may* have invited one or two (or a hundred) more to join in, while I've been out and about teaching.  And if you've been reading the comments, you know that the one-and-only, real live Janet Szabo even dropped by to register her approval and offer support.

YAY.

As for the timeline, I won't be able to start until late summer or early fall, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't immediately start considering yarn possibilities.  That's right, Gentle Readers: I'm advocating a little Retail Recognizance.  Let the yarn shopping commence. You're welcome.

Our yarn has to meet certain criteria. Such as:

Lots Of It
The FLAK workshop suggests between 1600 and 2500 yards of yarn, depending on the size of your sweater.  Cables, as you know, gobble up scads of yarn, and you'll also want to do some fairly assertive (large-scale) swatching, in order to choose your cables/combinations.   And I won't insult you with speeches about consistent dye lots.  'Nuff said.

The Right Weight
Target gauge for the FLAK is 22 sts & 28 rows = 4"/10cm over Moss st.  So a medium-weight worsted seems like a good bet, (CYCA symbol 4), or something like it.  Janet's original was done in 100% wool, so if you are substituting another fiber or blend, make careful decisions, such as:

• Compare the weight per 100 yards/meters.  If the yarn you are considering is vastly heavier, proceed with caution.

• Do your math.  Count actual yards/meters, not skeins/balls.

• The original yarn had 3 plies.  Change the roundness/number of plies only after considering the possible outcomes.

And of course; Fiscal Impact.

If the sky's the limit for you on this one, God Speed and off you go.  If not, I have happy news.  I did a little shopping for us.  Just one more service I provide.  To Wit:

elann.com, sponsor of the original FLAK has some dynamite values on full bags (10 balls) of yarn.  My pick for the project is A-Series A01 Pure 28 Micron Punta Arenas Wool.  CLICK HERE to see the gorgeous colors.  Did you notice it's only $28 US for a full bag of 10 balls?  It's made in Italy and has 5, count 'em, 5 plies.  That, my friends, is some round yarn.  Stitch definition, anyone?

Got Mine:

At 87 yards per ball, I went for the quintessential Three Bags Full, which will give me 2610 yards to play with.  More than enough for a dream sweater, and still well south of the $100 mark.

Oh, and it *may* have brought some of its friends:

Dreamy! Creamy! I think it should be a prize for some lucky knitter in the KAL.  You game?  

How about now? 

Yeah, I thought so.  I'll give away the yarn in plenty of time for the winner to use it in the KAL, so stay tuned for the contest.  Who knows, maybe some other fabulous prizes will accumulate between now and our start date...

Old Friends Who Just Met

So there I was, setting up to teach Norwegian mittens at Yarnover in Minneapolis.  Among the knitters filing in and finding seats, a petite brunette approached me with a sly grin.  She held this out:

Yep.  It's the very first copy of my new book, set to debut on June 1.  Which could only mean that the adorable holding it was none other than Linda Neubauer, my editor.  It may surprise you to learn that even though Linda has been my boss for over a year, we've never met.  In fact, there has only been a single phone conversation, with all of our other communication taking place via e-mail.  Crazy world this is, where you can work hand in glove with someone for over a year and never meet them.

Linda stayed for mitten class, which was even better, and we all had a great time together.

Flash forward to last Sunday when a soft-spoken lady came in for introduction to stranded colorwork, and introduced herself as Scottie Lover, who has been a friend of the blog since almost the very beginning.  After I squished her nearly to bits, she told me about her adventures in Scottish Terrier rescue, and I showed her this design, in the new book:

So these two friends, along with many, many others, brightened my trip to Minnesota.  All I had to do was fly 1,714.9 miles to meet these pals, with whom I connect virtually almost every day.  Small world, no? 

Thanks, Knitting!