Yarn + Bowl

I've been looking at yarn bowls on Etsy (bowls with a hole or notch through which to feed the yarn when knitting or crocheting), but I couldn't find one I liked enough to buy. But I still wanted one. Then I realized that you don't really need a hole for a yarn bowl. I just plopped my bowl of yarn in a nice little bowl I purchased years ago at the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria, and I was in business without spending a cent! It works great to keep my yarn ball from rolling around when I knit.

Clockwork

A local yarn store -- Fibre Space in Old Town Alexandria -- had a Miss Babs trunk show several weeks ago. One of the samples was Clockwork, by Stephen West, knit in Sojourn. Sojourn is a very soft, heavy fingering weight cashmere & silk blend yarn. I picked skeins of navy (blue) and nori (green), but when I began knitting I saw that the contrast was far too low to show off the stripe pattern. So I sent off for some lighter green (coventry), which worked well. It's finished and blocked, and is even softer now. The pattern is basic garter stitch stripes, with slip stitch contrasting columns of stockinette stitches.

My First Yarn

Recently, I plyed and skeined my first batch of yarn that I spun on a spindle. Three small skeins, probably enough for a hat and maybe a matching cowl, plus some single laceweight left over. The top I spun was some beautiful Miss Babs dyed top -- mixed bluefaced leicester (BFL) if I remember correctly. I like the way the yarn turned out, but I clearly need more practice!