I’m enjoying the Suggest-a-Contest contest entries–keep them coming! Let’s put a cap of, oh, say, Wednesday at noon (EST) as the deadline. Some of the ideas have been really creative, which is what we’re shooting for! Again, don’t worry about practicality. It could be a contest to guess how much yardage of yarn you could get from a specific sheep–there’s no real way to ever put it into action–but it’s a clever idea! The idea is to come up with something fun!

I started plying my apple green singles last night. I thought the plying would go faster (it has in the past), but these singles are not only finer than previous ones, so that there’s more yardage per bobbin, but I’m sorely out of practice. Not to mention that this is the first time I’ve tried plying on my Lendrum and from a tensioned Lazy Kate. (Which, as an aside, sounds completely contradictory. Is Katy tense or is she lazy? You can’t be both!) It took a while to get the tension for both to where I needed it, and meantime, the singles had broken, so I unravelled, retied them on, then one of them broke, only I didn’t realize right away and Z-spun some singles onto my bobbin. Naturally, as soon as I realized and tried to pull them off, they broke because I had unwound some of the twist. We finally got things moving along, but by then it was 10:30 and I was completely wiped out. (You’ll remember, it was a busy day yesterday. The fact that I managed to sit in front of my wheel at all deserves extra points, I think. Not because spinning is a chore–in this century–but because I was tired enough that reading took some work! And normally, I can read indefinitely!)

On the bad news side, my tooth hurts today–the one the dentist worked on on Thursday and is wearing a temporary crown. It was mostly fine all weekend, and now it’s sore. (sigh) Hopefully it will be better tomorrow, but in the meantime–more Advil!

On the plus side, though, my ring is back! And it made a friend!

I know I mentioned (on the 19th) that I’d bought a ring as a souvenir, but ended up needing to take the runner-up in the choice sweepstakes because the glue holding the peridot in the setting had melted. Fine. I loved this ring, too. It’s a citrine–my birthstone–in a pineapple cut, which is just stunning for light-catching–and with tiny diamond chips on the side. Beautiful ring! But after we were home from vacation, I wore it to work–its first time out of the house–and by the time I was home from a day of, you know, typing, the stone was loose. (And, I type pretty well, but I’m not that fast!) So, I shipped it back to the store and they fixed the stone for me, and sent it back today. And look! A little Martha’s Vineyard charm snuck into the box for me! Wasn’t that nice of them? Moonstone Jewelers in Vineyard Haven, folks. Nice store. (And I checked; they don’t appear to have a website.)

Okay, I’m going to get some more plying done, take my shower, make some tea, take some more Advil, and then sit down with my knitting. I’ve reached the armhole shaping on the back of my NbaT. I think that when I’ve finished the back, I’ll pick up my Peacock again. She’s feeling a bit neglected.

• Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Contest Counting Down //