So, the new camera arrived. And it arrived in time for me to get photos of some of my blooming orchids. I took these Wednesday night (the day the camera arrived). They are still blooming, so I took some more pictures today, but I have not downloaded them yet. I’ll save those for another day.

Phrag Tickled Pink

Masdevallia Exquisite Mary

I’ve also made a couple of more plant purchases. I ordered one of these. I’m so very excited about it, its so tiny. I also ordered one of these, only mine is a miniature variety. I ordered both of those from New World Orchids, which is a really good supplier of Japanese orchids. I then ordered one of these along with some growing supplies. So…um….I’ve gone a little plant crazy. This seems to be how I am. I will go for months without ordering a single plant and then one day I just order a ton. Pretty soon I will stop, and it will be another 6 months before I even think about ordering a plant.

I also took a picture of some spinning I am working on. The fiber is the June installment from the Spunky Club. It’s a Merino/Mohair blend in the Flowering Weeds colorway. I’m trying for a two ply fingering weight.

Here’s a few pictures of my Stacked Eyelet Cowl. I absolutely love it. I’ve worn it everyday this week and I have plans to make tons of them. It’s great, it keeps my neck warm and its out of the way. Most of the time I forget I have it on.

Anyway, that’s about all. Expect more pictures soon.

I tried to take pictures of all my projects that needed photos, but my camera was acting up. I was so frustrated with the camera, that I didn’t end up paying attention to my lighting, so most of them turned out too dark. Although I did manage to get kind of an artsy picture of my spinning wheel.

I also managed to get some nice stitch definition pictures.

Hannibal Lector Charade Mitts

Ice Truck Killer Charade Socks

Pomotomus Mitts

I was hoping to get some super sexy blocking shots of Tudor Grace, but no luck. I did get a nice close-up of the stitch pattern though.

That will have to tide you over for now. I don’t plan on unpinning Tudor Grace until I get Mike to look at the camera. Maybe he knows what’s going on. Maybe, if the camera cooperates, I can convince him to do an outdoor photo shoot of my FOs.

Its a 3 day weekend. Yay!!

My spinning wheel arrived last Monday. Its so beautiful and spins so well. I’m seriously in love. I’ve been spinning like crazy all weekend. I finished 4oz of Corriedale in the colorway Burning Embers from Spunky Eclectic. Its still drying, so I don’t have pictures yet. I think its mostly dry, but I’m going to leave it laying out for a little while longer. It came out to be about worsted weight, which is about what I was going for. Its really squishy and soft. So soft in fact, that earlier I found one of my cats curled up on it. She must have really liked it, because she was not going to budge when I tried to make her move. I had to pick her up and move her myself (she was not happy with me for that). I’ve already started on my next fiber, and I’m nearly done with it, all I have left to do is ply. It’s my April Spunky Club installment, 4oz of Wennsleydale in The Perfect Storm colorway. I tried to spin it finer but I’m still experimenting, so I’m not really sure what weight it will be. The Wennsleydale is really hairy and tough feeling. I’m thinking of either some socks (if it’s fine enough and I have a lot of yards (probably not)) or some mitts/mittens. Might make a good hat though….

I’m working on my Charade socks and my Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I love the Charade socks. I think it will be a pattern that I can knit and reknit. I honestly haven’t gotten very far with my cardigan mostly because I’m obsessed with my socks. And, when I’m not working on my socks, I’m spinning on my new wheel. I think I’ve only done a couple of repeats of the garter rib on the bottom of the cardigan, it’s probably not even an inch long. It will get there someday.

I’m hoping to have pictures of everything soon. I know, a blog post without pictures sucks.

Mike and I managed to take pictures after work on Friday. So, I have some really pretty pictures of my Hannibal Lector Delicato Mitts. For some reason I really love the palm pictures even though the fancy stitch work is on the other side.

I really love these gloves. I think they have climbed their way into my favorite glove spot. The yarn is the best. It’s so soft and the color is gorgeous. I highly recommend Dharmafey’s Cosmic Fiber Silky Sock yarn, in fact, she is working on two more skeins of it for me as I type. Those two will be in Dexter inspired colorways.

Lots of exciting stuff has been going on for me lately. I’ll save the best for last.

First, remember the seeds I was worried about growing, well, they are growing. I now have about 15 or so little green dots that look like tiny Lithops. So far so good. I would take pictures of my tiny babies, but I think they are too small right now. I don’t think I’m good enough at focusing to get a decent picture, maybe Mike could.

My Phrag Mini Grande bloomed. I’ve been super excited about this one since I first noticed the beginnings of a spike. It’s such an unusual looking orchid.

I decided to do little bit of catching up on my blog reading this morning, and Sock Pr0n completely intrigued me with her post about Little Meadows Farm. I ended up poking around their website for a while, and decided to adopt a sheep. I adopted Chocolate. Their adopt a sheep program looks pretty neat. You pick a sheep to adopt and then they reserve that sheep’s fleece for you when they sheer them in the spring. They send you little updates about the sheep throughout the year while you wait. I’ve never worked with raw fleece, but I’ve wanted to for a while, so I’m really excited about this. I love supporting small farms, and I really like the idea of knowing the sheep your fleece came from. So, I have a year to figure this raw fleece thing out. I’ve been emailing Liese back and forth all day, and she’s very nice. She’s given me lots of tips, and I even ended up purchasing 1 pound of fleece from her to practice with.

Now for the best. I know what your thinking, that last one was pretty cool and it wasn’t the best?!

I ordered my first spinning wheel today!! I’m so excited. I’ve been saving up for a while and I finally picked one and took the plunge. I was originally trying to save up for a Schacht Matchless II DT, but I started reading reviews online and decided I really liked the Kromski Minstrel more. It’s gorgeous, and I don’t think I saw a bad review for it. I would have rather tried out some wheels before purchasing because of the price, but I don’t know anyone in my area that spins, nor do I have a LYS. So, I had to decide based on reviews. When I finally decided that I wanted a Kromski Minstrel, I was super excited to realize that I had enough money saved up for it. I thought I was going to have to wait for months! It was such a great feeling to decide and order right away. Now, I just have to survive the anguish of waiting for it to arrive!

That’s enough excitement for one post.  Hope everyone has a happy Mother’s Day!

I’m sure pretty much everyone has decided that I was kidnapped by gypsies and forced to live in an internetless world, but I’m still here.  I’ve been really busy knitting and spinning, and I’ve been a little bit lazy about my blogging lately.

Speaking of spinning, I think I’ve finally got the hang of it.  I’ve been using my Bosworth Mini and Featherweight, and I’m absolutely in love.   I’ve finished up my very first yarn, and I’ve started working on a few others.  I also finally finished my second Pave sock.  I got a little distracted by my spindles, so it took me a while.

I’m hoping to take pictures of everything tomorrow.  I would have done it today, but I was being responsible (paying bills, etc.)

Happy Easter everyone!