Rather than read another article or book, I will post about knitting and yarn instead.

Kalamazoo proved particularly fruitful on the knitting front, as I finished the pirate socks and knit the other ball of hand-dyed into a pair for myself, which do indeed look like Christmas socks (and are already in the wash and therefore not available for photographing). I am also now approaching the half-way point of my lace shawl, I will hopefully have it done in a month or so.

This leaves me in the odd position of being a one WIP girl, I suppose I have sock yarn kicking around I could knit up, but still. I am thinking that I'll try and use up the stuff I botched the dying of last fall by designing a guernsey for my little brother. I have done the preliminary pattern planning, but still need to swatch, which is being held up by the fact that I have not decided yet whether to dye the yarn grey first or knit the sweater and then dye that. (Also, the yarn is all in skeins and needs ball-ifying before I can do anything with it.)

This project was inspired by reading (and inheriting) a book on the history and knitting of guernseys and jerseys. [The top book on the pile of inherited books]

No doubt the fair-isle book will have the same effect due course.

I'm also trying to see what to do with the yarn I inherited. This is the selection:
Three large cakes of a variegated purple/blue which I think is Fleece Artist and some darker purple mohair (one large one smaller ball) [these are the two back-centre purple things in the picture]. The texture isn't right for socks and it is a little too thick, I'm thinking some kind of lace/shawl, but I haven't found a patter that would show up the yarn to best advantage. There are 8 balls of the silver and 19 of the blue (Filatura Di Crosa, No Smoking), which I'm pretty sure will go into shawls or shrugs of some sort. The black blob in the front-left is boucle of some sort and there is a fair amount of it, I'm thinking afghan... The white off to the right is really nice mohair - sooo soft- in a natural colour, 9 balls worth; I have no idea what to do with it! The stuff in front is 100% alpaca, really soft, and a whole bag full, but the colour is - well - not something I'd have chosen... don't know what to do with that, maybe outer wear for a baby? (my sister suggested teddy bears) [Also, love that the picture captures the Icelandic law codes and box of Pop Tarts that are also on my bed right now...]

In other news, I learned over the week that one of my good friends knows how to spin (really who conceals that kind of talent?!) I will be making her teach me before the end of the year. To that end I've dredged up all my spinning links (from when I was looking into it after my masters) and have been ogling roving for the last couple of days.