Fiber Fiber Everywhere

I've always thought my family had a bit of an obsessive compulsive streak that I hoped to avoid but i think it's finally manifested itself in my current yarn obsession. Oh well, I guess there are worse things to think constantly about. But, I'm so excited because I've learned something new again:Check me out! I've had my eye on a drop spindle forever and I'm so excited that I finally got one. We went to the Kid 'n Ewe and Llamas Too fiber festival in Boerne on Saturday and it was awesome! I wish I could find more things like this in Texas. The only thing that would have made it better was lots of money to buy yarn and a spinning wheel but I'm definitely more than satisfied to walk away with the drop spindle and a little bit of fiber. The vendor I bought it from was so nice - he kept following me through the booths to give me more "practice" fiber (I told him it was my first attempt at spinning) and the spindle came with 4 ounces of bamboo fiber. Can't wait to start on that. After I got the hang of it I spun all the wool last night. I think the spinning wheel is going to move up on my wanted list!

The other great development that came from this trip is our new determination to purchase a couple of Alpacas as companion/fiber animals. We met a very nice lady who let us pet these guys:

and who sounds like she'll be very helpful when the time is right for us to buy them. We also got to watch (but not touch) a couple of Suri Alpacas:

but those are far, far, far out of our price range. They're so nimble and cute and I'm so blessed with a boyfriend that's all for feeding my obsession!

As for current projects - one more row to go and then I'm binding off the Rambling Leaves Shawl from Elann.com. I have to say - I hate this shawl right now. Every time I pick it up I end up making a mistake and having to un-knit massive amounts of stitches. I mean, ther are almost 500 live freaking stitches and I hate every last one of them. It was my first attempt at anything resembling lace and I have to admit there are errors though I haven't figured out if it was all me or partly the pattern (probably all me) but I got to a point where I refused to unknit anymore - there's only so much going backwards I can take! So I just sucked it up, re-worked the pattern to accommodate my mistakes and got on with it - I don't think I ever would have finished otherwise.

Also currently on the needles is the Branching Out lace scarf from Knitty. Almost done with that one thought I better hurry - we leave for PA on Sunday and it has to be done and blocked by then.

So, enough of this long winded post - back to work!

(I really need to get a laptop and go mobile instead of milking company resources huh?) ;)