Monday Monday...

...came much too fast this week!

I finally made a decision on how to ply October Sky: I made a two-ply yarn. Here it is before its bath:

And the dime shot:

Specs:
Yarn Wench Falkland Wool roving (4.1oz)
Color: October Sky
Spun and plied on Lendrum Folding wheel
2-ply yarn
Yield: 330.6 yards
Weight: 13 WPI, Between Sport and Medium (Worsted) weight

Just for comparison, here's a picture of the October sky this morning:

I spent some time Saturday deciding on what handmade Christmas gifts I will make this year and who will receive them. Then, of course, I had to got shopping for the materials!

First, I went to The Granary to check out the Christmas fabric and discovered that Pacific International Quilt Festival was going on. I had totally spaced on the dates, so I'm glad I went fabric shopping! I bought a Christmas panel and a couple of fabrics that matched. I needed more fabric, but decided to see what I could find at the festival before going to any other quilt shops.

Next, I went to Purlescence Yarns for their birthday sale. I bought a couple of sale skeins, but I really wanted some purple roving. I bought two Chasing Rainbows rovings in the Heather colorway: one Merino-Bombyx and one Merino wool.

I started spinning them together when I got home:

I had conveniently forgotten that I don't like spinning Merino as much as Falkland, so I decided to take my time on this project.

I also did a bit of knitting. I'm 4 rows from starting the heel on the Poppy socks. I also worked on a project using my Blue Moon handspun:

I'm not sure what I'll do with this, but I wanted something on larger needles to swap out with the socks...

On Sunday, I went to the quilt festival. I took a few pictures of the fabulous quilts. I'm not much on the traditional quilts (Baltimore Album quilts all look the same to me after a while), but I definitely appreciate all the work that goes into each quilt. I found the additional fabrics that I needed for the Christmas project, plus a kit for a Dia de los Muertos wall quilt that I just had to have!

It was a wonderfully crafty weekend and I feel great!