Top-of-the-Waves Tuesday...

...and a lot of catching up!

Friday was busy. The Husband had a minor procedure at Kaiser that required me to drive him home. Of course, the appointment was in the middle of the day, meaning that I couldn't do much before the appointment. After I took him home, I ran a couple of errands and then spent the rest of the afternoon spinning.

Remember when I mentioned that our spinning team sent an entry to the California State Fair? Well, we received the results on Friday. We got second place in our division/category! See knitflix's updated blog post for photos and info. Yay, team!!

Saturday was devoted to mermaids. I did a Michael's run to buy a frame for Mermaid of the Pearls. Since I was going there, I bought the floss that I needed for the Renaissance Mermaid. I figured that I'd decide which mermaid pattern to do next after I had all the materials for both of them.

Here is Renaissance Mermaid:

Here is Mermaids of the Deep Blue:

I chose the Renaissance Mermaid as the next project based on the colors. I made a working copy of the pattern, cut the floss into manageable lengths, and put the floss on thread drop floss organizers. I still have some prep work to do on the linen (pressing, etc.) before I can get it on the stretcher bars.

I then turned to framing Mermaid of the Pearls. I was so intent on getting a frame that matched the others that I neglected to completely measure the piece. Yes, of course it's taller that the others. It has 50 million more beads that the others, so why shouldn't it be a different size. Arg! The only good thing is that the frame will work for the next mermaid, so it's not a total loss. I laced the mermaid on a spare piece of foam core so it will not wrinkle while it waits for its frame.

After that, I went back to spinning rather start anything else. I'm alternating between spinning Hawaii, a camel-silk from Greenwood Fiberworks [Ravelry] and Apricot Orchid 1, a Falkland top from The Yarn Wench [Ravelry]. I'm spinning the camel-silk thin for fingering-weight yarn and spinning the Falkland for a worsted-weight (or thicker). Sometimes it's nice spinning something a little bit thicker.

Finally, I was not completely happy with the last blog template I used. There were elements that I liked, but not enough to keep it. I switched over to another template this morning and will see how that works. If worse comes to worse, I have a back up of the template I had been using for many years, and I can just go back to that.
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