Using my handspun

Last Saturday the girls and I went to the UMA Fiber Festival.  It was a good day as far as exposure and lots of people stopping by to chat.  I sold a few things, but frankly I had limited stock since I just sold a bunch of yarn to Lila & Claudines.  I had a good time, but clearly I'm going to need to spin like crazy between now and spring to ensure I have plenty of yarn for Yarnover and hopefully even Shepherd's Harvest.

Emily got bored and took a variety of pictures during the day...so here goes a few shots...to the right lower edge of the shot you can see a wire basket that I labeled Hodgepodge - Yarn with Attitude.  I put small skeins, old beginner skeins, and my mishmash skeins of yarn at lower prices.  People laughed at these but had fun looking through them. 

The next shot appears to have caught Anna completely by surprise but made me laugh.  Anna finished reading a book during the day which drove Emily bonkers, since she didn't have anyone to talk to.  Hence Emily would try various methods to engage Anna away from her book and more to what Emily wanted to do.  Nothing like a little sisterly love!

I spent the day spinning some super saturated pinks/greens/yellows. I got quite a bit done however, the chair I sat on most of the day was much lower than what I usually sit on to spin. The next day my back went out. It wasn't awful like it has been in the past, but enough that I will have to take care in the future on what chair I use to spin with.

I've taken a break from spinning for the next couple weeks. I've been almost exclusively spinning which means my knitting has really taken a back seat. I miss the knitting time. And I especially miss knitting with my handspun. I promised a hat and fingerless mitt set to a good friend. We actually went to a local yarn shop and she picked out the yarn she wanted me to use.  Once I was done with last weeks festival, I knew I needed to get working on her stuff as it has turned quite cool here, there were snow flurries this week.  I started working on the mitts and the yarn we picked just did not work out at all.  It was too thick, I adjusted the stitch count etc and still wasn't happy.  So I took a chance.  I went through my handspun and found yarn that was maybe a shade or two lighter than the colors she picked for the mitts.  The hat is a stranded tam, solid color was brown, I had a beautiful merino silk blend in chocolate brown in my handspun as well.  So I started again, only this time using my handspun.  I think the problem is I love using my handspun and am finding commercial yarn just not the same.  Look what I've done...

Aren't they pretty?  I should have the hat finished this weekend, I'll block everything and have it ready to give her next week.  I need to weave in the ends on the mitts, but I'm really happy and I think she will also be happy to have some of my hand spun.  I sure hope so!