Raspberry Cotton

Spinnin' Fool
Wednesday, Rebecca (aka the spin master) came to craft night to show us the ins and outs of spinning yarn. She was a great teacher, patiently explaining how to stretch out the roving until you start to feel the fibers pulling apart, then you spin it in this state so that the fibers reattach spun, holding the twist once it is released from the spindle. Emily worked with some of the colorful wool she picked up in a variety pack at MDSW. I worked with the grey wool I had picked up. Now, the concept of spinning is really straight forward, but the actually implementation is something else altogether. What Emily and I are each demonstrating in these pictures is running the spindle up your leg to start it spinning; then you pull apart a small piece of roving and feed it into the spin, while pinching off the rest of the fiber so it doesn't spin too early. Sounds simple enough right? Right. I think I decided that I don't think the drop spindle is really my specialty; but I'm going to keep working for now.



Emily and I struggled on our little drop spindles while Amy busted out her beautiful new wheel from MDSW. She was spinning a really nice natural-colored fiber, working in a dark lavender every yard or so. I'm sure there's got to be something that Amy is not a master at, but I have yet to come across it.














Amy's daughter, Selma, even joined us for few minutes - just long enough for her to bust out some pretty hot pink yarn on her drop spindle. Nothing like being showed up by a 6 year old.












Lisa was also at craft night, but she wisely stuck to the already-spun yarn and worked on a hat of Amy's design.




Two Dozen
This weekend was full of birthday fun, as I turned 24. It started Thursday night post-yoga with Emily when she gave me this beautiful necklace that she made. They're light pink pearly beads with wooden beads - a really pretty combination. Emily is always the first to compliment the rest of us on busting out different creative projects. Ahem, hellooo Emily - this necklace totally rocks!!






Friday night I skipped out on the Auction due to inclement weather, but still rocked my eggplant bamboo top as Mr. Irish and I went out to a Silver Spring icon: Jackie's restaurant. It was amazing. The food there is fantastic, as is the decor and atmosphere. It's this really cool warehouse-looking building transformed into a trendy little restaurant, complete with uber-mod furniture.

From there we met up with some people at Red Rock Canyon Grill, McGinty's, then the Dubliner, and finally Irish Times. No outing would be complete without a little creeping. Here is a some creep action going on on the Red Line en route to Union Station.





The party continued Saturday up in Baltimore for Part II of the birthday celebration. Kelsey was still chipmunk-faced up and all loopy on pain killers, but we had a blast anyway. Please pause and appreciate the best gift bag ever: yes, that is a little chick plopping out two dozen eggs. Also great: the Wayne Newton paper and beautiful green/yellow/blue roving inside that fantastic bag. Thanks Kelsey, Sean, and Ben!











Tommy in Green Glasses
I'm convinced that green glasses look awesome on everyone. Mine have been the point of many compliments and conversations, and people are always surprised when they try them only to find out that they, too, can pull off the green glasses. I sneaked a quick shot of the photo-shy Tommy rocking the green glasses...nice.

Here's a sneak peek of one of his sketch books.













And my favorite: a poster-sized charcoal drawing looking out the back porch.








Raspberry Cotton
After working with the Peaches n' Creme double worsted cotton for the crochet yoga mat holder, I ran right back out to Now and Then on Thursday and picked up a few skeins of it in raspberry and white. The yarn is really thick, so it goes nice and quick - but it's still cotton so it's cool and comfy.

I did the neckline and waistband in seed stitch, and the rest is just stockinette. I'm hoping to find another store that carries this yarn in different colors; in which case there will be many more of these debuting in the near future!

I started a long-sleeved raglan with the green/orange linen/flax/cotton yarn from MDSW. It's tiny little lace-weight yarn, so that will be a loooong time before it's photogenic and even longer before it's done.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom and Nina!