Ok, then, the high-knit-content post. To the right we have what I have been spinning for the last few weeks. It's wool, I can't remember where I bought it, but I think somewhere on one of the jaunts with BFLB on my last trip to the states. I've spun and plied a full big bobbin and am on my way to doing it again so I should have enough of it to make something like a vest. The yarn is rustier red than it appears on my monitor but you know the drill about monitors & colours. It's really nice to spin and easy to do if I pre-draft it because it was pretty compressed.

At left are my first hand spun socks. I posted the photo of the sock wool a while back and they are now socks (as yet un-worn). I cleverly placed the socks for the photo so the foot of one is covered. I was unsure of the yardage on my spun wool so the first sock got feet made from leftover wool from commercial sock yarn, but I did have enough to knit the entire sock for its match. Not much left over. I should be careful to spin more finely in the future to squeeze the 400 yds out of 4 oz of wool. I bought some pretty SW BFL in purples and plums for socks (I can't seem to find enough purple socks in my drawer) and I have some SW merino, bamboo and nylon to spin as well. That's in green and brown and blue.

I was going to post a photo of one of my mother's sweaters that I am reluctantly going to discard but the light wasn't catching the details in the cables. The sweater is about 35 years old. I learned to knit late in life because my mother always kept me supplied in knitted clothes (no socks, tho). The sweater in question is a rose red and is covered in cables with rib sleeves. It is knit in acrylic because at the time it was knit I was living in North Carolina and had little use for heavy knitware. I've worn it regularly over the past 35 years but it is developing holes and I can't easily match yarn. Now that I know how to knit I can see all the mistakes, especially the cables that went in the wrong direction. I wore the sweater happily for 15 years without knowing there were mistakes in it which should prove something. Now I need room for new products of my own needles, so I will bid it good bye. It owes me nothing in wear, and I have a much more substantial example of my mother's knitting that is of the same vintage, so it is not the last product of her needles. I only learned how to knit and purl as a young person, and could knit scarves, but that was it. Knitting patterns were entirely in a foreign language and I got easily scared by the dire warnings from the yarn manufacturers about what would happen if you didn't use their yarn. Now I'll knit anything but lace and hope I'll conquer that someday. I used to think socks were impossible and now they are mindless.

Swans news: They lost again to Hawthorn but won a gusty match at the SCG against Essendon last week in similar conditions to the match J & I attended, i.e., rain. They fought back from behind and really played hard to grab the game away. This weekend they play Port in Adelaide at night and I am uncertain whether they can manage this. Let's hope they don't listen to my uncertainty and gloom and rise above.