Uphill Climb

I lost some momentum this weekend on the Tour de Fleece. I went out with my coworkers on Friday, so I only spun for about half an hour when I got home, just so I didn't miss a day. But, that put me behind. In order to reach my goal, I want to spin 2 oz per day and then ply on the third day. Yesterday was supposed to be my plying day and I haven't even finished the first two ounces of my next fiber bag, which was this:



The little nests you see in that top half of that photo are the first two ounces, and as of last night, I still had two nests left. The top in the bottom part of the photo is the second two ounces and I haven't even predrafted yet.

I love the color - I'm a big fan of the jewel tones you get when dying natural colors (as opposed to bleached or otherwise white fiber). Sadly, I kind of feel like I'm spinning crap. This fiber is not so challenging to work with as the wensleydale. Although I've tried to stick with fiber I've never spun before, I'm kind of feeling like maybe I have actually spun Shetland before, right at the very beginning, but I'm not sure. I've decided not to worry about it too much. Anyway, I don't feel like the fiber is that difficult, I'm just not handling it well for some reason. I may just be tired. I really planned to spin at least the rest of the first two ounces yesterday, but I was nodding at the wheel, so I gave up and took a nap. Here's where I am:



Knitting is still my first love, so I while I wasn't spinning, I did work on Maya. I'm having such a blast with these little shawls, and I kind of love the subscription model, where I get a new one every couple of months. I've also been hanging around the Designs By Romi group forum on Ravelry and popping in on the Maya KAL board, and that's been a lot of fun. I have traditionally been more of a lurker on these types of things, because there are just so many people and posts that I get overwhelmed trying to keep up with them all, but the Maia knitalong is a small enough group that I feel like I can participate without getting lost. This photo shows through the second repeat of the leaf chart, but I'm halfway through another repeat since this photo was taken.




And here is Maia with Ella, because it was cute.



I also fixed most of my Follow the Leader Faroese shawl. I didn't rip back any further, I just managed to get the stitches in order and then proceeded from there. I still haven't quite finished the shoulder bands. I'm just not feeling too sure about this project. I kind of thing I should have popped up a needle size, it feels kind of tight to me, and I'm afraid of the color obscuring the lace pattern. This really isn't a big deal, though, because there is only this small lace panel and the rest of it is mostly garter stitch, which looks fine. When I stretch it out, the pattern opens up some, so I may just continue on and trust that blocking will fix the things I'm not liking. This picture is terrible, as it pretty much shows exactly what I'm talking about.



See? You can't tell there's any order to that openwork at all.

I'm not going to frog it, not yet. We'll see how I feel about it once I get all the way past the shoulder band and into the garter area. This is supposed to be my easy take-a-long project, so if that part isn't fun, it'll never get taken along and I will have to take corrective action.