adam knits!

I’m trying to remind myself of that, as it seems everyone in knitting blog world is headed off to Rhinebeck for a grand weekend involving meetups, new sweaters, and fiber acquisition. I’m not jealous, really! (Ok, maybe just a tad…but I’ll get over it eventually.)

For those who aren’t going to Rhinebeck, I find it helps to gather up all your lovely yarn, and pet it a little bit, while imagining you’re in a wonderful place filled with sheep and funnel cakes. It’s certainly not a substitute for a large fiber festival, but it helps, and it’s definitely gentler on the bank account. ;)

And while I was petting my yarn, I realized I have a lot of lovely hand-spun skeins laying around that I have yet to show you, so why not? It’s some tasty Eye Candy Friday, and it might just distract you from the fact that this post is all shiny and no substance.

First up we have a lovely skein of BFL, spun up by yours truly! Remember this roving? Well after I got a lovely new maple drop spindle, I was anxious to finish it up. The roving was a 4oz braid of BFL from Flawful Fibers, in the Safari colorway. I really loved spinning the BFL, it’s very soft and strong, while being easy to spin. I’m definitely getting better too, these singles are a lot less slubby and I got a lot more yardage this time (around 75 yards). I have no idea if I’ll just keep it as a pet, or knit anything with it, but either way, I’m delighted with it.

Our next contestant is a lovely skein of handspun that Georgia sent me for winning a contest on her blog. It’s a very luscious prize, and makes for a nice addition to my hand-spun trophy case. I can’t recall the fiber content at the moment, but when it’s this lovely, who cares? I’m thinking I’m going to use this to make a Red Light Special with just the handspun for the colored parts and some chocolate colored Alpaca I picked up at the Taos Wool Festival. I think it will be my most luxurious winter hat ever.

Lastly, I just received this from Alyson yesterday, and I’ve quite a crush on it. Alyson liked my kettle dyed Pumpkin yarn, so we negotiated a small trade. She spun up this superwash merino into sock yarn for me, and I sent her a skein of Punkin Head yarn. I’m very spoiled, to have such awesome people that trade handspun yarn with me! So thanks Alyson, I love it! I think this will become some plain old toe up stockinette socks, since I don’t want anything to spoil the loveliness of the yarn.

The final installment of eye candy that I have today, are a few new colorways that I’ve cooked up. I’m working hard on my next order for The Loopy Ewe, which should be shipped off in a week or so. These skeins are dyed up in my newest sock yarn, which I’ve dubbed 850 MHz Merino. It’s a really nice 3 ply merino, that knits up really evenly and is super soft. The twist is a little bit less than my 900 MHz Merino, but it’s not at all splitty, and has less bias, so it looks really nice when knit up into stockinette. I think you’ll really like it a lot, and I’m hoping it’s going to help reduce some of the supply issues that I’ve been having with the 900 MHz Merino. I’m not discontinuing the 900 MHz, I just think I’m going to put it on the back burner for a little while. I hope you like the new yarn as much as I do!

Here’s a quick summary of the State of Yarn Nerd to bring you up to speed:

• 850 MHz Merino will be available through The Loopy Ewe, so go stalk Sheri to get your sock yarn fix ;)
• While the sock yarn will be available through Sheri, the Yarn Nerd store is still the place to go for sport and other weights.
• 1500 MHz Merino will be replaced with another sport weight merino in the next few months. Sorry for the lack of sport weight, but I’m working hard to get something comparable to what I was using that isn’t constantly on back order.
• 1700 MHz BFL will be available in early November, and will be an option for Create Your Skein. This is a really nice DK weight yarn, and if you were wanting something in a heavier weight for thick socks or hats, I think you’ll want to give this a try.
• 2400 MHz Merino will also be replaced with a new worsted merino in a few months, so if you were wanting some worsted, just be patient a bit longer.
• Roving will eventually be available on a less hodge podge basis, but it might be a while before that occurs.

I hope that helps answer a lot of questions for those of you who have e-mailed me wondering about sport weight, and where you can get your hands on some Yarn Nerd goodness. If you’ve e-mailed me and I haven’t responded, drop me another line, as things have been a bit hectic these days. It’s quite a challenge to manage school, work and the yarn stuff, but I enjoy every minute of it, so thanks so much for all your support!

That’s all I have, so have a great weekend everyone, and if you’re at Rhinebeck, I’ll try not to envy you too much ;) Sending me yarn might help me get over my envy, hint, hint. ;)