I finished this scarf weeks ago. Fun and easy to knit. The yarn was one of Debra Norville's acrylics which doesn't feel like acrylic at all. There's none of the stickiness or scrunchiness that characterizes acrylic yarns. It's called the Unscrunchable scarf.

This one is the Thorpe hat. Again, the yarn is 100% acrylic called Marble yarn, chunky, and super soft.

You can see a pattern here. This shrug was also knitted with acrylic yarn, from Patons, a baby chunky yarn and again, super soft. What's funny is that these yarns were manufactured in Turkey for these yarn companies. How come they can make their yarns super soft and the US can't? hmm?

Ok, so this shrug is Shawl collared Shrug by SweaterBabe. I like her patterns and the fact that she uses mostly chunky yarns. I say mostly because she has patterns for worsted weight too.

Below is the handspun black and white Jacob wool, spun chunky. I must admit I get bored spinning tiny laceweight yarn. Spinning chunky is now more my style. It goes by fast.

This one totally contradicts what I just said. Extreme manual spinning using a drop spindle. This one takes forever but for some reason, it relaxes me. And it's so portable. I finished handspinning this batt in a few days. I took it with me, wherever I went.

The result: shiny purple yarn! The kid mohair really pops.

11 months from the day my mom passed away, her one and only brother succumbed to cancer as well. Uncle Estoy passed away Jan 20th, in the Philippines. I got the sad news via email from my cousins back home.

One of the reasons I went home to the islands last June 2010 was to see my mom's sisters and brother, because they couldn't be here for the funeral. I got to see and spend time with all of them. We knew my uncle was sick. He had prostate cancer. It was in the final stages. We got to see him and talk to him but it was sad. We couldn't even talk about my mom or how he was feeling. He was so weak and thin and couldn't even walk anymore.

I remember as a young child how in awe we all were of this uncle. He was bigger than life, strong, quiet, and so very intimidating. His kids, all the cousins, and even his 3 sisters were intimidated, even my mom. But he and my mom, they had a special bond. I had this feeling all my life that he loved my mom the most, of all his sisters.

When my mom passed, he was deeply affected, his little sister dying before him. He already knew he had cancer but I think he thought he would go first.

Last night, I couldn't stop crying. Part sadness, part happiness. My mom has her brother with her now.

okay, so I am spinning again. Here's what I plan to spin this month:




My purple handcarded batt, a mix of some unknown superwash wool and kid mohair.



This one is Jacob wool from a local farmer.

And these are what I'm using to spin them with. Impressive, huh?

For those of you non-spinners, these are drop spindles (because you drop them on the floor no matter how experienced a spinner you are). And it takes forever to spin wool with these. Manual labor, you know? I also have a wheel which I'll probably use just to hurry it all up.

that's my plan for this month. I'm joining a spin-along at the Spindlicity website. The goal is to spin whatever you have in your stash, for the whole year.

This is where we can test how good I am at following through, he, he.