Some of my yarn has still not come in the mail! Oh well. Return of the King was great! (although we didn’t have time for Vietnamese food- we had Taco Bell instead) Maybe I’ll learn the Elvin language- too bad they don’t offer it at high school!

The yarn for my sleeveless top came in today! "Cotton Lux", and the pattern is from Sirdar. My Great American Aran Afghan and cross stitch kit have still not come in, though. I ordered yarn for my mom’s sweater today. The pattern is a cabled cardi from Sirdar (ahhh- they’re taking over my pattern stash- my short-sleeved turtleneck is also a Sirdar pattern!) but, being the poor teenager that I am, I bought Plymouth Encore DK from Smiley’s for $1.50 a skein instead of spending $7 a ball for the Donegal Tweed DK they recommended. Smiley’s has a min. order amount of $30 which I didn’t know about, so I *had* to order something for myself instead of spending a dollar more per skein somewhere else. I got 6 skeins of Homespun to make a turtleneck cabled sweater (free pattern from Lion Brand) for me! Too many WIPs! Nah, you can never have too many projects going at once. I haven’t ordered the pattern yet, though. A thorough search of every internet yarn store is in order to find the place where I can get it the cheapest. Hehe, I’m awful at spending my money. Even when I was little I would hoard my money and refuse to spend any of it unless I had to. (Maybe that’s why I have such a measly CD collection- the radio is my friend!) Anyway, I’ve got to go design a utopia- we had time to work in class but the first day I had a migraine (the nurse isn’t allowed to give out Motrin) and the second day I just talked the whole time. Ah, well. Best get to work.

OO- I think we’re going to see Return of the King! (and maybe eat at the Vietanamese Noodle place!)

Wow- my bro got the extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring and teh Two Towers, and they were great! I liked it so much better than the first time I saw it! (Though that might be related to the fact the I was in an old movie theatre with gross seats and it was freezing cold the first time!) I wish I had finished the books first, but I haven’t been reading much lately with all of my knitting. I worked on my Magic Stripes sock today, but didn’t work on my sweater- last night I missed a decrease somewhere but I can’t seem to find where. Ugh. I haven’t done any spinning the past few days, but I did pig out on Christmas candy. I’m still waiting for 3 of my gifts to come from FedEx, and I hope they come tomorrow. It will be fun to open more packages, even though I already know what they are. WE might go and see Return of the King tomorrow too! (although I have an orthodontist appt. in the morning- blah) Well, I’d better go.

My mom got me a drop spindle for Christmas after all! I am SO confused! It doesn’t bother me that what I spun varies from a thread that keeps bouncing back on itself to lumps of wool, but it does bother me that I really just don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve been to several different sites on the internet; it isn’t helping. How do you pinch the yarn with both hands and keep the spindle from going the wrong way at the same time? If I don’t keep my hand on it it goes at high speeds in the wrong direction. Then it just keeps rolling up on itself, but if I let it go it unravels completely. I looked in the yellow pages, and there was no entry for spinning. I don’t know how I’m going to figure it out. I did get a laugh out of it, though- I rested by arm on top of my head while I was spinning, and the fiber caught my hair! It hurt, and I had to cut it, but it wasn’t that much and it was really funny.

Other X-mas gifts were: the books Socks, Socks, Socks; The Idiot’s Guide to Quilting; The Knit Stitch, a ball of Magic Stripes and needles to go with it, Los Lobe Hose Pattern, needles, and earring wires, and little pictures of a summer top, afghan, and cross-stitch cat that the supplies hadn’t come for in time for Christmas. (I also got a few other non fiber related things) Wow, I really got a lot this year!

I’m off to work on my socks. The stripes are so beautiful!

Well, I can spin. I made a couple of yards of two-ply very uneven fiberfill yarn, and then I went back to my wool. I made an *extremely* bulky two-ply yarn from it that is 1 meter and 13 inches long. ( I could have gone longer, but it was two in the morning and I just wanted something to show for the day’s effort.) It is rather inconsistent, but not too bad. I’m very happy. I’m a spinner.