Fishes and Runny Noses

I went to the Shedd Aquarium on Thursday with my mom, a friend, and her mom. I cannot believe the amount of people who have no idea how to turn the flashes off of their cameras. Cause there's nothing like a picture of a reflected light and startled fish. I took at least 100 pictures (no flash) which look good on my camera's wee screen, but will probably end up being very fuzzy. I'll see and post some. I ended up getting two awesome postcards, something for a swap, and a cute (overpriced) squid stuffie.

Oh, and a massive cold.

Spin spin spin

I haven't spun any yarn in well over a year. I remember hating everything I made and put it to the side. A few days ago I received my Phat Fiber box (the first I've been able to get!) and it was full of all these wonderful fiber samples. Seeing what everyone in the PF Ravelry group had made with theirs made me want to spin again. So that's what I did for almost four hours today. Phfft...to my senior project.
To start with, here's my PF haul:

Thankfully, there's only four things in there that I'm allergic to.
Here's what I've spun up so far. The first picture is hand dyed 100% baby alpaca from TLS. Next is some merino silk roving from Liberty Fibers. I just love the bit of sparkle that came with it.

I got 25 yds. out of both of them with very little waste, and some sparkle left over. It's between fingering and laceweight and is the thinnest yarn that I've ever been able to make.

I also combined two more bunches of samples, but that's still on the bobbin. I'm going to spin up some merino/tencel I bought in Wisconsin a few years ago to ply with it. And I have ideas for the rest. Now I just need to find the time to do it all.

Realist Challange totals

This is for the 'Realist Stash Knit Down Challenge' on Ravelry.

Rules:
*24 projects in 2009. (finishing WIPs and UFOs can count!! )
*12 of the projects must be made from stash (you can make more from stash if you want)
*3 of the projects have a new technique that you haven’t tried before

January '09
Projects: 4
From Old Stash: 1
New Techniques: 0
Yardage: 539

February '09
Projects: 6
From Old Stash: 5
New Techniques: 0
Yardage: 644

March '09
Projects: 6
From Old Stash: 5
New Techniques: 1 (invisible crochet decrease)
Yardage: 503

April & May '09
Projects:
From Old Stash:
New Techniques:
Yardage: 255

2008 wrap-up

12 Must-Knits for '08
Intarsia or fair isle
Hats and scarves for charity
Bags of Home *done but need buttons*
Bad Juju
Calyx Handtote *half done-lost pattern*
Some sort of garment for myself *frogged*
Lace
Log Cabin Blanket *started*
Corn
Single Cable Scarf
Toe-up socks
Design something knit/crochet

Yards used up:
7968 (that's 4+ miles)

NaKnitMo -- Knitting 30,000 stitches in November (trying for half)!
Number of stitches: 18907

Items crossed off of 101 in 1001 list (started in Feb.):
26