Mongold spindle for sale on E-bay...

So, I've been threatening to post this spindle up on e-bay for years now... and I finally went and did it! It's the first time I've ever actually posted anything on e-bay. I've been buying on it for years, but this is the first time I've sold anything. It's kind of fun!

The listing is here if you're interested.

It's my Mongold spindle. I bought it when I still lived in England, and was just starting to spin. It had great reviews, and everybody loved it. This was right about the time that he stopped making them. I needed it for my plying spindle, as I didn't have a wheel yet. Now, I really don't use it, and it's just sitting there in my collection gathering dust most of the time. It really is a very nice spindle, I tend to prefer my spindles in the 1-1.5 oz range, and this one is almost 3 ozs. It's great for plying, but I do all my plying on the wheels, and it's also been wonderful for teaching both of my sisters to spin on. I gave them something else to take home with them to practice on.

It truly is indestructible. So amazingly sturdy. The hook has never ever bent, or wobbled on me - it spins and spins, the workmanship is just amazing! And of course it has the laser etching on the top, which is totally unique to each spindle.

The reason? Well, the my car needs to be smogged and registered, so I just need the money. The auction is up on Monday - I hope it finds a really good home!

In other news... I'm on a mission to stay organised this year. I don't really make "resolutions" per se. But I have started keeping a notebook where I list everything that I've been doing, how much of it I've done, and it helps to keep me motivated, and on track.

So far this month I've done a lot of work on my Plummy Plum (version2).

It feels so strange to be working on the same sweater (basically) that I just finished! I do wonder about my sanity at times.

And the part that is worrying me? I measured my gauge the other day, and unless I was doing something terribly wrong it looks like the gauge has gone from 4.25 sts/in to 5 sts/in.... This would be absolutely fine, because I thought the first version could be a squidge smaller - So, I went ahead and cast on 10 stitches fewer on this version to make up for the fact that I wanted it to be a bit smaller.... Now it looks like it's going to be a lot smaller. Luckily ribbing is very stretchy, and I really don't feel like knitting this thing three times. Two is bad enough as it is. So I will soldier on, and if it really is too small for me - I reckon it will fit my sister!

I'm at the point where I need to start thinking about adding sleeves, but I'm really starting to think that I won't have enough yarn, so I've been spinning more... I am almost finished spinning the Romney/silk, and just have to find the rest of the Optim that I dyed.

Finding anything in my house right now is an adventure in itself, I just have so much stuff in my little place, and so few places to put that stuff... Three of us living in less than 600 square feet - all of us with stuff. I can only put up so many shelves.

But at least this way I figure that the sleeves will match a bit better yarnwise than they did with the first version.

I've also plied up almost 1,000 yards of new yarn!

The first skein is 750 yards, and about 120 grams of laceweight. Here it is in it's pre-soaked, craptastic camera flash shot.

I've been on a mission to clear off some of my bobbins. I have 9 for my Joy, and three for my Skipper, and somehow I was working with 2 empty Joy bobbins, and one empty Skipper bobbin. Plus there are all the UPS rolls with little bits of spindle spun singles waiting to be matched up with the perfect fiber... With that I was able to clear off 3 bobbins and two or three label rolls. I can't wait to start a shawl with this yarn! One ply is a merino that I dyed in pink and purples, the other ply goes from a couple of colorways of silk, to Optim, and then to a BFL that I dyed with natural dyes a long time ago. It's going to make a lovely shawl, and hopefully is soaking while I type this.

The other yarn is more Optim that I dyed back in May.... Wow, that long ago?!? Really? Where does the time go... Anyway, I had a bobbin with one of the rovings on it, and just had to spin up another bobbin, and ply it.... Another craptastic nonaturallight shot of this stuff. I ended up with 230 yards and about 3 ounces of this. It's the third skein of this yarn that I've done, just have to finish off one more round. I was able to clear off another bobbin doing this.

So, I've been busy, I've been productive. It might all go horribly wrong, but it's going.