actually some fiber things

I actually have some fiber pics to share! It has been a long time since I've said that.

I adore this Trekking Maxima (color 906) sock yarn!
I wanted to play around some more with toe up socks to find a heel that I liked knitting and that fitted well. This yarn has gamely survived being knitted and frogged a few times in that quest. I knew I didn't like keeping track of wraps and picking them up and now I'm sure of it. I hate, hate, hate wraps! I surprised myself by preferring Wendy Johnson's plain gusset heel. I didn't think it would fit my skinny heels and ankles well but it does. It is also easy to knit so it fits the bill perfectly.

The above picture was taken before Dan went into the hospital. I had a few hours of knitting in the strong lighting of the emergency ward room and here it is now.
I'm knitting it on 1.75mm needles so it's slow going but I like it very much. Once Dan was admitted to the regular hospital room the lighting wasn't good enough for these teeny tiny stitches so I switched to a spindle for those hours. Thank goodness for knitting and spinning to keep my hands busy! Definitely a sanity saver in those circumstances.

I used the crock pot to dye some Blue Faced Leicester wool with a wee bit of firestar a few weeks ago.
It gave me chance to use this drying gizmo that I found in a bargain store.
It's very slick. There are four mesh surfaces (I only set up two of them for this fiber) that sit against the upright base at the back. There's a fan in the base that gently blows the air so it can circulate around the mesh drying shelves. It works great! It will be particularly useful for drying fleeces.

I took the carder out into the sunroom and starting blending the BFL with the firestar and am getting batts like this that remind me of the color of the sky at sunrise.
(That's actually very ironic as I'm a night owl and sleep through sunrises.)