Still Spinning the Purple

I just love to spin now. My yarn is finally fine enough to make a 2-ply fingering weight, good for socks, and I love that. I love to turn this: 

   into this:       

(Pogo's toes for scale)

Then I spin it into a single ply: 

 

And I turn two single plies into two-ply yarn: 

And socks appear!      It truly is magic. 

In other news, Amy's Scarf is toddling along nicely: 

 

The yellow bits are lifelines. I have never used lifelines before, thought I didn't need them. What you do is, every so often you run a piece of yarn through the stitches on the needle remembering NOT to run it through the stitch markers as well, and if you mess up horribly and have to pick it all up again, the yellow yarn securely holds your stitches in place so they will not run all the way to the bottom of the piece. I always thought I was way too proficient at knitting and didn't need lifelines, but in my old age I tend to pick up my needles and catch the end stops on something and BAM!! all my stitches fall off. I don't like making lifelines, it's a fiddly process that is even more of a pain with only one hand, but it's doable, and it has already helped me to Save My Stitches, so I guess that is good. I love the scarf! It's so pretty :)

 

It Begins.

I love the old British favorite, Dr. Who ... the stories are fantastical, the characters are great, the actors are wonderful, the rubber-suited monsters are hilarious. But mostly, I love the scarves. 

       
(All three scarves are available on Ravelry.)

 

Even more, I love all the fabulous knitwear that has been worn by the recent companions of the Doctor:

           

       

And my favorite, Amy Pond's 'Vampires of Venice' scarf, which she also wore in 'Vincent and the Doctor':

     

So. It begins.

 

Tour de Fleece. Or, Not.

Sigh. I missed Tour de Fleece again this year. I mean, I knew it was happening. I had my spinning wheel right by my table with purple (actually violet) fiber started. But I didn't start. Next thing I knew it was July 7th already. 

Maybe next year.

The reason I didn't start Tour de Fleece was because I've been busy knitting lots of things that I can't show pictures of, since they are Christmas and birthday presents, BUT they will all soon be finished. By 'soon' I mean in a month or so. These things are pretty fun to knit, more fun than spinning purple yarn apparently! 

After the purple yarn is spun, I have a lovely bag of alpaca to spin, and a honking giant bag of four pounds of black romney that I bought years ago. It's enough wool for two big Aran sweaters, and the thought of spinning and knitting that much black wool is a bit depressing, to be honest. It's really pretty black wool though, pure black, not the typical dark brown sheep's black; that's why I bought it. Maybe I should just take it a bit at a time, and before I know it I'll be done! That is what I'll tell myself anyway. 

What do you do to get through a lot of something? Whether it's work or fiber or knitting or cleaning or whatever, what little mind games do you use to get through it all? I'd love to have some new and unusual ideas besides my own!