Still Lace with Beagle

Thanks to some Christmas loot, I've been able to do a little guilt-free stash enhancement. This is some Malabrigo Laceweight; I've been ogling it for months and picked it up at Purlescence as soon as I had some cash in my hot little hands. I'm not sure yet what it's going to be, but it's sure to be soft and absolutely faboo.


I also got to place an order at Webs - here's what has arrived so far:
Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL - an ultra-soft worsted-weight baby Alpaca/Merino blend. I've got plenty for a long-sleeve sweater which is what this will be - I just don't know which one.






Malabrigo in the Sol y Mar color way. This, along with some already-in-stash Noro Cash Iroha (below) is going to eventually become Poppy from Lisa Shobhana Mason's book, Yarnplay.












The colors in these shots aren't too accurate - some of the blue in the Malabrigo does match the purply blue of the Cash Iroha.

Last, I picked up some fun sock yarn, for socks for myself. This is Opal Rainforest, Jakob the Cheeky One, whatever that means - I liked the colors.
These are just plain ol' socks - nothing fancy about them. But I knit all of that yesterday because I couldn't stop - I had to see what happened next. A morning in the hospital (just annual 'make sure you don't have cancer' testing) didn't hurt in terms of knitting time either.




I also picked up a little unspun fiber:
This is 8 oz. of Bombyx silk. I plan to dye it myself.








I'm also adding to my yarn stash by spinning!









This is the roving I dyed last fall.

This is some superwash Merino from Crown Mountain Farm.
It'll probably become socks; I'm just wavering between 2 and 3 ply, and regular or Navajo ply.















And this is my newest spinning challenge - silk! Another Purlescence purchase - 2 oz. of Bombyx silk from Chasing Rainbows Dye Works. Neither picture is particularly accurate. The color on top is more true but doesn't show the sheen of the silk. The picture on the bottom overdoes the sheen and makes the color a lot more silvery. Trust me, it's awfully pretty stuff.

Changes

I'm not too big on resolutions at the New Year - they tend to make me feel pressured and I usually end up dropping them pretty quickly. But I have a couple of things I would like to accomplish. On the fiber end of things, I want to improve my spinning skills - learn a few more techniques and try some more fibers.

I'm also working to improve my health. We joined a really nice health club this fall and I've been pretty good about incorporating a couple of workouts into each week. I've also been doing cardio mid-day in the gym at work, and I've made a commitment to walk (or treadmill) 100 miles by April 1st. As for diet, I've decided to focus on making sure I have enough of the right things rather than constantly denying myself things that are considered 'wrong'. When I include the right stuff I have found I'm much less interested in the wrong stuff. Sodas have almost been eliminated from my diet, I've cut way back on sugar and I try to make sure that a majority of the carbs I eat are as unprocessed as possible.

While weight remains a frustrating issue (cancer and chemo pretty much trashed my metabolism) I am seeing results in other ways. Not only did I have to up my weights this week, I found out yesterday that over the past 6 months I have reduced my cholesterol by 80 points. Without medication. I am freakin' thrilled about that one!