Spinning wheel got to go 'round

Tuesday is spinning day at my house, as well as a few others. While I did manage to get the monkeys and myself home at a decent hour last night, we did watch Ken Jennings final appearance on Jeopardy (hadn't missed one), I didn't get the spinning time I really wanted. I opted for the more responsible task of balancing my much neglected checkbook before I bounced something like the monthly tuition for the daycare center <ouch>. Soooo. An hour and a half of manually entering each check, automatic withdrawal/account transfer, online payment, paypal and far fewer deposits into Microsoft Money, I no longer live in fear of envelopes from Commerce Bank. Tonight I get the even yuckier task of paying bills. Blech.

Anyway, I got my spinning time. I pulled out the CVM* roving from Little Barn, who btw is having a sale on bamboo Knitting Needles that I'm trying to ignore, that I picked up at Rhinebeck. It is the dark roving in this picture. It wants to spin fine but then puffs nicely when plied. There is some VM in the roving, but it is spinning out. The single has shades of variegation as the breed does and ranges from almost white to the darker brown that is evident in the picture of the roving. CVM is an interesting breed and the fiber is so soft. I have a lb of roving so I'm not quite sure what I'll be making. I'm initially leaning towards the much popular in blogdom, mittens! I don't have a pair currently and as I grip the getting colder steering wheel in the morning, I think again about gloves.

What I would really like be those hunter gloves with the half finger things and the flip top mitten part. I'm seriously considering thrumming the fliptop bit as I really want to do the thrummed mittens. But should I deprive myself of all the mittenly fun that others are having and switch from socks to mittens and make scores of them? I do have a history of losing a couple of gloves every year... I wonder if I can get mitts on the monkeys. Kat might be seriously resistant to the concept of mittens as she's a thumbsucker and their hands disappear in their coat sleeves on a regular basis. Anyone have or can direct to a pattern for mittens for a 18mos size? Maybe I should put all the other projects on hold and do some mitts before the weather gets really cold and my fingers freeze rendering me incapable of knitting!

*CVM is California Variegated Mutant. A funny name for a very nice sheep with a lovely fleece! I bought a CVM fleece off eBay earlier this year and ashamedly haven't done a single thing with it yet. It is beautiful:



If you're curious about the breed, here's a link for more information. The fleece is wonderful as I expect the resulting yarn to be. It is on the fine side and I'm seriously thinking about putting aside about a pound of the softest part of the fleece for spinning laceweight. A very longterm project. The newest issue of SpinOff inspired me to try again at the long term lace project. A feature woman spent a year spinning, designing and knitting a shetland shawl. I would love to give it a try myself. I might have to start with something smaller and quicker, especially with my attention span.

Off to find some mitten patterns.....