The Simply Soft yarn came from Knitting-Warehouse on Thursday and I started swatching as soon as I got home from work. I was unable to get gauge for the Flyingdales sweater, but the gauge is perfect for Milan. So Milan it is. The knitting is going very quickly so far. I've finished the left front panel and am a quarter done with the right. The yarn color is perfect, a soft light brown. The yarn tends to want to knot up on itself, I found rewinding the skeins into center pull balls helped with this problem. The yarn is soft and not at all plasticy like some acrylics. Unfortunately, we are having camera problems so no pictures today.

I finished spinning the Gryffindor batt from Hanks in the Hood. I spun the whole 3 oz onto one bobbin. I want to ply it with a solid and spun a bit of coffee bean merino and a bit of a pale silver merino to see which I liked better. I think I'm going to go with the darker color. Pictures of the samples as soon as possible. I must say, it felt so good to spin. I've only been able to squeeze in a few minutes here and there the last few weeks. I got in HOURS of spinning this weekend and it was WONDERFUL.

Major news this week: Opal, the fantastic German sock yarn company, has announced they will be putting out a line of Harry Potter sock yarns to coincide with the theatrical release of Half Blood Prince this fall. SQUEE!!! Here's an early photo (and there are more pictures here)I've read the labels may be different here in the states, which would be a shame. But I'm really loving these colors. I HAVE to have Hedwig (2352), Malfoy (2356), and Dumbledore (2357) for sure. At at least $20 a pop, I better start saving my pennies now! More details here.