Just in time for the cold weather.

Back in January, I acquired this:

A big ol' bag of Romney roving from a family I met at  Christmas party. (In Vermont, it's not hard to score a bag of wool.)

After some ill-fated dyeing attempts,

I managed to tone things down to a less eye-searing colorway. And I started spinning. And spinning. And then spring came and I lost interest. But then, after a truly beautiful summer, I felt a nip of fall in the air, so I took up the spinning again. It seemed endless, but it turned out that's because I spun 2.89 POUNDS of yarn. And here, at last, are the results:

I spun up two similar colorways; a quieter version on the left, and a kickier one on the right.

Plied, they gave me this (maybe a bit brighter in real life):

When all the spinning was done, I had this to work with:

Now, my goal all along was to create a yarn that, when knitted up, created subtle stripes. I wanted to preserve the unique nature of handspun dyed fiber (which is altogether different from yarn that is dyed after it is spun) but without being too jarring.

I think I nailed it.

I settled on the Shapely Boyfriend cardigan and got to work. I started Sept. 14 and finished all but the second sleeve and the button band by Sept. 23. Then I got distracted. But the weather got a little colder and I got back to work. I got six of the seven buttons on before someone else decided to borrow it.

Voila (please excuse the crappy photos):

It's a bit snug in the sleeves and I'm not happy with the one darker stripe around the middle, but overall I'm just shy of ecstatic. Must spin and knit more sweaters. Starting this weekend.

In other news:

• We had to put down our goat Trooper a couple of weeks ago. You wouldn't think the loss of a goat would cause so many tears, but what can I say? My husband's a softie. (Kidding. I was the sobber.) Lesson: The more animals you own, the more animals that die. That stinks.

• I made the greatest thrift shop coup EVER this summer with two lamps:

 I believe total they cost $8.50 or $9.50. I had to buy one new shade and that set me back $40 but it was well worth it.

Enter the black spray paint and one new shade and now I have two beautiful lamps. The tall one is the best knitting light on the planet. Or at least in my house.

• In the garden, the tomatoes did pretty crappy. Despite a ton of plants, some had few fruits and the rest refused to ripen. I had luck with the basil, hot peppers and pumpkins (the ones I planted in July!). And we dug potatoes yesterday afternoon:

An entire tractor bucketload of Kennebecs. We got a lot of beautiful red potatoes, too, but we've been eating them for a month or so. There are still a few left:

There are some beauties in there.

This weekend's agenda includes apple picking this afternoon, making a big batch of beef broth for my upcoming turn as "Crockpot Friday" host at work (BEST WORKPLACE TRADITION EVER), trimming a goat's hooves, processing the few remaining tomatoes, brewing up a five-gallon batch of hard cider, and a bunch of other stuff, like knitting, spinning, baking, and possibly even cleaning a thing or two.

It's fall. Time to nest.