Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Lots of news to update all you folks and a bonus cooking section! Well, it's not really my birthday yet, only 22 days to go, but I got some birthday gifts in the mail! Ok, I bought them for myself, but the spindle is Rob's present to me :D.

After lots of research, I decided on the Golding spindle, 1.7 oz weight. After much deliberation, I decided I wanted kind of a medium weight spindle that would spin DK to worsted 2-ply yarns. She said I could even spin lace weight on it, but I think I will just have to buy another spindle for that :) Even Rob was impressed by the way it spins, it took me a little bit to get used to how fast it spins. I couldn't draft fiber fast enough to keep up with it. I'm really happy with it, and have been spinning this:

I should have put something in the picture for scale; it's 1 lb of Border Leicester wool, the brown is the natural color of the sheep! I got this from Blue Goose Glen's Ebay store, and I also got 1 lb of black merino wool. The BL fiber is very soft and fluffy, but I'm finding alot more clumps of wool and bits of vegetable matter in the fiber. It doesn't really bother me though, some of the lumps get spun into the single and gives it a earthy look. I like that I'm so close to the sheep, you know? Can we say compulsive? How the heck am I going to spin through all this fiber with a spindle? Where there's a will there is a way... Roberto actually has told me twice that he really likes the color of the BL wool, and I have something in mind that he has asked me for, a Christmas present. Roberto very rarely make requests so I'm really excited about making something for him. We have been talking about a sweater, kind of tunic-y with a monk type hood. I think the brown fiber would look very monk-like. I was initially thinking I would do stockinette, but now I'm thinking I would like the look of a woven type stitch. I really like the look of Veronica's Woven Stitch Poncho. Something along those lines on a smaller scale. Any ideas?
In other knitting news, I have finished all of Robear's body parts and just need to sew and stuff him. I also did another hat for Robby Cubed with the BFL fiber I got from Hello Yarn. Rob was kind enough to model the hat for me.

Onto foodie things, there was a recipe on Hello Yarn's blog for an amazing lasagna recipe that I had to try. Click on the Flickr badge in the sidebar to view all of the pictures. Here is the link for Martha's Favorite Vinaigrette.