One more thing

For anyone who's interested, I just joined a 12 month fiber club by Natchwoolie on Etsy. Each month you get a different raw fiber to play with. I signed up for the 4 oz one, but there is a 2 oz version as well, for anyone else who wants to play with samples. :) She has alpaca and bunnies and stuff too, so it will be more than different sheep breeds.

Come play with me!

I can has sheep!

Or at least it's fleece :)

My California Red fleece arrived Saturday. It was a lot of fun to roll it out and see that it was sheep shaped!


The cat may be in love. We're going to have a throwdown soon. Only one of us may own the sheep.



I'm washing up a bit right now, we'll see how it turns out, but overall, I'm very pleased with the fleece thus far. No VM at all, Clifford (the ram from whence my fleece came) was coated year round. So even though it looks a little matted, the sections pull apart easily. There's a nice sweater in there somewhere, if I can get the cat off first.


Oh yeah, and my rommedale. Remember I said it was nubby?

Yeah. Will not be carding that again. Strictly combs for that one. Though I will almost swear that the fiber I was given was full of seconds cuts. I've finished it up, and will ply it soon. It's gonna have loads of texture.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllll

Look@@


And as soon as I got it, I made these!



The first two are Spunky Eclectic, Perfect Storm, and Thunderstorm respectively. I love them. The third is an unknown wool/alpaca blend I got from a swap partner. It's soft, and has a lot of yardage.

One thing I've noticed since spinning on my wheel is that my yarn tends to be less dense, and more airy, resulting in more yarn. It's easier to spin skinny skinny yarn too.

I dyed some natural WotA bulky from Knitpicks with the leftover Easter egg dye, with very different results than usually seen online. It looked like yarn barf before, but now that I've taken it out into daylight, I like it a lot. It's all fuchsia and olive and purply. I might make a scarf or something.


Oh! Angie suckered me into making one of those mitered square blankets. But instead of torturing myself with sock yarns, I'm using up all my sport and worsted weight yarns. It's cheerful, and I've already caught myself calling it "blankie". I'm starting to run low on colors, so I've started a pillow cover from knit picks. I like it. It matches nothing I own. lol




No new news on the fiber sampling front. I'm almost spinning the rommedale, but I don't know if it's the way I carded it, or the way the fiber was sheared, but I've got mega nepps on this on. It makes me crazy. I've got the arrangements all made for my California red, I've got an eBay bid placed on a Clun Forrest fleece and a pound of targhee. This is going to be really bad. A large portion of this is my crazy craving for the scent of lanolin. I should probably just buy a sheep. That would really drive the German Shepherd next door super crazy.

I leave you with these lovely photos. Feel free to gank them.

Holy Polypay!

Wow. It's soft, it's fine, it has a matte lustre and spins like a dream. I love it! And here I was researching California red breeders. lol. Once again though, small vm is harshing my mellow. :I



Here's my California Red, plied. I haven't washed it yet though. I really do love this.



I may take down my green tree python wallpaper and put this up instead.

This fleece sampler is creating a monster. Not only am I now addicted to the smell of lanolin, I want to try much larger samples. I've already been tricked into buying more Romney, and I've gotten a pair of second hand carders and a set of very affordable handmade wool combs are on their way, along with a diz.

I have a severe case of spinner's ADD too. I want to work on the fleece kit. and the Coastal collection from beemiceelf on etsy, I'm half done that, the soy latte fiber made from milk protein, the April challenge for Spindlers, the Shetland for the singles shawl along in spunky club on Rav., and of course the Romney, but I'm saving that for when I get the combs. I also have a specific roving in mind for a pair of socks as well. :( I've been behaving but it's hard. I've got 2 pr of socks on the needles too. There's too much I want to do and not enough arms or hours in the day. Maybe I'll start using all that time in which I try to sleep and fail miserably.

And help me out here. This is the start of my second sock from the LotS club. The leaves are totally addictive. What else can I put leaves on?

California Red and Ghost Hunting

Hiya!

I've started spinning up my California red fleece sample. before I carded it it just looked dirty. Really it is kind of dirty- there's all kinds of really fine vm that I can't get out. Some of it pops out when I spin it, but about an equal amount I think just gets spun in. :( I'm glad this isn't for a garment.

Here's the lock:


And the singles I've spun up so far still on my spindle:


It looks a lot less crappy once it's been spun. I love how it looks like wheat flour or oatmeal. If I did spin this for a garment I would totally leave it natural, it looks so good. However, if someone did decide to dye it, it would make a fantastic natural heathered yarn.

I tried to sleep in this morning but I woke up at 5:30 am and couldn't get back to sleep. I tossed and turned and finally rolled out of bed at 9 and made some chai tea and breakfast. All we had was high fiber or weight loss oatmeal :( Blech.

Tonight I'm going Ghost Hunting! For real. I'll be up super late, so hopefully my early wake up won't affect my ablity to stay up late tonight. The house belongs to someone who works in my building, and the investigators are people who came out to investigate the Auburn House, which is owned by the university and is used by the athletics admin. Supposedly it's haunted by Martha, the wife of one of the owners of the house, long before the university bought it. I don't know what the situation is at the individual's house I'm going to tonight. Hopefully we'll find some good evidence. :)