Recent Pleasures...

I have some FABULOUS pics of not-fiber that I will post soon, but my little bro and his weefe are visiting for the weekend, and are asleep in the "craft room" so pics will wait. So, things I have enjoyed recently...
1. I got my 2 fleeces back from stonehedge fiber mill, and again, I am very impressed. The two I sent were one of the 2007 fleeces from Aunt Sue, and the Rambouillet that the 'rents treated me to at Maryland S&W. The Ram still has some of the grease in it surprisingly, but is super soft, no shock. The other I opened, and immediately thought I got the wrong fleece, it was so soft. This is a Lincoln/Romney, and once processed was more brown-tinged grey than I remembered.
They are great, I can't wait to spin them.

2. The weefe, who is super into all natural/organic, down o the earth, wayyy more than us (she is a primitive skills instructor) was receiver of two of the fleeces I have, she is going to felt, but also is heading back to camp with my spindal and some roving I got a while back. She also bought ashford carders today, and when we got back to the house carded, spun, then knit a 3x3 swatch of some of the sample fleece from the bags I got. Kick ass!

3. We bought a cider press with an unexpected end-of fiscal-year bonus I got at work, so we can really do fruit wine this year. Locally (in Maine) made.

4. I am thinking about to commiting to a goal, likely this fall, which considering my physical shape leaves me slightly aprehensive. More to come on this one.

5. The Essense of the Essensial Stripe Sweater is coming along well; I am not sure about the color carries though. When doing a fair isle sweater, you carry the colors not used in the current row up the side, I think (and might be assuming). These extra colors are slightly showing through (like the light yarn on dark sections) and also mean that there will be extra thickness on one side which I KNOW is favorable to having ends to weave in, also all on one side. Once all is said and done, it's Berocco Ultra Alpaca, and will self-felt in as I wear it. And the colors, as I posted in an earlier post, are great.

6. I am looking forward to the CD release party of our favorite local band, The Jerks of Grass, bluegrass and amazing in all their mildly-twangy glory. We can't wait for this party, it's been a long time coming!!!

Spinning completed...

See? It's the roving that I bought at Mass Sheep and Wool, I measured it and did maths, and I have @450 yards of I'm not sure what size, I haven't figured out the WPI thing yet. I know 450 yards is a lot, but I'm trying to figure how much of what it will make. But it is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy prettier than it was when I bought it, I now know why people fawn over rovings at the festivals, it started as "oh that's pretty, but look how cheep it is!" and spun into "ohhhh that's niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice (said in the Family Guy gay-man-of-many-jobs voice)"
There are only a few sections that are not-like-the-others
I focused more on evening out the overspun sections when plying, I would stop plying and redistribute the twist to the ply around it, seemed to work well, but it was time consuming. I was hoping I'd have enough for a little sweater but maybe a little vest instead.
New sweater colors for MEEE, I was going to do the essential stripes sweater, but gauge was crazy, so I found a raglan pattern that was the right gauge, and am doing stripes. So it's more essence of essential striped sweater. In Berocco Ultra Alpaca, one of my more favorite yarns.
And, I WON YARN b from Bezzie, cause I have a lucky rooting timeframe. It's the kind of thing that if I wasn't forced into going by my insurance company so they keep paying for anti-spawn products, I might procrastinate about. This was a great treat/reinforcer for keeping my girls happy! Bert likes it too.

More KittyPicutres!! Yeay!!

She grew out of this trick the next week, literally.

Diapensia watching birds on our friends i-phone
Zora is two seconds from snapping and opening the kitty-can of whoop-ass.
Now that's sisterly love.


Poor, poor Diapensia...this is one of the funniest pictures we have of her facial expression repertoire.

Finally...what I bought

I finally got around to taking pics of the treats I got at the Massachusetts Sheep and Wool fest. I took so long cause it has been raining since February, and it's been bad picture taking weather.


The Wool Peddler had lots of good bargains, so I got 3 rovings from them. I was wavering, but when I found out that they were from Brattleboro VT (where Mr. VT and I met and lived for 5 yrs) I was sold. I already spun up 3/4 of the greenish blue one.
Then I got this cause it reminded me of my parent's house...ocean and sea and sailing with a little bit of fog.
One of my rovings from the Wool Peddler came with a huge hairball in it...