Twists of Fate

First, a bit of shameless commerce. I just bought an Ashford Basic Jumbo Flyer (double drive) kit yesterday on impulse and once I got home realized that it’s just not something I’m going to use. Fastest case of buyer’s remorse I’ve ever had. Gah!

Box opened once, and I’ve barely even touched anything inside, so it’s practically brand spankin’ new. Includes jumbo flyer, whorl, four bobbins, front maiden, and I believe it also has a drive band, though I will need to double check. Can provide picture of contents if requested. Items are unfinished, so you can stain to match your wheel!

$110 includes shipping in the US, or make an offer. Paypal only please.

Non-commercial content - Did I mention this before? If you’re going to the Dulaan knit-in on the 27th here in the Seattle area and want free fibers to spin, let me know and I’ll bring some. Only caveat is that you use the resulting yarn in charity projects. I got not one but TWO boxes from the lovely person in Idaho who was stash culling, and I’m never gonna get through it all.

Not much else happening here. I was a total couch potato all weekend long and managed to get through the entire second season of SG1 in three days. I didn’t think it was possible to have a sore ass from sitting around on it most of the weekend, but it really can happen.

It’s not going to stop me from starting S3 tonight though. *G*

Sock knitting continues apace. The hotness that is RDA, Michael Shanks and Amanda Tapping is making it difficult to make progress. Too much drool is not good for metal DPNs, not to mention what it does to the sock. I’ll try to muster up the wherewithall to stop with the terribly gauche drooling and make more progress pronto.

Happy Monday y’all!

I try to be a good human bean, but this time of the year? When MDSW happens? And again in the fall when Rheinbeck takes place?

I fail. Miserably.

I’m filled with envy and bitterness at all the lovely, lovely fibers and tools and fellow bloggers that have the chance to attend these East Coast festivals. I lurk and sigh with longing at the stash folks acquire there. Or the new spindles. Or new wheels and other tools that are ripe for the picking, especially if you’re good with your elbows and can get to the front of the line. And the chance to get to meet all those vendors universally adored by the spinning public! The creators of the tools we hug and squeeze and call George treasure…man that’s cool.

But then I see reports of long flights and long lines and packed barns and I have to remind myself that I get verra, verra cranky in those types of situations. When the sea of humanity makes me feel like one of the sheep in the pens at the fair, or one in a herd of cattle (anyone else out there MOO out loud in long lines and crowded conditions?), I get antsy and headachy and just totally overwhelmed.

So it’s probably good that I may not see MDSW or Rheinbeck in the coming years. After all, that’s what the internet is for! For porn remote fiber acquisition! I dream of having access to so many different kinds of wheels in one building, but that’s a temptation my poor pocketbook doesn’t really need at this point in time. Maybe when I win the lottery! I’ll just travel from wool festival to wool festival, and take every class I can get into.

Yeah! That’s the ticket! (The winning one!)

In the meantime, I am soothing my only slightly bitter (semi-sweet?) self with anticipation from opening the second box from Skylines Farm. You may note the link there off to the right in my sidebar. This is because Melissa has the absolute best Romney and Romney cross fleeces I’ve ever seen. I’ve mentioned Georgia here before, but I have, um. *blush* Four more of her fleeces this year. They’re that good.

Actually, I went back to check and, um. I have five of her sheep this year. In my defense, three of those are half fleeces from Irene, Linda and Nadine. Those were in the first box, and they’re all truly lovely Romney cross fleeces. The other two are full fleeces from Haley and Lily, which resulted in me realizing I didn’t have any of her full Romney this year. Oops! So I actually have fiber from seven of her sheep, if I include Georgia and Frances from last year.

Whoa.

Anyway, I haven’t even opened the box that has Haley and Lily in it, because I’ve been saving it for a) when I’m feeling a bit blue and b) when I have time to wash them both up, as well as c) a better plan for storing the washed fleeces than the “oh shit I’m out of boxes and shelves so how about paper grocery bags for now?” option.

Tonight, however, I’m gonna have a little fiber fest of my very own and open that box! And this time I’ll avoid camnesia and take pics as I go.

And I’m going to run like hell from the link posted earlier today on one of the fiber lists for Utopia Ranch’s natural colored fleeces. Unless someone is interested in going halvsies?

I had a great time at Shepherd’s Extravaganza this year. The vendor selection was rather smaller than last year, and oddly there weren’t any spindles for sale except one stall that had a learn-to-spin pack.

But there was still some lovelies to be had, like this blueish-purple CVM roving. Alas, I can’t remember who the vendor is - it came with a card, but of course I didn’t include it in the picture. Oops! I took my friend A with me to the event, and she’s a non-fibery person. After looking at the fleeces (she gave me such strange looks when I was testing individual locks until I explained what I was doing. Heh.), we did a quick stroll up and down the vendor tables. She really, really liked this roving, so I think it’s destined to become some fingerless gloves for her.

I hadn’t planned on spinning this for a little while, but it was hard to resist last night. I really need to remember to move down the hooks on the flyer more often - the singles are sort of toppling over and everything could be a lot neater. I am almost done buying fiber tools for the next six or eight months, but the exception to that may be a Woolee Winder.

I’m all shy about posting pics of singles on the bobbin, but I guess you have to take the plunge sometime. I’m mostly just working on consistency right now. This roving is absolutely fantastic - drafting is a breeze, and I had a great time with it last night. I didn’t spin for very long, but what I did spin was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

I’m hoping it’ll be the same with this Daffodil colored roving. This is only four ounces, but it was so fabulously spring-like and cheerful I couldn’t resist. Please forgive the dark picture - I meant to take pics while it was light outside, but of course time got away from me yesterday. Mostly because I spent a goodly amount of time washing fleece!

I know. So surprising, eh?

My other purchases at the Extravaganza were two fleeces, both breeds I haven’t had the chance to work with before. I got a white Cotswold, and a natural dark grey Lincoln. I amso glad they have the sheet with the judges assessment and comments attached to each, as I’m still a rank novice at choosing a fleece. I’m thankful I’ve had the chance to work with a lot of the raw stuff in recent months, and could tell Friend A that yes, this bag of kinda smelly, frankly dirty (hey, the sheep live outside in a pasture…you’d be a little dirty too!) and scary looking stuff would turn out to be lovely and gorgeous once it was washed. And that no, I’m not insane to want to play with it. *G*

This is the fleece right out of the bag. The tips are a bit dirty, but the creamy white goodness you can see on the inside gives me hope. I’ve not really dealt with such a curly, spiral locked fiber before, but I think this’ll be a great experience for me.

In this next picture, it’s a closer look at the tips on the fleece. I don’t think it’s quite the same as the “bark” that forms on a Merino or other fine-wooled fleece, which keeps other stuff out and preserves the fiber underneath. I think this is likely a result of outdoor living + a rainy Pacific Northwest winter. But that’s fairly good news to me, as that means it’s just mud and will likely wash out.

The last picture is of the newly washed fleece, hanging out on the drying rack, happy and damp. You can see a huge improvement in overall color and cleanliness, and the tips are much more manageable now. I didn’t do anything special to them while washing - I didn’t flick before tucking them into the lingere bags, and I didn’t rub the tips underwater to help loosen everything. If I can read up on how to use my mini-combs most effectively, I’ll do those with this fiber. I’d also like to get a pair of the big ass, horror film prop, four or five row English combs to have in my spinning tool kit, but I think I’d rather have the Woolee Winder for the Ashford Traveller first. And I do, after all, have the double row mini-combs to work with.

Anyway, the point to the combs is that they’re likely to help loosen the tips. If the tips break while combing, I’m hoping I do it in a way that they’re left behind on the comb. Otherwise, if I really feel the need, I can always snip off anything that looks particularly stubborn and call it good.

So there you have it. I feel fairly good about the entire experience - I got to hang out with a friend, and through that my firm belief that I suck at navigation (It’s a fairground! It’s enormous! Why can’t we FIND the damn thing?!) was re-affirmed. I got to illustrate the magic of some soap and water, I got me some really groovy colored pretties to play with, and I’m learning something new every time I wander into the living room to hang out with the fiber.

Overall? A most excellent weekend! [/Keanu voice]

I finished spinning the little bump of the mystery roving last night while watching the special features on the last disc of DS9 (WAH! It’s really over!), and went diving in the stash because I was fairly sure I had more.

Success! I found the box that it came in, which is good, because I think I would like to order more of this Tunis roving! I got it in October of last year from Sarah Cole at Tansy Fiber Farm at Black Ridge, according to the label on the box. I have eight ounces of the Tunis, and I ended up with a pound of Cheviot. I have a pound of that as poor Sarah had some difficulty getting the shipment out to me, and I must admit to being kind of a cranky bitch about it at the time. I feel bad now, lo these many months later, because for fiber this fabulous, a little forgiveness wouldn’t have gone astray. I should write to her and let her know that I managed to unearth the box and get started on spinning up the Tunis. And ask if she has any more, because it’s wonderful stuff!

My sister absconded with my digital camera to take pics of her cats, so I have no way to show you the wonderfulness of the roving. But I hope she’ll give it back before I spin it all up, so I can share the lurv.

And now, back to exploring fiber links on the web work. Happy Monday!

ETA: Oops! I forgot to mention that the Norwegian is on its way to a new home. The folks who came over to look at it on Saturday bought it, which is great! Now I can pay my taxes! Oh, the joy!! [/sarcasm] I am glad that the wheel, who I think I named Inge, found a good home with someone who will love her and squeeze her and call her hopefully a Norwegian name of some kind. It was a wrench selling it, but I’m glad I did. Even if all the money is going to the tax man.