New Address

Hi again! I've been thinking about using a new name for my blog for a while and I finally did it. In the future, please view my ramblings at Wool & Bull. See you over there! Thanks!

The Camera is Back!

Hi! I haven't been posting because my camera broke and blogging is no fun without pictures. In the meantime, I purchased a NEW camera with twice the power of the old one, but I don't have a card reader for it yet. I suppose there's a way to hook it up to the computer, but it's so new that I haven't figured out all querks yet.

HOWEVER, DH said we might as well have the old one repaired to use as a back up camera and it arrived a few minutes ago by FedEx all repaired and servicable, if not exciting.

Just in time, because I desperately wanted to share the fun I've been having with my fiber sampler. As I explained in previous posts, Susan's Spinning Bunny sells a fiber sampler where you buy small quanities of five different fibers all dyed in the same colorway. That way you get a taste of how each material feels and spins. I'm plying the last one right now, so I'm almost done, but it has been a real blast. There's just enough fiber in each sample to give you a good feel for it, but it's also a very quick spin. There's no time to get bored.

Left to right, the samples are: Targhee, Kid Mohair/Merino, Superwash Merino/Tencel and Alpaca/Merino/Silk. Oddly, the one I didn't enjoy spinning (as much) was the Alpaca/Merino/Silk. It didn't draw as nicely and I had a harder time keeping the diameter even. The Kid Mohair/Merino and the Merino/Tencel both flew through my fingers delightfully.

Now I'm looking for a project to knit all the samples into. . . Something to display the different properties of each fiber. They may all look similar, but you can see the sheen on the tencel and how the different fibers absorbed the dye differently. They also feel different. The Targhee is springy and the Alpaca/silk/merino feels slightly slick. The angora and the mohair samples will also have a little halo once they're knit up and knocked around a little.

While I was waiting to become visual again, I also finished up a lovely scarf I've been wanting to make for a long time. The pattern is from Loop-d-Loop, and I admired it on a lady at Friendship Spinners two years ago. It looks so complex, but it's a relatively quick knit [for SOME people -- I didn't follow the directions correctly, so I had to take it apart and put it back together several times]. I added the seed stitch border at the bottom. I'm thinking it would be a good gift -- even for non-knitters -- I'm looking toward Christmas knitting already.

Last, but certainly not least, I wanted to show you the beautiful gift my friend Lynne got me just for no reason (the BEST gifts of all!). It's for my studio, Wool and Bull, which is slowly but surely coming together. I hauled six boxes of junk out of the basement yesterday (sometimes it's good to have teenaged girls because they attract teenaged boys and teenaged boys can be impressed into hard labor that involves lifting heavy objects like defunct computer monitors). Anyway, the ram is a perfect decoration for Wool and Bull. He looks way more dignified than any real sheep -- I LOVE it.