The Agony of Defeat

This morning I got soundly whupped by the Etsy Cart God who decided these old fingers were fiddling a little too long with her saved address and let someone snatch MY September Fluff Box right out of MY cart. Arghhh. I have managed to get my hands on the last three so I am totally ashamed at my greediness but make no apologies because damn-those boxes are cool!











It hurt so bad until the mail showed up with plenty of fuzzy stuff to take my mind off my misery. I had just bought a lovely pound of raw *Corriedale that is intended for some autumnal dyeing and its arrival could not have been better planned. While that is stewing on the stove, I am busying myself sitting in the sunshine and spinning this incredibly gorgeous Merino that I washed and combed over the summer. Funk be gone. I have too much to do right now.











*Errata: That was not the Corriedale that showed up but the Columbia fleece. Oops. In my haste to get busy I neglected to actually look at the packing slip until Sunday.

Rescue Me 2

Daughter's Noro bag, the one that she asked me to finish for her, now has a partially completed handle. I drug it all the way up to NYC last weekend to check the final measurements and to take some blog photos in some place a lot more interesting than my deck but never got around to taking any pictures.

Noro Lovers stop reading here.

I have not worked with Noro for ages. I remember ordering it online, paying a lot of money for it and then giving it away to Daughter because I didn't care for the colors. I was not a spinner way back then and I have to say, and I am trying not to be mean, but knitting with this stuff is like knitting with my worst homespun-lumpy, scratchy and filled with vm. I suppose I better start cutting myself some slack in the spinning department because this stuff costs big bucks and people love it. I have heard about grown women fighting over it. If you like this kind of stuff, come on over to my house. I've got tubs of it without the fancy label and price tag.

Sorry, but I Just Couldn't Resist

In my miserable little life nothing seems to be funny these days so I just can't seem to get enough of well, you know...

Frankenskein Becomes a Hat

My Phat Fiber June sampler is slowly being turned into yarn which in turn is becoming a rather silly hat. One can't have enough silly hats to go with one's silly socks. Take a look at some of the stuff hitting the runway this week in NYC and you'll realize silly stuff is never out of fashion.

Get Your Hankies ready

After watching this You Tube video on preparing silk hankies, you are going to want to buy some too.




I got mine from Sara's Texture Crafts.
Thank you Yarnspinner for another great video.

New York, New York

I got back late tonight from visiting Daughter in her first ever apartment in the Big Apple. Here is a very realistic interpretation of the day's events:




Sad to say, but when I first saw this movie I was the Jane Fonda but these days I am totally the Mildred Natwick. Geez.

A New Trick

Plying on a spindle is something I never really liked to do until I saw someone plying from both ends of a center pull ball on You Tube. It took a while to get the hang of keeping the tension on both ends even but it sure beats dealing with all those bobbins (aka toilet paper tubes) rolling around. I do have a tensioned lazy kate that I use for plying on the wheel but I never liked using it with a spindle. It just seemed to big and clunky for my delicate singles. This trick also avoids the dreaded waste of precious handspun when you can't manage to get equal amounts on two bobbins. I love it when you come to the end and you have a pretty little loop that just slides right over the end of your niddy-noddy. It makes me feel efficient and clever.

Note to Kids: Don't worry about those blue fingers. My circulation is fine. I've just been in the dye pot again.