Woolybuns

How?? Why??? A Headscratcher...

So this guy opens up the hood of his trunk and his engine has sprouted eyes and is growling at him.  Turns out he has a 60 pound pitbull wedged in there.  Don't worry, the poor dog is safely housed at an animal shelter now, probably dirty and scared, but not hurt.  But what on earth prompted her to insert herself so thoroughly into the engine?  Perhaps she was cold and the engine was warm when she found it.  Or perhaps she thought there was something tasty to eat, because while stuck in the engine, she did chew up lots of stuff.  Yikes!

Triple Treat

The yarns I dyed yesterday.  The fiber: equal amounts of polwarth, silk, and angora, spun for me.  I used three colors for each colorway.   I had so much fun dyeing, I followed up today with immersion dyeing half a pound of merino top, 4 different solid colors, to blend with angora.  I might get some carded up in time for my booth this weekend, but probably not all of it.  And  I might try my hand at some multicolor batts.  And this is when I realize why I do this.  The end result is as satisfying as the process.  But isn't it curious that I have no desire to knit these yarns.  Which is good because they will all be in my booth this weekend. 

What Day Is It?

Panic day.  That's the day when, even though I've known about this for a full year, it suddenly dawns on me that New Hampshire Sheep and Wool is this weekend.  I have a fiber booth to fill.  It's the day when I lose all sense and perspective and think that over the next 4 days, I can prepare a whole bunch of pounds of enticing fibers you folks just can't resist.   The day I wonder why the heck I do this. 

So I dumped some polwarth, silk and angora yarn into a bucket of water, soap and vinegar.  I dug out pots and bottles, colors, and rubber gloves.  Everything is now all assembled.   It's dyeing time again.   

A Dog's Gotta Do What a Dog's Gotta Do

I wrestled a long time with An Issue.  Gypsy was a bit slow on the housebreaking progress, but once she was convinced that telling me she had to go was a good idea, I started sending the dogs outside to potty on their own.  It didn't take too long before I started noticing they both developed Really.  Stinky.  Breath.  I hadn't experienced that particular stench on one of my dog's breath before and really had no idea what was causing it.  And then came the day when I saw what was causing it.  Caution: a really disgusting statement ahead.  If you are like me, it will totally gross you out.  I'm serious.  There is no funny punch line ahead. You might want to not read it.  I certainly never wanted to witness it. 

They were eating their own and each other's poop.

Ok.  Seriously disgusting.  Gross.  It turns my stomach.  I've learned that's not unusual dog behavior.  I've also learned it is behavior that, once adopted, is not likely to be stopped.  You can try assorted flavoring efforts to dissuade them, but in general, that's ineffective.  I tried.  For months, I tried.  You can only prevent the behavior by constant meticulous pick up and hyper vigilance.   And I did that, along with the attempts at behavior modification (positive, not punitive because punitive makes for anxious dogs, leading to more unacceptable behavior).  But a dog with Molly's persistence and intelligence is not easily dissuaded from anything.  And Gypsy follows Molly's lead. 

In discussing this Issue with their breeders, I discovered some humans are far more capable of accepting such behavior than I am.  Turns out, that activity is well established among Gypsy's litter mates, as well as Molly's mom.  Their breeders routinely rinse the dogs' mouths with mouthwash.  I know intellectually that the dogs do not find it a disgusting habit.  But as much as I tried to understand and accept and work around it, I was left with a seriously high level of revulsion.  They'd come rushing inside with that breath and want to kiss me and lick me as happy dogs do.  It made me almost vomit.  Which meant I kept pushing them away.  And the poor dogs just didn't understand.  And on one dog training show I watched in hopes of learning how to train them out of this, the trainer had one family's home tested.  Turns out their dog, doing the same thing, left high levels of e. coli on almost every surface of the house.  Including kitchen counters. 

There is much less than pleasant that I have learned to deal with.  Dirty bunny butts - well, nuff said on that.  But I can't get past this.  And I can't stand the dogs being so unhappy with being rejected when all they want to do is love me.  They deserve better.  It took several months of attempts to change the situation and some serious soul searching, but in the end, my reaction is as insurmountable as the dogs' behavior.  A couple weeks ago, I sent them back to their breeders.   It was not an easy decision, but it was the right one.

Kind of Like a Good Piece of Chocolate

I'm babysitting Gromit this week.  He's eight and a half years old now, and starting to slow down, but he still loves his wander around outside time.  As long as someone is with him, he's quite content to poke around in the back yard.  But if you take your eyes off him for one second too long, he's gone.  Me being the distractable type, yeah, that one second too long thing kind of works for the dog.  Which is to say, yesterday I went on a dog hunt.  How he disappears so completely so fast, I dunno.  But he's talented that way.  He's a good friendly dog and really doesn't get into trouble on his wanderings and he will return, but of course there is the safety from cars and mean people or dogs to consider, so I always go looking when he ambles off.  During yesterday's hunt, I stopped to ask a woman and her young daughter, strangers to me, on their way to school if they'd seen him.  The kind souls understood and were completely ready to mobilize the neighborhood.  I told them if they spotted him or found him, I lived one street over in the intense teal house.  The mother grinned and said, oh, you're the bunny lady.  And the daughter said, "I love that house.  It's my favorite-ist house in the world!"  A short and silly interaction that just feels good.  Here I am thinking I'm nicely unknown in this town, and having seen the looks on people's faces when they see the color of my house that I know it's... well.  Not on the Approved List.  It was a sweet moment that gave me a giggle.

Finding Gromit a few minutes later was also sweet.

Life Is What Happens When You're Making Other Plans

In this case, the other plans in the making was the trip to MDSW.  Life is things like a teeny tiny part breaking off the lawn mower rendering it ineffective, my car deciding it needed a trip to the dealer,  the dryer still needs attention, and kids needing not so inconsequentials like a car.  Soooo, I could go, but I decided I don't need anything at MDSW - well, except for the socializing - and the price of gas is so ridiculous, that practicing some belt tightening is probably the better idea.  Having lost all of yesterday to dealing with the car - a bit of silliness on my part - I didn't get a lot of the things done that still need doing, so that's another vote in favor of pouting cause I'm not going to the fiber festival being fiscally responsible.  So all of you who are going, have a bit of extra fun for me, k?

So what made me spend the whole day dealing with the car?  Heh.  I sat for about 90 minutes while the mechanic diagnosed the problem (which is why knitting got done).   Then they offered me a loaner car because the repair would take at least another couple hours.  Well.  The loaner was a brand new, less than 400 miles 2008 Saab 9-3 convertible with some very nice bells and whistles like XM radio and Onstar.  Apparently my head can be turned by such things, because I promptly took the loaner, took off (born from jets indeed!), and after some trying out the performance (it is a FUN car!), drove home to deal with chores.  But you need house keys to get into a totally locked up house.  My house key sat attached to my car key back at the dealer, which is 30 miles away and not worth the gas and time to go fetch.  No problem - call the kid who's only 5 minutes away, right?  Yeah.  Good theory.  Not so good in practice.  His key didn't work.   I bought him lunch, then sent him on his way.  Nuthin' to do but spend time in the car.  Aging forgetfulness or something more Freudian?  You be the judge.  I had too much fun to care which it was. 

Wednesday WIPing 2/30/08

How about that?  There was actual knitting this week.  Not too much, but at least I picked up a sock and added about an inch to it.  Last time I knit on the Corrugated Rib sock, I decided I was tired of knitting corrugated so I switched to stockinette.  That means the sock can hope to be knit on.  I still love the look of the corrugated rib, just got tired of the slow pace when I'm knitting it.  Goal: finish the leg, maybe work on the heel flap.

Even bigger surprise: I spun a skein, and then plied it.  After carding about a pound of merino and angora together, I had to see how it spun.  I spun an ounce and got about 160 yards out of it.   I'm quite pleased with it.   I didn't get any more carding done this week, and might not until first of the week.  Barring any unpleasant surprises, I'm going to MDSW this weekend and need to finish up some bunny chores before I go.   (Anyone need a baby bunny?  I have a doe, and possibly a buck, too, available and can bring them with me.)  Goal: see how little money I can spend.  Hey!  Quit laughing. 

No Maybe About It: Fleece Was Definitely Involved

What does it mean when a friend greets you at CTSW by growling out "B-I-I-I-I-T-C-H-H-H"?  Heh.  It means she read this post and might perhaps maybe was - ahem - a bit enabled?  Heh heh.  Still River Mill's yarns are simply too irresistable.  A bit of redundancy in that statement, but ya know, it fits the yarns.  I do need to correct my description of the lace weight I fell in love with.  Deirdre tells me it is cashllama, a super fine llama down with no cashmere in it.  It's just so dang fine and soft, you think it's cashmere.  They do have an assortment of cashmere yarns but the cashllama is not one of them.  Somebody beat me to all the black (which apparently isn't black but darkdarkdark brownthatlooksblack) but there will be more.  I could have - and may still - succumbed to the siren of Stampede.  That's an indescribably exotic blend of bison, yak, quiviet or some such.  All that luscious blending still noodles my neurons.  You try going into their booth and come out knowing all those yummy mixes.  I dare ya.  You can do that at MDSW in less than a week.  And yes, they will have a nice assortment of the Greener Shades dyes in stock.   I confess, I bought nothing in their booth.  Yet.  But, I did not come away from the festival empty handed. 

I started my day at the sheep festival with a T-shirt, 100% cotton from the lovely Cotton Sheep.  Never heard of a Cotton Sheep?  Well.  You just never know what the minds of fiber festivaling folk will come up with. 

This lovely scarf slide, my second purchase of the day, is the work of Leslie Wind, a very talented jewelry artist.  She teaches workshops, too. 

Towards the end of the day, I wandered into a booth I didn't recognize, drawn in by a whole wall of beautiful batts of fine wools.  Two of them caught my eye and I stood there fondling both.  The woman tending the booth at that moment briefly explained about them to me, and said something about my making a choice.  Choice?  I said.  Whaddaya mean choice?  I'll take 'em both.   Would you have left either one behind?  I see nuno felt shawls in both of these batts.  And then the booth owner returned.  Turns out she is a friend, Sheryl Amaral of Spin A Bit (no website that I can find) so no wonder I felt at home.

As for fleece... well.  Yes.  In previous years, CTSW has always meant some polwarth fleece for me, but the Australian supplier's spouse is dreadfully ill, so there were no plowarth fleeces this year.  Please take a moment to send healing thoughts to someone in need.

I did find a booth with two fleeces sitting there that must have been saved just for me.  It was the end of the day.  The fleeces are not only brilliantly white, crimpy and cleancleanclean, they are soft enough to warrant an intimate experience with my angora.  One fleece is an ultra soft cormo from a 7 year old ewe named Bella.  The other is an almost as soft cormo x border leicester from a ewe named Sara.  They live in Vermont and I may just have to reserve a future fleece or two.  And no, I'm not naming the sheep breeder until I secure that reservation.  Ha!  No pictures of either fleece though.  I took them straight to Greg and Deirdre with instructions to wait for angora to grow, then blend and spin for lace weight.  7 or 8 pounds or so, depending on how much angora I decide to add.  I could add silk to some of it, too.  Most of the yarn will be for sale, so if anyone has a preference on content, let me know.

After the shopping spree festival a number of us stopped for an Indigo Di spin in.  What a lovely home she keeps!  And the lady makes a delicious tart.  If you didn't go, you missed a nice time.  I pulled out Sonata and started spinning some of the merino angora I carded and dizzed a couple weeks ago.  My wheel wasn't quite so enthusiastic, perhaps lazy because I exercise her so little.  I oiled her up, then adjusted drive band, fiddled with the bobbin - still cranky.  Treadling was distinctly not effortless as it should be and has been.  I sort of sat there looking at it, just saying huh cause I was stumped.  So Marcy took a look.  I swear, that's all she did.  She gave Sonata a look.  And Sonata just straightened right up.  Some people you just don't mess with. 

All in all, a delightful day.

A Pretty Pink Post

Since I pulled out my drum carder last August (September?), I've carded and blended several pounds of wool and angora, but always starting with wool that was already processed, either commercially or from my friends at Still River.  And most of it was for felting batts, where neps don't really matter. But starting with the turquoise batts I did earlier this month, I was aiming for spinning fiber, which to me must be of very high quality.  I'm pleased with my results, both with the one pound of turquoise and 10 ounces of natural white angora and merino, but again, I started with a very high quality merino top: that luscious stuff from Nick's Farm Meadow. Today was put up or shut up for me.  Earlier this week, I dyed 8 ounces each of angora and cormo wool.  With the amazingly warm temps this week, the angora dried in record time and I finished fluffing it last night.  Time to see whether I could card it or slaughter it.  While I really wanted it to come out as beautiful spinning fiber, I knew that if I nepped it up, I could still use it for a delicious felting batt, so that takes some pressure off.  I weighed out equal amounts of cormo and angora, 15 grams of each.  I fed the cormo in first, in very small amounts, gently fluffing and straightening it as I went. There's the batt after it's first pass through the carder.  Looks kind of sad, doesn't it?  But, again, I can always felt with it.  Next step: I split the batt in half along the length, split 1/2 of that in half width wise, then separated that into two halves like a geode (am I explaining that right?).  I then sandwiched about a 1/4 of the angora between the two geode like halves and carded, continuing that process with each 1/4 of the batt.  The resulting batt, second pass through, still looking a little sad.  Oh, well.  It will make some glorious nuno felt.  Then I fed it through as above for it's third pass through, knowing all the advice is make as few passes as possible to avoid those dreaded neps.  This is what I got after the third pass through.

Yep.  I'm pleased.

Wednesday WIPing 2/23/08

Well, yeah.  Not so much fiberly progress this week.  Although there are a few more nekkid buns out back.  And another pound of dyed fiber drying on the deck.  Pink.  A soft pleasing pink, but no pictures because by the time I got it done today, light was fading and my muscles all said Sit. Down.  Now. 

I did get a sneak preview of some really.  Really.  Luscious. Yarns.  No photos but you need to touch these yarns to get the jaw dropping effect.  Trust me.  I know soft.  And these yarns are a Jack Kennedy not just soft.  The are amazingly delicous.  Created with obvious pride by the geniuses at Still River Mill.  They've got some llama that almost defies that label.  I think Deirdre said it was 22 or 23 microns or so.  And some cashmere blends to tempt even me (can I admit this safely publicly?  I'm not normally a fan of cashmere).  Especially the natural black lace weight cashmere llama blend (I think - all that exotic softness kind of kerfloozled the old noggin).  They've got a samoyed yarn dyed up in their new line of non-toxic non-hazardous acid dyes, and a sample hat knit in stripes of each color.  Adorable!  Not everything is on the website yet but I believe that's coming.  The stuff is all dreamy.  When these folks get the time to dream up yarns, they go all out.