Woolybuns

Duck, Duck, Goosed

Oh, oh.  Risa tagged me.  So now I gotta think about my taste in music. 

1.  Total amount of music files on your computer:  Ok, this one's easy.  None.  At least, I don't think there are any.  I haven't put any there. 

2. The last CD you bought was: Must have been Heart, the one with If Looks Could Kill and What About Love on it.  Can't remember the title.  I should be able to remember that title, since I've bought the darn thing at least three times now.  Having teenagers around means things kind of migrate away.  Except the kids - they're mostly young adults now and still here.  But not my CDs!  The last CD I requested for Christmas was Ravel's Bolero.  I got a Ravel CD but it's not Bolero.  I'll have to look at it to see what it is.

3.  What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?   Beats me.  I was spinning some yummy BFL/angora and the classic rock station was on.  So something oldie.  Maybe it doesn't count as the last song I listened to cause I really wasn't paying attention to it??  The last thing I really chose to listen to was the Chicago soundtrack.  My  two favorites are All That Jazz and the one I can't remember the name of but it's Queen Latifah as Mama Morton.  Great for long distance driving. 

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.  Ugh, here's the part where I really have to think.   Ok, so Unchained Melody is certainly up there.  And one I cannot listen to without listening to it at least three times is Love Changes Everything, a "Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber" selection.  That singer's voice is OMG!  I don't ever want to meet him cause he can't possibly live up to the fantasy version!  Then there is Shania Twain's I Feel Like A Woman.  And cannot forget to include Enya's Orinoco Flow.  Finally, from Rush, Dreamline.  Gotta love the lyrics!  "We are only immortal for a limited time."  One of the first dates my husband and I had after the kids started arriving was a Rush concert and that was my introduction to something not soft rock.  I couldn't really hear the lyrics but the whole experience was great.  So last summer, when Rush played in Hartford, we went again, this time with our 16 year old.  Still pretty fabulous!  Not sure what this selection of 5 tells you about me, but I'm guessing it doesn't pigeonhole me anyplace. 

5.  Who are you going to pass this stick to?  and why?  Hahaha!  First has to be Kim who is currently singing Mia Ya, Mia HaHa ...  Next up is Julia who's gotta have some interesting music choices.  And finally, Anne, busy spinning the West. 

On To The Fiber Front

I've reached that mounting excitement stage on the feather and fan scarf.  You know, you've been knitting and knitting and knitting, seems like forever and suddenly you can see you're on the homestretch?  I can actually predict how many more repeats of those 4 rows I need to do: about 17.  Piece of cake!!  LOL - now watch me screw it up.

Also today, I put a priority on some spinning, just finished the single of BFL/angora.  It's sitting on the ball winder now, ready to ply.    I really haven't done any spinning since I got home from the PA Farm show a couple weeks ago so it felt good to spin again.  Especially because yesterday, that package in the mail said "get that bobbin done!!"  Yup, my luscious fibers from Woolyknob arrived!!!  Oooooooo.  Well, for me, at least.   I tried taking photos but they don't look all that special.  Well, you can see the colors in the rambo/silk/angora blend so here you go:

But the other two rovings are natural color, one kind of mocha and the other kind of charcoal gray.  And the only way you can truly appreciate them is to feel them.  Ooooohhh!  soft!  Turns out there is over three pounds of the chocolate polwarth, angora and tussah silk so that's just gonna have to be a cable sweater for me.   I've got about 2 1/2 pounds each of the rambo/silk/angora and the corrie/alpaca/angora.  I hope to do a test skein of the rambo blend by the end of the weekend.  And maybe then it will tell me whether it's staying here with me or available.   I'm leaning towards a dressy kind of sweater for me in the corrie blend.  But that's still up for debate at this point.

 

Persistence Pays!

Of course the topic of tinking and frogging comes up frequently on the EZasPi list.   Someone posted  a story of an amazing recovery.  Hats off to that persistence and the FO.  Frogging is on my mind this morning because my first knitting today will be rippit, rippit: I took my lace scarf to SnB last night.  I knit about five of the 4-row repeats.  Apparently at about the 4th repeat, the conversation got quite interesting because in spite of checking the lace row, I ended up two stitches short after the 5th repeat.  I ripped out that repeat, put stitches back on needle and counted again.  Ugh - still one short.  So I looked over the lace row of the 4th repeat and there it is - two knits where there should have been k, yo, k.  After viewing the photos of that repaired shawl, I will not complain!  I will instead make a cup of tea, find some bit of chocolate, and bless the knitting goddess for letting me find the mistake only  8 rows later then rippit and be happy. 

Puppy Coat Care

Button is a  one year old Maltese who came to us about 9 months ago, half dead from hypoglycemia and not going to make it if she didn't get frequent overnight feeding and watering.  Kind of impossible to nurse a tiny little mite through the night and then send her away the next day, so she took up residence here.   Button is small, even for a Maltese - she is half or less the size of my rabbits.  In fact, I have baby rabbits bigger than Button.  But she takes much more coat care than any of my rabbits!   Since the Maltese coat is like human hair and does not have undercoat, these dogs require a weekly bath  and daily brushing, as well as daily face washing.  Button is so tiny, I use a child's small, soft toothbrush to brush her face hair.  But, with all my bunny and fiber travels, her coat got neglected for a 3 week stretch last fall.  I tried to rescue it but by the week before Christmas, I knew it was hopeless, so I chopped it all off.  She does not look like the Maltese in this picture.  LOL  In fact, here she is getting her bath this morning:

At this point, she's just hanging around waiting the minimum three minutes for the conditioner to work its magic against all those baths.  Not her favorite time.  But once the conditioner timing was over, I rinsed her off and she looked like this:   

Then I bundled her in a towel to sop up as much as I could.  After that, I let her go and she went wild - too fast and squiggly to capture on camera.   She leaps, she rolls, she attacks the towel and then rolls some more.  And of course, she shakes all that nasty wet stuff out of her coat.  And she gets her favorite treat: a bit of cheese.  The only time I give her cheese is when it's grooming time.  When she first came to us, any bit of grooming terrified her.   Cheese got her through that, so I reserve it as her special "beauty" treat.   And here she is dry and brushed:

Maybe someday she'll get her full coat back.  In the meantime, she is a dear, sweet, funny little dynamo who does this thing we call "Romancing The Bone."  Every morning after her first trip outside, I toss a cookie bone for her.  She scrambles after it, leaping in a balletic arc to land pretty much on top of the bone.   She grabs it.  She throws it.  She leaps again, grabs again, throws again.  Over and over and over again.  Sometimes she even rolls over several times in front of the bone.   Not once has she ever just eaten the bone without these antics.   She approaches her regular kibble with a bit more decorum: one piece at a time fished out of the bowl and dropped a couple feet away, then eaten.   Any surprise she's so tiny??  We love her dearly.  But no, I don't want another one.  I can handle all those bunnies with all that fiber but this one tiny little bit of a dog is gigantic in her coat care needs.

Cast On Day

Those of us in the path of the big snowstorm had no excuse for procrastinating!  A howling wind and blowing snow piling up everywhere turned the region into scenes like this:

But that also gives us all the reason we need to just plop down and start knitting.  So I did.  Yesterday was the "official" Cast On Day for the EZasPi Knit Along.   I've been patiently waiting and practicing with the dpns and circs since I haven't really used them much before.  I've been following all the posts on the KAL list but decided to ignore the intimidating to me directions for getting started.   I don't have an easy time following written directions for things like knitting (must be some kind of spatial thing because I can analyze and comprehend just fine, but step by step directions - yikes!)   Knowing this is the biggest project I've undertaken, particularly with lace, I decided I wanted the official send off a designated Cast On Day provides.  So I pulled out my ball winder yesterday, promptly tangled the yarn and had to inch by inch detangle, then did it again!  LOL  After about 2 seconds of thinking, ok, this is how the whole project will go, I quit, I took a deep breath and kicked into quiet perseverance mode.  Finally got a neat center pull ball of yarn so I cast on.  About 5 false starts on the dpns taught me the pretty stitch marker was more of a hindrance in the start, so I gave it up in favor of the keep my place mantra: round 1 needle 1, round 1 needle 2, etc.  Since DH and the young adults were all out, I could concentrate enough on that.  Eventually, I put the marker back on but discovered the marker may not be functional as the ring is not solid and slips over the yarn as it feels like it, therefore mismarking my spot.  Put it away and turned to the cheap plastic Wal-Mart thingies and that works just fine.   I've made it to the 4th increase round of 144 stitches and finished round 1.  Along the way, I had a few dropped stitches caught quickly and put back on, so I have the right number of stitches in the right places.   And here it is as of 10 am Sunday morning. 
The yarn is my own silk/angora blend.  I raised the angora and dyed the bombyx silk, then shipped it to Canada for blending and spinning.  I love this stuff!  Incredible softness with no bulk, no weight, and it feels so nice against the neck as a scarf.   I expect it will be wonderful as a shawl, snuggly warm fluff to burrow under.   But now, sadly, I must put the shawl on hold a bit as I have a scarf I need to finish first.   The scarf is feather and fan, also in the silk/angora blend.   I have a deadline on this scarf (someone's birthday) so it has to take priority.
Fortunately, I love knitting the feather and fan pattern and it works so well as a scarf that I am enjoying this project quite a lot.

Waking to the sound of windy howls always sends me outside to check on the rabbits.   We lose the occasional tree limb, and the power of the wind on manmade tarps and hutches can sometimes overwhelm my best efforts to thwart it.   So far, no limbs down (which tells me this storm is not the blizzard the media says it is - yes, it's cold and windy and lots of snow, but I've trudged through real Wyoming blizzards to feed horses, so I can tell the difference).  Only one minor "oops" in the rabbitry - a bungee cord hook slipped free of its anchor, leaving Darlin' Lili without her wind and snow break.  She is in full coat, turned her tail to the wind and hunkered down.  The snow formed a crust on the surface of her coat and with the big butt of these delightful rabbits,  I doubt the wind and cold got past it.  Certainly shoulders and head were dry and snow free and her attitude is  cheerful!  I brought her in of course to thaw and dry.  She has been cavorting around the kitchen, enjoying a bit of carrot and taunting the Maltese.   This is how she looks thawed but not fully dry yet.   Once she is fully dry, I will brush her coat thoroughly, then get another photo.   
Lili has such a sweet personality!   She will soon have a date, probably with Hop Secret, once he reaches puberty of course and I evaluate him for stud worthiness.   He's only 9 weeks old at the moment  so the question is whether I will be willing to wait, since I have Puff Daddy just about ready to start siring babies. 

This is a fun time of year: spring is ahead so its planning time for babies.  I carefully consider the attributes and pedigrees of the rabbits I have, matching strengths and complementing that which I wish to improve.   For me, priority has to be health and temperment first, as a sickly or nasty rabbit is neither enjoyable nor conducive to quality fiber harvest, and the rabbit is not enjoying life either.   So any weaknesses in either of those categories automatically eliminates that rabbit from my breeding program.  Then, I look at coat and body type.  In the pure Germans, that's relatively easy: I stick with well built, densely coated, nice textured rabbits and maintain a good amount of genetic diversity in my herd. (I bought a great book at MDSW last year that helps guide me in my choices - more on that in a future post).  But the pure Germans only come in albino (aka ruby eyed white, or REW). 

For the glorious natural color, I have hybrid and crossbred angoras, with the pure Germans as the core of my improvement strategy.  Some colors "breed up" (improve in coat/body type) faster than others, due to recessive genes and modifiers, so some of my colors have advanced more in type and coat than others.   Fawn and red are particularly difficult to retain good color while improving other characteristics.  This year, since I sacrificed those colors for improved coat and body type last year, my goal is to advance the color.    I don't expect to get red in my first breeding with those rabbits as I will be breeding a wild gray to a torte.  Both of them have good color and show evidence of rufous modifier, so red is possible, but I'll be happy with good depth of fawn color in a German type coat and body.  Responsible breeding is a step by step  process that requires careful planning.  Which in itself is part of the fun and challenge.  :)

And now, dry and brushed, Darlin' Lili. 

Odd Bit of Physics

I don't know the answer and neither do the two guys in the house who generally can explain anything.  The question is how the heck did my cat's water freeze like this?  When I filled the bowl, the water was quite liquid and stable.  The bowl sits on a flat surface in the garage and there is nothing but water in the bowl.  So again, how did it freeze like this? 

No Hairy Secrets

Alas, Prince Hairy and Divine Secret (affectinately known as Vivi) appear to prefer a platonic relationship.   No babies from last month's  date, so I offered them "the honeymoon suite" again yesterday.  Lots of flirting, lots of appropriate moves, but no real action.  This time, the onus was on Hairy and he came up lacking.  I wonder if Vivi's aggressiveness last month has him cowed.  In any case, it's time to rethink Vivi's first litter.   

As for thinking, check this out.   The lady who posted this photo has a boyfriend who sounds like a keeper!!  Ya just gotta love what you can do with Legos and some imagination.  :)  And then there are some - well, ahem (cauation, the easily offended might not want to click) ... over active imaginations perhaps?   LOL    Now, my only question on that item, given its "state of being," can you truly call it a finished object???

How many people spent yesterday in mourning?  Apparently, a lot of us, given the bit of statistic Julia posted along with that powerful image.   I did see a great T-shirt at Stitch N Bitch New Haven last night.  It said Knitters Against Bush: Don't Unravel Our Rights.  I'll have to make sure I bring my camera to future get togethers.

Joining Party

Fiber folk can find any excuse to party!!  Yesterday's event was the NETA Joining Party to start the assembly of the squares some of us knit.  The party was a big success!  (My foolish attempt to knit lace at a party was distinctly not!  Ripit, ripit!!)  Here's the afghan nicely laid out before the joining started.   All those tags identify the piece and its location in the afghan.
Here we have folks hard at work!

And of course, the fun!
And the NETA boobles pillow.

Good work, ladies!  The finished afghan will have some sort of edging surrounding all the squares.  And then, come Spa weekend, we'll have the raffle.  Kind of a neat project: we who participate in creating the afghan have fun and learn along the way, someone gets a great handmade afghan, and the troops get their warm goodies in the mail. 

New WIPs

Wacky weather roused me way too early this morning.  I went to bed last night with the yard looking a bit like a scene from Dr. Zhivago: trees bowing to the weight of several inches of snow, forming a cave where there should be a walk way to the bunnies.  Bunnies were tucked in with tarps to hold winter at bay.  So at 4 am this morning, I woke to the fierce sounds of Wyoming-like winds whipping my back yard.  With bunnies out there, I couldn't not check, though I did take comfort in the thought that all that snow on the hutches at least helped keep the tarps in place if the bungee cords failed.   Imagine my surprise: the 60 degree temps tv weather folk promised yesterday didn't arrive until overnight, and now there is no snow out there!   But the tarps held, the bunnies are safe (they usually are or I'd have done things differently by now!) and I have mud to slog through today instead of snow and ice.    Ahhh, the joys of raising livestock in New England - don't like the weather?  Wait a minute and it will change. 

Going back to sleep is never an option once I've been up doing things.  So what else to do at 4:30 am when the animals all check out safe and the other humans are still sleeping?  Why, boil my new knitting needles, of course!   Boiling the wires on new circular needles may be a well known tip for you experienced knitters out there, but my knitting knowledge is pretty hit or miss.  What I have practiced, I'm pretty comfortable with now, but what I haven't experienced yet tends to baffle me until I've worried it to death.   In signing on for the Pi Shawl KAL, I guaranteed myself lots of new experiences, circular needles being a big one.  I've never  used them.  Bought a bunch, pulled them out and tried but those loopy loops in the wires - aaaacckkk!  How do you tame them????  Stuff like that tends not to be intuitive for me so when I visited a new to me knitting store, Needleworks in Newington, CT, I asked.  Well, those folks are just delightful!  Boil 'em, they said.  Same advice I got last night at Stitch N Bitch (Corine is a very helpful knitter who took me under her wing with my first efforts with circular needles: thanks!)  And boil them things at the crack of dawn is exactly what I did.  Whaddaya know: them little boingy, high tension things just slithered into cooked spaghetti-like compliance.    And you know I had to cast something on!  What better than a hat in handspun angora/rambouillet yarn for this little bathing beauty:
Andrea is now 6 weeks old, and she's gained over three pounds since birth.   

The hat I started  is a  pattern free endeavor.   The cute little newborn hat that Elaine knit last weekend for the bunny to bonnet demo is just too cute to resist.  So is her "what pattern - ya don't need a pattern!!!" attitude.  I threw 50 stitches on the circs and started knitting.  Got 7 rounds done and here's what I've got so far:
What it ends up looking like, who knows?  And frankly, who cares??   This is a learning experience, in preparation for the Pi Shawl.  I need to handle circs, dpns, and stitch markers, all things I haven't done before.   REgardless of success or failure with the hat, I am learning, so the effort is already a success.  Maybe I'll visit the frog pond with the hat and maybe I won't.  Doesn't matter.   Takes the pressure off this project, doesn't it?? 

ALso in progress for Andrea is a bootie and headband set. 
This yarn is  a merino/angora blend commercially spun for a rabbit breeder.  It was natural white when I met it in Ohio at a yarn dyeing workshop.  I ended up with a bunch of uniquely dyed small skeins.  Booties and other bits of baby stuff is a perfect match for these skeins!  And the bits left over from those projects will find life in a nuno felt scarf someday.   Gotta love it when it all just flows so nicely from one thing to the next!

What's In Your Window?

My Christmas cactus surprised me this morning with a brand new bloom.  It had two just before Christmas and I expected that was it for this time but I caught a glimpse of bright red hiding in the back so I peeked.  Sure enough: another gorgeous bloom!   I got this plant as a cutting off my Mom's plant.  She got her cutting from her brother, who got his from my Grandfather.  I hope soon one of my children will become interested in growing plants, too, to continue this family plant yet another generation.    Also in bloom in my window are two of my orchids. 

This weekend's driving wasn't as pretty.  I headed out in the dark of early morning Saturday, foolishly believing the weatherman's temperature listings for the route I planned.  He promised 36 degrees and rain.  I got 32 and ice for the 4 hour that turned into 6 hour drive.    Along one 50 mile stretch of iced earth, the trees no longer stood tall beside the highway.  The poor things were drenched in ice, so bent and snapped and draped along the ground, they looked like ancient creatures trying desperately to crawl out of some primordial muck.

My destination was the Pennsylvania Farm Show.   Another bunny breeder, Elaine, coordinated a fiber arts booth and needed folks to help staff the booth and participate in some of the events.  So once I got through the ice, I had a great weekend fibering with like minded folks, some I knew, some new to me.  I am happy to say our bunny to bonnet demonstration drew a good crowd, with lots of questions.  Where angora comes from is such a surprise to many people, and lots of others are quite relieved to find out the bunny lives on after the fiber is harvested.   

This coming weekend, my big fiber activity will be a joining party in Portsmouth, NH.   I participated in a group afghan project last October.  About 30 of us each knit one square, with our only requirements that we end up with a 12 x 12 blocked square knit in the same yarn.  The pattern within that 12 x 12 border was up to the knitter.    This is the square I knit - the lace doesn't show in the photo very well, but it's there!  :)  There are other lace squares, some cabled squares, and some with textured stitches.  Now with all the squares done, it's time to sew it together.  Hence the joining party.   Once the afghan is all sewed together, we will attach a cabled border.  Then we start offering raffle tickets for sale and in February in Portland, ME, we'll hold a raffle drawing and some lucky winner will end up with a gorgeous all wool hand knit afghan.  I sure hope its me!!!  :)  All proceeds from the afghan raffle go to The Ship's Project to offset postage costs.  While I opposed and continue to oppose the war in Iraq, I do think our soldiers and sailors and airmen should be provided with warm clothing.   The group afghan concept is a terrific event, encouraging individual creativity within a structured group at the same time creating a wonderful social event.  This type of project could easily be an annual fund raiser for many other organizations.  So go to it, fiber fiends!!!  Just be sure to send me a photo of your finished projects cause I'd love to cheer for them! 

Oh, Boy, Oh, Boy, Oh, Boy!!!!

I just got off the phone with Jamie at Woolyknob Fiber Mill and he tells me my newest rovings are done and will be mailed out on Saturday.  Hoooo boy!  Am I excited!  I have three rovings coming in.  One is rambouillet/angora/dyed silk (pink and turquoise).  Another is natural black corriedale/angora/alpaca.  The third  is chocolate polwarth/tussah silk/chocolate angora.  Jamie tells me he attached a note to that polwarth blend, terming it "sensuous."  Ohhhhhh, I can't wait!!!  I'm thinking it may well become my Pi shawl.   I don't remember for sure how much of each I dropped off to the guys, but the total was around 9 pounds.  I know the polwarth fleece was about 2 pounds but how much loss due to washing the fleece - I dunno.  I'll find out soon, though. 

Now I've got some gorgeous merino fleece to plan a roving around.  Some I'll separate out for blending with just angora into batts for felting - some of the merino is pretty short.  I might try washing a bit of it to see if I can do it properly so I can dye the longer stuff for spinning before sending it for blending.  But the fleece is too gorgeous to ruin so don't know if I will end up dyeing it or not.   After all, I can always dye the roving once it's back. 

I also have half of a stunning fleece I stumbled quite literally over in North Carolina.  It's a pale moorit CVM cross, kind of fawnish, kind of pale chocolatey, maybe even amber tones of champagne in spots, and oooo la la!  Soft!  Definitely has to be blended with fawn angora and maybe tussah silk. Not sure yet.   That fleece was quite a find - it was at the tail end of the fiber fest, only about an hour before the official end.   The fleece was halfway hidden under a table with a cloth covering  most of the bag.  I didn't see it until I tripped over it, then of course being the nosy sort, I peeked.  Ooooo.  Oh, oooooooo!!!  Did I dare ask: is it for sale??  Of course, I'd already spent my allotment for the weekend.  So, I showed it to my friend/traveling companion, Leslie  and she was hit with that same "mine!  has to be mine" fever.  So we split the fleece (now that's friendship!!!). 

Once I get the fleeces figured out (there must be more - oh, yeah, a charcoal rambouillet cross), I might even take a look in roving stash and pick out some to get blended with angora.  That's always fun and works pretty well, too. 

I don't have any photos of my own stuff today, but if you like colorful fibers, here's a good photo for you.   These are some of MaryLynn FitzSimmons  wonderful batts.   I forced myself to be good when
I saw them at Rhinebeck, but they just did not leave my mind.  So when I saw more of them in NC, I quit fighting!  Got myself a pound of the luscious pastel stuff on the far left in the photo.    Of course, that would make a beautiful Pi shawl too, now wouldn't it???   Hmmmmmm......

The Challenge

Ok, so sometimes I'm a little bit nuts.  My current knitting project is a simple stockinette scarf with seed stitch border.  I'm using a silk/angora blend yarn I had commercially spun for me.  This particular bit of yarn I dyed in kind of a confetti style of red, blue and green.  It's a pretty basic knitting project, which is mostly what I've knit.   The most advanced knitting I've done is the Woolybuns Skinny Lace Scarf (a photo is in the archives), which for lace is about as basic as it gets.  The reason for these basic projects: I struggled for 20 years to learn to knit and when I finally figured out knit and purl enough to use them, I developed wrist issues.  About 18 months of working with a good chiropractor and I can knit for small amounts of time again.  So, why on earth did I sign up for the EZasPi Shawl KA ????   LOL 

It's The Challenge!  I'm publically committed to a set goal: January 22 is the official Cast On Day.  By then, I have to have picked my fiber (no, it's not going to be pure angora although wouldn't that be loverly???) and spun it and dyed it if that's what I'm gonna do and figure out which version of the Pi Shawl I want to do.  And that's a big part of The Challenge: the Pi Shawl offers pretty unlimited options for individual creativity.  From what I've found out so far, Elizabeth Zimmerman designed the first one and the concept is based on the mathematical Pi.  The shawl is knit from the center out, with the stitches doubling as the rows double.  Say you start with row 1 and 8 stitches, then row 2 is 16 stitches, row 4 is 32 stitches, row 8 is 64 stitches, etc.   You can pretty much go for as many or as few rows as you want.  You can knit in plain stitch, a textured stitch, a lace pattern, or any combination of those.  You can vary the needle size, you can vary the colors, you can vary the yarn.   The design possibilities are wide open!  Is your brain tingling with excitement like mine is???   

So last night I pulled out some blue faced leicester/angora roving I had processed at Still River Mill in CT.  Ooooo, that stuff is soft!  I figured I could get close to lace weight with this stuff.  Wrong!  Maybe I was too tired to try spinning last night, but thin spin just wasn't happening!  Seems like this roving is a natural sport weight.   Not sure yet if I want to go with sport weight - cuts down on the number of rows I need to do, so that's a plus.  And the thought of all those tiny stitches of lace weight is more than I really want to contemplate.  Funny thing: I love thin spin but  I'm much more a natural bulky in knitting.   Guess there's another challenge for me this year: get my spinning in sync with my knitting! 

Nuno Felters Enabling Party Photos

We had a great time in Dresden, Maine playing with nuno felt and I've finally started unpacking and found the photos to post.  Most of us made scarves.  Rose Ann, who has had some other felting experiences, took a slightly different and quite fascinating tack: she felted angora/ramouillet fiber to some lace fabric with the goal of creating a purse.  Looked pretty good the last time I saw it!   Ladies, give yourselves a pat on the back for jobs well done!