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It was down to the wire,, but we made it-

Zipper installed,

Under the tree,

And onto The Man,

by Christmas morning!

And it’s a good fit!

Yea!

Here are some more Leavenworth photos.  Or you can view those same photos in slide show format on YouTube (make sure to watch in HD).

Sorry I missed ya’ll last weekend.

Been a bit distracted here by non-wool-related issues.

But I’m back on track now, and we’re taking enjoying a couple days in Leavenworth WA.

Just hanging out and enjoying a little down time.

Leavenworth is a self-made little Bavarian style village just east of the Cascades. Here are some highlights-

Giant Pretzels

Hearty German food.

Gnomes. I just love gnomes

And a Local Yarn Shop (yea!) It’s just a bit of a place, but good for a fiber fix in a pinch!

Had to do yet a bit more reknitting of The Man’s sweater to adjust the fit, but have almost got that done while we’ve been hanging out.

No new pictures of that, though.

Next pictures I post of the sweater will hopefully be modeled by the happy recipient when it is finally and officially a finished object!

There’s this guy who lives a ways north of me who shears sheep. And trains herding dogs.

And he always has a bunch of wool hanging out in the loft of his barn.

It’s a mixed bag (feed sack), of course. And none of it has been handled with great care.

But sometimes you can find some interesting things.

This time, I went in search of samples of a variety of fleece types and conditions, in preparation for a class I’m going to be doing on selecting a fleece for handspinning.

Wanted to be able to to a little show-and tell with the folks, and talk about the good, the bad and the ugly.

Here is some of what I found.

Little bit of Suffolk, Scottish Blackface, Jacob, Romney?, and miscellaneous undocumented crossbreed.

Here they area little closer for comparison of length and texture-

Then there was this veg-infested bundle-

Almost as much straw as wool,, but I needed an example of how much veg is too much veg, and actually, the wool itself is really nice and soft. So maybe I’ll end up sorting through some of it,,,

And then, just as I was thinking I’d seen enough, out pops this little number.

Pretty sure this is CVM.

In nice shape, too.

I haven’t done much with finewool breeds, and don’t know if my carders will be able to handle it,, but I’m going to give it a go. Was too pretty to pass up. ( I only took half, though)

In other news, I’ve suffered a minor setback in sweater progress.

My circular needle just gave up and popped out of it’s end thingee!

Once I get it Gorilla Glued I should be back in business.

Hang in there needle- we’re in the home stretch!