Category: Blog

It was a mighty good trip.

Lots of quality family time, beautiful wedding, lively reception (danced up a storm)

and wool.

Beautiful Shetland wool. (you just knew I’d squeeze that in, didn’t you?)

A post or two ago I mentioned that I had contacted Juliann at Little Country Acres about visiting.

Well, Thursday was the day.

We showed up a bit early (felt bad about catching them off-guard) but Juliann and Tom ( it is Tom, right?) were such gracious hosts. They took us back to meet the sheep, and we talked about all kinds of sheep stuff, “oohed” and “ahhed” over the sweet little lambs, and had a good ole time.

And then I asked if she might have any wool available. Thought I might buy a fleece or two, as a souvenir, you know-

I came away with three! And she wouldn’t take anything for them. Said they were last years and she couldn’t vouch for what kind of shape they were in. I was dumbfounded. But I gladly collected them up in a garbage bag and hauled away my woolly booty.

I just got them in the mail yesterday (mom shipped them back for me) and finally had a chance to really get in there and check them out.

They are really very nice. Soft, crimpy, and in fabulous colors- Ulla is a lovely warm taupe-ish shade, Gigi is milk chocolate, and Mariah is a black with silvery touches and a white spot! So, I will have to do something philanthropic with at least some of this beautiful wool to keep the good vibrations flowing.

Here are the pics-

First Ulla (outside, then underside):

Then Gigi:

And finally Mariah:

And here is my first little sample of yarn (chain-plied):

You can’t really see Mariah represented very clearly in that photo- must have been hiding in the back of the skeinlet. No worries- We’ll see more of her later.

And would you believe, I came home from my trip to find that the man had hooked me up with some freshly shorn alpaca! What a guy. So ,without further ado, here is sweet, soft, silky Mopetto:

Wow. Now I really have to put a freeze on fiber acquisitions.

But man, if feels good to be rich in wool!

While I am about 5 skeins into the knitting of the Urban Aran (got some quality time in on Saturday while participating in Knitting in Public Day), I am still working on making sure I have enough yarn spun up to finish the project.

Sure, the smart and cautious thing to do would be to spin up the whole lot before picking up the needles- but I was awfully anxious to get started once I figured out what I wanted to do.

So, this weekend I washed up another couple batches of white Romney, and today I went back to the combs for another round of fiber prep.

This is where I started-The Raw Wool:

Now, mind you, this is not a primo fleece. But then I didn’t pay all that much for it, either. I knew going in that I would have to do some work. But under all that veg and dirt, there is some quite nice, soft, crimpy wool.

First I washed. That brings us to this:

Lots whiter, but still quite a bit of crud. (More than you would want to try and flick out.) And some weak tips. But it’s got enough length that losing the tips wont be a big deal.

This wool is a perfect candidate for combing! Here we go-

First pass, left to right-

Second pass, top to bottom-

There is sometimes quite a bit of waste- but then, you don’t want to be spinning the crud anyway!

And finally, the diz ( you might notice that mine used to be a spork)

And we are left with a beautiful lofty strip of combed top-

Which I like to wind up into a tidy bun.

Wow. A miraculous transformation.

to

in more-than-a-few easy steps.

I do have two sleeves, at last. And I have moved on to the sweater body (no photo- not much to see yet). But now that I have that cast on, I feel ok about the prospect of airline travel. My flight back to the heartland isn’t for a couple of weeks, but I think that this section should keep me busy for a while- especially if I spend most of my at-home fiber time spinning.

Am I the only one who finds the idea of flying without a knitting project troubling? Although I will only be away from home for 5 days, and I have not given hardly a thought to what clothes I might pack (or a present for the wedding couple) the knitting has been carefully planned. I have got the sweater body cast on, so – no worries (it’s on bamboo circulars which will hopefully not even be noticed as I sent my bag through the x-ray).

I’m taking the trip primarily to attend a family wedding- but no travel would be complete without a wool tie-in, right?

So, one day I’m there I’m planing on going a bit south to visit Gram, who will not be able to attend the festivities. And, as luck would have it, Little Country Acres is just a hop, skip and jump away from Gram’s present location. So, I’m going to visit! Yea!

And here is this weeks spinning:

From left to right; brown-gray Romney navajo plied, my Lincoln, mohair & Romney experiment, and Romney plied with Shetland.

Still not sure how I feel about the one in the middle (but it’s still damp from the wash, so I guess I should give it some time, eh?) It’s really different from what I usually spin, but I wanted to try my hand with some mohair I had sitting around. What I really want to learn how to do is a fine, brushed mohair yarn. Something good and fuzzy.