WIP: Baby Belle

Good News: I am almost done! Bad News: I will probably run out of the red yarn for the sleeves.


What I am hoping to do in order to compensate for this complication is lengthen the main color and use just a tiny amount of red to balance out the sleeves, maybe ruffle it or something. I don't know, I should be done in the next few days so I will definitely put up the finished object. This is really my first time working with a pattern so I feel bad having to variate from it but I don't see any other choice. We shall see, we shall see!

finito!

I am in love with this yarn. I almost hate to say that because it really is such a standard monotone yarn. I call it Ray of Sunshine. It just feels warm and inviting. Plus the sun has so many different levels of intensity that it just makes sense. This is one of three yarns that I spun for a customer. I enjoyed all the color combination's and it gave me an idea for the Wesleyan Market and the online store. Now just time and patience will tell where this gets me. Today was also a bit nice because I got some really nice photos of the yarns, both together and individually. They were almost artsy in nature. I have about ten yards of this left and so I'm going to make a little stockinette stitch swatch to see how it knits up.

My first sweater

Well, for my first post back after being AWOL I decided to show you a work in progress.



This is the Baby Belle designed by Cosette of Cosymakes. I have never ever knitted a sweater before so I am working really hard to do it right and per pattern. On that thought, I have never knitted anything to pattern before. Well, my socks, but I was walked through it week by week with the creator before I ever knew there was a written pattern. So this is really important to me. I'm even willing to frog back things if I make a mistake. (none to date that I know of though.) I must say I am quite impressed. Many people suggested that when I do my first sweater I make it a baby sweater because it will be quicker and easier and you will see the progress sooner. Boy were they correct. I can see this developing along as I knit and love it, even if the colors don't match the way I imagined they would. Don't worry, I will post more pictures when this cutey is complete.

Try this! (not for the weak of heart)

This month is National Novel Writing Month. The idea is basic. Write a 50K novel in 30 days. Seems impossible, right? So why would anyone do it!
I don't know but thousands are and so am I. I'm not very far by all means but thats alright for me. I would love to finish 50K words in 30 days but seriously, the 576 words I have already written to date is more than I have done in years. If you want to take up the challenge its not to late. Join the fun at NaNoWriMo.


Another fun thing to try for all you knitting fiends is National Knit a Sweater Month. Goal here... you guessed it, knit a sweater in one month. Check out this post on knitgrrl's blog. I may take this one up too since I have a baby sweater pattern I am supposed to be knitting on. Baby sweater means takes less time, right?


And finally, last but not least, is National Blog Posting Month. Are you the type of person who swears this time they will be a better blogger. I know I am. So much so that I haven't even looked into this because that's a sure FAIL. However, you might do well at this. You may even be a natural at daily blog writing and just really need that extra push. If that's the case then this is certainly for you. Check out NaBloPoMo.


So, if your up for a challenge then there's something for everyone this month. (Outside of avoiding the mad cap crazy crowds at 4 am the day after Thanksgiving.) If nothing else take a trip around these sites and be inspired by those who have time in their schedule to participate in these different challenges. Heck, even leave a comment cheering them on!

Boy's Fleece Tie Blanket

I finally finished doing the work for my mom yesterday. I completed the fleece tie blanket for a boy. It's more for crib decor until the kid is older though. The blanket would also be good as a cover for long trips with the kids (toddler and below.) The final product is quite spiffy in my opinion, just take a look.


Also, I am pretty excited because I was working on my repurposed handspun yarn scarf tonight. This is a pretty big deal to me since I hadn't worked on it in a few months. Tonight I braved the needles though and fixed the mistake that paralyzed my progress. I picked up slipped stitches and you know what? It worked. Oh happy day. Now I can finish it sooner rather than later.

Done and Done!

So I finally finished the hand knit blanket for my Mom's co-worker. The finally specs ended up being 90 stitches wide times 6 skeins. So instead of having vertical stripes we ended up with horizontal stripes.


This picture is from Friday night. Saturday morning I wove in the loose ends and traveled to Atlanta to take it to my mom.



Also, here is a picture with the original blanket for comparison. If I went with the original 7 skeins of yarn the blanket would have been both longer and wide. Still this is a good size for a baby blanket.



Mom also picked up the pink fleece tie blanket for her other co-worker's baby girl and commissioned a blue fleece tie for the baby boy. Whew! No more blanket knitting for a while. =D

Keep it or let it go...

So I totally bailed on posting everyday this month. It really is hard enough to get in a habit of spinning everyday without having to write about the yarn (or portion thereof) that I spun. So, lets just keep the posting true to being about the interesting things.

One new thing is the shop has been updated recently. Recently being within the last 3-4 days. I also plan to finish listing items that have been photographed today. I got a little off track around my birthday and didn't log time spent working. I decided to pick up again today. It's not easy though... I have a 9 yr old distraction.

The spinning everyday thing is going pretty well. I went pro on my Flickr account so that I can add multiple photos. I can now also add more sets (which I have) to organize things a little. I even uploaded photos specifically to put in groups. I always limited myself a little when I knew there was only 200 photos available to view. One of the new fiber photos I put up is on the right.

I originally dyed this with the knowledge that I would spin it up. I wanted it to be something of a semi-striping roving. However, because of the limited amount of counter space, when the roving was dried and braided the colors were virtually solid blocks. It photos so well, looks so good that I am sorely tempted to list it for sell. That's doesnt mean that it would sell but at least it does look good.

Outside of adventures in fiber dying... I have completed two more yarns due to the spinning challenge. I haven't set the twist on either yet. One is part of a de-stash one of the ladies in the spinning group did. She gave a way a ton of pretty fibers including this variagated blues. I'm not sure what brand it is, reminds me of Lornas Lace fiber and it spun extremely soft. The other yarn is merino/silk that I carded when I had the Strauch Petite. It was pulled (by hand) into roving and I could never get it to spin quite right. I picked up a portion of it that was pulled into pencil thin roving and when that was successful I found the remaining roving and spun it up. I guess some things just take time. Speaking of which, I have been working on my "long term project" and I honestly think I lost my determination for it yesterday. I actually lost my yarn multiple times in a five minute setting and finally just had to stop. I'll probably try to find something nice and easy to spin tonight. Maybe coils, a few people have been doing coils and its been a while. Guess we will just have to see.

Yarn Challenge Day 3

Tomorrow morning I am going to post about a couple of new batts that will be listed in the store and some cleaned cheviot fleece complete with pictures. Today, however, was a long day so you will get a picture of me spinning a yarn. A long... tedious yarn. I expect to be spinning this until I die.



This is 1/4 of a future cabled yarn. The theory is it will be plied with a dark purple single. The I will spin a light purple single and another black single that will be plied together. Then the two plied yarns will be plied against each other to become a cabled yarn. All for the purposes of matching this yarn and becoming the bottom and the straps to a knit (or maybe crocheted) purse. It's a lot of the work in the interim.

Quality time with the No Sew Blanket

So far in my crafting world there have been very few things that I count as a shared experience with my son. I once tried to teach him to spin on a spindle but apparently he already knew everything. (well excuuusse me!) Needless to say that didn't go very well and now there is a handmade spindle with some yarn on it sitting around the house. Perhaps the problem was that he had seen me do so much of it that he figured he wasn't going to need my help. I don't know... that was about a year ago or so.
Recently we had a break through with this little activity from CraftSanity. Sure, it might not be the original creation of the blogger.. most crafty projects aren't (as you will see in this post) but it was in the right place at the right time. In fact, it wasn't just my son and I... even my husband participated in the breaking and assembling of crayons. The only thing that would make it perfect would be if, in my delirium, I didnt think our obviously non-working stove would work. If it cooks chicken in 8 minutes flat and never clicks off at 400 degrees... well, you can't melt crayons in it either. So instead of 15 minutes it was like 5.5 minutes and some smoke were the paper cups were trying to burn. This is why adults should always supervise their kids craft projects. (And sometimes adults should have another adult supervising them.)

Our next little project happened this weekend. I had acquired the instructions for a no-sew fleece blanket and thought I would try my hand at it. After a few days it dawned on me that this would be a good project for my son and I to do together. With this project, instead of me making something for him, he got to make it for himself with my supervision of course.


First, we did a search for fleece materials that would coordinate. (He has a love for all things elephants so you can see what he settled on.) The instructions were obtained from my job under the guise of a "Lunch and Learn" program. What they really wanted to do was provide us with the same employee morale benefit without having to sacrifice time at the end of the quarter. (So... if you recognize this packet... ummm... you don't know me.)
Anyway, the project really only consist of 3 yards of material, scissors, pins and manual labor. The manual labor was provided by the (near) nine year old.

To start the blanket we laid the two fleeces down with the right sides facing out. Then we were instructed to smooth the fabric down to remove wrinkles and any bunching. In other words stare at the blanket and your child and remind yourself that the end result will be HIS BLANKET!


So now that we are done adding more removing the wrinkles, its time to pin the fabric together.


Once you have secured the two pieces of fabric to each other you cut away the selvage edges and trim the fabric to that they are both the same size.



(Sorry, I just like the child labor shots. Its a boot camp around here I tell you!)

Next we cut 4 inch squares from the corner to start the fringe. The packet stated you can also do 5 inch fringe but you have to create a five inch corner cut instead of 4 inches.


... and then measuring the size of the tassels....

.... cutting the tassels....


(*ahem* supervising...)



... tying tassels... That was a two person job...























... and finally the blanket with a happy 9 year old holding it up.


All in all, it took about 2 1/2 hours to complete the blanket. It was tons of fun to do with him and he was able to do most of the work himself. Plus, he hasn't gone to sleep one night without it covering him since we made it. I recommend this project for parents who want something to do together with their child(ren). However, its is always up to the parents to determine the child's maturity, temperment etc... before undertaking a crafting project like this. (Trust me... there are some nine year olds I wouldn't trust with a pair of scissors even if I was doing the cutting for them.)

So yay for quality time with TheBoy!

If people are interested in the detailed directions I followed let me know and I will summarize and paraphrase in great detail. If you made it this far, thanks!

UFO's vs WIP (Part 2 UFO's : It's a funny thing really)

So, I'm back! I'm sure many of the two people who read this blog figured that I wrote a half funny post with promises of more only to fail. Well, you would be partially right. So, lets get right to it.

Unfinished objects are the inspiration of our lives and the bane of our existence. Whenever I have a UFO, it usually starts out as this wonderful idea but turns into a grueling battle of mind over matter. What was supposed to be a simple v-stitch crochet blanket sits at the bottom of my personal yarn hell. What, oh what went wrong. It had lovely colors, a rough draft in my head and the motivation to start hooking away. Or even that simple garter knit scarf (from 2 winters ago that I promised my son.... ) that's sitting in a storage tote STILL on the needles. Really, I don't have that many pairs of needles I cant have them permanently occupied.

So I'm not really sure what happened. BUT... If I pick that scarf back up and knit a row before I go to bed... does that make it a WIP? Seriously, I think I can do that every six months or so. What about if a previous UFO suddenly becomes useful in the state that it is in. Take this blanket to the left. I started this back in 2004 or 2005. I started to run out of a color and I was no longer sure where my symmetry lie. (Yes, I'm huge on symmetry. It's a terrible habit that I have to break.) I didn't know what to do because my plan was wrecked. So I did what any sane crocheter would do. I took a step back, took a deep breath and walked away for a while. Well, at least I thought it would only be a while. Fast forward three to four years and the blanket/rug or whatever it was going to be is still connected to a ball of yarn. The only difference is instead of being at the top of my finish soon list its on the "oh, I should really finish this project ... at some point in time" list.

Your probably wondering what that blanket has to do with my statement about UFO's being useful suddenly. Well, currently, that pretty purple crocheted rug blanket is used whenever I spin on the Louet S51. Since the house has hardwood floors I noticed a subtle rocking whenever I spin. (Did I mention the floors are ever so slightly uneven?) Also, the slickness of the floor allows for my treadling motion to slowly push the week backwards. However I was able to remedy this situation very easily. I simple grabbed some scissors and .... get ready.... I ... cut... the ball of yarn loose. So this left me with a few loose strings and a blanket rug just wide enough to sit under the wheel. Trust me, this comes in handy for those outdoor on the sidewalk events. No one wants to scratch up a spinning wheel.

For another metamorphosis example.... 3-4 years ago I was crocheting this huge 2 strand crochet blanket. I started out just crocheting but then stretched into the belief that I wanted a bed size crocheted blanket. This my friends, was the beginning of the end. I ran out of yarn and was destined to buy more from my dreaded local Walmart. I found my color, purchased another 2 skeins of Red Heart and retreated back to the luxury of my abode. Then I finished up the previous skeins and started in on my join. To my horror these colors were nothing alike. I was so naive, so young and reckless and it ruined another good project. This was tragic and so the blanket was "put away" until I could find a subtle color to border the blanket. As of last week, this blanket is sitting on my son's full sized bed. I had made him one when he was younger but he outgrew it. My husband figures it will keep him warm and be a mommy reminder when he lays down for bed.

So is my wheel rug any less a finished product just because I didn't weave in the joined yarns? No, its being put to use. Any time something is being put to use and not sitting in a basket of unfinished objects they become finished objects. Sure I can pretty it up if I want... or pick it up later and re-envision the project all together. These are just examples to show how subjective it really is to say something is unfinished. I know that the blanket on my son's bed has a few loose strings but that doesn't make him love it any less.

In the end, that's the real funny thing about an "unfinished" object. They become finished objects when you decide they are.

Updates, Updates...

Well my wonderful squishy baby blanket from previous posting was rejected. Apparently the baby really will be GINORMOUS! Seriously, no one else thought it was two small to be a receiving blanket. In fact, complement of all compliments... my mom LURVED it! Seriously, that is huge. My mom may not know it but she has a comment for everything... and I mean everything. For instance almost five years ago, while we were working on wedding shopping, she made a statement about my face being "round." She also didn't see how this was deemed hurtful since (when called on it) she stated "Well it is round you want to work with what you have not make it look bad."
So uh, yea.... I have one of those momma knows best, has a comment for and opinion about everything sort of mothers. However, after all was said and done and my near nine year old has his birthday party I showed my mom the blanket. She loved it. Which is nice because later that night I realized that I can't think of a time my mom has seen one of my projects FO or UFO and damned it with faint praise. That makes me feel good. It's nice to know there are some things that she'll step back and just say, "you did a good job." Not everyone has that.
Besides the blanket we had our Angora bunny, Ladybird, pass away last weekend. Just really sad. My son was really upset but I think it was easier this time around since Opal had gone while we were still in the apartment. He was at his grandparents for the night so we waited till he came home. Some things are hard enough. We'll miss you Ladybird!

Blankets, Cookies and Cards

Whew! That baby blanket was one UFO that was quickly becoming a PITA. (uhh, use your imagination.) Now that I have finished that little project I can go back to working on other things, like blog posts. Unfortunately, part two of the war of acronyms will have to continue some time this weekend. Only because the rest of the night and tomorrow is preparing for our son's birthday party on Saturday. Preparing really means unpacking the boxes that stayed in the corner for the last three months because they should have never made it to the house. Plus we have to buy all the party goods tomorrow when I get off from work. Fun Fun Fun!

So on to more fiber related news. Here is the blanket all wet down and blocked to rectangular. I'm a little afraid it will be too small for a baby.


Here's hoping the baby is not ginormous. When I crochet blankets that is usually about how big they turn out. Its probably just nervousness over the size of the knit project.

Now, in non-fiber related news:
I denied my sweet tooth 24 hours of the best peanut butter cookies I have had in a while. I did it all so that I could take pictures for this post. See, just about two weeks ago I got a taste for peanut butter cookies. The only problem is that it couldn't be just any old peanut butter cookie, it had to be that peanut butter cookie. I wanted a cookie with peanuts and big chunks of peanut butter morsels. I wasnt looking for macadamia nuts or those tiny tollhouse morsels and I certainly wasnt looking to bake for myself. (It's been a long time and we have a heater for a stove at the moment.)
Imagine my surprise when I meet Just Bakin' in the Etsy chat room. In the past I never seriously considered buying food from Etsy sellers. Nothing against the sellers but getting my food in the mail was not appealing. The only other item that tempted me was a caramel apple cheesecake but it was local pickup only and I don't live in Alabama.
So I started up a conversation in the chat room asking all the questions. What do you know, this seller can make cookies to custom. Better yet, she made them to my specifications and that makes me extremely happy. I was so happy that even though my husband and I were about to head out to rum errands Wednesday, when the mailman showed up I had to wait. I saw him scanning the package and I didnt want my cookies sitting in no leaky mailbox. Well it turns out he was taking it to the front door. (Now mind you, he watched us come out the door but on his way back out he says... "Oh, y'all live here?" Idiot.)
The presentation on the package was outstanding and she even threw in a sample of chocolate chip cookies. I like the cookies best when they are heated for about 10 seconds but they were definitely good either way.

Last but not least in my guilty indulgences. Really guilty indulgences. Since I don't have money to spend on Etsy it is amazing for me to make two purchases in one weeks time. My second purchase was from hdawnparratt.
This was totally another chat inspired purchase which may only prove to my husband that I am wasting time AND money in the chat rooms. The sea otter card was too adorable and the frog card was the icing on the handmade card cake. The inside is blank but I have no intention of mailing these. I want to find a complementary frame or matboard and hang it on the wall.

So, that's it for the night. I finished the blanket, I bought some goods that I loved and I have a birthday party to prep for this weekend. (Which is scary since it will be the first time my parents and my husbands parents have meet in a nonformal setting. In fact, his mom was the only one at the wedding so it will be the first time his dad has meet either of my parents. Yea, this is getting scary....)

UFO's versus WIP (Part 1)

So a question came to mind and I decided that I wanted to explore the difference between Unfinished Objects (UFO's) and Works in Progress (WIP.) Sorry my alien geek friends, this is totally a crafting post.

So the first thing I did was Google "UFO versus WIP" which had a surprising amount of entries.... only five of which were not omitted due to repetition. Also because I used quotes, none of them had anything to do with an Unidentified Flying Object. Though I often think that is what my UFO's will become as I fling them across the room instead of working on them. So I was thinking before giving my very objective and yet incredibly subjective opinion on this I would go with the technical aspect first. (This is for our none knitting friends, its like having the IT guy explain the inside of a computer.)

First is the WIP. WIP stands for Work in Progress. I have no knowledge of a predetermined definition for this so I will make one up. A Work in Progress (WIP, must remember our acronyms they come in handy later) is a project that is being worked on at a steady pace during the current point in time. I didn't want to exclude other artists or crafters so that is the general description.
For knitters (and crocheters) a work in progress is that arm wrist, sweater, pajama pants, baby blanket or tunic vest that is currently on the needles/hooks. Yes there can be, and most often are more than one WIP. For the multitasker in all of us that's not usually a problem. (Unless your me and be happy your not.)

However, there is a very important part missing that makes this a Work IN PROGRESS. That project on the needles has to be making a forward motion toward completion at a steady pace and during the current point in time. Simply put, next week that vest or sweater or hat really should be a bit more complete then it was at this exact moment. Even if its only a row, its a little more done and closer to making you or someone else extremely happy. That is current point in time. Now when you have made another row by the week after next, then you are setting a steady pace.

But wait, I am not unreasonable. I know that sometimes a yarn just calls out and you have to put aside that project that you were working on. The project is so great and so gratifying that you find that you have completed the whole thing without working on your lonely ol' hat. Perhaps you knit or crochet for a living and your suddenly bombarded with a rush of orders for Warm Fuzzy Christmas gifts and its several weeks (3-4 not 52) before you have a chance to even look in the direction of that lonely ol' project... hat... blanket... whatever. Does that suddenly mean that the project has slipped into the despair of an unfinished object?

Of course not, we're flexible people and this is subjective. Remember?

Speaking of WIP.. this post is about to become a two parter so I can work on a certain baby blanket. So tomorrow, or later on tonight "Part 2: UFO's - It's a funny thing really." Oh, and to break up the post a bit I included some pictures of some old WIP's or in progress shots.
So, come back okay?

Soft and Squishy

The last few days I have been working on a baby blanket for a co-worker. I was recommended for the job through word of mouth. I don't actually knit terribly fast but I accepted the work anyway. It's awful funny that I never said how much this was going to cost and she never asked. Not really expecting it to turn out very good in that respect.


The blanket is a knit stitch on size 11, 14 inch straight needles. The LYS owner prefers circulars but I wasn't in budget for that. Really, I wasn't in budget for any of it but I never said that the lady had to buy the yarn before I would start. That doesn't really make sense anyway, she wouldn't know what to get. Also, she was letting me pick the yarn because she is just ready for the grand baby to get here. I got to choose the colors as long as it was neutral to the normal color associations. No pink, no blue, no purple.

This project is so soft and squishy that I hate having to sell it. It is made with Plymouth Yarns "Heaven" which is a 100% nylon yarn. Not inexpensive, just not wool. What I do hate so far is that of the two full skeins I have knit through (total of 5 skeins but I am working on my third now) there have been knots in the last fourth of both skeins. I know that the company wants to minimize waste but when you pay $5/skein for something like 50-75 yards you expect something better. I have Red Heart, I expect that from Red Heart. I do not expect it from the higher end yarns. Blah!

Overall this is an enjoyable and easy project. However, from the last 5-6 years spent as a desk jockey in corporate America, I can't make more than a row before my hand starts to fall asleep. If I try for a second row my hand becomes painfully numb and lacking of proper nerve sensation. So much for ergonomics. I don't even like the corporate peon job, especially since it manages to make what I do like extremely difficult. Great, just great. On the other hand, no pun intended, before I go nutty and quit this job I plan to have my workers comp claim finished out. Preferably where I would never have to file a claim again (third times a charm?)

New Handmade Crafting Site

Hey, I was introduced to this great little crafting site called Art Fire. Its new and in the works and looks to have a lot of potential. There were a lot of other sites that cropped up after Etsy made it "big" but this is the first one that I had a good feeling about. I have even gone the paid membership route because it was a good deal and I didn't want to miss it.
My store will be located at here.

In other more exciting news. I have gotten a new camera! I would take a picture of the new camera with the old camera but my son has somewhat co-opted it for his own picture taking purposes.

Also, I am in the process (or have completed) a trade in which I will no longer have a drum carder but in its place I will own an Ashford Country. Woo! First real (i.e.- wooden) wheel.
Currently in the way of projects: I have started a commissioned blanket knit with Heaven yarn from my LYS. Its so soft and made from nylon. This is for a baby blanket for someones 4th grandbaby! I hope it comes out well. I will upload pictures as soon as I get used to my camera. It's just a bit different taking pictures with this. I don't know all of the idiosyncrasies that come with using a camera for six years.

Now, moving forward I am going to make a strong effort to get back on track. My mom once said a cluttered house is a sign of a cluttered mind. Seriously, you don't want to know what my house looks like (even on a good day.) =D

Check out that new site, I really think it will be worth it. Yea, its in "BETA" but if they stay the course they really will have something going.

Handspun Undone.. kinda

Just recently I finished spinning up some commercial Wool/Soysilk Blend. I was very excited about it because I it felt like it was taking forever to spin. I was impressed with how much yarn was produced. Okay, I don't know what the yardage is yet but I think its a fair amount. I was planning on using the yarn to knit the Morning Surf scarf on the cover of the recent Spin-off thinking how I wanted it to be relatively lacy. But then I chickened out as I often do when it comes to knitting something thats not simple knit purl knit purl. So I went online to find another pattern and picked this. Its probably a little more complicated (since I dont know how to PSSO) but I think it will be perfect for this yarn. Besides, I have this month's spinning meet up and I'm going to take the pattern and have someone show me how to do it. They are such nice people in the group.

Speaking of, just this past week I set the twist on the yarn and to my disappointment the color ran. Ick! Okay, when I say ran I don't mean just a little dye. What I am talking about is the OH NO my water is no longer clear its (insert color here.) In this case my water was a dark orange color. The water wasn't hot it was luke warm. The yarn wasnt sitting in the water for hours it was there less than two minutes... not more than five, before I took it out. The only reason I took it out then was because I didnt want the color to bleed on the lighter fibers in the yarn. Seriously... disappointed. A major commercial brand should not bleed when the fibers are set. My husband commented that the water looked like Kool-Aid.


*SIGH* Okay, but its not the only thing I did this week. I spun the roving that I purchased at Knitch from Gale's Art. (She has an etsy store.) I wanted to keep the colors true so I split the roving into four long pieces and spun them with the expectation to do a two ply. That way the long repeats she created in the roving would ply against itself and make a somewhat self striping yarn with defined blocks of color. When I finished I pretty much changed my mind and decided to Navajo Ply. (See a theme here ;P) I am seriously no good at it. Every time I do a Navajo ply I end up with a very dense yarn. I believe the culprit is that I am treadling too fast on the ply. I think. I'm welcoming any opinions or advice to the contrary. Oh and when I set the twist on this fiber... Just a small light green tint in the water. Yea for well prepared fibers from small business owners!

And a quick note in unrelated (i.e. real life) news. We are finally getting some of our stuff moved into the new place. And yet again I realize two important things.... I hate packing and I hate moving. It's even worse at the moment because my husband is injured and can't lift more than 5 pounds and only on one hand. Of course this would be the optimal weekend to have these issues since the father in-law could only help us move all our big stuff like dressers, bookshelves etc on his trailer THIS weekend. That's just our kind of luck though. Bah! I can't wait til this is over.

Sheep are BIG! or Look at my new rug!

So I got this killer deal on a fleece via one of my Yahoo groups. A member of the group was moving North to South in the US and needed to unload some of their sheep fleeces quick. The wool is a Cheviot cross. The description is a bit vague on the cross, something like Cheviot with merino, corriedale, BFL. I didn't know what to expect but the deal was $10 for a fleece plus shipping. Shipping wasn't unreasonable and the fleece was supposed to be between 3-6 pounds.

The only other detail I received (or really asked for) was whether the wool was skirted. All told this is supposed to be skirted for tags and belly fiber but not second cuts. Haven't done a super close inspection but I don't think the second cuts will be a problem.

After TheBoy went to bed I pulled out the fleece and took a better look at it. I really wasn't expecting it to be all that big. My husband said when the Postal Worker came out with the box I had a mixed look between good surprise and "Oh my is that mine" surprise. We both commented that it didn't smell like the last time I purchased a raw fleece. Maybe its a difference in breed. I do recall the first one was supposedly smellier because it was a ram fleece.

This thing covered just about my whole kitchen. While I know I live in an apartment, thats a good 5x10 space I would think. It was good enough to be a floor covering, except when ever I accidentally stepped on it I found myself doing a relatively unpleasant, unexpected attempt at a split. ( I'm not at all flexible enough for that kind of things so all I can say is thank goodness for the kitchen sink!)

I already got a look at a cleaned piece, its very white much to my surprise. The nicest part had quite a good bit of crimp on it and I can definitely tell the different sections. Just by looking I could guess the spin-able portion versus the felt-able portion versus the "better blend with this" portion. What I need now is a good tutorial on how to appropriately pick a fleece apart and what to do with it.

Overall, I'm very pleasantly surprised. I still see some very dirty sections that I would much rather not have to deal with but those are few and far between. Should I need a fleece in the future I will definitely consider going to this person's site to see what they have available (should they continue in their new location.) Plus, I saw that they do mohair fleeces and even though I said I wouldn't do raw locks again, this type of quality is tempting. I am not expecting to have to pick out lots of seeds or hay or grass. I pulled some larger pieces out and a little dried corn but hey, a sheep's gotta eat! Expect more fleece-y details in the future. This is definitely a project and one I think is worth of following. Now.... send me some links on deconstructing a fleece! I'm going to need it!