Almost done!

Well, okay - the plying won't start for a few days - maybe even a week or a bit more, but...! I've only got to finish up the chocolate llama single, and that's about halfway done and then... and then...! Woo-hoo! Skein-winder, here I come, done at last! And just in time for cool-weather knitting! Just to let you know, the chocolate single is not as dark as it's showing up in the photo, but I forgot to use my flash. Stupid - and so typical of me. I will try to do a better job of color management once the plying is done. I promise.











Okay. Maybe I'd best not crow just yet. My luck, something horrid will happen and I'll have to start all over :::shudder::: It doesn't bear thinking about! I haven't said much about this lovely chocolate llama, but I got the roving from Nancy Mercer of Naked Pines Ranch. It's a great little place, and her husband's even put up a wool-processing and dyeing shed! It couldn't happen to a sweeter person, though. Nancy's a lovely lady who is very talented and one of the busiest women on the planet, I swear. I can't imagine how she gets done HALF the things she does, yet she's cheerful, no matter what's going on. Me? I'd be a basket case. NO doubt (just ask my better half).

To take a small break from spinning the llama, though, I thought I'd try out some new stuff I got from Miss Babs; a glorious BFL (and you all know that one of my favorite wools is Blue Faced Leicester, right? (that's pronounced: Lester, btw). It makes a fabulous sock yarn; strong yet soft.

Well! I thought I knew everything there IS to know about BFL. Boy, was I wrong! This stuff is actually shiny! And the colorways Babs dyes her fibers in are just wonderful! Here's the direct link to the colorways. In some of the photos, the shine shows up a bit, but still doesn't do it complete justice. I have 6 of her rovings and only wish I could have ALL of them!

What I'm hoping to end up with is a 3-ply fractally-striped (wish me luck!) fingering-weight yarn. This effect creates a yarn in which the colors mesh into subtly blended stripes rather than plain, ordinary stripes. Usually, to get a bold, but ordinary, striped look, one has to Navajo ply the yarn to keep all the colorways more-or-less "together", but - fun as Navajo plying is - I don't want to do it that way. The only other way (and ridiculously difficult) is to take infinite, painstaking care to spin each single EXACTLY alike (groan!), which is a near impossibility. Yes, I know it can be done - I've done it! - but never again, if I can help it. LOL

Anyway, I'm trying it out on the New York colorway: very pale silvery grey, med-to-dark grey shades, dark green shades (sorry I don't have a pic, yet). I'll try to put one up sometime this week, if I get time. I know the colors sound strange, but they are breathtakingly beautiful in 'real life'. The colors are so subdued, quiet and peaceful (which is not really a "me" thing; subdued, quiet and peaceful, I mean), but they work together beautifully. I really hope this turns out well! I'd like to knit one of my men some socks from this! My poor son keeps growing bigger and bigger feet (and hubby does not appreciate handknit woolen socks - I know...he's baffling), so my young fella will probably get these. He'll love them, too. He nearly weeps every time he outgrows yet another pair of his beloved handknit socks.

Getting back on track.... To get one kind of fractal stripe effect, separate the roving/top lengthwise into 3 pieces of equal width. Set one 1/3rd strip aside to be spun as is, with no further separation. That will provide you a single with looong color stripes. For the second 1/3rd strip, split into 2 equally wide, lengthwise strips. There, you'll get somewhat shorter (but same-colored) stripes for bobbin #2. For the third single, separate that last strip into 3 equally wide, lengthwise strips. This last single gives even short stripes because... (No, I'm not deliberately insulting your intelligence here! Just being thorough.), because the amount of fiber in those skinnier strips is less than the roving strips for bobbins 1 & 2.

Spin up 3 singles (now quit whining - you know it's worth it) and ply them together, gloating over how lovely your fab yarn looks. And how NO ONE ELSE on the planet has yarn quite like yours!

Tip: I like to "finger crochet" all my strips (not together though!) and keep them bundled and marked for which single they go to. It would be just like me to mistake a strip #2 for belonging to the pile intended for bobbin #3. I would be SO ticked at myself if I did that. Well, that's all for now, and my eyes won't stay open any longer. G'nite, all!

Just to put things into perspective

My frantic feelings for the 'loss' of my nearly-full bobbin has very quickly dwindled into utter vapidity in comparison to the very real loss of my friend.

I refer to Rabeka, whose baby girl died one day after she was born. The wee one's name was Josephine Kay. And so...'Beka and her husband, John, had to make the long, sad trip back home from a special hospital, empty-armed and aching, sorrowing for their pretty little girl. Dear God! What sorrow!

I hope it is a good, long while before I even think of complaining about 'loss' again.

May our good God grant them comfort and hearts' ease, in due time and in bountiful measure, once their storm of grief has calmed.

May Our Lady, Whose birthday it is today (Happy Birthday, Blessed Mother Mary!) also comfort Rabeka and John, wrapping them and their young boys in Her gentle care, ever pointing them to Her Son; "Do whatever He tells you." Mary Most Holy, pray for us, now and at the our of our death! Amen

So...how many times am I allowed...

to change my mind? Having eaten my heart out over the 'loss' of that almost-full bobbin of alpaca, now that it's found again, I've decided that it isn't dark enough! three weeks of heart-burning for nothing! It's lovely - oh, very. It's a glorious, glowingly-warm, mostly cinnamon-brown color, mixed with just a hint of brownish Shetland (to make it hang together b'c the alpaca is sooo slippery). The Shetland really isn't a brown-brown, but more of a grayed-brown, which goes well with the 3 other bobbins.

BUT! It ain't dark 'nough :-(. I've got a gorgeous baker's chocolate llama roving that is nearly as soft as the alpaca, and I've spun up a bit of it 'just to see'. Wow. Not only is it MUCH easier to spin, what a difference that darker shade makes in contrast with the three other, much lighter, singles! I think I definitely have to go with the dark chocolate llama! Yummy!

I need a swift kick in my...

um. You know.

o-kay there. I found my "missing" bobbin full of alpaca/shetland. You know. The one that was the 4th single of what was to become a 4-ply gift of yarn? Thought I ought to mention something about it. In case anyone has been feeling sorry for me. Not that I wasn't doing a great job of that already.

Yessirree! There it was, hiding under some freshly-spun BFL that was very, very similar in color to the alpaca blend. Apparently, the 2 colors were so similar (at the first careless glance, that is) that I didn't realize I was hiding one with the other!

I am soooo stoooopid.

*sigh* I will now FINISH the freakin' thing before I manage to lose it again.

Another ::sob::

Okay...this is just killing me. I have lost - repeat, LOST! - a most important spinning wheel bobbin. The 4th bobbin to complete a 4-ply yarn gift! This bobbin was a-l-m-o-s-t full. ::waaah!:: One more decent spinning session would have seen it done so that I could finally begin the plying. I am SO wanting to cry. Where, O WHERE could my bobbin be? I keep wondering if I didn't somehow lose it as I was transporting my wheel to/from Twist. If I lost it there, it probably rolled into the gutter. Maybe. And there're very few people who would figure out what the heck that strange thing was :-(. Oh, I am just beside myself! I can't believe I lost a dadgum bobbin! Full of yarn, no less - yarn that I NEED!

THIS has been a difficult week, I tell ya! What with that stupid dawg destroying all that fiber, my bobbin disappearing, no damn sleep, and some other things going on, I am ready to scream! THIS is not what I signed on for!!!

I wonder if that dumb animal TOOK that bobbin and hid it?!? Come to think of it, he did try to trot off with one of my empty bobbins about 3 weeks ago, carrying it like a bone. I had a heckuva time getting it away from him - he was evidently convinced it was a Good-To-Eat Thing. He is, like, soooo dead....

AUGH!!! My resident fiber gourmand

Did I ever mention that we're a Foster Family for the American Brittany Rescue organization? No? Neglectful of me perhaps, but generally not something one would post on a spinning blog. Not that my spinning and knitting buddies all of a sudden actually need to know that about me, it's just that...being a Foster Mum has suddenly begun cramping my 'style' (read: my personal spinning and knitting time) in a HUGE way lately, which is probably why I haven't been posting much. It's been an uphill battle for 5 weeks now. See...this dog we're fostering...well, he LOVES my yarns. And my rovings. And my fleeces. And batts. Not to mention my bumps. Anything soft and fuzzy, apparently, along with paper and books. He has destroyed (so far):

• 1 expensive knitting book (waaah!)
• 5 balls of SOCK yarn
• 5 rovings (or is it 6, now?)
• 3 batts. No...make that 4 (30 minutes ago)
• several knitting magazines ::sob::
• 1 luscious 'bump' of silk, alpaca and merino (that I know of)
• My Mother's sock (one of a pair that I was repairing!)

Um...what else? I'm sure there are other items, but my mind is just numb... It doesn't help that I generally get no more than 2 to 4 hours of sleep a night. Ugh. I HATE getting old!

He is the sweetest dog on earth - really, truly! - but total hell on this fiber-lover, for sure. His name is Sam (or "No, No! Bad Dog!"), and it seems that all he ever really bothers is MY stuff. Not my hubby's stuff. Not the kids' stuff. No. Just MINE. I feel like cussing a blue streak (out of sheer frustration), but that wouldn't be nice or helpful, so I won't do it on my blog.

SO...because of this dog's strange ingurgitatory habits, I have hardly been able to get anything done in the way of spinning! No sooner do I pull off a hard-won batt from my carder (it takes longer to make a really GOOD batt than one might think!), than the phone rings (or the door bell, or the kids need me, or hubby demands my instant attention, or, or...), so the batt gets laid down somewhere "safe". I come back 30 seconds later and it's literally shredded (and globbed with LOTS of dog-spit...yuck!) to itty-bitty bits of fluff on the carpet. :::sigh::: I'm past being mad about it. I give up. I don't know what to do about it, short of keeping the poor sap in his crate 24/7. Which I wouldn't do to even the worst dog, let alone this sweetheart!

So, I am sitting in my little corner and whimpering a bit. I am feeling so very sorry for myself at the moment. Another beautiful batt (alpaca, OF course) gone to hell. To make it worse, it was the final batt needed to finish off the 4th bobbin for a lovely (I hope!) 4-ply gift to Someone Really Special. I am struggling VERY HARD to be kind to Sam right now. And, of course, feeling guilty because I'm all upset with him :-(

Thanks for list'nin'. I am so bummed. Maybe someone will adopt this hoo-haw by next week?

Yes, yes, I'm still here!

It's just that I've been so freaking busy. I've been spinning as much as possible, but don't have a lot (yet) to show for it. I did get a bit of Polypay done, in this rather bright rose-pink color. NOT my favorite color by a long shot, but it was still fun to work with something not-naturally-colored. I love how soft it is to spin up, but the neps! Oh, the neps and junk buried in the roving was just awful. I finally gave up trying to get it all out, and ended up with a very lumpy, unevenly-spun yarn :-( I am NOT happy about that, but at least it went to a good home! Kris (a fellow spinner and knitter) bought it, and I really hope she likes it.