Bale up!

I’ve said it often enough, so you’d think I’d believe it by now - boodle has its own level. It is a living (and probably sentient) thing that resents being reduced, except by the natural attrition of finished objects.

I’ve spent the better part of the last couple of weeks weeding the stash. Odd balls, colour collections of odd balls, garment amounts in weights/colours I won’t use, novelty and other fun yarns, feltable yarns, and wool that, while the shine has not quite gone off it, has resisted attempts to be transformed into the wonderful item I envisaged for it – all have found good and welcoming homes. This was a considerable undertaking and the yarn went out in ripples and small waves.

Also, we are going away next week with an overseas visitor, also a fibre fiend. We are taking her to a couple of woollen mills and some independent fibre and yarn pushers. I was prepared to be extremely strong (particularly in the face of the stash enhancement aversion therapy just undergone) and had worded TOF up on the need for him to not enable me.

Is it fair, then, that a little problem of tenses in the English language landed me with an incoming tsunami?

A couple of weeks ago, a colleague of TOF’s emailed him:

“I am having the black sheep shorn this weekend, would you like the wool for your girlfriend?”

Oooh, a black fleece, we thought, that would be lovely and immediately accepted the kind offer. I popped out and bought a 150 litre plastic bin to store it in.  I joked with TOF that it should come in 3 bags full.  Not so funny now!

This morning it became apparent that English is an imprecise and, frankly, bloody dangerous language. Here’s the last of a series of email between my benefactor and TOF.

“You seem to be somewhat a tad vague on the amount of wool.........You know those wool bails, well, it is one of them filled with 11 sheeps wool plus a separate yellow pellet bag, which contains the white rams wool. The wool bail is not compressed so it able to be squeezed, but still, it is quite heavy and quite large.”

Tonight, instead of going to a movie as planned (in a real cinema with snuggle seats, as opposed to the lecture theatre we usually see films in), we wrangled a bale and a bit of raw, smelly, glorious fleece.

Birds of a Feather

This is the first delivery of fibre from the Ewe Give Me the Knits fibre club. The big bag on the right is Polwarth. The little bag on the (other) right is nylon. Yup - I got me a sock spinning kit in the colourway "Birds of A Feather".

I opened it on Friday. Present at the opening were my mother and one of my nieces. Mum was not particularly excited, spinning doesn't do it for her, but Emily had an immediate and intense colour reaction.

She must have listened as I exclaimed over the fibre and the sock possibility and when I told her about the Polwarth and how the breed comes from the same district as her Poppy. I know she listened because I have now proof-positive that my mother's sock-stealing DNA is very strong - Emily told her father that Aunty Taph is spinning her socks from Poppy's wool!

And then there was Nundle

Nundle Retro 4ply wool. Beautifully soft. I just want to cuddle it.

Little bits of Nundle Luxury Loopy Mohair in a bag for "because it seemed too good to leave behind for $5". She was right. No idea what they will be yet, but something gorgeous.

A ball of Jigsaw sock yarn. Not actually for me. Mum bought this for herself but is delegating the actual knitting to me. She did note that the purple in this yarn matches the purple in the 4ply she bought for me. What an amazing coincidence!

And finally, the fibre. This is a harsh single. Odd and the same texture and physical compostion as the Chinook stuff I brought home from the Smith Family last year and have been knitting the bulky rib beanies from. Just thinner and dead white. I am without words or ideas and would have left it there if I'd seen it.

Oh, and no OPTIM/camel fibre blend. They tried to convince me that the hideous white cow pat of fibre above was it. Apparently the metamorphisis of my parents was as temporary as it was inexplicable. *sigh*

The play's the thing

Sundays are for Spinning. I've been saying that for months and yet the wheel has been gathering more and more cobwebs, and I don't mean laceweight.

Yesterday Spidey had me over for a play date. We drank tea, ate delicious tropical muffins and spun. I finished this bobbin of Bendigo roving in the Damson colourway.

The roving was discarded by Monsqueak several months ago at a similar play date. It went on holidays to South West Rocks and came home much rested, thank you very much for asking.

Someday soon, perhaps next Sunday, this bobbin will be plied against something interesting.

Sundays are also for socks. Almost finished the first of the Stanbridge Socks watching teev with the family last night.

Stanbridge Sock at Leeton Racecourse, Sunday 30 Sept 2007

The yarn is Ornaghi Filati "Luna Park" which was part of a prize won from Yarn. I wasn't all that keen on it in the ball, but it is perfectly charming knitted up. The best thing about it, though, is that Mum hates it so is unlikely to decide they should be hers.

Something For Kate OR When Flowers meet Fibre

I promised Kate to take her on a tour of Floriade this year, so Spidey and I visited on Sunday to check out the Alice Springs Beanie Exhibition with a view to a Picknit, and also to meet up with Helen Rippin - the dye-diva of Waratah Fibres (sadly, no website or blog).

For foreign readers, Floriade is Canberra's annual spring festival. Bulbs en masse together with garden displays and other activities. This year's theme is Aussie Myths and Icons. There was a Yowie, Kate, but no Sasquatch ;). I didn't photograph many of the myths and icons, mostly because the interpretative signage was pretty bad and we couldn't decipher some of the displays.

Flowers.

Myths and Icons

Possibly the Sydney Opera House made from bamboo?

The Melbourne Cricket Ground (also home of Australian Rules Football - the posts are the Aussie Rules goal posts)

Dunny complete with red back spider

Ute

Fibre

Shark Bite Hat

Tea Party Hat

Evil women bearing fibre (Helen Rippin on left, Spidey on right)

Large bag of dye-diva fibre. I only bought 50g - promise.

Daisy display which depicts sheep

Actual sheep (Spidey has dibs on this one)

A TTWC makes a pilgrimage