the quacking fiber addict

“Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself.”
Terry Pratchett

My main achievements today? Plying 3 bobbins worth of yarn. If we ignore the fact that I managed a Costco run, and got some cleaning done. Anyway, back to the yarn.

1 bobbin-full of vegan yarn for my Handspun/ Handcrafted Swap partner:


1 of baby alpaca/ silk waste for heaven knows who. (not pictured)

And 1 of Aurora (1/2 superwash, 1/2 baby alpaca), for myself:


I have another bobbin's worth of Aurora left to ply, but my shoulders and knees are tired. So, that's it for the night. As soon as there's enough hot water again, I'm claiming the bathtub.

Tomorrow, err, this morning, the workmen return (heaven help me) to sand the oak floors. Oy. I'm planning on escaping to TKS to visit St M before we go to Mdme DeFarge's. We've been kicked out of our long-standing venue, Perugino's, for gathering too large a crowd. Uh huh.

So, now we're trying another bar/ cafe. Should be cool. Maybe I'll even remember to bring my camera.

(don't count on it)

Labels: banana silk, handspun

Cats always know whether people like or dislike them. They do not always care enough to do anything about it.
Winifred Carriere

I was honestly glad today that I could say that Charlie was not my dog (hey, I wanted the German Shepherd at Greenhill, but Emm and Dad were set on Charlie). Because I am entirely too soft on a dog spoiled rotten (I admit I feed him "people food", alright?), I thought it'd be a worthy idea to take him on a walk to TKS. They allow well-behaved dogs in (and have a tin of doggy cookies), it's a 3 mi round-trip, and I wanted to get my hands on a copy of Folk Socks (I lovelovelove this book, y'all - 6 different heel patterns and 6 different toes!!).

Let's see, complaints to list:

1. Charlie literally yanked the leash from my hand twice on the walk over.
2. He tried to attack a cat (who was minding it's own business and entirely freaked out)
3. We got to TKS and he was okay for a while (he weired some people out by wandering around constantly), until he snarled and barked at a woman who tried to pet him (he even jumped at her, too). This was made even more mortifying by the fact that she apologized for upsetting him. He knows better. I quickly grabbed my stuff, put on his leash, apologized to everyone I could and dragged him from the store. All the while wondering if I could ship off to Africa immediately.
4. On the way home he made the mistake of jumping at a runner (at this point I had lost all patience with him and tightened the leash so he couldn't jump on anyone again)

Of course, when we arrived home, the parents had arrived. They were surprised by Charlie's behavior and Dad immediately started making excuses for him (this is the man who doesn't believe in obedience training). Until they finally admitted that he had acted inappropriately.

Now, I'm not saying that Charlie's a bad dog. But, he's half Border Collie (and thus, extremely neurotic) and has the attention span of a 2-year-old toddler. He's never bit anyone or acted like he did today (at least in my presence), but it's still unacceptable.

The other problem is the fact that Charlie was a rescue dog from the local animal shelter. He's still terrified of newspapers (3 years later), won't eat near anyone, and freaks out when we scold him. Makes you feel like the biggest bully on the face of the planet, too. So... finding a way to train him is problematic.

Blech. Still, I never ever want to go back to TKS again. That was just mortifying.

Anyway. Here's a picture of the undyed, undyed and carded, and dyed banana silk (we used a crockpot and some Rit dye) next to Annabelle's fleece (scoured thoroughly):


I couldn't get a picture that fully expressed the vibrancy of the dyed banana silk (or the pure whiteness of the roots of Annabelle's fleece), but this'll have to do. I can't wait to card and spin this all up! I think I might just take the banana silk to Guild with me on Sunday and work on it...

I also started in on the oh-so-sumptuous hand-dyed superwash/ tussah sock roving I bought from Carolina Homespun at OFF (using the loverly spindle I bought from them two years ago... seeing a trend, are we?). It's soooooo yummy to spin. OMG. Just... wow.

Hand-dyed and machine washable socks, is there anything better?

Labels: banana silk, Charlie

Tender-handed stroke a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains.
Aaron Hill

My order of banana silk arrived today! TheBon and I each ordered 8 oz last week. It's very fluffy, silky, and tangled (like every other type of "silk" I've worked with). But, in the spirit of experimentation (Bon and I have agreed to meet and discuss possibilities before diving into the stuff) I tried carding just a little bit of it:


In other news, D and I met for the first Corset-A-Long date this afternoon. We both forgot our books (Corsets and Crinolines), and I left one of my corsets at home along with a pattern piece. So clever, I know. Right now we're working on the details of a group order of coutille, boning, and other corsetry bits. And, because we really don't have enough to do (hahaha), we're talking about starting a Cotehardie-A-Long.

This evening I finally got the tickets for my visit down to the Bay Area. In honour of this momentous achievement (seriously, it's taken over 2 weeks of struggle here), I'm putting up another picture of my niece, baby T, quite arguably the cutest baby ever, in the history of bipedals:


I also managed to ship my MYB parcel to varandra today. It's due to arrive in Sweden in 4 - 7 days. Right-O. Since my Tea Time Swap parcel still hasn't arrived, I'm not sure I trust the national mail service right now.

Final note: ouch.

Labels: baby T, banana silk, corset-a-long