Glad to have you back MissJ {:~)
Divine socks, auras, spinning, and other assorted chatter
Catscan - let me know if you would like to have either of these Stephanie Pearl-McPhee books tucked in with the yarn when I send it:
Free Range Knitter
Things I Learned from Knitting
I could also send "The Friday Night Knitting Club" by Kate Jacobs if you are interested. I want the sequel (Knit Two) but it's still only in hardcover (too heavy to carry in purse for reading!)
If you have other ones, we could trade!
Glad to be home, although I have no coffee here, got to make a trip into town. Garden is ok, lost all my pepper plants and corn, but the lemon cukes and the watermellon are taking over... I think I am only have 2 or so bean plants left as well. Billys sun flowers are blooming, will gt some pics later of the lovely yellow flowers... ritters are all happy, and all 4 of Billys chickens are now laying. 3 blue eggs and 1 green... so now I am getting about 6 a day... I got eggs life is good.
Blue and Green eggs and all is well at home "Yes" Life is Good :)
Marshmallow is a naughty, naughty lamb. This morning, while I was preparing her bottle, she chewed through the yarn that was stretching from the ball to the bobbin. Entirely through it. So when I came back in the room, she is standing there with a piece of greenish yarn in her mouth looking entirely self-satisfied. I freaked. Of course, I still fed her and cuddled her, because she is irresistible, but none the less naughty!
So, Catscan, you will have two smaller skeins instead of one large skein!! I haven't measured the yardage yet. That will be tonight. Don't forget to answer my question about the books (3 posts up from this one).
Moxon: I see the books (which I very much covet) and raise you "Knitting Rules"!
The breaking of the twine by one L. Amby Marshmallow will give me the opportunity to practice my splice. Splicing can be highly satisfying. My cat also enjoys a taste of the wooly--so I am becoming a splicing maven.
A splicing maven who just spent all day standing in a hot tomato field in Southern CA putting tomatos in a bag and sawing four foot sections of vine with a carpenter's saw.
Please don't ask, 'cause I will never tell.
Sawing four foot sections? wow, that's a very tough tomato plant. I would have thought bypass pruners would have done the trick quite nicely.
Well, here she be! The marauding little girl herself, proving her predilection for yarn in her diet. It is fully plied, on the niddy noddy, and now in the hot water bath setting the twist. A couple of days to dry and she'll be on her way with said books!! Oh, the yarn appears to be 305 yards in length, with a splice required so one ball is about 102 yards and the other is the 203.
The very same little lamb is presently munching on the corner of a plastic binder. Geez....it's as bad as having an infant. Oh, no, nothing would be that bad. But close!
Colour close-up...just for fun.
Clair I could alway sent you the demon child. Then you would really know what destruction buy a four footer is like. (for give the spelling if there is any as my fingers do not want to work.)
Oh Wren, I think the demon child would probably demolish most of my stash of fiber, and that would be....criminal...!!! I think you are far better positioned to contain his destructive urges. I would probably lose my mind.
You maybe right but I have already lost my mind so there is not more danger. LOL
A carpenter's saw, a 4 foot long 1" x 4" board, a bypass pruner, a homemade 8 foot tall tripod, a piece of rope, a fish scale, a tarp and two five gallon buckets--but I have said too much.....
??????
Goodness gracious Catscan....it cannot be....tell me it isn't so....you have developed the tomato that is going to take over the world....or be used as a new biofuel alternative. And all of that in the field in the sun.....I fear heat stroke....hallucinations...are the tomatoes....speaking to you?
The yarn has come off the niddy noddy following its water bath. It has been spun at high speed in a salad spinner, which I have to use instead of the spin cycle on a washing machine like many people do, because my washing machine is a front-loader and doesn't have a spin-only cycle. It is now outside, viewing the world, drying. With the humidity around here, that could take a few days!
Oh Cat.. are we having chicken for dinner?
No------not chicken.
I would love to say more--but you know the fate of whistleblowers. Suffice it to say that there are now others with their saws and tripods roaming the fields of Bakersfield.
The Truth is out there.....
How close is Bakersfield to Roswell?! LOL!!
I can hear the eerie music in the background.
For those of us at Dave's who love Claire and want to be there for her in her extremity, a quote from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the "Yarn Harlot":
"Wool. A "gateway" yarn that has the potential to lead to alpaca, quivet, and other natural fibers. Prolonged exposure to the loveliness of wool can also drag you staight down the path to felting, and, in the vulnerable, spinning."
Claire--we understand and no matter how dire your situation, we will not abandon you.
Oh I so love Claire, she is my Hero and when I grow up I want to be just like her...
ROTFLMBO!!! "the vulnerable!" I love it! What an excellent quote. MissJestr - you crack me up. You do not want to be buried in fiber in your own home, trust me!
Qiviut is absoutely on my "must have" list, but I haven't tried any yet. It's stupidly expensive. I would need my own musk-ox to get enough to satisfy my fiber demands, and I don't think my little farm is really set up for musk-ox. Maybe ZZ could keep one in her truck for me.
Sigh. Extremity. Am I extreme? Nah....
This message was edited Jul 8, 2009 12:42 PM
For those wishing to share in my obsession, here is a bit of info on qiviut from the Alaska Musk-Ox producers cooperative, which is named: Oomingmak. (I just love that word).
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Qiviut, this strange word pronounced ki - vee - ute, means down or underwool in the Eskimo language. In English it means specifically the soft greyish-brown underwool of the rare Arctic animals, the musk ox.
The animals shed during the spring and by combing and gently pulling the fiber that hangs like great powder puffs of the "golden fleece of the Arctic" it is harvested on the Musk Ox Farm in Palmer. An adult animal sheds between four and six pounds a year, which when packed down will fill a kitchen size garbage bag. The hand combed qiviut from the farm is cleaner and softer than the underwool shed in the wild since the loose fiber is not subjected to the harshness of wind and weather, but stored and protected.
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Can you imagine? Only 4-6 pounds a year, off a huge animal like that? Oh my goodness, no wonder it's so expensive.
You can buy it on Etsy for $35 for 1.5 ounces.
I would like to take a minute here to extoll the virtues of the great, and under appreciated, American fiber source--the Buffalo or American Bison. The yarn is also ridiculously expensive and very, very warm. I think it is acquired in the same manner as quivet--by trailing around after large and dangerous quadrapeds as they shed.
It is natural, it is local, it is historically and culturally correct--and it gives you an excuse to wander around picking things up off the ground and hurrying home with them while appearing only seriously eccentric and not dangerously crazed. What more can one ask?
I would love to try buffalo fiber. Do you have a buffalo to spare? I am totally up for the wandering/picking/hurrying exercise in order to increase the appearance of my eccentricity.
I do not, myself, possess a buffalo at this time. However, there are other enablers...errr...providers who may be able to expand your fiber palette.
I live to serve.
http://www.americanbuffaloproducts.com/products/properties.html
This message was edited Jul 8, 2009 2:39 PM
$20 per ounce....wow.....ouch....but it has a lovely color and appears to be incredibly soft.
The yarn I made for you was from a 4 ounce roving, so I suppose it was about 75 yards per ounce. $20 for 75 yards of handspun is probably more than the market will bear....at least the market I have access to!
I note that Paradise fibers also carries baby camel down roving.
They also have a bamboo-merino-bison-cashmere blend. Wow.
I feel a fiber fit coming on. I better sit down and breathe deeply.
Head between knees, into a paper bag.
But seriously--wouldn't you love a nice warm pair of buffalo yarn socks.........
I am still wondering if you can try horse hair Miss Claire? in the spring Gracie does shed like a buffalo and it is really soft.... You could call it Native horse buffalo.....
hmm, there is a buffalo ranch 4 miles from here, wonder if I should go visit?
I think I am in the wrong business. How would I need to modify my farm to house Musk oxen and/or buffalo? Let's see: a stockade strength fence seems first on the list, and can the average human tame either beast enough to harvest the divine fiber directly? My neighbors already think I'm daft; wandering about picking up fuzz would put me over the edge.The potential profit would be motivating, of course there needs to be a demand...A promotional pair of Divine Socks would help!
Porkpal, I will come help you, so my neighbors would not think I have really gone over the edge, they already think I am daft.....
You're on!
The amount of yarn required for a classic pair of Divine Socks in Buffalo would be 270 yards--at $48 for a 120 yard skein....well, you can do the math (heaven knows I can't).
I suppose it might be considered a reasonable start up expense--by a huge multinational cartel planning to diversify into ecologically sound foot gloves. Or we could all just go over to fran's and scavenge her neighbor's pasture.
Here Bison, Bison....
Apparently you don't want to spook your Buffalo, even with stockade fencing--nothing will contain them if they get spooked.
"Softly, softly, catchee Bison."
This message was edited Jul 8, 2009 10:16 PM
The guy who performs at halftime at the rodeo rides them, so in the off seasons, I guess we could use them to round up cattle...
I suspect the ideal is to get yourself a bottle bison, one that can live in the house for a couple of weeks in diapers. Hmmm...very large diapers. Well, a bottle bison anyway, that you can befriend and groom at an early age, who will worship the ground you walk on and beg you to take its fiber.
I am thinking horse hair is not a long enough length for spinning?
Miss Claire, next spring look for a package of fluff from Gracie, if it dont work, atleast it will not be all over my pen... LOL Never know until you try...
oh and edited to say it is golden in color, almost a yellow
This message was edited Jul 8, 2009 7:09 PM
I'll give it my best shot MissJ!
I started some new yarn tonight. A nice turquoise colour. And then my drive band on my wheel snapped. I have to put on a new one. Urgh.
WOW.. burning up the drive bands.. I thought spinning was a relaxing hobby?
I wonder if the drive band had help in being "chewed" upon?
I don't SEE any tooth marks... Do such young lambs even have teeth?
maybe it was licked until dry rot set in