As The Yarn Turns

Stash Enhancement

Our new local yarn store had a grand opening yesterday so I had to go support them. I really only wanted one thing, some felting needles. Linda has been showing off some of the things she has needle felted and now I'm feeling compelled to try it too. Not that I need something else. So I purchased a little needle felting kit that came with several different needles, a foam block, and instructions. Now all I need is some fiber, in different colors. Oh yeah, time, I need time too. I also bought some grey Cascade 220 for a pair of mittens for Rick. Now I am usually conservation in my yarn shopping. I rarely buy yarn without a purpose for that yarn, no matter how nice it is. I know it's a fault of mine but I just can't do it, usually. Now the store has lots of beautiful yarns but I spotted this one skein of yarn from Jade Sapphire Exotic Fibers. It's a single ply yarn called Iceland, 100% New Zealand Wool. It looks to be bulky weight and hand painted in red, gold, green, and brown. It is a 157 yd skein and I have no earthly idea what I'm going to do with it other than admire it. I thought about a hat, I'll see. It's not the softest yarn on the planet but lovely nonetheless. So actually I got off fairly light with some felting needles and two skeins of yarn. I even managed to stay away from the sock yarn.

If you are ever in the area, the yarn shop is the Sheepy Yarn Shoppe and it's located at 112 E. Tuscaloosa St. in Florence, Alabama.

Spinning

Other than spinning some plain blue-faced leicester on the spinning wheel, I'm also spindle spinning some multicolor merino-mohair. I had the hardest time drafting and spinning this fiber when I started. It's not as slippery as the blue-faced leicester so my first few experiences were extremely thick and lumpy. With some experience it seems it just needs more prep and more predrafting. This particular batch is going much easier.

For now, I'll high-tail it out with this visitor to our front porch. We had left some cat food out for a neighborhood cat that visits and discovered that an opossum was visiting the food bowl during the night and chowing down on the remainder of the cat food. He's a very big opossum as you can see from this picture of him running off from the porch.

by Sydney  |