Mary Had A Little Lamb

Some of you may remember my dismay this spring when, as I was nearing the finish line for getting my first-ever fleece processed and spun, my husband threw it away.  And by "dismay", I mean abject histrionics.

In an effort to restore my Fleece Peace, I purchased a new one.  This time it's the first shearing from a Coopworth lamb, named Gigi. 

There are about 4 pounds of her, before processing:

This is the shot that shows why I fell in love with Gigi:

So crimpy! So luminous!  And not even washed yet!  I can hardly stand it.  I decided to make string while the sun shines.  I started by washing it lock by lock, same as I did for Caora Dubh.  I'm not sure this is the best way to handle the washing for this fleece though, because while it works really well, it's just so time consuming.  My limited (nonexistent) tools dictate that a worsted preparation (keeping the lock formation) would be best, but maybe this fleece shouldn't be spun worsted-style? 

Kindly weigh in, Gentle Readers?  If you have been down this road before, I bet you won't hesitate to set me straight.

In the meantime, here is one thing I will definitely be doing differently than last time:

This is the bag Gigi will be living in until I have her safely spun up.  

All's Well That Ends

All of my sniveling to the contrary, I really do love deadlines.  The thing is, once a deadline arrives, you're done.  Either you have achieved the goal of getting so much work done in so much time, or you have not.  Either way, things are going to change.  Either you get your life back, or there's a new deadline (and perhaps some extra grief).  A deadline is a day you can look forward to with the certainty that come what may, the stress of having anticipated it will be over.

Today I finished the Project-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.  I put it in a box, and told the Smallies that although we will never see this sweater again, it will be returned to us, in the form of Back-To-School money.  Lindsay played along: "You mean the sweater will magically transform into three-ring binders and sparkly sneakers?"  "Yes,'" I told her. "Yes, it will."  It's the Magic of Knitting.

And then, on the advice of a dear one who has really done some heavy lifting in seeing me through this particular journey, I did something very Un-Knitting.  I taught one of my kids (I could only catch one, so far, but I have plans to expose the other one, as well) how to hand quilt.

A few weeks ago we cleaned out the linen closet, and Lindsay asked me why we never use this quilt.  "Because it's not finished.  It's actually not really a quilt at all, yet."  On closer examination, we determined that I had completed about half of the quilting before I wadded it into the linen closet (okay, it was more like three linen closets ago).  Lindsay takes its unfinished state as a personal challenge (don't know where she gets these notions).  Her goal is to help (force) me to finish it before the end of winter.  She feels it's wrong that we both need a quilt to snuggle under, and that we have one which isn't finished.  She also kinda digs that you have to sit under it to work on it - kid is a hard-core snuggler.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did I just get another deadline?
 

Resurfacing

I went sub-level there for a while, but I'm happy to report that I'm back on the job, and ready to take over the world.  Or at least organize the sheep.

I've been on vacation, in a place that I used to think had internet and cell signals, but which for some reason didn't this time.  It's okay - turns out the world got along just fine without me.

I did some work:

A knitter in her natural habitat, captured by Phillip.  Those are shade cards from various Dream Yarn Factories, from which I get to shop for the designs in my new book.  I love my job.

I did some spinning:

My first cable-spun yarn!  It's a combination of Abstract Fiber "Mood Ring" and Ashland Bay "English Garden".  Four plies, two at a time. True Love. 

And I even did some knitting:

This piece defies photographing for some reason, but just believe me, it's way cool, and it's my first-ever Rowan pattern.  I made myself wait to start it until I was between "work knitting" projects, so it was the perfect thing to take on vacation. 

It's true what they say about all work and no play making us dull.  The only trouble is that I love my work so much it feels like play.  So not only is it hard to say when I'm done, it's darn hard to tell when I need a break.  Fortunately for me, I'm surrounded by people who aren't shy about telling me to get out of town.  Good thing I don't take it personally.