I'm all Alone in this Saddle

I got all excited about the new course & even found a second hand text book! But no box has yet arrived with the course in it. Most of it should be on-line but it's not on-line to me, YET. So much for excitement. Take my money & make me wait. Sigh


In the meantime, I'll play with yarn! I finally wound off most of the yarn I spun up for the Tour de Fleece this year. I spun up 8 ounces of RED HAT - this was the yarn I asked for to make the Cowl I fell in love with in last Fall's Knitter's magazine called Reds, Rounds & Ridges. I couldn't locate the yarn anywhere so I got some hand painted & spun my own.

It has more pinks in it than the original which was more red & orange but I like it very much. I'm not sure at this point whether to knit the original pattern - which is a cowl extending from neck to mid body - or to knit more of a long tube which can be extended up & over the hair. Decisions, decisions.


Another project that I spun up for the Tour de Fleece was a bag of fluff called Blue Jeans. It turned out to be some beautiful blue fibre died in light & dark blue mixed with some awful neppy white wool & something in beige that could only be called 'dryer lint'. I was appalled by it but the vendor is reputable & I tried to spin it before writing her a note couched in very diplomatic terms. I didn't want to upset her but I wanted to let her know that her supplier was sending out some very nasty fibre. I was told that it was 'special' fibre that would make 'textured' yarn.

Textured all right .  .  .  .  so, I took it as a challenge & let the neps, knots & bits stay & tried my best to work in the 'dryer lint' because it was really, really awful. I spent a lot of time picking out VM which I KNOW does not belong in 'Designer' yarn!  Challenge met. It was nothing spectacular until after it's bath. It plumped up like nothing else & softened so much - I love it. Was worth the bad words & threats. Was even worth the Diplomatic note I eventually sent the supplier after many tries.