Madam Medusa Locks

I forget sometimes, when I spend too much time spinning Merino top, that there is more to my spinning life than that. MUCH more!

This bunch of fibery awesomeness came from WishFox Dyeworks. The sheep who produced the excellent fleece was a Wensleydale/Lincoln crossbreed. I fell in love the first time I saw the picture of the dyed locks, and when it arrived, I quickly discovered the stuff is even better than I thought it might be. Tabitha did a fantastic job maintaining the integrity of the locks, so it's a very simple matter to gently separate a few from the bunch and flick-card them. There is VERY little waste left in the flick-carder. Wonderful!

I have not flicked the whole lot yet. I'll do that as I go, and just spin each lock as it comes to hand, and I think it will end up being, ultimately, a 2-ply heavy sock-weight yarn.

What will I make with this? Not sure yet. Very likely, I will do socks. With a long, sturdy staple such as these locks have, I bet socks would be really sturdy and last me a long, long time.

Longwool sheep do not produce the softest fiber in the world, but I knew that before I started. I love the rustic wool they produce just the same. It has more character than the Merino I've been working with, and it's a really welcome change! Also, this batch of stuff is pretty soft, as Longwools go. I will not end up with Brillo Yarn, as I did with some gray Cotswold I overspun a few years ago. (Hubby got that pair of socks, and actually loves them because they are so springy underfoot!)

Oh, and because this particular color is a limited run? Of course, I ordered more today, and I am going to keep a close eye on Tabitha's shop.

What a perfect cure for Too Much Merino Syndrome!

Too Awesome Not To Share!

Fervently hoping it's OK to share this link, but it must be, since it was shared by the artist, on Facebook late last week.

I saw Timothy C. Holehouse play last year in Bethel, CT and Northampton, MA, respectively. He and my friend Malcolm were doing a little tour together, with Tim opening for Mal. I loved his rough acoustic blues, so when he posted his Soundcloud link this week, I was eager to check it out.

This is a total departure from what I heard him do in concert. It's all instrumental, with voice thrown in for a bit on a couple of tracks. Although there are words, the voice is just one little thread in the complex texture of the work. Each piece starts small, and builds...and builds.

The more I listen to it, the more I love it, and I rank it as high as my favorite Godspeed You! Black Emperor album, Yanqui U.X.O., and I am dying to listen to it in the dark, with headphones.

Tim intends to release this on vinyl as a double album, and is searching for a label. I mention this in case someone who might be able to help him happens to stumble on to this blog and read this post.

Everyone else, please settle back and relax for awhile, and treat yourself to a listen. I swear I hear something different every time I play it.

And I really have to plug in some headphones sometime tomorrow, and see what other details I might be missing by not listening that intimately...

Re My Long Absence

It has been hard to even think of anything to say here lately. So much has been happening that I don't even want to get into here, so I won't, except to say that it has been a total whirlwind since mid-February. During the weeks since then, my mother-in-law died, and my own mother finally lost her mind far enough to be placed in the nursing home. There are some health issues with my younger daughter, too, that have really sapped my energy and left me with little free time. At least the dust is finally settling -- or so it seems -- and I am turning my thoughts back to creating new stuff to put in my shop. I have also gotten back to contributing to the Phat Fiber sampler box.

The detail below is from my Delphic Oracle Scarf. 50 lucky people who happen to score Phat Fiber boxes over this weekend will receive a copy of the pattern, and just in case any of those 50 people feels inclined to knit the scarf, I custom-dyed some nice wool yarn to go with it. There are 7 skeins available, each containing 300 yards, which is a bit more than enough to knit the scarf if the pattern is knitted exactly as written.

I just washed the square and pinned it out, so the Bee depicted shows up better. I'm not usually into gold/yellow-orange, but I really love the way this yarn came out, and I like the way it works with the motif.

Business has been terribly slow, so I am contemplating a return to the work force at some point in the not-too-distant future. Where will I go? What will I do? Frankly, my dear, NOT into Retail, if I can possibly avoid it. Whatever I end up doing would, ideally, see me Making Something, and my boss would not turn out to be a psychopath.

Hmmm...I might be asking for too much...