Pre-gaming

In further preparation for Tour de Fleece I have been trying to clear off my wheel and wrap up other projects in general. I finished off this skein.

Spinner's Hill 4.4oz/694 yds

Canned 17.5 jars of Mulberry Jam

I may never run out!

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Got 3 books from 2 of my favorite authors and read both the Neil Gaiman books within 20 hours. Working on Joyland now, but should finish it before the week is out.

Today I also managed to have time to groom my rabbits, no pictures of that. I will say that you should all thank your lucky stars I never went into Cosmetology.

Tour de Fleece 2013

It's almost that time of year again! Tour de Fleece will soon be upon us and spinners will once again take to their wheels to create beautiful yarn from fluffy tufts of fiber. I'm on 3 teams this year, Kromski, Spin Your Stash, and Tardis. I will also be posting my daily progress here.

Now I just need to decide what to spin. Here is what I've pulled from the stash.

From top left, Red Louet wool/silk 8oz, Blue/green/purple w/ bobbin Dancing Leaf Farms Mermaid probably about 6 oz left (started spinning this before last years tour and haven't gotten back to it, so this is going right back on the wheel as soon as I'm finished the last 2oz of what I'm working on). Pink 8oz from a sheep named Sparkleberry also from Dancing Leaf Farms, she is a 50% coopworth and 50% romney, the purple with green is Winterhaven Fiber Farms Falkland wool 3.5 oz in colorway wild violets, the large purpley ball on the left is some Coopermoose fiber, it's wool, that's all I remember. The whites, grays, and black in the middle are my luxury fiber blends, there is some merino/yak (left gray), silk/yak (right gray), merino/silk/yak (middle gray), merino/cashmere/silk (white), and alpaca/silk (black). Since I have such small quantities of each of these I'm going to do some plying together, not sure which with which yet. The braid is 4.1oz of mohair from Sheepish Creations that I have no recollection of buying what-so-ever! And lastly 4oz of Happy hippie Soy silk in colorway Age of Aquarius.

There is also 3lbs of fleece upstairs that is partially carded....

I think that's more than enough and I'm also aware that I am mildly delusional in thinking I can finish all this in a month. Might as well dream big though. And this would mean I could reduce the stash by 1 tote.

I think it's safe to say that I have officially reached SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy), maybe if I never bought anything ever again I could get through it all, but I don't see that happening. So, I shall boldly go forth into this Tour de Fleece with lofty aspirations and possibly a stiff drink.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think should be priority in the spinning pile.

Spinning along

Life has been really productive since returning from Italy. This past Sunday I had another fortuitous meeting and picked up some freelance graphic design and tattoo work from a local shop owner.

 I've quit smoking by using an Ego-v vapor cigarette. So I technically haven't stopped using nicotine, but that's not the part of the cigarette that kills you. My lungs already feel better. 

I have an appointment tomorrow to discuss design options for this new yarn partner.

Oh, and we're buying a house. It came up rather suddenly that we were able to do it, looked at a house the next day, put in an offer and the second offer was accepted on Sunday. The inspections should be done this week, but assuming all goes well we'll be making settlement in about 60 days. It'll be so nice to be building equity as apposed to paying rent. The house has been really wonderfully maintained and has everything we were looking for except hardwood floors and a fireplace, but we can work on that.

And a little spinning thrown in during my free time.

Top: 4oz Delly's Delight Batt purchased at Rhinebeck, 70% wool 30% angora

Bottom: 4oz Tempted roving 85% mixed BFL 15% tussah silk

The color is way off in this photo, but I am not going near the adobe creative suite if I can help it.

Caio

Italian

So we've established that I'm really bad with keeping up with the blog, I'm over it.

Italy can be summed up in one word, bellisimo!

This trip was the polar opposite of my last trip to Italy in 2007. Since it was for school it was go go go and my feet severely suffered for it. Saw all the standard touristy stuff, Vatican, Pantheon, too many churches to count, the Bourghese and Barbarini Galleries. There was weeping over the beauty of the art and the collected worship over thousands of years that has taken place. Unfortunately I don't have that many photos to show you because my phone was pick pocketed on the subway by some thieving gypsy children (luckily my plan was up and I was able to replace it for $1 when I got home, and I had set a passcode on it when I got there so they didn't have access to any of my info). I did take my iPad out with me 2 days after that, so here are a few shots from those days.

From the top, Villa d'Este which is a world heritage site, Haydrian's Villa built in the 1st century bc, The Ecstasy of St. Theresa by Bernini, and Hali and I at Villa d'Este.

On top of this being a well organized if not totally exhausting trip, the group was great. We pretty much spent all semester not talking to each other, in all fairness it was a ten am lecture class, so not much talking was involved in general, but I didn't expect us all to get along so well. It was a great time, there was bonding and definitely some lifelong friendships made. We are planning to do regular dinners and I would like to try and do a regular travel adventure with this group again, maybe a ounce a year thing. I figure I'll broach it at the first dinner and see what everyone thinks.

It was the best travel experience I've had to date and I can't wait to travel more. Now I just need to finish graduate school and win the lottery. 

Heard back from the woman I met last weekend and they want me to do a knit shell for a yarn that is coming out soon, hopefully meeting with her on Wednesday to discuss the details.

Oh, and we're buying a house...hopefully...first offer is on the table and we're waiting for them to counter offer. Keep your fingers crossed.