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1/22/2008
heart/hate

I have a love/hate relationship with super-coiling my yarns. I love the concept of the yarns and I love the way they look when I'm finished. But I feel so wasteful. It sounds silly, I know. It's the same amount of fiber either way, but compressing a full bobbin that I would estimate has no less than 300 yards into 35 yards seems... unfair. Here's the result of the silk & alpaca fiber (which I already spun myself out of and went to buy more, and which is also currently for sale.) Doesn't it look like an abby-normal brain? Haha!

hs-kiltedyaksmen2

I would have had it done a few days ago, but I came down with some sort of super-duper allergy/bug at the beginning of the week that had me huddling under the covers with a box of Kleenex for most of the day Monday. Around 4 o'clock I started getting restless but still felt too crummy to do much, so I made some batts from mystery fiber that I got on sale. So anyway, the store has finally been updated with the stuff I've been meaning to post forever. Check it out.

 

Adam and I are feverishly working to get some major updates done to this website. The ultimate goal is to convert this site over to one that is mainly a store, and get a more sizeable inventory. (I will still keep a blog, though it will be secondary.) I will eventually be selling commercially manufactured yarns in addition to my own handspun/hand dyed stuff, and I'd also like to have items from other designers on consignment. (Though it will be a couple of months at least, go ahead and email me if you're interested: natasha@grittyknits.com)

I bought some great new fibers the other day at the White Rock Weaving Center. Some really great, lofty alpaca/silk roving, a bag of rainbow-dyed locks, and 8 ounces of yak. Ren & Stimpy fans, sing along now: "Our country reeks of trees; Our yaks are really large, and they smell like rotting beef carcasses..." Here's the yak blended with the alpaca/silk:
yakskein

Here's some (NON-handspun) baby llama drying in my shower:
babyllamadye

And here are my first and second attempts at spinning the uncarded locks. First, I spun blobs into natural merino roving to get the hang of it, and then I spun the rest of the bag into one giant furry skein (in rainbow order, of course):
rainbowlocks2

rainbowlocks

Let's see, what else... Adam and I saw Cloverfield today. I really liked it. The only complaint I have is that the shaky handheld camera work made me almost as queasy as I was after seeing the Blair Witch Project, so I wish I'd had my knitting with me to have something to look down at when I needed a break from looking at the screen. Sadly, my movie shawl, which I began knitting for this very purpose, has gotten too big to haul to the theater. It outgrew the purse I keep it in, and I must now finish it at home watching rented movies and tv. The most recent stripe was completed during... wait for it now... AMERICAN GLADIATORS. <head hangs in shame>