Obsession du Jour

Still flashing back.

Hey - remember SPA?    Remember how I promised pictures of the haul?  Don't you just love how we drag crap out here at Chez Obsession?

So......you should know before we start that I, like many others, fell down in the Spunky Eclectic booth (Check out the new SHOP!!!!).  Not as hard as some, but definitely harder than I should have.   

First up - One pound of this:

It was part of a two pound bag that Ms. Blues and I split.  I know.  Can you believe I let her live to walk away with any of this at all, let alone another whole pound?  It was a near thing, let me tell you, and a testament to what a lovely woman she is that she wasn't pounced upon and beaten until she cried uncle and handed over the whole bag..

Then it was mostly just bits-o-this and bits-o-that:

Thrummed mitten kit in 'Nova Scotia' for the husband.  I have finally concluded that the only way to keep the him from dying of exposure is to protect his vulnerable extremeties, and it just doesn't get any better than thrummed mittens to keep out the chill.  Except maybe for this, which may well be my ace-in-the-hole in the great annual 'battle of the thermostat' in our house.  Now, there are those of you out there that have JUST made an indecent jump in your minds about other items that could be thrummed to protect extremities, aren't there?   You know who you are.

Ah.....Sangria. I may not be able to drink it right now, but I can spin it.  Merino\silk blend.  Heart-stoppingly beautiful, especially on the requisite new member of the family:

Kundert spindle in Walnut, Bird's Eye Maple, and Ironwood.  Me likee.  A lot.  It's my new spindle boyfriend.  Joined in this shot, BTW, with one of Judy's new wrist distaffs, er..distaves?  How does that work? Anyway, I got all 'Dear-in-the-headlights' in the beauty that was the booth shared by Judy and Kim, and everytime I walked over there to buy anything, I kept getting all frustrated about what I should get, so I compromised and got a distaff to save myself the trauma of trying to choose between a booth full of yarns that ALL needed to go home with me.  If you don't yet know about either Judy or Kim's astonishingly gorgeous hand-dyed yarns, go now.  Quickly.  Before I change my mind and take down the links.

And then there's Grafton Fibers.  I'm sure I don't even have to talk about the amazing stuff that comes out of her studio, but know that I'm such a sucker for it that I am restricted to ONE batt per event.  ONE.  It is a strictly controlled thing that is allowed no exceptions, lest it get out of hand.  So which one batt did I get at SPA? 

Yeah.  That's right.  There are, or WERE, two of them.   I did, I got TWO batts.   I'm sorry S., I was weak.  And it DID almost lead to disaster, because at one point there were SIX of them in my arms.  Yet another close call in the world of stash management and self-discipline.

Dear UPS lady:

I realize that this summer of constant deliveries continues to bring us closer and closer together, and I appreciate your determination and loyalty in geting my packages to me no matter how terrible the weather or how busy your schedule.  I am also quite fond of the sound of your lovely truck trundling towards my door in a warm rumble of cheery engine growl.  It doesn't hurt either that you are young, spunky, and cute.  Nor does it hurt that what I have seen of your tattoos only makes me want to see, er, more of 'them'.  However, as much as I love all of this, the humor in your eyes as you delivered this latest example of my fiber debauchery is the final straw on the proverbial camel's back pitching me head over heels into full-on crush, and do you know why?

**

Because it means that you KNOW.  That you have read the shippers' labels on these shipments,  you have recognized their names, AND you have deduced what's in the boxes. If that weren't enough to make me love you, it also means that not only do you know, it AMUSES YOU.

I think you may well be perfect.

----------------------------

**Chris Hall Montadale ewe from CT S&W just home from Twist of Fate spinnery in CT.  So lovely.  So creamy white.  The heart flutters.

There's a story...

...of a lovely Shetland.....hey - y'all remember Stewart, right?  Stewart the mystery Shetland from Maple Ridge?  He's back! That will mean less to you because I never told you he'd left, but he did.  He went off to a nice wool spa out in Michigan for a few weeks.  He's feeling much, much better now, thanks.

See, I had this unbelievably stinky Stewart fleece** and a CVM named Hershey, and both were turning out to be problem chidren this spring.  Stewart whith his rottiness, and Hershey with his stickiness (and maybe also his shortiness, but I don't want to make him feel bad).   I washed that fleece over and over and over again, and just could NOT get him to give up his greese, no matter how aggressive I was with the detergent.  Also, his staple length ended up being more like 1 1/2"-2" rather than the 2"-3" I had somehow imagined, and that's just shorter than I wanted to deal with.  So, I dropped them at Zeilingers' booth at NHS&W, and asked them to blend the two fleeces for me.  I thought it would be a fun experiment to blend the two to get the length and luster of Stewart (aprox 4 lbs, white), and the SPROING of the CVM (just over a pound of dark chocolate).

Here's some Stewart after having been washed and hand-flicked:

And one of the sample spins (yes, it's true, I've been chasing the goal of consistent laceweight this spring.  just....because.):

And here's a sample of Hershey by himself:

I have to admit that the combination of short staple and still-greasy-when-spinning kind of made me want to set my wheel alight. Thank heavens Stewart came along.

And here is what they look like together:

Ain't it purty?  3-ply. Light worsted. Springy. Glorious.  Absolutely glorious. In real life it looks a little like ice-frosted caramel.

Unspun:

There's this much of it, and it's beautifully processed:

Now, if you were roughly 5 pounds of a fawn-colored CVM/Shetland blend, what would you want to grow up to be?

.

.

.

.

**Note: I'd like to poin out that I don't think that it was in any way MRSF's fault that this fleece was so disgusting. It was actually no dirtier than other fleeces I've process, and definitely cleaner than some I've bought.  However, we had a biblically damp spring here in NE, and the normal barnyard smell of a fleece that has been put up even the slightest bit damp for even the shortest time possible is magnified exponentially. Don't get me wrong, I love a good 'barn-y' fleece, but this thing was just......awful, and I was afraid that the wool might actually begin to decompose (if it hadn't already) before I could process it all myself.  Plus, did I mention that it STANK?

Quick!

In about 20 minutes we're off to Vermont for wedding number, I don't know, 1247?  In this, the summer of 5,000 weddings, but I couldn't leave without flashing some of the evidence of this weekend's Fiber Madness.  Seriously, 20 minutes.  Sadly, I am once again - even though I know the excuses are starting to wear thin - just going to abdicate to other's far, far better descriptions of this event.  You can go here, here, here, here, here (oh man, you have GOT to scroll down and see Laurie's new sweater.  Simply stunning.), here (yes, same blog, different post, because Julia's purchase deserved a post of it's own), here, here, here and also here.  And that's just the start, because we would not take 'Rain out' as an answer.  So THERE Mother Nature!  Take THAT!  You can flood our festivals and our barns and our basements (and oh man, did she ever flood mine), but you can NOT keep us away from our fellow Fiber Freaks.  Nor, apparently can even the threat of biblical flooding keep me from buying fleeces.  'Cuz y'all know how close I am to running out of fiber in my house, right?

Meet Tuck:

Tuck is a beautiful Shetland Ewe.  I met her at the fleece judging and we decided that she should come home with me.

And then there's this Corriedale guy:

To be perfectly honest, I never found out his name.  He was just this incredibly beautiful, cheap, sexy, bad boy who was a little rough around the edges and a little dirty to boot.  I found him hanging out in a corner, brooding.  The only thing he was lacking was the cigarettes rolled up in his sleeve and a motorcycle. Admit it, you'd have taken him home too. No questions asked.  Well, one.  Believe it or not, I asked for a sanity check.  From Mamacate.  I know.  It's hysterical now, but it seemed perfectly normal reasonable at the time.

Other than these two fleeces, it was apparently, the year of the silk.  Hell, even the yarn I bought had silk in it:

Clockwise from top:
1&2 - Handpainted silk top and hand dyed silk hankies from Robin Russo, who was giving the silk reeling demos in one of the barns. 
3 - Handpainted silk caps from Ellen's Half Pint Farms.
4 - Handpainted silk rovings by the folks at Chasing Rainbows via Morgaine (who else would giver their eye teeth to be able to have that name AND have it be fitting? love her.) at Carolina Homespun.
5 - Sapphire (and I'm not kidding about the color either, DEEEP sapphire blue) cormo silk blend from Foxfire Farms.  Yes, of the cashmere silk fame.  Note please that I did NOT break down and get the cashmere?  No, I have no idea why either.

And from the category "Surely you made that just for me?!?!?!"

Rambouillet/Corrie/Finn handpaint bump from Spinner's Hill.  I have no idea what she calls this colorway, but I'm going to call it Hot Rod because it has the EXACT color progression and intensity of perfectly painted flames on a black hot rod.  I bought the whole 1 1/4 lb. bump.  I had too. Just look at it.

OK, I'm off!  Gotta go before I get in trouble.  Again. 

Riding in the car with me will be Klaralund, and this:

Then there was the yarn.

I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow in all of last week's excitement, I forgot to make note of the yarn purchases.  It's not a huge haul since I was mainly there for some Dorchester Farms yarn and to shop for combs - which, as you saw yesterday, have been purchased. 

Pretties:

Clockwise from bottom:
1.  Shaeffer Anne in a colorway I'm going to call 'Parrothead'.  Just because.
2.  Dorchester Farms sock yarn in caramel/forrest green/plum
3.  Gray\rust\green superwash roving from Dorchester Farms
4.  1350 yards black alpaca laceweight.  I couldn't leave it there but I have no real feeling for which pattern to make with it. Suggestions?  Anyone?

New on the needles: Klaralund in Berrocco Softwist.  Thanks to a trip to NH this weekend for a wedding, the back is done and one sleeve is 1/3 completed as well.

Did I mention that I was insane?

In the category 'like I need ANOTHER hole in my head':

Meet Stewart -- Stewart the Shetland from Maple Ridge Farm.   At least I assume it's Stewart.  I assume that to be true because Stewart's is the only fleece that I remember discussing with the lovely folks at MRSF.  I do not, however, remember actually BUYING Stewart's fleece, and yet here it sits in all it's stinky glory. The cats?  Also insane for stinky wool.  I'm starting to think it's some sort of communicable disease. One which has the power to affect a person's memory, much like the oft-storied 'yarn trance' disease.  I'm not even in the least bit joking or dissembling here, but I have NO MEMORY WHATSOEVER of buying this fleece. I AM waiting on a lovely fleece from an entirely different farm, one which I do clearly remember purchasing, but not this one.  I can't decide whether to be excited or scared that fleeces that I merely THINK about buying magically appear on my doorstep (what can Brown do for you?), though I guess it would be a tad more exciting if it didn't also 'magically' appear on my bank statement (which it did, I checked).   Here's another shot, this one from the top.

I think it's safe to say that it's a damned good thing I got these just over a week ago at CTS&W:

Beautiful Maple wool combs from The Wheel Thing, crafted by Alvin Ramer. (scroll down, they are billed as "Super Mini Combs", there's also a picture of Mr. Ramer at the bottom).  They're lovely, 2 pitch, and feel well balanced.  I haven't played around with a ton of combs, but I really dug the way these felt as I was playing around with them at the booth (carefully, these things are wicked shaaap).  It had been my intention to shop different combs for a couple of shows to see how different sets felt, but.....well.....if lovin' these was wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Fiber?  What fiber?  I don't see any fiber.  Of course there's no fiber. Hell, I just bought a fleece, remember?  What on earth would I do with MORE fiber?

What I did on my bloggy vacation - pt 1

I didn't set out to have a blogging vacation, but sometimes life just conspires to make us get out there and live it -- or work it, as the case may be, but we'll pretend that I was out having fun and not working 10-12 hour days.  You should also know that we're having technical difficulties here at Chez Obsession that stem from a dying router, an F'ed up cable modem, and a dramatic lack of the time needed to address those issues just now.  What that means to you is that I only have reliable, hassle-free net service at work (a workplace which, I might add, doesn't seem to understand the importance of a blogger's life) so if you've sent me email in the last few weeks and it seems to take forever to get an answer, I'm sorry.  All I can do is ask for patience as my net time is curtailed.  Blah, blah, blah...but what's been going on, you say? 

Well, in addition to a couple of crazy knitter gatherings (and I will second whoever it was that said that the $10 margarita at Cayote Cafe was SO worth every dime), there's been some more of this:

Yep, it's all fun, all the time here in the DMZ.  In this case, we are toning down the brazeness of the radiators on the 1st floor by painting them 'Ballroom Gold' intead of 'Two-Bit-Whorehouse Brass'.  I'm always a little surprised by how much something SO FREAKING MINOR in this process pays off in a really big way, even if one can't quite figure out what exactly has been changed from one visit to the next.  Here's where I'd normally launch into a poetic 'Ode to the Little Anal Retentive Details', but I'm talking to a band of knitters, so...y'all know, don't you?  So I'll spare you the iambic pentameter and move on to something I know you'll care more about.

Cheap yarn.  Some disassembly required.

During one of our (far too regular) trips to Goodwill recently, I discovered 'Dollar Days' in the sweater section.  I KNOW! A dollar per sweater!  So even though we were on our way to meet some folks for dinner, I gave the boy a crash course in how to shop for yarn (in sweater form) and essentially shoved him face first into one of the 4 racks of sweaters.  Four.Racks.Of.Sweaters.  Wheeeeeee! These are the six pieces that we found in the 15 minutes we allotted to the task, and that's not counting the two that I found for actual wear.  Clockwise from top left:
1. Black, super-soft, heavy-worsted merino cropped sweater.
2. Powder blue light worsted lambswool. Soft & fabulous.  This is a kid's sweater, so there won't be enough for an actual sweater (plus, baby blue...not my color) but it CAN be used for some sort of accessory(ies).
3. Burgandy, amazingly soft, heavy worsted cotton sweater.  Yep.  Cotton.  Not because I'll knit with it, but because this will make a FANTASTIC crocheted throw.  Yes, crochet.  Breathe.  Relax.  It's fine, really.  Don't run from the crochet.  It's good, clean fun.
4. Kelly-ish green tweed, sport weight, silk/wool blend.  A women's size large TUNIC sweater's worth of wool/silk tweed.....for a BUCK people. ONE DOLLAR.  I was so excited I could've peed my pants.  I should maybe get out more.
5. Oh baby - juicy, limey goodness...*ahem*.  Lime green, sport weight, lambswool/angora blend.  Yup, another LG tunic.  Angora....*sigh*  Is anyone else out there checking to see what time their local Goodwill opens today?
6.  This last one is actually a bit of a dilemma for me.  It's a truly lovely smoky plum, sport weight, 100% silk, 3x3 rib, classic sweater.  I am having the hardest time trying to decide whether to wear it or recycle it.  It's such a great sweater, but it's a color I almost never wear, and the yarn isn't like any silk I've ever felt before.  It's very 'springy' and soft, and it has a phenomenal luster without being 'shiny' and seems like it would be quite sensuous and lovely to knit with. So this one's fate is still undecided.  Knit or wear? Knit or wear?

$6 and 15 minutes.....totally worth it.

Next time.....Rogue, redesigned and the start of festival season.  What festivals?  Oh please...as IF.  But here's a hint:

On a warm spring day? Life just doesn't get any better than this.

P.S. Maryse?  You ROCK!!!  Look what Maryse made us!

Take it....pass it along....knit a bit for Mr Etherknitter and send out the BKM.

10,000 Socks

I've been sitting here for about 10 minutes trying to figure out some witty, original way to introduce The Stash That Ate Cincinnati™, but am apparently too exhausted by the photo shoot to think clearly or objectively.  Not that anyone really cares about anything but the yarn porn, so here it is. Clicky-click here to go to the photo album. 

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my photo stylist and yarn handler for all his hard work, I don't know what I would have done without his 'help'.  Here he is now, 'helping' me with my exposure settings in the light tent.

So helpful.

P.S.  It's really only 58 pairs of socks.  That's right, I said 'only' and '58' together.

P.P.S  For the people out there who will ask about the fiber (you know who you are), no.  Nuh uh.  No way, no how.  If only because it would not be in my, er, best interest to let the household get any sort of good idea of exactly how much wool is hidden stored in this house.  Hello?  Maryland.  I'm just sayin'.

Who rocks?

Yo, Kate! The Socks That Rock drawer.  Ask and ye shall receive.  That's my motto. 

Now it's your turn Kate...show us your sock yarn.  ;)

The good news is that this also keeps me from boring y'all to death with pictures of the half dozen Rogue swatches I've knit in the last week.  More on that drama later.

Random Fiber Porn

Ah, Rowan.... 

I worked SO hard to simply keep this crack out of my hands/house/life, blissfully ignoring it's seductive siren call by filling my ears with the sounds of sock yarn, but it was not to be.  Apparently, Rowan knows the power of the Kid Silk Haze, and so, with this year's subscription, the Siren comes home with me.  Let's just pray that it goes better for me than it did for all those lonely sailors.

And for Kellie, all the way in Melbourne, who wanted to know what was in Leon's perch:

Yes indeed, the boy loves his luxury.  This would be the Artyarns drawer.  Did I mention that these cats are 'smarter than your av-e-rage bear'? 

Also, in going through the camera, I'm realizing that somehow there'are a few more things on it that never actually made it into the blog.  I'm just going to throw it all in here now and consider myself caught up. 

This is Roy the Romney lamb.

Some of you may remember Roy as the stanky little lamb fleece from NHS&W that got sent off to Wooly Knob fiber mill for some 'spa' time. All I can say about that decision is HUZZAH!  They did a marvelous job with this fleece, really spectacular, and the service was stellar.  Love these guys.  And I love this little lamb's roving.  So.Soft!  This was not the best light, but it's a very dark, very slightly heathered, natural black fleece with a very nice luster.  99% of the vegetable matter (and there was plenty) is gone, and though it appears that Roy had a little bit of dandruff that has lasted into the roving, it is all falling out either as it's spun or as the skeins get washed.  So I basically don't care about it.  My original intention was to spin this up for Rogue, but it's so soft (and did I mention black?) that I'm not sure it will ever be able to show off the cables like I would want, so I think it will need to be something else.

In an effort to reduce the already too long nature of this post, here are the photos of the most recent updates to the 'Completed Obsessions' album, where you can find all of the pertinent details for each item.

Reversible Cable Scarf in Berrocco Pleasure

MIL Christmas Socks in Cascade 220 Superwash

Snake Scarf in Morehouse Farms Merino

Side to side scarf in Lion Thick-n-Quick