New Additions

Although last week tended to be pretty crappy, there was something that makes me smile -- a lot. I received a nice pile of fibres to play with. Well, I had to pay for it, but it came very quickly.

One of the girls in my class discovered a place in the US that was selling some punta wool. This is a breed that comes from Mexico, and we’ve used it in class. It’s quite nice and soft, long lustrous fibre which we blended with all manner of other fibres. So why not get some for myself to play with? Well, I looked at the site, and found a few more things that I might like to get my hands into: superwash merino, dyed superwash, dyed Cotswold, a spinning bell, a nice grey, some random roving … well, it went on and on, and by the time I tallied up my order, I knew this was out of hand! So I trimmed down to a few essentials, trying to stay under $100 – well, okay, just a little over that!

The order arrived very quickly. We expected a couple of weeks, but it was less than two weeks that it was here. Very good service from them. It flew over the border with no problem, with out duty charges, and only the US exchange is what really got us. So it cost me about $175 for 12 pounds of fibre. That should do me for awhile.

In fact, as soon as I got home that day (I picked it up from the classmate at noon -- thanks Sherry), carrying two large bags of loot, I had to spin up a small handful of the black and white roving, and because I like a 3-ply, I Navajo plied it. Then I had to knit it up too, to see if I could maintain that random colouring. I liked the effect. There was some blending of the black and white, but I think I will work harder at keeping them separate. I am thinking that a sweater for myself might just be in order.

I’ve already started spinning what was supposed to be the grey, although it does appear to be brown mixed with white. I quite like how it is working up, being quite soft and fine, and fairly long-stapled. I will also do it in a 3-ply, and this time am spinning up three bobbins. I’m trying for a uniform yarn this time, since there was some unevenness in the b&w that I did earlier.

All of it looks so very nice! I haven’t had a chance to get my hands into the rest of it yet. There is one bag of random odds and ends that looks interesting. There is a handful of red, and black, and white, and even some brown/gold roving in there too! I’m not sure what will become of it all, but I think I could make something out of it yet. Maybe it will join something I already have, or mix together into a project, or maybe I’ll have to get more of one that I really like to make up an item. Hmm, now that is a possibility too.