Alpaca-Merino

In my cleaning up after the flood, I found this bag of some alpaca-merino blend. I had completely forgotten about it. I can't remember where I got it, but it appears to be from a farm that no longer produces alpaca fibres.

It sure does feel yummy!! So I had to spin it up! I used my wheel for this, since I felt guilty that it was being neglected. It wanted to be spun fine, of course, so I just let it. I filled one bobbin, and then another. When it came time to ply, I put them on my lazy kate, only to realize that they were different shades. That is, one ball was noticeably darker than the other. I could clearly see the difference! But it all came from the same roving. The only thing it could be was it was not uniformly blended, and there were some darker fibres at one end.

As I plied, I could see the barber-pole effect. I didn't like this at all! I was still so shocked to see that there was this much of a difference in one roving! I didn't realize it could happen like this.  But I continued on.

When it was all done, and I wound my skein, I thought there is some of it missing. Surely, I must have had more. It seems so little to come from this bag. I haven't weighed it, but I think I had perhaps 225 gm... but I don't know for sure. After I washed the skein, the colours seem to have subdued somewhat, and it looks alright. There is a slight difference which only seems to add some dimension to an otherwise plain skein of alpaca. It's not too bad after all. I wish there was more, although I think I have quite a bit of metres out of this one. I still am not sure what I will do with it, but as I was spinning and plying, it seemed to be telling me it wanted to be a shawl of some kind, and in lace naturally. Shall wait and see what becomes of this. In the meantime, here's a pic of this new skein in my collection.

OUCH!!

Last night, I had heated up some oil in my nice cast iron frying pan, and had sliced up some potatoes. Then I dropped them into the pan, but it was too hot, and they splattered. I got caught with my hand a little too close, and one finger got burned with hot oil. Yes, it hurt!!

I ran some cold water to cool it off (and not hurt so much) and then I sprayed it with salt water. For some reason, I find that the salt water seems to allow my skin to heal faster. I repeated it several times during the next couple hours, until it stopped hurting, and then went to bed.

By morning, this is what I had!

I'm trying to be really careful that I don't accidentally knock my finger against something, and break it. I will let it stay this way for as long as I can, and then maybe drain it, and cover it. I may sprinkle some cayenne pepper on it before I wrap it up. That seems to really speed healing of minor skin scrapes and cuts. And no, it doesn't burn when you put in on a cut! I've used that many times, and always am amazed at how fast it heals up with barely any scar at all.

Oh, yes, I've been spinning too. I have some pics and will post them later on. I seem to be spinning faster than I can take photos to post here! But I have to keep busy, you know. Otherwise, --- well, you never know what I might get into!!