Dogs & Fleece

The advantage of doing the Goodie Bags was getting to see the samples as they came in. Carissa donated fluffs of alpaca fleece that she has gotten from a church member. She has a garage full of fleeces that she's selling. She had taken samples from a pretty black fleece and I knew what she was selling them for, but didn't want a whole fleece to clean and process. So I asked her if I could get a pound from the partial that was leftover from taking samples.

I now have a little over a pound of alpaca fleece from Magnolia. Taking pictures of it in the sunlight washes out the black making it look a muddy grey-brown. Bringing it inside and with four dogs in the house, some pointy noses and not so pointy ones just had to investigate this new interesting smell. I'd love to know what was going through Nickel and Cedi's minds while they had their faces buried in this new to them experience. Norbert's an old pro now and while he did shove his face in, didn't have to do as thorough of a job at smelling the whole thing.

Cedi buried up to her eyes in the fleece.

If I thought taking pictures of a black fleece was difficult, a black dog with his nose in it was such that I had to pull back so you could see there was a body! ;-)

Norbert also with his face up to his eyes in the fleece.

Nessa getting her chance to smell it, but not so interested.

Nessa would rather be here, talking to her fish. They come up and give her fishy kisses. I had filled the pond this morning so accidentally got the level a little full. She didn't have to bend over as far to get her kisses.

The early sounds of fall were in the air I noticed while I was out filling the pond and taking pictures. The local blue jays/birds (we have both) could be heard in the Hazelnut/Filbert orchard behind us as they were attempting to liberate nuts from their shells. Tap tap tap tap. Means also Nessa will be cruising the backyard for the nut bundles the birds drop. She loves her hazelnuts!

Weekend Houseguests

Wednesday is spinning day in this area. We meet-up at the local Grange and spin for a few hours and if so inclined continue at the Wednesday night meet-up. Yesterday I spun a 'mystery batt' that Tiggywinkleknits had gotten last year at OFFF from Barbara. It had sections of orange, red, white, sparkly red, sparkly gold. I found that it weighed about an ounce.

It's all spun up. While spinning it I found that the intense red and orange dyes wanted to share themselves with me and dyed my hands. ;-) It's still pretty stuff. The plan I think is to spin up the red and orange wensleydale I got from Stitchjones and ply them together. Here's the mystery single:


In other things 'orange' I checked on the peaches that I'm patiently waiting to ripen and found one had fallen to the ground earlier today. Picked one and had one fall while I was trying to find the best spot on the property to watch the Thunderbirds.


While in the backyard found that the wisteria back there is in bloom again. We have another one in the front yard wrapped around the first post along the doorway walk.


The houseguests arrived this afternoon. Their names are Cedi (means penny) and Nickel (aka 'the Yak' or 'the Yeti'). They're australian shepards owned by friend Greta. She's taking her other two dogs, Mellie (border collie) and Nano (border-jack) to a Flyball Tournament up in British Columbia. Their team is the Portland Tail Blazers. ;-)



Work continues on the Transverse Scarf and the Simple Yet Effective Scarf. Some web site design stuff. It's not going to be a quiet weekend with a house full of dogs and the Airshow going on. I have donations round up for the World Wide Spin in Public day coming in from Stitchjones, Abstract Fibers, the Cupcake Factory and Dicentra. Looking forward to September 19th!