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March 13, 2006

Alpacas, Goats, Fiber, and Sock Yarn! Oh my!

My second secret pal gift came in this week! Two hanks of Koigu, a hank of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, and 2 hanks of Cascade 220!! Not to mention, the coolest personalized note cards! I seriously seem to get the greatest secret pals ever. Thank you so much!

Gifts!

I was trying to find a pattern for the bright colors of the Koigu, and Knitty's Crusoe is just perfect. I'm going to alter the heels and do an hourglass heel instead of a gusset just incase it ever wears out, I can buy some more Koigu and replace the heel.

Mariah is on hold for a bit. I've gotten so burned out on the sleeve. I'll have it done by fall, so no worries. I'm just really in a sock mood. I also don't think I'm going to knit a shawl in time to enter in the fair. The plan right now is to eneter the shaped triangle and a hank of handspun.

Speaking of handspun... I did finish the sock yarn I'd spun up.

I've been on a bit of a fiber frenzy. I ordered a pound of tussah silk from eBay, and it's just wonderful. I'd played with Bombyx silk before, but never again. Tussah is just so much easier. I spun a bit on my spindle and it was love.

I can't wait to dye this stuff!


I have a new found love: Angora goats. Last week, we ventured out to Keonig Farm in Springfield. Like the instructions said, I did call ahead to make sure they were open. Since they knew we were coming, Kathy and Mark, the owners, prepared a bag of treats for us to feed the goats. The goats were so cute and soft.

Kathy then gave us a tour of the spinnery. It was really interesting. At least if you're a yarn geek!

The carder

The spinning machine

The skein winder

We also saw alpacas this week. Unlike last year, ths time we were armed with cameras. Of course, without the flash, the pictures are bit blurred. While most alpacas are pretty skittish, we met a few that gave kisses.

How can you not love these fuzzy critters??

Posted by Holly at 10:49 AM | Comments (2)