Look who came home for dinner

Today Opera, Aunty Tink and I took a drive out to Olds College to have a look at the vendor area of the 'Handweavers, Spinners and Dyers of Alberta' annual conference. The vendor area in particular. (though we did take a tour of conference entries, and found some amazing - totally amazing - pieces of functional and non-functional fiber art)

We took a quick tour, and although there were some really awesome booths, noted that only 60% of who we might have expected to be there had actually made the trek. Jane Stafford? Treenway? Not present.

I didn't get too far before I found a purveyor of bison fiber. $12.00 an ounce, I kid you not. There was a great deal of Fleeceartist fiber and yarn there, and I am amazed to announce that only two hanks of merino/silk came home with me.

And then I saw it.

A secondhand Pat Green Triple Picker. Besides being dirty and having a couple of scratches on the upper deck, it's in perfect condition. It came with a grabbing tool of some sort, a leather bib, and the original padlock. However.. no instructions. I asked the lady for her best price, and after and hour of thought, she decided it was $450.00 cdn. I figured that was pretty good, overall, and so the triple picker became mine. I'm so excited.

I spent this afternoon cleaning it up and giving it a whirl and learned that the teeth were too close together. That turned out to be a really simple adjustment, and all is now well. The fiber I chose to test on it was wayyyyy too long, and although it was eventually picked, I would stick to teasing anything similar. I had an undyed lb. of kid mohair that I was absolutely tempted to pick, but decided that patience is a virtue after all. I'll wait.

So today turned out to be more exciting than I had ever anticipated, and I love my new tool.

A couple of poorly executed videos to give you a giggle:





Hey, know what else? I saw puppies. 3 days old. Too cute to register on the cute-o-meter.