I admit it, I'm a stalker

I've been crazy in love with Cormo for more than a year, and had myself the sweetest little hogget fleece (#750 to be exact) that I was sllllllowly (and I cannot stress that enough) flicking and spinning. I'd scoured it imperfectly, so the locks weren't intact, but it was still coming along well. Recently VikingMaid made me some combs, so man.. did the pace pick up. I combed the rest of the fleece, and it is now spun, plied and wet finished. It's dry even.. just hanging on my baker's rack in the kitchen. I have 5 matching skeins, and I have a couple of ideas, but right now all I want to do is squeeze it now and again.

(There will be no discussions relating to unmatched skeins, and I would appreciate that mathematically ept readers do not try to estimate the weight of discarded fiber. fyi: I have just invented 'ept', but there should be such a word to counter 'inept', don't you agree?)

Never in my life have I felt yarn so soft and bouncy. It defies description; honest.

The stalking thing started so innocently. I decided that I truly have too much fleece at the moment, and I need to deal with what I have on hand. That seems logical. Then I got the combs (speeding things up), and I got a Pat Green triple picker (hmmm.. so many ideas!), and, OK I admit it, my Visa card kindly bought me a Strauch Finest drumcarder (it's so thoughtful that way. I went into some kind of trance in the store, and before I knew it, the drumcarder was in the trunk. That would be the drumcarder that I cannot afford in any conceivable way, the drumcarder that I am actually quiet embarrassed about. THAT ONE)... phew.... where was I?

Yes,.. Eventually I thought.. gosh, wouldn't it be a nice thing to go look at the 2009 Cormo fleeces and see what all the lucky people are going to buy? And since I'm a 2008 customer, I'll have first dibs. Even tho.. you know.. I'm not going to buy one.

Strangely, no 2009's on the website. Not even one. I knew that everybody was shorn (you know these things when you read every word of someone's website 10 times, and have memorized the 'news' page), so maybe I just need to try another browser? Or.. you know, refresh 20 times a day? Just to look, you understand.

Seems natural that a person would just email Sue and see how things are, and you know, pass along all best wishes. While I'm writing, might as well ask about those fleeces, right?

Even though I'm not going to buy one. No way am I going to. For sure.

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.