New fibers!

I mentioned that I'd gotten a bunch of fiber in the mail recently, but just didn't have time to go into detail - I'm sure the suspense has just been killing everyone, and even more sure that the people who gifted me would like a public thank you!! So without further ado:

The first thing I received technically was a swap that I did with Heather/Snerknits in exchange for one of the extra ballwinders that had washed up in my BBE's sister's yard. We agreed on some DK weight silk yarn from Knit Knackers which is local to her.

So the trade went off without a hitch. I doofed out and sent the ballwinder UPS to her after she'd already sent the silk via Canada Post, but she still received the ballwinder days before her package got to me. (UPS vs. Canadian Post - UPS wins).

I'm very pleased with the picture that I finally chose to use Looks like some good yarn pr0n to me! You wouldn't believe how many pictures I've taken of this silk yarn - it's so hard to capture the true beauty of silk. My immediate thought when I saw the silk was that it should be blues and purples.

My son told me that there was a package waiting for me up at the main house where our mailboxes are, after I'd gotten home from work (it was the night that I got home about 9). The sun had long since set, and there are no street lights on the property where I live. It really helps that I've lived there long enough that I can find my way around in the dark. So I grabbed the package, and ripped it open on the way back to my place, reached my hand in, and felt something fuzzy - soft - and decidedly not silk. "Wow - she must have thrown some other fiber in there too!" I thought as I was walking back to the house. Yep - about 100 grams of a lovely white alpaca. There was a little note saying that she liked my dyeing and would be interested to see what I would do with it. So stay tuned!

Thanks so much Heather! I love the yarn, and I love the alpaca - I'll be sure to post about it when it makes it into my long list of projects that I'm actually working on.

Next up, I got a package from Jamie who is sadly blogless. She has sheep up in Northern California - I think of where I live as Northern California, but in reality I'm in about the halfway point. She e-mailed me a while back thinking maybe we were in fairly close proximity, and we've been e-mailing back and forth a bit. Anyway, she has sheep! And she's been processing the fiber. She told me that she'd put some up on-line to try to sell some of it. When I asked where (I might be in the market for some fiber) - she asked me for my address and told me she'd send me some! I received 4 lovely, beautifully prepared batts.

The brown is a Romney, and the white in the background is Suffolk. She calls them coarse fibers - and while it's certainly not soft soft soft stuff, it's exactly what I would expect of Romney and Suffolk. Nice crimp - crisp feel, no VM that I could see. Absolutely wonderful for beginning spinners. I know I'm certainly looking forward to using these to practice my long draw! Thanks Jamie! If anyone out there is interested, her ad is on the Spinners and Weavers Housecleaning pages - the 9/15 entry.

And last, but very certainly not least, I received an e-mail from Megan in Australia. Her blog is called Creative in Crookwell. I've seen her around on the Multidirectional list - she is actually knitting my ANGST top (link to pattern over in my sidebar). Not only is she knitting my pattern, she also raises sheep and angora goats.

She e-mailed me asking for my address so she could send me some fiber! Could have knocked me over with a feather with that! I told her I was gobsmacked - pleased, but gobsmacked, and not too much later another package arrived. And what was in it? Oh.My.Gosh - words just do not do justice! I didn't even take the fibers out of the bags to take the pictures, I don't want to risk anything untoward happening! On the left is a blend from her own animals that is so soft, I had a hard time telling the difference between the package on the right - which is another 4ozs or so of Optim. She says that she is thinking of trying to market the fiber from her animals. It is clean, it smells good, it is wonderfully prepared into a nice roving - and it is melt-in-your-mouth, to-die-for soft - I'm not kidding, it's amazing stuff!

Now for those of you not in the know, I've been raving about this Optim stuff since I got some from Chameleon Colorworks at the Lambtown festival. It's merino that has been stretched and chemically processed, it's soft it's shiny, oh my gosh is it lovely! She said in the lovely card that she sent that she had a bunch left over, and so was sending me some just because. Wow - I really am gobsmacked. I can't wait to get started on something for these two fibers!

My project is done, and I have my life back! I got home last night at a decent hour, and just knit a few rows on the cardigan - no real progress to show on that front yet - It sure is nice to knit with your own handspun!

Now for some pictures of prettiness....
A Day Lily from across the street at my work: