Another photo feast
G'day all!
I am amazingly behind on my pics. Let's have a look at what I got from last week's S E X.
100g of merino/soysilk blend to dye and spin or spin and dye or whatever, whenever:
Some silvery mohair locks - obviously to play with in spinning but I don't know what I'll do with them, there was just a big fistful for $3 so I bought them:
50g of merino and flax in my favourite sort of colourway - lots of colours and all pretty! I've never spun anything with flax before so it should be interesting.
100g of Wensleydale in the same colourway as above.
This Wensleydale is quite coarse especially compared to the merino and polwarth I am used to spinning. It is coarser than the corridale I've spun and about the same as the other umm erp, golly, forgotten what it is... something that felt a bit wiry to someone who spins with merino mostly.
Some stuff I am assured is natural rayon - I thought it would be fun to play with, maybe cut up and spin up into some stuff that I then can dye. Rayon is a plant fibre, so it shouldn't take protein dyes. This could be lots of fun.
And some royal purple rayon. The two hanks cost $10 - not bad for a new toy to play with!
The piece de resistance - 250g of lurid magic merino for me to split into component colours and blend and create even more stripey stuff (I don't want all the colours to blend together in plying - it will go muddy I think):
I was quite good, you'll have to say, considering there were all sorts of yummy things for sale. I just have to be good at present cos I know that I am going to have to move soon and if we don't have a place to move things to it will be going into storage.
We looked at one place yesterday. It was quite nice, though the mold on the 2nd bedroom window is not good and the place seemed a bit damp overall - the wallpaper was curling at the edges. Plus the last people smoked inside. We'll keep looking around. We have plenty of time as long as Nathan's parents will put us up for a month (that is the current plan since we still want to go to NZ for a couple of weeks). We don't have plenty of time to get everything packed though.
Plus remember how I told you about the special thing we found in the greenhouse yesterday? Here she is:
I reckon she is pregnant cos her abdomen is quite large. Isn't she lovely? She's a huntsman. She's about 4" across. These big hairy spiders run around to catch their prey - they don't make webs (thank heavens cos walking through a web and getting *that* in your hair would totally freak me out). They sometimes come inside and clean up various bugs and stuff. I am quite happy to let them wander around the house but once they hit the bedroom, I get them on the broom and put them outside. Why? Well if they startle, they usually drop to the ground and run, and I don't want one startling above the bed and running all over me.
Finally I leave you with this. The other day Cheshire got a bit rough whilst playing with Nutmeg again. Nutmeg gets really upset and ends up holed up in some corner, and one of us usually comes and lets Cheshire know her behaviour is intolerable. Here's the proof that Cheshire did it again:
Yep, that is some of Nut's back fur stuck in Cheshire's chops. Doesn't she look quite pleased with herself, licking her nose? Hmm, I reckon I'll have me some more Nutmeg cos that last lot was yummy!
anon!
I am amazingly behind on my pics. Let's have a look at what I got from last week's S E X.
100g of merino/soysilk blend to dye and spin or spin and dye or whatever, whenever:
Some silvery mohair locks - obviously to play with in spinning but I don't know what I'll do with them, there was just a big fistful for $3 so I bought them:
50g of merino and flax in my favourite sort of colourway - lots of colours and all pretty! I've never spun anything with flax before so it should be interesting.
100g of Wensleydale in the same colourway as above.
This Wensleydale is quite coarse especially compared to the merino and polwarth I am used to spinning. It is coarser than the corridale I've spun and about the same as the other umm erp, golly, forgotten what it is... something that felt a bit wiry to someone who spins with merino mostly.
Some stuff I am assured is natural rayon - I thought it would be fun to play with, maybe cut up and spin up into some stuff that I then can dye. Rayon is a plant fibre, so it shouldn't take protein dyes. This could be lots of fun.
And some royal purple rayon. The two hanks cost $10 - not bad for a new toy to play with!
The piece de resistance - 250g of lurid magic merino for me to split into component colours and blend and create even more stripey stuff (I don't want all the colours to blend together in plying - it will go muddy I think):
I was quite good, you'll have to say, considering there were all sorts of yummy things for sale. I just have to be good at present cos I know that I am going to have to move soon and if we don't have a place to move things to it will be going into storage.
We looked at one place yesterday. It was quite nice, though the mold on the 2nd bedroom window is not good and the place seemed a bit damp overall - the wallpaper was curling at the edges. Plus the last people smoked inside. We'll keep looking around. We have plenty of time as long as Nathan's parents will put us up for a month (that is the current plan since we still want to go to NZ for a couple of weeks). We don't have plenty of time to get everything packed though.
Plus remember how I told you about the special thing we found in the greenhouse yesterday? Here she is:
I reckon she is pregnant cos her abdomen is quite large. Isn't she lovely? She's a huntsman. She's about 4" across. These big hairy spiders run around to catch their prey - they don't make webs (thank heavens cos walking through a web and getting *that* in your hair would totally freak me out). They sometimes come inside and clean up various bugs and stuff. I am quite happy to let them wander around the house but once they hit the bedroom, I get them on the broom and put them outside. Why? Well if they startle, they usually drop to the ground and run, and I don't want one startling above the bed and running all over me.
Finally I leave you with this. The other day Cheshire got a bit rough whilst playing with Nutmeg again. Nutmeg gets really upset and ends up holed up in some corner, and one of us usually comes and lets Cheshire know her behaviour is intolerable. Here's the proof that Cheshire did it again:
Yep, that is some of Nut's back fur stuck in Cheshire's chops. Doesn't she look quite pleased with herself, licking her nose? Hmm, I reckon I'll have me some more Nutmeg cos that last lot was yummy!
anon!
YUK! Lynne! I'm happy to say I haven't seen a huntsman spider since I left Oz 9 years ago to live in the UK so uuuummmm thanks! I've got a spider living in my window at the moment but he's less than a cm across sans legs. Much more my size! I love reading your blog its a little bit of home for me. Good luck with your househunting.
ReplyDeleteSue
WOW spiders like that freak me out. This week alone I have personally encounted 6 live spiders of various forms. It must be breading season here in NSW. Thank god I've got a man to get rid of them.
ReplyDeleteOh I just love the yarns you have. All my fav colours.
holy crap, those travel plans to australia & NZ? not sure about them now that i've seen that spider. i have a completely irrational fear of the little beasties. it's pretty silly, since there's only one (the brown recluse) in my area that could potentially do some harm to me. but omg if i saw that sucker i would either faint or run screaming the other way. not much gives me the heebie jeebies, but bugs and spiders especially, eek!
ReplyDeleteanyway, enough about my phobias! that roving looks lovely! that merino and soy silk sounds really cool. i just purchased some South West TC Karaoke, which is a wool soy silk blend, for a friend, and it feels very soft. the colors in the last one really look good together.
Now sheesh ... I feel wimpy about my 2-inch spider run-in a spell back!!! Although she is beautiful really!
ReplyDeletewhat a beautiful spider! our garden spiders can get that big, and they do webs that would be disasterous to walk through, but they are a vivid black/green and yellow, so they aren't hard to miss. i miss them since they don't like city life much. my brother hated them, lol, and would shoot them with his beebee gun.
ReplyDeletethe wool is just delish! and that purple rayon! who would cut it up! i would use it as is! wow!
Baby huntsmen. That brings back memories. It was a dark and stormy night. We turned out the lights to watch the lightning show. We felt things falling on us. Turned on the lights. The ceiling was corner to corner baby huntsmen. A gazillion of them, with some falling due to the overcrowding. I didn't scream, I sprayed.
ReplyDeleteAll that fiber is gorgeous. You always pick such bright colors!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you do kill the huntsmans, they seem like really awesome spiders even though spiders sort of creep me out. I try not to let my irrational fear of them get the better of me and I usually will put them outside instead of stomp on them!