Yarnivorous

G'day all! I got my latest Socks That Rock club installment yesterday. Can I just say this is the only one this year that I've gone OMG, I MUST knit these socks! Others are nice but these? Already on the needles... Can I also say that they are evil evil b@stards too? In the bag with the yarn, I saw a spider. A plastic spider. Yeah yeah, whatever. After all Halloween is coming up and spiders (fake and real) and booglies are everywhere here. (They are trying to find warm places for winter. As long as the spider is not a black widow/katipo/red back, I mostly let them live, or shove them outside.) So I put my hand into the bag to grab the most droolsome yarn, a different spider wriggled in a most life-like way. I nearly hit the roof! LOL I would show you a picture but I most foolishly upgraded my computer last weekend. I didn't realise that the new version had only been released that day. What a STUPID idea! Whose dumb idea was that? I had hoped it would fix some...

G'day all! Beautiful weather these last three days. I've been out and about a bit. But that is not what I want to talk about! Actually I don't know what I want to talk about. I have no plan at all. I've been spinning so much that I could hardly walk up or down the stairs today - I have a double treadle wheel but one leg obviously was taking the strain. I have stuff to destash - even though we've only been here for a little while I have already managed to accumulate stuff I know I won't use in the short or even medium term, so it should move on (eg all the recycled angora yarn that I won't need to use now that we are moving to San Jose, assuming the visas come through). I have an FO I still need to have a photoshoot of. I have an almost FO that I need to frog back to make longer. The Mystery Object is continuing and looks totally bizarre at present. I have to show of my new slipper too - there's only one yet, but the second one will have pics tak...

G'day all! What on earth is this weird thing? And what could this be the start of? A hint on the latter. It has two strands held together, one of sock yarn and one of in my version a recycled angora yarn: It is cold here today. We had a humdinger of a change come through - yesterday got to about 28C, today it reached six degrees Celsius, and is heading rapidly for 0C and below. Our first proper freeze! What is it? As it is cold, I am glad I am really getting moving on the cold weather gear. This picture helps out a bit with working out what the grey thing in the first photo is. Yep, it is a face mask/neck warmer/whatever for wearing whilst riding the bike. This one is for Nathan and is too big for me cos it has to go over his beard. I've tried it out and it really made a difference. It is made out of cashmere. How on earth can someone with my budget afford cashmere? Recycled cashmere from a thrift shop sweater (or in Oz parlance an op shop jumper) costs say $5 for th...

G'day all! Feeling very jealous of all those off to have fun at Rhinebeck. I'm not amongst them! Mebbe next year.... So I shall enthrall you with pics from the fibre festival at Taos. Taos is host to a festival with probably about 60 vendors. Not all of them deal in fleece and yarn - some are weavers, some have ready made knitted or felted articles or sheepskins and so on. IMO there are too many alpaca and llama shepherds, but that is because I am jealous! I am allergic to those camelids, yep the ones that are hypoallergenic! (It isn't the first time I've come out in a rash to hypoallergenic stuff - I can't use Neutrogena for example.) So whilst various bloggers are pushing their way through the crowds at Rhinebeck, I give you pictures to reflect upon at Taos: (The tent on the left is the one where I did the most damage...) I actually had to say, "Excuse me!" to someone at one point when I had to shove past them to get into a tent! The worst traffi...

G'day all! Here's a question for all those who have got Kauni yarn and/or made a cardi from it. How soft is the yarn? Y'see with my hoped for tax return, I want to buy me some Kauni yarn for my birthday. However, I am one of these people who has difficulty wearing the softest, finest merino next to my skin. Anything the slightest bit prickly has to be worn over two layers, not just one. Anyone got a little bit (of Kauni) they could send me? Just offcuts/scraps? I am one of those people who gets an idea of how wearable a yarn is by rubbing it against my neck. My neck will prickle to most wools, especially if I am sweaty. Too much information? I have a small FO to show off, when I get organised and get pics of it. It is nice and warm. Mmmmm. Warm. I've spend the last two afternoons riding around Fort Collins with the bike trailer hitched up, buying LOTS of groceries. I sorta went berserk yesterday at Vitamin Cottage cos they have a big range of different gluten...

G'day all! The stress continues here in Fort Collins. The other job offer is proceeding and they are trying to get us into a visa interview ASAP. To do the visa interview, we have to leave the US. This means Mexico or Canada. Much as I would like to go to Canada, the wait is 43 days for an interview whilst in Mexico it is 2 days. DH has been inspiring me with stories of this particular town in Mexico, so looks like we will be going to Toronto instead. We know people who live just outside To, and I "know" some bloggers who live in To. If we go to Toronto, we are unlikely to leave until after Christmas as Nathan's parents are coming here and then to Toronto around Christmas, so maybe their plans change again.... If all goes well, the new job wants Nathan to start early in the New Year. So to distract ourselves from fussing, let's look at goodies. The goodies I got at Taos. An ounce of polypay top. We don't have polypay in Oz. And some cormo (*American*...

G'day all! We are still in a panic here. We have no information about anything. In response to possible impending poverty, I am going to list some stuff on my yarnivorous pages over the next week, see if I can raise a bit of cash that way. Stuff is still for sale there! There will be more, probably including fleece that I have bought (can't sell stuff I've been given, that is rude!). I am processing a shetland fleece I bought at Taos at this instant. It is soaking in a hot shampooey wash. Then I can flick it out. By the time I am done it and two other fleeces should be fine to send to Australia or anywhere else that has very strict quarantine laws. I figure that it is not illegal for me to sell stuff I've bought - it isn't work if I sell my own possessions! There'll be all sorts of stuff, including yarn that I've reclaimed from sweaters and overdyed. I will return with pics of our travels - they will be on the Colorado Dreaming blog - and pics of wh...

G'day all! Just driven to Taos and back. It was a bit of a drive but we enjoyed it! Thank heavens the wool festival is "small" and well populated by alpaca (which I can't handle due to weird allergy stuff). Otherwise I would've blown the budget for the rest of the week, not just the weekend budget! I really like eating so just as well I didn't buy more! Can't show you pics of the new stash, well not yet as I have not taken any. I didn't buy one skein of yarn - I figure I have plenty of yarn and prefer to make my own if I can. I did buy fleece. Mmmmm, lovely pretty fleece.... roll around in fleece.... I now have enough fleece to keep me quite busy for the next while. Oops :-) Back when I am not feeling cross-eyed and wobbly legged from driving on and off (mostly on) since 10am. anon!

G'day all! I while ago I had to join Flickr (I'm natiel3) so I could upload pics to Ravelry (where I'm yarnivorous). I've been putting more and more stuff onto Flickr, though I still use our server for blog pics. I figure that having two different servers acting as backup for my pics on my hard disk is probably a good idea. Anyway, I've been trawling around Flickr and came across various "partners" like Blurb . You can make books with Blurb. I seriously want to make a book of yarn p0rn and one of our pics from our travels, such has they have been, in Colorado. Blurb's bookmaking software is only available for Windoze and MacOs. Dangit! Anyone know of other bookmaking software? Particularly anything Linux-compatible? Speaking of yarn porn, here's some I bought recently Fleece Artist Sonoma. It arrived in the yarn shop on the afternoon of the weekly knitty gathering and I saw it and grabbed it and walked around the shop with it for half an hou...

G'day all! Tuesdays are roast chicken night and knitty group at My Sister Knits. Yep, whilst I am not making it to the SnB at Catalyst on Mondays, I am dragging myself off to MSK on Tuesday nights. Y'see there is the added bonus of lots of yummy yarn there - coffee just doesn't do it for me as I detest anything bitter. I get to see what other people are making - currently lots of little cold weather things. Except for me. I hauled in my pinwheel jacket that I ripped back 10-odd cm the other day. After all, we all need a challenge and finishing TWO jackets in a week when one has 20cm of edging and the other the whole body to knit is a mild challenge.... Anyway, I am sooo glad I took my felted scarf with me. It was a random thing I got in a swap, and it is the bestest thing I got, apart from a sheepy mug. The nights here in Fort Collins are starting to get a little brisk and I am riding my bike in the dark, with lights of course! (What is it with people who put kiddie...