Spin Autumn into February

I have been spinning the challenging pewter merino. It is in Top, yet the fibers are exceedingly short!  So, it is slow and frustrating going.  I will be much more careful of what I purchase from now on! Three spinners have urged me to return the product!

It has taken most of the enjoyment out of spinning.  To get through, I am listening to 'The Lovely Bones' read by the author as I spin.

Finally plied half of this fiber into what is an inviting yarn!  Surprise!  Worth all the effort! Yes, that is a local Widow-Maker near to my entry. I still haven't decided whether to weave it or knit, and then, which texture?  It will be a neck scarf for a man.

When this is finished, I will spin COLOR!  Ixchel Bunny's colorways of merino and angora.
In the past, I mentioned there should be rights of passage for  spinners and knitters.
Say, when one finishes the first wearable out of one's own handspun yarn.
Or, when one finishes their first lace project, successfully!

Will I ever get there?
I have woven a top, and worn it, knitted things and worn them.  Made knitted things for others out of my own homespun, yet, have still to make myself something from my own homespun!It may seem like a small challenge, but it will be my fiber challenge this year!

Now in the possession of a drum carder designed for the fine alpaca and angora I choose to work with, this may lead to the next step forward, an old dream of selling fine products for spinners!

Will my neck and shoulder injuries allow this?  Learning to accept and live in a certain degree of pain and restriction, to suffer for my fiber desires, is becoming a way of life.  How will I ever pull the beater on the loom, LO!?

Giants in The Earth Winter!

Evidence of Abundance!  White, sparkly abundance, that is.

We are having a Giants in The Earth Winter.  Rolvaag wrote my favorite book.

A Pioneer decides he can make one last trip to town for supplies before winter sets in.
He sets out, walking, as there are no indications of severe weather.
It begins to snow on his way home. This snow quickly becomes an intense blizzard!
He struggles on!  He cannot see, yet he manages to go directly towards the remote cabin where his wife is.  He dies in a snowbank. Later in the spring he is found, not far from his door!


This is the type of Blizzard we had this week in the Hilltowns!
I drove home into the hills with wet snow pelting into the headlights.
These flakes  had to be 1/4 to 1/2 inch, each!

The real fun was in the anticipation of this storm.  Some sources simply said snow starting Wednesday afternoon, continuing into Thursday.  Some sources said 6 to 12 inches.  Some said 4 to 6 inches, and yet others said 12 to 16 inches would come.  We did not know what to expect!

We did get app. 8 inches of heavy, wet snow! All on top of the 2 1/2 to 3 feet of white from recent storms. It looks like the interior of a mansion when the family goes away.  White sheets are pulled over the furniture!

                                   Much like in this photo of one of the four foot high stone walls.


Yet all this is nothing compared to a story I was told when I lived in Mt. Storm, West Virginia.

Drift laying against the Carriage House

A.B. Cosner, one of the influential old-timers, told me of a winter when the snow was so high, they dug a tunnel through it to cross the road.  He showed me a picture on the wall of the Restaurant.  This was no simple tunnel!  Adults were standing straight up in it, and it was wide enough for several people!

An evening before one of our snow storms.

Neighbors

Hello to you from Grass Hill Alpacas.  These animals are very friendly.

I have immersed myself in alpaca fiber, and Alpacas! 

I am acquainted with the folks at North East Alpacas in Whately, MA. 

Each Thanksgiving Weekend, they have open house.  Open it is.  You can be with the animals in the pen. Through the years, I have bought many fleeces from them.

Here I am discussing the weather with one fine animal! I would love to have this fleece this spring!

When they began, they were into white fleece. I am overjoyed they have many fine color fleece now. There is nothing like a cool, soft, fine color fleece of Alpaca. 

My friends talk about rolling in it!

Recently I finished washing some fine black.  Now I am washing Taylor, whose fleece is white to apricot toned, and of very long staple