Mwahahahaaha

So, insomnia strikes.

I have slept rather well this week so I suppose I'm due a bout, atleast it's tonight so I can early-bed tomorrow and be okay for work.

Aaaanyhoo, this week's been rather nice in spots.

Tuesday was good, if busy. First was my usual knit'n'knatter but that evening it was Valley Fibres, a local group of spinners/knitters/weavers/dyers/etc At this meeting I was due to collect my new wheel, carders and niddy noddy. Well I did!

Meet Ash:


I rubbed him down with some linseed oil so his wood was fed, oiled his axels and we got going! In just one day I finished carding and spun 95g of Jacob fleece, plied it, rinsed in the twist and.....



How cool is that? 141.6 yards (129.5 m) of plied jacob fleece, came out somewhere between aran and chunky so I'll knit it up on 5mm needles. Will make a great pair of really warm mitts.

I also spun up 50g of that huge bag of shetland I got 2 weekends ago, plied that and got it off the airer today. Lovely.

Ash and I had a little arguing first though, he'd worked a screw loose (who hasn't? ;) so the bobbin was completely out of line with the wheel and causing him to be a moody git. A little adjsuting and tightening and he spins like a dream.

I've listed my other one on Rav and Phoenix but no-one seems to want it. I *could* keep it but I think hubbie might be miffed. So if it's not been asked for by pay-day I shall hunt down some bits of leather and replace those on it, then it's be a fully working wheel rather than slubby-only.

Yes, today was the Todmorden Agricultural Show. I'd already e-mailed the organiser of the sheep section about fleece aquisition so we met and she introduced me to a couple of people. The first was demonstrating shearing and owns a farm up above the school and the second is up the road from us a fair bit. The latter gave me their number and apparently own "the best sheep in the area" and have permitted me to ring them to arrange collecting some fleeces so I shall be ringing them tomorrow evening to find out what they have then seeing what people want me to get and pass out from here, seems better than umpteen people visiting the farmers.

The shearing guy was great, he was shearing Mule/Tencel cross ewes who were pretty darn big and he just gave me a fleece, said to put a pound or two in the next charity pot I see as that's all the Wool Board would give him. So I've put £2 in the Sue Ryder Cancer Care pot in the Factory Shop and started washing my new fleece.

Raw Mule/Tencel fleece:


Some washed bits:


I can't get all the muck out without felting those bits so I'm hoping that between drying and carding those last little bits will fall out. As you can see, she was quite the dirty girly! I've got out my dog crate that I plan to use as a collapsible ferret display cage, lined the tray with a towel and put some mesh material over the top, excellent fleece-drying rack.

Not all the blue marker used has come out but it has distinctly shrunk! What was about a square foot of blue is now about 3" square so if I do decide to ditch it, certainly less need ditching.

So, yes, happy me.

My parents came to see us today. They didn't want to see the show but we did take them shopping, did a little in the Factory shop first. Dad got 3 pairs of shoes! He loves that shop, only place he can get shoes that are perfect for his size 13 wide UK feet so he took full advantage of their £15 a pair. Mum got a new work mug, a tray and some other bits and bobs, I got 12 silicon muffin cases (I'd rather wash those than bin lots of paper ones) and some folding plastic colanders, perfect for washing fleece! Then it was Lidl shopping, we got some juice, restocked the choccy supply (very important!) and some other little bits, convinced Mum to get some fairly traded coffee although she did still buy a jar of baby-killer coffee, she also got some wine and some little bottles for play-in-the-park back in Lancaster.

After that it was time to go home, have some choc-chip-choc-coated cake and coffee for the 'rents and generally sit and chat for a bit. Dad visited the ferrets, he does like to visit my pets :) They also brought an old suitcase wheel adapter thing that should make a great ferret-wheelchair with a little work so Thomas might be able to start working on those back legs.

After chatting it was off to Ridoy between here and Burnley. They are a *fantastic* Indian restaurant and my parents were won over after just the starters. Amazing food, not overpriced, decent amounts of meat and the sauces don't just flow off the plate. Also, if you order take-away you get a free bottle of wine instead of the usual bottle of Coke or whatever.

Yeah, good day. Hubbie was happy as he'd just sent off what he thought was a good job application, I was happy, David the ferret made so so so many kids' day and was completely zonked afters and seeing my parents was nice.

Now I'm off to post some fleece-washing queries on the fleece group I'm in on Rav.