Oh Dear....

I am taking advantage of the long weekend to rearrange my fiber studio. I had initially intended to empty several boxes and then assemble the sewing table my Mom gave me when I moved. The former was accomplished successfully. The latter was not. You see, my evil plan included assembling the table and then placing my stash of storage bins under and on top of said table. Except that the table would actually obstruct more or the room than the bins by themselves. So I shampooed the carpet under the bins and will put them back in their places in the morning.

While I was at this mass reorganization, I happened to inventory my fleece stash. I had always thought I had seven fleeces. It would seem I was mistaken. I have thirteen fleeces and that doesn't count the two fleeces that I have put in the garden as mulch/compost. This includes four fantastic Coopworth fleeces from Hidden Valley Farm. I started collected the gray fleeces (one dark, one light and one medium) when I had considered weaving myself a Lord of the Rings replica cloak. Soon after purchasing the first two gray fleeces, I changed my mind about this but didn't let that get in the way of purchasing additional fleeces.

The rest of the fleece collection includes two dark gray Shetland fleeces, one white Shetland fleece, a dark gray fleece labelled "Munchkin", two fine wool crossbred fleeces (at least part Border Leicester)from Cascade Sheep and Wool, one medium cream colored fleece with some veggie matter in it, one steel gray coarse and curly fleece and two Romney cross fleeces I bought from some 4-H kids (mild to moderate veggie matter and possibly slightly felted from storage). I really ought to send some of these things out for processing, though what I'd be most likely to send are the very fleeces that I'd rather play with myself--the Coopworths.

So here's my question: why is it that the sheep's fleeces apparently multiplied but I still have the same 4 ounces of angora rabbit fur that I started with? Shouldn't it be the bunny that reproduced?


Spinning Progress
I plied up a bobbin of worsted weight merino three-ply on Friday night. I could probably get another bobbin plied tomorrow after work. Once the singles are all plied, I will start in on the Autumn Leaves roving for a change from the plain white merino. I might get enough yarn from the Autumn Leaves to make a vest. If I could remember which issue of Knitters' magazine the On the Point vest was in, I might consider adapting that pattern to use this yarn.

Speaking of yarn, I found where I'd stored all my handspun. I have enough gray Romney worsted weight to make a aran vest. I don't know if I have enough of the merino worsted weight to do much with yet. There are also the two skeins of lumpy bumpy stuff I made when I first started spinning. It might make a good hat, but I haven't even tried yet.

Knitting Progress
I re-knit the toes of a pair of Socka socks this weekend. It's getting chilly enough in the mornings that I like to wear socks to work now. This makes for marvelous motivation to get one's holey socks darned. I also fixed the toe from the turquoise JaWoll socks I made ten years ago. I was surprised to see how much they had faded, until I thought about how old the socks actually are. I suppose it's to be expected that they might fade after that long, even with handwashing. Of course, it's also to be expected that there might have been some wear in the toe area too.