There was something in the air that night, the stars were bright , Tallulah!

The fleeces from the Monterey Wool Auction (and Booneville) have been trickling in. That is, a trickle the size of a tsunami. When I get a box from Shari, the routine goes like this:

Step 1: Open the box. Call Shari. Gush. Pay.
Step 2: Divide up the fleeces by fleece. (Meaning, if there are 3, separate them into three piles.)
Step 3: Figure out if any of these are "shared" fleeces.
3a: Yes? Divide total weight evenly. Make calls.
3b: No? MINE! Roll around in them. Bag them up by individual fleece.
Step 4: Place in le stash.

This wasn't the case with Tallulah. I pulled her out to divide her into thirds, and it was lurve at first sight. I knew I had to start spinning her, pronto. I spun the first 8 oz in under a week.

I knew it was love, because even spinning her as fine as she wanted (my guess is 55ish WPI), I'm plowing through it:

I had to force myself away from her, to make sure I didn't grow bored and totally blast through the 20 oz. I've spun 4 oz of Crown Mountain and 4 oz of the Romney thing, and I'm back to Tallulah again.

See? Progress. I can't even tell you how much I love spinning this stuff. I honestly thought I'd get bored, since it's all one color- a NATURAL color at that! Not the case.

I'm thinking it's going to be a 4 or 5 ply in order to make gauge for the Mariah sweater. I think this might have been the first thing in Knitty that I ever saw, and I've loved it since Day 1.

Part of my attraction to the Mariah is that it feels like a redux of the Twist (for me). I loved knitting my Twist cardigan, and I'll be honest, I think I wouldn't mind knitting a second one. But, I know myself, and I know I'm a fickle knitter.

I think I'll be finished with the spinning on this in the next two weeks, so I'm projected to finish plying, skeining, and setting the yarn by the end of the month.

Can anyone else say "Mariah in May"?

Faster than a blinking Elphie...

It's fair to say that I love the new camera. I took it out to play with one of the lenses, and managed to get some surprisingly good shots.

As always, Niki was ready to pose:

And Elphie. Ahhh, Elphie. Are you familiar with Calvin and Hobbes? How Calvin would pose for a school picture, and at the last moment, as the shutter was clicking, he'd make a face? That's Elphie's philosophy of photography.

Still, I got some nice shots of her:

The shutter worked so quickly that Elphie didn't quite have time to make a face:

(It looks like she's trying to do the I Dream of Jeannie blink, doesn't it?)

I haven't ripped out my Jacoby mitts yet, but let's face it. Knitting black yarn in bed is a recipe for blindness.

Even if it is cashmere. Mmmmmmm....cashmmmmmmere.

Mitts and pics

Alison has been sick. You know this already. Here are the mitts I made for her:

In other news, I got a new camera. Lisa took this picture of Mom while we were at Bobbin's Nest yesterday:

(cropped for Ravatar-y goodness)