Projects abound/ Video of the Week!

Ah the magic of felting. Even though I have felted things many times before, each time I do it it completely baffles me. It seems like magic. Of course I know the stuff will shrink to a fraction of its size. Of course I know stitch definition will dissappear. Of course I realize I can cut it and poke holes in it and it won't unravel. And yet I remain mystified.

Here is my latest felting project, a pair of the very popular Children's Felted Clogs by the very talented Bev Gelaskes. I used handspun Corriedale for the uppers and for the cuff and sole I used Lion Wool. Check out the transformation:

these 2 little cuties



came from these huge lumpy things:



I plan to do a second pair for my daughter, using a "pinkish reddish" yarn, as requested by my nearly 3-year-old. Hmm. Sounds like I might have to break into this pile and finally start spinning it:



Its some Spunky Eclectic superwash corriedale, in colorway Mandy. It would certainly fit the bill, I'd just have to do something with the other 8 oz!

I did a little secret project for a swap that I'm in, but I don't want to give anything away--she's been spotted sneaking around here lately! Pics will show up as soon as I know she's gotten her package.

I'm chugging along on Icarus. I admit I'm starting to burn out a bit--it gets a little tedious with all the stockingette. I just keep reminding myself that it will all be worth it once you get to the pretty lace part, and the lovely teardrop beads.

Of course I'd love to blab about all the winter issues out there, both paper and electronic, but I think I might save that for another post. I will say that I'm very excited to see that the new Twist is out and have already spied a couple of really fantastic patterns. More than a couple, really...and the designer line-up is once again impressive: Kate Gilbert, Ann Hanson, and Norah Gaughan, and Ysolda Teague all make an appearance! Some yummy coats and sweaters, lots of cables everywhere, a couple of shawls, and cute mittens and socks. Sigh. So much to knit, so little time!

**In Spinning News**

With all that knitting I've barely had time for spinning! I did finish up some plying, I just haven't washed and set the twist (or taken pics with my fancy new camera!). I am itching to spin up some cormo i got from Whimzy Pinzy a while ago...remember this?


Oh, and this?



There was a blog post a while ago about it, and how much I adored this fiber!

I want to wait to process it on my new Ramer combs, which should show up any day now. I can't wait! They have been on order since Rhinebeck from the Wheel Thing. Janet has been very patient and sweet about answering my anxious emails. She assured me that Mr. Ramer is custom building my combs and quality takes time. That said, they were done more quickly than I expected--i was thinking maybe 8 weeks? Needless to say I'm pleased as punch and very anxious to get them!

I just got in a nice new batch of fiber for dyeing, so I'm anxious to get to it. Unfortunately my water is once again icky, so I need to wait a day or so until it clears up. It seems to always happen when there is a big rain--since we have well water I can only guess that its making it muddy? I'd love to hear some theories!

**In other news**

Hey, didya hear? There was an election! And as fate would have it I ended up living right across from the polling station. Hubs snapped a couple of pics, just to document the craziness. It won't look like much to those of you that waited in urban areas with no early voting, but I will tell you that this community is VERY small. We have one street running through the town and a few side streets and thats just about it. So seeing this many people turn out to vote was pretty astonishing. And the lines never really let up much.





And yes, I really do live across from a fire station. And no, its not bad at all. Like I said its a very small community, so the most activity that happens there is Fridays during Bingo Night, when the old ladies block us in our driveway. Once in a while they actually have to go to a fire, but honestly after a few weeks you don't really hear the sirens anymore.

Another momentous occassion: I finally got my ipod back! yay! I have missed it dearly. Its actually not my ipod, but a brand new one. It only took about a week and a half from the time I shipped it off to apple to the time it got back to my house. I had heard terrible things about Apple not honoring warranties and charging out the butt for shipping, and for keeping the ipods for ages, but I experienced none of that. It all was very painless, complete with a little invoice saying "Amount Due: $0.00" . Can't beat that! Anyway, I'm now happily catching up on podcasts. I've missed them so!

Hopefully I will have a little window embedded in the sidebar for the Stickam session tommorow night. I'm not sure if it will work out, but lets cross our fingers shall we? I plan on deleting the one from the previous post as soon as the other one is up and running. Everytime we have a session it will show up in that box. Neat, eh?

Video of the Week!

No I didn't forget! Here is a really great Video of the Week. Since I have combs on the brain, I wanted to share it with you so you will all have a greater understanding of how these things work. Its not embed-able, so a link will have to do: Redstone Yarns Wool Comb Video.

See ya next time!