Update update update... STUFF!

I did purchase the fleece mentioned in the post below. Just waiting on it to arrive. If it's half as clean as the Cormo I started working on I'll consider myself extremely fortunate.

I spread a sheet on the kitchen table and FINALLY opened up the Cormo fleece. Other than the tips, this stuff is so darn clean and gorgeous. I took some and flicked out the ends and put it in a mesh bag. Took another couple of handfuls and left it 'as is' and put that in a second bag and washed & rinsed both bags. Of course the flicked stuff is perfect and so white! The other is pretty darn nice, too, but I will be flicking all of the ends open prior to washing. I'm going to grab the flicked/washed wool and spin it today to see how much grease might be left in it since I only did one wash. I didn't want to totally get rid of all of the lanolin - I think I pretty much succeeded. Blace would like me to flick some and then dye it prior to washing to see dye results with grease. Sounds like a plan so I'll probably do so this week.

RE: Jelly Yarn. I heard from the Jelly Yarn people regarding my post about using it as drive belts for our spinners. Wonderfully nice email!! Of course this boosted my interest in their product more so and I went exploring their site. I believe that I'm going to purchase their finer weight jelly yarn to make something for Andrea (daughter). Andrea likes really funky, cool stuff and with her new job at her very favorite clothing store I know she'll want to wear unusual items as per her typical style. I'm thinking vest, or something along that line. Maybe with some glass beads -- or better yet -- pony beads! Andrea is nuts about neon colored plastic pony beads, and the glow in the dark versions. I bet the jelly yarn would work up well with those, too!

Hard to believe our baby is going to be 18 years old on the 22nd. It's difficult not having her here at home, too. Blace & I both miss her, sometimes to the point of distraction. Granted, there were times when she made us crazy but I miss her rantings about the government, gas prices, food prices, and the dogs. I also miss watching her fav TV shows with her - Top Model, Project Runway, Tabitha whatserface Salon Makeover, Jeopardy... Damn! We haven't seen her in almost 2 weeks now since she's living with a friends family to make her jobs more accessible. Lately I've been somewhat sorry about moving so far up into the boonies/mountains. We didn't think that far in advance 8 years ago when we bought this house. We did realize a couple of years ago that when Andrea got out of high school we'd have issues with her working & college... we bought the Suzuki last year so she'd have something to drive but didn't anticipate gas being so obscenely expensive that she'd not want to commute and would ultimately find a place to stay. *sigh* I miss my baby! Can ya tell? :)

Spent the past few days carding batts with leftover bits of wool from my last dyeing adventure. I have some pretty stuff here! I also received a recent order of glizty stuff and was able to do my test knitter, Patricia's batt up this morning. I loaded that batt with EVERYTHING! Merino, Romney, mohair, angelina fiber, bamboo, tencel, and crystalina. Patricia seems to like the same types of stuff that I do for spinning so I hope she'll be happy to receive it. I'll ship it out to her on Monday.

Ahhh... spinning! I have a bit of roving from Rowen left to finish up into a single today and then I really need to finish the Novelty & Art Yarn challenge from August with the stuff I received from Melanie in Australia. I'm way overdue on posting finished photos, must get on the ball and get things caught up! I then have to take photos of the September challenge ingredients that I received from Fabienne in Germany this past week. I still have no idea how I'm going to approach that challenge but I'm sure something will come to me.

Also have to test the yarn yardage counter set-up that Blace rigged for me by running the July Earth batt yarn through it. I also need to photograph that finished yarn and post photos prior to using it -- I already have a project chosen for it and have it queued #1 with Ravelry. Have to press and seam the Norah Gaughan "Curren" that I finished two weeks ago. The millifiore buttons arrived a few days ago for it and that should provide incentive to complete the sweater.

Didn't plan on this to get so long ... ramble on! Time to get moving.

Over all -- I have too much to do and am not sure where to begin.