Back from CA

We were recently in California where I went on a tour of a cashmere goat farm- California Cashmere. Really interesting! I learned a lot about cashmere goats and their fiber. Goats are pretty easy animals to raise. I would never have thought that the goats with the thickest guard hair would be the most lucrative. They are, as the thickness of the outer hair makes it easily separable from the downy cashmere. I highly recommend the tour. http://www.calcashmere.com/

I am working on the cuff of the toe-up socks. I didn't work on them on the plane. Can't quite get up the nerve to take knitting through the inspection point. With toe-up on two-needles, getting the knitting back on if the needles were confiscated would be a nightmare. I knitted about 6 rows of the selected pattern and realized that the pattern I wanted to use was the other one featured in the magazine photo and that they had been mis-labeled. My daughter, future owner of the socks, thankfully, doesn't seem to mind.

My Kissel electric spinner arrived before our vacation departure. It was pretty banged up as the prior owner put the foot pedal and other parts in it's wooden case un-wrapped or padded in any way. It was double boxed, but a heavy metal item bouncing on a wooden one(4" of clearance to do so), without padding, causes damage. It works. I'll keep you posted.

Progress Report

Progress Report:

1. Toe up socks are at about the arch.

2. I still haven't finished spinning the second bobbin of merino from the Tour de Fleece, but am getting there

3. Still washing wool

4. I have tagged measured and tagged all of the yarn for the Mattoon Street Festival. Have to knit samples and hats.

5. My China now has arms and a body, but is waiting for clothes. She was just a head when I got her. Arms are leather to the shoulder with individually stitched, wired fingers.

And this is why nothing is finished. Spent most of the weekend moving the plants away from the house and relocating the ones that previously inhabited the spaces where the bushes at the top of the drive are now located. Hubby built the rock wall.

Back to filing, and looking for a job.

PS- I'm waiting for Electric spinner number 2 to arrive. The first one was defective. I am hoping that this one does not spark or have random drive band popping off for no reason issues. It has a fixed motor so it shouldn't.