Fiber Delivery Day

I love fiber delivery days. The mailman, probably feels differently after lugging the boxes around. This was a good week in the fiber delivery department. First came this smallish box filled with not one, but two Corrie fleeces from Whitefish Bay Farm. They always give the previous year buyers the opportunity to purchase the fleece of the same sheep this year. Fortunately, I contacted them before I left for Hawaii because their fleeces go very quickly once they're listed for sale and that happened while we were gone.
I loved Hope's fleece last year and at first I was worried that it wasn't quite as white this time around. Luckily I'd saved some raw locks from last year and it looks just the same. In fact, the staple length seems about a half inch longer--maybe it was that snowy cold winter that made her grow more wool to keep warm. It is extra fine and crimpy beyond belief.
And, half of Misha's fleece. This one looks even more silvery than last year. I love, love, love it!
Here's Hope's fleece all bundled up ready to be washed.

I also got a package from Lisa! Last Dec, I wrote to her to order some Wensleydale roving as I'd finally decided to make a stranded yoke cardi with my handspun Jonquil Wensleydale (spun in 2006). She said her supply was gone and she wasn't able to get any more. :( After swatching a bit with my yarn trying to figure out something else for it, I finally put it aside.
And then...Lisa wrote and said she'd found another source! So, we have Wensleydale in Elektra, and Wild Things! And a skein of Sock! in Wild Things for good measure. Let me tell you, that roving is as gorgeous as it looks in the photo! I could hardly wait to dive in and get spinning with it.

But first for a little non-fibery diversion, I took my mom to the African Violet show in town. They're big around here. When I was in college, I tried growing them in my dorm room, always nearly killed them and would end up giving them to my Aunt Vi. She had such a magic touch with them, (she would have called it benign neglect, though).

Anyway, I thought maybe I'd pick up one plant to see what happened nowadays--after my cotton growing success last year, maybe my thumb has gotten greener.

One plant...
turned into five! Who knew there were so many different kinds of violets. The large one was promised by the grower to never go out of bloom. We'll see! It has a really pretty pink blossom with violet purple around the edge. I also got a white/pink miniature (so cute!) and a deep purple double semi-miniature with leaves that will get ruffly. A tiny pot with a rooted leaf which will be a double speckled flower. The single leaf came from a prize winner and has now been potted up. All the baby potted plants have a piece of yarn coming out the bottom that's used as wick so they only draw up the amount of moisture they need. Anyway, the breeder that sold me the leaf, wanted to know if I needed a piece of yarn. No, I'm pretty sure I could rustle up a piece of yarn. ;)

In yarn making news, I've been spindling with my little shell spindle. This is the Plumaria batt shown last week.
Figured I needed to get going on some spindling (spinning and knitting, too!) as Shepherd's Harvest is only one week away. So, the post may be a few days late next week, but it's pretty good odds that they'll be some good fiber loot photos. Please c'mon back then.