Look! it's the
The Ashford Mini Niddy Noddy - portable for skeining yarn from Crystal Palace Yarns - Straw Into Gold, Richmond California

Hey!! A (new to me) fiber animal-- a Pygora!! The fiber was used to crochet (ahem!) a shawl/scarf
handspun - handknit crocheted shawl  - Sally McCarrick - The Black Sheep Gathering -  Eugene, Oregon

More bags.

I want an
alpaca

Ok y'all, thank your lucky start that somehow I was able to include all the 'necessaries' like the blogring button, else this template change would have ended in tragedy. Don't forget to read my (now seeming veeeery long) post !scroll down!scroll down! about what I'm working on these days. I'd try to figure out why the wanderlust button is floating away up there, but I fear that I'd lose my archives and blogring button!!! Maybe I'll feel braver tomorrow. Ta!

I'm reading Bill Holm's "Eccentric Islands" right now so I thought I'd offer you a sample of this MN native...
Holm

KNITTING UPDATE!!!!

Yes, finally some content to this here blog, for any of you that still come to look at my same-old, same-old template with no pictures posted. I know, how boring can I be? Inspired by Sarah's posting of the picture of plouf? I decided to tell you all about what I'm working on these days. No, I am not ambitious enough to get pics posted which is why my blog will never rate... Maybe when it's done? So, when Dan and I went to southern MN to do our century (2 weekends ago, it seems like eons) I of course had to go to Woolworks website and see if there were any yarn shops in the area. SCORE! In a little town there (Harmony, MN) there was Austin's Goat Farm. Mohair goats, that is. Oh, I walked around the shop after we had seen the goats (they'd been dipped so thier soon to be sheared fleeces could be sent overseas) and saw all the beautiful things (handknitted shawls to die for, jackets made from thrifted felted sweaters etc. etc.) calmly not rushing immediately to the yarn section. The picture online did not give me hope, so I took my time, only casually stumbling upon the SHELVES AND SHELVES OF GORGEOUS HANDSPUN FIBER!!!!!
So, it took me a looooooooong time to finally decide. But here's the thing, the yarn is actually waaaay cooler than I even knew when I bought it! You know how people spin yarn and then dye it, right? Well, (excuse me while I hyperventilate on and on about this if you've already become familiar) this woman actually changes the colors by changing the fibers!!
I imagine this magician-like woman, at her spinning wheel, with piles of fiber at her feet, moving as a conductor as she picks from pile after pile. So the yarn has a base of grey and garnet/burgundy wool and she adds some pink mohair here and there, letting some of the curls just pop out of the yarn, sometimes letting the grey wool 'bloop' (that's the only word I can think of) out so you see a thick piece of ?roving? ?fleece?. Ahh, words do not do justice. Gol ding it, nothing before has grabbed me like this! I swear I want to hunt this woman down (she lives in Waseca, MN) and sit at her feet and learn to spin RIGHT NOW! Juaquetta Holcomb, if you're out there email me at ihatespammclaughlin@attbi.net!!!! I did a little internet search and got her address and phone no. so maybe when I am done knitting this sweater I'll send her a pic of it.

I'm using a pattern from Tricoter's Simply Beautiful Sweaters. It's the cardi they knitted using Colinette. So I'm using that handspun yarn with Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride I had in my stash that's grey and it's just gorgeous. Had to share. Thank you.

Yes, pummelling brings me peace of mind as well.
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