Jacobs

I mentioned a while back that a colleague of my Mum's had given me the fleeces from her 8 jacobs sheep. While I don't mind washing raw fleece I absolutely detest carding fleece. I find it boring and messy. I am also clumsy so I have carded my hand a couple of times and drawn blood. I think I mentioned before that I decided to spin it in the grease and see what it came out like.

That was around the time of WoolFest (early June). At WoolFest I started knitting a swatch, which I intended to felt and turn into a little bag as an experiment. The swatch got a bit out of hand and ended up becoming a jumper. I span the fleece as I was going, so it gave a an opportunity to alternate crafts.

A jumper out of Jacobs does not sound like a tremendous idea. It's not particularly soft. I don't find it itchy as I do other fibres though and the colours look fantastic.

I finished the jumper in August, but was reluctant to wear it as I think I split for the neck too late and it makes my bust look big. After leaving it sitting for weeks on end waiting for me to decide what to do I finally wore it out. It doesn't look so bad, and as Graeme points out, my bust is big. I'll let you judge.

Tagged

Cate tagged me to do this thing. Here are the rules:

1) Link to your tagger and list all these rules in your blog.

2) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blogs

4) Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

The facts:

1. This is the first time (to my knowledge) that I have ever been tagged for anything. Is this just because I don't spend much time reading people's blogs or that noone reads mine? Probably both I think.


2. I have trouble with names of any kind, to the point where I sometimes can't remember the names of close friends or everyday objects. This sometimes makes life quite difficult, particularly at school. 'Thingamy whatsits' only gets you so far.


3. Looking at maps and holiday brochures gives me the runs. This makes planning things difficult.


4. I have a secret love of tinned ham (Pek not Spam), even though the thought of mechanically reclaimed meat slightly repulses me. I particularly like the jelly bit round the outsides.


5. On the same theme I also really like eating the fat from ham, and most other kids of meats. I realise this is incredibly unhealthy, and makes many people feel ill so I don't do it much these days. I can't help enjoying it when I do though.


6. I once sung for the Queen at the opening of the Sheffield Arena. It's not as good as it sounds though. I was one of many children in the Sheffield Junior Choir. The Queen never spoke the whole time she was there. She was really far away. It could have been anyone. All she did was pull a curtain off a plaque.


7. I appeared on an episode of Test the Nation as a 'Rocket Scientist'. I am not a rocket scientists but their researchers were getting a bit desperate. The only real rocket scientists in the UK are all in their dotage and so they started settling for Space Scientists instead. I really enjoyed the whole thing (apart from the demeaning lab coats we were forced to wear - what rocket scientist wears a lab coat?). Everyone on the team was really fun to hang out with (except Colin Pillenger who was a bit of an arse and the guy who got the highest score who was really competitive). We got to share a green room with the Bikers team, who were a really good laugh. The researcher admitted to us that we weren't what they were expecting at all. Makes you worry about people's images of scientists.

Anyway, that's my lot. Hopefully they were at least a little bit interesting.

The people I tag are:
Impressionist (if she has time)
Snaterkat
Emily
Kay
Lisa
Dawn
Emma

Birthday Presents

My birthday was over a week ago now but I have been very lazy about writing about it. I usually look forward to, and enjoy my birthday a lot, but this year I ended up feeling a bit grumpy about getting older. I suppose the whole thing just sneaked up on me and I feel like I ended up down-playing it a bit too much. I couldn't think of much that I actually wanted present-wise, so my family and various honourary aunties all made monetary contributions to the purchase of a new spinning wheel. I wasn;t sure what I wanted to get. I just knew I wanted something a little more reliable and versatile than my current one. While I love my own wheel and enjoy the fact that it has obviously had many years of use it is just a little bit too eccentric for a beginner like me to do more than spin the same kind of yarn over and over again.

I tried a few different ones and eventually plumped for a Kromski Sonata, which is a folding wheel, with Scotch tension. While you wouldn't want to carry it on your back, the idea of being able to pack it away and take it on holiday really appealed.

I already spun some of the silk merino I got free with it into a thick 2-ply. Some of it is a little underspun but it looks like a good, even yarn by my standards. It is certainly much chunkier than anything I'd be able to produce on the old wheel.

Thanks to all the contributors. It means a lot to me. :)