Free Angora! (Paying it Forward)

Yuppers. Free super soft bunny fur to a good home!
I was very fortunate to have a friend give me some fiber from his well loved bunnies, but unfortunately I appear to be allergic. (Sneezing and itchy.) The only fiber I've found I am allergic to in fact. Sad :(
Either way I'd love if this 9.4oz of soft grey/white angora would go to a good home that will make use of it, because it's just sitting here going to waste.
I don't mind what you do with it, and if you love it I'll be more than willing to point you towards my friend Jamie for more. I'd have to check if he's selling first.

The only caveat is that you'd need to card and pick through it yourself. It's raw, unwashed and has lumps, bumps, matts and tangles. It would be great for blending, keep the bumps for added texture and you could spin some great rustic super soft yarns.

So here are the specifics:
I'll pay the shipping within the US and Canada, I may ask a tiny amount if it was super expensive to ship internationally elsewhere.
-9.4ish oz of raw soft grey/white angora. No give backs or complaints. It's free!
-I don't know much about angora, but I have some great people I can direct you to if you have any questions. I've been told on numerous occasions not to wash it before spinning, which is why it was kept dirty. I'm not sure how accurate that is. I do know that angora looks great dyed up.
-You can do almost anything you want with it, yarn, felting, swath yourself in a bunny lined parka. It's all good. I'd love to see photos though (but not a requirement). I can't stop you from reselling it, but I'd prefer if you didn't just put your name in to resell the fiber. I'd really like for it to go to a home that adores angora, or is new to it and wants to give this a shot. Feel free to sell your yarn/dyeing etc. from it though!
-100% random. I'll just pick a name from a hat.

Just comment showing your interest and I'll draw a name on Friday, February 11th. 

Antique Store Finds: Great Wheel!

Doesn't it seem like you're always hearing stores about how people found amazing wheels in flea markets and antique stores? Or is it just me? Well let me tell you, I've searched for years in stores, online at craigslist and the like without a single "super" find. I ended up giving up the hunt and buying a wheel brand new. I'm glad I did, but I still like to look around and put my name in shops just in case. You'd think with the age of the area in which we live that I would stumble across a wheel every now and again, but this time was the first!

Pictures from an antique store in the country. They're all from my camera phone and bad quality because it was super cramped. One of the best finds there? A HUGE great wheel! I don't know a single thing about them, but this one is super old, in the condition you'd expect from something with great age.
I didn't buy anything, but just being there was a cool adventure. It was so packed you had to follow an open path around the house from room to room. There were even things in what used to be the bathroom!

The shop is a big ol' house in bad need of paint and with tons of frick frack on the yard. I wasn't sure what to expect.

I'm getting right in to the fiber related pictures so you don't get bored and miss out. These wooden spools were really cool, and they look to be loaded with a fine handspun even! Does anyone know what they'd be used for? They've been haunting me since we went, I may have to go back and pick them up.

I have to admit I almost walked right past the Great Wheel, I was scoping out the cool old baby pram, then realised there was a wheel in front of me.

I don't know enough about antiques to know what sort of condition the wheel was in, or what was missing. It needed some cleaning up, but I loved the age on it. Asking price? $850.00. It stayed in the shop.

There were cool little things all over! You walked around the rooms of the house and it was just jam packed with items which ranged from old, to tacky or quirky and cool. I really loved this doll head but my husband hought it was creepy. It even had the hand painted on lips and hair. Too cool.

All sorts of old tonics and empty cool bottles.

 Even the closets had items on disply. You could barely get in to check out all the neat things on the shelves though.

 Upstairs! I thought the hallway was neat. At the top is a super old looking (I say looking because I have no clue how to judge a real antique from a fake) phone. Lots of old signs and pictures.

 Living room with velvet sofa and matching fringe lamps. If the room wasn't packed with brick a brack it would have been a picture out of an old southern romance novel.

This picture turned out funny with the grey lines, but look! It's a bathroom full of antiques lol.

... and to prove we're in the south- cotton bolls! These were old and dried out, but still cool.

Have you ever found anything fibery related at a flea market or antique store?

Tardis Update!

Just a quick post because I added 16 oz (4 braids) of Tardis BFL into the shop not long ago. I've had people mention being able to buy enough for larger projects and the like, and now is your chance! All 16oz are dyed with the same dye mix and done on the most glorious BFL I've had the joy to work with. I changed up my fiber to some amazing UK imported top and let me tell you, it's been worth the added cost. I loved the Blue Face Leicester I've used in the past, but once I had my hands on this top I went into a soft fiber coma.

Tardis 1
Tardis 2
Tardis 3
Tardis 4

Fiber ADD (Book Reviews and Projects on the Go)

Some days I feel like I walked down the fiber arts road and took every single possible detour that turned up. It may seem over kill to knit, crochet, spin, (learning to) weave, and dye- but honestly for an ADD person like myself it is perfect. Just when I find myself getting bored of knitting, I decide to spin, and when I don't feel the urge to spin I work a bit more on some project or other.
Even just beyond my ever shifting attention span, I love being able to start with raw fiber that I dyed myself, spun up into a yarn and then knit into an item or (hopefully soon) weave into something cool. Do you do multiple fiber arts activities? Which ones do you do? I'd love to get to know more about the people who read my blog, I know you're out there! I need to find a way to better reply to comments though (they just look like a new comment instead of a response.). I appreciate every single one!

You'd think for all the fiber crafts I do that I'd have more laying about the house, but they leave just as soon as they're finished most of the time. Here's my current projects on the go though!

I've been back on a sock knitting kick since I learned how to knit 2 at a time Toe up. I never want to knit another sock on dpns again. Be gone Second Sock Syndrome! I didn't actually like any of the patterns in that book, so I cast on the Rosebud Socks from Toe Up Socks For Everybody by Wendy Knits. I bow to her sock pattern skills. I have knit quite a few of her socks and love every single one. It seems a bit silly now that I purchased the 2 at a time Toe Up book to learn 2 at a time. I don't like anything in it, and only used it for the cast on and heel parts- even then only to confirm my assumptions of what to do. Ah well, hazard of buying things off the internet is you can't see it in advance.

They're kind of floppy without blockers, but you get the point. I'm almost done with my next socks already picked out. I fell in love with Cookie A's Marlene Socks the minute I saw them in a magazine, and they made me want to learn how to knit socks. Now I'm more than ready to knit a pair for myself. The Rosebud yarn is KP palette in edamame. It's a workhorse fingering weight that I find to be a bit on the light side, but makes great sturdy socks. You can also get a ton of it before hitting the $50 free shipping, I know this from experience. If you're interested in sock knitting and don't have a bunch of money to spend on yarn $1.99 a ball goes a long way.

Then my copy of Knit.Sock.Love by Cookie A arrived and I'm sock obsessed now. Have you seen her newest book yet? It's like a sock coffee table book! The pictures are amazing and the socks are just as great. One of the patterns is even shown in an abandoned building! Now that grabbed my attention. (I may not have mentioned it here, but I'm an urban decay addict. I find it beautiful and interesting.)
I'm an admitted toe up sock knitting junky, but I will gladly knit up some of Cookie's socks cuff down. I still wish she'd put out a toe up book though! *nudge nudge*

Last night I took a sock knitting break to spin up 4oz of Falkland wool handpainted by Pumpkinhaus
This is Super Ghoul
235 yards of worsted weight 2 ply yarn

And... weaving still continues I promise! It's been on the back burner because I ordered myself a pickup stick. Then I decided to order myself an actual book on Rigid Heddle weaving (which would have been smart in the beginning). But I figure the best place to learn new techniques is on my learning warp, so socks have taken over in the meanwhile. Now my pickup stick is here but I'm waiting on the book. It'll happen when it happens :) Maybe once I have a few socks out of my system?

Little Giraffe

Remember the single I showed a few posts ago? Here it is as a completed 2 ply yarn:
Little Giraffe is Superwash BFL fiber handspun from fiber dyed by Urban GypZ. That woman is talent in human form I tell you.

Specs:
-2ply superwash Blue Face Leicester
-4oz, 9-10wpi (Depending on what you check that's worsted heavy worsted)
-Wash delicate (inside out) lay flat to dry.

Just Another Day in the Country

Have you ever woken up and looked out the window to see a huge bull running around your backyard?
Not even just running around, but  the *minute* you look out the window the bull is standing there looking back at you?

I can officially say I belong to that club. It's a small one, but I'm sure I can't be the only one who has had this happen. Right?
This needs pictures to properly form the hilarity and chaos in your mind.

I live on a county road. It's paved and all that, but it's outside of city limits with lots of fields around. Across the street from me is a huge piece of land with horses, up the street a bit is a huge field with a large bull.
This bull:

Size is hard to judge based on that picture, but he's huge. Taller than me and
W I D E.
I guess he got out somehow and decided to spend his morning running crazy up and down the street and in my yard. It was just... I still laugh about it even now because it was just so random and unreal. I'm a city girl. If it wasn't in the Vancouver Aquarium or a petting zoo (or a deer/skunk/coyote/bear) I hadn't seen it live and up close.
Are bulls always that freaking big?

I digress.
I recall hearing the dogs growling, so I looked out my window half awake and saw the bull. In my hazy state I called out to my husband "Um. Is there a bull looking at me from our yard?"
My husband had to call 911. For real. (I'm laughing just thinking about it.)
"Um Hi, I want to report a bull running around the neighbourhood?" To 911's credit they didn't even hesitate and immediately asked where the bull was. Got to love life in the country eh?

At this point the bull had gotten bored of our yard, of eating the ivy off my neighbours' house and of running up and down the street, so he decided to go into the horse field. We didn't actually see how they caught him, I'm ashamed to admit I fell back asleep and my husband went back to work. I can only imagine it was hilarious and worthy of a Benny Hill sketch.

The bull (which my neighbors think is named Amos Junior) left us some cool souvenirs in our yard that I just found today though!

They're wider around than my hand. Now I really want to know what happened to Amos Junior. I hope he's back in his field and a bit less lonely than I assume he must be by himself every day.

I was Interviewed!

I was interviewed for a blog! Little ol' me! Thank-you so much Kira from Wired Galaxy, you're a doll and it was a blast.

You can check out her interview here: Wired Galaxy

It won't come as any surprise to anyone who knows me that I rambled on a bit. Oops!

What is a blog post without a picture eh? I'm spinning up some lovely Superwash BFL from UrbanGypZ called "Little Giraffe." Pretty! I gave my wheel a full cleanup and re oiling, checked everything out and spiffied her up before getting started- but I still find myself having take up issues. It used to be so smooth, I'm completely puzzled as to what is going on. Perhaps the temperatures?