Rufus in a tree

My efforts to trim one of the hedgerow trees seemed to intrigue red cat Rufus.
Standing on a ladder I sawed away with a curved hand saw when suddenly he appeared, mounted the tree, arrived on the saw blade and sat there intil I moved it a little. He then proceeded to the adjacent slender twig-like branches and balanced there throughout the rest of my efforts to saw through and remove the thicker center branch. When I dismounted and dragged the branches away, he stayed up there, on the cut surface of the branch, for an hour.

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Two multnomah-type shawls

The small one:

This is the smaller version using yarn I spun from one of my sheep's fleece and dyed it, mainly with food colors.

This is the bigger version. I dyed some roving I got in the UK and edged it with some undyed fleece of my own. It's nice and warm but I still have to remove bits of kempy fiber .
I've dyed some more roving I got there in multi-color - not sure how I'll spin it yet :

Thinking of a thick woolen 'though how that will mesh with all the colors I don't yet know.

Bye for now.

Where was I 'till now ?

So where have I been for nearly a month?
Batteling Windows Vista that's where.
There aren't enough derogatory adjectives for that little beast - grrr. Someone said using it was like riding a bicycle into mud!
It's working again after much investigation, searching, deleting and reinstalling - yet it will soon begin acting up again no doubt. Disturbing was it to find Windows 7 residing along side Vista in the "Help me with.." search results. Time for a new Mac (former one secunded by offspring).

During my first exercise class in a long while, I found my floppy hair quite a nuicence - blinded me every time i rose from a bend, tried to see the teacher or twisted my head to one side. Either I get a more thorough hair cut (which I avoid as I find it required more commercial attention than a medium one) or I find a means to hold the hir off my face.
This one from Ravelry patterns, Blue Leaf Headband by Adrienne Krey has worked out well for me using 3 strands held together of Old Maiden Aunt handpainted merino bamboo 4 ply .

This does the job nicely :).
Oh just got a grumble from the computer - better quit while I'm ahead - pun?

Castletown Helix scarf and little mats

 This little helix scarf was lost for a while (hiding under the clutter in my son's apartment) then was found - and completed. It's knit from the BFL that I hand dyed and fractal spun last year - some details on a previous blog.

Little mats woven on the rigid heddle. Hessian warp and hand spun wool weft.

Swaldale sunrise shawlette.

I decided to make another mini-shawl/scarf from the Swaldale yarn I'd spun. It has many of the colors I like so much - cerulean blue and and a sober orange/terracotta for two. Other colors add warmth and deeper tones.
Knit on size 5 mm's, trhe garter stitich makes rows of different streaks and lines of colr - that remine me more of sunrise on on a brightening ske than sunset on a darkening sky so I'll call it my Sunrise shawlette

Swaldale - these hardy North of England sheep have a long hairy fleece but also a fine undercoat. It's the fine undercoat I was after when I spun up the fiber. That task is not for the fiant-hearted - I had to continually remove coarser finber and even kemp as I preparted, spun, dyed and now while knitting the yarn.  The resultant yarn, in the hank and kni up, is denser and heavier than my own little Irish cross bred ewe's yarn but I expect it to be warm light enough when finished and hopefully the size and drape of the shwlette will be as handy to wear as my previous shawlette.

Training Setanta Link

The young ram, Setanta, has is own link - www.trainingSetanta.blogspot.com/ included in my Woolie Links list here. But should an Easycare X Wiltshire Horn sheep be placed under Woolie Links seeing as how he sheds his fleece every spring ?? Ah well, he crosses with the woolies to produce a lamb with a nice fleece so he can stay.

Christmas Yarn

I loved dying and spinning this fleece into Christmas colored yarn. It's about 9wpi/worsted weight, around 100 yards+ per hank, 4 red, 3 green .

But now what can I make with it???

This was some more UK breed roving I dyed several colors. I just can't remember the sheep's breed right now - it will come to me. Iy might be Swaledale which the book "in Sheep's Clothing" describes as being generally rather coarse with kemp (check) but sometimes has a softer undercoat. I think this must have  lot of undercoat - or perhaps be a first shear as it has a lot of soft stuff in it.

Anyway, it's a bit "kempy" and I have to pick these bits out but otherwise it it quite squishy and I think it will be a hat - perhaps a lined one. I need a new warmer hat anyway.