Fiber Follies

Well! A week of hellish experiences with highway construction, no post deliveries, and one little wrong number in an address has gone and got very very good. I’ll also apologise right here and now for the lack of word wrap around the images. I just can’t seem to get it right today.

I don’t mind highway construction much. Usually I’ll quietly wait to be flagged through, or select a different route. I managed fine this week while our highway was re-paved. Driving, that is.

Other things got a bit weird.

Firstly, my upstream SP had indicated that a final package was on its way, so I gleefully kept an eye on the mails for it. The first day that the construction approached our house, there were a few traffic cones lined up along the road marking out the lane for one-way traffic. My drive was left clear and easily approachable-although the work hadn’t reached here yet.. I trotted out after the mail. Amongst the letters, bills and junk mail was one of those USPS pink postcards stating that I’d missed delivery on a package-a large package. Even though I was here all along, and the mail man had always left stuff at the door when it was too big to fit the box. The actual reason given for not leaving the box was “road construction”. I’m still not sure why the mail could be delivered but a box couldn’t? Oh well. I ticked the option on the card to have the box left at the door and put it into the mailbox. Next day the post did not come round at all! Gah! Am I going to have to drive to town to pick it up? I decided that I would pick it up myself, the following day. It was so darn hot that next day that I opted to remain indoors until late afternoon, when I thought i could drive to town after the large box. I quietly worked and played with the loom, then heard a knocking. It was the mail man, with a huge enormous box! He’d been prevented from delivering the mail during construction by the DOT, who didn’t want him stopping and starting along the route and holding up traffic even more. He’d left my mail with the pink card a few days ago just so I’d know that I had a package. And, still prevented from delivery, he’d simply loaded up the box and my other mail and dropped it off on his way home after work! What a guy!

Secondly, I’d been following UPSs tracking site to watch my loom’s progress. Bob taught me how to weave on a rigid heddle loom, and I’m hooked. I didn’t have any interest in weaving-no, not at all, I swear!-until I spun up that Wensleydale a few weeks ago. All I could think was how nice it would look in a tartan. So I started planning the other colours around it, then realised I’d need a loom! We discussed my wants and needs and settled on a fair sized rigid heddle loom. I found the Kromski 32″ rigid heddle and happily awaited its arrival. Eventually I plan to weave meself a ruana-I could never knit one, it’d just take too long.

The day it was due, I checked Tracking frequently. Finally, during the lunch hour, I saw that it couldn’t be delivered because of a bad address! Agh! My loom! I rang UPS right off. Of course the street address isn’t provided on Tracking or I could have corrected it earlier. Oh well. I got things sorted out nicely and it arrived next day. I heard The Brown backing up the drive and ran out, prancing and jumping up and down like a kid. Like a very fat, old kid. He handed over my box, gave me a hug, then sailed on his merry way.

Now. For the fun. I unpacked my loom, delighted to find a few pages of a Polish newspaper tucked in round the parts.

The instructions were fairly easy even for me to follow and I had it together in about an hour.

It probably wouldn’t take anyone else an hour, I’m just a bit slow with following assembly instructions, especially when there are unfamiliar words included.

I spent several hours warping it! After over two hours, I had got the warp on but not beamed. After a night’s sleep I was able to finish the warping the next morning before work. At first break and at lunch I was preparing to weave and by the end of lunch I was weaving.  See? Here’s a close-up. Okay, so I have issues with tension. It’s my first project. I’ll work on that.

 

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Okay, it’s Friday and very hot and I’m tired of working so I’ve taken an hour off work to stand at the kitchen table weaving. Weaving is almost like knitting and spinning, it’s incredibly peaceful to do (once the warping is done). Knockknock at the door. There’s Mark, our mail man. In the blasting heat, and because of not being able to deliver he just popped the mail into his car and brought it over on his way home. That is one excellent human being. I believe the box was almost as big as his car. Here, see?
Risky is a pretty big cat at 5.5 kg, so a good size reference.

I couldn’t wait to see what was packed in there! With a little feline assistance, I started in. Look, it’s a basket!

And absolutely full, since it weighs a ton. What a gorgeous basket, too. This SP really knows her stuff-and somehow figured out that I am a loon for baskets. I put the box and packing down for the cats.

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Now. Let’s look inside this basket. It’s packed in layers.

 Keep looking, there’s a lot to see.

And now I’ll try to list what was packed in that basket. I felt like Mary Poppins, you know, where she hauls a potted tree from her carpetbag, I kept pulling stuff out of that basket!

There was this:

And this:.

Look at the beautiful colours for Eala’s Autumnal Balls of Bliss!

And Suri alpaca from knitty member alpaca6’s Agosto! And an ounce of angora-oh is that ever soft! And 4 colours of Ashland Bay merino in various colours for my blending pleasure Wheee!

PLUS, more great whacks of fibers all colours and all sorts. There’s beautiful bamboo from FiberLady.com in Stormy Night and in Chocolate Covered Cherries. There’s alpaca from Fun with Yarn in Deep Violet Lime and in Ivy Lush. Natural green cotton (which is more a khaki colour), 50/50 wool/organic cotton, both from Carolina Homespun. And a blend of silk and yak(!) from The Yarn Tree, which feels loverly.

There were kitty prezzies too! Bottles of catnip-scented bubble to entertain my fuzzbombs. One bottle shaped like a fish, did you see? And it’s extra strong bubbles too, to last long enough for the cats to stalk and kill.

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I think the catnip-scented bubbles smell pretty good, but I’m not rolling in them like he is!.

There’s more. Look what else she sent me.

It’s an emblem wash cloth, hand knitted by this lovely lady who was so delighted with my name and its meaning. I have this hanging on the wall. It’s too excellent to use. There’s also Home made Almond Salt Scrub hand therapy, which smells wonderful and softened out the worst callouses, with Burt’s Bees Hand Salve, and four teas from Tea Noir. I tried Victoriana already and it packs a punch-very unexpected blend of flavours and very very gooooood. It’s quite delicious, especially with a drop or 2 of the honey that she included!

I am giddy over her generosity! I was so delighted my eyeballs starting leaking. All happy tears, of course, but there’s so much delight over this huge gift that I had to spill over somewhere. Better leak from the eyes rather than leak from… Never mind.

Thank you Clotho42! Just wait til your visit-it’s going to be my turn to spoil you!