POLWARTH

Even with balanced light this swatch is still too orange. It is actually a lovely rust blend of hand-dyed polwarth that I bought at SOAR last year from Rovings. Admittedly I was severely under the weather with a major UTI but this stuff was very felted. Since I had spent so much money on this I was determined to get yarn and literally forced it into being. I ended up with tons of the stuff and decided to make a sweater using a CocoKnits pattern which was chosen because of the felt flower they used to close the garment in one shot. I have a lovely felted flower that Lorretta Oliver gave me when I chaired the weaving conference and it is a perfect match. All I have left is the shawl collar and to add a bit to the cuffs. Of course it is past the very short period of time that anyone in Southern California needs a wool sweater, so will have to wait for a cold day to debut this light-weight drapey jacket!

NEWISH BOOK

My family has been using Amazon wishlists. It is a great way to select a gift that is truly wanted (can put more than just books on the list). When I had a birthday a while back I was fortunate to receive a pile of books.

I am currently inspired by this one from Lorna Miser of Lorna's Laces fame. While this has projects that are not all that exciting, it has a lot of great tips for analysing yarn--or even in my mind roving if you take it a step further--and matching stitch patterns to the type of repeat. Many of the patterns and how they change the look of your yarn are intriguing and as soon as the Polwarth sweater is done, I will be swatching.

NOT TO BE MISSED

Before I went up to the retreat I made a quick detour last month to catch a fabulous show in San Francisco, Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave. She is an artist who copies historical fashions from portraits or life into paper. The fashion spans from the Renaissance to the 20th century (my favs were the Fortuny's) The detail was sublime and while the show only includes a small fraction of her work, it was a real treat. Check out her website for more.

QUARTERLY REPORT ON STASHDOWN SPINNING

While I have been spinning like a crazy woman, posting is another matter. Life tends to get in the way and not leave much time for extras. Since my computer service is somewhat lacking I have to wait to do any posting until I can steal Sascha's wifi and often forget the netbook.

January - The blue is some stash merino, probably Ashland Bay. I have over 1100 yards and will probably use this for a yet to be determined weaving project. This a two-ply, fingering weight yarn.

February - A blend of some odd ends of CrossPatch and some pink Ashland Bay merino this yielded over 1000 yards. This is a two-ply with a strand of each blend spun and then plied. I still have a lot of the CrossPatch to spin up and ply on itself.

March - The red and the blue were both done at the retreat. The red is some rambouillet that Judith MacKenzie dyed. There were four ounces so my best guess is about 300 yards fingering weight. The blue is two different colorways of Copper Mountain targee spun separately and then plied together. Each colorway had four ounces so there should be close to if not more than 600 yards.

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April - Chameleon Colorworks Glacial Moraine Polworth and 64 Merino Morning Dove. I had eight ounces of each and have finished four ounces of the Mourning Dove and all of the Glacial Moraine.

Current schedule includes finishing the Chameleon Colorworks spinning and then moving on to some Nancy Finn that I got from Morgaine at a very nice price as it was slightly shop worn. Lucky me! After that I have some Capistrano from Lori and lots of Chameleon from Nancy, the last of the Columbia Fleece and even more CrossPatch to work with. Stay tuned.