3 Boxes of Wool, and 3 Bags Full...

I've been the recipient of incredible generosity over the past month. At last month's Valley Spinners meeting there was a woman giving away alpaca fiber - she mentioned it during the meeting and only two of us went out to her car afterwards. I could hardly contain my glee as we divided it up... I've never spun alpaca before, but I love how heavenly soft it is and the colors were gorgeous! She had white, black, a silvery gray, and an auburn red. I asked her why she wasn't going to sell it, and she just shrugged. "I'm not much of a sales person, and I've got loads of it." I just had to hug the woman, and I practically skipped back to my car I was so excited - I couldn't wait to spin it up! But after I got it home I took a closer look and realized how dirty it was. I thought, oh my, how am I going to wash this alpaca? After a little research on the web, I found out that I didn't need to... that alpacas like to roll in dirt and that most of it will shake out while carding.
Well, here's the thing. My hand carders have been the garage for over a year. I've been buying most of my fiber pre-processed, and the rest I prepared using the drum carder I rented from the guild. So I haven't really needed to use them. When I first got the carders, I asked Phil to lacquer them for me since I have an aversion to unfinished wood. (I don't really know what to say about that other than it gives me the heebie-jeebies. I just can't touch it. Bleh!) Well, he sprayed them with something that didn't leave enough of a coat, so then months later we remembered to buy some proper lacquer while we were at the store (things don't get done in a hurry around here,) and finally a few months after that the lacquer was applied, but still the handles have not been screwed on. I really should just go out there and do it myself. But there's something satisfying about knowing your man did something just for you - even if it took him a freakin' year and a half to do it. I'm hopeful that I'll have finished hand carders shortly after he reads this post. Love you, Dear. :)

Anyway, onto my other lucky windfall. There is a very nice man named Hans at my church who invited us out to his farm to see the lamb (the poor guy only had one this year,) the rams and ewes, and the llamas. The farm was beautiful - it had a lovely garden and pastures. The boys were a little scared of the dogs, but they were fascinated by the chickens and Hans let us take some of the fresh eggs home. He also let me pick a few fleeces. He just gave them to me, three huge boxes of wool. I really didn't know what to say other than "Wow - thank you!" Here's a pic of me and all that fiber...

I'm going to be spinning for awhile. Again, I had the problem of washing the fleece... but I'll save that story for another post because that was quite an adventure. In the meantime, I've got thank you cards to write and I found the cutest idea in that yarn shop up in Birch Bay. I just knew I had to make one myself... Yup, that's a little knitted swatch on a pair of toothpick needles - isn't that the greatest?! It's the perfect card for thanking fiber philanthropists.