And Don't Let the Door Hit You...

Good, no great, no amazing awesome unreal news. WBZ-1030 has brought back Steve LeVeille and Boston has live, local talk at night again. I'm trying to feel bad for Jon Grayson but it's not happening, he sucked. If that's what passes for talk radio in middle America I'm glad I live on the coast. So bye-bye monkey-meat man and don't let the door hit ya where the Lord split ya on your way out of Boston's radio waves.

So what else is new? Not too much I'm still waiting on the estimate on the 79 Thunderbird repairs. A real one from a real body shop not some weird cobbled together joke by a clueless claims adjuster. I fear she may be totaled but that's better then the slow death she'd face with bad repairs. She's complete and original and bad repairs would be worse than just parting her and letting other 79's live on. We'll have to see what the numbers say. On the home front I made doggie cookies this week for my niece's puppy. She helped with the cookie cutters and was quite proud to make treats for her furry friend. I used this recipe from KAF. The smell of the poaching liver and the liver puree in the blender was really gross but Miss Maggie loves the cookies so it's worth it. On the fiber front I've been spinning a bit on my spindles. When we were stuck in the house in the ice storm I actually made a few with some oak dowels and leftover jewelry supplies I had in the basement. I don't do well in the dark and cold with nothing to do. I think it this one came out pretty well. I made the bowl everything is sitting in as well, I miss working clay. Maybe if I hit the lottery I'll put in a pottery studio out back.I'm now off to clear the driveway and walkway of snow. Did I mention it's snowing? Again? Several inches? Again? This Winter is a whopper. I think hubby should do it since I finished him a pair of socks over the weekend but he's at work. On the bright side I get to play with the snow thrower and don't tell but it's kinda fun.

Mistress Mary Quite Contrary How Do You Scour Your Wool?

I finally finished scouring all the fleece my sister brought be at New Year's. After lots of experimenting this is what worked out best for me. If you ever decide you do your own fleece scouring experiments a free garbage bag of fleece will be MORE than enough to try out a bunch of methods.

First I do a cold water soak for about 24 hours. I was amazed the amount of gunk that settled out of the wool in just a cold bath.

Then I mix up my sudsy stuff. I think a lot of the issues people have with scouring wool with handmade soap come down to not dissolving the soap BEFORE adding it to the tub. It just won't dissolve fully that way most of the time.I use 1/2 cup of handmade soap flakes and top it with 4 cups of boiling water from the kettle. Stir it a bit and let it sit.It only takes a few minutes to dissolve completely. If it cools off it turns into a gloppy gel that still dissolves really easily in the tub but it is also kind of neat to play with.I also add something on the old fashioned side to the first soapy bath, washing soda. For me a 1/4 cut in the first bath is more than enough and doesn't seem to hurt the wool any. The second bath is just soap. I finish with a plain water and then a water/vinegar soak. I don't pour the soapy soaks down the drain, I put them outside. There's a lot of lanolin in that waste water and while it won't hurt the plants it might do a number on the pipes. Think bacon grease. I have enough plumbing issues, I'm not game to bait the tiger ( read hubby ) by gunking them up before we've saved enough to get the needed plumbing work done.

More Fun With Free Fleece

I decided to try spinning from dyed locks. I scoured up some of the free fleece and dropped it into the dye pot. I thought hey chartreuse, acid yellow and purple. They fleece took the dye very well. Unfortunately my color sense took the day off and I ended with colors reminiscent of something putrefying.

"Oh well" I thought, I'll spin it up anyway. Thankfully it mellowed out quite a bit once it was plied. I ended up with a couple hundred yards of a funky but passable bulky weight.

Even close up it's not so bad. I'm curious to see how it knits up. I'm thinking a hat and knucks. Maybe some super warm mitts.

I'm still going to call the color "putrid".

Boston Radio is Dead!

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A Quick List and Free Fleece

Since I last blogged...



Ice Storm Destroyed our 1979 Thunderbird



I learned to HATE Commerce insurance and ignorant claims adjusters



It Snowed and Snowed and Snowed and ...



Christmas on a budget



My niece started to "get" the idea of the potty



New Years



and

My sister brought me a garbage of free fleece from her boss' farm.

It was dirty, unskirted and had been barn stored for a couple years but it was you know free.

The boss man calls them Merino "Mutts" aka he really breeds them for eating and never got around to thinking about the fleece part.

Did I mention a GARBAGE BAG FULL?

Not too bad once I pulled it out.

Hey it might be workable.

Let's load it up and see what happens.

Hmmmm. Sheep are dirty. It looks better, perhaps a second and third dunk. Yeah that works. It does come clean eventually. Ohhhhh kind of fluffy. Not super soft but workable for outerwear for sure.

Yay, YARN!!!!!!