Yarn that makes me want to Om Nom Nom Nom!

After everything that happened last week, I did make it to Kid 'n Ewe. Unfortunately, my camera didn't. I'll have more on that later.

For now, I've already started spinning some of the fiber I bought.


Does this shade of blue look familiar?


That's right, the originator of the Om Nom Nom Nom himself. Cookie Monster's exact fur color seems to vary, although I'm not sure if his actual fur has changed over time or if it's just the quality of the film. Either way, I saw this batt and thought of him. It's so fuzzy and blue.

Anyway...


This is one of the merino/tencel batts that Spinning Straw Into Gold had for sale. Spinning Straw Into Gold's main focus is spinning fur from dogs and cats. But at Kid 'n Ewe Christine had batts for sale in a rainbow of colors. And I couldn't resist the Cookie Monster blue.


I was itching to spin when I got home, and I decided the Cookie Monster batt was a good place to start. This is a piece of the batt, pre-drafted and ready to go. You can see that the Tencel adds some shine. It's very soft and silky. It'd be nice if the real Cookie Monster was part Tencel.


Here's the yarn on the drop spindle. (Sorry for the blurry shot.)


I'm spinning the yarn pretty thin. It drafts very easily. I'll probably ply it, so this is a look at what it may look like completed.


Here's what I've spun so far.

I've had fun looking at at old Cookie Monster clips on YouTube. I found a clip of Cookie Monster before he was Cookie Monster, a disturbing clip of Martha Stewart getting sadistic pleasure out of torturing Cookie Monster and Cookie Monster setting the record straight on the Colbert Report. You can see all the clips I found here.

I'll leave you with Cookie Monster's interview on NPR.

Tour de Fleece Day 4: "Sick" Day

At some point in my childhood, I read a book about a little boy who wanted to be "just sick enough." I don't remember the name. For example, he wanted to be well enough to play with his toys, but too sick to put them away.

I was in that zone today. Too hoarse to make phone calls, the main function of my job. I didn't even bother trying to come in, although I think I should be good to work tomorrow. (And good enough to attend Tom Hanks' birthday party at The Knitting Nest.)

I declared myself too sick to clean, cook or do any significant amount of grocery shopping. But I wasn't too sick to go to the library, grab some noodles at the Asian market, watch One Day at a Time on Hulu and, of course, spin.

I made some progress on the Tour de Fleece. I know it's hard to tell from the picture of the Niddy Noddy, but I really did. I may even do a little more before bed.

After sleeping on it, I decided to name my drop spindle Captain Hook. The Captain Hook from Peter Pan had a hook instead of a hand. My drop spindle has a hook instead of...its original hook. (Click here to read about what happened to my spindle in February.)

In other news, there's a contest over at the Monniblog there is a great contest where you can win knitting, reading or pet related prizes. Go over and say hi.

An HEB stop on the Tour de Fleece

One of my co-workers, who has experience as a voice teacher, told me his remedy of laryngitis over lunch today. He recommended gargling with a solution of water, salt and baking soda. However, he also recommended that "snort" it as well. (Think Neti Pot, only messier and more intense.)

Jules has recommended...all kinds of stuff. He studied Chinese medicine, so he has all sorts of interesting advice. Most of his recommendations have been fairly normal stuff like tea, drinking lots of water, soup, lemon, honey, garlic etc. However, a little while ago he said I should suck on some pickled ginger. (The kind that comes with Sushi.) While I like to eat it, I don't know if I can handle sucking on it. He also asked me if I could find some licorice root. I don't think so. (Although to be fair, I've think licorice root is a common ingredient in many herbal teas.)

There is even more "interesting" stuff online. I don't even want to try to figure out what a "bowel tolerance" of vitamin C is.

I don't have any honey, lemon or baking soda. But what's ultimately getting me to go to HEB this late (after a long nap this evening) is the fact that I'm hungry and I haven't done my post-payday grocery shopping yet. I'm not buying two weeks of groceries tonight, but it would be nice to have something besides Spaghetti Os to eat.

So far, I haven't done any Tour de Fleece spinning today. I might do a little when I get home. Maybe I'll make this my day of rest. I guess it's a good thing I got so far this weekend.

I got the Tour de Fleece group on Ravelry talking about drop spindles. (Ravelry Link.) It made me realize I need to name mine. I'm open to suggestions. I thought about Peter Brady, but I think I need something more meaningful. Or silly. Maybe Ol' Droppy or Ol' Spinny. Or Captain Hook.

NOOOOOOO!!!!

Last night I was spinning, and I was on a roll. I thought I was finally getting the hang of it. Then it happened.

Actually, I can't remember exactly how it happened. All of sudden I was looking at the bottom of my drop spindle and saying to myself "this is a bottom whorl, isn't it?"

My hook was gone.

Dude, where's my hook?

I couldn't find it anywhere. I checked my clothes, the chair, the floor, but it was long gone.

NOOOOOOOO!!!!

I contemplated e-mailing Jim Hokett for advice on how to fix it. I finally took it home to Dad this evening, triggering an impromptu trip to Home Depot. Dad had made a couple of simple of drop spindles for Mom years ago, and they still had the little cup hooks leftover. But they were too big.

So I found myself in Home Depot, with a spindle wrapped in uneven vomit autumn colored, handspun yarn, looking at cup hooks and looking longingly at my spindle. I was remembering about how shiny and new it looked at Kid n' Ewe.

We debated hook sizes. I kept insisting it was smaller than the hooks available. Finally we came home with two different sizes.

It occurred to me when we were on the way home that I had a picture on Flickr of the spindle. We checked, and I think it proved I was right.

Fortunately, smaller size worked, even if it was bigger than the original hook. With some Teflon tape (Dad's idea) I was back in business.

After Dad fixed the spindle, I spent some time with Mom talking about spinning technique. I asked her to demonstrate with my spindle. When she tried, she said the wool I was using was difficult to draft. She suggested that I use some different fiber, something prepared. (Not rolags like I had been.)

So I have a mission for the yarn crawl this Saturday. I need to find some roving or a batt that will be good for a beginner.

In other news, picked up a few things at my parents' house for my "bangin'" 80s outfit for work tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.




Mom felted her Coco Bag, but she's having trouble putting in the gromits. (Those are knitting needles poking through the holes.) She's wondering what tool to use. Let me know if you have any advice.

Also, check out Jules' socks at Sandra Singh's website. (I'm famous!)