Mabel and The Mystic Muskox

Mabel and I have been enjoying each other's company. I love the way she hums and whirls and turns ordinary fleece into yummy, yarny goodness. She appreciates the way I have stopped swearing at her, calling her bad names and insulting her mother. It's all good. Here is the first yarn we made together. Since I was just trying to get the rhythm and mechanics down, I didn't worry too much about thick and thin, schlubs or little bits of vegetation. I'm pretty happy with it for a first attempt. I learned a lot about how the machine works, fixing breaks and how much twist to put in. The fleece is wool from Moe Brown's Four Crow Farm. It's mostly natural brown color with little bits of pink and yellow tossed in for a flecking effect. I still have a couple skeins worth to spin up and then it's on to some of my brightly colored ones!

Please take a look at the close-up version of it. It's two ply. If any of you 'real spinners' out there spot any glaring rookie mistakes, please comment to me! (The fuzzy bit in the lower right is a piece of yarn I used to tie it.)



Most of the roving I bought are sheep's wool although some from Sandy's Palette has some tensel in it too. I did get a big wad of really nice merino top that feels like silk from Mielke's. It is natural so I can try my hand at dyeing my own. A little treat to look forward to after the holidays when the depths of winter despair comes on. When I get really good and reeeeaaaaaallllly need a treat, maybe I will invest in Qivuit. $40 an OUNCE! You have to be spinning-straw-into-gold good to mess with that! Musk ox are pretty cute though. I wonder if my neighborhood is zoned for them...hmmmm...Lord knows my furniture is covered with enough fur-baby hair so that I really don't need to buy roving again...EVER.

Below is a swatch for the 'Secret of the Stole' KAL I joined. I only wet and finger blocked it to see if I liked the needle size. It's not stretch blocked. I really like the yarn (Knit Picks Shadow-Oregon Coast color way) and the beads (size 6). I may go up a needle size though. Thank goodness for my Denise needle set so I don't have to purchase tons of different needles when I can't decide on the size! I especially liked that I didn't have to string all of the beads on the yarn before. That's too much wear and tear on lightweight lace yarn. There is a cool tutorial out there about knitting the stitch, taking it off the needle and then pulling it through your bead with a wee crochet hook and putting it back on the needle. Slickah than a cuppa custahd, Deah! Can't wait for the first clue on October 5th. I am determined to complete every clue in the time allotted before the next one is issued!

Things at Chez Bee have been same old same old. Homestead chores, furbaby maintenance and of course indoctrinating Mabel into our home has kept things pretty low key. Fall weather always brings out the cook in me though and I've decided to cook at least one new dish a week. Last week's experiment was a very successful fish chowder. Last night's wasn't bad-chicken pot pie. I stole Jerry's idea of creating a new web page for my recipes. It makes blog entries too long to post them here. I've put a link on the side of this blog called Molly Bee's Kitchen.
Bon Appetite !