*read this in David Attenborough’s documentary voice* Scamp’s grey tabby coat was perfectly designed by nature to blend with her natural environment: the living room furniture. This provides excellent camouflage, allowing her to take undisturbed naps. #caturday

An older photo of Scamp for #whiskersWednesday

A flock of #jellyfish on my hallway #bulletinboard. #art #middleschool

I am feeling very frustrated. I’ve been dealing with a frozen shoulder in PT for months, including doing my exercises at home, and have decided that I need to stop #handspinning and #knitting entirely for a while. I hate it this! I have a Ranunculus sweater on the needles. Last finished knit below.

Scamp finds an afternoon square of sunlight. #caturday #photography #iphone #backlighting

A fragment of double rainbow hangs in a cloudy sky, in a band of storm cloud that is reflecting sunset (view to the SE). A red and white semi is crossing the view from right to left. A green agricultural field with rows of upright white pipes lies below the clouds. #landscape #photography #iPhone

A cloud reflects sunset light over a range of dry hills. #photography #landscape #iPhonephoto

My final effort with the bouclé. It was a good learning experience. I was hoping I could have a little scarf but I have a long skinny sample instead. The nice thing about having a big Dorset fleece to work with is that I feel I can experiment like this without using expensive fiber. 🧶 #handspun

Here’s the rest of the blue/lavender single plied into bouclé. Apparently my dining was not very consistent, because you can see where some of it is very tightly spun and some is loose. Those sections look very different—tight, firm and loopy vs fluffy and cloud like.

First attempt at bouclé on EEW 6.1. It’s about half of the blue single (which is Dorset dyed with Wilton’s violet food color gel). Plied with white sewing thread and wrapped with silver sewing thread and beads salvaged from a broken lanyard. Lots of flaws but I’m happy. #handspun #Dorset #boucle

First, Susan’s yarn is “oh wow” gorgeous. Second…I’m just about to try art yarn myself and after watching a lot of video, I bought this book, which was recommended in a WoolToGold video on bouclé.

I bought it! If anyone asks, the box that just came from UPS is a long, lacy black cardigan. (Some assembly required.) Approx 5 lb black Targhee yearling, incredibly soft. #handspun #fiberprep #rawfleece #targhee

Ooos…here’s the pic.

My EEW 6.1 IS HERE! It works! It makes yarn! I’m spinning a little of the Dorset fleece that I scoured and dyed myself. (Food coloring.)

#TourDeFleece Day 6 (7/10) My output for the day. It’s 3 rolags out of the blended Romney v2. I did my spinning in 3 shorter sessions today.

Carded brown Romney lamb, experiment v2. V1: 28 g wool, 2 grams muga silk, and some sari silk. v: 14 g wool, 2 g silk, and sari silk…this time shredded the sari silk bits in hand cards. The blending board was still too full (or I have the wrong tools). I finally pulled off to hand card.

#TourDeFleece #fiberprep Day 5 7/9/25 I only did a little spinning, on a back-seat project with the first 3 locks of a big dirty Dorset fleece. I didn’t get all the lanolin out, so they feel greasy and hard to spin. I’m experimenting with chain-ply on the fly. (Cont)

In the middle of my PT session today, for a frozen shoulder, I made up my mind. I came straight home and ordered an EEW 6.1. Sadly, black was the only choice. I didn’t keep track of time spent spinning in the 1st 4 days of #TourDeFleece, but at the end of day 4 I had an oz of 2 ply yarn …1/2

#fiberprep #handspinning Ok, so here’s my problem. I have a pound of very short, very fine lambswool from a breed that is basically a Merino/Rambouillet cross. And it is SOAPY. It was scoured by vendor. I rinsed in hot water. I rinsed in cold water. It’s still soapy. So I tried … 1/3

#TourDeFleece #handspun Day 4 The skein on the right is my spinning for days 1-4 (mostly on 2-4). The photos don’t do it justice—the Romney lamb is a rich chocolate brown. The two skeins together are 27 grams and about 52 yards.

#TourDeFleece #handspun Day 3 Still working on the Romney blend (v1).

Handspun yarn from Corriedale combed top.

Hay bales of summer…

After this post, I had to try again at catching a honeybee on camera.

It’s been time for peace for, like, decades, man. ☮️

Here’s a western honeybee deep in a hollyhock. The hollyhocks are volunteers, strayed from a neighbor’s yard.

There’s my first attempt at the Dorset. Carded on the blending board with a little pink merino blend scrap yarn, spun on a drop spindle and chain plied. Washed at scouring temps because it STILL had/had lanolin. First time with blending board, first try at chain plying.

I am learning that a blending board is not as easy as all the videos make it look. I’m reading through the Blending Board Bible too. Let’s just say that my first attempts are spinning up a more textured yarns than I had in mind. I an starting with clean fleece, which I suspect is harder than top.

I couldn’t go to No Kings today, but I got out for World Knit in Public day. My town’s only cozy coffee shop closed early for a special event. Not a lot of choices but I was determined. The drive through coffee hut has an outdoor table. Tin Can Barley Hat, up to crown decreases.