Thanks to all that offered words of kindness after my Mother In Law passing on 5/9. If anyone didn't hear, she lost her battle with cancer last month. It's been a very long spring already, but I've found a distraction that's going to find me out on the corner, swinging my.... knitting needles!!

I was offered a small Ashford Kiwi spinning wheel to "borrow". I already feel guilty like I owned into it, but I'm having such fun!! I spun a pound of the cheapest crap I could find - it became two "Kitty Pi" cat beds, and the rest was dyed in Koolaid to make a fuzzy vest for Miss Niki. So, I got another and some Merino. The Merino spins like playing with baby kittens, and I LOVE it. It's going very, very fine, so half of my brain wants to offer it for sale to fund my own spinning wheel and lots more fiber - and the other half wants to make something lovely, lacey, soft and PURPLE!

A dear friend let me help her comb out some stuff that she's using to make a a gorgeous bulky yarn, so she taught me a bit and I helped for the afternoon - and she gave me my own first fleece. I couldn't keep my hands off it. I had to clean and bleach a trash can, then soaked it in Dawn, then soaked in Murphy's Oil Soap. It made my little kitchen smell like an old barn, but I hung it on the front railing to dry. It was very gross and funky, and there may have been an "I have icky Woool" song to horrify the teenagers. But, it smells lovely now. I happily tortured it with a dog comb and fluffed it well. I tried to spin it, but it wanted to be treated better than that. The friend offered to bring over her drum carder and we made 4 huge bats of what I'd combed. LOVELY! Herman tried to make those his cat bed, but he was informed that it wasn't an option. I've spun an entire bat in an evening, and I'm in love. It's almost filled a bobbin with a lovely, springy laceweight with such a shine...

It's a Shetland crossed with something that starts with F, probably children of a lady named "Lily", so thank you, Lily and Lily-baby. I have pictures on the laptop, but I have to grab a cable to get them from the camera to the flicker to Ravelry, facebook, and emails. I just want to spin, so I'll put this post up, work on some links and pictures, and get some electronic work and cleaning type stuff going today. I have a housefull of "slave labor" - I mean children, so after summer job searches, I should have plenty of muscle for projects.