Fiber Swap questionnaire

What do you use your fibre for? I use fibres predominantly for spinning, but sometimes for wet felting or needlefelting (see some of the jewellery on my blog for instances of this).

What kind of spinning do you do or what do you spin for? I spin to knit (or sometimes crochet)
If you knit, weave, spin, crochet, needle felt, or do other fibery pursuits, how long have you been doing those things? In the early 80’s I won a fleece, and thus had to learn to spin. It was a Welsh Black Mountain, a lovely colour to start with. A year or so later I bought myself an Ashford double drive wheel. Since then I have spun when I feel like it.

What level of expertise are you at? I’d say I am an intermediate spinner. I don’t keep accurate records, but sample a lot before embarking on a project. I often dye fibres before spinning them. Just occasionally I dye my spun yarn.

What fibres have you worked with? I have spun various breeds of sheep (Gotland is a favourite), alpaca, silk, cotton and other plant fibres.

Which fibres, fibre blends, and types of fibres do you prefer? I like to spin fine yarn, and often blend silk in with fleece. That way I can get colour and/or shine without losing the elasticity that the wool imparts.

Are you interested in working with raw fleece? If so, what type? Anything that will result in a fine yarn, and that is naturally white or grey to black. I don’t like buff or browns.

What fibery tools do you currently have (e.g., spinning wheels, drop spindles, combs, cards, etc.)? As I mentioned before, I have an Ashford double drive wheel. I also have a Bosworth spindle, hand cards, swift, and a couple of niddy noddies.

Do you crave any tools, books, or videos? Amy R. Singer’s recent book “No sheep for you” sounds interesting. I haven’t yet seen a copy, so am not sure whether I would buy it. I already have an extensive library of textile books, built up over the past 30 years or so. I don’t have an inch/centimetre gauge, usually using a ruler when I want to check yarn dimensions.

What fibres are you absolutely dying to get your hands on? Having read of qiviut and buffalo fibres, I’d like to try them, just a handful or so. I’d also like to try out milk protein fibres, again in small quantities. Surprisingly, I haven’t yet tried Blue-faced Leicester.

Which fibres do you absolutely not want to work with? Anything artificial, course in texture and/or buff in colour.

Do you prefer natural colour fibres or pre-dyed fibres? I like both. I like merino/silk, merino/flax, and merino/cotton mixes.

What are your dye and colour preferences? My favourite colour is purple, and I like vibrant bright jewel colours, using either synthetic or natural dyes. Otherwise indigo is a favourite. I don’t like pale pastel colours, but do like the acid greens/yellows/oranges that are the opposite of my favourite colours.

Any allergies or things your pal should be aware of? I dislike smoke and animals anywhere near me or any of my things. I refused to spin some dog hair a few years ago for that reason.

Losing centimetres (inches even!) in the garden

No, not me, not yet!

After having thought about it for a long time, we finally sorted out the fencing on the west side of our back garden.

When we moved here in December '95, we inherited a fence that we knew would need replacing sometime. Each winter we looked at it, and said "next year".

Well, this time round we had to do something, as our neighbours have a young dog who was gradually exploiting all the weak spots to look into our garden and bark at us (or passing cats).

Steve, Mr Smartfence came on Wednesday, and started the transformation. By Thursday evening it was done.

So here are more spot the difference pictures:

Here we have the quiet green decaying fence on the other side of the original 1920's (?) concrete posts.

And here it is with its posts hidden, and a new, (currently) two-tone brown fence.

This was a brilliant solution. Steve utilised the old concrete posts that were solidly in the ground.

In places he had to drill new holes through them to attach the wooden uprights before constructing a new fence.

Here it is undressed, on Wednesday evening.

The two-tone colour comes about because he had to go to more than supplier to get the right length of palings.

It seems that recently there has been a shortage of fence palings here in Britain, so we took what we could.

It will weather, and then we will paint it green to match all other fences on our property.

In the meantime I have other concerns. This bank holiday weekend, unusually, I am at home on my own.

Great, a chance to sort out SP10 parcels, and engage in the Fiber Swap run by Shelby.

But I have a cold, and woken by a sneezing fit at 02.30, I detected the sound of the central heating boiler (I can hear such sounds without my hearing aids).

After three exploratory trips downstairs, I was unable to sort it out, and dropped off to sleep around 03.30.

Today I have tried all sorts, and am not sure whether I have managed to tame it.

The boiler is spontaneously igniting, whether the timer is set to be on or not.

We never have the heating on at night, so it is even more disturbing.

Going back to SP10 and stashes, I had been looking for blogs of others in Shelby's group, and came across Baseball Knitter's post of April 28th on the way. Now that would have been the perfect parcel for me too.