Yesterday Owen and I went to the Blackberry Ridge open house. I had one particular yarn in mind, and brought Owen along to help keep peace at home for Scott. We got my yarn and also a 13 oz bag of natural roving, which Owen was planning to use for needlefelting. I wanted to spend a little more time trying to get the hang of the drop-spindle. When Owen saw me drop-spindling, he wanted to do it too. He spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening and this morning spinning about half the bag of roving into his first yarn. It's a little uneven and a little on the thick side, both to be expected from a beginner. But he made a lot of improvement during the time he was working at it and really seemed to enjoy the process. He wants me to knit a bed for Hailey (the cat) out of it. I'll try to oblige, but am a little unsure what needle size to use: it looks like it fluxuates between U.S. size 4 and 35. Tomorrow I'll get a picture of his yarn and post it.
The yarn I went looking for was the Blackberry Ridge sport weight in navy blue. This is to solve the problem of how to use up the ancient shetland-style tweedy tan yarn I bought so very long ago. I had been hoping for a slightly muddier blue, but it really works well in the swatch. I like this yarn a lot and will probably be buying more of it. The price is quite reasonable at $8 for a 350 yard/4 oz skein. It has a nice hand and feels really pleasant. It's very even and has the right amount of twist. And I get to support a small scale really local business. Without paying a premium price. I also found a sale basket with some nice DK weight 85% wool/15% silk in a purple with tweedy flecks. I couldn't leave that sitting there.
My book group met today. We discussed The Kite Runner, which most of us agreed was an amazing book. One woman didn't feel that strongly about it, which is ok. I'm tempted to do a little write up for my Never On Oprah Book Club blog (see sidebar for link) but I'm not sure I can assert that Oprah would never choose this book. She does sometimes choose books I happen to like. In fact, there are some qualities of this book that might cast it squarely into Oprah-land: troubled family, troubled part of the world, guilt and expiation. Even so, I feel like this book rises above the emotional manipulation that puts me off some of her choices. I would put this in my Highly Recommended category.
3 comments:
awww, between a 4 and a 35...that's sweet :) it is so great he wants to do all these crafty things.
I love Blackberry Ridge! I just finished a Wallaby for my son out of their hand-dyed machine wash merino, and it's gorgeous. It's soft enough that he won't take it off and even sleeps in it, and it's hardy enough for washing in the machine twice now (with very little pilling).
I wish I could've gone to their open house. That sounds wonderful. *sigh* It's not like I don't have tons of yarn, though . . .
Oprah books! - insert eye rolling here -
I don't know if this is still true, but I used to believe that Oprah only picked books that left one feeling vaguely suicidal after the reading... Thinking most particularly of Songs in Ordinary Time, which left me feeling as if my soul had been squashed.
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