Thunder, storms, and rock tests

It seems like things distract me easily these days. It's been a busy week or so. I start something only to be pulled away from it almost immediately. A recent trip to the dentist and having to pay off the last installment of my son's college has left me aware of the need to be more frugal. I am not good at frugal.

On the fiber side of things, life is good, if only there were more hours in the day.

New purchases:

Let's see. Annie brought in the silk caps the other day and in the midst of paying for those she ended up owing me $5 change. She fixed that this we by finding a small bag of Tusseh Silk that retailed for about that amount. It has such a lovely sheen it leaves me breathless.


Some contest winnings:

Throughout the week, I've kept myself entertained by watching for notices about giveaways on the blog that links to an etsy site (with a corresponding Ravelry site) by Phat Fibers. Phat Fibers boxes are collections of samples sent in by various fiber related artists and sold on the etsy site. The shop owners video tape the goodies that come in and sell them (for $33) to those of us who are gleefully fiber-addicted. The artists get very reasonable advertising, and one hopes that Jessie and her husband make at least a fair return on the process, because they surely must spend a good amount of time sorting goodies, packing boxes, and mailing them out, too. More on the boxes in a minute.

On their blog, they offer free products via a drawing. To be entered in the drawings for the giveaways, you go to the online store sites for the various contributors and browse around to see what attracts you, then post about it on the Phat Fibers blog. I had a grand time window shopping and a hard time picking out the things that attracted me the most. There are so many trely lovely things to see. But I did manage to post something that sounded almost intelligent and then, I waited to see if I would get lucky.

This morning, I was lingering over that last cup of coffee, before going out the door to work and I decided to check the list of winners to see I I knew any of the names there. Well, golly gee willikers! My name was on there! Yeah, I won something! Yayh! An interesting batt of blended materials in sweet little spring time colors. Now how cool is that?

More purchases--score!

Later, I tried my hand at buying my first Phat Fiber box. These babies are popular. They may have 120 on them for sale each month, but easily twice that many people want one. They go fast. I read in the forums that the first month they sold out in 20 minutes and it's been getting quicker ever since. I tried my hand at it today and I was sooo nervous. At the appointed time, I (and probably 200 people I have never met) went to the etsy site and hit refresh, hoping to see a listing for the fiber boxes (spinners in mind) or the yarn boxes (knitters in mind).

I'd done my homework. I had everything set up to maximize the chances of getting one of the boxes. It's an art. If you want to try it, too, I recommend reading up on how it's done.

I refreshed at exactly the posted time and the prized treasures popped up immediately. I hardly took the time to breath as I made sure I clicked on the Phat Fiber version (so I'd get some spinning fibers), clicked through all the add to cart and pay this way buttons almost as fast as they appeared and then I held my breath until the confirmation appeared, having heard horror stories about purchases jumping out of carts. When the confirmation did appear, I had to sit down for a moment and just breath. I did it. I actually got one of the boxes. Go me!

Three of the boxes will have spindles from Zebisis Designs in them. I covet one of those. I had my eye on the most beautiful spindle from her shop...It was done with a chrysacolla whorl with the most beautiful shades of colors ever. Naturally I spoke to my rock and mineral loving heart. Unfortunately, it sold before I could pick it up. I still have the site bookmarked, and I'll check back in when I have some spare change again--perhaps there will be something else that will catch my eye. I notice there is a sweet African Turquoise spindle there now. I'd be thrilled to open my Phat Fiber box and find one of those spindles in it. I'd even be happy to find one of her batts in the box. She makes lots of things that appeal to me. Well, until the box gerts here, I can dream, can't I?

On to the actual use of some of the fiber in the house already:

I tried spinning some of the Louet Superwash merino the other day. I love it, love it, love it. It spins so fine and so smooth. I feels wonderful sliding past my fingers. The resulting yarn is so slick and squishy, I want to spin the entire bag up right now.


But I put it away and got out the Coopworth again, and I'm finding that even it seems to be working up much more smoothly as I gain practice.

I did manage to dye up some of it with Kool Aid, and plied it on my spindle.

It's soft and buttery and still smells like citrus. I stocked up on Kool Aid flavors at Kroger's sale last week and I got lots of Eater Egg dye when it went on clearance. I can hardly wait to try dyeing the pure white sample fibers I have...of course, I have to spin them first.

Kitting news:
My beloved husbands socks are still progressing. I sure do seem to be slow at socks. I hope I get faster, because there are a lot of socks I want to make. Oh well, perhaps this summer?

To the loom:
I pulled out some sunny yellow cotton yesterday. I plan to put it up on the loom tomorrow (uh, later today, since it is so late) and try my hand at some patterning with two heddles and two pickup sticks. I figure I can get myself in all kinds of trouble with that!