I felt obsessed. . . .

Remember the bag I was test knitting? Well, I love the design of the bag, but the fabric was just too floppy and unsubstantial to hold up over the long haul. I'm really glad I decided to use wool to test knit it so it could be felted. After two rounds in the washer (inside a zippered pillow cover) in hot water and the small load setting, I am "obsessed":



with "wool":



This came out great! The Dale of Norway wool felted into a thick, dense fabric that will definitely hold up over time. It's about 8 inches tall, and not quite 6 inches across. Now, I need to find some fabric to make a drawstring lining and two buttons to sew on the handle and I'll have a great bag to use for small projects, or maybe for my knitting notions. When Anne gets the final pattern out, I'll let you know.

Saturday, ToolMan and I ran our errands and did some shopping. I've been wanting a decent scale for weighing yarn and didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for one. I'd love to have one of the fancy schmancy digital ones, but LinensNThings wanted $69 for the cheapest one, so I settled on this nice, old fashioned dial one. It does weigh in grams and ounces, up to 10 pounds, so it'll definitely handle a skein of yarn or two. Oh, and I bought that wood folding chair in the back to use for spinning.

Good thing I bought a folding chair, since I just got an invite to spin at the both Artisan's Village Fiber Arts Booth and at the Home Arts Demonstration Area at the Oregon State Fair this year. Now, all I have to do is figure out which days (and how many) I can spend there.



Oh, that green stuff? Really obnoxious color isn't it? It's the left overs from an impromptu plying lesson from last week's Westside Wednesday. Last year at OFFF, I bought two 1-pound braids of roving from one of the vendors (I don't remember who it was, but if you go back to that post, I probably had a name then). One is this garish lime green and the other is a dull moss green. At the time, I thought I'd ply them into a marl and make a cardigan. What was I thinking? I don't wear a lot of green because it's just not very complimentary to my complextion. And I don't really like green. Especially these two greens. So, I've been using the bright one for demonstration purposes because it catches attention. I think I'll probably wind up overdying both of them and maybe combing them together to get something usable. Or I can make a truck load of felted shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day.

On the far right there is a bump of roving I'm currently spinning. It's from OFFF, too; 8 ounces of Colonial Top in "brick" colorway. It has browns, creams, dark reds, and grays and spins up into really nice singles.



I bought this to use as an accent to the pound of brown alpaca from OFFF last year. Both will eventually become a cardigan for ToolMan.

Last week, one of the attorneys in the office found out that one of the children in her daughter's class has been diagnosed with bone cancer in his knee, and they also found a spot of cancer in his lungs. Thomas is only 10 years old, and is facing a fight for his life. The doctors have had to amputate his knee. Remarkably, they reattached the lower leg and foot in a "rotationplasty"; now his foot faces backwards, but eventually it will fit inside a prothesis and he'll be able to use that ankle to work the new, man-made foot and leg they'll build for him. Thomas' family doesn't have much money, and now his mom will have to give up her job to take care of him during his chemo and rehap.

The attorney is coordinating a silent auction to raise money for the family. I've put out the word to the PDX Knit Bloggers for donations and I'm sure they'll come through as they always do. In the meantime, I pulled out a shawl and put it in a gift bag with a card for the mother to let her know that a bunch of moms were thinking of her and sending good vibes to her and Thomas. Then I started pulling yarns out of the stash, thinking of what I can whip up in the next six weeks to include in that auction. First up, a single skein of Cascade Sierra Quatro; perfect for a mobius.



If you'd like to donate something for the auction, please leave me a comment with your email address and I'll make sure it gets included.