Fat Cats Corner

  Knitting.  So much yarn, so little time.   I have a significant S.A.B.L.E...Stash Available Beyond Life Expectancy.  It's a real struggle to divide my time between my hobbies: Reading, Knitting, Beading, Painting.  Then there are the mundane chores like cooking, cleaning, laundry, dishes. Sigh.  I'm not a compulsive 'starter'.  I only have one major project and one TV/Social Knitting project (wash cloth, garter stitch blanket/scarf etc.) on the needles at any given time.  A great deal of my SABLE was purchased with no project in mind at all.  But sometimes I buy for a specific purpose. I took a Fiber Road Trip in April 2019 to attend a spinning class given by Kate Larson at  The Fiber Event  at the Putnam County Fairgrounds, Greencastle, IN.  Kate was so informative and patient with the small class.  We weren't overwhelmed with statistics or extraneous details.  I learned a lot.   While I was there I saw a sample of the Downhome shawl by Alicia Plummer  (Ravelry l

 In 2020 restaurants and retail stores were closed, office workers, where possible, were sent to work from home.  Businesses closed, many, many people lost jobs. Supply chains dried up and people hoarded toilet paper.  Here we are 21 months later and some businesses have never re-opened, many people are still out of work, ships sit outside our ports waiting to unload the things we think we need.  And many, many people have died. I think people in general were naïve about the effects of COVID-19 and how long those effects would last.  My husband and I are both under the age of 65 and in good health.  We have been very fortunate to not have become sick and do not know of anyone in our family or among our friends who have.  We are fully vaccinated and plan to get our booster shots as soon as we are able.  We continue to wear masks in stores and whenever we are in close quarters with the public.  It's the safe thing to do.  It's the RIGHT thing to do. With some travel restrictions

 So this just happened... Forgive the horrible video.  I saw our cats very intensively watching something from the upper deck,  I looked out the window and grabbed my phone.   This two year old bear cub was walking through the yard!  The  female black bear matures  as early as three years of age. Breeding occurs from mid-June to mid-July, but in the eastern deciduous forest, mating season can extend into August.  Female black bears usually breed every other year and cubs are born from early January to mid-February.  This guy/girl was kinda skiddish out in the open so I'm figuring Mama Bear just kicked him/her out so she can breed again. I'm figuring this cub is one of these little guys I saw last July 😍

  Photo Credit The Lincoln is one of the four English longwool breeds: Cotswold, Leicester Longwool, Lincoln and Wensleydale. The Lincoln has had a globally significant genetic impact on sheep breeding but today, like most other longwool breeds, the Lincoln is globally rare and facing an uncertain future.  The Lincoln became globally rare during the 1900's.  By 1980 there were fewer than 1,000 purebred Lincoln ewes remaining in Britain.  Since then, numbers in the breed have increased due to a revival of interest in the breed's wool. The wool can grow between 8 and 15 inches per year, which means that Lincolns are often sheared twice a year to keep the staple a manageable 5 inches or so for spinning. With a micron count between 36 - 40, Lincoln wool is a heavier wool that tends to be best suited for outerwear, rugs and pillows. It is very long, sleek, shiny and has very low crimp. The long staple made it very easy to spin and the high micron count makes it great for a tough

Photo rights  bib.ge Just look at those long  Teeswater  locks!! Here is an introduction from The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook (Robson, Ekarius, 2011) "It is named for the River Tees, the river meanders about 85 miles from Cross Fell (the highest   summit in the Pennines) to the North Sea. "Long, lustrous, shiny wool: That's what its all about with the Teeswater. The locks hang individually   and don't clump together. There is no Kemp or dark fibres, and the wool is uniform throughout the fleece. Because of the length (6-15 inches) yarns with a low twist work out well. It is a reluctant felting wool, at best."  Page 116. The wool has a micron count of 30-35. I keep mentioning micron count but I don't think I ever explained it. (Not that anyone interested couldn't have just Googled it.)  Microns are a measure of fiber diameter. The smaller the micron count a particular wool has, the softer it is to the touch. The larger the micron count, the more hair

  " Herdwick   are a breed of domestic sheep native to the Lake District in North West England. (I'd love to visit there.) Though low in lambing capacity and perceived wool quality when compared to more common commercial breeds, Herdwicks are prized for their robust health, their ability to live solely on forage, and their tendency to be territorial and not stray over the difficult upland terrain of the Lake District. They are a dual purpose breed, producing strongly flavored lamb (meat from a sheep younger than a year) and mutton (meat from a sheep older than one year, up to three  years) and a coarse, grey wool not easily dyed and is best suited for carpet wool."    Weavers use Herdwick for warp and weft. At first appearance Herdwick looks more hair-like than wool. It is a very coarse , hard wearing wool, between 30 and 40 microns and a staple length of 3 to 3.5 inches. I love the natural color variations but found the kemp  hairs annoying.  Could very well just be t