Fluffy

Next in my resurgence of craftiness, I have decided to finally tackle what I've been putting off for over a year. Remember this?



I'm finally washing it. I know a lot of people say that you don't have to wash alpaca because it doesn't have any lanolin. The problem is, it DOES have dust, and dirt, and grit. And I read in Spin-Off that you really should wash it so that said dust, dirt, and grit don't get embedded in your yarn, because not all of it will wash out once the yarn is spun. So I'm tackling the job of washing nearly 3 pounds of alpaca fleece today. 30 minute soaks with Eucalan in a galvanized tub on the patio, followed by similar soaks without Eucalan to rinse. You should see the horrid muddy color of the water after the soapy soak. Ew. I'm glad that stuff's not ending up in my yarn.

Mmm... tea....

I have an active WiP!!! Can you believe it??? I'm crocheting again! Woooo!

Oh... you wanted to see it? Hm. Okay, I guess I can show you. ;)




I know it doesn't look like much now, but it's slowly becoming Sweet Tea from Doris Chan's Everyday Crochet. I'm really liking the pattern. Easy enough that I can watch Doctor Who while working, interesting enough that I'm not getting bored. It's a win-win project, I tell ya. It is, in fact, fantastic. :)

And besides, its name involves tea. Seriously. Can it be more perfect? I submit that it cannot.

A Long Absence

I am sad to report that I haven't been doing much crafty stuff lately. I've been spinning a bit, but irregularly, and I haven't been documenting my progress. Other than that, I've given up on my crocheted sock (wasn't turning out the way I wanted; I guess it would help if I started out with patterns rather than always making shit up as I go along), haven't worked on my tank top, and pretty much stalled out on everything. I'm sorta finally starting to go stir crazy and want a crochet hook in my hand, but still not enough to get me going quite yet. It's strange, how for a while you can want to do only one thing all day, and then for a while you're really not interested. I figure if I don't force it, my creative desire will come back, and am trying not to worry about myself for not being in the mood for yarny pursuits.

Meanwhile, a while back my friend Megan tagged me for a meme. I'm thinking it'll be a fun way of getting my blogging juices flowing again. So here we go!

Rules:
1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 Magnificent Facts:
1. I'm rather shy. Have a really hard time starting conversations with people I don't know very well. And perhaps a related fact, I cannot stand answering machines and voice mail. I'm completely inept at leaving phone messages.

2. For a medievalist, I know shockingly little about the Middle Ages. I like to blame the structure of my undergraduate education requirements for that -- limits on the number of credits you can take in a given department kept me from specializing quite as much as I wanted to.

3. I hate Monopoly.

4. I like steampunk. Didn't really notice this until recently, when I learned that several of the movies and themes that I like are considered to be steampunk. The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, stuff like that. And I've been drawn to this kind of stuff more and more recently.

5. I don't like being drunk. Really don't enjoy it. Feeling like I can't even control my own limbs properly is not a good feeling.

6. I'm a right-leaning moderate.

7. Actually, I have a hard time talking about myself, describing myself in things like this. It's taken me forever to come up with all this stuff, and I still end up feeling like why do people want to know this? Why do I want people to know this? And if I'm gonna feel this way, why did I do the meme to begin with? Ah well. Guess I'm also a paradox like that.

Gonna break the rules. No tagging. I don't know enough people that would do it anyway. If you feel like doing this meme, go for it. If not, don't sweat it. Freedom of blogging! :)