Sunny skies on a Sunday

Spring is now getting a good shot in the arm this weekend here in Stumptown. Portlanders who were huddling in their jackets and scarves are walking the streets in shirt sleeves and sunglasses, big smiles on their faces as they try to soak up enough sun to neutralize the winter dullness. I've opened up the house to let the skimmia fragrance waft into the house and the cross breeze push the stale air of winter out. The cats are lounging in the sunshine after a good roll on the sidewalk and the bushtits are flitting about in the trees and bushes. A lovely day for sitting outside and knitting or spinning.

Last week at knit night I brought home Susan's carder and processed some of the washed wools I had. I completed the processing on two bags of wool, a merino I had purchased a couple of years ago and the Columbia moorit I got at the Aurora Fiber Faire last year, and now have some lovely batts to spin from.

It's interesting to see the crimp on both being so fine so I'm looking forward to seeing what I come up with from both wools. The merino was my first attempt at getting a wool in the raw after being sheared, washing it and processing it to batt form. I was afraid I had felted it but found to my delight that it had not.

The Columbia was washed and picked but needed carding. I did some experimental carding at OFFF on Deb Accuardi's carder and liked the result. It's a lovely warm brown that should be enough for a sweater when spun up.