It was the best of trips, it was the worst of trips…. and as the cartoon caption says, “Come now, Mr. Dickens, it could hardly have been both.”
Yesterday “we” (he was driving, I was knitting on Red Scarf) got Mr. Beth to the airport in the nick of time to catch a westward flight, then I took off (with three little ones) in search of the elusive but talked-up Susan’s Fiber Shop. The short version is that I found it. The slightly longer version was that this shop is one of those that is so packed with every kind of fiber goodness that as soon as you step inside and see some of it, you’re attacked by wool-induced amnesia and you have no idea what you came in for. (I have had this happen in bead, scrapbooking, rubber stamp, and quilt shops, too…. as well as the grocery store and the thrift store…. hmm, maybe I should look into that fish oil thing. Maybe it’s just me.)
Anyway, it was wonderful. Wheels, books, yarn, sock yarn, needles, beads, videos, bags of fiber, braids of roving, back issues of magazines, kits, niddy noddies, dyes…. There were whole yarn sections I didn’t even get a chance to look at. I got my hackle, some colorful BFL to spin up, a new spindle, and a pair of knitting needles with little brown sheep on the ends. Susan herself wasn’t there (she had to pick up a ram) but she’s been e-mailing me since the visit. (Thanks Donna for all your help!)
After I got home, James the Eldest helped me make chocolate chip cookies so we could take snack to the Scout meeting. I dropped him off and bought backing fabric from the local quilt store, for a T-shirt quilt I really super super need to finish (i.e. for someone else). Then I went back to the meeting and took the other kids in with me, at which point I started having a killer migraine. The medicine was at home, of course. Somehow I made it home and got my meds in, but it was about an hour before they even seemed to start to kick in. I felt really sick to my stomach, so I took my nausea med too (warning: may cause upset stomach WTF???).
The kids helped by putting themselves to bed. The pain was horrible. I couldn’t even bear to think about knitting even though it usually calms me down. So I took out the new hackle and a gallon-bag of llama fiber and started dehairing. I got almost the whole bag done before Tom woke up and needed a goodnight snack.
It turned out to be the perfect thing to do during a migraine. I wasn’t sure I was doing it right, but this is very simple technology — basically, pulling chunks of fur through two rows of nails — so there weren’t very many ways I could botch it up. Eventually two piles started forming: soft fiber I could pull through over and over, and shorter, coarser fiber that didn’t want to do it.
The next step will be carding, after I’ve dehaired all that I have. And I’m thinking that that I will probably card the coarser fibers too, after I’m done with the fine ones. Practice is practice, and we can’t all be Mohair. (It’s especially hard when you’re a llama.)
Anyway, today I’m feeling a little better. My mouth feels like I chewed on cotton all night, and I could use some more sleep, but couldn’t we all. Maybe I’ll be able to knit today.
