Poo Power

It has been so wonderfully sunny and warm. Our dye garden is in full swing (thanks to Marcel's nutritious poo power). We're harvesting on a daily basis cosmos, correopsis, dahlias, and bronze fennel. Poor Marcel has been so hot -- the big ball of fluff that he is.
He is molting right now. He does that every three months. At night, I pull bits of fluff off of him. There are spots on him that give more fluff than others, almost like a spigot. I keep pulling and pulling sometimes to the point that I think he will have a bald spot, but, no, he just has a ton of fur. My friend Rebekah turned me onto an Angora grooming class on September 20th at a bunny store named Rabbit Ears in Kensington. I hope to learn better organizational skills when taking his fur off of him. Right now, I am just kind of stuffing it into a tupperware container every which way because I am still learning how to keep him still long enough for me to groom him. My fiber self just keeps saying -- it's ok -- it is like a big rolag -- think woolen.

Cleo and Marcel are making headway. Except for brief moments when Cleo tries to hump Marcel at which point we all yell "off Cleo, off!" My neighbors must be like WTF?!Anyhow, I give good thanks that Cleo is no longer trying to
A.) Bite Marcel
B.) Chase Marcel
C.) Is now listening to voice commands when around Marcel.

On the spinning front, my buddy A gave me the most luscious gift. Hand combed top. When I say these three words, they seem so limited, short, small, easy, a mere second to type. When really these three words encompass, maybe, if we were to sit down and write from beginning to end what it takes to make hand combed top a 50,000 word essay. If you read A's blog, she has been giving quite a beautiful description of her process: buying a fleece, washing it, combing it, spinning it, and soon, we may see what she knits from it. if you have an interest in learning how to do this kind of thing, reading her blog would be an amazing place to start. And, if you do decide to join A in her pursuits, I welcome all gifts of hand combed top! Don't you even think twice about sending it my way! As I just finished spinning the top A gave to me. I can already feel the affect of withdrawal coming on.

Now, onto a bit of Verb news.

First! Date Change! I have decided for the sake of sanity to push back the Verb Anniversary Party. The new date is Saturday, September 20th. This will give a bit of extra time to make some special fibery, yarn-y goodness for the party. More details will follow in the next week or so.


Next bit of news, I updated the store this week with 11 new colors of BFL spinning fiber. Sometimes I think I've grown tired of BFL, it's what I learned on for god sakes, but then I spin it, and remember why I love it so. It drafts so easily. It takes dye so beautifully. And it is so wonderfully woolly. It's a classic.

Last but not least, The Fiber Club is filling up with so many amazing members. If you are thinking of joining, come on over, membership is open only a few more days - until September 1st at 11:59pm pst.

I hope everyone is doing well!