Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Candidates with sharp pointy tools

Eva Ince, Alaska Green candidate for U.S. House, is a woman who knits. She gets together with a group called Chicks with Sticks in Anchorage every once in a while, apparently, aside from running for office. I wonder about other Green knitter/politicians?

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Mohair

Many folks in Alaska raise goats. They're tough, relatively easy to care for, and provide milk, meat, and--if you get the longhairs--mohair. I've been knitting with mohair lately, which I always thought of as scratchy stuff, but last week I discovered kid mohair: soft and wonderfully light. And mohair doesn't shrink. Not good for felting, but good if you accidentally wash that scarf in warm water. A friend of mine has been knitting with bison wool. It feels almost like cotton.

Alas, the mohair I've been finding in the knitting shop is from New Zealand. Not exactly low-energy fiber, hey what?

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Puppy sitting

Yesterday my husband and I puppysat a couple of blue heeler/coon hound cross puppies, VERY cute and friendly, for a friend of ours who had to do jury duty and needed someone to look after her not-yet-housebroken baby doggies. We had a great time, and sure enough, they are not yet housebroken. But we were warned. What has this to do with knitting or spinning or fiber arts in general? Well, not much, except that they made a beeline for the giant bag of dog wool I have sitting on the floor, and proceeded to deposit an infantile bowel movement tidily right next to it. I suppose this means that dog smell MUST be washed out of the wool THOROUGHLY before I decide to actually use it....