Of _course_ I have time and money for another hobby (or 3)!
So I had my hair done this moring, and it turns out that my stylist's neighbor has a pet alpaca. And she has harvested the wool from it.
But.
She doesn't knit or crochet or do anything crafty, so she doesn't know what to do with it. My stylist thinks she just has it in a bag lying around her house.
So of course I volunteered to take it off her hands.
No, I don't know how to spin. I've thought about it but so far resisted because a) I do NOT need to start adding roving to my gigantic stash of yarn and 2) I can just imaging what learning to use a drop spindle with the assistance of cats will be like (has to be a drop spindle, no room for a wheel).
But the cats are actually pretty good with the knitting, and if someone just _gives_ you a mess of alpaca wool....well, what can you do? (not that she's actually given it to me, so holding off on buying a spindle till I actually get it. If I do.)
So I stopped by the library to see if they had any books that would cover all the basic steps (it's raw wool, so would have to be washed and carded and everything). (Of course, this means she has probably already done something with the wool and I will be left brimming with knowledge and enthusiasm and nothing to spin.) On the shelf above the spinning books were books on beaded crochet. One of the many things I collect is beads, and I have all sorts of odds and ends of laceweight yarn that could be used for such projects - so grabbed a few of those. (And 3 Aaron Elkin books because OMG there are Gideon Olivers I haven't read!).
Speaking of cats, I realized as I was working on the stash basket that a really short one would make a perfect cat bed, and the yarn is washable acrylic, which means one should be able to wash cat hair out of it. I have been making my brother lovely catbeds out of felted yarn but when he washes them, the cat hair just becomes incorporated into the bed. So after I finished the basket, I started to make a catbed out of the remainder of the skein. Unfortunately it became clear that there wasn't enough yarn left to complete the bed, which meant I could either finish one of the other projects and hope there was enough yarn left over from them....or go to Michael's for another skein.
I did limit myself to just ONE more skein.
But the last time I was there, I noticed all these adult coloring books, but I didn't get one because 1) that's just silly and 2) there didn't seem to be any crayons or colored pencils I could find. But this morning in Weight Watchers the subject was "making time for yourself" (which is always a bit of a poser for me because there is only just me, so I spend all my time on myself anyway), and one person mentioned working on adult coloring books (which turn out to be a thing), and the leader told us about something called Zentangle. SO...there were the coloring books, and this time there were pencils right next, so I got 2 coloring books (mandelas and Art Deco designs - maybe I can use one of them for a beaded crochet project!), and of course some Zen tangle books (which seems to be sort of directed doodling, and I already have _two_ books on freeing your inner artist and that one book cost more than the other two plus the pencils but....eh.)
First, however, now that the weather is actually cooling off a bit, I need to get on the hobby of making the garden look like something other than a wasteland.
But.
She doesn't knit or crochet or do anything crafty, so she doesn't know what to do with it. My stylist thinks she just has it in a bag lying around her house.
So of course I volunteered to take it off her hands.
No, I don't know how to spin. I've thought about it but so far resisted because a) I do NOT need to start adding roving to my gigantic stash of yarn and 2) I can just imaging what learning to use a drop spindle with the assistance of cats will be like (has to be a drop spindle, no room for a wheel).
But the cats are actually pretty good with the knitting, and if someone just _gives_ you a mess of alpaca wool....well, what can you do? (not that she's actually given it to me, so holding off on buying a spindle till I actually get it. If I do.)
So I stopped by the library to see if they had any books that would cover all the basic steps (it's raw wool, so would have to be washed and carded and everything). (Of course, this means she has probably already done something with the wool and I will be left brimming with knowledge and enthusiasm and nothing to spin.) On the shelf above the spinning books were books on beaded crochet. One of the many things I collect is beads, and I have all sorts of odds and ends of laceweight yarn that could be used for such projects - so grabbed a few of those. (And 3 Aaron Elkin books because OMG there are Gideon Olivers I haven't read!).
Speaking of cats, I realized as I was working on the stash basket that a really short one would make a perfect cat bed, and the yarn is washable acrylic, which means one should be able to wash cat hair out of it. I have been making my brother lovely catbeds out of felted yarn but when he washes them, the cat hair just becomes incorporated into the bed. So after I finished the basket, I started to make a catbed out of the remainder of the skein. Unfortunately it became clear that there wasn't enough yarn left to complete the bed, which meant I could either finish one of the other projects and hope there was enough yarn left over from them....or go to Michael's for another skein.
I did limit myself to just ONE more skein.
But the last time I was there, I noticed all these adult coloring books, but I didn't get one because 1) that's just silly and 2) there didn't seem to be any crayons or colored pencils I could find. But this morning in Weight Watchers the subject was "making time for yourself" (which is always a bit of a poser for me because there is only just me, so I spend all my time on myself anyway), and one person mentioned working on adult coloring books (which turn out to be a thing), and the leader told us about something called Zentangle. SO...there were the coloring books, and this time there were pencils right next, so I got 2 coloring books (mandelas and Art Deco designs - maybe I can use one of them for a beaded crochet project!), and of course some Zen tangle books (which seems to be sort of directed doodling, and I already have _two_ books on freeing your inner artist and that one book cost more than the other two plus the pencils but....eh.)
First, however, now that the weather is actually cooling off a bit, I need to get on the hobby of making the garden look like something other than a wasteland.