For the Plastic Bitch With Everything

Since I bought the Orenburg lace book at Rhinebeck, I figured I should make what Franklin dubbed the Orenburg Barbie Shawl. To give you a sense of scale, the yarn is 2/28 alpaca/cotton blend and the needles are size 0 (2.0mm) 7" dpn's. At this point it looks pretty much like any other piece of unblocked lace. It's about halfway done, though, and the center panel has cat's paws in the corners with a central snowflake - both of which are in the book.

And to give you an idea of what I'm working from, here's the cone of yarn:



This is a 3# cone (1.4kg for the metric set) of 2/28 yarn. I could do shawls for about a thousand Barbies with this, and only slightly fewer real people. This is the advantage of getting to pick through David's boxes before he puts things on clearance.

In other fibery news, I spun up and plied the last of the Shetland from Rhinebeck the other day. I got a total of about 200 yards from 5 oz. and now just have to decide what color I'd like it to be and what to make with it. I've also started back on the Junior roving, this time on the Hitchhiker. I have to say, I'm really, really enjoying this little wheel.

Questions Gladly Answered Here

I know I'm a little behind on this, but both Lee Ann and Sara asked what was in my quiche. It was actually a pretty straightforward affair, not exactly Sandra Lee, but hardly blood, sweat and tears. The pie shell was frozen from the supermarket, and the only fresh veggies I used were the onions and mushrooms. I also used some frozen mixed vegetables (carrots, broccoli, chou-fleur, yellow squash, and courgettes), extra sharp cheddar, sage, coriander, salt, pepper, and half a dozen eggs.

And it wasn't really a question, but Barbara commented about being put off by the idea of working with Shetland because of the double coat. The roving I got at Rhinebeck, as well as the Shetland roving I got from Halcyon Yarn a few months back and haven't played with yet, both apparently came from kindly-fleeced (single-coated) animals. Because of selective breeding and crossing in other breeds, most modern Shetland doesn't have the double coat. Some breeders do specifically breed for it, but it's less common these days. Double coated fleeces are probaby best either combed to separate outer and inner coats or carded together and spun into lopi-style singles.

Required Reading

This article from Salon says pretty much exactly what I've been thinking about Iraq. It infuriates me that this country's President says that we have to keep sending soldiers to die because removing our troops from Iraq would "mean that their sacrifice has been in vain."

What the hell kind of rationalization is that? How do you make bloodshed okay with more bloodshed? I can only assume that it's something along the lines of Stalin's statement that one death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic. At least Stalin was being honest.