So, the kidney stone has passed and I’ve healed. Yay. The bizarre shooting shoulder pain has passed and seems to be healed, with the help of a lot of gentleness and stretching. Hope to start some stabilizer and core restrengthening and stretching work today so this doesn’t happen again. Those small muscles get you every time, and I just haven’t been keeping them up.

Dissertation continues. I wish I had a better way to estimate if I was making good progress, or if it’s as slow as it feels.

Will get update about the vacation shortly.

Anyway, there is new fiber! Much of it because…

About 25 pounds of processed fiber, were waiting on my doorstep when I arrived home from the trip! Making space for them was a trip!

Lots of totally new to Gnomespun fiber, and a new concept for Gnomespun, small samplers!

Inspired by my visit to Arthur’s Seat outside Edinburgh in the spring of ’03… Spring comes, to rich dark earth, and the heath blooms, yellow and green washing across the hills, warm and deep. This is the softest BL I’ve ever felt. I’d wear it next to my skin.

Spring on the Heath – Border Leicester – 4oz – 114g – Carded Roving

A really hard to photograph one, in a new fiber to Gnomespun, Cotswold, a member of the illustrious longwools. The coiled photo is probably a little more accurate in the way it shows the purple. The thing really does glow though. It’s luminous, not neon, but it glows.

Fire arcs into the purple night sky, brilliant luminous gold and red, flickering as the sparks fly…

“And there’s fire, fire, out in the barn, Father,
Fire in the chicken house, too.
And the flames run so high they are scorchin’ the sky.
And there’s not a damn thing we can do. ” ~Fire by David Mallett

This is softer than any cotswold I’ve met before, with all the luster and drape.

Fire in the Barn – Cotswold – 4oz – Carded Roving

Water crashes down almost obscuring the grey brown granite New England stones that peek out from the center of the river… This is a nice heathered romney, on the finer end of the breed, but still within the standard.

Water on the Rocks – Romney – 4oz – Carded Roving

Warm, ooey, gooey, sweet and sour orange marmalade, curled up with your cat in the sun on a summer day…

Marmalade – Clun Forest – 4oz – Carded Roving

Another new Gnomespun fiber, Gotland, and another longwool. Similar in overall feel to Wensleydale, I think.

Emerald crystals, growing in abundance, a veritable city of shimmering green…

And finally, ANOTHER new fiber to Gnomespun, Old English Southdown. Oh BOY, I love this fiber. It’s a downs wool, spiral crimp, with all the loft and spring of the other downs wools, but so SOFT! It’s like a cloud! Not at all like the spongy stuff I’ve sampled. I’ll be spinning up a bunch of this for the trade for the original fleece, and maybe some for myself!

Warm reds and heathered golds blend and swirl in the breeze, raising a soft susurrus around your feet…

Autumn Leaves – Old English Southdown – 4oz – Carded Roving

Now, another new concept for Gnomespun, small samplers. These are a little more work to put together, but they seemed to be something people were interested in.

First, small downs wool samplers in “Bryophyta” and “Heady Brew” colorways.

4oz total (1oz each) of: Dorset, Clun Forest, Tunis, Southdown

Then an 8oz and a 4oz version of “Natural Greys” samplers, undyed (since that’s the point of this one)

8oz or 4oz (2oz/1oz each) of: Southdown, Border Leicester, Romney, Gotland

And that’s all that’s new for the moment. Everything’s up on the shop.

Oh, And here’s a set of stitch markers I did for a large order that also went out late.

And that’s all for now. Back to writing. Oh right, and lunch.

~The Gnome