Here are my Noro purchases in one to three ball lots, from the left Transitions (which is wool, cashmere, alpaca, angora, camel, kid mohair and silk, which sounds like it's what was swept off the floor at the end of a day and whose color mix is about as homogeneous), Silk Garden, and Shinano which is wool & silk and gets my vote for the most interesting without being exotic. When one has limited opportunities to fondle Noro one can't say, oh I know what these feel like and I'll buy this. I have numerous one-ball Noro hat patterns and my vote goes with the Shinano which I also have 3 balls of. I might make a hat for A out of the Silk Garden, and look for matching/coordinating yarn for mittens. The Transitions is definitely the softest but I don't think would make decent mitten as it is spun too loosely and would either not last or would felt unevenly.

At the left is the ball of grey wool from the spotted fleece. I mentioned before that part of it was much lighter grey than the rest.

Before sitting down to blog I vacuumed the living room and both bedrooms and changed the linen on both beds. I would do massive amounts of laundry except the forecast is 80% for thunderstorms this afternoon, which I am hoping is right but am not willing to do laundry to prove. Since the cricket finished in 3 days instead of 5 I will have to turn to videos or DVDs or take naps. Most folks who are out and about are tracking down post-Christmas bargains and since there is nothing I want to buy, I stay home and listen to crested pigeons saying "Hoo!". They nest in the tree between the 2 houses and I watch the males display to the females each year. A variation on feral pigeon displays involving puffing your self up and making funny hooting noises.It must work as a new lot of crested pigeons appears every year. We also have baby magpies, blackbirds (introduced) and rosellas. There might be a willy wagtail nesting in the enormous rose bush that occupies the corner of the back yard but I am not sure since this would be the first year and I'm not sure what to look for.