Finally, the fabled cardigan for J is finished (except for buttons). It was knit from a wool/acrylic blend called Volcano, and I had no idea what would happen when I knitted it because in the ball, you can't tell that these colour changes are going to happen. The changes are made by changing the colour of the second ply of the main colour, not variegating the whole yarn. It was knit from Very Easy Very Vogue and is called the seed stitch ribbed cardigan. The ribs do a few funky things along the way but otherwise it went pretty quickly and I have it done long before cold weather arrives. Unfortunately J's schedule is tied up in baby-sitting for grandchildren right now so I haven't seen her in a while. She specifically wanted pockets and these were a cinch. I may use the same technique sometime else. Nothing dramatic about it, just that you knit the first stitch of the back of the pocket and the first stitch of the pocket opening together so there are no gaps or sags.

After all the doom and gloom regarding the Australian wool industry some good news at last. There has been rain in some of the woolgrowing areas of Australia (not around here but somewhere!) and wool prices are up. The medium wool is selling better than the superfine. I was astonished to find that 75% of the superfine wool clip goes to Japan mostly for men's suits. The cold weather in the Northern hemisphere doesn't hurt either. Apparently the figure quoted by me and many others of a farmer committing suicide every 4 days is an old one and is no longer true, although there is still an issue with depression. We have had a few very high profile men admit to depression (the W.A. premiere (i.e., governor) resigned citing depression) so the message seems to be going out that it's OK to admit you are depressed and there is help available.
I Here is what I have been spinning on the Roberta: a pound of Blue Faced Leicester and I absolutely love it. It's amazing how what is technically a longwool Can be so soft. It also has that longwool luster to it. I can't anticipate how it will bloom when plied and washed but I am hoping for sock weight (as if I needed another sock yarn). My sock yarn box is overflowing and I can't even get the lid on. I neglected to mention that seamstress extra-ordinaire C made me a DPN storage roll that is long (tall?) enough to store my DPNs in their containers. I had bought one that looked snazzy and it was, but it also assumed you would remove all your needles from their packets and put them naked into the slots. I have like 4 pairs of no. 1, 2, 0, etc bamboo, wood, and casein DPNs and I'm not going to shove them all in one pocket and hope I don't lose one or mix them up. On on Bossie featherweight I am still spinning camel, the one at work is spinning coral coloured tussah silk, I am spinning green something wool on my Reeves spindle which I really wish had a shepherd's hook. I just bought a Viking Santa spindle on eBay after rave reviews in the spinning community. It looks cool because the shaft is a corkscrew. The Reeves spindle really has problems with the cop slipping down the shaft. Too slippery I think.

My dear Bear bought me the first 3 seasons of Gilmore Girls on DVD. I am watching season 2 on cable most nights but even tho I've seen them all I just love the series. Wish I had a mum like Lorelei. And I gave in and bought the 2 seasons of Dead like me which I only discovered on cable almost at the end of its viewing cycle and it was gone. When I was in the bookstore yesterday I saw a book on Seagrove pottery and jumped back 30 years to the days of trips from Chapel Hill to Seagrove to buy pottery. I still have and use some of it on a regular basis. I must be the only person in Canberra who would know what this stuff is. But I bought it on Amazon for half of what the store was selling it for. I don't have any of the salt glaze anymore; I don't even know which ex-husband has it. Apparently it's collectible now. Had I known that I would have treated it more kindly. But I had a lot of ash trays which I certainly didn't keep.