I'm the luckiest girl alive.

Tonight in the small town of Pella, Iowa there was the Thursday Night Jamboree. (I'm not sure of the official name, but this fits.)

In addition to food and fun and mayhem, there was a woman with animals for show-and-tell.

The had an alpaca *swoons*, she had baby deer (so much more adorable than words can explain), she had a miniature horse, and.. get this.. 2 lambs (they looked more like grown up sheep to me, but what do I know?). They were show lambs. There were well groomed, clean, and gorgeous.

My mother (who I love dearly because I was too smitten to say anything) asked the woman who owned them if she used to the wool to spin yarn. Nope. The owner jokingly asked if I wanted it and my head snapped up so fast I may have gotten a wee bit of a neck injury.


Of course I wanted this wool. It's FREE WOOL. How much better could it get? The kind lady asked me if I was aware I'd have to wash it and "stuff" before I could spin it. Well.. yes. I had no idea how to prepare wool for spinning, but I could definitely learn how. "Alrighty, I work (at a place I'm not naming on the internet because she is MY free wool lady and no one will steal her from me) and you can come by and I'll give it to you. Have fun."


I then came home and researched the processes that need to be done in order to have wool ready to spin. It needs to be washed and carded for sure. (There's more than that, and many methods of doing each, but I'll leave it at that.) My mom has fabric dye, which after more research, works on wool as well. YES. In my dreams I'm going to be getting free wool, working with it, maybe dying it, and then selling it on Etsy and making big bucks. (Granted, I feel sort of inclined to give this woman some of my profits after I eventually start making money, but for now it's free and all mine.)


I'm going to try techniques from here and here. I'm tempted to buy this, and I need to buy one of these. Maybe eventually I can get one of these (which, as of now, is so far out of my budget it's not visible).


I'm really, really excited. (Did I mention she had an alpaca too? An alpaca just covered in lovely chocolate brown alpaca wool that looks so gosh darn hot in this Iowa summer and I have a feeling that the poor alpaca is going to need a haircut soon. I might have to ask about that.)



Oh, and onto other news, I am only a few rows away from finishing my green shawl. Today's a good day.

THE YARN HAS BEEN FOUND

I found the yarn in a box inside another box (cruel trick) and hugged the box, stroked the box, realized I was weird and set it down.


Now my set of sock DPNs are MIA.



I can't catch a break.



[Edit: Nevermind, they were hiding in my knitting bag because why on Earth would I look for them there? That's way too reasonable.]

I am devestated

Yarn was lost in the move.



Yes. Absorb that sentence, let the nausea pass by, and let the horror increase with this next sentence.

Handspun yarn from Capi. All the of gifts, cards, and yarn from my going away party have disappeared. Vanished. Evaporated.


All of my boxes have been opened and mostly unpacked. Once I realized the yarn (which I love and cherish dearly and will be heartbroken forever if it is really truly lost) was MIA, I began rummaging through the remaining unpacked boxes like a woman possessed. Nowhere. Nowhere to be found. My mom packed some of my stuff and so I called her at work and, very calmy, asked her where my !@#$ my yarn was. She has no idea. She knows it wasn't left in the hosue when we left, so she's pretty sure it has to be somewhere, but I can't find it.


Let me explain: I don't lose things. Ever. Sometimes I forget things, but I never lose things. Never. If I do, it's found within seconds. The only few, very few, things I've "lost" have been expensive (such as my phone, which would be a chunk of cash to replace, and was eventually found) or precious. If I do not find this yarn I will be devestated. So, so devestated.


Please send out yarn-finding good thoughts. (Yarn Gods, please help me out here. This is definitely not funny.)