Hooray, Cats!

[lwood]

One other side effect of the now-slowly-breaking heat wave is that the cats are now losing their wooly winter undercoats.

With great enthusiasm.

Over everything.

The hair is just barely too short to spin worth a damn, which is a shame because otherwise I could knit whole new cats.

-- Lorrie

Comments

[tanrinia]

if you find a way to do that, let me know. i could have had an entire kitty army by now with the all the hair we end up finding on a weekly basis.

kitty army should strike fear into the heart of everyone.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Well, the people who do things with spun dog hair say that the hair should be 3" long or attempts to spin it will only bring pain--so, start with longhair cats...

-- Lorrie

[emberleo.livejournal.com]

Can it be felted?

--Ember--

[bergtagen.livejournal.com]

Yes, if it's mixed with a carrier fiber such as wool.

[bergtagen.livejournal.com]

Pet hair is almost always to short to spin alone, so it's almost always carded with a long-stapled carrier fiber, which also has the benefit of yielding a softer, lighter yarn, as pet hair also tends to be somewhat coarse and really heavy. I've got a couple of sets of carders. We could get together and spin/knit us up some spiffy seiðr gloves. *lure lure*

[wolfs-daugher.livejournal.com]

Woot!! That sounds like a project! And with six cats shedding all over my upstairs .........

*giggles*

Starfire

[bergtagen.livejournal.com]

Yep yep! Hot kitties = gobs of yarn. If you have carding stuff, maybe we could teach folks how to do this at one of the Frigga's Ætt meetings where we do crafty stuff? Or a S&B, though those tend to be lower in both structure and woo. What do you think?

[lwood.livejournal.com]

I suck at spinning. Suck, suck, suck. I make extra-lumpy rug yarn, when what this needs is fingerling/sport/DK. I'm thinking more "handwarmers with finger holes", like this (http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/PATTknucks.html), so I can still manipulate things, but however you shape them, seiðr gloves would be show pieces, and cannot be knit from sucky yarn. I don't need to hear "do you know how much they pay for slubby yarn?"--gloves need smooth yarn, and I'm just not there.

Now, that said, I'm ramping up towards socks/booties/etc, and we know I can turn out a full glove.

I hear your elite skillx0rs aren't up to foot coverings yet...but what I do know is that you're one of the best, smoothest, finest spinners I know.

So:

Would your Various and Sundry approve of a skill trade? I'd use shiny bone needles, bury the results in a graveyard for a week (quite the hoard, given a pair of sock/booty/??, another of gloves, a couple shawls, and whatever other implements need that graveyard-fresh scent), whatever it takes.

-- Lorrie

[bergtagen.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! I'm defintely a better spinner than knitter (so far). We should have swapsies. I'm off to the ocean now, but we'll blather on about details later.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Then I would be very proud to work on your Hel-Shoes, m'dear--more when you return.

-- Lorrie

[bergtagen.livejournal.com]

Okay, so one of my character flaws is that I get all excited when people I'm fond of post in their journals, and sometimes I respond before I've successfully undergone all the stages of my morning evoloution. I posted to this when I was hovering between troll and huldre (had a shower, hadn't had coffee). I was definitely not a fully functioning human. Now that my fox tail has shrunk to a brushy stubbin, let me try again...

Thank you for your very sweet and generous offer. I'd love to swap my 1337 spinning skills for your 1337 knitting skills, depending on the project. There are certain rules that apply:

Useful Things, including tools like Hel-shoes and seiðr gloves, need to be made by hand by me from start to finish, even if the end result is not as lovely as it would be in the hands of a better craftsman. While the object itself is useful, that usefulness is mostly determined by the energy I put into it and the Neat Stuff I learn while making it.

Shiny Things, including devotional items like shawls and garb and dollies, can be made by anyone. There needs to be some resonance between me, the Shiny Thing, and the god or wight it is meant to honour or represent, but as long as it glows in the right spectrum, it's a good and happy thing.


Given the above parameters, I can't let you knit my Hel-shoes or seiðr gloves for me, but I'd love to be able to turn to you for help and guidance when I take on those projects.

I will gleefully swap handspun yarn as fine as you like for some of those insanely lovely lace shawls you've been making. OOooo, the covetousness they inspire!

Make sense? Would you know more, or what?

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Now, if I were really, REALLY ambitious, the gloves would be these (http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/PATTbroadstreet.html), for that convertible look, but I'm rarely anyplace cold enough to really warrant them.

-- L

[mephron]

*snork*

Permission to Metaquote?

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Metaquote away--let's see what happens when the looky-loos find that thread about seið gloves. 8-P

-- Lorrie

[e-falki.livejournal.com]

Gotta love cats for that.....LOL.

By the way, this is Scott (Falki) from Denver; I attend PantheaCon every year and I'm friends with both Diana and Elisheva. I found your LJ by chance and have friended you, if you're alright with that; definitely feel free in turn to friend me back as well (especially as my own LJ is friends only).

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes! I remember you well! Welcome!

-- Lorrie

[e-falki.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :-)