Hazel

Spinning, Knitting, Crochet while I write (& read) books

[hazel-stitches]

I just finished Knots and Needles. I really liked it. I was wondering will their story be continuing in another book?

Are you asking if there will be more Blue Sun Cove, or if Cassie will have a book #2? :)

[hazel-stitches]

Hi

I just read your book on Kindle. You may want to check what version you have up there. The one I read today has Chapter 5 titled “Baxter” I’m guessing the character’s name changed and it didn’t get changed there?

In two places there are strike out that maybe should have been changed? I know there were at least two but going back I could only find one, at the 38% mark.

Thanks-I wouldn’t want you to get unnecessary bad reviews from picky readers if it really is just a version control issue.

Best wishes, looking forward to seeing more books in the future!

Hi, thanks for letting me know! Originally I thought I wanted to name him Baxter, but I remembered my sister's cat's name is Baxter, and then I just kept seeing a talking orange cat in my head. 😂 It must have snuck in there from when I generated the file out of Scrivener with an ancient chapter heading.

I'll change it in the headings to Blythe and upload the change.

[hazel-stitches]

I am having very mixed feelings on In The Veins of the Drowning. Do I like the FMC? Do I not? I feel like she's realistic and determined to escape at all costs, if nothing else. But there's some vague dreamy quality that I'm not sure I'm vibing with. I've been having that problem with a lot of recent romantasy where the books feel both bloated and edited down to nothing at the same time.

I appreciate that there doesn't seem to be a keep all the secrets so far, so that's nice.

[hazel-stitches]

About 1000 yards, 80g, and 50wpi 2 ply Dorset from that pearly fleece I've been working with. Now I just have to figure out which pattern to use it for.

[hazel-stitches]

My first finished yarn from the first raw fleece I've processed! I spun this up while reading Morning Glory's Milking Farm. I'm a bit late to reading that one but I've been busy reading some really meh romantasy and wanting to get those books off my KU shelf. I'm bored with shadow daddies, honestly. 🥱 Or maybe I'm bored with the FMCs that come with shadow daddies.

Anyway...

50g of 2-ply Dorset (the sheep's name is Sadie), 526 yards. It was about 35wpi-ish before I fulled it, not sure if it's changed. Lasso'd and then dried under tension because it wanted to crinkle a little (can still see some of that in the photo) I have another 30g already combed and on the wheel.

I have 3lbs+ more to comb so I'll probably be spinning this paticular fleece the rest of my life. :P

My WPI wrapping skills are bad. So bad. This is 35 wraps, but I think I could have done more?

I'm used to Dorset that is very matte, but this fleece has an almost pearly sheen to it. It's hard to photograph, but it's so pretty when the light hits it.

I would have liked to spin it finer, and the wool would have gone for it, but the wheel I used has hooks on the opposite sides of the flyer arms, so cross-lacing requires wrapping around the flyer arms. The arms arn't rounded off. So anything finer than this simply snapped no matter what I did.

I think the next batch I'm going to blend it with 15% mulberry silk to increase luster, drape, and maybe strength so I can spin it finer without it snapping.

I'm going to spin up enough of this 100% version to knit a shawl (I'm trying to decide between Undecided by Fuzzy Lover or the small version of Floridae by Romi Hill).

[hazel-stitches]

This past spring I bought a very inexpensive Dorset ewe fleece from an ewe named Sadie in the Dirty Fleece FB group. It was my first time processing raw fleece. And Sadie loved dirt! 😋 I ended up with about 3.5 lbs of scoured fiber from a 6lb fleece, and I probably would have gotten more but I had no idea what I was doing so I made a ton of mistakes that ruined some of it.

I've only combed about 6oz so far and I've finally decided to start spinning the sproingy little clouds. (The rest of it is in a bag) I'm amazed at how fine it wants to be spun and it has the most delicate little halo and teeny bit of shine. I'm thinking I'm going to spin this as singles and knit some very lofty cobweb lace with it.

I'm not sure I'm into processing my own fleece, but this one has been fun and the fleece really is different from commercial preparation.

[hazel-stitches]

A collection of hand spun, hand dyed skeins that I'm trying to find a sock pattern for. They were going to be for something else, but my feet are cold!

[hazel-stitches]

Punta Arenas handspun, just about 650 yards 2ply, about 21wpi. Took about 8 hours.

#yarn