You gotta feel this

There was a time in my life when I cooked a lot more than I do now. And sometimes the smells of what I was cooking were seductive. I used to wish I could share the smell over the telephone or the internet.

Now, I have a new desire. I wish I could find a way to let folks feel some of the fibers I'm discovering.

The first one is cashmere that I purchased from Hollyspring Homespun. It is a cream colored blob. Really doesn't look like much. A delicate, cloud of pure decadence in a long wonderful length of roving. Merino feels like steel wool next to this stuff. Really, you have to feel it to truly appreciate it. I'm afraid to spin it still because I tend to over spin and I don't want to ruin it. I will probably end up blending it with something to give it fiber length.

What's really remarkable is that she and her husband raise the very goats from which this stuff comes. Just up the road from her shop. Cool, huh?

The second tactile wonder I've recently purchased came from Kearney Country Alpacas in Ruckersville, Virginia. They have a very simple website still under construction, but they do have email and a phone number and are the nicest people. They also attend the Sedalia Spring Fiber Festival and the Fall Fiber Festival.

I found them at the latter. I purchased the brown alpaca roving from them that I spun and plyed to make my mom and my sister's hats. I ran out of the alpaca roving and felt driven to order more, so I found their email address and wrote to ask if they had more.

In no time at all, Mary Kearney wrote me back. She was patient throughout the theft incident and waited while I got my finances straight, and I finally ordered 8 ounces more of the brown alpaca. I must tell you, that of all the alpaca roving I fondled at the Fall Fiber Fest, theirs was the softest, yummiest alpaca and came in a variety of colors. At the time I could not resist buying four ounces. After all, it was only $10 for 4 ounces. And by using it as one of the plies in the hat yarn, I got two hats out of the four ounces.

Anyway, while we were figuring out the logistics of paying by check, mailing addresses and such, Mary mentioned that she also had a nice grey blend that I might like.

She said it was blend of alpaca, mohair and angora (about 10% angora). She is selling it for $10 for 5 oz. I wasn't sure but thought she was awfully nice to let me have 8 more ounces of that wonderful brown alpaca roving for just $20, so I sprang for that extra $10.

Darn good thing she's not a drug dealer.

I have not the slightest idea what I'm going to do with this stuff but whatever it is, it's going next to my skin. A lace camisole maybe? In any case, I'm going to have to get my hands on more of this blend. I wonder what would happen if I just showed up at their booth at Sedalia and bought all of it? I really don't want to share it. If other folks find out about it, they might sell out and then I couldn't get more when I needed another fix.