Dawn Brocco's Life & Design Blog

12/2
Been busy printing the Winter Gazette, and getting a jump on the end-of-year tax info collation, for the accountant.

Also been busy searching for an alternate super-soft wool yarn, in case the merino I'm waiting on doesn't work out well. Not easy, am tiring of the search. I emailed who used to be, and maybe still is, UK exporter of an aran weight bluefaced leicester wool yarn, oh, way back at the middle of October, before my surgery and have not heard from them. So, I'm resending it. But, I've done this before with them. It's not that the emails bounce back, so if they're not in business, I wish they'd just let me know. But they still have a website, though different from the one they had years ago. Aargh.

12/3
I heard from the UK distributor this morning! They replied to my last email but I never received it. My addy has been sent to them and colorcards with retail and trade price lists will be on its way to me - yippee! There used to be a US distributor for these British breed-specific wool yarns, like Jacob, Bluefaced Leicester, Wensleydale, etc, but they didn't stay in business long. So, although I received their natural color card, they never got to getting in the dyed cards nor enough yarn to satisfy orders.

But, I am happy! I've finally got contact with the UK distributor and can't wait to try the aran weight Bluefaced Leicester wool. I have a few balls of the BFL that Berroco sold, and has been discontinued some time now. I haven't made anything with it yet - I just pet the yarn every now and then, as it was all I had of that breed. Well, now I can use it for something, because more can be had! I don't have much - a few 50 g balls - enough for a scarf or socks or a hat. If you've never touched BFL wool, you don't know what you are missing! It's heavenly.

I have labels for the Gazettes to print today, then I can buy the postage tomorrow or Monday - Saturday at the PO can be a bear. And, as Monday is our 17th wedding anniversary, sweetie and I are going to dinner on Sunday and spending Saturday driving in the country - across the river in Columbia county, taking in the ambience and checking real estate. I know some people think that *this* is country - in Saugerties, but nay, it's really just a small town center, with 70's and 80's housing communities here and there - ugh. Some of the roads are more rural with older farmhouses, but when I think of rural, I think of farms and there's only a few small farms around here. They don't call this Bluestone and Quarryville for nothing! I can walk up the old carriage path abutting our property and see the remnants of an old bluestone quarry.

But we've driven through Columbia County and it's much more historic and pastoral in setting. Much more my ideal of *country*, as it is in many New England towns. And Col. cty abuts the Berkshires!

Of course, I wish I could afford to take him to Europe! Oh, all the places we'd go - we'd need many, many months to take it all in!

Well, work awaits. I'm finally working up the pattern for that aran cardigan I began back in the year of the flood. I haven't done the button band or collar yet, as I don't have the right buttons for it and actually, I'd prefer clasps, but the pewter ones, I hear, may not be the best choice for light-colored wool (or so Meg's Schoolhouse Press site says, and I trust her judgement).

So, I'd need gold ones, but not a bright gold. I'll have to stop at Jo-Ann's Fabrics to see if they have what I want. I could order them wholesale from JHB, but I would need to order more than I want at this time, and then wait to get them. Would be nice to just get this cardigan *finished*!