this fleece thing

Speaking as a dog—

—since that’s what I am—¹

—I have to tell you I do not understand why Sarah brought all that wool into the house.

Sure the sacks smelled good—like interesting animals. But only for about five seconds because, sadly, eau de manure does not seem to be the part she likes best.²

And now that it’s lost it’s appeal, the stuff is everywhere!

You’d think each lock was a puppy the way she pets and brushes, coos and takes pictures. It’s embarrassing!

Also I’m a little jealous.

Not that I’d prefer a puppy (this will stay a one-dog household if I have any say in the matter).

It’s just every time I turn around—

—there she is with a spindle in her hand as though her very well being depends on it.³ And we know that her very well being depends on me!

Sure—I wasn’t mad that she fluffed up the wool in my bed.⁴

At any rate it felt great once she was done.

But on Sunday⁵ she started winding some of her new yarn onto a loom⁶—

—and actually using one of the baskets she made.

And that means hours and hours and hours in front of that boring metal rectangle.

Luckily she has to stop and spin and eat snacks.⁷

And I make sure she gets extra leg-stretching walks. Who wouldn’t? All that sitting.

She’s not getting any younger .⁸

And more walks means more naps. So I guess there’s a bright side to everything, eh?

1. Today’s post is written Beryl in case you couldn’t tell. She let me do the footnotes though.

2. Kookaburra Wool Scour (plant based and no rinsing) for the win!

3. She’s not wrong there—on either count. Beryl is the best company in the world and incredibly tuned into my emotional (and physical) well-being. At the same time I also rely hugely on wool in day-to-day life, from the blankets I sleep under to the clothing I wear (handspun shirt/sweaters I’ve been making for years, and commercially made socks, bras, undies and leggings that cover much of the rest of me). My dishes even dry on a wool mat (actually a long-ago tapestry experiment) and this works brilliantly—a million times better than those plastic or rubber things that dish racks so often sit on.

And of course there are the seed starting pots (which I better start knitting soon!).

Also, though I haven’t yet made one, wooly protest!

4. Beryl’s bed is made from two round sacks—a hard wearing (now well-patched) cover, and an inner sack full of wool (various bits of fleece I didn’t want to spin for one reason or another). Originally made for beloved Siris (2000-1018), I used it as a floor cushion in the years after Sirius died and before Beryl found me in 2023. Though still comfy and warm it had grown matted with use so in the midst of my wool-washing madness this week I opened it up, separated the locks as well as I could, added some less desirable bits of the freshly washed fleeces, and put it all back together. I got a little obsessive about fluffing the locks—almost as though I was going to spin them—but the results were worth it.

5. Hourly Comics Day. At least I thought it was hourly comics day as it has been on 1 February for years. I just learned however, that the official hourly comics day was moved to 8 February this year. Except I didn’t get the memo. Well, there wasn’t a memo—just social media stuff and since other than Substack I’m not on social media I missed it.

6. A Fringeless four selvedge warp, 13” square, sett at 9 epi (each warp is doubled in this technique).

7. One of the many delights (and there are many, at least for me), of getting old is my newfound fondness for dark chocolate after decades of chocolate indifference. Turns out there is nothing quite like a wee chunk of the bitter stuff with a tiny cup of strong instant de-caf coffee in mid-afternoon. Who knew? (Well, you probably did but it’s new and thrilling for me).

8. Not always so subtly…