I’m doing the Hush-Hush Handspun Hootenanny swap. Here’s my questionnaire info:

1. How long have you been spinning? What skill level do you consider yourself?

I’ve been spinning for over 30 years and consider myself advanced.

2. What kinds of yarn do you create (singles/2-ply/3-ply/art yarn)?

Any type of yarn I want. Rarely novelties or art yarn.

3. What do you spin with (spindle/wheel/both)?

Any device for spinning. Mostly wheels and spindles.

4. What are your favorite fibers to spin with? Anything you don’t like?

I’m not a huge fan of synthetics, including the new synthetics like soy silk. Fine wools and silks and blends of that ilk are my faves.

5. Who are your favorite crack dealers fiber sources (etsy or otherwise)?

Amy, and Chasing Rainbows, and stuff processed at Morro Fleece Works…

6. What kind of fiber do you want to try?

I’m spoiled rotten. If I want to try it, I try it. 😉 In my defense, fiber is my job. I’m always interested in new blends and finding new folks who do quality work.

7. Is there any techniques you would like to learn?

I’m spoiled here, too. Right now I’m practicing Russian spindle techniques I learned from Faina Letoutchaia.

8. Do you dye fiber? If not, would you like to learn?

I do dye. 😉

9. Do you have fiber prep tools (and like to use them) or would you prefer ready to spin fiber?

Yeah… I have prep tools, and I use ’em. But I also like to spin other people’s fiber preps sometimes, just like eating someone else’s cooking.

10. What do you do with your handspun? What projects have you completed?

I do everything with my handspun. Everything. If you can do it with yarn, I do that with my handspun.

11. Are you in need of any spinning gadgets (WPI Gauge, threading hook, etc)?

WPI gauges, dizzes, threading hooks — all useful and can’t have too many. But I don’t lack for any either.

12. What colors “fall into your shopping basket”? Any colors you just can’t stand?

Love: Greens (esp. dark); burgundy; black; rust; brown.

Hate: pink (except sometimes it’s okay, in concert with other things)

13. What is on your wheel/spindle right now?

Batts from Amy King in CVM and soy silk (office wheel); Chasing Rainbows Merino/Tencel (slothing wheel); batts I blended in alpaca/organic merino/bamboo (on the Victoria packed for travel); Chasing Rainbows Merino/Cashmere (spindle on my desk); new Louet test fiber (spindle on my desk); batt samples (spindle next to carder); Peace of Yarn hyperfine 15-micron Merino (spindle by slothing chair); merino/silk top I dyed (spindle in my carryaround bag).

14. What other crafts/hobbies do you have?

Anything textile, pretty much.

15. Other than crafts, what are you passionate about?

Live music; ballads; history; Peru; books.

16. Do you have an online wishlist?

Nope.

17. Is there anything that you collect?

Uh…. spinning wheels, apparently. Things that are Blue Moons (seriously. I have collected Blue Moons since I was 13). Odd fiber tools. Obscure out of print reference books, the older the better.

18. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What magazine subscriptions do you have?

I love Bryspun bendy needles, Addi circulars, ittybittysmall needles, and old (30+ years old) fiber tools of any type. Also handmade tools.

I subscribe to Spin-Off, which isn’t carried locally, but do not subscribe to any knitting or crochet mag that is carried locally, because I try to buy all those things at the venue carrying them, in hopes of making sure they feel they have as much market for textile mags as they do for magazines about rubber stamps, pinking shears, model trains, lathes, multimillion dollar homes, hopped-up Civics, and yachts. Any chance I have, I ask for the spinning and weaving and textile magazines to be carried.

19. When is your birthday?

Early January. 😉

20. What book or movie character do you most resemble in personality?

I have no idea. Is there one who’s arrogant and overeducated with a tendency to use big words unthinkingly, but would prefer to be doing so while drinking at a blue collar bar and in conjunction with extremely low-brow profanity, and whose hair is always a little unkempt, who would rather go blind than lose dexterity, always has too much to do, is secretly a neat freak but can’t find the time to make her life that way because she lives with other humans, is completely obsessive about her interests, and turns into a raving psycho bitch if her hands are idle, and tends to think the best of people even when it’s flagrantly stupid to do so? I think those would be the main things.

21. What is the climate like where you live around this time (need to know for careful shipments of anything meltable)?

Yeah, it can get hot and humid.

22. Tell us one weird fact about yourself!

Um. Hrmmm. My eyes match my hair. My hair is light brownish and my eyes are hazel. Somehow this amounts to the same colour in practice.

Favorites
favorite painting/picture(link):

Candy:

Chocolate, with nuts and fruit. But not raisins.

Food:

If I did the cooking, I’d live on stews served over rice, stir-fry, and things that you eat with a flatbread or tortilla variant. Since my better half does all the cooking though, that’s my favourite food.

Drink:

Morning: Strong coffee with heavy cream. No sugar.
Not Morning: Beer. Mmmm beer.

Movie(s):

To Have and Have Not. Hang ’em High.

TV Show(s):

Firefly. How It’s Made. Doctor Who. The news.

Book(s):

The Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Guilty Pleasure(s):

My father always said guilt was a useless emotion, but in the spirit which it’s meant….

Space opera (especially with badass chicks). Epic fantasy with badass chicks in it. Time travel and post-apocalyptic SF… uh, especially if there are, um, badass chicks.

Video games. Especially puzzle, strategy, RPG, and games of micromanaging world domination.

Sloth. I secretly adore sloth. I just suck at it.