How Ellie got her drum carder, and other stash enhancement

There's a 7-year-old in England whose mum dyes spinning fiber and sells it on Etsy. Young Ellie is in love with fiber, spinning, and dyeing herself. Young Ellie up and decided she needed a drum carder. A 7-year-old who wants a drum carder? How can you not cave to that?

So mum set up a shop on her site where Ellie could sell her own hand-dyed "Spinning Clouds," BFL top ready to spin.

Guess who snagged the last lot that she needed to sell to get enough money for her drum carder?


The colorway is "Cherry Ripe," and it's just lovely. It's next in line after I go to Black Sheep Gathering, finish spinning some merino top from our own Three Fates Yarns, and spin up some silk and merino blend from Dicentra Designs. Now that Ellie is getting her drum carder, I imagine there will be some hand-dyed batts going up in her shop. Who knows? Twenty years from now, she may be the next Rowan Yarns.

And in other stash-enhancement news, the Selfish Knitters group on Ravelry had a hilarious "scavenger hunt." Contestants had to carry out a series of tasks, including taking a photo of your stash (bonus points if you were rolling in it, extra bonus points if you were rolling unclad), getting a picture of yourself with a WIP in front of your local yarn store, knitting something that looks like food, knitting something from food, and lots of other fun but harmless stunts that were worth certain amounts of points. There were twelve prizes offered up. The first place winner got first pick, second place winner got second pick, and so on. I came in sixth, but still got the prize I wanted most -- two skeins of Rowan Summer Tweed, a silk/cotton blend:

I think that's going to be a triangular scarf using the pattern 198 Yards of Heaven.