Wingsandstrings

Caught in Action

2007-07-25T22:57:00.000-07:00

Here I am, working on Le Tour de Fleece project! Notice the new scarf? It's a Fiber Trends pattern called Versatile Scarves designed by Evelyn A. Clark. Thanks Jen for taking my photo!

I have plied some of the spinning I've been working on. I will post photos soon. I'll be at the Mariner's game tomorrow for the Stitch and Pitch game. Woo Hoo!

Wet and Wooly

2007-07-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

We've had some needed rain the last few days. It's warm outside and the air smells clean and fresh. I have a couple photos to share.

Below is Sam with a Le Tour De Fleece bobbin that she's working on. I too have been spinning for Le Tour De Fleece, however I haven't taken photos of myself spinning. I should be plying soon and will get you a photo of some sock yarn made out Great Balls of Fiber by Sarah Anderson of Snohomish WA. It's in a colorway called Midnight River. I got my V neck T-shirt the other day! It makes spinning go that much better. Perhaps it's the white shirt making a nice background for the dark black, navy, and light blue fiber; but I think it's the knowledge that others across the world are wearing their T-shirts and the vibes of spinning wheels and drop spindles is emitting a sonic energy that drives my feet to tap out a speedy spinning rhythm in harmony with them all. That's just my take on it.

Here's a Victorian Shoulderette shawl I finished out of Blue Moon yarn. Jen and I started an impromptu knit-along with this pattern. I can't wait to see Jen's version. She's using handspun and it's looking beautiful so far. Funny how starting this project at Sheila's home caught me without the right size circular needle. Sheila and Michael were able to fix me up with a gorgeous pair of clover green glass circulars. They are awesome. I'll be having fun with them for years to come. The T-shirt I've got on with the shawl is a gift from my sister, Sandy. See, it fits! Thanks Sandy!

Sheila sent me a present! She and her daughter, Kate, took photos at the Black Sheep Gathering in Oregon and Sheila made some cards for me. She even made the envelops. Imagine my surprise when I realized that those spinning photos are of me.Her and Kate just made me look really good. What can I say? We had such a fun time at the BSG, and these cards are a wonderful reminder. I will have fun using them and sending them to special people. The blue scarf in the background is made from some handspun I dyed a while ago. It's just a small scarf that is very soft. The fiber I used is called "soft wool" and it is a blend of Targhee, Rambouillet, and Merino fibers. The darker blue has some of Lisa Souza's Starry Nights Tencel plied in. I got some of the "Old Gold" color of Tencel at Stitches West from her. I am looking forward to finding the perfect project for it.

New Neighbors and Tour de Fleece

2007-07-14T17:32:00.000-07:00

We have a new family living next to us, but I expect they will fly the coop soon. They have had babies and are busy tending them. It's fun to watch the parents running to and fro taking care of their brood. Wayne took these photos with our big Cannon digital camera and a telephoto zoom lens. We're going to be using it later this year, so we're getting it out and blowing the dust off it.

Our humming bird feeder is a hit with some hummers in the area. We've tried a couple of different feeders this year, and so far this one is the one they like the best.

I've been very busy with work the last couple weeks. It's been a blur working various weird hours, and the traveling always takes the wind out of my sails. I flew to Atlanta on Sunday, but my luggage went to St Paul. It didn't find me until Tuesday night. This was a first for me, and I learned a lot from it. It was an adventure gathering things to get by; not knowing if the bag would turn up in a few hours or a few days. Always check your luggage ticket to see if it's going to the same location that you are. Never pack your true necessities in the checked baggage. I agree I wouldn't check a bag if I could help it, but alas it was not and probably won't be possible in my travel situation with what I need to carry on already. On a good note, I'm getting pretty good about tossing out the laptop and bagged liquids, other electronics and shoes off to get through the inspection line.

It's good that there is a spinning guild meeting tomorrow and Jen and Sam will be there. I'm really looking forward to it. I love this guild because #1 they are very outgoing and friendly and #2 their spinning day of the month falls on a weekend, and #3 there is ample time to get into the spinning and visiting before it's time to go home.

I've got a spinning project underway for the Tour de Fleece! It's fun to set yourself a goal and work towards it. Photos will follow in the next few posts! I've got the T-Shirt ordered, and I'm spinning away.

I celebrated the kickoff of the client I am working on at work, going into production this week. Celebrating being, purchasing a new tea pot. I love the clear glass tea pots and this one jumped out at me. I made a batch of Fairy Nectar tea in it today and poured it over ice. Yum! I got a couple nice mugs that are clear glass to go with it, but they weren't ready to have ice and then warm tea poured over it. I didn't want to chance it.

Quick Update

2007-06-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

I'm headed out for a week in Alpharetta GA tomorrow. I must admit I spent some time on the deck spinning and enjoying myself in preparation. Here's the South Pacific silk/merino from Lisa Souza that I finished spinning. 390 yards there. I have some silk/merino in the Elecktra colorway that will go well in a shawl with this yarn. Now to spin it!

See the new rocker that Wayne bought and put together for me! I just love it.

I will leave you with the joint power of the minds. You see Missy and Emma do combine their powers when it comes to opening doors. Never mind the dirty window -this is about the only time I'll get a photo of them doing something collaboratively.

R&R

2007-06-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

Work has been very busy but I took some time off and went to Eugene Oregon for the Black Sheep Gathering last weekend. The BSG is a festival with fiber animals from sheep to lamas and there are vendors who sell books, wool, yarn, spinning wheels, patterns, jewelery, soap, felted items, knitting supplies, and much more.

Above are some restful moments taken over the weekend. Missy was resting at home, Autumn was being cute at the Ernst home, and the sheep and goats were of course getting their beauty rest - getting ready for the show ring.

I took a class on spinning Bison, Yak, and Cashmere from Judith MacKenzie McCuin. We had some special treats as some Qiviut and some Chinchilla were also provided for us to try spinning. Wow! Judith and all those lovely fibers. It was a fantastic class and I really feel like I learned so much about how to take on these oh-so-fabulous fibers.
One of my favorite sheep, Jazz, was on her toes. She has changed over the time since I last saw her, but she is a cute as ever. I was so happy to get to see her again, and her owner Suzie Sizemore. They did very well at the show.

Here is Sheila, Kate, Jen, and Angela. Kate is Sheila's youngest daughter. It was so wonderful to get to visit with her. Thanks for joining us Kate. Keep up the great artwork!

I was lucky enough to have Jen join me on the trip. The miles flew by with her riding shot gun, or driving. Sheila and Michael invited us to stay with them, and we gladly accepted. What fun to get to see them at the show and to stay with them afterwards in their lovely home. Thank you Sheila and Michael!

Can you believe I did not bring any raw fleece home? I am amazed too! I did find some wool roving and some baby surry alpaca that followed me home. I also found a lazy kate for drop spindles and three matching maple spindles. I'm wanting to take some spinning with me on those week long trips to Georgia, and the spindles will allow me to do that. Having the kate will let me ply from my spindles easier. I'm really looking forward to trying them all out. I found a don't drop spindle (is it the year of the spindle?) that called to me, and a set of Mother McKenzie's Dye. I'll be telling you more about these as I start new projects with them.

Blah

2007-06-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

I've been in a funk and just haven't been taking photos or doing much but working the last few weeks. With the lack of photos, I think I'll see if I can answer the call of the "meme" tag :-) I was tagged by a couple of you, and this should give me some fun. Just remember, YOU ASKED FOR IT!

The rules of the meme game are: If you are tagged, list 7 random things about yourself on your blog, then tag 7 others, listing their names on your blog. Leave a note in their blog comments so they know they've been tagged and to read your blog.

1) I grew up in a small town and graduated from high school in a class of 45 students. Mt. Saint Hellens ended our senior year on May 18, 1980. Talk about your early out!
2) Kermit was my first car (1961 Comet - frog color, of course)
3) King was my best buddy from the time I was 10. He was a great horse, and I showed him at the fair and rode him all over the town where I grew up. He loved to stop at the store - I'd buy him candy.
4) I won a hand made crochet afghan when I was in 5th grade by buying one ticket at the school carnival.
5) My fastest typing speed is 92 wpm when I tested for the Fire Department receptionist job.
6) I can whistle by putting my thumbs side by side and blowing through them.
7) Lemon Custard is my favorite ice cream flavor.

Okay - who to tag?! I'm tagging Tina, and anyone else who would like to do this. I know, the pressure! If you haven't seen Tina's blog - you have to check out her fiber closet photo!

I'm going to be at Black Sheep in the not to far off future. Hopefully I'll be back in photo taking mode by then. I've been traveling to Georgia and working a lot lately. Oh, I got a pair of socks done with the traveling. So there's something done. Sorry no photos.

Ruby Jewel & Jazz Hat

2007-05-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

Remember the Ruby Jewel fleece I said I was working with? Well I added some Jazz (see older post about Jazz, the Shetland fleece) to the mix and came up with a hat.

Jazz on the bobbin and Ruby Jewel on the bobbin

I cast on a wild guess of the number of stitched I'd need (turned out to be 96) and I k1p1 for awhile on size 8's. Then I moved to size 6's and did some stockinett for awhile. That's where Jazz came in and added some oomph. I was going to do some large X's around the hat, but changed my mind and made, twigs? Rain? I'm not sure what those are, but it's a pattern and I'm happy with it. I enjoy going with whatever strikes me when I'm combining colors to make a pattern. I never know what will come out of it when I start, but I usually like it when I'm done. The red color comes out in the sun as highlights from Ruby Jewel.

This Monday Sam, Jen, and I cleaned our fleece. While we were waiting for the soaking cycle to complete, we took a look at my fleece that Jen and I washed on Saturday. It had a lot of hay and seeds in it. Look at the industrious helpers I had to shake those seeds and hay out of the wool! When I got home I laid the fleece out for a little more drying, and Missy got into the action.

Happy Feet

2007-05-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

Here they are! Wayne's new possum blend socks. Thank you Jen! Thank you Sam! You were both instrumental in this effort.

I still need to dye them, but of course we needed to try them on to check the fit. I leave the toes a bit loose as Wayne prefers them that way. No pointy toes for my dear heart.

I now present to you, the dance of the ha-ha-happy feet! Yes my man, should be a foot model - he's got the moves, and the feet to really show off the socks. No wonder I love him.

Fat Singles

2007-05-26T22:01:00.000-07:00

I decided to challenge myself and see if I could spin a balanced fat single. I'm close to success, but it's got a little spin left in it that is hanging on even after washing. This is CVM fleece.

Jen, Kim, and I had a fun day washing fleece today. Jen has some photos of the day, so you should check in with her and see the happenings there. I brought the fleece home and popped it into the top load washer for a rinse and spin to speed up the drying process. Here's the washed fleece drying. This is a Cheviot/Border Leicester fleece, with traits more along the Cheviot breed.

I'm spinning some Shetland fleece and it's coming together nicely. More to follow on Ruby Jewel's fleece hopefully soon.

Wayne's possum socks are almost done. Just the toes to finish on both of them, which wont take long. Speaking of toes, I'm working on the toe of the Tofootsies sock I had on the airplane, and sock #1 of will be done for that project.

What's Up

2007-05-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy last couple weeks. I was flown to Georgia for work, and I'll be going back there a couple more times before it's done. The people in Georgia are very nice and I really enjoyed the trip. I thought I'd have time for knitting, but it turned out it was only at the airport and on the plane. I didn't even get any photos taken to share except for on the plane.

I tried to follow directions. I'm knitting these Tofootsies socks on size zero needles. I love how the sock feels being so compacted with the smaller needles.

Blake Lewis is still in the running on American Idol. They had a parade for him here in Bothell, and while we couldn't make it to watch the event we did like the banners they had.

The flowers in the back yard sure took off while I was away. Here's a shot of some of them for you.

Busy Times

2007-05-08T21:08:00.000-07:00

Wayne and I put our finishing touches on the pond last weekend. We put some beauty bark around the pond, and added some plants (inside and outside the pond) and 6 fish.

My friends told me of knit along with Sivia Harding's group. I have to smile, I have great friends and they know me too well. Of course I joined Sivia's list! and life is good (I had the yarn just waiting for a project like this in my stash - GREAT planning ahead on my part). I give you almost 2 repeats of the Gothic Leaf Stole with Beads, by Sivia Harding. Double click on the picture so you can see it close up!

The yarn is from Lisa Souza, and it is her yarn called Petal - which is 50/50 Silk/Merino in a colorway she did as a one off called Leopard. It's perfect for this leaf pattern. It's hard to see in the photo but it's a golden and buttery yellow mix with dark spots and a few rust colored spot in it. I'm using Sheila and Michael Ernst glass needles in size 7 - in their colorway Amber Passion. I'm loving the stole pattern since it won't get wider, only longer, and unlike a triangle shawl there is no chance of it outgrowing my knitting needle cable. The beads are size 6/0 with two different colored bead selections: clear black and amber black. I'm doing every other set of stems in the opposite bead color. They are very similar, and they look nice together, but it's not my wonderful planning that brought the idea to mind. It's the fact that the bead store didn't have enough of the same color. Yes, necessity is the mother of invention.

Here is a tip when using small crochet hooks for beading. Do not stick your crochet hook into the ball of yarn pointy side up. Especially if you get up and sit back down where that hook may find a part of your body. Pulling that small hook out, after it is embedded in one's thigh is not for the faint hearted. It does not want to come out easily. Trust me on this. Enough said.

Finishing Touches

2007-04-29T19:53:00.000-07:00

Emma got some final touches in at the pond tonight. That's a toy fish we have hung from Mr Bear's fishing pole. Mr Bear was made in Onalaska by someone I went to school with. We've had Mr Bear for several years, but he recently moved from the big pond over to the little pond to try the fishing there. Looks like Catfish are in season!

Click on the photos to enlarge them if you'd like.

Trippin'

2007-04-28T20:04:00.000-07:00

Wayne and I worked on the small pond in our back yard. Here it is with waterfall. I'll be smoothing out the dirt around the pond and we'll probably use some beauty bark to keep the weeds down. I'm a big fan of flower planters or pots to add some colors. The darn morning glory takes over so quickly and I seem to be able to keep it out of well filled pots.

Speaking of pots, the dahlias seemed to have survived the winter in their planters. I cleaned out the weeds and found little dahlias trying to grow. So I added some fertilizer and some dog/cat safe slug bait and we will tend these little babies as they grow. They must be hardy, it got very cold this winter. Okay, so we took a break, my dogs were tired! That sun felt so good today.

Lisa Souza sent my order of Cam-Oh! Blue Faced Leicester fiber! It is so soft and lovely, I can't wait to start spinning! I got a pound of it, and I'm thinking of a vest, or perhaps some felted items. I'm just not sure yet. She also sent me some of Brenda Patipa patterns that I had ordered. I got Twist & Lace, and Do the Wave.
I went to Cerritos California this last week for a few days. There was a pond on the corner of the block next to the building where our class was held. One day something caught my eye, and it turned out to be turtles. Here's some photos of that little oasis in the city.

Isn't that fish huge?! There were two of them swimming together in the shallow end of the pool. I think they may have been thinking of laying eggs. The turtles were quite calm until someone pointed at them. Then they scurried back into the water. The duck, well he heard that photos were being taken and he came right up for his photograph.

Fiber News

2007-04-22T17:33:00.000-07:00

Right into fiber content! I finished a felted bag this weekend. It's made from singles that I purchased at the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat from Oregon Wool. The button is from Sheila Ernst. I didn't use a pattern, so I cast on 48 stitches on size 11 needles (I used my glass circulars from Sheila and Michael - they rock!) When I started the top flap, I picked up 18 stitches across the back and then I added two stitches every fourth row until I had 24 stitches, then I reduced every other row. This gave the handles room on the sides.

I started another bag right away since I was going for a smaller size bag but I got over zealous with the stitches when I cast on. The other bag is underway and has 28 stitches around. I have another lovely Sheila button and enough of the red and blue singles to get it done.

On other fiber news, Tina and I purchased a CVM (California Varigated Mutant (for non-spinning/sheep readers - this is a sheep)) fleece at the Whidbey Island Weaver's Spin-In. We saw that Superior Fibers from Edmonds, WA was at the Spin-In and we decided to give them a try. Tina and I picked up the processed fleece today and it turned out wonderful! I can't wait to start spinning this soft, creamy, springy roving. I have almost 2 pounds to spin, which could be a nice sweater for someone.

Possum and the Pot and American Idol

2007-04-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

Since Wayne linked this blog to the Dutch Oven list he is on, I thought I'd give a little more information on the newest member of the cabinet.

This is a Mario Batali, 6 qt Italian Essentials Pot. Good thing it's first venture in cooking was Italian meat balls and not the Swedish version! I did notice that the weight of the pot and with as slick as it is with the ceramic finish, the pot could slide right off the pulled out rack of the oven. Our rack tips downwards a bit when it's pulled out. So I've warned the family and we'll have to make a point of taking the pot out of the oven when adding items or checking on progress.

Someone asked if that really is opossum in the socks. The answer is yes. It's not the American possum. These are small, and dare I say cute little creatures that have fluffy tails. They are from New Zealand and it's a pest there, but it does have soft fur that is nice in fibers like yarn.

For the American Idol fans - GO BLAKE LEWIS!!! (who is from Bothell WA!!!) Wayne says I can knit you a pair of socks if you win. What size do you wear and send me your address buddy... we're rooting for you!

Seeing Green

2007-04-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

The green socks are done and fit well. These were knit from the toe up. I used 2 skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash yarn. The toe up method allowed me to knit the full skein into each sock, so there's more leg and no leftover yarn. Pretty cool method, I'll probably do it again sometime. Missy has recovered from her surgery and is her old self.

I've started knitting some socks for Wayne out of some fiber I got from Jen, and then Sam spun it up for me. I was going to dye it before I knit it, but since I've been slow to dye I'm knitting first. The fiber is Polworth & opossum. I'm knitting these from the top down, and I've got both socks going at the same time. I just thought I'd show you how they've started and hopefully I'll have completed socks to show in a couple weeks.

We found a lovely dutch oven on Amazon. The color is called Pesto, and while I think it is lovely it was $20 less than the other colors. I guess it was just my lucky day. Yes, I was a kid in the 70's. If only I had a Goldenrod colored counter top to go with it!

Here is our first dinner cooked in the new dutch oven. I was going to do a roast and all the potatoes, carrots, etc. But I was reminded that our first dutch oven adventure for the outdoor dutch oven turned out great and was asked to do it again. How could I say no to a compliment like that? The ingredients are layered with corn salsa, Italian meatballs, steak fries, and a little cheese on top. I don't know if you can tell, but the lid has little bumps on the inside to let condensation drip over the food rather than running down the side of the pot. It seemed to work great for this meal.

Whales

2007-04-14T16:57:00.000-07:00

Wayne and I got to see whales in Puget Sound today. It's a first for me, and it was so exciting. They were blowing water up in the air, and you could see their backs slip along the top of the water from their heads to their tails. They were quite a ways out, so the photo is blurry, but we saw several of them and it was wonderful.

These were taken at the light house near the Mukilteo Ferry dock. It was about 4:00 PM. It made for a very memorable and special day today. That is Whidbey Island in the background.

Apple Trees on Easter

2007-04-08T16:15:00.000-07:00

Early this Winter I ordered 5 apple trees from my cousin, Marvin, who had bought a quantity of root stock and had grafted a variety of apples onto that stock. The trees came to us a couple months ago and Dad kindly heeled them into their garden in Onalaska until we could get down there to plant them. This weekend the trees finally found their homes on our own 5 acres. What a nice Easter to be outdoors in the sun with my Mom and Muffin planting trees!
The trees (from farthest to closest) are: Yellow Transparent, Red Gravenstein, Honey Crisp, Gravenstein, and a Chehalis apple tree. I hope the deer don't munch the trees down to nothing. Mom and Dad's trees do okay, but they are a bit closer to their home. If these take off, we will have some lovely apples in a few years. The Red Gravenstein was from some cuttings originally taken from my parents tree years ago.

I did find some eggs today. Mom and Dad sent home about three dozen lovely farm fresh eggs in a cute Easter basket, as well as some lovely pickles and jam. I should have taken a photo of the beautiful eggs. They are light brown, cream, and green colors and there are small Bantee size to huge double yoke eggs. What a treasure. The pickles are from Mom's cucumber patch in the garden with home grown dill and garlic. The jam is from their raspberry plants that produced so heavily last season. The farm is such a special place where you know where the food comes from and the work that it took to grow it.

Coming in from watering the trees I heard some hawks calling. There was a pair soaring over the field. There had been only one earlier, but now there were two. I think they were looking for field mice or rabbits. They stayed pretty low and were just sort of hanging there in the sky over the field.

I have had a lot of fun spinning and knitting this last week. I bought a headband kit when I was at the Whidbey Island Weaver's Spin In. I got the Shetland roving spun and plied on my drop spindle and I knit the headband pattern that came with the kit. I think I'll spin some of the Shetland I have in my stash and make another for a friend of mine. It was fun to do and I know the Shetland I have is very soft and will be excellent for this project. The tulips where some Tina and I bought on the way back from the Spin In when we were in Mt Vernon. They have a big tulip festival every year, but it hasn't started yet. These were some of the first of many that will be coming out of their fields. They have lasted over a week on my table without any additives to their water.

Wayne's socks are coming along. These are toe up socks that Jen and Kim inspired me to knit. The song "The Beat Goes On" is going through my head as I knit only with the word "Beat" being changed to "Feet", well that and a few other lyrics being changed. I just started sock #2 of this pair.

There is news on the Braids sweater. The sleeves were perfect! I don't know how but they ended up right where they should be when my sister tried it on. However, after putting it on we both decided it was a bit short in the body length. It was knit as a cropped sweater and to make it a truly magical sweater I think I'll take the couple extra skeins I have of the Cotton Fleece and see if I can make it longer. This may be a bit tricky since this is knit from the bottom of the sweater up. I'll have to try and see what I can come up with, but I'm sure we can make it happen.

Spin In Weekend

2007-04-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

I finished the Beaded Bauble bracelet! It was a fun project, and I will have fun wearing it. Thanks Rosemary!

I also finished the Mombassa socks but I don' t have a photo for you yet. I've been wearing them, and they're in the laundry now. It feels great to get projects finished up and being able to use them.

This weekend there was a Spin In on Whidbey Island. Jen and I drove around to the North end of the island can came down to Oak Harbor. It was a beautiful day. I worked on some Silk Merino fiber from Lisa Souza in the Pacific colorway. It sure spins up nice.

Tina wasn't able to go with us on Saturday. For some reason I woke up this morning and thought, "why not go back today?" I called Tina to see if she was up to going for awhile, and she had been thinking the very same thing. So, we jumped in the car and went over so she could take in the Spin In and the vendors there. Here's a couple of photos of the spin in for you.

I found some fiber from Sarah Anderson called Midnight River that is black and shades of blue. It's is superwash Colonial so it is destine for socks. I also got a pound of Shetland top in a pretty creamy color. A four bobbin lazy kate found it's way home with me. It will work great for my Wooly Winder bobbins since they don't spin well on the lazy kate that came with my Lendrum. Tina and I bought a CVM lamb fleece and are splitting it between us. It's a lovely white fleece that we are having processed into roving. You will see photos of it in a month or so.

We have some great spin in events around the Seattle area. It's always such a joy to meet up with friends at these events. You know who you are, but do you know that you ROCK! ? Well you do. It was great getting to visit with you this weekend.

Friends and Finished Objects

2007-03-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I met up with friends. We had a fabulous evening and I thought I'd share a little of that with you.

Sam had a near dropped stitch, but managed to find it and is happy she now has 16 stitches all around. Whew! That was close. Kim finished her Swallow Tail shawl that very evening and she is admiring how the Sheila Ernst button looks nice with the shawl. Tammy is spinning some merino fiber that is just lovely. It's mostly yellow with bits of other colors combined. Jen is working on an afghan for her daughter. I love how those colors are coming together. I have to admit, she's making me just about pull out the feather and fan afghan I started years ago and haven't finished yet.

I worked on a beaded bauble. It's coming along. I think I'll get busy and get it finished soon. I'm so close! I used bigger beads than I probably should have, so instead of a three stitch pattern, I'm making this as a two stitch garter stitch. It is a from a pattern that Rosemary designed. You'll have to check out her blog and the pattern on Knitty.com it's really neat. I'll show you when it's done.

Wayne's socks got their toes redone. They were rather tight in the toes before. He had worn they quite awhile, but wanted them redone. So I ripped them back and reknit some of the foot and the toes. I made them slanted for the left and right foot this time and he says they are much more comfortable.

Another project that has been waiting for literally years for me to finish is finally done! It is the Braids pattern in cotton fleece for my sister. Well, except for a sleeve adjustment if needed. I haven't tucked those ends in yet because I'm thinking they may need shortened. Cotton tends to "grow" once it's knit. The color is called Rue.

I hope to have some more photos in a couple weeks when I get it to my sister and have the sleeves done up right. It is still drying in these photos, the color isn't as varied as these look.

Missy Update

2007-03-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

Missy was preparing for her surgery in this photo. She's not looking her best tonight, but she's doing okay. Her lump was removed as well as some teeth. The lump was under a couple layers of muscle so there is about a 3" long wound on her chest with 12 stitches and drainage hoses. She will have the hoses until Monday, and the stitches for 10 days. The vet pulled teeth that were loose, so her mouth will be tender as well as her chest area. We're glad she's home and on the mend. She will be more comfortable without that lump when she's walking, laying down, or typing on the computer.

Finished Shawl

2007-03-18T18:44:00.000-07:00

I finished the Wool Peddler's Shawl this morning. It's not the traditional red color, but I just love how this Wild Things colorway works with the shawl pattern. The top photo was pre-blocking. The photo with me wearing it is after I washed it and let it dry a bit. I have not pinned it, but I think I'll let it be relaxed for now anyway.

I received a package in the mail on Wednesday. I won a drawing from Southwest Trading Company that I entered when I was at Stitches West. How exciting to get a surprise in the mail! It was a skein of Tofutsies yarn, a nice clear project bag, and a copy of the Tidal Wave sock pattern by Deby Lake.

Missy is scheduled for her surgery Friday, March 23rd to remove the fatty tumor from her chest. She got a bath and a haircut this weekend so getting ready is spread out a bit for her. She smells great and is soft and smooth to pet, so she is eating up all the attention. I think deep (way deep) in her heart, she likes getting baths and haircuts. She runs around and has to show everybody what she's done afterwards.

Shawl Progress

2007-03-10T23:26:00.000-08:00

Just a quick photo update of the Wool Peddler shawl progress. The photo is a little light colored. It amazes me how Wild Things colorway has all these wonderful bits of color in it. I love how it's coming together. I can't wait to show you the completed shawl, but I think it's going to be a while. It moves slower to knit, the longer it gets. The pattern adds four stitches with every other row, so the longer it is, the wider the it is.

I'm working on reworking toes on some older socks for Wayne. They are moving slowly, but progress is progress. We are loosing an hour due to daylight savings time kicking in this weekend. Therefore if I don't get more progress done on these toes, well we DID loose an hour!

BOP Socks!

2007-03-04T17:45:00.000-08:00

The Weather Schnauzer indicates wet lawns today with showers expected this evening. Missy is doing well and is as sassy as ever. She's a great knitting companion and loves to lay beside me while I knit. She does have a tumor on the underside of her chest. We have scheduled surgery to have the tumor removed at the end of March. It is not cancerous according to the vet, but it is starting to get in her way when she lays down and will effect her walking eventually. Your positive thoughts for Missy and that the tumor goes away easily for her are appreciated.

Here is the second Bird of Paradise sock under construction. I had to show you the double points that Michael and Sheila Ernst are making. They had them at Stitches West, and I snatched up a set! They are very nice to use and stay put in the sock like a bamboo needle would. The glass has a very natural feel in my hand (not grainy or plastic feeling) and the points on these are awesome! I don't see these on their web site but you can contact them if you are interested and I bet they can help you out. I know they carry them in size 5's and up.

It didn't take long to get the last few rows for the sock foot done, and then the toe. Here's a photo of the finished pair! I've ran them through the washer and have them on the sock blockers tonight. I thought about treating them gentle and hand washing, but then I decided to just throw them in the washer and see what happened. Looks good to me! Hooray! I won't go as far as putting them in the dryer. I never do that to my hand knits. I can't wait to wear these about. They feel so soft and cushy! I have a lot of yarn left over. Enough to make a third sock, or possibly even a hat. This is Lisa Souza's new yarn called Hard Twist Merino and it is superwash.

Wrist Bands and PJ's

2007-03-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

Village Yarn and Tea hosted a PJ party last night until midnight! We were knitting wrist bands for the Breast Cancer Seattle 3 day event that will happen in September 2007. The yarn was provided as well as the pattern. Sam, Jen, about 50 or so other people, and I showed up and we had a ball. They want to make 3,000 of these bands, so they would appreciate an assist if you would like to knit some of these.

We were able to create buttons for the wrist bands as well! This was a first for me, and it is way fun. Thank you to Amy of Good to be a Girl, who gave us a lesson on how to make the buttons and brought the supplies to use. She makes adorable stitch markers. Here's Jen and Sam busy creating buttons. Don't they look cute in their sheepy PJ's?!
Here is one of the wrist bands I knitted with a moon button. Jen made a wonderful flower button. Sadly I was showing off my macro feature on my camera, and the photo just didn't turn out of our buttons. That's Murphy's law for when you think you got it right.

You must think I'm a slow poke for not getting that pair of BOP socks out yet! Okay I got distracted. I've been knitting out of the "Folk Shawls" Book, by Cheryl Oberle. Interweave Press 2000. Making the Wool Peddler's shawl. I'm using Hard Twist Merino from Lisa Souza in the Wild Things colorway. This stuff is so cushy I just want to wrap myself up in it, and thus the shawl was the perfect pattern to accomplish this. I've knit enough yardage to count for that other sock, honest! Okay, I'll set aside the WP and get on with the other sock. I owe Wayne a pair of socks too, come to think of it.

BOP

2007-03-01T14:22:00.000-08:00

You might say I'm heels over head about this new hard twist merino yarn from Lisa Souza. Here's a sock done in the Bird of Paradise colorway. I've cast on for the second sock, so the pair should be done soon. The yarn is not yet up on Lisa's web site, but should be soon. I'm sure she'll hook you up with some if you contact her.

The camera flash went off taking this photo. I'll try and get a better shot when there is a pair - the colors are deeper than the photo shows. They are fabulous to say the least. You can you see how this yarn got it's name! I found a nice informational link about the plant if you're interested, and this link has lots of great photos.

We got about 7 inches of snow last night. I see it falling off the trees this afternoon, so it should be gone very soon. I went out and filled the bird feeders today and the chickadees and towhees were most appreciative. The squirrels got a new cob of corn as well. We do enjoy our wild critters. There was a huge crow under the feeders this morning digging through the snow. He was quite handsome in his black feathers with the white snow. Our winter humming birds are doing great. There's at least two hens that come look in our window if the feeders are frozen. Otherwise they come and go happily eatting the necter we put out.

Stitches West

2007-02-25T21:09:00.000-08:00

Some friends and I went to Stitches West (a very large knitting show) in Santa Clara, CA this weekend. It was fitting that the trip started out with us drawing the Disney airplane for the trip down. Yes, it did take us to the "happiest place on earth", Stitches West!

The flight was without incident and the weather was rainy and on the cold side. We rented a car so getting around the area was easy. The parking at the hotel and at the convention center was free.

San Jose airport is small and different because you exit the plane and walk through a long canvas tunnel to get inside the terminal. The car rental place is reached via a shuttle bus from the terminal to the car rental lots. Having friends with a positive, adventurous outlook, and being patient, made the trip fun and very rewarding.

This is the biggest show I have ever attended that centered around knitting. Crowds were biggest on Saturday. It was nice that we were able to attend every day of the show to look at the different vendors displays, help out where we could, see (and touch) hand knit treasures throughout the weekend, and of course get to bounce ideas and thoughts off of one another. Bottom line for me though on what made the weekend, was the people. The friends we got to spend time with was the absolute best part of the whole weekend.

Speaking of friends....

here are Michael and Sheila, Rod and Lisa, and Jen and Sam

They don't allow us to take photographs inside the convention center. I wish that they did because it was amazing. We did our best to bring items home from the show for you to see. Yes, I know you will be grateful that we made these purchases of wonderful treasures just for you. You will be seeing these items appear over time on this blog. Just to give you a teaser, there are some of those gorgeous glass needles from Sheila and Michael as well as beautiful yarns from Lisa and Rod that will be showing up. Wait till you see the hard twist superwash yarn Lisa is dying - it's wonderful stuff! I got a sock knit out of this yarn, in only 2 days, using a set of Sheila's needles and the magic loop method. I am working on sock #2. You should be seeing the pair sometime next weekend.

Socks!

2007-02-17T15:07:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the socks I've been working on. The blue and black are made with Lisa Souza Sock! in the colorway Blue Sky and some of her Heels and Toes Sock! in Black. I love this stuff. I knit these on a size 1 Addi needle. I think I could go up a needle size especially where I doubled up the yarn on the heels and toes. These will be sturdy socks and great for wearing with open sandals or with boots. Yes one of these socks is not like the others, but they all are the same size and shape. I need to get a sock blocker to really show these off.

This pair is a made from Mountain Colors, Bearfoot yarn in Elderberry colorway. I wasn't in the mood for a lot of ribbing when I started these, and I should have probably done more before I moved onto the foot. They are cozy anyway. If they shrink a little, it will be actually a good thing, they are a little loose on me. The color in the single sock picture is what they really look like. The flash went off on the shot of both feet. I think I'll knit the next pair of these in Ruby River, with a smaller needles size. I used a Addi size 2 on these and they seem a bit loose. I will give in and do the ribbing too - I like a cuff and I was just lazy on these.

I'm getting socks out of my system I guess because that's all I've been working on lately. They are very satisfying for me right now.

The Cold Season is Here

2007-02-14T23:25:00.000-08:00

This time I'm not talking about the weather. I've got a cold and my cheek bones hurt. It is the part of this cold that makes me want to curl up in a ball and stay there until I'm better. Only I cough and sneeze and well, we won't go into that. Our son also has a cold and has stayed home from school the last two days. He's feeling pretty bad too.

Wayne got me a wonderful card and some lovely chocolates for Valentines Day. He's a sweetheart. He even cooked dinner and served it on the "you are special" dinner plate. That's what made me feel so special today.

I've been knitting socks. I have made a pair since I last put up photos of the Rooster Rock socks. I'll have to get some photos when I'm feeling better

Plied and Plied Again, I Replied

2007-02-06T21:58:00.000-08:00

I finished your birthday present on your birthday Sandy! Sorry I couldn't give them to you today, but you can see them at any rate. These are made from lightweight Socks that Rock in the colorway Rooster Rock. I hope you enjoy them. I have another skein and I'll start up a pair for myself very soon. I've never blocked socks. I suppose I think of them as meager socks and that a foot is the perfect object to block them with. I am sure you will like them when they are warming your toes. The cuff turns down so the colors that are pooling wont show when you have these babies on your feet. I never mind the pooling myself anyway. It gives the socks character.

I plied the soft wool and tencel that I blogged about before. It came out very loosely plied. So, I plied it again. Heck, I plied one two ply with another two ply and now have a four ply yarn! It is so soft and bouncy, I'm not sure what I will end up making out of it. It would be perfect for a soft hat with lots of shine and warmth. I think that's what it wants to be.

New Sweater

2007-02-02T20:25:00.000-08:00

Gumby was in need of a little something to brighten his day. The result was a evening of design and knitting for a new sweater! Saint Valentine's Colorway by Lisa Souza in Sock! Size 1 double points 16 stitches at neck, and 18 at the bottom. Sleeves are 9 stitches round. Yeah, you have to love a sweater project when you see it being worn. Sheep are from Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. Pokey's blanket has shoulder (or is that back, withers?) shaping.

Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat

2007-01-28T18:03:00.000-08:00

This weekend was the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat, in Tacoma WA. What could be better than going with my good friends Jen and Sam to the retreat on Friday and again on Sunday? (Well besides maybe going again on Saturday - but we had to do some stuff at home this weekend.) What a wonderful time we had seeing friends from on line, and from our fiber network in the Pacific Northwest. Here's a photo of some of the dinner group. That's our group clear down to the window and um, yes, the Christmas Tree.

I learn so much from hanging with these friends. Not only seeing knitted items to check out how they look in real life (as compared to seeing a photo), and being able to ask the person who knit the garment any questions, but by listening and hearing how others have tried various ways of doing projects. We all bounce ideas off of one another and share the love of fiber arts. Sam showed me Magic Loop knitting Friday night, and with my good friend Sheila's circular needles, the rest is history. I love it. Not only that, I got to talk parrots with Kerry! Not everyone understands parrot people. It's great to find someone else who is owned by a Quaker Parakeet.

The vendors out did themselves with wonderful rich colors and soft dreamy combinations of fibers that were irresistible. The Ernst Glass booth was awesome. I walked up and this deep red flower button jumped right out at me. The Chili Pepper glass needles were destine to come home with me as well. I bought a couple of skeins of Blue Moon, Socks and Rock lightweight yarn. I started knitting with it Friday night and you will see how my progress has come along as of 4:00 Sunday night in the photo below. Some of my other finds were Blue Moon Merino Tencel roving in the Rooster Rock colorway, Crown Mountain superwash sock fiber in "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Say a Little Prayer" colorways.

My power cord on the laptop is funky and needs replaced. I was able to get it to work tonight by turning the cord to the left or right until the computer came on. Let's hope that new cord I ordered comes in tomorrow!

Ya, you do want a closer look at that glass - I knew that you did! Double click on the photo if you want to blow it up.

Sunday Spinning

2007-01-22T21:27:00.000-08:00

Spinning Guild held a surprise this month. Someone found that a family was threatening to throw out a spinner's stash! The lady who owned the stash was in her 80's and had forgotten how to spin, and the family was not interested in learning how. They had boxes of colored and natural fleece, mostly Romney. This photo was taken after about 1/2 of the entire stash was already spoken for.

We spinners all chipped in to help find homes for the fiber. The bag on the floor in front of my wheel came home with me, along with another bag that somehow fell into my car. All those boxes on the floor were full of clean fiber too. More spinners showed up after the photo was taken, more fiber found homes. All but about 2 or 3 pounds of fiber ended up finding homes and the woman who brought us this treasure took that. I'm sure it too will find a happy spinner to care for it. It was all lovely fiber.

If there comes a time when I no longer remember what my wheel is for, and Wayne even thinks of tossing my stash, it's up to each and every one of you to help find homes for my stash. I know you will not let me down. I have quilters in my family even if there are no spinners, but it's going to take a few of you to take on my stash as it stands today. Let's hope I get some spinning done before I get to the age where I forget how, or loose the ability to do so.

Yes, the photo of the spinners taking fiber home is small to protect the innocent and to make the amount of fiber you collected seem smaller than it truly is. Um... my bag had air in it too!

Here are a couple other creatures I met while at Spinning Guild. I thought you might enjoy them.

Blue Days

2007-01-20T21:29:00.000-08:00

I have been having fun spinning tencel. It is hard to photograph because it is so shiny. I have 4 ounces of this beautiful blue, and I have 4 ounces of a tencel merino mix that has blues and greens in it which is already spun under this blue color on the bobbin. I was going to ply it with a black tencel that I have, but instead I think I'll ply it with some wool.

I dyed some "soft wool" that I bought at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival last year. Soft Wool is what the vendor calls this mix. All I know is it has some targhee in it. I used Blueberry Blast and Artic Apple Kool Aid and Blueberry Gaywool dye. It's drying tonight. I think it will work well with the tencel.

Muffin

2007-01-18T21:49:00.000-08:00

When I go to my parents by myself and spend the night, I sleep with another dog. Shhh... I don't think Missy knows! This is Muffin. She is a smart little dog and she will actually pull her lips back and smile when she gets happy to see someone. It's really cute. She likes to sleep with her people, but not too close. Missy on the other hand sleeps snuggled up tight to her bed buddies.

I think I will try and spin some Muffin fiber this spring if Mom and Dad will collect some for me. For a little dog, Muffin really sheds a lot of fur!

Dinner with a View

2007-01-15T19:44:00.000-08:00

We went out for dinner in Edmonds and had some beautiful scenery, wonderful food, and a fantastic time visiting.

Sweater Finished!

2007-01-13T16:42:00.000-08:00

Wayne's sweater is finished. This started out as the Trinity Sweater, but we modified the pattern so it's a moss stitch and garter stitch combination. I spun the super wash wool as a three ply yarn in a heavy worsted weight. The sweater is more of a coat. Good thing Wayne is strong, he says if it gets rained on, he may need to get the wheel-barrow to haul the sweater around.

I used my size 9 glass circular knitting needles, made by my friend Sheila Ernst, to knit this sweater. I love using these needles. They have such a great feel and the points on them are hands down the best tips I have found.

Potted Poultry

2007-01-11T07:28:00.000-08:00

The girls are sleeping in the greenhouse for awhile as they get used to my parents farm. They decided to try a flower pot as a good sleeping place. There are 5 bantam hens in this photo and two other hens are in other sleeping places.
A small rooster was put into the greenhouse with them last night so he can show them the farm when they get released from the greenhouse in a few days. I'm sure the rooster and the hens will wake up surprised to meet one another in the morning.

Family

2007-01-08T21:10:00.000-08:00

The electricity came back on Sunday morning about 6 AM. I haven't had time to write as I headed to Onalaska to visit with my parents. Mom had a appointment at the hospital this morning, but she's doing great this evening and hopefully will be home tomorrow.

Mom has washed and dried the socks I spun & knit for her. I'm glad to say they've even held up to the dryer. Here's a photo of my Mom (Eleanor) on the right, and Gladys on the left. You can certainly see they are sisters! I've got another pair of siblings to share with you too. Here's my brother Mike and my sister, Sandy.Now to get a photo of my other brother, Terry, and you'll have seen us all on the blog - Dad was in the crab fishing photos some time ago. In the photo above Mike and Sandy is a photo of Mom and her brother, Clarence. Hey, you see that hat Michael is wearing?! I made that hat - and he's worn it for the last two or three winters. He just might get another hat one of these days :-)

Boom, Boom - OUT GO THE LIGHTS!

2007-01-06T20:53:00.000-08:00

Early this morning we had another PNW wind storm come sweeping through our area. The power went out at 2 AM, and is still off. Thank goodness for the age of Internet - you can take your laptop to many places and get your internet fix.

So, today was the St. Distaff spin-in and about 100 people were able to attend this annual event. I know you want photos, but I think there are some friends who would wonder about my true loyalty if I put them up on my blog for all the world to see. So, if we don't have a photo - do we still get credit for attending the spin-in? I say yes, we do! I spun some Merino Tencel, and I bought some black Tencel to ply with the peacock colors that I was spinning today. I also bought some beautiful silk merino from the Artful Ewe. I need to take photos of to show you when we have our power back on.

All the fiber for Wayne's sweater is spun and plied, Hooray!

Starting the Year Right!

2007-01-01T21:36:00.000-08:00

I had fun today with my projects and friends. I sat at my Fricke spinning wheel and spun. Moved over to the Lendrum with the jumbo plying head and plied, and have a 3 ply jumbo skein of yarn drying tonight. I really enjoy having two wheels! I'd better wrap this sweater project up very soon. The January sky is usually gray, and so is this sweater (although there are wisps of blue in some of the fiber). I like gray, just not too much of it at once.

I was tipping them back today in New Years celebration with friends. Yes, it was organic, green, and hot. Forgive the photo quality but this is the nearest I think I've ever come to an underwater shot - it's a rose tea blossom. (That's green tea Mom - no worries)

I am truly counting my blessing for the joyful colors in the Onalaska Skein. The shawl pattern has been chosen, the needle gague has been selected. The pattern I chose was the Alberta pattern from Stahman's Shawls & Scarves. I promise not to show you every row as she progresses, but I did want to show you that she is indeed begun. What a great start to 2007!

New Years Eve Post

2006-12-31T20:45:00.000-08:00

You should check out yesterday's post to see where this beautiful yarn came from. I'm so excited to see how it's swatching I had to get this out for you tonight. I'm going to take the knitting down a needle size or two, and try a different pattern before I'm ready to start the shawl.

Here's Missy with her Holiday Bling!

Happy New Year!! Goodbye 2006. Hello 2007.

Special projects

2006-12-30T23:23:00.000-08:00

I got a couple projects finished today. The handspun superwash Elecktra Light fiber made Mom a nice pair of socks. These were finished on the way to Onalaska today. So, one project done, I cast on a baby hat right away with the same yarn. It was finished by 7:00 this evening, but I forgot to get a photo for you.

Sam and Jen and Lisa all got together and came up with a awesome birthday present idea. Sam and Jen found a photo of my home town, Onalaska WA, and sent it on to Lisa to see if she could/would create a skein using Ony as the theme of the skein. Well it all came together in this wonderful work of art. What a wonderful gift.

I took the skein with me to show my family and to snap a couple photos of the Onalaska Skein in, where else, but Onalaska. I wasn't able to get up above the Mill pond which was in the original photo given to Lisa, but these are places on the farm where I grew up.

This first photo is taken at the front entrance where the old barn used to be. I spent many a morning and evening going out to the barn to milk the cow and/or feed calves. The barn was taken down about a year ago, but this tree in the photo was there as I was doing my chores.

The second photo is taken by the resting place of Sam and Trinket. They were my buddies as I was growing up. Sam was a German Shepard mix who was so intuitive and would console you when you cried, or could absolutely laugh with us when we were happy. He worried over the milk cow's baby calves as we brought them in from the field to the barn. Trinket was a toy poodle, who was anything but a sissy. She would chase cattle with the best of them, getting behind a steer to tug on his tail if he didn't run from her. Her heart belonged to Mom, but she was a great companion all the same.

The yarn is going to be knit into a Faroese -Shaped shawl with a pattern from the Myrna A.I. Stahman book, Stahman's Shawls & Scarves. I'm trying to decide if I want to knit the "Gracie" shawl, or the "Susan" shawl. I will do some swatches and see how they look before I decide for sure.

We had a great visit with my family today. Tango, the sun conure, was happy to come tell me his New Years resolutions. He says he's planning on learning a new word or two for 2007. Most likely it will be apple, and hello, but he will decide on that later.

What a Difference!

2006-12-24T21:32:00.000-08:00

We did the early present opening this year. We had a very nice gift exchange. Our son received a plasma ball (one of those lights that looks like lightning inside similar to the one linked) and some electronic games, and of course socks. Wayne got a new coat and some tools. His sweater won't be done for about another week.

The ball on the right was wound on my small ball winder. The one on the left is with the new Royal jumbo ball winder that my family gave me. What a difference the right tool makes! There's room for more on the one on the left. It's a consistent tension and wound neatly. The one on the right is very loose and will fall apart quickly as I use it. I will rewind the one on the right so it's in better shape for my shawl project I'm planning with these two.

We also got a crab cooker for camping that will work great for that, but hey! It will work great for kettle dying wool! It's got high heat output and uses a propane tank for fuel. So - I'd say it's a fiber gift - but hey, use another pot and we got a crab cooker :-) It's call a Big Kahuna Burner. Now to find a really big pot for dying fiber. You don't want to use it for food if you've used it for dying, so I'll be looking at Goodwill or a 2nd hand store for that.

Missy found her presents under the tree and was quick to open them with a little encouragement. She helped others open gifts as well. She really loves to rip and tear things when she gets going. She's all tired out this evening and ready for a good nights sleep. Emma had assistance finding her gifts and she was very pleased. She got a catnip mouse that she rolled around on. She also got a door knob toy that has elastic and bounces around. It's got feathers on it and she think it rocks! She was batting it about for quite awhile this evening.

Tomorrow Tina is going to come over for a while and visit, but there aren't any big plans for the day. We are looking forward to spending some family time together.

Big Balls

2006-12-22T21:18:00.000-08:00

Well, ball - but soon to be balls. Check out the Alpaca Lace I bought from Lisa Souza! I had her dye it bronze and gold. It reminds me of hay loose in the field. Okay - I'm a farm chick. This is great stuff! Someone else may have a more tantalizing description - but for me that description ranks right up there with a summer fair.

More to be blogged on this lovely wonder, later.

Not Much Happening

2006-12-17T20:46:00.000-08:00

I've been working - a lot. The power went out for a couple days at home due to the big PNW wind storm. My photos in the dark are, well, dark. The ones with flash look light - but you can't tell our power was out when it's light. Trust me, it was out.

Wayne's sweater is down to just sleeves to be done. I washed the sweater and have it - gasp! in the dryer. I wanted to see it grow before I do the sleeves. I'm going to seam up the sides a bit more now that I can see how much it grew with the washing. Guess I'd better go pull it out of the dryer and see if it shrunk.
Um, sorry, somebody in my home likes to be in photos, and she likes warm wool to lay in. I tried to get her to move for a better shot. Wayne and I are thinking some antler buttons would be nice. It's going to have 9 buttons, since I put 9 button holes in the band. I found some buttons on the internet, that are sealed so they can be washed. Even if all goes smoothly buying them, it will take a couple weeks for them to get here. I don't imagine we will be washing this sweater a lot, but we can wash it in the washer (delicate cycle inside a mesh bag) since it is super wash. It's not meant for the dryer either, but I was feeling lucky and it didn't seem to hurt it. I got another skein spun over the weekend so I can work the sleeves.

Give Fleece a Chance

2006-12-09T20:02:00.000-08:00

Working girls need to have some fun too. Who would have thought some rest and relaxation would come from dirty fleece? I agree, I would not have thought it, but it sure worked tonight. Then again, check out what I got to work with! This photo is without the flash so you can see how dark and beautiful this natural colored Romney fiber is. I love the crimp and the staple very much. This is a ewe lamb fleece that I purchased from The Pines Farm.
You can see it also at the bottom of the photo below. The dyed brown and green fiber is Lincoln fiber that I bought at a guild sale. The dye was not washed out well, and so I washed it to get the excess dye out. It's drying fast. There is 6.6 pounds of the Romney drying there with a fan turned on and a heater nearby. I gave it a good spin inside a couple mesh bags. I split the fleece into two parts so the washing machine would stay balanced in the spin cycle, so it's well on it's way to being dry too.
Wayne's sweater is coming along. Here's an update photo on the sweater progress.

Oh darn! Wrong photo! That's my fiber closet... if you've seen any naked sheep about, well don't tell them where I've stashed their clothing! Haha

Okay, Wayne's Sweater - for real :-)

Happy Birthday Missy!

2006-12-03T23:42:00.000-08:00

Today was Missy's birthday. She is 6 years old today. It was also Jen's birthday! So happy birthday to both Missy and Jen. Missy got a special bone, some Pupparonis, a 3 foot toy snake that squeeks and fun to shake, and a massage glove for us to rub her back. I'll let Jen talk about her birthday, but the time we spent visiting with her was such fun tonight. Thank Jen for having us over.

I was able to work more on Wayne's sweater this weekend, but between going to the dump, shopping and wrapping Missy's gifts, and going to a wonderful dinner at Jen's home tonight, I didn't get any sweater photo's for you. So, I will leave you in suspense for the next sweater update.

More Christmas shopping was accomplished today. Actually I was gathering more items I needed to craft and create into Christmas gifts. Now to get busy putting the materials together.

Giant Frozen Chicken Alert

2006-12-02T21:00:00.000-08:00

They DO exist especially when the temperatures get into the 20's. I think this one is breaking out with spots as well. He looks a bit mesmorized. Petrified poka-dot poultry - at it's finest.

Wayne's sweater has a back and 1/2 of the front done. I've started the second side of the front and have done a 3 needle bind-off on the one side that is done. It's looking good! I hope to have a progress photo up by tomorrow night.

I'm starting up the Six Sock knit a long with their chain link socks pattern. I have some Lisa Souza heels and toes in black, Sock! yarn. I called her up and got her to sock some Blue Sky Sock! into the mail for me for the main color of the pattern.

Snow Play

2006-11-28T19:41:00.000-08:00

We received some snow! We only get snow a couple times a year usually, and it doesn't normally last very long. Here's a few pictures of the snow we have.

We feed the birds in our back yard. They are very happy with the snow here and all. Hey! Wayne said there is a humming bird trying to get humming bird food from the hummer feeder. It's frozen, so it didn't get any. I've been telling Wayne they migrate and he should take the feeder down that he recently put up. I am really surprised that they hang around in this sort of weather. Now, how to make the feeder not frozen for the little silly hummer. Guess I'll have to google it and see if I can find the solution. Poor little bird - it's very cold out! LOL - a nectar cozy perhaps? I've got lots of wool :-) Note: I found link that gives directions on this issue. Heat lamp!

Here's Wayne and Missy enjoying the snow. The snowy figure in the background is a cedar bear that sits by the larger pond in our back yard. The pond needs a new liner which we will get in next summer.

I went in late to work today due to the icy roads. I spent my morning separating Jazz's fleece and got a lot accomplished. I've just got another couple hours of work to do on it before it's all separated and picked.

We set up the Christmas tree. Here's a picture of it. Not too bad for an artificial tree I think.

It was rather frightening today. Wayne and I were in the grocery store. We had some Ding Dongs in the shopping cart, there was Christmas music playing on the store speakers. On the way out in the parking lot I caught myself singing "ding dong, ding dong, Christmas Bells are ringing" Oh No! The first Christmas song of the year - and not only that, there I was singing it. It had to be the snow, or the tree, maybe they were playing it in the store and it snuck into my subconscious, or possibly it was the Ding Dongs! It is only November 28th, what will the rest of the year bring?

Too Much Fun?

2006-11-25T21:17:00.000-08:00

Shhh, don't tell Missy! We had a fashion show with Mocha today at Jen's house. Mocha is a little more exuberant when it comes to modeling. However she does know how to settle right into spinning after a fashion.
Tina came over to visit the other day. It was great to see her and get to visit a while. Missy was delighted! Aunt Tina is one of Missy's favorite people.

For my birthday, Tina found the coolest card, and put together a basket of wonderful goodies (chicken lamp, basket, table cloth, ear rings, book - am I spoiled or WHAT?). She gave Wayne and I a gift certificate to Dinner's Ready for our anniversary. I'm looking forward to checking that out. She's so sweet. I am really looking forward to reading the book she found called "The Egg and I". It was written by Betty MacDonald in Washington State. It was published in 1945. I hear there was a movie made based on the book as well.

Wayne and I went Christmas tree shopping. What do you think of this one? It came with lights already on it, and it certainly sparkles! Okay, this is one of two we got today. This was the last one like it where we were, and it just spoke to us. I'll have to get some decorations on it and send you all another photo to enjoy.

Have I mentioned I love the Elph Canon camera? It is so much fun. I took some movies with it today. What a hoot!

Good Times

2006-11-23T22:46:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday today. Check out the tablecloth Mom and Dad brought back for us when they went to Mexico earlier this year. It made a very special table this year for the holiday.

On the knitting front - because I modified the pattern a little on the project I'm knitting (I used heavier weight handspun yarn), I ran out of yarn before I finished knitting. In fact I ran out of fiber and was at a stand still. I searched the internet and found more fiber in the same colorway. It arrived from Canada yesterday. I sat down and spun enough to finished the project today and then knit and hoped I would have it done by the end of the day. Hooray! The Victorian Shoulderette Shawl is now drying. I think I'll just let it air dry and not block it. It's soft, fuzzy, and nice and warm. I'm really looking forward to wearing it. I've got enough of the Top Knot in the Gypsy color blend of fiber to do another project now. It spins very nicely but it surprises me how much it fluffs up when plied in a two ply yarn.

More Photo Ops

2006-11-21T22:26:00.000-08:00

You've seen this before. In the back window of a older car, and when the driver signals right the right eye flashes, and left signal makes the left eye blink? Well here is Seth's impersonation of brake lights!

Then we have Ms Emma (another of Sam's lovely beasts) who thinks she can convince me that she was not really fed at the appropriate hour and the time has come and past and her bowl is e-m-p-t-y! Her family is not backing up her story she's telling me. She is oh-so-soft! If you could buy fiber that would spin well that is this soft, well I think I'd be raising a flock of Emma's. They'd be worth a fortune! She just a sweet cat.

Sam and I went to spinning guild this evening. They were having their sales night (they have sales twice a year where members can sell things at the meeting). Okay, I fess up to falling for another Romney lamb fleece that is so deep dark brown. I'm a sucker for natural colored fleece with lots of crimp. 6.6 pounds of raw beautiful fleece to wash - soon. I also found some beautiful Lincoln fiber in some lovely earth shades. I got about 6 ounces of brown and 7 ounces of green. They are all ready for spinning and will work very nice together. Here are some pictures of some of the areas at the guild meeting.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it!

Birthday and Anniversary Today!

2006-11-20T21:41:00.000-08:00

I wanted to show some photos from the new camera Wayne got me for our Anniversary.
Here is my favorite model - in the buff It's Missy!! Oh, alright, she's wearing her collar - no X rated pics here!

I'm still working on Mom's socks. These are handspun superwash Merino dyed by Lisa Souza. The colorway is Elektra Lite.

Tomorrow night is spinning guild meeting and sales month. So, ample opportunity will present itself for more blog fodder :-)

The camera if you are interested is a Canon Elph SD700IS. Now to learn how to do lots of stuff with it. I've got a good friend who was telling me that "lots of stuff" happens in the feed room where she works. I love that saying ;-)

Lists

2006-11-17T20:14:00.000-08:00

Here we are on the edge of the weekend. The beginning side, where all this evening and for two whole days I can get the things done that need done and do the things that I want to do. I was listing all the plans and projects I have for the weekend. I got about five things down and it hit me that I was not enjoying this process at all and I deleted that list.

Here is the problem: I am creating check lists at work for tasks that have to be signed, dated, approved, etc. They are important because they are milestones created for showing that all aspects of the job are carried out and processes are followed. I am not naturally the type of person that writes down everything that needs to happen before I do it. My husband is a list maker by nature. If I am going to the store he asks me if I want him to make me a list. After being married to this wonderful man for nearly 23 years (this coming Monday is our 23rd Wedding Anniversary) I know that sometimes I do forget things that he has requested - so I take the list with me. I think I forget things more now than I did 10 years ago. 10 years ago I used to get annoyed that he would always ask if I wanted a list. Now I am thankful, but deep in my heart I am not a list person. As I tell my son, the reason they pay you to do things at work is because it's not something you would normally do without being paid to do it. Is that sad or just practical?

Someday I would like to move to the country have a small flock of sheep and possibly have a wool cleaning business. I would teach beginning spinning to encourage want-to-be spinners to give it a whirl. That's about the extent of my list for what I'd like to be doing. If I truly want to get it done, I'll need to share that with my husband. He could write it all out and have a golden list of the steps needed to reach that goal. He is amazing. It's a good thing I married him! I suppose I'm a dreamer and he's a doer. We work well together. He is my friend, he is the love of my life. I don't need a list - I've got Wayne to help me reach my dreams.

Victorian Shoulderette and all that Jazz!

2006-11-12T19:25:00.000-08:00

Hello! Sorry I haven't written in a while. I had a week filled with classes at work. I'm not sure why the mental thinking work is often more tiresome than physical type of work. Not that I don't enjoy a good mental workout, but it sure makes for one sleepy camper when I get home at night. I've been learning about this new software and how to create and run different reports out of the system. It's specialized and not an off the shelf type of program. This causes lots of turns and twists in the thinking on how to create something and link various tables together to pull the information I need to pull.

I found a pattern by Sivia Harding Knit Design called the Victorian Shoulderette at a local yarn shop, Village Tea and Yarn. I was so happy to discover this pattern that I can do without a lot of yardage (pattern calls for 250 yards) of yarn. I just so happened to have some handspun that I've been wanting to make into something special, and this will be it! I couldn't stand to wait and cast on the shoulderette yesterday. I have modified the pattern a little so I could put a button closure on the neckline. I did this by adding a few stitches to the cast on and working them in so the lace pattern would come out when I got to that point. It's also done in a heavier gauge yarn than the pattern called for, so it's being knit on size 8 instead of size 6 needles. I love how it's turning out. I just need to knit the outer edge on it, though I may decide to change over to a solid color handspun for that so the lace shows up better. Here's a photo of the progress made in just one day.

I have been working with Jazz's fleece again. I took her with me to Sam's home just to show her how cool it is to pull the two coats apart. I am hooked on how fun this is. I think Sam has fallen for the process as well. It's not fast, but it's very cool how the two coats just slide apart when pulled at both ends. We've made a lot of progress on the fleece so far. Jazz is owned by Misty View Farm in Newberg Oregon. Don't be getting any ideas though, I've already written her owner to see about reserving the purchase of the 2007 fleece from Ms Jazz :-o Below is a photo of the two coats that have already been separated. The outter coat is called the Tog and it is coarse. The softer undercoat is called the Thel. I'll have to remember which is which. I think Tog sounds like a rough and tough individual, if it were a persons name. That may help me remember. The lighter colored fiber is the Thel, and the darker fiber is the Tog in the photo below, but it's sort of a mix since not all of the Thel is light and not all of the Tog is dark. It may be my imagination, but I think you can actually see the difference in the texture in this photo. Double click the picture to enlarge and see if you agree.

I've been working on some socks for my Mom with the Elektra Lite (special request to leave more white in the fiber) superwash merino that I spun. This is some from Lisa Souza and it is so very soft! Mom loves blue, so these should be just right for her. I should have taken a photo for you all. Perhaps later in the week I'll get sock #2 done and can proudly show that I indeed finished them both :-)

I say to the Lorax, I have not forgotten Wayne's Sweater, but finishing it sooner will not mean it's better. (sorry, couldn't resist a little rhyme for Dr. Seuss) I'm working on it!!! Honest! :-) I've spun two more bobbins of singles for the project. One more to go before I ply it into a skein. Since I'm knitting and spinning on the same project, thank goodness for two spinning wheels! I like to keep a skein ahead of the knitting. In other words, when I am knitting on the last skein I have ready to go, I get worried and start getting the other skein finished so I have one in reserve so it can be washed and dried before it's started to get knit into the sweater. So far - so good with this method - I just don't have as much knitting to show for it.

Hey, I'm a new Aunt! Check out Stacy's blog and see a photo of the newest relation, Liam Alrik. Born November 8th, 2006 at 10:19 pm. 8 pounds, 15 ounces (4052 grams) 21.5 inches. He's a cutie!

Fiber, Family, and Fun

2006-11-05T18:59:00.000-08:00

I didn't get the chance to take photo's on the farm this trip. The rain didn't let up at all on the way down there or during my visit. I came home the same day, and thankfully traffic was better for the 100 mile trip North. I had a wonderful time visiting with my Mom and Dad and my sister, Sandy.

Sandy gave me a birthday gift that made me smile. I'm sure it will give others a smile as well. She took the photo of Dad and I when we were crab fishing and had a cup made for me. Here's the cup and caption!

Mom and Dad gave me a necklace (seen with the cup). It's a beautiful thick chain and it's a great length for wearing with sweaters or just whenever. It's very comfortable and doesn't pinch :-)

Tina got some buffalo fiber on-line and shared it with me. I've spun a little on the drop spindle to see how it goes. It really is nice! I am excited about sitting at the wheel and working this up.

Tina also passed on a gift from Bijoux, her fiber bunny. Bijoux had been brushed on Thursday and this is part of the day's brushing. Tina says Bijoux is very patient with being brushed and likes to sit beside her on the chair. When she's had enough brushing she gives Tina "the look" (I'll have to experience it - I've never gotten "the look" from a bunny before). This fiber is SO soft! It's like a cloud of warmth in your hand.

Sam gave me some wonderful fiber that I can dye and spin or spin and dye (decisions, decisions!) and it is so soft and wonderful. It's superwash merino and silk. There's enough there for me to do something really nice.

I have been working on Wayne's sweater. I'm doing the back right now, and it's over 1/2 way knit. It's out of some handspun superwash roving I purchased online.

Here we have Snickers, the lonesome diamond dove. His mate passed away last year and he's in need of some company of his own kind. I would like to see this little male either go to a home with other diamond doves, or I would like to get a friend for him. He's at least 3 years old, and he's a sweetheart. He's not used to being handled but I thought for this on line dating advertisement, a photo was necessary ;-) As you can see, diamond doves are tiny doves about the size of a small parakeet. They have a nice cooing song, though I suppose in large numbers it would be quite loud. There are various colorations of diamond doves. I'm not sure what color Snickers is, but he has chocolate looking wing tips, and he's a little nutty - thus his name.

You may have noticed I have created a Unalong group list (see the button to the right) I did it as a lark, because I don't seem to do real well doing true knit alongs. I figure a Unalong is just my cup of tea. Now that I think of it, there is a good reason to have a Unalong. I can't post about my fiber happenings on my blog for anyone that I want to surprise. I don't know if many of my friends or family read my blog, but if they do they would see what I'm up to here. The Unalong rule is that we can't disclose specifically what we are working on, so even if friends join there they won't know what each other is working on. Okay it's silly, but it's fun to be part of a secret fiber society. Admit it, we've knit with (or stared dumbfounded at) double otts and we've knit with sevens - just put them together and we're 007 secret fiber fan. Okay, there's too many fiber/knitting groups it seems, this one may just stay secret for a long, long time :-) Click on the button for the Unalong and read more about it if you'd like.

Quick Update

2006-11-04T05:51:00.000-08:00

This is the small pond project. We haven't gotten it finished yet, but we need to wrap it up before ice damages the pond liner. Yes, there is a large pond project as well, but that's another story.

I hope to have some new photos for you by the end of the weekend. I'm going to my parents today and there's a big wind storm brewing for the weekend. Perhaps I'll find something interesting, but not damaging to photograph for you. We shall see!

I've lost 15 pounds over the last 7 weeks. I probably have gained some this current week with Halloween parties at work and candy still so abundant. I actually am doing much better this year than in the past and I think my awareness of what I am eating is really helping me. I'll just take the days one at a time and work towards better health habits. This is supposed to be a life change and not a diet, so I'll be good to myself rather than dwell on the negatives.

We are coming up on the year end schedule for payroll. This is the season where we get to dress down for work (jeans, t-shirt, tennis shoes), and we work late, and through lunch, and quite often on weekends. It's the time of the year when employers do a lot of their bonus payouts, vacation buy backs, or whatever before the year ends. It's the time of the year when employees are wanting to have corrections made that they just discovered from when they moved but didn't update their payroll records so they paid tax in the wrong local jurisdiction, or they were transferred to another work location but their records didn't get updated to us for a cycle or two. We get very busy this time of year through January. So the "holiday season" really is busy for me with work related issues, gift knitting, and the holidays themselves. I'm looking forward to it! Oh the power of positive thinking :-)

I got a new MP3 player this week. If you know of any good pod casts that fit in with my sense of humor or interests, let me know! I'm a newbie to this stuff but it's fun learning about what's available.

Knit In, Crochet Too!

2006-10-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

Here is a beautiful bees wax candle my wonderful friend Sheila sent me. It's hard to get a good photo with such a lovely sheen on the wax, but it smells wonderful and is so cool! I have this "thing" for chickens. I collect chicken figures and have chicken calendars at work, etc. This lovely creation will be on my hearth. Sheila and Michael, thank you so much for the lovely, early, birthday present! You know what this farm girl likes :-)

Speaking a great friends, it was so fun to spend the day with Sam and Tina at the Knit In, Crochet Too event today at our local yarn shop. Here's a photo of some of us that participated in the fashion show of hand knits and crocheted items. Sam's peacock blue Port Orford Pullover was modeled by a young man who went from "I don't want to wear it in the fashion show" to "Mom! I want a sweater just like this!" The sweater is beautiful, looked great on the lad, and of course it was knit so beautifully by Sam. Smart kid!

I had a wonderful time visiting and spinning today. I worked on Wayne's sweater yarn. I finished the Crown Mountain, Midnight Hour fiber last night. I had to get my wheel cleared so I put the pedal to the metal so to speak and got 'er done!

There were some people who came by and had questions about spinning and how to get started. It was fun to be able to help them learn about spinning.

I also got to watch as two young ladies learned how to knit today. It's such fun watching them get all excited about the craft. We did the wave for the new knitters - what a great bunch of people that were there to cheer on the newbies. I love fiber folk.

I picked up the new Vogue Knitting magazine and a Lucy Neatby pattern, The Duck Sweater. I really love the pattern, but it's going to be some time before I try and take that one on. I've got too many projects on the needles now, and some others already planned after I finish what's going on right now. Plus there's the Christmas knitting I want to get done. Maybe next fall I'll be at the point to try this out.

I have been tempted by these bracelet's for some time. The last drawing of the day, I won this one at the Knit In. Tina won one earlier in the day too. What a neat surprise.

Oc-Toes-ber Socks Done!

2006-10-23T19:26:00.000-07:00

Thank you Jen and Sam for helping me come up with the name for my socks. They were going to be Ernouza's or Soust's socks (Sheila and Lisa - you don't know how close it came!) Sam hit on Socktober and Jen popped out with Oc-Toes-ber and the rest is history. Button's by Sheila Ernst, and Sock! in Emerald City - and heels and toes yarn by Lisa Souza. Pattern - well it's outta my head, but your basic sock with a little bit of yarnovers to give it something different in the cuff and then the toes are a little different. Sam showed me the birds eye heel - had to try that out on 'em, and Wha-La!

The buttons ride above the tops of my sneakers. I tried them on to be sure, and it's all good. I have to also thank my friend Jen - she was thinking when she asked me, "do you have any thongs to wear with your socks? The summer sales are almost over!" I started to laugh, but you know what? I didn't have any!! So thank you Jen for thinking of the "little" things - like how I was going to even show how great these are to wear with thongs :-) Gart sports had these babies for 1/2 price! What a deal.

If you haven't see it before - the knitting under my foot is Missy's dog bed - but you all know where she really sleeps at night. She likes to snuggle in her hand knit bed when she's on guard duty in the lazy-boy, or when we go for trips in the pickup truck. When Missy isn't looking, Miss Emma likes to snuggle up on the knitted bed now and then too.

And now, back to Wayne's sweater - already in progress....
TO BE CONTINUED

Catching Up

2006-10-21T13:20:00.000-07:00

I went around with the camera today and shot some things that I thought you might enjoy seeing. First of all, we need to show that Missy does not just lay in my bed all day! Here she is on guard duty, waiting for Wayne to come home.

Remember the Daliahs I planted so late in the year? Well they are blooming and happy, but won't be much longer with the frost coming. I thought I'd better show you them before the frost gets them. I'll dig them up and save the bulbs for next year after the first frost.

I put my birdwing begonia outside under the table on the deck this summer. It sure likes it outside! I need to bring it in before it gets too cold for it. I always feel bad for it when it starts dropping leaves and looking sad inside out house.

Here's a shot of another spinner at my home. This little fellow lives in the Daliahs. He'll be as big as a large grape in another month.

On the left side and upper right of this basket is Jazz's fleece so you can see how the two coats look when separated. There are some silver guard hairs I'm finding, so my guard hair pile will take up some black and silver together when I'm done. There is hardly any black under coat, so my softer pile will pretty much be silver only.

Emma was following me around, rubbing against my legs. She is pretending she's really interested in the grass, but she's actually waiting for me to open the sliding door so she can slip into the house. She's pretty good at her deception, but I know her motives.

These little birds were happy to see Emma go into the house! They were coming into the feeder before I was even done filling it today. We get lots of different birds from Stellar Jays to chickadees. They are a lot of fun to watch.

Last, Wayne and I love these red bushes that are in the business park near us. We don't know what they are called, but they have green leaves most of the time, they turn this beautiful red color in the fall, and they have little red berries on the bushes. If you know what they are, drop me a line. We'd like to get some of these.

Who Knew?

2006-10-20T23:16:00.000-07:00

I've been washing Jazz's fleece. It has been so much fun! Jazz is a Shetland sheep, and her fleece is double coated. What is really cool is that the outer coat is black, and the under coat is silver. When you pull gently on the long black outer wool and the shorter silver under wool they come apart like magic. At least they react this way after the fleece is washed and dried. I am amazed at the difference between the two coats from the same sheep. They will both be used, but for different purposes. The black is coarser than the silver.

I washed a small part of the fleece earlier and it's dry. I've been playing with that so far, but tonight I put the rest of the fleece into a bath of hot water and EcoScour. After about 2 hours, I pulled out the wet wool and put it in a mesh bag so I could drain the lanolin, dirt, and water outside (we have a septic tank that I didn't want full of lanolin). I rinsed the fleece twice in the washing machine without agitating it, and ran it through the spin cycle both times. This is the first time I've tried the washing machine technique, and I really like it. The wool is so much further along on the drying with the water spun out of it. I think it's overall cleaner too for getting the rinse water spun out so well. Now to let it dry so I can separate the two coats.

This is really more fun than I expected! Now to figure out what special projects each of these coats will be made into :-)

Dye Day Captured

2006-10-17T17:07:00.000-07:00

Jen did capture the moment at the Pines Farm with her trusty cell phone camera! Thanks Jen for the photo. As you can see, we had a fabulous time and I was pretty happy with the process :-)

Pines Farm Spin-In

2006-10-14T22:36:00.000-07:00

A sheep farm in the area had a fall festival, wool sale, spin in today. It was wonderful! Sam and Jen were there and none of us remembered our cameras. It was a foggy day, and we spent most of the time spinning outside. Fortunately, a small camp fire was built and that allowed us to stay at it longer than if we didn't have a fire. It was pretty cold out there today!

I took a class on kettle dying, or casserole dying. I got to make this caramel and brick color on light gray Romney fiber. Okay the gray bits are some alpaca I threw in the pot as well, and it didn't take the dye. Lesson to be learned, the alpaca needed something different than what I offered the Romney wool and mohair for dying purposes. Anyway, I'll pull the alpaca out when its dry, or leave it in, we shall see. There's about a pound and a half of fiber dyed before I added the alpaca.

I worked on 8 oz of colored top that I bought at village Tea and Yarn last Thursday. It's got a bit of firestar in it, which I have never spun before. It was a lot of fun to see the sparkle mixing in with the wool. I spun 4 oz at the spin in, and the other 4 at home. 175 wraps on the nitty noddy tell me I have about 300 yards of yarn to knit up into something special. Here's the lovely Missy flaunting the spun yarn. She's getting more relaxed in her role as top fiber model here on Wings and Strings :-)
I'll have to see about getting her an extra treat.

My left foot

2006-10-10T19:58:00.000-07:00

Here's the left sock done :-) Working on the right, right now!

Looking for Fall

2006-10-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

Wayne and I went on a trip, looking for fall colors this weekend. Where did we go? North! In to the North Cascades to Marble Mount, New Halem, and Diablo Lake.

We went up a road out of Marble Mount called Cascade Road. It started out paved, nice, great for the first 10 miles. The next 14 were gravel and they got more and more narrow and washboard textured as we went. It was a beautiful dive, but it was getting dark and we were in a hurry to get to the promised beautiful scenery at the end before dark.

Luckily we made it there with a little light to spare, and we got some great photo's of the trip. We were looking at Mt. Formidable (yep that's the name). As you can see, fall is indeed working it's way down the Cascades. We saw Bald Eagles along the rivers, and salmon making nests in the river for their eggs. It was a fantastic weekend. I almost finished the first sock in the pair I am making. I decided to add another colorway of Lisa's into the sock, so I'll finish up the big toe later this week. I've cast on sock #2 to keep the momentum up. I should have photo's of the sock progress for you soon. Here's a shot of the sock progress on Saturday night :-)

Button It!

2006-10-03T21:07:00.000-07:00

I'm a sucker for socks, and for certain glass buttons. So, here's the start of a pair I'm working on. No pattern being followed other than my notes as I go. I wish I'd put the button holes up higher in the ribbing, but I'm going with these all the same. Next pair will be perfect :-) Keep in touch and I'll keep you updated on their progress. I'd say they are about 4" long right now in this photo.

That's Emerald City Sock! (from Lisa Souza of course) and Sheila Ernst buttons. I'm going for three buttons on each sock. I think we're going for a plain foot - but I might just get the toe sock happening. These are going to be fun! What do you think? Toe socks, thong socks, plain socks? I'll be a week or so before I must decide for certain. These are going to be for me, (just so the little voices that usually talk me out of socks know in advance). Version 1.0 of anything needs to be beta tested by the maker :-)

Wayne's sweater is coming along as well. I'm still working on the first skein of the handspun and working up the back of the sweater. Just 5 more inches and I'll start the moss stitch. It's going to be a heavy sweater.

Finished GGSS

2006-10-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

Well the Gathered Garter Stitch Shawl is done. It's another one of those projects where I get to seeing things I'd like different in the design so I change them. I've added the peasant ruffle out of the Knitting on the Edge book to the bottom, and I also added a collar following the start of the GGSS and then adding the peasant ruffle to that. I crocheted the collar onto the shawl.

The yarn is from Lisa Souza, the body being a modified St. Valentines (I had her add some white to it) and the collar and bottom are out of Little Devil. I really love how the colors work together. The button is, of course, Sheila Ernst's work.

These aren't the best photos since they were taken at night, but they will give you an idea of the shawl and how it fits.

Fiber Factory

2006-09-26T23:08:00.000-07:00

Take a look at this sweetheart! Tina found this lovely creature, and they have bonded. Bunny should be coming home to Tina's house sometime this weekend. Keep an eye out on Tina's blog for more updates!

Fleece on the Hoof

2006-09-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

Meet Jazz. She is a Shetland ewe that I met at OFFF this year. I couldn't bring her home, but her owner let me buy her fleece! Jazz is a very sweet girl and I got to lead her and hold her as we waited for her hair cut. Here is a photo of the hair cut in progress. She was very good in the show ring and getting her first ever hair cut. I am so happy with my new wool, and I think Jazz feels much cooler and ready to grow her winter coat now.

Tina bonded with Savannah! They weren't really planning on passing over the wool to Tina at first, but the more she held Savannah in line waiting for her turn at the clippers, the more she fell in love with the soft dark locks on the Savannah. Tina was smart to request her fleece before others could see what a beautiful one it was off the sheep.

Can't you just see the bond forming with the wool for both Sam and Tina?

Meet Ruby Jewel. She's is Sam's new buddy and they met at OFFF this year. Sam think's Ruby Jewel looks pretty warm in all that wool, so she is taking her for a hair cut. Ruby is just so excited, she's telling everyone. I think this was the least expensive haircut I have ever seen. $2.50 for a full body shave :-). To top if off, the shearer spoke back to Ruby in her own language. It is a beautiful fleece that came home with Sam.

Fiber Reminder

2006-09-20T22:23:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder for me - I've got plenty of colored fiber to spin yet, and a look at a much happier little Missy. Just wait till I get a photo of the natural fiber closet to show you! Even TINA was amazed :-)

Better and Better

2006-09-19T23:12:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note. Missy is feeling better. We did go to the vet, and we think she pulled a muscle or did something to her shoulder area/back. She's on some doggie pain medication, and she's obviously feeling better.

Two more work days until Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival! I'm so excited! We are going to be camping at the fair grounds. I hope the weather is nice, it is supposed to be according to the weather man. I'm packing for warm weather, but bringing a sweater and long pants as well since it gets cold at night. We will have the camp trailer so we will be toasty regardless. I hope to get lots of photos to update you on Sunday night or Monday.

A day to rest

2006-09-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

Missy is feeling sore today. She's limping a bit and seems sad. She's curled up next to me on the bed (we helped her up) and she is resting now with a little aspirin to help her pain. It seems to be muscle pain (no cuts, or spots she's worrying over) and it's in her right front leg, or shoulder. Poor baby. She's just not herself today. We will take her to the vet tomorrow if she's not feeling better. I'm supposed to go into work today (Sunday), but I really want to stay home and care for her. She'd like me to stay and knit with her. It helps her relax, and me as well. Wow, I just got a phone call.... just as I was writing this, the work computer system is down and not expected up until later tonight. So my boss agrees that going in today is not happening. I'm glad, I get to care for my puppy dog.

Next weekend is the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. I am looking forward to seeing friends and all the animals and learning more about spinning and knitting. It's also nice to be looking at a four day work week next week, having Friday off. I hope to sell my Schacht single treadle wheel while I'm at OFFF as well. It would be nice to find Goldy a good home where she will get more spinning time.

The shawl has progressed nicely from the last blog I did about it, as well as WS. I had to start over a couple times on WS but I'd rather make adjustments now than when I'm further along with the project. The size 6 needles I needed to use to get to gauge were making a very compacted, hard, fabric. I've went back up to the size 8's and am adjusting my stitches down so the fabric is soft and feels like a sweater should. Oh, you will have to see that in progress. The last photo of my WS project had Sheila's Amber Passion needles in size 6, and now the size 8's are needed. Yes, you know I had to have them... the project is now on Sheila's green size 8 needles. I'm thinking the green color were some she was able to do in a small batch, I don't see them listed on her site but they are, "me" colored. I love the fall colors and green especially calls to me. Don't ask me which of my Sheila needles are my favorites because they all are.

I'm starting the Weight Watcher's program this coming Thursday. They have started a group at work that will go through the end of January. It will get me through the holidays and hopefully I'll have myself well into a new life style by the end. I can continue on with a local group if the work group decides to wrap up for good at the end of January. I'm not even setting my sites on a weight loss number, I'm setting my sites on changing my eating habits to make healthier choices, and getting exercise back into my life.

Wayne and I decided to have a nice dinner out tonight before we get to worrying about our food choices and learning the ropes of the WW plan. We went to Ivar's in Mukilteo for dinner. Here's a photo of our view at dinner.

One last look at what the GGSS along with it's button. I plan on doing a collar with the Little Devil that Lisa Souza created, with the peasant ruffle around the top, and adding a button hole as well to accommodate this piece of art that Sheila made for me. You'll have to see it in person to really see how special it is, but if you double click on the photo you can get a closer look :-) Enjoy!

WS Cast On

2006-09-13T22:39:00.000-07:00

Wayne's Sweater hereby known as WS has been cast on. How cool is that!

Also I have for you a mystery knitter who joined me this evening. I'll let you ponder who's knitting these lovely socks - though she says they are not her color. These are for one of her children. Hint - there's her coffee cup, and she's drinking it at 9:30 PM.... a woman not afraid of the coffee at night :-)

You will find your answer in the comments area. I'm sure someone will figure it out very quickly. You know I don't go knitting until 10:00 at night with many people.... well not in person. I'm sure many of the FT list people are knitting at 10 PM, so we're knitting at the same time, together - just across the country together :-)

Shawl Progress and Ramblings

2006-09-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

Missy has granted us modeling for the fiber minded. Here we have her displaying the progress of the Gathered Garter Stitch Shawl. It is knit in Lisa Souza's St. Valentines - in a modified version that has more white in it. I have added a strip of Little Devil towards the bottom. The bottom ruffle will be all Little Devil colorway. I've also modified the pattern and used a Peasant ruffle pattern at the bottom. I've only got a couple rows completed of the ruffle, so you can't see much of it yet. It really feels good to break out of the garter stitch marathon that was the upper portion. I am thinking of adding some Little Devil around the top as well. Check out the cobalt glass circulars from Sheila. These are size 5's and I just adore them.

I noticed Sam saying fall was starting to show up around here. I caught a photo of some of it's progress today. There were sprinklings of leaves under a lot of the trees that we saw on our walk today.

Missy got her hair cut today, so here's a photo of her in all her glory. We go to a trail in the business park on the weekends. It goes around a wetland area that has lots of fun smells for a dog to smell. She just loves it. Best of all, it's not a crowded or a popular bike trail, so Missy goes all over the trail without having anyone shout "on your left!" She enjoys being a relaxed mannered dog who almost always obeys the rules of the trail.

I am talking Wayne into making me a diz for drawing my wool fiber into roving form. Wingnut is going to be so fun to work with, but I broke my last diz, and Wayne and I have come up with some ideas for making our own, hard to break and, not so pretty, diz. We're going to use some washers and Wayne's going to weld them together to get the larger outer diameter I want with the small inner diameter I want. It should be just the ticket. I may see if he'll punch a small hole towards the edge and I'll find a way to clip it on something so I don't loose it in the bottom of my fiber equipment box.

Okay - couldn't resist one last look at Missy - she likes the GGSS! I think red is her color. Too bad the Emma cat doesn't want to model for me. Tina, Sam, Sheila, and Lisa have cats that don't get upset at a little camera flash. Their cats look absolutly relaxed. One flash and Emma is outta here!

All Work and No Play...

2006-09-09T06:25:00.000-07:00

All work and no play leads to one boring blog! Expect a proper update this weekend. I do have some progress on the Gathered Garter Stitch Shawl. I've popped a little of the Lisa Souza, Little Devil, colorway into it for a few rows, and I'm back to the last bit of modified St. Valentines now. I borrowed one of Sam's books - Nicky Epstein's, Knitting on the Edge, and am picking out a little something special to finish up the bottom of the shawl. I want more of a pronounced ruffle effect.

Wayne decided against the Salmon Run sweater. His loss, my gain. I'll be knitting that one for myself, later on. Instead Wayne is getting a more basic cardigan sweater. It's going to be modified already so much I hesitate to name what it's started out being. We're going with moss stitch instead of the trinity stitch, so stitch count will have to be modified, etc. to make it come together. Anyway it's started out as the Trinity sweater, except it won't have the trinity stitch, so it's sort of the moss stitch sweater I guess. It will be nice judging by the swatches I've done so far with the grey superwash I've spun for the project.

My friend Jen came to knitting with an assortment of Lisa's colorways. Wow- talk about knitter's candy! I LOVE the Mars Quake. I will be needing that in fiber later on, I can tell. Lisa has come out with some beautiful yarn called Fat Bunny, which I think would get me into the larger needle sizes - thus a trip over to Sheila's new circulars with the Gypsy glass would be in order. Oh I have to knit and spin faster here so I can get more "supplies". I suppose working all this overtime is good so I'll hopefully have some spending money to buy more supplies. The only problem with it is that I have less time to knit and spin!

Fair Photos

2006-09-03T23:06:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful day at the fair at the spin in. Take a look at these wheels and see if you know who "we" were. I'll let you know at the end of this post.

The spin in was lovely, and we got to visit and spin and visit and spin and visit! Yeah!

The door prize is always a big hit at this fair spin in. People are all asked to bring a door prize and then there is usually enough prizes for every participant to win something. Actually at this event it is common to go through all the names in the drawing and many people get to be drawn again so all the prizes are given out. People get to select what they want from the table which is really nice because many have a preference if they'd like more fiber to spin, or would not like more fiber. There's plenty of selection in both categories. This year I choose a wrapped box, since I decided I wanted a surprise. Well I got one! Inside the box was a alpaca fleece from Idaho that is a grey and black combination of colors. It's shorn by the owner of the alpaca and Ms Alpaca is of pet quality the note said. I'll have fun playing with her fiber and seeing what I can make out of it.

Here are some of the other things we saw at the fair:

This is the biggest pigeon I've ever seen! He's bigger than Tina's chickens! What a cool, regal looking bird.

We had to capture a photo of the Utility Kilt! This fellow looks like he's feeling cool in his snappy wardrobe.

Below we have one very pretty bird who was hanging out with his hen. These are such pretty creatures, but man are they loud when they call to one another. I think the flashy colors are like a warning for the noise potential packed inside. This one didn't have any of the flashy tail feathers. I think they harvest them since would be damaged when hauling the bird to the fair in box or crate.

We were dissapointed that no turkeys were at the fair. They are really fun birds to watch, and they seem to enjoy watching people. Maybe next year there will be some.

This last photo is my favorite of the day. There were about 20 of these little guys running around in the pen with two mommas. (2 litters were combined). Their proud mothers were Copper and Penny. So some of the babies were 23 days old and others were 20 days old. They sure were cute. You really have to wonder if there might be a spider web somewhere saying, Nice Pig" for these little guys :-)

Now, who were the "we" that were spinning at the fair? Well from right to left we have Sam's Journey wheel, my Frickie wheel, and Tina's Joy. The wheels and the spinners all had a wonderful time.

Spin In at the Fair

2006-09-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day I will be attending the Evergreen State Fair this year. There is a spin in this afternoon so I'm loading up the wheel, fiber, and snacks for a fun day with friends at the fair. I'll try and remember the camera.

I went to the fair yesterday and spun in the sheep barn for 4 hours. It was a lot of fun with people coming up and asking questions and kids grabbing a chair and sitting down to watch me spin. I think people got more excitement out of seeing me card wool. I had brought some uncarded wool and my cards to show if asked, but I ran out of the prepared fiber I had (okay - I gave a handful to a 9 year old boy who came back three times and his Mom asked where he could get a drop spindle. He walked away with the Romney fibers all excited, saying "Oh my Gosh!" to his mom - one happy camper there!) so I was left with my washed fleece and cards to get through the end of the day. People were great, to see their reaction when I put a little bit of wool on the combs and it exploded into a big fluffy puff of wool.

So, hopefully more blog and photos later today for you.

Nuts sleep with these chickens

2006-08-30T23:28:00.000-07:00

You'd have to be a nut to sleep with these birds. That's because these chickens sleep in the trees!
There is a Sesame Street song about chickens in the trees. If you know the song, there is a line in the song that goes, "won't you tell me please if there are chickens in the trees?" Well the answer is, yes.

Family Farm

2006-08-27T23:28:00.000-07:00

Tina and I went shopping and visiting this weekend.

We had a wonderful time shopping in Fife at Morning Sun factory outlet, and in Lacy (Olympia) at Shipwreck Beads. Then we got a bite of lunch and headed to my parents to visit and see what was happening around my ol' stomping grounds. I am feeling badly because I can't remember this cow's name. She's a descendant of Buttercup, who had Annie, and I believe this is Annie's daughter... but I can't remember her name tonight. Stacy - can you help me out here!? Anyway, this cow is on the family farm, and she's responsible for some wonderful cheeses and butter. I gave her a corn stalk and a apple which she seemed to appreciate greatly. Isn't she a beautiful cow? I love Jersey cows. We also got to raid the gardens on the farm and scored some wonderful corn, onions, beans, beets, pears, parsley, carrots, spaghetti squash, zucchini, cucumbers, turnips, apples, and pumpkins. Mom sent us home with eggs from the chickens too!

I got a photo of Tina inside Shipwreck Bead store. It's a huge place, and even this photo doesn't do it justice. I went a little crazy at Shipwreck Beads. They were having a sale, and wow I "saved" a lot on things I didn't go in there thinking I'd need. It all started with the magnet beads. I've bought magnetic necklaces at the fair two years in a row because I really like them. Well I found the magnetic beads and I thought I'd really save some money this year and make my own. Hahaha - well a basket full of beads later - I'd have saved money if I bought my necklace again at the fair. Then again, I wouldn't have these new creations that I made today.

This is a necklace I made out of coral fish shaped beads, lace agate stone beads, and a variety of natural small round beads. The necklace is on a Romney hide that I have, and it's really a dark wool but it's so shiny it looks silver in the photo. I found a small chunk of coral as well that I will be making into something. It is so smooth and bright - it needs to be added to something special.

This other necklace is a lanyard that you use to carry your office badge around with. It's got small glass beads that look like butterflies on it and some crystal silver lined beads. It is always nice to have different lanyards to wear from time to time. They get sort of boring otherwise. I haven't made my magnetic necklace yet. I'll let you see when it's done though :-)

While I was off playing, Wayne was home giving the fence a much needed oil finishing. It looks wonderful - he did a super job. We're still working on the pond project as well. We know the pump is working (tested it out) and the small fabricated liner pond is leak free, so we just have to level out the area and get the thing fired up. It's going to require a shovel and a wheel barrow though, so it may be a week or two before she's up and running.

Wingnut is coming along nicely. She's all dry and I'm setting her aside until I get through some of my other projects now. It's going to be a full week at work this week and actually the next week too. Hopefully I'll have some time to work on the DFS and some spinning for Wayne's sweater!

Fair Friday!

2006-08-26T00:06:00.000-07:00

I had such a wonderful time today. I went to the fair and spun in the spinning area to demonstrate the process tonight. It's great fun to show others how it's done, and to answer questions. Kids have the greatest questions. I had one little girl ask if I had a break yet. I was puzzled by this, and she went on to clarify, "have you gone on any rides yet!?" LOL! I do believe I may have picked up the new craft bug. I came home and told Wayne what I learned from a hooker tonight- how to make a locker hook rug that is :-) Now I want to be a hooker too! Check out her work - these rugs are so soft! They make great horse blankets as well. The lady who makes these has used them for horse blankets for years. She said they work great and she actually has a horse that prefers this blanket to a fancy purchased blanket she's got. I may just have to give this craft a whirl. I've got the fleece, now all I need is some carpet mesh and a hook with a eye for yarn and I'm set.

So, my sweater got a second place ribbon, and so did a skein of Romney I put into the fair. I'm please with the placing, and I have to show you the first place sweater too because it is awesome. Of course I think "mine" is better - but that's because it's mine and it's knit for me. Anyway - it gives me room for improvement and I know I will enjoy getting there.

I did either remove or smudge last names from these pictures. I know some people want more privacy and other don't really care. That's just my attempt to make it okay for everyone that I put photos up of other's entries.

Shhhh... Fiber is sleeping

2006-08-22T22:26:00.000-07:00

I think the extra effort of pulling apart the muddy tips and then re-washing is well worth it. Check out Wingnut now! Oh, dang, I should have taken a before photo of the first washing and how it looked. I've got another two batches of picking and washing to do yet, perhaps you'll get to see it after all. Not tonight though!

Hopefully the wind doesn't pick up tonight or tomorrow, and/or the cat and/or dog doesn't think this is a great mattress for them before I get home from work tomorrow. Actually I have jury duty tomorrow but I suspect I'll be back to work by noon - at least I'm hoping that's the case! They never seem to like me for a jury since I worked for a lawyer for my first job as a receptionist. I called and found out I can't take knitting needles, but I can take a crochet hook! So, it will be a good chance to work on that purse I started over a year ago. Heh - forgot to put that on the list, didn't I?! LOL!

By the way - the fleece does feel as fluffy and soft as it looks ;-) Still trying to find out what varity of sheep she is.

Going Great

2006-08-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

The shock has worn off about adding more to the wool stash in such a big way. I am very happy that I got this fleece. It is lovely. I came home from work and errands and started going though Wingnut to see how she was doing. She's doing awesome. She's going to be white and sparkley, but she's going to take some more washing. I didn't get enough of the grease out to suit me. I spent some time on the deck opening up her more stubborn tips. The muddy ends will clean up nicely in another bath. I think I'll go with some Dawn or Joy to see if it will take the grease out better for me. I love the smell of the Kookaburra Woolwash and it's done pretty good, but not quite where I want the fiber to be for spinning.
In the mean while, I've been spinning superwash grey fiber for Wayne's sweater. I got my Salmon Run pattern from the Needle Beetle, hooray! However it won't get started for some time yet. I also received a pattern I ordered from Sivia Harding. I got the Shetland Garden Faroese Shawl pattern and I'm really excited about knitting it. However it's going to have to be added to the list of want to knit projects.

First I want to get Wingnut washed and dried - then she can wait until I'm ready to move on with her. Meanwhile I am working on the DFS, I'm into the 5th repeat. I'm working on spinning the fiber for Wayne's sweater. I'd say I've spun 2 pounds of the 6 pounds I have to spin. I won't need all 6 pounds spun, but I might as well get it all done up and ready to rumble.

Hmmm, I notice I never moved from First to Second on my list of to do's. That's the A.D.D. in me. I want to do it all at the same time. Oh yeah, I'm still knitting on the Gathered Garter Stitch Shawl as well right now. Sure would be nice to have Wayne's sweater done for Christmas, I guess I'd better get moving and focus on one project at a time! So, here goes the lineup: DFS is first, DH sweater second, GGSS is third. Wingnut needs to be clean to prevent attracting moths... she's taking precidence for a little while.

Speaking of Wingnut, I took a break and went out and dunked the fiber that I had opened up the tips, into another bath. This time with some Joy. This looks much more like what I'm wanting. The tub was dirty with the muddy tips coming clean. I did my chores and came back and drained the water and did a rinse on the fleece. It is MUCH better. She'll go out to dry tomorrow and I'll keep at those tips on the rest of it and wash that as it gets opened up in batches.

Some Fools Never Learn

2006-08-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

Fleece. Are you one of those people who's ears perk up at the mere sound of the word? Who start to imagine what type of fleece it is? What color, the crimp, is it full of VM or is it pretty much free of hay and other "stuff". Do you wonder if it's long or short, double coated or single? Do you wonder if there "might" be something you can't resist available for sale, and you know you have lots of fiber to last you for months, yet you still go and look? Excuse me, I need to put something in the wash tub.....
Now, what was I saying?? Oh, yeah, ... lets say for instance that you can buy a raffle ticket (for charity) and the prize was a fleece? Well that (it IS for charity) is the icing on the cake now, isn't it? So how many tickets would you buy?
This love of fleece when combined with a love (dare I say passion?) for prepared, colored to perfection, blended, and put in a ready to spin format that certain adored people would give us the opportunity to purchase, leads one to having a LOT of fiber about. *Sigh* I stand before you now and say, "Hi, my name is Barb, and I am a fiber junkie".

My hands feel so soft and smooth right now. Everyone, meet Wingnut. She goes well with this screwball spinner.

On the left top we have Wingnut layed out, looking for felted bits, chunks of VM, second cuts, and other "stuff" that I don't care to spin. This is a very clean fleece as far as hay and other VM goes, but there's lots of lanolin and dust in it. Under that more to the center, Missy is getting her photo taken with Wingnut. She knows she will see more of this wool later. At the bottom in the blue tub we have Wingnut with her second washing - which is more of a rinse. The first washing was with Kookaburra WoolWash. I really like the stuff. Wingnut has got some tips on her wool that need a good soak, so they're going to sit in the water overnight. The heat of the day tomorrow should help them relax too. I'll check it when I come home from work tomorrow. Good thing my wonderful husband, Wayne, gave me a large cabinet for fiber. I did a felting test, she felts. She's very shiny and has fine fibers without tight crimp. I've sent an email to the person "in the know" at Kelsey Creek Farm to see if she can give me the scoop on this sheep. It seems that Wingnut comes to the farm for her haircuts for their Wild and Wooly days events, but she's not a permanent resident there.

I did turn in the sweater to the Monroe Fair (Evergreen State Fair) as well as a few skeins of yarn. We will see how they do. I go in the evening of the 25th to do a spinning demo. I'll check the show hall and see what's going on then.

We did a lot of work outside around our pond this weekend. I'll have to update you on the pond project later this week!

Progress Report

2006-08-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

I've been working on the Diamond Fantasy Shawl, though it's been slower than I was hoping for. Work and other happenings have been in the way of my knitting - imagine that!
I'm not knitting tonight because I had a root canal done today, and I'm taking a bit of that pain medication that I almost didn't pick up. You know, when you are numb and feel no pain - you don't think you'll need anything to take the edge off later on? I almost gave into that thought. The doctor was more than willing to do what it took to keep it from hurting - but still said I was a tough one to get the pain gone. We ended up doing progressively different techniques to get the pain down. I've never got a shot in the roof of the mouth before, and he pulled out some shot gizmos that were to use between teeth - I didn't get to see how it worked but it looked weird. Anyway, thankfully, he got it to where it didn't hurt! I think this is the first time I didn't just claw the seat and pray for a quick end to the procedure. So three hours after the surgery I was loosing the numb and feeling the pain. Glad I got a couple pain pills to take the edge off at least for tonight. Doc promised when I go back in a month to get the permanent filling in the crown, that it will be a cake walk compared to today. Whew!
So, here's your reward for hearing about my tooth :-) The shawl.... you probably won't get close ups as it gets bigger - it won't fit in the view finder for long and I'll have to back out :-) Sheila Ernst needles are working perfectly for this project. Double click on the photo and take a closer look at the magic she's done. I am in awe every time I hold them. You have to love Lisa Souza's Olive Tones in Merino Sock! too. Check out how the little bronze bits work into the shawl. You know their links are on my blog - check them out if you haven't already. Yes, we do have fall leaves and bears on our bed sheets LOL! Now you know!

Triple Decker

2006-08-12T18:12:00.000-07:00

Well it was a busy day on the deck! I finished plying some Electra Lite, I had a couple small center pull balls of Earth Birth that I plied, and I spun a bobbin of superwash grey top and plied it with the two other bobbins. Whew!

So here's a picture of the yarns in that order. The grey yarn is going to be a sweater for my husband. I know which one it will be now, thanks to Lisa for pointing out a new sweater by the Needle Beetle! It's called Salmon Run Expect to see work in progress on this yarn and eventually the sweater. This is going to be great!

I'm still working on the Diamond Fantasy Shawl. This is a photo taken about four days ago. I'll have to get you another photo soon, it's gotten bigger! In fact this photo only has 4 stitch markers on the shawl. I'm up to six now, which means I've completed a repeated section and I'm working on another since the photo was taken. When it gets wider though, the rows get longer, and it takes me longer to complete a repeated section :-) So if you're knitting up one of these wonderful shawls, the stitch marker count means very little - it's a mental thing.

Weekend Update

2006-08-08T17:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry - no images this time, Blogger isn't loading them for me :-( Follow some of the links for some pics!

It was a very busy weekend we just had. Huh? It's Tuesday already! Yes, time flies when you have lots to do. Lets see if I can give you a summary of the events without going on for pages :-)
Friday after work, I went to visit a sick friend. Bubba is his name, and he was feeling poorly for a few days. He's taken his medicine and the vet predicts he will make a good recovery. Bubba is an Eclectus parrot. (He keeps my sister Tina as a pet). After my visit with Bubba, I headed out to the Wool Mill to pickup batts of Romney Lamb fleece. It turned out beautiful and soft. It's a light brown color that I will probably spin as is without dying it. There's enough there for another sweater, so who knows! The trip for the wool was 45 minutes there, and 20 minutes back. It just goes to show how bad traffic is around here, even after 7 at night.

Saturday morning I worked on fixing up my Schacht single treadle spinning wheel, Goldie, to get some shine back on it, and to replace the treadle clips on the treadle. I am going to be selling the wheel and my thoughts are to take it to OFFF and see if I can sell it there. My friend Jen, asked if she could try it out, so I wanted it to be pretty for her. After Jen tries it a few days, it is going to go visit with my other friend, Kim! Kim says she has fiber that wants to be spun and Goldie is looking to spin some fiber. It should be a great match until OFFF. Goldie has been a great wheel for me, but I have found that I really prefer double treadle wheels. Anyway, Goldie and I have had a great relationship and she's done well for me. She spun the yarn that is in my sweater. I know she will be happy for the attention she'll get at Jen and Kim's. She's been sitting like a wall flower in my house since I got my Frickie wheel.

Saturday afternoon I got to go meet my new dentist. We won't drill into that, lets just say that I predict some time in the chair soon. They think they see the root of the problem and are abscessed with drilling to the heart of the issue. Hopefully the balancing of the two pressures - work and ..... well, yeah, the pressures will stay low for awhile so there will be time to take care of all on my schedule. Saturday evening we cooked Salmon on the barbecue for dinner and then I packed my bags and headed to my parents home and spent the night. My husband and son stayed home, so it was a 2 hour drive on my own. I cranked up the radio and got there about 11 at night.

Sunday was a very special day. I gave Stacy the yarn that I had spun and dyed. I put it into balls for her, and it's amazing how the colors look when they are all mixed up in the ball. She was very happy with it, and she showed me some of the baby soakers she has been knitting. She's very talented. I can't wait to see some of it knit up. There was a family picnic over at the river that afternoon. My Mom, my sister Sandy, and I worked in the kitchen putting together fruit salad, cucumber salad, chicken, and coleslaw. There was a nice turn out at the picnic with lots of family I hadn't seen in a long while. As you saw in my earlier post, I broke out the spinning wheel to show Stacy. It was nice to see the kids interest in the wheel, but Rowan stayed and used his hand to help me turn the wheel. We just had to make sure he was on the side where him helping made the wheel turn the right direction :-)

Mom sent home treasures from the garden like fresh onions, zucchini, beets, and turnips. She also sent home fresh freezer jam and raspberries! There were a dozen baby chicks running around with a little banty hen. Little fluff balls that looked like the wind could blow them right over. The drive home was one big traffic jam, but I got home about 9:30.

When I arrived home I found a package waiting for me from my friend Sheila Ernst! I dropped everything and see what she sent. It was a pair of glass circular needles! Just the right size for the shawl I'm working on, and oh so pretty! I've been testing out her glass needles for awhile now, but these were just right for the Diamond Fantasy Shawl by Sivia Harding that I'm knitting. I slipped them right in, replacing the Addi Turbo's I was using. I love the points on these glass needles, they get right in under the stitch with ease. What a great weekend.

A Spinner in the Making

2006-08-06T22:10:00.000-07:00

What a fabulous weekend! Here's a couple pictures of Rowan, my nephew who is a budding young spinner. He absolutely loved my wheel and it was a pleasure to watch him learning how it works. He is so fun.

I will update the blog later this week with happenings from the weekend. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well.

Barb

Port Orford Pullover Finished!

2006-08-05T17:47:00.000-07:00

I put the finishing stitches on the Oat Couture, Port Orford Pullover last night. Today has been pretty warm, so I washed and laid out the sweater to dry today, and it is now done!

This is my first large handspun knitted garmet. I am so pleased with how it turned out. The fiber is Blue Faced Leicester that I bought from Lisa Souza. She dyed it in the colorway called Emerald City. I spun it in a three ply yarn, with no special thought to how the colors were plied together. I spun all 2 pounds of fiber up before I started knitting the swatch. I ended up with a good portion of my last skein left over. I thought I was putting 3/4 length sleeves on it, but after washing and laying flat today, it seems the yarn relaxed a bit and I have pretty much normal length sleeves :-) That's okay, I just didn't want sleeves I had to continuously push back. I tend to end up with extra long sleeves. Maybe I learned the secret to getting them just right.

Here's a couple photos. I don't think you will catch me wearing this for a few months yet, but I couldn't resist putting it on to show you. I'm so happy.

Above - The side view
and over here ---------> How big is my love of the Emerald City colorway??? This big!!

Lucky Day

2006-07-29T18:02:00.000-07:00

I went out to mow the lawn this afternoon. The weather was perfect and the lawn needed mowing badly. Do you ever feel lucky just to be out mowing the lawn? Well I did. I was mowing away and looked down and found a four leaf clover. Here's a photo of the find :-)

I haven't introduced the birds!

Kiwi is a Quaker Parakeet and she's very talkative and sweet. She's laid a few eggs over the 11 years we've had her. She loves to cluck and say her name. We tried to teach her how to call the cat, but instead of here kitty, kitty, kitty... she says here Kiwi, Kiwi, Kiwi... It's pretty funny.

JoJo is a Jardine's Parrot. He is 7 years old and he's very smart. He learned how to say "fly JoJo!" and put his wings up in the air. He loves to dance to music and will knock on the cage or on the perch when he's excited. He says his name, barks like a dog, and coughs and sneezes whenever anyone around him coughs or sneezes.

Falco is a Congo African Grey Parrot. He is disabled but he doesn't know it. His parents took his toes off while he was being raised in their nest about 6 years ago. They did that to the whole clutch of babies. He gets around just fine since I have large flat corner perches for him in his cage, and he climbs using his beak and feet to get up and down from the bottom of the cage to the corner perches. He's in the mood in this picture. You see he's got his wings all displayed - he's trying to regurgitate something "yummy" for me.... that's love in the bird world. Falco is the big talker of the group. He learned the Fly JoJo from JoJo, and does his own rendition of Fly Falco! (also lifting the wings and bobbing his head). He makes cat noises, calls the dog, says "baaaaad dog!" and other things like "how are you?"

Adventures in Dyeing!!!

2006-07-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

I wanted to use Kool Aid to dye some yarn for my niece's baby. I went to the wonderful group of friends I have online to see if my idea on using the heat/sun of the day to dye with Kool Aid would work. As usual, my friends came through with ideas and suggestions that were very helpful. What a supportive group! The only flaw in my plan was that that today the heat wave was not in sight and there would be no sun to heat the black plastic to set my dye.

Undaunted, I turned to another source of heat, which would hold the yarn in a somewhat flat and fixed position so the colors would not blend as much when being heated. The outdoor gas barbecue seemed the perfect solution. Here are the photos and some descriptions of the process.

Soak & vinegar: I soaked the approx. 1 pound of spun yarn in a bucket of cool water, with about a cup of white vinegar in the water. I soaked the yarn for about 3 hours. I finally found a use for the ash tray we've had kicking about the deck! It made a great weight for the yarn in the water.

Protect Furniture: I put down a black plastic bag and arranged the skeins on the plastic so I could work on all three skeins at once. Two skeins are the same size, the third is smaller. There is a fourth on the left side that is just odds and ends off my bobbins. The skeins were very slightly squeezed coming out of the soak bucket, but not wrung out. I wanted them to be soppy wet and they needed to still have the vinegar content in them.

Apply Dye: I opened packets of Kool Aid and poured them over the wet skeins. I used 20 packets of Kool Aid to start, but ended up using 23 total. I had Lemon Aid, Cherry, Lemon-Lime, Watermellon-Strawberry, Artic Apple, Black Cherry, Grape, and Berry Blast. I sprinkled them directly on the wet yarn. Then I put some foil over the top and squished the yarn down to move some of the dye throughout the lower parts of the yarn.

Heat: I then slid the colored yarn onto some foil on the barbecue. I did get the colors mixed a little doing this. Had I thought ahead, I could have done the coloring on the foil on a cutting board or a cookie sheet and slid it onto the barbecue from there. I covered the fiber with more foil.

I turned the barbecue on low - all four burners, closed the lid and waited for 10 minutes. Then I turned it off and let it sit for about 15 minutes before I checked the yarn.

Check Progress: I checked the yarn, and it looked good as far as taking up the dye. However there were more white spots than I wanted. So I added 3 more packets of Lemon Aid color to the bare spots, sprinkled some water over the added Kool Aid, covered again, and heated for about 3 minutes then turned off the barbecue and let it sit about 30 minutes.

Cool & Rinse: I felt the yarn was cool enough for rinsing, so I put it in a bucket of clear water. There was a little yellow run off from the corners of the foil that had yellow that didn't touch the yarn. All of the dye on the yarn was absorbed into the yarn. The Artic Apple has a white cast to the Kool Aid drink (my son insisted we make some to "use") and I don't think I'd recommend the Artic Apple for dying. The water had a white milky cast to it for the rinse.

Enjoy: Here are the drying skeins of dyed yarn!

Back from the Beach!

2006-07-27T16:49:00.000-07:00

We spent a few days at Grays Harbor State Park camping this week. It was a lot of fun and boy was the weather nice! Stacy I have some yarn for you! But it's not dyed yet.... that will happen shortly. I've got about 6 more ounces of Corridale Cross top to spin for you before that happens. Here's a photo of the three ply yarn that is done so far. It's very soft and I think it will work fine for your knitted baby soakers. It will felt! So you can decide if you want to knit it big and felt it for your baby, or if you want to hand wash it so it won't felt. I'm just tickled to get to spin it for you. Um, right now it may smell a little like camp fire smoke, but I didn't take it with me when we were crabbing, so it won't smell like crab bait :-)

A friend at work asked if I knit all the time. She heard me talking about having my husband drive so I could knit, and was amazed that I knit in the car, and in restaurants, etc. Well we went crabbing at Westport and this photo may answer some of her questions! It's not that I'm a knitaholic, no, it's just that I like to be "doing" something while I wait. Waiting for crabs, well that's pretty much as waiting as it gets. It was a blast! We caught lots of little rock crabs, and dungeness crabs. None were keepers, but that didn't make it less fun to pull up the line or net and see what was there. Now this photo really looks like I was just sitting and my Dad in the background is doing all the work, but my job as a the chair anchor is not to be poo'd. We had gusts of wind blow our chairs right into the harbor and so I was sitting with my feet on the bottom rung of Dad's and my Husband's chairs. A very important job indeed.

Anyway, I got a lot done on my Gathered Garter Shawl by Sandra Hicks (Knit One crochet Too pattern). I'm working it in a special request of St. Valentines colorway that Lisa Souza did for me. I had her add some white spots in it and I've dubbed it "Fire and Ice" since she did it special for me - I can get away calling it what I want :-) I'm getting some Little Devil colorway for the ruffle at the bottom. I think it will look fabulous with the red rose button Sheila Ernst did for me. I put her up to making something called "Midnight Romance" in a button. It's a red rose with a dark blue background and some stars.... I'll show you the whole effect when it's done. Right now I'm working on miles of garter stitch. It's a good thing my friends have told me that a lot of beautiful, practical, going to be worn, knitting has miles of boring knitting in it. This has plenty of that!

Just so you know we had fun besides of the fibery sort - here's a glamour shot of my Mom, my Sister, and my beautiful feet! LOL! We girls - we know how to have fun camping! My Sister's kite is a beauty, so I have to show you that! And we have our dog corral photo, where the dogs spent very little time. They had a fun trip too.

Dutch Oven Cooking

2006-07-22T00:49:00.000-07:00

We bought our first Dutch Oven for camping last week. We gave it a trial run with Swedish Meat balls and some steak cut french fries. It turned out pretty good. It gives me hope that I can become a good cook with this heavy metal pot. We found some recipes that sound pretty great as well.

I've been making stitch markers lately and I caught one in action the other day. This is one of Sheila Ernst's beads helping me with a shorty sock I'm knitting. I should have this pair of socks done in the next couple days. I can hardly wait to wear them! They feel really nice and thick. I'm knitting them on size zero 12" circulars. I got some new wire for making markers and I think I'll play around with it and see if I can come up with another style of marker. There's sure a lot of interest in beads, and there are lots of supplies and information available right now. It's fun to try a few new techniques to see what happens. I'll get some photos up if I get something done up to show and tell this next week.

I'm still spinning some Corridale Cross for Stacy, one of my Nieces. It's going to be so pretty and soft. I've almost got one bobbin full, and I need two more before I start to ply. I'm going to color it with Koolaid dying. A friend suggested I do a rainbow effect and let some of the colors blend together where they meet so it gives even more color variations. It sounds like a fun project. I have Cherry, Lemon Aid, and Lime flavors. I think there's some grape and blue raspberry too. Hopefully I've got some orange around too. It's amazing what colors you can find in your local supermarket! I am sure there are lots of great instructions for doing this on the internet already, so I won't give the directions here unless you need/want me to. However, I'm getting ahead of myself! First I want to spin the wool into yarn, and then dye it. Many times I dye the wool and then spin it, but this time I'm going the opposite route. Just to shake things up!

Tune in next week for "Adventures in Dying!"

Day on the Deck

2006-07-15T21:14:00.000-07:00

Today was beautiful so I moved outside on the deck with my spinning and beading. I was amazed how much spinning I got finished up. There's some mohair/wool blend who's color is called Silver. It is some fiber I picked up at the Black Sheep Gathering from Bear Dog Yarns, from the Schildt Ranch. There's 12 ounces of it spun up, washed, and dried in a worsted weight yarn (2 ply). The other yarn is some of the blend of fibers I got back from the processor's. I spun it as rustic as I dared - trying for lumpy and fuzzy bits. It's going to be for a rug and/or weaving depending on how much I end up with. It's really fun to spin in this carefree fashion, and the yarn turned out cool looking. I'll need to dye it before I knit it, so I'll probably be letting you know how that goes. Don't worry Stacy, I'm cleaning off my bobbins for your yarn! Promise! I've got a pound of wonderful soft white Corridale Cross that's got your name on it.

Ahhh... the beads. Sheila is amazing! I kept finding my favorite one, until I did the next one which became my favorite. I ended up making 2 dozen of my favorites :-) Here's a picture of my tools and setup.

I'm on sock #2 of some ankle length socks I'm knitting right now. I'm doing the heel, so just about to make that turn and race for the toe. I'm looking forward to wearing these. I needed some dark colored socks - and these are black, dark green, and brown. Very good colors for my work shoes. Sorry no photo of these, but I'm sure you'll see them pretty soon when they are completed.

In the better late than never category, I finally planted the dahlias that Mom gave me! They have been in my garage in the window for a while. They were looking so sad that I hadn't planted them yet, so today they got their wish. I cleaned out the plastic whisky barrel tubs and found that last year's dahlias had been trying to come back in one of the tubs. The darn slugs were eating them down! So I added fertilizer to the soil and got it all worked in. Planted two plants per pot and watered them in well. Tomato cages are in the planters to help keep the dahlias from falling over. The system worked really well last year, but I planted three plants per planter, which was pretty crowded. So today was wonderful, even though I ended up with a pretty decent sunburn, I feel like I got a lot of neat things done. I will sleep well tonight :-)

Walk Photos

2006-07-13T22:01:00.000-07:00

My husband, Missy and I went for a walk today. Here's some photos of the flowers and critters we found along the trail. Enjoy!

Here's some plants in our front yard. The white one is very lacy and smells sweet. I don't know what it is called. The blue hydrangea takes up the whole front flowerbed. It's always a nice shade of blue.

Sky Drama Plied

2006-07-12T19:10:00.000-07:00

The Sky Drama fiber is officially yarn! Forgive the disheveled state of the skein, I used a small knitty noddy (a form that you wrap yarn around to make a skein) and so the skein itself is hard to really show off. There are 8 ounces all in one skein! There's a lot of yarn here. When it's thoroughly dried (it's a wee bit damp still) I'll use the yarn meter to see how many feet/yards I have here. Anyway, I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Lisa Souza dyed the fiber, and Sheila Ernst had it with her for sale when she was at the Seattle Fiber Expo. So through some of my favorite people, I came to have this wonderful fiber to spin. Once I know my yardage I can make the final decision on what I'm going to knit with this beautiful yarn.

Well today is a rare day indeed. First of all I had the day off from work (I took a vacation day) and I was honored to be sought out for some attention from Emma, our cat. She really prefers the men of this house, but today she lowered her standards and came and wanted me to pet her. I have evidence of her actually being held of her own free will, but she didn't like the flash.

I was outside spinning this morning and it started to rain. I adjusted the picnic table umbrella and tried to continue spinning. It worked for quite awhile, but then the rain came harder and I came inside with my wheel. Sure wish we had a covered deck. The lighting is so nice outside. I can hear the birds and the rain was fun until my wheel started getting splashed. Hopefully someday when we build our home in the country, we'll have a covered porch area where I can spin.

Tomorrow is my last day off and then I have to go back to work on Friday. I think I'll try and see the Pirates movie tomorrow. I have some spinning I'm looking forward to doing for my niece - she's wanting to knit soakers for her expected baby. I've got lots of wool about, so this is a win/win for me!

Out to Ply

2006-07-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

I had to work today, but I got some free time too! My mission was to finish spinning the singles of Lisa Souza's Sky Drama fiber in a 50/50 Merino/Silk blend. I've been spinning it off and on for some time, and today felt like the day to get to the plying. It was a beautiful day so I took my wheel outside and spun for a few hours. I actually got the last of the fiber spun, and I am now in the plying phase.
For those who are not spinners, when you spin wool (or fibers) into yarn you spin a single strand of fiber. Then most of the time (for me) you take two or more of those singles and ply them together into a 2-ply, 3-ply, 4-ply, etc. yarn. I sort of like the 3-ply variety most of the time, but with this Merino/Silk I'm making a 2-ply yarn.

There is a photo of the Level Winder (my newest spinning tool) on my wheel above. The round eye moves back and forth like a fishing reel winder. The wheel is made by Curt Fricke. I paid a little more to have a round orifice where the yarn or single enters to be spun. Both the Level Winder and the Fricke wheel come with a triangle orifice called a delta orifice. I like the round one better, so I upgraded.

Check out the difference between the two bobbins of singles that are on the lazy kate (a holder that keeps them still while you ply). The one that is a plastic bobbin is done without a Level Winder. The wooden one is done with a Level Winder.

Missy helped me outside today. She found a hotdog bun we threw over to the wild birds (moments after it was tossed) and here's a photo of her carrying it about worried about where she is going to stash her prize. I took a photo where she was hiding it, just in case she forgets later.

Today was Uncle Clarence's birthday party and I had to miss it. I'm really sad I couldn't be there. He's a very special Uncle and I really love him a lot. I hope he had a wonderful birthday party. Sounds like it was going to be outside, so I'm sure he had lovely weather and a great turnout for it. He has always loved horses, and so have I. He sure has made some powerful memories of horseback rides and how to tell a great story. He's still tells wonderful stories in his own special way. He is such a big part of the community where he lives and takes time to support the kids in the community by going to many of their games and cheering them on. His kids and grand kids have long since graduated, he goes because he cares about the community and supports the youth programs where kids learn teamwork and leadership. What a great Uncle!

Below is a quick shot of the Diamond Fantasy Shawl I started knitting with a group of friends. The yarn is some of Lisa Souza's called Olive Tones in Sock!. I've got a long ways to go yet, but this is an example of how the beads look with the yarn.

To Blog or Not to Blog

2006-07-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

Well I've had this blog for awhile and never really done much with it. I've thought about blogging and then I've thought about not blogging. As you can see being indecisive is it's own decision, thus no blog entries. I've had the blog but have not used it. Well perhaps I will try the other side of blogging for awhile and see how it goes.

If you have all your photos organized and put where they belong, well..... you are an amazing being or else you don't take enough photos! Anyway, here's some of my photos for you.

Chickens at the folks 2005, Shetlands & Sam at OFFF 2005 , Olive Tones Sock! from Lisa Souza, going to be a Diamond Fantasy Shawl

So, the weekend is here and so am I. This is always a good thing. However the weekend will be shorter than usual for me, I am going in to work on Sunday. Going to learn more about my job and what I need to know for a new position coming up. I'm pretty excited about it, so going in will be fun since it's going to lead to more learning and knowledge overall.

I spin wool into yarn (sometimes into knots) and I knit with it (the yarn that is). I have a good quantity of wool that is going to need spun when it comes back from the cleaners! Okay - wool processors - where they wash the sheeps fleece clean, comb it or card it to straighten it into a uniform group of wool fibers, and get it ready to be spun. I can do that myself, except it takes a lot of doing and the fun is in the spinning and knitting in my book. I still have all the equipment to do the cleaning and combing, and I do that to smaller fleeces or to blend different types of fibers such as different sheep wools have different textures, or different animals fibers (goats, bunnies, dogs, plants, silk, alpaca, etc) can be blended together. Then there is the options for coloring that fiber too! There is an endless amount of possibilities when you spin your own :-)

Okay, there's a blog for the "other" side of the fence on if I should blog or not. I'll post this and see how it feels :-)

Thought of the day - Life is to short to be cranky for long.

PS: Hannah doesn't say "Hi" she says "Preeeeeetttttttyyyyy Birrrrrrrrrd" and she's right!

Spinning night

2005-12-30T23:44:00.000-08:00

Tonight was a good night to spin some lovely Blue Faced Leisther fleece. This is called Emeral City by the friend who dyed it for me. I am planning on making a pull over sweater out of the yarn when it is completed. I purchased two pounds of the fiber and as of tonight I have spun 1/2 of it. Tomorrow I ply! I am making a three ply yarn, which is not quite worsted weight. I'll have to measure it up to get a real reading on the weight, but I'm getting great yardage out of it and it's soft and lovely when plied and set.