Fiber Factory

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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