Checking in...

Yup, i'm still kickin' :)

It's been been about 7 months since i posted last. It's not because nothing is going on, no, quite the opposite.

I have joined the many millions of 9-5ers (well, actually 8-4 ).

And, as luck has it , it has to do with hair, and i love my job.

What , do you ask, does she do?

I am the caregiver ( Kennel Manager) of a LOT of American Cocker Spaniels and , they have hair, lots of hair!

So, once in a while i have to shave one down and of course , i keep the hair.

Here is one i just took off recently . This is Adele, she is 10 month old and this is her first haircut:

before: what a wooly bear :)

and after:

(she looks kinda bewildert, doesn't she ?)

result:

She gave me 6 3/4oz of georgeous ,supersoft hair in a rich chocolate brown with a lovely sheen, very much like Alpaca. Staple lenght is 4-5 inches

I also have the hair of Cosmo, an older Gentleman who is Raven black, i got 3/34 oz from him :

i also have some buff ( a rich medium yellow-tan ) and black and white.My Studio is in a state of disarray at the moment (improvements are beeing made ) but as soon as i lay my hands on them i'll get some pics up.

I can't wait to process them and spin them up.

I won, i won, i won !!!

I want to show you what i got in the mail Friday.

Shortly before Christmas i got an e-mail from MMFWOOL ( Merry Meadows Farm in California) . It announced a contest to win one of their beautiful fleeces. First i didn't enter 'cause i never win anyways but then i thought " what the heck...".

So i told them why i thought i deserved to win .

Well, i didn't get the main prize but i won a $25 ! runner up credit to use on any of their fleeces .

So last week i saw this gorgeous Cormo fleece they offered ( with several others) on eBay.

The price was $32 with free shipping for 1/2 fleece. I pounced! 2.1 # of beautiful Cormo ( they keep all their sheep covered , so the fleeces are very clean).

And this is what i got :

One big box full of heavenly soft wool.

Staple on this is 4+ inches.

It has such a fine,tight little crimp!


The difference between washed and unwashed:

and here after i took the brush to a few locks:snow white and buttery soft:


If you are looking for award winning,super quality fleeces visit the guys at MMFWOOL.com, or eBay,you won't be sorry.

So as soon as it warms up some i will wash all of it and then i'll have to decide what i'm going to do with it.

Leave it pure, unmixed, or mix it with some other fibers? dye it or leave it natural?

I know one thing: i can't wait to Spin it up!!!

The beauty of a hard freeze...

This is a little belated post , been really busy knitting Socks .

I made these pictures last Sunday , the first day we had in a long time that was halfway decent.

Cold but nice.We decided to take the four wheelers and explore a little below the bluff ( yes, the same one i fell off last year >:( and hurt myself ) behind the house. So we follow along this path and come to this rock wall about 30 feet high with these huge icycles hanging off of it.

With the sun hitting them it was just beautiful:

and then a little further down this frozen waterfall:

YES!YES!YES!YES!YES,yes,yes,yes.......

FINALLY!!!! I've been doing the happy dance for the last two hours!!
Why you ask?
This afternoon at 12:30 pm , my shop building was finally moved to its permanent spot!!
After 8 months of waiting, trying, moving it sometimes only feet at the time ,it's finally done!
YEEEHAAAA!!!!
With the help of a friend, his wrecker,lots of chains,ropes ,pulleys and a big oak tree we got it done.
I'll be busy for the next couple of weeks, sorting, organizing,setting everything up.
I'll finally have a place for my sewing mashine, carder, spinning wheels, loom. A place where i can dye my yarn without messing up the kitchen. A place where i can just get up and leave everything sitting there without having to put everything up, and come back next day and just pick up from where i stopped the day before!!
Happy? yes , i am !!!

Keep the Wiener warm...

Ha, made you look !! :D
But seriously, get the mind out of the gutter and look here:



I made another one of those little dog sweaters. This one is for my daughter in laws grand mother. It's for a Wiener dog!( hence the title :P)

As soon as i get a pic with him wearing it I'll post it.
This is a picture of Buddha, the Chihuahua (resides in Colorado),wearing the last one i made:

I know he looks totally dejected , but his owners swears he struts like a show dog when she takes him for a walk with it on.

I also made a couple of caps, one for toddler to kinder garden age , modeled here by my grand son Daniel:

It's a little blurry, you just can't get those little energy bundles to hold still for a second!


and one for first grader to maybe early teenager size:



Also still working on the Horse Comfort Ears.Will post on them later.Still working some kinks out.
I also got all the materials and instructions and patterns together to start on the Teddy Bears.
Maybe i get to next week.

What a Face....

A couple of weeks ago i posted a couple of pictures of two Teddy Bears my Mom made for her great grand son's.Yesterday i received a package that contained mine:

The pics really don't do him justice. Each of these lovingly handmade bears is different, with their on little personality. The little glasses didn't initially go with him but when i saw him i thought they where just right for his little face.

I love my little bear. He sits on the sofa beside me and watches me knit.

My Mom send me all the patterns and instructions to make these little fellows. I will shop around for material and over the summer start making them.

First though i will practice by making several out of plain fabric.These bears are 100% hand sewn, and i mean hand, no sewing machine involved here. It is really amazing that my Mom can still do this, after all she just turned 80 a couple of weeks ago.

Snow wise we got close to 12 inches here beginning of the week,

not much for the northern parts of the country but crippling for Alabama.Not so much if you have a four wheel drive :)

Luckily we got the snow and not the ice like the folks further south.Since it's been freezing all week most of it is still on the ground , the roads are passable though.I know a lot of people complained about it ( not the school kids though , they've been out all week), i thoroughly enjoyed it. This is the most snow I've had since i was a very young teenager.

New Year, new projects

Hope everyone made it into the New Year OK?!

I have been a little quiet lately, custom orders coming in pretty steady, just enough to keep me busy without falling behind.

I had two new projects to work on, one a little dog sweater , a first for me but turned out really cute:

backside :

belly side:

Jack modeling it:

I had to bribe him with Honey O's to hold still just long enough to get a halfway decent picture.

and here something really unusual:

anyone wants to take a guess?...

well , I'll tell: this is a knitted Horse Ear Warmer Bonnet. one of my customers who lives in Colorado told me that her horses ears get very cold in the winter ( Colorado, i can believe that !!).

she said she uses fly bonnets in the summer but wanted to know if i can knit something similar to keep his ears warm. Heck yes, I'll at least try!

So this is what i came up with , anyone into horses, what do you think, could this be something i could start offering in my shop? feedback appreciated. I've not seen anybody offer them anywhere for sale.

Next i'll try my hand on a really cute knitted hat. I only have one picture of it taken off the tv.

no pattern , no nothing, just a picture. Wish me Luck :)