MAGIC STIX FIBERS

Little Gaby had a Sheep....

2012-01-28T13:35:00.000-06:00

So, i finally got my own ...Sheep!!!!
I am happy, happy, happy !
He is a year old Hampshire Down/Sussex Down mix.
Isn't he handsome, his name is Bert:

I cut just a few staples of his side to wash and see how it looks:
Its is quite clean , virtually no vm...

and after the wash:

white as snow and very soft.
The staples are just a little over 2 inches long.
Hopefully by the time i'll undress him it'll grow a little more , hoping for 3 inches.

Checking in...

2011-10-07T22:31:00.007-05:00

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 !!!

2011-02-13T21:09:00.007-06:00

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...

2011-02-13T14:13:00.004-06:00

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:

and just to show how big those icycles where , here is John holding some:

Today we went back but theire all gone, no wonder we had a high of 66F today.

Spring is near !!!

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

2011-01-30T16:40:00.003-06:00

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...

2011-01-27T17:05:00.008-06:00

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....

2011-01-15T10:03:00.004-06:00

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

2011-01-03T14:56:00.007-06:00

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, in can belief 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 :)

Beary Happy Holidays

2010-12-14T16:23:00.004-06:00

Just want to show everybody right quick what my Mama made for the grand kids:

are they not adorable?

She's been making these bears for several years now. They are totally hand sewn.The head, arms and legs rotate.They measure 14 inches each and are identical except one has black eyes

and the other one blue and the paw and footpads are a little different in color.

I'm in love with the blue eyed one ,blue eyes turn me into mush :)These boys are super soft and sooo cuddly!

She made me one too but he is still in transit. as soon as i get him I'll post a pic.

The grand boys are going to have a fit over them.

Other than that it's been quiet at the home front. It's been soooo cold!! below freezing for about 6-7 days now and lows at night in the teens or even below zero when the wind kicks up. Horrible, and this is the deep, deep south mind you.

I've had a steady stream of custom sock orders coming in and i can just so keep up.

Now I'm waiting for the holidays to be over and everything calms down. Then I'm going to try my hand in bear making. Hopefully i can get as good as my Mom. I'd like to make them to sell.

So i wish everybody very Happy Holidays, and a Happy,Healthy New Year.

Some knit's and a couple of "Thank you's"

2010-11-12T07:44:00.005-06:00

First of all i want to thank everybody for commenting here or e-mailing me with their thoughts on Star's passing. I really appreciate the kind words.

The first week was quite bad , i caught myself looking out the window several times checking on her until a split second later it hit me : not there anymore :(

It's better now , i think it finally sunk in. I never thought i would miss her so much, especially since i haven't actually used her in the last five years and she was just a front lawn ornament.

Now to other things.

My dear Mom send me another goodie box with lot's of knitted baby socks:

and some German chocolate (best in the world) but i didn't get a pic of that, ate it all :)

...and myself , i knitted these socks for my Daughter in laws mom for her help with putting Star to rest:

and these fingerless texting gloves for my step daughter in law for her birthday this last Wednesday:

I already started another pair of patchwork socks and after that i will make a pair of thick socks for my daughter in laws grandad for letting me bury Star on his beautiful pasture.

Star...

2010-10-30T12:17:00.007-05:00

She liked Parades.
She would Dance and Prance and show off.
She loved drinking Beer out of the can.
She loved rolling in the mud after a good rain.
She loved Bread and Butter Pickles.
She loved trail rides in the woods.
She never gave me an ounce of trouble.
She loved chewing tobacco, and Pimento cheese sandwiches.
She was a Good, reliable companion. She carried me thousands of miles.
She brought me pleasure for 15 years.
She loved to run in the pasture, bucking , kicking with her head up high and her tail straight up in the air, trailing her like a banner.
She never bucked while ridden, never kicked or bit anyone.
She loved her sweet feed.
She was a McCurdy.
She never faltered, no matter where I pointed her nose.
She loved dogs, cats and goats.
She loved a good scratch under her belly.

She loved a good cooling off with the water hose when it would get hot in the summer.

She loved kids and was very gentle.

And I loved her…
She will be in my heart until I die and she will be terribly missed.

born late 70's, early 80's - died 10.29.2010

At long last, progress !!!

2010-10-26T23:40:00.006-05:00

Finally....

the Studio moving adventure has begun. And this is how 'red necks ' do it:

Hubster takes an old trailer axle, cuts it in half, adds a long piece in between, so it will fit under the building, hoists the studio up,puts the axle under it,

hooks said building to the trusty old four wheel drive truck

and ... hold my beer and watch this...

drags the whole thing out!

Voila', there it is. Well done boys !!( young man in first pic is son in law)

now we have to wait till the rain goes away and the ground dries up so we can drag it ( with the winch of a friends tow truck) backwards into its permanent place.

Hopefully this will happen within a week or so.

Catching up on other goings on, I've finished a couple more socks and a pair of DK weight fingerless gloves (they're called 'texting gloves ' now), and I'm almost done with redoing all of my shop pics.

I'm suffering from insomnia for the last 8-9 days. i think i hadn't had more than 10 hours of sleep in that time. I walk around like a zombie all day , so very tired, but if i try to take a nap i can't sleep!! and am wide awake at night. it is now midnight and i am bouncing off the walls. what is wrong with me??

oh, look at this:

aren't they cute?! I looked up out of the window this morning and there they where, Bib half asleep and Jack watching over her with his paw wrapped around her, like he's saying : " your save , i'll look out for you ".

Disclaimer: No beer was consumed during moving of building and no animals or humans where hurt in said move.

Just a little knitting...

2010-10-21T22:19:00.005-05:00

I have spend pretty much the last week and this one revamping my etsy shop, from banner to descriptions to pictures.Even at less than 30 items that is very time consuming and a lot of work, especially if you're on dial up. I try to get the pictures down in size as much as possible without loosing quality but it still takes several minutes per pic to upload.I think i took about 300 new pictures in all.

But now i'm almost done, i think i've got a couple items left to redo.

But i got a little knitting in.After all the black socks i knitted a pair of patchwork socks which i promptly sold and got a custom order for another pair.

After that i got a custom order for these cute fingerless gloves:

and then i made these and put them in the shop today:

and i already started on another pair, this time a DK weight, they should be done in a couple of days.

We finally got a little closer to moving my Studio: John build a heavy duty axle we are going to put under the building and then we can move it like a trailer.We just need to find a bigger Jack than what we got to jack it up so we can roll the axle under it. Hopefully he'll scare one up tomorrow and we'll have that sucker moved by tomorrow afternoon, yiay!!!

With a little luck i can get organized and get my inventory build up in time for christmas.

I also have John talked into opening his own shop on etsy, he'll be selling items made out of used horse shoes. he's got mountains of them left over from his Farrier days and he can weld, so instead of letting them rust away maybe he can get some steady sales and make a little wild money (he'll spend it on tools ) plus it'll keep him busy during the winter months.

Which one?

2010-10-19T13:58:00.005-05:00

This one?

or this one?

I love both of these but can't decide which one i should use as the banner for my etsy shop. Help?! any suggestions would be greatly welcome.

David Taylar Daniels is my Hero....

2010-10-13T23:00:00.004-05:00

....and here is why:
Last week i had my etsy shop critiqued by several people and the biggest issue was that my pictures could use a major overhaul, mainly they where too dark and boooooring.
So after tweaking around the shop on some other issues i started taking lots of pictures , trying to lighten them up and make them more appealing.
Unfortunately the only program i have to work my pics on is the Microsoft program that came with the PC ( five years old). It was a trial issue and half of the features quit working after six month.
I've always loved how good Dave's pictures look, especially the ones without a background.
So i contacted him to find out how he does it.
I downloaded one program that will let you make your picture background transparent, well, that is everybody elses pictures, not mine. I could not get it to work right for me :(
So i tried to download a program that Dave recommended , but, i live in the boondocks, all i have is telephone dial up. Very, very slow. So after being informed that it would take 360 !!!! hours to download the program , i gave up. and I sure can't afford to buy Photo shop.
So, here is where Dave comes in:
When i went to the mail box this afternoon, i had a small package. At first i was stumped, i hadn't ordered anything!!
Then i saw the name of the sender: Dave.
now I'm even more stumped.
So back to the house i hurry, because it was one of those bubble wrap plastic envelopes and you just can't tear them open, you need a knife or scissors.
And to my surprise this is what was inside:

Oh, i can tell you: that was one of the nicest things anybody has done for me in a long, long time.
I immediately installed it and it works great!!! So now y'all watch out !!
I'll have some b*&%^ing pictures in my shop!!!
I'll be forever grateful.
Thank you Dave !!!

Updates...

2010-09-24T06:58:00.005-05:00

This is just a short post , no pics.I 'd just like to update on a couple of things that have impacted my life in the past weeks and thank everybody ( here and in the homeland ) for their well wishes.

First my old mare: she has fully recovered from what I'm sure of now was a snake bite.She has lost quite a bit of weight during the first 4-5 days because she didn't eat. It takes many pounds of feed a day to keep a horse looking good. If they don't eat for several days they loose weight fast. Sometimes a hundred pounds or more in a few days.(boy, wish i could do that !!!)

But, she is back to eating everything i put in front

of her and asking for more.

So, hopefully I'll have her a little while longer.

Next, my ankles.

They are almost good as new. Well, not really. Both are weak and i wear braces on both of them ,especially when I'm outside wandering in the yard. I'm very careful where and how i step.I've always had weak ankles and unfortunately always will, I'll just have to be careful.

On the knitting side : I finished another pair of ( black!!) socks for a customer in Washington state, must be getting cold there :)

Also still trying to figure out how to get those holes centered in those beautiful beads.Any help or suggestion is greatly appreciated. Just be reminded that they are lentil shaped and do not lay down flat.
I started on another pair of patchwork socks last night. They should be ready to go in the shop by about Sunday.
I will put a picture in here after all. It has nothing to do with above story's.
These are my mother in laws African Violets that i inherited from her.

She had them for many years and tended to them with lots of love. They bloomed all the time and every time we visited her i admired the pretty little flowers.
So when i brought them home i got all the info on how to keep them off the Internet( i remember my mom had one for years and remember that hers was very fickle especially about the light it got) . I re potted them with new soil and tried to find them a good spot by a window, but after a couple of weeks decided there wasn't enough light and moved them to another spot and that's when the miracle happened:Blooms!!!

This plant has been blooming for about 3 weeks now.

I have one more plant and four cuttings. I hope they will bloom too once matured.

I wish i could tell mom-in-law but due to her advanced stage of Alzheimer's she won't understand :(

Well, this was not that short of a post after all and pictures too !!

Drop Spindles anyone?

2010-09-23T13:40:00.001-05:00

About two weeks ago i got inspired by a forum on Ravelry about hand made drop spindles.Most are made out of wood with the whorl also made out of wood. I've never worked much with wood and don't have the tools to do so.I remember seeing some very pretty chop sticks on eBay a couple of days before, they would make great shafts.

So i kept thinking what other media could be used for the whorl part. I looked at spindles on etsy and eBay and there i saw some made out of polymer clay. Aha !! I used to make jewelry out of fimo clay years ago and, hoarder that i am , still had some clay and books and tools to go with it. After looking at different shapes i decided that a lentil shape would be best.I looked at some videos online and tried it myself. Didn't come out too bad after some practice but they where not very even. They got to be as even as possible, you don't want any wobble when you're spinning.So i found Carola, of craftsbycag , a polymer clay artist on etsy who has been doing clay art for many years, (visit her store and look at her beautiful beads.)
She made me these:

Aren't they beautiful? Each one is a perfect little ,one of a kind, gem .

I paired them of like this to match the shafts:

this will be my personal spindle:

and last ( but by no means least ) :

I just love the one on the right( thinking about keeping that one too :-)

The whorls are between 1.5 and 1.75 inches in diameter and weigh 24 and 26 grams. the spindle shafts are 8 inches in length. So these spindles would be perfect for lace/ fingering weight yarns.Now i have to figure out how to find the exact middle of the whorls so i can drill holes and assemble the spindles.

If everything goes OK ,they will be available in my shop.

What a perfectly horrible day....

2010-09-16T08:13:00.004-05:00

Talking about a bad day, yesterday was it !
First i found that my old mare Star , which I've been desperately coaxing along to hang around a little longer before galloping into the big pasture in the sky, had not ate her supper from the night before. Which is very unusual. I promised myself that as soon as she would stop eating i would do the humane thing.
She went of her feed a couple of times before in the last year but after a day or two she started again, i guess sometimes she's just not feeling good.I got days like that...
Well yesterday she just seemed different. I spend loads of time with my animals and watch them closely.So when they're behavior changes i notice right away.
After looking at her more closely i noticed a lump between her front legs on her chest, about as big as an egg.It was hard as a rock but didn't seem to be painful when i touched it. Well, that wasn't there the night before! So i decided that something bit or stung her during the night. I've never seen a bee or hornet sting look like that so i ruled that out.
Next thing : snakebite!!
I haven't seen any snake around the house this year but that doesn't mean there not here.
Anyways, i dumped the uneaten feed out (since it had soured over night) and gave her a fresh ration of sweet feed.
She took a little bite and i thought "Yes!!" but then she turned around and walked of.
Not Good!!!!
So i went down to the local Co-op and got a big bottle of penicillin and gave her the maximum dose.
I watched her close all morning and noticed that she was constantly drinking water. She also came back numerous times to check her feed but never ate any.
By noon i was afraid that this might be it.I'll not let her stand over a trough full of food and slowly starve to death. I could see that she wanted to eat but just couldn't.
By this time i was pretty upset. I know that she doesn't have much time left , she is about 28-30 old , that's quite ancient for a horse. I lost several pets during the years either of old age or sickness but it doesn't make it any easier.
Also I've got the problem what to do with her .This is not a little dog, this is a 8-900 pound animal.
It requires a little more than a shovel . Nobody in our neighborhood has a backhoe, also, we don't have enough room here to dig a huge hole.We can take her to the dump but i just can't handle having her buried in garbage! what to do, what to do ? Then my son called and i told him about the situation.
A couple of hours later my daughter-in-law called me back. She apparently talked to her mom and she is willing , when the time comes ,to bury her in her pasture ( she has a backhoe !!) and since she is working for a vet and has put many horses to sleep over the years, to send Star, quietly and with dignity to the big pasture in the sky. The relief !!
Late in the afternoon i noticed her nibbling around on the sweet feed. She also looked a little more alert. YES !!! maybe, just maybe....
Well, stepping out of the house all excited , i tripped and , can you guess it ?, sprained my ankle!!, this time the right one.This was one of the times where I'm grateful that we live in the country, far away from neighbors ( well, at least out of screaming distance), because the words coming out of my mouth!!! a sailor 's got nothing on me!!!
I laid there, on my back (talk about deja vu ), cussing and crying at the same time.Frustration, pain, worry all pouring out of me.
The pain!!Uhhhh
So now i got two bad ankles and i don't know if you ever seen what it looks like , someone limping both sides.It looks like a footsore duck.

Happily i can report that this morning Star is looking much better and is eating again, she still drinks a lot of water and the lump has gotten bigger, about the size of a small orange, but softer. If i could, I'd do the happy dance , but.....

If you look close you can see the lump between the legs.

I had calmed down enough by last night to start a new pair of socks to go in the shop.

It's a pretty easy lace pattern, only four rows repeat with every second row a straight knit row.I made several mistakes anyways, guess i was a little preoccupied, and had to frog several times.

oh, by the way , i also broke my glasses yesterday. Thank goodness i still got my old pair. They are not as good as the new ones but they'll do till i can get the other pair fixed. All in all, a horrible day!!!

Hoorayyy...

2010-09-14T08:01:00.001-05:00

Yes !! Finally with Dave's help i got this comment situation straightened out. Thank you Dave !!!

So, comment anytime about anything :)

Otherwise not much new around here. I finally finished the order of black socks going to Germany. I know they will be appreciated once winter rolls around there.

It's been some what cooler here this last week ( only in the upper eighty's , lower ninety's), which one of my friends in Germany just thought funny that i would describe those temps as "cooler". But if one has endured months of 100+ degrees it feels cool .As a matter of fact it has been down right beautiful the last three days. Upper 50's in the morning, cool enough for a long sleeve shirt, haven't worn one of those since end of April.

On another subject: i acquired some beautiful chop sticks on e-bay a couple of days ago .

I've got very special plans for them.

i will post on the finished project at a later date.

Here on the home front the Goats are finally getting along much better.

Lulubelle still sometimes gets a good lick in to Clyde but at least now she doesn't actively chase him any more.
Also, here is a new pic of Tom , Bib's kitten.
He has grown tremendously ( bigger than Bib now) and speculating on the size of his feet he will be a huge cat.They are twice the size of his mama's .
After no less than 11 tries to take a picture of his face i got this.

At least one can see his face on this one , the other eleven are either of his butt, back, side or top, no face.I don't know how Dave takes all these beautiful pictures of his cats. they are very well behaved. Tom is just camera shy. i even tried to hold his head while taking a picture and all i got was the back of it since he twisted it around just at the moment the camera went of.I love the little white moustache , he looks like one of those " Got Milk ?" ads.

This afternoon i will try to hook my sewing machine to my carder in a try to motorize it. I have probably about 150 pounds of fleece accumulated . I need to get to processing it but i really don't want to crank that carder handle by hand.If successful, post on that will follow.

I also will post on my new addiction ( and boy, am i hooked and just after one try!!) sometime next week when i have some pics to go with it.Thank goodness it's not illegal :), and No,it's not fiber related at all :O

Need Help ....

2010-09-10T06:55:00.001-05:00

I'm still having problems with the comments part. Dave let me know that bloggers outside google blog still can't leave a comment.I can't find anything on here to fix this.Does anyone have a tip, trick or idea how to remedy this ?

OOOoooohhhh that burns me up !!!!

2010-09-02T07:55:00.000-05:00

I just discovered that the setting concerning 'reader comments' has been sitting on "Don't allow" for probably several months. I know my blog doesn't have a big following but i have not had any comments on any of my posts since early summer.I was wondering if everybody had abandoned me. I love to get comments on my postings,or questions.That's why i got this blog in the first place , to share and get feed back from my fellow (wo)man . blogger has changed the way how you control your settings. Now you have to specify some settings for every single post. I DID'NT KNOW!!!
They also changed how to include pictures and i am not impressed.Before the change i could write on the blog while the pics where loading,( time saver), now i can't work on it until the pic is fully loaded and inserted. I'm still on dial up and that takes awhile, so the option to keep writing while loading was great, well, no more !!! Why don't they just leave things alone? If it works, don't fix it ! Always trying to improve but in the end complicate things.
So, anywho.. from now on the comment setting is on "allow" and I've opened up my older posts too. So please feel free to comment on them too, i welcome any questions or input or just an "ata girl " here and there.

The goats are doing very well. They are getting along much better, at least the baby's. Lulubelle still butts Clyde any chance she gets. I tie them out every day and they eat and eat and eat. It's amazing what they can put away!!! They have gained some weight and are getting round and fat. I'll have to start watching them now and restrict them somewhat. Too fat is not healthy, not even for goats .

If you look close you can see Clyde peeking out of the dog house:

Knitting wise I'm on my last pair of black socks! I've been working on them steadily . I can't wait to cast on stitches for a pair of wildly colored ones, this black is really mind numbing!! Plus , the knitting is sooo hard to see!

After I'm done with them I'm going to bring my carder in the house and start carding some of my beautiful fleeces i bought over the past few month.I got several pounds each of corriedale, BL,Targhee,Cormo and Polwarth.I also have about 20 pounds of Alpaca in assorted colors i have to process that i got last year.So that should keep me busy for awhile.

Just Great!!!!

2010-08-25T12:34:00.002-05:00

This is my ankle as of 8:00 am this morning:

I went out to let Jack out of his pen and stepping back into the house i stepped in a small hole by the stairs and twisted my left ankle bad. I felt this wrenching sensation ,i heard a loud snap and a pain like fire and down i went, flat on my back. I laid there for a few seconds to catch my breath , it hurt so bad.

Then i sat up and took inventory, the pain was excruciating but i could move my foot, so apparently nothing broken.I got up and put some weight on it, it hurt bad but i could hobble around on it. So i got in the house and put a bag of ice on it. Within 10 minutes the ankle had turned all colors of the rainbow and swelled up considerably.

Unfortunately i had a doctors appointment at 11:00 i didn't want to miss.So i hobbled to the car , parked right in front of the clinics front door ( I'd take care of a possible ticket later).

The doc looked at it, said that nothing seemed to be broken ( i surmised that already ) and that the loud snap i heard where the ligaments tearing off the ankle bone. Just great!!

He said i"d been better of with a broken ankle , because for these tore ligaments to heal I'm looking at several month of painful limping.Just great !!!!

And just as the heat seems to abate and i could actually do some things outside like building a goat pen and shelter for Clyde and his girls.

But no! Here i sit on the couch, foot elevated and in a brace . Just great!!!!

Clyde...

2010-08-24T10:08:00.003-05:00

I found my Billy!! :) :)

Isn't he cute? and he is very small . Ellimae at nine weeks old is already a tad taller than he is .

His name is Clyde , he's 6 months old and i found him googling on the Internet.I called the owners, making sure he was still available.We went that same day to get him.Luckily he was only about 50 miles away and this time we had no mishaps on the way.

I am thrilled to death. Unlike the other two he is as tame as a puppy.A real sweetheart. Hubster fell in love with him instantly, calls him his little buddy.The girls were less than thrilled.Lulubelle showed him she wanted none of him. Ellimae likewise. They butted him around for awhile and he's learned real quick to stay out of reach.This morning they seem to be getting along a little better.

Lulubelle:

isn't she gorgeous?

I must appologise for all these goat related blogs but thats all that's going on here right now.

Still knitting on the black socks, still got three pairs to go.

Getting aquainted...

2010-08-23T08:00:00.003-05:00

So, this morning i tied Lulubelle out in the back yard so she and Ellimae can get some fresh greens ( weeds , which we have a lot of ).

Of course Skimpy and Jack had to investigate these strange creatures a little closer. They circled like vultures, trying to get a good look and sniff.Ellimae didn't care but Lulubelle kept a close eye on them.

Skimpy got tired of it after a little while and opted to watch them from a distance.

Jack of course couldn't leave it alone and he got nailed pretty good by Lulubelle.

after that he decided they weren't going to be much fun after all and he went to harrass the cats.

After awhile Star came over to say hello.

The goats weren't scared of here at all and all three of them grazed together for awhile.

So far, so good.

Still looking for a little billy :)

The Great Goat Adventure...

2010-08-17T14:10:00.003-05:00

I've been toying with the idea to add a goat to our menagerie for awhile now.I've been tempted several times this summer to buy a baby goat but i didn't because i was really looking for an African Pygmy goat.

I used to raise them several years ago for about 8 years in all.I love these little goats. Tamed they are very affectionate,loving pets.They're smart and because of their size (below knee high ,weighing about 40-50 # as adults) easy to handle.

So yesterday i decided to go to the local goat sale, sometimes a Pygmy gets mixed in with other goats. When we got there , there where only 6 goats there and they where all the big breeds.

So when we got home i googled local pygmy goat breeders and found a Nanny with baby about 60 miles( according to hubster it was 600!! miles) away.

I phoned the Lady, got some more info about them, got a price i could not refuse and told here we'd be there in a couple of hours (when i ever get rolling i waste no time :)

We had to take the horse trailer to put them in (wouldn't you know , just a couple of weeks ago i gave away a big dog crate ).Of course that meant we had to go in the truck which has no air conditioning. Boy was it hot. By the time we got there we looked like we just took a shower with our clothes on.

She took us to a little barn with several goats and pointed the pair that was for sale out. Love at first sight !

Needles to say the lady got her money and i got my goats!

We loaded them up and off we went. About 5 minutes down the road we experienced some bad truck trouble. We slowly limped to the next town 8 miles down the road and hubster bought some wrenches to take the offending ,trouble making part off right there in the auto zone parking lot.

5 minutes later we where on the road again.Within just a few minutes we ran into a horrendous rainstorm.

We crawled along at about 5 miles an hour ,could not see the road it rained so hard.

After about 15 minutes it got somewhat better and we thought we survived the worst when we run into the next one even worse.Some of the road started flooding at least over a foot deep.One little town had the manhole covers blown out with water spurting out of the drain holes like geysers.

What a mess!! but eventually we drove out of it and when we got home it hadn't even rained there at all.

We left the goats in the trailer overnight with food and water and then this morning i transferred them to their temporary home : Jacks pen.

Little jack was going to eat them up when he saw them. He's never even seen a goat before and he is only the size of the baby but he tried to attack mama goat with hair standing straight up on his back and all of his teeth showing.These little dogs are gritty! Mama goat put her head down and gave him a taste of her horns and that is all it took. Jack backed up.He was growling and barking at them but didn't try again to get close.

I tied him up to the outside of the pen for several hours this morning for them to get acquainted. I think that did the trick. Jack doesn't hardly pay attention to them any more.

So, all is well. I Love my little goats.

I think I'll call them Lulubelle (mama) and Fleur (baby).

They have not been handled a lot and are a bit shy (to tell the truth you got to run them down and hold on to them) but that will change very quick, i'm fixin' to pet the hair off of them :)

Now for a little Billy Goat.... ;D

...aaand maybe a ,or ?!

Jelly,Heat and Lace

2010-08-13T09:29:00.011-05:00

Out of desperation to break up the monotony (and avert crawling up the walls ) caused by this relentless heat we are having, I've decided to make some jelly with the elderberries growing here in abundance.I made some years ago and it was delicious.

I picked a big bucked of berries:

washed them:

de-stemmed them:

cooked them,drained the juice ,and voila:

about 1 2/3 gallons of elderberry juice.

Adding the rest of the ingredients ( added 12 oz of grape juice too) i sealed the jars

and ended up with 15 -8 oz glasses of delicious jelly,

(first batch of 12):

or so i thought....

Unfortunately it didn't set. Apparently elderberries are notorious for not setting.

So, i will have to pour all of it back in the pot, add some more pectin and hope for the best.

We did use some of it on our ice cream last night like syrup. Oh, it is truly yummy!

I do have about 20 oz of juice left over that i will make into syrup. great over pancakes or -ice cream.

Still no movement on the Studio relocation.It's been 100+ every day. I'm literally house bound. I'm still working on the order of black socks. Finished the fourth pair yesterday. It's really slow going with this batch, luckily the customer is in no hurry.

I started on the lace shawl but found out that i don't like this kind of knitting at all.Too loose.

It's pretty though, even hubster said: "Oh, that looks like cobwebs, how do you do that? You must be a genius to create something like this." Coming from him, that's very unusual because most of the time he is not much interested in my knittings ( or spinning etc. ) . It's useless to tell him how it works so i just nodded my head "yes, i am a genius", and left it at that.I did catch him a couple of times that night watching me knit on it . I made quite an impression on him, i think.

Summer - Blah's

2010-08-02T06:12:00.003-05:00

There is absolutely nothing going on here! Everything from construction to weaving/knitting/spinning has come to a complete standstill ( i don't even have a decent picture of anything to put with this post (hence the smileys).I am working on a order of seven pair of socks going to Germany now and then. I'm dragging my feet on them because they are all black and i'm really not enthused !!

It has been sooo hot !! The last four/five weeks have been absolutely horrible with no break in sight.Most days are in the upper 90's with a heat index of 105 - 110. Today is supposed to be an even 100 with a heat index of 105-114. The low last night was 78 and now at 6 am it's already 79 degrees. Same tomorrow and Tuesday and so on and on....
Thank goodness we traded our old Jeep in for a little Blazer and it's got a working AIR CONDITIONER!!! I LOVE this little car!!
Now i can go shopping/ run around any time i want to without feeling like i'm going to melt. I don't even mind getting caught by the train.I can wait :)
Hopefully this heat is going to break sometime soon so we can commence on our construction project.Never got to move the Studio yet :(
It seems that we can't just slide the building around without damaging it. So, John found a big trailer we're going to put it on . That means we'll have to hike the building up, maneuver the trailer under it, set it down, move it to its designated spot, hike it up, pull trailer out from under it, then set it down . NOT IN THIS HEAT!! So i wait.
Very frustrating.
Well, better get back to the socks. After the second pair i started to put little cable patterns on the rest just to break up the monotony.
Stay cool y'all

Getting there...

2010-07-02T08:21:00.008-05:00

Lot's of progress on the retaining wall:

The boys worked hard yesterday .
Now we need to get some fill dirt ,to fill up behind the wall ,up to whats there now , so it won't fall over.Then the last layers of ties can be added.
But the best thing is: we don't have to wait for that to move the studio! So hopefully, beginning of next week we'll try to drag it in there.I'm a little anxious about that since we'll be using the tractor and a dozer to do that.I hope everything goes well and they're not going to rip my poor studio apart!
Oh yes, and a tip: Do NOT feed the help until the work is done or this happens :

After a yummy chicken dinner from KFC they had a good nap.I let them sleep for about 45 minutes and then i 'accidentally' dropped a frying pan.Oooops, sorry!
I guess it's time to get back to work ?! :)

Slow, but its progress!

2010-06-29T10:10:00.008-05:00

The work on putting up the retaining wall is going slow, but it's going.

We decided to use railroad ties after all, we can get them for free and they will outlast us.We did have to hire us some help, since there is no way John and i can lift these things by ourselves, they weigh between 150-200 pounds.

So we got John's son and one of his buddies to help.

They worked several hours yesterday but finally had to stop because it got too hot.

Today should go a little faster since John decided that there was no value in notching every tie on the ends.So now all they have to do is stack them up.

Can't wait to finally move the building!!

Jack is right in the middle if things. He tries to get as many pettings out of this as he can.

I'm going to end up having to lock him in the pen,he is just too close to the tractor sometimes and since he can't hear it coming,I'm afraid he might get run over.

While I'm waiting for a yarn order for a custom sock order to arrive, i started on another pair of lace socks with one of the skeins i dyed last week.

The pattern looks like itty bitty shells.

Very easy pattern, only one of five rows has some yo and knit together's, the rest is just knit.

They will be added to the store when done.

This last Sunday we cleaned out my mother in laws house,since she had to move into a Nursing Home due to her mental and physical health.

I inherited her 1970 Dressmaker 7000 sewing machine :

and some supplies to go with it.

All the little accessories seem to be accounted for too.

The manual for the sewing machine was missing but thanks to the Internet i found a website where i could download a pdf manual, which i printed out.

It doesn't seem to be a complicated machine but is supposed to be a workhorse.

It's in really good shape, i need to oil it and give it a wipe down and it'll be ready to go.

I have a really good Singer i bought about 20 years ago that does all kinds of things, so i don't know yet if I'll keep the Dressmaker or might eventually sell it. Since it was my mother in laws i probably keep it.

Multi tasking

2010-06-25T20:43:00.006-05:00

In between working on the retaining wall and running to the supply store on a daily basis i had a little time to dye some sock yarn:

and finish sock one of another pair of patchwork socks :

I'll be using the dyed yarn for some lace and cable patterned socks.

I love how the colors came out ,very deep and rich.

Tomorrow morning before it gets too hot i will go to our annual Helen Keller festival's arts and crafts show.They don't ever have any fiber relatet items there but i love to go and see what other crafts people are into.

FINALLY - construction has started !!!

2010-06-24T07:01:00.017-05:00

Finally, finally.We started on the first step of moving my studio to it's permanent spot.

We excavated a hole several years ago with the intent of building a two story cabin in it, but... that's not going to happen, so we decided to move my studio building into the hole.

In order to do that we have to shore up the sidewalls which have been steadily collapsing.

So we dug holes yesterday for the support beams for the back wall. It was a job!! Just John and me in 100 degree heat.

Luckily John was able to borrow a post hole digger for the tractor from a friend which saved him to have to dig the holes by hand. Then we inserted 4x6x12 inch posts and anchored them with lots of concrete.

Tomorrow we will do the side walls and then we will start putting the walls up. We are debating on what to use for that .Huge cement blocks? too heavy , too expensive, too ugly. Concrete blocks? too time consuming, too ugly.Rail Road Ties?,too heavy.We'll be considering some more choices,we'll come up with something :)
Once the wall is in place we'll back fill behind it and get our driveway on top back which has been falling steadily ,bit by bit into the hole every time it rains.

The support posts stick out quite a bit past the height of the hole so we will use them as part of a fence around the hole to keep people from falling in ( John did, once ,in the dark).

The building will be offset close to the wall on one side to leave room on the other side for a big porch attached to it. I want to put a old bathtub out there where i can wash fleeces and have drying racks attached to the wall to dry them and my dyed yarns and fibers...and where i have room to sit,knit,spin or weave on a nice day. AAAHH ,i can see it all .....

On another note, lookie what the mail lady brought me today:

One big bag of goodness! 7 pounds of raw Rambouillet from Texas.
Ingenious way of packaging it, the sack is lightweight and very strong , doesn't add hardly nothing to the weight , saves on shipping!!

I had to get a few locks right away and wash them, here is the result,

still in lock form :

combed out:

very nice and sooo soft. I'll wash several oz in the next few days and offer them on etsy. But if anybody is interested in getting some now or needs more than a few oz, please let me know. Price is $2.50 /oz loose or $3.50/oz carded.

A little bit of everything...

2010-05-24T08:05:00.010-05:00

Well, another weekend gone by, it was sooo hot and humid.

Summer is definitely on its way, yesterday it hit 93 degrees with at least 80% humidity, HOT !!

Apart from that we had a pretty good weekend, John's shoulder is getting better little by little. Now if i could just make him rest it more it would heal even faster.

My disappointment about the Studio moving delay has considerably lessened because look what i got yesterday :

Isn't he beautiful? He is 7 years old and a sweet guy. His name is Storm and he is almost the spitting image of my first horse, Hank , who passed away four years ago.Star , my old mare thinks so too, she has latched on to him and will not leave his side.

I can't wait to take him out on a good ride. His feet a in desperate need of trimming though, so it will have to wait until next weekend until i can get my son-in-law to shoe him( since John is not able to).

I also got to finish one sock that i started knitting on Friday. It's a pattern out of the new "Socks from the Toe up" book:

I love this pattern, and it's not complicated at all:

The yarn is a hand dyed with amethyst and then over dyed with blue that i did a few weeks ago. The colors came out in supple shades of Lavender, very pretty.Should be finished with them by the end of the week, they will be available on etsy( hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink , wink ).

And last but not least here is a new pic from Jack:

He sure has grown into a beautiful little dog, still can't hear squat, but is very smart and is starting to pick up on hand signs.

So, all is well, so far....

Frustrated butThankful he's O.K.

2010-05-15T15:56:00.007-05:00

Our so very close i can smell it "move my studio / add to our house" project has been indefinitely delayed, possibly for several month. John got hurt yesterday helping a friend to repair the mowing machine part of a tractor ( you know, the mowing part that cuts the grass for making hay?!).

The 600 pounds piece off equipment fell on his left shoulder and made it totally unusable ( his shoulder, the equipment is fine).

We spend 3 hours at the emergency room doing mostly nothing except for about 5 minutes of action , when they took his x-rays. , and another 5 minutes for the physician that apparently no bones are broken .

They gave him some pain meds ( he's in a # 15 pain on a scale from one to ten).For someone who is a former bull/saddle bronc rider, and used to a lot of pain, that's a lot of pain.

So now we have to make an appointment with a orthopedic doctor because he either tore a lot of muscles/tendons or tore his rotator cuff.

So that will delay us doing anything around here for several month.

I'm so very thankful that he's OK, five inches over and that thing would have landed on his head and killed him, but damn!!! ... We where days away from moving my studio.
So I'll be back to knitting again, maybe some yarn dyeing, but nothing else .I've already packed everything in boxes and totes in no particular order because after the move i was going to go thru everything bit by bit and organize, so i just stuffed things higgledy piggledy in anything i could find, so now i don't know where anything is. :(

Man, I'm so pooted!!
(pooted = southern for mad!)

I just finished two pair of socks :

DK weight Confetti :

and fingering weight Patchwork:

available at my etsy store.

I also ordered some new books:Wendy Johnson:Socks from the toe up

Symeon North:Get Spun and Jane Fournier:In Sheep's Clothing: a hand spinners guide to wool.

I got the first two yesterday.I like the Toes Up book , a lot of beautiful sock patterns . The Get Spun is great too, with a lot of pictures and instructions on how to spin some unusual yarns. It gave me some great ideas for when i can get back to spinning again.

Spinning again !

2010-05-02T08:34:00.005-05:00

I'm finally spinning again, oh my, it's been at least 6 month or more since i sat in front of the wheel!

My carpal tunnel and tennis elbows on both of my arms are giving me fits lately ( too much knitting ) so I'm giving it a rest for a few days . Since i can't sit without occupying my hands i rummaged through my fiber stash and came across this merino/ mohair mix that i dyed sometime last year :

I had to sit down and try to remember how to adjust my wheel for a moment ,it's been so long.

But i finally got it straightened out and managed to spin up a little more than half of the fiber.

First i 'm thinking I'll ply it with itself but I'd like to have a little more yardage than that so now I'll have to come up with another color for plying, any suggestions are welcome.

Since my left elbow is really hurting bad i am spinning sitting in a little unusual position:

I'm leaning forward humped over a little with my elbows resting tightly tucked against my front hipbones. it looks a little weird but it works.

More socks...

2010-04-01T08:26:00.005-05:00

I finished another custom order of 9 pair of socks.I love it when they're all done and i put them together like this and every pair is different and colorful and i know somebody is going to wear them and keep their feet warm and happy.

Quick kitten update: the baby's are doing great and are rapidly growing. Their little eyes are starting to open and they move around a lot more.We try not to handle them a lot yet( which is pretty hard to do, they are sooo cute), even though Bib doesn't seem to mind.But she has been trying to move them behind the sofa and under my computer desk where its dark.I caught her several times and put the baby's back in the basket, so this morning i moved the basket into a darker corner in the kitchen, maybe that will work better for her.

Other than that nothing much else going on .I already have two more custom orders for socks ,so I'll be starting on them today.I'm also getting ready for my studio to be moved in a few weeks. I am so excited about that.Finally!!! It'll be a lot of work finishing it and organizing it to how i want it but once its done I'll be.. ( well , i just had to intercept Bib again trying to hide a kitten)..set up for some serious dyeing, spinning and weaving.

KITTENS!!!

2010-03-24T16:36:00.005-05:00

The kittens are here!!

We have four and i think that's it, last one was born 50 minutes ago .

I've been watching her closely the last couple of days.I knew she was pretty close. So when she acted really strange this morning i took her inside.She was very vocal and tried to hide behind my computer desk.

so i fixed her a basket and put it in my closet with the door open a crack. she lay in there for awhile moving around a lot.

then she came out and had the first one in the hallway right in front of me.so i just put a towel under her and let her take care of business.

first one was born at 2:10 pm, and the others came about 30 minutes apart.

right now mama is asleep with each kitten attached to a nipple.

I'll let them rest up for awhile and then I'll put them in a clothes basket in the living room.For some odd reason all the kittens look just like her: orange tabby.

Good job Bib :)

Getting close...

2010-03-20T15:00:00.005-05:00

Here are some update pics of Bib,who is more like a Blimp right now:

She is starting to crawl into corners and under furniture , a sign of her due date getting close.

Poor thing can not get comfy, she lays here ,lays there, this way and that.

When she's on her side i can see the babys moving :)

Coincidental we are also awaiting for my niece in Germany to give birth any day now.Maybe they'll have them on the same day, how cool would that be!

Of puppies,kittens and a whole bunch of sox

2010-03-10T08:40:00.007-06:00

Still not much going on here.We're just plucking along from day to day, awaiting spring .We had two very nice days the beginning of the week ( 74 as a high on the second day) . Got a couple of hours horseback riding in and just enjoyed to be outside. Now its raining again and drab, yuck!!

Well, enough with the weather report.

Here is a pic of Bib, as you can see she is a wee bit big around the middle.

When we got her i was under the impression that she had been spayed. Well, apparently not. That belly is not from over eating, there's kittens in there!

I expect her to have them within the next 8 days or so.

I already been asking around and might have two placed to good homes already . If i can talk John into it we probably keep one of them ourselves.

Jack has grown quite a bit but we found out that he is totally deaf.

So now i have to train him a little different ,which is no big deal but we'll have to keep him on a leash at all times unless he's behind a fence cause he can't hear whats coming . One good thing : he really pays attention to you and makes constant eye contact.

I think he tries to read our facial expressions since that is the only way for him to know whats going on. One of his little ears has flopped over which gives him a feisty look which fits his personality.

He sure is a sweet little guy. He loves to be picked up and he will sit on my lap all proud .

I haven't weight him lately but i estimate hes got about 4-5 pounds now.

The bucket you see on this pic is a two gallon small bucket and he is about that size.

He has a ongoing feud with the Turkey but he gets along fine with Skimpy ( they actually started playing a little ) and he loves the cat. They are living in the studio now and will be my working buddies once i get started in earnest.

Which brings me to another subject. Starting April/May there will be all kinds of changes happening here. One of them is that i will finally be able to place the Studio in its permanent spot, where i can finally fix it the way i want it.

That means running water, electric ( not just extension cords) , insulated, with heat and air conditioning, so i can work in there year round. I will finally be able to set up all my gadgets , wheels and loom.I will be able to organize everything. Oh, i can't wait.

I also plan to put a big wraparound porch on the building , so i can sit outside and spin. I can already see it: freshly hand dyed yarn drying in the breeze, washed fleeces drying on racks, me sitting in all that goodness spinning my heart out , with Jack lying by my side.... Aaahhh, ain't it a nice picture ?

Once we get started i will report on the goings on here with lots of pictures.

I am sooo excited!!! I've been waiting for this for three years.Once everything is finished i am planning on greatly increasing my output on hand dyed , hand spun yarns and fibers.

I also plan on really getting into weaving and maybe offer handwoven towels ,shawls and scarfs.

I might even offer one on one knitting and spinning lessons.We'll see.
Which brings me to what I'm working on right now: another big order of socks .
Nine pair in all ,going to Canada.I've finished two pair ,working on the second sock of the third pair.

I'm trying to finish them all before "the great change" is starting here.

Once we get started i won't have much time ,( or be too exhausted) for knitting.

More Socks...

2010-02-11T12:16:00.004-06:00

Still busy with orders for handknitted socks.

Here are two pair size 12 Patchwork Socks going to keep a jung man's feet warm in Toronto , Canada.

Best Buddies

2010-01-09T07:08:00.005-06:00

After banishing Bib,the cat, out of the house a couple of weeks ago, for fear of her mistaking Jack for a mouse,we decided yesterday to let her back in. First of all Jack now weighs close to two pounds and certainly is not the size of a mouse anymore and secondly temperatures are in the single digits and even below zero with the windchill that i just could not leave her out there anymore.I propped the door open to the studio for her to go into but its not heated so its just as cold in there.

Anyhow, after letting her back in the house we introduced Jack to her. After a curious sniff and lick (its a little fuzzy):

she took right to him (i think the smell of milk on his breath helped too):

even sharing the couch with him for a nap:

I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

I'm so pleased with this little cat,she is so easygoing and gentle, I'm glad she came to our family.

On the yarny side of things there is nothing new to report. I'm working on a steady string of custom sock orders which keep me very busy. I've not had the chance to do any weaving or spinning, or dyeing or carding for that matter.Maybe in the spring things will slack off a little, i really would like to get to weaving a little, I've been using the kitchen towels i made last year and i absolutely love them.I also want to make several for gifts for the coming ( yes, it is coming again ,even though a while off) Christmas. This time I'll be prepared!!

I'd also like to get to spin a little,i have this very luxurious ,super soft,merino/silk/polwarth/alpaca/corriedale mix I'd like to dye in some fallish colors and spin up into a fingering weight yarn and weave into a soft ,light shawl.

But,for now, knitting socks it is and I'm very content doing it.

Boniva Disaster/Order Delays/Jack

2010-01-02T11:39:00.006-06:00

So far not a good start into the New Year!

I had to go get a "BONIVA" shot last Tuesday and it didn't turn out so well.

Since i can't use my left arm for that (no no 'cause of the lymph notes i had taken out ) only my right arm is available .Unfortunately over the last 5 years I've been stuck so many times that I'm running out on veins.

I also made the mistake not drinking enough that day so i was a little dehydrated by the time i got to the doc's office.

I'll spare you all the gruesome details of the many tries by the nurse (who is usually a good sticker) to hit a vein.
Finally after the third try at different places (blew one vein on the side of my elbow) she hit one at the left side of my wrist. It hurt like hell when she squeezed the medication in but i just sucked it up 'cause i wasn't going to be stuck again. By the time i got home my thumb was totally numb.ODD! Next morning i was in somewhat of a little pain and my arm had swelled up around the injection site.I put warm wrap around it, took some Motrin and hoped for the best. Wrong!!

By next morning, more swelling, more pain and my arm felt hot to the touch; more Motrin and warm wraps. By Thursday afternoon i got scared,my arm and hand had swelled to more than twice the size was tight as a drum ,red ,very painful and hot to the touch.

normal hand:

not so normal hand:

of course by now the doc's office is closed until Monday .Great!

couldn't use my hand/arm at all. John did the cooking, washing dishes and everything else. On top of that we had both grandbabys over new years .Fortunately they are good babys and it worked out all right.John helped out a lot.

I was debating Friday morning to go to the emergency room at the hospital. I called both local hospitals for an estimated waiting time and was told between 4-6 hours!! No way!!!

So i just took some more pain pills and laid on the couch all day because by now i didn't feel so good all around.By Friday night i felt a little better and it seemed that the heat in my arm had gone down some.By this morning it's a lot better but i think it'll take about another week for it to go all the way back to normal, my thumb is still numb.I'm supposed to get one of these shots every three month. Guess what?! It's not going to happen!!! Doc 's gonna have to think of something else or i just have to live with my brittle bones!!! (can't take the Boniva pills since I've already got a bad tummy and the pills are very bad for that).I googled about those kind of problems and found a lot of people have severe sideffect on this stuff.So if your doc mentions this to you as an IV 'beware'.

At least i can hold a knitting needle again today and i apologise to my customers who have orders waiting, I'll get them done as fast as possible.

On the good news side, Jack the bottle puppy is doing great. he weighs 1#3 oz, and has his eyes open:

he'll be three weeks old by next monday.He still sleeps most of the time. can't wait until he gets more active. Theire great fun when they get to be about 5-6 weeks old.

Bottle Baby

2009-12-25T12:45:00.006-06:00

Since my beloved Blue past on to dogie heaven this last summer i finally decided to find me another buddy (we still have Skimpy but he is more a outside /doing his own thing dog).

So when my neighbours Fiest dog expected puppies i put myself on the list for a little male.

I got the call about the puppies being born on the 14th December. I was to wait about a week to give the pups and mom some time to settle and then go over and pick my puppy.

But,next day i got a call that one of the pups had been rejected by the mom and had to be bottle fed. Since the owner is a very busy woman and don't really has the time to feed this baby every two to three hours i was asked if i wanted to take him.what a question!! of course!! took me all of two minutes to run over there.

And here is what i got:

one little hand full of puppy

he weighted 4.25 oz that day

this is him 8 days later:

he now weighs 10 oz ,is very active,healthy and fat. He also sleeps through the night now which is a great relieve

I named him "Jack" in honor of Captain Jack Sparrow played by Johnny Depp from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies,which I'm a great fan of.

We are planning to teach Jack all kinds of tricks and take him everywhere we can.I want him to ride on the back of my horse,on the boat,the 4 wheeler etc.

But i think the first thing will be potty training if he is to spend anytime in the house.

He should start opening his eyes in the next few days,i'll try to get some better pics then.

Baaa Humbug....

2009-12-25T12:25:00.002-06:00

No, seriously,I'm wishing everybody a enjoyable Holiday Season and a happy ,healthy and hopefully much better New Year than the last.
I'm a bit of a scrooge and am glad that we survived another Christmas with most of our wits intact. It's funny, we know it's coming but somehow it sneaks up on us every year.
Well, next year is going to be different, i decided that starting January i will buy one gift a month for one person on my list, by the time next Christmas rolls around i will be pretty much done without the stress,mentally and financially.
Wishing Love and Peace to all....

Knitty Kitty

2009-11-22T14:52:00.002-06:00

Yes, definitely a knitty kitty !

Bib has gotten used to her new home nicely. She sits with me when i knit and follows me around in the house all day long in the hope of a treat or some petting which she gets quite a lot of.

She has gained some weight since she got here.

As a former outdoor kitty she tries to sneak out the door with us and has succeeded a few times but i catch her right away and put her back in since she is not spayed yet and the last thing i want to do is add to the cat population.

She is great company and i enjoy having her.

By the way, i want to thank everybody for their well wishing posts and e-mails after my fall off the bluff.

I'm all healed up now and as good as new ,just a little twinge when i stretch my arm over my head but that will be gone too in a couple of days.

I'm still busy knitting socks with more custom orders coming in .

There are big changes coming up in the spring (around april/may) which i will post on. One of which is my expansion of inventory. I'll be able to offer hand dyed yarns, spinning fiber ,hand spun yarns, and some weaving supplies in greater numbers by the end of summer.I'm very excited and can't wait to get going on this.

Waterfalls,waterfalls,Gaby falls....

2009-11-16T19:56:00.011-06:00

We've been having some beautiful fall weather the last couple of weeks : sunny, quiet,warm days,temps in the high 60's,lower 70's.

So John and me decided Sunday afternoon to take Skimpy on a little hike in the woods behind our house.

We have two beautiful waterfalls just a few hundred yards below a bluff that surrounds the whole top of the mountain we live on.The shelters behind the falls had been used for hundreds of years by the local Indian tribes as shelters.

To get there we go through the woods about 400-500 yards until we come to the bluff.

There is only one spot where it is possible to get down into the creek valley without ropes or a ladder.

It is about 7-8 feet down ( the rest of the bluff is up to 25-30 feet down.)

we've used that spot lots of times before and never really had a problem, except for this time.

John went ahead and passed by a narrow spot right on the edge of the bluff .He told me to be careful the leaves where slippery. So carefully i placed my right foot and then my left foot and before i could shift my weight i went over the edge feet first.Halfway down i hit the trunk of a big tree with my right lower inside arm and slid down the trunk the rest of the way.

When i hit the tree the momentum twisted me backwards to my right and i overextended my arm and shoulder. A sharp pain went through my back and i thought:

" oh no, i broke my back!!" the pain knocked the breath out of me.

Almost at the same time i heard a snap in my shoulder and i thought: " ...and there goes my shoulder or arm"...

I finally landed hard on my butt , i just sat there for a minute trying to get my breath back and trying to assess my injuries.The back pain went away after just a few seconds and i moved my feet and legs...back not broken... thank God!!

By now John had safely made it down the bluff to me. He was white as a sheet.He said he had just got past the iffie spot and turned around to help me past and all he saw was me going over the edge and hitting that tree.I sat there for awhile getting my bearings back and moving my extremities,i knew i hurt my shoulder, it hurt BAD!!

Nothing is broken but i think i very much overextended or even tore a muscle in my chest and shoulder.

By this morning my whole right side ,shoulder ,ribs are very,very sore.and on top of that i got allergies and am constantly sneezing and coughing. oh, the pain!!

but, i can still knit! that doesn't hurt at all !!

and we did go on and i made some pretty pics of the falls:

Fall #1:

Fall#2:

I also found the tree John carved our initials in five years ago ( the old romantic :)

Update : Here it is three days after my fall (been trying to get online long enough to finish this post (phone lines are messed up again since yesterday), and I'm still hurting but it's much better already. I should be pretty much back to normal by the end of the week.

Aaarrrghhh....

2009-11-10T15:52:00.005-06:00

This is a picture of a pair of my patchwork socks inside out, before i weave in all the little yarn tails and yes, there are just as many on the other side.

It takes me about 45-60 minutes per sock to weave all the tails in. This is my least favorite part of making these kind of socks , but then there they are in all there glory .Pretty , aren't they ?

These are some of my favorites ,with the camouflage pair my mostest.

and these are still waiting to be finished.

There are 11 pair in all and they are all going to a good home wayyyy up north to Canada.

weaving in my blood?

2009-11-07T14:47:00.006-06:00

I received a " my mom loves me " package from my mama in Germany and with all the goodies she send me a stash of cotton kitchen towels.

At closer inspection they did not look store bought so i got on the phone and called my mom to find out where she got them.

And here is the story:

apparently those towels are about 50-55 years old and hand woven by her mom!

I didn't know my grandma was a weaver! I knew she was a seamstress making clothes for the wealthy people during and after the war. Looks like she also wove a lot. My grandma passed away 15 years ago and my mom told me when they cleaned out the house she had a big floor loom with lots of heddles( my mom thinks at least 8-12) and a bigger (she thinks about a at least 40 inch ) table loom.

I was afraid to ask what they did with it but asked anyway:

i shouldn't have :( , i now will forever have the picture of my dad hacking the looms to bits and burning them in the back yard in my head!!

What a crying shame! those looms where at least 50-60 years old.

The towels are woven with sewing thread thin yarn. Some of them have a very tiny waffle weave pattern ,some are plain weave.

I will have nightmares about this for a while.

But at least i got a little more insight of my love for fiber arts.

BIB

2009-11-07T09:00:00.005-06:00

Well, we are now the proud caretakers of a sweet kitty who joined our family yesterday.

Meet "Bib": she is a one year old, dark ginger tabby with a snow white bib on her chest (hence the name ) ,white belly and four white feet and greenish amber eyes.

My stepdaughter graceously gifted her to us as we where looking for a good mouser .

We occasionally have a mouse in the house and apparently they are getting smarter each year concerning getting trapped. So, we decided a cat would be the best move.

She will be a indoor cat only from now on and i think she likes it :

loves watching tv too:

she follows me around wherever i go,right now she's sleeping by my feet under the pc desk and she slept on the foot of our bed all night.I love having a cat in the house,it is so calming and relaxing.I had a calico cat for 15 years until she passed away 6 years ago and not had one since then.I love it, she'll be my little buddy and companion.

Rainbow

2009-10-10T10:59:00.004-05:00

It's been raining here a lot lately and everything is wet,soggy and muddy. I hate it !!!

But between heavy rainshowers yesterday a very cool thing happened. It was still drizzling lightly when the sun broke through for just a few seconds . I love rainbows so whenever that happens i always look for them and guess what?! we got one , but not high up in the sky like they usually do but right in our back yard just about 20-25 feet above the ground:

I know they say that there is a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow ( gosh, do i wish it was true )

but i know for a fact at the spots where the rainbow ended is nothing but dirt! Ah well, it was pretty anyways.

I'm still working on the mega sock order so nothing else is going on until i get them done.

I traded yarn left overs with several Ravelry members for spinning fiber.That helped out a lot but i need more. so, if anybody has leftover superwash sock yarn (pieces must be at least 4 feet long) contact me please , i'll trade for spinning fiber or homespun yarn in matching weight.

My Spinning Challenge Results

2009-09-10T13:08:00.004-05:00

Well Dave, here is my contribution to your Summer Spinning Challenge:

It's not much but it did get me to spinning again and i will spin more from now on.

I spun 13 different colors up into this yardage:

469 yards multi color merino 12 wpi

251 yards black super wash merino/silk bits/black alpaca 11 wpi

151 yards fall colors BFL 6wpi

380 yards green BFL 16 wpi

102 yards bright multi colors cotswold / x bred merino 10 wpi

738 yards all colors alpaca/silk/cotswold/baby shetland/merino-polward x bred 12 wpi

256 yards dark blue denim super wash merino 19 wpi

161 yards dark blue denim super wash merino 17 wpi

113 yards multi color merino/cotswold 11 wpi

41 yards multi color cotswold 12 wpi

148 yards dark blue denim super wash merino 8 wpi

42 yards multi color cotswold 12 wpi

600 yards light steel grey superwash merino 17 wpi

that comes to 3304 yards in all,they are all two ply so i guess i spun 6608 yards in singles.

not even close to yours but it's the most i ever spun in this amount of time.

this was fun, it really got me spinning again, thank you.

finally motorized but....

2009-09-10T09:08:00.004-05:00

Well, i finally got my pulleys i needed to motorize my carder in the mail yesterday. I could not wait to get it all put together and try it out.

The wheel on the grinder is 2" and the wheel on the carder 6".

It works great!! but, even though i turned the speed on the grinder to the lowest point it is still too fast. It works good on the more sturdier wool like Shetland or bfl but not the fine stuff like merino or the alpaca, it flies everywhere.So now I've got to find something else with adjustable speed but quite a bit slower than the grinder, i just don't know what !

I also noticed that because of the speed it really slings out the vm and dirt during carding, that's a plus.

Maybe if i attach a brush to the carder it will press down the fiber before it gets slung off.I'll just have to experiment some more , but i like it so far especially that i have both hands free to feed the fiber in and don't have to hand crank this thing. it really speeds things up.

another great ride..

2009-09-07T15:38:00.002-05:00

We decided late yesterday afternoon to go horse back riding today at 'Seven Springs Lodge ' horse camp just a few miles down the road.

We haven't rode there in several years.They always had good trails but oh what a change!!!

We pasture our horses just about half a mile from the camp, so all we have to do is saddle up, ride down the road a little and we're there.

presently there are over 3000 acres of beautiful land with hills,bluffs,springs,streams,Indian shelters and waterfalls. 20.000 !!! more acres will be added soon.

we arrived very early (about 6:30) and everybody there(they had a big four day ride this weekend)was just getting up. so we decided to hit the trails alone(we like it better that way anyways).

We like all kinds of terrain but are really into rough, challenging trails with lots of climbing, down hill slides, etc.

We didn't have a map of the trails since the office was not open yet when we got there, so we just followed our nose., and apparently picked one of the more challenging and most beautiful trails they have.

After some challenging climbs up and down through gorgeous old timber woods we came to a huge ,very tall bluff. I guesstimate about 100-120 feet up (or down depending where you are.)

as a matter of fact the trail will lead you to the top next and you can see for miles once the leaves are off the trees right now they totally obscure the view.

we took a break there to give the horses a chance to get they're breathing under control. They have not had a decent workout since the middle of July and that wasn't near as exhausting as this.

soon we where off again.

Next stop:the waterfall. its not very high but it goes for about 50-60 feet in small steps. unfortunately no water right now since we had not had a decent rain in weeks.

After some more riding across small streams and by some impressive bluffs we arrived at another Indian shelter:

Fred the mule looks totally dejected:

By that time the horses where quite tired and we decided to find our way back to camp.

After a couple wrong turns we finally saw it in the distance, the horses saw it too and all of a sudden they weren't tired at all.
when we arrived we had a nice chat with the owner (after i got a map) and he directed us to the "Rattle Snake Saloon" that they just recently build under one of the many Indian shelters. Of course we had to check it out even though it was closed.

and what a neat place it is !!!:

build right under and into the overhang. and if you look close you can see the walk way above the saloon on the next ledge.
All in all we had a blast (probably our mounds not so much but they do have to earn they're keep once in a while.We sure will go there on a regular basis from now on and explore the rest of the trail of which there are many more.

enormous order...

2009-08-29T10:25:00.002-05:00

I just received an enourmous order (12 pair !!!) for knitted socks from a very dear repeat customer in canada.
her color wishes are very specific , so i 'm going to be busy dyeing yarn and knitting for several weeks.
So everything else is going to be put on the back burner and postings here will be sparse for awhile.
goes to get her dyeing stuff together....

washed and combed

2009-08-27T15:35:00.007-05:00

I got most of the fiber from merry meadows farm washed and dried. i took a few locks and just combed them out with a flicker brush

staple lenght is between 4.5 and 5 inches, fiber is sooo soft, no scratch effect at all against the skin.

even after washing and brushing the hairs still have a lot of crimp in them, this fiber should spin up into a springy yarn, great for weaving shawls,scarfs and knitted socks.

I love it!! got to get some more!!

I can't wait for the long winter nights now, i'll be spinning, carding, weaving like crazy!!!

I used to be very fond of bright colors (and still am) but now i'm really getting in

to natural colored wool.

more raw wool..

2009-08-27T08:49:00.003-05:00

I received a box of raw wool yesterday that i won on e-bay last week.

this is it, plus there are 4 bags of fiber missing out of this pile that i am washing right now.

Its from Merry Meadows Farm out of California.

They raise Cormo,Finn/Dorset/Targhee/Corriedale crosses,Targhee and Merino sheep.

The fiber i bought are cuttings, leftover from trimming the fleeces. For $3 a pound i thought I'll try and I'm very pleasantly surprised.

The fiber i got was quite clean, very little vm and most of it is absolutely gorgeous .i just had about 12 oz that is not usable for spinning(the pile in the upper right corner in the first picture) because its either too dirty or too short.The rest is just great fiber, very soft with a lot of crimp.

I'll post some pics of the washed fiber when its done.

I will surely buy more from this seller.

by now I've got about 80# of fiber accumulated, some of it has been washed or washed and carded.

but I've got about 60# still in the raw. I'm planning on getting about 10-15 more pounds in the next few days and then I'll quit.

What am i going to do with all this soft goodness you ask!? I'll get it all cleaned and carded and will offer most of it in my shop during the winter. some of it i will keep for my own use, spinning yarn to sell or keep some for myself to knit and weave with.

*So , if you are looking for good clean fibers for your spinning or felting needs look in at the shop from time to time, maybe you find something you like. and since i bought this at such reasonable prices i can sell it below what most other sellers ask .*

I bought that much because i wanted a good assortment of different breeds. so far i've got merino, cormo, rambouillet,corriedale,shetland,alpaca,romney,leicester,cotswold and several others i just can't think of right now. some of it is crossed breeds .

I will blend some of these different fibers when carding to improve the shine, handle,softness etc.

I'm learning quite a bit about the different breeds and the fiber they produce. a year ago all i could distinguish was soft , not so soft and scratchy. now i can pretty much tell you what breed the fiber is just by looking at it.

I love to work with this wool and I'm sure a fiber addict!!!

Well , i better get back to the washing,I've got four bags in hot water in the bath tub and a washing machine full soaking.

Y'all have a fibertastic day

little Visitors...

2009-08-22T06:33:00.004-05:00

My fiber goings on are put on hold this weekend due to my two little grand sons visiting.
I had both of them yesterday afternoon,my son picked the youngest one (9 weeks old) after work,but the older one (now 14 month old) is going to stay with us until Monday.
And let me tell you, anyone with two (or even more) small children to take care of: y'all deserve a medal !! I've raised two myself but they where 9 years apart, so you can concentrate on one, but this !!! wow !! My respect for my daughter in law, and mind you she is only 17!, has risen indefinite! How does the girl do it? i could not(not longer than a few hours anyway).
Well, anyhow, here are a couple of pics with the boys:

John and Daniel (we call him 'Big Dan' ,he weighs 12# already and wears the same size diapers and clothes Gavin does!!)

Gavin

Me and the Babys
So I'll report back in middle of next week.wishing everybody a great weekend.

More ALPACA...

2009-08-20T10:49:00.004-05:00

So i finally got to spin up a small skein of this scrumptious chocolate Alpaca i carded yesterday.

I experimented around a bit with different whorl sizes,speeds and yarn thickness.

I ended up with a very nicely balanced two ply with a wpi of 9 ,worsted. The color is just amazing, a deep ,rich ,dark chocolate.Yummy!

first i was a little disappointed about the feel of the yarn, i imagined it softer.

So i soaked it in warm water for a few minutes(with a little fabric softener) , squeezed it dry in a towel and whacked it against the counter a few times.And Bingo!! now it's the way i thought it would feel: very soft, no 'prickle effect ' on the skin and a nice drape. The yarn is light and fluffy, like a cloud but really strong ,i cant just break a strand between my hands, i have to cut it.

Yes, i think I'll be working a lot with Alpaca in the future, and why not? It is a lot easier to process than most sheep wool, is softer than merino(it has been compared to cashmere) and the price per pound is comparable or less than for most sheep wool ( at least on e-bay). It'll take me a while to process all this fiber, i got about 10 pounds in assorted colors (still looking for a good deal for a white fleece on e-bay).After I'm done washing and carding all of this i will offer some of it in my shop but i will safe a good chunk for myself, i really would like to spin enough up to use for weft for a big size shawl i can wrap myself into on cold winter nights (or days ).Maybe a variegated yarn with all the colors in it.

Next I'll be turning my attention to the fawn colored fleece,stay tuned...

Oohhh,heaven!!

2009-08-18T14:32:00.005-05:00

I know I'm getting a little repetitive but i really can't get over ALPACA!!!

I won several auctions last week for raw alpaca fleeces and they are starting to come in.

this is 3# of a rich chocolate brown with a staple length of about 5 inches:

this is 1# of fawn with a staple of about 4 inches

and last but not least 2# of a medium tan with a staple length of about 4 inches.

I just cant get over how soft the wool is! Even unwashed and dusty its just heaven! I've heard that most people do not wash the fleece before spinning, i do because even though the fiber isn't visibly dirty it does contain a lot of fine dust and sand.Good thing is it comes clean very easy. Since it doesn't contain any lanolin it can be washed with lukewarm water and just a hint of soap.This is the water after the first wash:

So, not apparent but quite dirty after all.I dump the water ,fill up the bucket one more time, let soak for about 10 min., squeeze out the water,fill up one more time,no soap , rinse and spin in the washer.Dry it on a rack outside in the sun.I use those little mesh lingerie bags.Its a little tedious since the bags don't hold much fiber but they keep it from moving around too much and make the whole process a little more orderly.

I'll be washing and carding this soft goodness in the next week or so and start offering it in batt form in the shop.So come on by and maybe you see something you might turn into a next to the skin soft yarn!

Prices will be very competitive and Ravelers,remember there will be a 10% discount for you !!

I will post pics of the carded fiber later.

Now back to washing ALPACA :)

Kick me while i'm down..

2009-08-13T07:59:00.003-05:00

Well, did i ever have a shitty day yesterday.
I noticed that my left elbow(the side i had the lumpectomy/lympectomy on) was slightly swollen.Always on the lookout for the dreaded lymphedema to set in. i mentioned it to my oncologist at my 6 month check-up yesterday morning. she looked at it squeezed here ,pressed there and yes, it's a possibility . She didn't seem too concerned about it, but let me tell you:
I AM!!
I don't want to run around with one fat arm!! So i asked here what to do about it and was told to keep an eye on it and if it gets worse she'll send me to a physical therapist. What's that gonna do? I already move my arm around, how can any kind of exercise make it better? oh, and there is also a sleeve i can wear. Great!! I'm so bummed and then on top of that i found out that once i will stop taking my cancer meds in a year and a half i will loose my insurance( medicaid) since everything but actually taking cancer meds is considered non-active treatment . Well, what about all the other health problems I'm dealing with because of "the cancer" and its treatment?
chemo gave me my joint (taking meds for that) and memory (taking meds for that)problems,radiation killed my thyroid(taking meds for that) and i have mental(depression,anxiety attacks, taking meds for that) and high blood pressure (taking meds for that)from the combined experience of the whole thing.my pharmacy bill comes to a little over $900 a month!!which right now is taken care of by medicaid.once it stops i won't be able to take any of these nor go to the Doctor for anything not even a mammogram because we can not afford it.I obviously don't work and John gets a disability check and that's what we live on. we are one step away from being homeless as it is. This is scary!!! what am i going to do???I've got a year and a half to figure it out i guess , if there is a way at all.
It's true: LIFE IS A BITCH AND THEN YOU DIE!!
Sorry for the whining and i promise my next post will be on a happier note(even if i have to make it up :)

I'm in LOVE!!

2009-08-09T12:15:00.004-05:00

I discovered ALPACA!!
i wondered about alpaca for awhile but was a little leery ( it intimidated me because it's just so exotic), so far i only worked with various sheep fibers.
So last week i came across a listing for 1lb of assorted colors raw alpaca fleece on e-bay. it listed for $5.00 so i thought,not much to loose there, I'll try it. a few days later my alpaca arrived. i opened up the bag and ... OH MY GOSH!!! Fiber heaven! It is sooo soft! It's like reaching into a bucket of silky body lotion. Gorgeous natural colors ,creamy white,fawn,dark chocolate and black,and it even smells good! They say that you can spin it without washing right the way it comes of the animal,but i washed it anyways and run it through the carder a couple of times,and if its possible, its even more scrumptious .The carding is a little tricky because the fibers are so fine and light.

but ahhh... the end result is worth it.

I'll be spinning some up in the next few days for Dave's spinning chalenge.....and I'm off to check e-bay to find some MORE...

Luscious Fiber

2009-08-05T12:42:00.003-05:00

After two hours of blending these fibers on my carder i got these two big piles of 'Oh my god this is soooo soft ' batts:

BFL/silk/mohair

and merino,silk,superwash merino

now i have to blend all those together as consistend as i can .

That will be several more hours of cranking the carder,and then... the dyeing.

Basket surprise

2009-08-05T08:40:00.004-05:00

I just found a little surprise( well, three actually) in a wicker basket out in the "studio":

They must be just a few days old

It was sitting high on the shelf and hasn't been moved in awhile.So i took the pics and put it right back.I'll update their progress every few days.

Other than that nothing much going on. I've been carding some luscious silk,merino,mohair,and BFL together into several oh so soft batts.I'll dye them in the next few days,probably a "blue" theme and get ready for spinning it up. I'll try on a sport weight single yarn to use for weaving myself a shawl.light and airy but warm and hopefully soft.

another pair...

2009-07-31T15:37:00.007-05:00

Just showing off another pair of patchwork socks i just finished. I already listed them in the shop.

I love to make these even though the sewing in of all the loose ends is really a pain.

I'm slowly running out of leftover yarn though ,so i probably will be able to make maybe one or two more pair and then I'll be out. I really don't know how to get more leftover yarn in bigger quantities in a hurry.Most of the yarn I've been using has been collected over the past three years. Any ideas anyone?

I'm washing fleece right now ,a big bag of rather dirty merino i bought last year and had forgot about.Run across it this morning looking for something else. So i hauled it in the house and washing it in little laundry bags by the hand full. It cleans up rather nice though and is sooo soft and... no vm at all,just dirt!!

Must be about two pounds or so.I think I'll mix it with the Cormo i have to make a really soft,lofty spinning fiber,they have the same staple length,about 4 inches. That would make a great bobble yarn, all squishy and soft.I just wish i could get around to put a little motor on my carder,that would speed up the whole process considerably (and save my poor arm!).

I also found some BL lamb locks i bought several month ago.They are already washed and i think I'll dye them the way they are. The locks are just gorgeous and soft.These i will also put in the store.

I've carried my loom out into the 'studio/hold all' building.I'm going to start weaving again soon, just right now i want to work with the fleece/fiber and spin.I also haven't found a low table yet to set the loom on and it's really killing my back when i have to stand to weave.

spinning,doctors and such..

2009-07-29T06:54:00.006-05:00

I managed to ply some of the singles
last night into this 14wpi two ply.

The colors are vibrant but on the muted side.

The Yarn felt a little stiff until i rinsed it in softener and whacked it against the bathtub a couple of times. This skein measures 246 yards with about that much more to spin.
well, i got the rest plied and got 223 more yards so there are 469 yards in all.

On another note:
I had one of my regular three month Dr.visits with my personal physician yesterday. Of course they took copious amounts of blood (like they do every time),at least they are excellent stickers and i hardly feel a thing.
They also did an annual EKG and an Chest x-ray.EKG is good, x-ray don't know yet but am not really worried.Then we discussed my arthritis problems (if that what it is..).
For several month now my joints, (especially my hands and feet) are really acting up. Very stiff fingers,to the point where i can't even close a fist, and the joints in my feet are stiff and painful especially after sitting for awhile(which i do a lot) and then getting up and trying to walk. Feels like I'm walking on hot knifes for the first five or six steps.but the rest of my joints are not far behind,i got a real problem with stairs getting up or sitting down etc.I've been taking meds for that but i might as well eat m+m's , they do that much good.(If it was possible i'd live on my horse , because that is really the only time i feel good, no pain,creakiness or weakness, just free!)
I was told that this might be the aftereffects of the chemo four years ago,shit! and my age,what does she mean my age? I'm 48 ,not 88!for crying out loud!! i ended up getting a steroid shot,Aow! and a six day steroid pack,which should get rid of the problem for awhile. I was told though that i might have to do this every six month or so,Shit! She also is running a autoimmune test making sure this is not something else. shit! but.. just a few hours after the shot i already felt a difference, a lot more limber.Yay! and this morning i wasn't groaning trying to get out of bed ,double yay!
So i better get cracking while the going is good.
Oh, something else ,I've talked to our only local brick and mortar yarn store(well, its not all yarn but a catalog merchandise return store).But the owner has turned a big part of her building over to quite an impressive amount of quality yarns(hobby lobby eat your heart out!!) and is expanding .Every time i go there there is more yarn.So, anyways she might be interested in putting some of my hand spun and hand dyed in her shop.Yay!!

dyeing...

2009-07-28T16:16:00.004-05:00

Well,i finally did get to dye some fiber friday.

about 60 gr of merino in shades of red(fruit punch,burgundy,tulip red,flamingo pink):

and about 100gr. in any color i layed my hands on:

i've spun two bobbins, about half of the fiber,i will ply them tonight and post pic of the yarn later.

I love the plying part, especially with colored singles.you never know how the colors match up. so pretty...

diamond in the rough

2009-07-24T06:27:00.003-05:00

I'm down to my last 4oz of Cotswold. I left this part of the fleece for last because it was really dirty.lots and lots of vm.

after three hours of fluffing and picking i was left with this bag full of soft fibers.

thankfully this fleece picked and shook out pretty easy,its just so time consuming.

this is whats left over. i hate to throw anything out but this is just too dirty.

now back to carding some more.hopefully on Monday i'll have time to dye some of this up and get back to spinning.

Carding....

2009-07-23T08:09:00.004-05:00

I've been Carding like crazy.So far i've got 1.2 lb carded into eight 2oz batts.

It's amazing what you get out of something gnarly looking as this:

and thats after washing it several times,the tips will just not come clean.

into something soft and fluffy as this:

i still have about another half pound of this mix to go .i mixed the x-bred (soft and fluffy) with the corriedale (soft ,shine,fluffy) and think thats going to be a pleasure to spin.staple lenght is about 5 inches.But first the dyeing part.

After i run out of corriedale i'll have at least three more pounds of x-bred fleece left.

more carding,but the resulting fiber is worth all the efford,at least its all washed now.

Hunting for a local source

2009-07-22T14:45:00.003-05:00

Hubster came home yesterday with the news that one of our neighbors had bought a bunch of sheep."Oh goodie" i yelled, clapping my hands. maybe he'll sell me some fleeces!!
told hubster to ask what kind they where and if he'd be willing to let me have some of the fleeces next time he'd run into him.false alarm, they are some kind of meat sheep with very short hair.
well, back to the drawing board. i think I'm going to contact the local FFA and 4 -H chapters and see if they can help me find someone with sheep, llama or alpacas. i also have some connections to professional AKC dog breeders, i might find someone with a long haired breed who might let me have theyre combings . I'm also going to put an add in the paper that I'm looking for fleeces.
something close by ,maybe a 30 mile radius. that will be efficient enough not using too much gas picking it up. frankly the postage on shipped fleeces (or anything else )is just killing me. I find a great deal on e-bay or other sites and by the time postage is added its not a good deal at all anymore.local, local is the ticket, pick it up in person.

A little sore but HAPPY...

2009-07-20T07:26:00.011-05:00

FINALLY!!! After 5 years hiatus (since my introduction to 'The Cancer'), we finally got to go to an overnight trail ride.The occasion was our annual St.Jude Benefit Ride.Last time we attended that was 3 years ago for just a few hours in the morning, since i could not handle our usual July heat which brings me to the fortunate circumstance that we could actually go this year and stay.

At this time of year we usually boil with temps around the upper 90's or even triple digits with very high humidity which makes it feel even worse.This year we got a lucky break.forecast since last week was unseasonably cool temperatures,so we decided to risk it. It took us most of the week to load everything on the bus , get the tack sorted out and cleaned up .we didn't get to put shoes on our horses but that was OK, the trails are mainly in the woods or sandy.

At the last minute the bus had some kind of air conditioner trouble and we almost didn't get to go,but hubster fixed it.

Well, Thursday afternoon we had a line of thunderstorms run through and after that the temps really started to come down.We got out there early Friday morning and secured a very nice camp site.

After setting up camp i just could not wait any longer, my stepdaughter and i saddled up our horses and rode around the 60 acres campsite and adjacent farm grounds (trails didn't open till next morning).

(F)Red (the mule), Vandal, Charley

As soon as i slid my butt into the saddle i felt like a new person. My,do i miss my riding!!

Early saturday morning we saddled up our horses (hubster rides the mule) and off we went.

We ended up wayyyy on top of the mountain at Davis's Farm.When you get there they have hand squeezed lemonade( as much as you want) and home made cookies(as many as you want) and a view for miles around.

The trails where beautiful and the weather perfect:low 80's ,low humidity, light breeze,little white clouds here and there, just perfect.

Brandie on Charley and John on Fred

After a couple hours lunch break at the camp we where off again.

The trail we took was one of the most beautiful rides i had in a long ,long time. All in the woods , big old trees, along and partially in a super clear creek.Unfortunately the camera was sitting forgotten and lonely at the camp, bugger!!

If i could do this on a regular basis i would not need to take that stupid depression medication.

We got back late that afternoon, build a nice camp fire and cooked us some really good cowboy stew, sat by the fire for awhile and went to bed .

We decided next morning not to go out again but give our sore behinds and the horses a break. We cooked us up a nice breakfast,broke camp and went home.All in all it was a great weekend(the best time I've had in a looong time).We weren't as sore as we thought we would be and I made hubster promise that we'll do this again soon.

As soon as i get the bus unloaded, washed clothes,put everything back where it belongs I'll be getting back to spinning again.I've got some polwarth/merino-corriedale carded up that i need to dye.Probably first thing tomorrow morning, i'll post pics of the outcome.There are several 2 oz batts.I'll spin some and offer some in the shop.

Spinning fool...

2009-07-15T06:36:00.004-05:00

HELP!!! I caught the spinning bug!!All i want to do right now is spin, no knitting,no weaving, I WANT TO SPIN!!!

First,here is some more hand spun i finally got of my Kromski Prelude last night.It's been there half done for awhile:

This pic was taken with a flash so it looks grey, reflecting the light.

It really is jet black

Dave, I'm catching up!!

Not hardly. I've got to add up all the yardage but it probably isn't even half a mile.But I'm making a small dent in my fiber stash.Plus I'm getting a lot more confident ,sure and relaxed with my spinning. I finally start to understand the workings of the wheel better (adjusting tension etc.)

This is a super wash merino with a lot of short bits of recycled sari silk mixed in while carding.

208yards

two ply

11 wpi / worsted

very soft and drapey.

Next i got several pounds! of a merino-polworth x bred/ corriedale 50/50 mix fiber to work with.I've got most of the raw fleeces washed and dried and started to card them together.

Boy i wish my carder was motorized! I'll get hubster to take a look , maybe he can hook something up. It sure would make the whole process a lot faster and easier.

I wont get to dye it until next week since we are preparing for our annual St. Jude Benefit Trail Ride coming up this weekend. It's amazing how much work and preparation goes into 2 days of camping, especially with horses.

Maybe i can find some already prepared, ready to spin fiber in the stash .
Before i get lost in all that fiber i need to show you something. I'm almost ashamed to because it really is a mess.My studio is one of those ready assembled sheds you've probably seen sitting in peoples yards everywhere.This one is a generous 12x24.

We are renting to own , we've got 10 more month until its ours.Since we don't own it yet outright hubster didn't want to do anything to it until then (just in case we have to give it back).

That means there is no insulation, no water, no permanent electric.

That means no heat in winter ,no air conditioning in summer.So the time i can spend in there actually working is very limited.Also its not in the spot i want it to be yet either. All this is going to be remedied as soon as its paid off.Until then its used more as a storage building than a 'working in studio'.And this is what it looks like inside as of right now:

what a mess!!

But my yarns,fibers,equipment is save and dry and.. out of the house.

(goes off to find something spinnable...)

more hand spun

2009-07-14T06:31:00.008-05:00

And here is some more hand spun i finished yesterday.

151 yards of "oh,so soft",squishy,yummy BFL.

It's a worsted /bulky weight with 7 wpi.Thick and thin but not extreme.

I love the colors,they are intense but muted;fall colors.

I don't usually knit with thick yarns like that so i will be offering

this at my shop.If i don't sell it i might use it for weaving a scarf or knitting a cowl.If i do weave with it i will use the thinner green yarn from the prvious post as warp.I dyed the two to color compliment each other.

handspun stash is growing

2009-07-13T06:07:00.008-05:00

I've been spinning the last few days (no socks to knit at the moment) and so my spinning challenge stash is growing.

I spun up the green BFL batt i dyed a couple of weeks ago.I used my new fast whorl i got from "The Woolery". Setup was 14:1 for very thin singles and then plied with each other at the same sett up.It came out really nice , except for the first 20 yards or so.

for some odd reason the ply was very loose but got better after several yards even though i didn't adjust a thing.

compare the left strings to the right ones. what happened?

i got 380 yards of fingering weight yarn, 16 wpi. the yarn is so very soft.I think i will spin the other batt thicker,this fiber is so soft and fluffy it lends itself to thicker yarn with its long staple.

this is the real color of the yarn:

my goodness, i finally got this post done! it took me two days of trying,pictures would not load

two more for Canada

2009-07-09T16:33:00.004-05:00

A recent customer loved her socks so much that she ordered two more pair.Repeat orders give me a great sense of accomplishment and pleasure,tells me I'm doing something right.

I've been working on them since last week (that's why i didn't post anything in a few days,I'm busy! )that and there is just nothing going on right now (summer blah's).
The heat is so bad at this time of year that I'm practically housebound.It never used to affect me much but i think the chemo has made me very intolerant towards humid heat(cold has bothered me all my life,65F and under and I'm freezing,so that's the same).dry heat, not so much ,which would be OK if we lived in Arizona.so I've got until about 9 am and then I'm stuck inside(wal -mart is very empty at 6:30 am!!).

I'll try to get back to spinning tomorrow. i ordered a fast flyer set up for my ashford last week and had no chance to use it yet.Better get these socks ready for shipping,Canada,here they come!!

BFL

2009-06-19T13:08:00.004-05:00

I finally got around to dyeing about 9 oz of BFL roving I've had since last year (still got about 9 oz left)

I got 4 oz plus each of an emerald and kelly green with some light purple:

and another 4 oz of several shades of green (teal,kelly,emerald,), yellows,browns ,burgundy and violet.There is no blue ,but for some odd reason it shows in the pic and even after taking several in different light the teal still shows up as blue.

The colors are a little more vibrant than i had hoped for but i think that will be just fine for a scarf or shawl.

I'm going to try and spin this into a sport weight singles and weave it up in a twill pattern.Don't know yet what ill use for warp.I've ordered the new Spinning Book: Amy King "Spin Control: Techniques for Spinning the Yarns You Want" and it should be here by the end of next week.

I'll wait till then with the spinning, maybe i can glean some tips out of it that really lets me spin the yarn i want! Hope springs eternal :)

Canada,here they come...

2009-06-18T07:00:00.003-05:00

These funky patchwork socks are going to Canada.I knit these while watching tv.

They where listed in the shop all of 1.5 hours before they where sold.

Business has been awfully slow this year.i used to have a sale almost every day, sometimes several, now if i got a sale once a week if i'm lucky.

but these socks usually go fast. I've already started on another pair.

Weaving wise im still working on the baby blanket.this will be a seamed together one since my loom is not wide enough to do the whole thing in one swoop. so i'll make two pannels and sew them together.

I wish i was good enough yet to enter Dave's 'Handweavers Swap'.

I'll practice more and if they keep it going i'll be able to enter maybe in the fall.

I'm going to try and dye some today.I 've got this supernice BFL roving ,and tons of it,i need to do something with. I've had it for over a year .I'm curious how it will spin up. It feels like a soft cloud now.pics will follow.

new addition

2009-06-15T12:40:00.004-05:00

Announcing a new addition to our family:

Daniel,my new grandson:

Happy:

NOT happy:

lungs are working GOOD!!
he was born yesterday at 11:30 am, 4 days earlier than expected, during a BAD thunderstorm.

mother and baby are doing well and are expected to go home tomorrow.

when we got home from hospital we found this in our yard

boy did we get lucky with this one, if it had fallen any other way it would have caused major damage to either garage,boat,jeep top, building supplies.

more handspun

2009-06-13T10:47:00.004-05:00

here is a little more hand spun to add to Dave's spinning challenge:
from this layered batt in very bright pastels:

to these two bobbins of very bright singles:

to this one skein of loosely plied,very bright multy colored yarn:

It's only 102 yards/60gr/2.1/8 oz, so it'll be an accent yarn for something bigger.

I wound the yarn into a cake and plied the singles from both ends, no leftovers!

I might list it in the shop.

BLUE (if you're not into sad stuff you might want to skip this post)

2009-06-09T11:58:00.004-05:00

I had the sad duty this morning to take Blue to the vet and have him put to sleep.

I had Blue for a little over 16 years from the time he was 6 weeks old.

He was a good companion, true and loyal,never in all these years did he disappoint me. He was a great playmate to my two boys growing up,protective towards strangers but gentle with the livestock, especially the baby's, from newborn goats to chicks.He accompanied me on many , many miles riding my horse through the woods while he was younger.He had a good,long live ,never missed a meal.He will be greatly missed.

Bye old buddy,may you have lots of rabbits to chase and hot dogs to eat at your new forever home.

BLUE 1993-2009

Hot Rods, Waterfalls & Indians

2009-06-08T08:28:00.005-05:00

John and I looove antique Hot Rods ( John used to own almost every street rod made in the 50's,60's and 70's, and he regrets not keeping even one of them,they'd be worth lots of $$$ today!). So we took advantage of a super beautiful Sunday and went to our local park where they had a Hot Rod Car Show going on ( connected to the annual Helen Keller festival).So, here are pictures ( a lot of pictures ) of some of the cars, and other sites in the park:

John drooling over this late 30's early 40's model ford

I really liked this one a LOT!!

John calling his broker to see if maybe...? (just kidding , no broker here , just broke.)

Isn't this beautiful?

How about this one...?

If you never been to an antique car show and your not really interested and you get the chance to go to one , GO. You will love it , i promise. These cars are so beautiful and the work and care to rebuilding them is unbelievable ( so are the $$$$ spend).One can't help falling in love with them.These pics are not even close to seeing the amazing vehicles in person.I can never pick just one favorite. Not one ugly one in the bunch.

This one?...

or the one on the left? no... the right....

This statue of an Indian woman holding a baby , standing by a grave commemorates the 1830s removal of 90.000 southern native Americans by force,walking them hundreds of miles in appalling conditions. Thousands died.This event is known as the 'Trail of Tears'. Many of the Indians came through Tuscumbia. The Indians where treated well by the locals and helped with food and clothing which saved hundreds of lives.

open weave scarf part ll

2009-06-05T11:39:00.003-05:00

So today i washed the scarf and it did full some. Size is now 13x66.

I'll wash it again, i want it to tighten up just a tad more.But i really like this one, it's very light and oh, so soft and drapey.

I also like the texture it has with the different kind of yarns used.

and the supple colors in the chenille tape gives it an elegant look.

after i'm through fulling it to where i want it i'll brush it to raise the mohair and give it a nice halo.

Now to the next project...

open weave scarf part l

2009-06-04T10:58:00.007-05:00

This is the new project i put on the loom yesterday after the towels came off:

Right now it's 14x70 inch unfinished.
I had a ball of a three ply mixed yarn , one strand of white mohair, one strand of tan silk and one strand of a multy colored rayon chenille ribbon.
I separated the ribbon and left the mohair/silk strands together. I also had two balls of soft tan bamboo yarn:

I'm using the ribbon and the bamboo for warp and the mohair/silk for weft ,interspaced with a few picks of ribbon every so often.

The colors are very soft

and the weave is very open, 8epix8ppi
I hope it will full up a little when finished

and of course even with a plain tabby setup i've got a threading mistake. I already fixed one very obvious booboo and that was quite a mess so i'm going to leave this one alone, nothing is perfect!

...and another Towel

2009-06-01T17:02:00.004-05:00

I finished my second huckaback towel :

actually i like it better than the first one, more colorful, i liiike colors!!

now i have to find my sewing machine out in the studio. i haven't seen it in a couple of years. it's probably buried under tons of fleece/yarn/fibers.

but i do want to finish them pretty quickly and be able to use them.

These came out pretty big:23x35 before washing.

already got a new project lined up, I'll post about that later.

Late Easter?

2009-06-01T13:26:00.005-05:00

Lookie what John brought home yesterday:

soo cute!!

Iused to raise bunnys years ago but never had to hand raise one , also there is a difference in wild and domesticated rabbits.

So igoogled about wild baby bunnies.

and was informed that they are notoriuosly hard to raise. They have a almost 100% rate of not making it past the weaning state.

I also found out that at this bunnies stage it should be pretty much weaned and that it has a better chance on making it on its own.

So this morning we took it back to exactly the spot where it was found( just not right in the road:) and released.

with some luck its mother is still around.

I wish you the best, little bunny...

Pretty Shuttle

2009-06-01T13:09:00.005-05:00

I piddled around with the saw and sander this morning and made this very pretty Stick Shuttle:

of course i immediately put it in my etsy shop :)
It's 16" long and has a bevelled edge so it can be used to beat in the weft too.
I'll make some more in different lengths in the course of this week but should someone want one , let me know and I'll make one for you.
I'll also make some inkle shuttles and I'll experiment with a rag shuttle design.
Fortunately we have oodles and oodles of these beautiful cedar boards left so i wont be running out of material soon.

Tyson is growing

2009-05-31T17:50:00.005-05:00

Here is a new pic of Tyson:

He/she is loosing its baby fluff and growing real feathers. Right now its sporting a cute little mohawk. And yes, it's still in the house!
And for all of those who asked: Tyson is a chicken that we hand raise from the day it was hatched.

Little bitty gloves

2009-05-31T17:44:00.003-05:00

Just finished these little fingerless gloves for the 5 year old daughter of a customer:

arent they cute? but i tell you ,very tricky cause theyre sooo little!

WEEEE...

2009-05-31T09:54:00.004-05:00

Just took my first huckaback towel towel off the loom. I used the Two Stick Heading described by 'Dust Bunnies under my Loom" here , because i still have warp left for a second towel but wanted to see how the first one came out without having to wait to finish both.

I had intended for them to be one color each, one blue, one red.

After i started i realized i didn't dye enough yardage of each color so i decided to stripe it , i call it "Red, White and Blue".

I had one warp string break, which i fixed:

and i discovered a threading error about halfway through(fifth square from the left) in one of the squares. It shouldn't be at all noticeable after finishing

and here it is

unfinished size : 22" x 35" its BIG

Lease Sticks for sale

2009-05-29T14:23:00.003-05:00

Well, i guess I'll be offering the Lease Sticks sooner than i thought. After my first order (thanks Dave :), I decided there is no time than the present and to start listing them in my etsy shop. Anybody in need of a sett , don't hesitate to contact me I'll be making as many as i can this weekend.

more spun yarn for Dave's SoSC

2009-05-29T10:00:00.004-05:00

I finally finished my first batch of the super wash merino "periwinkle blue".

I got four bobbins full of very fine singles:

I plied two bobbins into this very fine, fragile two ply.

The twist on the singles is not as much as i wanted but it will be OK for weft. It really is very soft.

I got 278 yards out of the two bobbins and should get about that much on the other two.

12-13 WPI.

Now of to spinning the dark denim...

OTHER people have cats/dogs...

2009-05-29T08:49:00.003-05:00

Not us, oh no!

WE have a spoiled rotten chicken:

Tyson and hubster taking a break:

Hey, that's my spot..again.. :(

None of the dogs are allowed in the house but Tyson hangs out on the couch!

He doesn't know yet but by the time the weekend is through he will be outside.

Poop spots grow with the chick.

DIY lease sticks

2009-05-28T17:00:00.007-05:00

Today i finally finished those home made lease sticks I've been wanting to make.

I used red cedar boards we had left over from panelling our living room. They re rough cut and have been laying out in the garage for a couple of years.

We cut several 35 inch pieces and ripped them into 1/4 inch thick 2 inch wide sticks.

I got all my tools together:

little hand sander, little saw, scissors, sandpaper(various weights), clamp, something small with rounded edges, pencil.

I cut one of the long sticks into two 15 inch pieces, clamped them down and sanded both sides until they where nice and smooth:

before & after :

then i marked the edges with whatever round something i can find:

and sanded them down:

then i marked the lines for the beveled edges (one long side and the ends):

sanded them down, hand sanded a little with the fine sand paper , rubbed them with lind seed oil and ... voila:

i did the two 15 inch and one 32 inch today before the rain made me quit.

I like them a lot. i might make some to put in my shop.

Speedy's first vacation (warning:lots of pics)

2009-05-27T07:36:00.004-05:00

We went to our favorite camping spot on the Tennessee River Thursday for a long weekend of relaxation.We took the four wheeler and the boat (yes , we are rednecks and proud of it!)
Of course we had to take Speedy along, can't leave the baby home alone!
Oh, by the way, Speedy is now "Tyson" like in ..."we do chicken right."
Sorry, we do have a rather dark kind of humor.

Anywho, we got there Thursday afternoon, set up camp:

Yes, that is a school bus! We bought it three years ago and converted it into an RV, they are called Skoolies. It's a work in progress but this is what it looks like right now:

front (kitchenette):

back: table, bed :

there is still lots to be done(curtains,shelves,small bathroom,paint outside) but its usable for right now.

So, we settled down for some relaxing... until the family found out. All of a sudden we had a camp full of people.
As all good parents would, we fed them , entertained them and after awhile we where alone again.

We went fishing , John got lucky and caught a BIG catfish:

going to release the poor thing:

then we sat by the fire for a spell:

next day we went beach combing a little:

napped a lot, ate a lot(always tastes better grilled on an open fire).

enjoyed a beautiful sunset:

Next couple of days was a little rainy, not all the time but several showers a day with breaks of sunshine in between, so we never got to use the boat. You definitely do not want to be caught on the river in bad weather!
All in all it was a good weekend but I'm also glad to be back home.

more fiber carded

2009-05-19T13:07:00.004-05:00

just spend a few minutes on the carder (had to get away from the wheel a while, my back felt like breaking in half).

I found some more superwash, supersoft merino in a soft, soft baby blue:

and then i took my bag of very bright leftovers from previous cardings and put them all together and got this crazy batt:

That should make a cool yarn!!! i think when i'm done with the periwinkle/denim (got two and a half bobbins so far) i'll spin this one next.

NOT a big help

2009-05-19T08:09:00.005-05:00

Speedy has now graduated to secretary(not a very good one):

When i work on the PC it'll scamper up my leg and hop on to the table.From there it( we still don't know if hen or rooster, pleese don't let it be a rooster !)will piddle around on the keyboard,(thank goodness it's not heavy enough to compress the keys, yet) check out the mouse, peck here, peck there,poop here,poop there(man, it poops a lot!!).I'm constantly wiping off poop. Speedy is not allowed on my shoulder anymore for that reason. It's the lap with a towel under it.
It runs loose in the house most of the day but stays really close to us.If i leave the room in a hurry and it looses me it gets really upset, running around, calling (good lungs, very noisy).
Y'all should hear the noise it makes running across the kitchen floor with it's flat little feet! Too cute !
i really don't know what its going to do when we have to put it out(unfortunately chickens don't potty train).SPEEDY! not on my slippers !!!...

By the way, we don't know what happened to our owl chick.A few days after i took the last pictures i noticed that the mama didn't sit on the nest any more at all, i also could not see the chick peeking out anymore.Mama hung around for a few more days then disappeared. Sad!
I had really hoped it would make it!

Catch of the day

2009-05-17T17:52:00.005-05:00

John caught some nice size catfish out of our pond this morning.

I fillet them just minutes after they came out of the water.
This will be a typical souther dinner : collard greens, hush puppies, fried catfish fillets.
We'll be eatin' good tonight....

Testing...testing...

2009-05-16T15:27:00.004-05:00

Spun a few yards test yarn with the light periwinkle blue.

this pic really doesnt do the color justice, i'll try to get a better one whenever the sun comes out (if ever, haven't seen it in days,just rain, rain ,rain)

it came out just the way i wanted. perfect! I love this fiber, it spins like butter and is sooo soft.

i took a little and plied it with itself.I got a ratio of 16 wpi.I think thats somewhere between a fingering and lace. Sweet!! I did try to ply some with the mohair but didn't like that at all!

so, i'll be plying it with itself and maybe some i will mix the colors in a barber pole ply.This will take me several days to do, since its so thin and i've got 12 oz of this.

back to the wheel...

Spinning challenge

2009-05-16T11:57:00.005-05:00

so here is some more fiber i am fixing to spin up for Dave's Summer Spinning Challenge:

I've got about 4 oz of the dark and 8 oz of the light . It's a superwash merino and the colors are light periwinkle? and a medium denim. The fiber is supersoft and has a lovely shine.

I'll try to spin it a thin as possible(maybe i can get it in a lace weight?) and then i'll probably ply it with some very thin mohair in a like color (or close to it) so it will full and stick to each other when woven.

I've got some Lyon Brand Moonlight Mohair that i'm going to separate, using the mohair strand to ply with.

Off to the wheel i go...

Rockaby chicky

2009-05-11T14:26:00.004-05:00

Speedy has decided that my foot on the threadle during spinning is a nice place to take a snooze, i guess the rocking motion does it. What a Baby!!!

getting comfy:

close your little eyes:

sound asleep:

everybody go : aaaawwww...

spun, plied,nowhere to go...

2009-05-11T12:22:00.004-05:00

i plied the singles i spun up last week and got the softest ,squishiest yarn.
I'm very pleased with it, this time it did not come out harsh and wiry.
soft, soft. soft!!
I like the colors too, i wasn't quite sure if i should ply it with itself or a solid single but then i would have to make my mind up about the color for that: light, dark?? so i decided just to ply with itself and i think it looks just great:

I've got 555 yards so far, maybe another 100 or so to go.
This should make a good size shawl for ME, ME ,ME!!! :)

now i have to decide what to use for warp. I've got a commercially spun soft 100% merino yarn, i think that will do nicely. so now, what color do i dye that? dark brown, light brown, burgundy?
i really don't know, I'm not mentally there yet to envision what it may look like.
well i have some time to decide because first i have to finish the towels that are still occupying the loom.

Chick magnet

2009-05-09T10:26:00.006-05:00

we have another new addition to the family:

Speedy:

speedy was born (or egged?) on wednesday. He/she(don't know yet if hen or rooster) is a Auracana-mix . Mother is still sitting on the rest of the eggs( i dont think they will hatch), so i took speedy and brought him/her inside to hand raise(another spoiled pet !).

Speedy took up with John right away:

I m a wee bit jealous:they're sitting on the couch in a huddle , feeping(word?) at each other and i swear once in a while they look at me and snicker! i sense conspiracy!!

speedy snuggles up on johns neck (hey, thats MY spot!!) and goes sound to sleep.

It calls desperately for him when he's gone.

As soon as john comes in the house he's like:' "where is my little buddy?"

I've been replaced by another chick!