Slow, but its progress!

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.

Multi tasking

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.

Big goodie bag

 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.

Ugh, this heat!

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.

I 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....

Books

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?!).

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 !

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...

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.