100g spun

and it looks like this:



sitting on my Tour de France shirt (remember it from the thrift store??)


and Louise my wheel sporting the shirt. She deserves to wear the yellow shirt too!


Otherwise, it's kind of a boring day for me. It was a rest day for Wii Active which was nice because I am a little sore today. Fireworks tonight and maybe a band concert beforehand at the city center.

Have a great 4th!

DD's craftiness

I finally have a picture of DD's art work that was in the gallery at the Baum School of Art from her summer class. We need to get it matted and framed. I love it!









DD has a puppet project for school that is due this week. She had to read a book and choose a character to make a papertowel tube puppet of. She chose Amelia Bedelia.

I think because the book wasn't much of a challenge for her... At any rate, I taught her how to sew by hand, wet felt and needle felt. Not a bad accomplishment for a 7 year old. She doesn't like poking herself with the needle when she sews.. I should get her a thimble I guess. I admit to helping her out. I drew on the felt and she cut out the pieces then stitched them together. She wimped out though and used Barbie shoes... at least she's clever!

Here's a close-up of the face. The eyes are little googly ones, the nose is felted wool added to the face and the mouth is drawn on with a marker.

As for me, I cast on Knitty's Jackyll and Hyde for DS2. He has cold urticaria and I want to avoid the hives this winter. I may add the face with white yarn. I like it because it will cover all his skin if he needs it, or he can wear it just as a hat. I need to make him mittens as well... plus finish all the Christmas gifts... guess I shouldn't be blogging but better off knitting.

I was spinning last night. I have all but finished the Targhee that is flicked.. of course there's more to flick AND I washed another Targhee fleece last night, so it will never end. I have 2 more raw fleeces to wash, then the fibers will be in varying stages for spinning. Should keep me busy this winter!

I found a pattern for DH's vest from the
Best of Interweave Knits: Our favorite designs form the first 10 years. He likes it. Now to prepare the fiber: dark brown/black Finn.. it's so soft. I hope i spin it fairly.

The Mannings

Wow... what a great day.

Guess I don't need to tell you which one is me. If you know anything about me from reading my blog, you'll know I'm the one in tie dye! Thanks for going with me Lea! I had a blast.... I'll post animal pictures later, but unfortunately I left my brain at home and didn't take pictures of the spinning bee or any of the demos as a matter of fact. :-/. Thanks Tanya for filling that void!

My first impression was that the store is unbelieveable... truly a fiber candy shop to the nth degree! Outside the demo area was a bit small but we were in no way cramped. The weather was perfect..sunny but lots of shade under the big trees and a nice breeze to boot!

We got there just before 10AM. Took a quick walk through just the front of the store. Then came outside. There were 3 sheep (Romneys) waiting to be shorn which took place during the day at well spaced intervals. First stop natural dying with Juanita Breidenbaugh, what a fount of information this woman is! Her first batch of the day used alum and cream of tartar as the mordant (pre soaked wool) into baths of dye... Lea you need to help me out here.... The second time we visited the dyes, that wool had come out of the pots and new wool was in that had mordants of iron, cream of tartar and a bit of alum. These wools had a much deeper, warmer color as the end result. Juanita had notebooks full of samples that showed the same fiber treated with different mordants but dyed with the same dye. So interesting... I know it's beyond me now, but it's opened a myriad of possibilities.

There was an area for flax processing - preparation and spinning by Eric Weit and Leigh Spencer. Here's Leigh spinning off flax into linen off the distaff. So interesting although I know it would be quite some time before I'd spin flax. The presenters were wearing linen clothing of course!

Then to the RIgid Heddle Weaving with Kathy Heindel. She and one of her students made it look so easy. I didn't stay here long for fear I'd find a new hobby!

We went back to the car to get our wheels because the next area was fiber preparation, with Sally Jenkins, and of course after it's prepared you need to spin! Sally is the nicest, most helpful woman who hails from Maryland. She had lotss of dyed fiber pieces and a drum carder (along with many sets of hand cards, a set of combs, a dog flicker - well it's not really a flicker but that's what you can use it for) and a picker. We were permitted to take her pretty fiber and play with color combos on the drum carder to then spin at our wheels (or drop spindles....there were plenty of those there as well) I now have a cute little skein of some pretty fiber and some more to spin, but more on that later



While we were spinning the sheep shearing started so I popped over to watch Michele Riley shear her sheep. She's so fascinating (and speedy) to watch, has such control over her sheep and is so informative about what to look for in finding a nice fleece and what to avoid when choosing a fleece. Plus her fresh raw fleeces were priced very reasonably.






Some before and after shots of this sheep. He's hard to see but it's the sheep in the far left of the pic, still in his wooly coat.





This pic on the right in his nakedness. Reminds me of the sheep in Wallace and Gromit's movie A Close Shave!





The store, the store is unbelieveable... truly you have to see this place to believe it. Everything a fiber person could want is there. I showed tremendous restraint however, even though there was one raw fleece that was SHOUTING my name (a BFL, border leicester cross) I walked away with a flicker which will be great for the targhee I'm working with right now AND the rambos to come, and a small Kromski niddy noddy. I taught myself to Navajo Ply tonight after I watched Lea do it this afternoon. It's really easy and am so glad that I can do it now. You'll see pictures of that on my new niddy noddy later.

I'll add pictures to this post tmrw but I'm so tired right now I really need to go to bed. The kids will be up at 6 for sure cuz DH wore them out today between the playground in the morning, grocery shopping and the pool in the afternoon. Boy I love that man!

I leave you with some pictures of the camelids. LLamas and alpacas... Aren't they cute!

One FO

Finally. It's only a dishcloth. I've been in such a slump. Not feeling like doing much of anything. I started to swatch the blurple yarn, but decided I think I may make regular mittens instead. Really I should get knitting on mom's felted slippers, then I think I'd feel better. Perhaps I'll CO today for that project.

I can't post a picture of the dishcloth yet, cuz it's from the Monthly DIshcloth KAL group and today is only day 3. They won't be finished for a few days at least. I just figured out what pattern it was and finished the cloth. Wierd cuz I expected a St. Patty's Day theme...

I found a place in town with round chopsticks. So I boughr 2 dozen for the project at school. Yesterday at school I sharpened the ends. Last night I sanded them, today I'll lightly wax them and they'll be ready. We're using rubber bands on the ends that keep the stitches on.... I have 9 more pounds of yarn to rewind and the fun begins March 12. I hope I'm not biting off for than I can chew!

i was spinning more on the drop spindle last night. I think it's time to buy my own, cuz I think I'd like a top whorl. The bottom whorl gets to the floor to fast for me LOL I'm doing the Lincoln Longwool that way. Kind of making it thicker cuz I'm thinking about making a rug with that yarn... We'll see.

I also washed up some Targhee that I bought from a sweet woman (whom I'll certainly buy from again) cuz Lea had some of it spun posted on her web and I got itchy to do mine! It's drying. I washed about a pound or so. Man there's a bunch of fiber in that box LOL I think it will be really nice.

Also I prepaid for 4 pounds of this year's shearing of a Polypay fleece. I'm anxious to see what it's like.

And my favorite aunt, who now lives in CA, has a friend with llamas, who said that he'll send me his spring shearing from his farm. I know it's not soft (llama wool in general) but it will be great for felted bags etc.... and it's free fiber ;-) On a sadder note, she's been diagnosed with colon cancer. Surgery is slated for March 14, so prayers are appreciated.

Yesterday on the way to school, the serpentine belt fell off the car. It's happened twice before (can you say design flaw?), so I figured what it was. Serendipitiously, it happened not far from a service station. I was able to maneuver the car to the station where they were able to fix it. Of course I had to leave the car there while I went to work. A nice co-worker came to pick me and the boys up and took us to our respective spots (we were about 7 minutes away from where we should have been) and after school my best buddy, whom I work with, took us back to the garage. DH had nothing to do with the whole process. I found out at dinner that he was home all morning and could have rescued us... of course it would have taken MUCH longer (because of the distance) so it all worked out fine. My luck with this van lately has just been BAD..... But I'm thankful it was a quick fix and things went very smoothly.. I work with a bunch of great people!

Pictures, pictures, pictures

As promised from yesterday…in order of completion:


Pattern: 3 Cabled cloth
Mid-Jan KAL from Monthly Dishcloth KAL group
Yarn: Lily's Sugar and Cream
Color: Sunshine
Needle Size: 7

This was quite a different cloth for me. I've been working on cables on the never ending poncho so that wasn't the challenge. But having the cables run right up to the short border, makes it kind of wavy.... I think the border needs to be wider at the top and bottom for the cloth to lay flat.. Just my 2¢ It was fun to use my KP Options kit though... I really love those needles



Pattern: Strawberry-Mary Knitting and Crochet Corner mid-Jan KAL
Yarn: Lily's Sugar and Cream
Color: Red
Needle Size: 7
It took me to read someone else's guess after I finished this to see the pattern, but now it's clearly visible to me. Thanks Mary

Next up is the fiber that I received in some fluffy mail yesterday :-) I love touching it... Can't wait to spin but I need to finish the Romney I have first! Thanks Lea :-)

From left to right:
TOP ROW- Merino Tencel- Ashland bay by Paradise Roving
Polwarth Roving by Spirit Trail Fibers
Brown BFL/Alpaca Cinnamon by Paradise Fibers

MIDDLE - Merino 125 by Little Barn Inc
Merino/Tussah (70/30) Ashland Bay Autumn colorway by Paradise Fibers
Finn Top by Misty Mountain Farm

BOTTOM - California Varigated Mutant top by Little Barn Inc
BFL by Copper Moose
WIldberry Colonial Wool (Ashland Bay) by Copper Moose

They are all very soft but I love the merinos (naturally) but the polwarth is so soft it feels like cotton. I'm thinking it is a cross between polypal and coopwarth sheep but not sure. The BFL is also heavenly. The picture doesn't do justice to these gorgeous fibers. And really they need to be petted to be appreciated :-)

Lastly, my lastest spinning adventure. This represents about 2 bobbins worth. It's 345 yards give or take. Still thick and thin but the overtwist is all but gone. I've learned to slow my foot down and relax through the process. In fact, I relaxed so much Friday night that I fell asleep spinning. I found some of my hair spun in with the wool. Guess it didn't help that it was after 2 AM!

Here it is in it's skein...
I'm wondering if I should pack it away for when I become much better spinner and want to spin thick and thin but can't get it that way anymore. LOL