off work on labor day

is that a oxymoron?

DH and DD went to the first annual Labor Day parade in town. He said it was kind of pathetic and extremely short. DD was happy cuz they threw candy to the kids.

This afternoon we all went to the pool for the last time of the season. About a month ago I 'misplaced' DS2 and my membership cards, so DH was taking the kids usually 2 at a time without me. Today while going through his fanny pack, looking for change for DD for the snack bar, I found our cards. He had insisted that they weren't there, but I could have sworn I had put them there. I had looked all over the house and couldn't find them so I chalked it up to 'the borrowers' Go figure... oh well at least I know I'm not nuts!

After dinner DH and DD went to the grocery store and I set about to do some more chores, like cleaning the kitchen, folding laundry etc. Earlier in the day I was straightening up a corner in the basement so tonight I decided to wash up some fleece. This is a Romney/BFL/BL cross I bought last fall and had only washed about half of it. The total fleece weight is 7 lbs raw. I got it from a semi-local farm where the shepherdess shears the sheep with hand scissors... not hand shears, scissors like we're talking little Fiskars that are the size of embroidery scissors. I MUST go see this sometime. She harness trains them. Anyway, there are NO second cuts and the fleece is really quite clean. Two washes and a rinse and it came out looking like this. I am really happy. Can't wait to spin Shasta! The locks are long and lovely. Reminds me a bit of Fuzzy (my first fleece) but only softer.

I finished the cloth for my exchange partner. I'll pack up the goodies and mail it to her this week! It was a fun knit. I'll post pics in a month on Opening Day.

Back to work tmrw. At least it's a short week!

Winging it!

It's the last day of the Thanksgiving holiday vacation and what a rainy one it is!

Yesterday, on the way home from church I stopped to call Marilyn from Rocky Top Farm in Ottsville and we met for me to pick up Shasta's fleece. 7 pounds of white Romney/BFL/BL mix; 7 inch staple and micron count of 31, pretty nice :-) it's washing up nicely, but will take me a while to complete.

I also felted the squatty sidekick. It's really cute. Now to get the lining finished. I'm afraid the button I inteneded for it's use isn't large enough. I'll use one of the plastic funky ones instead.

I made yummo Squash soup for lunch. I devised the recipe as I went.


Peel and dice longneck (butternut) squash meat. Boil until soft. Mash until smooth.
Combine:

• 3 cups of mashed squash
  
• 1 cup vegetarian vegetable broth
  
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream
  
• 1 can creamed corn
  
• 1/2 cup thinly diced carrots (I cut baby ones)
  
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
  
• 1 tsp sea salt
  
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  
• dash of cinnamon
  

Stir everything and place over medium heat until carrots are tender and everything is heated through. Serve with crusty bread or pita chips.

You can vary it by adding other veggies or (potatoes would be great) and/or shredded cheese (yum) Have fun making it your own!

I also finally chose a stitch pattern for my neice's keyhole scarf. Appropriately it's Dec 25 from the 365 stitches a year perpetual calendar.... I'll be winging this as well. Could be my motto for the day!

mismatched colorways

And I bought it all at the same time from 100purewool.. oh bother! (in my best Winnie the Pooh voice) Now what to do.. guess dad's scarf is going to the frog pond... I think I'll let it rest and start on one of the other gifts. I can use it but alternate skeins every other row... but it just fires me up... I love the pattern, but it's not fun to frog and this wool is sticky if that makes any sense. Here is another shot, just to give you an idea of how much was finished... shed a tear for me please. if I wasn't feeling so overwhelmed with things to make, it wouldn't bother me at all... but gosh I have a pile to do and no time to get it done.



On a happier note, this arrived last week. It's all washed up and ready to comb/card. Just need to find some time. It's incredibly soft and shiny..... Purebred Finn hoggett fleece... mmm mmmm

And a shot of just one lock. Not the best background, but it gives an idea of the crimp.

I am almost finished spinning the second bobbin of the Targhee cross.... so so I'll be plying :-) Then I'll post a picture of that.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to spin dog hair this weekend. It was from a long haired Shepherd. It was going OK, I thought, but the it all went to h**l and back... maybe another day. I should read more about it anyway.

I've got tons to do for school... the school board votes on our proposed contract tomorrow night and to say I'm nervous about the outcome doesn't cover it. The last thing I want is the S word.... That could stink big time!

well.... off to do uncrafty things... and bake some more banana muffins... that will be the highlight of my morning tmrw (eating them of course)

happy crafting

YIPES... no FOs

lots on the needles, but nothing is finished!

The chrysalis is finished though. The cocoon is so strange looking. I guess the strange part was watching how it developed from the caterpillar. My pictures of it aren't that good because they were taken through the netting of the butterfly garden. But now it looks like part of the stick and if you didn't know there was a cocoon there, you'd miss it. Funny because where the head of the caterpillar was/is there are two protrusions that I'm sure will be the antennae of the butterfly. Right now they look like little horns. It completely turned to cocoon late Sunday/early Monday. It's brown. I've read that brown cocoons winter over, so if that's the case we have a long wait to see this butterfly... if not about 10-14 days.

Yesterday I received a lovely lambs fleece of a chocolate brown BFL cross (crossed with Border Leicester) I immediately washed it and it's just lovely.. hardly any grass or bits of VM.... DH decided that he'd like his vest from this fleece instead of the Targhee that I've been flicking all summer. I hope there's enough.. if not, I may have to come up with some creative stuff... either dyeing or striping or something. I spun up two weight samples.. it's really lovely...

My kids started school on Wednesday. It was DS1's first day of Kindergarten. He looked so cute! I can't believe how fast they grow up. I had to go back on Wednesday as well. But not Friday. The kids where I teach start Monday, and I'm not ready at all. This is definitely going to cut into my knitting/spinning time. Oh well... gotta make a living so I can buy more fiber!

4 down, 2 to go

I have 2 cloths to make yet for A. I hope she likes them. I think I'll give them to her before we leave for the shore cuz when we get back, she'll be on vacation (I think) My idea is to do the hot chocolate cloth (in disguise of coffee) and a ballband yet. I wanted to keep a yellow theme, but the hot chocolate cloth will look kind of dumb in yellow so I'm opting for softly taupe. I promise pictures soon.

I've been spinning as well. I've decided that I much prefer the flicker to carding. I'll card the stuff that I pull out of the flicker to get a few rolags when it's all said and done.

I opened up Lily... a rambo/shetland cross fleece I bought a few months ago this morning. My goal is to have her washed by Friday. Guess I should get started on that as well. I have 3 more fleeces to wash and then at least they'll all be ready to pick/clean. There were 2 bags with fleece in the box. At first I was disappointed. The first bag I opened had LOTS of vm and the skirting had left some sheep poo in the fleece.. so I was bumming until I opened bag 2 and that was an incredibly beautiful fleece... OMGosh, I can't wait to spin that baby! I have to add, she's washing up so incredibly.. the nice part is all I've gotten done so far. 12 lingerie bags worth... it's like a cloud! should be easy to clean and flick too :-D

I've been freecycling like crazy, but people say they'll pick up and never show... I mean why respond if you aren't interested?

DD and I started to decorate a wood magazine file today. I bought 3 of them at IKEA on Sunday. We also got a bookshelf like this but only 4 shelves instead of 7, since our other broke, and a dresser for the attic so that my SIL has a place to put her clothes while she's here. Slowly but surely, the back room is emptying out and looking less like an office. I hope to have it all finished by the end of the summer so those sweet little boy babies of ours can sleep in their own space! We found the perfect bunks for them at IKEA as well. Well the picture doesn't look like a bunk, but they had a mattress under the loft, which is perfect for DS2, so we'll be sure to make a return trip while the SIL is here!

I'm really working on getting this place together and that eventually includes my stash. ;-)

Update on knitting

I forgot to mention that at school yesterday 6 of my new knitters didn't show. There was a miscommunication between them and their teachers, so after school on Monday during chorus rehearsal I had 2 students ask if they could come to knitting even though they weren't on the list. Thinking I was down 6, I said sure! Well of the six, 4 of them came and another asked if she could trade spots with one that had been missing... add to that one more and I wound up with 8 new knitters today! Total = 26! My helper is a champ... she totally rocks. I grabbed the newbies, she took the fixes... Now mind you, every single one of them stopped first thing in the morning to grab their knitting to do when they were on down time from the test. I had all fixed but 2. So tonight I had to bring home 12 projects to pick up stitches here and there or to fix YOs or spots where they had knitted in the stitch below.....The picture on the left is what's ready to go back to school tmrw. I had to make sure that all were ready to go, because this group is REALLY enthusiastic. It does my heart good. :-D

On another note, I wanted to post a picture of Lily's fleece as it had been shorn off of her instead of crammed into the little box. That way you can see what a beautiful fleece she produces.

And last but not least, the cloth I did today (no not at work, after I got home)

Pattern: Right Angles Dishcloth by DilysSutherland Dishcloth Fun Mid March KAL
Yarn: Lily's Sugar and Cream
Color: Rosewood
Needle: Size 7 bamboo DPNS

I still can't post my cloth from the Monthly Dishcloth Group KAL because they haven't finnished. They should be done Wednesday but for me that's tmrw cuz I need to sleep. I'll put it all up tmrw night.

DS1 went to the dr. today. He seems to have a slight case of Pneumonia. SO he's on a wicked strong antibiotic. He's been sleeping so much and not eating hardly at all, which is so unlike him on both counts. DH has been home with hhim since Friday, but I can't not go in this week with the knitting thing.

I'm falling asleep at the keyboard.. .time for bed.
Happy crafting

More fleece

My rambo cross arrived today.. and boy is she a beaut. So soft and smells incredibly good... if you're reading this Holly, I kid you not, it was like a sweet smell when I opened the box. It's crammed packed with soft white Lily fleece. The name of the sheep is Lily...Now I really must stop buying fiber... both raw and spun! At least for a bit HAHA

Holly included a bit of roving from the fleece that she had washed up and flicked with her combs. This will give you an idea of how beautiful this yarn's potential is in the right hands... hope that I can do her justice!

Well week 2 of knitting class started today. I had all new kids. One had her grandma give her a crash course yesterday and today she was FLYING! Another boy had knitted before so he was doing well. I had only 1 leftie, but was well armed and taught her alone... in a true left handed fashion. And I had preloaded the knit stitch video from knittinghelp.com from home, so they got to watch that first off. PLUS, my cohort in crime is an experienced knitter. All in all, it went much much better, and the time really flew... 80 minutes with a large group of new knitters is nothing. I stayed after my chorus rehearsal a fixed a few YOs and dropped stitches and brought only 2 or 3 home to fix for the night.

The boys still have a low-grade fever. I think DS2 is just starting and DS1 is on the mend... hopefully they can tough it out tmrw. Poor kids. They were doomed... 2 weeks ago at my school we were missing 16% of the student body (that's like 110 kids) on one of the days. The rest of the days weren't as bad, but still were high in absenteeism.

I finished the Monthly Dishcloth KAL tonight but can't post a picture because they are about 19 rows behind me. I'll put in a little teaser though. I can start on one of the other KALs now that this one is finished :-)

Happy crafting!

I apologize to my camera

It's not a crappy camera... it's a crappy user. As I was trying to take a picture this evening, I noticed the setting for taking pictures for a distance of less than 2 feet. DUH! so here are some more pictures to feast your eyes on!

More marble magnets:



The winter theme. There is also one of a dove flying on a winter night whose picture didn't come out as I'd like.




There are 5 of these that are exactly the same.. My intention is to match them to my mindset: either scattered or I'll have my 'ducks in a row' This picture doesn't do this magnet justice however!




The sports theme. We also have a soccer ball that I couldn't get the picture just right.



The bonbons seemed a bit camera shy as well.




And to give you an idea of how beautiful the ramboulette fleece is:
This was the most difficult to photograph because the camera wanted to focus on the background. I give thanks to DH's lazy boy and it's plain jane green upholstery.

Now that I have discovered how truly inept I am at taking pictures, and how to improve my close-up shots... expect to see more and better pictures. This discovery was very possibly the highlight of my day. I leave you with blurple and natural together. I must bathe my youngest. He's requesting it!

Requested information

g-girl reminded me that I forgot to tell all about the marble magnets. The kind we made last weekend were from the instructions on Not Martha Her pictures are much clearer than mine as well. She must have a better camera! My magnets look great IRL... We bought the generic clear bag from A.C. Moore but I'm going to look into getting a different kind. Even if I have to get them online, cuz I think it may be a great project for Christmas gifts this year!... Start saving those Altoid tins... You can also buy plain tins (I think it's mentioned on the marble instruction page) and that could be a great idea so you could decorate them yourself... Yup... I see many gifts in the future. Anyway, I'd like a better quality marble... clearer, cuz some in the bag have some funky designs in the glass every now and again and some have some strange shapes as well. Not precisely round if you get my drift!

We're in the midst of another winter weather event. Snow and sleet right now. and the winter storm warning lasts until 8 AM tomorrow... a full 24 hours. Of course we still had to report to in-service today because the school district doesn't give a rip if any of us are indangered because of driving in the muck! They were so generous and let us out 45 minutes early. The other districts in the area that had in-service had cancelled the day before 6 AM, but not mine! I won't type my thoughts. The presenter was great and the material was fine, it's just the attitude of the administration that has me riled... ok off the soap box! I did manage to knit a complete 'square' for the Warm Up America project and start a second. The health teacher knit about a third of one as well! Good thing I carried extra yarn and needles with me.....

I've plied another hank of 200 yards of Romney and there's also some on a bobbin plied.. but I think it's less than 100 yards. I'll spin more tonight.

I got the Polypay fleece today. I only glanced at the top. They included a small sample of their goats milk soap. Nice touch! There's a bit of grass and the tips are dirty, but not horrible. It should wash out pretty easily. Nice crimp and decent staple length.


Here's a picture of the ramboullette that arrived on Wednesday. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The box is exploding with fleece and it's about 15 inches tall. with the suface measurements the same as the flat rate square priority box. That one is going to be a blast to work with... the more I look at it, the more excited I am to start it!

back to the wheel... happy crafting~

pictures, finally

Well first let me post a picture of the dishcloth I completed the other day.

Pattern: 3 Cherries cloth by Judith Prindle
Yarn: Lily's Sugar and Cream
Color: Light Blue
Needle Size: 7

I'm thinking of gifting this to my neighbor who I gave a lacy blue cloth to a few weeks back. Her kitchen is blue and they'd look nice together.

Now to go backwards in time... Sunday's post spoke about some little marble magnets DD and I crafted together. We gifted a half dozen to the hostess of the Purim party that we attended that evening. I packaged them in an Altoids gum tin. The picture really stinks, but there are two that have a rather nebulus design, one in purples and the other in oranges and one that is striped. The other three have a flower theme (think spring) One is a drawing of a bird perched on what could be a magnolia or cherry blossom tree, the next is a grouping of yellow flowers (I have some in my garden... you would think I'd know the name) and the third is a stylized purple flower with yellow center. The last one shows up best in the picture... I should get a better camera I guess...It takes great regular shots but really crappy close ups..


I also plied 225 yards of romney last night. I put it on the skein winder to measure tonight and stretch... It looks pretty good even if I say so myself. Today my 5+ pounds of Ramboullet came from the Callens farm The fleece is incredible clean.. I mean truly clean. Barely any VM in it. I was so impressed And the crimp is so fine.. I can't even begin to count it... I think about 16 per inch...I can't wait to dig into it!

I washed a couple pounds of Targhee tonight... started it last night but it's on the drying rack now..

The good news is Day 3 of knitting class went very well. Yesterday was better than the first day. I brought home less to fix. Today, I brought home little to fix and actually let most of the kids take it home with them to work on. They told me we don't have homework we need something to do.. Comments from today were: This is so much fun, I like knitting, Are you going to do this again next year?, Couldn't we have a knitting club after school, It's really relaxing and other kids that aren't involved asked me about next year as well... so I think all in all it's pretty successful and that makes me feel great! Finally teaching them something that they can see value in, because music well it's fun for them, but it's different.

Being Felt Up

The slippers that is... They are all knitted, now to felt them. Mom, you'll be wearing them soon I promise!
Last night I spent a couple of hours carding Fuzzy... there is a LOT to that fleece... after all it weighed 8 pounds before washing. I now have a big rubbermaid container filled with rolags and still more to card. Is it possible that the fleece manufactures itself before carding.. I swear there's as much fleece in the bag now as before I was carding yesterday! LOL I also finished one bobbin and this morning started the second. I'll ply this when this bobbin is finished.. although I think I'll leave some single ply after this bobbin to make some socks.

I'm anxious to finish Fuzzy so I can start Petey and her sister. I have a couple more fleeces on the way… Lily (a ramboullet/shetland cross... her first shearing so she should be soft) who will be about 3 pounds skirted, a polypay that is 5 pounds skirted and ramboullet that is 5 pounds... so I think I have enough fiber to work with for a while.

I should probably spin up a bunch and send it off to my MIL to share... that would be nice, wouldn't it?

I also have to finish winding the yarn for Monday's school project and cast on 22 sets of 28 stitches with a couple of rows started for the little cherubs... YIKES....

perhaps there'll be a post with a picture of the slippers later... we'll see!

happy crafting

Just the facts

Well the IL went home this evening. DH is still on his way home from the airport.
Yesterday we had some snow in the AM.. and it's been cold. School started late for me but not for DD and for the first time I forgot to take ANY knitting along... so I had to do what they pay me to do all day long HAHA
I've been spinning here and there. I wound a skein up on the ball winder that is about 105 yards long. The blue tinge is from something that was on the raw wool in spots (actually in a localized spot) that P claims was medicine that they put on Fuzzy for some reason. Most of it washed out, but there are remnants. I've since decided that from now on I'll keep that wool/roving separate and dye it before spinning

I finished 2 cloths today. The monthly dishcloth mid-january KAL and Mary's Knitting and Crochet KAL. I'll probably be gifting both of them. Definitely the cable one, to a teacher colleague who expressed a desire to have one. I'll put pictures on after I take them.

I got fluffy mail today. A fellow CD and spinning/knitting mama sent me some samples of different types of roving and top. So kind :-) She included where she purchased each as well... Pictures and details to follow.

Yesterday I got fluffy mail too... Fleece from a Lincoln Longwool lamb from Peaceful Patures in TN. The fleece is incredibly clean of VM... I haven't gone through it all (well not much of it at all in fact) but dug my hands into the bag and every sample I pulled out was unbelievably clean.

Also, I stopped at a farm on the way home from work yesterday to inquire about the fleeces of their sheep. The woman there (whose name is also Carole - although she probably spells it without an -e) raises Suffolk sheep. Now these sheep aren't known for incredibly soft fleeces, but I bought a bag from last years shearing. She sent me up into the barn loft where there were copius amounts of fleece in bags. Mind you... it's FULL of VM and not well skirted at all.. but I bought one nevertheless. I probably could have chosen better, but it was getting dark and the boys were outside so I just grabbed the closest bag. I've yet to really inspect the wool.... that will be at least a week or so away. I still have the rest of Fuzzy to wash and card, and the Lincoln Longwool. I'm also expecting two Targhee fleeces from a purchase in about a week or so.

I've joined a new KAL group. Enid's bookmarks. The KAL started Friday but I haven't had time to dig through the stash fopr sportweight. I know there is some white, so I'll use that, then dip dye the bookmark. Hopefully it will work. I'll do it tmrw.

I leave you with a shot of a lily from my birthday bouquet, just at it's peak.
Happy crafting everyone!

Personal day

I took one today... DH was soloing with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem for their noonday concert at Central Moravian Church. The program consisted of Bach's 3rd unaccompanied suite for cello and a cantata that was written for New Year's Day.The suite sent me soaring!

Afterwards DH, the ILs and I went to Tortilla Flat for lunch, then stopped at Wired for a latte (at least in ˆmyˆ case). After which I trotted off yet again in the car to pick up DS1 and 2 from daycare. That was kind of the bummer of the day... it was a 40 minute drive each way... times 4, just to have the day free to go to the concert. So that's about 3 hours when you count the time spent loading in and out of the car.

Therefore, I figured I deserved a treat! (yes I know my ears and taste buds both had been already treated, but what about my yarn habit???) Oh did I mention Fuzzy's fleece arrived on Monday in the mail? So I needed some lingerie bags to wash her up. On the way home we stopped at Wally world cuz P had told me they had them for 94¢... alas they didn't, but I bought one Woolite one for almost $4... it's really too nice to do wool in though! But I digress... We stopped at ACMoore because this week all their yarn is 25% off...
I only bought 7 skeins of Lily's Sugar and Cream. I'm looking for a kelly green and really can't find it But I did buy- from top left to bottom right- taupe, yello, bright navy (I know it looks black in the picture), rose pink, over the rainbow ombre, sage green and wine. I also treated the kids to some Thomas engines (they were also on sale) and came home with a surprise for DD - a HUGE princess coloring book. I picked up some items for our Valentine craft for the teachers too, although they didn't have enough magnets. I'll have to stop by again or try Michaels..... what a shame!

So back to Fuzzy... here's her fleece (well some of it at least!)


I washed a bit when I got home cuz I knew I'd be going to P's house to show it off and I wanted to take some that was clean.. plus I was itching to see how she washed up. And voila…

P's friend was there spinning so she spun a bit and it's gonna be great!!!!!!



Speaking of spinning.... I have a picture of the Cotswold that I spun before Thanksgiving. That's some cotswold fleece behind it.. not from the same sheep though. It's better than the peace fleece I did first.. hopefully I'll keep improving.. I think I may swatch up a bit of this to see how it looks!

I sat on a dpn last night and of course broke it.. I have NO idea who put it on my chair... bummer... one of my #7 long bamboo ones that I use for dishcloths. I'll take it to work in the morning and sharpen the two borken pieces... the longer of the 2 will be a bit shorter than my short dpns but still usable for in the round and the shorter end I'll use as a cable needle... live and learn!

OK... nuff of this stuff. I can't wait til Friday when I can get my hands on my birthday present... My fingers are really itching... hope I can get it set up so I can spin that night.

Happy crafting

Happy New Year

I have no new FO's to show just 3 cloths OTN and of course the never ending poncho that has been sadly neglected. I need to take pictures of my Christmas gifts that were knitting related... but now I'm back to work (boo hoo) so that may take me a day or so. I've decided to frog DH's tie yet again, cuz I'm not loving the way it looks.

DH fessed up that he ordered me a wheel for my birthday (doing the VERY HAPPY dance) so I bought a fleece to get prepared to use when it arrives (the wheel that is.. .which of course I won't get until the 12th... no matter when it comes)


Her name is Fuzzy and she is a Romney. There is 4 pounds of her luciousness with a 5 inch staple and great crimp. I can't wait for her fleece to get here. She comes from Vickie's Raspberry Hollow

OK... enough for now... I'll post better stuff later. And I'm fixing the post with the candy cane and tree cloths to include the info. So check on that one!