It's a mad mad mad mad...

Well you get the picture.

First off lets just say that I got dissed by my friends today. Went to wild oats and no one was there. That's ok though 'cause I went to Famous Dave's and had some lunch.

Now I had the pleasure to put my hands on a great fleece from Dianne, at Country dream acres. She has a Corridale/Columbia cross that was to die for! Long staple length fine crimp and clean! She coats her sheep as she is a hand spinner as well. I've been running my hands through it just for the Joy. There were 2 other fleeces left, I think they were pure Corridales.(all White) and they run at 5.00 per lb.



On the EZ front, I was looking to buy the knitters almanac or the workshop book but have decided against it. I knit a baby sweater for a coworker using a simple lace pattern of

k1, yo k1, sl k2tog psso, yo k1, across the row, purl back across.

next 4 rows knit in stockinette stitch(I did 8)

repeat row 1.

When you're done it kind of gives you the impression of cables. (it's the decrease) Looks kinda cool.

I used Bernats Cottentot doubled on size 10 needles. I cast on only 16 inches worth of stitches and knit it to 12 inches for a collar. I used the EZ modular pattern for the tomtem jacket.



I have photos....

The Gift yarn in colors The sweater..after.

This past Friday I watched 'Quisha kick her way to a High Green Belt! Way to go kiddo!
Heather is the teachers assistant in violin and finally got her act together in regular class. PTC is Thursday.

I have torn up both the raised beds around tree one and what used to be tree two. The wet weather has helped enormously. I pulled many weed roots, saved an Iris that looks to be doing well, and tomorrow I will buying the logs from Home Depot (on sale 1.99 per) and making new square raised beds. The rose I saved last year seems to have given up the ghost and the yellow one I planted last year doesn't look like it will be putting in an appearance either. The other two however are doing fine showing signs of life as are all my lillies, Iris, and Tulips. The one rhododendron I bought on a whim(fast growing full sunlight) is still here and still green. So I only have to replace 5 of them and buy 6 more for the top row. That and painting the house and we will be good to go this year. Well my new blisters are calling. Gotta go.
Toodles!

Golden afternoon

It has been a while since I blogged and there is lots to tell.
The baby bunnies are getting bigger, I think I have one girl (thing one) and one boy( thing two). The adults are in molt so I'm in fiber heaven and they're in he**.
The spinning is going nicely I have all of the color pieces spun up from my gift wool. All that's left is the greens.

I got over the shrinking of the sweater and went ahead and pitched it. There will be others.

I have been perusing many other blogs and noticed the cross over funk seems to be giving way. (The cross over funk is when you want to do spring stuff but it's just not spring enough yet.)

Guard was fun in retrospect, I am in Officer school now and it's tougher than I thought. We lost one person the first weekend. I also have 2 papers due and a ton of other misc. homework.

The Bellevue Fiber Festival was advertised in Spin Off magazine, so was spinning for pay and the sale of a Patrick Green carder and picker for 25,000.00 There is also a home based wheel manufacturing business for sale...hmmm.

I have been reviewing my options and trying to figure out exactly what I want farm,Processing business, retail store. I decided I want it all! Any one want to go into business with me?

My daughter Heather got into some major trouble at school last week: stealing, lying, and general disruptiveness. We had to tan the butt, remove the sweets and the game system. She calmed down by Friday.

A friend of mine told me my picture is in the OPS newsletter. WOW! Any one who's got a copy...
I'm thinking of having a fiber meeting Saturday afternoon at Wild Oats.(or is it Whole Foods now?)
The cashmere sweater Job is still on the sleeve. The cotton gansey Job is down to the side seams.
Blue denim sweater designed with garter and stockinette columns with diamonds in seed stitch. Pretty neat except for the dye lot problems the lady had.

I cleaned up 2 of my gardens and around my tree in the back yard. I have decided that I need to make a raised bed around the tree because the roots are too big for the old setup. I also nipped my roses and Lilly's back as they are already going green. I'll have to do the front gardens and the trees next. Painting this late spring or early summer.

Our old modem died and a new one was purchased. (We likes it!) That's kinda why you haven't heard from me.(It was tricksy, going down at odd times.)

Recently the 30 anniversary of Star Wars came and their will be stamps. (Has anyone else noticed the change in the ending of Jedi? The spirit of Anniken is now the kid from the new ones.)
Anyway I hope you enjoyed the warming weather we've been having. If not, Get off the computer and get outside!
Toodles.

Just a few things

Euny Jang is the new editor of Interweave Knits.
Personal Threads is moving to 8088 Cass street (or something like that. It was in the paper.)
Yarn Harlot has been bitten by the spring bug.

I have 2 free tickets to the Donald Trump jr seminar on how to make it rich...Any body want them?
I am working on a new pattern.

17 months to go until officer.

Good night!

Can you Feel It?

Oh yeah, The weather warmed up even under all that snow. The spinning has gone into over time and the alpaca fleeces are begging to be shipped off for processing.

Spring is coming.

The birds in my neighborhood are singing, the dog is shedding all over the carpet, the bunnies are molting and…in NC flowers are blooming. I saw it on a blog. ( I was envious but reassured.)
Some other signs you may have noticed:
The sun is up at 630 am.
Wal-mart is putting up their greenhouse tents.
Sheep are beginning to look attractive.
You find yourself drawn to sites that offer fleece, or talk about sheep.
Your bank account begins to look like “there’s enough there for…”
You start looking at your house and daydreaming.
You start reading home and garden magazines.
You have made enough trips to Lowes, Menards, and Home Depot to have the layouts memorized.
The dyepot has started calling you.
The raw fleece already in your house is telling you it’s lonely.
Your spinning wheel has been getting a work out.
Knitting with wool is beginning to seem…unsatisfying.

Yes I’m guilty of all of that. I made great progress on the cashmere sweater, I ripped back the whole sleeve and re knitted it past it’s previous length all in one day. I also spun several lengths of white Romney, the gift merino the angora wool blend and…yeah I know I said that yesterday.
I have been forcing myself not to start washing the 2 raw fleeces I got last year. I need to pick the Lincoln but I can just wash the Corridale. I e mailed my friend about picking up some more or having a farm day soon since she will be shearing…soon.

Stop me, I must buy more fleece...

updates

The sweater I gave my daughter was shrunk, the projects are still where I left them, and the spinning continues apace. Mom got back from the Bahama's just in time for our 14 inch snow. Farg!
I've been going through my old Spin Off magazines(from 2000 on) and was re inspired to spin and knit. I even sent off my handspun pals gifts two days ago.
I tried blending some alpaca roving with some Corridale roving, then I remembered some things about the roving that didn't work. So I tried some of the black alpaca carding it up I wasn't happy there either. I made some wool angora blend and spun it up. I was kinda ok with that. I spun some Romney that went best of all.
This snow is killing me.