So happy to see you Friday!

It's been a whale of a week.  Too much work at work and not enough work being done at home.  And I have a ton of work to do at home...serious work, with tools!

See...

My BFF Paula loaned me this Mark IV carder while she's on vacation in New Joisey.  She got it from a guy she bought a bunch of tools from over by Lansing.  I have big plans for this sweet little machine.  I'll be adding to my pile-o-Jacob batts this weekend.

I have a bag-o-fleece picked and ready to card so I'm hoping that by Sunday evening I'll be ready for some serious Jacob spinning.

I'm thinking I'll make myself a new and improved (and considerably larger) Adult Surprise Jacket.  I've out-grown the one that's hanging in my office right now.  sniff   I think the different shades of fleece would make a nice subtle stripe in the pattern.

The Michigan Fiber Festival was awesome!  The fleece combing class was informative and quite a lot of fun.  Beth Smith is a hoot!  We combed, very carefully cause those combs are sharp as hell,  and spun Romney, Wensleydale and Merino.  The Wensleydale was the most difficult to get started as the locks are so long and tight but once I got it started was lovely.  It was heavenly to spin and shiney!  You should try some!  Just be sure to have your oil/water mister handy cause it really gets static-y.  I also got some pointers on carding a better Jacob batt too.  And I loved Beth's dress, it looked very comfy and crafty with a red apron.  She posed for us with her newly acquired sheep skin...

please excuse the crappy iPhone pic

There were a few small purchases made...

 Merino from Winding Wool Creek Fiber

Suri Alpaca from Wonder Why Alpacas

I also picked up the Shetland fleece I had reserved in the spring.  Since it was a show fleece I had to wait to pick it up until after MFF.  Out of 20 Shetland fleeces Ginny Weasley #69 came in 3rd place.  The nice shepherd, Mike, from Windswept Farm let me keep the white ribbon too!  (said he had a gazillion of them, LOL)  Ginny is a pretty fawn Shetland.  I imagine she must look a lot like the sheep in the first link of this paragraph.


I hope you all had an exciting week and did some fun things.  I'd love to hear about it.  If you'd like to meet other fiber enthusiasts hop on over to Andrea's blog and check them out.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday everybody!

Nothing cuter than a pink Pug tongue!

It's MFF weekend!

I'll be taking a class on combing fleece at Michigan Fiber Festival on Saturday.  Taught by Beth Smith from Spinning Loft it should be fun and informative.  It's the first class I've taken at MFF.  In past years it's been a trip to see sheep, feel pretty yarn and fleece and eat some fair food.  It's also a great time to meet-up with folks I haven't seen since last year's festival.  I'll be picking up a Shetland fleece that I reserved a couple months ago.  The sheep that grew the fleece  is #69 Ginny Weasley, isn't that a chuckle?  You can see her prettiness here.

Will I see some of you there?

Almost squealed about a package that arrived today from Sublime Stitching.  A variety of embroidery patterns designed by Jenny Hart.  I especially like the Dia de los Muertos drawings, the sugar skulls are awesome.

a nice variety of iron-on designs, something I haven't done in many years.  Isn't it fun to get back to a craft you haven't plied in a long while?  This will be a good take-a-long project that can be worked on during lunch.

Work has steadily progressed on the Kill Bill sock.  I've actually bound off. twice.  First bind off was way too tight and the cuff was not what I wanted so I unbound and tinked back about 12 rows and did 2 x 2 rib and bound off.  At that point I realized that the directions I was following were totally out of wack...so I just ripped back and picked up my stitches after removing the waste yarn that was not nearly in the correct place.  I'll be knitting a couple more inches then adding the waste yarn again.  Hopefully I'll be on target this time.  I'll certainly know how to knit a toe-up, after-thought heel sock by the time this thing is done.

There has been carding of Jacob this week after the return of Big Tom from the wilds of Missouri.  Also tried my hand at combing some black Jacob fleece...including a little practice with a diz which proved to be quite educational.  Hopefully, when I'm finished with my class on Saturday I'll have much better technique.

Thank you all so much for stopping by today.  Have a Happy Fiber Arts Friday and be sure to visit the other crafty peeps who participate over on Andrea's blog.

He's packed and ready to go...

on his annual Canadian fishing expedition.  I usually have a clandestine home improvement project waiting to start the minute he pulls out of the driveway, not this year.  I haven't thought of any great project I'd like to get away with and now that my social life is so busy I don't have time for painting or ripping up carpet or moving furniture.

I will have time for spinning and knitting and scouring some fleece in the next week though.  Tomorrow I'm meeting a group of friends from the knitting/spinning group to see The Help.  I can hardly wait since I loved the book.  I hope it's as good as or it will be a disappointment.

Before I forget, be sure to check out all the other crafty peeps that post to Andrea's Fiber Arts Friday blog.  With just a week to go til Michigan Fiber Festival some of us are getting pretty excited.  I'll be attending a class on fiber combing with Beth Smith that should be fun and educational.

I've been diligently working on the Kill Bill sock, it has grown a bit but on size 0 needles it's a slow go.

This is about half of one braid of the pretty fiber Rena brought me spun and it is looking pretty nice.  I've been so spoiled by the alpaca and Jacob that I've been spinning that this dyed merino seems a bit sticky.  Nothing glides through your hands like alpaca...right Andrea?!

We've had some scary news about our grand-dog, Bucca having some type of lymphoma...he's had his first chemo treatment this week and it seems to be doing it's job.  A few good thoughts in his direction would certainly be appreciated, thank you.

Isn't he a beautiful boy?  He is a Vizsla, a trained therapy dog and loves to hang out at the dog park with his Mom.

Thank you for visiting, if you post a comment I'll know you've been by.  Have a great weekend!

I'm a Busy Bee

Isn't this a great photo?  Not because I took it but because there are some awesome images in the clouds.  If you look closely you may see a hand making a backward C or do you see a person with their hair on fire and their hands in the air? Perhaps you'll notice the Statue of Liberty...Cloud pics are so much fun.  Can you see anything else that I haven't noticed yet?

Another crazy busy week has passed and here I am with a new toe-up sock on the needles, this is Scout's Swag in the colorway of Kill Bill.  I already knit a pair of socks with this yarn that didn't fit so I frogged them.  The yarn sat for a couple years as punishment and now will be reincarnated in a size that I hope will fit.  They're pretty slow going though on size "0" needles.

Check out the beautiful fiber that Rena brought me from Loopy Yarns in Chicago, it's from Cloudlover,

I did manage to make a little progress spinning the purple (really it is purple!  dang camera) fiber from Yarn Hollow.

Since I don't have an abundance of news this week I thought I'd show you a few pics from our trip to Chickasaw Farm back in the spring.  Enjoy!

I'm surprised at how dreary these photos look now.  They were taken in early spring, before anything had turned green yet.  The little lamb in the first picture was born that morning.  The bags of fleece in the  bottom pic were what we had to choose from when we got there.  This is where I got the 7 lb Corriedale fleece that I'm still working on scouring, LOL  The Little Gem belonged to one of the very nice ladies that came out to spin that day.  Thanks to Evelyn for letting me spin on that adorable little wheel.

Thank you for coming by and spending some time.  I hope you'll also visit the other creative folks that participate in Fiber Arts Friday over at Wisdom Begins in Wonder.  Have a great weekend!

Dang! That hurt

Hello!  Have you been doing anything fibery this week?

I've managed to knit a few inches of a sock, squeezing a few minutes knitting in here and there.  I really like the yarn and the colors.

Berrocco Comfort Sock.  If you scroll all the way to the bottom at the link you'll see the yarn I'm working with - Cosmopolitan.  My sock is looking a bit different than the model though.  I guess that's to be expected when you knit in 2 x 2 rib instead of plain ole stockinette.

I plied some fabo singles I'd spun from some Yarn Hollow fiber in the color called Moss.  I ended up with 204 yds from the 4 oz of fiber I had.

Why is it that after you cut your thumb in a weird place, that hits the space bar after.every.single.word while you're typing, you think of a thousand ways you could have avoided that cut thumb?  And, why is it that when you have an emergency-ish need for just the right size band-aid you have to scrounge around the bathroom cabinet for 10 minutes, with thumb bleeding, to find it?  This has truly puzzled me this week.

It's been crazy busy at work and it's sapping my knitting/spinning/washing/carding mojo.  When I get home I just want to lay down and sleep.  Seriously!  I'm hoping that after a couple weeks I'll settle into a new routine and it won't feel so crazy.  I can hope, right?!

Have a wonderful weekend.  Thank you so much for visiting.  Don't forget to check out the other fabulous peeps that participate in Fiber Arts Friday over on Andrea's blog...Wisdom Begins in Wonder.  See ya next week!

Socks! and some new tools

Hello!  Hope you're all surviving the heat wave.  Phew!  It's hot!  Makes it hard to think about wearing these lovely socks I just finished...

Scout's Swag in Olympic Medals colorway.  Picot top/plain sock

A couple of little packages arrived in the mail on Wednesday.  New fiber tools are always so exciting.  Fiber Combs for the class I'm taking at Michigan Fiber Festival next month from Paradise Fibers...

and a new Lazy Kate (a thingy to hold the bobbins) for LadyBug from The Woolery.

I'll be able to carry around 4 extra bobbins now, LOL  I hardly ever need one extra when I'm off to a spinning meet-up but you never know when you'll suddenly need 3 more.

It's been a crazy busy week for me at work.  I'm hoping all the extra time and effort will pay off with something good.  Fingers crossed


The ever-faithful LittleDog guards the Traddy...

Don't forget to Jump on over to Wisdom Begins In Wonder and check out all the other crafty peeps that contribute to Fiber Arts Friday.  You won't be disappointed.

Perhaps you'll see pretty things like this...

or find some big-scary-fun tools to play with like this...

Big Tom is hangin at my house for a coupla weeks.  Gotta do a bit of repair then I can card like crazy!  This bad boy belongs to my friend Paula.

Have a great weekend!

Ahh Vacation how quickly you are over

and re-entry can be a bit tricky.  Especially when you've been looking at things like this for a week.

I took this photo while we were fishing on Pickerel Lake on Thursday.  Didn't do too well with the fishing but the scenery all around us was beautiful.  I caught the biggest fish of the day...

I did manage to spin every day we were gone.  I set up my LadyBug on the porch each day and spun the Jacob fleece that I had prepared before I left.

I have one bobbin full and got a good start on a second bobbin.

I also did a bit of knitting and timed photography.  I know you're jealous of my swing aren't you?

Trying to make a bag for my spinning tools and so far two attempts have ended in failure.  Attempt #3 will commence tonight.

Don't forget to visit all the other crafty folks that participate in Fiber Arts Friday over on Andrea's blog.

Hopefully you've all had a great week too.  Monday it'll be back to work for me.  Thanks for stoppin by!