Not so endless waffle stitch after all

I have finally reached the blocking stage on The Big Ass Sweater!!!!  I'm so excited knowing I'll soon be doing endless Mattress Stitch...NOT!

Ta Da!  Raglan sleeves!

When I hold this sleeve up against my body it reaches from my waist to my ankle...that's a lotta sleeve. Have I mentioned how happy I am to be done with the waffle stitch part of this project?  Now to soak, block and seam this baby so I can get the 5 rows of K1,P1 rib done at the neck and get this OFF my list of UFOs.

In other crafty news I've been doing a bit of sewing for a co-worker's new baby...

Reverse applique on 8" blocks.  Now I just have to figure out how I want to quilt it.

And I'll leave you with a few photos from one of our recent spinning meet-ups.

 

Have a safe and fun holiday weekend.  Happy Fiber Arts Friday to you all!  Be sure to check out the peeps over on Andrea's blog.  There's always something fun to see there.

I've made some yarn

from beautiful Alpaca fiber that I got from Andrea.  The batts first looked like this...

it'd be the one at the back .  Then I spun it into this...

the two blue ones, of course.  I combined the remainder of the blue with some of the dark brown Corriedale that I spun from the Chickasaw Farm fleece that I purchased a few weeks ago.

and got two very nice skeins of yarn.  Approx 123 yds of the blue and 145 yds of the two/color yarn.

Representative of about 2.5 hrs of plying while listening to  A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce.

I was in a bit of a quandary about what to do with such small skeins but then Sarah suggested that I use them in alternating stripes for something.  A perfect idea!  I only wish I had plied all of the blue with the dark brown Corriedale and made more of the two color yarn.  I like it the best of the two.  I'd say the blue is about a worsted weight and the two color is fingering weight.


I wound the Grama's Irises yarn into a cake today in anticipation of making a shrug with it.  Don't you think the color is so pretty now that it's wound?

Thanks for all your nice words on Sam's behalf.  He seems to be feeling much better after several days on antibiotics.  He isn't even limping anymore...who woulda thought?  Your kind thoughts certainly contributed to his speedy recovery.

Don't forget to check out all the other craft-fabulous folks over at Wisdom Begins in Wonder.  You won't be disappointed.

Keeping a Balance

Hello all.  Hope you're well and enjoying the beginning of spring.  I've been thinking a lot this week about the balance of work and play in my life.  I feel like I have a great amount of social activity going on (which I totally love) but my house is a wreck.  How do you balance your time between job/housework/hobbies?

Mama Robin is being loyal to her lone remaining egg.  Some kind of critter got into the nest on Sunday night and ate 3 of the 4 pretty blue eggs.  I hope she can protect the remaining one so it can become a little birdy and fly away.

I am painfully close to being finished with the knitting part of The Big Ass sweater (you know there'll be lots of mattress stitch to come).  About 1/3 of the way through the Raglan decreases so each row is zipping by considerably faster.  I should be done by Sunday for sure...if I can find some time to do some knitting.  Saturday is the Fiber Fiesta up in Greenville and you know I'll be there.  Got to see a bunch of folks I haven't seen in quite awhile...at least since last summer's festival season.

I received this pretty yarn from Wild Wool Farm a few days ago.  It has pretty little fairy charms spun into it.  Anyone have a suggestion what it should be?  I'm at a total loss.  I need to measure how many yards are there so I can get my head wrapped around a project for it.

Along with that pretty yarn I received the other two parts of my adoption fiber.  Navajo Churro from Washington state.  I soaked and scoured the fleece then spent a few minutes combing a few locks to get the hang of how it would need to be processed.  Using my dog comb on one lock at a time seems to be the best way.  It's a little tricky since it has long and short fibers so if I be sure and comb the tip end first I can keep the lock intact.  Below is the little pile-o-locks I managed to comb out last Sunday.  It's gonna be a long process.


I've been keeping an eagle eye on Sam since his visit to the vet last Saturday.  Seems he has a pretty serious something going on (at the least a severe UTI) but without $300 more in tests there is no blatantly obvious explanation for why he's limping, has a sagging belly and his gums are pale.  Could you send some good vibes his way?  He's had a rough go his entire life and he tries so hard to be a happy dog at all times.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday to you all from me and The Dogs.

Don't forget to check out the other great artists over on Andrea's blog.

Toasted Marshmallows?

That's what this looked like when I got it spread out on the table last Friday.  If you click on the picture and biggie-size it you'll see that it's actually a bit more than 5 lbs of super soft Cormo fleece.  I split this with a friend.  I washed part of my half last weekend and it is oh-so-wonderful!  I just want to pet it, a lot.  The fluff on the left in the next pic has been combed and the other has not.  There are not enough adjectives to describe the awesomeness of this fleece that we bought from Rachael at Counting Sheep Farm.

There is a nest in the bottle tree on our deck.

A tree that was scheduled for demolition as soon as the weather got warm this spring.  Guess the demo will have to wait til these pretty little things hatch and their occupants fly away.

I'm so glad The Saint had that telescoping mirror.  He's like Inspector Gadget you never know what useful stuff he'll pull out of his garage (yes, I know Inspector Gadget just pulled stuff out of his trench coat but The Saint doesn't have a trench coat).  The nest is just high enough that we can't see into it.  Aren't they pretty eggs?  I love Robin's Egg Blue.  Mama Robin was staying pretty close while we were out there on the deck grilling our dinner.  She was waiting patiently for us to get away from her babies.  I heard her out there singing this morning.  Such a pretty song too.

I wonder what fibery stuff all my friends have been working on this week...check it out at Wisdom Begins in Wonder.  Thank you so much for stopping in.  Be sure to say hey in the comments so I'll know you were here.

FAF April 29, 2011

Well, I've had a busy week, how bout you?  There's been washing, picking and carding, spinning and knitting.

The first of the Olympic Medals socks is finished.

There is a growiing pile of Jacob rolags on my table...

and I have some quilt squares cut so I can start putting a baby quilt together for a friend.  It'll be reverse applique, the white will be on top with the color showing through the cut-outs.  Heart shaped flowers with tulip stems and leaves.  Should be fun!  I'll bet you can't guess it's for a little girl...

Took 1/2 day of vacation today as I'm heading off to White Cloud with Paula, Heather and Erica. There will be sheep shorn at about 3pm.  Making a short stop at Hillside Jacobs to see he has any more Jacob or Shetland fleece that we can't live without then on to Counting Sheep Farm.  Can't wait to get there and say hey to Rachael and hopefully Evelyn.

Gary at Hillside tells me he still has a few light weight fleeces that he'd like to sell.  He's very reasonable and the Jacob is soft and colorful.

LittleDog mentioned the other day that he hadn't had any blog time lately so I'll share his play time with you from the other night.  We could use a few laughs around here.

His toy is a sheep, hehehe.  His most favorite thing to do is sit on me while I'm knitting and watching tv...

I hope you and your families are all safe and dry with a roof over your head.  It's been pretty scary around the USA and I know that we've spent our fair share of time worrying about loved ones in the path of destruction in the south.  Our son spent some time huddled in a ballroom with hundreds of folks in a hotel in Atlanta while the storms passed in the middle of the night.  We have family in Mobile, Birmingham, Jasper and Cordova, Alabama.  So far, with what little communication we can get through down there almost everyone is accounted for.  One Uncle has not been heard from yet but I'm sure as soon as someone knows something about him they'll let us know.  Tense times for sure.  Be safe and enjoy some fiber this weekend.

You can visit other fibery and fun folks at Wisdom Begins in Wonder.

FAF April 22, 2011

Welcome to another edition of Fiber Arts Friday, be sure to check out the great fiber things that other folks are doing over at Wisdom Begins in Wonder.

I finished something this week!  The first of a pair of lace top anklets I'm calling Socks for Susan.  The reason for the name is that one of my knitting peeps wanted to make a pair of anklets.  She picked out this pattern that she liked and I didn't like the way it looked and voiced said opinion.  I offered to re-work the pattern so it would look better and be more wearable.  She is almost finished with her first one and I have finally Kitchenered the toe of the one I did as a test.  I used some yarn that I dyed myself and I think they turned out ok.  It really isn't the greatest thing to use multi-color yarn when knitting lace but, I don't care!  They're my socks so no biggie.

I've been playing with fiber this week too.  The Jacob is so very fine and such pretty colors.

and the Corriedale is going to be a big boxey sweater for me and some nice warm socks for The Saint someday...I love the color.

I did a test spin after combing a bit with my cheapo dog brush (I don't recommend the dog brush method, it is very frustrating as the bristles in a dog brush are not near strong enough to hold up to this kind of wool)
The test spin shows how beautiful they both are though...

I got exciting news from my Dad yesterday...my new-to-me Ashford Traditional is resting nicely at his house in Florida after a 1 1/2 hr journey from her former home.  Dad ever so nicely agreed to Pony Express her to me.  It was such a great deal I couldn't pass it up.  I've been wanting a Traditional to ply with...bigger wheel, less treadling.  After test driving Paula's Kromski Polonaise the other night I am so glad I'm getting the Traddy.
After a slightly sketchy start I was spinning some awesome lace weight yarn on her Polly.  I am envious!

I'll be spending a few hours studying videos of how to properly card wool.  I'm sure there's a technique that I'll have to master.  What do you suppose folks did 1000 years ago when they didn't have all these teaching tools available to them?  I must confess, sometimes I just make up my own way of doing things...shhhhh.

We had a Yarny Party at Heather's house and as always it was way too much fun.

we played with her new drum carder and had yummy snacks.  Hope you have a nice bunch of knitting/spinning peeps too!  Thanks so much for visiting my blog this week.  It's always nice to see you.

Soaking fleece

This post is presented to you today as part of Fiber Arts Friday.  Hop over and see all the talented peeps on Wisdom Begins In Wonder.

I guess my first attempt wasn't all that successful so I soaked again, with different equipment.

Three piece cat litter box, new, of course.  Hot water goes in solid pan, fleece goes in pan with grate and easy-peasy, soaking fleece.  This is some of the Jacob I got on Sunday.  It's so pretty and soft.


Speaking of Sunday, I also hung out with my Spinning/Knitting peeps at Urban Mill in the afternoon.  It was fun as always and we even had a couple of new fiberistas join us.

 Heather helping Scott get his next project started

 Deb, Sarah and Susan hard at work

 Scott's Mom and our newest friend Theresa

This last pic is my Viv.  Isn't she pretty with her Mojave roving drape?


Believe it or not, I actually have done some knitting this week too.  I made good progress on The Big Ass Sweater and did a few more rows on the Olympic Stripes socks.  Mostly I've been spending my every waking hour thinking about getting all this fleece clean so I can spin it.  And now I have plans to go up to Counting Sheep Farm for a shearing on the 29th.  Even took half a day off work.  There will be Cormo and Finn and Jacob, oh my!  Wish me self restraint!  mwah-ha-ha-ha!