Showing posts with label HOME-SPUN YARN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HOME-SPUN YARN. Show all posts

Thursday, March 10, 2011

I got a Face Lift!!!

Well, not really "I", as in "me". 
More like my Blog.
My Blog got a Face lift!
Do you like it?

My regularly scheduled readers may remember a few weeks ago when I declared winter officially over in the Bluff Country.   Lately, I've been dying a lot of yarn


and roving 


and mohair locks into bright, cheery colors.


I am so sick of dull, drab gray and brown that I could scream!
So I decided to change the background of my Blog.  I didn't want to go too  crazy.
It's not like there are flowers blooming or green grass in my peaceful, little valley in SE Minnesota. 

At least not YET!    But soon.

DREAM says...


"Oh, I HOPE  it's soon, Mom!
I'm really sick of the drab colors too and some fresh grass would taste mighty good, right about now!"

Don't forget to hop on over to Verde Farm's blog to link up with lots of other FARM FRIEND FRIDAY bloggers!

P.S.  I wish I could get a face lift that easily!


Saturday, January 29, 2011

Buying Time...

This was a week from Hell.  I won't go into details as, in the end, I'm still standing.  I do want to give a huge Thank You to my Baby Sister who spent two days helping me crawl out of the quicksand.  Penny,  I know that you know what a huge difference you made in my life in just those two days.   Without going into detail, suffice it to say that I was pretty sure that my world had caved in last Tuesday.  No way to fix it this time.  Time to sell the place and cut my losses.  My dear sister, Penny, on the other hand, had other ideas.  My GOODNESS it is amazing what a well organized, focused woman can do when she sets her mind to it!  I have no idea how she did it, but Penny managed to get my life back on track and buy me some time to figure out what I want/need to do in the future.  I've got some options to look into and I've not given up yet.  I do know that something HAS to change.  I can't continue to live under this kind of stress.  Existing month to month, crisis to crisis ~ never knowing when "the other shoe" will drop, is no way to live.  Even if it does allow me to share my life with my beloved animals. 

Apparently, all the stress of the past week has taken a toll on me physically.  Yesterday, the dogs woke me up (needing to go outside) sometime before dawn.  I got up and put them out then went back to bed and slept until four fifteen in the afternoon!  The phone woke me up several times but I was so deeply asleep that I could barely pull myself to consciousness from the vivid dreams that I was having.  When I did briefly awaken, I was startled to find the room slowly spinning in circles!  The second I hung up the phone, I fell back asleep and returned to more strange, vivid dreams.  Hours later:  another phone call.  The room spinning.  Back to sleep.

When I finally awoke at four fifteen, I got out of bed.  None of my poor animals had been fed!  I ate a little yogurt, thinking perhaps the light-headedness that I was still feeling might be caused by low blood sugar, since I hadn't eaten anything all day.  I managed to get all of the animals fed and watered and only had to take one break.  Once back in the house, I had a bite to eat then spent the evening on the couch.  At some point during the evening, I had an allergy attack.  Out of the blue.  I have no idea what triggered it, but couldn't find my damn allergy medicine!  I could feel my throat swelling and was coughing so hard it felt like my throat was ripping.  I finally found an old bottle of OTC allergy liquid medicine.  Expired in 2009.  I took double the dose and sucked on a cough drop and fortunately, the attack subsided.   Not a particularly productive day ~ though I did get almost finished with the cuffs on my second pair of homespun, handknit socks!  Yes, I did complete my first pair and wore them for two days!  I'm very proud of them.
  Especially the toes.  I did the 'kitchner stitch'  close that the pattern called for and it is virtually invisible!   I made lots of mistakes knitting my first pair and ended up taking the two sets of circular needles apart and completing them separately.

So far, the second pair is going MUCH  better.   I've actually discovered a pattern to the pattern that makes it much easier to know where I am and what I'm supposed to be doing.  I hope it continues into the heel flap and turning the heel.   As I knit this second pair, I can see what I did wrong on the first pair.  I'm glad that I started the second pair as soon as I finished the first ~ while everything was still fresh in my mind.

Time to go feed the critters.  I'll try to get out with the camera today.  I'm still feeling a little bit 'off'.  My tummy's a little queasy and I feel a little light-headed.  At least the room's not spinning!

I hope you all have a nice weekend!

Monday, February 09, 2009

What I Did This Weekend...
a.k.a. My CRAZY Friends!

Here's the Thing...

I've been very busy trying to get things organized so that I can start Selling some of my rovings/batts & yarns. Saturday, I dug out tons of stuff that I've been "meaning to do something with". Sunday morning, I arranged a photo shoot ~ in my living room ~ so that I can start advertising stuff. (more about that later)

Shortly after trashing my house, setting up the 'photo shoot', my doorbell rang. It was Virginia ~ coming to spin, card, and knit with me. A few minutes later, Terry pulled up the drive. What fun! We're going to have a playing with fiber day!!

The ladies took turns spinning on my Roberta Electronic spinner (of which I have decided I am going to become a distributor!). Notice Terry's attire: I do keep my thermostat at 50 degrees! I did turn it up (all the way to sixty!) for the girls but they still seemed to think that it was "rather cool".

Virginia wrapped herself up in one of my shawls and was modeling the gigantic 'bag' that I knit ~ ages ago, and am finally going to felt!

OMG! She cracks me up!!!

Then, Virginia gets the brilliant idea that the bag would be a perfect "cat carrier".

ROFLMAO!!

Poor Lily! (this woman is a HOSPICE NURSE!)

Virginia assures me that Lily "likes it!"

OK, Virginia...let the nice kitty out now.

Disclaimer: No cats were harmed in the making of this blog post.

DREAM says...
"I was wondering what was going on in there ~ those ladies were mighty rowdy!!"

I'm still chuckling, Dreamer!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Sheep to Yarn....


Here's the thing: I have no life. My idea of a good time (and a little excitement) is photographing yarn that I've spun. I can really "spice up" the process if I include sheep and/or teddy bears in the endeavor...


In the above photo, Bear is showing some of the yarn that I spun from the roving I bought at Jefferson. The small skein is the sample I spun up from the roving its self. The larger skein is the same roving, spun thicker and with some red roving and a strand of cashmere singles added to it. Bear likes it.

This is the smaller skein with the roving that I bought.


And this is the bulky skein with the red roving & yellow cashmere that I added.


In this photo, Bear is modeling the white Shetland/Mohair (50/50 blend on my drum carder!) that I spun into fingering weight yarn. It is SOOOOOO soft!

I love my basket too...



OOOO! Here's a nice Sheep Shot! This is Masquerade (for sale!). Isn't she growing up to be a beauty?


DREAM says...

..."Nice job Mom but where are the cookies???"

Monday, February 11, 2008

NO snow day!

There was no new snow today. But plenty of COLD and WIND.
A perfect day for KNITTING! And I have the perfect tools:

I finally broke down and ordered the "KnitPick Options" needle sets. BOTH of them! I love the points and speed of the silver ones and Aren't the wooden ones PRETTY???
;-)
I figure they'll be nice to use when knitting with light colored yarn. Want to see what I've been up to?

I've been working on this queen sized, Shetland wool blanket for quite some time now. I love it! It's "mindless" knitting. Perfect for when I don't have time to concentrate on counting or patterns.

I'm using the wool from my wether, Zenith. Unfortunately, I sold Zenith a couple of years ago and had to BUY last year's fleece from his new owner so that I'd have enough to finish the blanket. I'm waiting for the second fleec to come back from processing so I can spin it up and finish. I figure it's about 1/2 done now...

In the meantime, I'm working on a knitted/felted bag. I'm using a black Shetland fleece and a fawn fleece (I think it was Paco's). I spun the fleeces up VERY bulky and the knitting goes quite quickly. I'm using the FiberTrends pattern, with a few variations. I only put one pocket on the outside and am putting two on the inside. I haven't decided if I'll needle felt a sheep on the outside pocket or not.

I'm almost done! I'm doing a smaller black I-cord to add to the handle for extra strength. The bag measures 29 X 29 inches (withOUT the handle). It will be interesting to see how much it shrinks when I felt it... I seem to have lost the pattern insert that gives the instructions on how to attach the handle and the felting instructions. If anyone has this pattern, I could sure use some help. I know how to do the basic felting but wanted to know if I'm suppose to felt the handle before I attach it or afterwards. Same with any needle felting. This has been a fun project and I may just do another one, when this one is finished. Then again, I am spinning up "Alice", in fingering weight, for a very special project, to be announced at a later date. ;-)

DREAM says...

..."Mom started writing this post YESTERDAY. We're supposed to get 4 to 6 inches of snow Today..."

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