Come join the Misery;midnight deadline

Just in case some of you don't (& I'd find that hard to believe) read "The Yarn Harlot", she's at it again. Total enabler. In her defense she says that it wasn't her fault.

Upon checking out the links to said "can't do without knit-a-long", I find myself weak at the knees. I have no right to be contemplating this adventure since I am washing & spinning fleece, knitting Christmas prezzies, convinced myself & Lynne that we needed to start the "Einstein Jacket" now instead of later & have thus casted on yesterday, etc. Before I know it though, I am joining; sigh.

It's the Mystery Stole 3 on Pink Lemon Twist's Blog. You have until midnight tonight in case you want to join me & the now 6080 others (yup you read correctly) as of 12:08pm today.

Peace out, Boop

Knit on my dear friends.

So, just to catch everyone up, I've been incredibly busy with the hobby farm. I've gotten another alpaca (a Suri type which can be read about here), hatched my 1st batch of Japanese quails (which I'll blog about shortly), have done some spinning, had our monthly CQ'teer meeting & lots of knitting.
I've been practicing my spinning on some Lincoln lamb fibre that I got off of Lynne on shearing day. It's from "Ava" who I just love. She is one sweet sheep. This is a long wool variety that is strong, mixes with mohair wonderfully & is sought after by dollmakers for use in wigs & Santa's beards.
It is different from regular fleece & slightly more difficult to spin because it's tough & more hair like (imho). Once you get the knack of it though it's great. I was quite pleased with how it turned out & can't wait until it's plied. The 1st pic is (from left to right): washed fleece, carded fleece & spun Lincoln. 2nd pic is a close-up of the spun fibre.
I have finished the "Monkey Socks"! Just for the record, I had mine finished before the Harlot, so it is I who is the trendsetter for her, lol. Both of us however, realized afterwards that they would have turned out a lot nicer if we hadn't used self-patterning yarn; great minds really do think a like (or perhaps just make the same mistakes, lol).
Amongst the finished knits are also some Christmas ones. I will only show part photos so the surprise isn't ruined; the pics are of 2 things modular & something with cables; nuff said.

CQ'teer meeting went well. 3 new members, 2 members that just came back from vacations: 1 to Japan & the other to the East Coast. Very nice & interesting stories from both, lots of show & share, chocolate, coffee, ATC's & a cool accordion paper booklet that Faye taught us for program this month.
I'll give you some time to absorb all the eye-candy & then I'll post again soon.

Peace out, Boop

Is that a pig on your lap?

Why yes it is & I'm happy to see you, lol. This is what I go through when trying to knit at night. The pic isn't perfect, but hubby took it; nuf said. Daffodil (my pot belly puzzle pig) is on my lap. The other black & white blob behind my neck is my Jack Russell "Pudgy".
I am working on a pair of Monkey socks which are almost done & I will post about later. I have also finished a Moebius wrap. This was a dead easy free pattern from a Bernat yarn label.
Isabelle (my mannequin of 20 years) is modeling the wrap. It took 3 x 50g balls of Bernats "Lux effects"; very fast & uncomplicated. I did however, cast on 40 stitches rather than the suggested 30 because I wanted it to come down my arm further. I didn't think the 30 would cut it and I'm really glad that I added the extra 10. I used the "tan effects" colourway.
I did try to find the link to the free pattern on the Bernat site, but the yarn has been discont'd of course. Here's the pattern anyway:

Moebius Wrap
-one size
-40" x 14"
-10mm (US 15) needles
-bernat lux effects 3 x 50g balls
guage: 8 sts. & 9 rows= 4" stocking st.

Cast on: 30 sts.
Row 1: (RS) K2. *P2.K2. Rep. from * to end of row.
Row2: (WS) P2. *K2.P2. Rep. from * to end of row.

Rep. last 2 rows until work from beg. measures 40" ending with RS facing for next row. Cast off in pattern.

Finishing: twist work once lengthwise. Sew cast on & cast off edges tog. keeping the twist to achieve the moebius shape.

Enjoy. Peace out, Boop

Who Knew

Since we've been busy the past few weeks putting up fencing for the lambs & alpaca, I decided to ask Mark how to use the lawn tractor. We were building the fence together (all 400ft of it) but he was digging the 25 post holes (by hand) himself. I was feeling badly for not being able to help with the digging so I thought perhaps he could show me how to use the tractor. He had his doubts, but showed me anyway.

I must say that I've never had so much fun. It was like horseback riding, but with control. The tractor has 7 speeds. Mark suggested I start at 2 & perhaps move it to 3 or 4 when I was feeling more confident. Our property is also hilly (quite hilly actually). Anyway, I decided to see what the 7th gear was like. OMG, the tractor took off like a bat out of h#ll. I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee myself & all I could say as Mark watched me fly across the yard was "eeeehaww", lol.

Mark usually does the lawns over 2 days, but I stayed on that sucker until it was done! Needless to say, Mark had trouble getting me off the thing & dinner was late that night.

Not sure why he complained so about cutting the lawn as I found it quite therapeutic. Women just don't get a lot of "me" time where as with this you can sit there driving aimlessly around thinking & completely alone. Gosh, I can't even use the bathroom without one of the kids or animals barging in to see what I'm doing, but this lawn cutting thing was bliss. I didn't even care about the freshly cut grass allergy that I have because with the hat & sunglasses nobody could my watery eyes; next time I'll take the allergy pill before I start the cutting.

Peace out, Boop

Splash

Not exactly the kind you do whilst swimming, but thought I'd show you my little alpaca named "Splash". I bought him from a friend of a friend a couple of weeks ago, shortly after the lambs (which he is absolutely smitten with).

Splash is a last year baby & about 10 months old. His colouring (although he looks brown in the picture) is mahogany. The sun bleaches their fleece (as it does with sheep) so the colour on top is not the true colour of their fleece. His actually has a purple tinge to it & is quite lovely. Splash will be sheared this year, but the lambs will likely wait until next Spring.

*picture by my friend Lynne Holtrust; photographer*

He is a wonderful addition to what is growing into a small fibre hobby farm. Although not broke to the halter yet, he has a nice personality & will accept hugs from Joseph & I (as if he had a choice with me around, lol). Anyway, full story at "The Funky Lamb" once again.

Peace out, Boop

Castle Critter Additions

A couple of weeks ago I bought my 1st 2 lambs off of a spinning friend. Luna is a Romney X & Blizzy is a Dorset/Charlet. Both have wonderful dispositions & are well-liked by all of the other Castle Critters.

Luna is above sporting the red collar & Blizzy is below wearing the green one. For the full story as the how, when, where & why, please go to "The Funky Lamb" where I discuss everything that has to do with my fibre biz in full detail.
Peace out, Boop

You spin me right round baby..........

This is the result of 2yrs. worth of research. As a small girl we would go visit a friend of my parent's whose whole family collected antiques. My favourite thing to do was to sit at her spinning wheel & get it to spin. Aunt Peggy would then hand me the carders & let me brush out the lamb's fleece. She didn't spin herself, but did have a small amount of fibre on hand for displaying along with the wheel.

I then would dream of what it would be like to learn to spin. A few years ago, I found out that one of our Quilt Guild members was a spinner; this motivated me to start pondering the topic once again.

At first I was shocked to find out the cost of the wheels & therefore knew that I had better be sure of what I wanted before I made a purchase. Every once in a while I would search the internet for wheels, spinning info. etc. The urge to get one got so strong last Christmas that I finally broke down, throwing caution to the wind & making my purchase on a newly acquired credit card (no lectures please).

I had decided on the Kromski Sonata for a number of reasons, the final being a review that I read on CraftyGrrrl.ca. She had just boughten one herself & talked about a deal that Coppermoose had going where you got the $120- bag for free when you ordered the wheel. It was still on when I checked the site so I ordered it.

It only took 2 wks. to arrive & when it did, I dragged my Flu-like body down to the Post Office to pick it up. In Pj's, winter coat, no make-up & armed with a box of kleenex & Ny-Quil, Mary (the post master) was there to greet me & she totally understood. She's a sewer & mail-order junkie & said she would have done the exact same thing. Pictured below is the pkg. just taken out of the box.

The wheel is attractive, smooth & I love it. There's probably some better ones out there, but for the price & compactness (not to mention the bag), I am very happy.


The picture below is of my first handspun. I got the roving from Lane's End. Lynn (lanesend "AT" cycor "DOT" ca) didn't have a lot of dyed ones to choose from because she hadn't done her dying for the new season yet, but I did manage to get this green one & the pink/purple/blue one below. They're both 30 Mohair/70 Cotswold blends; very nice to work with.


The next picture is a handspun containing Angelina Fibres. I am a distributor for them here & just had to try blending some into a roving. Not wanting to mess with the dying pattern, I broke off the bits in colour sequence, carded in the Angelina & then put back in the sequence to be spun. A lot of work, but the results were lovely. I think the sparkle is probably difficult to see from the picture, but trust me it's wonderful.


Anyway, part 2 coming soon. Peace out, Boop