So it took me a month to get back to doing this, but I hope to update at least weekly from here on out.

Okay, so this is to be my thoughts and comments on knitting, spinning and other fiber related projects along with what ever else floats through my head . . .

I’ve been knitting for three years now. I began knitting partly because it was something I had always wanted to try and partly to give me something in common with my mother-in-law. She began teaching me and within a relatively short time I had knit a rather wide, very long seed stitch scarf out of “Jamie” in baby blue. Looking at it now its actually pretty terrible, but then I thought it was wonderf! Anyway, it was given as a x-mas gift to my grandmother (she’s blind in one eye anyway so she’s unlikely to notice how bad it really is) and she had been the first person to attempt to teach me to knit many years ago, before I could sit still that long!

I began spinning last July. I’m not sure what really made me start other than that it looked interesting. The shop that I was going to for most of my knitting supplies also has wheels and fiber and I just went in one day and said I wanted to learn. I had about a 10 min. lesson and then started hanging out with the weekly spinning group there. That first weekend I went home and spun a bunch of really terrible, lumpy thick brownish/grey wool. That was it, I was hooked! Within a few weeks I bought my wheel, an Ashford Joy, and not long after that I ordered my first fleece, sight unseen off the internet. It took me months to get around to washing it all. And I had this crazy idea that I could card it all with a little pair of dog slicker brushes! Boy was that a bad idea!!!! Not only was it taking forever to card, the rolags were these little tiny bits of fluff that took forever to spin since I had to keep joining more . . . so I finally broke down and bought real hand cards. Much better! So a couple of months ago I finally finished spinning that first grey fleece and it is now sitting in a basket waiting to become an Aran Shawl that I’m planning to design.

So I also have this wacky idea of making a “tunic” to wear to a Summer Gathing of the EC Fans (I’ll post the link as soon as I figure out how). Basically it involves first learning to spin linen fine enough, and then spinning enough of it to weave my own fabric. Oh yeah, and I still have to learn how to weave too! Anyway, my loom should be arriving later this month and I have started to try spinning from flax. So far I’ve made twine for use in the garden . . .

I also recently got 2 angora rabbits so I can start raising my own angora. They are both girls and still young, but next year the breeding program will begin, provided my darling husband gets a chance to build those hutches . . . And yesterday my silkworm eggs arrived . . . . Hey, he said no to sheep so I had to start somewhere!

Okay, got to run for now but later today or sometime this weekend I’ll be back to update with my actual current projects . . . .

(Bunny photo has been moved to the album at right)