A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

T.G.I.F.

I think Friday is my favorite day of the week. Once work is done you have a whole evening, loaded with the potential of the weekend with none of the stress of a weekday night. No worries about getting things ready for the next morning, getting to bed on time, remembering where you left keys, the coffee mug, shoes, purse or anything else. Yup Friday evenings are my favorite time of the week! What’s yours?

I went to spinning last night. It was fun to go and actually spin this week. Lucy did some “out-patient” surgery on my wheel, which had been acting funny for a while, tightening the drive band, and now it works much better. Could use a bit more oil here and there. But that is what happens when you don’t use something for 6 months. So now I have the sunset roving from September’s dye workshop started on the Joy, and unless it gets really cold again, both the roving and wheel are staying in the trunk of my car for a while, so I’ll be ready to spin where ever I go! Afterall, that is what a travel wheel is for, isn’t it?

I would like to try, again this weekend, to use the Jensen. Actually, this weekend I have a good possibility of getting to use it. I’m also hoping to finish up the hot-water-bottle-cozy so I can check that off the list and have it ready to use.

Well, meeting coming up soon and a busy day ahead. If I have a chance I’ll post again over the weekend . . . . Have a good one!

I’ll be spinning tonight . . .

For the first time in ages, I’ll actually be spinning at the spinning group tonight! I’ve got the portable wheel in the trunk of my car and a skein of roving that I dyed myself last fall . . . . I’m going to spin it up at roughly worsted weight (after plying) so that I can either make a felted bag or a funky hat or something out of it. It will be the first spinning I’ve been able to do in a few weeks and the first I’ve done on this wheel in ages. I may see if I can have a new drive band installed while I’m there. This one seems to be stretched out a bit and I’d like to change it out so it will be easier to use . . .

The baby shower yesterday was fun. New people are so cute! She just slept through being passed from person to person . . . . and the sweater was well received which was nice. And I got to visit with people I don’t normally see during the course of a work week so that was also fun.

Well, back to back meetings await me this morning and a bunch of mailing and fun stuff for this afternoon . . . . off to it!

Ta Dah!

So the baby sweater is finished! If only I had that camera!!!!!!! You’d be looking at a picture of it right now . . . ah well.

Actually, I think it turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. Its pink, with a turned picot edging on the botton and the button band, with ribbed cuffs on the sleeves and around the neck. I did the button band and neck all at once, using short-rows to add depth to the button band without making the neck too wide . . . . and finished it off with three very pretty antique buttons from my collection.

Now its all wrapped up, complete with a lavendar sachet, a note card (hand-stamped) with care instructions and a big fake hydrangea instead of a bow on the top of the box. Afterall, if I’m going to put all those hours into making the gift, why not put a little thought and effort into the presentation, right?

Shower is a 3:00 today . . . .perhaps the woman throwing it will have a camera? If she does I’ll see if I can get her to send me a picture of the sweater so I can post it here!

Fingers crossed!

Surprise!

I found out yesterday that there is going to be a Baby Shower here at work for the co-worker I’ve been knitting a baby sweater for . . . the catch? Yup, you guessed it, its TOMORROW!

In light of that all other fiber projects have been suspended. DH was fabulous and not only bought/cooked dinner last night, but even did the dishes so I could focus on finishing the sweater! He really can be quite the trooper when things come down to a crunch . . . I finished the 2nd sleeve last night, plan to weave in ends and pick up the stitches for the button band today at lunch, and then hopefully tonight I can finish the button band, decided on buttons and block it out a bit before wrapping! I actually haven’t completely settled on what I want to do for a button band, which is one of the reasons I hadn’t been working on it for a couple of weeks . . . . guess I’ll be deciding that this afternoon!

I had planned to spin last night after the marathon of organizing/cleaning projects that were completed over the weekend, but this sweater will be preempting any other fiber projects until I get it finished . . . With a little luck I’ll have time enough to do some baby mittens on a string, the thumbless kind for infants, to go along with the sweater.

I had actually been in a fiber stuff slump lately, not really working on much of anything for a few weeks. I may be starting to come out of it now that its looking more like spring . . . . but it does mean I haven’t worked on any of the New Year’s Resolutions lately or on the two Priority Projects either. . . . . perhaps in March I’ll plan to get back on track, with redefined goals and see where that takes me . . . .

Well, lots to do today at work so I’m off the files . . . .

Fiber Inventory Time!

Since the fiber I sent out came back on Friday and since we are getting ready for the spirng shearing and shows I decided to take a fiber inventory.

Friday night I pulled out all the boxes of wool (there are some smaller boxes of other things around but I haven’t gotten that far yet) and numbered each box. Then I took good old fashioned (crash-proof) index cards and wrote out what each fleece was, where I got it, when (approximately) I got it and what the raw weights and processed weights (or remaining processed weights) were. This afternoon I’m off to Office Max for a little file box to put them in. Rather like the old card catalogs at the library.

I also have a lot of the info on file in my PDA and will work on updating it so both sets of records match, but since the PDA has been acting funny and crashing lately having a paper back up seems like a good idea.

Here is the list (not including the yet to be cataloged small quantities of things like alpaca and angora)

These are the processed weights as all have either gone to Zeilingers or been scoured at home:

2.5# Ashland Bay Fibers - Assorted colors/types

3.25# Border Leicester - white

2.75# Border Leicester - grey

2.25# Corriedale - grey

2# Corriedale - white

7.75# Finn/Rambouillet - white

1+# Finn/Ram - pretreated- ready to dye

.5# Finn/Ram - dyed blue/green/purple

.25# Finn/Ram - dyed “Sunset”

1.25# Jacob - multiple greys

3.25# Merino - white

2.75# Merino Cross - oatmeal

.5# Merino - very dark brown

2.5# Rambouillet - dark brown

8# Romney - white

.25# Romney - dyed dark greens/blues

2# Romney - dyed blues/greens/purples * Mom’s shawl

2.75# Shetland Lamb/Appy Llama Blend - oatmeal

For a grand total of 45lbs of wool/wool blend fiber in the house!!!! Okay, perhaps DH is right, maybe I don’t need any more fiber this spring, but shhh! Don’t tell him!

I do have several on reserve already and plan to go to a few shows. . . but I’ll try to refrain from buying any more of the kinds I already have at least . . . wish me luck!