A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

We may have a winner!

I think I may have found the right wool for some wool needlework yarn. I spun up a small piece of handwashed corriedale last night and it seems to work well at a fine gauge and not be too hairy. I haven’t done enough yet to ply it but I may tonight if I have a chance.

Unfortunately I did hurt my ankle last night while helping DH with something in the yard so depending on how its feeling by tonight, I may or may not do much in the way of spinning for a few days.

Funny Bunnies

A strange thing happened while I was out in the yard last night. Blossom fell out the bottom of the hutch! Turns out when we redid the floor due to issues they were having, the new flooring didn’t get secured well enough and the went through! First Blossom and then Jasmine as I was trying to catch her to prevent it from happening!!!! So, the girls will be spending a few days inside again until appropriate repairs can be made. Oh, and no worries, it was a soft landing with lots of leaves and hay under the hutch and a very short (2 ft.) fall so both are fine.

Other than that not much to report . . . .

On the left we have the skein of dropspindled, 2 ply silk thread from Combed Top

Second from left we have a skein of 2 ply, wheel spun Romney wool

On the right we have 5 skeins of wheel spun, 2 ply silk thread from a silk cap.

Sorry the picture quality isn’t better but it was taken for me at work by a friend with a camera on her PDA . . .

At least I finally have a picture of something!!!!!

Fighting with Technology

If all goes well, once I’m done fighting with the scanner here at work, I’ll have pictues to post!!!! Won’t that be fun? I’m attempting to get pictues of the Embroidery skeins out of the scanner. As it is relatively new and no one else has used it for anything other than text yet, there is some fiddling left to do.

I didn’t do much fiber wise last night; I had a terrible Migraine. Long story and not really for here . . . . lets just say sometimes I’m more ready to move to Italy than others! Yesterday I would have gone by the weekend if it had been offered!

Anyway, since I really wasn’t feeling well, I didn’t get much fiber stuff done. I did try spinning the Montadale into Embroidery yarn, but it wound up very hairy and didn’t hold together well that fine, even with a fair amount of twist. I suspect it just isn’t quite the right fiber for it. I also spun up a sample skien of the Romney from last year’s fiber binge. That worked better than the Montadale but is still a bit hairier than I would like to see. I don’t really want to use the Finn/Ram or the Merino as I don’t think they will hold up well to being repeatedly pulled through fabric, too soft & likely to pill. I do have a few other fibers on hand that I can try so perhaps tonight I’ll try another one and see how it goes.

Speaking of Fiber Binges

This year’s reservations are starting to turn up. So far 2, possibly 3 of the fleeces I had reserved have turned out to be unsaleable for what ever reason. Of course, it has happened to fleeces that had the potential to be very, very nice. Oh well! I have 2 coming from Skylines Farm (should arrive later this week), 1 coming from Redbud Farm for sure and a second one later, and 2 from White Fish Bay Farm. That puts the total at 6 so far this year. I’m debating how much of this to take with me to NH S&W to send to Zeilingers and how much to try processing at home this time around. I may be able to have A help me do some of the picking and scouring this year, since she now knows how to do it so that makes it a bit easier . . . . guess we’ll have to see how things go!

Well, off to fight with the scanner some more. If I get it putting out anything that resembles a picture I’ll post it here later!

The Bad News:

ToysRUs didn’t have any Cotton Candy Sugar, they don’t carry it any more.

The Good News:

My brother may be able to get me a whole bag of it, whole sale, through his work!!! Sounded like it might be a lifetime supply [;)]

Fiber News:

What a fabulous weekend of Fiber fun! I worked more on spinning the Silk Embroidery Tread for my mom. Last night I stopped spinning long enough to ply off what I had done so far. I have 5 skeins of about 30 yards each. I’m hoping to have time enough to do another 5 skeins worth before dyeing it up. I’m also considering spinning up some wool in the same size so I can dye both at the same time for colors in both fibers that will match. That way, if she chooses to, she can work something with both textures and the same colors for added interest.

Gardening:

The preparation of the garden/yard is coming along nicely. DH planted 5 giant Yew shrubs over the weekend to create a green wall seperating the patio area from part of the yard. Once they recover from the shock of being moved (they were rescued shrubs being tossed from a construction site that they agreed to save for us) and have a chance to start growing they should look pretty nice. Right now they look like they have been tramatized. We’re just hoping they make it.

He has also prepared a couple of small garden bed areas around the edges of the patio for me to plant. They will be getting a mixture of Tomato plants, herbs, salad and carrots & peas/beans and flowers. I don’t like to plant rows of veggies but to scatter them with herbs and flowers all together. I think it creates a nicer effect. Most of my plants will be going in pots but there are now 3 other areas where I can plant things. They are all small little corners but that makes maintainence a bit easier!

Bunny’s big adventure:

We had some stop by for a vist on Saturday who apparently wanted to pat the bunnies. DH let her open the side door to the hutch to visit, but didn’t tell me, and it wasn’t shut properly. So when we were about to leave Sunday am to meet friends for breakfast, we found little Ms. Blossom, hopping around the back yard. We tried to catch her but she escaped and managed to get under the barn. Its wide on one side and very, very narrow at the other and there is now way I could get her out. So we left hay and water and left her there hoping she’d stay inside the fence and that her “big brother” would protect her.

When we came home she was where we had left her, under the barn. At this point the neighbors Yorkshire terrier had arrived for the day to play with Arrow and I managed to convience her that I really did want her to “go get the bunny” (Blossom is bigger than the dog, and the dog will only get “so” close to that scary funny cat). Once Doolie had crawled most of the way to where the rabbit was, she popped out the other side of the barn. DH came to help and after 20 min. or so we caught up with her and returned her to the hutch. I think she was actually glad to be back inside where no one is after her!

Guess that’s about all for now . . . .

And here we are, its my favorite day again!

And to make it even better this week, the boss is away on a trip for the day, they canceled the meeting we usually have first thing on Friday, its a long weekend (Patriot’s Day), and they are predicting good weather all 3 days!!!! What more could a gal ask for?

I have managed to avoid starting any new knitting projects this week. I did get readdicted to “The Sims” earlier this week. I went and got their new upgrade, I basically had to because, IN IT THEY HAVE A SPINNING WHEEL!!!! Yup, my Sims are spinning!

I spent over 2 hours the other night using the game to design the “cottage” I’d like to have some day for my fiber work. You know, after DH and I move to Italy and buy a farm . . . Well, I had it all done and it was beautiful! A kitchen corner where I could make tea or do fiber dyeing, a greenhouse window on the south side so I can grow herbs and lavender all year, a fireplace with a comfy sofa, lots of bookshelves, and a 2nd floor just for storing all the fiber. Then I made the mistake of letting some Sims into it and he burned it down!!!! All gone and the Sims were dead! The real problem is the designer forgot to save a copy of the work before letting anyone into it . . . but really, it must be the imaginary people’s fault, right?

So this weekend I’ll be starting over, taking another shot at building it again.

Last night I got the wheel set up to spin some silk. I figured out what the problem was the other day. Wrong Bobbin! Duh! I was trying to use the little whirl with the bobbin with the big end to it! Some days I’m blonder than others.

Once I had the proper bobbin I was able to start spinning a silk hankie without difficulty. So I”m spinning Top on the drop spindle and a hankie on the wheel. It should be interesting to compare the results to see which I like better. Since Mother’s day is coming up and I’d planned to give the floss to my mother I’ll likely give her the stuff done on the wheel. Gives me a much better shot at being able to give her more than one color of it!

I still haven’t redone the bindoff on that handspuns sock. Pehaps I’ll take a crack at it this weekend out in the yard with nice bright sunlight so I can actually see what I’m doing. It would be nice to get to wear them once or twice before it gets too warm for even me to be in wool socks.

Oh, and A has loaned me her Cotton Candy Machine while she is away for spring break! I’m headed to ToysRUs tonight to get some of that yummy pink sugar for it ; ) DH doesn’t know what he’s in for this weekend!

Have a great weekend, if anything interesting happens I’ll try to post over the weekend!