teleknitter

Fleece Sale, 2010 goes live!

2010-04-14T12:29:00.003-07:00

OK, so you've read the initial post below the fleeces about general information.

This is how it will work:

5pm MST, I will accept email offers for the wool. First email at morgsarah AT gmail DOT com after that time will get the fleece/bag of neck wool etc.

I'll email you back sometime tonight to let you know that you're the buyer with information on how much etc., and amend the post with the fleece to say SOLD to xxx :).

Thanks!

2010 Fleece sales, general information

2010-04-12T11:14:00.005-07:00

I will post the blog posts with the fleece pictures and information about each fleece and start the sale on Wednesday, 4/14/2010 at 5pm MST!

All the fleeces for sale are from covered sheep, well skirted and pretty clean considering these are animals that live outside and eat hay and grass all year!

The neck wool/"seconds" bags from each sheep represent the uncovered neck wool (which is very fine and nice for handcombing) along with other "trimmings" from the covered portions of the fleeces. Each bag would make a nice project to handwash and handcomb or flick comb and spin. Because the wool in these bags tends to be from the perimeter of the sheep, they have good ranges of color that would be fun to play with for hand processing.

Prices as listed are for the whole fleeces. If a fleece doesn't sell within a week of listing, I will consider splitting or offering the wool per lb., but would prefer to sell whole fleeces first.

I will ship anywhere, prices listed are for shipping UPS ground in the USA. If you live somewhere else, please email me for shipping prior to payment!

Payments, I accept Paypal, or checks/money orders (will wait til they clear).

To purchase: email me. I'll email you back and say, yep the fleece is yours and edit the listing to say sold. Then, pay and I'll ship.

Email/Paypal is morgsarah AT gmail DOT com.

Please wait til I send you an email saying you're the buyer for the fleece to pay! I don't want multiple payments for the same items.

To preview the fleeces, you may check them all out on my Flickr stream, the first three pages, http://www.flickr.com/photos/19675535@N00/

If for some reason you are unhappy with the wool, please let me know. I know that everyone who bought a fleece last year loved them and I love working with this wool, so I don't anticipate this happening, but if for some reason it does, let me know and we'll work it out!

Edited to add: I'm currently 36w pregnant, soooo, if I disappear off the face of the internets for a few days, don't worry, I'll be back, its just a baby thing.

Margie, CVM, 2010 fleece for sale

2010-04-12T09:57:00.005-07:00

Margie, CVM ewe, 5.8 lbs coated clean fleece, $22/lb, $127 plus $15 shipping:

Detail, cream to silver and gray:

Detail:

Lock detail:

Margie, neck wool and uncoated wool: 1.25 lbs/$15 a lb, $18.75 and $7 shipping, SOLD:

Margie and her adorable twins from this year:

Eliza, Corrie/CVM, 2010 fleece for sale, SOLD

2010-04-12T09:55:00.010-07:00

Eliza, 75% Corriedale/25% CVM ewe, 5.7 lbs, $20/lb, $114 plus $15 shipping. SOLD

Detail, coated and clean, charcoal to black wool:

Detail:

Lock detail:

Eliza, neck wool and uncoated wool, 1.2 lbs/$12 a lb, $14.40 plus $7 shipping, SOLD:

Eliza:

Patty, CVM, 2010 fleece for sale, SOLD, neck wool avail.

2010-04-12T09:46:00.008-07:00

Patty, CVM ewe, 4.8 lbs clean, coated fleece, $22/lb, $105 and $15 shipping. SOLD

Cream to silver gray with some darker gray areas.

Detail:

Lock detail:

Patty, neck and uncoated wool, 1 lb, $15 and $7 shipping: SOLD

Pretty Patty (named after Patty Griffin, my favorite folk singer!):

Shirley, CVM, 2010 fleece for sale, SOLD, neck wool avail.

2010-04-12T09:43:00.006-07:00

Shirley, CVM ewe, 4.5 lbs coated clean fleece, $22/lb, $99 + $15 shipping and handling; SOLD

Detail:

Detail, lovely cream to gray colors:

Reverse of fleece:

Lock detail:

Shirley, neck wool and uncovered wool, 0.85 lbs/$15 a lb, $12.75 and $7 shipping and handling:

Shirley with one of her twin girls from this year:

Florence, CVM, 2010 fleece for sale, SOLD

2010-04-12T09:31:00.007-07:00

Florence, CVM ewe, 3.6 lbs, well skirted, coated portion of the fleece. $22/lb, $79 for the fleece, $15 shipping. SOLD

CVM fleece, Florence, 3.6 lb ewe fleece, coated. Lovely dark gray to charcoal, very tight crimp!

Detail:

Lock detail:

Florence's neck wool and non-covered wool, 0.9 lb, $15/lb, $13.50 and $7 shipping: SOLD

Florence and her adorable spotted lambies:

Pretty ewe:

Spooky, CVM/Romeldale, 2010 fleece for sale, SOLD

2010-04-12T07:55:00.011-07:00

Spooky, 2010 ewe fleece, 3.4 lbs, $22 a lb, $75 total fleece, $15/shipping. SOLD

Coated, clean portion of the fleece.

Cream with a few portions of gray, but primarily cream hence the CVM/Romeldale. CVMs were bred originally from Romney and Rambouillet sheep, her fleece is a total throwback to a very fine Romney fleece. Very cool, interesting considering both her dam (Patty) and sire (Fred, my old ram) have typical CVM wool.
Lock detail:

Also available, neck wool/"seconds", 1.6 lbs, $15/lb, $24 and $7 shipping: SOLD!

Neck wool again:

And, Spooky as a lamb. She's now a 2 yr. old ewe with a little ewe lamb of her own!

Rifle, CVM, 2010 fleece for sale, SOLD

2010-04-12T07:52:00.009-07:00

Rifle, my CVM ram fleece. 6.2 lbs total weight, $22/lb, $136 for the whole fleece, $15 shipping, SOLD

Coated, this is the jacketed portion of the fleece, very clean.

All shades of gray, deep charcoal gray to pale, even some cream areas.

Detailof locks (long staple length!):

Also for sale: Rifle's neck wool (the uncoated parts) and other "seconds" or uncoated portions of the fleece, 1.6 lbs, $15/lb, $24 and $7 shipping. The neck wool is great for handcombing: SOLD

And, Rifle himself:

Lambing, 2010, part II

2010-03-16T10:09:00.002-07:00

So, this morning brought another set of twins!

Florence (the ewe with the most gorgeous charcoal fleece) had a set of ram twins. Spotted and lovely:

These two, I'll try to find homes for fiber wethers or sell as breeding rams. With Florence as the mom and the awesome coloration, they're going to have amazing handspinning fleeces.

Shirley's two from yesterday:

Margie's little brown reverse badger ewe:

Margie's little gray/black reverse badger ram:

Isabel helping feed the chickens:

First thing she said when she woke up this morning, "outside, sheep, mama!". Too cute.

Lambing, 2010!

2010-03-15T14:38:00.003-07:00

We've started our 2010 lambing season well, with TWO sets of twins!

Yesterday morning, Nate went out to feed the animals. I was poking around in the chicken coop and I heard him say, "Sarah!! We have two lambs!". Of course, it had snowed about 4 inches the night before and we weren't expecting lambs til the following weekend, so we weren't prepared.

Margie, my favorite ewe had delivered a ram lamb and a ewe lamb. The little ewe lamb was shivering in the snow, the ram lamb was up and running around. We rushed around and put some dry hay in a pen in the barn. Moved the lambs in there, then moved Margie in there. The little brown reverse badger marked ewe lamb was still shivering, so we got out the hair dryer and dryed her off and warmed her up and put her under a blanket. About half an hour later she was still shivering and we weren't sure that she'd had any colostrum yet. You want to see that they get some within an hour of birth. So, we pulled out the bag of faux-colostrum mix, mixed up 4 oz, and gave it to her. She perked right up and looked for more. Within the next half an hour she was nursing on mom. Whew!

This morning, we go out to feed the animals. Only four of the five ewes were at the hay...and the llama was looking nervously into a corner of one of the stalls. We walked around the corner to see Shirley and a lamb, already standing up. She appeared to be laboring still, pawing the ground. We prepped another stall with warm dry ground and lots of fresh hay and by the time we were done, another lamb! Two ewe lambs! We moved the little ones and mom into the stall, both lambs were up looking to nurse, mom licking them both.

I stopped home at lunch, to check on today's ewe lambs and Shirley, they were warm, in the sun, full bellies.

Isabel enjoyed meeting the lambs yesterday:

Now, I can only hope that the other four ewes do as well! Wondering what tomorrow morning will bring?

Weekend in Albuquerque

2010-02-16T14:25:00.003-07:00

We've been wanting a mini-get away weekend for a while now, before we have another little one to add to the crazy busy lives we lead. Finances said drive, not far, and we had yet to explore much of Albuquerque, so we headed there for the weekend.

We took Isabel to the zoo, which she loved. Kitties were her favorite (especially the snow leopard kitten!). She also really used her stroller for the first time, ever. I've been big on the Ergo and other baby carriers, but carrying a 25 lb toddler who loves to get out and walk a lot + being 7 months pregnant isn't always a great combination. She liked it, so I think we'll use it a bit more now.

We also went to the botanical gardens, the aquarium, the Rio Grande Nature Center/river walking area, Petroglyph National Monument, and Coronado State Park. Along with a bit of shopping.

The sandhill cranes winter on the Rio Grande. We happened to catch a group of 13 of them in a field right by the nature center. Beautiful birds, they stand about 3-4 feet tall.

Petroglyph National Monument flanks the northwest side of Albuquerque, with three locations with short trails. At the Negro Boca location, the macaw petroglyphs were pretty awesome.

The Anasazi first began importing macaws from Mexico in the 1100s, there are even mummified macaws at one of the great house ruins here in the Four Corners.

Isabel really enjoyed the little trails with some rocks to climb up and over, the ones with steps and stairs, the challenge of new terrain!

I enjoyed actually hanging out outside in nice weather for a change! Not being snowbound was a treat.

2010

2010-02-03T12:47:00.002-07:00

Happy 2010!

Isabel says hi:

At 18 months she's amazing. I love that she loves the animals.

What have I been up to?

Well, making Isabel a sister who should arrive this May for one. Working. Trying to manage life on a farm, with a toddler, pregnant, in the snowiest Winter we've had since we lived here.

Yes, knitting and spinning still. I have a sweater on the needles for a friend who is due a few weeks after me in May, more socks for Nate, I finished a couple of things for the new baby, and just finished spinning the most gorgeous colored yarn. I need to take some photographs of it all.

The sheep are well, a bit perplexed by all the snow I think, but all hopefully pretty good and pregnant now. We should be having lambs at the end of March into the beginning of April. I can't wait to see what colors they are since we have a new ram this year! So exciting.

I did knit this cardigan for Isabel:

Which is perfect on her right now, I love the bright colors on her.

I'd like to blog more. Maybe I will...

Oh, and I just submitted all the final details for a pattern and article to be released in the Spring 2010 Spin Off Magazine! Can't wait to see it.

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2010.

Whew! Those months went FAST.

2009-10-12T11:33:00.002-07:00

This one:

is great (the little purple jacket I knit before she was born fits this year!).

Walking all over, talking up a storm, obsessed with her shoes and kitties. Very fun.

Spent most of the last couple months in a crazy busy phase with work (field work again), also our "second jobs" collecting the pollen and hornets, and trying to harvest the garden stuff and get it all put up for winter.

I'm hoping that things are settling down now and I'll have time to spin and knit a bit this winter. I miss it! I need to knit Isabel some longies, I want some more fingerless gloves, I have at least one New Baby to knit something for...

Some of the recent harvest, winter squashes and tomatoes and things (picked before the frost!):

Kitties for Birthday Baby

2009-08-11T11:08:00.003-07:00

My little Isabel, you're ONE!

You loved your cake. You took your first steps on your birthday, from Dad to Mama, reaching for your new book.

I knit you a pair of little kitties, to go along with your first word, "kitteee", that you say in your little tiny voice.

I think these ones won't mind so much if you pull their tails.

Babybel's Boheme

2009-08-04T07:07:00.004-07:00

Ah, see, I said there would be baby knitting coming up! On the eve of Isabel's first birthday (I know, already? Where did the year go?), Boheme for my Babybel:

Yarn: Jo Sharp classic DK wool in orange-red. Buttons: Vintage yellow ones that I picked up at a yarn store a while back.

Pattern: Boheme (Ravelry linky). Needles: US 6. Size: 18 months (hoping she can wear it over a longsleeve onesie this winter).

Verdict: Great little pattern! I'd knit this again, no questions asked. Easy, NO seams, cute. I modified it by adding a 6 stitch garter edge on the button and buttonhole edges so it wouldn't curl and adding an 8 row garter stitch edge along the bottom too. I think I also knit it a bit shorter than called for.

So, no real birthday plans for her tomorrow. I do need to get a cake or something though so we have the cake face pics :).

July and the knitting is...

2009-07-08T11:37:00.004-07:00

Almost non-existent? Yep. I did actually finish a second baby sock for Valerie's new baby this week, I know really exciting, right?

I've been busy with the garden mostly. But, its worth it. We're eating squash, peas, radishes, peppers, and greens already!

Busy with work.

Busy with this one:

She's 11 months now! So fun too. Babbling non-stop, cruising, crawling, playing INTENSELY with things to figure them out. I love it.

Ah, I should take some pics of the garden, of the yarn I've spun (two skeins of Navajo-plied dyed wool, one mini-skein of Spooky), and post the knitting I've done (a while back) for other babies. Maybe later this week.

The fleeces are all shipped and sold, hopefully everyone is loving them! I'd LOVE to see what you do with them if you bought one, hint hint...

Except Shirley, so. If I don't hear back from the person who was going to buy Shirley by the end of this week (Friday), I'm going to put her up for sale on Saturday morning, so stay tuned! There might be a bit of fleece left. Then, when we return from a vacation at the end of July, I'll try to list the prepped roving that I have from the previous years fleece! Then, I suppose I'll put up a reserve list for next year's fleeces since there has been interest in that too.

Fleece Sale Info

2009-06-05T13:45:00.010-07:00

Update, Saturday pm, sales pending for all fleeces. If any fall through, I will relist. Thank-you!

I have a total of 7 fleeces. 2 are black/almost black. 5 are variations of gray, from dark to light. (edited, one small black fleece is horrible. scurf, so I'm no way selling it. It was a ram lamb I traded for, boo. None of my sheep have any of that...)

Updates:
Flint, sale pending
Shirley, sale pending
Eliza, sale pending
Margie, sale(s) pending
Patty, sales(s) pending
Florence (not listed yet), sale pending for 1/2, possible sale pending for other 1/2
Spooky (not listed yet), sale pending

If you want to see more pictures, I'd be happy to oblige, just ask! Or, feel free to search my photos at: my Flickr (I think I have most of them tagged with sheep names etc).

I will be happy to split out some of a fleece for you in lb increments or send lock samples.

I'd also be very happy to send any fleece you want to the processor of your choice to save you money in shipping if you're eventually going to send it out anyways. (I can send you a few keepsake locks or some of the fleece if you like too). I highly recommend Morro Fleece Works. I had 3 fleeces done there last year and they spin like a dream.

CVM/Romeldale is a nice soft wool, next to skin soft. Breed Info.

If you are interested in buying a fleece, please email me at morgsarah at gmail dot com. First come (and paid) first serve! I take payapal only unless we come to some other agreement through email.

Shipping will be actual cost, your preference UPS or USPS. Once you decide to buy it we'll work it out.

I still have 3 to add. One black/charcoal that I know is 1.7 lbs, and two CVMs. One dark gray, one lamb that I have to shear on Sunday. So, stay tuned!

Margie, CVM fleece for sale

2009-06-05T13:09:00.004-07:00

1 lb pending sale, 5.25 lbs left!

Margie, 2 year old CVM ewe, cream to grays. Covered, very well skirted fleece.

6.25 lbs. 4.5-5 inch staple length. $17 a lb. $105 for the whole fleece.

Margie and last year's ewe lamb:

Skirting Margie's fleece with Isabel:

Eliza, 75% CVM/Romeldale 25% Corriedale, fleece for sale

2009-06-04T09:49:00.004-07:00

Possible sales pending, 1/2 to L, 1/2 to Whimzey....

Eliza, 2 yr old ewe sheepie, black with some dark dark charcoal gray (with cute white socks and nose stripe :)). She's 75% CVM/Romeldale and 25% Corriedale. Her fleece ends up almost pure black once its spun up, despite the sun tips.

Covered, well skirted, 5.5 lbs, 3.5-4 inch staple, $17 a lb/$92 whole fleece.

Eliza:

Roving I had processed last year from her fleece (Eliza on left, Margie on right):

Yarn (Eliza is black, on bottom, Margie on top, Shirley very top, Patty below Shirley):

Patty, CVM fleece for sale

2009-06-04T09:45:00.002-07:00

1 lb sale pending, 4.25 lbs left!

Patty, 2 year old CVM ewe, gray to cream colored wool. Very clean, well skirted, covered fleece. You're only getting the clean nice fleece from under the cover (as in all my covered fleeces).

4.5-6 inch staple length, 5.25 lbs. $18 a lb/$94 for the whole fleece.

Patty:

Shirley, CVM fleece for sale

2009-06-03T15:38:00.004-07:00

Sale Pending!

"Shirley", covered, well skirted (you only get the nice part from under the cover), CVM, 2 yr old ewe fleece. Pale gray to cream colored. This would blend into an overall light gray if processed together, or you can separate the colors out and process individually.

5-6 inch staple length, 5 lbs total weight. $18 a lb. $68/whole fleece. Will sell in 1 lb increments.

Shirley:

Flint, Romeldale fleece for sale

2009-06-03T15:30:00.006-07:00

Sale pending!

"Flint". Yearling ram lamb, beautiful black to charcol colored wool. VM, since this guy kept taking covers off, amount typical as seen in the photos.

3-3.5 inch staple length. Total weight, 2.5 lbs. Well skirted. $12 a lb./$30 for the whole fleece, will split in 8 oz quantities if wanted. Would work nice for hand combing.

Fleece Time!

2009-06-03T15:27:00.003-07:00

So, I haven't been blogging much lately. Obviously. But, We've started shearing and I need to start selling some wool. Because I have So Much. And, lack that elusive thing we all seem to, Time.

So, I'm going to start listing raw fleeces for sale. If you're interested, just let me know! The girls have gorgeous fiber this year. I think I'm in love with sheep coats.

Seven Months of Isabel

2009-03-06T16:23:00.003-07:00

So, my Be a Better Blogger resolution has only been so-so. I mean, I have knitted things to take pictures of, owe you guys a microfarm update, all that. But really, Isabel is the best thing I could ever have to take pictures of. She's like my photo trump card. Eventually I will catch up on the knit-spin-farm pics. But, til then, behbeh.

So, A photo-essay, Isabel at 7 months:

1. Beautiful Mrs. Dashwood hat that Cordelia knit for her. Hmmm, I think I'll try it out it might be perfect for the upcoming FL trip.

2. Baby pulls on hat. Baby tips self over.

3. Baby fake-cry-fusses for like 3 seconds.

4. Baby pulls hat over face.

5. Win! Baby sucessfully pulls hat off! Mom wonders how much sunscreen she'll have to apply to fuzzy little head.

Cute little tee is from the wonderful Bezzie and Cordelia also sent the green soaker.

Six Months, Baby.

2009-02-09T07:48:00.002-07:00

Last Thursday she turned a half-year, six months, wow. It really does go fast. Last year, this time, I was still worried I'd lose the pregnancy again, but optimistically just in the second trimester.

She's sitting up like a champ, babbling, playing with "real" food a bit now. Laughing a lot, becoming a lot more interactive and fun.

I took her outside to take some nice six month pictures, dressed her all up in the cute little dress I knit her. She wanted to play with a stick, not her little deer toy, then, when I laid her down to take one of those cute popping her head up on her hands pics, she decided she wanted to play with a handful of dead grass/leaves/dirt. That's my baby!

In other news, I finished designing a cowl for handspun yarns, in two weights, one handpainted spun roving, the other plain roving, and sent some pics in to Spin Off magazine. The editor loved them, decided to feature the pattern in the magazine! So, I'll have a nice pattern and article in the Spring 2010 Spin Off! Woot!

Cowlicious.

2009-01-27T15:28:00.003-07:00

I've caught Cowlmania :).

This one is the ZigZag Cowl. Knit with the very first skein I ever spun on my wheel, oh, ages ago! The skein was all lumpy, bumpy, uneven, thick and thin. But hey, it knit up totally fine. Nice. So, spinning not need be perfect to be useable.

I like it. I like cowls. I like quick knits with lots of possibilities for one off handspun skeins or handpaints. I like warm necks with knitted accessories that can't be pulled of by baby :).

The baby? Hanging out with Telecat. So far, definitely a pet lover.

A little Friday Handspun

2009-01-23T09:37:00.002-07:00

Ah back to the handspun yarn on Fridays? Maybe :). If I can keep up spinning enough. I kind of get distracted by the baby, work, knitting. Now that we have no TV, I also seem to spin less. We watch DVDs in bed, but no more TV downstairs has meant a lot less spinning.

But, I have finished oh, about 8 or so skeins since Isabel arrived. This one is a 2-ply, heavy worsted weight Corriedale wool. Dyed by Spunky Eclectic, this is the Rosebud colorway, part of the fiber club from last year.

Already knit! I'll blog the cowl over at HOWR a little later.

The Orchid socks in action! Matching baby leggings to go with them that I knit before we cancelled TV, when I watched the news obsessively before the election, seriously, hours a night. Hence cancelling TV. It was a bit too much of a time suck.

New Year Socks

2009-01-20T13:53:00.002-07:00

So, while I definitely haven't been knitting nearly as much as I had pre-baby, I still knit. I think, I can't help it. I love it. Even just plain old socks. In fact, I think I might love plain old socks the most. The simplicity, the fact that I can knit them without a pattern, without looking, the turn of the heel still feeling like an act of magic in a way.

Socks persist. In a good way. I have a drawer full for me now, so I tend to knit them for my loved ones more now.

These are in Trekking Pro Natura (that Mags gave me for my birthday a while back, thank-you Mags!) made for my dad. I haven't knit socks for him yet, but I know he'll like them. Merry late Christmas, or happy new year socks for dad.

And, for Isabel. I knit her a ton of baby socks. But, now, she's grown out of most of them. These, and the rainbow ones to match the rainbow baby leggies are the only ones that really fit. Babies. They grow! Fast! Knit with Scout's Swag Orchid yarn. Oh, for a 6-9 month baby sock? CO 40 sts on size 2 needles with sock yarn and follow a basic sock recipe making the foot about 3.75 inches long.

Speaking of Isabel,

She can sit up now. But quickly flops over. And. Bonks her head. Unless I prop her up in this B.oppy pillow (which I never did use for breastfeeding, the My Br.east Friend is MUCH better, still use it actually). She loves books.

This is her Roman Senator pose. Since you guys said you like baby pics, I shall oblige :).

Return of the Blog?

2009-01-17T12:57:00.002-07:00

I'd like to make it so. Yes, I realize this requires a commitment to actually post. Well. I'd like to be a blogger again, I realize I miss it, a bit.

Of course you guys are going to have to put up with lots of baby pics, not as many knitting pics, and all around whatever-ness. OK?

So.

I start 2009 on the blog with a pic of my lovely Isabel, at 5 months.

One of the coolest things, is the coincidence that our good friends Jon and Kelly had their baby girl, Ashley, less than 24 hours after Isabel. Crazy, Nate and Jon were each other's best men in our weddings, and Jon and Kelly moved to England the same week we did. Of course, now they live in NYC and we microfarm in the middle of nowhere, but, still, cool. So, they came out and visited over New Year's. How fun. Two cute babies playing together was amazingly cool!

I have some handspun to show, some socks...hmmm, animal pics :) too.

Happy New Year!

SO! Life, eh?

2008-11-18T12:49:00.002-07:00

It kind of takes me away from blogging, though I do want to return to it.

Isabel is great. Three months and a week now. She babbles, rolls over (both ways!), and is more fun every day now that she's interactive.

She mostly looks about like this, inquisitive, skeptical, curious.

She often looks like this:

But generally not for too long. We return to this:

pretty quickly normally.

I've been trying to knit a bit here and there, spin too. But definitely not as much as before baby.

We had a good first Halloween:

I knit Nate a hat with wool I spun from our sheep Florence,

finished a scarf,

knit another pair of baby leggings, a pair of baby socks, started a new pair of grownup socks, spun more Florence fluff to knit a sweater, and hmmm, seamed a long lingering cardigan.

That's about it, really!

Now, to catch up on all the blogs I used to read....sorry guys for not commenting and reading lately. I really intend to get back to it!

Rainbow Baby Leggies

2008-09-20T09:56:00.002-07:00

Isabel's latest styling handknit:

Yep, little leggings/legwarmers knit with Opal Rainbow sock yarn. I basically used this pattern, but didn't put the ribbing at the top.

Quick little cute knit, makes it super easy to change a diaper, but still keep legs warm.

I'll be knitting more of these for the winter I think, this is my speed of knitting right now.

One Month.

2008-09-08T14:48:00.002-07:00

Well, one month and a few days. But I've been a mom for a bit more than a month. So far its been good. Hard sometimes, all new, and good mostly. I'm not going to get all philosophical about motherhood yet :). Isabel has grown a lot already I feel like!

This morning:

Its getting chilly in the nights and mornings now. So she's wearing a sweater my friend Guro in Norway knitted for her. Perfect! Fall is coming, I'm getting really happy that Isabel is going to be the Warmest Baby in New Mexico with all the beautiful handknits.

She's still sleeping a good amount during the days:

I think it must be tiring being a baby, everything new and stimulating. So much to take in!

In little Koigu shoes that Laura made:

I did finish a pair of socks I started after Isabel was born! Trekking, mmm. Then, started a matching pair for her in the leftovers. This baby is going to need lots of handknit wool socks to get her through the winter I think!

I'm being horrible at commenting right now on everyone else's blogs. I'm reading, trying to keep up, but commenting is one of the things that is falling by the wayside right now with the baby and all. Oh! I almost forgot...if you get Spin Off magazine, or get a chance to look at the new Fall 2008 issue, check out my Baby Surprise Jacket that's in there!

Baby Update!

2008-08-23T13:17:00.002-07:00

Baby pics! I know you wanted them :).

She's doing wonderful so far. Breastfeeding like a pro (whew! I was a tad nervous about this, all those stories you hear...), sleeping 2-4 hrs at a time at night waking up to eat, and all over cute.

She was already up past her birthweight again at the 2 week appointment, so all is well there, and the pediatrician said she was "perfect"!

I have even managed a little knitting...I finished a lace scarf with some handspun paco-vicuna that I started the weekend before I had her (the true waiting for baby project), finished those suffolk-cross socks, and even started a new pair that I can knit while she nurses! So, knitting blogging up next.

Isabel Morgan P.

2008-08-07T13:13:00.002-07:00

Born at 2:05 PM, 8/5/08. Seven pounds, 10 ounces, 19.5 inches long. Beautiful.

The birth was amazing. We had a waterbirth, all natural, at a hospital birthing center attended by a midwife. I'm still processing it all, how crazy amazing women are, really. Nate was there with me the whole time supporting me. She came into the world, and our lives changed.

Cute and little. All baby.

Now, the fun part, the hard part, the scary part, the awesome part. Being parents. Taking care of a person.

Promise, little one, we'll do our best.

Suffolk-cross/nylon Handspun Socks, Started

2008-07-28T08:57:00.002-07:00

Started the socks with the yarn from the last post. How is it? Stripedy! Sock-y!

Soft? Nope! Just like I was hoping, this yarn feels like "real" wool. Like a nice medium Shetland, or a bit like a Lopi or something. Strong, not soft!

My feet aren't picky, but they sure can wear through that merino soft stuff. Or maybe I'm hard on socks. Sure I walk around without shoes, even outside on the deck, back yard...oh, to the car, maybe to take out the trash.

So, I like it. Like the yarn, the socks. Now, I'll have to test my wear theory. I suppose I could wash em 2x a week and wear em every day for a month or so this winter and get a years worth of wear in a month. Any other ideas on how to test the wear part of my theory fast?

Oh, no baby yet, but I'm hoping soon!

Muted Brights Handspun Sock Yarn

2008-07-25T09:08:00.002-07:00

Spun from the fleeces I had processed at Spinderella's! Spun from this fiber, which I blogged about on The House of Wool Repute already.

The light wasn't perfect this morning, the yarn appears a lot more mellow that in actually is. But, it really did mellow out a lot when I plied the singles together

Dyed with four packets of grape KoolAid and six packets of lemon KoolAid. I did a normal 2-ply, adding a bit more twist into both the singles and the plying than I would if I was spinning a yarn for knitting baby clothes or lace.

I finished a pair of socks last night, so tonight I'll wind these skeins into cakes and cast on for a pair with this yarn. I'm curious to see how my super-slapdash dye job ends up looking knitted. Plus, I need a new pair of socks for distraction and taking in the car, labor...all that :).

Specs: The bump pre-dyeing was about 150g. I didn't weight the finished yarn this morning because it was still damp from last nights bath.

Approximately 350 m/380 yds of a fingering weight sock yarn total.

Have an excellent weekend everyone! No big plans here, unless baby decides its time :).

Fiber Overload!

2008-07-22T09:39:00.002-07:00

When you have sheep, alpacas, a llama, a spinning obsession, and loads of fluff hanging around, you eventually get to the point where you realize that you really aren't going to be hand processing all that fiber yourself. That's when you decide to send a bunch of fleeces off to be processed at a fiber mill, then eagerly await (like a kid before Christmas) the Return of the Fluff.

Yesterday, my first fluff came back. I had sent three of my ewe fleeces, a Clun Forest fleece, and two down wool fleeces to Spinderella's in Utah and three other fleeces to Morro Fleece Works in California. All of the fiber from Spinderella's and one of the fleeces from Morro came back yesterday.

Click here for a Flickr pic link with notes on it about each bag of fiber in the pic above.

Morro sent back two bags of lovely pin-drafted roving from Margie (my favorite ewe), it really is wonderful, I can't wait to get the other two back as well!

And this? This is what I had done with the down wool fleeces I picked up at Pagosa Fiber Festival this year. I just posted a detailed post on the House of Wool Repute about it.

A total of 20 lbs, 9 oz of fiber so far. I'm definitely going to be getting things together and opening an Etsy shop soon. So, if you're interested, stay tuned! I need to make up cute little tags with pictures of the sheep and all that first.

On the baby front, all is well, I think we're pretty ready now. Car seat, check. baby room, check. Bassinet and bedroom cleaned up and organized for baby, check. Bag packed, check. Baby stuff and diapers washed, check. So! Anytime little one.

Things to Finish.

2008-07-18T10:07:00.002-07:00

So. In an attempt to get the house more organized before the baby is here, I spent a good portion of last Sunday organizing and cleaning out the fiber room. I accounted for my long lingering projects, listed some yarn on ebay, and decided I'd try to finish some things before starting new projects.

First up, the Bird in Hand Mittens. I started these back in December and almost finished the first mitten. Picked them up again, finished the knitting part on the first mitten, and last night, cast on for the second!

Next, the pile of Things To Do on top of the fleece cabinet. A pile of socks that need attention, the Aran Knitting swatches with one that is about halfway done in that little wooden box in the middle, and on the right there, a completely knit cardigan that I even blocked, but for some reason never seamed. If I seam it, I'll have a sweater.

The sock pile. Three pairs of handknit socks, all knit with 100% merino wool, the top two pairs from handspun yarn, the bottom, from Koigu. All with holes that need repairing/darning. This is why I stick to the Regia, Trekking, Opal these days. Weak sock yarn deserves no place in my sock drawer! Of course, this is also why I should be getting a huge pile of wool back from the mill on Monday that I had blended with nylon to actually spin strong sock yarn from. Naturally superwash down wool (a Suffolk cross) blended with 25% nylon. This should be perfect for handspinning strong sock yarn, I really can't wait to try it out.

Oh yeah, the Urban Aran zip up vest. Since this pic was taken, I finished knitting the back up to about the arm holes. This is one I'd really like to wear this winter, so I think I will finish it.

But for now, I think I'll finish these mittens. I can see myself wearing them often this winter, in the mornings, out feeding sheep in the frost. Frost. Snow. It seems impossible right now, in the warm, green, summer that it will be here in just a few months.

Fastest Yarn Ever

2008-07-15T10:40:00.002-07:00

So, last week, over on House of Wool Repute, I blogged about the yarn that took me Forever To Spin. In contrast to that, this yarn was the fastest 8 oz. of wool I've ever spun.

The fiber was approximately 8 oz (225 g) of Falkland wool, handyed by Adrian of Hello Yarn from the April installment of the fiber club.

I spun the first 4 oz watching 2 DVRed episodes of Anthony Bourdain on Sunday, so about 80-90 minutes I'm guessing, the second 4 oz watching the first part of I'm Not There last night, and then plied during the first part of Into the Wild last night. So, a total of 4-5 hours of spinning the singles, plying, washing, etc. is my guess.

And, no, it isn't super crazy fat yarn either. Plied and washed, I have about 290 yds (265 m) of Aran weight yarn. I'm going with Aran weight since it falls between the bulky and the worsted in terms of yardage per oz.

I intentionally spun this yarn light and fluffy. I kept in mind Paula Simmon's methods from "Spinning for Softness and Speed", using a long draw and treadling slower than normal to get a bit less twist and increase the soft factor.

End result? A fluffy yarn. Fast to spin. Perfectly even? No. You sacrifice a bit of that even-ness in spinning this way. Do I mind? Not a bit. In fact, I'm guessing you'll hardly notice when its knit up.

I'm going to be spinning a lot more this style I think in the future I think. But now I got that out of my system, I think the 3 and 5/8 oz of paco-vicuna clouds from the Pagosa Fiber Festival are calling to me next...alas, more laceweight (but not 6 oz at least!).

Alpacs and Llama, Clipped for the Summer.

2008-07-11T10:16:00.002-07:00

We got the last "big" Spring/Summer animal chore done last night, the shearing of our two alpacas and llama. Again, our friend Grant came up to help (9 months pregnant isn't really a good time to wrangle Camelids...) and we got them done.

Ben on the right, Jerry on the left, these guys got the "poodle clip", we left fuzzy feet, heads, and tails on them. For our amusement, and because they look most like cute muppets this way.

Drama llama got a full clip, since last year we pretty much only got the blanket off of him. His white was SO white underneath!

I had JUST finished skirting the fleeces from the sheep too, now I have these ones to skirt, clean up, and send in. I think I need to read up on skirting alpaca fleeces a bit first though. I definitely bagged the blanket portion of the fleece separate from the other parts, which I know is key.

The blanket fleece from Ben, nice and rich brown, and pretty clean, surprisingly, alpacas LOVE to roll in the dust!

A lock sample from Ben's fleece. Nice staple length, soft too. As far as alpaca fiber goes, this isn't top notch prize winning alpaca, but its nice. Average fiber pet alpaca is still nice stuff to have around.

37 weeks! Happy weekend everyone.

Art Fibers Alfabeto Scarf

2008-07-09T07:52:00.002-07:00

Last year, Tania gave me a skein of Art Fibers Alfabeto yarn. Lovely Fall colors, and 76% silk, 14% mohair, 250 yds. Shiny AND fuzzy!

The skein hung around on my yarn table with the handspun for a while, until I grabbed it and packed it for the last trip to Michigan in case I needed another project. I had already packed Victorian Lace Today so I could finish Lisa's wedding shawl on the plane.

After finishing the shawl, a pair of baby socks, starting a pair of socks for Nate, and knitting the baby dress and bolero, I cast on for this scarf during the last few days of the trip.

I browsed through VLT, deciding on using the edging from this (yes its a Ravelry link) pattern for the scarf. I simply used the diamond edging, adding a scalloped edge to the side on the scarf that was designed to be flat in the center of the original scarf so it would match the other edge.

The scarf was a quick knit, I worked on it once in a while over the last few weeks. The pattern was pretty intuitive once I had worked a few repeats and made for pleasant knitting.

I'm happy with the end result, I think it will be a nice Fall accessory. Right now its getting stashed in the closet until a little chill in the air arrives.

Baby Room!

2008-07-07T09:18:00.007-07:00

We finally decided that with this being the official "full term" week of pregnancy, we should finish up the baby room. A fresh coat of light green paint, a new light fixture, cleaning, and new blinds. All the baby things organized.

A nice cozy nook with a twin bed...I see endless possibilities for napping, playing, resting, hanging out here.

Of course all the pets had to check it out. Lucy thinks the changing pad is really a cozy cat bed. Wilco thinks the stuffed animals are dog toys. Our kids are destined to have blankets rather than stuffed animals as their comfort items at this rate...

A lovely handmade quilt (thanks AnnaMae!) in bright colors matches the posters we decided to put on the wall. Posters from...the Pagosa Springs Wool Festival. Hee. Every year we've been they have a gorgeous colorful poster, signed and numbered. So, sheep, angora goats, and alpacas in bright colors, perfect for the baby, right?

We still need to buy a few things, but mostly we're set. I have a bag with things in it to take all ready too. Seems like this has gone so fast, but also, so slow. A time warp of sorts.

I think we're ready to meet the baby. Our daughter. Exciting, scary, new, fun, so many things. I can't wait.

Shearing and Sheepies.

2008-06-26T10:30:00.002-07:00

Its been a while since I updated the blog with microfarm and sheep stuff, so here goes. We sheared the sheep a while ago, and they're all set for the summer!

I had a friend/coworker who also "microfarms" come help the first day since I wasn't sure how the ewes would do (since it was their first time being sheared), me being pregnant and all. Grant and Nate sheared the first three, then after we realized that once they were caught and down they were easy, I helped with the last three the next day.

This is Patty being sheared. Normally, she looks like this (she's the second one back here):

So wow! The difference in color is amazing. The underside of the fleece is pure gray, the outer, creamy colored and tan. This is not only because of the sun bleaching, but also because the girls still have their baby fleece. Born creamy colored, CVM sheep get darker for the first year of their lives.

So, here's Florence with some of the lambs:

And here's her fleece when I pulled it out to skirt. Wow. What an amazing color.

Close-up of the locks from Florence.

Her fleece was I think, my favorite from this years shearing. I skirted it really well and will send it off to Morro Fleeceworks for processing into pin drafted roving. I'm also going to send Fred and Margie's fluff there, Fred will be blended with some super nice Shetland I have in the stash.

I had been trying to decide if I'd coat my sheep or not. After skirting, I decided to go with the coats. As far as dirt and ick, they were very clean. But, since we live where it snows, we have to feed hay in the winter. And apparently, sheep have this thing. They love to pull hay up on top of each other to eat. I ended up having to skirt the neck and spine wool all out because of hay. So, jackets were ordered!

I think they're kind of cute. Plus, we're not coating lambs, so we still have some nekkid sheepies out there.

Oh the other fleeces! I sent Patty, Eliza, and Shirley's fleeces to Spinderella's to be turned into lovely roving, and have Big Plans for the alpaca and llama fiber too. When we shear them. Soon. We'd better get on that.

Destiny?

2008-06-20T13:18:00.005-07:00

So. We got the mail the other week and there was a really nice little card from Dee, Nate's mom's best friend. In the card, she enclosed two pictures. Of Nate.

Age 10, 1987, with goats. In fact, in this one, with a baby goat that looks surprisingly like our first baby goat.

Hmmm.

And then, with his sister Sarah (Nate's mom corrected me, Sarah not Lisa! Oh, and apparently that was Nate's favorite hat. He liked it so much that he got into a fight with his friend Paul about it when Paul told him it wasn't cool...), and more goats.

Cute! I love it.

See Nate, you were destined to be a microfarmer!

Or maybe not.

Maybe you were just destined to be with me...

Either way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

10 yrs now with you, many, many more to come. I love you.

Baby Knitting Cuteness.

2008-06-19T08:24:00.003-07:00

I love baby knitting. In fact, I don't know why I haven't CO for another baby thingy yet...hmmm.

Here are the latest:

The Duchess Dress from Louisa Harding's Enchanted Garden book. Knit in the 6-12 month size, with Dream in Color Classy yarn, Ruby River colorway. Love the pattern. LOVE the yarn. Love the finished result.

Knit on sizes 6, 7, and 8 US needles, this little dress took exactly one skein of the Classy. So, given that I had bought two skeins, I looked in the book and found another project to knit with the other.

This is the little Iced Gem bolero/cardigan from the same book. Also the 6-12 month size, knit with the same yarn and US 7 and 8 needles.

Amazingly, this also took exactly one skein of the Classy. I ended up with about 4 yds total left over from both skeins and both projects after seaming. Awesome.

Back of dress:

Cardigan detail:

This week is 34 weeks. Wow. I think I need to really get on working around the house to get ready. Maybe tonight I should start cleaning out the yarn/fiber room. Or the guest room. Hmm. Or pack that all important bag I've been hearing about.

Weddings and showers and knitting oh my!

2008-06-11T10:59:00.005-07:00

Ah so, this long hiatus from blogging. Well, Spring chores around the microfarm, knitting a wedding shawl for Nate's sister Lisa, taking a trip to Michigan for the wedding and a baby shower, working on the baby preparations (sort of), growing a baby, all so busy.

But. I did finish this shawl. Lisa's wedding shawl. (huh, the pic quality here sucks unless you click on the pictures for some reason, so click for the real pics)

Knit with Misti Alpaca Baby Laceweight yarn, about 2.5 skeins total. Knit with US 5 needles.

Pattern, "The Victoria Shawl" from Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby.

I think it turned out lovely. I was happy to give it to Lisa the morning of the wedding.

The wedding was beautiful, all went well and the weather was good, always a risk when planning an outdoor wedding in Michigan!

So, I started this shawl at the beginning of March. I finished grafting the edging together on the descent into Detroit on the plane and blocked it the night before the wedding on the bedroom floor. Nothing like a deadline, eh?

All is well with the microfarm, the babies, my baby (coming soon!), I just haven't had time to blog as much. But, I did finish a bunch of adorable baby knits, and have been showered with lovely baby handknits from friends that I need to share, so I'll be around more now.

May Bobbins

2008-05-16T11:02:00.004-07:00

So, we sheared the sheep last weekend, so what's a spinner to do. Why, save locks that aren't good enough to send in with the whole fleece, but not bad enough to toss when skirting, wash em up, flick card em, and test spin her sheepies! (I hereby also give Valerie and my Shawl Knitting Motivation crew permission to yell--sorry!).

So, this bobbin is my sheep. The black on top is Eliza. The grays are other ewes and possibly a bit of Fred. I'm loving spinning a multicolored yarn from them. I'm planning on Navajo plying it and possibly submitting it for the handspun yarn competition at Pagosa Fiber Festival over Memorial Day.

This pinky-teal-purpley stuff is 50% merino/50 % silk top, dyed by the people at Blue Moon Fiber Arts I skipped the STR and bought stuff to spin). This is a fine single, the final yarn will be a 2-ply laceweight, so of course its taking forever to spin. I have 6 oz, and I'm pretty sure this bobbin has less than 2 on it.

Oh, that green stuff? 100% silk. Also laceweight. Also been on the bobbin forever. I should finish that one day too. As you can see, we're fully green here now. So nice. Green like unfinished silk.

Updates around the Microfarm

2008-05-13T14:09:00.005-07:00

Well, the last of our (animal) babies have been born for the year. We ended up with 5 lambs, 2 kids, 6 chicks, and 4 turkey poults. This little kid was born to Bjork on Sunday (Bjork is the white-gray goat in the third pic down, not the one in the pic below).

"Hi Fred! Hi!"

"Sniff sniff sniff...mmmm baby goat so cute I want to play with her!"

I think the sheep are naturally better moms than these guys are. Not sure if its the breeds of sheep and goats I have, or what, but with the ewes, I didn't even worry about the lambs at all, they were all up and nursing within 30 minutes. It seemed to take until the next day for me to see the little kids nursing both times!

Speaking of lambs, look how big these guys are getting! The little black guy was born about a month after the big white guy on the left there. They're all doing well and growing.

The sheep were sheared this past weekend. I have fleece. Lots of it! Of course, I need to work on skirting and making sure they're all perfect before sending some out to get processed.

In the knitting department, well, I picked up a long-lingering pair of socks that I'm working on in the car and at home I'm working on the shawl for Lisa's wedding. I really need to finish that! Spinning, some laceweight merino-silk dyed by Blue Moon Fiber Arts, but oy, 6 oz of laceweight is taking forever. So, I also washed up some of the locks from my girls, and flick a few out and spin some Sarah's CVM singles here and there too. Mostly though, Spring chores really seem to have been taking up most of my time lately. Ah, the life of a working microfarmer.

More Handspun

2008-04-29T10:24:00.004-07:00

Spunky Eclectic, March 2008 Fiber Club selection, "Mud Season". Merino top, 2-plied.

Again, I'm loving the fiber club idea! Not necessarily colors I would have picked out for myself, but I can't help but love the final yarn.

I spun this yarn fairly thin as singles, but interestingly, it really shortened in length, and widened in girth when I washed it. A full 25% of the original length was transformed into extra poof. Originally, this looked like a laceweight (albeit, on the heavier side) 2-ply. Washed, it definitely falls into the fingering weight category.

110g/3.9 oz, 304 yds. Spun more of a short draw technique, then 2-plied back on itself from a center pull ball.

Now, click on over to the House of Wool Repute for the pics of our new fiber pets...you won't be sorry!

Happy Spinning

2008-04-18T10:23:00.006-07:00

Hello Yarn's Adrian dyes some nice fiber, I have to say. Take a look at this:

From 8 oz. of "Red Velvet" dyed Shetland top, I spun two bobbins and plied them together. A standard 2-ply, the final yarn is a heavy worsted or Aran weight, I'm guessing around 400 yds total.

People talk about felted roving, and stuff that needs preparation to spin, well. This was SO easy to spin from the thick hunk of top, it is what I would call a perfectly prepared ready to spin fiber. Thanks Adrian!

Definitely needs to be something for the baby, don't you think?

Things around the microfarm are doing well, I watched Eliza have her lamb this morning. Another healthy, cute little ram lamb! (I'll put some pics on the House of Wool Repute blog I think...) the eggs are in the incubator, and the grass is greening up.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

Handspun Milan Baby Jacket

2008-04-15T08:13:00.004-07:00

Ah yes, the baby knitting continues. Except this one is more like a toddler jacket. Knit again, from the pattern in Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding, the Milan Jacket pattern.

Knit with a 2-ply worsted weight handspun Corriedale wool yarn that I spun a while back...hmmm, Here.

I knit the largest size (18 months) in the book thinking that the little one can get more wear out of it this way. (Oh, the sleeves really are the same length, I just folded them in oddly).

I picked up the green toggle buttons on the trip to MI, at the Artisan Knitworks store, vintage plastic and cute!

I'm really enjoying the baby knitting. In fact, I'm not sure what to cast on next. Something for mindless baby knitting, to take places I think. Because home knitting now really, really needs to be Lisa's wedding shawl until I finish that, before I know it, we'll be heading to MI again.

Things are greening up for Spring here. I love it. I might even have tulips in a week or so...

Pretty Pinky Purple Polwarth

2008-04-10T09:36:00.005-07:00

It had been a while since I'd sat down with the wheel and some wool, so a couple of nights ago I pulled out the dyed Polwarth sliver that I picked up at Birkeland Brothers in Vancouver.

I love the softness of the Polwarth, it makes me happy I bought a pound of undyed to play with.

The purple dye on this batch wasn't exhausted, after a wash in Eucalan, the wash water was so purple, I had to do a vinegar rinse. Now it seems set. I Navajo plied the single and ended up with a nice worsted weight yarn.

Of course, I did buy the roving with the intent of knitting something for the baby with it, pinks and purples...

Oh yeah, that white stuff, a dusting of snow! Yep, even though the grass is greening up nicely, and the tulips are poking out of the ground, the white is still falling. It was practically a blizzard on my drive to Durango yesterday!

So, you thought the baby goat was cute?

2008-04-08T08:22:00.006-07:00

How about our first lamb? We were thinking that April 10th would be the target date for lambing, and this little guy was born yesterday, the 7th, sometime between my leaving for work, and my coming home.

I came home, changed and went out to do the animal chores, and saw this! A little wriggling lamb tail from underneath mom Florence as he nursed! Mom and baby are doing great.

He looks SO much like her, his markings on his face, the dark color underneath, all just like mom. Florence is pretty dark, hard to tell, but when you part her wool, it really is mostly a dark, rich gray to charcoal. CVM sheep darken from birth to age 1, so this little guy could darken up a lot.

"Oooh, look, is that a playmate! No, just shadow."

I'm really hoping that the other 4 ewes lamb just as easily, and that the lambs are healthy, strong, and that moms are natural at being moms. It makes me feel pretty good about this whole birth thing, you know?

So, what will the rest of the week have in store for us?

Handspun Baby Dress

2008-04-01T08:20:00.005-07:00

Ah, well, I'm back from our trip to Vancouver. What a nice city! Apart from the weather (snowy and cold) and the puking on the tiny commuter plane (thanks baby and turbulence), it was a really nice trip. My papers for the professional conference went very well, we ate a ton of great food, and had a relaxing time together.

Front:

I finished knitting this little baby dress (the pattern is the Amelie Dress from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding). I knit the second largest size, and only modified the colors. I knit the edgings in the contrasting cream, omitted the stripe, and didn't add little flower thingies.

Button detail:

I met up with Cordelia and her lovely little girl Anna in Vancouver, and we had lunch at the market on Granville Island. I picked up these handcarved buttons there at a little shop we stopped at.

Back:

I already started knitting a little stripey crew neck sweater from the same book, also in handspun yarn. This baby sure is the best handspun stash-buster of all time!

Back detail:

The main yarn is a combination of two handdyed rovings, one that Angela on Fair Isle dyed and sent me in a secret pal swap, the other one that I picked up at a local fiber festival. I plied the two singles together, and ended up with a yarn I liked, but had no idea how it would knit up. I think it turned out really well in the finished dress!

Subtle striping, yet random. The small size of the dress makes the stripes a bit wider, too. Yet another reason to keep knitting up the handspun yarn.

Hats for Small Heads

2008-03-19T09:45:00.005-07:00

So, I took that Spunky handspun and made some baby hats. One for our baby and one for Jon and Kelly's baby (Nate's best friend, they're expecting a girl 2 weeks after us!).

Baby hats are so quick to knit, and cute too. I started a little baby dress too. More handspun, of course! All those single skeins of handspun in pretty colors, they have found their destination.

Baby Hat Recipe, Ultra-quick worsted-aran weight.

Handspun yarn, about 2 oz will easily make a hat

Size 8 DPNs

CO 56 stitches

Knit til' you have 5 inches of hat

Start decreasing

Decreases: 1st row, k6 k2tog til end of row
2nd row, k5 k2tog til end of row
3rd row, k4 k2tog til end of row
4th row, k3 k2tog til end of row
5th row, k2 k2tog til end of row
6th row, k1 k2tog til end of row
7th row, k2tog til end of row

Cut yarn, leaving 6 inch tail, thread tail through remaining 7 sts on needle, pull tight, and weave in ends!

Cuteness in 2 hrs or so.

Oh yeah, and more baby sockies too. This time with some handspun.

Oh, Baby!

2008-03-13T08:10:00.002-07:00

You're a little girl! You're healthy so far, measuring right on, and moving around a lot. All the bits and bobs seem to be in the right places, and working well! We're very excited. Only 50% more of this pregnancy left!

The wonderful Bezzie sent you a little tee to wear, with a sheep on it. SO cute. Thank-you! I think she sells these kinds of things in her Etsy store if you're interested...

And I made some yarn to knit a little hat for you. Spunky Eclectic dyed this South African Fine Wool (sooooooo soft!) and the colors seemed perfect for a little girl to wear.

So little one, we look forward to meeting you this summer. Keep growing and be well in there, kick me often, and one day I'll tell you all about these things and how it was when we first found out.

What I'll be doing for the next month +

2008-03-07T10:19:00.004-07:00

The Victoria Shawl, from Victorian Lace Today. I'm knitting it for my sister in law, Lisa, for her wedding in June. Started on Sunday 3/2/2008. Lets see how long this one takes to finish!

The center panel takes 25, 16-row repeats, and as of this morning I have finished 8.5 repeats. Then the edging which is knitted on as you go. Hmmm, wonder if I'll finish it by the first weekend of April...

Here's something I started, oh, back in December. The Bird in Hand Mittens by Kate Gilbert.

Started on the way to Michigan, knit in MI over Christmas, and not touched since. I really love the way they're turing out though, I should put these back in the rotation!

Last, a small FO, a tiny Ipod cozy. Knit in oh, a day or less, also in MI over Christmas.

Couldn't let that new music holder get all dinged up!

Happy weekend everyone!

Baby Surprise Jacket

2008-03-03T14:10:00.006-07:00

So! In addition to the little sockies that I finished last week, this Baby Surprise Jacket (Elizabeth Zimmerman, of course) came off the needles this weekend, and awaits a real live baby to wear it.

Even Nate loved how adorable this one turned out. I used roving I bought at Artisan Knitworks in Grosse Point and spun into a worsted weight 2-ply.

The buttons came from Kristen, some cute little plastic vintage ones in a bluey-teal.

No modifications, just knit as directed!

Now, I'm itching to cast on for something cute from the "Natural Knits for Babies and Moms" book, but instead I started a lace shawl for my sister in law's wedding. Lace, haven't knit that in a while!

I think I'll do a WIP post this week, and try and wrangle some into control.

And a spinning post. I have about 40 skeins of natural colored wools to show off, that sampler spinnig project is done!

What? Really?

2008-02-29T10:25:00.004-07:00

Is that something with actual knitted stitches peeking out of that little bag there?

Yes, yes it is. Knitted baby socks! While my knitting productivity has definitely slowed down lately, baby socks made from sock leftovers are the perfect quick project right now. Simple, fun, adorable, and hopefully practical one day.

These ones are made with the leftovers from my Yarn Pirate Crocus yarn. And dang, if the way the lavender and green stripes are lining up isn't about the cutest baby sock ever, I don't know what is!

These two pairs (tiny, and slightly bigger so that no matter what size this baby comes out there is a pair awaiting) are from Trekking XXL 100, one of my all time favorite sock colorways (in fact, they're on my feet right now).

I'm not really into matchy-matchy clothes, like mom and daughter dresses, or dressing your kids alike. But baby having the same socks as me? I do think that's kind of cute.

Coopworth with Sari Silk Threads

2008-02-27T09:53:00.005-07:00

Not only did the lovely Lesley (thomasina on boards etc.) send me the coolest socks ever for our sock swap, but she sent me my most favorite thing in the world (apart from cheese) to get in the mail, fluff!

Dyed purple Coopworth wool (94%) blended into a roving with Silk Sari threads (6%). After I opened the box, put on the socks, and marveled at them, I picked this ball of roving up and was mighty impressed.

I had never seen such a thing! So pretty, so glowing with colored threads among the purples. I spun it the next day.

Nice. Tweedy in a Baroque excess sort of way I think.

Two skeins, about 8 oz, DK weight. Love it.

Baby Goat!

2008-02-25T13:35:00.006-07:00

Spring is starting to arrive, despite the recent snow (at least it melts)!

Joanie had this little one yesterday. A beautiful black doe with little white spots. So cute.

We warmed her up with some towels and a blowdryer, then watched what mom would do. Mom was pretty good about licking her all over, responding to her bleats with a mom call, and even nudging her towards the udder.

Of course, did we see her nurse yesterday? No. We saw her frantically looking for a nipple, and bleat. We even spent about an hour in the pen with them, showing her the nipple, feeding her colostrum, and getting frustrated.

Nate and I both slept bad last night, hoping we'd wake up to a living baby goat. We did! And...she was nursing.

Whew.

What a cutie. I wish I was home now to watch.

Updates

2008-02-21T09:56:00.005-07:00

Ahhhh, our house is looking like a house again! The living room (love love love the new rug):

The kitchen (yes I know there is still a mitre saw and assorted junk on one of the counters):

But, we finished the flooring in the main part of the house!

Oh, and its snowing again. Heh. Of course it is.

So, this weekend, we finish the flooring. All we have left is the laundry room above, and 3 little closets! Can't. Wait.

And, my other update, I had a midwife appointment yesterday, 17 weeks now, wow. The little one has a strong heartbeat, 160 beats a minute! I'm just where I should be. Now, if they'd only call me back with that next appointment date, so I can figure out when we get "the big ultrasound"!

House In Progress, the big WIP of the year so far

2008-02-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, here we go, some pics that show one of the reasons I haven't been posting as much so far this year. The house!

New paint, new light fixtures, new floor. Floor in progress, paint done except for new nice wide baseboards and trim/touch ups, and new light fixtures in.

Looking from the inside of the living room towards the front door, entry way, and kitchen.

Painted laundry room, two shades of green. We also installed the cabinet, and removed some hideous old open shelving units that collected dust and displayed clutter.

Looking into the living room, flooring in here is done!

A detail of the flooring we're putting in, "Georgia Pecan" laminate (Pergo-type) stuff. This stuff is really cool. The way it locks in and locks together. Great wear, durability, and resiliance too.

Now...if we can only finish it all!

(hee, and you thought the biggest WIP of the year was the baby. I suppose you're right. But no pics of that one yet!)

Ahh, Real Live Yarn!

2008-02-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

I told you I'd put up some real fibery action soon! Some of the latest January spinning. This is from a big ball of roving I bought in Michigan over the holidays. A roving that was definitely wider, more like a drum carded batt, 80% Coopworth wool, and 20% silk (mostly the little black nubs/noils, but also some of the brighter blue/yellow streaks I think).

I went yarn store hopping with Gretchen for a morning, and we went to a totally cool new yarn shop in Grosse Point, called Artisan Knitworks. The shop is pretty much like a fiber festival in a yarn store. All they sell is small, hand dyed or hand spun yarns, made both locally, and from all over the USA. Pricey, of course. But really nice!

This yarn is a good worsted weight yarn, about 8 oz total. Should be enough for something nice, and maybe cabled?

(See what I mean about waiting for light? I'm still waiting, sun...)

Happy weekend to all!

Bad blogger, I know.

2008-01-29T11:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, I still haven't take pictures of my WIP's, or my spinning lately. I will, as soon as I get a nice sunny morning without a layer of ice to have to drive into work on.

We had a freak storm last night, dumped about 3 inches of snow in an hour, along with wind up to 75 miles an hour, and thunder and lightening. Nate was stuck at the bottom of the road up to our house waiting, and didn't get home until 10:30 last night.

The mountains are beautifully snowy still. The snowpack is at 150% of normal, or more now, I believe that was the total before the last 30 inches of snow...

If it warms too fast this Spring, we'll have to watch the rivers for approaching flood stages again like they did a few years back.

The animals continue to do well. They're pretty cute in the mornings, waiting for me to bring them hay, frost and snow on the their fleece. I'm already getting excited about that fleece too. Mmm, I can see the crimp on Florence, nice.

Tele cat follows me around in the mornings as I check and feed the animals. I love his little face, and his happiness as he bounces through the snow.

And, ugh, the roads.

It wouldn't be half bad if it would either stay cold and the snow wouldn't get the opportunity to melt, or if it stayed warm, and it would all melt.

But the inch thick layer of ice underneath a thin layer of blowing snow? Makes for a long 20 mile drive into town.

So, still spinning, knitting, and mostly lately, re-doing the house. We've already painted the main floor (kitchen, dining, living, laundry, hall) and replaced all the light fixtures, next is new flooring then trim painting and new baseboards. I'll post pics when we get done.

So far, the baby seems well! I went to the midwife appointment last week, and we heard the heart beating strong.

So, more pics and some actual fiber content soon :).

Taking the Yarn (oh, and doggies) for a walk

2008-01-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

A nice day, sun out, snow melting slowly, and laundry sorted, so we decided to take a little walk up in the hills. The light was nice, so I took the opportunity to take this week's handspun out for a stroll too.

The two colorful skeins are Spunky Eclectic superwash Corriedale in "Party Dress", two 2 oz. skeins. Baby knitting? The gray is 4 oz. of Icelandic-Silk that I picked up at Rhinebeck.

This is about a sport weight, I'm thinking a cute little baby kimono with matching socks or booties.

No plans for the gray yet, but it might make something nice for a gift next Christmas.

It was fun to see all the animal tracks in the snow, mice, bunnies, deer, and I'm pretty sure, a mountain lion (I took pics, I need to dig up some comparative data).

Now, I should really spin all the things lingering on bobbins, eh? Silk, and baby Suri alpaca, and some merino-silk blend. But. Its all fine laceweight and takes forever, and with the snow and winter I want color and something fast.

So, I have a nice Coopworth-silk blend, or a Merino-silk blend, which one, which one...

Ok, I'm back!

2008-01-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

Ah, back home. Kitties are dang glad, doggies too. Sheepies, goats, llama, and chickens are fine I think as long as the food train keeps delivering every day.

The trips were good, we went to Michigan to visit Nate's family for Christmas and had a nice time. I only ended up knitting three Christmas gifts this year, and they were well received.

A scarf for Nate's grandma:

Endpaper Mitts for Nate's sister Lisa:

And a scarf for Nate's sister Sarah:

Handknitted items are always a hit in Michigan in the winter.

From Michigan, we headed to the Yucatan in Mexico for 8 days and had a wonderful trip. We stayed in a little bed and breakfast in the jungle run by a cool couple that have a non-profit organization that helps local Mayan women, snorkeled at a marine national park, birded, went to awesome ruins, and ate some dang good food. I'll post a few posts of the Mexico trip later! For now, glad to be back.

But!

Big news! I'm 11 weeks pregnant today. This baby so far is great, we saw him/her the other evening, moving around already with little arms and legs, and a strong heartbeat. Next appointment is in a couple of weeks with a regular OB office, I've graduated from the specialist Dr.!

Happy, Happy, Happy

2007-12-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

Holidays to Ewe!

Merry, Merry Christmas to all!

Happy, Happy New Year!

I'll be back blogging en force in 2008, but for now I'm off for the holidays.

Christmas with Nate's family, then a week in Mexico, then back home.

Considering the Picture a Day in 2008 challenge to get to know my new camera better, and to try taking pics of more than just my animals, yarn, and knitting.

Oh, and....if all goes well...we should be expecting a new family member in 2008! Midsummer arrival.

I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season, and am looking forward to re-invigorating the old blog with more posts in 2008.

Busy life, Slow blog.

2007-12-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

Busy with things like holiday parties, and organizing to go away for a couple of weeks. Busy with the normal little things of life which seem to take longer when its cold out. Busy with knitting I can't share here yet!

This, however is to be the gift for the holiday gift exchange with my spinning guild, and will go to its new home tonight at the dinner.

Morehouse Merino, Sizzler scarf kit. Purples. A pretty quick knit, 2 TV watching nights or so. The only thing, is it gets annoying to knit laceweight yarn on size 11 needles!

I have a couple more things finished, ready to give away, and a few things that still need finishing by Christmas.

Oh! We changed our Christmas trip! We were planning on going to Mexico City (after MI for the actual holidays), but we changed it to fly to Cancun and spend the trip in the Yucatan. Anyone have any good Yucatan suggestions (that don't involve Cancun itself or anywhere else resort-y)?

Wool is Warm.

2007-12-04T13:11:00.000-07:00

So warm in fact, that the wool is freezing on their backs right now. We got a lot of rain over the weekend. And, they like to stand out in it. So, they get wet. Then, at night it freezes, and in the morning, I have sparkly sheep.

This is Eliza, the Chocolate colored ewe's coat. Amazing that they have all that body heat, and it won't penetrate the wool enough to melt the frost.

They still come up to me with warm noses, and snuzzle my hand for grain, breath clouding in the cold air. This is Marjorie's downy coat. It didn't split into locks like Eliza, but turned into a carpet of ice crystals.

I wonder if they even know they're frosted?

I know where wool comes from, and I like it. I like that it gets wet, frozen, dirty, hay-filled, and petted before I'll spin it.

Sunshine and Hay

2007-11-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

I started a pair of socks again. Yes, this time with some Sunshine Yarns in Colorful, it seems a nice interlude in the gray I feel is taking over the color now that winter is here.

Hay. Breakfast for the animals. Funny that they can be SO excited about some dry grass, and run up to me, follow me around, baa, bray, and butt me in their hay-anticipation. Trixie likes it!

Not sure about these socks yet. I'm trying a garter rib, and even that seems like it might be too much pattern for all this color, oy! But, they're cheery. And soft. And maybe a mite too big.

Florence likest the hay too. Gray morning, gray sheepy face. Not much else to say really, I'm kinda in a quiet mood I guess :).

Wonderful weekends to all.

Of trips and things

2007-11-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

We traveled to California for the Thanksgiving weekend, 11 hours in the car each way. 800 miles is a long way inside a car (bonus points if you know where that lyric is from)...

It was the first time we have left all the animals, and I was nervous to see they were all OK when we arrived home (they were, thanks pet-sitter!). We arrived home to a long overdue sight, snow.

Snow on the mountains, and snow in our yard even (a little note from the sitter said 3 inches on Friday...).

At least when we drive I get to knit in the car. I finished up a pair of socks (those baby cable rib socks I'll blog them later) and knit a pair of baby legwarmers for Cordelia's new baby Anna.

And, the kitties were all fine too, although I think they slept too much and missed the outside time they get during the day a ton. Here's Lucy in her "Jungle Jaguar Kitteh" pose in the Navajo willow in the front yard. Wow, that tree went from green to brown leaves fast, here is a picture of her in the same tree taken on Nov. 16th compared with today's.

I hope the little baby leggings fit Anna, and that they warm her legs! I've never knit these before, so I guestimated a quickie pattern. I'll have to ask Cordelia later. I used Trekking for these, of course.

And, more kitty love. Clyde loves to hang out with me in the mornings as I do my outside animal chores. So bright eyed and bonkers, he'll pounce out on the hay bales from the middle of nowhere.

Ah, how is it that 5 days off of work makes me more tired than a normal weekend?

Plyed Rainbow Romney (and llama)

2007-11-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

I plyed the Rainbow Romney from the last post over the weekend, and still love it just as much. In fact I was debating ordering more bumps in order to spin enough to knit a whole sweater for me out of it. Then I remembered I should finish the things I've started first.

We spent a lot of the weekend outside, the weather is still in a warm holding pattern, no snow on the mountains. We finished a wood pile, I planted some garlic, we winterized the chicken coop, and I got to observe the animals for hours on end. Drama Llama is an amazing animal, and I still can't believe how bonded he is to the sheep and goats. Always alert, and watching, this is one of his classic poses.

Oh yeah the Romney. I love the colors, subtle, yet there. Dark enough I could get by with wearing a rainbow palette I think. The yarn is worsted-ish weight, and I haven't measured the exact specs yet, though I know it's 8 oz.

Pastoral sunset llama? Yep, still alert, watching the little ones.

So, if it is worsted ish weight, I'm guessing I have around 400-450 yds in these 2 skeins. I suppose I could measure and do the math, but I'll leave that to when I'm actually going to use the yarn I think.

Ideas for this yarn if I don't want to order more and knit a sweater?

Rainbow Romney

2007-11-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

Last weekend at the Best of the Southwest wool-fest, I picked up a bump of roving from The Natural Twist, a small fiber mill in Albuquerque. Romney, in all these gorgeous dark rainbow-y colors.

I had every intention of taking a picture of the original bump. Because it was beautiful. But, I spun all 8 oz. of watching the presidential debates last night. I spun 2 full bobbins in a few hours. This is rare. This tells you something about the fiber prep. Dreamy, easy to spin, spins-itself kind of stuff.

Ruth, who processed the fiber also happened to mention she loves working with CVM. So, a local-ish mill, great prep, and she loves CVM? I'm going to have to send her a fleece next Spring and see what she can do.

I was going to knit last night, but after coming home to icky smelling dogs, bathing both, I really felt like spinning was the way to go.

Now, tonight, to ply!

Happy Friday and weekend everyone!

Playing with the new camera.

2007-11-15T15:16:00.000-07:00

Ewe.

Rooster.

Leaves.

So far, I like it!

Like Cheese?

2007-11-12T14:49:00.001-07:00

I put up a cheesemaking photo essay over on the group blog, House of Wool Repute.

Want to take a look? Clicky.

Yarny-goodness!

2007-11-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

I'm lucky to have met some wonderful people on knitting blogs, knitting sites, the whole wide knitting internet. People who do really, really nice things like send me yarn for birthday presents!

Laura sent me lovely green merino laceweight yarn, and 2 balls of Jojoland (TX yarn!) sock yarn. Thank-you Laura!

Magatha sent me not only 3 balls of Trekking (she knows of my Trekking addiction I see), but some delicious dark chocolate, a Vegas themed lollipop, and....

A skein of Helen's Lace yarn that is to die for. Thank-you Magatha! The colors!

And, Theresa and Kristen had Carol at Black Bunny Fibers dye up a special mega-skein of laceweight (seriously, one skein, 2400 yds!) for me. Oooh, Sampler shawl here we come! Thank-you Kristen and Theresa!

So much yarn, so little time to knit it all.

Tania gave me some amazing Artyarns Alfabeto. Already CO for a little something with this and some handspun. Thank-you Tania!

Thank you Nate, for everything.

Still learning how to use this baby!

Rustic Yarn.

2007-11-09T10:39:00.000-07:00

This is why I love handprocessing fleeces, why I love natural colored wool, and why I love handspinning. All summed up in one skein of yarn.

That little bit of black marled with the gray, taupe and creams.

The fuzzy halo.

The little nubbins of an end or tip of a lock here and there.

And how, something with no fancy colors, can have so much depth of texture, and such a range of subtle tones.

This isn't a fleece that makes a super soft sproingy yarn like Cormo, or CVM. This fleece makes a fuzzy, hairy, silky-draping, softly variegated yarn. It likes to be spun to a nice worsted weight, and not perfectly even and smooth. Letting it be spun this way really rewards me with a pretty cool yarn I think.

One you definitely couldn't buy commercially. And the colors, you can only get this from handprocessing, sent to the carding mill, this would come back a uniform light gray.

Now, wouldn't fuzzy cuffs on a nice sweater be kind of cool? Or fuzzy mitten cuffs?

Fleece Kitty Sniffs Wool.

2007-11-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

So, my fleece has officially become Tele and Dory's bed I think. They come in for the night, chow down on some Friskies, and then snuggle in until its time to come up for bedtime.

And, Dory really is getting into the fiber habit.

I was very, very tempted to do a LOL Cat caption for this one, but comedy evades me at 10am with only one cup of coffee imbibed.

Ahhh, the cuteness of sibling kitties never fails!

I have a sewing project to work on tonight, then hopefully I'll CO for a new knit...big plans, big plans.

Oh, and I'm still flicking and spinning that fleece :).

If you haven't yet noticed, I'm part of a new collaborative blog, House of Wool Repute with a group of amazing co-fiberphiles. We'll be blogging about all things fiber, food, and basically whatever tickles our fancy, so come check us out!

Fleecey Goodness

2007-11-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

I just washed and started processing and spinning a fleece over the weekend. A small (3 lb) Border Leicester-Colored Corriedale cross fleece rated as a prime handspinning fleece.

Step 1, wash (in the tub for me, 2 washes in hot water with Dawn, one hot water rinse, spin in the spin cycle, then lay on a towel in the sun to dry).

Optional, add cat to pile of fluff, or alternatively let cat add herself.

Step 2, I started using a Flick Carder or Flicker to comb out locks and spin, put my prepped locks in a basket, went to eat, then came back to notice said cat had removed herself from the fleece, and tried to fit into the little basket of locks.

Step 3, remove cat from lock basket, re-arrange locks, and continue to flick locks.

Step 4, grab a handful and spin!

The single so far. Fuzzy, and hairy, with subtle colored bits that blend in with the creamy gray and natural. Softer than I would have guessed. I think the Corriedale part of the cross makes this a pretty nice yarn, good hand.

I'll keep working on this, I'm really excited to see a whole skein!

Kaffe Fasset Socks

2007-11-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

My first pair of Regia, Kaffe Fasset Design Line socks, made for me! I have to say, I love these socks...the colors, the stripes, and I made them VERY long and tall.

A super secret Christmas knitting project made with a Morehouse Merino kit:

And a detail of the toe striping. I love that they are slightly "off". Makes them feel a little more funky and handmade.

(oh yeah, and the colors are more accurate in this toe pic, cloudy sky did not like me...).

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! I think we're chopping/cutting up wood this weekend, playing with animals, and I might make a bunch of quiches since I'm in an egg surplus right now.

In progress...

2007-10-31T07:47:00.000-07:00

Sheep are in the middle of getting transitioned to grass hay for the winter, while still foraging in the pasture. I don't know if this little moorit hued ewe likes it...

I'm in the middle of another pair of socks (sock weather really brings out the sock knitter in me).

Fred's in the middle of munching on his hay and waiting for "playtime" with the girls.

Baby cable rib socks are nice knitting, with Trekking #76.

And trees really are in the middle of fall. About half de-foliated now I'd say.

And! Middle of the week.

Purple Wool.

2007-10-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

Purple wool. Two words that make me happy. 8 oz of it spun, into 655 yards of about a worsted weight yarn. 3 skeins. The light is really low now, I'm actually looking forward to the time change!

Two hanks of fiber, one from Laura, one from Angela. The colors were similar so I spun the singles and then plied them together. The Laura skein was the greyer one, the Angela skein the brighter one.

I'm spinning up the rest of the natual colored wools I have, and contemplating the Big Blanket. I'm thinking of color schemes and patterns now. The blanket will be my biggest handspun project to date.

Sheepies are well, in a little bit here, we're turing Fred back out with the ewes, and hope for lambs in the Spring. Baaaaaaaaa! Lambs! I can't wait.

Ahhh, Friday. Last day of the Farmers market tomorrow *sniff*. Time to stock up!

Cherry Leaf Shawl

2007-10-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

Finito! Evilla 6/1 laceweight yarn, about 1/2-1/3 of the 205 g that Theresa sent me.

I LOVE this. In fact, I've been wearing it around my office just for fun.

It was 32 degrees this morning, but the sun peeked out, and Wilco wanted to help me take a few quick pictures to share.

By the time I was done with this shawl, I had the leaf pattern memorized, which is rare for me!

It was my first time knitting an edging onto a shawl too, and I think it turned out all right.

Fall, perfect time for shawls.

Busy!

2007-10-11T08:46:00.000-07:00

Fall Harvest is done. Pumpkins, finally picked, green tomatoes now ripening inside, and the only things left in the garden are leeks and onions (I had some brussels sprouts, but the sheep/goats ate those).

So, you don't like mowing your lawn? Me either :).

The squashes for the winter, butternut, Potimarron, a funny hybrid one, and the pumpkins of course!

Let the sheep/goats/llama mow for you! Free fertilizer and dog entertainment too.

The cheddar is waxed, and put up til December now. Last night I made a gouda, which is a brined and washed rind cheese, that one will be ready by Thanksgiving.

Still working on putting all the tomatoes up, but everything else from the garden is done. I've knit, a little, and spun, a little. The main thing is the Cherry Leaf shawl, its done and blocked. And gorgeous. I just need to take some pics of it!

Have a good weekend everyone, I'm off to Phoenix for a work conference tomorrow!

Gray and White

2007-10-04T11:03:00.000-07:00

Gray North Ronaldsay yarn and white Bowmont yarn. Both handspun 2-plies from batts, part of the British Rare Breed wool sampler that Kristen and I split.

Gray Telecat playing with white Bjork the goat yesterday morning by the garden.

Gray kitty looks at white yarn.

More gray and white handspun.

Gray wilted leaves from my zucchini plants. Frozen to gray. Alas, the pumkins have now been picked.

Fall is here!

More Cheese Please!

2007-10-02T08:18:00.000-07:00

This is a rarity for me, a post with no pictures, only words!

But, I wanted to address some of the comments about home cheesemaking, and the cheese I posted about yesterday, give everyone a little more information.

Questions and Answers:

1) From Pam, You MADE cheese? Yup :). See cheese? I made it! Elizabeth also asked this question, hee!

2) From Jo, How on earth did you find the time/inclination/recipe to do that?!!? Well, cheese is my favorite food, I love making food, and I've been interested in cheesemaking since high school. In fact, I dragged my mom to a cheese workshop in high school once, took my aunt, mom, and Nate on a farmstead cheese tour of Vermont back in 1998-99, and pushed the limits in Paris dragging Nate and his mom all over the city looking for a cheese shop that had moved addresses when we had yet to see the Eiffel Tower. Among other cheese stories.

Then, Oh, January of 2006 I took a local workshop on cheesemaking. Then Nate bought me a book. Then we moved/got a farm/etc and I forgot about it. Then a coworker found a good source of local, organic, raw milk and I remembered!

Recipes: http://www.cheesemaking.com/ I use her book, "Home Cheesemaking", and have ordered basic supplies/kits from that site. Very user friendly!

3) From Angela, So what time is dinner? Hmm. Well, tonight I'm not sure, I've got to finish work, go home, pick tomatoes, finish making the lamb rellenos and sauce, bake them...em, late?

4) From Peri, How cool is it that you made cheese? I'll default to Peri's answer, Mega! hee.

5) From Bezzie, Was it difficult to do? Well aside from the waiting? Not really, it really is more of a sciency-project than cooking. The main thing is you do need some basic stuff: large pot, two pretty accurate thermometers, real cheesecloth, a mold, milk, rennet, and starter culture.
Then, you need time. Start to finish it took about 5 hrs for this cheese, but you put something in, wait 45 min at a certain temp, repeat. Active time is about an hour or so.

You do need to be patient, and enjoy sciency type things. Kids of a certain vein definitely might enjoy this.

The hardest part actually is getting real milk. If you're like me, the hormones and crap in "conventional" milk scare you. So, at the grocery store, you shell out more for Organic milk without that crap. But, you can't use Ultra-pasturized milk for cheesemaking (because the proteins are completely denatured, and all the good enzymes are gone) and unfortunately in big grocery stores all the organic milk is UHT/Ultra pasturized.

Ideally, you want raw milk for cheesemaking. Unfortunately, this is hard to find unless you know dairy people, or have a good natural food store that sells it (but man, it can be $$$ in the natural food stores).

I have 2 local sources for raw cows milk, and I pay $3 a gallon. For hard cheeses, 1 gallon of cow or goat milk = approx. 1 lb of cheese. Which, is a dang good price I think considering if you're a cheese lover like me, you have paid, much, much, much more than that for raw, farmstead artisan cheeses in the past.

I also have a raw goat milk source, but haven't tried this yet, but plan on it soon! 1 gallon of goat milk = approx. 2 lbs of fresh goat cheese like Chevre!

Ooh, and the sheeps milk. One day. One day. (I'm seriously thinking of getting an Icelandic ewe next Spring and the following year doing the sheep milking thing with her...you know sheep milk has the highest protein/fat/solids content of any milk? From 1 gallon of sheep milk, you can get almost 2 lbs of hard cheese, almost double the yield of cow/goat!)...

Ok, promise, tomorrow will be back to pics and spinning and knitting and garden :).

Cheese, Glorious Cheese!

2007-10-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

So, I did it. I took the plunge and made my first "real" cheese. The kind that needs aging and all. Farmhouse Cheddar, made with raw cow's milk.

I like the color of natural raw milk. So much butterfat and yummy stuff it gets a nice yellow-ish hue. Top pic, no flash, bottom, flash.

This will age for a few months before we can try it. I think that's the worst part, waiting!

We got our first freeze of the season. Sigh. That means time to harvest and process all the rest of the freeze-sensitive plants. Eggplants. Peppers and chilies, tomatoes. Just a sample of what I have to do every night after work this week...

Bezzie, I included extra produce pics just for you :).

Working on it all

2007-09-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

Since its been a little while, pumpkins! I think they're getting close to being pick-able. There are 6 of them that are nice and orange, and one little one that is still green, and might not make the cut before the first frost.

Cherry Leaf Shawl! Edging is in progress, I'd estimate I'm about 1/4 done with the edging, and will probably have enough of the Evilla yarn left for another shawl.

I'm working on putting up the harvest for the winter. This basil became a huge batch of pesto, frozen, ready to pop into a pot of pasta for a quick dinner.

A nice unblocked lace picture; the shawl, center done, edging begun. Aren't the color shifts of the Evilla nice?

I only got three of these little eggplants this year, I'm definitely saving seeds this time! Listada di Gandia eggplants, an Italian heirloom variety, and I think my favorite eggplant variety.

My first time with one of these knitted on edgings, and so far, so good. I like the way it just "works out" if you follow the instructions.

Carrotpants!

2007-09-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

Heh heh. Picked a carrot for a snack, and Carrotpants was looking back!

That is all.

(I have 3 skeins of finished yarn to photograph, I need to do a garden update, I finished the first Kaffe Fasset sock, and finished the center panel of the Cherry Leaf shawl and started the edging last night. So, plenty of bloggable stuff, but with the days getting shorter, the light changing, and it being COLD [37 degress this AM] outside now when I get up I haven't been in the mood to take pics. But, I will, promise!)

AWOL for no good reason...

2007-09-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

Finished the Thuja boot socks.

Dug the first potatoes.

Scrubbed em up good and ate em.

Started a new VLT pattern (shoulder shawl in cherry leaf pattern).

Did a little spinning (no pic).

Not much else to report here right now!

Sockyarn and Sheep

2007-09-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

Hanspun Superwash Merino Wool, in purples and teals that Valerie (who has stopped blogging due to Ravelry...) dyed and sent me for my birthday (last year).

Sock yarn! Fingering weight, and superwash, perfect.

The ewes are pretty big now, almost full grown I'd say. We had to pull Fred out and isolate him last weekend. He's less than thrilled about it. Especially because the ewes are showing signs of "being ready to breed". But, since we don't want to lamb until April, he's in lock up til mid-November.

The light is getting lower now too. I've had to move from taking yarn pics on the deck to a fence post out in the garden. (and, I saw some yellow leaves on a cottonwood on the drive to work this morning!).

The llama I think is happier with the sheep now Fred is in isolation too, I've noticed him hanging out with them more (if you click and make this pic big, you can see the adorable baby horse my neighbors have in their pasture!).

It was 49 degrees this morning when I went downstairs, I don't remember the last time I saw a temperature in the 40s. I'm glad you guys like my garden pics too, I feel like this time of year I want to capture it as much as possible before I have to wait 7 months for more.

Yarn Specs:
100% superwash merino wool
3.9 oz/112 g
291 yds/267 m
2-plied, fingering weight

Happy weekend!

Garden of Fall

2007-09-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

Funny, I can tell Fall is coming by a quick walk in the garden. The squashes are the main players now, and the potatoes are slowly yellowing as the onions yet grow.

The weekly pumpkin (compare to this and this and this):

Surprise wheat! I actually have a pretty good stand of this. I mulched the potatoes with straw, straw which obviously had wheat seed in it, since two large patches of my mulched potatoes are now wheat. I might even try harvesting it (or if I'm lazy it will become animal food).

Potimarron squashes are doing well. I've never tried these, but based on the description, I can't wait to roast one and make a hearty curried soup.

This was my first attempt at growing dried beans this year. These are October Beans, a Native American variety. So far, so good. They're growing well, and quite pretty. I only planted a handful since this was my first dried bean attempt, but next year I'll do more.

Look how pretty the actual beans are. I'm thinking next year I'll plant Bolitas, the variety that is native to this area.

I hope my garden updates don't bore you, but I get as much pleasure and peace from my garden, the animals, the mini-farm, as I do from my fiber pursuits. And, when you have produce to process, you don't knit/spin nearly as much!

A Slippery Slope

2007-09-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

See this? It looks like an innocent, half finished sock, doesn't it? Well. It isn't. It is the first time I've started a second pair of socks without finishing the pair currently on the needles. Slippery slope I tell you.

I've always had a personal rule that I'd only knit one pair of socks at a time. Because I fear the Second Sock Syndrome. And I know how many things I can start and let linger or never finish.

But, I needed a plain stockinette sock to knit on Saturday for the car, the Microbrew thingy that Nate wanted to go to. So I cast on the Kaffe Fasset sock yarn. And, I must say, I like it. I hated it with a pattern. I love it with stockinette.

The other socks? Here they are, a Thuja pair for me, boot socks, hiking socks....

Oh, and the arch?

Cox Canyon Arch, hiked there on Sunday with the dogs and a couple of our friends. Ah, 3-day weekends. I wish we had them every week.

Orange, Part II

2007-08-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

After a night of rain, everything was perfect this morning in the garden, even the little bees asleep in the squash blossoms.

I spun more orange over the weekend, orange that Angela dyed.

Remember the pumpkins last week? 10 days and so much more color!

The garden makes me like my orange wool more. Appreciate the color of a ripening fall.

Naughty chickens...digging up my baby carrots. You're on chicken detention, only supervised visits to the garden now.

Maybe this wool wants to be knit into a fall hat, for the final visits to the garden before the snow and cold?

Slow to ripen, but so worth it. Like candy.

I think next....purple.

Yarn Specs:

100% wool (unknown breed)
2-plied yarn, sport-worsted weight

Total, 7.6 oz, and 363 yards.

Brown.

2007-08-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

Brown eggs, brown yarn.

The first eggs from our hens!

VERY excited.

Brown yarn from brown sheep, brown eggs from red hens.

Specs:

3 eggs, medium, from 2 Rhode Island Red hens.

2 skeins yarn, 100% Shetland wool, spun with a short forward draw from the above roving, 2-plied.

Big skein:
278 m/304 yds
5.5 oz/156 g (dang that short draw thing really eats fiber! I normally get a lot more yardage from a similar weight if I do long-or semi-long draw!)

Little skein:
116 m/127 yds
2 oz/57 g

I know what brown can do for me.

A Little Coopworth

2007-08-23T08:19:00.000-07:00

Ah, remember I dyed this:

(Coopworth fleece from Merlinthecat)

And was spinning it into this:

(singles I started oh, over a month ago)

Well, I finally decided to spin the rest up (and try and manage all my spinning WIPs, which I realized have become quite numerous, and far outnumber the amount of bobbins I actually own).

And it became this:

(523 yds of laceweight 2-ply yarn)

Which, I think I will of course knit into something from Victorian Lace Today.

(not sure which pattern yet, I think I'll browse and look for the one with the closest yardage)

Love the colors of this, it definitely makes me want to spin up the Fred fleece I dyed at the same time!

Specs:
523 yds/478 m
3.6 oz/102 g
2-ply, Z-spun singles, S-plied.
WPI, didn't check, but high I'm sure! This is definitely a laceweight.
100% Coopworth wool, dyed with 4 packets of KoolAid (2 grape, 2 black cherry) mixed in water and a little vinegar, then popped in the oven for a couple hours (this is my easy peasy dye method when I only have a small batch of a fiber that will fit in my big Pyrex).

Aubergine.

2007-08-22T12:12:00.000-07:00

Just picked.

I know some I shall roast and blend with garlic. And some I shall make into a dish with cheese and tomato sauce.

And some, I shall just grill.

Anyone know any amazing ways to make them great?

Orange and Green

2007-08-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

Corriedale Wool, spun by me:

Pumpkins indeed! Just turning a hint of orange now,

The skein and the sky:

Details:

100% Corriedale wool from a prepped roving handyed by a small dyer in Utah.
3.9 oz/110 g
222 yds/203 m
3-ply, chain (or Navajo) plied.

Now...the interesting bit....

I spun this mostly on my drop spindle! We went camping a couple of weeks ago, and I threw in my socks to knit, and on a whim, this roving and a spindle. Surprisingly, I wasn't in a sock knitting mood, and so I picked this up. Its probably the first significant amount of yarn I've spun on a spindle in a long, long time.

And...I liked it! Yes, it was definitely slower than my wheel. But, it was relaxing and I enjoyed taking a little more time to play with the fiber. I did however, ply it on my wheel for speed.