Projects, Fun Stuff...

Two posts in one day! I know, but I havent had time to do this and I have been busy playing! (the other says the 26th because I started it at home last night)
I think the color is right, maybe a bit less red.... I think it is more maroon. Anyway, this skein was spun from a dark brown fleece I bought from Terry Mendenhall at the state fair (I love this fleece! In fact I bought the fall shearing too :) I have been playing with it, doing different things and I decided to try a dye job. I mixed Cushings wine and scarlett colors and viola! A really pretty, rich maroon. I just loved the way it came out! I have dug up the other skeins of this Rambo/Romney cross wool and am going to play some more :) More pictures to follow!

I ordered a copy of "Vogue Knitting on the Go: Crocheted Scarves" yesterday, I love crocheting scarves and we are having a scarf contest or something of the sort at the state fair this year. Look out CSSW! I think I am going to take this skein and make a small scarf out of it....

ANOTHER TOY!!!

MY CARDER IS HERE!! YAYAYAYAY

Ok, *composing myself*

You wouldn't believe (or maybe you would) how much wool, how many different kinds of wool, I have in my stash that is just begging to be blended with other wool in my stash and spun up into something beautiful!

I had this stuff all packaged up ready to go to Morro Fleece Works and never quite got round to sending it. It just really seemed like a big pain in the picker to send such small amounts of wool to her for blending... enter the Clemes & Clemes! My new, used carder that is going to get lots and lots of time to show me how it can make my life easier (?)

OK, maybe not a lot easier, but I will have a lot of fun with it :)

I started last night (couldn't finish my dinner cause it was on the table screaming at me) with some of Wayne's wool, a merino I believe, some torte angora bunny, and white angelina. You may be thinking at this point (at least I was) that I have never used a drum carder before, how can I possibly be thinking about blending at this stage!?!?!? Well, I couldn't help myself. I have been sitting on this wool for over a year and wanted so bad to see that angelina blended with the merino. Actually, the entire blend was to be a very short cashmere, a boat load of angora, the merino and the angelina, so I really did take it easy.

I started with the merino, ran it through twice (sorry, some of Wayne's wool is neppy...) and on the third run, I added angora, you can see it in the middle of the batt here, a very pretty torte (my favorite angora color), then ran it again with bits of the angelina. One more time through and off to the wheel!

Amy, if you read this, you know that I had one heck of a time spinning this... it was neppy beyond belief! But! I made myself leave the neps and noils and slubs alone and spun it the way it came out of the draft! Proud of me? I was LOL

Christmas Tree Hunt 2007!

It was a great weekend to go cut a Christmas tree!

Every year, the day after Thanksgiving (which was absolutely awesome here by the way!) the multitudes of our California-side-of-the-line family make the treck from there to here to go Christmas Tree hunting.

Sometimes its just a few, sometimes its the whole family! Which is around 30 people, including the 11 that live here. Saturday morning, we all gather at my house for a breakfast of egg casarole, buiscuits, and fried apples that my Mom graciously and skillfully prepares. We all pile into various vehicles and we go up to Ravenswood, about 75 miles to the south of town, about 20 miles north of Austin. The roads are always good and there was no snow this year (disapointed the kids, but most of the adults were happy :).

We wont be home for Christmas this year, we are going to spend it with my father-in-law in Arizona, so we didnt get a tree, but there were still 12 trees cut to warm peoples hearts this season. We have made this a tradition in our family and we look forward to seeing all our CA cousins, nephews and nieces every year even though its only for 2 or 3 days. After the tree hunt we come back to a steamy hot pot of Irish Stew (also graciously prepared by my Mother), made with home grown lamb and lots of love. We visit and catch up with what is going on in each others lives and on Sunday some go back home, others stay on another day to do more visiting.
It is always nice to see them, and I always hate to see them leave, but as soon as its over, I know I have something to look forward to the next year :)

I took this picture on the way out there, this is what I love about this country, look at the way the mountains march away into the distance. It is so beautiful here...

New Toy

Too much fun! I love new toys :)

I had come to the realization that I wasn't going to be able to afford a drum carder this year, so I bought this.

It is a kick spindle. I have never even heard of these much less seen one (sheltered life?).

I have a moorit colored romney fleece I bought from Terry Mendenhall that I scoured and am planning to send to Ozark Carding Mill, so I carded up a few rolags to experiment with.
I am a fun lovin' kinda person, and as neat looking as it is, the kick spindle was close to getting a final kick... into the front yard.

After my initial aggravation (and my DH and DD gently telling me to put the damn thing away before I hurt myself), we began to get along nicely. In retrospect, I probably could have used a longer fiber (the moorit is only about 3 inches), and its pretty slick. So you can guess what was happening; it seemed the more I spun the looser the blasted thing got! SO! I thought I finally got it. Then I started winding off to the ball winder; two knots and a few grey hairs later, I started plying. ONE knot later and a very, very sore back, this is what I had.

OK, so it didn't turn out so bad. A nice little skein of blood, sweat and tears. Really, I'm not always aggravated, I'm a very good natured person. I love trying new things, my family isn't always thrilled with it but I enjoy it :)
I then took 1200mg of Ibuprofen and went to bed. My back hardly hurts at all today!

I'm thinking that the really neat kick spindle will make a good conversation piece...

After all that, I DID find a drum carder that I could afford, a Clemes & Clemes. I will post pictures when I get it.

Weekend in Reno

I am so glad I went! I got to the Library about 11:30, a bit earlier than I thought I would, and got to join in on some of the 'business' discussion. I showed everyone my fiber washing bag (link posted to CSSW Yahoo! list) and after some discussion, every one decided that the guild will feature a specific breed every year at the state fair and they asked me to provide info on tunis for 2008! I am so excited! A lot of planning to do on that yet...

After the meeting some of us went to Linda's house (wow, what a home!), Laura brought a lamb roast, Mary brought a pumpkin pie (made fresh from a pumpkin in her garden), we all chipped in money and Amy and I went to the store to buy other stuff to go with the meal. I haven't had that much fun in years! Good food, good company and lots of laughs. I didn't take any pictures for fear we might incriminate ourselves ;-)

So ladies! Thank you for a great weekend, I hope we can do it again sometime :)

Weekend Forays

On October 27th, after going to the cemetary and seeing the new head stone, we decided it would be a good time to connect with nature. We took the dogs up one of the canyons (I forgot my camera) and had a really nice time watching them run around and be silly, chasing cows and each other. Before we were through, we had decided we would do this every week, regarless of the weather, because we all need the excersize and our souls need the peace.

This is Lewis Canyon, to the south and slightly east of here. This first picture has Zip, the aussie/golden cross; Tug, the 6 ft tall and bullet proof chihuahua; and in the far distance, Kujo (named by my oldest, we ended up with her when he moved back home, she seriously does not fit that name :)

Last weekend I remembered the camera, but forgot the batteries were almost dead so I only got a few pictures, but you can see my kids, and our dogs. Here is my daughter, along with Kujo, who is the sweetest most loveable dog you could ever meet, and Beamer, our registered aussie. We got him about 8 months ago from a breader that was moving and decided she could part with him for a fraction of what he is worth. He was used in shows but never had been around livestock, so no, he isnt a sheep dog. I have never had this many dogs at one time before, its funny how they all have their quirks and idiosyncrasies.

Zip is the oldest, picked him up out of a box of puppies in front of the grocery store about 8 years ago. The box was full of bouncy black puppies and as I got closer, I could see this little silver fluff ball in the back corner. After asking I found out that the aussie down the road had been visiting when the golden was in heat. I brought him home, I had always wanted a 'truck' dog, one that would want to get in the back of the truck every time someone got close to it so he could go for a ride. Zip (also named by my oldest son, and no he doesnt exactly fit that name either LOL, he has never been what I would call zippy :) turned out to be my truck dog, but Tad was his boy through and through.

This is my 17 year old, 6'3 with a heart to match. And of course there is Kujo. You can barely see Zip in the forground to the left...

Next week I think we will go back up Crumb Canyon so I can take some pictures to share. We wont be going this weekend because I plan on being in Reno, fuel prices be damned!

Thats about it for now...