Saturday, September 29, 2007

Fleeces are Here!!!!!!!

I picked up my fleeces last week after a visit to the foot doctor for a sore toe. (The toe is fine now.) There are 4 black ones from the ewes and 1 white one from the ram. I have had enormous amounts of help from Ravelry members on how to prepare them, especially the ram's. Also, Jonne helped me a great deal with some advise. I also ordered some supplies for carding my new fiber.

Today, my husband, Pat, and I did the first one. It's so soft and fluffy. Since these are Romney sheep they don't have as much lanolin as some other breeds. It was a lot of work, but, it's drying in the back yard now. I have to check it soon and see how it's doing. I went with the mesh bag in the buckets method. Then dried it on screens covered with a shear curtain, which was held down by bricks to prevent losing it to the wind or any stray varmits.....a/k/a squirrels and birds. I read on the Yarn Harlot's blog about her dilemma with that pesky fiber stealing creature and tried to protect myself accordingly.

The knitting has progress slowly due to added cast ons. I have made a few charity hats from Sheelagh's stash and am in a few KAL now. The Second Clapotis KAL has started as well as the secret of chrysopolis, and next week the secret of the stole starts.

I've been back to Fabric Place a couple of times and found a few more items to buy. Discount is now at 25%.

Well, gotta go check the fleece and run to the store...........



Friday, September 21, 2007

Knitting, Beads, Meetings......

I've been knitting on several projects this week. The Retro Socks are waiting for me to teach my friend, Bella, how to decrease the toe and work the Kitchener stitch. She did very well with the heel flap and heel turn. The Meida Socks have been quietly waiting for me to finish them. I only need to spend about 2 hours to do this. The MS3 is now into Clue 3. My first Clapotis is about to have the straight rows started. My Lacy Anklets are stagnant right now. I managed to complete 3 charity hats so far from Sheelagh's stash.

Thanks to Ravelry, I found out about the Clapotis Second KAL. Also, I signed up for the Holiday Sock KAL at Socknitters.com and plan to make a toe up sock in some of the yarn I bought from EJ Yarns when they were closing.

Today, I added another book to my library, "The Best of Interweave Knits" The Forest Path Stole, Icarus, and about four other items are already calling to me.

Last Wednesday, I stayed late at work with Robin and Sana. We made jewelry together. I find it very interesting to work the wire. I already work with wire when I am making a stained glass project, but, in a different way. Of course, the first thing I think of is ......stitch markers..... Well, on Tuesday of this week it's off to the store I go to buy myself some goodies. I now have a small collection of beads in blue, pink, purple, red, yellow shades as well as several findings, supplies, and tools.

Also, last Thursday I joined the Knitters Guild in RI thanks to Kimberly. I had a wonderful time meeting the ladies and talking with them. The items shown during show and tell made my head spin with the beauty of them all. Now I want to knit some of these items even more than I did when I only saw pics of them. lol

Friday, September 07, 2007

Happy and Sad Happenings......

It's been a week of good, happy events accompanied by a couple of sad ones.

One of the good things is more yarny accumulation. I have been breaking the yarn diet left and right. Since Fabric Place will close it's only store in RI in a few months, I have been visiting it - often - this week. I ended up buying 7 skeins of Cascade 220 Wool for the Tilted Duster pattern from Interweave Knits. After re-checking the pattern, I discovered I was a bit short on yardage. I went back yesterday and looked for the color, only to find I had bought the only skeins they had. This meant I could make the sweater and hope to squeak out just enough to finish, or, buy enough of another color to make it. I chose a lovely medium gray and bought 10 skeins. I know I don't need that much, but, the color will also make a nice pair of mittens or gloves to go with a couple of my coats.

On these two visits, I also picked up several skeins of Wash Day by Reynolds to make into solid color socks. The colors are a bright red, medium gray, and a shade that reminds me of watermelon. On the way to the register, I saw a copy of the Summer Interweave Knits I hadn't bought. I was undecided about that issue until recently when I found a couple of the patterns mentioned on line. Now I plan to make a couple of them. Also, there were pins with bigger, colored heads that will work for blocking. One box of these found their way into my basket.

All these items were 20% off at the present time. The only reason I didn't wait for a better discount is the supplies are limited. All the yarn is on the shelves for the most part and what you see is it. I didn't want to try to match dye lots and get frustrated to save a couple of extra pennies by waiting.

The other acquisition involved a lady named Margo. DH and I went to our usual flea market in CT on Sunday. As usual, I mentioned the alpaca farm, Safe Haven Alpacas, and my desire to visit it some day. Well, the sign was out for an alpaca store as well. He pulled right into the drive and headed for the buildings. The store is in a beautiful chalet style dwelling and is the whole first floor.

After browsing the yarns and finished goods for sale, I spotted a display of a blanket with a huge pile of fiber under it. This led me to ask if they had fiber for sale. I was directed to a basket in the corner and had a hard time choosing a shade. I loved the cinnamon, rusty brown shade as well as the natural, creamy shade. I ended up with the cream shade. There was about 7 ounces in the bag, so I just bought the whole thing. "Margo" was written on the plastic bag, which caused me to ask if the fiber was from her fleece. After learning it was, DH and I headed out to the barn to meet her and her cria, as well as about 2 dozen other alpaca mamas and babies. They are all so sweet and adorable.

Now, no more yarn or fiber additions are planned to come in the house at this time. Ooops. I forgot to mention the message from my podiatrist regarding the fleeces he mentioned last year. Both sheep and both Llama fleeces are waiting for me..........

This Wednesday was the Border's meetup with somebunnyslove, Kimberly. We had a great time, as usual.

The sad news is my car got sick and conked out on the highway last night. Fortunately AAA towed me home and DH checked it out. I need a new water pump and timing belt. He had just changed both of these things about 4 months ago. He thinks the water pump seized and this messed up the belt. Plans are to fix it tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'm using the spare car........