It's been a couple of weeks since I posted, so I thought today would be a good time to catch up a bit.
I went to the Open House at SVF Farm in Newport and watched the shearing demos on June 7th. It's the only day of the year the farm is open to the public. This was truly a beautiful place to spend some quiet time just drinking in the attraction of nature. My three friends and I watched the sheep shearing, and I met a couple of other friends there as well.
On Monday I was given about 30 fleeces for free. I ended up calling up the troops. Marva and Beth met me in Hope Valley and we headed over to Sandi's farm in North Stonington where we spent about 3 hours sorting and re-bagging all these fleeces. They were in black plastic trash bags which you need to take them out of as soon as possible. With the excessive heat and humidity they could mold rather quickly if left in them. We put them all into individual lawn/leaf bags and labeled them. It was an exhausting, grueling, dirty job and we were all soaked with sweat and very dirty when finished. If Sandi had not offered her barn and skirting table, along with Marva and Beth to help, it would have been a lot worse to do. I thank Sandi, Marva, and Beth so much for helping me with this. My plan was to donate some to the spinners guild this past Saturday at the monthly meeting. I gave Sandi hers, and Marva and Beth took their choices home, so I had less to deal with. I took mine and as many of the ones I could fit in my car to be donated home with me. Some of the bags had gotten wet on the bottom from a rain storm the day before I picked them up which had gotten the floor they had been sitting on wet. These had to be laid out to dry a few days. We went and picked these up on Wednesday evening. Beth was nice enough to keep these for me until Saturday's meeting.
Marva posted to our group that there would be a surprise at the meeting. After she made the announcement, some of us carried all the bags in and let the feeding frenzy begin. I was worried they would not want them. I wish I had more to share since they went fast. There was just enough to go around. I'm already promised more fleeces next year, so hopefully, I can get the same amount or a few more than this year and share them too.
The other thing that happened at the meeting was we had a tapestry weaving lesson. I have absolutely no plans to learn to weave. I just don't have the time or space to start another hobby, but the use of different colors and technique was interesting. I can use some of the ideas in my stained glass too.
I also was elected to be the new treasurer of the guild, since Renay decided it was time for her to hand it off to someone else. She has been doing it for 5 years and I was told she did an excellent job. It seems like something I can do and I can ask Renay any questions I have if necessary.
This past Thursday night was my monthly Knitting and Crochet Guild meeting. We had a stash swap raffle. Items were brought, tickets handed out, then you put them in the cups in front of the items you wanted to win. Tickets were picked and prizes awarded to everyone. The grand prizes were 4 gift certificates to local yarn shops. I was surprised and lucky enough to win one of these along with a book, and some yarns. It was a fun night for everyone.
As far as my own spinning ~ I have a full bobbin of the merino to ply with the alpaca finished. I'm not plying right now because I wanted to participate in the Spinner Central monthly SAL. I'm spinning some fiber from Allspunup in pretty shades of blue, white and a hint of greenish brown. The theme of the June spin along is to spin superwash, tweed, beach vacation. This fiber is superwash Merino and reminds me of the beach with the blues for sea and sky and the other colors being the edge of the water where it can be cloudy and greenish. You can choose to do all three things, just one or two. It's actually a personal challenge.
As far as knitting ~ today is the beginning of the DkKnits Flutterby KAL on Ravelry. I'm in her sock club and this month's shipment was the yarn to use in the KAL. The sock is a Fair Isle pattern, and this is definitely going to be a challenge for me because I've never knit Fair Isle before. I'm also busy knitting squares on two scarves from the Traveling Scarves group on Ravelry. I don't have any other plans this week that I can think of so I am hoping to get these two squares finished and mailed in a few days. I am suppose to have them back in the mail 10 days after receiving them. That means I have 5 days to get them there. I've also been knitting on a second sock that has been sitting around for a few months waiting to be finished.
The animals are adjusting to not having the matriarch of the family around. Hanna still is a bit depressed and comes over and sits or lays at my feet. Sometimes she stands up and puts her little head on my leg for petting and lovings. As time goes on, she's adjusting, but I think it will take her quite a while. She was with her mommy her whole life, almost 12 years. Pooh is his usual bossy, fresh self. lol The cats are letting him know, just because he is running around now we can leave the gate open, doesn't mean he can take over their turf, (the living room). I had to open the door to the craft room so the air conditioning could cool it down. Rosebud was a bit nervous at first, but I've put my big square folding table across the door and wedged it so no one can get over or around it. She feels safe now and stands in the middle of the floor and "talks" to me when I stand at the door. She's such a sweet cat.
Pat is getting ready to build another shed in the back yard, then the fence and deck will go up. I've found a patio set I want to buy and put out there, so I hope he builds it soon.
Yesterday was spent playing in a dye pot with some BFL and silk. I chose a few shades of yellow and a green to make "Evelyn's Roses" in memory of my mom. She loved yellow and roses. It's drying now and is looking so pretty and fluffy. I'm going to spin the BFL and silk separately then ply them together.
Here's the dried fiber and silk:
No comments:
Post a Comment