I forgot a post!

All I can say is that I've been sick & posting these photos that I took this weekend, pre-sickness, has just slipped my mind. Sorry Chan! I really have been scattered the past couple of days, I consider it a minor miracle that I've actually shown up for work the past two days! I'm not really sure how much good I'm doing there anyway, maybe I should have just stayed home....

Anyway... rambling here, excuse me. :)

My wonderful, thoughtful, partner in crime, Chan sent me this beautiful fiber this past weekend. Unfortunately the photo doesn't show the true colors, the one that looks blue is actually another pretty shade of purple! Darn camera! It seems as if we have gone fiber-wild now that we have been turned loose in the world of spinning. And we're having tons of fun with it! :) I've already started spinning the camel color with my spindle.... I was hoping to get more practice before I jump into the purple ones so I can maybe use it for knitting up something wonderful! I lourves me some purple!!

Hopefully I will be feeling better soon so I can try my hand at plying the pink & cream fiber that I've already spun into my very first singles, yeah!

Thanks to all of my spinner friends & my learning also spinner friends for encouraging me to give this a try, I'm really enjoying myself with it. Even if I am having a hard time making myself pay for the previously bought laptop vs. buying a new spinning wheel! LOL
And thanks again Chan for the beautiful fiber, you're the best! :)

Lisa's Alpaca Farm

Sorry this is so late, I believe that I caught Jessi & Michelle's sinus infection through the computer somehow... I went down pretty hard Sunday evening & I'm just beginning to feel more like myself now. Got a load of antibiotics, Musinex D & new allergy meds coursing through my system, a sore butt from a shot that I'm sure the lady at the Dr.'s off enjoyed way too much, so maybe I'll feel completely human by the end of the week.

Now on to the good photos that I got of the Alpaca at Lisa's farm on Sunday before I came down with the crud....

Oops! I don't think this one was ready for a photo shoot yet! LOL She looked so surprised. :) I just love this one, I need to have it blown up & framed, how funny would that be, to come in the house & see this silly girl every day?!! ha ha!

Take a look at these cuties, this is a mom & yearling. I still can't get over how small they really are. The little one's head only came up to a little over my waist, and I'm short at only 5'2"...... Don't you just love their hair styles?

This sweet girl is getting ready to be a new mommy. Look how fat her belly is, Lisa said it could be any day now. I'm hoping she will let me know when the baby is born so I can go by and see a real tiny baby alpaca.

And all silliness aside, this pretty girl lost her 1 month old baby just 2 weeks ago, she has been sad & moping around. Lisa is hoping that she will perk up soon. The other lady alpaca have been spending time with her trying to cheer her up she said. How sweet!

Here is another Mommy & yearling, they have 21 Alpaca with one due any moment on the farm now. I left this one and the next photo whole without cropping so you could see just how clean this farm is. I was amazed! I grew up on a cow/goat/tobacco farm, wasn't nearly this spotless. The hubby said that when you raise animals for their fur/fleece/whatever it has to be kept clean so the fiber is clean & you can get top dollar for it. And the alpaca weren't stinky either. Now I didn't stick my nose on one but I did pet a couple of them & my hands didn't smell funny after. :P

I also got this new spindle while at the Alpaca farm... it's purple, pink & silver with glitter! :) It spins great, much better than my other one. I get what they are saying about balance with a spindle now..... so now I'm working on some cream fiber that Lisa gave me to ply with my pink.....

Averasboro Fiber Arts Festival

I took a day trip to my first Fiber Festival today. This was a really small festival but well worth the 2 hour drive to get there. I conned a non-fiber friend into riding with me, I needed company for the ride after all. :) Barbara was a good sport & enjoyed herself even though she isn't a knitter/crocheter/spinner. She did however get a great deal on a handmade bird house while there, so even she didn't come away empty handed. LOL


There were lots of vendors there selling just about anything you could imagine. I even got to pet some Angora rabbits, but silly me was too busy petting & ooohing & ahaaaaing over them to think of getting their photo! When I got home I was telling the hubby about the sweet Mommy, Daddy & baby bunnies... I thought, darn it! I didn't even get their photo! I did really good though, the babies were for sale & I resisted, it was a tough one to resist! Did you know that you can spin Angora right off the bunnies?! The lady who owns the bunnies said that they would sit in your lap as long as you wanted to hold them & when they were shedding you could just spin some yarn right off them as they sit in your lap! Can you imagine!?! They were soooooo sweet! :)

I impressed myself when I resisted coming home with a load of yarn! But I remembered that I had NO room left in my closet for more yarn.... I wasn't successful at resisting the fiber however. I'll show you all of that a little later....


There were so many different fibers & fiber blends here, I was really impressed! I wish I had more money so I could have brought home a little bit of everything. I saw very little that I didn't like, isn't that how it always is??? I was a bit disappointed that the prices weren't better, most everything was a bit pricey, what I did buy I thought were decent prices, but I was really hoping that I could get some stuff for a bit better than I could buy it regularly... oh well.

There were lots of goats, sheep & alpacas around, the babies were just adorable! And for your viewing pleasure.... lots of photos of those cutie pies!

We also got to see a few sheep get sheared, that was very interesting although I have to say, the sheep didn't seem too happy about getting the haircuts. :)

And here are a couple photos of some sweet alpacas, I thought they would be larger animals than they were. They are really pretty with all of their fur, but they do look a bit scrawny & silly with their fresh haircuts. LOL Maybe these were young ones, I'll get to see more alpacas tomorrow when I go to Lisa's Alpaca farm. Of course I'll have more photos for you then. And Jessi, if this is as big as they get I'm positive you could keep one in your back yard! Heck, you could get a couple of them! SNOL

Now, on to the goodies that I brought home with me! This colorful fiber is a Rominey/Corridale Wool mix. I couldn't resist the bright colors..... the two purple batts are very similar but one has quite a bit more yellow in it. I think when I spin this I will combine the two so I don't get more yellow on one end of the yarn than the other..... This Red/Blue mix is pretty even, it should spin well as is....

This yummy pink roving is 20% Angora & 80% Merino, you should feel this stuff!!! It is sooooo soft! I couldn't help buy buy it even though I know I'll be saving this stuff for a while, I'd hate to waste it on bulky beginners yarn. :)

And how could someone resist buying some of Peter Rabbit's fur? LOL!!! This is a couple of bags of French Angora rabbit fur. The rabbit's name was "Peter", that just tickled me so of course I had to buy some! He is a French Angora, fawn colored bunny. Here is another photo, I pulled some out so you could see it better...

The rabbit lady had a super soft scarf that she knit, it was angora combined with some silk fibers. She told me that I could save my angora in paper bags & when I got a little better at spinning (I told her I was a newbie) I could combine the 1 oz. I bought with some silk & have plenty for a small scarf like she had there..... another one I'm going to save for a while. :)

Whew! That concludes my trip to the Averasboro Fiber Arts Festival. I had a good time, got lots of good stuff, learned a lot & now I'm even more ready for those spinning lessons! I'll be posting more photos after my visit to the Alpaca farm tomorrow, hopefully! So stay tuned.

It's Here!

Well, I received my spindle today.... we'll see how this spinning thing goes. :)

The fiber is really soft & pretty, Annie also sent along a couple of fiber samples, instructions, & a couple of treats.

The spindle is a pretty thing, and seems to spin good. Although I have no experience & nothing to compare it to.

I've pulled all of the fiber apart into smaller strips, my attempt at pre-drafting! LOL

And I've started spinning "something".... I'm not sure how much twist I'm supposed to have in this stuff, I am probably going to leave it as a single yarn. Don't think I'm quite ready to try plying yet! If anyone has any advice about what I'm supposed to be doing, please feel free to comment! :)

Here is what I've done so far.....

I Like To Move It, Move It - Madagascar

I just think this is sooooo funny, thought I'd give the rest of you a laugh tonight. :)

Meet my new niece!

Everyone meet my new niece! Isn't she a cutiepie? Her name is Mocha, she is a Australian Sheppard. She is only 1 week old, my sister & her family get to pick her up in 7 weeks. The mommy dog was rescued from an abusive home & shortly thereafter had these beautiful puppies.


We had an Aussie while growing up, Penny, she was a wonderful family pet, good with us kids. And my parents had another one, Radar, after all of us girls left home, and my Sis & her family had one, Dusty, who passed away a little over a year ago. So now they are ready for a new addition to the family. :)

When I asked Sis if my girl niece, Sydney who will be 4 shortly, was excited... she said not yet, she doesn't understand that the puppy will grow up into a dog, she keeps saying that she wants one Dusty's size! LOL Dusty was already grown when Sydney was born, so she hasn't ever known a puppy before. How sweet!

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Now on to another subject.... I don't just love to knit & crochet, I love to read too. My favorite author is Nora Roberts, I think I have every book she has ever written! LOL

When I saw on Chan's blog that she took part in the Book Tag, I thought I'd post it myself.



For the book tag, here are the rules:
Pick a book at least 123 pages long.
Open that book to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence and post the next three.
Then tag five other people to do the same.


Now, this won't be everyone's page 123, I read some of my books on a pocket pc, ebooks. Keeps the house from being overrun with tons of books. I am quite obsessive with my books, I never want to get rid of them after I read them! And yes, I am one of those people who will read a good book more than once! :P And I do love a good murder mystery, as well as a good romance.

"Through the resort. When she goes on holiday, she often shuts off her pocket link."

"And her reaction?"

" I told her there had been an accident, that Mr. Anders was dead. I don't think she believed me, or understood me initially. I had to repeat it twice, and I felt, under the circumstances, I couldn't tell her when she asked what kind of accident. She said she would come home immediately."



Now, I'm not going to call names, so anyone who wants to join in please do! Fun to see what everyone else is reading. Hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!!!

Here we go.....

Look what I just bought! Ok, so Jessi, Chan & Robin, & all of you other spinners out there have lured me over to the dark side... I just have to see what this spinning is all about. After much searching online I finally found a lady that teaches in my area. They also have an Alpaca farm, I get to go pet some yarn on the hoof! LOL

Even Lisa (previously mentioned lady who teaches spinning) said that there are only 2 others in our local area that spin, she is trying to recruit some more ladies in our area in the hopes that we can eventually start a monthly spinners group....

Anyway, I will be going to pet the Alpacas & chat & learn more about what I'm getting myself into on the 20th. Then I'll set myself up with some classes to get started. But I couldn't wait to do something.... sooooo, I took a quick look at some pretty Etsy spindles & this one was very affordable & comes with a few oz. of wool fiber to get me started. I got it from Annie May's Etsy shop, she also sells on Ebay, she has lots of spindles & a lot of spinning fiber too. (I stole the photo from her store, hope she doesn't mind!) Now, I won't promise that I won't end up throwing this thing across the room before it's done, but at least it will keep me from going nuts until I can start my spinning lessons! ha ha!! I just couldn't wait!

They're small but they are finished!

At least I finished something! They might be dishcloths & scrubbies but I actually have a finished object to post finally!


This photo isn't great but I also finished up some knitting needles for a gift... nope don't sell these in my store, they are too much of a pain in my butt, but I do them for friends & swaps sometimes. :) You can't tell in the photo but my purple clay matched the needles almost exactly! I was even impressed!

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Today was a sad day.... Mary had to say goodbye to two of her beloved furry family members. Everyone go & give her some blog hugs & support. It's hard enough to lose one, but two... I just don't know what to say. My heart goes out to you sweetie!

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And I leave you with the one flowering tree in our yard... it is truly Spring now, usually once the dogwood blooms there is no more chance of a frost....

Snuggle #1

I'm exhausted! Cleaning up a disaster of a room is hard work! LOL I finally got all of my yarn organized and in the spare room closet. We can now walk in that room with no problems! Still have more to do in there but at least my huge yarney mess is cleaned up.

While going through all of my "stuff" I came across a baby blanket I had been designing about 3 years ago... I wasn't ever going to finish the darn thing... so I snipped the yarn, wove in the ends, and I have my first snuggle to donate for the ASPCA! Don't forget about Nichole's contest, you can make snuggles for furbabies & get entries into her contest!

A friend in need

Everyone go over and give Mary some blog hugs & support. She is going through a sad time with her precious Storm. :(

Look what arrived!

Oooooooh, look what arrived Thursday from Kathy! My Knittin Chickens bag! Since I didn't win the Guess the # of Jelly Beans contest I went over to her etsy store, Gypsy Knits and bought myself one. Why? Well who could resist this? It makes me smile every time I look at it, silly chickens! :) And she included a little bag of goodies with flower seeds & chocolate! The flowers will last much longer than the chocolate did. *snicker*

And my Angry Day shirt arrived last week from Shirt Woot. I know, I look like a goober standing here, but I was having a lousy day on Thursday (and my darn grey hair is showing! UGH).... I wore it to my knitting group Thursday night, hoping it would cheer me up a little to advertise my bad day... Love the shirt but it did nothing for my mood that night. LOL

However, it's Friday evening & I'm off for the weekend! I'm feeling better now. Looking forward to getting a few things done around here the next 2 days... ripping up the kitchen floor for new, getting that back room organized (maybe! ha ha), and working on some stitch markers. Of course I'll be watching the NASCAR race on Sunday, Jr. has the poll, woohoo!!! :)

Hope everyone has a safe & fun weekend, & finds a little time to yourself to spin or knit or crochet a little. :)

Contest to benefit ASPCA!

Hi everyone! Go on over to Lap Dog Creations, Nichole is having a great contest to benefit the ASPCA! She is racking up some great prizes to give away! She has 5 ways to enter & the contest is open until April 25th. I checked out the link she has for Snuggles, and I believe that I'm gonna do a few of those. I found plenty of yarn I can use the other night while creating my huge mess in the spare room! If I can dig some out from the bottom of the pile, ha ha. I just think this is an awesome idea, I love my baby Jasmine & I'd just love to go adopt a couple more kittys but my hubby would either have a heart attack or kill me if I were to come home with more. :) So I'll just knit or crochet some little blankies for the babies waiting to be adopted.... doesn't someone out there need a new puppy or kitty? :)

Just look what I've done!

OMG! What have I done???? ha ha! Well, just take a look.... I've cleaned out the closet in the (junk) spare room & put one of my shelving units in there, that looks good huh? But......... just look at the MESS I made!


And that's only a small part of it! Goodness, I have no idea what got into me tonight, I must be crazy!!! Nothing but clean it all up now. It'll probably take me the rest of the month to get it all done! ha ha!!!


Anyone looking for some 100% wool for felting? he he! I've got just a little bit.... This bag is the one that my whole comforter set came in if that gives you any idea how big that is! hmmmm, I need to find some more containers of some sort for organizing. Off to Wallyworld this weekend I suppose. UGH! I did get something made last night though. Check this out, I did this tape measure for Mary. I sure hope she likes it, I haven't heard back from her yet.... :) Don't know that I'd do another one like this but it was fun to create it.