Technical Difficulties

I'm even further behind now.... my faithful computer decided to poop out on me this past week. It had to go spend a few days at the computer Dr., thankfully I got it back on Friday. So I'm up & running again. As far as we can tell it had a corrupt system file or something, so they had to re-install the whole thing from scratch. At least I didn't lose all of my photos & other info.  I'll be playing catch-up this week so bear with me if you haven't heard from me. :)

But I'll be watching the Daytona 500 today, the computer will have to wait until later. he he

I'll leave you with this sweet photo.... Jazzy didn't want her daddy to go out of town to work last week. Silly girl.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. Mine was good even though I had to go to work. :)
My wonderful hubby gave me a dozen beautiful purple roses.

I also got my Valentine's Fancy Kitty Swap package today!  Here are all the wonderful goodies that Monica sent me.

 A lovely batt of Merino & Romney, a handmade Valentine card, handmade chocolates (YUM) & other candy, and one of Monica's beautiful Diz. She even made me a special Diz in purple, sweet!  Thank you so much Monica!!! I love everything!

I wanted to show everyone the gorgeous tote bag that I got from Beth at Blue Mountain Handcrafts a while back too. This is a great padded tote bag! And I love the mixed purple fabrics on the pockets. It's reversable but who would want to hide the pretty pockets?

Nothing new on the knitting or weaving front... but I did get some more yarn spun. This is my Vacation SAL package from BMH. Mine was New Zealand. I had the merino/silk with the Violet solid. I started with 6oz., 3oz of each color. I ended up with 310 yards of sport/dk weight yarn.

Next up for the wheel is this lovely fiber that I got from Robin, that I plan on plying with the solid red alpaca that I dyed.

And I got some new markers made. Giraffes, aren't they cutie pies?

Have a great week everyone!!

Not much...

Not much going on around here. Just working, trying to pay bills, catching up on custom orders, a little spinning & weaving when I can fit it in.

We have heard from our Marine, he's doing good. A little homesick, but otherwise fine. Hopefully he will have internet set up soon in his living quarters.

Here is the little bit of spinning I finally finished. This is the 5 oz corriedale I got a while back from Blue Mountain Handcrafts. I ended up with 250 yards of n-ply, DK weight.

And I've finished my second woven scarf. I used Plymouth Suri Merino for the warp & my Seashell beaded handspun for the weft. I pushed most of the beads to one side. I also only used about half or less than that of the beaded yarn, so I have plenty left to do another scarf.

After looking at this last photo in daylight, I suppose I should have steamed the scarf before taking the photo. Oh well. I'll get that done eventually. :)

A drive by post...

Just a few quick photos for you this evening....

My silly Jazzy.



And let me show you what 5 oz. of corriedale fiber looks like on my bobbin.

I can't believe I got it all on there! Looks like I'll be doing my n-plying on my little Babette (Fidelis Wheel).

Hope everyone is having a good week!!

I can't remember it all!

I know a lot has gone on since I've made my last "real" post. But I can't remember everything I was going to share! Sheesh.

We have been doing well. Just working & enjoying some time with our Marine before he gets deployed later this month. I've been making some clay stuff, doing a little spinning, not much knitting going on lately, a little reading.

Jasmine is good, her last vet appt. went well, the vet said that he would never had guessed that she was almost 10 years old if he hadn't read it in her chart. That's a good thing. :) She has been doing a lot of napping as usual. And has taken quite a shine to the pillows on the bed, she thinks they are all there for her, every day she is on a different one. LOL

I came up with Cactus Stitch Markers & Buttons, turned out cute I think. They are all in my artfire shop if anyone is interested in a few faux succulents. :)

Here are the last projects that I finished right around Christmas that I know I haven't posted about.

My first woven scarf, the only one so far. I was weaving some pillows, the yarn was a bit "sticky" but I was going to suffer through it until Kevin admitted that he didn't like them. So why bother? I cut them off this weekend. Now to figure out what project I want to do next....

Here is the Starr Neckwarmer that I made for my childhood BFF for Christmas, with some more kitty fur yarn that I spun. This is the Ripple Cowl by Rachel Bishop (Ravelry link). Nice, quick pattern. And Beth loved it, that's all that matters. :)

I cleaned up my messy fiber/craft room! This is before....

This is the same area after the clean up!

I really shouldn't show this photo, I should be ashamed of myself to have this much stash & UFO's hidden in here! LOL

OH! Anyone up for a SAL (Spin-A-Long)? Blue Mountain Handcrafts is having a Vacation Destination SAL. Check out the linkey for more info if you are interested. We've only got until the 22nd to get in on it!

Great prizes to be awarded for the SAL too! They include one of Beth's awesome new Tote Bags, a spinning batt, a set of my markers & a WPI tool.

Well, I think that is about it for now. Hope you guys had a great weekend!!!

The first warp & scarf!

Since I didn't have to go to work today I stayed up late last night. Here is what I was doing..... The new Harp warped for the very first time! I dug around in my stash & came up with this pretty purple elann.com Lara sport weight cotton yarn. I used the Lara to warp my loom with, please excuse me if I'm not using the correct weaving terminology, I'm new at this. he he. I used the direct to loom warping process with my warping peg. It was actually really easy. Kevin did help me when it came time to wind the warp up on the back, he held it tight while I wound. I think I had it ready to go in an hour, I think that's pretty good for the first time. I have an 8" warp, I'm dong a scarf.

 I searched through my stash, I had intentions of using some store bought yarn for my first project. I just couldn't find anything that I wanted to use. I kept going back to my handspun. And I wasn't certain how much yarn I was gonna need for the weft (I think that's what you call it), so I picked out a skein that I had plenty of, this one was over 300 yards. This is some pretty yarn that I spun from one of Beth's (Blue Mountain Handcrafts) batts. Kevin said that my weaving looked a little wonky or uneven, but it's really not, it's the handspun yarn. Some of it's thick & some of it is thin. I think it looks really cool. 
I can see a difference in my weaving already. Where I am at now looks much better than the beginning. I've got to learn to not be afraid of the loom, LOL, I tend to be really "easy" with it. :)  But I'm having lots of fun!
Stay tuned for the finished scarf!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!

Be safe & have fun!

Christmas came early!

I know it's been a while.... sigh. I just can't seem to get everything done that I want to get done this year. I keep running out of dang time. And it's not like I don't stay up till midnight or 1am every night trying either. Here's hoping that I will find all this missed time in 2011, I have big plans for this coming year! :)

In the meantime let me catch you up a little. Christmas has come early to my house!!

First up, I entered a contest on Nichole's blog & won! Woohoo! I received this awesome book from Storey Publishing Co., Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders: 101 Patterns That Go Way Beyond Socks.

If I hadn't won this book in the contest I would certainly have purchased this one. It's a great book with tons of patterns in it that I will actually knit. Or want to knit, another time issue there, LOL.  Thanks Nichole & Storey Publishing!! I love this book & hopefully I'll have a knitted item from it to show everyone soon. I certainly have plenty of sock yarn in my stash just waiting to me made into something useful.

I also have a few newly spun yarns to show you too, I'll slip those in here before we continue with early Christmas....

More Starr Kitty yarn, made from batts of Starr kitty fur & merino blended on my Fancy Kitty drum carder. This yarn came out MUCH better than the hand blended I did last year. I am hoping to get this knit into a cowl for Beth (Starr's mom) for Christmas, I'm halfway there!

Here is some yarn that I spun from these gorgeous batts from Modern Spin.

Here is the BIG surpise!! Today my boss gave me an awesome bonus. The majority of my other bonuses this year went to pay bills. So this one I decided to spend on myself. :)  Levi is home on leave right now, let me tell you how nice it is to have him around the house for a few days! Even though his room looks like a trash dump once again. Well, while he was making a run back to the base to get more "stuff" (he is bringing all of his things home now before he deploys in January), he stopped by The Tail Spinner & picked up my new Kromski Harp 24" rigid heddle loom!

Isn't she a beauty?!  I can't wait to get some yarn on her. I couldn't tonight, I had 3 chocolate pies to get started. Dang pies, LOL. Maybe tomorrow night I'll get her warped up & ready to go. Keep in mind that I know absolutely nothing about looms or weaving. I've just been reading online about it. We will see what happens.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas & New Year!!!!

Just in case I run out of time & don't get to post again. :)

Secret Holiday Exchange

I just had to show off my Secret Holiday Exchange package! It was waiting on my porch for me when I got home today. :)  Amy, Bohemia Fibers, put together this fun exchange for the holidays, thanks Amy!!
Darice (DariceMoore on Ravelry) sent me this wonderful package of goodies!! It even had cute little drawings on the package, he he.  There were some prettily wrapped packages inside but I fell earlier & broke something on my camera so those photos didn't turn out. pout.

Darice knit me that gorgeous purple beret, the pattern is Meret by Wooly Wormhead. Totally cute on but you'll have to wait until my hair looks decent before I get a photo of me wearing it. :)  Also included in the package: gummy bears & chocolate (YUM), really cute little bag, pretty & sparkly stitch markers, a large pink jingle bell on a cord, some absolutely silly Santa Flamingo tea candles (seriously! check those funny guys out), a gorgeous purple batt, and some sparkle batts from Modern Spin. 

Here is a closeup of the pretty beret.

And the pretty batts...

Thank you so much Darice!! I love everything!

Blue Mountain Handcrafts is having a Pick Your Poison SAL/KAL/CAL, come on & join us, it'll be fun! You get to pick your fiber, you pick your pattern, & we are giving away prizes! Just click on the Ravelry link above for all the info. :)

Sheep come in purple?

Just a quick fly-by post this evening.... I needle felted another sheepie tonight, and she's purple! :)
I wanted to see how durable one of these would be on a keychain, so she's on mine. We will see what happens.