I'm walkin in High Cotton...

Ok, not really walkin in high cotton but what I got in the mail today reminded me of that Alabama song. LOL
5 lbs of cotton! Isn't it awesome?! I know, you all are thinking I'm nuts. But I'm so excited about this box stuffed full of fluffy, right off the plant, white stuff. I got all this from Monica, check out her etsy shop, she has great stuff there, not just cotton. She actually spins silk thread!

Of course I had to play with one of those white fluffs. It's incredibly soft, and much longer staple length than I had expected. And there are just tons of seeds in there too! I plan on planting some & see what happens this Spring. I live in the perfect place to grow cotton... hot, dry, sandy soil, long growing season. I've had no success with vegetables, maybe cotton will be just the thing.

Why am I so excited about this cotton you ask? Well, when I first started spinning I had dreams of being able to spin some nice cotton yarn, & actually knit some washcloths & hand towels from my own handspun. I know, kind of silly, but that is one of the first things that I thought of when I started spinning. I love to knit cloths, to use & give as gifts. And how awesome would it be to actually knit them with my own handspun?!

I also got in a great shipment of fiber from The Sheep Shed Studio today. (Thanks to those who gave me money at Christmas!)

Looks like I'm gonna have to give in & learn how to dye fiber. I was just able to get so much more fiber for the $ by buying the white. Although I did get a bad of Carol's dye soppers, they are awesome! Here we come drum carder!

And now that I've bored you all to tears with my fiber addiction...  Look at what Nichole sent me!

One of her awesome bracelets that she knitted. Thanks so much Nichole, I love it! I plan on wearing it tomorrow. :)

And on the orifice hook front.... I now have Llama Orifice Hooks!

And in closing, I had a pleasant surprise when I cast on for a cowl the other day. The red handspun that I thought was sport weight actually turned out to be more of a fingering weight. I was very pleased about that. I actually spun thin enough to get a 2-ply fingering weight yarn! And the new cowl is turning out great. When I get further along I'll take a photo. :)

Hope everyone has a great week!!

Shop Update

I have new orifice hooks in my Etsy Shop! I sent Beth a "test hook", she said she liked it & it was good to go, that I should put some in my shop... so I've made some that match my stitch markers.

Black Sheep Orifice Hook

White Sheep Orifice Hook

Sweet Pea Orifice Hook

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Mine has started out okay, nothing real exciting, I'll take that as a good thing. We sent our Marine off to MO again today. It was sad seeing him go but we were so lucky to have him home for the holidays!
I have a few things to show you.... I'll start with the project that I finished right before Christmas that I didn't want to post here about because it might have been seen...

This is my Starr Kitty Jr., knit from the Knitted Kitty pattern.

I knitted this cute little kitty as a Christmas present for my Childhood BFF. We are all grown up now, but you’re never too old for a cute stuffed kitty! :)


I knitted her with some of my handspun yarn, which contains cream wool & Starr (my BFF’s kitty) fur. So she is a kitty made with kitty fur! This was a quick & fun little project.

This is the real Starr.... we took some super cute photos of Starr with Starr Jr. at Christmas, I'll share them once Beth gets them downloaded. :)

Next up, I finished knitting a Calorimetry, with more of the pink/purple handspun. This was a quick knit, I used size 6 needles though. If I had used size 8 it would have been huge. I'm pleased with it, but I don't know how good it is going to be about keeping my ears warm... tends to want to slide off of them. And that's what I wanted it for, I wear my hair up the majority of the time & it would be nice to have something to keep the ears warm.

Next.... check out this great little bag that I got from Beth. It's a great small project bag, with wonderful pockets on the outside, just right for all your little extras like stitch markers, tape measure, note pad, etc! Go check out her etsy shop, Blue Mountain Handcrafts, she has more great bags & tons of awesome yarn & fiber!!

And I got this wonderfully soft Targhee Merino fiber, Violets & Moonlight, from Beth too. The photo doesn't do it justice. I'm looking forward to getting this on the drum carder!

And I finished up some spinning.... This is Falkland roving from Spinning The Web. I only got 170 yards of navajo plied yarn, but I love the yarn.

I hope 2010 brings everyone good things & peace.... please keep Barbara, Coffee Yarn, & her family in your thoughts.. they are having a rough beginning to the year.

I'm Pooped!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Our's was nice but we're pooped now. After a nice peaceful Christmas Eve at home with the hubby & our Marine, we left at 8am Christmas morning, traveled to see friends & family who live 3.5 hours away. We finally returned home somewhere around 1am Saturday morning. Needless to say I spent most of Saturday snoozing on the sofa. Today hasn't been much more productive.

I won't bore you with photos of the new sheep jammies, underwear, socks, etc. that I got for Chrismas... but I will bore you with this great pillow that the hubby got me!

We have an extra bedroom where I store all of my yarn, fiber & craft items. But I don't like to do all of my crafts back there. I like to be in the same room with the hubby. I like to watch TV while I spin, knit & whatever. There isn't any more room in the living room for another chair for me to spin in, so I sit on the sofa to do it. Well, I have to sit on the edge of the sofa to reach the pedal for my wheel, which in turn promotes bad posture on my part, and ends up making my back hurt. My brilliant hubby solved that problem! He got me this great purple chair pillow for Christmas. It gives me something to lean back against while I spin, making it MUCH more comfortable! Now my back doesn't hurt while I spin, I can just keep going until my leg gets tired. :)

I also had this wonderful package from Kathy waiting on me when I got home from work on Christmas Eve.

I have been playing a little with the pretty wool she sent me, I've sent the blue & aqua green through the carder already! There was also some great smelling soap & a pretty knitted washcloth in there, oh and some peanut brittle which is already gone. Thanks so much Kathy!!! I love all of it! I can't wait to show you some batts. :)

Well, I'm off to find something to eat for lunch.... back to work tomorrow, it was a nice holiday but went by way too fast.....

All Spun Up!

My first drum carded batt is all spun up! I'm pleased with how it came out even if I do still need to work on my consistency. I ended up with 135 yards of approx. DK weight yarn.

I have another finished project but I can't show it to you yet. The intended recipient just might take a look at my blog & it would spoil the surprise. :)  If you want to see it though & are a member of Ravelry you can check it out in my finished projects.

If I don't get back here before Christmas, I hope everyone has a wonderful & safe holiday!!

It's snowing in Calabash!

Ok, not really snowing... but I did get a pretty snowflake in the mail from Grace.

And not too long ago Chan sent me a Salad Spinner for Christmas! Definately not to spin salad greens in, we all know how much I love to cook.... The salad spinner is for spinning wet yarn & fiber!

And I've used it several times, it's AWESOME! My handspun yarn only took about a day to finish drying & the fiber that I washed only took a few hours to finish drying after being spun. :) 
Thanks Chan! You always think of such great gifts. (Yours is in the mail!!! The hubby did most of it but I did help!)

Here are the latest 2 batts that came off the carder. Cinnamon Sugar, 100% wool with a tiny bit of gold sparkly in there.

I am just having way too much fun inbetween running around like a mad woman trying to get things in the mail, finish holiday shopping, cleaning the Marine's room (he'll be home tomorrow!!), fixing dinner, doing laundry, and actually working at my day job! :)

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Matching Set

Remember my Handspun Afternoon Hat?

I now have a matching set.

These cute fingerless mitts were made from Janelle Masters Susie's Reading Mitts pattern. I enjoyed knitting these. It was a quick & fun little project. I'd like to knit them again in a nice soft, solid color yarn.

I love my handpun mitts though, especially since they match my hat! And I have 156 yards of this yarn left, I might even get a small matching neck warmer out of it. :)

Early Presents!

I got an early Christmas present! A Fancy Kitty Kitten Drum Carder.  This fiber goody is awesome!

And here is the first batt that I made....

Here is the second one. It started out as bright yellow/orange, I overdyed it & ended up with these:

Then blended it together on the carder....

Now I need to get spinning. :)  I'm out of carding fiber anyway, unless I start tearing apart my prepared rovings. LOL

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Latest spinning

Here is my latest handspun… This started out as Angora bunny fur that I purchased at a fiber festival last year, it was blended into a mix of 50% alpaca, 33% angora, 17% milk fiber & a tiny bit of gold sparkles. Roo at Moonwood Farm blended the lovely fiber for me. It was about 3 oz of fiber & I got 197 yards of sport weight yarn.

I tried not to put too much twist in it, I was thinking that the less twist I get in there the softer it’ll be. I wasn’t disappointed. It’s incredibly soft!!!

And this is what I have on my wheel now.... This is Falkland wool that I purchased at Spinning The Web.

If you are a member of some of my Ravelry groups... sorry you are seeing this again! LOL

We also have confirmation that our Marine will be home for Christmas! That's the best Christmas present we could have gotten. :)

Hope everyone is haveing a good week!

Yarn!!

Look, I have yarn listed in my shop!  Ok, so it's not real yarn. They are little clay Mini Yarn Skeins.

I have a set of Soft Colors

And a set of Bold Colors

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! If you're not getting any snow like me, head on over to Kathy's blog, she posted a photo of her pretty snow....