Staying Busy

Before

Wow, I have been so busy. What with finishing my new "Studio" and knitting and spinning, I just can't find time for much else. I did get my sheep sheared finally. Had a pro come to our place and do it. He sheared 11 Sheep in 1 hour. That is 5.45 min per sheep. I couldn't believe it. I will have him do them every year. It took me 2 hours for one sheep at my fastest. It is such a bargain I hope I don't have to shear them myself again. Besides the bad "haircut" most of them had from my efforts. Now they all look like goats.

After

I have been working on socks and lots of hand warmers. Now that I have my room, I am working on some of my own fleeces. I have been dying some, then picking and carding. What fun. I love the whole process. Then I get to spin the wool and knit it too. Wow, I feel like a real artist sometimes. But still don't seem to be very good at picking colors.

My cousin was here from Oklahoma this last week. What a thrill to reconnect with her. She had lots of info about my Dad's family (her dad and mine were brothers) and I loved hearing the stories. I have longed for this conection for a long time. Wow, I found out my yarn addiction is heredity. My Dad's( youngest of 17 children) oldest sister Theresa was an avid knitter. Always knitting and surrounded by yarn. That just tickled me, because I always wondered about it. None of my Mom's family does anything like that. One of my maternal grandmother's sisters crocheted, but just once in a while. I have always been attracted to yarn in some way or another, even before I could crochet or anything.

I started out just having yarn and braiding it and making things out of it. Pretty bazar things really. Then I learned to crochet at age 25 and went crazy from there. At 40 I tried to teach myself to knit and was pretty frustrated. Someone told me about machine knitting and the rest is history. After 12 years of that I was introduced to spinning and I just got in deeper. Now I do nothing else and just hate the way life gets in the way of all things YARN. I am always happiest if I am surrounded by yarn and all fiber arts. And now I have a room for exactly that. I am a very happy camper indeed!!! More pictures to follow.

Spin on..................