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..................

A Homemade Zucchini Spindle - Spin-Off

A Homemade Zucchini Spindle - Spin-Off
This is the best. I love my Turkish spindle, but this is so
cool. Makes me look at vetables in a whole new way.

I can't stop laughing.

AN OTHER SURPRIZE JACKET!!

Elizabeth Zimmerman must be proud. Her lovely jacket is everywhere.

Amy made another surprise Jacket
She is dangerous. I have created amonster. Great Job!

These are two rugs that I finished. The Red blue one is

a Twined rug made of cotton fabric. Or a Rag Rug.


The other one is a woven roving

rug made of unspun wool. Both

are being used in my house.

This is Tess in her Surprise Jacket. It is orange her favorite color

but I'm sure it won't be her favorite jacket. I really had a good time

making it.

I am working on some yarn right now to make some hand warmers.

It is white morino and silk and very nice. I am also working on learning a new

way to knit two at a time. I need to take a picture of that too.

That's all for now.

The pictures of Cousin Donna with her Mom "Aunt Millie"

I tried to upload these to Facebook but it wouldn't do it.

Hope you like them. My Mom has the originals for you Donna.

Wow, it's been a long time!

This is the roving I spun into
yarn for Amy.

This is the yarn I finally got done.













This is the Surprise Jacket that Amy


knitted out of the yarn.

Wow, what a team! I'm so happy to see this project. We did good kiddo!

Hard couple of weeks.

It has been a long hard two weeks. I am finally starting to get back to the routine of my life. It has been hard. Jet lag always gets me down. We did ok, but I am still cold and dragging around here.
Today was a holiday so I didn't have class. I knitted on socks most of today. Got two more pair done for Lorraine and am still knitting the tops. It rained all day so a good day to stay home and knit.
Amy came last Thursday and went home Sunday. We had a good visit and got some knitting done. We took a ride up to Julian and took a look at Debra's shop. And of course we had some pie at "MOM'S" Yummy.
I still need to download my pictures from the trip. Maybe I will get to them tomorrow. Not much going on tomorrow so I should have time. It is hard to get started, I feel like I need a nap all day. The cold and the rain make me lazy!

Last full day in South Carolina!

Today is our last day. The kids went back to school and we are going down town Charleston to the Market. It is an awesome place. Lots of goodies for sale. I am going to bring back some of their spices. They have these wonderful blends for all kinds of cooking. Cajun, bar-b-que and roasted chicken etc. I promised my sil Tony I would bring him some.

I have been knitting and will take pictures to post when I get home.

We leave for Alabama in the morning and head back to San Diego on the 7th. I could stay here forever, but miss my stuff the most. I know I will miss all the kids, but summer is not that far away and they will come to my house then. The kids (grandkids) not my children. They work for a living and I know it is too expensive for them to come.

I am looking forward to the warm days in Ramona.

Later still