Yarntopia

Tour de Fleece kept me very busy this weekend.  I was able to finish a skein of Polwarth from Corgi Hill in Melon.

Polwarth Single

Two Ply – 220 yards.

 

I finished up some Painted Sheep  that’s been hanging around FAR too long.

Pomegranate Tea – forgot how many yards.  Navajo ply.

 

I have also been working on my cashmere merino and cashmere silk on the spindles.

Today in the mail I got TWO packages.  One of fiber and one of yarn!!!! It’s Christmas in July at my house.

Jacie being the awesome person that she is – is sending me care packages in West Virginia.  She sent me that lovely fiber from Greenwood Fiberworks – aptly named Blueberry Smoothie in honor of my quest for blueberries last week.  If you can’t eat them… spinning them is second best.

Boyfriend person sent me 9 skeins of wool.  This wool comes from the family of his best friend.  Boy gets points on knowing I like yarn and sending it to me.  Boy fails at being able to tell me ANYTHING about said sheep.  It’s a very rustic wool.  I believe it was mill spun, no idea of the breed.  It smells slightly of sheep – which brought out sir fatness from his sleeping place underneath the bed. 

Oh yes… blurry because fat cat was rolling around in it licking the yarn.  HAHAHA… it was hilarious. 

 

Kitty is drunk on yarn fumes…. oh rough life.

 

So… the family that the yarn came from – the sheep belonged to his best friend and her mom sold the sheep while she was deployed in Iraq… sounds like something my family would do.  But I digress – I think she would really appreciate something made from the last wool from said sheep.  If I did my math correct I have somewhere around 1200-1300 yards.   It needs a good soak with some conditioner to see if it will soften up, but I was thinking a hat/mitt set and then something else….anybody have ideas on patterns?

 

So overall it’s been yarntopia over here in West Virginia.

Read Full Post »

Two Tails Woodturning

Quote of the morning from the spindle maker “Your pimp hand is strong”

 

I know the good stuff when I see it… and this is the good stuff.

 

 

Jacie’s coworker Mark decided he was going to get into spindle making.   I applaud him for this, because one can never have too many high quality spindles around.  Can you believe this is only his second spindle EVER????

 

My spindle (which needs a name by the way) is blood wood and ebony.  Swoon.  It’s a good thing Jacie knows my tastes – because she is a perfect spindle.  She would have been a complete birthday surprise if I wasn’t so obnoxious about getting my own spindle.  Jacie, sorry I ruined the surprise – she’s still just as beautiful.

Right now I am spinning pygora from Tucker Woods Farm on it.  The combination of the spindle and the pygora – well it’s just fantastic.  I am in the process of buying a second ounce of the pygora because who doesn’t need a crazy amount of lace weight awesomeness.

 

So for all the spindlers out there – I highly recommend contacting Mark with Two Tails Woodturning  (mxracer23@hotmail.com) and getting your own custom made spindle or a premade spindle if he ever manages to have a stock. 

 

Some of the woods the whorls can be made out of Honduran Rosewood, Purple Heart, Zebra Wood, Lignum Vitae, East Indian Rosewood, Lignum Vitae, and Cocobolo. There was a tragic incident with the remaining Blood wood – so that’s on hold for the moment. Shaft woods can be East India Rosewood, Lignum Vitae, Black Palm, Macassar Ebony, Redheart, Hard Maple, and maybe Bloodwood.

Prices:

$25.00 for 2” or 3” whorl

$35.00 for anything with an ebony shaft

$40.00 for something with an ebony whorl

 

Also he has a pretty fantastic broken/fixing policy:
One time repair/replace policy, If it cracks or breaks or the hook falls out your dog chewed it. Get it back to me and I will fix or replace it once. If it get damaged a second time I be happy to talk to you about purchasing a replacement.

 

Yup the pimp hand is strong. 🙂

Read Full Post »

Definitely Top 3 Birthday

I was one of those kids that always had crap birthdays.  I didn’t have a ton of "friends” and the ones I did have I always felt were obligated to be my friends because of our parents.  So growing up birthday parties were always a dread.

Then I hit college where every year my birthday fell during exams – so all my friends were either studying for finals, taking finals, or leaving for summer vacation.  21st Birthday was spent taking the MCATS – wooo, it was only the most important test I’d ever taken in that point of my life.  Med school even managed to give me a few exams as birthday presents too – I’m looking at you neuro physiology exam.

Finally life decided to me nice to me, My 26th birthday was awesome – last day of med school and my best friend’s bachelorette weekend with all our friends in Tennessee.  27th birthday was spent on-call in the hospital – talk about fun.

After you know the being born part – because well that whole coming into existence thing should be in the top birthdays – this birthday ranks up there as best birthday ever.

Friday – Boy and I took the train down to NYC.  I am going to have to work on this traveling thing with him.  He really loves Connecticut and has irrational fears of trains/planes/or anything that takes you out of the state of Connecticut.  We had dinner before hand at the Delta Grill – a cajun southern restaurant on 9th Ave.  It was delicious and they had real key lime pie.  I love real key lime pie.  *Side note of information for you – Key Lim pie should always be yellow – never green.  I got to wear Nefertiti with a pink/black halter dress that I bought in Honduras. After managing to not get mugged (his words not mine – NYC is FAR safer than where I work) we saw Wicked.  Boy likes me a lot and got me orchestra level tickets.  I’m a lucky girl.   Wicked was AWESOME!!!! I highly recommend it if you like musicals and Broadway.  It lives up to the hype – which is rare.

Saturday am was spent walking around the city and playing skee ball at Dave and Busters.  Yes I am 10.  I love skee ball and acting like a child, it’s good for the soul.

Then we took the train back to Connecticut and met up with friends for the Allison and Jacie Birthday Extravaganza.  Jacie’s birthday was Thursday and mine was Sunday – so Saturday celebration was perfect.

We had dinner at Max Burger….. which is delicious.  There were fatty melts (grilled cheese burger grilled cheese deliciousness), adult milk shakes, sweet potato fries, and birthday cake for desert.

Boy had a knitting themed birthday cake made for me.  Did I mention I was a lucky girl?

It was delicious… chocolate cake, chocolate pudding layer, and chocolate icing.  White chocolate knitting needles.  It was SO delicious.

 

What?  Knitting with fondant and chocolate is hard.  Mostly because they melt in your hands.   

 

Jacie gave me my new Spindle from Two Tales Woodturning.

 

 

I also got some lovely fiber from The Painted Sheep, chocolate wine from Jenni, hand made jewelry from Tracy, chocolates and a ridiculously funny card from Jeff and Kristin.  We had an awesome dinner with awesome friends.

 

My mom is sending me the new lace addi clicks – Webs still has them on back order… but soon they will be mine.

 

Sunday I went up to Somerville to see Amanda – one of my best friends from college.  We caught up on life in general, had dinner and I brought her to the dark side of ravelry. hahahah.. Enabler I am.

 

Overall – pretty darn good birthday.

Read Full Post »

What slump?

I think I’ve hit a knitting slump since finishing Nefertiti.  I had plans and deadlines and I finished knitting before those deadlines – you should still be shocked and amazed at this.  Then I finished one 1/2 of the front of the Audrey Hepburn cardigan… and now I just don’t feel like knitting.

 

I’ve been working on Jeanie a few rows at a time.  I can only do k1,p1,k1,p1 for so long before I get twitchy.  I worked on it during Glee night at Jacie’s.  Tuesdays are quickly becoming a highlight of the week.  Knitting yarny goodness added in with delicious cooking and Glee.  Overall a fabulous way to spend an evening.

I did a little knitting on the doctor’s without borders sock at SnB last week – knitting in the round requires no brain effort at all which makes it the perfect SnB project.  We can get a little rowdy and that usually involves me making mistakes.  Maybe the knitting juju will come back soon… I am almost to half way on the finishing.

 

I did find a little spinning mojo last week.

Pretty singles from Spinner’s Hill.  I bought 8oz? Could have been 6… not exactly sure, at Rhinebeck 09.  It’s a red/orange/yellow transitional.  Right now I am spinning 4 singles – thinking I’ll make a chunky 4 ply.  If that looks like crap it will go back to being a 2 ply.  I’ve spun about 5/6th of the singles… just that little bit left of the 4th section waiting at home.  I really need to have more time in the day or less obligations (work, finding a job, etc.).  Hopefully it will get done in the next week or so… I doubt this weekend look at the upcoming schedule.

 

Busy weekend planned for the birthday celebrations:

Friday – Wicked in NYC with that boy person I date.

Saturday am – Playing in NYC with that boy person I date.

Saturday pm – Dinner at Max Burger with the crew for Jacie and Allison’s Birthday Extravaganza.  I am hungry already thinking about the deliciousness that will be had…fatty melt or miss daisy and some peanut brittle bacon ice cream… and maybe they will have crème brulee as a special again. 

Sunday – possibly playing at the Boston aquarium then dinner with my good friend Amanda from college.

 

I am already tired thinking about the craziness but at least those are all fun obligations.

 

Also today is Jacie’s birthday!!!! She is awesome and you should go tell her that.

Read Full Post »

Sneak peak

 

That would be Nefertiti.  I pinned it out for a few beauty shots.  Isn’t she lovely.  Still in chart 13 – only a day behind on the schedule.

 

I finsihed spinning up a True Blood batt from Corgi Hill Farm.  If you haven’t bought fiber from her … go do it now.  Not only is it lovely, but her favorite color is red.  Shipping is fast and her prices are always reasonable.  Jacie made me an addict – and because I am a dirty enabler I urge you to join us.

Oh shinny red merino/silk/firestar blend how I love you.  You will make something lovely one day. 

There’s about 374 yards of fingering weight yarn.  It’s not completely even, but it’s an improvement from my normal.  It’s also my favorite color and I am in love with it.  Now to just keep kitty from eating it.

Read Full Post »