I'm Spinning as Fast as I Can!

 

My sheep are sheared once a year, in mid-April. I only have 7 sheep, but yowza, they produce a lot of wool! I have this deal with myself that I need to sell, spin or somehow use the nearly 50 pounds of their fine fleece they produce annually by the time the next shearing rolls around. It's too expensive to use as mulch or insulation so I'm busy dying, drying and spinning it.

See how wooly they are?

 This is Mocha's wool, all laid out after shearing last year. I pull off the dirty belly wool, the dingleberries (NOT a type of edible berry! Urban Dictionary definition: a delinquent partial turd which grasps anal shrubery causing brownish crust to accumulate in ones boxers). Well my sheep don't wear boxers, but you get the picture!

I bundle it all up and send it off to be washed and carded at a mill in Michigan and it comes back all spiffy clean and dingleberry free.

 

I have piles of it.

Yesterday I dyed pounds and pounds of it and hung it on the fence to dry.

It was a typical March day, windy, gusty, blowy. The wool blew all over so I had to run around picking up bits and pieces. The birds will be happy to have insulation for their nests.

Ready to spin.

 I'm so over the zen of treadling a spinning wheel. I use an electric wheel to git er done.

On nice days, I spin outdoors.

 I fill bobbin after bobbin, then make it into a skein, soak the skein in water (with a bit of hair conditioner), spin it out, hang it up to block it (putting weight on it to pull it down so it takes out some of the twist).

 And after a year, it's ready to sell!

It still amazes me that these critters produce something so warm to wear. I really do enjoy the process, but there's many steps from the wool on their backs to the finished sweater on my back. Now back to that spinning!

A Whole Lotta Sunshine!

Last week I was lucky enough to spend some down time in St. John in the Carribean. I had scored two free airline tickets (after being bumped from a flight to Florida last year and they thought I was really nice about it, which I didn't think I was cuz I whined a bit). Some very good friends of ours invited Houston and I to spend a week at their condo in the Westin resort. How could we say no?!

The resort was beautiful of course, with plenty to do. 

Our friend's daughters, Marike and Sylvie had their hair braided in the island fashion.

Every Sunday the Crab Man shows up with his ginormous hermit crabs for the crab race.

The crabs climb over the 'wall' then over the 'hill's to reach the final hurdle for the win. The person who picked the winning crab gets a prize.

It was very exciting, but in slow motion.

Spending lunch by the beach, being served margaritas and delicious food, well, that was paradise.

But my favorite thing was snorkling. It's fun to just bob along the top of the water, with fins and a mask looking at colorful fish, coral, and the ocean floor. We took a 10-hour tour one of the days to Tortola, St. Gorda and some other small islands to snorkle, hike, swim and look out at the beautiful mountainous islands.

I'd never been on a beach that had such huge boulders. Absolutely beautiful.

(not my photo)

You could swim amongst the rocks, finding nooks and crannies to explore.

We had fun on the boat. I so enjoyed spending time with the kids, Marike, 10, Sylive, 6 and Theo, 7.

Years and years ago, KK, Scott, Houston and I played Ultimate Frisbee. We met at the University of Virginia on the field. We spent years traveling up and down the East coast competing in this fun sport.

We've remained friends with over 20 of the players, most who met their future husbands/wives on the field. Now 34 years later, we get to take a sun-filled holiday with Scott, KK and the kids.

It was a full time job keeping these very fair children from getting sun burned. Some lotion comes in bright colors so you can tell where you've put it and it also stays on longer. One of the colors was bright blue and Sylvie looked like a little Braveheart jumping into the pool.
The sad thing about sunscreen is that it helping in the demise of the coral reefs.

We got to wear these floaties while snorkling. I thought they looked like ripe bananas.

'Wild' Burros inhabit the islands, looking for a hand out.

 Love the colors of the Carribean!

The entire island is rock so many buildings are made of stone.

Smiles all around.

We had our fair share of fruity and rum drinks.

This is a perfect emotional look for how we felt on our very last day on the island.

Goodbye St. John, till next time.

Starter Egg

OK. Who which one of those girls laid this tiny little egg? I call it a trainer egg. I laughed when I walked into the hen house yesterday and found this tiny egg with the other eggstra large ones. They all looked up at me with the "Not me!" look.

I knew it wasn't the Arucaunas because they give me those beautiful 'spring sky with a few clouds in the morning' blue ones. And Rhoda the Rhode Island Red is just too mean to squirt out such a small one. So I'm guessing Mabel. But she's so cute I'll just forgive her this once. It did have a nice hard speckly shell though. And it made for a tasty breakfast. 

Something Sweet is Happening!

This Saturday is my Sweet Sale. Lots of bargains so hopefully if you live close enough, you can stop on by.  I've finally gotten around to putting this pattern together. A customer, Tiffany, designed this sweater awhile back. It's knit with my Loopy mohair boucle and Salsa yarns.

 It has a bit of 'nip' in the waist to give it some shape. One button works great.

The main body of the sweater is knit out of the Loopy in the Mermaid colorway and the trim is done in the Salsa yarn, Sorta Solid Burgundy color.

 I've been getting crafty lately and made dozens of these cut felt hair pins. Fun!

 I dye 100% wool felt, cut it into shapes, layer them on and top it off with a cute vintage button.

Introducing a new yarn, Skinny Jive. It's 100% wool, just like it's cousin, Jive, but thinner. This would work great for socks. It's sturdy and tough.

 I've dyed it up in most of my colorways and will eventually carry it in all my colors.

 The 'web' yarns continue to be a hot trend. This one has kid mohair in it and it's soft and luxurious. It's knit a bit differently than others I've done. Comes with a free pattern.

 All the Noro yarn is 30% off!!! This is oh-so-lovely Noro yarn and I'm just loving knitting with it. I have two new Noro books to inspire you too.

Hope you can make it to the shop this Saturday. If not, check back to the website in a couple weeks for sale yarns.