a small sample before washing
the same small sample after washing
.
I can not even tell you how excited I am to have received this Polypay lamb fleece from a friend that I visit with every month. She and her husband have a farm where they raise corn and sheep (Polypay and Suffolk) the sheep are raised for meat rather than fiber. I asked her a couple of years ago if when they sheared if I could buy a lamb fleece from her. Not much more was said. When I went to Church this morning she had a tub with a Polypay lamb fleece in it and said she told her shearer to keep back a fleece for her friend and what it was for and he even skirted it. The shearer told her he would do the Polypay for spinning because it was a softer fleece. I am very grateful because the shearer takes the fleeces for his time and skill to shear her flock, since my friend and her husband don’t sell the fleece but they have to have the sheep sheared, it saves them the money of having to pay someone to shear for them so their Ewes can lamb and then again when they go to market. I am sooooo excited!!!!
I couldn’t keep my hands off of it after I got home. I had to take a small sample and bring inside to play with. I live in a small apt so I left the fleece in my trunk until I can either bring it in and scour it (when it’s warmer as it will need to dry outside) or find a small mill that will take a 2 lb fleece to make into roving. I have never started with a fresh fleece or carded my own before, the lamb is not quite a year old and the fiber is about 2 1/2 inches long. It has a bit of lanolin in it, which looks dirty but is quite soft. The lambs fleece is soft and I have a before and after picture above of the small sample I brought inside. When I put it in the hot soapy water to get the lanolin out (which it did rather quickly), I put my hand in the hot water to push it under and the second time I couldn’t see the small fiber in there and thought, oh my gosh what happened? It cleaned quickly and is so white I couldn’t see it against the bottom of the bathroom sink. Also it is as soft as a cloud in the water so I could hardly feel it in there. I was trying to be VERY careful so I didn’t felt it. You can see the crimpiness in the before picture and tho’ you can’t see the crimpiness in the after picture, as I play with it I can feel the elasticity in it. I will make her a scarf with some of it. Life is good :). I proimse to get a picture of the whole fleece sometime next week. :)
We also had more snow since the last picture I posted, about the same amount and then again on Friday, but not a lot. This next week is suppose to be a bit warmer than this last week and I’m excited about that because I am semi retiring. My last day at work is Tuesday 1/31. The rest of the week will be spent (after sleeping in :P), deep cleaning my apt, you know shampooing carpets etc. I know it’s not spring yet, but I still have the “spring is in the air” feeling :). A friend asked me what I would do with my time and all I could see was pictures of me at the spinning wheel and behind some knitting needles clacking along :). I do intend to spend some time doing Genealogy now that I will have some time to do that, I have a feeling that will be my new addiction. :P
Tags: Fiber, Genealogy, Spinning
.
Well, a new year has begun. I see a lot of changes in my life this year, hopefully for the better. I wish you all a wonderful new year filled with blessings, love and hope.
I am having to re-spin that first skein of yarn. While plying I had some major mishaps and with sadness I tossed that start of the skein out. Both of my spinning wheels were having issues with tension and I messed up when winding into a center pull ball and it ended up a tangled mess. I don’t mess up very often and was very sad to lose that week and 1/2 of work and fiber. Fortunately there is plenty of that fiber left. I put spinning aside for a bit while I worked on the problems with my spinning wheels, but I am getting ready to start the spinning again. Hopefully with better results this time.
Tags: Spinning
Spinning start of the teal Merino superwash
.
I’ve begun spinning the merino superwash. Merino is such a delight to spin, it’s soft and handles easily, even when dyed. I do tease it a bit (pull it gently until it slips in it’s roving form) to make sure it will come out of the roving easily as I spin. I’m striving for a baby weight, we will see how consistant I am with a near pound of this roving. I will be spinning on it everyday so the consistancy should be there, I have trouble when I let it sit a while before going back to it, :P. It should make a lovely shawl. I will post a picture when this skein is done, probably this week end. I love having a week of vacation :).
Kettle dyed superwash merino roving
.
Yes, it has been almost a month since my last post. My job has been very stressful (mortgage industry and with the lower mortgage rates it has been VERY busy) and overtime has been involved, I caught a very bad cold almost 3 weeks ago that went into bronchitis, the severe coughing has subsided but there is still some coughing and still an occational coughing spasm, and still some congestion, but at least I don’t have to sit up all night to sleep anymore. I have a long awaited for and much needed vacation starting Monday this week, so much rest will be the order of the day everyday this week :).
I got the dye I ordered to dye the merino superwash roving that I had on hand. It is for a friend who will be knitting the Daisy Rectangular Shawl I designed. She will be entering it in the state fair where she lives this coming year. I will post a picture of the skeins when I finish spinning, and I will post a picture of her shawl when she is finished knitting it, as she does not have a blog. :). Now, tho it’s a beautiful teal color on my screen (and exactly what I was hoping for), this denotes my lack of expertise in the picture taking arena - the roving did not turn out as teal as I had hoped, it is more green than the picture shows, but hopefully the color will be loved by my friend. If I had more experience with dying I could probably correct the color to what I had hoped for, but alas I do not have that expertise at this time. Maybe she can correct the color after she knits it.
I will be doing some cleaning tomorrow morning as my kitchen sink has a leak in the pipes underneath (I found it when I went to get the kettle out to dye the roving on Friday) and my landlord will be coming tomorrow morning to fix the pipe (the trap) and most of the stuff that was under my sink is now on my counter, some stuff I had to toss. Sigh.
3rd skein of cria for shawl
.
The 3rd skein is done and I’m about 1/2 way through knitting with it. I will have the shawl finished this week and blocked and ready to give by this next week end. ;) It’s been a pleasure spinning and knitting with this cria.
I have one more comfort shawl to knit and then my next project will be dying some superwash merino wool and spinning it. :)
.
.
.
Christmas Cactus already budding
.
I can not believe that my Christmas Cactus already has buds on it. It’s a bit early this year, tho everything has been a bit early preparing for winter. You wouldn’t know it with the wonderfully warm weather we have had this last week. Tho it shows it will cool back down next week. I’ll take the warm weather while it’s here because I know soon it will be all too cold, and snowy and icy. sigh
And yes, today is my birthday. I keep hoping it will go away each year, but it just comes anyway. Guess I’m just stuck having it every year, cos you can’t seem to sneak around it. :P.
General Conference was last week end and what a wonderfully uplifting week end it was. I love that peace that accompanies General Conference. I also had to have my car repaired last week end, the cv axle went out and I was fortunate that my daughter knew someone who could fix it for about 1/2 the price of a car place. It’s running well and I’m able to get around which is exactly what I need!!! I also have a 3 day week end which I am enjoying immensely!!Have a great week end all!!
2nd Skein Done
.
I got the 2nd skein of the cria done. I love spinning that, it is soooo soft!!! On the right is a picture of the size so far. I have just started the 2nd skein (which because of a problem when I was plying is a little less yardage than the first skein). I should have enough for a 3rd skein and I’m gonna need it, not sure how much the
yardage will be, I will just spin until the fiber is gone.
.
…
click picture for larger view
.
..
Here is an up close picture of the lace design. Instead of the way the Wisp shows in it’s pictures, I am just leaving it a retangular shawl that she can put around her shoulders. It will be very warm and soft. ;)
It has sure cooled down, but then I knew it was going to be an early winter, my ferret and bird did their molting and sheding thing in early August when it was still hot.
Tags: Fiber, lace, shawl, Spinning, Wisp
click picture for larger image
.
I’ve been working on comfort shawls this last year while starting this shawl languished, but I’ve finally got it started. I decided on the Wisp shawl because it’s light and airy looking. I’m not using the light weight yarn the pattern calls for tho, I’m using my hand spun which is about sport weight. I’m also making it a little wider so it will cover more to keep her warmer in church or keep the chill of the fall and winter nights away. I still have another skein or two to spin, part of one is on my wheel and I will try to finish it before I run out of the skein I am knitting from now because I knit during lunch at work for something to do. This cria is sooooo soft, it is a pleasure to spin and knit with. I’ll try to post another picture as I get more of it done. You’ll notice the ball of yarn is not in a pull skein, because I forgot to wind it into a pull skein and took the long skein to work and ended up having to wind it by hand on my desk, but I didn’t mind because it’s so soft and squishy ;).
3rd Comfort Shawl started
.
Yes, it’s the same picture because I finished it on my lunch hour at work and gave it to her so I didn’t get a finished picture, I know, I’m bad. She was so surprised and held it close and said, it’s so warm. I hope it will give her many days of warmth and comfort.
I’m starting another shawl, but this will be the one that I’m spinning the cria (baby alpaca) for a friend just because. I have one skein and a spool on the wheel that I need to spin more onto and then ply it so that will give me 2 skeins. I will need 3 maybe 4 skeins for this shawl. It’s one I’ve done before, the Wisp shawl. It’s light and very pretty. I think light and airy for the warmth of the alpaca would be good, because alpaca is very warm.
I’ve been so moody this week, and then it hit me why, today would have been my youngest son’s birthday. Happy Birthday son, I miss you.
I had to take Thor to the vet’s last week end. He’s having some bowel issues and they put him on anti-biotics and a steroid. She said if he’s better after the round of anti-biotics (the steroid is in the anti-biotic) then it was a helobactor infection and he should be fine, and that is my hope. If not and it comes back then it was an inflammation problem and the steroid was taking care it in the lower colon area, and she will try a different anti-biotic for the lower bowel and see if that takes care of it, and if not then she will have to do a biopsy to see what is going on. Poor Thor was not a happy camper about getting his temperature taken (he had a sore bottom) - this was his first trip to the vet and I don’t think he likes vets now :P. I’m glad I had a some savings, and it took it all. This is why I don’t recommend ferrets to those who do not like to spend money at the vet’s office as the ferrets get older, because you will. I have my own health check up’s coming soon and when all the free wellness checks that my health insurance takes care of for the year are done, I will be dropping my health insurance so that I can use the premiums I was paying for to take care of Thor. He comes first. Other than the free wellness checks (and they cover a lot of things), it was more of a catastrophic insurance plan, because it doesn’t pay for anything until I’ve spent $5,000 out of my own pocket, except for the wellness stuff.
Tags: ferrets, Knitting, Life, shawl, Spinning
.What a busy month this has been. Things are picking up at work and it has been pretty busy (tho’ my supervisor tells me it’s not that busy – I’ve seen the numbers and it has picked up, but yes it will get much busier :P). This week will be the busiest of the month and will only get busier as the summer comes. My weekends this month have been busy with church projects for service. I went to the Temple the first Saturday of this month (it’s a 2 1/2 to 3 hr drive), cleaned the chapel the next Saturday and yesterday our Relief Society did a service project and made baby blankets for the neonatal preemie unit at our local hospital and made thank you and birthday cards for the local meals on wheels program. Always feels good to do service, but makes the weekends go by way too fast :P. Next Saturday I have a dear friend that is coming to town to visit me and to see her daughter graduate from high school, that does not seem possible – only yesterday her daughter was this little girl getting ready for kindergarten.
There are some people who ride the bus in the mornings that have varying degrees of Down’s syndrome. They are going to their day hab programs or to the places that hire them to work a few hrs a day. I notice that when other people get on the bus they usually sit farther back. I don’t, I sit up front closer to them – I enjoy their playful light hearted chatter with each other and their friendliness. They always have a smile and a hello and it’s a refreshing distraction before the stressful duties of my job. I feel like they are the closest I will get to angels here on earth.
I continue to work on the comfort shawl, but have not had the time to work on it as much as I would like to, I was hoping to be done with it by now, but am just a little bit over 1/2 done. I’ll give my self another couple of weeks before I start fussing at myself. I do knit a few rows on the bus ride home and when I’m not to busy to take my lunch break, I knit then too, but that really is not nearly enough time to be spending on it. I’d really like to be spinning on that cria alpaca, however I can’t justify my spinning until I get closer to finished with the shawl. I’ll update my progress on the shawl next week, maybe setting a deadline will make me find the time to work on it. sigh.
PIF!!!! (click picture to enlarge)
.
I got home from work today and there was a box for me. WOOHOO! it was the PIF (pay it forward) from my knitting/spinning friend at LS Fiber Adventures.
Don’t you love getting unexpected packages? It came at a perfect time as this has been a hard week. I opened it up and there was all this loveliness! She knitted me the most beautiful lace scarf with beautiful shades of turquoise (my favorite color!) I’m sure she spun the yarn as well. It will be well loved! :) There is some beautiful Bluefaced Leicester roving to spin – I’ve never spun this kind of wool it will be a fun adventure and spinning hand painted multi color roving is way fun because you never know what you will end up with. There is a CD with gospel music that will be a wonderful addition to my Sunday music, I love hymns and gospel music ;). There was a fun pair of Easter socks (they will be very fun to wear!) There are two very cute journals, as a latter-day saint I do keep a journal, tho not as diligently as I should, this is a great reminder to keep up with it and when my present journal is full, these will take it’s place. And last but hardly least there is some very yummy eatable goodies – wonderfully delicious wafers rolled around a vanilla creme :) and Cadbury mini eggs. I feel like it’s Christmas!!!
Tags: Fiber, Knitting, Life, Spinning
3