It’s Spring!!!

It’s Spring, and it is shaping up to be a delightful one.  This has been one long year and a half.  (Did we even have a spring last year? … with all that has gone on, it is sort of hard to remember.

Good things, great things have been happening lately.

Bill has recovered enough to return to work (2 weeks under his belt now), and is gradually making progress to full recovery.

Great things have been happening on my work front.  I am looking forward to seeing what happens next!!

And, I saved the big tease for last…  Here is what I am getting to buy/ work on lately.

Yes, yes, tis true.  I get to knit for a wee one.  I have been sitting on this news for a week, but did not want to go public with it until after our girl had been to the doctor and gotten the official confirmation and a due date.  (December 1)  So, now we have a baby to look forward to, and I have graduated from just another old knitter to a knitting grandma-to-be!!

AWOL, but not AWOY (absent without yarn)

Seems I have not blogged in a long time. Not only have I been AWOL from blogging, I also went AWOL immediately post Bill’s neck surgery. So, now what would induce me to leave my husband the day after he came home from the hospital (but never fear, my stepmother came down to sit with him for a week) and brave the 1 digit temperatures in North Carolina?

(You can see the cold, can’t you?)

Well, only one thing could have done that. Lest you think I was being mean, let me remind you that I had this event planned for 6 months, and Bill’s surgery only came up for discussion within the last month or so. He definitely did not want me to miss my class at Folk School.

The class was “Spinning Colorful Yarns” and was taught by fiber/spinning/weaving expert extraordinaire, Judith MacKenzie McCuin. If you look closely, you can spot her in the classroom.

I just knew, knew, knew she was the best ever teacher, but I was also delighted to discover just what a wonderful lady she is as well. And, oh, the stories she regaled us with!!

Here are the goodies she brought along for us to play with:

Color wheel of 80s merino for us to experiment with. We learned how to spin the perfect sock yarn.

This is really the first time I have actually enjoyed spinning merino.

Then, she brought all this other wonderful stuff to play with. A lot of it came from our friend Jennifer from Spirit Trail Fiberworks. Yum!!!

She also brought a mixture of Cotswold wool and wolf fur, which I enjoyed experimenting with immensely. Well, who would have thought I would enjoy spinning wolf? Who would have thought you could even spin with wolf? And who was brave enough to gather its fiber?

Another goodie was some of Judith’s hand dyed singles, with which I learned to make boucle yarn.

Those who know me well know I have always been stumped by novelty yarns.

Here are some practice yarns:

Boucles and knot yarns.

Novelty mohair slub yarns.

4 ply cabled yarn.

As well as 6 ply cabled yarn, which I love, love, love.

We carded crazy batts:

And spun crazy batts:

Dyed wool:

We also learned yarn control. Yay!!!

Judith was extremely generous with her time and quite patient with us. What a lovely time we all had.

I also had the very amazing opportunity to watch Lyle Wheeler make a chair, using only hand tools. No glue, no nails, no power tools. This is the man who made my great wheel and my spinning stool. I now have a greater appreciation for these treasures after seeing him work.

I ate well and met some awesome ladies in class!!

It all made up for the cold weather, as I left with a warm heart.

So, that’s my January in a nutshell. I hope you have had an interesting month as well.

Kureyon-esque weaving

I wove this little number using bulky handspun Jacob wool as the warp and a thick and thin single from space dyed roving.  Little did I know I would resemble Kureyon to the extent it did.  This is a gift that will be wrapped within an hour and delivered to a friend tomorrow.

And, because I’m loving the selvedges:

And “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” at the new “Old Homestead!!

Some Folks “Get It”

Found this while browsing the web this morning.  Quite weird pictures though.  How many shall I knit you for the holidays?

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  Ours will be low key.  Maybe watch a parade, then go out “somewhere” to eat.

No company expected, and we aren’t traveling to see family, well at least until Sunday when I drive to Atlanta for a meeting Monday.  I will stop off at my step mom’s for the night.

Busy Days, but Great!!

We have been blessed with COMPANY!!  Last weekend it was our DS and his darling wife.  Today, my stepmother comes to visit.  I’m making hay while the sun shines.  This is great fun!!

I finished my February Lady Sweater.  Love it, love it, love it!!  Good fit, classy, great color, just the right weight and the wool only cost me $10.00 total.  What’s not to love?

Edited to add video.  Albeit kind of fuzzy, here’s the kids on a kind of romantic ride on our antique tractor.

Llama – The Yarn and The Animal

This week I got llama:

Yarn – which is the first commercial 100% llama I have seen.

And a boy:

Meet Mini Hot Fudge Sundae, aka “Little Ricky”, a sweet and gentle 1 year old boy,  formerly of Windy Valley Llamas.  He seems to be settling in fine.  Our other two llamas are less than impressed.  Hopefully, he will grow on them, as he is slated to become herdsire when he is a bit older.

Here is what it is like to bring home a llama in a cargo van.  Actually, when he settled down, he did not give any trouble.  Notice (if you have the sound up), the bawling sound he made.  He did this every time we stopped.  This boy wanted out!!!

Days of Bliss

We took a few days in the mountains around the Georgia/North Carolina border.  Resting up, getting up in the morning whenever we feel like it, visiting quaint mountain towns, browsing log cabin furnishing stores and enjoying multi-color foliage.  We don’t get much in the way of leaf color change where we live.  That is about the only thing I miss from Tennessee.  The weather and leaves have been gorgeous:

A fitting scene for the season:

And a leisurely drive to visit the gift shop at John C. Campbell, where I bought 2 books on primitive rug hooking.

Small Agricultural Fairs

We live in an area that is not that keen on fairs.  Of course, most of the living around here is coastal rather than rural/agrarian.  Not that there is not a fair handy nearby.  There is a fair in Brunswick, but we went once and were not impressed.  It definitely is ALL about the midway and nothing else.  The home arts displays/contests leave much to be supplied.  So, when I found out there was a small, regional fair around 1 hour away, I decided we should give it a look-see.  We went last night.  Admittedly, it was very small, but we got to see goats, sheep, bunnies, chickens (included one who looked like Tina Turner, I kid you not!!), cows and horses.  We weren’t expecting much else, but they had a “farm” display section with representatives of all of the above, PLUS, a donkey and a very, very cute little male llama.  They didn’t have too many home arts (only 3 knitted items that I could see, which ALL won blue ribbons – eh, how could they not if they were different items… one was a pair of socks, another a sampler afghan and the last a cotton dishcloth-in the youth division).  All else was crocheted items.  However, I spotted 2 very impressive items – one a very detailed, very small gauge counted cross stitch of a small town scene, which took the sweepstakes and the other, some sort of woven rag rug – I couldn’t quite figure the technique, but it had tapestry like detailing in it.  Small though this fair was, it was enough to satisfy our urge to “go to the fair”.  We had a very nice time all in all.

We are getting a nice, soaking rain today which should be great for the additional sod we added to the sides and back of our house.

I’ve ordered a beginner primitive hooked rug kit and hope it will come today.  It will be a nice thing to tackle on a dark rainy day, don’t you think?

Long Time, No Post

For awhile there, everything was pretty routine and dull around here. Exciting, though, that we NOW can park our cars in the garage. That’s progress, thanks mostly to Bill, not me. Then, I got sick with the stuff that makes your ear stop up. That, in itself, did not make me feel bad, but loading up on antihistamines and decongestants to unstop it, did. So, I guess you think I have just been sitting around watching the grass grow, which it is, as you can see by this lovely green picture:

But, no, I have been busy with work, especially. I have managed to start some projects. I even finished one – some basic socks for Bill. More about my WIPS in a bit.

Can you tell llama farmers live at this house? By this?

Or this?

I like to sit out on my front porch and spin and look at this:

Look carefully in the lower right hand corner, and you can see part of Sugar. Sweet Pea’s out there in “the back 40″.

While sitting on the porch watching llamas and spinning, I came up with this:

I LOVE this roving, Northern Lights, by Louet in the Tropical Skittle colorway,

and purchased at Creative Yarns in Macon, GA. Did I tell you that this gem of a shop, arguably the best in Georgia, sits right in front of my husband’s company’s home office, and I did not even know it until about 2 years after it had opened? Where were my fiber feelers all that time, I wonder? I bought the handmade orifice hook there, as well.

Yes, I am knitting a February Lady Sweater, too. I am finding it to be a very pleasant knit and looking forward to being able to wear it, as you can see, I am not too far along with it.

All scrunched up on the needles, and not a great indication of how it looks. I am loving the one-row buttonhole she suggests one use.

O.K., that’s all for now folks. Have a great weekend!!

Whee… A New Lawn… Finally!!

What a relief to have grass and landscaping. Especially the grass. You cannot imagine (unless you are Sally or Elayne) what a muddy mess it has been around here.

Sod was delivered yesterday and laid today. (Fortunately, we did not have to do it. We were able to hire some folks to do this at a reasonable price! Which totally thrilled me to death. Our last house, we sodded our own. )

I think it is starting to look quite respectable around here now.

Here’s a close up – just because I can.

And, a close up of the front landscaping.  We are supposed to get some rain tonight.  I surely hope so!