Yarn Update and They Are EVERYWHERE!!!

I knit the first hank of yarn that I showed off in my previous post......in the form of a scarf. The yarn reminds me very much of Noro style yarn....in looks that is!!

UNFORTUNATELY.....the yarn is so scratchy next to my skin there is no way I can wear it.....may just have to re-knit as a scarf for Henny Penny who lives in my kitchen!!! VERY disappointed!!

Note to Self: Know what you are buying BEFORE you buy!

I have spun the BFL that I bought from Elizabeth, two bobbins. I decided to go ahead and give plying a try but I used my 3rd bobbin to spin some other roving......so I don't have a bobbin to use for plying....I have ordered extra bobbins and they should be here by Wednesday.....but until then................

A Bella Update:

We are a rather small business here....Bella helps out with the accounting part of things from time to time.

Darn It...I hate it when the paper gets off track!!

...........after a long week of crunching numbers she likes to get away for awhile by herself and just contemplate................ "things".

But you know what they say:

When the cat is away.........

The MICE will PLAY!!!!!!!!!

I Make NO apologies for refusing to grow up...I LOVE Halloween and I am not ashamed to admit it!!! These little lovelies are at Michael's or "Monster's Craft Store" as Jessi's little girl calls it. Check out Jessi's September 25th post.

AND.......last but not least........head over here to read about Bibby's big announcement.....under the "Work of Art" post.

(Enabled another one)! Hee! Hee!

Check out Cindy's Blog Too!!!

From Roving To Yarn Cake....The Process

Please bear with me while I go on ad nauseum about my first yarn!!

I thought I had a picture of the roving pre spun but apparently I didn't make one so I bring you Bobbins-O-Yarn.

Next Comes The Niddy Noddy!!! (I just love saying Niddy Noddy......I don't know WHY)!!!! LOL!!

Then we have Yarn WASHING!!!!

Yarn Beating.....which unfortunately I do not have a picture of...use your imagination. I am sure it was quite humorous seeing me beat the "kinks" out of the yarn.... I felt strangly happy and rather peaceful after the beating of the yarn!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

Next comes Drying and setting the yarn!!! As you can see, this requires very specialized tools!! LOL!! (Specifically the bottle of Windex aka yarn weight)

And Last But Not Least.... my VERY First Hand Spun Yarn Cake!!!!!!

This is the first skein I processed and I really did beat it too much....it seems to be felted looking. The other two skeins were not beat as much and still hanging up, weighted as they had more kinks......so.....when not plying yarn apparently there is a fine line between beating the kinks into submission and felting!! LOL!!!

I will check the other two hanks and be sure there isn't too much twist....may have to re-soak and beat them into submission a bit more if they don't match up with this yarn well enough to knit with......

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy....I Made YARN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently all the excitement is too much for Bella......I'm OUTA here Crazy Lady!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spinning With Grace

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon with Grace....not that I have any pictures to PROVE this for a fact!!!

The funny thing about blog pictures......you won't actually GET any pictures unless you REMOVE the camera from your bag and MAKE pictures.......which in my excitement I totally forgot about.!!!

So use your imagination....in no particular order:

Spinning Wheel and all her lovely accessories
Yarn Stash
House tour with plans for future knitting/stash area
Mr. Sugar Ray
Cute New Hubby
Meeting the Boy Child...(who is WAY too cute and will have many Dad's of Daughters nervous when dating season starts).
Spinning with Grace and getting a demo of how to ply yarn....which I am no longer intimidated by!!

There.....got a picture in your head now?????

I got SOO many great tips from Grace!!!!! It is absolutely amazing to me the difference it makes to have someone explain while showing you how to do something rather than trying to get it all from a book.

I had a GREAT afternoon.....got some GREAT tips and I plan to spend tonight and tomorrow working on my "homework".....hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have some improvement in my spinnign skills to show off!!!!


Update Sunday 23rd:















The second bobbin is what I spun after meeting with Grace.....still not consistent with size....but I know that will come with time and practice. BUT....I am tickled that if you look at the bobbin on the top it is all pretty big.....the bobbin on the bottom does have a lot of thinner yarn....joining new roving is where I have the biggest problem with yarn "blobs".....overall I am tickled because I can see such a difference in the yarn!!!! And the tips on how to separate the roving was a big help too!!!!

Baa Baa Black Sheep Have You Any Wool????

Yes Sir, Yes Sir, THREE Bobbins FULL!!!!



Now comes the FUN part.....according to Elizabeth I have a few more steps before I start knitting. Seems I have to soak the yarn and then "whack it".....now I'm not sure if I should be concerned or not but for some reason whacking the crap out of skeins of wet yarn appeals to me!!! LOL!!! Major Stress Buster???? LOL!!!



This is some pencil roving that I bought in Huntsville to be used with a drop spindle. I wasn't able to get the hang of the drop spindle and decided to put it aside until I could get some help. I completely forgot about this until I was "digging" for something else and came across it!! Don't you just love when you find things you forgot you had??? Once I get this off the bobbins I can move on.............



To Spinning THIS!!!!!! Blue Faced Leicester roving!!! This is SOOOOO soft!!! Hand dyed by Elizabeth herself!!! I can't WAIT to get this spun!!!!!!

Decorating With Yarn

My VERY FIRST YARN !!!

I jokingly (?) told Beth that if I was able to actually learn to spin some yarn I was going to put it on display for all the world to see!!

Well......here you go Beth!!!

Beth knew that this particular roving would be so much easier to learn to spin with and was so kind to share it with me!! I am so tickled that I was able to spin yarn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you SOOO much!!!!!!!!!

I now have an empty bobbin on the wheel and plan to try to spin some of the roving that I bought from Elizabeth!!

Jessi and I plan to get together tomorrow (I need a bit of a refresher getting started on my spinning).....and I hope to have more to show in a few days!!!!!

ALSO.....I have added a countdown to SAFF on my sidebar. If you are going to SAFF I would LOVE to meet up with you while there!!!

Bibby and I went to the Birmingham Artwalk this morning to see Elizabeth who was one of the featured artists showcasing her spinning skills!!




Elizabeth did a FANTASTIC job demonstrating her spinning skills (and just WHY were you nervous??).........on her BEAUTIFUL wheel and was gracious enough to let us "newbies" give it a try!!


Wow....she makes it look SOOO easy and Elizabeth's yarn is just gorgeous!!!!! (Sorry, I didn't get pics of the roving or the different raw fibers/yarn/knitted items she brought).

After I butchered some of her lovely roving trying to spin on her wheel, Elizabeth gave us a drop spindle demonstration using the "park it" method. I haven't seen this method but it looks considerably easier than the method I had tried in the past and I think will be much easier to learn.....UGH......too many hobbies.....not enough time!! LOL!!!







Elizabeth's wheel is a Majacraft Rose and OH MY....treadling was smooth as silk. I had no idea another wheel would feel different from mine....but you can tell the quality of this wheel is incredible!!















AND..............................








I got to meet Grace!! (Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!)

We have been emailing each other for a long time and I was SOOO excited to finally get to meet her in person!!! Just as sweet as she came across in her emails!!

Both Elizabeth and Grace are always so quick to share tips and offer help.....just both phenomenal gals!!!!! I am ready for SAFF and looking forward to spending time with everyone!!!!! UGH........(I forget how old I am till I see pics like this one!!)

.....speaking of pics I failed to get a picture of Bibby.....well, a picture of Bibby with her head.....if you look at the first picture, that would be Miss Bibby sitting on the table!! Sorry Bibby....I'll try to do better next time! LOL!!!


We also met Debbie Scott (again, bad blogger, no pictures). I enjoyed talking with Debbie and look forward to seeing her at a Guild meeting in the near future! Debbie mentioned the possibility of all of us ladies getting together for a "mini-spin" together.....sounds like fun to me!!


I left with 2 hanks of hand dyed roving that Elizabeth brought and I am going to work on my spinning skills. Bibby left with "spinning fever"...........I'm betting it won't be too long before she has a wheel!!

A great way to spend the day....meeting up with fellow bloggers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You've Got YARN!!!!

First A Couple of VERY big Thank-yous!!!

Awhile back I found "The Funny Farm" Blog and met Beth who has the very same Kiwi spinning wheel that I have! Beth graciously offered to send me some roving that she felt would be best to learn how to spin with.....and MAN....was she RIGHT!!! I had some other roving that came with my wheel that I had not been able to spin, very, very silky roving....which I am sure will be wonderful.....one of these days when I am experienced.....but to start out on???? NO WAY!!!! AND.....the color roving is in beautiful fall colors....only my most FAVORITE of colors!!!! Isn't it pretty?????

My NEXT Big Thank you goes out to Jessi for offering to come to my house and show me how to spin!!!! (Elizabeth at Trailing Yarn also offered to teach me but I had not been able to come up with a free Saturday).

Today was the first day of Mother's Day out for Jessi's daughter and I can only imagine how difficult it was to leave such a little one, then have to keep a date to teach me to spin!!

We spent several hours talking a mile-a-minute....barely taking a breath (O.K. so maybe I talked her ear's off)!! LOL!!!

We had SUCH a great time......like two old friends that have been getting together for years....(even though I AM old enough to be her mother LOL!!)!!! We have so much in common and I am so tickled to have such a wonderful new friend!!! Plans are in the works to get together again soon!!!

What a great teacher Jessi is.......she had me spinning in MINUTES...... what I felt like was pretty darn good, THIN yarn........pretty proud of myself.........and then she left...........and I smugly thought I would spin a bobbin full to show my husband..........and I think I need a refresher because my lovely thin yarn (shown on the right side of the bobbin) somehow ended up being large globs of yarn!! (Oh Darn....guess we'll just have to get together again!) LOL!!!

Both Beth and Jessi have an Etsy shop!

Beth's shop is here

Jessi's shop is here

I bought a skein of Beth's yarn (portion of proceeds benefits research for Ovarian Cancer) and will post when it arrives, I also bought a skein of Jessi's yarn which is pictured below......LOVE it!!!! I also got stitch markers which I wasn't able to get a decent pic of them so I'll try again later!!

Thank you to BOTH you ladies!!!!!!

I could not have done it without you BOTH!!!!!!

Buy Yarn....Donate to a Worthy Cause!!

If you would like to donate to a very worthy cause and get some great sock yarn in the process, check out this Etsy shop! http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5000528

Beth from The Funny Farm has for sale some great sock yarn that she dyed. A portion of the proceeds go to the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition in Honor and Memory of her mother who passed away 2 years ago from Ovarian Cancer.

This is a pic of a sock that Beth made with the yarn.

GO BUY SOME.....it's for a wonderful cause!!!

Surprise!!!!!!!!!

WOW....Where to Begin??

I was visiting Christy's Blog, Confessions of a Misplaced Southern Belle the other day and saw a VERY CUTE Padfolio and Sock bag that Christy made herself!!! The best part was the fabric!! Dick and Jane fabric.....TOOO CUTE!!!

Now, if anyone doesn't know who Dick and Jane is.....well, bless your heart!!! Dick and Jane Books are the sweetest little books written in the early 1940's !! In the era when women stayed home and cared for the children and wore frilly aprons and high heels all day, little girls wore dresses and curls ALL the time!!

I received an EM telling me to check my mailbox and found THIS!!!!

Christy, I am sorry I didn't take the time to smooth out the shipping wrinkles....I was so anxious to show you the bag alongside the book!!

I LOVE the fact that you put a vintage leather button for the closure...just a perfect choice!!

I was truly moved to tears at your thoughtfulness!!! Dick and Jane has a special place in my heart!! My grandmother was a first grade teacher for many years and she used the Dick and Jane books to teach reading. This book is for the 1946-47 school year. I spent many a day at my Grandmother's house reading these books and playing "school teacher"!!

Here is a pic from the inside of one of the Dick and Jane books.

Aren't they the sweetest pictures??

AND....if the bag wasn't enough, Christy included a skein of the most BEAUTIFUL Fleece Artist yarn!!!!

The lighting is bad and this picture doesn't do the colors justice.....believe me....the colors are AWESOME and perfect for Fall!!!



A simple Thank you just doesn't seem adequate to thank you Christy for such a touching gift!!!!

My sister jokingly told me she thought that knitters were in some secret cult of "niceness, caring and bringing happiness to the world"......she may be right!!!!

It is so wonderful to know that there are people in the world that we may have only a glimpse of their lives (and ours) through blogs that they are willing to share themselves and their talents with others in the most kindest and thoughtful of ways!!!

I appreciate very much the time and effort that went into making this bag and I will think of you every time I pull out to work on a sock!!!!!!

Many, many thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!