Yes, These Can Be Used For Knitting

I've been looking for a way to organize my circular knitting needles for quite some time, and I finally found the perfect organizer. I didn't find it in my local yarn shop, but in a sporting goods store in the fishing department. Can you guess what it is? Yep, its a worm binder. You know the kind that fishermen use to store those plastic worms and lures.
It has 12 plastic zip lock pages that are attached by 3 rings. They are strong, see through, and are easy to open and close. I printed labels with the size of needles that are in each page so it makes it very easy to find the needles that I need.

It has two mesh pockets. One in the front and one in the back so I can store all my other small accessories like cable needles, crochet hooks, measuring tapes, stitch holder etc... Did I say how much I love this new tool. It is small and I can keep it with my knitting. No more having to run upstairs for different size needles or other tools. Yep, this is my new favorite knitting tool and it came from a sporting goods store.

Next new tool that I just love. This is a laundry spinner, but what it really comes in handy for is, after I wash fleeces or other fibers I simply put the newly washed fiber in a small pillow case and spin out all the water. The fiber comes out mostly dry and it take almost no time for it to finish drying. No more rolling fiber up in a towel to squeeze out the water.

The drain just goes into the sink and all the water that is spun out of the fiber goes right down the drain. Now, I don't only spin out fiber I also use it to spin out water from my hand knits and other delicate fiber article. Because there is no agitation there is no felting and everything comes out just wonderfully.

These two tools have really made things much quicker and easier, and that leaves me more time to do what I really enjoy doing with fiber.

Gary's Sweater??

When Gary started looking at the Dale of Norway sweaters, this is one that he kept going back to. It's called the Lake Louise 2001. I told him that it wouldn't be any more difficult than the one that I made for me, but that he better make sure it was one that he liked because, 1) the kits are expensive. $195.00 to be exact, and 2) there are a lot of knitting hours in one of these sweaters. I'm guessing well over 100
He was all set to order the sweater, and then we went to a Christmas party and one of our neighbors had this exact sweater on.
The sweater in really life was a bit of a disappointment because the white yarn was more of a cream and the black and red didn't pop like the picture.

I think he has lost interest in it now because I haven't heard him mention it, so until he sees my sweater again I think this project had been delayed until further notice.

Christmas Morning

After the presents were opened, Gary and I walked outside to see the presents that Mother Nature had left us. The weather has been a little different this year. We would get a good snow storm, and then it would warm up and rain. After the last little warm up it got quite cold and we had some wind. As the drippy snow began to freeze in the wind this was what was left on the trees for us to admire.




I think this was my favorite Christmas present this year. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well.

A Whole Summer In One Post

Okay, after looking over the pictures that I took over the summer and didn't post, it might take 2 posts to get caught up.

Here it goes.

Do you remember the little oxen calves from last summer? Well it's almost been one year latter, and look how they've grown. Gibbs and Booth are in their yoke and are being run through their paces.

Becky is helping Troy with the boys today. I think that Troy was trying to train both the oxen and Becky on the ins and outs of oxen driving.
Potty break. Hey everyone has to go sometime.
Now it's the other one's turn.
I really didn't mean to take the boys picture at such a private moment. In fact I didn't know they where "going" until I put the pictures in the blog. But they still look good, and so do Becky and Troy.

It's Finished!!!!

I finished it!!!

I finally pulled this sweater out of hibernation. I had finished knitting all the pieces last May, but by then I was so tired of the sweater that I had to bag it up and put it away. Besides, I knew that I won't be able to wear it for a few months anyway. My husband reminded me of it so, on Monday I pulled it out of time out and attached the sleeves and the zipper. Shazam, in two days I had a gorgeous sweater that fits great.


My husband was so struck with the sweater that he now wants one for himself. He has been studying the Allegro Yarn web site and I think he has made his decision.

Want a sneak peek????

Check tomorrow

Spinner's Retreat

Ahhhh retreat, this was just a wonderful week end up at Park City Utah. We meet in a small meadow with a grove of large trees, and just relax.
I am a member of the Wasatch Woolpack Hand Spinners Guild, and this is our once a year get away. As you can see we do a lot of spinning and visiting. It was heaven. The retreat started on Thursday, but I didn't get there until Friday night. There was about 50 women and a few husbands.

This is my bed, Cherly Stratton was kind enough to allow me to share her tent. It was a very roomy tent, I think she said it was a 10 man tent but for the two of us it was perfect. Yes I did bring an air mattress, and under the sleeping bag there are real sheets. I get to confined in a zipped up sleeping bag.
The outside of the tent.
It did rain on us a couple of times but we stayed dry inside our tent.

The restroom area.

Further back behind the potties in the trees is where everyone had their wheels and canopies set up.

The kitchen area.

What was really nice for me was that the meals were already planned out. I didn't have to pack any food except for some drinks. When I arrived at the meadow I was asked to sign up to help with one meal. That's it !! just help with one meal. After meals were finished everyone washed there own plate and utensils, placed them in a mesh bag, and hung it in the trees to dry. No stacks of dishes to wash.

When everyone had finished eating and cleaning up a bell rang, and that signaled "Prize Tent" time. Everyone lined up and as we walked by the prize tent we were handed a prize of some sort of fiber related gift. Of course we all contributed to the prize tent. I had many items that I had bought. It was a simple matter of cleaning out my stash. I had some things that I thought I would get right to but after 3 years if I hadn't spun it up then it needed to go. So into the prize tent they went.

A couple of our members dye roving and sell it. We always love it when they show up with new colors and fibers to spin. Yes I bought a lot to help support the cause.

I had a wonderful time. The only regret is that I didn't go up earlier. That won't happen next year. I plan on taking time off work and going first thing Thursday morning.

Busy Summer

I thought I would give you an update on some of the projects that I've been working on.

Here is the first one. I did a dye pot last week using Coriopsis flowers. The wool is even brighter than it looks in the picture. I was really surprised by how bright the color was just by using a natural dye plant and citric acid for a mordant.

I wanted to make a fabric that was a common home spun in the 1800's. This is what I came up with. It called Linsey Woolsey. The warp threads are 20/2 linen and the weft is my handspun wool. I dyed the wool as roving and there was variegation to the wool, so I decided to spin it as was and got a very pretty blue variegated thread. When this fabric is finished I hope to make a blouse out of it.
On the other loom I decided to use up some of the handspun wool from last year. So I put on a cotton warp and chose a weft faced pattern to make a shawl. The colors are hard to see in this picture so I'll just tell you that there is grey and then greens dyed from yarrow and dock. I have some yellows that will be added to the fabric as well. So far it seems to be working up fine.

This project in on my loom at home. I wanted to make some more dish towels and see if I could use up some odds and ends of other threads. I remembered this pattern when I took my weaving class so this was how I used it. I really like the pattern, it's any easy treadling, and I can use up my small amounts of warp. I plan on making more of these.

And now for the last of the big projects. About a month ago we had the sheep in the village sheared. I got a call from Lynn at Spinderella's and she let me know that my order was ready. This is Sam's wool all spun up and drying. (I needed to wash out the spinning oils) Bella and Lottie's wool looks much the same. I'm very happy with the results, and I can't wait to start knitting or weaving with these yarns.