Friends & Fiber

Sipping my coffee anxiously waiting to leave for a fiber festival. Chan will be there and although I've talked to Anita on the phone this will be my first meet-up with her.
I am so excited and can hardly wait.


I'll leave you with a small sample of finished knitting. An Annis from Knitty only in mini form. It only took a day to make this little baby and I love it. There will be more on the needles.









I'm off here now to have some fun and for the rest of my friends who couldn't make it, I'll be thinking of you. Maybe next year?

p.s. Mr. Bettis's attorney is hereby on notice just in case he can't behave. Since you can't be here to meet up with us Jessi, keep an ear out for a frantic BARK! ;)

Playing catch up

The rain mentioned in the previous post gave way to less humidity. Whew! I seriously thought I was going to melt. Poor Mr. B & Co. had the same sentiment.
Since lower humidity has arrived, I'm playing catch up on blog reading and posting.
An email pal was de-stashing fiber so she sent a box of fiber goodies my way.






A few of these samples are a new spinning experience for me and I can't wait to try them.
Finn and Llama as well as a nice bag of Romney.
Thank you, Beth for thinking of me in your de-stashing process.
I can't wait to spin these fluffy goodies.

p.s. My sock knitting mojo was on hiatus during the heat but has returned. Pictures coming soon.

Rendered Speechless

I have friends. Correction. I have some of the best friends in the whole wide world. So many of you have helped me through ongoing "stuff" throughout the years. Your emails, thoughtful gifts, phone calls and visits have brightened my days. I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.


Today I will concentrate on a special act of kindness. A few of you know it's been a rough year. On Tuesday I was counting my blessings and thinking of the people who entered and touched my life in some special way.
That afternoon the UPS truck dropped off a box. I hobbled and waved telling him that he had the wrong house. I knew I didn't order anything. He confirmed the address and plunked it on the porch.
I picked up the box wondering if one of the sons ordered something to be delivered here. You know? car parts or some such fiddle faddle.
I took the box inside and checked the addy once again. Yep! It was mine.

I carefully opened it thinking it was still a mistake and I would spend the next couple of hours on the phone/computer trying to correct it.





Lo and behold there were two cards addressed to me. I must admit at this point I was shaking which is totally out of character for me.


I opened the first card which was the silly dog in a pick-up. It was from the "Fur-Babies" with each name listed. I immediately recognized the names of beloved pets.
The next card choked me up. A beautiful hand-written note inside with the list of friends who wanted to send something special to lil ole me.






Carefully I removed the paper, uncertain what was inside. And this is what I found......an e-spinner! For the first time in my life, I was speechless. (Of which the oh-so-funny family couldn't believe I was speechless. Don't worry, it didn't last long ;).


The DD walked in to find me sitting with tears streaming down my face. At first she thought something was wrong until I said, "you won't believe what some friends of mine have done."
She grinned and I know the grin. I shrieked and started firing the questions, "You knew, you knew...how did you know...how did they pull this off....."

As many of you know it's been a year of trials. I've longed to spin at my wheel for solace but could only hope for a "good" day to tolerate the awkward treadling. I finally made peace with my spindles but that is a s-l-o-w process. The Vespera spinner is perfect.

I grabbed some wool and began to spin. I LOVE it! It is easy, comfortable and fast. It is well handcrafted, portable and I can't rave enough about it. Go here to check out the beautiful handcrafted products.
I want to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart. I have no idea how I'll ever repay the kindness...and there I go again...*sniff sniff*...please pass the Puffs.

THANK YOU, to the Fur-Babies, Anita, Chan, Gaylen, Jan, Jessi, Jul, Nichole and Shelly.

At the rate I'm spinning I could run out of fiber soon, so look-out fur animals......even Mr. Bettis isn't safe.....lol

It's a Date

Spinning has taken over my life.
This is a sport weight yarn with 375 yds.






This is Prom Date.
Considering I have a massive amount of fiber in my stash, I decided to drag out the carder and do some serious carding.
See the sparklies?









I couldn't wait to spin this one and I like the result.
A worsted weight with 150 yds.
I truly enjoyed spinning these batts.













The youngest DD has claimed this skein to be knit into something for her.
I'm caressing this one for awhile until I find the right pattern.

Any suggestions?

In the meantime, I'm carding and spinning like a fool.

A little late

Better late than never ;)

Knitting gods

The knitting gods have struck my knitting. Can't you just see them? I just know they're dressed in black and flying around with their sharp pointy sticks (no they're not needles, they just appear to be needles).
I have no idea why the struck. Maybe because I was a bit smug on gift knitting. I procrastinated and thought I was ahead of the game. Those little knitting gods with their dyes in hand (yes, I believe they also dye yarn) decided to strike my yarn.

This is what I get for purchasing yarn in increments. Yes, I know, I'm supposed to purchase all of the yarn at one time. But this yarn screams NO DYE LOT on it's little label. Well guess what? Apparently it does have a dye lot. The back of the sweater was finished. Grabbed the yarn last night and cast on for the front, held it up to the finished back and guess what? The knitting gods have struck the yarn! It doesn't match. I give up. Please dear knitting gods, I promise to never be smug again or to procrastinate on my gift knitting (well......after this year....maybe?)

Oh Happy Day!

June 23, 2007: This is a happy day.

This is the guy I married 23 yrs ago today. He's a great guy. Let me count the ways: He never says a word on the amount of yarn and fiber I have amassed over the years. He takes me to yarn, fabric and fiber shops anytime I want. He looks at packages that are delivered weekly and just shakes his head. He overlooks the massive amounts of UFOs in the living room and just chuckles everytime I clean and I think I have hidden them from view. He appreciates anything that I make him. And I have made him a few vests, socks and gloves over the years. (he even overlooked the complaining I did when I made him a vest out of fingering yarn. He is a rather large size so there were a LOT of stitches on that vest).

I, on the other hand have overlooked with a raised eyebrow the gifts of brooms, swiffer sweepers, dust pans, blenders etc that he graciously gave to me as gifts for anniversarys and birthdays. Today we're going to dinner for the first time in 23 yrs and to do a little shopping. Can I help it that shopping may include a yarn shop? Happy Anniversary, ice man! Why has it taken us 23 yrs to go to dinner on our anniversary? When we were married I already had two adorable sons. So a dinner out was at the local pizza parlor with the boys. On our second anniversary our DD was born so today is her birthday and she turned the big 21!