A Quote

No pictures today, just a simple quote that was something I really needed to hear sent to me by a friend I have never met;)

'May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.'

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did:)

In the mail today....

When I finally got around to opening the front door today. And, yes, I did say finally. See that is one of the little perks of working from home. I hang in my PJ's until I feel darn good and ready to do something outside of the house in what has lately been blistering heat. Can you really blame me?

Anyhow, I opened the door to a lovely box full of the prettiest clouds of pulled fleece imaginable from Farmgirl Chic. I found her through the PhatFiber box on Etsy. The box contains a whole bunch of samples and Farmgirl just happened to have contributed to this months box.

I was so impressed with how neatly packaged the clouds from Farmgirl were that I felt the need to give her a shout out. Included in my box were not only the lovely 4 ounces of cloud, but a lovely stitch marker in one of my favorite colors pink and samples of other hand dyed fleece. Of course you can see for yourself how wonderful it was.


The box opened.

Lovely hand dyed lemons and oranges.

The Coup de Grâce

I know by now you all must be thinking.... 'She sells fuzz, why is she buying it from someone else?' My answer to this is simply that yes, I do sell fuzz, but the world would be so bland and boring if all I spun was my own fuzz. That and I'm an impulse buyer....lol

POP - UPS

It was kind of not really funny and extremely aggravating. A little bit ago I noticed that I had pop ups on this blog and quite frankly it has ticking me off to no end. Mainly because I do not benefit from the adverts. And secondly I couldn't find where they were coming from. I first checked all my widgets to make sure the links were going where they were suppose to and then I went the the blog code only to find absolutely nothing. Which of course made me a little more angry.

Well, I am hoping this morning to have found the culprit. For years I used the Edit Html when posting to the blog and just recently have started using the 'Compose' function as it was nice having a general idea of what my posts would look like once finished. There was an AH-HA moment when I found a few odd looking bits of Html when checking the posts under 'Edit Html' function. Quickly deleted these little buggers and I think we are hopefully Pop-Up Free:) Guess it is now back to the writing of the code box as opposed to the pretty 'see most of what you get before you post'. Oh, well, I guess we can't always have everything we want..... Well, that is with out a wee bit of effort!

Black Berries a Cometh

Last week was the week of the black berry! I spent about 3 days at a friends black berry patch and picked around 5 gallons of berries to give away to friends who could not pick them for a variety of reasons. Think I will try to go back out this afternoon to get a few more;)

New Yarn - Helen - Merino Lace Weight

I always like opening a bag of new little tricks. This new yarn is 900 yards of deliciously squishy merino goodness per skein. Available in my shop: http://Lunabudknits.etsy.com

With 4500 yards per pound Helen is a true lace yarn, making it suitable for super light lace shawls, lace projects and extra fine knits. You might be wondering about the name, Helen. To make a long story short, which is by the way very hard for me to do:).... many moons ago, in my younger and wilder years while visiting the local pub, my friend and I happened to be sitting by a lovely angelic Irish gal. She appeared to be alone, so we struck up a conversation. I have met many fine people that way. Anyhow, after several rounds of drink we were fast friends after that night and managed to stir up a bit of trouble every where we went. We are both married ladies now and don't stir up quite as much trouble as we use to, but we do remain fast friends to this day. The yarn very much so reminds me of my friend because it is not just thin, but lovely and refined as well.

Warm Teal

Mossy Oak

Pumpkin

Carnelian

Amethyst

Tutorial - Attaching Yarn to a Leader

I had a request recently about attaching yarn to a leader, so decided to put together a quick tutorial. This will work for both spinning wheels and spindles.

Step 1. Tie a loop at the end of the leader.

Step 2.Draft your fiber and insert through the loop.

Step 3. Fold fiber onto itself.

Step 4. Spin.

Tour de Fleece Project #5 & #6

I have two Tour de Fleece projects to report for this post. I certainly hope it makes up for a few days of non-sharing;)

Project #5 was spun as a thicker single graduating through the rainbow's color scheme. I know, I originally planned to spin two bobbins of singles and ply them together, but you know me, I'm an instant gratification girl! After going through the first rainbow graduation, I decided to continue spinning on the same bobbin and reverse the colors. Then I wound the single off using a center pull ball winder and plied both the beginning and the end together. I have heard some folks say this method will leave you with skewed yarn, but I have never once had this happen to my finished yarns.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot.... I did something else a little different too..... I spun the single 's' or counter clockwise and plied 'z' or clockwise. Yeah, I know, big no-no in most books, but I am very happy w/ how the yarn turned out. The project it is slated for is a felting one, so I seriously doubt that will matter! Final yardage is 222 and weight is 186 grams or 6.5 ounces.

On to project #6 in the Tour de Fleece challenge. Remember those poppy petals I made the other day? Well, I put them to good use with this yarn! I started with one of my Demented Batts at my shop. This one is full of luscious hand dyed Tunis lamb, merino, mohair and silk noils. It was topped off with a healthy portion of glitz, hemp, sari silk, milk fiber and a smidgen of firestar. Each flower was put together using the yellow circled I made the other day and several other pre-made fabric rose petals. The flowers were spun in as I was core spinning the base yarn. Total yardage is 56. Weight is 88 grams or 3.1 ounces.

Garden Updates 7-14-10

I'm always happy when I find unexpected visitors in my garden. Today a lumpy bumpy fellow jumped out while I was pulling out the two banes of my existence, prickers and dandilions. Bufo Americanus or the 'American Toad'. I just LOVE these little guys as they eat all sorts of unwanted bugs that eat my plants or suck my blood!

In the center is both types of weeds. Left with darker leaves is dandylions and right with lighter leaves is pricker bush.

I've been trying to get this pricker out of the ground for a few days now. Luckily it rained yesterday and it pulled out nice and clean!

Pretty in Pink Geraniums;)

One lone Marigold flower next to the sedum.

Yesterday I played in the color pots and should have shop updates in a few days.

Tour de Fleece Project #5

Rainy, rainy day in Central Kentucky today. I have been a tad under inspired as of late so have decided to spin some merino top into graduated rainbow colors. Once I have two bobbins full, I plan to ply both together for a big ol' rainbow surprise;) I figure that will give me a good kick start into spinning more alpaca!

Sunday Bloopers

Well, in all honesty they really aren't bloopers. I just thought the title sounded cute;) Sunday was a day of semi-organization and gardening.

Our neighbors are re-landscaping their yard and this pretty much consists of ripping out every single flower. I got some day lilies and iris's which are now planted along the back fence. The blooms have promptly died off, but that's OK they should be gorgeous next year;) Our tomato plants are officially taller than me and full of green tomatoes with the exception of the black cherry tomato which produces 3-6 little cherries faithfully every week. I'm sure it would produce way more except I decided to plant it in a pot as the tomato bed was running out of room. Planted another little red cherry from some seeds that bill sprouted a few weeks ago. Not to worried about it being late in the season as cherries grow like weeds!

I also created flowers of a different sort using a polyester satin. I'm sure you know that when heat is applied to polyester it melts and normally not in a pretty way. That is the main reason why I avoid wearing polyester. But, when the melt is controlled in a well ventilated area, you can make the prettiest of poppies.

Finally, I organized my spin-ins basket. It is full of tulle, ribbons, beads, flowers, flower petals, fabric strips, fun fur, eyelash yarn, pom-poms and a few other fun bits that escape my mind right now. Had to re-organize because I made a trip to Hobby Lobby and got way more fun stuff than a girl actually needs. You can see examples of what I do with fun stuff in my previous posts about the Tour de Fleece Projects 2 & 3.

Happy Birthday Mr Bill

OK, so it is not quite Bill's birthday yet.... I thought it would be a great idea to surprise Bill this year with something he would never in a million years guess he was getting. See, Bill has a rather large collection of RC airplanes that he loves to fly and I thought why not let him fly the real mcCoy for a change.

That and I thought he needed a little something special this year as Bill has a tumor on his pituitary gland which is located right between the eyes and brain. We have known about the tumor since this spring when he hurt his neck and had an MRI which showed an enlarged pituitary gland. On the second MRI they measured it to see the size and the third MRI showed that it had grown a bit since late April. We are very lucky that the tumor was found prior to actual symptoms appearing (think Andre the giant symptoms), vision loss or raging hormones. Surgery is scheduled for August.

Anyhow, enough of the drama and on w/ the pictures.

Prior to boarding the plane.

Contact...

Checking instruments.

Video of the plane taking off....

Getting off the plane...

Goofing off.

Happy Bill.

Tour de Fleece Project #4

Here is project # 4 in the Tour de Fleece.....

Hand dyed and Kentucky grown BFL cross locks which were corespun. After dying the locks, I then slightly picked each one open and spun them as is. The result is a sinfully scrumptious bite of heaven that is face squishy goodness.

Clockwise from top left: Finished yarn, yarn on bobbin, dyed fleece & picked fleece.

Happy Birthday Granny!

Today was my little Granny's 89th birthday! Mom & Dad are out of town, but we still managed a little celebration;) We had a delicious lunch at Cracker Barrel which ended in a happy birthday song and cake.

Granny really, REALLY likes her cake!

Next to Granny is one of her oldest friends Jean who read Granny's cards to her.

Happy Birthday Granny!!!

Tour de Fleece Project #3

I am very much so enjoying the challenge and opportunity the Tour de Fleece gives me to be creative every day

Project #3 for Tour de Fleece on Ravelry......

Corespun Merino, Sari Silk, Firestar, eyelash, Handmade Flowers, Tulle, Fabric and a few other fun bits;) Spun thick and thin with fabulously sparkly slubs and a multitude of ribbon flowers.

Yards: 50

Weight: 82 grams 2.89 ounces

Tour de Fleece Project #2

Corespun Merino, firestar, glitz, hemp, sari silk, silk noil and mohair with fun bits of tulle, fabric, flowers, and eyelash yarn.

Yardage: 82

Weight: 82 grams / 2.9 ounces

Worsted to Aran weight yarn that was spun thick and thin with fun slubs. Plus with the add ins I don't think WPI would be accurate;)

The Kitties....

Just realized that I have not posted about the Kitty Cats as of late. Here they are in all their furry fineness.

Miss Kitty on the back deck.

Little Kitty supervising my knitting. He doesn't even remotely look like the cute little fur ball we picked up on the side of the road two years ago does he;) Or the little lost kitty he was last winter after being chased away by a dog.

Miss Kitty speaks.

Tour de Fleece

Well, I've finished my first skein for the Tour de Fleece. I have to be honest here I'm not really watching the race on the telly....lol But it is great to have a bit of encouragement handy to get my idle fingers in the groove of some mighty fine spinning time.

Fiber is Merino, Alpaca and Silk Top which was spun thick and thin with the thick sections only in certain sections of the black. This top was originally listing the shop under the colorway 'White Stripe' named after the band of the same name. Anyhow, I had it for a while and thought I might as well spin it up to show folks what they are missing out on;)

After spinning the single, I wound it off on the ball winder and plied it back on itself while leaving coils and hives in my wake. Total yardage 160.

The fiber.

The Singles.

The almost finished yarn.

Off the bobbin and ready to wash.

2010 Garden

Did not have much time for gardening this year except to put out a few of our favorites!

Tomatoes for this year are Stripey, German Johnson, Brandywine and mystery tomato seeds that sprouted from last year. They were put out mid-May and are already 5' tall;)

Peppers have only been in the ground about 4 weeks, but so far so good!

A little visitor we always enjoy seeing.

A larger visitor is welcome too!

Put out blueberries this year as well. There probably will not be a huge yield this year, but next years little bush crop will probably be much better!