New Beginnings

This is my new home. My grandfather passed away in April and I was given the opporturnity to purchase his home.. It is a quante little house with almost 2 acres of land. I have only one neighbor and lots of wildlife that comes to visit. Lots of work have taken place and hopefully this weekend I will be moving in. All of my stuff has been there for a month.

My other news is that I have become engaged to a wonderful man. We have been working diligently on the house. Next year he will be joining me in our new home. It has been exciting, exhausting and statisfying. Needless to say spinning and knitting have pretty much been placed on hold just not enough time in the day.
I will keep you updated on the progress.

Where did summer go?

Vacationing in souther Maine was part of my summer. My dd and I went for a few days the beginning of August. It was a beautiful week, was warm and sunny the whole time.
Just something about the ocean that just soothes the soul and rejuvinates the body. The smell of the ocean and the sound of the waves is almost as relaxing as a bubble bath.

Nubble light in York Beach.

2wks of work then back to the ocean. BF and I went to Pine Point for a week.

Have been busy with swaps. Knitting for them. Have gotten some fun and beautiful items in the swaps. Working on getting my read swap together now. I hope that my swappie enjoys it.

I have also been doing some spinning as well. Finally finished up the yellow and green with alittle bit of pink. Then spun up the merino tencil " Jack in the pulpit" color way. It is now plyed as well, just sitting on the bobbin waiting to be made into a skein.

Melissa was here tonight and we did some spinning. I started to spin a merino bamboo blend.

Next weekend it is the first annual Southern Adirondack fiber festival. Very excited to have one so close to my home, like 10 mins. Then of course is the mecca of fiber festivals Rhinebeck.

Formulating my list of wants and needs or should I say my lusts and desires.

Great way to spend a rainy day!!

Say hi to our newest family member. This is Lily, she about 9 wks old. She loves to lie on my laptop while I am working. Have to say that I forgot how crazy kittens can be. She is alot of fun that is for sure.

I decided last week that I needed some retail therapy. So I did some shopping on Etsy. See what I found.


This is merino\bamboo from Sugarbees Politically incorrect collection
This is Starter Wives Lori. Cant wait to try spinning this. Bamboo is a new fiber for me. I love the color.
The next purchase came from Spincerely yours. I love her fiber and colorways.


This is merino tencil. Called Jack in the Pulpit. so very pretty.
Then there was a surprise in the mail as well . I had recently gotten a package from my swap buddy. Well she sent me some more stuff.



A beautiful blue knitting bag and yarn to match.
The yarn is panda wool. Bamboo, wool and nylon. Cant wait to make a pair of socks out of it.
Great color. Thank you again Kim.
Have gotten the knitting bug lately. I just finished a market bag. Hopefully if the weather holds out for the weekend I will put it to work. Now working on dishcloth.
Great way to spend a rainy day.

Blue is the Color

I have to say that it has been a while since I have done a swap. The bug has bitten me once again. I was playing on Ravelry a few weeks ago and did a search for swaps. There it was "The don't be blue....blue swap". For those of us who love the color blue. The swap was for yarn and any thing blue that we wanted to put in the package.

On Friday my package arrived.



Sock yarn with the pattern and the needles to make them with it. Some fabulous blue buttons.


Above is some soft and lucious mohair lace yarn . A beautiful shawl pin, a wooden key chain drop spindle, a goat charm, a cute sheep tape measure ( not shown because he has already made it to my knitting bag) chocolate truffle flavored coffee and mango white tea. Oh and of course some yummy chocolates wrapped in blue foil.. they were gone in no time....

Prom Season

This is what has occupied my time lately. Mothers day weekend was prom for our school. This my daughter Jennifer and he boyfriend Matt. Have to say never thought getting a girl ready for the prom was so time consuming. My oldest is a boy so there was not much that I had to do to get him ready. With a girl there is hair, nails, the multiple fittings for the dress, shoes. Wow. Have to say it was well worth it because she does look beautiful.

Unfortuantly I have not been doing much spinning or knitting. All the post on the blogs about the spring fiber festivals have inspired me to get back at it. So maybe the next post I will have some spinning to show.

Butterflies

Spent the weekend at the timeshare that I have in Lee Ma. Spent Friday afternoon walking around the little shops of Lee and Stockbridge.
Saturday afternoon a friend and myself went to Magic Wings in Deerfield. It is a butterfly museum. With live butterflies of all kinds. What a great place. I highly recommend it. We spent hours there just wondering around taking pictures of the butterflies. Here is the link check it out. http://www.magicwings.com. Below are just a few of the pics that I took. We had butterflies landing on us.

Have been doing alittle knitting and spinning. Seems like the dog destroys it faster than I can knit it. Next post I hope to have some more on that front. Hope that the butterflies bring warm weather thoughts

WELCOME ROSIE !

Welcome to Rosie! She arrived on Friday March 6th. Isn't she beautiful. She is my first brand new spinningwheel. Like fresh from the box put together yourself type of new. I absolutely love her. She spins like a dream. I also want to thank Tracy from Wooly designs, that is where Melissa and I order our wheels from. He was awesome to work with. I highly recommend him.

Along with the purchase of Rosie whom is partially name after my grandmother, (who is the one who foster my love of fiber arts by teaching how to knit when I was just 8). I have also made some purchases in fiber. The fiber is from Spincerely yours. Some bfl which is my favorite fiber to spin and some merino tencil as well

Rosie has spun and plied her first skein of yarn. I believe it is corredale, in some spring colors.

Really need some color this time of year.

Well I am off to spin some more. Think that Rosie and I will be spending lots of time together.

Happy Valentine"s Day

Hope that everyone one had a nice Valentine's Day. I had a great V day.

Flowers are from a great guy.

Mittens to go with the hat that I finished. Have gotten the bug to knit again. I need to finish my socks. Not quite sure it is taking me so long to finish even the first one. Wish me luck.

New goodies

Look what the postman delivered just the other day. My new set of Options needles from Knitpicks. and the carry case. I have wanted this set for a long time. Every since I had tried a set of Melissa's. You have to understand that I have been using the circular needles that I inherited from my grandmother. So needless to say those needles could be as old or older than me.. and not very flexible.

He also brought me a new book. You have to understand that I love to do anything with cables. They are my favorite, so I could not resist when I saw this book and for about $7 how could I resist

Ok, so I had to try my new needles out and I found the perfect pattern for them to perform on. Started the hat yesterday during the day. Melissa and I went to the knitting group at Borders in Clifton Park and did alot of work on it there. Then finished it up this morning. This is a gift for the daughter of the guy that I am seeing. It was an easy knit.

So the bug has bitten me and now that I have started and finished a project. I am ready for another, but however I do have a sock to finish and the second one to start.
I am also planning on having another gathering at my house with Melissa, Carla and Lisa to spin.
We are also planning a weekend away at the end of March at my time share in Lee for a girls weekend.. Can't wait

New things happening

Wow can't believe how long it has been since I last posted on here. My apologizes.

I did make it to Rhinebeck and did get a couple of things. Had a great time.

The above pic is of my purchase at Rhinebeck it is white suri alpaca and the spindle is from the Butterfly girls...

I love the way that it spins. Have not done much on it since I bought it tho... I know I am bad.

The biggest news that I have started working from home. Which I am hoping will give me more time to spin. I certainly do miss it. And maybe more time to do some blogging.

The Jury is still deliberating!

I managed to get it together. Used it to skein the last of my brown wool. Was not able to treddle my wheel. Not quite sure why. Once I got the skein off the winder, my wheel treddled with no problem. So I guess that I will have to play with it a little bit more.

For the first time since I have started spinning I have spun a whole fleece. I have 8 skeins of yarn. 3 of them are off the plying bobbin that goes with my Suzie. So they are big skeins of about 600 yards. The others are about 300. I think that I will have plenty to make the sweater that I want. Now to find that sweater pattern.

What a wonderful fall day!

It was the perfect day to wash my handspun skeins and hang them out to dry. I have 13 skeins hanging out there. Hard to believe that I had that many done. When I was on vacation about a month ago, is when I did most of it.
Now need to find a place to keep them so that the puppy that we have will stay out them.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered the skeinwinder for my Suzie. It came in pieces with no directions.
Here it is.

While I was trying to figure out how I was going to use it and put it together I put my hands to work and made a dishcloth.


My kitchen is red, so it will fit in well.
Now I guess I will finish spinning the brown roving. It is almost done.

Vacations at home are great

Sorry that it has been so long since my last entry. Have been on vacation this week and my goal was to get some cleaning and spinning done. It started with an offer to spin at a both at the local fair. I have been spinning since then. The first picture is of my country craftsman spinning wheel. I was not sure that I had posted a picture of it. What a great wheel. I have just finished spinning merino tencil from the sheep shed in color was dusk. I had bought 2 2ounce hanks of roving. Now I have to ply it. The next picture is of the yarn I have finished. The brown is destined to be a sweater for me, the white is some corriedale that is going to be a baby blanket and the other 2 I am not sure yet maybe some mittens.

The next 2 pictures are of a scarf that I am making. My first time knitting with beads. I have to say that it is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The pattern is very simple. One of those mindless knits. Which is nice to do.This week has been great the weather has been wonderful. Now that my daughter is back to school it is very quiet here. I am hoping by the end of the year to be working from home. Will be nice not having to have to travel. Will give me more time to do other things.

Will be planning spinning get togethers with Melissa and Lisa. Lisa has a ridgid hettle loom and is going to help Melissa and I warp ours. That will be one of our gatherings. I am looking forward to getting together. I think that it will help to keep me motivated to keep spinning.

I have started my list for Rhinebeck. So looking forward to going this year. It will be here before we know it..

Will try to post more often. One of my other goals.

Castle on the Hudson

After a lot of research and searching the IloveNY tourism website, I found the day trip that I wanted to take. This is Banner Castle located on an island in the middle of the Hudson River in Newburg NY. Not to far from West point. Actually on the boat tour that I took, we went past Westpoint..
It was very humid and hazy as you can tell from the picture. It was a fun day. They do have tours of the island but unfortunately it had been canceled yesterday. Might be just as well seeing it was so humid. It was a great day trip.

Have not done much on the fiber end as of late but I did go shopping last weekend and I did buy something to challenge me for the summer. I bought a scarf kit that contains beads. Something that I have never done. I am up for the challenge. I will post some pictures of it once I get it started. Might be something to start this afternoon.

Day to Dye for

Couple of weeks ago, Carla and I taught a natural dyeing class. The day started out cold and rainy but did warm up a bit and the sun did come out. Our class was small there was 6 of us. We had great fun. Besides natural dying with madder, onion skins, indego, safflower, we also did some kool aid dying and dying with Wilton cake icing as well.

We had journels for each of the participants to start there own dying journel. I have to say that Carla and I are bad at keeping tract of what we are doing when we are dying.
We do it more for the fun and just like to experiment..

Thank you Barb for hosting our day and Thank you to Marty, Barbs husband for letting us use his shop to play in.

I am slipping!!!!

I can't believe that it has been almost a year since the last time posted. Alot has been going on since then. I have a new job. working fulltime. Makes it hard to find time to blog.
I have been knitting alittle. I did make an alpaca hat from yarn that I spun for my sister in law for christmas. It turned out really cute. I even had enough yarn left over to make a pair of fingerless gloves. Still working on my X&O vest. Keep starting little projects inbetween. I also just started a clapotis out of fiber that I purchased from Adams farm. It has been spun for a while just waiting for the right project to come along. I love the colors. Has all the great fall colors. It reminded me of the fall leaves with a bite of angelena to give it some sparkle.

I appologize for not having pictures, but once again I am having computer issues and am unable to load pics to this computer. But I do promise that I will get pics on as soon as I am capable.

FUN IN THE MUD

Spring has finally sprung here!! This is a picture of my daughter ( the driver and my sons girlfriend) My son is the one in the back ground. The girls decided that while they were riding 4 wheelers and going through the mud that they would get off and wrestle in the mud.. They were covered from head to toe... My son, the one in the back ground, was reaching for a bucket of water that was on the ground...he proceded to dump it over the top of the 2 girls right after I took the picture.. then the hose came out and the had a water fight with the hose....good thing it was 75 today.... On to the knitting front.... I know have 2 pairs of socks done and a scarf... I am now working on a vest for myself...but I have not been able to do a whole lot of knitting.. I started a new job 3 weeks ago, making a whole lot more money.. I have to say that this job is a whole new side of nursing and there is alot for me to learn.. I am liking it though.. Health wise things are good. I have not been able to do alot of spinning either.. I just don't seem to find the time..after getting the supper dishes done and laundry and all the running for sports I am wiped out and head for bed. Well speaking of bed I think that it is time.. tomorrow is another long day. work, track met, and then off to Dicks for baseball supplies for my youngest.. I will try to include some pictures of my finished work next time..

When is spring coming???

We had one of the biggest snow storms that we have had in quiet awhile on Valentines Day. It was nice to see the snow,but now the cold can go away. I am not a winter person. Don't get me wrong I enjoy watching it snow from my livingroom window, not through my windshield. The kids are enjoying it though, it came just in time for winter vacation. They have been out on the snowmobiles all week.
I have been knitting like crazy. I finished a pair of socks, scarf and 2 hats. I am now working on another pair of socks. My goal is to make socks for everyone this year for Christmas. (you can stop laughing now!!!) I think that I am doing well. I also need to do some spinning. In October, I dropped off 2 fleeces to be processed by twist of fate spinnery in Ct. (at Rhinebeck). They came not to long ago. I am greatly impressed. The fiber is clean, it was nicely packaged. I did spin some of it and it spins beautifully. One of the fleeces is from Mary Pratt, it is beautiful. My other goal is to spin it and knit a sweater for me to where to Rhinebeck. ( again you can stop laughing) I did not say which year to Rhinebeck. I am also hoping to be able not to buy any yarn or fiber and use what I have here, but with spring just around the corner and fiber festivals starting it might be asking to much. I am going to try and be good.
DH has been home working. Siding the house and when the wind was to strong and cold, they tore out the bathroom, replacing the tub, floor and toliet. Which was a surprise when I came home from work, to find a tub in the middle of the living room floor and the vanity in the dining area and the sink on the floor in the hall. I am not one for having my house torn apart. I have issues with sawdust and sheetrock dust track all through the house. Left for me to clean. While he plops his butt down in the chair to watch the news, then complain because the vacum is to loud and he can't hear. It is a never ending battle. Well, I guess I am off to start the day. Nice to have uninterupted computer time.

Happy New Year!!

I know I am late in wishing everyone a happy new year. It has been hectic. Started off the new year, teaching a med course. Now it seems that I have gotten a cold. I really don't understand why seeing that yesterday it was over 60 degrees here, today it is in the mid 40's. My plants are so messed up. They think that it is spring. With all that has been going on I have managed to finish one project and start a new one. I finished the vest that I started a while ago out of some of my handspun. I hope that he likes it. It is to be a birthday present. My new project is a scarf from the winter issue of knitty. I started it on Monday evening and it is just about done. I can't believe how fast it is going. When I get some batteries for the camera I will post the pictures. I have no idea what the next project will be. I need to find something to take with me to work. I knit at lunch time. Melissa and I have decided that with the new year that we need to work on decreasing our fiber stash. We had gotten the idea from some of our fellow bloggers who are not adding to there yarn stash but using it up this year. So we have decided to do the same with our fiber. No new fiber until we have used up some of what we have!!! ( yeah right, how far away is Cummington?) Wish us luck!!!!

Winter is here!!

Wow it certainly has been cold here the last couple of days. Tuesday gave us our first taste of snow. Just enough to make driving fun. Fortunately it did not last long and by the end of the day it was gone. It still remains cold and for the weekend it is going to be warmer. Has been a long week. I have some health issues that have really started to take a toll on me. Since July I have been battleing high blood pressure that just came on suddenly. I went to the cardiologist on Wednesday, he increased my meds that I am currently on and started a new one. Since I have started the new meds. I have had a headache like you would not believe, and extremely tired ( more so than usual). This does not give me much time to get any spinning or knitting done. As much as I hate to say it the desire is just not there. Hopefully once my body adjusts to the meds it will be better. My hope was that Christmas this year would be better. Last year was horrible, with my husband hurt and out of work and me not working Christmas was hard. I made alot of gifts last year and I am feeling guilty this year because I am not making things like I usually do. I am working on finishing the Irish Hiking Scarf that I started last year, Hopefully it will be done in time to give it to my sister. The vest will not be done. Might have to be a birthday present. My daughter yells at me for bringing my knitting to her basketball games, but she will just have to get over that. Maybe I will have pictures of some finished projects next time.