Resurrecting An Old Blog

So I've let my blog go.  Things got busy and over time I honestly forgot I even had one.  When I remembered, I toyed with the idea of working on it again.  It was my last years resolution to work on it.  Never happened.  Same as this.  If I get to publish this then it means I've finally put one foot in front of the other.

Where to start?  Doing a quick reading over old posts brought me laughs.  So much has changed since then.  I felt myself cringing over some of the posts from being so embarrassed of even posting them.  Not that they were horrible but it's like revisiting an old personal diary in a way and then leaving it out.  I contemplated deleting all the old posts but I decided to just keep them there.  To give me a reason to keep up with my blog now that I've found more time so I can see how far I've come and to share that with you!

Again, where to start.  So much has changed!  I've got a new laptop that I've been bad at transferring files to.  My passion for fiber arts is still as strong as ever and my little hobby corner has turned into having my own studio room so to speak.  I love it.  Everything where it's supposed to be in one place.  I can easily transition from spinning to felting to dyeing.  No more digging in drawers for packing tape and a pen!

Here in PA the weather has been so cold.  This time last year we were already mowing the lawn.  The grass isn't even close to turning green yet.  I have the gardening bug like crazy!  I've bought some seed starting soil and my seeds already so I'm hoping to start them indoors soon.  I find myself daydreaming of the warmer weather and missing wearing dresses because they're my most favorite hot weather attire.  I need a couple of new ones but I wanted to share this one I've come across.  It is one of the most beautiful dresses I've ever seen.  I would wear it every single day!  Sadly it's not even close to my size!

*Sigh*  If it was only my size!

 Isn't it beautiful!? I would wear it 24/7.  Grilling, gardening, cleaning, grocery shopping, going out. It's from a team mates shop and I've been eyeing it for a long time.  Knowing I will never ever get down to the size needed to wear it anytime soon I thought I would at least share it because it is so beautiful.  Her shop is pretty amazing.  For instance there's also this suit.  It's a  Yves St Laurent Le Smoking Suit.  It's in amazing condition with an unbeatable price tag.  I can only imagine the high she had when she found it.  It would be like finding treasure.

Seriously, how cool is this?

Her Etsy shop can be found here:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/Catbooks1940s?ref=l2-shop-info-name .  If you happen to buy that dress, I feel it's blog worthy.  I would really read a blog that had anything to do with this dress.  Not kidding.

Warmer weather also means sheering time and fiber washing time.  I have some bags of raw fiber I've acquired over the colder months that I'm itching to see how they turn out.  Right now they're sealed tight in bags and then placed in totes until I can get to them.  Every time I walk into my room I see them taunting me.  I've got a couple different colored natural wools and some alpaca.  I'll admit I'm somewhat of an alpaca fiber hoarder and I really need to start using up some of it before it takes over.  

Merino, angelina, alpaca, silk and corriedale rolags

In the meantime, I've been keeping myself busy wit a blending board I got almost a year ago.  I haven't had a chance to use it so much until lately.  I like that I can use up all my smaller bits of leftover fiber I've dyed without the expense of a drum carder.  It's really relaxing to use it while watching TV or listening to music.

Merino, corriedale alpaca, silk, firestar, angelina, angora and milkweed fluff rolags

I've spun up both these sets of rolags already.  I've got the green/orange ones listed in my shop (caption is clickable if you're curious of the result) and I hope to get the other ones listed.  I love the bumpy woolen yarn these rolags make.  I also love that I have another option to use my leftover fiber rather than just felting.  

Well, I need to get some stuff done so I guess I'll leave you with that.  Hopefully by the next time I blog I'll have a good part of my seeds started and not completely grown and harvested!   ;D

*Sigh*  That wasn't so hard.  Now that I've got this checked off my to do list, I feel better.

Dying to Dye In This Heat

Top:  Gray Alpaca in Dye pot.
Bottom:  Alpaca All Dyed.

Merino In dye pot.
A little bit of dye spillover into pot.

This past Friday I finally ordered some new dyes I was itching to try out.  However, the weather has been extremely brutal (especially on pregnant ladies) and running a stove in my kitchen was the last thing I wanted to do.  Luckily since they were ordered and I opted to have them sent first class mail it meant chances are they would take a while to come in.  This spared my family of the added heat from my excitement and impatience.  Imagine my surprise when I found them in my mailbox on Monday!  An added bonus is that by Monday the heat finally broke and we were welcomed with on and off thunder showers throughout the day.  A perfect day to play with dye.  I grabbed some gray alpaca roving that I had an abundance of and some superwash merino and went to town.  As I assembled my materials, I realized I was out of saran wrap.  Bummer!  I really wanted to try out some progression dyeing on my merino and I felt hand painting it would be the easiest.  Then it finally it me, d'oh!  Why not do immersion dyeing similar to canning.  To my surprise, it worked great.  Next time I'll need to use larger canning jars.  Notice the white splotches from the fiber being crammed into the smaller jars?

Merino Hanging to dry

Merino Dry and Braided

Another accomplishment on my weekend to do list:  I finally got my upgrade that I ordered (and received last Feb./Mar.) onto my Blue Bonnet wheel.  This upgrade now allows me to use my wheel as a double tension or a scotch tension with only having to change out the whorl and smack on the correct belt.  What should have taken maybe an hour or so project took about five hours.  No lie!  It wasn't the installing of the upgrade that was the problem.  It was finding all the correct tools as I needed them.  Instead of assembling everything I would need ahead of time, I waited until I came to the step that I needed to use them.  I would have to drop what I was doing, go on a manhunt (anyone who has seen my husbands garage or the organization of his tools would feel sympathy) and come back and have to fix any adjustments the kids made to my wheel while I was gone.  All the kids were cranky as we were feeling the effects of the continuous days of excessive heat.  They had been lacking in naps since their rooms were too hot.  They had decided it was more fun to play in the A.C. rooms that were offered as napping alternatives.

 I was beaming when I finally finished it.  I tweaked the settings and spun my first roving on it.  I am ecstatic that I can now do lace weight yarns!  My double tension set up was perfect for art or bulky yarns leaving my options limited.  Now it does about everything and in about half the time!

Rhubarb Pie

Late Night Stroll

I also got the unnamed superwash merino spun up.  It was aptly named Rhubarb Pie because, frankly, it reminded me of rhubarb pie.  I decided to enter it in my Blue Bonnet's summer SAL challenge through Ravelry.  I dyed up about 8 oz of it, this picture shows one of the skeins.  I also dyed and spun up a little over 4 oz of alpaca that I named "A Late Night Stroll" that I entered as well.  We were allowed up to three entries but with me wanting to hone up on my upgraded wheel and play with my dyes I know that's all I will have time for.

Husbands (at least mine) don't understand these little deadlines we put on ourselves.  They are very important to us.  When these are going on that means all cleaning is on hold.  Dinners will be quick made portions.  Phone calls will neither be answered nor returned right away.  The fact that your favorite clothes aren't clean are of no importance to me.  We need groceries?  Best go down to the basement and see what goodies are in the chest freezer.  It's really not that he doesn't care, or doesn't support.  It's more of a "Are you feeling okay?  You've got me worried." Obviously he cannot understand the excitement those of us can get over these simple things.  I also get, "I think you need to get out of the house for a bit.  Even if it's just for a ride".  Then I have to try to compose myself from showing what I'm really thinking:  "No!  Please!  That means I will have to leave all my "work" and get nothing done!?".  If my face showed how I really felt it would cause him extreme worry.  Somewhere on the lines of I think you should see professional help worry.  To avoid all that my usual response is, "Eh.  That's okay.  It's such a pain in the butt to load the kids in the car just for a ride.  If you think of something else we could all do though, I'm all ears". It works as a great save every time.  It promises me at least another two hours to wrap up whatever I was finishing. I admit getting away is healthy.  It gets me away from this stuff and out enjoying time with my family.

I Promise I Didn't Go Into Hiding, At Least Intentionally

Well, after a long hiatus of my blog and twitter posting, I'm back. The lack of posting was for good reason, which I will get into later. I didn't intentionally mean to leave any kind of cliffhanger with my last blog either.  For that, I apologize.  I did write the blog and saved the draft but was in a different sort of mood when I went to post it.  It was very cathartic to type out but I guess it was something I wasn't ready to post, yet.  For that I apologize a million times over and I am sure I will share eventually.  For now I promise no more cliffhangers without solid intentions to deliver promptly.

As for the hiatus, the demands of the kids have been crazy.  With my husband's crazy work schedule, an 11 year old, a toddler and a newborn it was impossible for me to find a routine. Especially with the newborn changing to a crawling/almost walking nine month old and the toddler hitting the terrible two's.  On top of that our house was "gifted" many small illnesses that everyone couldn't help consecutively sharing.  The biggest reason for the hiatus is we found out we were expecting...again. Just when I thought I was on top of this routine thingy. I couldn't figure out why I was so tired and sleepy all the time.  All I wanted to do was nap and I never felt rested.

 The thought of having three under three sent us into complete panic mode.  We are feeling extremely blessed and grateful (I have always wanted four children) but quite overwhelemed.  Each stage the children reach we get one of those "can we still keep up with this and have another one" fears. Each time we couldn't prevent a boo-boo or would find crayon mysteriously on the wall it would escalate.  Now the panic has pretty much settled and the excitement has started to set in more.  After having all these boys, it would be nice to have a little girl.  I do have a strong feeling it's a little girl.  I'm not sure if my feelings are correct or in the back of my mind I'm wondering what the odds would be of it being ANOTHER boy.  Trust me, I would be just as excited for a healthy boy.  In a couple weeks time I should know!  I usually find out the sex.  It's still a surprise to me and I can rest assured being a little more prepared.

As far as the spinning, knitting and crocheting goes I have been busy on my downtime!  I have a lot ready to go list in the shop but I'm having a hard time with picture taking anymore.  We don't get very good natural lighting in the house.  I have a tot who loves to be outside and once he's outside it is impossible to get him back in.  So unless I've got everything squared away inside to spend my whole rest of the day outside, I can't get pictures done.  Lately I've set everything needing pictures in a separate area so I can utilize time better and  take a bunch of different things all at once.

Benjamin Green Studio Combs with prime alpaca.
(Notice my redneck spice cap diz?)

Lately I have been taking in a lot more raw wool and fleeces.  After my first Ebay purchase of raw wool, I realized I had been had.  All of my other purchases were no where close to the horror or that first shipment. Since I don't own anything to align the fibers with and a tight budget to do so, I researched the best product for my desired results.  I knew a carding machine was out of the question.  Especially not knowing if I would actually like working with raw wool.  That pretty much left hand combs and hand carders.  I tend to like working with combed wool better than carded wool.  I prefer more of a worsted over a woolen when working with yarn so that's what I wanted to make.  On Etsy I found a beautiful hand comb set through Benjamin Green Studios.  I loved the looks and design of the set and the price was in my budget.  I've been using them for a couple months now and I absolutely love them!  If you're looking for a really fine hand comb, these may not be for you but they hold up to the toughest of wool I have.  Very strong and durable and they look pretty too.  I'm extremely satisfied with the job they do.  He has even provided a youtube video with instructions.  At the time I was unaware that diz's even existed and realized I needed one so I came across a witty idea of using the caps on the little supermarket spice canisters.  For now, they work fine.  My husband is right now in the process of designing a couple and making them for me.  Thanks to the confidence these combs have given me, I have too much raw wool and alpaca fleece now waiting to be washed and combed.  The jacob's wool I mentioned in a previous post wound up under the tree for birds.  I am content to know that I did not give up on it, it's just that it was complete unworkable garbage.

Speaking of garbage, mine needs taken out.  Dinner needs started, floors need swept, yadda yadda.  Hoping everyone is enjoying their evening!