CARDING FLEECE

i have been carding the fleece in every spare moment i 

have. 

is she not just so white and fluffy?

i just want to lay my head down in this cloud of softness and take a long nap!

after i'm done carding, i will start dying all this fleece-dry it and then start spinning her on my majestic wheel-----thank you eric! [ for knowing almost 20 years ago how much i would enjoy a spinning wheel ]

thank you jill for teaching me how to card and loaning me you carder ;)

we have been busy over the week end with me working and eric cleaning up the yard,

thanks sweetie!

it was also eric's birthday and father's day celebration as well as caitlin's birthday celebration.

we kinda run late with the parties for honoring family members.

[one year i even forgot my youngest 16th birthday.....now that was bad and am still paying for that one in yearly reminders]. 

last evening we had a small family dinner of slow cooked ribs, homemade slaw, garden grown salad with homemade dressing, it was all

DELICIOUS !

spent a lovely evening on the back deck surrounded by flowers , memories and good laughs !

thanks gang i treasure those dinners!

YARN ALONG

IT'S WEDNESDAY!

i haven't posted for yarn along it seems for ages !

i'm not sure what i have been doing the last several weeks

but i have been busy.

the past 3 days i have plowed through these 2 books----

great reads!

i have one more to read then off for more at the library :)

when i find really good reads , nothing and i mean nothing else happens till i finish the entire book.

i've been looking some time for a good read and Craig Johnson fits the bill,

intriguing, funny and i "just can't put them down" kinda read.

tomorrow i will be carding all 4 pounds of this fleece at a friends place, ( she has a drum carder )...

yippie !

will let you know how it goes.

i'm pretty excited but

i have to finish the third book today...sooooo

see ya later !

happy yarning and reading!

BACKYARD GOING ONS'

have a peaceful sunday

FLEECE

see all that great lanolin? it's on the left side of the pic. handling the fiber i needed no lotion on my hands all day.

not sure what the darker yucky stuff is

nope and i don't want to know.

i purchased a merino fleece when i was at the wool festival in estes park this year.

i have often stood in these booths just wanting but unsure if i would be up for all the stages of cleaning, combing, spinning dying and then knitting with the end product.

this year the owner of "betty"spent time walking me through the process that i ended up with a HUGE bag of " betty the sheep".

cleaning was easy, a little smelly but fun!

i used a cooler and hot hot water. the process took 3 rinses and several days of drying.

next week i will be carding the wool with a friends drum carder.

then i get to dye the fibers------how exciting is that?

oh, all the possibilities !!!

I'M SO OVER IT

that is debbie bliss

their was a time that i was in love with debbie bliss, her patterns and yarn -i loved it all.

not any more !

why on a skein of 82m is there at least one knot - that is how debbie joins her yarn....ugh.

and i have had skeins with debbie's awful joining technique that has two joining knots if not three knots....

what- debbie i thought you were a knitter ! 

well for the price i can get better yarn with no knots from a different designer than debbie bliss.

so no more from here on- i will no longer spend a dime on debbie bliss yarn....i'm done!

i'v been knitting MAUDE with a debbie bliss 100% cotton. the yarn is incredibly soft and the color perfect for me. Maude is a mindless knit, [ my kind of knitting ]

but with all the knots in the joining of the yarn- done by debbie not me has made this knit frustrating.

i have had to frog back several times to ensure that the KNOTS stay in the back of the garment

because they want to to be front and center. 

now i am not the worlds best knitter but i'm not blind either and knots migrating to the front of the garment.....

well it just ruins the entire over all look !

so as i said earlier----no more debbie bliss yarn! 

GARDEN,QUILT,KNITTING

the past week was a time for me to catch up and finish some projects that were hanging around for too long. sometimes when projects are soooo close to be being done i can't muster the energy to finish that last little bit. but when the finish it up mojo does come on- i move and can finish up several projects !

oh, does that ever leave a good feeling in my heart.

my garden is not doing great, disappointment plus,

but what is one harvest in a gardner's life?

i need to keep this all in perspective and learn any gardening lessons that present themselves.

i'm still wondering how healthy my soil is. i know it is far better this summer than the past summers but i was expecting better yields this year.

i used few GMO seeds, mainly heritage seeds and i'm not sure if their germination rates are lower or am i doing something wrong. 

oh well back to the books.............

i finished a " modern quilt " 

new for me.

i prefer traditional quilts but their is something appealing  about negative space in some modern quilts. one of the attractions for me is the machine quilting opportunities.

i love lots of quilting in quilts and modern quilts are quilted heavily and very uniquely. 

i'm happy with this simple modern quilt. i really like all the straight lines and that grey fabric is so wonderful, the printed fabric is sweetwater- a favorite designer.

and finally "harvest moon" is being blocked. i will be starting another harvest moon very soon for daughter #2....she like green !

hope your weekend was peaceful yet productive :)

YARN ALONG and READING

all that fiber i bought at the Wool Festival in Estes Park, well i started cleaning it today.

my instructions from the owner of " betty " was to fill a cooler with hot water and put half the fleece in the cooler, close the lid and let soak for an hour or two.

then empty water, refill with hot water and a little dawn soap-

let soak an hour or two.

empty water again

only to refill with hot water for the rinse. let soak an hour or two.

let the cooler drain 

then pick up the wool and let dry on a " sunny back porch ".

will let you know how it all turns out later.....

here is the cake i spun up using a merino and silk blend, [ also from the Wool Festival ],

it came to 90 grams.

i really need to get a yardage counter and soon.

i will turn this beauty into a dew drop cowl.
a free pattern i found on ravelry.

hopefully casting on later today.

my sister MM highly recommended farmacology to me , and thus far i am really enjoying it. i think it should be a course in medical school.

medicine seems to treat only symptoms these days and not the whole person. oh i do not put all the blame on medicine,  after all it is what we have asked our physicians to do.

if you doubt this fact just look at how " family medicine" is becoming a thing of the past. yes along with the days that doc's made home visits...[ i know i have just aged myself but if you do not believe that at one time it was the norm for the doctor to visit a sick family member in the home....get a history book. it's true! the thought being why would anyone bring a contagious person out into a public waiting room.]

any way it is a good read- well worth your time!

linking with ginny at yarn along

ELK and FIBER

what's been going on?

a little of this and a little of that.

spent 5 days in Rocky Mountain Park

and it was lovely !

i do not think the park has been that green in years.

a lush green that was hard to take my eyes off.

the trees were green, not that horrible brown from beetle kill.

between all the fires last summer and the forrest service cutting down beetle kill pine the forrest is coming back and it's 

green again!

saturday i spent in estes park at the wool festival.

i came home [ to our trailer, parked in RMP ]

with 2 skeins of yarn and about 61/2 pounds of fiber to spin.

41/2 pounds being in the the form of a fleece!

what was i thinking ?

i have never prepared a fleece for spinning, but this was irresistible--so soft, off white and very oily.

and i even have the name of the sheep it was from.....yes i have a name and a connection to this fiber.

weird i know but it was a selling point for me for some strange reason.

on the spool above i spun some merino and silk---

it is lovely.

i have the project picked out for this yarn.....

well that is some of where and what i have been doing.

that and working !
guess it is time for me to get some needed chores done around here.
the usual---laundry, floors, bathrooms and yes some cooking.
i'm all ready wanting to go back to RMP. 

what is new in your world?