hark the harold!

it's a warm day here at wooly's house thanks to Harold our propane guy. "the" propane guy. hank hill would be proud of him. you see, our driveway is not the easiest for a gas truck. harold has to back the truck down a steep curvy gravel drive in order to get back up it. UPS won't come down-they leave things at the top. but harold....he's my hero as he comes down-even in the rain. i was worried we'd run out during the storm and i hate being cold!!

here he is-in action! go harold!! but the chickens were not happy with his loud truck so close to their home- they were desperately trying to get out!

he could only back in so far today because of the mud. luckily he has a long hose. minds out of the gutter- JEEZ!

been busy on the fiber side of life. i did finish carey's holiday mitts-which became belated b-day gifts. thanks to my "fiber gals" for assistance in understanding the pattern! free pattern here for you ravelers.

carey is pretending to be a hand model. i knit them out of washable merino-18 year old guys are not to hip with the "handwash" scene.

been making fingerless mitts for little people-great for using up little balls of left over yarn. these traveled all the way to sadie in louisiana. brothere max got some too but alas no pic. i hand-dyed the yarn. washable merino as well! another great free pattern here.

here's how my "everyday vest" is coming along. my first one is getting pretty ratty looking and i've been wanting another. my friend anne in minnesota sent me this wonderful yarn for xmas. i'm almost done.

i'm also going to be doing some stash reduction this year. so i also started the "icelandic star" sweater in the current interweave knits with some merino frappe i had in my closet. love the pattern so far as it is seamless.

the yarn is so light and fluffy-very cloud like. soft as hell too! merino-yum!!!! the colors look better in real life-as there is a sage green by the blue that you can't see very well in the photo. the dark diamonds are not black but dark green.

i'm finally being able to spin as my back is finally better(knock on wood!) and i'm challenging myself to spin everyday-even if it is just for 10 minutes. i dyed this BFL (blue faced leicester)
and wish i had dyed more!!! i just love the crimp of BFL-reminds me of my crimping iron from the 80's. here's my bucket-o fiber.

all spun and plied. maybe i have enough for a cowl?

i already started a new spinning project. a while back i tried to dye some merino really ugly to see what would happen when i spun it. i dyed it fushia, rust, and for some strange reason there are bits of pale lilac-almost silver that i did not add but mysteriously appeared after steaming.

it is actually spinning up really cool. it's funny how sometimes gorgeous rovings don't look that great spun up and ugly ones turn out cool. i will post picture when i finish.

time for some poirot. i think i'll turn on the heat:)

Carey's 18

Carey, i met you when you were just three years old. you came into my life and changed it in the most wonderful ways! and with a blink of an eye you have turned 18. how in the world did this happen? seems like just yesterday you were calling me "girlfriend stephanie", telling stories and wearing a tail.







You were six when Liam joined our family. You wanted a little brother so badly! what a wonderful big brother you have been from the very beginning!



Liam is very lucky!

You've always had the most beautiful smile! and still do!


i've watched you grow and change thru the years and my heart goes out to you as you cross this threshold into adulthood. Be brave and true to yourself. life isn't easy Carey, but it is a story.....your story. live it well. don't ever forget: we LOVE you and are ALWAYS here for you!
p.s. don't forget to brush!

Happy Birthday Carey!

welcome 2010

we had a grand daytime new years eve gathering at rowan's studio. us gals gathered for a productive day of picking, spinning, carding, knitting and of course eating. i was very excited to finally do something with my over felted dyed fleeces that have just been taking up space in my closet. in fact, this fiber is so old it comes from the days when i used to process the dirty fleeces myself! trust me-that was a long time ago!!!

rowan had an ancient torture device called a picker that worked wonders on my clumps of felted fiber! this is one bad ass machine! leather gloves are a must!

check out those sharp nails! oops! better get my gloves on!

the top part swings back and forth like a pendulum. couldn't help but have poe-esque visions. thank god my boobs don't hang THAT low!
the picked fiber just fall out of the picker in the back.


look at all the fluffy cloud like fiber----ready for use! much better than pillow stuffing as i had planned.

looks like a maxfield parish sky! now i could have spun it from the puffs but i really wanted to try out rowan's electric carder! yeeha! the machine of my dreams!

this carder rocks more than homebrew! i got about 8oz. of dreamy ready to spin batts!

impressive. here are rowan, lucie and birdsong gathered around the woodstove. rhodi is busy using the carder at this moment-got a great(hahahahaha) picture but i think i will save it for black mail purposes. we got a lot done with much laughter. ended our afternoon with a new year's count down-pretending we lived in norway.

back at the homestead we had another gift opening forenza(is that a word? sounds cool) belated holiday gifts are the best. anne and my mom know what i like and always send me fiber!!!(they haven't seen my closet-heheheh! shhhhh!) i will post more photos later-but i already started a vest from some yarn that anne sent:

it will be a quick knit as it's knitted on size #10 needles. this is rowan chunky colourscape-yum!

thank you mom and anne!! Happy new year everyone-i hope 2010 is all that you wish and hope it to be!!!

i hope you ate your black eyed peas! i made a crock pot version with home grown greens-the addition of 3 whole cloves really made them yummy!