No Big Deal

We didn't get blown away by Hurricane Irene, thank goodness!  Truthfully I slept through the worst of it last night. We got a lot of rain & some really strong winds. We were lucky though & only had some minor limbs down in the yard, nothing major, nothing that could hurt anything. Keeping my fingers crossed that everyone else in it's path fares as well.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes last week! I got a surprise package from my friend Grace. She sent a couple little friends along to keep me company. :)  Aren't they cuties? Thank you so much Grace! It really made my day to get that package in the mail.

I got myself a great birthday present! LOL. My Comb & Hackle set came from Blue Mountain Handcrafts. They are beautiful, Eric does an amazing job! And a bit dangerous looking too. The whole family got into it & decorated the package for my birthday. he he

Beth & Katie made these awesome covers for my tools too!!!

Thank you Beth, Eric, Alex & Katie!!

Here is what I've been combing, and I've only poked myself once with them. :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

I'm still here!

I'm still here believe it or not! I work so many dang hours in the summer I have a hard time keeping up with everything. Good grief, where the heck did the month of July go?! And I really do miss it all.... blogging, my blog writing friends, my crafts, my family, etc...

I have squeezed in a few crafty things this summer. Here are some photos of what I can remember, LOL.

I got some yarns spun during the Ravelry Tour de Fleece. And created a cute little logo for the FIX TDF Team.

Outerspace Batt from Knottie Girl Designs...

Truffles batt from Blue Mountain Handcrafts.



A batt that I got from Shannon...

My first coils, superwash merino roving from Bumblebee Acres.

Superwash roving from Blue Mountain Handcrafts.

And with my first coils I wove this scarf & hat. I picked up stitches for the border, ribbing & button band & knitted those. And I made the buttons out of polymer clay.

I started this sock, we will see if I get it finished... and then the second one! This is my first toe up sock. The jury is still out on toe up sock knitting. I'm knitting this with some of Kathy's awesome sock yarn that she dyed.

Well, that's about it. Other than making a few clay stitch markers & such here & there, that's all I've gotten done craftywise since the last time I posted. Hopefully sometime in September my hours will go back to something near a normal 40 hr week & I'll be able to catch up on everything & everyone.  Take care! And if anyone needs me, just shoot me an email. Most of you have it. :)

JAXON HAS BEEN FOUND!

Thank you so much to everyone who posted about Jaxon! All those extra good vibes & prayers worked. Today Shannon came home with her baby Jaxon safe & sound. Good things do happen.... I'm just so happy to hear the good news.  I'll post Shannon's message below.

Hi Everyone! We are home, showered, bathed ect and resting. Jaxson has lost alot of weight, is a little dehydrated, dirty, the bugs had a field day with him and he is tired, but given the circumstances he is in wonderful condition. I am taking him to the vet on Monday to make sure that everything is everything but I am so unbelievably happy he is home.

Jaxson has been living in the woods only 1/2 mile from the campsite he went missing from. He has been following the creek that was beside our site. He did go to this ladies yard to play with her dogs, but would not let anyone near him, when anyone would get close he would take off back into the woods. This morning at 8am, J and I went into the woods near where they said he was staying, called him and he came right out to us! I picked him up and loved on him as he howled at me. I am just so happy he is home!


On a funny note, I had to go to the emergency room today because when we were coming back across the creek I slipped, fell and sliced my toe open rather deeply, I had to get three stitches in it. Oh well, it is all worth it to have my baby back. I want to thank each and every one of you who prayed and sent mojo my way. You guys are awesome and I am very honored to have you as my friends. ~ Shannon

Help if you can!

My friend Shannon (theluckielizard on Ravelry) has lost her beloved Jaxon. He disappeared from their campsite while they were on vacation at the Clabough's Campground in Pigeon Forge, TN. Jaxon is a 3 year old black & white Boston Terrier. Do you live in this area? Do you have family or friends in this area? Do you know of any good ideas to help find Jaxon? Shannon has called every shelter, vet, animal clinic, pet store and business in the area and left her information with them. This is after spending three days walking the entire area looking for him. She also ran ads in the local paper and posted everywhere online she can think of. She also hired a call service that actually puts out an “Amber Alert” for Jaxson to the surrounding area and sends flyers to all the local shelters and animal clinics/hospitals.

If you hear of anything or have any ideas you can contact me or Shannon, here is her online flyer.

Feel free to post this on your own blog... I'm thinking that someone out there knows someone & so on, maybe it'll get to the person who is caring for Jaxon & looking for his owner....

Please send lots of thoughts & prayers to Shannon & her Jaxon.

Spin Artiste.... and other things

Has it really been that long since I posted here?! Sheesh! Where does all the time go?

I remember when I was little the summers seemed to last forever.... and that was usually just 3 short months. It's amazing as we grow older how fast time gets away from us.

What have I been up to? Working, that's pretty much it. It starts in March with all the new products coming into the store to be checked in, stocked & stored. Then the weekends start getting busier. Summer help needs to be trained, crazy busy holiday weekends that we work through so others can have that pleasant vacation they have been needing. Now school is almost out for the summer & it's only gonna get busier.

I get tired, I work hard, a lot of times I'm working in the stifling, humid heat of the southeast coast, my feet hurt, I don't have enough free time to keep up with all of my online friends (I miss all of you guys!!!!), I don't get a lot of time to knit or read or spin or any of the other things I love to do.... but I'm so grateful that I have a job, and a job that I like (most of the time, LOL). And I'm grateful that I have friends who are understanding & welcome me back into the fold when my "busy season" is over. And I'm grateful that I have a husband who understands about the long hours that I have to work & who doesn't mind eating leftovers & sandwiches for dinner. :)

I have had a few hours here & there to spin a little bit.... and I've come up with a few new clay stitch markers even though I'm so far behind in orders it's ridiculous (thank goodness for understanding customers!).
Here are the elephants that I came up with recently thanks to Jenn of KnottieGirl Designs, they were her idea.

Our F.I.X. group has been growing, we have several great new members. If you have time to check out their shops I have updated the links on the FIX tab at the top of my blog. We are also having another Gift Certificate Giveaway this month. So if you purchase anything from any of the participating members don't forget to post your purchase in the FIX Ravelry Group Gift Certificate Giveaway thread so you don't miss your chance to win!

The F.I.X. group was also featured on Spin Artiste today! Arlene & Beth (Blue Mountain Handcrafts) had a wonderful interview. Several of the other FIX members also participated in the interview. I'm so proud to be associated with such a wonderful group of people who honestly care about each other, how they are doing, how their business is doing, & go out of their way to help each other out. Go check it out. You really should check out the Spin Artiste site anyway, Arlene does a wonderful job & brings us great interviews & articles every week!

I also recently got the Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook... what an awesome book! I am now on a quest to spin as many fibers from the sheep in that book as I possibly can. LOL. If you love wool, sheep, spinning, or are interested in them in any way I would highly recommend this book. There are wonderful photos & lots of good fiber & breed information, but also a lot of really good reading material as well.

I hope all of you, my friends, are doing well. I'm gonna try my best to get some blog reading done so I can get caught up with you all! Have a great weekend!!!

I really was!

Honest, I really was getting caught up on all of my blog reading.... then the hubby decided to share the flu with me. I was just about over that & it decided to turn around & bite me in the butt, it turned into a sinus infection. UGH. Let me just say that I'm tired of feeling bad.  I almost felt human today so that's a little better.

Here is what I've done while sick, besides sleep too much & spend too much time in bed laying around, & attempting to go to work & get a few things done there, ha ha.

I finished up some handspun yarn on my Vespera. This is the first yarn I've done from fleece to finished yarn. I have almost a pound of this green fiber so I have plenty more to get through. :)

And here is what I'm doing with that green yarn.... I'm making a Flower afghan with scraps of handspun, my green yarn & it will be bordered with cream I think. The pattern is the Flower Patch Afghan by Mary Jane Protus, from the Afghans for All Seasons book. This will take me a while to finish. I'm just doing a square every now & then when I get some small amounts of handspun to use up for the flowers.



That's about it. I hope everyone is doing well. :)

Heavenly Handspinning.... in more ways than one!

Look what arrived in the mail on Saturday!!  My very own Vespera e-spinner & a lazy kate from Jan & Richard at Heavenly Handspinning.

My little Violet does make a bit of noise (sounds like my sewing machine) so I gave her a little sweater to wear. LOL (one of my hand knit dishcloths worked perfect!)  That helps keep her a bit quieter & she doesn't overheat because it doesn't cover the vents in the motor. And a little drop of oil on the rotating post where the band goes made a world of difference in the noise too! Now she's a smooth spinner, and really FAST!

Here she is with a bobbin full of yarn. I plied this 163 yards of worsted/bulky yarn in no time!

This little e-spinner might not be totally silent like some of the other models out there, but for the money you just can't go wrong! Super little wheel!! I love it! :)

And this yummy batt came in the mail today from Beth at Blue Mountain Handcrafts, along with a cute crochet hook case. I needed some more yarn that would go with my Narcissus yarn (a batt I spun last year from BMH) & Beth was kind enough to indulge me.

I think I'll go spin a little before bedtime.....

The Princess & The Pea

The Princess and The Pea - That was one of my favorite stories when I was little. When I saw this the other night it's the first thing I thought of.... there she was, my Princess & the Pea. LOL

Kevin piled the pillows up to see if she would get up there... well of course she will! :)  Princess Jasmine's fascination with the pillows continues....

And I'm doing a little knitting. This isn't my handspun, it's a friend's. My buddy is a crocheter, she's tried knitting & just can't seem to fall in love with it. I don't understand this at all. LOL. But I did take pity on her, I didn't want to see her commit unspeakable crimes with a pair of knitting needles. She really wanted something knitted with her beautiful handspun, so I'm trying a Knotted Openwork Shawl. There is an error in the pattern, row 4 should have a "pass 3rd st on RH needle over the first 2 sts" after the K3. But other than that it's a super easy pattern. And it should go quickly using size 15 needles. The pattern called for size 17, but the largest I have is a 15, so 15 it is.

There are also a few things you might want to check out this month!

Don't forget this month FIX is giving away awesome prize boxes! If you purchase anything from any participating shop you can enter that purchase in the drawing.

You can find FIX on Ravelry or check out the FIX Blog.

Also, three of us have teamed up for an awesome giveaway! It's the 3 Evil Enablers Giveaway.

Ron from Fancy Kitty is giving away the Grand Prize, a Little Tom drum carder!  Beth from Blue Mountain Handcrafts is giving away 2 lbs. cormo & 4 oz. bamboo. And I'm giving away a Sheep Orifice Hook, Sheep WPI tool & Sheep stitch markers.

Hurry & get your entry in, you know you don't want to miss the chance to win that drum carder!! Or the yummy fiber & tools. :)

Starts: March 1st
Ends: April 1st
Winners announced: April 2nd
One prize per person per drawing

International winners will be responsible for the shipping charges of their prizes*

HOW TO GET ENTRIES

~ you must be a member of the Blue Mountain Handcrafts Ravelry group

~ all entry orders must be placed between 3/1 and 4/1 (orders with combined shipping count as 1 entry)

~ 3 entries - for any new video posted (or link to the video) of you using a Fancy kitty carder or picker (1 video per person)
~ 3 entries - place an order with Blue Mountain Handcrafts
~ 3 entries - place an order with Yarndemon Designs
~ 1 entry - post a pic of an item previously purchased from one of the 3 above shops and tell us why you love that shop (one post per shop per person)

Technical Difficulties

I'm even further behind now.... my faithful computer decided to poop out on me this past week. It had to go spend a few days at the computer Dr., thankfully I got it back on Friday. So I'm up & running again. As far as we can tell it had a corrupt system file or something, so they had to re-install the whole thing from scratch. At least I didn't lose all of my photos & other info.  I'll be playing catch-up this week so bear with me if you haven't heard from me. :)

But I'll be watching the Daytona 500 today, the computer will have to wait until later. he he

I'll leave you with this sweet photo.... Jazzy didn't want her daddy to go out of town to work last week. Silly girl.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. Mine was good even though I had to go to work. :)
My wonderful hubby gave me a dozen beautiful purple roses.

I also got my Valentine's Fancy Kitty Swap package today!  Here are all the wonderful goodies that Monica sent me.

 A lovely batt of Merino & Romney, a handmade Valentine card, handmade chocolates (YUM) & other candy, and one of Monica's beautiful Diz. She even made me a special Diz in purple, sweet!  Thank you so much Monica!!! I love everything!

I wanted to show everyone the gorgeous tote bag that I got from Beth at Blue Mountain Handcrafts a while back too. This is a great padded tote bag! And I love the mixed purple fabrics on the pockets. It's reversable but who would want to hide the pretty pockets?

Nothing new on the knitting or weaving front... but I did get some more yarn spun. This is my Vacation SAL package from BMH. Mine was New Zealand. I had the merino/silk with the Violet solid. I started with 6oz., 3oz of each color. I ended up with 310 yards of sport/dk weight yarn.

Next up for the wheel is this lovely fiber that I got from Robin, that I plan on plying with the solid red alpaca that I dyed.

And I got some new markers made. Giraffes, aren't they cutie pies?

Have a great week everyone!!

F.I.X. Gift Certificate Giveaway!

The F.I.X. Chicks are having another gift certificate giveaway this month. If you purchase anything from any of the participating members don't forget to enter, we've got a $65 gift certificate this time!

Here is where you can find more info:  FIX Ravelry Group, FIX Blog

PARTICIPATING FIX SHOPS

ARTFIRE SHOPS
Yarndemon Designs
Blue Mountain Handcrafts
Bohemia Fibers
ICandyarn
Knottie Girl Designs
Prairie Fire Soapworks & Fiber
Modern Spin
Camel Shoppe
Lil Bit Of Heaven Fibers
Lylianmae Fiber Artistry

ONLINE SHOPS
Blue Mountain Handcrafts
Herman Hills Knittery
Spin To Yarn

ETSY SHOPS
Yarndemon Designs
Blue Mtn. Handcrafts
Icandyarn
Prairie Fire Soapworks
Camel Shoppe
Lil Bit Of Heaven Fibers
Stone and String Studio
Spin To Yarn

HYENA CART
Prairie Fire Soapworks & Fiber

Not much...

Not much going on around here. Just working, trying to pay bills, catching up on custom orders, a little spinning & weaving when I can fit it in.

We have heard from our Marine, he's doing good. A little homesick, but otherwise fine. Hopefully he will have internet set up soon in his living quarters.

Here is the little bit of spinning I finally finished. This is the 5 oz corriedale I got a while back from Blue Mountain Handcrafts. I ended up with 250 yards of n-ply, DK weight.

And I've finished my second woven scarf. I used Plymouth Suri Merino for the warp & my Seashell beaded handspun for the weft. I pushed most of the beads to one side. I also only used about half or less than that of the beaded yarn, so I have plenty left to do another scarf.

After looking at this last photo in daylight, I suppose I should have steamed the scarf before taking the photo. Oh well. I'll get that done eventually. :)