Covering a Scar

The Society for Knitted Upholstery, a group over on Ravelry, inspired me to get this project accomplished.

Bruce bought this chair before he even knew me, and it reminds me of him when I met him.... in his brown leather jacket and Indiana Jones-style fedora. Masculine and with a patina of adventure. Well, the chair has been weathered by a bit too much adventure since then, and it needed help!

A pound of Gulf Coast Native wool from Running Moon Farm, from my stash, was perfect for the project. Bulky spinning went fast on my Spindlewood spindle.... the wool was already clean, and I simply spun from the lock (or maybe the wad...lol) for a textured yarn that suits its purpose well.

It is good to see the chair back to its old self, except better.

Pretty is as Pretty Does: A Wheel of My Own

She's smooth, she's versatile, she is just what I need. She's not picky or demanding, and for a wheel, she's fairly independent. The sound of her is like dragonfly wings, so quiet.....

My friend Cary, who is a Louet dealer, brought her yesterday. (Cary has also tagged me for a meme..... must get to that!)

Julia is no spindle. With a spindle, I know how fast to start it spinning, how to draft, what weight to choose to get the yarn I want. With the wheel, smooth as she is, the adjustments are different, and I have a lot to learn. But I did manage to turn out one very soft and uneven two-ply bit of Diamond's 19 micron alpaca. Does it look soft to you? Well, it is softer yet.

It will be a pleasure to learn on this stuff.

Picnics

Fun, even if they are just a carrot muffin on a blanket in the backyard.

From Butterfly to Batt, Yarn to Shrug

Reading -in- Bed shrug by Pam Allen, available for free dowload from Interweave Knits. The Loop club batt was inspired by butterflies....(she sent pictures of butterflies, I chose a pink and brown one)... and the shrug lace pattern looks like butterflies to me!

I made the sleeves longer, and added a crochet edge in the back for length and proper draping.

And yes, I do need to weave in the ends.....

Yarns of the Week

Spunky Eclectic Rosebud, for Verity's socks

Spunky Eclectic Flowering Weeds, for Benjamin's socks

Susan's Spinning Bunny, Victorian Rose, 250 yards tussah silk singles, for the shop

In Which The Family Farm Goes Alpaca

Pucci and Riana's fiber



On the morning that we moved to Michigan, I got the news. My Grandpa had died, peacefully, in the night. I had been able to say goodbye to him in the summer, and I had sensed then that it was goodbye. I rejoiced that he was with his Saviour. But for myself, my heart was sore. I would not be able to make it to the funeral, and I felt the ties to my extended family being torn away. How long would it be before the farm was sold, before all the things that kept us together had gone? This was one of the last times we would be together, aunts, uncles and cousins, and I was missing it.

But God is so good. Sometimes life holds sorrows we cannot imagine. Sometimes it holds special surprises.

My Grandma with Diamond

My uncle and aunt decided to start at an alpaca farm at Grandma's. The farm would be a real farm again! A fiber farm. Wow. It couldn't get much better than that!, I thought. But it did.

The alpacas have been bought, but are living at another farm right now until our farm is made ready. So my aunt was surprised to get this year's shearing. She wrote me.... would you like to spin it for us to sell?

Ummm...... would I? Does the phrase "briar patch" come to mind?

So here we are, with approximately 23 lbs of the most beautiful alpaca you can imagine.

Nice soft place to sprawl!

Here we are, and I will get a wheel to spin it
.

I will spin threads, yarns, ties to the farm where my grandfathers and mothers sweated and bled and laughed and wept for almost two hundred years, and where I have sweated and laughed and dropped my own tears. I will spin threads, yarns, that will hold me a little closer to my family in spite of all the miles between us. So sweet.


my cousin Lisa with Earliglow, our first cria. She is named after the first berries Grandpa grew back when the farm was a strawberry farm.