Good afternoon! This is just going to be a quickie post because I’m running out of time as usual.  I took photos of all the flowers blossoming in my yard today in hopes of making a beautiful mosaic at Flickr Toys, but alas, I just have time to show one.  Irises are my favorite and I’m so happy that I’m having a good Iris year so far!  They just started blooming with promises of many more.

I have been SO BUSY DYEING this week!!!!  We have had SO MUCH SUNSHINE!!!!  I have over 20 rovings waiting for photos so they can go up on my Etsy.  I think I’m going to have to ignore my usual naming conventions and just try to come up with some quick and easy names becuase I just don’t think I have time to spend researching goddesses and plants and stuff.  Maybe the girls can help as they love names.

I also realized that I haven’t shown off my new Staples office furniture yet.  It was so easy!  I seriously found myself saying “That was easy” on a number of occasions. For example, one piece didn’t show up and was lost by UPS so I called Staples and they resent it. Then, IHA broke a piece in assembly, and I called and they sent a new one. Add that to the free delivery and how much easier can it be?

I like having the L shaped part of the desk out in the center of the room because I just know if it was against the wall, it would get piled with stuff and not remain open to be the work area that I need it to be.

Well, it appears that I have used up my allotted time and must start making dinner now.  I have carpool around 6ish, then a quick meeting to pay for the Girl Scout trip to Haispray this weekend, and then grocery shopping. (And did I mention, I still have to shower???) Have a great evening everyone!

The weekend that my sister and I went to the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival, we purchased a drum carder together. After discovering our drum carder is from Holland, we, being ever-so-original, named him Hollis and Hollis is so cool! He makes the best little batts ever and I can not wait for him to come and live with me. Yes, it is true, he is spending his first month of life living with LFG and all her whacky Llamas. I bet he is having a good time, but he is going to have a rip-roaring good time when he comes to live with me because I have all kinds of color-filled-fun-packed time planned for him! He is gonna crank! And I’m getting Agent K all excited to join me in some fantastic fiber cranking!

Anyway, I think it was just a day prior to my leaving to go to LFG’s house that my roving arrived from my Etsy swap partner, Foxyie from The Fox Hop. She sent me a multicolored bfl roving with rainbow colors that were dyed into stripes. I brought this roving with me thinking it would be a great initiation for the drum carder soon to be ours.

One evening, while I was visiting, LFG and I unpacked our drum carder (and the lighting wasn’t really that great, so I’m sorry to say there are no photos yet), christened him Hollis, and set to work. First, we tore off each strip and ran them through her picker/carder to help separate and open the fibers to make them easier for Hollis to card evenly. No need to stress him out on his very first job, right? Next, we just started carding according to the directions (plus, LFG, already has drum carding experience). We ran each batt through the carder twice. We ended up with about 8 to 9 batts with a very nice rainbow color transition.

We also had one extra batt that was sort of “waste” where all the colors were muddled together. I just used it for practice spinning. This is really the end of the carding story for now, but don’t worry, there will be more Hollis in future posts! I just hope Nigel doesn’t get jealous!

About a week or so later, I started spinning up what I think of as “The Foxyie Batts.” It was so much fun! I started with the orange because I wasn’t so sure how I felt about it and thought if I had the orange at an end it could be “optional” and/or I could use it to swatch. After the spinning was complete, I repackaged the singles onto another bobbin and set about Navajo plying. Strangely (or coincidentally?) enough, the yarn just happened to break when I reach the end of the orange. Not to be discouraged, I continued on and I do believe “The Foxyie Batts” turned into quite lovely yarn! What do you think? And don’t worry about that orange – I still have it and I will use it to swatch when I pick a project for my “Foxyie Yarn.”

The above photo is the yarn on the niddy noddy. Can you see how it is spun in sections so each color only appears once and then progresses into the next?

This yarn also really loves my crested irises. As you can see we had a great day for a photo shoot.

Ok, so I got a little carried away taking photos! Who can blame me? Photos of fiber and flowers are my favorite, you know.

So, thank-you so much Foxyie for being such a fabulous swap partner! I still have the other little battlets that you sent me to spin too. And everyone else, please, if you get a chance, check out her fantastic shop at Etsy!

Also, I have to send a shout out to LFG and LFB who have been married for 11 years! Congratulations!!! You two rock and I’m sure your next 11 years (and more) will be as wonderful as your first 11.

Have a great weekend everyone! Finally, we have a holiday — a very much needed and long-awaited holiday.

Did anyone just watch the season finale of Criminal Minds. Oh my.

Well, if you did just watch it, you will need a dose of something on the lighter side. I have for you a link to an all new very fibery blog. Click away! I guarantee if you read this blog, you will have more than your share of daily fiber intake. You will have so much fiber that you can share it with your friends and neighbors even. If only you could use it to fuel your car. Well, I guess we can’t have everything…

Does anyone want to guess how many photos of tree tops I have taken in the last month for my new blog header? Probably about 124. It is not easy getting the right one and then I had some uploading issues after I had the headers all made. They would appear like they were ftping but not really actually transferring any data. IHA showed me how to upload in my control panel so now I’m good to go. Here are a couple others that I made before I found the best trees tops you now see in my header. I actually had this first one up for a few days, but it didn’t have any treetops at all, its only redeeming quality was that it ftp’d correctly.

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Early in the season we noticed (we being me and Sarah and LFG) that the foliage was very red. Sometimes the overall coloration was more “fall” than “spring.” I remember taking photos last year to dye springtime colored yarn and I don’t remember that much red – maybe orange, but not so much red. Well, I wanted that color for my blog as it was time to move from the winter header to the summer header and the red matches my blog color theme more so than just blues and greens. Trying to get the right amount of tree tops with the right amount of sky is not as easy at it looks!

I bet you are wondering where and when I took my new blog header photo. I took the photo this morning at Boyd Woods (an Audubon sanctuary in a nearby town) during Agent B’s Junior Audubon session. The birds were really out today and we saw quite a few cool ones including an American redstart building a nest, a Baltimore Oriole, a common yellowthroat warbler, and even some baby bluebirds in their nest.

And I have a few photos from our nature walk to share with you…

These are the baby bluebirds. As you can see, they are real baby babies. Don’t worry, our leader has been trained to show them to us and knows how to do it responsibly.

Agent B and I just thought these were really cute fungi.

This is Agent B leading the group over to where she spotted 2 large black water snakes. Please note, I took this photo on mega-zoom.

I hope to have some time to put together a knitting and spinning post soon. I have been working on spinning the roving from the Etsy fiber swap that I received from Foxy at The Fox Hop. So far is has been great fun! It is going to turn out to be “rainbow” in that it will cycle through each color just once in ROYGBIV order (except that there is no R or Y). I’m also knitting the baby kimono from Mason-Dixon knitting, but I’m trying to make a larger size and I’m just wondering if it would have killed them to have published the pattern in multiple sizes??? I’m just saying…

Oh yes, and we also had an exciting event at softball today. I hope that IHA will write about that one and I can direct you to his blog for that. Let’s just say that Agent J was given the game ball to take home! (Ok, I’ll admit, I didn’t know that such a thing ever happened, but it is still exciting!)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

* I decided to go with reverse psychology in choosing my new tagline to get in the summer spirit this year. I can do it! I may need your help, but I’m going to make it.

Hi! Me again. I know! Today is a double poster!  That is to make up for my blogless Wednesday.  I’ve had a busy day so far today, but once again, time is flying and it is the start of my 3 to 6.   So much to do!  I started my day by going to the Grand Opening of the new Big Y.  I did something unusual and left my house before 8 a.m.  I also learned a very important lesson — no matter how early you leave your house, you should always brush your teeth because you never know how many people that you know will also be at Big Y Grand Openings.

After I returned from the grocery store, I put away my perishables (And yes, I did have some reusable bags –I bought a few light-weight ones with Big Y printed boldly over both sides.).  I then quick brushed my teeth, and my mom and I were off on our annual trek to White Flower Farm for Mother’s Day.  I bought a few things and she bought a few things. It was a nice little trip.  Of course, I have some photos…

This is just some fields and trees at White Flower Farm.  Do you recognize the clouds in this picture?

Tulips are currently the main flower in blossom there.

Here is my mom choosing her plants.

I ended up buying her that new coconut lime echinacea  that she has been coveting for a while. For myself, I bought some coleus, a really cute variegated geranium – light green with red flowers, and an all white day lily called Lady Elizabeth.  I didn’t even know I wanted a white day lily, but after I admired it for a while, my mom talked me into it.  She is a good enabler like that. She said I would regret not buying it and I think she was right because I sure don’t regret owning it now.   A co-worker was telling me about a day lily called Going Bananas and I saw the spot for it, but it was not in stock. It is a nice, pure yellow and lightly scented.  I’m adding it to my wish list.

So, I bet you are wondering what is going on in my yard right now.  Well, my Kerria japonica is in full bloom.

As are my bleeding hearts:

I have both the pink and the white bleeding hearts.  I put the photo of the white at the top of the blog entry to entice you to keep reading, of course.

Well, I better get going. The laundry has been singing to me and Agent J will be home in a few seconds and ready for snack.  I also have some rovings that I solor dyed yesterday which are waiting for a rinse and oh, yeah, I have to finish putting those groceries away…

Have a great day and thanks for reading!

My days are getting shorter.  I don’t know why.  I don’t think the days are actually getting shorter, because as far as I know, they are still 24 hours.  Why then, do they seem so short?  Is it because I’m getting older?  Will the years between 40 and 60 fly by in a way that they didn’t from 0 to 20 or even from 20 to 40?  I remember the days of my childhood seeming endless and now I can’t seem to get a grasp on my days.

I just had a brief phone conversation with my husband about this.  He doesn’t remember the days seeming so long when he was young.  I wonder if it has to do with my particular childhood.  I remember endless hours spent picking strawberries* or even more endless, picking rocks on the fields of my uncles farm.  My sister and I used to sit in the strawberry stand selling either strawberries or raspberries after hours and we would entertain ourselves by counting cars. We would each choose our colors and whoever had the most cars drive by in our colors would win.  I also had very long bus rides from kindergarten through high school with first grade being the most memorable as a very mean 6th grader had choosen me as her prey for the year.  My mother and aunt loved to have tag sales and we would have to sit and watch those for hours and hours and hours on end.  I could go on with all the things I remember as being endless and my husband?  Well, he doesn’t remember things being endless.  So maybe it is not that my time is getting shorter now, but I just had a very long childhood…

*Just to be clear, I loved picking strawberries.   I loved being out in the fields with the other kids or even some days alone with my walkman, but they really were long days.  I remember the first day I picked as a real worker and not just a tag-along little girl with my daddy.  I think I was 10 and I was going to keep up with all the high school kids.  It was so hard and I think I only picked 81 quarts that day, and I was so proud but I remember it as being the world’s longest day – that every time I thought it was over and we were done, we were just moving to another field.

So, it seems that Nicole wants to know more about me. Which helps in my goal of writing just a little post each day this week.

The rules: Posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer. Play nice, children.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? I was beginning my life as a Stay-at-Home-Mom. I had a 19 month old, an almost 4 year old, and I was expecting a new baby. I have to say that was probably one of the most difficult times in my life.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today – in no particular order? Work, drive track carpool, vacuum, gather and start laundry, water outdoor plants.

3. Snacks I enjoy - Fresh yogurt with granola, chips and cheese, frozen grapes (though my teeth don’t like them so much).

4. Places I’ve lived, in no particular order - Sandy Hook, Plainville, West Hartford, Stratford, Millbrook, NY.

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire - Oh my! That is just too much to even imagine! There would probably be a little (or rather a lot) of everything. First off would be sending the girls to whatever high school or college they could to go to then helping my family and town and the charities we choose to support and finally lots of home improvement for sure!

6. Peeps I want to know more about - Umm… who hasn’t been tagged for this yet? Let’s see… Sarah, Knitcole, Jenny, and Ragan if you haven’t already done this one and only if you want to and you have time:)

Have a great day everyone!

ETA: Post title, duh.

Okay, are you sitting? I have to tell you something and it is not going to be pretty. Remember last week and everyone blogged and posted on Rav about all the things they bought at Maryland Sheep and Wool??? Well, LFG and I went to New Hampshire Sheep and Wool and we didn’t buy sheep nor wool nor anything fibery. I know, aghast! We should have our fiber addict licenses revoked! We did have fun looking at and touching everything, and we sure were tired by the end of the day.

This particular festival has a huge Alpaca component and these guys just cracked me up. They looked like they were thinking something like “Hey, what the heck are we doing in the middle of freakin’ cold NH, you told us we were going to the beach.”

(Apparently, my lol language needs a little work, it is my first try, okay???)

Anyway, just because we didn’t buy any new fiber does not mean that our weekend was unfibery though. Here is a little sneak preview of what is to come…

Yum!

After spending Friday night and Saturday with LFG, I drove home on Sunday morning for Mother’s Day (listening to Dairy Queen which is really addictively good!). IHA and the girls gave me the most excellent of all days. There were little surprises everywhere and apparently there are more due throughout the week. I got to do some gardening, and then we had a delicious surf and turf dinner. My family rocks!

I had big plans for casting on. I was going to cast on for a crazy-large amount of projects just so I would always have something to knit to fit any situation that should arise, but once I cast on for Sock Yarn Blankie, that was it. I’m infatuated to say the least… Here’s my baby:

This is the Sock Yarn Blanket from The Heathen Housewife just in case you didn’t know. I highly recommend it. It is fun, fun, fun! And just as a head’s up – I may be looking to do some sock yarn exchanging. Once my little Vector Scale comes back from getting repaired, I have one single square that I knit to just to weigh to see about how much yarn is needed to make each one.

Guess what? I’m going to the NH Sheep and Wool Festival tomorrow with LFG!!! I’m so excited! I’m leaving after lunch today. I have Dairy Queen on CD to listen to in the car and I’m going to try to stop at WEB’s new bead store. I think it is called something like “America’s Largest Bead Store.” So in order to cram things into this blog post in a timely manner, I think I’m going to try a list format.

1.) Things I learned this week

a.) I can knit 2 complete blankie squares and give a knitting lesson during one softball game

b.) I made my first 2 batches of homemade yogurt. So far I learned that it is thicker if you do add the 3 tablespoons of dried milk than if you don’t.

c.) Sometimes websites that you order from have errors and it can be very disappointing.

d.) Some things never change.

e.) I’m getting very efficient with mixing dye stock

f.) This is more of a reaffirmation, but my girls are not getting vaccinaed for HPV with Gardasil.

2.) Things I saw this week

a.) A white headed warbler-like bird was in my parent’s yard. We have no clue what it is!

b.) Hummingbirds! They are back for the summer.

c.) The Big Band Bash! It was Agent B’s first ever band concert (she plays the trombone) and I have to say that the 4th grade band rocked! They were so good! And this is a band with close to 200 members!

3.) Things I acquired this week

a.) Fiber, of course!

1. superwash merino from The Fox Hop, 2. superwash corriedale from Funky Carolina, 3. BFL from The Fox Hop, 4. Carded fibers from The Fox Hop

b.) New office furniture from Staples. It is not put together yet and one piece is actually lost in transit, but Staples said they would reship it if it is not found. (That is quite a few very short words in a row…)

c.) They haven’t arrived yet, but I bought all new non-cancer-causing water bottles for everyone in my family to replace all the Nalgene #7’s.

3.) Things I remembered to do this week

a.) Bring my reusable tote bags to the grocery store 1 out of 3 trips

b.) Clean and hang my hummingbird feeder

c.) Listen to Jumping Monkeys

d.) Work on paperwork for my Etsy shop

4.) Things I forgot to do or just blatantly ignored

a.) Too numerous to mention…

… but there is always next week.  Have a great weekend everyone!