hi ho come to the fair!

we made our now annual trek to the nys fair yesterday. we were accompanied by my home herd......of humans. i wanted them to have the experience, because there is nothing like it. i remember going as a teenager with friends ... and it hasn't changed much which is a good thing!

so... jess and i demo'd spinning for four hours in the wool center

we learned how to navajo ply. it is a skill that i've wanted to acquire, but didn't know where to get it! a gal in the wool center showed us and then watched me practice on jessica's bobbin. good thing to have friends.

we strolled the fair grounds sampling the quarter milk, dollar potatoe and all the displays. for the first time, i made some purchases (i think it was stress from having the herd with me)

the mass of humanity is overwhelming! 77,000 people = lots of people!

ended the day happy and replete.....

can't wait til next year.

it's not fiber...

but it is connected. my fiber fiend, oops friend, amy also has peaches on her farm. so..... after enjoying a basket i jumped when she offered me some more. a lot more.

it is becoming increasingly apparent that i often jump, no leap, no propel myself down these rabbits holes with only a brief thought of the consequences. i'll query `what's the worst that could happen?` and if it isn't death or dismemberment, i'm there! usually in a big way.

behold~

yes, that is 6 quarts of canned peaches. my first canning attempt ever!

thank the goddess that i had jessica here to keep me on the straight and narrow....reading the recipe, peeling the peaches, laughing with me not at me, (but this could just be my imagination)

they look great and appear to be sealed.

i'm thinking i'll do applesauce next.

why the bobbins were full

i finally finished this.......




my lovely sister modeling the yarn on bobbin, freshly plyed....








spring meadow from nistock farms and 90% lamb/10% silk blend. and i say finally because it seemed like it took f o r e v e r for me to spin and ply this. as i was chugging along i realized that this was why i had so many parially filled bobbins. i was struggling to complete the tough spinning and easily distracted by a new fiber. since i have several bobbins for my wheel, well you can see where this went.
so i pledged to stick to one at a time and vary the fibers that i do.

so here is the next project. alpaca/ wool blend from stone edge fiber..... it is yummy!


oh... i varied my location..... pool side today!

spinning day

the third saturday's of each month are my treasured spinning days. a day to spend with other fiber enthusiast's doing what we do best. wearing my 2008 tour t~shirt, i shared my achievement with the group...and then entered my product into the festival competition.

on the heels of the tour idea., my fiber guru (aka amy) formulated a plan to present the guild with our own challenge. it will soon become apparent to anyone who reads this blog that i am always up for a challenge. i am your go-to girl for any new creative endeavor. most times this has culminated in a very cool experience...but there are those times where the learning curve hurt. this does not ever slow me down!

the challenge??? we asked the members to choose a fiber, spin it and knit a scarf using the same pattern. the pattern is the morning surf scarf found in the latest issue of spin-off. there were several that came to the meeting and they are gorgeous! we asked each participant to document their progress with photos and written word. there was lots of interest from the petite group that was there. we'll do a check in at the december meeting and hopefully get more on board. the plan is to have all these creations displayed at the 2009 festival. woo hoo!

so now, i've got a plan for the fiber on my bobbin!

what a week

so, this week my partner and i celebrated a milestone....... twenty~five years of wedded bliss! it seems like we've been together much longer and yet i can't quite figure out where those years went to.

i was not the fiber addict then that i am today.... i didn't even have a fiber bone in my body.





but since this is my fiber blog...here's the poop. i did not get my spinning done this week... i'm hoping to make up for it this weekend.

i did get knitting done. i'm up to 8 inches on the vest. we've been having fun traveling around the area.



here we are at seabreeze park. if you live in the area, make this a destination stop! we have been going annually for about ten years. it is a family park.... clean, safe, well run..... an awesome time. as the kiddies grow we do even more stuff.


here's the vest enjoying some time by the wave pool





i was getting many the interested glance as folks walked by and saw us together.







here's the view of lake ontario. it was an amazingly fun time....and i did get quite a few stitches done.



tomorrow..... spinning will rule!

yarn tasting

so, last night was an event that i look forward to immensely! my lys hostessess a 'yarn~tasting' and that is exactly what we do. we invade her shop like locust, fall onto all the yarn, grab up as much as we can tote, then sit back.... chat with like minded folks.... drink some wine... nibble snacks..... and have a grand time! i'm proud to say that i have missed but one event, and that was to attend msw 2008.

here i am at check-out.... looking alittle shell shocked! i have enough yarn to creat three vests. one for my sisters bd, and two for me! i seem to always run the practice, i mean, first project on her.

so off we go to cc's for wine, cheese and gauge swatching. the pattern? one that pink lemon twist turned me onto. bonne marie burns designs~ chic knits. it is the ribby shell and i'm doing the flat panel version. the yarn? ryc cashsoftdk in a yummy, rich golden shade. {the one on the right in this pic} the other two are mine~ puc green and autumnal red. i got gauge on a us7, cast on and i'm rolling along.

cc is also doing this. the first time we've even done a project in tandem! she is doing the same shade that i've got going.

check out her website.....chicknits.com

must keep knitting, knitting, knitting!!!

sparkles

so, i'm onto the next fiber from the stash. this little number is 90%lamb and 10%silk purchesed as a newbie spinner ( i think my wheel had just arrived) from nistock farms. we took a family drive out to her farm along with jacknits and her family. the kids were thrilled to be going on adventure..... the men? well ...they came along. the farm is an enormous dairy farm~ now sheep farm located in the rolling hills of the lower finger lakes region. in fact, mighty close to the pennsylvania border. we went during lambing season and had great fun seeing all her wooly babes. this fiber was a treat to me, to set my sights for as i became a better spinner.

i'm glad that i waited! there is a beautiful sparkle on this that is surprising.

here.... a close view. i purchased 8 ounces of this and divided it into four ounce bundles to spin. well..... i was barely into the first ounce and felt overwhelmed. i think it's just jet lag from the tour, but i divided again and this is my two ounce bundle.

trying to spin it very fine to end up with a very fine two-ply.

must get spinning!!!

gift success!

the old saying of 'great minds think alike' was holding true for the queen's celebration. my eldest sister is our ~queen most royal of all that is naughty~ but we just call her naughty. she's the one that gives your kids ice cream for lunch, high sugar snacks at bedtime, sticks out her tongue.... all those great fun things that are ever so naughty! she also feels that in her position as eldest (of five girls) she is the queen. we give her that delusion.

her daughter was in charge of the party prep, and this is the cake that she made. see.... those great minds! we had not talked about my gift, nor is she a blogger, so this was totally genetic! you see, she squeeks almost as hard as me :)

so with my proclamation of most astounding, fabulous, the best even gift.... i asked the queen to open it first. ahhhhh, the sweetness of success! she was thrilled with her gator.

i couldn't have planned it better!

spinning on

since the tour completed i've been doing my darnedest to keep the spinning momentum going. since i was already in the groove, it has been going along well. and given the fact that i also caught up all but two of my knitting ufo's ...... spinning is all i got!

here is the lamb's wool/cashgora blend that i started a few days ago.

i'm really pleased with how well this spun up. it is mostly even and very soft. might just enter this into the skein and garment competition.

this is my innocent adventure. i went to msw this year with the intention of coming home with a fleece. i wasn't particularly set on a breed, just wanted the experience of the fleece sale.

jessica and i approached the area with trepidation, trying to figure out what to do and not look like idiots in the process! we were approached by a volunteer who offered to help us out. at first i declined, but after getting sternly spoken to by another volunteer, i took her up on her offer. she guided my through the process... visual clues, tactile clues, olfactory clues.... and soon i had myself a fleece. seven pounds of border leicester procured for all of $2/lb. hmmmm, did i have crap or gold. it went right into the processors truck and arrived during the tour. i decided before i packed it into the stash i should take a look at what i got. gave some to my fiber guru~amy, and she deemed that it was definitely not crap! so, i spun up and plied 4 ounces. i am thrilled to report that it is indeed not crap! the color is a dark, rich brown....almost black. not super soft, perfect for an outer garment of some sort. i was able to spin it thicker than i've been and still keep it even. i'm hoping that washing will soften it up. i still have 3 pounds of fiber, so i will have lots of choices in what i do.

i'm working on depleting stash and found an early purchase from nistock farms. 8 ounces of fiber ~ spring meadow.... 90% lambs wool & 10% silk.

lets see how long i hold up!