ack

I'm feeling pretty lousy today. It is my last day at work...

New purple yarn

Purple is a funny color...it feels happy and sad. Melancholy maybe... what a great name!

anyway: purple yarn

You will see some changes in my blog. It is not intended to be an ad for anything so the content will be changing to reflect that. As a matter of fact I have already made changes to reflect that. I'm truly sorry if it looked like an ad.

Grey

Well, it's grey here. the weather is grey. My mood is grey too. Tomorrow is my last day to work at the library. It is cold and a little damp feeling...i'm guessing it will snow. I don't have another job lined up yet :-( I'm not quite sure what i'm going to do yet. I've NEVER lost a job...and losing a job, even if it was only supposed to be a temporary job, is devastating. However...this yarn makes me feel a little better. It is the epitome of luxury. (i remember always reading that as ep-i -tome with a short e and i and a long o and silent e as a kid) It is a wool silk blend that is slightly more olivey than it looks here...with a bit of khaki blended in. Spinning it was truly fabulous. It is beautiful...soft, fuzzy, GORGEOUS. (Can you tell i love it?) If I don't find a job soon, I will be drowning my sorrow in yarn. Knitting myself out of this funk I'm in.

so, this picture was taken on my "dyeing porch" this morning. where i do all my natural dyeing.

Now...the important question...I'm starting a zine. This will be a small magazine type thing that comes out regularly (I'm not sure if it'll be once or month or every other month). It will be about spinning and dyeing. I'm thinking I'll title it: "Dye and Spin up" but i'm not sure. So...the question is: I'm looking for suggestions about what kind of articles you'd be interested in reading. I think I'll do some interveiws of fiber artists. and clearly how-to's and inspirational pictures are good but...WHAT ELSE? so...I'm looking for a few good suggestions!

and after the wealth comes

a mess....

We opened presents, a better year than we have had in many, many years. The kids had plenty...we had plenty. And what was left was a big bag of wrapping paper and ribbon. Toys and clothes and movies got put away.

We ate breakfast. Homemade cinnamon rolls. We have some left for tomorrow.

I made pork roast and stuffing and mashed potatoes and yams and olives and pickles, etc. etc. and then we did the dishes.

As usual I realize how truly rich my family is. Rich in friends, rich in family, rich in everyway.
Rich in LOVE.

I hope that your holiday is as RICH and full of LOVE and fun as ours. And in the end I feel fabulous that we donated to Doctors without Borders. If you realize today because you know where your next meal is coming from, where you will sleep tonight, where your next money will come from that you too are truly RICH...consider a donation. We were inspired by the Yarn Harlot here: http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2006/12/15/the_return_of_the_light.html
donations go here:
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/index.cfm

I hope that your day is filled with love and that you spread the light...

Summer Skies

I LOVE this skein. It is warm and puffy. Like clouds on a summer day. Laying on your back in the field, looking up at the clouds and deciding what they look like. It is 4 fabulous ounces of Wool/Silk blend. It came out puffy--thick and thin. The fiber was *Jar Dyed* in layers--mostly blue with a center layer of pale purple. I think created several of my *Blended Batts* and spun this up. It will make a beautiful soft scarf or hat or the like.

Well...my blog is acting funny. Funny weird, not funny HAHA. I typed this little blog entry at the top twice. Pasted it into the post below and it turned it all into a wierd link. Anyway. Our house is starting to look truly Christmas-y. Our tree is up and lit. We have candles on the bar. There are a few presents wrapped and put in the cradle. And my wheel. What more does one need to be Christmas-y?

I hope that whatever holiday you are celebrating--Christmas, Solstice, Hannakuh, Kwanzaa, Ramadan--it fills your days with light and joy. That you find your family close and hug them often. That as the days begin to grow longer, your love grows stronger.

My plan is to start recording a CD (maybe 2) after the new year hits. I will be doing a Christmas CD for release in October or so and a new Medieval/Traditional/Original CD for release hopefully in about March, just in time for St. Patrick's Day.

Summer Sky..

have fun

i realized lately what i've been missing in my life. I'm not having enough fun. SCA is supposed to be fun. One of the people i admire most in SCA told me once "if you're not having fun you're doing it wrong." It hasn't been fun in several several months. I can't remember when it stopped being fun but it was quite a while ago. I'm pulling back, quitting my office, finding something fun. My job isn't very fun right now either because it's ending. I like working, don't get me wrong. I actually enjoy being busy. But knowing that it's ending...I feel stupid and a little used. Christmas...that hasn't been a whole lot of fun lately either. My life in general just isn't much fun. I'm changing that today.

I'm pulling back from all the things that haven't been much fun. Distancing myself, whether emotionally or actually and I'm finding somethings that i like to do. Like spinning and knitting. Like dyeing stuff and blending. Like writing. Like hugging my children. and my husband. sewing. cooking. playing with my dog. gardening. (harder in dec. in SD :-) anyway, i'm sure you understand. Of course, I'll be going to work. But I'll try to take it all a little less seriously and have a little fun with it all. Look at some fun picture books, read something interesting, etc.

It's funny how commotion makes me reevaluate. Anger makes me rethink. When people you think are your friends belittle you publicly...you gotta reconsider everthing you've been doing.

It is advent. A time of preparation. A time to make your heart ready for the coming Savior. He's coming as a little, tiny baby. Nursing at Mary's breast. cooing and cuddly. FUN. I'm making my heart a little more ready. I'm making my life a little more ready.

How 'bout you?

awesome idea for knitting/spinning kind of people

If you don't read the Yarn Harlot, you are totally missing out on side-splitting, funny stuff. But this time she is not being funny. This post made me cry. http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2006/12/15/the_return_of_the_light.html

We chatted with our children. We decided to donate some money that we had planned on spending on them plus more for ourselves to this. You should look at it. I hope that it fills you with the same feeling that it did me...but mostly I hope it makes you take a look at your life...and spread a little light around!

close-up

 

more pretty pics

I'm loving this yarn. It is awesome. 

Pretty, pretty yarn

I'm really proud of this. It is gorgeous saturated color and wow...I'm keeping it! It is exactly 100 grams...so i'm thinking hat or something.  

autumn alpaca

one more picture of this pretty, pretty alpaca.

SHAZAM!!!

You won't probably get this reference if you've never read "The best Christmas Pageant Ever." But one of the little girls in the play insists that the angels come out of the darkest night: SHAZAM!  

Alpaca and Old Lace

So--I've been playing with alpaca. This little skein is silly and fun. Alpaca in brown and purple with lace and ribbon spun right in. 

I confess

I'm a blog-a-holic or something. Maybe more of a blog-ulimic. I sort of binge. That's it a Binge Blogger. I got through spurts of blogging well. then, dry spells. Reading my blog is a little like living in a those places that have "rainy seasons." anyway, now that i have that out of my system...

I 've been working so much that I have not gotten all that much done but I have spun some. Unfortunately I also haven't gotten a lot pictures taken either. so bear with me...

I have dyed some stuff. And i got 20 (count them) 20 pounds of fiber. I am so excited. I got 5 pounds of white silk/wool blend, 5 pounds of white wool/mohair and another wool/silk blend called khaki...but it's actually more silvery!

I did dye this gorgeous alpaca--i'm calling it Autumn Alapaca--not very imaginative i recognize. It turned out really pretty tho. I also have stuff to photograph today.

Today we went Christmas shopping. I'm really not sure what's wrong with me. WHY...that's all i can ask WHY? I know that the mall is an absolute zoo. Full of grouchy, unhappy shoppers who can't find what they want. So...again why? I can only assume that i was temporarily insane. Or maybe my husband was. First we decided to go out to breakfast. At 10:00 Sunday morning. Insane. IHOP was absolutely not going to happen. a 15 minute wait with a 4 year old should be considered cruel and unusual punishment. At least with my little red-headed 4-year-old. Luckily before we have up and just ate from a drive-thru I suggested Breakfast Nook. It's a very nice, locally owned restaurant that serves, well, breakfast. We had a lovely meal. With NO wait. Yay. Brenden (the 4-year-old) did eat 3 containers of strawberry jelly while we were waiting for breakfast. But...

Then, we went to Shopko. Not bad, not good. There are no Cars toys anywhere. Apparently Cars toys are the gift of choice this year. Like almost every other year we didn't buy them the first time we saw them. And then they were gone. Gone like wool left outside during nesting season. Gone like donuts (the gooey, sweet ones--cuz the plain ones aren't gone) left unattended in the office breakroom. Gone like pizza delivered to a college dorm on Friday night. OK...you get it gone. Gone. So...no Cars toys.

Maybe Kmart would have Cars toys. Maybe. Maybe they still do. I'm not sure that all Kmarts are like this but the one here always makes me think "Did you know that Spandex only works on young, skinny women. No matter how much that "tummy tuck" panty promises, those still don't fit." Anyway, we drove into the parking lot. Didn't run over the 50ish woman in black leggings and an oversized sweatshirt, with her 4 kids in tow, trying not to notice her yelling "GET OUTTA THE WAY JUNIOR." Anyway, Kmart might have Cars toys. I will never know.

Target. They could have Cars toys. Unfortunately Target is in...you got it... THE MALL. And the mall, well it's just full of grouchy people that can't find Cars toys either. Or at least that's how it's looks to me.

New stuff

These two beautiful Naturally Dyed colorways ...I'm calling the first one "Cinderella's Dress" what do you think? Interested in anything you see here? Leave me a note...I'm looking for great names for colorways !
This one is called "rumpelstiltskin" cuz it makes me think straw...but i'm sure it'll be golden when it's all spun up.