Guess Who Was Born Today?

Happy Birthday
to my beautiful daughter



Guess what daughter mine?
It didn't snow on Feb 11...
I think the first time in your life!
I love you...you know you're my hero!

Old Knitting/New Spinning

This scarf was knit for my daughter Christmas 06 from some of my early handspun. The leaf stitch pattern came from an OLD Montricot stitch pattern book borrowed from a friend. The yarn is 2-ply natural colored gray/brown corriedale spun S and plied Z on my Mazurka wheel.

I have recently been spinning from a Jacob fleece I bought from Perfect Spot Farm at SAFF in October. I spun the fleece without washing or carding so that I could keep the fleece colors from blending. I first tried flicking the locks with my dog brush, and finally settled with randomly picking individual locks and pulling them across my cards while tightly grasping the end. After doing one end, I turned the lock around and brushed the other end in the same manner. When I had a nice basket of locks, I began spinning. I spun a bobbin full of yarn S-twist, wound it into a ball and then plied Z-twist from both ends of the ball. The final yarn has areas of both solid and twist/spiral color with medium to long color areas. I knit a pair of ankle height socks for grandson #1 with the sample ball, using some corriedale I had previously spun for the heels and toes. I am getting ready to remove the cast on row from the top of the socks and make the cuff longer because he was not comfortable with the short length cuff. I really like the way this fleece spins and the knitted fabric as well. I had originally wanted to make a sweater or vest with the fleece, but I'm not sure the color changes will be as long as I would like for them to be in a garment.

inkle weaving photos

Here are the long ago promised inkle photos from Fall Semester Appalachian Arts Class. Not the best photos, but good work from the kids. They had tons of fun and gave lots of handmade Christmas gifts from their projects. This class is over til next year. Sad, sad. Love this class. Spring is Art I and Art II/III; not as much craft in this curriculum.