Presenting....."RM's Sweetheart".... the newest addition to our family. Sweety is a chocolate Jersey Wooly doe, born on Valentine's Day of 2005. She is very timid, but I bring her out with the kids at least once a day to get her used to the noise and bustle of everything.









Here's a front shot of Sweety....I love the Jersey Wooly head..supposed to be blocky...simlar to a Holland Lop's.

When she's more used to us, I'm hoping to get a better shot of her when her ears are up.













Here's a shot of her lovely wool...Jersies have lots of guard hair, but it's soft enough to use for spinning.

Here's the magenta and pink Corriedale X roving from Winderwood Farm spun into about a worsted weight, 2-ply yarn. It turned out lovely...fairly soft too! I didn't spin all 4 ounces though...this skein is 2.9 ounces and 180 yards. It's for sale for $18.00.

WOW!

Last night my husband and I attended the Billy Joel concert at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, NY....an excellent show with a record-breaking crowd...I think close to 35,000! Oh, the noise! I don't get out much to events like this, so it was a bit overwhelming at first. But Billy Joel is an excellent entertainer...fun, even at his age. Oh, Syracuse's local Harley shop delivered Billy's custom bike to him onstage...a beautiful red..it fits him perfectly! The funniest thing to me was during a couple of the songs, when people would normally have their lighters lit...instead of the lighters, they mostly used the screens on their cell phones. I just laughed...only in America!!

We didn't get home until after midnight...the kids stayed overnight at grandma's and grandpa's. We are so exhausted...between getting home that late and having my cat howl all night because she's in heat...we couldn't put her in the garage, because she escaped through the vent at the peak of the roof! I must say, cats are insane when in heat...I thought my husband would go out of his mind. My husband is picking up the kids now..it's so strange waking up without their little voices!

My new Jersey Wooly doe came home yesterday...she's beautiful! The chocolate color is even more gorgeous than I remember. I'll get a photo of her today and post that later. Her name is Sweetheart because she was born on Valentine's Day last year!

I'm off to do some Pilates and then finish plying that magenta and pink Corriedale X. Today will be a day of relaxation and rest...to ponder on what salvation really means.

This is a tulip I photographed at my mother-in-laws last spring...simply stunning! I'm really looking forward to all the color again this spring. Today is partly sunny and cool...still in the 30's, but not freezing. The temps at the beginning of next week are supposed to be in the 40's here in Central NY. I'm praying that winter is finally over...the outdoors is calling my name.....

I found this pretty hand-smocked dress for my daughter, but it doesn't fit her. She's too tall for it! So I decided to offer it for sale. It is size 6X and is in excellent condition...just needs a little ironing. Made by Polly Flinders in Barbados. 65% polyester & 35% cotton (From the looks of the tag...I'd say this was made in the 70's or 80's, possibly earlier.)

I would like $10 for this plus your choice of shipping. I'm also up for a trade! Fiber is the only thing I'm looking for right now...let me know what you have to offer and we'll work together from there!!
I take Paypal or a money order. E-mail me if interested.

This is Tori, our pet harlequin Holland Lop. She will be 4 years old this summer. She had her nails clipped today and I let her run around the kitchen...Caitlin didn't know what to think of her!

Tori will be getting a friend...there's a rabbit show being held just across the river at the War Memorial all day Saturday the 25th. The breeder I bought my Ashford Kiwi from has a Jersey Wooly doe that needs a fiber home! She's a chocolate...my favorite color in rabbits. Her name is Sweetheart. A photo will be taken this weekend and I'll post it asap to my blog.

This is a lovely Romney yearling fleece I purchased from Ebay for a great price! Total weight was 4.77 pounds. And the staple length is at least 5 inches! There's almost no vm and it's very soft for a Romney...softest I've ever felt. This fleece will be washed and dyed various colors to be used in my batts to be sold.

This gorgeous roving is from Winderwood Farm in Naples, NY. They have an Ebay store full of rovings like this!! This one is 4 ounces of a Corriedale X...spins up nicely, would be excellent for socks!

Here is the yarn in progress. As of right now, I have a little over an ounce to spin, then I'll be plying for an hour! I'll post a photo of the finished yarn once it's set and dried.

These batts are my latest creation and are for sale...I call them
"Woodland Jewels".
5.3 ounces
$16.00
~SOLD~

They consist of a natural brown Romney base and contain either Merino, a Merino blend, a Romney X, Corriedale or Alpaca. Also, each contains a small amount of white silk and the yellow and green batts contain a small amount of yellow and green silk.

Please e-mail me if interested.

My, the weather is crazy here in Central NY! It was almost 60 the other day and today we're getting lake effect snow. sigh. But I know spring is so close...many geese have been flying north and my daffodils are popping up. I'm ready to get outside every day to breathe the fresh air and work in my flowerbeds, however small they may be!

Here is another photo of Caitlin...she is just so darn cute...I snapped this photo before she took off. She was just sitting there in her pjs taking a break, drinking her juice and kicking her feet up in the air.

Is this pretty, or what? I started spinning 4 ounces of Merino roving dyed in these wonderful colors...it will end up about a sport weight yarn. This roving came from Winderwood Farm's Ebay store. I'll post a photo of the finished skein later.

This is a couple locks of some free llama fiber I was given by a friend. It's from an appaloosa llama. I'll be taking the kids this Sunday after church to visit the farm. I hope to find which animal this fiber came from! I also get to pick out a fleece on the hoof free of charge....the owner only requests that I make her something from some of it! And the animal will be cleaned prior to shearing! I may choose this fleece again...I hope to wash, blend and spin a sample before Sunday.

And this is two batches of gray Romney that I overdyed. For the pink, I used Fuschia Jacquard dye and for the blue, I used Navy Blue Cushings. The color is wonderful, but the fiber is not terribly soft at all...so I'm thinking of spinning it single ply to sell for felting purposes.

And finally, this batt is about a 50/50 blend of superfine gray llama and chinchilla Satin Angora wool. I wound up with 3.4 ounces. It is such a yummy blend..I'm hoping to start spinning it up this evening once the kiddos are in bed.

Silly Little One!

Caitlin was being especially silly the other day playing in my spinning chair. She moves so quickly, I was lucky to have snapped this photo in time! What an amazing personality this little girl has. She's almost 14 months...next week in fact. You can probably see the little shiny spot under her nose....she's cutting at least 3 molars at the same time, so that nose has been dripping almost nonstop for a week!! I should buy stock in tissues! ;)

Today I'm not feeling well...just stuffy and congested. I'm still in my pjs and loving it. It's 10:30 in the morning and I've already washed two batches of wool (Romney/BL X) and it's in the dye pot right now being dyed a medium blue. A friend requested about a pound of batts in green, blue and yellow, so I'm trying to get that finished up for her.

I'm also plying a skein of purple and blue Corriedale & Silk blend....I'll post a photo of that soon.

And.....I'm carding a bag of gray, white and black Lhasa Apso dog hair, getting it ready to spin. I use two small dog slicker brushes for the carding...it's time consuming, but worth every minute when spinning the fiber up. Here's a photo of the last batch I completed..not quite 400 yards. I believe much of this was knit into a shawl.

So a month has passed already....

Well, no kittens....I believe Gracie miscarried about a month into her pregnancy. She's totally fine and is back in heat again! Ugh...time to take her to the vet to be spayed....we had a visiting male cat this morning peeking in through the sunporch windows. I don't know if he's a stray though...he's extremely friendly and sweet.

These photos were taken two days ago. This is my knitting basket and Gracie was laying on top of a baby sweater waiting to be finished. She just looked so comfortable and content...our vent-free gas stove is next to the table, so I'm sure that's why she was in the basket!

Gracie has such bright yellow eyes...she's looking nicer as she ages. She's always been so gangly, especially with all those extra toes!

I finally finished knitting this cotton baby sun hat...it's way too small for Caitlin, so it will have to go to someone who has a newborn to 3 month old! I'd still like to make another for Caitlin, just have to use the directions for the larger sizes.

This is a granny square blanket in the making for a friend's daughter born last September. I found Lion Brand's Chunky USA yarn in the light yellow and lavender for $1.00 a skein at Real Deals!!! I should have purchased more than I did at that price! I love crocheting with this yarn...works up so fast...and the granny square pattern makes it go even faster. :)

This is our daughter, Cara, when she was just over 2 years old. We had visited a friend's house after church and had waffles with cherry pie filling as a topping. We have this photo framed in our living room...she's just so adorable!

Today is my day to catch up on computer work, but I also plan to continue working on the granny square blanket and spin up some lovely Corriedale/Silk roving I purchased on Ebay a couple weeks ago. Caitlin is about ready for a nap, so I may wash and dye some raw wool too. I know the time will get away from me as usual, so I cannot forget to make dinner for the family! 5 o'clock comes much too fast!