Ketchup

Don't know what the deal is, but even though a lot of fibery things have happened I haven't felt like updating the blog. Therefore, today is dedicated to ketchup, or catch-up.

The weekend before Thanksgiving I took a felting class at the Llama Store. It was loads of fun, but it was brutal on my body; my hands and back in particular. I still need to felt my pieces a little more, and I have purchased a needle felting kit for just that purpose. It was a jolly group; there were five of us. I only knew blogless Sabine from before. BTW, thank you again so much Sabine for the lovely chocolate covered marsipan. It has now taken up permanent residence on my hips.
We got to make 2 big pieces of felt that we have to cut and sew together in shape to make a vest. See, that's my problem. I am a far cry from a seamstress, so I fear those pieces will forever stay as they are.
Here is the front:



And the back:



I still need to add to the flower as I needle felt it. THere was just not enough time during the class to give it enough attention.

I also finished the luxurious qiviut cowl that will be a Christmas present to my mom. It hasn't been blocked yet, but I stretched it over an empty box to give you an idea of what it looks like. It is incredibly warm and weighs only 1 ounce. I had a whopping 2 yards left at the end, so it made for a scary knit.



Right now I'm working on 2 different projects. I'm making the Diamond Edge Moebius Scarf which is a fairly mindless knit. I'm making it out of Brooks Farms silk/mohair/wool that I got at the Estes Park fiber festival earlier this year. It feels wonderful, but it splits very easily. That makes it a little hard doing the k3tog's.



And then this: Elsebeth Lavold's Estrud from the second collection of Viking Knits. This is certainly a stretch for me. It takes a lot of time, patience and precision. I fear it is going to take me a loooong time to finish.



We are just starting to warm up a bit after a deep arctic freeze blew through the last couple of days. It was 15 below this morning when I got out of bed. It has been quite the challenge getting outside to feed the critters. Luckily all was well this morning; even Horatio our solitary rooster was happily running around.
So, this was a quick update. Let's see if I can keep you posted more regularly.

Shooting Blanks - or, It's the Second Hole From the Neck, You Dumb Buck!

Lancelot, my cashmere buck, must be one dpn short of a sock kit, I guess. Leslie came back into raging heat last week. I witnessed countless attempts on Lancelot's part to get the job done, but it seems like my educational procreation talk with him last time had went unnoticed. The poor guy tried a multitude of angles and orifices (I'm trying to not be too graphic here), but somehow he missed the finer points of baby making. If she comes back yet again I fear hubby and I need to jump in and assist. Ever smelled a buck in rut? Not the nicest perfume, I can assure you, but Leslie would beg to differ. Annabelle has not shown any interest in him whatsoever, and he hasn't courted her either. She might be pregnant already, but given his amateurish behavior I'm concerned she might be open too. Stay tuned for more news here at Goat Central.



Hubby was gone all last week. He went to visit family back in Holland. That left me a lot of time to work on the cardi from Hell. I am pleased to inform you that it is stick-a-fork-in-me-I'm-done. Unfortunately I'm very disappointed. I blocked the living daylights out of it and it is still very short, especially in the back. It is extremely wide, to the point of being uncomfortably wide. I nailed the gauge, and the measurements are accurate. Serves me right, I should have payed more attention to the specifics of the pattern. Now I know why the model is standing bent forward and sideways in the picture. Too bad; the kit was very expensive and I spent more than 100 hours making it. Remind me to never make a project this big with cotton. It was really rough on my hands.



This week I'll be very busy cleaning llama fleeces. At the shearing of my llamas this summer it turned out that only Apollo's fleece was high enough quality to bother spinning. That left me with Einstein and Lone Star's fleeces. What to do with them? Well, I found a purpose for them. I am taking a felting class this coming Saturday at the Llama Store, which means I have a lot of work to do preparing the fleece. Here is what I'm looking at to get cleaned. Ugh!



Occasionally I'll get totally smitten with an artist, be it a musician, painter, fiber-god(dess), or something else. This is what I have been enjoying looking at and listening to recently:
First up, here and here. I saw them on Jay Leno last week and had to look them up. I especially her voice. The band is named after the singer, Damien Rice, but I am awestruck by Lisa Hannigan's voice. I went to iTunes and purchased their 2 previous cd's and pre-ordered their new one coming out this week.
I found the most amazing spinning wheels online at Golding Shepherds. My goodness, that's truly art! Now if I only could afford one of them.
For those of you residing in the Denver area, there is a wonderful art gallery where a friend of mine is exhibiting her jewelry. Her name is Anna Blake. Go here to see what they are currently showing. There is even some shawl pins and some fiber arts.

I'll leave you with a picture of the skies on fire, taken a few days ago.....

Long Overdue....

I've been a bad girl. Actually, Blogger has been bad. I had a heck of a time getting anything posted. I've tried 3 or 4 times, but had to give up. So, what all has happened? Quite a bit. We had a wonderful spin-and-knit meet, got snowed in, re-arranged the livingroom furniture, to name a few.

A week and a half ago, on a Saturday, the ladies met up at the Llama Store for some serious knitting and spinning. I didn't bring my wheel along (the Kromski wheel is a hassle to travel with), but many others did.




I want to thank the ladies at the Llama Store for opening up their doors to our wild horde of women. It is really appreciated!
Then last Thursday we had a major snowstorm and blizzard. We got nearly 2 feet of snow, and the drifts were really high. My DH stayed home from work, as the roads out here were completely unpassable and visibility was down to zero. I love staying inside by the fireplace on days like these, but we do have a lot of critters that need extra care in bad weather, so we have to go outside several times a day to make sure they are ok. The aftermath is not so much fun, though. Massive amounts of melting snow equals massive amounts of mud. Yuck! I also have to make special arrangements when we have a big storm. Since we get our water from a well, we are dependent on electricity for water. I always fill up the bathtubs just in case. I also had to make sure we had enough firewood stacked in a dry place. Lots of extra work, but I didn't mind it. It turned out we didn't lose electricity, so all was well.



We still need to finish the house for our billy goat Lancelot, but it was way too muddy last weekend. What better thing to do than re-arrange the whole livingroom. It was a little scary moving the grand piano, but it turned out not to be as heavy as I expected. Speaking of the piano; I just signed up for lessons again. YAY. I start next Tuesday.

With all the stuff going on I haven't been knitting as much as I wanted. I did get halfway on the first front piece of the Twisted Sisters Jaywalking cardigan. I am so not enjoying knitting with cotton. It makes my hands really dry. I do like the result, though. Can't wait for it to be done.



I'm sure I've forgotten a lot that has happened in the last 2 weeks, but that my fault for not posting sooner. No, make it Blogger's fault. ;-)