Out of the loop

I feel like I have been out of it for months and months- not checking anyone elses blogs has left me dazed and confused. Welcome to spring in a University! As classes wind down we wind up to get in next year, plan graduation and generally work to get the kids out of here.

Things are also busy at home- we now have six lambs, Out of all the photos here is Megan and Gomer. Megan is the tilted head one- she and Gomer are Soay crosses. Soay are an ancient sheep breed from the St Kilda islands. They are not sheared, but are rooed- you pull the hair out similar to an angora rabbit. I haven't had the opportunity to spin any of it yet, but the fleece is pretty rare and hard to come by. We now have six grown Soays and now 2 lambs that are crosses with Shetland. Tim is trying to get a Shetland cross that roos as well- not sure how is going to work for him.

Knitting- no photos of any ontresting. I'm working on a feather and fan scarf for one of my students wife. She arranged her Mom to bring me wool from Chile last month and I know she went out of her way to do so, so I wanted to do something to say thank you.

new lambs, new yarn and a soap maker

We had a new lamb born on Sunday to Pome II (daughter to Pome I), she is really cute and is getting around just fine. Birth for Pome was alot easier than it was for me!

I loaded more naturally dyed yarns to Etsy, more pinks this time, rather than reds.

Also a friend of a friend is a soapmaker and can be found here - I love her blog name!

I sold yarn!

I'm really excited to announce that I sold my first two skeins of yarn on etsy! Now come the dreams of world domination and the fantasy that I can do this full time and quite my well paying, but irritating at times job. So, I used all of the money to buy more yarn and dyes to use.

Thanks Holly!

I got my last Sock-ret pal package on Wednesday night!

it was filled with lots of great stuff. The socks fit great and I love the yarn and the chocolate as well!

My pal was Holly

Thanks Holly!

Does it count?

Does it count as buying yarn if I didn't pay for it? I bought some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino this week, but it was only three balls, on sale and I used my gift certificate from Christmas. So, I'm saying it doesn't count.

We bought a new Mac with our tax money. Tim seems to hate it, I love it. I just have a hard time with a few things, like hyperlinks, I can't find the button and I'm too lazy to code it manually. Maybe it is the mac? (Can you tell I'm the webmaster at work?) I'm even thinking hard about getting a microphone and starting my own podcast. I;m taking a class on Audacity at the library at work. For work purposes of course.

I've been doing quite a lot of natural dyeing of sock yarn. They are coming out really well, so I'm going to post them on the Etsy site at www.AncthdsFarm.etsy.com. (or look in the sidebar, for my mini etsy shop- Thanks Lavender sheep http://lavendersheep.blogspot.com/ for pointing out this was possible) I was afraid that the colors would run, but they are pretty firmly fixed. I can't wait to cast on a pair for myself.



I've decided to use names from old sitcom tv shows- we'll see how it goes

we got into Rhinebeck!

I can't believe it, I had always heard that it years and years to get into Rhinebeck as vendors, but somehow we were asked to come after we applied.

It may have something to do with being an outside vendor, but I'm really excited- now I just have a ton of dyeing to do. We have this tent and it looks so cool set up
We bought it from tentsmiths a few years ago and everyone comments on how great a tent it is-

I can't believe the Connecticut show is in six weeks. I have so much work to do-

51 days!

i can't believe I've been 51 days without buying yarn! I've been working really gard at using stash yarns this Spring and it is going pretty weel. To begin with I had a six foot cabinet stuffed full of yarns, plus it was beginning to overload onto the floor in front of the cabinet as well.

The funny thing is I really only had enough in my stash for two sweaters, the rest is all sock yarn, homespun and odd balls I picked up for smaller projects. So, it is dwindling slowly.

Another thing is I took a hard look at all of the ayrns I was keeping as special things, the yarn I bought in Uruguay, what I bought in San Francisco and decided it was time to begin using it. Why do I hold onto these balls of yarn with no projects in mind. So, the Uruguayan yarn became a scarf for Tater, the SF yarn will become a gift.

Lastly, I took a look at all of those odd balls and leftovers and made some hard decisions. I bagged up three large grocery bags and am planning to send it all to a women's halfway house in PA. I certainly can't use it all, or never will and maybe these women can get something out of it. I have the info if anyone is interested.

Update!!!

Well I think maybe the snarky post worked- I did get a thank you

And I would like to say thankyou to my Sock-ret pal who sent me an unexpected extra - a llama calendar. My kids took it off somewhere, or I would photograph it for the blog. I really need to get thier rooms cleaned out.

More updates, we had a long talk this past weekend regarding the fiber mill and have decided to open it for the public again. Tim ordered soap and that is in- so the webpage is up, we are in business again. I think selling the roving on Etsy helped his decision along. Also, we did make changes, we will no longer take merino, ramboillet, targee, southdown or anything really fine that is impossible to clean. if it comes in clean we can do it but otherwise it just took so much time and resources, it wasn't worth it financially. I will be taking on a bit more, doing the emails and helping more at night and on weekends. I should be able to know, my job is calmed down since I started just after we opened the mill 4 years ago.

I will supplement with naturally dyed yarns and sell those at the sheep and wool fairs. We have applied to get into Rhinebeck and I have my fingers crossed. We expect to be at Connecticut and Massachusetts (we hope for Mass anyway!). For anyone interested, here is our webpage
Ancient Threads Farm & Fiber Mill.


I really enjoy the wool business and the customers, it is just hard not to have the regular income that normal employment brings.

Shouldn't I at least get a thank you?

Ok, so I sent one of my secret-gift exchange (unnamed to protect everyone) pal her gift a little late. I think it was Feb 9 th or something when it was supposed to be out on Jan 31. And I have the thing from the postoffice that says it was delivered just a few short days later. Wouldn't good manners dictate that said spoliee would at least say thank you. I'm not looking for effusive thanks or her first born kid, but an acknowledgement would be appreciated. I had to email her last time just to make sure she got it before I got a thank you. Now I understand work, kids, home blah, blah blah, but I have all those things too and I still get to say thank you in a resonable time frame, (two weeks seems reasonable to me).

To my former pals and current pals, I always appreciated everything you sent, and Margarethe I working on a pay it forward now, Arwen got in my way. With warmer weather here today I'm glad I finished in time for yesterday.

Fyberduck- My friend Michele has taken on the neckwarmer project and reports back that it looks great

Arwen is done!

I'm not ever sure if I ever mentioned I was working on this. Since I am such a bad blogger. I started A Cardigan for Arwn sometine in early-mid Janurary and have been working on her ever since. I'm really pleased with the final sweater. While it is boxy and shapeless- it is a casual cardigan, and I'm good with that- I'm boxy and roundish, so take that into account.

The front shot with grinning idiot with multiple chins partially cut out.




and the back shot of the hood

Yarn: baabaa joes wool packs in Forest - ply was 10 I think. I used about 4 packs of 250 yards each. and I had very little yarn left in the end.

Source: My stash- I bought tons of this yarn last year when Stephanie of Wool N Word had her fire sale last year. It was about $18 for five wool packs, so I have one left in the green and five left in a natural brown. the yarn despite being sold after the firwe didn't smell of smoke at all.








The problem- I don't know what to do next. I have almost nothing on the needles- lets think
Jake's alpaca afghan- yeah right (destined for the frog pond- I discovered I despise feather and fan in this year)
My spiral sweater- also not going to happen- major issues with this one - I wasn't ready to design at the time.
Jake's cashmenre hat- I knot this once and the yarn (panache from Knitpicks) just isn't meant to keep its shape, after three weeks it was about a foot too long and looked like that kid from Fat Albert, you know the one with the hat half way down his face. I ripped it and am reknitting with a strand of merino added.
Jake's scarf- I took some left over Panache and added in a strand of my navajo plied shades and knit them together. The color looks great together.

But, wait Feb is almost over, can i wait to finish all of the cold weather stuff till later- do they really need hats, mittens, and scarves for this time of year?

Hat re-do

Tim mentioned a while ago he wanted a new hat, so I spun up some of Freya's fleece for him. Freya is an emsket Shetland ewe. Emsket is a grey/blue mix and it tends to be somewhat rare, so she is a special girl.

I spun it fairly fine and then chain plyed it, or navajo plied it into a three ply yarn. So, it became a fairly bulky yarn taht I then knit in a waffle knit hat. Well, it was way too big. I made the mistake of not making the ribbing on a smaller needle, so it streached out, and really didn't keep the hat in his head.

So, I decided to use my steeking skills and do some surgery.

I measured Tim's head and then the hat, measured again, and then cut out about 4 ribs of the hat. At the top, I stopped before cutting thru the tie-off at the top and cut my steeked part off of the center. I was going to graft them togther, but it was really difficult to see the stitches, so I just ended up seaming it up the back, and he wears the seam to the back. Here it is all finished and about 4" smaller-

Typical sock photos

Well it is the standard sock photo
but I'm really proud of the yarn. It is Knitpicks Bare that I dyed in natural dyes, using Lac and Logwood purple I got a mix of purply grey and pinks that I really like. i didn't expect it to be so stripey, but I'm ok with that.

Etsy store

I finally posted some of the roving we have laying around to my Etsy store. Check them out if you like. There are a few I priced high, as I don't really want to part with them, but if they go, so be it.

I've been working on quite a few projects, Jake got a hat made from Panache from KnitPicks in Cranberry, Tim got one made of homespun and I have been working on A cardigan for Arwen from the Interweave Knits Winter 2006 for me. I bought the yarn last May from Stephanie when she had her fire sale. it is BaabaaJoes woolpacks in the 10 and color is forest green. I really like how it is coming out.

The back is done and I am 2/3 done on one front/sleeve. This pattern is really fun, the cableing isn't too extensive, yet the pattern is intresting enought to keep me awake. The back nearly killed me with the stockineet, but I did it first knowing I would never get it done if I did the fronts first. I know there are several knitalongs for this, but I can't face another swap/Kal etc yet.

I need to finish and send off my SP9 package, but I will probably miss the 31st deadline. I'm almost there. I did get the Sock-ret thing done at long last.

New year, new stuff

I have a lot of things to say thank you for...

First, to Fyberduck who sent me this neckwarmer as a thank you to my pay it forward gift last Fall. The purple/blue was yarn she intended to use in the One skein swap and something unfortunate happened to it, so she sent something else. After saving what she could, she sent me this. It is a bit too small to fit my fat neck, so I am working on taking the skein she sent me in the summer and reworking it into a scarf.

And my SP9 pal, revealed herself with this package
It is a great felted bag that she handdyed the wool and knit. It has the cute little side bag that is felted onto one of the handles. My kids tried to claim it, but I finally got it away from them. it is a perfect size for my smaller WIP's that I carry to work. And just in time, I was teased the other day for using ziplocs to carry all of my projects. I Thanks you Margareth from Austria!

What happened?

What happened to winter? i worked all summer on new things to wear and now it barely goes below 40 degrees? Well today we got down to 34- I got to wear my new pink coronet hat from knitty. I've also been wearing my fingerless mitts that Fyberduck sent me-they are great for this in between weather.

I've been walking- a lot lately, I did the Univeristy loop twice last week (3 miles for a loop) and did another 1.5 on another day- I also did the loop again today. With this weather, I feel like I have to get out and I am feeling better. I think my favorite thing thsi week is my IRiver. I loaded a whole bunch of old 80 & 90 music and put it in a playlist, so now I can walk to Come baby come and We are the champions when i walk- when that gets old I can listen to knitting podcasts.

I'm taking a class, Presentation Skills here at school. My boss is teaching it, but i am enjoying being in the classroom again. I keep thinking about the PhD, but can't really do anything until the kids are older. It isn't about the work, its about the time to do the work.

On the knitting side, I am working on my sock-ret pal socks- they are nearly there. They are out of Knitpicks gloss and to say this yearn is fairly inexpensive, it is pretty nice. I also started a new cardigan for me, A Cardigan for Arwen from the Fall or Winter 2006 Interweave. I'm about 10 inches done on the back boring square. I'm using some old Baabaa Joes woolpacks I bought at Stephanie's fire sale last summer. I have a tom of this yarn and got it super cheap. I'm attemptiong to knit everything from my stash this year. Not sure how it will go, but I'm trying. So far so good.

Sock-ret pal thanks

I revieved my sock-ret pal gift at a great time. It has been a rough week and I really needed those M& M 's Thanks!

Holiday shopping- almost done and out of money
Holiday knitting- getting there,

Mom H's socks- done but ends to be woven in- the pattern is in the sidebar from Funky Knittier Deb-

Mom D's sweater- knitting the button band as we speak- it came out really nice!
Dad's mittens- tops need to be knitted, they need to be felted (my own design)
Grandpa's mittens- on the blocking board
Dad H's mittens- done (completely!)
J's Teacher's hat- done - I really liked the pattern- here is a photo of Nate wearing it and looking like a hoodlum
Linda K's socks- done-
Eileen's socks- done (really a birthday present, but I'll count it anyway)


So, I was finishing up on a pair of mittens this past week and DH said, I really need to buy myself a new hat, mine is too tight and it always feels like it os going to squeeze off the top of my head. He meant his store bought knit hat- I just looked at him. How many millions of hats do I have to knit in front of the guy before he realizes I know what I'm doing? Buy a hat? is he insane. I have a stash that is threatening to take over the living room completly (and would if I had all of fiber in there as well. One advantage of owning a fiber mill, you can sort-of hide your fiber stash admist the bags of wool and no one is the wiser- you just call it "inventory") and he thinks he needs to buy a hat?

Thanks again to my SP9 pal

I didn't have the best of weeks, so imagine how thrilled I was when I got this in the mail from Austria!

Three beautiful skeins of handpainted yarn in a really pretty pink and orange colorway, and a pair of wristwarmers and toys for the brats. You may notice the toys again didn't make it to the photo. They loved it and so did I- Thanks so mucjh- the yarn is beautiful and I'm going to save it for something special for me.


The holiday knitting is coming to a close. I finished knitting the cardigan for my Mom, it needs finishing however. I knitted a pair of socks for MIL, my sister Eileen and my boss. They are all complete. I knit a scarf for my SIL and I made up and knit a pattern for felted hunters mittens for the FIL. I have to make two more pairs, maybe three for the rest of the guys.

My hands hurt. I have been getting up at 4am to knit for a few hours in the morning and I think I like it. My stomach doesn't like all the coffee, but I'm feeling peppier than I have in a while. When this is done, I'm making myself a cardigan, dammit!

Life just gets me sometines

It used to be I came to work and was bored on occassion. I maen like write your own novel type bored. Well that was in a previous job, but even here I occassionaly had a minute to check out blogs or actually update my own.

Used to be things got busy in August and it died out in mid-oct only to get busy again in March. well things are still crazy and it is all of my own fault. I was warned not to do a good job, they just find more for you to do.

Today sucked- really sucked. Last Saturday, I was all set to go to spinning guild- I hadn't been in over a year. I pay the dues and then never go, so I had Tim watch the kids and I was all set to go. Then the car wouldn't start, so I speant all day watching Vanity Fair- the BBC one and knitting on Eileen's socks. So Tim figured out what was wrong with the car, so valve was sticky and said I needed to get a tune up

So I took it in this morning- now I owe them $542 and my ride to the dealership went home sick today

Then I got a call from the school that Nate my youngest threw up at school and I needed to come get him- well no car to go, called the college where Tim works- they don;t know where he is- called MIL, she was all set to go and we finally found Tim

Now I feel sick- $542 for car repairs! just before the credit free christmas? I hope those kids understand why Mommy has nothing under the tree this year. Can I knit more things in just 26 days? I suppose easy fun fur scarves won't make it for all of the neices and nephews will it? Does the dollar store sell anything I can pass off as a real gift?

SP 9 Thanks`

I have been such a horrible blogger this Fall. I have no real excuse, but I was on vacation all last week so there are a few days I can account for.

First and foremost, I want to give a huge thankyou to my sp9 spoiler! I got the below all beautifully wrapped and shipped all the way from Austria! The socks fit great and I can't wait to use the yarn. What is missing from the photo are the gifts she even sent the boys- they grabbed and used these great little puzzles before I could get the photo taken. Thank you so much!

Sock-ret pal package

Thank you so much- sock-ret pal. I needed those M&Mm's that day! My package actually came last week, but I'm just getting to blog about it know. Last week I was on the road for work everyday but Tuesday, so Tuesday was a major clean up day at work.

So, in general it was a lousy week, followed by a worse weekend, so the bright spot of getting goodies in the mail was a bright spot indeed! I'm at home on dial-up so I'll have to add the phnoto tomorrow


We also got our first snow last week, on the 2nd, most of it is gone now, but it was definately there-