The Party is Not Over!

Well, this wasn't a Christmas present, but I am so in love with her that I have to show you how wonderful this wheel is! Please ignore the background football game, it was actually very dark in the living room when I took this shot, and didn't even notice the game on TV (and that was a Christmas present to Chris and myself). So, here she is all put together and oiled twice, by moi!


This is a shot of merino that I was spinning, and it spun like a hot knife going through "butta". I have never set up or seen a wheel set up for double drive, and I had a few questions for the Spinning List over on Yahoo Groups, but as you can see, I got it!



More merino, aren't these colors gorgeous? I am trying to decide if I should try to Navajo ply to try to maintain color runs, or to simply wind off and ply from two toilet paper rolls:



The party continues here, as we gear up for Caryn's 17th birthday next Friday! Can't tell you what she's getting as that would ruin her surprise! In the meantime, Chris is continuing to work on the barn, (we had 7 tons of rock delivered and the kids and Chris spread out while I was at work) I am trying to pull down all the Christmas ornaments and get my house back in order before Tuesday, when it's back to the real workday (inventory) for me.

Where are you Christmas?

That song happens to be on the radio at the moment, and truthfully it feels very apropos, it has been very warm here in Kentucky, the grass is still green, the neighbors were actually mowing yesterday! And we were painting:


The girls were out riding and next thing you know, here comes Caryn riding at full tilt with a runaway horse in front of her. . . good gosh, you know my heart went up into my throat, the husband threw down the paint roller, and I ran into the fields to find her friend. Well all is well, Whit is ok, (probably major sore today, though) and was only thrown from the horse. My daughter saved the horse from running into the road and got her corralled back into the pen.

Inside the house the stockings were hung:






















but not at the fireplace as we normally use the fireplace! They have their own place of honor at the front door - these were made the first years we moved to Kentucky, in counted cross stitch, before my love of knitting and spinning overtook my love of the framed needle works - (counted cross stitch, needle points, and counted needlepoint, etc.)

And can you believe this:


I have been trying for at least 10 years to get my Christmas cactus to bloom!! Yeah!! (Yeah, I have plant issues, if you are remembering my Jade Plant, which is still alive, btw!)

On the spinning front, I think I temporarily lost my mind! Well, sort of. I sold my Ashford Joy and the Woolee Winder that I bought to go with her. She was a fabulous wheel, but I never truly "loved" her. Does that make any sense? I have coveted the Jensen's Tina II for years. . . then, wham bam, I found Betty Robert's wheels -




OMG how, how, how can you not love them? Oh, man the dilemmas I have! So, I'm going to order one of those. . . oh but Angela says "June, you really need to check out the Tina II" and she describes her in just the way I have been thinking about her. . .Oh what to do??

Well, I ended up ordering the Tina II - the man on the phone says it's a four month wait, Darn it all day! Ok, next day: I remember there is a website that states they keep one or two in stock! But, do they still have one? Gosh, it's Christmas time after all! Well, they did! So, I sucked it up and bought it even though they made you pay shipping. What's $55 compared to four months?!


Now, I am feeling incredibly selfish for doing this at this time of year, but I am justifying it in the way of the husband, and kiddos are all done, and I am not entirely sure my Joy would have sold so quickly if it wasn't Christmas time. . .

A little progress was made this week. . .

Yeah! I got all of one mitten completed and almost 3/4 of the way on the second mitten. Almost done, then to the thumbs. That shouldn't take any time at all. This yarn has been a little hard on the hands since I am making the mittens in Noro on size 7 needles, it is probably just me, as I am not really used to working with double points anymore. I don't know what possessed me to buy them, but they are nice: CP bamboo in 6 inch lengths.

Have I told you guys how hard it is to get a picture without my cat in it?? He is a hound when it comes to yarn, so as soon as I take out my knitting - wham! There he is. . .
Think he's going to walk away with that ball of yarn?? Did I tell you I had to re-wind the ball that was purchased to make the color go the right way in this ball? What a darn pain.

Nope, Mommy said NO! Ok, then I'll just sit here on the hearth, hey, why isn't it warm right now?




Chris went to Colorado and back for work this week, he was disappointed in the surrounding views. We thought it would be a little more picturesque, but it turns out all he could see was flat ground. He described it like being on a ship (he used to be in the Coast Guard, 16 years before his knee gave out and we had to retire, we where going for the 20 don'tcha know.) and all you can see is water, but in this case flat ground.

He did a little work on the barn, he got the rake trim up and it's really is looking good. I think it's been really cold here, and I am amazed that he can get anything done! (We had lows of 17 degrees the past couple of days, thank the Lord for fire places!)





I've been spinning up the red lace and trying not to start anything new. I currently have at least five things in the basket next to my couch: BBS, Hyrna, Rosebud Shawl, Mermaid Socks, and Mary Ella from Knitty! Good Grief! So, my plan at the moment is to finish three out of five before I am allowed to make one more purchase!

I am thinking it's going to get really busy around here until the holidays are over. Bryan comes home next week (yeah!) and the holiday hustle and bustle. . . you know I went and bought one item at the mall yesterday. It took 45 minutes to get in and out of the parking lot and 5 minutes to make my purchase. Oh yeah, I love this time of year. . . bah humbug! All that to say, that if I think I am going to take a mini vacation from blogging until the new year. (Maybe.) So, don't worry if I'm not out here the next couple of weeks!

Happiest of Holidays to all my cyber friends!

The Continuous Christmas Present Search . . .

You know, every year it's the same thing. . . what do you want for Christmas? Well, darlin's I have to say that I have everything a sane person could want or need. So, what do you say to that question? Then there are the kids, that are not really kids anymore, but young adults. One lives away from us nine months out of the year now, and is not the world's great communicator, besides those strikes against him, he is male. So, what might he want?? I have no clue. Oh, he will eventually make me a list with all of three things on it, 10 days before the holiday, then I will run like a banshee to fullfill his wishes. . . something wrong with this picture, I think.

Then there is my daughter, to whom I could buy the world, as she is still here in the house and always makes her wishes known! (A bit more like me I think!) So, we went off in search of her Christmas gift yesterday, this is not a surprise, as she had to pick it out, as it had to fit her. Here is her new saddle for trail riding on her red roan pony, otherwise known as Blazer.



I've been working on my Mom's Christmas presents, the scarf is done (she likes very short scarves, so don't think this is a mistake!) And, I apologize for my lousy pictures, I don't have the same talent that my sister does!



and I am up to the thumb on mitten #one. I brought this with me to work on in the car on the way to the tack shop, and lo and behold, the fourth needle was at home at my seat. Ok then, I had my Elektra vest with me and worked on that. But, no new pics of that, as I am out of time! No new pics of the barn, as it's too darn cold and we need warmth to paint!




Good luck with the shopping be it for Christmas or Hanukkah.

Survived the Turkey Day!

Well, sort of anyway. We had wonderful company, thanks for coming out to see us, Mom! And we had the traditional turkey for dinner. I have to say that this was my best one yet! We went to the Ice! Show in Nashville, it was really cool, and really cold! It had 1.5 million pounds of ice to make the sculptures:



Chris and Caryn worked on the barn/outbuilding:



Doesn't it look great?

I started a scarf for a Christmas gift:



That's Noro Kureyon and the pattern is from an old, old Knitter's Magazine. I didn't get nearly enough knitting or spinning time in during this vacation, but after all, it's not often that we get company from Maine! Took Mom back to the airport, and promptly caught some kind of virus - just in time to go back to work on Monday. It just figures doesn't it?

My scarf is from Knitter's: Winter 2002 K69, this one is full of scarves and hats. I am doing the Wavy Scarf Ver.3 on page 40.

Won't You Let Me Stay with You? It's Cold Outside!

My daughter goes on a horseback ride once a week, and this past Sunday, the girls came home in her best friend's truck with this:




The last time they did this, Caryn came home with a box filled with tissue paper and this little guy:



I looked and looked for pictures of him as a baby, but couldn't find them! Harmmph!

OK, so, her Dad and I are big pushover's and we now have one cat , two dogs, and a horse. I seriously think that is enough! We have made all the efforts we knew to find his rightful owner, but after the vets, the animal hospital, and the local newspaper, with no one calling us, we've decided his name is Jake. He is now getting his shots and next week we plan on having him spayed. He is most definately house broken, and he is a calming influence on Bailey, Nitro tolerates both dogs very well, for a cat, but he took to Jake very quickly.Bailey and Jake are pretty well adjusted, although Bailey thinks she is top dog.
We have alot of this going on outside:



Ok, on to knitting: this is the progress of my Elektra handspun vest:



This is my mindless knitting right now. And here is progress on the barn:
The white part is the sun roof - pretty cool huh?

Daylight Savings Time Ends -

In an effort to understand why the heck we do this "spring forward and fall back" thingy every spring and fall season, I looked it up. Apparently it was conceived to conserve energy and obtain one extra hour of daylight during the summer months. While I concur wholeheartedly that getting that extra hour during the summer months is cool, I really, really hate the winter months where you are getting up in the dark, driving to work in the dark, and then turning around and driving home in the dark too! Oh well, I guess I can't change it so I might as well stop fussing about it.

I was kind of at a loss at what to show this week for fiber related activity, as I have put myself on a yarn diet and I am trying not to buy any yarn until after Christmas - WELL, I've made it a week, but as I said I don't have much going on 'cept those Big Black Socks: Turned the heel and look at that tension! Is that good or what? The slight ridge will correct itself in the wash, that is the move between needles -



I can show some past acquisitions tho, so here is LL's in Motherlode: Don't you love this color? I am planning on the famous Jaywalker socks for this:



And this is an artist on Etsy: Twisted This color is "Stone" which is a self striping denim - I have no actual plans for this yet, although I am not a big fan of plain vanilla, round and round you go, which is why I am struggling with the BBS's I think.



No update on the barn, as silly, silly Chris tried to catch a 16 foot 2"x 4" with one hand while standing on a ladder! Well, Good Grief! One jammed thumb leads to much pain and swelling, can we all collectively say "ouch" ? So, the week has been a bust for barn building, but it was raining most of the time too, so I guess he picked a good week to be silly. They are putting up the roofing shingles now, so next week it will really be looking good!

Have a good week everybody!

Autumn is in Full Swing -

A picture to show the gray skies, rain in the air, and the falling leaves, falling temperatures and general falling spirits it seems.



I genuinely like the Autumn colors that the trees show in abundance, but I generally start getting quite depressed this time of year as I know that the cold and snow will be upon us soon. Although, since we have moved to the south the snow is not really such a problem any longer. But, ice can wreak havoc with the roads and trees and power lines - so a backup generator is a great thing!

Anyway, on a fiber note I have nothing to show that wouldn't be a repeat of last week, although I did turn the heels on the BBS! As I mentioned last week I have gathered quite a lot of yarn that I know I will never use.

So go here: Almost Free Yarn: All I want for this yarn is for you to pick up the shipping, I plan to use US priority mail so that I don't have to pay for boxes or bags. If you want it just e-mail me and I'll get it in the mail for you! I'm giving this a week and after that all remaining yarn will be dropped off at Goodwill - If you can't see the photos, then sign up for Flickr and look under my user name of: junepot then you should be able to see them all. While your over there you should check out my sister's gorgeous photos too! Her user name is daj_klinedinst That girl can take a picture I tell ya!

Oh, but I can't go before I show you how far Chris has gotten with the barn:




What do you think?? It looks like a building now doesn't it?

I think I'm Out of Control!

You know how it is when you are perusing the internet and you see that lovely yarn that you just can't resist? Yeah, well, I am now in the process of cleaning up my stash, and, ahem, I think I have a problem. You know, like "Hi, my name is June and I can't stop buying yarn and any fiber related object." Now, don't get me wrong, I have never had to rob Peter to pay for my purchases, but I'm starting to feel pretty guilty about it! So, next week I will have pictures of yarn for sale for the price of postage, just to get some of this in hands that will knit it!!

First off the barn: Look at all those toys!! And he is upset with my two spinning wheels??? Nawh, he really is the best - Look how far we've gotten!



So, anyway, on to other things, I have been trying to grow jade plants ever since I can remember (and that's a long time) and this is the best I have ever, ever done. I wanted to transplant it and give it some nutrients, but of course we have about one tablespoon of dirt left in the dirt bag in the garage. . . so, next week I hope.




And on the needles is: Hyrna -














I am not fast especially when I have three things going right now! But look at this, I just love, love, love this color from Ms. Lisa:

Graphite:












And of course, two pairs of socks: Mermaid (for me in size women's size 6)






OK: This pair should count as two pairs!!! BBS for Socks for Soldiers men's size large 10 - 11, Good Grief they are huge! Men have enormously big feet!

The Best Laid Plans . . .

Well, I had planned to show you all progress on the pole barn, but instead took a trip with my darling, Chris and brought Bryan back to Lexington today. A six hour trip and one clean bathroom, a load of laundry, put up of groceries and making dinner put short work of this day - so I will proceed to take pictures and show all of you (what is the number now. . . 6 in total?) our progress next week -

Have a good one everyone -

Gearing up for Fall -

Well, as we speak dh, Chris and dd, Caryn are outside working on the beginnings of our pole barn for one said daughter's horse, Blazer:




The past couple of years we've been paying our neighbors to feed and board him, and recently our town is growing by leaps and bounds (we are even getting a Lowes, who hoo!) they are building homes on acreage the size of a postage stamp. With this in mind we purchased another acre from our farming neighbor and we are pulling the horse back to our care. I really wanted more room, to do a couple of sheep too, but Chris flatly refuses to deal with sheep. . . so, I have to be content with the horse I guess!

On the fiber note: I am spinning up some lovely wool and mohair which I have been showing you in the past, just trying to finish it up:





When it gets really stressful at work I tend to spin more than knit at night, as that is about all my addled brain can handle, so here's a picture of some wool I bought from an e-bay vendor: It looks rather orange in the shot, however it is really red with just hints of yellow and orange -





I am really finally getting lace! Oh boy! I am excited about that!

And of course I am still working on the big black socks:



Two and a half inches to go and I turn the heels! This is both socks at once, but they are so very boring - so, just showing the one!

The Great Adventure -

Ohhh, we made it! You just wouldn't believe the trip to Atlanta, it rained and it rained and it rained. Once we made it to Chattanooga I called my darling Chris and whined over the phone about the rain and ohmyGod we are going to have to sit outside in the rain. . . well, he proceeded to calm me down and Caryn and I continued on. . . at one point I was sure we were going to die as a FedEx truck flew through the standing water on the roads and completed obliterated my field of vision. Going 60 mph and not having a clue of the road or where the other cars went kinda makes Mom (me) nervous. Caryn says I looked like we had just flown over the mountain top! Kinda white and pasty you know. . . I don't do heights very well. All of this to say, that the concert was rockin' and Tom Petty (and the Heartbreakers, too) are just awesome. His voice was amazingly the same as when I was my daughter's age. . . man, I wish I were aging so well! The rain stopped it warmed up and all was well with the world again. I only got turned around once, and beeped at once, so I guess it was all worth it!

My sister (hi, Donna!) went to the Dakota's and the Badlands this past summer, and bought me this great gift:

Isn't it just beautiful? I think she said it's made of mammoth tusk? I don't really remember, maybe she will post in the comments for me (hint, hint)!

And here is the entire wall:Sorry about the light's pull chain in the picture, I just couldn't get it cropped out!

I also got a swatch done in the Elektra: One dark:One light: But both the same swatch - Using size seven needles - and I am writing the pattern for the vest as I go -



So, it's been busy and now I am collapsing. Took my MS meds last night and they tend to make me kinda sick (which is why I waited till we got back from the Great Adventure to take it) so, I'm back to the couch -

Tout Fini!

I did it, I did it! I finished up the Elektra this weekend!
I love the way this yarn has come out, however it is unbelievably hard to photograph! I ended up with approximately 1,000 yards, which is about what I was aiming for, I have a specific pattern in mind for a vest, and I wanted enough yarn to be able to swatch, swatch, swatch! So, now the basket is empty and I thought this was a cool picture:


I have been spinning for just about three years, and I am completely self taught, but I think this yarn came out really well. However, if you don't please don't burst my bubble! I hope the amount of photos in this post isn't too much, I just love my pictures though:
I have never two plied and got my bobbin so close before, this is another accomplishment on my part as I usually don't bother to andean ply up the end of the bobbin (ok, this is about the thousandth time I have written boobin instead of bobbin - what the heck?) I just normally pull it all off and into the waste basket it goes -

Caryn and I are going to see Tom Petty this coming weekend, he is playing at the HiFi Buys Amphitheater, in Atlanta, GA. I have been constantly hounded by Caryn to go see him in Atlanta, since we had to miss his performance in Nashville last year, due to a vacation in Maine at the same time. I finally gave in last week, therefore, our seats are on the lawn, (we may not be able to see the man without binoculars!) but I hope the music is still good! I just hope no druggie throws up on us or anything! It's a six hour drive, so I don't think there will be an update to the blog next week.