fiber swap

It's been a while, but with the new baby and all.

Anyways, here's my score from the fiber swap on Ravelry

Baby's Room Done

Here are the picts of the long awaited Nursery. We bailed on the idea of hardwood floors for the arrival on the baby, so we painted the sub flooring. It wasn't the best idea, because the floor is very porous, but what else can you do??? The baby will be here in less than a week, so we had to do something.

It's been really hard for me because the nesting thing hit and I really wanted to organize the room, but couldn't because of the floor hold up.

Here's the best I could do for a 360 shot of the room.

Although the theme is Vintage Baby, somehow it turned into Petting Zoo. The crib is vintage along with the mobile. There are bits everywhere of the old, but with the BRIGHT colors there's also a lot of new too.

I haven't gotten the baby pictures hung yet, hopefully tonight. I also have to finish the belly cast. Here's a picture of me during the drying of the cast. I'm sanding it and will paint it before it's hung up. It was fun to do.

Goat on a Hot Tin Roof!!!

Well, here's the little goat on the roof of the barn. How She got there, well we saw that. In one big jump she got onto the half wall of concrete, then another little jump onto the roof. I guess she's got more pygmy in her than we thought.

Then we have poor Adder. After attending the Maryland Fiber Festival and getting a great deal on our shears we thought we had a good handle on shearing this sheep. Things did not go according to plan. But luckily it's like a bad hair cut, in a couple of weeks she'll look fine.....Right?
And Then there's AJ. The tree has leaves again and they irritate him so he's been trying to bite them off. Here he is in mid air going after the branch.

New things in our world

I can't believe I've slacked off so badly at posting to my blog. Well as you can see our little world is full of new things. My growing size is one of them. With only 2 months to go, it's gone by quickly. The house is full of baby stuff.

Then, yesterday we went to the Maryland Sheep & Fiber Festival. I got a very cool flyer for a spinning wheel, it's super big and I can't wait to use it. I also purchased a fleece, took it to the next building, dropped it off at a processor and when it arrives home in 2 months it will be clean and ready to spin. I'm in no mood to wash tons of fleeces right now. We also got the shears we need to shear the sheep and goats. SO there'll be 4 more fleeces to deal with.

Our big purchase of the day was this tiny little Pygora Goat. She's awesome. She has a wonderful angora fleece but will stay the size of a pygmy goat. Her name is Athena and she's 3 months old. She's beautiful.

When we got home last night we found a large rock in the middle of our pasture!! The rock gods were looking out for us. The goats were desperate for something to climb on and I said NO junk cars, or ugly plywood structures. So the rock search was on. They love it and are already all over it. Thanks a million Pap!!!!

The last really new thing is Duke. He wandered onto the farm one day and we finally decided he needed to stay one of the family. He fits in well and loves to snuggle. So, there's another German Shorthair Pointer to add to the family.

Spin Challenge # 5 CIRCLE THE WAGONS!

Spin Challenge # 5 Circle the Wagons.

Pluckyfluff issued the following spinning challenge in her blog, Holly of the fantastic fiber famed HollyEQQ...if you are not familiar with her and her amazing fibers...check her site out ASAP! Our good friend Holly has run into a whopper of a medical situation as many of you may know from her blog. So it's fiber-friends-unite! form of a spin-auction...a spauction!! Sandy from Homestead Wool and Gift Farm along with some other pals, is going to host an auction on her site of yarns and goods donated for the Holly cause. How does this effect the spin challenge you say? Well....every yarn entered in this challenge will be donated to the auction! So only enter the challenge if you are willing to donate the yarn!!
They have decided to call the auction CIRCLE THE WAGONS.....since everyone is gathering round and working together to help out a fellow pioneer. So that will be the theme of this challenge.
Challenge #5 CIRCLE THE WAGONS!
The criteria: this challenge is more open to interpretation than we usually do, so have at it. It just has to relate to the theme "Circle The Wagons". This could range from a very literal visual interpretation to a more philosophical take on the meaning of "circling wagons". Any material is fair game. this challenge will last one week. As usual, submit entries to The Yarn Museum.

My yarn - The Duke

I took the more literal approach to Circle the Wagons. All I could think of is the star of the silver screen - John Wayne. Rough, Tough and doesn’t take crap from anyone!!! My yarn is a pile of jute, cotton thread, wool, linen, and red sparkle fibers. A couple little homemade patches of guns, sherif’s badges and a covered wagon complete the look. Also, a second skein of wool, cotton thread and red sparkles over-dyed in a denim color help create a strong, cowboy themed set. This is not a cuddly yarn set!!!
Strength played a big part in this. We as friends need to be strong to support a fellow fiber artist, Holly and hopefully our strength will give her strength.

The New Phonebook's Here!!!

"The new phonebook's here!! The new phonebook's here!! I am somebody!!!" - Steve Martin in the Jerk.

That's how I felt yesterday when I opened the box from amazon. The AWESOME new book Intertwined: The Art of Handspun Yarn, Modern Patterns and Creative Spinning came in yesterday and I have a full 4 pages about my super cool yarn into neck cuff project!!!! My name is in print and everything.

I'm so excited!!!

The book is full of spinning techniques as well as patterns for knit projects.I think that Lexi put together a great book.

Snow Day = Dye Day

Since it's one great big sheet of ice outside, we have a no school day!!! I'm taking advantage of it by dying a whole bunch of fiber I have lying around.

I used kool-aid for all of these except the bottom right, I used a synthetic to try and get a "dark green/olive green". It turned out more blue then I like.

From the top left down

On Curly Wool

1. Strawberry

2. Mad Scientist

3. Mango

Row 2

On Dorset Wool

1. Grape

2. Cherry

Row 3

On Mohair

1. Cherry

2. Lemonade

3. Strawberry/Kiwi

Row 4

On Mohair

1. Grape

2. Tropical Punch

R0w 5

On Mohair

1. Lime

2. Synthetic Dye - Dark Green

Baby Stuff

Here's my cute tiger lamp that matches the fabric perfectly. I'm super happy. It needs a new shade, it's faded bad but that's an easy fix.

Here is a picture of the baby's room. This wall had about 6 layers of wallpaper and paint on top to remove. Mike got a little crazy and striped a little too much, down to the Sheetrock, pulling off the Sheetrock paper. So there will have to be filler. We don't think the other 3 walls will be as bad. They look to only have 1 layer of paper at the bottom.

And who could resist this awesome Cuddly Rigor Mortis Zombie? The were selling these at Hot Topics and I was afraid they wouldn't carry them in July so I just had to get it now. It's full of different textures, fuzzy, leather, satin. The top is even an anatomy lesson of the brain. =)

Our child will have a full understanding of the undead!!!

Spin, Spin,Spin

I was working on some art yarn techniques. Here's how my coils and nubs came out. First is a natural dyed yellow wool, dyed with goldenrod from the fields next door. I spun in some turquoise dyed curly locks of wool then added electric yellow and blue angelina fibers. Then I 2-plied it with a white cotton yarny string. The coils came out pretty nice.

The second yarn is dark brown llama spun with nubs of light tan alpaca. This yarn is super soft. I'm also please with this one, the only thing is I wish I had my bulky spinner up and running. I would have loved more than 40 yards of this one.

Tea Time!!!

I finished the Tea for Two yarn. The antique white fibers along with the off white lace spun together beautifully to create a Victorian tea time yarn. This would be awesome knit into a tiny handbag or clutch for an afternoon tea.

The work has just begun. I had a brain storm and new ideas are popping into my head by the second. Although mostly baby stuff, a couple ideas for yarn are in the pot too.

I must finish writing the pattern for the vest I knit for Mike. It's super cool and it needs photographed and written up so I can submit it.

Busy, Busy, Busy....

Tea for Two!

My mom asked me to go along with her to the local Girl Scout Victorian Tea on Sunday. My mother, sister and I are all lifetime members of Girl Scouting. I enjoy working with different troops and helping out. Scouts opened a lot of doors for me and I went places that would take a lifetime to get to see.

In honor of the tea, I had a brainstorm and carded up some awesome batts of cream colored wool to spin with a large amount of taupe lace along with this awesome thread to ply with.

I'll get to spin it tomorrow. I'm really excited to see how it will turn out. I'm gonna brew up a cup and spin away.

Holy Speed Shipping Batman!!!

Wow, I just ordered my fabric on Friday Jan. 4th and It arrived yesterday, Monday the 7th!!! That's awesome. It came the whole way from Cali.

I'm very impressed with the speed of shipping, the quality of the product and the price!!!


If anyone needs fabric check out http://www.sewzannesfabrics.com/ They have awesome kid prints, but the also have great florals too. So many choices. Go look.

I also got some P.U.L. fabric, it's water proof on one side with a soft fabric on the other. I think I'll be making some bibs and maybe even some cloth diapers. I'm soooo excited.


We also just got back from our Dr's visit at 14 weeks. We were able to hear the little ones heart beat and everything sounds good, 140 beats per minute. I'm on cloud nine today.

I really had my spin on

Yesterday at the PA farm show was really neat. I was spinning with 2 other ladies from my spinning guild. There were lots of people and the kids seemed really interested in watching the wheels and touching the fibers.

Of course my bright purple wheel always draws attention.

I was spinning up some purple Tencel. It's super soft and shiny. Oooooo...shiny things.

Now it's spun I think it will look good plied with something else. I just don't know what.I have lots of ideas just gotta get to the wheel.

If anyone is interested, a woman from my knitting group will be live blogging the Sheep to Shawl competition at the Farm Show on Wednesday night. Here's the link to her blog. Log on and check it out!!!! http://accidentalknitter.blogspot.com/

New Years Resolution - Blog more

My New Years Resolution is to blog more. Which means getting more organized with pictures and all.

First let's talk about the baby. Let's see, the little one is due to arrive sometime around the 4th of July. We're past the 1st trimester now, so that's good. I'm feeling pretty good. And now we're working on the baby's room.

I just purchased the last 3 remaining yards of Alexander Henry's "Petting Zoo" fabric I could find on the net. We'll be using this as accent fabric. It's very vintage looking and matches the furniture we have. When I was little I had a tiger lamp that matches the tigers on the fabric, so I have to snatch that from my 'rents. This has all kinds of animals on it so matching it should be easy, although there are no monkeys.... maybe that's better, monkeys can be trouble.

Today, Mike is out in the garage working on a repair piece to my new spinning wheel. I picked up a bulky spinner on ebay. This wheel should travel a lot better than my Kromski. I love my fancy wheel, purple and all, but it's huge and awkward to carry. In the next couple of months the new compact wheel will be a blessing.

I joined the Southern Cumberland County Spinners Guild of PA. We will be spinning tomorrow, Sunday the 6th at the Farm Show in Harrisburg. I'm very excited to be part of a group. I like to see what others are doing.

I also just skirted a 10 pound fleece to have processed. It's a little too much for me right now to wash and card huge fleeces, so I'm using some holiday cash and having it done. I didn't finish up washing my adult mohair yesterday. It's drying on the kitchen floor.

I've finished some project which I want to take pictures of. A mohair beanie for Mike, 1 pink sock out of 2 some day they'll be a pair, a water bottle cover which is a trial run to see if the pattern will work for baby bottles and half an elephant toy.

Knitter's Coffee Swap #3 Getting to Know You

I'm part of the Knitter's Coffee Swap 3!!! I'm very excited to be part of this, it combinds my 2 favorite things, Yarn and Cofffee. I'm Answering these get-to-know-you-questions as I guzzle down a jumbo cup of coffee. Yummmmm.

1. Whole bean or ground? Whole Bean

2. Fully-loaded or decaf? Fully Loaded!!!!

3. Regular or flavored? Whatever

4. How do you drink your coffee? Cream or milk and a touch of sugar - let's not spoil the coffee with additives!

5. Favorite coffee ever? I have to say that my favorite coffee ever was a Dark Roast with Orange in it. It had bits of orange peel in it so they got ground with the coffee and then brewed. It was awesome. Not that I'm a fruit coffee drinker all the time. In fact see #8 for more info.

6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? freah roast is better but on our new budget...any whole bean will do in a pinch. =)

7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? Boscotti

8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? We brew dark, so even the light roasts come out more robust. I dislike with a firey passion hazelnut and Choclate Raspberry. No reason for it, just ick, now isn't that funny after saying one of the all time favs is a fruit coffee.

9. Yarn/fiber you love? I love natural fibers, and blends there of. Cotton, wool, flax. Love, love, love. Handspuns are also high on the love list!!!

10. Yarn/fiber you hate? Fun Fur. - I have about 100 balls and I'm at a loss on what to do with it.

11. What's on your needles? Toe -up socks. Well, were on the neeedles...now 2 socks at one time.

12. Favorite colors? Anything, for real. I have a color that I tend to buy all the time, so everything I knit is that color and it's driving my crazy. So I say anything.

13. Allergies? Cherries - they make my mouth ichy

14. Anything you really love, really don't like, or just need to get off your chest? I really love art and all things crafty. I love coffee - tea is not a substitute!!

Spin Challenge #2- WUZZLEFUBBER Done!!!!

I finished my WuzzleFubber for the Spin Challenge. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out but I might end up felting it. It my stand up to time better and make a better crazy dollie that way.

Anyways, check out all the contestants at the Yarn Museum and cast your vote at PluckyFluff's blog on Friday the 28th!!!!

Spin Challenge #2

PluckyFluff posted the second spin challenge and I've been working on it in between everything else. This is my sketch. I have the yarn spun and I'm almost done knitting it. Here is the challenge.

Spin Challenge #2- WUZZLEFUBBER

CRITERIA:
1. sketch your wuzzlefubber and state your fibers and measurements.
2. all elements of the creature must be spun into the yarn.
3. creature must be knit/crocheted continually, following the dictate of the yarn (meaning knit the arm when you get to the "Arm" section of your yarn, wether you want to or not)
4. the yarn can not be cut.
5. the entire skein must be used

I wasn't too sure how to knit this thing, so far any good knitter is going to say what the hell are you doing but it was the only way I knew how to make the legs and not cut the yarn. I have to say that my measurements are off a bit. But oh well.

All creatures will be posted at the Yarn Museum and voting begins next week.

Spin Challenge Voting Polls Open!!!!

The Voting Polls have been opened for the the first Spin Challenge!!! I entered my Spring Showers yarn. To vote visit Plucky Fluff's blog at: http://pluckyfluff1.livejournal.com/13447.html?mode=reply

All the enteries are listed at the Yarn Museum.

I have more of my pictures posted on my site at www.DustybottomAcres.com

Yarn Museum

My Beach Baby Yarn hangs in the Yarn Museum, in the No Wool exhibit. I was pretty happy with the results of this spin. Spun out of hemp fibers, muslin, pink sparkle and fabric flowers. I want to knit it up into a summer hand bag. I just have to find the right handles first. Click the link to the museum to check out more shots of my yarn and lots of other skeins!!!

Deitch Reunion

Games at the Deitch Reunion. Mike & Jon played the waterballoon toss. TP mummy is always fun. Jon was the newest member - only being married a week. Mike with his candy price for guessing the number of gum drops. As always, lots of food. We took Brownie and she played ball. Shocker there.