It's Been a WEEK?!?

Where did the time go? What do I have to show for it?

Well, I don't have a new motorcycle. We looked into getting a 900 v-twin last weekend but someone just beat us to it. His buddy might have a 650 Honda, will get back to us. Hmmm.

Beverly has done some more Photography. Again, from a 2 yr. old's eye view, here is An Evening In With Mom. Also titled, B's Eye View 2. Wow, dust on the laptop. Who would think?

I have 5 loads of laundry in my living room to fold. We are in the throes of the Weird and Ugly Fabric Challenge #15 deadline-approach. It is actually tonight at midnight. So not much else is getting done right now.

That isn't the only reason things are really piling up. We decided to open a shop at Etsy for fleece, carded fiber batts, and handspun yarns and let 14 yod Diantha run it as part of her high school curriculum. So we have spent the last several days washing raw fleece, dyeing, carding, spinning, etc. Her shop is up and running, with over a dozen shop hearts, item hearts, and one sale already... in 3 days. She applied and was accepted to SHEteam... but we haven't heard back from Etsyknitters. Stop on over and take a look... Fluff4Ewe.etsy.com.

On the left just above here you can see one of the handspun yarns we put up in the shop... Candylicious! This is 100% Montadale lamb that we processed from raw fleece. We dyed it and spun it into a lumpy, bumpy, fun self-striping yarn with just a tiny trace of the lanolin still in it.

On the right is her first sale... a carded batt of hand dyed pink Corriedale, black Alpaca, and green Merino, called What A Melon. Yum!

We've managed to nab a couple Treasury Wests, including this one on the left from Richard's Rossoaps shop, called Leather Up, Guys! and featuring all leather items. Most were made by men on Etsy. I think a lot of people think of Etsy as a ladies' marketplace, but that isn't necessarily so. Once in a while it is nice for the guys to have the spotlight.

Diantha got a T West right off the bat (savvy, or what?) She called hers Fluff n Stuff, in honor of her new shop.

She is, at this writing, in THREE treasuries that our own family did not make: Isn't SHE lovely (with the Candylicious yarn above), and SHE is Diverse and SHE Loves Her Jeans, both featuring her Oceana yarn.

My My7kids shop is an alternate in the SHE Loves Her Jeans treasury, and my HeartFeltFun shop has an item in a T called Song Sung Blue.

I have been in an incredible lot of pain with a kidney stone that seems to not want to pass. Almost 3 weeks now, and it is wearing me down. Well maybe tomorrow will be a better day!

My LIttle Kitty

Alright! Today I got the Little Kitty brand "Kitten" model drum carder that I just ordered on Monday. Wow, that was FAST! and I LOVE it!! It is oak construction, with an 8.5" wide drum that is 8" across. Just for fun I took a little each of 3 fibers I started to spin together a while back: a green Merino, a yellow/orange/slightly red Merino, and some red wool that had only been carded once. Ran them through once, and again. Here is the batt laid out flat...

and here is another view, folded in half lengthwise and rolled up. I think I will like spinning from the batt better than what I was doing, just pulling a little bit off each roving at a time. The carder works very easily. I watched some videos on youtube the last day or so, and so taking to doing the carding was also easy.


Today's block was an hourglass... also known as an X. Tomorrow's block is a string of X blocks put end to end, as a border or something for the Stupid Penguin Quilt. So what I did, was do my own thing again today, but tomorrow I am going to do 4 little bitty X blocks like the calendar shows, and put them together for my block of the day. Here is what I came up with today though, and I think it ROCKS. LOL.


Richie was off today, and worked on our bathroom a little. And I got pics of the Corriedale fleece I just got, and the Llama fur I got last November. The Corriedale fleece is 4 garbage bags full. Altogether about 40 pounds. Now you see why I "needed" a drum carder! Right now it is a dark-beige to pale-caramel color, so I think when processed it will be white.

The Llama is a silvery color, with a lot of dry hay in it. I actually hadn't opened the box since I got it in November, because it was compacted in the box and I knew I would never get it all back in! But curiosity got the best of me! I think it will clean up really nice. Can't wait to wash these and see what comes of them!

Tomorrow at 2 Des and Tony are going to look at a house, potentially to buy it. I think I will ride along. We've bought several houses (some of which were The Money Pit), so at least I know some pitfalls to look for that they might not think of.

Will let you know how it goes!