Hello!

My goodness, it's been a long time.

Business has been good.  I did three shows in '12, all of which were both fun and profitable.  I will probably keep to these three shows for at least a couple of more years as I try to pay off the business debts and get on a more solid footing.

I have had a lot of personal stuff going on in the past several years.  I can't talk about it, and I feel like I'm less than honest if there's a big part of my life that's off limits, but I need to get back on here and talk about doing what I do.

Just checked in to say Hi.  I have woven a couple of small rag rugs for our kitchen, and a long narrow linen shawl, which I am finishing with a knotted fringe.  The dyeing has been going forth, and I need to order more dyes and more fibers, which always puts me into a swivet about what to order and how to make my investment go the farthest.  Photos will be coming soon.  (I wonder where my camera is.....)

Cheers!

Just saying Hi

Shepherd's Harvest was great, but I haven't reported in. I have photos, but they're still in my camera. After I recovered, I ran around like a loony trying to catch up with chores, then had a living history event on the fourteenth, then left on the fifteenth to visit my mother in Michigan. I'm back now and will try to pry the photos out of my camera.

Has anyone gone to the national Knit and Crochet convention and how was it?

Thanks!

Mia

Colors

Just a quick pic to share; here are some of my May colors for Shepherd's Harvest.




Missing from the photo are the 14 new hand blended batts and the 7 skeins of mixed black alpaca and silk.

Stop in if you can, this weekend, to Shepherd's Harvest for fiber, tools, fleeces, food, drink, sheepdogs, shearings, music. If you are a Mom, you totally deserve for this to be your Mother's Day. If not, come along and have fun!

Cheers and see you there!

.....aaaaannd...She's Back!

click-click. Scratch. Is this thing on?

Ummm, hello out there....

I've been gone a LONG time from this place. Truth told, I had an extended domestic crisis that just used up all my energy for writing, and most of my energy for thinking. I have been keeping up, sort of, with the business, and the crisis has come to a head, freeing a great deal of psychological energy for other things.

It's a good thing, too, because I have the GREAT privilege of posting this image of my cranberry panda spun and knitted into a shawl:



Oh, how I wish you could see the exquisite detail in the original, but I don't know how to get Blogspot to accept that large an image. The spinner and knitter is Rina Rahardjo, and you can see more about her at

www.rahardjo-knits.com

She spindle-spun the entire skein--fine enough to triple ply and still get laceweight yarn.  You GO, Rina!

I was at Yarnover last Saturday, but brought mostly yarn (duh!)  I noticed that, in both the yarn and the bit of fiber that I brought I had almost no bright colors.  Hmmmm.  Shepherd's Harvest is this weekend.

It's been great to check in, and I won't leave it for another 18 months; promise!  I have to go dye now...It's good to be back!

Yikes!!!

Well, friends, Wow is all I have to say. Just Wow.

Every year the Weaver's Guild of Minnesota has a Fiber Fair; I should have posted about it but I was too busy dyeing. It was last weekend. I was out of town, so I had helped with setup and brought down a good amount of fiber.

All the bamboo-and-merino hand blended batts sold.

All but four of the BFL braids sold.

All but one of the Panda braids sold (bamboo/nylon/superwash merino, not pandas).

All but three of the silk blend yarn sold.

Suddenly, I have no fiber.

I have a trunk show Sunday.....

Every now and then...

I get something done!!!

I've been fighting a cold for over two weeks, which has meant rather more rest and much less work. I think I've got it licked, though! Tickle, gone. Sinus crud, gone. Cough, gone! Yay!!!

I did a lot of blending today, including some new colorways which I will have to photograph. Also, tonight I am going to pick up my courage in both hands and start dyeing the alpaca yarn.

Photos forthcoming...

Lack of progress

Well, no, not entirely.

I've been doing a spinning commission, and though it's perfectly good employment I feel bad that I'm not producing much in the way of dyed goods. There's only one of me, though...

Here, finally, are photos of Woodland Autumn, both the BFL top and the thick'n'thin merino.

I've also started dyeing up a lot of Panda top, s/w merino and rayon of bamboo and nylon. I must have been subconsciously thinking Christmas, because the first two batches were cranberry red and forest green. :-)