Jeepers Creepers, Where'd Ya Get Those Peepers?

At the farm supply store, of course!

We've had chickens here off and on for several years. We hadn't had any for awhile, though, and my husband had kind of been wanting to get some Bantams (or bantys, as we call them around here). He knew I was going to the farm supply store yesterday and sometimes they have chicks. He said, "Call me if they have some." Well, lo and behold, when I got there, they had 14 baby banty chicks. I called him, he said go ahead and get them, and now we have a box of baby chicks in our basement. They must be pretty content, because they actually haven't done much peeping so far.

I listed a new sock yarn this week called "Wild Violets." Here's a picture:

Also, a new batch of base yarn came in this week. There were a couple skeins of lace weight Merino and a couple worsted weight superwash Merino. I thought I'd add a little variety to the shop. There was a worsted weight in the shop before that didn't sell, but it was just regular wool, not superwash, and it seems a lot of customers prefer the superwash. One of the lace weights is soaking right now. I've never knitted with the lace weight myself. I think you'd have to have a lot of patience and perseverance to knit something with such thin yarn. But I've seen pictures of some beautiful things done in lace weight.

This isn't fiber related, but I thought I'd pass it along. I may be the only person who hadn't heard of this, but on the news a few days ago they were talking about a web site called Free Rice. It is partnered with the UN World Food Program. You play a vocabulary game, and for each correct answer they donate 20 grains of rice to the program. It's really interesting, and doesn't take very long to add up quite a few grains.

And now I'd better get busy. My to do list is about a mile long.

Tiptoeing Through the Tulips...Again

I recently did a yarn I called "Tiptoe Through the Tulips." I really liked the colors in it and decided I would try to make it a repeatable colorway for the shop. Here's a picture:

For the next one, I changed the shades a little. Can you tell?

The yellow on this one has a touch of orange in it, making it more of a deeper yellow. I kind of think I like the first one a little better. I may work on the blue next. I used what's called "Sky Blue" in Jacquard acid dyes, though it's not what I would really consider sky blue. When I think of colors and shades, I somehow refer in my mind back to the trusty old crayon box. I may try another blue I have that's called "Sapphire Blue" and see how that looks.

I started a new project a few days ago. It's a purse made from wool felt fabric. Here's a picture of the pattern and what I've done so far.
I only had one color of the wool felt, so instead of using both white and red like the pattern called for, I'm just making it all one color. I used craft felt for the leaves, which are sewn on with an outline embroidery stitch. The pattern has some really cute bags, from a zippered clutch to medium and large sized bags.

I did some actual house cleaning over the weekend...can you believe it?! I need to work on it some more, while I'm all enthused. As I look out the window, I see that it's time to start the lawn mowing season again, too. Ah, well, I guess being busy keeps me out of mischief. :)

More New Colors

I've been on a spring-color streak lately. Here's a couple of new yarns for you to see...the first is called "Flower Bed." It sold already (thank you, by the way, to my customer!).

The next one is called "Retro." When it was hanging up to dry, it looked like the tie-dye T-shirts from the 70's. I remember my cousin making one for me when I was about ten.

I have another handspun yarn almost done also. This one is a two-ply, with one ply being BFL wool and the other white cotton crochet thread.

Notice more spring colors! I may try to get it listed this week, though I've been busy today working on my "Down on the Farm" sock club yarn and goodies. They may keep me occupied most of the week, as they're supposed to be mailed on the 15th. Yikes, like the taxes! Our appointment to get ours done is Friday. Nothing like putting it off till the last minute, huh?

Whew! Busy, Busy...

Yes, I've neglected my blog again. It seems like things have been busy here. Lambing season is over for this year. There are 16 lambs. Also four baby goats from the nannies someone gave us. I wanted to show you a picture I took the other day.

I took it from a distance so maybe they wouldn't get up before I got the picture. When I cropped it, it made it a little blurry, but hopefully you can see this lamb with his soft "bed."

I've been dyeing up lots of sock yarn and spinning a little. I haven't posted a picture of the yarn I talked about the other day. Here's how it turned out before and after reskeining.


I'm thinking that using less vinegar is working a little better. The colors seem to be more even that they were with more vinegar.

The handspun I listed yesterday is some Blue Faced Leicester wool. It's called "A Penny for Your Thoughts." There's quite a bit of a copper color with some turquoise, spring green, gold, peach, and mauve.

I've got some sock yarn soaking, and it's almost time for dinner, so I'd better get busy! :)

Wow, a Post About Yarn...

What do you know? I'm actually going to talk about yarn today. The sheep had just about taken over, huh? An update, though...12 lambs so far with two more ewes to go. I've been dyeing sock yarn this week. The first one is called "Blooms and Blossoms." It's very spring-looking.

The other one is my March Challenge entry for our EtsyFAST group. The theme is "Fairy Tales." This one is called "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

I did another one yesterday, but wasn't satisfied with how it turned out, so I overdyed it today, and I think it looks better. I don't have any pictures yet...I just rinsed it out an hour or so ago. For the next skein, I tried a different method...I first dyed the whole skein in a dyepot with just a medium pink shade. Then after about an hour or more I poured in some other colors here and there and kind of swooshed them around a little. After it cools, I'll have to rinse it out and see what it looks like. I think sometimes it's hard to get all the nooks and crannies completely covered with color.

I also listed a new sock yarn club for April, May, and June in the shop the other day. I called it "Down on the Farm." Members will receive one skein of my superwash Merino/nylon blend sock yarn each month, plus a country-themed surprise. Sign-ups end March 31.

Okay, I said this was about yarn, but don't you need a little more cuteness to go along with The Daily Puppy in the sidebar?