Preoccupied blogger...

For those of you who don't know, not only do I have four kids now, but I also go to school full time now too. This is my response as you can imagine: "AAAHHHHHH!!!!" Yes, I am going insane. Yes, I am incredibly busy. And no, I don't always function correctly. I do manage to get homework done somehow and I do love my kids and spend lots of time with them when I am at home during the day. Plus now that three out of the four attend school at some point during the week I end up doing alot of driving around and sometimes end up at the wrong place at the wrong time. Thanks be to hubby though, I do get some time to get out of the house and do what I want to do... mmmm, knitting, my sweet sweet addiction... Every Monday night a couple of friends and I go to a local wine and dessert bar and knit and act like friend-sick gluttons for two hours. We chit-chat and click our sticks away, and show off our latest books and projects like good knitting friends do. It's nice to have a little sanity in an otherwise semi-chaotic week.
I haven't done any spinning lately but I have done lots of other types of projects; mostly knitting though. I've dyed some nice skeins which I will post as soon as my sister-in-law returns my camera. I am currently absorbed in knitting delicate lacy scarves with really fine yarns, oh and one thing I am excited about is that I am about to try painting with oil paints for the first time.
Painting is not new to me, but I have always been intrigued by the splooshy lusciousness of the glaze-like oil masters. Here is a great blog to check out if you appreciate art ;) http://midnightrelish.blogspot.com/(It's my secret blog!)

And here are some zen pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Me and my fluffy French Angora purebred:

A lovely fall sky:

The cutest baby EVer! (I might be a little biased):

More Old Projects (really old!)

Just thought I should post some random beading events while I'm at it. Never know when I'll get to post again. These are a few projects that I did as samples way back when I was working at The Bead Monkey. They were for a display with a book about doing beading projects for the home (forgot the title of the book). The frame you see here actually made it into a video that The Bead Monkey did. I don't know if they gave me credit or not but I have the original photos of the project! I didn't get to keep the frame though because I got paid to make the sample. Also here are some cute ooolldd samples of earrings that I made entirely by hand (parts too) with wire. They were sold a long time ago either at my brother's old business or at a Christian music event that my sister in law used to sell my work at for me.

And lastly here is an old picture of me working on these beading projects at my beading table in simpler times way back at our old apartment. (pre-kid #'s 2,3, and 4)

Yarn, yarn, yarn

How many people feel the way I do about yarn? I love yarn. I don't just love it, I never get tired of it. I love to touch it, to smell it, feeeel it, knit with it, dye it, spin it, buy it! I love to hoard it, store it, crochet with it, play with it, tie it, read about it, decorate with it, stare at it... okay am I starting to sound yarn crazy yet? I daydream about yarn, sad? yes I know. I am at peace when I am doing something with my yarn, each one has a purpose and it is waiting for that purpose to be discovered, and fulfilled. I truly have a speacial and unique relationship with each one of my yarns.
Here are the last few of my special precious ones.
This is a two ply chunky merino:

Camel silk, and a two ply angora:

Gggorgeous handpainted sock yarn:

And lastly here is a cushy soft merino bunch of fiber that I have yet to spin:

Oh, by the way, besides my coveting these yarns, none have been spoken for....

Here is an art rope yarn made from partly felted alpaca, angora, and a gold metalic thread.
Another beautiful merino sock yarn:

Some handpainted merino/silk sock yarn:

Oooohh, this little baby is a two ply dk 95% angora spun on Daphne from my own rabbit (yes I have an angora rabbit) and plied with gold metalic thread. It is so soft!

Another merino ( I call this baby bootie weight, close to worsted):

Here is my most delicious yummy angora skein ever. It is lace weight and 100% angora, handpainted when it was just the fiber a nice lagoon scheme of colors. There is alot of yarn here! So soft and perfect in every way.

More Yarn

Here are some more of the previously talked about yarns, made up skeins from the hand painted ones I already showed:

This next is a fun koolaide dyed mohair yarn that I spun a while back on my drop spindle. It is soft and sproingy. The lovely sunset hues you see after it are a tough artsy yarn I also spun on my drop spindle. It was a heck of a job but I managed. The fiber was donated to me by my friend and former manager at The Bead Monkey, Aisha. Here is her blog.

Here is some beautiful merino that I hand dyed and then spun on Daphne. It made such a pretty verigated yarn spun up in a sock weight.

There is another merino in the pic that is spun about a worsted thick and thin. I haven't dyed it yet but the possibilities are endless!

Spinnin' like crazy!

Besides last week which has mostly been dedicated to homework doing I have been spinning yarn like crazy! I love my wheel. My last attempt was pure soy silk fiber which is incredibly slippery to spin with on Daphne so I finally swiched it over to my good old fashioned homade drop spindle. Slow going but I enjoy the fiber. I haven't been doing much dyeing because of all the school projects, but I promis I will post when I do get some done. Not too long ago I purchases some fabo 50% silk, 50% cashmere sport weight yarn and it is so nummy. The plan is to use it for my dream sweater from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. It is the Hourglass Sweater on page 112. Simple, orange and lovely. Not sure if I will do the orange color or not, I do love the color but it is such an important decision for such lucious yarn. Any idears? Mmmm... I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Also I thought that I should put up some of my lovely yarns here for all to see. They are scrumptious, and of course, I love them. If any one is interested in any of them please let me know. First off here are some of my long gone hand painted yarns: 2 lovely blue and green hues and 2 nice bright red, orange, yellow hues.

Daphnie

This is my new friend Daphnie, a lovely European Ash Schacht-Reeves Saxony Spinning wheel. I love her. She is a long awaited gift from my darling husband Rasty (we got our tax-return). She spins fast, Jonah keeps saying, "I love your new spinning wheel Mom". I told him that I would teach him and Susanna how to spin yarn some day.