`I have gotten 2 skeins done so far for the Tour de Fleece 2009!

One is a gorgeous navajo plied skein of Merino/silk from EGMTK, 138 yards of sport to light worsted:

Then this is what I finished today for my day 4 progress, my first yarn for the Breakaway (art yarn) category! It is 98 yards of handspun & hand dyed merino & domestic wool, spun up thick & thin and then plied with a silver thread with silver sequins with beehives & coils! I am so very happy with this yarn!! It is named Festivale!

This past Sunday I had Gnat and her pups, JackJack & Abigail over for a great day of swimming, BBQ & knitting. It was a GORGEOUS day here in FL and was so nice being with friends and watching the silly dogs go crazy in my pool! They just adore swimming. My Nala hid out inside most of the day, she thought they were crazy! LOL!

Here are a few photos of Abby (the golden) & Jack (the black lab)!

That is it for today. Things were going great, I got my nails done, got the spinning done and then we were going to go see the Hangover, but then I just got super tired and didn’t want to deal. Which is a good thing, considering that our garage door spring broke and now hubby’s truck is stuck in the garage. ARGH! Just what we need, another bill to pay. Hopefully it won’t be outrageous. The real estate market here in FL still hasn’t picked up and no money coming in is starting to get old.

Today is the first day of the Tour de Fleece! We spin everyday the riders ride in the Tour de France. It is a great way to keep motivated and get lots of great spinning done! I have been prepping fiber for the last few weeks, getting ready for my “ride”. Today I am working on a Merino/Silk blend from EGMTK! I will post photos as it goes on!

I have joined the Team Furbaby Mommas that Gnat set up and I am also in the Rookies & Breakaways group. Rookies is for first time spinners of the Tour and Breakaways is for doing an art yarn during the tour.

Also I am offering 15% off all dyed fibers & batts in my Etsy shop while the tour is riding. Just enter “Tour de Fleece” in the comments and I will either send you an updated bill or refund via Paypal. Undyed fibers & handspuns not included.

UPDATE!!!

Here is my Day 1 progress!

It is a 60/40 Merino-Silk blend from Ewe Give Me The Knits, her blends ROCK! Didn’t get much done, but at least some was. I expect to spin more tomorrow. Gnat & her puppies are coming over to swim!

I realize that losing Sasha was a necessary part of life and that ignoring it won’t make it go away. This blog is an important extension of my shop and life and I need to have it for everyone.  So without further ado, my first post in forever!

I finally was able to snag a Phat Fiber box this month and it just came today!  Phat Fiber is a box full of yarn & fiber samples, along with patterns, stitch markers, buttons, coupons & other fibery goodies!  It is very similar to the Sampler boxes, but geared towards us fibery geeks!

SPOILER ALERT!!!! 
Following this is photos of what I received in the June Phat Fiber box, don’t look if you haven’t rec’d it yet and don’t want to be spoiled!!

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Here is what I got in my box!!!  The theme this month was Oceanic, so it was right up my alley!!

Opening the Box:

Inside the box:

Cute little message in a bottle:

Gorgeous handmade button:

Fish Stitch Marker

Cute purple stitch marker

All the amazing fiber samples!

And all the awesome yarn samples:

I also got two amazing patterns, a ton of coupons and lots of new vendors to buy from!!!  I just signed up to become a contributer myself, so look out for Mandalinn Knits & Spins coming to a Phat Fiber box someday in the near future!! Probably the August box, but I will post here when I am sure.

There are many new and exciting things that I am working on lately, including getting ready for SAFF…which will be my first fiber festival ever, starting a Mandalinn Knits & Spins Batt Club (yup finally!!!) and other various interesting things.

I have also been having fibery fun days here with my buds lately and will continue to do so and share the fun here.  We do everything from carding, to dyeing, to knitting, to spinning and more!  Gnat (barknknit), Krisha (susie190) & Monica (BeltwaySpinner) were here on Sunday for like 7 hours of awesome knitting & spinning!  It was the best day in a long time!

I am also quite active on Twitter lately, so please add me if you Tweet!!

And finally, I have been KNITTING like mad lately.  I have many neat projects lined up, including a sweater out of my own handspun!!!!

So I hope you will stick around as I will be adding a lot more in the days to come, I am so glad to have this going again, it is a great way to keep motivated!

Happy Knitting & Spinning!

I once again have been a bad blogger and need to get better about it.  This month has just been insane with guests in 24 out of the 30 days (some are here now).   I will try to make some more time for this and the shop soon.

I do need good thoughts/prayers/vibes whatever you do for our little girl, Sasha.  She is the one that was diagnosed with Cushing’s Disease and has actually done well with it so far, but she is now very ill.  Nala our other minpin got sick last week and now it has hit Sasha hard and she isn’t eating, shaking, has a fever and is just not doing well at all.  Nala seems to be much better though, so that is good.  Sasha is at the vet right now with Brian and I am hoping it is just a little bug and they can give her something for the diarreha since it is constant and quite bad (sorry for the TMI).  Thank you all.

Well I finally have to suck it up and admit that depression has once again gotten a hold on me.  I know that I just need to pick myself up and dust myself off and MAKE a change, but it is not easy and I just don’t have the energy.  I just don’t care at this point.  Nothing to really worry about, just tired and more tired.  Maybe a few days away with my husband would help, but we are booked for the whole month of March pretty much, grandma/her boyfriend in the first two weeks and then my brother’s friend & his girlfriend in the last week and the holiday in there too and my brother’s & niece’s birthday.

I did get my desk cleared off today and my spinning room reorganized and cleaned up, that helps a bit.  My new Strauch’s Finest drum card ROCKS btw, totally worth every penny.  You can see some of my new batts in my Etsy Shop!

I think part of it is just being sick of the sun going down so early and the funky weather here.  One day it is cold, the next it is hot.  Blech.  Hopefully I can get motivated and snap out of it.  I need to work on eating better too, I am sure that will help.

For some reason I have been totally “down in the dumps” lately and I have no clue why.  It sucks and I have been neglecting my friends, family and blog.  Hopefully I can get out of this funk soon, because it sucks.  Meh!

 Well today is Miss Bella’s surgery for her spay, microchip and softpaws, she is there right now having it done and I hope to hear something soon.  I know it has to be done, but I just worry since she is such a tiny baby still.

Hopefully she will be home soon and purring away.  And content so I can go to my SnB meeting tonight, I need some away time.  LOL!

Speaking of SnB, here is the latest project I am working on!  I finally casted on my Lady Eleanor and I love how she is coming out.  Entrelac is so much fun to knit and really keeps your interest!  It is going so quickly so far and I am loving the Noro Silk Garden I chose.

Here is my latest spinning!  Flamingo Bay—252 yards of fingering weight….65% Merino, 15% Colonial and 20% Tencel from Copperpot on Etsy!

I am really happy with how it came out.  I am work on another yarn right now that I can’t wait to put up, it will be fantastic I think!

I also have been updating my Etsy shop with 6 new rovings and 2 bags of locks.  Here are two of my faves!

 Love Bites—-5oz of Falklands roving

And Psychedelic—3 oz of Mohair Locks

Along those lines, I had to reorder wool today for my shop since I just sold off the last pound to a buyer in Romania of all places!!    So I went ahead and finally ordered a full bump of the domestic wool roving.  A full bump consists of TWENTY-SEVEN POUNDS!!!!!!!!!  I think I am freaking insane!

Also on the insane front, I just ordered a new carder, yup not too long after my first one, I ordered a new one.  AAAAHHHHH!!!!  I love my Louet Jr…..but a production model it is not and it just wasn’t fitting the bill for what I needed for my shop.  So I ordered one of these!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes it is a freaking Strauch’s Finest!!!  OMG I am drooling over the photos and cannot wait for it to be here.  And best of all, I ordered it from fellow Etsy-er, Artclub and she is throwing in 2 pounds of mixed fibers to boot!  I am so stoked!!!  Crazy, but stoked!!! 

So be on the lookout for new fantastical batts to be coming to my little shop soon!  YEAH!

I finally got the chance to sit at my wheel and spin up a couple of fun, colorful yarns.  I definitely have spring on the brain I guess.

First up is Circus Parade—144 yards of dk-worsted weight Corriedale, spun from the 2oz of roving from Traveling Rhino’s October batt of the month club.

Second is my new all time favorite.  It is called Freak Show!  It is 68 yards and 4.2 whopping oz of crazy handspun goodness. A huge and chunky yarn!  There is wool, bamboo, mohair and tons of bling and glitz.  This was spun from an awesome “Oh Hell” batt from the talented HollyEQQ!  I got it from her monthly club as well.  It was so much fun to spin and see what came out of it next!!!

I am working now on more dyeing for the shop since it is pretty empty again with fibers and I am blending up my batts for a special Valentine kit I will be posting shortly.  There is only one and it will be awesome, be on the lookout!!!

Today I had my first shop update in a long time, 4 new rovings and much more to come.  Including some locks that are dyeing right now!  Here are the new fuzzies!

Sugalite–6 oz of hand-dyed merino roving in purples and blues.

Amaranth–3.8 oz of hand-dyed Falklands roving in purples and fuschia.

Frogger—4 oz of hand-dyed Falklands roving in shades of green. 

Mali–roving in shades of green, blue, purple and fuschia.

 Much more to come in the following days and weeks, including art yarn kits, Valentine’s Day batts and other specials!

On to my good news……the dogs and kitty are finally getting along.  We all actually slept in the same bed for the first time since Bella joined our family.  Last night we didn’t, but that is only because Bella kept swatting at Sasha trying to get her to play, but it hurts because of her claws.  I have the SoftPaws sitting here and they will be put on at the vet’s next week, so that should help.  But no more segregated house for us!  Woohoo!  Bella chases them around and just wants to play now.  It makes me feel like we definitely did the right thing by taking her in.  I couldn’t imagine life without her!

Next week I go in for my lung function test, so we shall see if I finally am better and if I get a diagnosis of asthma or not.  Hopefully I can at least get some good allergy meds, since I have been suffering lately.  I am just glad that life is evening out around here.

Best of all our SnB group that meets every Wednesday at Panera by Tyrone Mall from 6:30-9:30pm is going great, I have finally made some awesome friends down here and look forward to it every week.  Come and join us if you like! 

From Nala:

Sasha:

and Bella-boo:

I have been kind of MIA lately, just busy healing up still, getting ready for Christmas and dealing with our new kitty and Sasha’s Cushings. We are hosting Christmas as well, so I have been busy preparing for that. I can’t wait, prime rib, roasted potatoes, yummy creamed spinach, corn casserole, salad, homemade cookies and fudge! What more can you ask for??? I am also going to try out the Pioneer Woman Cooks Olive Bread as an appetizer, it looks fab!

Sasha is holding her own, she has to urinate several times every night, so poor Brian has been sleeping on the couch with the dogs and I am upstairs with the kitten. It is kind of rough, but the best we can do right now. We might try those weewee pads later for her. It is just sad, she has gone downhill so quickly. She still has energy and whatnot, but I can see a big change.

And now our older dog Nala is showing aging signs, she no longer wakes up immediately when we come home, she sleeps like the dead. I am hoping it is just her hearing (she is almost 13), but I am not sure. I know they are old and we have been lucky, but it isn’t easy to deal with, especially this time of year.

10 years ago on Saturday is when we lost Brian’s mom and dad in a plane crash, along with 2 neighbors. They were coming back from Florida to their airport community home in Illinois and encountered icing and went down about 3 miles from home. It was the hardest time in our lives and we will never get over it I am sure. That is partially why Sasha being sick is so hard on us, she was their puppy originally. Clyde & Chris you are forever missed.