Here is an update of my TdF spinning!

`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.

Read Full Post »

Well, I have decided to start this blog again!

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!!

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

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!

Read Full Post »

Whew it has been a while….

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!

Read Full Post »

Finally, a shop update and some happy news!

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! 

Read Full Post »

Feeling so much better and drowning in WOOL!!!!

First off, thank you so much for all the well wishes, emails, etc.  It means so much to me.  I went to my family doctor yesterday and all is looking well.  He says I still need to take it easy and that it will be a few weeks before I am 100%, but I should be fine.  In 6 weeks  I will go in for a lung function test and follow up, but he doesn’t expect any issues.  So with that out of the way, I am starting to get back to normal around here.  And my swap package is in the mail, I cannot wait until she gets it.  I can’t wait to share photos and I hope she likes it as much as I do.  🙂

 I just had UPS drop off a box with FIFTEEN pounds of wool at my door, the undyed is back in my shop and I hope to get some dyepots going here either later today or tomorrow.  I am also finishing up a gorgeous skein of merino/colonial/tencel in shocking pinks, blues & shiny white….I know not exactly a fall color, but it is gorgeous!

Here is the latest skein up in the shop, perfect for this time of year:

Sangria—206 yards of merino/colonial/tencel.  Thick & Thin, perfect for a hat, scarf, small bag.

Well off to hopefully get the dyepots going and maybe some cleaning done; the cleaning lady is coming tomorrow for my big Thanksgiving cleaning, so you know I have to clean before she comes, LOL!

Read Full Post »

Whew, finally finished….

I have been working on a yarn for a swap for a long time now and it is finally finished and I am so happy with it and hope my partner will be too.  It is some of my best spinning ever.  All I can share is that it is 500 yards of light sockweight and simply stunning. 

It is for the handspun swap on Craftster, where your partner chooses what type of pattern he/she would like yarn for and then you spin it for them and send it with that type of pattern.  She wanted socks and only asked for sportweight because it takes so long, but I decided to go for fingering weight and did it!  Dyed the fiber, spun it to fingering weight and now just have to set it and get the extra goodies ready.  It took quite some time (more than I expected because of being sick), but the end results were sooooo worth it. 

Speaking of being sick, I was finally feeling 100% on Wednesday and Thursday, even went to the new uniform unveiling yesterday evening for the Tampa Bay Rays and was only 8 rows away from KEVIN COSTNER as he performed with his band (yeah I didn’t know he sang either). 

It was a great night, but I woke up this morning literally gasping for breath.  I at first just thought it was a panic attack, but we quickly realized that it was more than that.  I don’t know if it is a relapse of the flu or what.  This is much different than what I had and I get short of breath just walking up one flight of stairs.  If it isn’t better at all by tomorrow I will head out to the clinic (why do these things have to happen over the weekend?).  Hopefully it is just because I pushed myself a bit too much.

So again, back to bed for me, hopefully not for too much longer.

Read Full Post »

No baby for me right now…..

Well it has officially been over a year since we started trying to get pregnant and nothing, nada, zilch.  Not even a hint of a line.  Honestly this has been the hardest thing my husband and I have ever done and it has not been easy on our relationship.

So, we are taking a break.  No testing, no adoption meetings, nothing.  It isn’t really what I would choose, but I totally understand and respect my dh with everything I have.  There is still a part of me that is screaming….YOU ARE GETTING OLDER and that the clock is quickly ticking by.  But, I know this is the best move for now.  I just wish that it could have been easy, but it seems it isn’t for a lot of people.  It is hard not to be sad though.

So moving on……..

I am finally starting to feel better from this nasty flu I got, it has been almost a week and I am tired of being sick.  It has been making the rounds in our family and lasts a good week or two and lingers longer than that with the cough and congestion.  Blech.  I am definitely going to get my flu shot this week, don’t want to tempt fate.

So obviously with being sick I haven’t gotten any dyeing or much spinning done.  Just trying to finish up my swap yarn, it is taking forever but I am loving how it is coming out.  It is some of the best spinning I have done to date.

I hope to get the dyepots up and running by the end of the week.  Same with getting my photos updated from my trip to Disney.   I just have little energy right now.

Ooooh one quick addition, I did make it to the Bucs game on Sunday.  It was an early Christmas present from Brian (my dh), he is such a sweetie.  He splurged and got us club seats.  It was fun and I loved being there, but we both agree that we like it better at home.  We are such fuddy duddies.  LOL!  You should see the tan lines we got, wowza.  That is the only thing that kept me alive during the game, the brutal sun! 

Oh and I was a naughty girl and finally used my 10% coupon at Blue Moon Fiber Arts last night, I ordered coughcougheightskeinsandasheep2shoekitcoughcough.  The new Raven series is to DIE for.  I got one skein in Octobers sock club and fell in love and knew I needed more.  I will now have 4 all together.  I decided to not rejoin the club.  I enjoyed it, but the price is a bit much for what you get and I prefer to pick out what I want.  So I placed that order, spent less and got way more minus patterns, which is fine by me.  🙂

So now I am going to try to sleep some more, without coughing up my lungs.  😉

Read Full Post »

Thank you for all the well wishes….

It means a lot to me and my family.  We know that Molly is running free and happy right now with some very special people that we miss dearly and that is a comfort to us.

 Be on the lookout for a shop update tomorrow, I have 2 rovings drying, 2 sets of dyed locks and some batts that are being carded.  I also will have a few surprises and sales coming up after Halloween.  I have family starting to come in on Saturday and then starting on Monday until November 1st I will be busy with them and going to Disney.

Thanks again!

Read Full Post »

Bad blogger….

I haven’t been around here much, things are just kind of crazy.  Lots of orders going out, new rovings being dyed, yarns being spun and getting ready for the onslaught of family visiting.  2 aunts, a cousin and her son…..but they are great fun and it should be a blast.  We are taking Taua (who is 6) to Disney for the first time, he is so stoked and can hardly contain himself.  Also going to hang out around here and go to MOSI and the beach I am sure.  One of our stops at Disney will be to the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, that should be a fun experience.

 One new roving in my shop to share:

Secret Garden—4oz of Falklands

I am going to be blending up some more batts to put up this week (including some sock blends with 5-6 oz of fiber) and dying up a bunch more rovings & locks so I can put them up before my vacation with family.  I know everyone is trying to get ready for holiday knitting/spinning, so I hope to get a bunch up.

Stay tuned for a contest here on my blog after I return, with a great prize, should be fun.

Well the Bucs just won, so I am a happy camper, off to get some more stuff dyed.

Read Full Post »

Getting closer….

Found you!

• You signed up on August 5, 2007
• You are #23307 on the list.
• 5464 people are ahead of you in line.
• 12890 people are behind you in line.
• 49% of the list has been invited so far

Soon, soon I will finally be on Ravelry.

Off to work on orders and dyeing.  It is hard to get back into the swing of things, that is for sure.

Read Full Post »