Help Miss Violet Escape!

Without divulging any personal details, Miss Violet, aka Elli, of the famous Lime and Violet podcast, Happy Housewife Sundries, Oak River Township, and many more lovely yarny things really needs to escape her current living situation, and needs legal help to evacuate from her toxic marriage.
As a way to thank her for being a wonderfully creative, inspiring, and fantastically interesting person, several of us have decided to donate some or all of our profits to her cause.

This list will probably grow as the days progress, and I will try to keep it current with how long everyone is in for! Please click on the following link to find a full list of ways that you can donate or participate: http://sandandsilk.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/help-miss-violet-escape/ . I hope you will find it in your heart to help. Thank you!

A Little Filler

I saw this on Lisa's blog and thought it would be a filler post until I actually finish a project to blog about.

1. Where is your cell phone? I don't have one.
2. Where is your significant other? In bed.
3. Your hair color? Brownish with some white.
4. Your mother? Supportive.
5. Your father? Is missed dearly.
6. Your favorite thing? Yarn
7. Your dream last night? I rarely remember.
8. Your dream/goal? Health.
9. The room you're in? Living room.
10. Your hobby? Knitting, crocheting and spinning yarn.
11. Your fear? Becoming bedridden.
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Healthy!
13. Where were you last night? Home, like every night.
14. What you're not? Thin.
15. One of your wish-list items? A drum carder.
16. Where you grew up? Maine.
17. The last thing you did? Read Lisa's blog.
18. What are you wearing? Shorts and a t-shirt.
19. Your TV? National Geographic channel is on.
20. Your pet? I wish I had one.
21. Your computer? HP Compaq Laptop
22. Your mood? PMSing
23. Missing someone? Dad!
24. Your car? I don't have one.
25. Something you're not wearing? Make up.
26. Favorite store? Knit Picks or The Loopy Ewe.
27. Your summer? Short.
28. Love someone? Yes, Ray.
29. Your favorite color? Green.
30. When is the last time you laughed? Less than 30 minutes ago.
31. Last time you cried? Last night.

Now it is your turn. Copy and paste it to your blog and please let me know that you did so I can come read it!

I Got a Spindolyn!

Yes, I got a Spindolyn and I love it! It is a supported spindle, but better than traditional supported spindles. It leaves both hands free to work with the fiber.

I purchased both the Tenor and the Soprano spindles to go with the Castle base. The following picture is of the Soprano spindle with some singles that I spun on it.

The next one is the Tenor spindle and it has a few yards of some of my handspun that I plied on it. Neither of these spindles hold as much yarn as any of my other spindles, but it is much more convenient and easy for me to use in my lift chair.For more information about Spindolyns and to purchase one or many go to http://www.knittinganyway.com/products/spindolyn.htm

I'm a Loopy Groupy!!!

I ordered a skein of Wollmeise from TLE (The Loopy Ewe)and I was very confused when the box it arrived in was much larger than I expected. I opened it to find out that I was now a member of the loopy groupies!
I received this wonderful TLE bag, with a Romney Ridge (their in Maine!) calendar, and a Lacy Pillars Socks pattern, all for free! They even included some tootsie rolls. This Fiesta Baby Boom yarn in the Coyote colorway was included for free too! It is soft, squooshy and yummy. Then, of course, there was the skein of Wollmeise Twin 80/20 that I had ordered in the Hortensie colorway. This picture doesn't do justice to the incredible saturation of color. Larry is holding my 0.95 oz. DIY Bellwether spindle that I have been using to spin some natural pencil rovings that I got at Bartlett Yarns Mill during my field trip. The Wollmeise is resting on the pencil rovings.

I guess that is it for now. Time to fondle some yarn!

I've Got Mail

Oh boy, do I have mail. Ray is finally getting used to all the little packages that arrive in the mail, because I see craft things online that I want. Fortunately, most patterns I purchase are pdf downloads, so there aren't as many deliveries as there could be! I thought I would share a few of my recent purchases with you.

From TLE (The Loopy Ewe) I got the Lace Rib Raglan sweater pattern in plus sizing. It is a top down pattern, which is my preferred way to make a sweater.Along with the pattern I got their Safe Socks mesh bag. I will be using it not only for my hand knit socks, but also for washing some alpaca fiber that I have, which needs to be cleaned before I can spin it.

Sorry about the fuzzy photo, but this cute little stitch marker was included in my TLE package as a Loopy extra. I love the little surprises that they add to my purchases!
The following purchases are from Knitcellaneous. I just discovered this retailer while searching for inexpensive shawl sticks. Theirs are the least expensive that I could find anywhere, and yet they are a very nice quality! They were only $5.00 USD each. I am very pleased with them. I also got their kitchener stitch dog tag to remind me of how to do it.
Another little package arrived yesterday from TLE, but I haven't taken pics yet. I think I will wait until the package that I just got e-mail notice about arrives and then take pics all at once.

Field Trip!

Last month, I went on a little field trip to Bartlett Yarn Mills, in Harmony, Maine for their first open house. Bartlett Yarn Mills are a working museum and I believe they are the last of their kind in the US. This is me on the right, with my incredible mother on the left, standing in front of their outlet store. My dear sister is behind the camera.My father used to work at this mill. We had the opportunity while here, to meet people who used to work with him and hear from them, wonderful stories about his antics. I miss him dearly since he passed, so this was very special for me. It was even more meaningful to me that I got to share it with Mom and my sister.

I was unable to go on the mill tour because of all the stairs. My sister kindly offered to take pictures of the mill while she and my mother went on the tour. There are many pictures, so I won't post them all here. If you are interested in looking at the pictures you are welcome to view my Flickr album. For more information about the mill, please check out their website. They do have their products available for purchase on the site.

Speaking of purchasing their products, I did a little of that while I was there. Surprise!!! LOL. While there, I met and decided to "adopt" Larry the Llama. I named him Larry, because that was my father's name and I like alliteration. He will be my blog mascot. Please, make him feel at home!Larry is resting on a few bags of rovings that happened to jump into the shopping bags with him. They are 8 oz. bags of the mills round rovings in the Blue Loch, Light Laurel and Mountain Laurel colorways. I also brought home 4 oz. of undyed pencil rovings that I forgot to photograph. I have been told that the mill plans on making the open house an annual event to take place the first week of August each year, in conjunction with the Maine Fiber Arts Tour. I plan on attending next year and hopefully, I will be better able to move, enabling me to tour the mill.

I want to share with you a craft that I was told about at the mill outlet. They said that there is a lady who comes in and buys 5 or more pounds of varied rovings, then takes them home to braid them. Once they are braided, she then tosses them in the washing machine to felt them. Get this, then she stitches them together into a braided rug!!! They say that it is gorgeous and very easy to do. My sister purchased some rovings with the intent of trying this out. I can't wait to see how it turns out!