Christmas and a sad day

Wow- I can't believe that Christmas is only 8 days away. It came way too fast and I am totally not ready for it. I have to make a horse costume for my daughter's Christmas play (all the kids in her class are stable animals, other classes are other things...) Not a lot of handmade gifts this year since I just completely ran out of time.

I am having a Christmas sale at my etsy store though. 15% off regular priced items and 5% off items already on sale. Dec 19th is the post office cutoff date for holiday delivery (though that is not guaranteed!).

The sad thing today was that I had to have one of my kitties (his name was Beast) put to sleep. He was such a wonderful kitty. So calm and mellow, so easy going with the kids. They could do almost whatever with him and all he did was purr. He was very loved and it just broke my heart to lose him. I rescued him from the shelter just after Thanksgiving and the vet believes that he already had the corona (I think) virus that causes FIP. It attacks the walls of the stomach and cause them to have fluid buildup in the belly. It then puts pressure on the lungs so that breathing becomes harder and harder. He was totally listless the last two days and hardly moved for anything, he wouldn't eat and drank almost nothing as well. Unfortunately there is no treatment for FIP so we had him put to sleep before it cause him more stress. It was so hard. The first picture here is Beast, and then a pic of the other kitty, Josie and Beast. She didn't usually curl up with him when he was on the chair, but I'm thinking that maybe she knew. I had brought him home after finding out so that my older daughter could say goodbye after she was out of school. I feel bad that my older son couldn't have said goodbye, but he stays with his dad during the week since he is closer to school that way. He will be extremely upset as I was.

God bless Beast and RIP Dec 17, 2007- We loved you.

Pay it Forward!

I signed up for the pay it forward on Jil's blog and think it's great! Here's the skinny (taken from the other blogs 'cause I'm too lazy to type it out again!):

• You must promise to send some type of handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on your blog requesting to join this PIF exchange.
• The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

If you want to join just leave a comment and the first three will be on my PIF list :) Then post it to yours so you can return the favor.

Love the holidays!!!!!

Funny joke I got today...

Dog Owner's Story
I have 2 large dogs, and was buying a large bag of Purina at WalMart and was in line to check out. The woman behind me asked if I had a dog? Duh? On impulse, I told her no, I was starting The Purina Diet again. Although I probably shouldn't, because I'd ended up in the hospital the last time. But I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again. I have to mention here that practically everyone in line was now enthralled with my story, particularly a tall guy who was standing behind her.

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me? I told her no, I'd been sitting in the street licking my ass and a car hit me. I thought the guy standing behind her was going to need help as he staggered to the door laughing.

New things!

I got some yarn dyed up and pics of some already dyed and created items to add to the store along with some more sale yarns. Here's some previews- go to the store to see more!

Bigfoot, Alpacas, Swap, and Rhine

First up we have my older son's Halloween costume- Bigfoot! I had to put everything else on the back burner the last week and a half so I could get it done for him. Turned out pretty good I thought- I even designed some big feet for him to wear over his shoes. It was fun for him! The girls wore girly costumes again this year. They are the two small ones in purple costumes. The others in the picture are my little niece, my nephew and his friend from school.

Alpacas! A few weeks ago I took an afternoon to drive up to the mountains to a local (at least in our area it's local- 1.5hrs away) Alpaca farm. It was great fun, they even had some very new babies. My older daughter- M- decided that now she wants 5 mommies, 5 daddies, and 5 black babies- too cute. Why 5- I don't know, but that's what she wants :)

Here's a pic of the roving I dyed up for the Spindlers list Halloween Swap. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed doing it- can't wait for the next one! This was colored in some of my favorite candy colors- Peeps! It was colored after the Spooky Cats, Cocoa Bats, and marshmallow Ghosts. although the cocoa turned out more plummy than I intended it was really pretty!

Now the rhine- yes that's right- RHINE! It's a ranty whine- so if you don't want to hear it, tune out now and thanks for stopping by :). I have a place that I rent out and I'm getting so tired of it. Seems like I only get people in who try to screw me over. There must be writing between the lines of the lease that I can't read and it says "Go ahead and screw her over- she can't afford it and even more- she can't afford to do anything about it when you do" Renters suck! OK- that's about it. I don't like to go off too much- it doesn't do any good for me anyway, but I feel like I let off a little steam. Thanks!

Boo- Halloween Swap!

I got my Spindlers Halloween swap package in today- what a great package! I got Candy Corn roving, a container of candy corn (yum!), peeps ghosts, Halloween pencils and the great little felted Halloween bag. The bag will be perfect for taking along a spindle and some silk- how fun! As you can see in the pic, the girls and I already broke into the peeps before I even got a chance to take the pic! She is a much better swapper than I am for the theme, but I hope she enjoys hers anyway! I love mine- thanks R!
On the other fiber front- I finally began cutting the pieces for my older son's Bigfoot costume. I found this gawd awful brown fake fur at Wally World that was just perfect. I made the ladies at the fabric department veeeerrrry happy when I purchased the only 4.75 yards they had- they thought for sure it would be there forever. I cut around the pattern pieces this morning and there was so much of the fur on the carpet it looked like a Yorkshire Terrier had exploded all over my living room ;) (Disclaimer- no animals were actually harmed during the cutting of this costume :0) Allrighty then- back to sewing- and maybe another marshmallow ghost or three!

Go to bed already!!!

Yes, I mean me! I really need to be getting to bed earlier. I would tonight, but the little muchkin is not interested in sleeping at all right now. What a stinker! I have a ton of things I really need to be getting done, most importantly I need to get my son's Halloween costume made. Argh- and tons of stuff to get taken care of tomorrow as well. At least I did finish dyeing the fiber to send to my Halloween Swap partner from the Spindlers yahoo group. I think it turned out pretty cool- but I'll wait to post a pic until she gets it. Looks like the little man is getting fussy- maybe he'll get to bed soon so I can too. That's all folks (for tonight!)

Continued......

I managed to finish half of the weaving project I was working on, but I think I may have to take it out and re-weave it. I wanted to make something that would be a good size, but if I do two of the 5ft it really won't be big enough for what I want. Out it comes and I think I'll do 4 3ft triangles instead. That should be better. I did get a little work done on the knitting as well. I signed up for a quick Halloween fiber swap so I need to get some fiber dyed up. Candy colors- I think I'll do some peeps Halloween candy colors. Spooky cats, cocoa bats, and ghosts. :) It will be fun! No pics today, but I'll post when I'm done.... Happy days!

A quick catch-up

Well- it's been a while now since I've put my thoughts into blogland. I've been busy, but that's no excuse- blogging has to be one of the easiest things someone could take a little time to do. Maybe I just hate having to adjust pictures etc, etc, etc to post things. So I'll try to cut down on the pics so I can just do some entries.
Knitting- not much going on in this arena lately. I'm working on a couple of things for a friend- some fingerless gloves, and a couple other items that I won't divulge yet.
Spinning- I did get two more yarns done for the Taos Wool Festival on Oct 6th. I managed a proper boucle with a polypay core, wool/mohair blend wrapping yarn, and a poly thread binder. I liked the colors but spinning the blend was horrid! I've never had so much work involved with spinning as this one. I think it was just the mill that prepared it because the other roving I had purchased from the company was a pain too (though not nearly so bad!) It ended up pretty nice. I also spun up a quick two ply to enter in the Expert division of the handspun yarn contest. The colors turned out really pretty I think. So all in total I had three skeins to enter.
The boucle went into the novelty division (I entered my first boucle attempt last year and got only 64 points out of 105- not so hot!) and managed a third place. This year I got 102 points of 105, so there wasn't much between 1st and 3rd!

The two ply went into the Expert division- I put it as smooth and even, but there were a few thin spots so it got moved to novelty within expert. OK- I can live with that, I've only been spinning about a year and a half. I also took third on that one- with 90 points of 100. So again a close race. :)

The one I thought would do well was my spindled yarn, but even with 90 of 100 points it didn't place at all. That was only 6 points behind the 1st place too! The spinners are definitely getting better every year!
Now for the new hobby (as if I have time for more- HAH!):
Tri-weaving- I built myself a loom, but managed to mess up the nails. Didn't find out until I was weaving my first shoulder shawl for my MIL. In my engineering self's defense I was sick and had a monster headache that day I was making the marks for the nails. ;) It was still pretty.
OK- tried again. A little bigger this time (5ft instead of 4ft). I am working on something on it now (can't divulge too much since she's one of the very few who actually read this!) but it's going well and I like this. No warping and the lack of floor space taken up by the triangle loom is great!

One more thing- I opened an etsy store- Twisted Sheep- to destash some fiber and to list some of my handspun yarns, hand carded batts, handmade stitch markers (I finally have some to list in the next day or two), hand dyed yarns and fibers, and whatever else goes up as well!
Time to tend to some little monkeys, but I'll be back (much sooner I hope) :)

A little off-track here, but.....

Well, I have gotten a little off track getting spinning done, but I do have a good reason! My baby boy decided he was in a big hurry to get in to this world and was born at 36.5 weeks, July 16th. He's healthy and not small (6lbs, 14oz) and he's a great sleeper so far. :) My girls were two weeks earlier than the due date as well.

I did finish one full bobbin of the Fiesta Targhee and untangling the soy and Merino to get it plied. There are two skeins (I really wish I had bigger bobbins!) of three ply (2 merino 1 soysilk)which have a total of 250yds and 6.7oz. There was a little leftover merino which I two plied and that little skein is 61yds and 1.1oz. I didn't get any spinning done in the hospital though and only managed to finish knitting three dishcloths.

Day 3 is finis!

Well- day three has come in gone in the tour de fleece. I felt like days one and two were really productive as I managed to get half of the felted merino teased and spun each day.

I wound both bobbins of merino and the bobbin of soysilk in to center pull balls and started to ply them all together. It didn't last long. All three balls got all tangled up because I wound them too tight and they collapsed on the inside almost immediately. Bummer. So today was spent untangling those balls and either re-winding or just adding something to the core to keep it from collapsing. I did get both balls of merino figured out, but the soysilk is just driving me mad! Tomorrow after my doctors appt will probably be spent on untangling more. Yuck. Well- I guess that begins the true challenge for me!!!

On another front- I managed to finally finish my brother's socks, but had to run as soon as I pulled them out of the dryer (they were superwash wool) so that I could give them to him when I saw him on the 4th. Alas- no picture- the bane of most of my FO's!
Hope everyone else is getting things going for their tour de fleece- peaceful and tangle free spinning to all!

And so it begins

Today is the first day of le Tour de France and though I have no desire to watch it, it also signifies the beginning of le Tour de Fleece! I managed to find two blogs that are organizing one this year. I couldn't remember the one I signed up with last year and signed up for one here. Then I found the other that I had been in last year and forgot I had already signed up for the other one, so I signed up for this one too!
I guess that means I have double the challenge!?! Well- I'm going to try my best- seeing as how I am due Aug 3rd and have no intention of waiting that long- I may be in the hospital or have a little tyke to manage during the end of the tour. If that happens I have some silk that I started in November that I haven't done anything with since that I'll spindle in the hospital. At home I can work on my other stuff (will post below)- just maybe not as much .
My plans are this: I have some soysilk that is already spun. When I dyed this I also dyed some merino which, being the first time I tried to kettle dye instead of painting, is lightly felted. This will be interesting as I will have to tease like mad or tear into thin strips to spin. This is the first challenge. Then I want to finish up this pound of dyed Targhee in Fiesta (pic on right) from dyepot.com that I want to make a small throw from for a Christmas white elephant exchange we do at my husbands family's house.

After that, these three would be in-line for next to do. They are all from the Taos Wool Festival last year and are what I want to spin up for the yarn contest this year. I'll start with the purple/blue/green/gray wool, then move to the rosey wool/mohair, then on to the sun and sea wool. These are all provided I have enough time of course! This should be fun!!!!

Time for an update- I'm waaayy behind on that!

Things have been busy with the kiddos and all their respective stuff. In that- it's mostly my son because he has had baseball going on for a while now. He's got all-stars left so a couple more weeks of practices and games.
I said I would try to stress less- it's getting there. Spin more- definitely not as much as I would like for this one!!! I did finish up some fiber for Fiberswap. I blended up a mix of some Polypay roving I picked up in Taos year before last. It was a prize winning fleece in 2004 (but I can't find the card that says what prize right now :) ). It was 60% Polypay, 20% Angora, and 20% Soysilk. I had a little leftover wool and the other fibers so I did a 65/20/15 blend and kept it for me. Then I had something (just enough at 1.9oz) I could spin for the spindle spun yarn contest in Taos for this year. I did get that spun up- one of my resolutions! It ended up being a total of 433 yds. The contest requires it to be a single, but once that's over I will most likely ply it back on itself to be able to use (I don't have much love for using energized singles in knitting- I'm not that good to begin with!) I also did a demonstration on spinning in early May at our local Fiber Arts Museum. It went well and I got some soy silk spun up that I dyed the night before.
I have managed a few felted flowers and one pair of knitted calla lilies, but now I am done with the fiberswap stuff and spun up that single for Taos, I am back to work on my brother's birthday socks (waaaayyyy overdue!)
In other news, one of our mallards hatched her babies (about three weeks ago now) and has six little ducklings following her around everywhere now. They're cute and growing so fast- even faster than my little ducklings! Our male goose seems to think he's the dad though and makes sure that they are following mom and not getting into trouble. At least he does, our male mallard doesn't seem to care! Also, my daughter did get a new bed- yay! So now we are all set for the baby as far as that is concerned. Just waiting now! Not too long to go- my doc said 32 weeks on Monday, but according to the latest possible date of conception (yep I know exactly when now that I think back) I was closer to 33.5 weeks on Monday. Well- time to get the girls bathed and get dinner ready!
I will try to be posting more often, but no guarantee on that of course- I'm terrible with taking the time to do it!!!!

Happy fibering!

Major de-stash!!!!

With the new baby coming I need to try to get my older daughter a bigger bed so my younger can keep the toddler bed and the new babe can have the crib. I have a whole ton of yarn I'm trying to de-stash but the spindle already sold if you were looking for that. Descriptions will be under the pictures (sorry for the photo overload- I tried to pare it down!) Yardage on most without labels is approximated on the low side by using my 2-yard setting on my skeinwinder for most. There will always be at least what I put as far as yardage. The variation in the yardages of the handpaintedyarn.com yarns is due to the nature of handspun yarns. Email me at clovato at valornet.com or post a comment if you're interested. Funded paypal preferred but CC accepted with paypal fees added (they aren't really much). Shipping method is your choice or priority, parcel post, or first class (I'll quote all prices available) but I do insist on delivery confirmation (free with priority mail). Thanks!!!!

The first picture is Classic Elite Reanissance Heathered wool 50g,110yd per skein. $3.50 each and Lion Brand Wool-Ease (full skeins but little hands got into them!)3oz,197yds per skein in Natural Heather, $2.00 each. The second picture is three skeins (the top one has been sold) the other two are skeins of heavy 4-ply wool from my local fiber arts center- meant for weaving, not next to skin soft. Wine skein is 3.9oz, 190yds; Dusty rose skein is 4.2oz, 209yds. $3.50 each

These next four pictures are of Cherry Tree Hill Yarn.

This picture is Potluck Bulky wool- 4oz, 201yds per skein, 2 Skeins of Watercolors, the other skein is sold. $7.50 each.

The second picture is the Limited Edition (it isn't made anymore) Velvet merino chenille. 80% Extra Fine Merino, 20% Nylon. Huge skeins at 8oz, 625yds per skein - I made a good sized shawl with one skein. There are two skeins of Watercolors (though they are wuite different) and one skein of Blues/Purples. $23 each (originally $31.85).

The third picture is CTH's Filaro Mohair Sparkle (the sparkle kind has been discontinued)- they are 50g, ~109yds per skein (47% mohair, 35% wool, 14% Acrylic, 4% Nylon). 8 Skeins of Mulberry and 2 skeins of Smoke. $5.00 each

The last picture is a skein of CTH Merino Boucle, 8oz, 370yds in the colorway Spanish Moss, $23.

The first picture here is of two skeins of Cabled wool from Katsara yarns (she no longer carries this yarn) in the colorways Pizazz and a dark version of Chorus. The Pizazz is 8.9oz, 436yds - $20. Chorus is sold.

The second picture is 4-ply Superwash wool from Danette Taylor Designs in the colorways Birds of Paradise and Rain. Rain is sold. Birds of paradise is 8.5+oz, 565+yds, $22.

The third picture is three skeins of Mohair Boucle from Danette Taylor Designs, two small loop and 1 big loop. The two small loop skeins are the colorway Daisie, 3.5+oz,450+yds each. The Big Loop boucle is the colorway Rain and is 7.7oz, 180yds. $19 each. Also in this picture is Himalya Yarns Recycled rayon in the color Millefiori. Very drapey, but slightly heavy (I used one skein for a fun small purse) 200g, 165yds. $9.

The last picture is a skein of 2-ply wool from Danette Taylor Designs in a green/brown/yellow colorway. I don't think it is next to the skin soft. 3.7oz, 195yds. $8. Also pictured is a skein of recycled sari silk yarn. Mostly black with lots of colors entertwined. 4oz, 90+yds, $4.

The first picture here is of 2 skeins of Paton's Divine in Amethyst allure; 100g, 142yds per skein, 79.5% Acrylic, 18% Mohair, 2.5% Polyester. $3.00 each. Also pictured are 2 skeins (they are full skeins, once again- little hands!) of Bernat Eyelash in Diva (bright aqua), 50g, 77yds each. $2.50 each.

The second picture is of 2 skeins of Classic Elite Paintbox Merino in Ultramarine, 100g, 110yds per skein, $10 each. 2 Skeins of Reynolds Frisky yarn, 50g, 81yds each 60% Cotton, 40% Nylon. 1 each of Green (#3) and Blue (#14). $4.50 each. 1 Skein of S. Charles Baci Collection Tahki yarn in blue. 50g, 71yds, 62% wool, 20% Acrylic, 8% Viscose. $7.00.

The third picture is 3 balls of Berroco Candy FX in the Mythic Jam colorway. 25g, 68yds per skein, 100% Nylon, $4.50 each.

These are wools from Handpaintedyarn.com- they are similar to the MalAbrigo wools in that they are handspun spingle ply Uraguayan yarns. These are worsted weight Merino in (from left to right) Sun and Sea, Red Multi, Pollen, Citrus, and Golden. Sun and Sea are all 3.2+oz, 190yds or more. Red Mutli are all 3.1+oz, 180+yds. Pollen are all 3.1+oz, 195+yds. Citrus are 3.2 oz, 200+yds, and 2.6oz, 154yds. Golden is 3.2oz, 190+yds. $6.00 each, except the small Citrus skein which is $4.00.

These are more handpaintedyarn.com worsted weight merino in wood rose, cactus flower, blue/green, and medium potluck. The wood rose are sold. Cactus flower is 3.6oz, 215+yds. The blue/green are sold. The medium potluck is 3.2oz, 180+yds. $6.00 each.

These are handpaintedyarn.com bulky weight, more thick and thin than the previous, single-ply merino in Turquoise, Royal Blue, and Kelly green. Turquoise is 3.4oz, 130+yds, The royal is 3.4oz, 140yds. The kelly green are 3.3oz, 130+yds each. $5.00 each. The last skein ( is a bulky thick and thin Merino from Danette Taylor Designs. 7.8oz, 210+yds. $12.00.

These are more bulky weight merino yarns from handpaintedyarn.com in Lilac, Burgandy, Lillia Amarillo, and Autumn Blooms. The lilac have been sold. The burgandy is 3.4oz 140+yds. The Lillia Amarillo are 3.5oz 140+yds and 1.5oz, 55+yds. The Autumn blooms is 3.4oz, 135+yds. $5.00 each except the light skein of Lillia Amarillo which is $2.50.

More bulkly weight thick and thin Merino from handpaintedyarn.com in Creamsicle, Cardenal, Olive, and Cactus. Creamsicle are 3.0+oz, 90+yds each. The Cardenal are 3.3oz, 140+yds each. The olive are 3.4+oz, 135+yds each. The cactus are 3.4+oz, 135+yds each. $5.00 each.

The variation in the yardages of the handpaintedyarn.com yarns is due to the nature of handspun yarns.