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Yesterday, I scooted up to VTS&W. It was glorious, NO KIDS with me. I was almost suffering from a bit of shock, since, that is unheard of.
I had the pleasure of spending most of the day with Linda (& Peter, sometimes too). Walking around ogling the colors, admiring all of the beautiful hand work. And chatting. Great chatting! I got to meet a few bloggers in the flesh that I hadn’t before, Jessie, whom is far more beautiful than any of the pictures you have seen her post & her pal, Jessalu… Funny little thing, Jessie walked up to me and said, “I’d notice that feed bag anywhere” (my hemp courier bag)… which I found amusing; it wasn’t the flaming hair, Jessie? lol. (I think that is the advantage of having bright hair, you stand out in a crowd; easy to find or avoid.) I digress; I can’t wait to see what spindle you got!
By the end of the day, my bag was getting heavier and heavier. I’m not normally a shopper; but, I couldn’t help myself yesterday. Seeing all of the brightly colored locks, lovingly perched in baskets and bowls; the sea of color flooded me with desire, I was nearly left with no choice.
I picked up some mohair locks from High View Farm (Waterford, VT)

I’ve already washed a few handfuls and dyed them; I am anxiously anticipating them drying… I nearly was going to spin them damp. (I’ve got me some ideas.)
Some really lovely Alpaca from Snow Shoe Farm (Peacham, VT)

Very clean, and of course, so soft it should be criminal..
No plans on the horison for that delectable bag of fluff; but that is okay. It will make it’s place next to my angora from Woolybuns and bless the rest of my fiber stash with soft goodness.
Speaking of Chris, I had the pleasure of bumping into her a few times. She was teaching a felting workshop, and they stuffed her in an area half the size of my kitchen!! She and her participants were taking it in stride. Laughter and good vibes emanated from that corner.
One of my favorite acquisitions yesterday was this bumper sticker from Over East Farm

It will be making it’s way onto the back of the auto sometime soon, after it rains, as bumperstickers don’t like to cling to dirty cars.
& last but NOT least….ta-dum.

!!
Recycled silk sari from The Wool Peddler
Stephanie & her family are really lovley! (and she has a great muff pattern in the summer issue of knitty) I think from now on, I’ll be getting all of my sari from them, yes.
I already dove into the packages & made some batts

I couldn’t make my way up today to see Adrian (hope you made it!! and not to bingo!:)); as there was/is just too much to do here. I came home yesterday to find both the kids naked and covered from head to toe in marker, they also commingled all of the clean laundry with the dirty stinky clothes… This means, I have much laundry to do, as Bells needs clean clothes to go to skool (!!) tomorrow. AYE. Skool, I get butterflies every time I think about it.
Well, I should get off the computer, and do the things I need to do.
Hope everyone had a great weekend as well!!
♥

it’s friday again, and of course that means fiber friday! this week the topic was critters (and i hope no one caught on, but this was a repeat. i didn’t realize it until after i posted it… but, well, we all need more critters, right?!) remember these ‘unicorn breath’ batts from the other day?… i was unable to keep my hands off them, and i figured; unicorn breath is ‘close enough’ to being a critter; at least it is critter-esque; right? (oh, a stretch you say? well, yea; but come on, humor me!)

unicorn breath
170 yards lace/fingering

• 40% recycled silk sari
• 35% vermont alpaca
• 20% hemp
• 5% nylon

(pretty textural due to the nature of the materials, but shockingly soft, even with the high hemp content.)
really pretty!

and another close up…
if you don’t already participate in fiber friday! a weekly fiber extravaganza i suggest you do, or at least add it to your bloglines. it is fun and inspiring! (and i recently started a photo pool on flickr)

i’m glad it is friday and not thursday. i hope i don’t have a “groundhog day” type day.
yesterday was ONE of THOSE days. the kind of day where once in a lifetime runs thru your head, over and over…. my kids were just off the wall. they don’t often make it so hard on me. by 3pm, you could have stuck a fork in me, because i was d.o.n.e. ~ i needed to retreat to the only sure fire, tried and true method of lowering my BP and catching some inner peace… knitting…

the yarn is some of my worsted handpaints, of seconds quaility… (i was trying for a choco bird but it didn’t come out good enough to put up on pippi)

one really nice/neat thing that happened yesterday…
josi sent this out in her news letter the gist, she is offering a coupon to her customers if they purchase something from pippi or croshay design! ~ (remember croshay made this awesome hat! from some of my hemp yarn??) anyway, my yarn was used in making some pieces for josi’s upcoming book, in the loop… let’s hope her new editor lets her keep it in there! (click on this linky to see the hat/scarf set from my yarn)

i’m going to try to keep it mellow today.
as soon as i stop this tap-tapping; i’m going to return to my knitting.
then dishes and pick up the joint a bit. SIL is in from oregon and i would hate to have her over come with dirty dishes when she walks in the shack.
♥

it’s an illness this week, and i couldn’t stop myself even if i tried.
i’m on such a tear with the carder. (not that it is really a bad thing, but i have other things i should do. like my dye-o-rama yarn… but i’m so incredibly low on dyes i would hate to mess it up and waste dyes & yarn. anyway, DoR pal, you are not forgotten; i just want to make you happy….)
anyway, i worked late into the night last night, on blending up some unicorn breath batts.
what an odd name, you say?! well i can’t take credit for it…i sent one to linda of stoneleafmoon and this is what she had to say about it!!!. her remarks totally made me blush, but truth be told, they are very special batts. (OH! and here it is spun up! go look!!!)
so, i made up 5 of them, then put them by the “fire place” (never you mind that dust there!)

and placed an apple, sweet potato, black bean, chipolte burrito next to them, in hopes of luring the unicorn in, to breathe on them. (it has been confirmed that apple, sweet potato, black bean, chipolte burritos are a favorite snack of the northern glitter tail unicorn)
i think it worked.

unicorn breath

• hemp
• vermont alpaca
• silk sari
• nylon

these are so incredibly intense to make; not to mention messy.
i doubt they will find their way to pippi.
i might spin them up, or they might wind up in your mail box. you just never know, i’m tricky like that.

lucky for me, the kids are well, and dare i say quiet they are sucked into a josie and the pussycats video. (does anyone have VHS anymore? yes, this coming from the last person on the planet without an ipod… haha)
thanks everyone for your well wishes for bells the other day! she is doing better, but, now we have run into some other difficulties.
such is life with youngins!!

♥