Introducing......Brown-Eyed Susan Columbine!!!!

Isn't she sweet? Such a little lady and sitting so prim and proper in the tree. I made Susan for my sister's birthday. She is made with the same pattern that I made Edith Iris with last year. I don't know where my sister's come up with these creative names but they certainly keep life interesting! Susan is the shortened version of her lovely name.

As a note: she is made out of muslin, cotton fabric, cotton stuffing, embroidery floss, and alpaca yarn.

Up-close detail of her skirt and lace. I didn't have a pattern for the dress. The magazine that the doll came out of had a dress with un-hemmed edges that wasn't meant to come off at all. So I designed this fun dress that comes off and has lots of ruffles making it full and gorgeous. My sisters have pointed out to me that despite the fact that their dolls dresses can come off, there is no need at present because they have nothing to change in to. This was a very broad hint that the poor dolls need a wardrobe. So we'll see what can be done about that in the future

Susan has learned to sit quietly in the grass without staining her ruffles.

But the steps are by far the safest place out of doors for a little lady.

She is already a well read doll, and enjoys the Bobbsey Twin Series very much.

And I couldn't resist this shot to show you how Susan managed to climb in to her prim and proper pose earlier pictured. :) Good thing she has long arms and legs, it makes tree climbing SO much easier!

It's Summer!

I am fond of starting off my posts with flowers. It is such a cheerful way to get everything started!

I know my post title says "It's Summer", but lest you all get confused, I merely meant that officially it is summer. Weather-wise, it has been summer forever around here. Which I have been more than happy with because I LOVE summer! Yay for summer! Actually what I love is warm weather. There are many places on the earth where summer is not too terribly warm. I think I'd have a hard time getting used to that.

Cloud photos are so much fun to take. My camera card is chock full of them and I really need to cull some out. But when you have amazing clouds going on, how can one resist?

Yup, the corn has gone WAY past waist high. It is about shoulder height now. And down at the bottom of the field it is over my head! And I am 5'6". So much for "Knee high by the 4th of July" like we say around here!

Swivel around to the left from the above photo and this was the view. Same night. Same time. We had some storms heading in. Lots of lightning going on along the horizon. I couldn't get any decent pics though.

Fairy Cakes! I found this idea on Attic 24
My sister had a birthday last week and she requested carrot cake. So here are the carrot Fairy Cakes! They were easy, and fun to make. I whipped up my own secret butter frosting recipe.

Mmmm, mmm! A delicious breakfast, although perhaps not too healthy. It is green tea though, and carrot cake. I rest my case.

Yum! I'm getting hungry just looking at my photos!

And let's finish with a beautiful shot of the Kennedy Rose. It seemeth to be changing colours!

Until next time my friends!

Alpacas Galore!!!

Hello everyone! I am back after a rather extended period on non-blogging. I did install an app on the blackberry for mobile blogging, but I haven't tried it out yet. I am not sure if I will like it, we'll see. If my blogging looks wildly different, that will be why!

Yesterday I started carding up the alpaca fleece that was given to us. Thursday I sat outside and picked and cleaned the fleece. Then I washed it, rinsed it, and spread it to dry. It was quite relaxing to sit out in the sun and handle the fleece. But 11 pounds of fiber is a lot to handle, and the drum carder pictured is my cousin's. So it is rather hard to process this all myself. We will probably be sending it out to the mill we visited recently and getting it turned into roving. Makes everything SO much easier, and the prices are decent too.

The drum carder is a Fancy Kitty. Like I said, it is my cousin's, and I am not a 100% where she got it from. I do know that there is a group on ravelry for people who have Fancy Kitty's. Anyhow, it does work nicely, and I liked it a lot. Of course, this is the only drum carder that I have ever used, but still....

My first alpaca batt was 3.8oz. I was terribly shocked to feed a white & fawn fleece in to the carder and have a grayish batt come out. I almost fell over with shock. If I had not done the carding of this batt myself I might have been rather suspicious. But there you have it, a gray batt. It was a two year fleece so that may have something to do with it. I hear that it has something to do with the undertones. But I haven't looked into it very much, so can not speak with authority on the matter. However I intend to do some research, so stay posted. Let me say though, it was a SHOCK. It took me several hours to get over it the grayness.

And here are my first two batts! I did have some help with them, in fact the third batt was just pulled off the drum carder as I write! Several people had a hand in it, in fact, I barely did anything with the third batt.

Don't you LOVE these ribbons?! They are silk sari ribbons. I snagged a few of my cousin's ribbons for my photo shoot and she generously let me keep them! How wonderful is that?!

I took my pictures out in my Aunt's woods. There is a bench along the trail, at the halfway point. It is a great spot for photos. The woods were so pretty that I had to capture them for you all to see.

I started spinning the alpaca up last night. I am not totally happy with it, but I'm just going to spin it and see what happens. The owners of Jimmy (the alpaca) who kindly gave us this fiber will be the first recipients of my spinning. I am not sure what I am going to make for them yet, maybe some scarves, mitts etc. They have been warned about the shocking colour change. :)

Anyways, got to run. Adios!

Spinning News

Two of my resent acquisitions, a mahagony top whorl spindle, and wool/alpaca roving!

My brother gave me the spindle and the roving I picked up at my last fiber fest.

I simply love this colorway. It is quite ME-ish. I plan on making a Scarfigan. The one in the newest Knit Scene.

Stay posted for more pics. I have 8 ounces to spin up, plus a half dozen other projects going on so I am going to take my time on this one. I don't need my beautiful scarfigan until the fall.

And thank you little brother, for this spindle! It is gorgeous! The spindle weighs about 1 ounce and spins super fast, and it doesn't wobble at all.

I spun up Ocean Splendor 2 on my top whorl spindle. As a reminder Ocean SPlendor 2 is one of the corriedale rovings I hand painted. I spun it very fine, and then plied 2 strands togther. It isn't quite lace weight, which is what I was shooting for. But I am happy with it. I have another shawl pattern in "The Knitter's Book Of Wool" that I am going to make for MYSELF! Yay!

I have discovered I LOVE hand painted roving. It has gorgeous color variations in it.

I spun up a 362 yard skein! My personal best on a top whorl drop spindle. :) I am excited to start knitting with this but I have several other projects on the needles.

That's it for spinning news!

This And That

Hello everyone. I hope you are having a beautiful day! I realize my blogging is rather sporadic and for that I do apologize. The only Internet access I have available at home right now it through the phone. So I am only able to blog when visiting my Aunt, who kindly puts up with my blogging every time I am over to visit. Someday my posts will be in a scheduled,timely manner, but until then, just keep hanging in there and eventually I will get another post up!

Here at home everything is growing like crazy. The corn in the field out back has decided that "knee high by the 4th of July" is not good enough, and is shooting for "waist high by the 4th of July! It is all beyond knee high and I am surprised each time I go out to check on it's growth.

Our personal rows of sweet corn in the garden are behind the field corn. But then again we did plant a few weeks late.

Well, I meant to get a better shot of my store banner but this is the best I could do on such short notice. Sorry...

I did end up using 2 strands of embroidery floss, the cotton thread was looking to weak. My wonderful Mother did almost all of the blanket stitching for me! I was so strapped for time and this was such a great relief to have her do that for me. Thank you Mother!

Oh! A terribly exciting piece of news is that a client of my Dad's gave him a whole alpaca fleece! Gasp! I was so excited and thrilled.

Here is the alpaca, Jimmy. He is 2 years old and Saturday was his first time to be sheared.

The shearer guessed the fleece to weigh about 10 pounds, but we haven't actually weighed it yet.

Look at that gorgeous crimp!

I am looking forward to working with this alpaca fiber. cleaning it, combing it, spinning it, knitting it..... the generous owners of Jimmy will surely be getting some hand spun & hand knit items this fall!

I have been making lambs left and right the last month or so. Here are photos of three of them.

The pattern is by Bev Galask. And I seem to be missing a close up of my light brown lamb.....hmmm. Well, he is my favorite. Maybe next time I'll show him to you.

My Aunt got some more Bard Rock Chicks. We have been trying to gentle them today. They are so sweet and make the most adorable peeping sounds.

And some gorgeous petunias at my Aunt's place. Well, summer seems to be flying buy so fast! Already the fourth of July is around the corner. Perhaps it seems to be going by so fast because I have had a lot going on. I don't know. But this week I plan to slow down a little and just enjoy the lovely weather. I do need to clean my room, it is in a bit of disorder. Just a bit. With all the coming and going the last few months it needs some...help. Enough said.

I also want to dig out a few sewing projects, WIP that I need to get done. Nothing too fantastic, just a couple little jumpers. But it will be nice to be back at the sewing machine.

I'll do some more spinning too. At least those are my plans for this week, Lord willing. But you never know how plans can change overnight.

Thanks for stopping by!

You all take care and enjoy your week!

Flowers For.....YOU!!!!

Lily

Daisy

Pansy

Old fashioned Rose

Feverfew

Neon Sedum

The beautiful, but deadly, Foxglove.

Kennedy Rose

Clematis

Primrose

Dahlia

Petunia

African Daisy

Hope you enjoyed these beauties!