In Snapshots: My Week Thus Far

~Early Sunday morning milking. I enjoy the cool quiet, the warmth of the cow, the sound of milk streaming into the metal pail, it is a lovely way to start the day.

~Fresh, foamy milk. Steel-toed boots to protect my toes, getting accidentally stepped on by a cow hurts!

~One of my cousin's new French Angora bunnies! Isn't she darling?

~Sunlight through the trees. It always makes me so happy.

~Handspun Painter's Palette yarn. Spun with Turquoise Owl Fibers roving from my shop, by my cousin.

~A spot of morning tea

~Knitting my Seaweed Stole and browsing through the most recent copy of Spin Off. 

~Picking a colander-full of fresh grape tomatoes.

~Chicken scratch.

~Bright pink Yarrow in the garden.

~Spinning a beautiful blend of 70%Polworth Wool/26% Alpaca/4% Silk.

Have a beautiful day!

Don't forget to enter my Giveaway if you have not done so yet. Only two days left!

Just popping in.

Today it is raining again. And I am not complaining. It is wonderful to have all this rain after our long dry spell. It feels a bit like autumn, like it did when I blogged this post. The house is quiet, so quiet that you can hear the clocks ticking, and the rain hitting the stove pipe outside the living room wall. 

Rainy weather always puts me in the mood for tea. I turned the electric kettle on, fished out my tea pot, wiped the dust out of a cup I have not used in awhile and made a pot of Rooibush Chocolate Tea. It is made by the Tea Gschwendner company, and oh so tasty. As the description says: "The creamy sweetness of chocolate combined with refreshing mind blend perfectly for a delightful cup!"

Things are going to be different around home for awhile. Grandma had surgery and Mother and I are switching on and off taking turns caring for her. The last two days I had previous commitments, and getting back earlier then planned, I had intended to dye fiber today  The rain put a stop to that and I found myself home this afternoon, with less to do then I thought.

So today I am working on my Etsy shop, blog and some knitting. Last week I picked up this lovely skein of Ella rae merino lace yarn. It is kettle dyed in gorgeous shades and I was so excited to start knitting it up.

I picked this yarn with my Seaweed Stole in mind, so as soon as I had found the right size of needles I got right to it. This is an easier pattern to work on then the other lace one I was doing. It works well for when I am sitting with my Grandma while we watch the Olympics. I kept losing my place in the other one, staring at the telly and holding my breath until a critical moment in the games had passed. Needless to say, I was not getting anywhere fast on that project! 
The Seaweed stole only has 4 rows to repeat, and just one of them is lace, so it is easy to keep track of while other things are going on.
I'm planning on selling this in my shop once it is done. Though that may not be for awhile, it needs another skein of yarn and the shop where I purchased it is across the state. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Lazy Summer Days

 By lazy summer days I mean the weather. It is hot, humid and everything seems to crawl along. However life is still very busy and does not look to be slowing down anytime soon. Coming up is caring for my Grandmother, House sitting, Fiber dyeing, Fiber festivals....
This morning I did some fiber dyeing for a custom order that came in yesterday. Since I had all of the equipment out I decided to do a little extra. I ended up dyeing a total of 2.25 pounds. I'm looking forward to the fiber drying so I can put up some new listings on my shop.

 The lovely flower shots above were taken yesterday at my Aunt's home. It isn't quite as dry there as it is at our place, so there are still some flowers blooming and the garden actually looks quite nice. The Hollyhocks are almost done for the summer, but I did get a nice photo of the last one or two. The lilies above are doing amazing! Such a bright pink and flourishing nicely.

 Well my project is coming along nicely! I have been at my Grandma's three different times this week as she heals from ankle surgery. We've had the Olympics on and I have had quite a bit of time to knit. I was hoping to enter it in the Ravellenic Games 2012 but I started it a week before the Olympics opening ceremony so it doesn't qualify for any of the categories. They do have a WIP category but it has to be untouched since May 15, 2012. So I am just knitting away and enjoying myself. I can set my own goals without being apart of the Ravellenic Team, though it would have been fun. 
I do want to make another Seaweed Stole but I need the needles that I am currently using on the above knitting. Good incentive to finish, eh?

Speaking of the Olympics I decided to set aside my other spinning project and work on some red, white & blue roving in honor of Team USA! The 2012 London games have been marvelous so far, I am glad I have been able to see some of the events this time around!
Since I just started this spinning yesterday, I can enter my yarn in the Ravellenics spinning category. If I get  in done in time, that is! I'll keep you posted.


Alright, we'll see you later! The track events are on and I am going to take a break from the shop and pull out the above spinning and make some progress!

An Announcement & A GIVEAWAY!!!

I am thrilled to finally be able to announce the opening of my Etsy shop, Turquoise Owl Fibers! After four years of dreaming, praying and preparing, I opened my online shop June 26, 2012. This has been a dream come true for me and I am so very excited. Finding my way around Etsy has been an adventure and quite the learning curve. I still have much to learn, but I don't feel quite as lost now as when I first got on Etsy. 

Here is a link to send you straight to my shop if you want to take a look at it: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TurquoiseOwlFibers?ref=si_shop

In celebration of my shop opening I am having a giveaway that will run the whole month of August.

 So what are we giving away? Well, first I have a skein of my handspun Merino in a lovely variegated blue color. The exact yardage escapes me right now, but it is close to 200yards. I'll look it up and let you know, when I find where I jotted it down! 
I am also including 2 ounces of Merino roving in this giveaway. This is the same fiber that I spun the yarn out of, just dyed in a different colorway. 

Here is another look at the yarn. I spun it as a single on my top whorl drop spindle, then plied it from a center pull ball. It is a 2-ply yarn, spun worsted.

The roving is a small, specially dyed lot. I am sure I will be dyeing more up in larger batches. I really like the way the colors came out and I wouldn't mind spinning some myself.

It is dyed in oranges, red, and pink, with splashes of white. If I am going to dye this up in bigger amounts it will need a name. So I thought I would get some help from all of you. 

To enter the giveaway please leave a comment on THIS post telling me what you would name this roving. The winner will be drawn at random and will NOT be based on your suggestions, BUT I will be looking at all the names you suggest and I will have a special surprise for the person whose suggestion I like best! 

****If suggesting names isn't your cup of tea, just visit my shop and let me know in your comment which colorway you like best :) ****

Giveaway will end on August 31, 2012 and the winner will be drawn shortly thereafter.

Put your thinking caps on and lets get creative. Please keep suggestions clean and above board. 

Have fun!

****This giveaway is now closed. Thank you for entering!****