Spring spinning in Redmond....it is 65.. therefore... "spring"

Our spinning guild met at our local library.
Lovely room, bright and sunny, with very
nice murals. That's me in front of the
unicorn... having fun now!! Note the
cool 3D bobbin!! Christmas present from
dear daughter Tracy.

Diane in her brand new sirkler sweater she just finished!

She is a star pupil and did the whole sweater perfectly!

Back of Tracys sirkler sweater in dark turquoise

lots of spinning = FUN on Valentines Day

Close up of new 3D bobbins!! every color has a different pattern

Aker works makes the #D printed bobbins in every color 

of the rainbow, for all the spinnning wheels! 

In a whole lot of patterns.  How fun! They work too!!!!    http://www.akerworks.com/bobbins.html

Hitchiker scarf I made for dear daughter Darcy for Christmas

My friend Carrie modeling a cap Randee made for her grandson!

Our one horned buck scraping off the velvet

We have had a whole lot of deer lately. 5 bucks in a group one day,

6 does another and a new baby a few days ago. They never stay in

one place long enough for a picture.

The 3 sisters on Valentines Day
snow level is melting away!!! Not a good prognosis for summer water

Sister in December from our house,
snow level is much lower

Here is what I am working on now! I know, lots of projects, but I am

rewarding myself with new starts as I finished the big long term 3 last

summer.

My daughter Tracy's {Ink Circles} Big Red Ship of Life
I have 40 ct lakeside linen vintage sand and Gloriana silk Schoolhouse Red

My new teppe (wall hanging or table runner)
I am using Norwegian linen warp and Prydvevgarn wool

Humble beginnings of : His Eye is On the Sparrow
vintage country mocha 40 ct and Gentle Arts Sampler threads

Another Tracy {Ink Circles} design: Blue Morpho
only 3 days in, with Gloriana silk and Legacy PTP 36ct linen
I wanted something easier to see to take to Nashville. I
am going with Tracy Feb 26 for the TNNA!!! Yeah!!! I
will be sure to take lots of pictures of the embroidery at the show

3 New Patterns and Beautiful Fall Day for pictures

I have 3 new items finished, now have pictures and patterns are partly
written!!!  I feel like I am getting something accomplished now I have 
my new bionic lenses and cataracts are fini!!!
First a new sweater now called" Old World Garden",
formerly "chickenwire", well it does have chickens and lots of
"wire". But friends made fun of the name!

Mollie and Harley the dog

Next a hat to go with Berit's Double Hearts. I like this one the best of
all the hats I have made. I love the 5 points. it fits perfect too.

Harley enjoying the picture taking! He is a very cute little guy!

And last my "Demon Locust" Mittens. You may think it is just a grasshopper

but it is adapted from a really old (18th century) Transylvania

embroidery pattern, and they say "Demon" like in Revelations.

See the little locust on the thumb?

Love the new green in the Finullgarn with the beautiful moss in my yard!!!

After my friend Mollie was kind enough to model for
me again, I went to the next farm of my friend Michele and visited
her Angora goats and sheep. They are in the middle of the breeding
season and pretty dirty, especially "Thorn" the big
Angora Goat buck, wait until you see him at his dirtiest!!
Quite the contrast with the clean little babies.

Thorn with his big beautiful, dangerous horns
He has gorgeous fleece and is a great stud, under all the dirt!!!

Thorn has been a very bad boy. He broke out of his fence
3 times and escaped into the hay barn where he munched!!!
You should see the big gate hook he broke!!! I would
NOT go in his pen for anything. He does have gorgeous
children though!!

Baby angora lamb, maybe a child of the Dangerous Thorn

This is a "blue" baby angora lamb

Some Gotland cross sheep, great fleece, nice sheep!!

Peanut, beautiful Angora "red" baby goat
this fleece just shines after it is washed, very silky!!!!

The black faced sheep in front is a Blue Faced Leiester/ Gotland cross and
will have marvelous fleece

Now I am spinning and weaving so much can you
see why I love living in central Oregon with all the beautiful fleece?
More than I could use in a lifetime!!!
It is sure fun to have friends with real farms! After a bit my friend
Michele, (her sheep and goats) is going to make a webpage and sell
some fleece, yarn (hand dyed) and such. I will make it known when it happens.

Spinning Retreat of "Tweenies" at Prarie City Oregon

Some of us from our NWRSA spinning guild get together for

a Retreat in between the normally scheduled meetings, thus the "Tweenies"

was formed. This time we drove east to the lovely little town of Prairie City

to visit our friend Ginger. She is part of a co-op that is "Roan". It is a 

sweet little coffee shop with house hold decorative items and hand woven/

hand spun items woven by Ginger right in the shop. I have pictures of some

of her special garments below. She can't keep them in stock! but will

take orders.  What a special place to work!!!

The weather couldn't have been nicer.

Spinning in front of "Roan"

Old church becomes new Community Center for Quilt Show

This Saturday was also a Quilt show at the above picturesque church in
 front of the Strawberry mountains.

Handwoven/ hand spun shrug by Ginger

Her loom right in front draws the customers!!!!

Another wonderful one of a kind wrap

Teresa of "Skeins" knitshop in John Day ran away to be with us for the afternoon!
Skeins Yarn store and Kromsky Dealer

Nice article about this shop!

Spinning inside Roan

Still spinning at Ginger's house
For once I did get a LOT of spining done!

Wee "Z" supervising the spinning

We had a wonderful relaxing weekend. I only had to cook one meal! Yeah.

(much rather be knitting or spinning!!!)

I recommend Prairie City for a fun vacation get away. Lovely

quaint old town with quite a lot to see.

Progress on my new "Big Red Ship of Life"   the newest pattern by Tracy Horner
Ink Circles

 I started this embroidery only at the beginning of August. Warning!!!
 it is addictive. I just can't put it down. Using Gloriana Schoolhouse red
and a few other colors on Vintage Sand 40 ct by Lakeside linens. Tracy
designed it after the early 19th Century Tampan ship cloths of Sumatra.

1st Pretty much as the pattern below

 Here is what I just finished and am now working on:

2nd with new colors

3rd teppe where I made up the pattern from an old photo in Norway

1st made Telemarksteppe   Pattern by Laura DeMuth in Handwoven

My finished, framed, Past and Present after Karen Kluba's pattern

My version of Pot 4 Dickie
Julia Line/ Long Dog Framed!!!!

Black Sheep Gathering was terrific fun again!!!

As we walked in the door the cutest sheep ever greeted us!

 Everyone individual and named. Then there was more fiber than you could

imagine in every color of the rainbow. Wool, llama, alpaca, angora (goats and rabbits)

and even YAK!!!

My friend just started raising Gotland sheep, so they were on our

agenda. They are such friendly guys!!! Very soft and curly. I am thinking

about getting skins someday too, to put behind my Norsk weavings. 

Next year!

A nice Border Leicester
A good site to visit to see very cute sheep pictures is Bless Ewe Sheep Company
They have a great Face Book page with lots of pictures

Pretty and sleepy Angora Goat

Another one sleeping the day away!

Black goat babies

 

Looking good enough to KNIT!!!

It is kinda like going to the zoo, but you get to hug and pat the animals, and 

of course fondle the fiber!!!

Eventually we did get past the sheep and goats... and found beautiful handwoven

rugs.

Hand woven with hand dyes yarns. The man who wove them had a handful of
cochineal beetles that turned his palm red! Check out this site
on Wickipedia

And tools....
Ed Jenkins makes some very fine "Yarn Tools". Check out
his nice web pages. These were beautifully made and very colorful.

Also KCL Woods make very gorgeous handmade shuttles and spindles.

We did make it to the yarn. I restrained myself because I

do have a whole room full of stash. I did get one skein of

Windsor Farms Rabbitry   

German angora yarn to make

the "Gather Ye Rosebuds" handwarmers. Pattern is Free

on Ravelry. It is 85% angora and 15% Cormo wool. So very

soft and pretty. I got 2 bags of Theodoza's Loose Prime

Angora too, to eventually spin a 50/50 mix with merino and

dye it to make another Bohus sweater. I had a totally Angora Day!!

 My friend Michelle got one of these white silk "Laps" to spin. Like a gorgeous
cloud.

Plum Crazy's beautiful fiber.

This gal has every fiber imaginable, including the afore mentioned Yak!!

 I have never seen such a variety of fiber as this year. The sun was out all

day, but not too hot and my friends and I had a fun packed day!!!

I will probably have to go to OFFF Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival at Canby)

 too as I am a confirmed fiber addict.