Uh huh......that's what I'M talkin' about

Check this out:

I'd say it looks a little better than this first attempt don't ya think??

Yay!! I'm learning, I'm learning!!!

Yarn Bowls!

I have had several emails asking me about the next round of Yarn Bowls. Well, we put them up on the site so go check 'em out. If you want one you better act quick because we just put them up yesterday and have already sold two (make that three) of them! They don't hang around long. Here's a sampling:







Oh, and yeah, yeah I know Aimee and Erin - it's master's Tuesday. Whatever. Master's Smasters. I'm ticked off at the master' program (read: at myself) right now. Remember how I was having so much trouble with the blocking??? I couldn't figure out why because I was using 100% wool. Yeah, uh huh.....perhaps I should try reading the

LABEL THAT WAS ACTUALLY ATTACHED TO THE YARN

to find the actual content of the yarn. So, duh, it's not blocking because it has ACRYLIC in it!!!!


What to do, what to do.......I know it is an acceptable yarn to use but my blocking looks like crap (duh, duh, duh) so I think I am just going to start over (with ACTUAL wool) and do it right.


OK - how many people feel sorry for me now? Good - go buy a yarn bowl!

Alpaca Mania

I have been wanting to post this for a few days now but I felt that Ponce deserved his very own post yesterday. So, without further delay - we received our alpaca processing back from Georgia Mountain Fiber!!! As many of you may remember, back in October, we brought my dad's alpaca shearings up to Blue Ridge, GA to be processed. Some of it was spun and some of it was made into roving. We went to pick it up on Friday it all turned out BEAUTIFUL!!!! I can not believe how gorgeous and soft it is. If anyone has alpaca or llama hair to be processed I HIGHLY recommend Georgia Mountain Fiber. They did a beautiful job and they were so friendly and wonderful to work with. When we dropped off the fiber they gave us a tour of their processing facility - so that was really neat to see all the stages and processes that the fiber goes through.

We dropped off 30# of fiber and this is the spun fiber we got back:



Here is Onyx's:



Here is Paco's:




Here is Sterling's (you can't really tell here but this is a beautiful silver):



Here is Prent's:


And we got a bag of "alpaca surprise" that they happened to have there. I LOVE this - it's just a conglomeration of fibers that have been dropped off there. I can't wait to knit up some fun stuff with this!



Here is the roving - this is the remainder of all of their fleece processed together. Good thing I am learning how to spin, huh?


And, on another note, thank you so much to everyone who left comments of support about our beloved Ponce. We got Mr. P back today and put him in one of our handmade pottery urns. He is in the burgundy one next to Shelby who is in the green one. This is really not a collection I would like to add to anytime in the near future. But, we sure are glad to have him back home.

I have much information to update everyone on but I'm just going to have to pace myself and spread it out through the posts this week. So..........stay tuned!

In Memorium.....

Some of you may remember THIS post from a few weeks ago where I entered Ponce's foot into Phyllis' contest for "saddest paw". Well, it turns out that his limping was much sadder than we thought. We had taken him to the vet and tried a myriad of things to help fix his limping. Finally, we found out on Friday that Ponce had bone cancer all in his shoulder joint. So, the choice was to do a radical amputation including the leg, shoulder joint and scapula then do chemo and hope to buy him a few more months - or to let him go and stop the pain.

We elected for the latter. We just could not see making him hang around and suffer just for us. After the x-rays he was extreemly painful from the mainipulation and the bone had already started fracturing. We had him on fentanyl patches and additional oral narcotics and he was still terribly uncomfortable. As difficult as the decision was we put him to sleep yesterday.

Needless to say there has been an inordinate amount of sadness and crying around here this weekend. We are going to miss Ponce beyond belief. He was an absolute angel and truly blessed our home with his happiness. love and energy. We feel so fortunate that he was pushed out of that truck right in front of us on Ponce de Leon Ave. and we got to share this last year and a half with him.

Goodbye Mr. Ponce........we miss you SO MUCH...................

And, if you live in the area, I CANNOT say enough wonderful things about Dr. Katz and Dr. Bell at North DeKalb Veterinary Clinic in Tucker, GA. They were so caring and amazing and truly helped us to do the best thing for our beloved Ponce. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend them. Also, turns out that one of their techs there is the guy who taught me to be a vet tech way back in the day! I hadn't seen him since I left that particular clinic back in 1995. Small world.........

We are having him cremated at Paws, Whiskers and Wags who are also wonderful and extreemly reptuable. We have actually been there in the past and toured their crematory. The folks there are just great and they run a truly top-notch operation. Hopefully you never need their services, but if you do please check them out.

Fiber Artists Take over the White House!!

Oh yes, it's true!! The story is right HERE. Now, if those folks in the White House were smart they would have been listening to us wonderful group of fiber obsessives for a LONG time already. Pass this story on - it's great! Don't ask me how Mr. Man finds all this crazy stuff.......I have no idea.

And as of this morning we are BOOKED for SAFF!! Yay!!!! I see us serving up some food and cocktails for fellow SAFFers in this place. We are so excited!! Now we just have to figure out if we are getting a booth or not. Maybe we will just bring yarn bowls and sell them out of the cabin. Let's see - with each yarn bowl purchase you get a free martini!

Here's what I finished up last night.

I think it is still a little too tight but I have no idea really. It's hard to tell because this fiber is kind of coarse anyway. The consistency is getting better but still a long way from "good" I think. Eventually I'm going to work up the nerve to try some of that yummy pencil roving I bought at Knitch. Hey, when the bobbin gets too full does the fiber stop feeding onto the bobbin well? That's the point I stopped at b/c the yarn wouldn't feed very well. Just wondering if that is my clue that the bobbin is full. Lemme know on that one.

BEHOLD.............!!!!!!!!!

{Angel music playing in the backgroud........}

Drumroll please.............................

The FOURTH spinning attempt:

Oh yeah - that's what I'm talkin' about! This, my devoted Knit Witch followers, is what I like to refer to as a "TOTAL SPINNING SCORE"! Yeah, I know, I know - it ain't perfect but I think it's pretty darn good and I am actually learning about making adjustments and drafting length and twist. More importantly, I am actually having fun with it rather than wanting to throw the demon spinning wheel out the window. Fun and minimal anger are always a bonus in my (and Mr. Man's) book. Only once last night did he have to say "OK - I'll stop talking".

While I did that - he made these:

These are the beginning stages of buttons. Here's a closer view.

These are still very much experimental - they have not been fired or glazed yet and we are going to do some "plain" ones too that just get glazed but I think they are looking pretty good so far!

On My Way to the Master's Tuesday

For the third time in a row I am actually able to remember that it is Tuesday and I owe a Master's update (for anyone who cares). I have knit 10 swatches thus far (1-9 and 14). Some are blocked (poorly) and some are not. If you want to see them you can look HERE. They aren't really much to look at since most of them have not been blocked. I think I have answered about 1/2 the questions and haven't even touched the report - especially since it is on blocking and I am currently ticked off at blocking.

Mr. Man is in the process of making me a decent blocking board so when that is up and running there will be more blocking fun. Right now I am just using towels and I'm just not happy with the results. Of course, poor Mr. Man is outside right now building a lazy kate for my spinning bobbins (I am actually going to practice plying my yarn barf later to free up some spindlage) so it will probably be a few days on the blocking board.

**Hot off the press** Here is the finished lazy kate!! I'm going to try it out tonight! Yay Mr. Man!! Have I told you how much I LOVE YOU lately?!?! :)

PLUS - he has done these:

Some of the new yarn bowls have faces, some have handles, some have designs and some are plain. This is about a kiln load so we will probably be able to start a bisque tomorrow (you have to let them dry out before putting them in the kiln or else they will explode - ask us how we know this.