Garden Accomplished!

Yea for holidays from work! Finally the garden is completely planted. The potatoes, onions, scallions, and peas have been in since early April.





But yesterday the tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers went in.





Oh, yeah. And the beans, cucumbers, carrots, and corn. But they're not much to talk about yet.



Okay, garden. GROW!

Spring

Spring has sprung,
the grass has riz.
I wonder where
the birdies iz??

I just put the seeds into my Aerogrow last week to start the seedlings for this year's garden and LOOK !!!!!





They're already starting to sprout!!! YEA!!!

Tapestry Weaving Class

About three weeks ago I took the most awesome class; Getting Started with Tapestry Weaving. Diane Bowman taught the class at the Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center. She is a very accomplished weaver and has done some amazing tapestries. What a great class she taught! We learned several tapestry techniques by doing a sampler:


and then designed a piece to incorporate the techniques we had learned. Here's my resulting designed piece:



Just what I need: another fiber obsession.

Winning Name for Bear

The judges have spoken and they have chosen Lisa's suggestion of "Geronimo" as the name for my new bear!

Thanks, everyone, for participating!

Help Me Name My New Bear

I got a prezzy! My dear, sweet sister gave me a bear fetish. He is SOOOO fun!



He looks to me like he's found a frozen pond and just can't help running to the edge and sliding across the ice.





But he needs a name. Please help me find a name for my new bear. And you might win a prize for your help! Leave a comment on this blog post with a suggestion for a name for my new bear by midnight February 14, 2011, MST. The winning name (chosen by a panel of 2 judges) will be announced on February 20, 2011.



Prize will be a handmade bear from Enchanted Sky Enterprises.

Warping is Heck

Okay, okay. So I cheated. I tied on to the last warp and pulled the warp through the beater and the heddles. But I still managed to break TWO warps during the process (and then I had to hunt down the broken warps and string them through. Sheesh!)



I did manage to warp enough for both a scarf and the material to make some mittens. The mittens are a custom order but the scarf will go to hubby as a Christmas present. Don't you LOVE the mad rush to finish up Christmas projects?

This Will (Probably) Never Happen Again!

I've been working on a custom order I received (to be given as a Christmas gift by the customer) for three skeins of hand-spun yarn. The fun thing is that the customer has given me complete latitude in choosing colors and yarn weight. The only stipulation for the order has been that the yarn include alpaca fleece. Now this is the kind of customer I like! But that's not the thing that will probably never happen again.

Here are the three skeins I've done to complete this order:



The bright blue is a light fingering weight yarn that is a mixture of 50% white suri alpaca, 30% blue merino, and 20% silk. Heaven to spin! The alpaca fleece came from Sakura, a gorgeous dam who has consistently produced ~4 pounds of blanket fleece at an average of 21 microns. The dark brown yarn is a sport weight and a mixture of 50% brown huycaya alpaca, 30% yellow merino, and 20% silk. The alpaca fleece came from Victoria with a micron count ~45. The lighter brown skein has one ply that is 70% brown/pink/white merino and 30% silk and a second ply that is 100% white suri alpaca. The alpaca fleece for this skein came from Valentina, another dam whose micron count averages ~20.

Now when I spin I'm not very good about planning ahead to have one ply come out about the same length as the other ply. Even if I weigh the roving before I start to spin and make sure that I have the same amount for each ply, I always come out with lots more of one ply than the other. For example, when I spun the two plies for the bright blue yarn, this is how much of one ply I had left over when I ran out of the other ply:



The same was true for the dark brown skein.

But THIS is how much I had left over of the merino/silk blend when I ran out of the alpaca for the lighter brown skein! 44 inches!



This will probably never happen again!