Happy Halloween

Here they are looking ready to go. Lindsay was a Kangaroo complete with joey - the costume was provided by her aunt Lorie who had a whole big trunk to pick from :) Warm and toasty not that she needed it. It was so warm here I sat out on the front porch to hand out candy and spun on the wheel while waiting for kids to arrive. Had about 50 which is way less than what I thought would come.
Jared my wodnerful creative kid decided he wanted to be "Perry the Playtupus" from a cartoon named Phineas and Ferb. Perry is a turqoiues playtpus who is a secret agent spy. Nothing like lets have a challenging costume :) Don't know where he gets his imagination from. But I think we did okay by it.
Now what to do with all the leftover Halloween chocolate......I mean what leftover halloween candy -there wean't any left really .........yum

Still kicking

I know I know bad blogger not updating her posts. I'll sing the "I'm sorry song" for you if you like. I've been very busy trying and sucessfully figuring out how I knit the "Maggie Shawl" -posted on Maggies blog -http://www.bundaflicka.blogspot.com/ -Its 8 ounces of her gorgeous Mother Fiber -Nuno/Needle Felting Kits. Her roving is stunning!
Today and tomrrow I'm helping out at the guild show and sale -sold one skein of angora yarn today :) And of course tonight is the big candy haul for two excited kids -I'll be sure to post pictures of them in costume. Java is terrified of the pumpkin -she is sure its going to eat her LOL.
Other than that its same old same old for me. Went to a job interview on Tuesday -would really like this job -9-5 monday to friday working for a custom embroidery company -nice people. Daryl is loving his new job -yes hes back at what he does best fixing cars -no overhead work here though and no electrical dyagnositc which he hates.

My husband and his younger woman :)

I busted my hubby today with another woman snuggling on the couch :) Good thing its our adorable neice Brianne (age 2) -they snuggled down on the couch together for a nap - Brianne at first wanted nothing to do with him but today nobody but "Unka Daryl" was good enough to snuggle with LOL.
They are a cute couple though.....darn it she has everything blond curls, blue eyes and a smile that goes for miles.

Ever get the urge......

To spin something different? For me I LOVE spinning angora but sometimes the urge to spin bulky yarns hits. And wool is perfect. Especially in bright vibrant colours perfect for felters yarn. Here's six of Louet's new Northern Lights colourways all spiun up into 4 ounce -65 yard skiens.
From left to right they are:

Meadow Trail
Peacock Feather
Wild Iris
Meadow Glade
Mulled wine
Fire Moss

Really really nice. There is one more that I didn't get called Fruit Punch -to me it looked too close to Mulled wine with out the nice rich tones. They are a merino cross wool so very soft with lots of loftiness to them. There are 26 colours in total I think.

Playing with Fibre

I know I know three posts in one week -wow I think that is a first for me (grin)
Today was open studio at the KHWS studio and I had a blast playing with the drum carder there. I took some dyed mohair by Jared carded it by itself, with angora and finally with three different colour alpaca batts I got on Sunday at the Open House at Wilton Road Mill. The alpaca came from South Shore Alpacas and is lovely and soft. I love the results!!!
Funny thing is I didn't care for the mohair roving before it got carded and altered the colours......will have to try some more I think ;) Good thing the studio is open every Thursday so I can indulge my love of fibres with more equipment than I have now.
My other work in progress is a buttery soft brown merino fleece that has been washed and picked for the first time. I'm going to wash it a second time, pick it again and then card it -lovely stuff from Maggie's Farm!

Rhinelanders update

Well as many of you know Jared decided on Rhinelanders as his breed of choice. He now has the orignal senior pair, a pair from the breeding the senior doe arrived with and now 7 beautiful babies (born on my birthday) to assess and decide who stays and goes.
There are 5 marked and two sport babies in the litter. I didn't know about them so they were a HUGE surprise. So cute -look like harlequins. Kids have named them little Java One and little Java Two LOL.
Here's a picture of the difference! And a picture of mommy too -she's looking good really considering her business with 7 popcorn babies! Of corse she has that look of go away down pat!

Rabbits, Fibre and the Dyewizard Himself

Busy weekend :) Rabbit show in Spencerville on Saturday -of course no rabbits in full show coat ready to go. Got 2nd place with my just turned senior French doe -both judges LOVED her body type and structure she just needs more guard hair to finish out her texture. Luckily had three rabbits able to get registered to boost the fall breeding lines.
Sunday we went to the Wilton road mill open house - nice day thank god for no rain -cause it looked like it would! And fibre and rain is not a good combination. The dyewizard himself Jared took the day out to attend with me :) He was thrilled to meet so many of his "fans" and was an instant convert to the lamb chili -he had 6 bowls!!! Can this kid eat or what. And he's so darn handsome and polite and cute -he made lots of new friends. But remember ladies he's mine at least for another 7 years!

13 years.- who would have thought it!

Yeppers 13 years of me and the big guy. It sure hasn't seemed that long. Good days, bad days and some days never to be spoken of again -laugh. We're still here though and still going strong. The gift of lace is the traditional way to celebrate 13th wedding anniversaries. Modern gifts are gifts are textiles or fur.
Whoohoo textiles - can I get mine in cashmere and maybe some mohair or silk ;)

Jazzy Jared -yarns!

Here's the latest from the dye wizard. He found some white 100% wool in the stash pile and decided he needed to unleash his creativity. 7 lots of yarn is now proudly done up -ready for the Fibre Mill open house on Sunday -mommy is taking her angora rabbits and fibre. Jared is taking his 1 of a kind dyed products :)
Wonder who will be more popular LOL. Jared of course!

Knitting with Silk caps

I recently decided to play with some of the dyed caps Jared had done for me and thougth about knittting it without spinning it first. I carefully pulled apart the cap starting at the edge and made one contunious ribbon with it. Then rolled into a ball and knit just using garter stich and slipped stitched to create a fun little bag to put on my belt -just the right size for some ID, phone and some cash. I then embellished it with some charms and ribbon and voila - I loved it!! Lots of fun too. I may make some for the teens on my Xmas list. That is if the silk caps don't all sell first!

Lord and Master

Shenanigans our lovely orange tom (13 years old and going strong) knows who is the true master of the house. HE is!! Everything and everyone is under his rule including the lowly dog. Here he uses Java as a cushion and the sad thing is she lets him ~ LOL crazy pair that they are. Grimjack our other cat - 12 year old grey tabby is chased all around the house by Java but not Shenanigans -he truly rules the roost!

Fishing with Nanny and Poppa

Kids had a real treat last night. Nanny and Poppa asked them to go fishing at a friends trout farm. Yummy!!! And so exciting for the kids to pull in a BIG one!
Here's the pics.
Arent' they just the cutest kids you have ever seen. Their cousin Brandon came as well -he turns 14 this March and is turning into a real heart-throb.
The other handsome fellow is Peter who has lived with Daryl's parents for over 20 years. He's like Daryl's kid brother and is a very special part of our family.

First Day of School!

It's that time of year again! Time when once again I am forced to admit my kids are growing way faster than I can hold them back. Jared is 10 now a powerhouse baseball player and still the dyewizard of Cornerstone Fibres. he's going into Grade 4 this year under a modified learning program to help him with his literacy problems. Thank God for teachers who listen and help you with your kids! Lindsay is off to Grade one -full time days! She's an opinionated bueatiful little girl who God help us all will be challenging her teacher as much as she is challenged.
Thank you to all who help eductate, drive our kids safely too and from school, clean up after them and help plan to make them better and learn more effectively! God bless you all!!! We as parents need all the help we can get ;)

2 Looms and 2 Spinning Wheels for Sale

Hi All:

Its time to make some room in the house. All prices are negotiable -
I CAN ship items or arrange delivery to Rhinebeck NY Sheep and Wool
Festival in October:

Country Spinner Spining Wheel - a HUGE wheel great for plying or
spinning bulky. Bobbin holds over 2lbs of completed yarn. Single
Treadle.
Asking $325

Louet S-75 Single treadle -an older model but a fantastic wheel.
Solid maple wood construction. Comes with three bobbins and lazy
Kate.
Asking $375

Large Inkle Loom -handmade but works awesome!
Asking $30

LeClerc 4 harness Table loom Dorothy 15 3/4"
Wonderful compact loom - in excellent shape.
Asking $250

Photos of all equipment can be sent to you upon request. Prices do
not include shipping but delivery to Rhinebeck is FREE.

Bunnies for Sale

Well after a fabulous spring and summer there are few bunnies left for sale here at Rocky Meadow Rabbits. We have one satin angora buck -tort, one Jersey Wooly (registered smoke pearl), one German Hybrid (broken Black) and 4 French angoras left to sell - 2 sable bucks, chocolate agouti buck and a really smart broken sable doe who might still stay. Here's some pics of the available bunnies.

Getting ready for the fall shows

We've been busy here trying to get ready for fall shows -not very sucessfully mind you. Today I finally finished my first hat/scarf set of 100% pure angora -handdyed, spun and knit. Lindsay was my reluctant model - I mean how rough is it to stand and look cute :)
I hope to make a few more and some of my long scarves -mine gets rave reviews everytime I wear it!

Time and Friday

Here's new bunny number one Fuzzies Timely Manner AKA Time a stunning smoke pearl doe from Sue Needles along with her soon to be boyfriend RM's Friday the 13th a rich and deep sable buck. Both will be shown this fall as juniors and then clipped down to get ready for the 2009 Angora Nationals ~~Here's two promising and amazing French Angoras we're proudly housing and breeding at Rocky Meadow Rabbits.
We also aquired Fuzzies Class Act -an amazing junior REW Doe and Fuzzies BCB a really nice blue pointed white buck.

Back from the Dog Trials

We're back after the fun and the rain (laugh). What a action packed three days -busy too. We cheered not only the dogs on but the 4 sheep to shawl teams as well. We bid (unsucessfully) on the shawls -the highest one sold for $225 I believe. Kingston my hometown girls placed second!!! They had an amazing desing with green and dark natural fleece -very striking. All the teams seemed very happy to spend the GCs we had donated for prizes. Its always fun to have 25 spinners and weavers at your booth at one time :) Of couse Jared's dyed items were hotly contested and fought over.
The Kingston Handloom Weavers and Spinners also ran demos all weekend long -here's Mary teaching tow young men the joy of spinning. They were very enthusiastic to learn all about it! Drop spindle kits were a huge seller this weekend and I gave lessons to get them started all weekend long.

The trials themselves were won by Amanda Milliken (fom Kingston) and her incredible dog Ethel. it had to be a run worthy of a film. They have to gather 10 sheep run the course then gather 10 more to finish the fist part. They then have to seperate 5 sheep with collars and send the rest over the hill. You then finish by penning your 5 collared sheep. Well did we ever get a show!! Amanda and Ethel had sucessfully shed off 14 of the sheep needed with one rebel left. This sheep left the group and returned twice before they sent her off. We thought she was done but oh no down the hill she trucked -JUMPING over Ethel who rightly hit the ground. The sheep then attempted to kick her with a rodeo horse worth kick. Amanda yelled at Ethel who got up off the ground looked at the sheep and then at her as if to say "can you see what I am dealing with here." Amanda stopped yelled "sorry" and away they went again to get one of the few pens of the day! Ehtel is coming on 10 and I know without a doubt that girl could do the whole run herself but its still wonderful to see true partners on the field.

I love going to Grass Creek -its so wodnerful to be a part of it all -but its nice to come home too. Today I'm off to get three new French angoras -and I remembered to charge the camera so new pictures of them will be up shortly!

Let the Sheep Dog Trials begin!

They're off and running and so are we. The 20th annual Kingston Sheep Dog trials start for us tomorrow. There are over 120 dogs running in this finishing off in the
exciting and thrilling double lift championship on Sunday. The dogs started their runs on Wednesday -crappy weather for them -poor things and mean mean nasty sheep. The sheep are run wild on Waupoos Island and never see a dog till the trials -they rerally make the dog and handler work. We'll be there Friday through Sunday manning the booth, fighting over who gets to watch the dogs (laugh) and cheering on the 4 teams at the sheep to shawl cometition on Saturday. More pictures to follow as events unfold. I love watching the dogs run -makes me miss Scamper -not that she would ever deign to herd sheep -she was above all that :)

Jazzy Jared loose again

You can always tell when Jared is bored on a rainy day - we have to dye things LOL.
8 ounce mohair roving lots and silk caps were on the menu today. He loves his colours doesn't he. Cheery and bright as the rain comes pouring down.