sweet

February had a happy ending with a happy son.

I finished his second pair of socks, the Zauberball ones, on a weekend trip.

He had to try them on right away.

Perfect!

And March started off really good, too.

I met deadlines, finishing my inventory sheet for the Spider's Market, a guild event coming up March 25 and 26 at the Albuquerque Garden Center.

If you love fiber arts, handmade artsy crafty stuff or anything fiber related, you do not want to miss this!

Sheep on a Spring will be represented with yarn, spinning fibers, knitted stuff and more.

For the first time I have assembled these precious little packages... dyed wool fabrics for rug hooking or applique needlework. Don't they look yummy?

The star mat is blocked and patiently awaits finishing of the edge. It is one of the hooked rugs that will be displayed at the 2011 Fiber Arts Fiesta in May. - Picture submitted, another deadline met.

I hooked the last loops close to midnight the other day, because I really wanted to block the mat asap.

This view awaited me in the morning:

The frame did not stay empty for long, woolens were stripped, a design that had been lingering in my mind was transferred onto linen and today I started.

The perfect project for this time of the year, spring is in the air.

And look what came in the mail!

This delightful package arrived from Maryland for Fiona and me to share.

It held letters and gifts from the Kiln for both of us!

Fiona is thrilled about her new penfriend, my friend Mary's daughter. This is so sweet to watch, it reminds me of the beginnings of my treasured friendship with my French penfriend Isa so many years ago. Now we are both married, both have kids of our own...*sigh*

Fiona calls her bracelet from Kellie her lucky charm and gives me reasons why - of course - it has already helped her for real!

And this is my beautiful goodie - this gorgeous pendant... Mary, I adore your work, you are so incredibly talented!

My first thought was, this is my new sun and I had to bring it out in the garden to hold it up in the blue New Mexican sky in front of our mountains.

Awesome!

Last, but certainly not least, there was another sweet gift. Just this morning my rug hooking friend Mary surprised me with this fuzzy little guy for my sheep/tool collection...

Thank you, my friends!!

playtime

O, the days when I get to play...

I promised pictures of happenings in my house, but no, I did not do any kind of painting or redecorating, I dyed more rovings!

And I scoured some gifted raw fleece (thanks again to my rughooking friend Mary!) and I dyed some more, woolen fabrics for rug hooking this time.

There was wool everywhere - my idea of heaven!

So the kitchen was transformed into a dye studio again, no surface spared.

And the bathroom floors were not spared either - my giant drying rack.

I have yet to take a good shot of the various woolens fabrics, but pardon me for being distracted. My knitting neighbor friend Ellen is moving permanently to Florida and gave my her woolen treasures as a gift!

So now the living room is covered in yarns, too - can you even believe this?!

Here some of my favorites:

I keep cruising the balls, sorting a bit here and there, touching yarns and wondering what I might wanna create...

Heaven indeed!

Have a great weekend, my friends!

glimpses

Boy, that was a fast week.
So many things that I need to show.

Let's go, but beware - picture heavy post!

Last week brought more joy in a box:

A cutter for rug hooking.

And a very fine one, too!

It has already been put to work and the star rug, our current guild project, is growing.

And growing.

Have I ever mentioned how good it feels to the bare feet to stand on a hooked rug? One day I will make a biiiig rug!

The pink ballet wrap is all done.

If you want to see it for real you should come to the Yarn Store at Nob Hill. I will be teaching this in a class there soon.

A green Ballet wrap #2 is in the make.

Last, but not least there is our newest family member Munchkin.

While Romeo finally found a more suitable home in Santa Fe (where he is not being harrassed by a fellow feline..), harmony has been achieved here as well.

Munchie fits right in with our gang.

I know I know, it's a crappy dark picture, but I just could not bother them with a flash..!

And yes, Ikie, you are cute, too.

More to come soon, since you have yet to get an idea of how magically/brutally I manage to transform parts of this house, when I am in a crafty and colorful mood.

Happy Valentine's Day, my friends!

good bye

It is time to say farewell to an old friend.

She is pink.

She served me well for a long time.

Some folks might call her vintage.

My Motorola Razor.

She is retiring today, because Fedex brought my new personal assistant early.

I patiently waited for this for a very long time.

*sigh*

This is a good Monday.

This will be a good week, I can tell!

wool

It is really cold in Albuquerque right now.

Schools are out and we've gotten quite a bit of snow - this happening just about a week after my son declared that this has been a lame/mild winter!
Not so, not at all!

As a knitter and a spinner I find it only logical to pull out the woolens in this kind of weather, however my kids don't - with one exception: When it comes to playing in the snow, let me tell you that they are my biggest wool advocats.

They will tell you that any woolen mitten will keep you warmer than the store bought ones.

Even when it does not look that way.

They can be loaded with snow on the outside, and yet they are warm and dry on the inside.

In this case she had doubled up with Lewis' mittens.

"Omg - my hands are still warm!"

Silly girl! I love photoshoots with her!

local

I do not need any new yarn.

But I got some anyways.

Blue sky alpaca yarn, found at the new Yarn Store at Nob Hill, here on Facebook, I'm using a merino alpaca blend combined with brushed suri alpaca and it is every little bit as soft as it sounds.

I am making something similar to this (which I just finished for my little great grand niece in Florida), but a bit more like a ballet wrap that is tied in the back and with longer sleeves.

Finished wrap pictures and a class for slightly advanced knitters at the Yarn Store at Nob Hill will be coming soon!

not easy to please

While all things girlie are quickly demanded and the wishes easily fulfilled, the boy is another story.
He is more picky and selective and I am usually really pleased, when he wants something handmade and even more when he uses it!
And boy stuff has indeed been coming out of the bouncing sheep's studio in the past weeks!

There has been the first ever pair of boy socks, that has been worn except when it had to see the washing machine, can you tell?

In the garage there are two small bins holding my stash of sock yarn, however, for his second pair I had to get one of these:

Zauberball (yes, this is indeed what the name is!)! How can anyone resist?

I so enjoy working with this yarn, it is very soft and the color variations are really fun, however, I am a bit disappointed at slight differences in the thickness. We'll see if this will develop into a problem.

As usual Ike was very interested in what I was doing and decided to hang with the fluff.

Don't you think he looks sad?

Just like the whole family he must be grieving the loss of our sweet cat Lucky just a while ago.

*sigh*

I had been looking for a purpose for these japanese cotton linen blends with Lego/robot pattern for a while.

A bag for the ipad!

Note the glow-in-the-dark Fimo button...

...and the first time use of my new labels.

It holds the camera and ipod in the front under a flap and there is an inside compartment for some other accessories. The hardware came from a cheaply thrifted bag and the strap can be removed.

Fabrics bought locally at Hip Stitch.

Lewis loves it and uses it all the time. Perfect. Happy boy, happy mama.