Fuzzballs

Something happened to my back and I've been in excruciating pain for many days now. It's insane and nothing helps. Supporting my lower back with a pillow when I sit in chairs eases the pain a little. Because of that, B bought me a (rather expensive in my opinion) new chair for my birthday. When I'm using the computer I usually sit in a wooden kitchen chair, this one is a definite improvement.

I meant to post at least once a week but pain has a way of derailing plans. Better late than never, right? For better or worse, I mostly took pictures of some of our cats.


Three boys plus perler beads equals total happiness (or fighting over colors. It's a toss up).


My new chair, complete with Beast.


Eddy. His thirteenth birthday was on the 17th - ten days before mine. He's the only cat we have with a known birthday.


Erasmus James Flattery. Better known as Ras. This picture sums up how weird she is. Perching on small electronics? Totally normal.. right?


Pilot looking like a bobble head. The box my chair came in is wildly popular among all the critters.



Ramses. My old man. He's cross eyed, nearly toothless, and the sweetest cat I've ever known.


Faustus (though we just call him Faust) with a side of Pilot, Surreal, and Calcifer.


Ishtar. Neurotic and beautiful. Because cats are all weird in their own ways.

That's it. Beyond moaning in pain I've been reading books, carding fiber, and milking this "it's almost my birthday" thing for all it's worth (this mostly amounts to having extra coffee). Happy Friday!

Oops

It would seem that I've been neglecting this blog. Here's a smattering of pictures to prove that I haven't been slacking elsewhere, too.


Muddy Rainbows - TdF13 spinning.


Super Heroes and Villains (from the Phat Fiber boxes) - TdF13 spinning.


Batt carding, spinning, and the Beast - more TdF13 stuff.


Campfire batt


Rainbow roving


Larger version of my Phat Fiber contribution this month - Sun Dappled

I've also dyed a mess of things in the last few days, but I haven't edited the pictures yet. Basically I've been wool obsessed (shocked, aren't you?) for the most part. We're working on the Elf's homeschool evaluation, the Imp's amazing transition out of diapers, and all the usual Summer craziness.

Tour de Fleece

So, I did it. I joined the Phat Fiber Tour de Fleece team. For those of you who don't know what that is, here's my understanding: While the people in the Tour de France ride, we spin. Not all day, though. The goal is to spin every day that they ride and to do something difficult on their challenging day. I know nothing about bike races. And honestly, I don't care. But an excuse to definitely spin every day? I'm all for that.



I'm spinning my samples from the last two Phat Fiber boxes (super heroes and villains). I'm having the boys pick (from youngest to oldest) which sample I spin. So far it's been "Storm" by Fiber Faire, "The Man of Steel" by Woodland Hills Alpaca, and "Joker" by Hello Purl.



And how could I resist a picture of one of my cute helpers?

Otherwise it's been a stormy, stormy day and we've been trying to coax a feral mama cat and her three kittens into the house.

Friday + Wool

This was Friday for my youngest:





With everything I've done since then, I feel like taking a nap, too. Here's what I've been up to:


I spun this from a gorgeous batt by Hobbledehoy. I have honestly never enjoyed my wheel as much as I did while spinning this. It was nothing less than perfection.


"Cable" plying. So. Much. Work. Never again.


Corriedale rainbow.


Superwash BFL Princess.


Superwash BFL Hawk.


Polwarth Flame.

I've added all of these (minus the first yarn - that one's mine!) to my Etsy Shop.

Otherwise occupied.

What have I been doing? Well, lots of things - most of them far from my blog.

I carded this batt (I really hope the curly locks stay curly) based on this super hero.


This is the side that I think of as the inside - not on the top of the carder when I'm carding.


The top side.


Rolled up and pretty. It's wool, mohair, and bamboo.


Can you see how busy we've been? This is the Beast. He's four feet away from me in this exact pose right now.


I'm almost done with this roving. I really enjoyed spinning the first half (it's already been plied). This second half has taken *forever* to spin. I have about fifteen inches of roving left (what's hanging from the tension knob in the picture). Then it has to sit for a few days before I ply it. Whew.

I have another bobbin to ply and then I'm have to decide if I want to spin my Master Chief batt, my Promethean batt (which actually isn't finished yet), or my Black Cat batt. Or.. or.. or.. yeah. Such problems I have, right? Well, to be honest, I'm using wool to distract myself from the fact that our oven is broken and has been for about a week. With luck (and $200+) it will be fixed tomorrow. I also had to take the dog to the vet yesterday ($200+ for allergy meds, shots, and flea meds) and the Elf to the asthma specialist ($70+ for the doctor and medication). Right. Look at my fluffy fiber stash! It's so shiny..

Mayhaw Festival

Over the weekend I was at Golden Acres Ranch for their Mayhaw Festival. I was set up in a tent with my yarn and Dervish, my spinning wheel. People came to watch me spin, to learn how to clean raw fleece, to gather information. It was a great deal of fun. Saturday I went by myself. It was overcast and rained occasionally. There was still a pretty good turn out, regardless. I met a great many truly wonderful people.

Saturday it was sunny and beautiful. B and the boys came with me. I'm so grateful for B. He is truly amazing - to spend his birthday chasing our kids around a farm while I share my spinning with others. It seemed that despite the weather there were less people - more kids, but less of a crowd. I still managed to meet many people (a number of whom have recently had sheep sheared and wanted to know what to do next). Busy as I was, I didn't take any pictures. Here are a sprinkling of photographs that B too while he followed the boys around.


I'm told that when they went on the "hay ride" (I didn't see any hay, but you get the idea) this dog (Boo, I think) followed along with the stick. I can't tell you how overjoyed my kids were with this dog. They love our mutt, Cynddl, but he's less than willing to fetch.















This weekend left me wanting, more than ever, to move out of the city and onto some decent land. There were chickens running everywhere, calm farm dogs, bleating goats, sunshine, and open spaces. Despite being glad to be home, I found myself profoundly sad driving back into the city.

A third.

Yesterday was my third son's third birthday (the Beast). Three is fun.


Would you believe that this shirt was the biggest hit of all his presents? He's been wearing it since yesterday morning and shows no signs of letting me take it off. I have a purple shirt that I may put a cyberman on for him soon.


Rainbow dash was loved by everyone. Applejack lost her hat within the first thirty seconds of play. I'm going to sew elastic to it so that they can easily remove and replace it.


This is the extent of my cake decorating skills. A two layer brownie cake with buttercream frosting and peanut butter M&Ms. Classy, right? A suggestion: no matter whose birthday it is or how much they want it, toddlers should not be given cake thirty minutes before bedtime. It makes things more difficult than necessary.


This is what I did last week.

I've had the piece for this quilt top cut and sewn into strips for years.


I finally sewed the strips together. It's huge. I also sewed together the squares for a quilt for the Elf. I had one side sewn and the other just cut out. Right now it's half quilted. I've sort of lost momentum again.


The Imp's current favorite mama-made pants (mushrooms!). For my next trick, I'll add pockets.

Linking up with Nicole's Craft On. Because I can.

Random

Last Monday the Imp came to me, dressed like this:


Imp: Who do I look like?
Me: uhm.. I don't know, who do you look like?
Imp: Knitting guy! (note the sheer number of handmade items the kid is wearing. I think his mother may have a bit of a problem *ahem*)


He was quickly joined by the Beast and we had a photo session of super hero poses. I'll spare you.


A while ago I bought myself some of the metal fixed circular needles from KnitPicks in US size zero to use for sock knitting (purple cable, silver needles). May I take a moment here to tell you how frustrating they were to use? They aren't very pointy, they don't really taper at all, the cable isn't very bendy. Ugh. Fast forward to last Friday. I was knitting with the lovely ladies at Really Knit Stuff and I decided to take a look at the needles in the shop. I came home with Addi lace needles in the same size (gold cable and needles). Can you see the difference? My goodness they're a dream to use! I highly recommend them (I usually use what I have and deal with it - but these are worth the extra purchase).


I saw this bunny here and knew that I had to make one. (Ravelry details here)


Which quickly led to a cat. With plans for a dog, bear, mouse, Totoro, and more. (Ravelry details here)

Wow

Gosh. So. I disappeared.

The short is that we all got the flu. And now, more than a week later, we're all mostly better. We had a good Solstice and tomorrow we'll head to my father's house for the morning.

Now, pictures!