Spinning my heart out.

Well with all the expenses taken on: new house, fixing old house, little A's surgery, holidays etc. something had to go. So I cancelled my Stitch N' Beach cruise. Sometimes it hurts when you have to make adult decisions. But there is always next year. To help cushion the blow I was able to use some of the money I had saved up to buy this beautiful Lendrum spinning wheel. It truly is a joy to spin on. And I have been busy putting it to use.

This is the yarn that I made from the fleece I posted previously.

Our last day of class was dye day. We used all natural dyes: onions skins, walnut husks, kingwood chip and cochineal . We also used three different mordants (iron, alum and copper) which resulted in three shades from the same dye.
My favorite was the color achieved by using the cochineal. Who knew that little bugs could create such lovely colors. I think I will use these small skeins to make some slip stitch hats.
This is the Brown Sheep roving I spun as well. I really like how it turned out, but I have decided that from now on I will only spin roving that is not also available as yarn. It just seems silly to spend all that time spinning something you can buy.
For example, this lovely soy silk merino blend I spun. This is one of a kind yarn that can not be bought anywhere. I love how it candy caned into such pretty combinations.
I ended up with 245 yards of what I would say is sport weight. I want to use it for socks but don't have quite enough. I think I will spin some bright pink to match and use for the toes and cuffs. I think they will be such fun socks.

And lastly this is what I am currently spinning. It is a nice super wash wool that I bought when in Buena Vista. This will probably end up as socks as well. I think it will be some time before I spin enough yarn to make a more substantial project. But for now I am just having lots of fun!

Our new home part two

So I promised I would share pictures on the house now that we are moved in. What follows is the rooms that are currently clean and mostly unpacked. Once I convince the kids to clean their rooms I will post those and if the office and craft room ever gets unpacked those too will be shared. As for our bedroom, well that all depends if the never ending pile of laundry on my bed ceases to be. The entry way. I love all the curtains in the house and the nice big windows.
This is the fabric on the curtains which I just had to share in my delight of their gorgeous red color.
The family room.
We bought the paintings from the previous owner since she had them custom made for that space and I had no idea what I was going to put there. I also don't know what to put in the space where the TV is now once Anthony puts our plasma on the wall above it. Any ideas?
I love these built in shelves in the family room to showcase all our knick knacks.
The island in the kitchen which came with 5 stools. Fate I tell you.
More of the kitchen. Yes those are dirty dishes, pardon me.

The dining room. We still have to move our buffet over from the old house. Along with the piano and Anthony's desk for his office. We will have to use movers since those were the pieces of furniture that were too heavy to move ourselves. So in the meantime I have not unpacked all the things that go in the buffet and we are drinking wine out of juice glass. Oh how gauche. *snicker*
The formal living room. Read wasted space. I was going to put the couch that we are using at the old house for staging in here, but am reconsidering. I think some nice big comfy chairs with a table and a good lamp would be nice and then it can be the library. The fore mentioned piano will go in this room as well.
The back patio area.
The deck. I love the built in lights.
And finally the back of the house. The awnings will be particularly nice in the summer. I am so glad the yard is landscaped already. They did a really nice job. We are so thrilled to be living here and it is starting to feel like home.

Halloween Blog

Better late than never right?

We had a wonderful Halloween, complete with mucho trick or treating in our new neighborhood, which I must say is full of generous people. Anthony made out with quite the haul.

He went as the green Power Ranger and looked awfully cute, I mean tough.

Big Anthony went as Dog the Bounty Hunter and I could not stop laughing, I do believe that at one point I really was rolling on the floor.
Maddie was the cutest little devil I have ever seen.
She did shop for her costume in my closet and I think I have come to the realization that if the corset fits Maddie I will never fit in it again.

Anthony and myself. I was a candy corn, simply because I have no imagination. I was unable to get a picture of Ian since he left in the morning before I was awake and then refused to put the costume back on for pictures. But I will report that he was quite entertaining dressed in a giant foam penguin suit. It was a very merry Halloween.

So much spinning so little blogging.

I know I have been a bad blogger lately. My life has been pretty busy and last week I was sick most of the week. :( I miss my knitting group and am excited to see everyone tomorrow night. I still have yet to post pics from the weekend in Buena Vista but wonder if it is perhaps too late? What do you think, have you seen enough pics from that weekend or should I go ahead and post some?

I finished my spinning class on Sat. It was so much fun and I really learned a lot. I have been spinning so much lately that my knitting has fallen behind. I will post some pics on a future post of my yarn which I am quite proud of. For now here is what I am knitting currently.

This is the Minimalist Cardigan in the Fall Interweave Knits. I am using Mountain colors Twizzle and love love love this yarn. Of course it is my favorite color, it seems I have a lot of red yarn projects in my quere.
This is the cute little Buster sweater in Rowan Babies that I am making for a friend's little one. I hope to finish it this week and ship it off. I am still not sure if I like intarsia.
And here is the jawbreaker that I failed to post pics of when I finished it back in Sept. Boy I really am behind. My darling 5yo took this pic. I ran out of yarn so the sleeves are shorter and the collar smaller, but I do love this sweater.
Up close.

I used seed stitch for the edges which curled a lot less than the ribbing.

I also have been busy reading. While sick I read two books and just finished a 3rd today. They were all by Anita Shreve and although they were all set in different time periods the characters all lived in the same house. I had owned several of her books but had never read anything by her. I am now a fan. It has been quite some time since I have read since I am always knitting or spinning and have re-awakened my zeal for the past time. I am going to make it a point to try to read a book at least every two weeks from now on. So what should I read next? I think I will start A Thousand Spendid Suns tomorrow.