Ready to crochet some more fingerless gloves -

This is my black yarn from "Inky" - my friend Michelle got me out of a jam with some of her lovely natural black roving. Unfortunately, the picture has a lot of reflection from the flash - I tried a couple of different ways to shoot it differently (check it out in the basket at the end of the post) - it should be really nice to crochet with though.






I did some stash busting to make this yarn - some red potluck roving and some black & white Romney that Kathy in Arizona gave me a couple of years ago.












So here it all is - wound up into balls ready to go!

The Caturday Report!!

Before the Storm - CATching some rays -

There were lots of leaves for me to chase, but between The Shepherd and the windys, there's no more leaves left.

Mummy was very nervous the one night that it was so blowy because the lights went out. She said the only thing that saved her from falling over things was her neat battery operated candle from PartyLite. She has one on the bookcase (not a place where you'd regularly put a candle, huh?) It even has a timer - so it comes on at around 7 pm and goes off around midnight - and it flickers like a real candle but she doesn't have to worry about me or Georgie burning off our furs - she's pretty smart, that Mummy.

The Shepherd spent ALL day moving his fancy potted plants from their shelves by the house into the big plastic house where he keeps things during the winter. He keeps some of his sheeps furs in there too - but he chased me and Georgie out 'cause he doesn't want us playing in them. He was pleased because a nice lady came out today and paid him a bunch of green papers for two big bags of sheeps furs. I think they are kind of stinky - she can have 'em...

I heard Mummy tell the Shepherd that she was cooking a turKEY for his dinner tomorrow night - she got it from one of the people she spends her days with at the lock shop - do you suppose that's why they call it a turKEY?

Georgie and I love turKEY - but ours come in little shreddies out of a can - Mummy said some of her friends call it "stinky goodness" when it comes out of a can - I don't know if it's that stinky, but it sure is goodness - I could eat a WHOLE can of it myself!

Hope you all have a great weekend. It will be nice to have Mummy around all day tomorrow. I'll have to check on her all the time to make sure that she is working and not reading a book or playing with her string.

Your Roving Reporter, Gracie

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're going to our friend Nancy's for dinner - I'm taking the pies -

This is a pumpkin cheesecake pie - I made up the recipe - I'll report in later how it tastes...








This is my regular pumpkin pie - They are both made with our home grown pumpkin.












This is some alpaca that I am spinning up to make fingerless gloves for my niece- it is such a pretty color.

The Mrreows are prowling the house looking for the little birdie that George brought in about an hour ago - luckily (for the birdie) The Shepherd was able to catch it in a net and let it go outside -

Everyone take care and have a great Turkey Day!

Our favorite Yoga poses

Crouching dragon















Reaching for the moon.


(This is actually one of George's favorite places to sleep - on my lap while I spin. His little head goes up, and down, and up, and down, and up - well you get the picture. )

Mancat Monday

Gees, the way Mummy follows me around with a camera, you'd think I was a movie star.

Hey you, paparazzi - get outta here!

Mr. Stinky

This is Vern - and this time of the year, he is affectionately known as "Mr. Stinky".
















The Shepherd had barn and pasture maintenance to do this past weekend to get ready for breeding season. I offered to come out and help "baby sit" Vern as he needs to be supervised when he is in the small pen.









Earlier in the morning he and Galloway were having a brotherly trot around the pasture -











All of the halter training that The Shepherd did with Vern when he was a lamb has really paid off now that he is a BIG boy - although the halter is almost too small, he is still very good about having it on- for a while -

This is his "Please, Please, Please, can't I get out of this thing" look - poor baby.

He got lots of pets and "scriches" - which is why I now have to wash my "new" fingerless gloves before I can wear them again. It seems that this time of the year, rams get that pungent "Hey baby" smell about them - what was I thinking wearing my good gloves out to the pasture?



Three of these lucky ladies were moved out to stay with Vern and Galloway for a few weeks. (Don't ask me which ones - I'll take a picture of them all together soon)













Here's one reason why he's decided to use Vern again this year. He does make beautiful wool.

Spinning & spinning

I am still spinning for yarn to make fingerless gloves that were ordered from the Artisan Faire that I did in September - and some ladies from church ordered some special yarn for a family member as a birthday present - so that's one reason why I haven't been at the computer much -

This was some BFL roving that I got at Black Sheep Gathering a couple of years ago - that is the nice thing about "stash" - it inevitably comes in handy - and it doesn't spoil.

Maybe someday I'll learn how to Navajo ply like the beautiful BFL silk yarn that Michelle just finished (you have to scroll down past the tree pictures) -







But it made a beautiful yarn and the fingerless gloves will be colorful.

Depending on how early The Shepherd goes to bed (the time after he goes to bed is my spinning time) and what kind of fiber I'm spinning, I can almost get a two ounce bobbin filled in a couple of hours -




And speaking of Michelle - here is a bobbin of "Inky" - from the beautiful black roving that I bought from her last month. Talk about coals to Newcastle - me, buying Shetland roving? But except for some black & white from Wicket, we don't have any plain black that isn't part of a project already, and I wanted to use a natural colored yarn.

I have been wearing the one pair of fingerless gloves that I had left over (the gold ones in the front) from the Artisan Faire. They are not long enough for my hands, and I don't have any of that particular yarn left, so I've been coming up with some scraps that I think will be good contrasting colors to add some "stripes" to the top of them. But, having never had "real wool" gloves or mittens, I've been amazed at, even with the short length, how warm they keep my hands. I'm looking forward to getting these lengthened.

Stay tuned to find out why I'll have to wash them before I can wear them again though.

Wordless Wednesday

The apples of his eye

This is Wendy - ain't she sweet?














This is Eva - she'll knock you off your feet -















And this copper colored lady with the little top knot is Vanessa - I do know for sure that she is one of the three who got moved in with Vern last Saturday. Her coloring and his wool should produce some pretty babies, don't you think?

Fall colors in the yard

This tree is such an amazing color - the photograph doesn't do it justice. When I walk from our bedroom to the kitchen in the morning, the red shines through the windows like a beacon.










It's leaves blanket the ground underneath it - a carpet of red with gold from the ginkgo and other colorful leaves.











Like our Coral Bark Maple -
















and this tree -















and this fine lace leafed maple















Gracie was perched between the bench and this plant - keeping a close eye on her brother so he couldn't do a surprise attack.











Rats, foiled again!

The Caturday Report!!

We were practicing to be zombie cats for Halloweenie - but Mummy didn't get the pictures taken out of the flashy box in time -

So here we are in our best zombie pose.

Mummy promises that she's got lots of things to show you and will "do up a bunch of posts" tomorrow - what ever that means...

Love, George & Gracie

Talk to the paw!