Friday, November 27, 2015

What's been on my wheel -


 A couple of years ago, some friends of ours gave me 4 or 5 Alpaca fleeces.  Two of them were this lovely coffee color - in fact, the critter's name was Java - two were that pretty rose grey color, and unfortunately the black fleece came infested with moths - it went in the dumpster.  But when John was meeting up with Chuck from Evergreen Fleece Processing to take him the last of our Shetland fleeces, I decided it was time to get those fleeces out of the living room so I took them along with.  The results were about 8 lbs of lovely alpaca roving. 

This lovely Alpaca fiber has 20% Merino and it is a dream to spin.  I have about 5 pounds of it.  There are also about 3 lbs. of straight rose grey alpaca roving (not blended with wool)   If you are interested in buying some fiber, or having me custom spin you some yarn, leave me a comment.  :-) 

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Did you know that this is one of the luckiest turkeys around right now?  
He is headed to Washington DC, where Pres. Obama will officially
"Pardon" him from execution and then he and a buddy turkey will go off
to live their lives in luxury at a farm in Virginia.  Nice job if you can get it....


Sunday, November 22, 2015

Golly, I almost forgot - We hosted a Spin-In

 Back in October - Holy cow - almost a month ago! - my spinner guild "Spindrifters" hosted the NW Regional Spinners Assoc. Board Meeting and Spin-In.  I was on the planning committee - we had been working on this since early in the summer.

Although our attendance was not as high as we would have liked, we had about 60 people turn out, and I think everyone had a great time. 

I was in charge of getting our vendors - for what good is a Spin-In without great Vendors?

Niki K. from JNK Llama Farm in Bellingham
was there with her lovely llama fiber.  

Of course, The Shepherd was there with our award winning Shetland Fiber. 


My friend Janet was there with Dorset fiber and some lovely shawl pins that her daughter makes. 


Allen Berry, woodcarver, was one of the first vendors I contacted.  His hand carved wooden items are  beautiful! 


Our guild put together 5 or 6 gorgeous and highly anticipated raffle baskets.  

Doug & Yvonne Madsen from Spinner's Eden Farms were there with their prized CVM fiber.  They host the Wonderful Woollies spring fiber sale that we take part in.  

There was lotsa spinning going on -

Lotsa laughing, and lotsa hugging.  It was a great day.  

And there was lotsa buying going on too, and since I was the one who got all these vendors out, of course, I had to buy a few things.  Like this adorable fabric bag that is just the right size for my crochet hooks and accouterments.  



Just look at this adorable fabric with the little Japanese kitties. 



And I was very excited that Scarlet from Huckleberry Knits was willing to be a vendor. She lives here in Bellingham, but sells all over the US through retailers and her ETSY Store 
Of course I had to support her booth!  (Of Course!) 

All in all, it was a great day. 





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Friday, November 06, 2015

Three Beautiful Things

 Hello effurrybody!  Gracie here - I was out
helping Mummy take pictures in the garden last
week. The Shepherd says that Somebody needs to snooopervise her to make sure that she doesn't trip on something and fall on her casaba.  I'm very good at snooopervising. 

We went out in a hunt for beautiful things, and thought we'd share some of them with you.







We found a little fairy cap mushroom growing in the mulch bin...
















One of the last marigolds in the garden.  Such a pretty summery color. 



More 'shrooms - the caps are almost as big as dinner plates! 

Ok, so I lied - four beautiful things - more Sweet Gum leaves - oddly enough, Mummy found out that Sweet Gum seed pods contain shikimic acid, a major ingredient in Tamiflu. 

Herbalists have used Sweet Gum tea as an herbal treatment for the flu and the Cherokees made a tea out of the bark.

So many things from nature that we don't know about that heal or harm.

Have a great weekend!  XOX  Gracie!


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Wednesday, November 04, 2015

Blog Blast for Peace


This is the 10th year for the Blog Blast for Peace

The picture is from Pinterest.   



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