back in time...

So I meant to get this post up yesterday evening, but time did not allow...

Hubby and I decided to get out into the beautiful weather and fit in another hike/slow crawl (we do have a two year old with us walking after all) as part of our a hike a week goal. So far we have been pretty successful and Corbin (the two year old) still seems pretty excited to get out to go one "big walks". This time we went high up on hillside and walked up a gravel trail that is a nice easy winding trail with an amazing view. I brought along my knitting and managed to get a nice couple of repeats done on my sock hop socks as we walked. It was so peaceful to be out in the unbelievably fresh air. We had a great time and I look forward to many more such excursions. Another collage (click on it to see it bigger...) ....



Today is Noah's 9month B-day - I had quite a bit more written up regarding this, but when I added the pic I accidentally deleted it! DOH! >_<

In other news, my friend just opened up shop - totally awesome - check it out!

Oceanic Handspun

So I have spun my set of samples from June's box! They fibers just jumped into my hands and I really had a finished yarn before I knew it! I took the samples from Into the Whirled, Mad Angel Creations, H.A.Y., Silver Sun Alpaca's, and Smoky Mountain Fibers divided them into 5 strips each and spun them end to end. So I should have a nicely striping yarn of each sample! I just spun a single and ended up with around 290 yards! I am very excited to make something from this, and I will be keeping it all for myself!

We have a winner!

Through the magic of internet I have randomly generated a winner!!!

POG KNITS is the Winner!!!

Thanks to all who have entered....and not to be a tease but there is a fingering weight skein in the same colorway in the shop!

No photos today - but I am working on spinning up some phat fiber samples right now so there will be some soon!

June Phat Fiber! - My Box is in!

So after a long wait and many schedule items getting in the way I finally was able to dive into my June edition of the Phat Fiber Sampler Box! I have never managed to do a great run down of what's been in my box, but that is about to change! When I opened my box this is what I saw!

Isn't it just lovely!?!? I think Jessie (the mastermind) does such a fantastic job of keeping the box fresh and using the themes in great ways! This months was Oceanic - I was pretty excited to see what everyone came up with!

Here's the fiber!
Starting with the lovely grey batt in the lower left corner & working in a clockwise swirl - here is what I received fiber-wise...

1. Dawning Dreams Murano Granite - It is a lovely & squishy wool batt in all natural colors
2. Into the Whirled (I love their name!) Mercer's Pier wool roving - LOVELY deep color
3. H.A.Y. "Oceanic" Batt - made with delicious luxe fibers and in bright and tropical ocean tones (think Merino, BFL, Corriedale, Tussah Silk, bamboo, milk fiber, Angelina, and recycled Sari silk - it just doesn't stop!! :)
4. Silver Sun Alpacas "The Great Barrier Reef" Batt is another sumptuous blend of luxe fibers, Mohair, Bamboo, Superwash wool, wool, and glitz. Just beautiful colors!
   
5. Mad Angel Creations "Oceania" Batt was packaged in a sweet little organza bag, but when it was pulled out it almost grew to twice it's size in fluffiness! I have been hoping to get one of Paula's samples for awhile and I am so glad to try this batt out! It has hand dyed wool, white silk noil & silver angelina!
6. A generous .5oz sample from Gale's Art of Deep Blue Sea on Black Blue Face Wool - I haven't tried this wool before and am anxious to get it on the wheel, pretty sure I am going to like it! It is a beautiful, deep jewel toned colorway!
7. Smoky Mountain Fibers "Frosted Sea Glass" on Merino is a lovely soft color and would be fantastic for hats or baby items (in fact this is one of the samples used in the newest hat I made...)
8. WoolyHands Tropical Fish on wool mill ends is a refreshing colorway with an exciting combination of colors. I might save this for some needle felting embellishments that I have been wanting to do!
9. Natchwoolie's "Blue Hawaii" on Silk Milk & Bamboo is just amazing! Dyed beautifully with natural plants I have been "dyeing" to try this stuff! (Bad pun I know...). Plus she win's packaging in this months box! I love her hawaiian printed fabric and flower that ties up the package!
10. Twisted Fiber's un-named (but delightfully bold!) superash merino sample. I love color combos like this one and know it is going to look fantastic spun up!
11. It's not included in the above picture but it is in the last pic at the bottom (doh!) but I was super excited to get super shiny and soft Mohair lock from Goat Goat Sheep (another riduculously cute name!) They are amazing bronzey colors and I can't wait to use them!

Onto yarns!Starting again with bottom left and working clockwise....

1. Moonlight and Laughter submitted a 50 Superwash Merino/25 Alpaca/25 nylon blend I had never seen before and oh my YUM! I forsee this yarn being in my near future!!
   
2. Holiday Yarns Flock Sock Yarn (75/25) was lovely shades of purple and green (very close to my wedding colors ;) a definite nice choice for sock knitting, would produce very crisp stitch work!
3. Sneaky Pig Yarns (just can't help but LOVE this shop's name!!) sent in a great worsted sample (don't see many of those and it's nice when you do!) of 100% wool in a great semi-solid tonal yarn in rich deep greens. Always a favorite color for me!
4. WC Mercantile sent a FABULOUS Panda Sox yarn 60 Superwash Merino/30 Bamboo/10 Nylon. Amazing sheen and a beautiful colorway named "Sea Glass", very vibrant!

Last, but definitely not least the yummy accessories (& one fiber sample that escaped my first photo!)

1. I got one of the ceramic buttons!!! I was SO hoping to get one of these and her workmanship is even more beautiful in person! Heartstone Ceramics had a fantastically packaged product and I loved reading her touching note on the back! This will definitely be used on something special!
2. Winemakerssisiter made up a super cool Koi stitch marker that I love!
3. Miss Becca Designs included a stitch marker as well. I liked the bead colors as they reminded me of sandy shores with water I also got her Phat Pacific Octopus Pattern and will definitely be knitting up a couple of these! I know my boys would love them!!
4. The other pattern I got was the Fish Pattern which can help me work on my crochet skills (which is much needed). It's a cute little pattern that will be great for using some samples as well (think sneaky pig!) It was submitted by Sunnie Fairy.

Whew! I made it!!! Talk about a lot of fibery goodness! That's not even including the amazing pirate treasure map!! My family was over as I was going through and photographing my samples and they were pretty in love with that part! (They are yet to be fully converted to the fibery way! My mother for example thought it was very odd that I was photographing my box to share with you all...) If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with me!!

and....I feel like a broken record but, if you haven't entered my contest you really should! I am drawing the winning number on the 23rd!

A hat and vest

Finishing a project is always so satisfying! Here are two of my latest....



Wow even more great moving suggestions keep popping up! I love reading them all! I will be staying in Anchorage - so it shouldn't be too big of an upheaval. Though I have never moved with children before, so ask me after the move for a more accurate description ;P

So many great pics have been popping up on the Phat Fiber Rav boards! I have loved seeing everyone's boxes and I really hope that the next post you read will be a description and pics of my box!! I can't wait for it to show up!!

Oh yeah, and I am feeling a little lazy tonight about project details....I have more info on my ravelry page....sorry about that!

Adventures in spinning

So I have been trying to match up some of my compatible Phat Fiber Sampler Box fiber to get larger quantities of yarn out of them as well as practice different techniques. So I took samples from 1,000 Petals (Hydra on Breeze roving - YUMMY), H.A.Y. (Summer Day on Falkland), Smoky Mountain Fibers (Beach Glass on Merino), as well as some soysilk scrap from Funky Carolina. I split them all down and drafted them together to make a sort of hand pulled roving. Then I just went ahead and spun them into a relatively fine single. Here is where I was starting to step outside my box. I decided to navajo ply the single. I have only plied using this method say three or four times and I definitely need more practice. I ended up running the yarn through the wheel again after plying to get rid of some excess twist, which definitely helped quite a bit. I ended up with a light worsted weight yarn that is about 90yards and 2oz. Through a great suggestion on the ravelry Phat Fiber group I went ahead and cast on Brittany Wilson's Sweet Georgia - I think I am going to finish it today! YAY!


Also a pic of one of my other scores from the fiber garage sale last Saturday. It's a 50/50 Camel/Corriedale blend and the label seems to indicate it is from a personally owned bactrian camel - which I think is pretty cool! It's a good three oz and I got it for $3 due to some guards hairs (I have seen very few and I think they will be pretty easy to remove. I have never spun camel and think it will be a great adventure!

Just noticed that these two fibers have very similar colors to them....I must like them! lol :)


Again I am LOVING all the comments and I must say that it is pretty cool to see the number that have been left for me! You guys have been giving me great suggestions! If you haven't entered yet there is still plenty of time! The drawing isn't until the 23rd!

Garden Closeups

So more and more flowers are blooming everyday! John has been out keeping up the lawn and it is looking better everyday. I still have lots of weeding to do, but somehow I think it will always be that way. Anyhow - here are some closeups of a few of the flowers in my garden. (You can click to enlarge if you would like!)


Thanks to all the great suggestions so far! Keep 'em coming! :)

Contest!

First I want to say thanks to all my customers! Today I woke up to my 100th sale under my new name and shop. It was an amazing feeling and I really appreciate each and every purchase that brought me here!

To show my appreciation I am doing a give-away! I would love to share my buttery soft Cashnyro sport yarn with someone. I will be moving towards the end of this summer (if all goes well!) and I would love to get some moving tips from you! Leave a helpful tip and I will enter your name (number) for a random drawing! The yarn is dyed in my water lilies colorway and is a delicious 80/10/10 Superwash Merino/Cashmere/Nylon blend with 250yards in a 4oz skein. Here's a pic (ok it's really a collage, and yes I know that I am addicted.....:) I will draw the winner one week from today, so that would be June 23rd.


Also I have been doing more hand carding and now have quite the bag full of little rolags (I feel like that is not a nice sounding term for the little lovely's that I am describing). They are so light, airy, and just plain amazing that I had to share again. After about probably a good three and a half hours of carding here and there I now have 3.5oz of rolags. Prepare to be amazed. I have included above skein of yarn (which weighs 4oz) for a scale purposes. I cannot wait to start spinning this stuff up, I think it is going be dreamy. I am forcing myself to work on other projects right now though (sock summit stuff!! So they are still pretty exciting too!)

Carding, gardening, and Phat Fiber! Oh MY!

As mentioned yesterday I went to a pretty amazing garage sale with lots of fiber & yarns. I got several pounds worth of dyed fiber and yarns for under $50! I immediately got to hand carding the luscious dyed raw wool and I can't wait to start spinning it (though I still have a lot of carding to go!). These aren't the best pics (it is overcast and kind of gloomy today) The first is before, the second the after - the white is some angora that I have been carding in.

I am a bit late but here are some progress pictures from the garden. I have columbine, forget-me-nots, and poppy's blooming with many more getting close! I still have lots of weeding to do - but am hoping to get to that maybe sometime tomorrow! The lawn was mowed by the hubbs including the newly planted grass and I think it is to the point of being ready to play on so I am sure I will be out there lots with the boys this week.


Last but not least Phat Fiber June's boxes go on sale today!!! I am doing my Phat Fiber Day sale again as well, offering 20% off everything in the shop for today only!!

Summer, Summer, Summertime!

This week we had the opportunity to go camping! We had tons of fun and can't wait to go again. We went to the Matanuska River Campground right outside Palmer. This was Corbin's third time camping, but his first time really getting to participate in the activities, he helped roast hotdogs, ate his first s'more, and protected us from bugs with his "bug smacker". It was super hot and I was almost wishing that it had been overcast! This is our favorite "easy" campground, it is very well maintained and is a joy to bring the kids too. I know the hubby can't wait to take the boys on "real camping trips" - he and I have very different views on that! Lol! He loves to backpack in to camp and is already planning father/son trips! As we got to go during the middle of the week he had the campground pretty much to ourselves and emphasized again the benefits of my hubby's schedule.

In other news I got to go to a pretty awesome garage sale put on by the local spinning and weaving guild. I got some awesome dyed raw fiber and have already started hand carding it! More to come on that tomorrow!

In the early stages

So as promised here are the garden pics. Please excuse the neighbors house (and my long grass)....I will try to update with pics every week or two, I am excited about seeing the progress. I won't be getting to buy any new plants this year, but I am looking forward to tending what I have. Each week I am going to feature a different flower, hopefully as they are in full bloom.


Also I updated today, so drop by and check out these great new fibers up in the shop! More to come tomorrow!

Tulips....where are you?

Today was a nice average day. Perfect for getting out into the garden. Which (after really putting it off) I did!!! With much help from my Aunt I was able to really get most of the big weeds out and really "bring to light" my bulbs and perennials! I really am wishing that I took a before picture as it was pretty bad. I have so much grass coming over from the next yard it makes it a little difficult to keep up with! Not to mention that I was pretty pregnant at the end of last summer and my garden really suffered. With most of the weeds out and everything cleaned up I am hoping to have a summer with lots of time tending my plants. A few didn't come back this year - but most are back a rearing to go. The new grass we planted has come in pretty thick and I think it's getting close to being ready to mow. I will be taking pics of freshly dyed fiber tomorrow and I will try to get some "early summer" pictures of the garden then too.

In the home I have been meeting more goals. All of our meals for the past week have been cooked from scratch and they all have been much heavier on the fresh fruits and veggies too! I just need to really keep things going to try and make this habit - I think the key for me will be having the evening meal thought out and ready before evening arrives. That is what's been working so far.

Anyhow no fun pictures or links tonight! Though I will most likely finish up some handspun yarn tonight that I plan on putting up in the shop! It has definitely been a while since I have spun yarn for sale.....I have been a little greedy ;P

I will include this recipe that is a favorite of my family - handed down by my Grandmother.

Ginny's Beans:

1 Can Pork & Beans
1 Can Lima Beans w/ham (I usually use butter beans...)
1 Can Kidney Beans
1 Can Tomato Sauce
1 Can Stewed Tomatoes
1/8 Cup (+or-) mustard (try different varieties to kick it up a notch)
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2lb-1lb Browned Ground Beef
1 Medium Onion, chopped (optional)
1 Green Pepper (optional)
1/2lb Crumbled Bacon (Optional)

Put all ingredients into the slow cooker. Cook on low for 2-4 hours. For the cans, just make sure they are all the same size - this recipe is very easy to double for more people! Yep that easy!

I love this recipe as it is easy to make last minute as the key ingredients are easy to keep on hand! Especially shopping at Costco. It is very flavorful and the mustard and brown sugar come together to make an amazing combination. This is one of my husbands very favorite meals - he asks for it often!