Do It Yourself

 I had a puni party!  Each pyramid (21 punis) does a bobbin worth of cotton singles. 

And I spun up one bobbin today!  

Bill is harvesting his watermelons!  This beauty weighs in at 22 pounds!

Delighted Spinner!

The fleece came out very clean-it only took a couple of rinses to make the water run clear.  Using the old clothes basket for a strainer is a trick I learned from a blog friend (Benita)!  It worked very well!  I then spun out the wool to remove as much water as I could before I took it outside.

I laid it out on the pool decking to dry-that happens pretty quickly around here!

After carding a few handfulls of wool, I gave it a good spin.

 This wool is a dream to spin; so smooth and with a slight luster in the finished yarn.  I am going to knit up a bit to make a swatch and give it a good wash to see how it responds for more clues to what it might be.

 I would love to find some more of this fiber if I can identify it!  I have recorded the pertinent facts up to now.

Tying Up Loose Ends

I pulled the towels off the loom!  Cut them apart,

hemmed and then washed all of them......

Voila!  I messed up the first towel on length so it stole the inches from the last one but they are good. 

My friend's quilting is done and delivered (next door!)

I built another trellis for my morning glories.......they are looking for some support on their upward journey!

Still working on the special trellis for the bougainvillea--I am having technical difficulties but will try again today!  I will build another like this one for the other side and then it will have a top-this plant scaffolding will frame the guest room window.

The suffolk/bunny yarn is a success!  I have even found a pattern to knit it up from Ravelry, a shawlette called 198 Yards of Heaven (free pattern so check it out).  I have enough to make two more skeins so I will be spinning and knitting another shawl for the bunnies' owner as a thank you for the fiber!

Saturday Stuff

Bling posed for a picture this morning when I went to the mailbox.  I had taken the camera so I could get a picture of the fringe tree in bloom but he thought he would make a more interesting shot.

In the sewing room this morning I finished this PortaPocket purse insert.  I have had the fabric and pattern for some time now and the mood was right to conquer it finally.  These kind of things are so hard to make the first time but after that, you understand the goal and it gets easier. 

Yup, it was a lot faster the second time! 

The reason I bought the pattern was so that I could have a fast and efficient way to change purses without all the hassle of changes all the S T U F F !  Voila!  It fits perfectly in my woven plastic bag purse.

The one change I made to the pattern was to serge the edges instead of bind them with bias tape.  It is a good finish and much less stressful than applying the binding.  I am going to make a bunch of these!

I received some raw alpaca in the mail today. 

I carded it on my Ashford drum carder, rolled it up and put it on the pile of batts by my spinning wheel.  Guess who robbed the stash?  She kept kneading it and purring.  I can only guess at the feline thoughts this alpaca invoked!  Silly kitty!

And this evening I finished the last cotton dish towel and dish cloth on the loom!  It is a welcome end.  I will sew, wash and dry these first thing on Monday! 

A Package!!!

I found myself in the scary position of almost being out of fiber!!  A quick order to my friendly EtsyShopOwner (Stephanie of LunabudKnits)  remedied this!  The order of dyed Targhee fleece even included a few perks (wool soak and some firestar bits to add to my batts)!

[Talk about superior customer service, I should send a letter to the fireplace guy!!! Seriously.]

                             

 I had to try some last night so I carded up a bit of fiber from the pink/blue bag and then a handful of the darker colors .

  Bling will sit on my lap while I spin, he doesn't mind the lap-rocking motions and it was a perfect end to the day!

This is going to be a skein of yarn very soon.  The fiber is soft and spins very easily, I can spin with a long backward draft, very differently from the Suffolk I have been spinning.  The 'little tangle' is just backspin that the cats added-they know better than to stick their paws in while the wheel is spinning, but it is fair game when I go and get more fiber!

We stopped in Sam's while in town and brought home this box; the cats know what to do with this treasure!

They vie for the best position, and then attack.  Bling usually wins.