I must be insane

As if my life is not busy enough, I've decided to embark on the craziest venture yet -- I'm going into business with a couple friends whom I have never met. Internet forums are funny things. They provide an intimacy with people who are in a similar place in life as you are, and it breeds an unique and powerful bond.

Come mid-July, Lea, Lamar and I will be opening up an internet shop called Tiny Lady Cooperative. We will be selling hand-painted and kettle-dyed yarn, roving and handspun. Lea has been spinning for nearly a year now and has gotten to be incredibly good in a remarkably short time. Lamar isn't spinning yet, but Lea and I vow to drag her kicking and screaming over to the Darker Side! I just recently purchased a Lendrum DT complete! I bought her from a gal in Maryland who is raising money for her honeymoon in France. I definitely feel that we transacted a good bit of business. She got a nice amount of money and I got a lovely, gently-used wheel and a buttload of fiber! I've decided to name my wheel Adelaide. It just came to me and I thought it fit beautifully. I will post pics soon, but the weather here in central Massachusetts has been less than ideal.

Back to the fiber biz -- we will be carrying a great selection of yarns -- BFL, Ramboulliet, an environmentally sustainable farm yarn (it is organic, but the farmer chose not to bother with the expense and hassle of being certified. His practices are actually more strict than the certified organic label requires, and it is mule-spun, so it is a delish, squishy, springy yarn. This is the yarn that will turn the so-called "wool-haters" (like my sister) into wool lovers! And it is soft enough for babies too), a 100% BFL sock yarn and a merino/tencel sock yarn. I've got lots of colorways -- mostly related to the colors of nature that are part of the New England landscape, but I will have some fun with bright and funky colorways inspired by my Lilly Pulitzer collection!

My first public display of sock yarn can be seen at Claudia's Blog -- I donated a skein of yarn and a set of Brittany DPNs for her MS Ride raffle.

Please email me if you would like to know when we officially open our virtual doors! All three of us are very excited about bringing fabulous fiber to the knitting community!

Massachusetts Sheep and Wool Festival Part I

It is a known fact that God laughs when we make plans.

So begins my wool fest saga.

4:30AM -- I am awake. I don't want to be. It is dark out -- the birds are silent. I hold my breath and then he starts chirping -- Fritz is awake. Since he is still in our room, this is problematic. We give him a little while to see if he will go back to sleep, but no luck. He is AWAKE.
Since we have a long drive to the fest, I decide to get up with The Boy and let Mr. Spiffy sleep in, since he will be driving.

7:15AM -- Mr. Spiffy gets up and we are on the road in an hour! We have lunch, diapers, Ergo, Stroller and a little spending money. Anneke is ready to go, but is a tad camera shy. Just call her Garbo!


My nod to Yarn Harlot -- here is my sock admiring the ride through Western Mass.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I hope Stephanie agrees!

10:30AM -- We arrive at the fairgrounds. All is well, except Fritzi slept a whopping 40 minutes on the ride out, when he should have slept the whole way. I am very afraid of what this means for my usually very good napper.

Off we go, heading into the animal barns first, to keep Anneke, our firstborn, happy. She is very much in love! By the end of the day, her favorites are the llamas and we go back to see them three or four times. I'm sure she will be trying to convince me we need a llama or two in a few years.

Now, what did I see? Too much. It is not a very large fest, but it was still big enough to see lots of spindles, wheels, sheep and enough yarn, roving and fleece to last me a long time. The colors I saw were wonderful. In particular, some beautiful blue BFL that I am now sorry I didn't snag.

While I was there, I did get to try out a Louët S10, which was very nice, but at $465 for an intro model, when I can get a double treadle Lendrum that I will be ablr to upgrade so much more easily? I am sure I could teach myself in a snap on it, but think I will hold out for a bigger, better wheel that I might get frustrated with in the short run, but will be able to keep for a long time.

More tomorrow

Boy, do I suck at this, or what?

I can't believe that it's been over a month since I posted. I had such high hopes for myself. Take two kids, a DH who works more than an hour from home, add some winter illness, mix well, and voila! How To Not Have Any Free Time! Please dish up hot and serve with chips! Sheesh.

OK, enough complaining. I came here to blog, not mope.

I have been busy since the last time I posted. I made a pair of longies for Fritz from the Peace Fleece I bought this summer! I wanted stripes, so I did an ascending/descending Fibonacci Sequence on the legs. It made counting rows so much easier, so I know the lengths are the same, and it made the tedium of getting from the 75% done mark to the 100% done mark really fast. Why I need that push is beyond me.

I screwed these up a bit...I have a hell of a time with short rows, and there are a lot in the pattern I used. I ended up picking up erroneous stitches, so the pants are a lot fuller than I meant them to be. Bad news is that they are really baggy on him right now. Good news is that he is growing at such an alarming rate that he will be filling them out before I know it. And if they are still too big, I can felt them and use them for nighttime diapering.

After the longies, I couldn't resist the urge to knit with the Zenstring yarn I got from another mama on Diaper Pin. I got this yarn specifically to make a few things for Mimi's baby, who is due at the end of April. I'm hoping she is one day late and has her baby on DH's birthday -- May 1!

And since I was cruising on the knitting, and feeling guilty every time Anneke asked me if I was making something for her (oh, the guilt!), I decided to make her a felted purse. I swear, she is my grandmother come back to me in tiny, tyrannical form -- she can't do anything without a purse!

Meanwhile, she is really being a pill these days. Three going on thirteen. I have no idea how I will survive her teen years with my sanity intact, but there is no point in going there already -- I've got the next nine-and-a-half years to get through first!