marching on

Time marches on. I find that when a person takes an extended leave of absence from work, one is left without a sense of urgency to preform a task.

Apparently I need to have the pressure of limited time off to motivate myself to get things done.

 Time tends to pass in a blur and before you know it, the week is over and you haven't accomplished squat!

OK I haven't exactly been idle but I haven't been getting my yarn stock produced like I should either.  or those niddy noddys. And some days I just plain don't do diddle. Of course now that work is looming over me I am panicked about my mental to do list.

I feel a bit like I am cramming for finals. Tuesday I went to the clerks office and got my local business license for RaineyDay Fibers, Friday I took care of the state paperwork so now I am all legal like in the state of Tennessee. Of course so far not a sale in this state.

I did also get the poncho off in the mail ( they don't seem to have an 24 hour Post Offices here, just sayin')  and Nikki's Rikki Hat also off in the mail to Chicago Burbs.

Ever since I posted all the Christmas hats I have been hat bound (orders). So here is the one for Jesse (who is in Maryland) in progress. and I should get this one done this week end. With one more hat order after that to do...this next one for Nadine in Arizona. She wants some of my hand spun done up.

I'm not complaining but I am getting tired of the hat scene.

 Lots other happening since last Sunday...did I mention I got some new furkids? No??? Well that is what my other project is. Getting the over grown pen ready at my cousin/brothers place for the new residents.


I planned on starting out early but then it snowed first thing. And my son vetoed that for today.

 

Late in the afternoon I was feeling a bit panicked again so I went over to my cousins and started work myself.

No one has lived in it for some time and it took me a good 15 minutes to hack my way through those creepy "I'm taking over the world" kind of vines.

Then I hacked my way through some um, pig weed, milk weed or what ever  kind of weed thing my cousin called it.

 

I got a goodly bit finished before I was too pooped to go on. And I discovered a ginormous old satellite dish in the pen. I reckon the previous occupants  (goats) were good with it being there but I said it needs to go. Can you recycle those I wonder?

Now I won't post pictures yet of my new residents, but if you stop by my Facebook Page RaineyDay Fibers  ( that I very recently worked so hard to set up, and yes this is a blatant bid for page likes) you will get the sneak preveiw.

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I even managed to get my first single for my Golden Fleece Module 7 spun and my rolags made today for the wild side of 7.

 

Did I say I hadn't done diddly? I must have been mistaken because I am even more tired after reading this entry!


This girl is ready to crash so happy fiber-ing

xoxo

over the holidays

For me the holiday madness is over! Yay!! And I am over it! No more mad dash to knit gifts. I am still working on the same weaving project, that could take me a bit of time to finish. But that was not on the 'it must be done before Christmas' agenda.

So for the first Christmas in the mountains it was great!! My son and I went to my elderly cousins home on Christmas Eve. It was good to spend time with family. Christmas day was low key. I dvr all episodes of Doctor Who and thankfully they (BBCA) had a week long Doctor Who marathon to add to my dvr! I got to stay in my jammies, eat junk food all day and watch about 20 hours of Doctor Who!!

What could be better? Playing with fiber and 20 hours of Doctor Who!

I did start on another Rikke hat, for myself, which is almost done as of today. This one I made a bit smaller.

This is the first one.

I also painted with fiber, making rolags has become a favorite pastime. I find the process very soothing and exciting at the same time.  I like the creative process and the seeming randomness of design. Very appealing to the nonconformist in me. These happen to be rolags for art yarn.
If you have never seen one before, this is a blending board. It is my artists color pallet. And like paint, the fibers cannot be un-blended once they have been blended.
I'll share that story with you sometime.

I started out with a few lashings of a merino blend roving (the aqua). Then added some SoftSilk which is some shredded up sari silk. Some purple stuff ( stuff because I don't remember what animal it came from) that I dyed myself, and them some random hand dyed green and yellow curly locks for some added texture and contrast.

Then I take my two dowel rods, and starting at the bottom I place the fiber layer between the rods, gently draft and roll until I have rolled half of the fiber off of the giant doggy brush as my son calls it.  Then I repeat the process for the next half. Two for one :)

I have been participating in the Journey to the Golden Fleece  since February, if you are not familiar it is a fiber spinning creativity course, and really a journey of self discovery.  (More information can be found at Fiberygoodness). I have learned a lot of different techniques, fiber preparations, and in general have reached out more to my creative side.

These I made for my Module Six yarn. I am afraid with the moving of across several states, I got a little bit behind ( Suzy and Arlene just sent out Module Eight-yikes!).  I have some journaling for 6 to do ( and frankly that is not my strong suit) And of course I would rather have spun them on my Aura wheel...but sadly I am still waiting. :-/

Now that the Christmas knitting madness is over I can get caught up on my modules. I so don't want to miss my graduation.  

Oh and I thought I would share with you this, only one out of four of my mother's Christmas Catus' bloomed. It happens to be the one next to the salt lamp. Who knew.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, or what ever holiday you celebrate.

happy fibering xxoo

weaving on

It's been a busy week. Christmas is closing in and, yes I did make one more hat! OMG I am so over it now...everyone has a flippin' new one now!

And somehow it got wrapped and shipped without a picture of it...what-ever.

I have also been weaving. I have been commissioned to weave a poncho. Specific colors. Brown and black.

I have the first piece woven, or more specifically I have the practice piece woven. She wants it more black than brown so I will have to re-think it abit.

The thing about commission pieces is that it puts a lot of undue pressure on me, so I generally don't do them. Usually I make what I like, and hopefully someone else likes it too. Otherwise, it becomes too much like work. This is a special case however. It will be my first woven sale! 

This will also be my first garment.

eek!

I have been working on the Westknits KAL 2014 which I started while I was in Sarasota. I have 

been stuck on clue 2 for some time now. Brioche has been kicking my butt! I practiced, thought I got it...then I had to rip it out, like 3 times now I think. 

This time I think I have it. Of course most people are already done with theirs so the cat is out of the bag and it is no longer a mystery.

But as long as I don't lose my place I should be golden! 

A woman I went to school with recently contacted me on FB. She made a comment to me about how she loved how I stayed true to myself.

I have been mulling that over now for a week or so. Did I?? I not really sure.  I think she remembers me much differently from high school than I remember myself, I always thought of myself as a introverted dippy little artsy hippie back then. Ok so maybe I am a little bit artsy hippie dippy now too.

I'm not sure if I really stayed true to myself, or if I just found my way back :) either way, it made me feel pretty good.

as my son would say - don't knit yourself into a circle. ;)

just one more

Before I took up blogging again, I gave careful consideration on picking up where I left off here, albeit two years ago, or starting from scratch. 

You see my choice. It seemed like a waste since I already had my stuff here. It is hard work doing all those little side bars and links and what nots. So I here I am, I hope you enjoy it. 


I have spent the better part of the weekend trying to get the rest of my "Emergency Christmas Knitting" finished. So it comes down to this. If make for one, I have to make for all or somebody will get their feelers hurt. Well pooh, my little fingers hurt!

Since all of the hats are easy stockinette, I decided today it was a good time to practice continental knitting. Even though it is awkward for me I think eventually it will make it faster. If I can stick with it.

So far today I have practiced on two hats. Hopefully it will become more natural to me. It has been on my learn-to-do list for many years.

But right now...my left hand aches as much as my right!

I don't know about you guys, but I really like the yarn from Hobby Lobby. Not that I have a huge choice here in the sticks, but Yarn Bee Effortless is so soft and mushy and makes two hats from 1 skein most of time. It as 20% alpaca so it makes it nice and warm.
My girls really enjoy that lemme tell ya, especially as they live in Wisconsin. The other plus is that I know they won't wash them with care so my efforts won't be wasted.

and here is one more.

And every time I think, yay this is the last one...I think of one more boy in the family that needs one.
It always seems to be just one more.


I managed to squeeze in a cheater loaf of bread today too!

And little Brodie did this all day!

happy knitting xo