Purling Oaks

I met "The Girls!!!"

It's been a busy weekend, friends.  Nora, who claims to have little knitting or fiber background until recently, has become a fleece broker.  She made it known that friends of hers had Icelandic fleeces available for sale.  Hmmmm, Icelandic fleeces?  Sounds interesting.  I guess I could use an expansion of my fiber knowledge. 

So Saturday, I ventured west to visit Terry and Kate Moen near Richland Center.  I went to pick-up two Icelandic sheep fleeces.  I followed Terry's directions most of the way but when I was almost there I decided to take the advice of the woman with the English accent in the box on my dashboard (Garmin Nuvi GPS).  Probably not the best Idea I've had lately.  Oh, I got to Terry and Kate's all right.  It is a DARN good thing I was driving a four-wheel drive vehicle since I took the shortcut they call the "goat path."  *sigh*  It is a single-lane, gravel and mud track.  (At first I was thinking that they *really* live out in the country!  Then I was just hoping I would not get stuck.)  Turns out the lady in the box told me the worst way and there is a perfectly fine road that I could have taken if I had followed ALL of Terry's directions.)  Well, at least I know I can drive in 4WD when it means something.  *g*  I was going to wash the Jeep anyway.........

Here's what I came to see:

They are a little shy........

But if Terry adds some grain to the feeder and you give them a little room, they will come closer even with a stranger in the barn.  Aren't they sweet?

Reflecting perhaps, the new owners in that they are very different but also very similar, are the two fleeces.  I like the lighter fleece and Stacey chose a chocolate fleece.  What you cannot see, is the deep dark chocolate on the reverse side of her fleece.  I think she'll see a nice variation of yarn shades in the finished yarn.

This will be my very first adventure in producing yarn from the source, a fleece.  I will certainly document my future efforts in producing yarn.  I'm not sure yet if I'll separate the short and long (and I mean LONG) parts of the fleece or spin them together.  My first impression is that the fleece is, um, sheepy.  *g*  It is a natural smell, not quite like wet socks, not offensive, but not quite what my husband considers sexy.  A spinner or knitter may have a differing opinion......

The shearer is coming to shear "the girls" at the end of this week.  So, there will be five more fleeces available according to Terry and Kate.  Let me or Nora know if you are interested and we can put you in touch with the folks with the good stuff.

Happy Birthday, Brother!

Today is my DB's birthday.  I have only one brother and I'm very fortunate that I got this one.  You all have seen him pictured here lately.  He was celebrating his birthday today with both of his sons and he sounded very happy and relaxed when I spoke with him.  Happy Birthday, Eric.  May you have many pleasant adventures in the coming year.  I love you!

Daffodil Sunday

Today was the day the daffodils decided to bloom.  I'm glad I was home.

Oh Spring...wherever can you be?

I started this shawl with hopes that Spring would take notice and perhaps entice Winter to leave us in Wisconsin a bit early, thus She would be able to enjoy the fabric of this shawl all the sooner. Unfortunatelly, that darn ground hog saw his shadow!!! This project has been waiting in the stash for a looonnng time. More details when I can do some linkig and can use a real keyboard.

The grocery store parking lot was quite icy this evening with the rainy, snowy mix we had today. Tomorrow may bring some more interesting weather effects but I'm hoping they fizzle out.

Oh Spring...wherever can you be?

I started this shawl with hopes that Spring would take notice and perhaps entice Winter to leave us in Wisconsin a bit early, thus She would be able to enjoy the fabric of this shawl all the sooner. Unfortunatelly, that darn ground hog saw his shadow!!! This project has been waiting in the stash for a looonnng time. More details when I can do some linkig and can use a real keyboard.

The grocery store parking lot was quite icy this evening with the rainy, snowy mix we had today. Tomorrow may bring some more interesting weather effects but I'm hoping they fizzle out.

Catmint love

Whew. I'm glad today is almost over and Friday is coming up. I'm back on the road, sort of, up in the Appleton area of the Fox Valley here in Wisconsin. I grew up in that general area and I'm working close enough so that I had dinner with my Mom last night. (Yum...venison roast on the grill, new pototoes with onions, and garden tomatoes.)

Sonnet's finishing is taking a little time out due to my extreme tired-ness in the evenings this week. (I'm feeling okay--work is just taking a lot of energy.) All the knitting is finished and I've seamed all the seams. However, I really, really need to apply grosgrain ribbon around the inside of the neckline and both sides of the button band due to extreme stretchy-ness of the knitted fabric....and my desire to not expose too much (read as "any") lingerie when I wear it. However, despite my tiredness, I am very motivated to finish Sonnet because I'm chomping to start on Williamsro and a little baby kimono from Mason Dixon for a friend's expected first grandbaby. Based on what I heard today, I better get that kimono started...... (The mama has three weeks to go before predicted delivery but the baby is currently estimated to weigh 8 pounds. I think I can take a hint.)

I'm growing catmint next to my herb garden and the cats seem to enjoy it. It is in bloom right now. Here's a few photos of Blue and the catmint from this past weekend.

Happy Birthday, Kaylee!

The weekend passed far too quickly! I hate when that happens. *grin* Saturday, I met Vicki in Verona, Wisconsin, at The Sow's Ear. My latte was very yummy, the yarn store people were very friendly, and they had a lot of yarn and fiber I had not yet seen (or touched). Vicki was in town to visit with family and it was nice that we were able to meet. She brought along a Baby Surprise Jacket that is a lovely work-in-progress (I have to make that EZ creation sometime!) and I brought Nasturtium (second sock) to work on and some yarn I'm planning to use for Williamsro to get her experienced opinion. I actually found Vicki's blog last year from the Yarn Harlot's link to Vicki's Williamsro.

DH and I listened to rain all night long. Unfortunately, there was so much rain that we found some water on the basement floor this morning! It wasn't enough to cause damage---just enough to be an annoyance. It was an annoyance especially since we had a date Sunday late morning to be at a young lady's tenth birthday party. We were just a little bit late...whew!

Happy Birthday, Dear Niece Kaylee!

Treasure to trash to treasure

Heaven. I slept past 7 AM this morning, which is an hour-plus past my normal wake-up call during the work week. I love weekends with no "events"---they seem like a luxury. I love event-filled weekends, too, but variety is lovely. Coffee is a part of my morning routine that I really enjoy. However, I've been trying to kick my addiction to a speciality creamer that contains partially-hydrogenated fat ---- so today I'm trying a bit of honey as a sweetener with a bit of milk. Not bad. Certainly better tasting to me than sugar.

In our township, there is a central location for garbage and recycleable drop-off and it is open Saturdays all year. We've left our old light fixtures there and someone else has recycled them into their house. Well, today, DH came home with a treasure. Someone, most likely a woman, started this tablerunner embroidery kit and there was a matching kit for four napkins. I wonder about the circumstances of how these items became trash to someone. Did someone pass away or was there another reason for this work to be discarded? I think the completed work is lovely.
The embroidery floss for the rest of the table runner is missing but the instructions are complete and list the colors, so the floss should be replaceable. I believe I will add this to my list of projects to work on and complete. I hope the unknown crafter would like that.

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Here's a fun photo of something you don't often see---a resting hummingbird.

Pending, Current & FO!

Vicki and Cara have both given me a case of new sweater-itis! Vicki did a bit of a re-do to Williamsro which looked fabulous before and looks even more fabulous now. Vicki also wrote about some vesticular activity. Cara is swatching for the Katherine Hepburn Cardigan in Lace Style from Interweave Knits. I love the way her swatches look.

I'm doing a bit of housekeeping -- on the blog, that is, and I'm adding a few of my past finished objects. Here is my very first sweater!
This sweater remained a UFO for quite a while but I finished it in 2006. It is a very nice sweater and while I can wear it now, it would be more comfortable if I spent more time on the treadmill, ya know?

Yesterday I started a sponge starter for bread and the bread came out of the oven this morning. I mixed the bread dough last night and it had an overnight rise in the icebox. It really tastes great and it is one of DH's favorite breads.

Here is a current photo of the progress on Sonnet. It is still on the needles so it is difficult to see I'm in another section of box stitch. Because of the new sweater-itis that is going around, I thought I better work furiously on Sonnet this weekend so my guilt level won't be so high if I happened to have visited a LYS after driving through the blowing snow to *ahem* find yarn on sale.

*if* :-)

Roses of youth

The Winter 2006/07 Vogue Knitting has a lot of interesting patterns and one I especially like is by Nicky Epstein in The Subject is Roses article. I think the duplicate stitch roses are what really caught my eye. As a young girl, my favorite bedsheets had designs with very similar roses though with a light or white background. The sweater looks really comfortable, too. And warm, it looks warm. Warm is attractive in Wisconsin when it is 5 degrees F at the moment. Flattering? Well,.........I'll just have to put a page marker in the magazine. Here is a link to VK's photo of the sweater. It is at the lower right corner of the page. I think I mostly enjoy the roses and the memories they evoke.

I'm going to go knit more on Sonnet and watch some Knitty Gritty shows that I recorded this weekend. I actually better just listen or no material progress will be made on the sweater. I saw just a bit of one show on Sunday and Lily Chin was demonstrating decorative stitches. Wow, can that woman knit!