Last week I saw a new shawl that Anne created on her blog.  The name of the shawl is Morning Glory and oh my…….I fell hard for it.  It is stunning!  I went digging thru my stash to see if I had something that would compliment the pattern, but nothing jumped out at me, so I turned to the dyepots.

I had been dyeing up various merino/silk rovings for the sheepfest, so I played with some colors and this is what I came up with……Serendipity!  I love it in the roving……I can’t wait to see how the yarn turns out.

Finally….Spring in the Mountains!

Yesterday the temperatures were in the 70’s here.  The day was glorious, so Ken and I went for a ride.

Even though almost all of the snow in my yard has melted, there is still quite a bit on the mountain.

Looking down at the river from where I was snapping pictures however, I noticed just how much errosion the last bunch of storms did to the river banks.  Many of the roads that we traveled on in Jackson had bright orange cones warning motorists of the deep ruts on the sides of the roads.  Some of those ruts were close to 6 feet deep….YIKES!  Hopefully Mother Nature has calmed down a bit and we have seen the worst of the spring rains (and snows).

Today was the annual Sheepfest and it was as it always is, a supportive community endeavor, put on by the tireless Linda Whiting.

Every year I look forward to this event as it kicks off the spring sheep and wool festivals.  Tucked away in the tiny down of Denmark Maine, this little event has grown considerably over the last 9 years that I have been involved with it.

Today, even Bill Green from Bill Green’s Maine and his crew came to visit with us…..and life was good.

Given that this was
the first warm, dry weekend that we have seen in God only knows when,  everyone was smiling from venders, to the shearer…… from sheep to Alpaca.  Life in the sun today was good….as good as it gets!

We have been very busy here at the Woolen Rabbit getting ready for this show and for the upcoming Fiber Festival

in June.  I apologize for not responding to comments, but this was one of those weeks that was plum full right to the brim with work.

The days have been spent dyeing and winding wool in the thankfully warm and breezy days…..labeling yarns, soaps and handcream.  For me, this is an indication that Spring HAS Sprung and I have been smiling big.  I bet it has been that way for you as well.

I think it was Thursday when I pulled the shade up, being blinded by the sunlight that I said……ah….Winter is over!  Life is indeed good!

Every day this week, I have wanted to sit down and chat with you all, but time just got away from me.  I find that I really miss my cyber friends on those weeks that I find myself too busy to chat.  I love this wonderful community that we all share and I miss it when I am away.

So in closing, I will leave you with a picture of the knitting that I have managed to squeeze in every night.  I am LOVING every moment of knitting this handspun sock!  Last week I mentioned that I was afraid I had spun the yarn too fine, but Teyani reassured me it was probably the right weight.  With all of the handling in knitting it, the yarn blossomed just like she said it would :-).  I have turned the heel and finished the gussets.  Next week I am going to share what I have learned with the pattern that I am using…. but for now I will say a very tired good night :-)!

You know it’s a strange day when I’m knitting pink and Margene is spinning green…..
I’m so not a pink person, but it has been fun stepping outside of my usual box….not only in the colorway, but the sock yarn blend.

It appears that the only flowers seen around in these parts lately are of the florist variety, but I thought this little Gerber Daisy looked so Springy against this finished silk stocking?  Of course the sock truly isn’t silk, it’s a tencel blend, but is surely shines like silk.

Last week someone mentioned to me that they thought of plastic when they thought of anything tencel, and I have to admit, I kinda felt the same way.  Having finished this sock though, I am rethinking that opinion.  The knitted sock is firm, yet very soft, cushy and very wool like in the way it feels on one’s foot.  I can definitely see more socks being knit here in this blend.

Thank you for your encouraging words about my tangled mess.  A lesson in patience was learned once again the hard way.   Do you think that I was patient enough however to finish the second silk stocking before diving into this yarn??  Of course not…LOL.

For as many years as I have been spinning, I have never set about using my handspun for a pair of socks.  Seeing the beautiful socks on Crown Mountain Farms website, however lured me in.  I was concerned that I was not going to be able to get this superwash spun fine enough for a fingering weight sock yarn, but what I ended up with is a yarn that is almost too finely spun.  I will knit this pair of socks up, but with the remaining four ounces, I think I will aim for a bit thicker yarn, but still tightly spun for another pair of socks.

I love watching this sock evolve….the colors and the textures of handspun in a sock are wonderful! I’m thinking there will be lots more handspun socks happening here this year too.
What are your favorite types of wool to spin for socks?

Patience is a virtue
Aspired by many
Acquired by few…..

I don’t know who wrote the above quote, but it is one that I say to my kids and husband frequently.  Ironically, I am probably the most impatient one in the house…LOL.

Spinning 8 oz of superwash merino at a fine weight takes longer than I thought it would.  I had weighed out the balls so that I knew I had equal amounts to ply with….however, once the first bobbin was filled, I became impatient.  I wanted to ply now!!

Grabbing my ballwinder, I wound off the 4 ounces that I had spun on the bobbin.  As that center wound ball grew and grew, I got more and more nervous.  Crap….I am probably going to end up with a tangled mess!  Why did I do this, said thee to thyself?  Impatient…..I’m just plain old impatient   I was praying that this impatience was not going to land me with 4 ounces of wasted spinning. 

As lady luck would have it though, I managed to ply all of the yarn without one snag.  The snag came in the washing….sigh.  Silly me, I only tied the yarn in one spot and unfortunately that tie did not hold up well when the yarn was soaking. 

Can you guess what I will be doing this afternoon?

Seek silence.
Gladden in silence.
Adore silence.
Deng Ming~Dao

What unexpected beauty we arose to this morning.  It’s hard to be bummed out about the snow, when this is what you see….

I know that this will melt quickly today, so I took some pictures as the sun came up.  I thought that you might enjoy the beauty of my morning as much as I did……

and a little knitting 🙂

Here we are a week later and a week closer to May and yet another major winter storm has descended upon us and if you can believe it, another one may be on the way this weekend……sigh.  Yesterday the temps were so warm that most of the remaining snow had melted, but another 10-12 inches due to replace it today..aagghhh!

Ok….enough lamenting about the weather :-).  All of this snow, usually makes for a good excuse to pour a hot cup of yummy Peets coffee (thanks Marisol!) and pick up the knitting needles.

A few days ago, I showed a picture of this yarn along with a glimpse of a pattern.  The pattern is a Heartstrings pattern, called Heart Socks .   I thought that the heart shaped lace pattern would be perfect for these hot pink socks.  Unfortunately the pattern was written for a sock weight yarn and larger needles.  I tend to knit on the loose side, so I took a chance at it, but quickly found that it would be too small once the first set of decreases took place, so I decided to change gears and look for another pattern as I really didn’t feel like fussing with making this one work.

I managed to find a pattern that called for the original amount of cast on stitches that the cuff had already been knit with, so I started again, using this cuff.  The pattern is
A childs fancy silk stocking from Knitting Vintage Socks.  This pattern does call for a different cuff, but given that I had already knit 2 inches previously and fell in love with the cushy feeling of the 2 x 2 ribbing, that I decided to just leave this cuff on and continue on with Nancy’s lace pattern.

The sock yarn is my hand~dyed Merino/Tencel.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this yarn, in fact I was convinced that I would probably prefer the bamboo blend, but I am finding as I am knitting with this that I may actually prefer the tencel blend.  Of course, the true test will be the "on the foot" test. 🙂

Stay warm and dry….where ever you are 🙂

When I lived in Massachusetts, March was always a hard month for me.  Winter grows old and Spring seems miles away.  Up here in the mountains, April has become my March.  Many times we skip right over spring, which is sad as spring always holds so much promise.  With snow expected this Thursday, I think that this may be one of those years that we may just miss Spring.

Since I have come home from Georgia, I’ve been having a hard time finding words for the blog, so today I will leave you with some pictures of what’s happening in my corner of the world…..:-)

He rocks in the tree-top all a day long
Hoppin’ and a-boppin’ and a-singin’ the song
All the little birds on J-Bird St.
Love to hear the robin goin’ tweet tweet tweet
(This is the only kind of robin seen around these snowy parts….)

This pattern was a fun knit!!

Yarn:  My hand~dyed Merino/bamboo blend.
Needles:  2.25 mm
Pattern:  Marguerite’s Basketweave Socks

Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.
Tao Te Ching

Brrrrr………

This morning we woke up to over a foot of freshly fallen heavy, wet snow.

While it is very beautiful, this glistening, white snow…….it’s just not supposed to be here now….

The dogs are as confounded as we are.  They had been enjoying the warm temperatures in their dog yard last week and now this.  Unfortunately, this is going to make for a long, wet spring .. :(. 

Oh well…………more time to stay inside and play with fiber…..right?

Spring????

This picture shows the cruelty of nature that we frequently experience up here in the North Country in April.

Imagine, coming home from temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s with birds singing and wisteria vines in full bloom……….to this.

Arrggghhhh!!!!


Speaking of my trip, this is what we came home with!  Little Miss Cleo was Best Puppy In Show on Sunday.  I was so proud of the resident Wiggle Butt…..she showed her little heart out on Sunday.  Saturday was a different story altogether though.  I had all I could do to keep her awake….poor little baby was so tired from traveling all day Friday, being up late and then up again early to be tossed in the tub for a bath…lots of new experiences for a little puppy girl, but she did great!  I am very proud of her.

Fibery Things

Not much knitting happened over the weekend.  I spent too much time socializing with friends I don’t see very often, but I did sneak in a little bit of spindling at the end of each day.

You have seen pictures of this little heart cut out spindle on a few other blogs.  Laura had been spinning on one at the NETA Spa in February and a few of us fell in love with it. 

Mine finally arrived in the mail last week and I have to say that I love everything about it.  As a wood re-finisher (another hobby from long ago), I can’t tell you how wonderful the finish on this spindle is.  Every time I pull it against the side of my leg, I marvel at the glass like feel to it.  Just beautiful!  I am spinning some of my polwarth/silk blend and love the way it is spinning up.  Very easy to draft, which for me when spindling is important, as I am still in the learning phase for sure. 🙂

A~Longs

I have come to the conclusion that I really shouldn’t join knit alongs, run alongs….anything alongs.  I am just not good at deadlines when it comes to my hobbies.  I start feeling pressured, which takes some of the joy out of it for me.

I started out with great intentions for Margene’s twisted knitters, spin and knit along.  The undyed yarn is the corriedale top that I purchased last April at the Denmark Sheep Festival.

I was good at getting it spun up, but then it sat on the wall of yarn in my hallway until a few weeks ago, when I thought about the March deadline.  I threw it into the dye pot…….eekkk!  Not what I expected at all.  I wasn’t sure if I liked it, so I put it back on the wall o’ yarn, where it has sat for a few weeks.  Somehow though, today when I looked at it again, I decided that I DID like it.  Of course, now I am anxious to knit with it, but given that I have already missed the deadline, I have decided that I will finish all of the little projects I have going and will give this yarn the time it deserves 🙂