Life has been pretty busy over the last week.  Between breeding the dogs, working on the kichen and attending Christmas concerts, there has not been alot of time for blogging.  Of course, given that I can’t show much yet…………..blog material has been dry.

Last week when I was surfing blogs during my morning coffee time, I came upon this blog entry from Norma.  I loved that little bag so much that I immediately emailed her about the pattern.  Too cute!  So off to the LYS to find these goodies: Black Cascade 220, a Fibertrends pattern, some big addi turbo needles and some "bling, bling"……Berroco Lazer FX.  Isn’t this just yummy!! 

I loved working with the cascade.  Doubled up, it was sooooo soft and cushy.  Here a picture of the bag before it was felted.  The pattern called for a little more yarn than what is in a single skein of Cascade, so I made the little loop with some black Peace Fleece that I had kicking around.

  After it was felted, you could not tell the difference between the cascade and the peace fleece.  Isn’t this a fun little bag?  I know a few girls that would love to have a bag like this.  Just big enough for a cell phone, some lipstick and a small wallet.

Thanks Norma!!  It was a nice, easy knit!

I have not done too much felting…….but it is fun.  I made this bag earlier this year.  I hated the way the dog came out on it, so thankfully I have enough yarn to make another flap.  I think that I will just skip the dog and put a cool button on it instead.  This bag was knit from a pattern from the book "Simple Knits for Sophisticated Living"
I used Mountain Colors for the body of the bag.  I can’t remember the name of the sage wool that I used….but it felted up nicely.  This pattern had a cute little pocket that you sew inside.  I guess that I will get the needles out and get the flap redone……..poor bag has been hanging off the side of my loom for months waiting for it’s new flap…

The only other bag that I have felted is this one……and it is my favorite so far.  I did this bag differently.  This was wet felted from rovings that I had prepared and dyed.  I felted this using a small hand held palm sander.  I designed the pattern on thin cardboard and then laid the wool over it on both sides, working it until it was felted enough to cut.  Because I it came out a wee bit thin in spots and I wanted it to be sturdy, I lined it with this fabric.  I couldn’t
believe how well it matched.  It looked almost exactly like the outside!  What a lucky find in the local fabric store that was!

I really really love this type of felting, because it allows so much more for creativity.  After the madness of pre-Christmas knitting is finished and the holiday is behind us, I hope to do up a few more of these bags.  I won a really cool book on ebay this week, with lots of neat ideas.  It is written in Japanese…LOL……but I am sure that the diagrams will explain themselves.

"Tis the Season"

This time, I am talking about the Christmas Season….haha!  Christmas is my most favorite time of the year.  I just love it!  I love the decorating, the Christmas carols , the baking and the smells of Christmas.  There is NO better time of the year. 

Sometimes we tend to get to wrapped up in the business of the season, but this year, I have vowed to keep sane and really enjoy the Holiday with my family. 

Now, I bet when you read the title of this entry, you were thinking it probably had to do with Christmas. 

Nope…….not at all..LOL.

When a female dog (bitch) is ready for breeding, she has what is called a "season".  Bitches have 2 seasons a year and anyone familiar with breeding understands the "challenges" of keeping both sexes under one roof. (boy, these words should bring up some interesting searches in my stats..hehe). 

When girl comes into season, frequently it will bring any other girls in the house into season as well and this is where the agony, fun begins.  I own this lovely boy, Max.  He is an incredibily beautiful dog and is very well built.  His one flaw is that he likes to bless us with his vocal cords frequently.  Most of the time, it is not that bad, but oh my, when the girls are in season, I always scratch my head wondering why I keep a male.  He whines and he winnies and he yodels and on and on an on.  I know my husband really loves me when we go thru this….because Max is still here…..

Starting the beginning of November, this little sweetie started the ball rolling.  Bliss is only a little over a year and much too young to be bred.

   Then came Shelley, who is the foundation of my breeding program.  She is that cute little Dora’s grandmother.  Shelley is the dearest dog and the apple of my eye here.  She was THE naughtiest puppy that I have ever owned, but thankfully she has mellowed with age. Shelley will be 6 in January, but she is still as nimble as she was when she was a pup.  Shelley has had 2 c-sections due to carrying huge puppies.   I personally feel that is enough for any girl to have, so she will not be bred again.

So, by now, you can imagine the mounting frustration building up in my boy……..whine, whinny, yodel…….yodel, whinny, whine………….aacckk!!!

Now, the final girl that is close to coming into season comes in on Thanksgiving Day.  This is the girl that I planned to breed this fall.  She is Dora’s mother and because I was so happy with the 1st breeding, I decided that I wanted to repeat the breeding again.  I knew that she was getting close to being ready, but not quite, so I let her into the yard this morning with Max and Dora and another girl, Libby.  Well, Max and Breeze had ideas of their own and I found myself sitting on snow covered steps in my pajamas and slippers at 8am for 20 minutes………bbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  Breeze (Ballymena Winter’s Wind) has earned her "chilly"name on more than one occasion.  We can look forward to puppies sometime in Febuary :-)).

Being the ham that she is……..that cute little pup, Dora did not want to miss out on another photo opportunity.   She is growing in leaps and bounds, and is promising to be almost as mischievous and as beautiful as her grandmother, Shelley.

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone and the Christmas Season is fast approaching.  Every year we string this Star up on our barn…..it has become a family tradition for us.  The one year we didn’t put it up, our neighbors all wondered what happened to it, so every year now, we grace the street with our star.  For some reason the Christmas Spirit has LEPT gotten into my DH.  He was outside tonight furiously stringing up his strands of lights…..hehe……kind of reminiscent of Chevy Chase.

Most of my current knitting is destined to be Christmas presents and as my older children are now reading my blog, it makes it a wee bit hard for show and tell, so I thought that I would share some of the Thanksgiving pictures that my camera buff brother snapped.  We had a lovely time together.  I am very blessed to have a kind and supportive family…….who all get along :-).

First shot is the big part of the table (dh, dm, df, dd, dn)

Then the "hip corner" (dd’s boyfriend, dd, ds)

and my corner…(dn,me,dd, dd’s hubby)
…nope, haven’t lost all of those lbs yet, but workin’ on it 🙂

and then the camera guy’s (db) family

It’s pretty scarey when you can’t fit a family into one picture..LOL.  I am going to have to rent a hall once all of the kids grown and have families……..ouch!

A good time was had by all, both 4 legged and 2 legged.  As I said, I am very blessed.  I hope that you all had as nice of a Thanksgiving as we did here.

Blog Surfing
Every morning, I share my cup of coffee with all of the blogs that I enjoy reading.  This morning however, I read a blog that kind of ruffled my feathers.  Now…..it was not Kerstin that ruffled my feathers…….it was her post about how most insurance companies will not cover birth control pills, but the majority of them will cover Viagra.  How twisted is that????  As the mother of a daughter in college who dealt with this over the Thanksgiving weekend, it is just infuriating to have to jump thru hoops to help our girls protect themselves from getting pregnant, but then we enable men on the other hand and pay for it! 

It hardly seems fair that insurance companies will pay for Viagra, but yet deny birth control claims. How can it possibly make sense to deny birth control claims, but yet pay for pregnancies……..isn’t paying for preventative measures, cheaper in the long run for insurance companies and taxpayers than paying for birthing and raising unwanted children??  Call me dense, but I don’t get it??  Hopefully if enough women demand that their voices be heard, that change will come about……..one can hope.

On a more positive note………one of the things that I am most thankful for this year, is the new friends that I have met thru fiber and blogging.  The blogging community is such a close knit (pun intended) community. 

One of my new blogging friends, Jean, sent me these little cuties.  The beads are from Venice……a couple are missing from the picture……they are already on a few needles.  I just LOVE them!  Thank you Jean!!

Whew….what a difference a week makes!  Whereas last week I had the blah’s and did nothing…….this week was a completely different story.  Those guilty "mommy" genes kicked in.    It has been an eventful and fun week, so I will break it down into catagories :-).

I do want to take a moment and thank everyone who emailed wishing good thoughts for Belinda.  By midweek, I started to become suspicious that perhaps she wasn’t very happy with a feed change I had made, the previous week.  What made me suspicious, was the way that she was attacking the carrots that I was feeding her with such gusto, but was refusing to eat her feed and drink her water.  I went to the feed store and found that they had finally received my regular feed back in stock, so I bought some and the first night Belinda ate 1/2 of it and by Saturday, she was back to eating all of her feed and drinking her water.  I am so relieved that she is ok.  Belinda is the daughter of a very dear rabbit that I bred, who is no longer with us and I would so hate to lose Belinda as well.  I am hoping to breed her to a yummy redbased fawn this spring, with hopes of getting some red babies.  Belinda and her mother both have the delightful personalities that I breed for, so I want to continue with this line of buns. 

Presents!!!!!

What a fun mail week this has been!!!

First in the mail was this great gift   I participated in Vicki’s contest of trying to figure out when she graduated from high school and what was the year of her birth, by naming the singers of different songs that she had listed.  It was soooo much fun as I knew almost immediately that Vicki must have graduated the same year as me and was 2 mos younger than I am.  It was such a fun walk down memory lane and for that walk, I received the Pocket Sized Knit and Crochet Companion, a lovely bar of soap and a cute Christmas Note Pad.  Thanks Vicki!!

Next in the mail was a package from my Secret Pal, Erica .  Erica has been the best Secret Pal!  In this box was a bar of that yummy German Chocolate that I am so fond of…..a box of orange tea and some interesting honeys.  Also in the box were 2 skeins of really pretty brown,sage and beige tweed sock yarn and 3 balls of tan merino, both made by Lana Grossa.  Erica has been wonderful.  Not only is she the wife of a deployed soldier, she is also waiting on the birth of her second baby…..momentarily.  Thank you Erica!!  I have a little surprise for you too 🙂

Lastly in the mail this week, was my order from Black Abbey Yarns for the Irish Cardigan Vest in Folk Vests.  The wool is definitly on the "crunchy" side…….we will see how it finishes up. The fact that it is completely made in Ireland adds a bit to the authinticity of this vest for me…….being that red headed Irish girl…LOL.

Soap
One of the things that I make on a regular basis at the Woolen Rabbit is soap.  A few local shops carry my soaps and I sell them at fiber events throughout the year.  Given that my kitchen has been in complete disarray with this remodeling job, I am really behind in my soapmaking duties.  I find it very hard to work, if I can’t put my hands on the tools that I need without having to search all over the house for them, so I just didn’t make any soap this summer  Now that my kitchen is coming together and Christmas is nearing, I thought that I should get my butt in gear and get into the soap production mode again. 

Making Soap is not only expensive, precise and labor intensive………it is fun!!  I just love playing with all of the different essential oils, and coming up with unique scents.  All of my soaps are completely natural and are made in small batches in my kitchen.  If my name is on the label, you can bet that I want to make sure that they are of the highest quality :-).  Here is how I make soap here…….

First I start mixing Lye with water and let that set until it reaches the proper temperature.  The mixing of lye and water causes a reaction that makes the temperature of the water to quickly rise, so it needs to cool down to the correct temperature before using.

Next I measure out  the "hard" fats, such as coconut oil or vegetable oil, palm oil and Shea Butter.

I then heat those oils up until they are almost melted and just let the remaining pieces of Shea Butter melt in the heated oils, so that the oils do not burn.

While those oils are melting, I pour the liquid oils that I use, based on which recipe I am making.  This time I am using mostly Olive Oil, with a little Castor oil. These will get poured into the melted fats. I am also going to superfat this recipe with Shea Oil, so I measure that as well, but that will not go in until just before the mixture has reached a trace.

Now that the lye and the melted fats have cooled down to the correct temperature, it is time to mix them together.  This process is going to cause a chemical reaction called Saponification.  Just before complete saponification has occured, I will add any essential oils, herbs and superfats.   This will then get poured into lined wooden boxes.  After pouring and covering the soap with lids, the boxes get put to sleep under cover for 18-24 hours.  This is called "Cold Processed Soap"

Here is a picture of the finished product 🙂

Markers!!
I want to thank everyone who emailed me with tips for making markers.  A special thank you to Susan for sending me these 2 really neat patriotic markers and to Alison , who was extra kind in sending me a step by step pictorial of how she makes markers.  Between Susan’s markers, Alison’s tips and what I was able to find in my ever compulsive web searching, this is what I came up with on my own this week.  

After many, many tries, I finally got the hang of wrapping wire, so that I could make wired beads to be hung off of split rings for larger needles.  Here is a close up of that wrapped wire….I apologize for the shadows.

All in all, it has been fun and I am looking forward to making many more of these…….it is almost addictive.  Now I just need to find out where to find unusual beads 🙂

and finally……Knitting

This has been a busy knitting week.  I am trying to finish up the Cavalier Hats that were ordered.  A few more and then I will be finished until after the holidays.   As mentioned before 10% of the proceeds from these sales will be going to the American Cancer Socieity.

I guess I must have been feeling a bit guilty from my lack of fiber workings the week before that I just dove into knitting with gusto this week.   On the needles is the vest from Interweave knits with the Black Abbey Yarn.  The consensus on this yarn is still out….I will have to wait to see how the final project washes up.  The yarn is very "crunchy", which gives fabulous definition to the pattern….but I am a bit concerned that it might be a bit too scratchy.  Washing it will let me know and then I will let you all know.  I just love the colors that this yarn come in, so I am hoping that it is going to finish up nicely

I also started this scarf.  It is similar to the one that Anne gifted to me earlier this fall.  It is going to be a present for one lucky girl….LOL…..but she doesn’t know this yet :-).  I have never beaded onto yarn, so I may be crying to Anne for some help with the time comes.  This fiesta yarn is a combination of kid mohair and rayon boucle and is a treat to work with.

I have also been plugging along on the black camisole from Morehouse Merino.  Have I said how much I love this yarn…..yup….alot..LOL.  I will say however, I am really concerned at some of the highs and lows of the color as you can see in the picture.  I am really really hoping that when this is washed, it is all going to even out.  It seems as though the fading comes when the yarn has been sitting for a spell and when I restart, I can see the difference in the color.  Hopefully as I said that will all even out when it is washed and blocked.  All in all though……..this is yummy stuff and well worth the extra price 🙂

and finally…………..this.  My secret pal 3, Erica has been such a fabulous pal, after the disappointment of my first Secret Pal2, that I wanted to gift her with something nice as well.  I figured out early on, who she was and knew that the birth of a little boy has been looming near in her future:-).  I just love this litte Jester hat from Knit Baby Head and Toes.  I had hoped to have this finished by this posting, but life just gets in the way sometimes as you all know.  Hopefully this little package will make it’s journey to Germany early this week. 

and as I leave you this week………..have you notice that the backdrop for my pictures has changed?  Yup……..that is my new counter-top……yippeeeeeeeeee.  We are almost there.  Although my husband thought that he would have it all finished for Thanksgiving, it appears that it will not be.  Even though I am disappointed as I will have a houseful of people, I am still extremely thankful for all of the hard and careful work that my DH has put into this project…….is is coming along fabulously!.

Have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Every year around this time, I start to feel just BLAH….Blah.…blah.  I think alot of it has to do with turning the clocks back and the days getting so darn short and the scenery turning brown and gray.  I have to dig waaay down deep to find motivation…….it just hasn’t been there this week.  It is weeks like this that I just find life so overwhelming at times.  It has not been a good week on the animal front either…..but I will talk about that a bit later.

Over the last week, I have been reading all of the political talk on some of the blogs, such as Kerstin’s.  While I am happy to see people not just sitting back, feeling defeated and just accepting things pro quoto……I am just so not a political person, therefore, I lack that ferver, even though I can appreciate it in someone else.  Thank goodness there are those that will take up this cause, because it is important.

One thing I have thought quite a lot about over the course of the last few weeks is RAOK.  Now, mind you, the girls that have put this together do a great job…..and it is fun, but on the other hand, I have really been struggling with it on a different level.  I am going to resign my membership from the ring, so that someone else may join as there is a number limit to how many people can belong.

The RAOK ring has been a welcome eye-opener to me on just how much the little acts of kindness  that we do for each other can mean.  It has helped me to think outside of myself, so much more.  In the past if I knew someone was going thru something difficult, I would shoot off an email, but now, I put more thought into it, such as an e-card, a box of tea, or a special bath fizz pick me up.  I find that I am paying more attention to the people who are in need, whatever the level of need is. 

However, I find that belonging to this ring, causes me stress as well.  I find it extremely difficult tossing the member list of people I really do not know into a randomizer and then try to figure out something nice to do for these people who I have no mental connection with…I guess it is just TOO random for me.  This probably sounds silly, but I struggle with it.  I find that it means so much more to me and gives me so much more joy to RAOK people who I know, or who I feel a connection with, whether it be a dear friend or even someone, who I may not know but has touched me in some way.

Thank you Kae and Steph for allowing me to be a part of your group and for giving me so much to think about.  I feel that I have grown as a human being from being a part of the RAOK ring and now it is time for me to move onto incorporating it into my "real" daily life.

Fibery Stuff

  In the midst of this yucky week, I did have a nice day out with a good friend.  We headed down to Caravan Beads in Portland Maine and I found these pretties.  My friend Anne from Vermont gifted me with such a lovely scarf earlier this fall and I thought that I would try my hand at making a similar scarf with this shade of Rhinebeck 🙂 Fiesta and these beads.

Speaking of beads…..I would so love to make some beaded stitch markers.  When I first saw them, I though…….how silly??  But now that I have been using this pretty marker, I am ashamed of foo-fooing stitch markers…..LOL.  I LOVE it.  We should surround ourselves with lovely things when given the opportunity.  Now…………would any of you generous bloggers be willing to tell me how to make them, or direct me in the right directions………..I will be eternally grateful 🙂

Waiting for me in my mailbox this week were these 2 soft and lovely balls of Misti baby Alpaca from Pollywogs.  Yup……you guessed it.  I didn’t feel tortured enough the first time……..I am going to make the Flower Basket Shawl for my mom for Christmas. (It’s ok…….my mom never reads my blog….she has a hard enough time figuring out how to read her email..LOL)

I did manage to get some work on the Camisole that I am making for my son’s girlfriend for Christmas.  This is the black lace Cami from Morehouse Merino.  I didn’t think that I would like working with lace weight yarn, but I have to admit, that I am really really enjoying this yarn.  It has a great handle and just plain feels good to work with.  I don’t know if you can see the pattern, but it is a sweet little eyelet type lace. 

Can I get these projects done in time…..eeeekkk???

The Animal Planet

This has been a really hard week here with the animals.  I have a rabbit that I am very concerned about.  One of the things that can affect angora rabbits is wool block.  One of the first signs of trouble brewing is a day of not eating. When you have a rabbit that has been refusing food and water for a few days, you really really start worrying.  When I have a rabbit go off it’s feed, the first thing I do is give them a mixture of mashed up banana and believe it or not, Adolf’s tenderizer.  The tenderizer works in 2 ways.  First it is very salty which helps to encourage them to drink water, which helps to move things along and second, the tenderizer helps to break up the blockage. 

Belinda had gone almost 4 days of turning up her nose at everything I tried to tempt her with, which really concerned me.  I thought for sure that I was going to lose her.  Last night, however, she accepted a carrot and then another and seemed very interested in eating, but only carrots.  Hopefully we have turned the corner, but I am still very cautious in my optimism. 

I had a disheartening week in the dog world as well.  I won’t get into the long details other than to say that it really makes me wonder sometimes why I do this.  The dog world attracts very competitive people and along with that competitiveness, comes people who can be very unkind when it suits them……and completely blind to the damage that their words can bring to others.  I witnessed some of that first hand this week and it really was discouraging to observe.  Sad, that people can be so careless and thoughtless to each other.  The flip side of all of this, is a dear and close breeder friend of mine, lost a puppy, not much younger than my little Dora.  Somehow the puppy picked up an uncommon form of canine meningitis and succombed last night.  It just broke my heart to hear this.  I so wish that the dog community could be a kinder, gentler place, but I have been involved in dogs long enough to know that is never going to be a reality.  Very sad, if I didn’t love these dear little dogs so much, I don’t know that I could continue. 😦

And in Closing…………..FLY LADY

Do the holidays cause panic to rise in your throat?  Visions of mops and dust rags, polish and vacumns are dancing in my dreams.  The piles of wool and roving and books galore…….eekkkkk…….where will they all go???  Here is where I am hoping that FlyLady is going to help….hehe.  I downloaded the FlyLady’s Holiday Control Journal.  I will let you know if it helps…LOL.  It has been fun reading, however, be aware……..number 4 on her list of Eleven Commandments is:  Don’t allow yourself to be sidetracked by the computer.    hahaha!

November has rolled in, bringing the hint of winter with it. Temperatures have been cold…bbrrr and the wild winds have brought most of the leaves, leaving us to think of the winter that is on the horizon. Storm windows to get washed and pulled down, chimneys cleaned and wood ready for burning. Of course on a windy, rainy day, such as it was yesterday is a good reason to pour a cup of black raspberry/sage tea and sit down and blog surf. I found some interesting pages and a great deal on yarn!

First stop was to Jean’s website where she told us of the sale on Peruvian Highlands yarn at Elann. With such great prices, like Jean, I pulled out some of my knitting books to see what projects would be nice with this yarn. One of the items I want to knit is the X and O’s cardigan vest from Folk Vests. The recommended yarn that the vest is worked up in is from Black Water Abbey Yarns, so I took a gander over to that site to see what the gauge of that yarn is and oh my…….what a lovely site!!! It has definitly been bookmarked for revisiting!!

Secret Pal 2
I let my secret Pal 2, Melanie know who I am with her final gift, sent out last week. It was fun to shop and knit for her, as she is similar in age to my daughter, Ashley, who is in college. Go take a look at the lovely work she has done. Now, if I could only get my daughter knitting…… It is exciting to see all of the young girls in college who are knitting!!

My secret Pal 3 has been great at communicating with me and her gifts have been fun….but I have not heard very much from my SP 2 :-((, so I do not know who she is yet.

Thanks Heidi for hosting such a fun program!

Fiber Stuff

After surfing with dreams of new projects in my eyes, I sat down to spin up some of the rovings for Cavalier hats that have been ordered. I will finish up spinning this afternoon and start knitting tonight.

Next on the agenda was finishing up a shawl that had been ordered at Fryeburg Fair.
I got to use my new cherry stand and the lovely tapestry beater purchased at Rhinebeck. What a difference it made using the lovely beater instead of my bent kitchen fork…LOL. This works much better and definitly looks better too!

The finished shawl was wrapped and put into the mail yesterday afternoon. I hope it’s new owner likes it as much as I did. I was sorely tempted to keep it……….but seeing that it was already paid for, it is now on it’s way to Massachusetts 🙂

Knowing that it was going to be busy at our local voting stop, I took my fluted bannister socks from the KAL with me to work on. Surprisingly, it was so well organized that we were in and out before I had a chance to even take the sock out to work on. I guess that it will have to wait for another day…

That Cute Puppy
Tomorrow will be spent, getting a few dogs ready for the upcoming CKCSC show in Cherry Hill, NJ. Baths to be had and curls to be straigntened. Nails to be clipped and coats to be brushed. All a days work in the life of a show dog…LOL. Although Dora will not be old enough to be shown until January, I thought that I would leave you with a few pictures of how she is growing up. What a change from the little hamster like pictures that you saw back in July.

Happy Halloween……..mwaaaaa haaaaaaaa

Be aware, there is no knitting content in this post……..so turn back now, whilst you can……..

We have little “Trick o’ Treaters”

And the little”Goblin”

My daughter, Hannah and my 2 grandchildren…McKayla and Aidan had a good time reaping the treats of Halloween….I hope that you all had a wonderful and safe Halloween as well!
In parting, here is a fun little Halloween game for you to enjoy!

Happy Halloween!!!!

My stash from Rhinebeck is calling out to me, but I resisted as hard as that might be. I felt that it was only right to finish up a few of the projects that I had in all of the various baskets that I have laying around the house. Of coures, the baskets in themselves were previous Rhinebeck purchases from years gone by. I find that if I have too many unfinished projects, that I start to get a wee bit stressed, so last week was dedicated to finishing up a few of them.

First on the list were 2 hats that I had been contacted to make for a teenaged girl and a fellow Cavalier friend who both have cancer.

Knowing what chemo does to an individual, I wanted them to each be surrounded by softness. I knit these hats, based loosely on the Spin-Off cap in a very soft merino and angora.

My daughter, Courtney, is modeling the one with the tricolor dog on it.

Every year or so, I introduce a different style of these hats. For this year’s hat, because of the reason why it was inspired , I will donate 10% of all sales to the American Cancer Society. I felt it only fitting, since this is Breast Cancer Awareness month. I am going to put up a photo album with these hats for sale and hopefully, I will figure out how to attach a paypal basket to it. 🙂

Next on the list was my youngest daughter, Hannah’s sweater and tam. Now, I finished the tam a long time ago, but the sweater was lanquishing in a basket, waiting to be put together and the neck finished. After weeks of Hannah demanding that it be done, I decided that if I were to be a “good” mommy, I had better get it done…haha!! The sweater pattern is from Green Mountain Spinnery and it was knit with Mission 1824 wool,the color is Poppy. It is trimmed with 100% angora, donated from one of my bunnies, Christopher Robin, who is now living with Anne and soon moving to Utah. He’s a lucky boy, I tell ya……it sure looks pretty in Utah!

Finally, I finished the large triangle shawl
that had been stiiting on the loom in my studio since last winter….eeekk!!!!!! Sorry for the wrinkles……I didn’t have time to press it before blogging.

My husband and I usually have seasons tickets to the Eastern Slope Playhouse, and every year, I think how nice it would be to have a lightweight shawl to throw over my dress for when it gets cool inside, so I made this shawl out of a commercial lambswool/angora yarn and made it so that it would have a light, lacy feeling to it.

Here is a closeup of the weave. I know, it looks blue……..but it really isn’t, it is a deep, dark black and very soft and lightweight. I am really pleased with how it turned out.

WOO HOO RED-SOX!!!!!!!!!
Speaking of finishing up………what about those Red Sox!!!! What a great finish to an outstanding year! Never in my wildest dreams, did I think that the Sox would ever win a World Series. Having grown up and listening to Baseball chatter, since I was a very young girl, knowing all of the history from my Dad, Grandfathers, Uncles and Cousins, it was just a given………the Red Sox DON’T win World Series.
Here’s to a new dynasty in Baseball!!!!!!!!!!! Yea Red-Sox!!!

Before I talk about Rhinebeck, I have to digress a bit………………..WOOHOO…………. GO RED SOX!!!!!…………Yea Johnny Damon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not only is he a hottie and my favorite Red Sox player, he just hit his second homerun in game 7 against the Yankees!!! Growing up only 2 towns away from Boston, I have grown up with the “curse of the Babe”…………is this the year???????????

oK………now that I am in control again, on to Rhinebeck…