Baby News-Fiber News

Again, its been ages since I posted. I dont know whats up with me, but its been really hard to make myself sit and write. Once I get going, I enjoy it, but dang, its so hard to sit here and DO it!

We're having a girl!! A wee girl... and her name is Madelyn. I adore my Granny (maternal) and her name is Madelyn and Shane and I love the name and love the nickname Mad, sooo, its perfect! Little Mad is growing like mad. Shes about 1 1/2 pounds now and 14 inches long! I feel like shes twice that big. My belly is enormous. Or at least it seems like it to me! Shes squashing everything. Its hard to breathe sometimes, depending on how Im sitting/laying and I cant eat much at a time. But its nothing bad. The awful part of it all is the hip pain that Im having. I swear, its some of the worst pain Ive ever felt in my life. It makes most movements incredibly painful. Even putting socks on is an ordeal. But its all good! Makes me stronger, gives me character. I know now that when Im old (or young!), if I have bad, chronic pain, I can take it. I can still do what I need to do, even if it hurst so much I cry.

Yesterday Shane and I went out and took some pictures. We both wish we could see what our mothers looked like while they were pregnant with us so we want to make sure Mad has plenty to pictures to see later. Heres a couple of my favorites -

Ive been doing a bit of spinning and knitting/crocheting. I bought some loverly sage green roving from Copperpot Woolies, spun it in to a worsted weight ad am knitting it in to some mittens for my mother. They were supposed to be done for her bday last month, but I got sick and was only able to get one done. So Im finishing up the second now (just got a thumb to do!). She seems to like them, at least she loves the color. Ill post a pic when Im all done.

As for spinning, Ive spun alot! Heres a pic of just some of the yarn Ive made -

Theres more than just these, but I got tired of taking pics of them all. On my wheel I have some misc roving ends from The Sheep Shed. Its a beautiful mix of caramel, dark chocolate and white. I think there is some mohair in it, but Im not sure. Its very pretty!

New Knitting and *Ancient Tiles*

Ive been working on a few things! Its been incredibly cold here so Im stuck in the house (cept for my ultra fast runs out to do feed!). Things get boring in here so Ive been fooling with my yarn and fiber alot.

Im knitting Shane (my bf) a pair of mittens, the type with the flip top fingers. This is my first like them. Ive knitted one pair of regular mittens and a few pairs of fingerless mittens, but never these. Theyre coming out well, though! Im using the German wool I spun. Its scary at first, using something Ive spun, keep worrying about screwing it all up. But Shane likes em and Im enjoying the job. Here they are -
Im also crocheting a sweater for my American Eskimo Dog, Puppis. I recently knit a brown and red striped one for my old man, Mike, and hes just so dang cute in it, I just had to make something for Puppi, too. Its my first crocheted garment. Ive made toys before, but never anything like this. Its coming out great, if I do say so myself...
Im also coming out of a funk that Ive been in for like ages. I get very depressed and then I come out of it for a while, then go back in. Its a cycle Ive been going through for as long as I can remember. Its annoying and tiring, but I dont beat myself up about it anymore. I just go with it now. Ive realized that this is how I am and thats ok. Anyway, I havent been cleaning...At all. I mean, Im certainly no June Cleaver, but I do like to keep things at least a little tidy. But when I get in these holes, I just dont give a crap about any of that. I have many pets in here (1o cats, 2 dogs, 3 chickens, a bunny, a cockateil and a turtle) and though they still get fed, watered and have their cages cleaned, well, other than that, I dont do anything. It gets overwhelming. But...with this cold weather and my inability to open up the windows (Im a freak for fresh air) Im starting to clean again.

I started in the hall. Ok, you see, my bf and I share 3 rooms here. Ones his (also for a little storage. No animals go in there), one is our bedroom and the other is for the computer and chicken cages. The three rooms are connected by a small hallway. I chose that because it was a least daunting. Now, we have a rooster living in here. Magnus, hes a great pet, but hes certainly not the most tidy. He lurves dry dog food and always ALWAYS spills the dogs dish. Youve seen chickens scratching around for food, right? Well he does that, but with the dogs food. It gets everywhere and we end up walking on it. Crunch crunch crunch! It collects in the corners and along the edges of things. Also, my bunny eats hay, so that gets everywhere no matter what I do. And my two dogs are unaltered males who sometimes mark. And I have male cats who are the same, so, well, all these things are on the floor and usually its just stuff I can sweep up.

But this time around one area of the floor it all mixed together. It was incredible. Ive read about other cultures who use mud/manure/hair/straw to build houses and things. I guess I never really thought about what those things were like. But I have a new found respect for those people! Its absolutely ingenious. The stuff that was on my floor was SO incredibly hard, it came up in tiles, large, flat pieces. It was so strong that I couldnt break it with my fingers and it took every ounce of strength I had to get it off the floor! Now some of you folks are surely thinking Im out of my noggin. But I dont care, I was fascinated. I even took pictures! lol!

This is what it looks like from the top -
This is the bottom of one piece. Its hard to tell, but its very smooth. Glossy, smooth even!
Is this piece you can see how it took an imprint of the floor. The X is where the floor tiles meet!This is a pic of one area that was on bare wood. It made an almost perfect cast of the grain!! I may be a total weirdo, but I had fun cleaning. I usually detest it. But it was like an archaeological dig or something, lol! I also found a missing piece of my spinning wheel, yay!!

Yarn Swap, Alpaca and Mittens

Well! I got a very nice surprize in the mail today. (Two actually, but one was a pound of roving that I knew was coming, so that wasnt completely a surprize.) You see, a while back I signed on to be part of a yarn swap Basically, person A spins a (3.5 oz) skein of yarn for person B, person B spins one for person C, etc. We get to see who were making the yarn for, but have no idea whos making one for us. Im very much a pessemist sometimes and thought that surely I would be paired up with the one person who wouldnt spin a skein of yarn. But (*YIPPIE*) I got a person who not only spun a skein, its the most wonderful, funky, and fabulous skein of yarn Ive ever held in my hands!!! I ADORE IT!!! Looky---->

*dances* I lurve it!! Though I have no idea when Ill be able to convince myself that I can knit with it and not totally ruin it. Im just going to stare at it for a while.

Last year I bought myself some alpaca fiber to spin. Ive finally finished it! The first skein came out nice (it spun up wicked easy), but this second one, I even impressed myself a little, heehee! Its the most even Ive ever spun. Also pretty thin for me. Its a two ply worsted (alsmot a sport weight). Its soft and a really wonderful warm brown color.
I ve also been working on the fingerless mittens for Shane. Theyre coming along nicely. I tried to take some pics tonight, but they came out terrible. Its night and I had to use the flash. Ill try again in the daylight. All I have left to do are the flaps!

Over a year ago I bought the book Stitch'n'Bitch. Theres a gorgeous pair of fingerless mittens in there. It calls for two balls of Noro something or other. So we headed out to the LYS and I bought the colors I liked. Well, I get home and am knitting away and soon realize that one ball is a continuous piece of yarn but the other is three tied together. The colors dont match up and I end up with one perfectly colored mitten, green to purple to yellow to orange. The other one I didnt even bother knitting because the colors woudlnt match up, it would drive me crazy! I threw the lot in a drawer and tried to forget about them. But while knitting Shanes mittens, I was almost obsessively thinking of my failed Noro mittens. So I got the one out and re-examined the yarn to see if I could piece it together to at least sort of match the finished one. No go! No amount of splicing would make it come close to being a mate. Ive decided that I must go bat to the LYS and scour their Noro yarn for one ball that will pair up with my finished thing.

I...must...finish...them...