Busy Bees at our house!

And a couple of wonderful sights, as well.

This is the mountain we see to the northwest out our livingroom window every day.  Several views of it are in Cowgirl's album, but I thought this one was 'a little different' enough to share it with you.

This next photo was taken out our kitchen window.  The bir was on the pivot line, about 300' from the house.

January is on of the birthday months in our house.  Banana Cream Pie and Sis have their bdays at the end of the month.  Here's a pic of what Sis made for BCP.

Now for a few fiber things.

BCP made these mitts for a friend's birthday.  They are her own design made from Alpaca with a Twist and Indiecita Alpaca.

Melody has been making new mittens for the Little Ones.  She was trying this pair on the Two Year Old for diameter/thumb placement etc. and happend to say, "I think that will work."  The two Year Olds' response was, "No that won't work!  My hand will freeze off!"

Now for a taste of what I've been doing the last couple of days.  This roving arrived in the mail one day.  I was not expecting it, but it sure was a pleasant surprise!  Christina (AlohaBlu) posted in the Dye-Along showing a new fiber blend (Merino/Tencel) she was dyeing for her etsy shoppe. (Link here.)  When she said she was dyeing up another roving for herself,  I asked her to let me know what she though of that fiber blend's 'spinability'.  Well, she did me one better.  She sent me a sample to spin myself!!  It was only about 1.3 oz.  I decided I would spin a very fine lace weight 1) because you can't get much yardage from 1.3 oz at any other weight, 2) because very fine lace weight from a heavier roving would keep you spinning forever, and 3) because lace weight is my passion! =)  So...here are the pics!

LEFT: This shows the roving. (Yes, it arrived in Christina's beautiful signature chain!)

RIGHT:  This is the eight strand I have after splitting the roving lenghtwise into eight sections.

And this is a picture of the single in progress.  Both DH and Cowgirl wanted to know why I had thread on my spinning wheel. LOL  There's a little wobble to the yarn when I'm spinning.  I kind of wonder if that is because the bobbin core is so small.  I know that lace flyer combos have bobbins with bigger cores but I just can't afford that right now.  Up until now, all my very fine lace weight was spun on the spindle so this is a bit of a new experience for me.

The fiber spins like a dream and I love the look of the yarn.  It has a bit of a shine from the Tencel, but I still don't know if I will use much of it.  I have this thing about fibers made from or with lots of chemical involvement.  That's one reason I prefer to process my own wool.  Commercial wools are put through an acid bath to burn out all of the VM.  (Yuck! IMO)

There have been some other fibery things going on that I don't have pictures for.  As some of you know, Stretch has been learning to spin.  That has been fun except for the fact that I had to give him my wheel (It's a double drive.) because it was just too hard to adjust the Ashford for him.  I'm taking it back for a while since I (with the help of Sis.) have 1400 gms of alpaca to spin for a customer!

Cowgirl just finished knitting dizzy from  Knit & Wrap using Suri Handyed in Roller Rink.  She carried along a gold metalic thread by Sulky for the bling.  It is a bday present for her best friend.

Melody has been working on a Danish Tie Shawl from an issue of Spin-Off.  She is ready to start the Old Shell pattern at the bottom of the shawl.

I'm almost done with another of my crochet WIPs in my 30 Minute Program.  The Lemon Lace Baby Afghan (Personal design.) is going to a friend for her new baby due in April.  I have the body of the blanket done and am working on the edging.

I have the body and collar done on DH's sweater and am now working on the sleeves.

One pair of anklet socks for The Two Year old is nearly to the toe on the second sock.

Whew!  That makes me tired just typing all that.  Have I really been working on that many things?! LOL

I think that's about it for what's been going on here.  As you can see from the first pic of the mountain, we have very little snow on the valley floor so thoughts and wishes for spring are flowing heavily.  I've started plotting and planning for this year's garden.  Lots of outside work on my list already!! *groan* from some of The Tribe! =)

Happy Fiber!

Nutty