Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust

Tonight was a rough one for leaving Tessa at my mother in law's house... after spending a typical Wednesday there and getting some spinning done, some site promotion for the Etsy shop and an update to the WoolWytch.blogspot.com site, as well as teaching my MIL how to actually post in her blogspot account again, I bid goodnight to my beloved 4 year old daughter, and took my two year old son home.

A typical sleep over night for her, and time for him to get some one on one time with Mommy and Daddy - something every child should have, and something we believe in fully.

He let out the most pitiful of cries as we left - wailing his sister's name in grief, as if we were separating them forever, and she in turn started crying too. After reassuring her that we were only a phone call away, Garret and I came home, had dinner with Gaelon and the little guy got some one on one time with both parents. I called and checked on her, and while she was subdued, she was pretty much over it. The little man had a blast, as previously expected and forgot that his sister wasn't home..

He's been more verbal lately, and his imagination has been on overdrive - this morning he covered himself up with a blue blanket and roared at me, causing me to shriek out "oh no! it's the blue blanket monster" to which he roared more and giggled profusely.

He's growing up. It doesn't mean we always understand him though.

So after dinner and while we were watching TV, he stands on a Rubbermaid bin I had situated at the end of the couch with hand spun/dyed yarn in it. He leans on the arm of the couch, standing on one leg and puts the other leg in the air, and lets out with gusto the following

Mumma! I PEEPANTS

I look at him and wonder if he's trying to tell me he peed his pants.

So I ask him this and he says vehemently "NO"

Mumma, Dadah, I'm PEAPAH!

Ok - I was completely not sure what he was saying but I said back to him "Oh you are, are you" in that humoring voice a mother can get...

He smiled and said "Yes!"

and then said again

"I'm Pea Paaaaaaaaaaaaahhn"

I repeated it over and over and over in my head - trying to figure out what my little boy was saying when it struck me.

"You're Peter Pan?"

This was met with an ecstatic and joyous shout of "YES!" and again he repeated "I'm Pea Paaaaaaaaaaaaahhn"

"I'm Pea Paaaaaaaaaaaaahhn"

"I'm Pea Paaaaaaaaaaaaahhn"

"I'm Pea Paaaaaaaaaaaaahhn"

"I'm Pea Paaaaaaaaaaaaahhn"

With such glee and delight while pretending to fly, that all I could do is giggle and be proud of him.

Tessa didn't start pretending she was Lara Croft until she was nearly 4. Garret's only 2 and the creativity and imagination he has just astounds me.

I guess it is true - all you need is faith, trust and pixie dust and you can do/be anything/anyone.

Oh the joy of a child. It truly is bliss.

Work Day Wednesday

So it looks like we're settling into a schedule of Wednesday's are my work days and shipping days and Mondays are my stocking days - which works as it keeps people coming into the shop on a weekly basis to see what's there. When we're not being helped by our little helpers that is... Garret wanted to have a hand in uploading photos today, but we decided it was better to let him just be in the photos. ;-)

Today I'm working on a custom order for a Mama in Canada who wants to have a heirloom created for her little girl. I've had the order forever, but haven't started on it, and now that I know I'm going away for a week the end of the month, I need to get started on it before that precious little girl goes to kindergarten.

Speaking of that - the kids and I'll be in Las Vegas the 17-23rd, but my Mother in law will be handling all shipping for orders during that time, so don't worry about things not getting out - we'll just be missing a work day, vs work and shipping, and I'll be bringing a drop spindle on the airplane. Two small kids on an airplane for an over 9 hour trip with a change over. I'm a little nervous there... Any advice on carting the car seats while traveling without another adult would be appreciated.

I got a big surprise this morning when I came back from taking the Diva to dance class... a foreclosure notice stuck in my front door.

Thank goodness it wasn't for us - which is good as we're not behind in the mortgage, but for an individual who lived there years ago - for a property the next town over. Needless to say however it was good for pumping the adrenaline. I called the attorney on the paperwork who was glad to know that the document had been served, but unhappy to find out it was to the wrong individual/address.

Also happening today is teaching my mother in law how to blog, and insert photos etc. She's capable of learning, but often knocks her level of intelligence and really shouldn't. Any woman who produced as smart as a man as I married, can't be what she tries to claim, and in no time she'll be posting with comfort and ease.

She's been increasingly partnering with me over at tgtreasures.etsy.com and is an incredibly creative woman. I came in today to find she'd made fully articulated bunny rabbits, in both country and Americana prints. They are absolutely adorable and will be stocked in the online store on Monday.

So while going out to the post office to drop off yarn orders from the past couple of days I learned something new.

Did ya'll know that it's illegal to take photo's inside the post office? Well I was told this when I was there today - not that I took photos of anyone's address or faces without permission, but was told I just can't take pics inside, so you dear reader will have to be content with an exterior shot. Although I did manage to snap a couple inside anyway.

It's been very cold here and my inlaw's christmas decor is embedded within a foot or more of snow/ice so they've not been able to get the decor out of the front yard yet.



The neighbors have had some melt today - but they got creative with their decor. Have I mentioned how much I love New England? We just didn't see stuff like this when I was growing up in the Desert of West Texas and Arizona.

TGTreasures Updated

In between helpful children and a helpful cat I managed to get my etsy store updated, and this isn't even with the hand dyed rovings I'm considering listing.

There are still about 4-5 more items that aren't listed in this Etsy Mini...

I'm enjoying a day at home with my hubby and beautiful children - even if they are driving me a little batty today.

No Shipping today...

Unless I can get the mail man to take the package I have ready to go out, there will be no shipping for TG Treasures today.

Why?

It might have a little to do with this:



BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Kiddos and an Etsy update!

Well it was a quiet weekend. Saturday was a hang about the house day and Sunday was Garret's second birthday party. Pics to come soon I promise.

In the mean time we had a lovely time, and got some cute videos, and are now getting socked with a winter storm. Blech. Even worse - I left my spinning wheel in my trunk of my car and I think that with weather like we're going to see tomorrow, I will be spending a lot of time inside over the next couple of days. New England in our region is supposed to get over a foot of snow. YUCK!


This is a video of our first snow in Dec, this winter - Complete with escaping polarbear club wanna be. My Toddler will be safely baby-gated inside however when I get the next video of snow. We're supposed to get something like that again tonight. BLECH!

I'm working hard at making Mondays my Etsy shop stocking day - so tomorrow I will go outside on the porch in natural light and the cold, and get some updated pictures of yarn and roving that I'm listing. Then I'll get some new items up in the Etsy shop. I took several pics tonight for listing, but my camera just doesn't do well with this florescent light and it's not got a balance feature. So - I'll just wait until the morning, and when the kids are still asleep I'll get some morning light provided it's not too grey out.

In the mean time - as it's been asked for - there is some Tunis Roving in my Etsy shop - this is undyed/unspun, and is for a particular Tunis fan I have, and I plan on dying a bunch more roving tomorrow - as well as seeing how the drain/spin function works on my washer with some roving that I won't be heart broken over if it felts up. On top of that, I seem to need to make more dryer balls as they've been a big hit of late. One never knows what's going to sell, but hey I'm all for it. The Etsy shop is making a difference for us financially right now and I'm not going t complain.

and on that note - take a look at what I'll be getting a better picture of tomorrow - and posting



Delilah does not come with the Finn Handspun ;-) She's Hobbs to my son's Calvin.


Ohhh Yummy - and only a small amount of the hand dyed/spun that I have to re-shoot and post.


And finally - My little helper... My Diva.

Feeling Creative, such a busy day

One advantage of being unemployed right now is that I can work on building up my Etsy shop's stock, and deal with the huge amount of roving I have on hand.

Just two bags of the roving I have from my recent pick up at the mill...

Today I dyed some of that roving, with the assistance of my kiddos. Tessa and Garret picked out the colors and I'm now trying to come up with names of colorways. They are hanging out overnight in the basement at my MIL's and will go out on the line tomorrow.

Rambouillet - it's a fine smooth fiber

Tunis - still in the pot, it's likely going to be a woolen yarn vs a worsted like the Rambouillet.

While I made a mess,


My mother in law sewed and filled Lavender Sachets....




and my sweet little almost 2 year old (On Friday) runs about and plays.

It was a very good day.

11 Bags of Roving in my spare room...

I've not started dyeing the wool yet, but today I took 255 yards of Merino roving to my mother in laws house and we broke out my dye tray to do some wet set felting in.

OMG, seriously silly fun was had and we've had a bunch of CPSIA compliant childrens product ideas... and evaluating what we have to photograph, gettingsome non kids stuff up and listed and keeping my almost 2 year old out of my mother in law's purse.

More to post later, including some hand painted roving that I'll post for sale as well.

:-)

Raving about Roving

Today was a busy day for my fibershop online, I had run out of supplies for Drop spindles, and had a couple of orders to fill, and had to re-bag some of the fiber I usually enclose with my starter kits. This led to running about from location to location to get a few of the supplies I usually keep on hand, as well as new pads for my hubby's dremel and then getting the kits assembled and shipped out.

Which I'm pleased to say they are out and in the hands of the USPS now... and the customers have new DC's for them as Paypal hasn't increased their postage amounts for orders... boo hiss. I had to buy new postage at the post office substation, as the printed postage from paypal was short. Oops!

Before dinner I managed to unearth the Minivan from the snowbank that our tin roof had caused - completely entombing the front end of the vehicle in the last few storms, and I loaded the kids up to make that post office run, and then after returning to pick up my GPS from my normal car I drive, I picked up my husband too - who's presence delighted the kids to no end. We took the trip out to Twist of Fate in Portland, and I picked up the wool I'd dropped off in August for processing. It is now in my craft room in 9 bags waiting to be spun, or dyed, or broken into little bags to go out with the aforementioned drop spindle kits.

The Merino I had such a hard time getting a hold of from a seller on Etsy last year came back a bit neppy, and the guys had said that the fleece looked like the sheep was stressed. I can believe it, and the seller has dropped off radar and not made any further sales on Etsy since. A big box of Rambouillet which was a Hogget Fleece and increadibly greasy has come back the whitest white and so soft and beautiuful that I can't wait to work with it.

I have some Romney Cross - around 500 yards of it in a nice natural gray that I'm ooohing and ahhing over, it was beautiful to behold, and an amazing light grey that will make warm, yet pretty socks I am sure.

There is also some Tunis to die for - oh goodness, this batch is a much cleaner fleece, with far less VM in it to begin with so the fleece itself is just going to be a joy to work with.

I have a little over a pound of Jacob that I am disappointed in - it was a gamble. The cuts were too short and the fleece was vegetable matter filled even with me re-skirting the fleece after I brought it home. Win some loose some I guess. The Jacob did come back a lovely chocolate brown though, and maybe spinning will help more of the VM work its way out.

My mini van was packed, nearly to the ceiling, and my children were delighted to find that they could squish the bags like pillows. I foresee much acid dying in the near future. (I might even have some roving up on the Etsy shop for sale in the near future as I have so much that it might be worth it to start selling my colorways...)

The farm I get my Tunis and Romney fleeces from is a mile away from the spinnery, and we're going to be waiting for a call as it's lambing season, and while they haven't had any born yet, we've been told we're welcome to come back to see the Lambs once they are born. This has been met with great excitement by my 4 year old daughter who has been asking me every day "are the baby lambs born yet Mommy?"

It's sweet as all get out and amusing as heck.

And wonderful that I get to share this love with my little girl.

and Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee between my pick up in November and what I picked up tonight - I have 11 big bags of roving to play with. Oh I can't wait, and creativity is starting to bubble it's way back forth.

Lessons shared are wonderful

Where'd I go to again? I went back to work from medical leave on the 15th to get cut from work on the 23'rd, and then broke my ankle in 3 places (avulsion fractures) on the 29th. I've been online but kinda meh about posting. I have pretty much been laid up since December 29 and my left ankle and hip are healing from the fall I took but it's a slow process.

I have become completely batty with cabin fever - so as I can balance a bit of weight on my ankle, Thursday is the usual spinning night, and there's a new fiber shop close by hosting their own spinning night. I had to go. Really. You know - the right leg needed the excercise and isn't broken anywhere - can't let the muscle's atrophy...

Their hours for the spin in? 6-7:30PM.

Yeah - that's much earlier than Tara, Wendy (sometimes) and I meet - and as Tara works out until 6:30 with a trainer, well she's not likely to meet there. I don't mind starting there and moving down the road to Starbucks afterward - which is what I did on Thursday this week.

So I have to say this group of women are just a pleasure to spend time with, and I had no idea that there were that many spinners locally...

Initially the plan was that they were meeting only once a month there - but when I mentioned that next week I'd be at Starbucks and anyone who wished was welcome to join me.

They then decided they want to meet weekly too, and will be doing it at the yarn shop. I will probably start there and at closing move down to Starbucks to get my Cappucino fix.

I hobbled in there late with my crutches and my HitchHiker spnning wheel, and introduced my self. These women a pleasure to spend time with. I recieved the highest praise that I have were gotten in a long time when I was spinning some Targhee Top from a woman in her seventies who was hand carding each lock of wool before spinning it.

She told me she was excited to meet me as she felt she had so much to learn from me. I of course was gobsmacked as she's got a beautiful wheel and hand cards/prepares the wool she uses one lock at a time and she spins beautifully - and I had thought she had years of experience on me as she'd been talking about doing demos... when I started mentioning that I'd potentially navajo ply it, she actually said I was so far advanced in skills from her. I was a lot surprised by that, and I told her I was just going on two years of spinning... and I didn't consider my self an expert at all - I was just fortunate to have a large stash of different fibers and a couple of wheels to play with it on. Her comment was "it isn't about age, or time spent - it's what you've done with that time." Hee hee - yep and this woman thinks she has nothing to teach me? Just think about the words she said. That's a life lesson shared right there.

Anyhow - the yarn above was from the fiber swap I was in this summer. It's the aforementioned Targhee and I hadn't realized how well I'd gotten along with my HitchHiker wheel until I saw just how consistent and not overspun those singles are. I'm very pleased with the quality of my work with it of late.

I will be skeining the Targhee in singles, washing it, thwacking the hell out of it and then I'll see if I need to put it through more by plying it. If I can I want to leave it as a single, as the colorway is just beautiful and the spin is consistent. Targhee is an amazing fiber, like Tunis it can be worn against the skin by any age and it's really a lovely springy fiber with a lot of memory and it's not a big one for pilling.

I have a lot of roving coming from the mill at the end of the month and I may leave it undyed when I spin it if the CPSIA doesn't make some major changes... or I can market as "While soft enough to be used for a Baby or child under 12, the CPSIA of 2008 does not allow me to sell this in any modified/processed form (as in acid dying) for child use."

Can I just say I hate that law? Can you just see the WAHM's that are going to have to start marketing their products in this way "It's a size 0 diaper for those adults who have incontinence problems with a 10 inch waist and a 14 inch rise (The measure between your bellybutton and spin around your crotch.)" Either way - by the end of this month I will have about 26 prewashed pounds of fiber I dropped off at the mill in August to pick up and go to work on. I'd say about a good third of that is Tunis.

I got out a little more today (thank god for large doses of Advil) when I picked up my four year old from Mamaws (she overnights on Thursday nights) and we did a little shopping. I leaned on to the cart for dear life, and she was my little helper where she could be. As we went through pretty much the last of the ice melt salt for our walk way with this last storm and we're supposed to get another six inches of snow tomorrow, we needed to get more ice melt and I didn't want to get a little bag. I found 50# of it at Ocean State Job Lot, and had help getting it in the cart, out the door, into the car, and of course out of the car by my wonderful husband.

Before I take my daughter to dance tomorrow morning I think I'll sprinkle some of the ice melt (calcium chloride) on the drive way. Based on a website I found tonight I think that 50# bag will last a long time for us. "For Calcium chloride, it usually takes only two to four ounces per square yard to effective undercut bonded ice and snow"

We picked up some snacks and juice while we were out as well. I still have a fairly well stocked pantry and I had just had enough being on my feet, so I called it a night and we grabbed fast food on the way home. Our driveway sucks and after offloading everything from the car I moved the car to park it where it won't be snow plowed in. I slid our hill into a tree. I don't think there is damage to the bumper, and my aforementioned wonderful husband helped me get it straightened out so I could eventually get the car up the hill the right way and into my parking spot. You can bet that the driveway gets the ice melter tomorrow. With another six inches of snow on the way? Yeah I think so....

I will be spinning more on the HitchHiker for a while I think - due to my left ankle being in the state it's in. I was told it will take about 6 weeks to heal as long as I take good care of it and for the most part I really have. I am looking forward to working with my Kiwi again one of these days though. The poor thing has been awfully abandoned of late.

Keeping Busy

Good Grief. It's been too long since I have posted here. Warning - for some reason Blogger is putting spaces inbetween paragraphs that are HUGE.

From 12-18-2008

As mentioned previously I pretty much kicked off a spinners circle with Sunshyn689 as she attempts to learn how to use my Ashford Kiwi.

While she's busy with Beaky, I spin on my MerlinTree Roadbug. Every Thursday (with exception to holidays and we seem to be managing to pick up a Friday before or aft to balance it out) we have been meeting at the local Starbucks here in Bristol and we've been spinning.

Looking to get her own wheel in April at the CT Sheep and Wool Festival, she's been getting practice using Beaky and has been bit by the spinning bug pretty hard. She likes the MerlinTree Conversion, so I expect that Dave will have another happy customer that will be sending him business along the way as she becomes a more experienced spinner.

From 12-18-2008

She's been working with some pencil roving as she gets the hang of it (OMG she picked up plying and her finished yarns are so nicely balanced,) and I've been slogging through some pink Merino that I dyed using Cushing's "Wood Rose" acid dye... it's rather pretty, and when spun up it's not quite the Pepto Pink it had been. Tonight I emptied the bobbins of it I had and winding the singles onto my ball winder I have set them aside to get stale before I ply them up. I'm really hoping Santa brings me a Jumbo flyer for my Roadbug, as it's what I've really asked for and had hoped to be able to get for myself earlier this fall.

In late November, Tessa (my four year old) and I picked up the Tunis and Southdown Roving from the mill that we'd dropped off after buying from a local shepard in late spring, and getting a tour of the farm. We'll be dying that soon enough and I will be bringing that on Thursday evenings too before ya know it.

I'm really pleased with how the fiber turned out and would definitely recommend Twist of Fate Spinnery, however with the cavaet that this MicroMill has a very long wait to get your fiber back. The stuff we dropped off in early June took until November 20 to be ready. Hopefully my order to pick up in January won't be delayed like the previous order. So if you are in CT and want to throw your money in a local direction for wool processing and have the luxury of waiting the long wait - the roving they process is beautiful. Not terribly expensive for processing either - I paid 6.50 a pound, pre-washed weight. The only difference I might do in the future is that I may do a pre-wash first so I'm not paying as much due to the lanolin, suint and dirt that gets washed out.

We have had another gal joining us for our Thursday nights on an intermittent basis - she's a rather nice gal and spins on a Kromski Sonata. Hopefully she'll be back, as it's nice having multiple wheels going and seeing the faces of the other patrons of Starbucks as they realize what we're doing.

From 12-18-2008

I finished spinning some lovely Angora Bunneh/Cormo Wool this evening, and took that off the bobbin too. This basket full of singles is just waiting to be put together to be plied - and I think that the Bunneh/Cormo blend may be plied against some lovely maroon silk I still have to spin up. I may just ply on the fly as I spin it and see how that turns out. The WoodRose will be plied against it's self as. The Bunneh/Cormo is the glaringly white ball in the top row there...

I'll have to try to get a better pic of these but all pics were taken with my camera phone this evening. The top left is my bubblegum pink silk. Yeah - the one that I am not too sure what I'm doing with.

From 12-18-2008

I also got to start spinning some rolag's I got in a fiber swap this summer. It's an interesting combination of colors and I'll just have to wait and see what the finished yarn turns out as... but the combinations are definately making me wonder what the person who carded them up was thinking, after all Neon Green and Magenta as a color combination haven't been seen together since the 1980's.

From 12-18-2008

The Creme Orange thread from the previous picture is meant to be plied against the finished yarn there at left on the bobbin. Part of the swap goodies... At present the rolag's are spinning up rather slubby (this means big lumps in the yarn on occasion), and it's not inclined to be a thin yarn, unlike the Bunneh/Cormo. I think that the name of the finished yarn from this fiber swap may just be "Laupered" or "Girls just wanna have fun." To the left is the single right now. To put it mildly it's a colorful visual experience.

The Fiber Swap also Yielded a drop spindle, but I've not been able to use it as such yet...

From 12-18-2008

I just can't figure out a spindle without a hook.

Both wheels were brought in out of the car due to the extreme cold and Winter Storm "Austin" that we're due to get. I usually end up bringing them in the next morning after spinning the night before, but I don't want to have to do that in the morning. I need to find the oil and take care of some squeaks on Beaky, and as I will be working from home tomorrow (the drive in to work is not one to make in this weather.) If I am lucky I will get some more spinning done during lunch time.

I'm looking forward to it, and glad I won't be risking being stuck in traffic for hours, as I expect that the worst of it will be in the afternoon. I have set towels down in front of the bottom of our front door and really need to get to making a door snake. One of these days I guess... ok - it's late, my daughter wants snuggles and I am getting tired, so it's time to wrap it up.