Louet, you need a name...

Lisa? Lonnie? Louise? Whitney? If I'm going to spend this much time with something, it better have a name....

Welcome home little Louet.

My goodness there was a lot of little pieces in that box!

The wood is unfinished, so I had to take a break from the reno's to work on my louet!

It's really painful when you wait so long for something, and it arrives and then you have to watch paint dry....

Finally, I got to put it all together!

And we had a little unexpected help....

I know it's hard to tell, but yes that is a frog. In my house. In February. I don't know why we even bother with doors. Come on in everybody. Mi Casa, su casa?

Voila! Here she is! Ready to frustrate me to boundries I didn't even know existed!!!

Beeeeutiful!

She came with a full bag of wool roving to practice with....so far I have produced nothing worth taking a picture of! Tom had a spin, he did really well. He's a natural fibre artist. Who knew? Tommy Underwood, Artisan.

Hopefully, by the time we get through this bag of wool, we will be able to produce something with a little consistency. Maybe I will find a class someday too. It would be nice to know if we are even doing it right!

We picked up all the flooring for the room on Friday, its a laminate in a nice dark brown, hopefully it will match nicely with the stain I will do on the cabinet in the kitchen. But now we have a small hiccup because there is some heaving in the concrete floor that will cause some unevenness. It was hidden by a carpet seam before. We will call over the neighbor later today for some advise. He is a concrete guy by trade. Hopefully it will be an easy fix, we were planning to have the floor down by the end of the weekend!!!

Wow, that's a terrible picture! It really does look good!

Back to work now!

It's HERE!!!

In two minutes, I will be leaving work....to go home and assemble my lovely new louet!!!! Gack! I can hardly wait. I will have Tom take many pictures, and I might even post them, if there is any time left in the evening after the spinning fun is over!!!!

Can't even.. too much to title...

Holy cow, what a long week. We have been so busy.

First off, check out this loaf of bread. For 13 years I have been making mostly dense little loaves of rocks. One of my coworkers comes in every week with freshly made fluffy bread. So the secret is to add a little extra water, not as much as this of course, it hit the lid!! I couldn't hardly believe it! So, I took a picture, I knew you wouldn't believe it either. Also we added a TONNE of dill, very tasty.

We also made cherry flavored zucchini jam this week. So good.

THEN, on Monday, my washing machine decided to stop spinning. I put in a really good effort to fix the piece of poop. No really I did. I took it apart and everything. I even called a repairman to see if it was worth fixing. I determined that all the small cheaper fixes were not the problem, and then I rushed out the door to hit the stores! Priced out HE washers in all the local appliance stores in record time, and had my new sweet love of my life up and running by supper! Here she is...

Gorgeous, isn't she? Keep away yucky dryer and freezer....old geezers. You'll notice the newly painted "espartment" grey color on the wall. Looking good!

Here's the view of the new entry way beside the laundry room. For those of you who have been here, you will note I no longer have to put shoes on and go outside to do my laundry! What a treat!

We love the new door and window, the door has the little blinds INSIDE the glass! FANCY!

Here is the other end of the room from the doorway. I am all done painting the grey and the rest of the walls and the ceiling are going to be vanilla iceream and white trim. I think it will look good. A little hard to tell yet.

What to do with the pretty 70's carpet still on the floor. I'm sure a few hours with a carpet shampooer will clean that rug right up!

Just kidding, it's totally going to the dump. Or I might just light it on fire right in the yard.

I know by now you are thinking, holy cow, they really busted their butts this week, they must be exhausted...when did they knit. Well don't you worry, I not only knit this week, but I completed a project. However, it turned out really good except that it is made for someone with a really tiny head??? Anyone? Any takers? I put a little limegreen button on it....it's made with alpaca....really cute.

Free shipping......it's so lonely.....it needs a head to keep it warm. Please don't let this little hat suffer....

I can hardly believe my eyes

A mere 712 days after it was purchased....

...the door was installed! It looks awesome, Tommy is turning into a master carpenter. Maybe someday he will build me a house. I painted that wall "Vanilla white". I have decided to go with a creamy white and charcoal grey color in that addon room and I will try to carry that on throughout the house. Maybe a little yellow in the kitchen.

We also started painting the ceiling in the add on last night, the same color, vanilla. We are using this new Benjamin Moore paint called Aura, the primer is built right in, so you just go ahead and paint. So far it looks great, I'm pretty impressed with the coverage.

And I finally finished my socks last night! I knit the Sunday Swing pattern off knitty. It was a really nice pattern and fits just perfectly! It was my first time knitting the heel with a heel flap and gusset, it looked a little weird, but it fits really nice! Onto to my next project, and Vintage style hat, made out of dark blue alapaca....mmmm. Just knitting with it is glorious....what a lucky head this will be!

I noticed on another blog that you can put a ravelry button on your page and have you WIP bar showing. But I cannot for the life of me get this to work. If anyone out there in this world wide web can give me instructions or tips, I would greatly appreciate it!

My internet has been dropping horrendously since Friday...I was wondering if it is related to the Olympics and all the extra people on the servers? I clearly have no idea how that works, all I know is I have a dial tone, so why the !$#@ isn't my internet working!!!! Hopefully this will clear up soon! Like in about 14 days. Go Canada.

The First Official Skein

Here we go! The final installment of the saga of Tom's first skein of yarn. I suppose I should give the history of the fibre that we are using also. Did I do that already? I need to start reviewing what I right before I start blogging.

Oh well, I'll say it again.

This yarn came directly from Tommys' "Nanty". About 20 years ago they owned a farm and had some sheep as well as other animals. When we stopped to visit her a few weeks ago, I got to watch this 70 year old Nanty crawl into a little teeny hole in her basement and start tossing bags of fibre out at me! It was pretty amusing. Most of it is not really usable anymore but perfect for practising! And fun to know it came from the "family" farm!

So here is the first picture of Tommy wrapping the yarn from the bobbin around the back of a chair, obviously we don't have a skein winder!

Then we tied little bits of yarn to hold it together, at this point, if you let go the yarn will twist up into a bunch of little squiggles!

Then we have to wash it, but we just got it wet this time.

Then we hung it up to dry, and hung a brick from it to keep the tension! Everyone pause here to feel envious of my beautiful blinds and wood panelling. Nice isn't it?

Then a day later it was dry, and we have to put it in the shape you see on the shelves at your local yarn store! This has always looked terribly difficult, and when my skeins come undone I had no idea how to retwist them. But I found the instructions on ehow and it was really easy, watch this!

I know, I know, look at the yarn, not me...I still have a few Xmas pounds to lose. We are working on it. (Tommy has some too, FINALLY) Salads for lunch every day this week!

Here it is! Looks good I think! Nice Spinning Tommy!

If it was summer we might have tried some all natural dyeing. But maybe some other time.

Now....what to knit???

Impulse Spinning

I made a purchase today! I ordered my wheel! I can't wait!

And on top of that, I was in Nelson today and discovered and new store that has yarn and roving and spinning materials! What a find! They had drop spindles in stock, so of course I bought two! I have heard that if you take a spinning class your teacher makes you start on this kind any ways, and it spins much slower and gives you time to draft the fibre!

Dorian was very helpful in monitoring the speed of the spindle, he was a little too eager in slowing it down! Surprisingly , Madeline was not interested at all!

We started out with the carded wool from Toms' aunts' sheep, but I quickly got impatient and moved onto the alpaca fibre, mmmm, soft!

Tom is going to need some first aid shortly, he has rope burn on his fingers. Ever seen someone spin wool in leather gloves?

Hmm, what can I knit with my HUGE bobbin of yarn???

Field Trip #2

We have decided Alpaca people are the most friendliest people on earth. Yesterday we phoned up a local couple that have an alpaca ranch and they couldn't have been more happier to have us come and visit! Anytime, they said, except 5 am is too early!

So off we went this morning before dog classes to play some more alpaca games! We got a tonne of good information, and this couple was so happy to share everything they know. They are having a shearing day in April and have invited us to come back and get some hands on experience....is it April yet?

Everything about alpacas is perfect for our acreage and our lifestyle. It is the perfect hobby farm animal! Today we found out about all the food and bedding and where to locate these things in our area, and vets and shearing and babies! So much information!

This is a mom and daughter duo that some day could be living at our house....the mom looks a little crazy, but I would too with straw in my hair!

And this little guys name is Max, and he can come too!

We have started work on finishing the fence and getting a gate put in.

And drum roll please.....tonight we have come up with a name.....

Alpacattack Ranch!

What do you think? Comments, suggestions???

And on the spinning front....no wheels yet. I have been on the phone and internet non stop. What a dissappointment. I have decided on a model I want, and entry level Louet S17. Its dead sexy. A few places in the Okanagon can order it for me, I am just waiting to see who has the best price. I can hardly wait. My wool is calling calling...spin me spin me spin me....it keeps me up at night.

Well, I better sign off, my needles await.

Alpacas and Yarn!

I am having a difficult time finding moments to sit down this week. So I will quickly post some pictures in between dog training, knitting and greys anatomy....which might I add is a little dissappointing this season.

Here are some pictures of the wonderful alpacas we met!

The two big guys in the back are actually Llamas! My favorite is the light brown guy on the right...he had the biggest brown eyes ever!

They let us stand right in them and they were very curious about us too.

These were all the ladies, we were just getting ready to help feed them and they were very eager to be fed!

We got to take these two little boys for walkies! ( The lady who owns the farm was British!) They follow along and walk nicer then most dogs do!

Oh, my precious yarn. The colors are all natural. The rose grey was my favorite. This picture doesn't do it justice. I also bought two little packages of fibre to practice spinning....if I ever get my hands on a wheel.

And for a souvenir, she gave us a little "prezzie"!

This is my Christmas ball of yarn from my mom, I am knitting Sunday Swing socks off the Knitty website. I am actually done this sock now, and getting along on the second one!

Lingy and I are getting pretty good at the self portraits...she took this one.

We are glad to be home in the Most Beautiful Place On Earth!