june 1, 2013

i got to see my beautiful daughter last week so suffice it to say my week was over the top.  and for paula and maryann, here are a couple of pictures of deni passing out the goat food you so graciously save for us:

i told you there isnt enough time to get everything out of the bags with them pushing and shoving!!

not a whole lot of new stuff arriving at the shop these past two weeks except some new handspun yarns from canada.

sheared the sheep may 19th.  what a relief!  shearers are so hard to find.  the year before last we couldnt find anyone to shear and when cris (our current shearer) sheared them the following spring, the fleeced were practically felted from the little kids standing on the backs of the ram and wethers consequently making it very hard work for the shears to cut through.  when the fleece is heavy like that, it pulls on the sheep's skin and causes the shears to cut on their skin.  i decided to keep gidget's fleece, wash it, and spin it and am excited to see how it turns out.  gidget is a southdown so the fleece is cotton-ish - no curls or crimps.

today's beaded pendant class went very well.  as i had taken this class before from dotty westerveld, i had an idea of what i was doing, but the other girls struggled to sew those tiny beads around the button.  eventually everyone was on their way to a beautiful finished project.  

maia had just returned from nicaragua but was able to join us and bring her mother-in-law, roz, along to keep us company.  roz was knitting a cute little bib for her first great-grandchild due in july.

dotty showed us her many beautiful beaded projects and we decided we wanted to learn a spiral necklace pattern.  stay tuned to the website to see when this class will be scheduled.  dotty is a well-known beader who teaches at many different bead shops and colleges.

as for me, i currently have two projects on my needles:  first i have a sweater pattern called 'lily - the softest leaf' out of the book essentially feminine knits.  it is a garter stitch sweater with a leaf pattern on the yoke and i am knitting it out of the natural off white raspberry hill alpaca yarn.  in addition, i am also on a pair of lady finkaas (a swedish shoe/slipper). last week i had made a different slipper/shoe pattern meant for my son, anthony, in portland.  however, they felted up a bit too small for him so i'm off to try again.  anthony loved the felted clogs i made for him a couple of years ago and requested another pair.  he also loves the year-and-a-half socks i finally sent to him last year:

this photo was taken on angel island, just outside of san francisco just prior to his moving to portland, oregon.  angel island was referred to as the ellis island of the west.

please remember to sign up for the blog.  i understand a couple of people indicated they were not able to.  has anyone else encountered a problem?  remember when you sign up and post a comment, your name will be chosen to win a gift certificate to RaggZ!

dates to remember:

tuesday, june 4 6:00 close knit girls (panera murrysville)

monday, june 10 2:00 fiber art meet up (panera greensburg)

tuesday, june 11 1:00-7:00 KA (raggz)

thursday, june 13  noon purlin girls (bean)

saturday, june 15 FREE broomstick lace class (see website for times)

fridays shop hours are 10:00-6:00

may's prize winner was our own donna charlesworth!!

birthday wishes to norma r and maryann w!  i hope your day is special!

and remember girls, my shop is air conditioned, so some hot sticky friday (or tuesday) head on over and cool off with us!