Just a preview

I thought I would take a few quick picks of some of my finished yarn. These are pics of 2-ply yarn I made a few months ago right after I learned how to spin yarn The pink/mauve yarn is from a blend I bought at the yarn/fiber store. It has merino wool and silk blended together and Ashford sells it.
The yellow/squash color is also from the same store, but cost less and was just different to work with. It is from Corriedale sheep, apparently..I love the color....makes me think of Thanksgiving dinner and squash-Num!

Still pretty chunky yarn, I know, but I am much better at skinny yarn now. The merino/silk was very fluffy and hard to spin into thinner yarn. I had an Ashford blend called "Ocean" that I made a hat for one of my daughters out of...very cool and pretty color.

Finished soap

So-I lied, it didn't come out very easily after a few hours lol. It took 24 hours and right before I put them in the freezer in a last minute move, they loosened up. I think the mica dust messed up the mix a bit. Ah well, experimentation with crafts is just that! Soap molds like I have break easy, so I turned it upside down and flexed it gently, and then the little buggers popped right out :0)

The Hazards of using non-soap specific
goodies--maroon streaks from the mica dust



Here is one I made several months ago-with
gold dust (soap approved lol) and lemon grass I think. I store these in
those semi-disposable plastic food containers at the store.



Growing things~amazing!

 WOW! what a difference a greenhouse makes. This is after one week, but my daughter told me on day 3, spinach was sprouting...and I didn't believe her, lol. We are going to have to transplant a lot of these into bigger pots next weekend. Good thing I have a stash of old pots set aside. Smells like Spring in there, also-makes me smile.
Yard work done...now onto doing my nails! I could Never paint my nails when my kids were young, now I am reveling in having hands that look less "manly" :0)
I'll post a picture after that on this page-have some fun ideas

Spinning (aka making yarn)

So I admit to being hopelessly obsessed with just about any craft. My awesome mom-in-law was going to take a spinning class and I was trying to be good and NOT try this craft. My wonderful hubby suggested I go with her, so I caved in. OMG-didn't think I would like this, because it seemed like a LOT of work, but I loved it. Hopelessly hooked-again. It is very soothing for me and wonderful to hold and make these soft fibers into yarn. I can crochet pretty good and do basic knitting, so of course I had to amp up my skills to use the yarn I make! Here are some pics if you don't know what the heck spinning is in the craft world.

The white yarn is a project I am working on made out of Merino wool fiber and I still need to make some more (Darn nail polish addiction!) and the other picture is silk sari waste fibers I bought cheap on e-bay. I was mixing those in with the merino wool, but what a PIA! so I decided I was going to ply one strand of plain merino with the silk/wild mixture and see what happened! when I get that done, I will post a picture. Oh, and 3 CHEERS for the hubby that bought me a spinning wheel for Christmas (after trying to make one proved too tricky)!!

Soap the easy way..

I got this awesome deal on our local craigslist. I bought 2 huge boxes of melt and pour soap and all sorts of soap molds and other goodies for like $25. It was easily about $200 worth of bubbly craft fun! Here is one of the 25lb boxes of soap-takes a big knife to get the chunks loose...



This stuff is really easy to work with if you have a microwave and some microwavable glass containers. I have bought 2lb. blocks of M&P soap at the local craft place, Michaels for $10, that was why this was such a great deal.



I never measure or weigh this kind of stuff, again, pretty forgiving to work with. I like using glass because it doesn't absorb tastes and smells from the soap. This is a 4 cup measuring cup. I microwaved this much for about 3-4 minutes...checking and breaking up chunks in-between.

Not quite done, still some chunkies in the mix...nuke it a bit longer

Here are the scents and colors I decided to go with....Orange scent, orange soap color and some cool red/brown powdered mica (leftover from another craft, not sure if it will work ok), oh, and the soap molds. I just wipe these bad boys out with a dry paper towel to get any dust and kitty hair out. Add the coloring and scent to your preference and stir gently (I just used a butter knife, really!) then pour gently into the molds so they are level. The bubbles can be removed by spraying alcohol on the soap, but I just shave these off with a sharp blade when everything is done. The cards are to level out the molds. These should sit for several hours and then I can flex the molds a bit and they usually pop out very nicely.

Green things!

Wow...there were little green sprouts in the spinach and lettuce pots by Tuesday. That has to be a record for me :0) Need to rig a fan up in there to move the air a bit and cool it off. 30F outside and it was almost 100F in the green house at noon on Tuesday-blegh.

Planting time!

Went over to my daughter's house on Sunday and christened her new greenhouse...dogs were happy as pie. At least Nova was...cold outside and warm in the greenhouse. Planting and playing in dirt is so therapeutic. Apparently Nova thinks so too! 

Battling with technology-it's winning

Ok.....trying to get all the glitches worked out of setting up this blog. I tried to send a post via my cell phone and texting, but I lost that battle. Let's give this a whirl.

Spring, really?!

Wow...just went for a quick walk up the mountainside  with Nova and it is chilly but gorgeous out. I am sure the huge pawprint I saw was a young bear. The snow is almost gone except for some plowed piles, and there are buds on the bushes. Even the birds are getting rowdy.

Have to decide what craft to work on today....Do I wash more fleece so I can eventually spin it? Or do I start carding some of the new colors I just finished dying? I have 2 large/whole sheep fleece given to me by a very nice lady. We bought a snowmobile from her husband and I was drooling over her sheep. Turned out she had some fleece from last year she didn't know what to do with. So I took a chance and brought the stinky guys home. I spread a big flat sheet out in my living room and brought one bag in. Darn thing filled up my tiny living room when I spread it out! At any rate, I skirted it as best I knew how and got rid of the nastier stuff. Our cat, Goliath thought it was nummy, and Nova, (our lab/border collie cross) was in doggie heaven, cause I let her sniff away. It actually wasn't THAT stinky....

I think I will wash some more, but here are some of the colors I have made so far with miscellaneous dyes. Can you guess which ones I used Kool-Aid on?!

Newbie at Blogging

Just got my blog designed and still trying to decide if I did this right and if the template will "stick". Here we go....