Tricks and Trades

Yesterday was spinning day at Common Threads! I'm working on a SeaWool (Ocean) Fiber from Creatively Dyed Yarns that Cupcake gave me for Christmas. It's exactly what I like to spin - a silky, slippery, colorful fiber.

I've also finished the curtains using my knitting machine. It was really neat seeing them hang in the window when I walked in.

It's funny how different it felt to use a knitting machine. I put beads on with a crochet hook 30 stitches apart, every 10 rows. It really slowed me down putting the beads on. The two curtains took about a week to make. If I had hand-knitted them, it would've take months. The perspective changes when using a knitting machine.

They are a little uneven, but I think some blocking would help. I did block them, but they got a little ruffled up in the ride there. I think they like to hang free. I finished them around the edge with a crochet chain stitch.

St. Patrick's Day was fun this year. As always, we remember to wear green. But this year, I told Son #1 how one year, I caught a leprechaun. My story was about setting out a trap of fake gold, and sitting perfectly still to wait for the leprechauns to show up. When they finally did, I grabbed one around the mid-section with my hand. He spoke some sort of Irish to me, then bit me on the hand. I dropped him and he ran off, along with my fake gold I had set out. So both the boys and I setup up a little leprechaun trap the night before to see if we could catch any.

We made a bunch of gold coins out of yellow beeswax and put them inside these little birdcage tealight holders I had found at Michaels. We left a few out on the table, so they would have a trail to follow to the actual "Pot O' Gold". It was really fun to put this together with them. They loved talking and asking questions about Leprechauns while we were working on it. And the leprechauns did come! They took all of our beeswax gold, and left two lollipops and a note that read "Dear Son #1 and Son #2, Thanks for the gold, see you next year. Love the Leprechauns". We came home and it was there and they went nuts! I didn't know the Leprechauns left candy, I've only been bitten by one. :)

Our next project will be with this wool I picked up at the Vista Farmers market today. I plan on doing some felting with them, possibly making some eggs for Easter.
It's from a farm in Fallbrook called Rancho Borrego Negro. I met the lady that lives there completely randomly at Stitches West. I snuck into the end of a friend's class and saw her working with some Wensleydale locks. Of course I had to get a feel and asked her if they were from her own sheep and she said yes. That's when she told me she was at the Farmer's market almost every Saturday morning with her fiber and handspun. I was able to visit for a few minutes last weekend, but this weekend I spent a little more time and walked through slowly, checking everything out. Shelly went with me and we have some planning to do! So many great things to look at. Organic food, plants, flowers, clothing. And there was live music that we both had to get the CD's before we left.