Catchin' up

YIKES! I didn't realize it had been over a week since my last post. As always, busy, busy, busy here. Mostly the normal kid/school/family stuff and I am a bit frustrated on the business side as one supplier has really let me down and either BOed a lot of product, or sent me sub-standard yarn (so I'm not sure how much I do still want to work with them) and I am setting up a new contract with one of my existing suppliers, but that is taking some time, so the gist of it is, I HAVE NOTHING TO DYE!! I have a few random skeins that I got dyed last week that are being listed in the Etsy shop (see side bar) but that is about it for this week. I did manage to pick up some local fiber (story below) that I will be washing, dyeing, and carding this week for some amazingly glorious batts, but again, slow going.
Another item going up in the shop today (finally!) is the felted soap kits which are a combination of carded Sereknity fibers and Down to Hearth amazing homemade soaps and all the instructions needed to make this fun project.

They are great! I have been using some of these felted bars in the shower myself, and I just love them. They are so less messy than regular bar soaps, last longer than those darn body washes, are all nautral, fragrant, creamy (awesome for shaving!), and the felted wool casing is super exfolliating. FABULOUS. I figure these would be great gifts, whether you felt the soaps and tie them up with a nice ribbon for the gift, or give the kit itself to someone crafty. Ericka's soaps really are to die for, and they smell soooooo good.

I am happy to say that I took a trip to Knit Pickings in Plaistow, NH and met with Sue, the wonderful owner there, and she has decided to carry both Sereknity yarns and rovings -- oh! and sock bags and needle felting fibers as well. I'm very excited about this, and as soon as MY yarn and fiber order comes in (grrrr), I'll get some product out to her.
Also, on Saturday, I took a little trip out to Parker River Alpacas to meet with the Newburyport Spinners there for a Spin-in. It was sooo nice! I'm horrible about remembering to take pictures, although I did snap a few.


Cheryl and Chris were both there, and you can read a bit more and see some other pics there. "Alpaca Kathy" e-mailed me an invite, and suggested I bring some of my goodies in case anyone was in a shopping mood, so I packed up what meager stock I had from which Chris found herself a nice mound of Superwash merino to play with, and Cheryl and Kathy both picked out some fibers to have some fun with in the drum carder. Me? I got some 1.5 lbs of alpaca fleece to play with. YAY! Look at the wonderful variation in this...

This is from Saki, a grey alpaca with some wonderful black spots. Kathy informed me that alpaca are not truly grey, but rather more tweedy, like a roan horse, their coloring being made up of a mix of individually colored hairs. Should make for some very interesting dyeing. I also got some white fleece from a little girl named Sugar Baby. I'm going to use some of Lilah's fur in with this alpaca for batts, just trying to think of the colors I want to dye, but alpaca and angora? OH. MY.
Other than the human company, the most enchanting part of the day was sitting there in the yard, spinning, and having these lovely, gentle creatures just wander up to see what we were doing. They didn't necessarily want me to reach out and touch them, but some were curious and comfortable enough to come quite close. Love those little buggers! (Oh man do I want one! "One" meaning a herd, mind you.)
To finish off the weekend, I went into Boston to participate with the rest of the Spun and Run team in the Komen Walk for the Cure. As a team we raised $2500! I raised $300 in just the few weeks since joining and posting, SO THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH TO ALL WHO DONATED. My mom was thrilled. I didn't run, although Cheryl and Terry did, but I did get to walk with and meet Martha, Carole (and her hubby, Dale), Manise, Kathy (whom I had had the pleasure of meeting before).

Kathy, Carole, and Martha are pictured here. What a great group of folk, and the walk flew by. I especially had a great time talking Manise's ear off -- I bet she'll run screaming when she sees me in the future! ;) It was a gorgeous day full of super positive energy. And don't let Cheryl fool you -- she hit her desired time just fine, but the start out of the "gate" was so slow due to the volume of people that the official clock has her timed a bit incorrectly. She did great! Kudos to her, Terry, her daughter and her brother in law for NOT taking the easy way out!
And to end this so very long post, a few ubiquitous shots of me, in the mini cardi, in the bathroom mirror. I do love it. MUST work with this yarn again.