Awesome video!!!

I found this on Kris from SonnyandShear.com's blog The Knitting Wannabee. It was so great I had to post it on here. :)




Hope you liked it!!

Gnat

Another great package! and some fiber stashing!!

I got another great package yesterday! This one is from Darcy from KnottyKnitter and it's so great. Her business partner and friend Leslie Wind, who makes the Cable needle necklace, which are awesome!! She made me a beautiful charm with 3 paws and my puppies names on it. It's hard to take a picture of but my dogs names are etched into the charm. It's so cute!! I love it...and having their names on it makes it so personal!! I pulled out one of my chains today and am wearing it now. :) It's adorable! Thank you very much Darcy and Leslie!!

I also got some fiber in the mail!! This I actually ordered for myself. This is BFL fiber from Yummy Yarns. She has some amazing colorways!! The left one is names Felicia like my sister...so of course I had to order and the right one is called Strange and Changing. I've actually already ordered two more from her called Chocolate Milk, which is beautiful!!! What do you think of these colorways?
Well....I have decided that no more fiber purchases until I get a wheel. I've been spinning with my spindle but I have plenty to get through until I get a wheel...or if I run out I can buy some...but only then!! I am however dyeing fiber to sell so I am able to purchase undyed fiber to dye and sell. That is the only purchases. I currently have the fiber up for sale on my barknknit.com site but I think I'm going to move it over to our etsy site and see if it sells on there. I have more to dye soon and already have some great ideas. I learned a ton dyeing this past weekend!!

I hope everyone is doing great. I'm hoping to podcast soon because I have SO much to talk about!! I just haven't had time to sit and record and edit. I have been knitting and spending time with SK. I am almost at the part where I separate for the sleaves on Fleas' February Lady Sweater and almost to the toe on the first ankle sock. I think I'm doing well!

Have a great day and Happy Knitting, Spinning, and Dog walking!!

More packages!! and some tired pups!!

I'm off to bed soon but wanted to share some more packages I got yesterday! One was from Dianne aka Britknitter and she sent me beautiful fiber from the Oregon Wool & Mohair Company and some Online cotton sock yarn...both I've never tried! She also sent me a sock blocker key chain! I am going to spin up some fiber so I can knit a wee tiny sock for it!! Thank you Dianne!!

Second package was from Cheryl aka wildflower38 and she sent me a skein of Socks that Rock in Jewel of the Nile colorway, which ROCK by the way!! I have been wanting to try this sock yarn for a very long time and if you listen to Lime and Violet...they are huge fans and they definitely get you excited about this yarn. I'll be casting on soon with this and will let you know what I think. :) It's very pretty. Thank you Cheryl!!

I took today off from work to get some stuff done and was very productive. I managed to get some errands that I've needed to get done completed...and did some dyeing of fiber which I'll show you tomorrow!! I had a blast dyeing. I learned a ton too!!

Well...I did manage to get up pretty early today and squeezed in a dog park visit as well. My sister, Fleas' happen to have today off too and so she met me this morning with our dogs a the dog park. We had a good time. Jackjack was so well behaved and there were tons of big dogs there. Abby was sweet as usual. :)

Here's a picture of them on the ride home...think they were tired??

You have to love the drool on my car seat!! :) They are my babies!

Well, SK is already asleep and I'm off to follow him. Hope everyone is having a great Friday night and has a great weekend!

Happy Knitting, Spinning, and Dog Parkin it!!!

Gnat

Baking!! and a little Wedding Wednesday!

First off...I haven't been to the gym since Friday...ugh. Wanted to get up today and at least walk the dogs but just couldn't get out of bed. I'm just worn out this week and been having crazy dreams.

Last night, after making myself a quick dinner, I decided that I would bake the treats that Nicole sent in her package. So, I pulled out the bag....And dumped the dry ingredients in.
Mixed it together and kneeded the dough.
Realized I didn't have a rolling pin so used a glass instead. Did start a list for things to register for and rolling pin is on it. :)Then the fun of cutting out all the little bones. They are so cute!!Then put them all in the oven for 45 minutes.
Here is a picture of the two of them patiently waiting for mom to take a quick picture so they can have more treats!! Do I need to tell you they like them??I wouldn't mind making some more treats for them. It was easy and fun. I'm sure there are tons of recipes out there. If you have any you can recommend that would be great!!

Well...a quick update on the wedding since it is Wednesday. :) Plans are going well. We have picked a caterer, called about renting chairs, I've scheduled my dress alteration apt, and invitations have been proofed. Now, we need to schedule our next marriage apt with our pastor and start thinking about wedding rings and favors. Fun stuff. Things are going good so far. We started our registry list last night and I think so far so good. Well...gotta get going to work.

Have a wonderful day!! Bark ya later!!

Got two packages yesterday!!! and sweater update!

So, yesterday when I got home I was on the phone with Sheryl and saw the box and just grabbed what I thought was all the mail. When Special K got home and we were talking about our day I told him about my package and he said "you mean the two packages." I was dumbfounded but then ran out to the mail box to find an envelope in the back of the mailbox. I squealed with joy!

Then pick up the envelope, which had Lapdogcreations all over it and was confused. (she already sent me her great package) I ran inside and ripped it open to fine two of the things in her etsy store that I had favorited. The breast cancer pink themed yarn cutter(SO CUTE!) and doggie stitch markers! I read the card and it was from AllyB!! How cool!! I was pretty excited!! It was like a bigger surprise because I didn't know it was there. Thank you so much AllyB and Nicole, both are wonderful! What great craftsmanship. Here's the pic I took last night.

It's all so cute!! If you have not seen Nicole's etsy shop, you much run over and check it out at lapdogcreations.etsy.com.

So...after all this excitement, I settled back into knitting....since I had moved on from the spinning from the previous post to knitting on the February Lady Sweater I'm making for my sister fleas. It's coming along nicely and I seem to be doing a better job paying attention to the increases on this one. I hope to prevent all the ripping back I had to do with the first one. :) What do you think??

Well...I hope everyone is well and yes this is another multiple post day!! Oh and one last thing since it is Thankful Tuesday! I am thankful for Travis and Presley, whose win has allowed me to receive all these wonderful gifts from friends...especially since I've been having a rough week and they have been bringing smiles to my face!! I am also thankful for my friends and family who listen to me when I need them. Thank you!! So...thank you to them and to all the GAD pool participants who have been making my week brighter!!

Have a glorious day and keep on knitting, spinning, dog walking, and enjoying life!

Stride for Strays!!

So, I ran across this pet charity event and thought it would be fun to participate. I'm sure you were all wondering why there was this donation widget on my right menu. Well, I registered to stride for strays, which is a tampa bay event to help raise money to help pets.

The site says "Stride for Strays is a fun dog walk and festival to raise life-saving funds for the ACT Spay/Neuter Clinic. Animal lovers will collect donations from their friends, family and co-workers before the event. Then, they will participate in the 1 mile walk at Lowry Park and receive prizes depending on how many donations they collected. The event will also include fun activities, such as demonstrations and pet-friendly vendors. It's an event you won't want to miss!"

So, please if you can donate to this wonderful cause by clicking on the widget on the left menu or if you are in the area register and join my team. The St. Pete Fiber Fanatics.

Thank you!! Hope you have a tail waggin good day!!

Another package and some Handspun!

So, I got home today to another package!! This is great!! Considering all the negativity going on in my life right now...all these packages are coming at the best time possible! This package was quite ironic because yesterday I had called Sheryl to have her read her book to me to help me cast on 2 at a time and guess what came in the mail today!!

Two awesome books from Amazon sent by Alicia from Ponyknit. One being 2 at a time socks by Melissa Morgan Oaks, which I was calling Sheryl about yesterday and the other my first official Elizabeth Zimmerman book, Knitting without Tears. I think I can officially call myself a knitter now that I own one of her books. :) Thank you Ponyknit for your great package! It put a huge smile on my face and made me laugh!!

After I took pictures and ran over to the computer to send her a thank you. I cooked myself some spaghetti and fed the dogs. After I ate, I dove into the lovely BFL roving that I got last week from Nancy. I started spinning a single and the fiber is lovely. It's my first BFL or Blue-faced Leicester(a type of sheep for those non fiber people) and I really enjoyed spinning it. I am not sure what the method I'm using is but I pre-drafted it and was just adding twist during spinning. It's coming out lovely. Check it out!! If it wasn't so dark out I'd take a picture outside but this is all I got. :)

Well...I'm off to let the dogs out again, change the laundry, get ready for bed, and do some knitting. I was going to dye some fiber tonight but it's raining and I like to mix my dyes outside so I figured I'd have to wait. I think I might take a personal day on Friday so I might do that then.

Happy Spinning!!

Gnat

Yarn, and update galore!

I had hoped to get a post up this weekend but my weekend did not exactly go as I had hoped. It was a bit rough and I have an emotional hangover. I'm kind of down today and really need a day off. My weekend started out great though! I got home to another one of these.Another gift from GAD(Great American Dog) Pool and it was from Nicole from Lapdogcreations. It was another great package too!!! She sent me some Opal sock yarn, a Yarn Harlot book, and some treats I can bake for the dogs!! She also included a really cool calendar magnet, some lapdogcreation cards, and a wag more, bark less sticker!! It's awesome!! Check it out!!
So, that started my weekend off pretty good!! That night I finally cooked the dinner I had been wanting to make since Monday...yes, busy week!! Special K came home and we ate together and watched a movie. We watched the second National Treasure movie, which I had seen and still liked. ;)

Then Saturday I had the vet apt for the pups and SK had to work so Sheryl came with me to help me with the dogs. The vet said they both are doing really well. Jackjack is putting weight on his leg and Abby's ears are all clear. We have to go back in two more weeks for Abby's last vaccine and Jackjack's liver levels. So, I'll keep you posted. Then Sheryl came over and we spent a while knitting and then grabbed lunch and stopped at the library. I'm looking for a book to make something for my dogs. When I find it I'll let you know. :)

Then the afternoon came and the start of the bad weekend....It's too hard to explain but it just was a lot of arguing and frustration. I ended up going over my cousin's house to play a game called discombobulation and it was fun. Then came home and went to sleep. Sunday, which I thought would be better....but was not. We went to church, then stopped by my cousin's for waffles, which were awesome!! Then we headed home. I spent the afternoon cleaning up a bit, finishing laundry, we walked the dogs, and knitting. We went over to SK's dad's for dinner and then came home, played Quiddler, and I went to bed. I'm not going to go into the details but today I woke up with an emotional hang over and in need of a me day! Not sure when I'll take it but I think I might need a day off this week to regroup.

To start and end this post off on a good note. Here is a picture of the clapotis finished and blocking.
And here's a picture of me in it. Sorry for my wardrobe. :)

I love how this came out! I liked it a lot but after I blocked it...I LOVE IT!! I was hoping to cast on for the one for my Aunt but got distracted this weekend. Oh well.

I did cast on for a sock for my sister. It's only going to be an ankle sock and I'm making up the pattern so should go quickly. I'm already past the heel on the first sock!! Hope she likes it.

Ok...well...have a good day and Happy Knitting!!!

Gnat

My first prize!!

Yesterday, I came home from a long day of helping people with their sites...then picking up laundry from my cousins because our dryer is broken, and then grocery shopping...to this:
YES!!! My first prize from the Great American Dog Pool!! I was so excited and it really made my day! Nancy or Mspalmtree (rav id), who's blog is Days Go By, order my prize from the Loopy Ewe and had them send me some awesome BFL fiber from Gale's Art in the colorway Proud Peacock(I'll have to double check this later, when I'm home), some Blue Ridge Soap Shed Lavender Knitter's Hand Soap, knitting notecards from Knitterella, and some needle inventories. I've never ordered from the loopy ewe but have been wanting to...so I was excited!!
Here is a close up of the fiber. Isn't it pretty!! I love it.

Thank you very much Nancy for your great gift for GAD!!

It's kind of cool she got me fiber from Gale's Arts because that is the same company as the merino I bought this weekend!!

I also was thinking and realized today that I might end up with a fiber stash! I'm not a big stasher. I don't have tons and tons of yarn. I do have a stash of sock yarn but sock yarn doesn't count. :) At least that's what I've heard and am sticking too!! I usually buy yarn for a specific project and don't have a ton of it around. However, when it comes to fiber I just want it all!! :) There are so many great colorways and different fibers I want to try...so I think I may end up with a fiber stash! I even ordered two rovings from an etsy seller yesterday as a congrats to myself for doing well on my 90 day review! When I get it in I'll share pictures.

I'm still in search for a spinnning wheel to spin up this fiber faster than on my spindle. I am going to try out a Mach 1 wheel soon and I'm hoping to get my hands on the new Majacraft wheel the Pioneer. I'll let you know how that goes.

I have been spinning on my spindle though! Here is a picture of my latest yarn I made. I spun two singles of different fibers and plyed it together. I am not sure if I wasn't really wanting to try plying that I'd have plyed these two together but I think they came out fine.

I'm very excited about all I've learned about spinning and can't wait to learn more. I have been knitting as well. I'm past the heel on my 2nd 9-5 sock and I'm 6 rows in to Fleas' sweater. :) I think that's a good progress. I'm hoping now to finish my 9-5 sock by sunday and then work on the sweater and cast on my Aunt's clapotis. This one will be in a dark red Cascade 220 superwash. I love the first one so much that I'm excited to make another one. I'll try to get pictures up of the green one blocked. It came out GREAT!!!

Happy Knitting, Spinning, Dog Walking, and enjoying life!!

Saturday Yarn Store Crawl with an Alpaca Farm Stop.

So, this past week, we had a visitor at our Wednesday night knitting group. Pat from England, who's blog is Mysterious Yarns, came to our group meet up and and then I planned a yarn store crawl for yesterday. It was a blast!! First we stopped at Needle & Knobs, and then we headed off to Shi'loh Alpacas, which is run by Jamie and Bob and is so close in Seminole, FL.
They called their little haven, the oasis in a concrete jungle. They have 8 male alpacas on their land and 5 females on another farm. The alpacas are adorable and Jamie and Bob are amazing!! They were super informative and it was wonderful to hear her talk about her alpacas and the alpaca farms in FL. The only shocking part was that she said there are farms that don't use the fiber and store it in warehouses. We all gasped in horror. She is trying to help them start processing it and use the fiber before it goes bad. We may be trying to help her with that as well. :)
I think we all learned something and will definitely go back!! She has some fiber that she wants spun and knit into something because she is neither a knitter or spinner. So we are going to try to get a spinner in our group to spin it up for her and then we have another person who wants to knit a shawl for her. The fiber is from one of her first alpaca's that has passed away. I hope that we can organize that and give her something nice. She mentioned an alpaca festival, which might be our next road trip.
After the Alpaca farm, we headed to Knits & Krafts in Seminole for short visit. The owner is very nice and very helpful. Then we were hungry and drove to the Lucky Dill Deli on Alt US 19 for some yummy sandwiches and cheesecake!! I only had a couple bits of mine but it was YUMMY!!

After fueling our tummies we headed to Uncommon Threads, one of my favorite LYS's. This is where I bought my only purchase on the trip other than food and drink....some yummy merino fiber in a beautiful Cherry Blossom colorway. Check it out!!

I just want to pet it!! but it will be spun up...eventually! After some spinning wheel talk and petting of fiber and yarn, we drove over to Odessa, FL to go to Fiber Arts. This store was a little upscale but had a beautiful selection of yarns and a TON of Noro in all colorways and styles. Last we stopped at Starbucks on our way home. We started the day out at 10am and didn't get back until a little after 6pm. It was a long day but we all had a blast. People joined us for parts but the core group in my car made it all the way. Thank you Pat for inspiring this wonderful trip!!

Well..gotta run off to dinner but hope everyone is doing well.

Happy Spinning, Knitting and don't forget to give you pets some loving!!

Gnat

Dogs on Thursday!! Video of Abby!

Since Jackjack got the spotlight in yesterday's post. Abby gets a spotlight today. This is just another video of them the other day but more of Abbs and Roxy playing! :)



I can't remember if I mentioned on here on not but I was in a Pool for the Greatest American Dog Show and I WON!!! My team won....which were Travis and Presley. They are from Oklahoma...where my family is from and I am just really glad they won. Not just because they are my team!!

I also wanted to share an article about my co-worker's dog. Check it out here. What a cutie!!

Last Doggie related item is I was given an award by Nichole from LapdogCreations and wanted to pass it along to a couple more puppy owners out there. So, the following award goes to Courtney, Chris,and Devin. As Nichole did..I'll leave some for others to award this to. :)

Special K flew out to Chicago today with his co-workers for a conference and will be back tomorrow night. I'll miss him, however, I won't miss getting a pillow tossed at me the last few nights in my sleep. :)

I just want to take a moment to mention that today is 9/11 and to please think about those who were effected by this day.

Happy knitting, Spinning and Doggie day!!

Thankful Tuesday!! and quick update!

Today I am thankful that Jackjack is feeling better. We went to the vet on Saturday and he took x-rays and the pins have not moved. The vet says that the surgery was amazing and that his arm looks great, however, he is developing arthritis in that arm now. That is the cause of the pain. He had to take a blood test so he could put Jackjack on some pain meds and then we'd retest in two weeks. So, Jackjack is feeling much better. Here is the proof!!



Before you press play be mindful that Jackjack has a loud voice! :) I uploaded a couple others videos to Youtube.com of Jackjack and Abigail's puppy cousin's visit. :) They had fun.

So, Jackjack is better and I'm very thankful that we are not having to do surgery. YEAH!!

Abigail is doing well also. He said her skin looks a whole lot better since we did the allergy test and that her itchy ears are due to the allergies. We have her on some medication for her ears. She will always have ear and skin issues but she's doing well.

I guess that's all I have to say for now. I've been knitting on my 9-5 socks and I'm at the heel finally!! I think I should be done by Sunday!

Work is going really well. I had my 90 day review and I think it was a positive one. I've been working out at 6am still and I'm actually off to bed soon so I can be up at 5:45 to make it to the spinning class.

Hope you are all well!

Dogs on Thursday and an update!

I've been kind of quiet this week but loads have been going on...I'm not even sure where to start. I guess we will start with Jackjack since it's DOT day!
I think I might have mentioned this before but Jackjack has pins in his left elbow because he was hit by a car two years ago last month. We had to have surgery and about 4 months of recovery and after we were done with that he developed arthritis in his back legs. Well...let's just say the poor guy has been through a lot but the last year and a half he's been doing great. He only really got sore after a long swim or too much time at the dog park....but the last two weeks he's been getting sore a lot more and not putting weight down on his leg much. We went on a short walk the other day and he got home and was not able to walk well. I'm not really sure what's going on and my biggest hope is that it's muscles and not his elbow!! I just don't know if I can go through another surgery but if we have to I will. ugh!! Let's not even think about it. Well...we have our annual apt on saturday for them and I'm going to talk to the vet about what we can do and what he thinks is going on. I'll let you know what happens. Jackjack just doesn't realize he's got a bad leg and that he can't jump around and do what Abby does. Please send some good energies ang thoughts for Jackjack... He needs it right now.

Well...enough about that for now. I'll keep you posted. This past weekend I spent babysitting so I really didn't have much time to post but I did finish a project and will have pictures up this week. I'm going to block it and then I'll post them!! It looks great though! I also cast on for another sweater for my sister fleas. I'll take pictures when I have more done for that.

I also recorded a podcast last night so if you get a chance listen! I had fun recording it.

Ok...so my peronal health challenge has been to put down my needles and work out!! I've been trying but not enough motivation so this week I decided to join a gym. I joined on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning I went to the 6am spin(cycle) class!! It was great. I feel if I'm paying for the gym membership then I BETTER go!! :) I also made it this morning to another 6am class but wasn't as fond of it as I was yesterdays...so I probably will just skip it. Tomorrow's spin class is full so I might just go and get on the treadmill but we'll see. This all was inspired by a trip short shopping!! It was not good. I am not going up a size so I just have to get back in shape. My toe is no longer the excuse so I've got to do something. I'm hoping to at least get to the gym 4 times a week and maybe more. I'll let you know how it goes.

Another thing is that I've been spending time over at Barknknit.com and adding stuff so you might want to go over and check it out! I'm going to be adding more and more in the next couple weeks. I'm kind of just playing around so things may come and go on there. :)

Don't forget to check out the DOT post because Paula put up some great resources for hurricane information and doggie rescues. We are hoping not to have a hurricane head our way but Ike seems to be wanting too. We'll see.

Happy Knitting!!