Summer is here, and blogging is going to suffer

Yes, it's been a while. It's because I've been busy - like, *really* busy.
I had a table at a craft show this past Wednesday night and I had so much to do to get ready for it. I didn't have any stitch markers made, since I had sold them all to local shops, so I had to make a bunch of those. And I had to finish up all of the project bags that I had bought material for (I ended up making about 12 bags), and make a bunch of pattern magnets. I did decide not to make any more photo cards, though, which was one less thing to do. I sold quite a few of those ones, though, and mostly the local ones, which means I'll have to make more of those soon.
I did fairly well at the show - I made back my table money, plus a little extra, so I'm happy about that. And now I have a bunch of stock, so that next show, I don't have to worry about rushing to get a bunch made, which is really nice. Especially considering I'm probably going to have a standing table at a local farmer's market this summer, and don't want to have to do more than play catch-up. Of course, I have a ton of beads, so I'm not going to stop making things, I just won't have to rush.
Check out my table:


I've also started spinning!!!
I got my first spindle in the mail on Friday, at work, which was perfect timing, as I have a 4-day weekend this weekend. This is the spindle and my handspun, made from pin-roving I bought on our SnB field trip to Sheeples, a local sheep farm and yarn mill.


And then, this morning, I got my other spindle in the mail! Yes, Canada Post delivered it to my door at 11:00 am on a Sunday morning. Wooohoooo!
This roving is the "normal" kind, which means I have to split and draft it before spinning it.


This undyed roving is supposed to be my "practice" roving, which is nice, because the fibre length of this roving is much longer than that of the pin roving.
Now I just have to decide about plying. Do I have to ply?
Everything I've read/watched on the interwebs has told me that I don't have to - in fact, pretty much all of the hand-spinning tutorials say to unwind your spindle onto a chair/niddy noddy and make a skein right away (to set the twist in hot water). But Kim, at Sheeples, said that we should be plying our handspun.
What to do, what to do.
I kind of like the pink/blue pin-roving spun as is, and am not sure that I'd want to ply that, unless I plied it with something like a charcoal or black roving. I think it would lose something if I plied it with itself.
But what about the plain white? Or the blue, or green, or handpainted roving that came with the second spindle?
I'll have to think about that...

Sad news

Wendy just wrote on her blog that Carrie, the person that she was making the afghan for, passed away.
Wendy wasn't able to finish the afghan for Carrie, but is going to put it together for her grandchild/children, as she would like to give the blanket to the family as planned. It was intended to wrap Carrie in love, and now it will wrap her family in that love, which is what Wendy feels that Carrie would have wanted.

I haven't been online much lately - work has been a little busier lately (and I was in charge of the office last week, which meant that I had a few issues to deal with that I wouldn't normally), and in my downtime I've been preparing for the Cordially Yours Craft Sale and Rock Show, which I have a table at!
It's Wednesday June 25th, from 5pm to 2am, at the Cavern (the basement of the Toad in the Hole Pub in my hometown).
I'm super excited about it, and am looking forward to seeing what sort of crowd comes out. I just hope that I do better than the first craft show I was at (the spring show in Beausejour) and that it's enough to make my table fee back!

I'll post pictures of the show later in the week...

Another square for Dame Wendy

This one was knit with yarn that came from my Grandma, and is the yarn that I wanted to use in the first place, but I was just too impatient to wait for my mom to get it to me.
I've already sent Wendy the first square, but I'm going to send this one too, and she can either choose one of the 2 to put into the blanket, or she can use both. It's up to her. This one is acrylic, and isn't nearly as nice a yarn as the merino (I think) that I used for the first one, but this one means more and has more history, so it's a toss up!

Field trip to Sheeples!

I organized a field trip this past Saturday to a local farm-based yarn manufacturer called Sheeples Fine Fibres.
It was an awesome day!
Baby lambs (one only hours old!!), sheep, fibre and roving, yarn and spinning...

We started the day playing with the new lambs while waiting for the rest of the crew to get there (that would have been us...sorry, we were really really early, so we stopped for coffee, which then made us a little late. oops).
Then it was off to the farm for a tour and to meet all of the sheep!
First it was the young boys (up to a year old, if I remember right):



Then it was the older males (1-3 years, I think):



Finally, the moms and babies!





After playing with the lambs again, we headed to the workshop for a lesson on yarn-making. Kim, our hostess, and Joe, her husband, told us all about the yarn-making process, from shearing through to spinning (mill or handspun). We got to touch fleece fresh from the animal (holy lanolin, batman!), and got to compare washed fleece from a few different kinds of sheep. It's amazing what a difference in textures there are, even from one sheep to another of the same breed!

Once we learned all there was to know about the process, it was time for lunch, and what a lunch it was!! Thanks Kim!!!!!

After lunch, it was spinning time!! (Forgive me if I get the terminology wrong - I wasn't taking notes...)
We all got started learning how to draft the roving - getting it prepared and to the right thickness for spinning.
Once it was drafted, then we took our drop spindles and started spinning. First with a partner, so that we either just twisted the spindle, or we just spun the fibre. Then it was time to try it solo. I think I did alright, considering that it was my first try, we were using all sorts of different fibres, and that the spindles apparently weren't properly balanced, so they weren't spinning as well as they could.
Here's the yarn that I made, some on my own, and some with my partner, Holly:



And the swatch that I knit out of the yarn!



All in all, it was a great day, although the tics were in high form, and I had the creepy crawlies all night and all the next day. I think I'm over them now, finally. :)

Here's a slideshow of all of my photos from the day: