March 2011 - Spring is sprung!

Stephen was so happy to see us this month. The snow has gone, and lambs are arriving. It was almost too exciting for him! Madeline, Linda, Suzanne and Maggie were hard at work with their knitting and spinning. I think Suzanne was giving me the eye for snapping her picture...

Suzie and Sandy were working at spinning. Sandy was sporting a new hair-do and a tan, both from her trip to Florida last month.

Sharon was helping Steve ball his yarn for his next project - part of an afghan!

Pat, Sharon and Madeline - I don't think anything was being worked on - more just visiting.

Sharon brought her finished scarves to show - one of them done with yarn from her dyeing class at the Festival last summer - totally awesome! I brought some finished and unfinished baby sweaters. Linda did not bring anything to show and tell this month - unusual for her. Maggie brought her Lace KAL from 2010 that she is working the lace border for. It has inspired me to get busy and finish mine - which means that I have to figure out how and do the lace border. It seems complicated to me...

We also had a discussion of organic - but my notes just say this and don't say what it was we discussed - and for the life of me, I can't remember. I am thinking old age is creeping in.

We were going to have a weaving session in April, but one of the weavers is going to be gone then, so we will having a weaving session in May! I think I can see a loom in Sharon's future, but in the mean time, Suzie and Maggie are going to show us the ins and outs of weaving.

Since our spin date, more lambs have been born - Steve is up to 10 babies as of right now. Four are cormo, 3 are corland (cormo x Shetland), and 3 Shetlands. There is a lot of baaa baaa baaa going on in the barn!

Our next spin and grin will be April 10. The abrn should be full of babies by then. Hope to see you there. Oh, as a post script, the food in March was awesome!

Better late than never

These pictures are in totally random order by month, and hopefully I am remembering what happened month by month, but I make no guarantees. The old tempus fugit and my mind sometimes goes with it.

January started with a lovely group at our monthly spin. I didn't get photos of Sharon's sweater (shame on me), but suffice to say, it was totally awesome. And Linda brought a baby layette that she had done for a soon-to-be-born grandson. It was too cute for words!

Madeline was modeling one of Sharon's hats and Sharon's shawl and Sharon was modeling Betty's hat. Sharon got the MPK (most prolific knitter) award for January!

We were happy to include newbie Sandy to our group. She and Suzie were sharing some joke - probably about Steve...

And Suzanne is modeling Betty's hat - looks like an old-time bathing cap...

And finally here is Sharon with her other hat. I think January was hat month!

February was definitely the shortest month in the year and with it I have the shortest memory of the year. I do remember that Suzanne brought her almost-finished sock for show and tell.

Melinda was sthere - still recovering from her back surgery. We were glad to see her. She brought her linen face cloths to show - very amazing!

And Suzie and Steve were hamming it up for the camera...

I think Linda got about as much knitting done as I did. It was more fun to watch everyone's antics.

One of our members-in-absentia had exciting news in February! Jamie from Wooly Knob became a grandpa on February! Congratulations to him!

Shearing day - February 27, 2011. The weather was wonderful, a nice crowd was there, and the shearer did a fantastic job. The sheep were wondering what was happening, and the spinners were eagerly awaiting the fleeces. I think Steve had four unsold fleeces by the end of the day. Thanks to everyone who helped on shearing day, especially Karen, Maggie, Jim, Pat, Dawn, Tom, Jane, and Jim. Many hands make light work and everything went like clock-work. It was good to see Juliann and Kelly, even though they had to leave before shearing was done.

Our next regular spin will be March 20. Hope you can make it!

HAPPY 2011

Happy New Year to everyone! I am feeling rather guilty (but not like I might lose any sleep over it) about not keeping up with our blog. The last post was in September. Maybe I should make it my resolution to do better in 2011. I am going to blame it on my slow internet connection. I do have some photos of our last three gathering, but right now my camera is hiding. So maybe when I find it, I will struggle to put some pictures up.



It is -8 right now here, so I think winter has really set in. I'm thinking that this will encourage all those sheep to grow longer coats, as shearing is right around the corner.



We had new folks join us this fall. Suzanne and Susan were new to our group. That could be a bit confusing, especially since we already have a Suzie, too.



Our December group was tremendously small, but we had a good time. The weather was rather nasty that day.



Well, I must get back to my spinning. I am personally on a mission to spin more fiber in 2011, since everyone is giving me grief about my stash. See you on January 23!