For the past year I have been wanting to get my hands on fiber and learn to spin. I've thought about it....talked about......but made no time to learn it. So for my birthday this year my oldest daughter and I decided to spend the day at a wonderful alpaca farm learning everything we could about spinning.....It was amazing for two reasons....first because I am so blessed to have a daughter who also has a passion for handmade and does not mind hanging with her mother......second it was a full day of playing with fiber and making one of my most favorite things......yarn!!!!
Hidden Pastures is a beautiful place and Natalie and Pat were so friendly and such great teachers! We learned all about the different wheels and then the different fibers and then we started spinning. I must tell you that Emily took off faster then I did.....she really was a natural, but I soon got the hang of it and it was all I thought it would be and more! We spun then we plyed then we spun some more! Stopping only to eat yummy treats!


 Do notice the gorgeous shawl my daughter is wearing.....she loves lace knitting and it's one of her favs!








Emily and I both spun on a double treadle ashford traveler wheel.......and we loved it! We started on a single treadle traditional but the double treadle is definitely the one for us. So of course this little beauty now resides beside my wood stove at home ready for me to practice....practice.....practice! Happy Birthday me!!!!


Our yarn was not perfect....very artsy we called it! We still need to give it a bath and then maybe dye it.....not sure yet if I want it natural or not. We spun wool first and then pure alpaca which was really hard....so I'll be sticking with some wool blends in the beginning!



 This little guy is Zak the yak and Natalie will be getting fiber from him this spring.....his coat is amazing!



Their were alpacas everywhere you looked! This was the best Birthday ever and just the perfect day! Oh and I managed to get my little scarf  blocked this week I really love this yarn and the colors are so fun!!

Downton Scarf rav notes here

Sorry for the photo heavy post but I just wanted to share my excitement! I always say there is not enough time to knit.....now I have to fit knitting and spinning into that time......oh boy!!! Joining Ginny for the yarn long.....

I am really enjoying the rhythm I've got going to my PL project this year. Simple and easy is keeping me on track and going! I just sent my first group of prints to Persnickety Prints and I can't wait to see how they come out. I'm printing 12x12 and putting them in an album....hmmmm.....need to get an album now! I'm actually allowing myself to think I might go back to where I left off last year and pick it up again.....we will see! Here is my week 6 layout.

Ravelry notes here

A quick post today as busy is not even the right word for how crazy we are right now........but good crazy....ya know!
I cast on for this cute scarf to keep me from getting bored of all the stockinette I'm doing on my sweater.....which by the way is coming along slow and steady. I just split for the arms and so there is a bit more stockinette to get through! But back to the scarf.....this is the Christmas at Downton colorway of Lorna's Laces sportmate yarn.......I am loving everything about this yarn! I was going to do the Downton KAL over at Jimmy Beans on Ravelry but I did not like this yarn with the project they had going on so I needed to find something else for this one skein. I found the Chinook scarf and cast on right away......perfect!! And better yet it's a free pattern!
I'm still listening to Jane Eyre and we are preparing for lent and so I've been pulling our books out for that....I've been doing the Book of common Prayer for a few weeks and love the rhythm it gives to my day...
What's on your needles this week?? Joining Ginny over at Small Things.

Here is week 5.......

I worked on my project life pages for week 4 on Friday night and finished them up on Saturday afternoon. I took a lot of pictures again this week and so I have my usual 12x12 spread and in the middle of that I did a 6x12 page with some journaling and pictures. We celebrated Claire's 16th Birthday and Hannah Grace was 23 months so I did a recap of the month for her. I take so many pictures of the baby! She is always available and still does not mind my camera in her face. But I need to be pro active about getting shots of the other kids too, it's just so much harder. I will send all of January out to be printed this week. I am gong to try to print once a month so we can have the pages in the album and I can also keep up with any memorabilia that I want to add monthly then.












And that's a wrap for week 4......simple, clean, easy and doable!!!