Autumn House Farms - a knitter's heaven, that's for sure.

Hi everyone - wow what a week, can't believe it's zipped by - but last weekend was nearly perfect! My knitting/spinning friend Julie and I got to Autumn House Farm on Fri. afternoon and checked into the 'extra' original farm house that has been refurbished by Harriet and her husband Ken, a third generation self-sustaining farmer on 180 acres plus. They raise about 60 sheep, different kinds, for the quality of their fleece: wool. The farm's handle is: Where Yarn is Born.

Harriet, shepherdess, is the in charge of all dying. If I looked at a yarn in her shop that was in worsted and longed for it in sock weight, her answer, "OK I'll have it ready for you when you come over tomorrow morning." And she would...is that heaven or what. Julie spent hours spinning the most amazing chocolate and bright speckeled (?) roving. We were up at 5.30 A.M. Sat. morning knitting and spinning. I cooked farm breakfasts with the farm's fresh eggs, local slab bacon, juice, coffee, toast -mmm good.

Meet some of the great sheep - I met some of their wool and yarns too. Actually I brought home some (OK a lot) of their yarn. Ken tried to make me a deal: If I bought 3 sheep, he'd throw in a

chicken. I always thought a couple of chickens would do well in my back yard. Hmmm - sheep...

Off and Running; Things are looking up...

OK I think we are now going to have pictures that makes sense with the entries: Had the 20 something manager of AT&T store show me how to send pics from phone camera to computer! Gone are the days of poor quality phone cameras - this here one has more pixels then my digital. That's my KAL summer sweater to the left here...After July 31 it goes to the bottom of WIP and Taos winter sweater comes out!

But here's the knitting news: Had a good knit group last night. Debbie and Colleen visited to knit and Bev finally made it after the care and feeding of dear Arnold! (Who by the way checked up on her last night-did a drive by- they've been married for 40yrs? How cute is that?)

Picture of us last night, except me of course, but I've changed my feet picture for one of me knitting so you know I exist.

Next, Colleen's reversible cable scarf that she's doing in Heavenly bought at Stitch, Piece and Purl our LYS where we meet. The scarf is wonderful!

Here's Bev's amazing technicolor shawl that she's doing in Rhythm by JoJoLand. Amazing yarn - this is all one dye lot! Sitting to the right of Bev is Debbie knitting socks from Cookie A.'s book, "Sock Innovations." She was able to take the workshop with Cookie last month that I missed... Also in bottom right corner is my KAL sweater! Ribbing is Berrocco Pima (don't like-splits to hell and back) and the transition yarn is Ty-Dye which is pricier but oh what a difference. Good yarn in pima cotton! Did I tell you I hate knitting sweaters in cotton? Smile Bev, it's only knitting! (Ah well maybe way advanced knitting...)

Here's another what I call DebbieSock:

This is also from Cookies's book. The red one is fab and I think both of these are done now.

There's a lot more to talk about but this has taking longer then I expected and I have to get ready for the weekend at Autumn House Farm. Spinning, dying, knitting, meeting a beekeeper...Iz goin' ta heaven!

PS Julie made stitch markers the other night: gold rose bead with red beads and gold holder. You can imagine how nice. She wants to attach 2 with every skein she sells of her homespun. She'll be ready to sell her amazing homespun in a few months from now...stay tuned.

Next: Julie's homespun, The Heartland Shawl, Beading.

Things are not what they seem...

Ugh, sorry everyone - yes technology won. Almost. Can not for the life of me upload pics from phone to computer even though I should be able to, can not find pics on digital from chip that I loaded months ago, can not get adapter chip to be recognized by the digital from the phone and finally can not transfer what is internal in the digital right now. Don't ask - I've tried everything for the entire week. Then yesterday I updated this post and lost it when editing (my fault.) So I think that for now the techno elves on nipping my ankles and laughing...
Later I'll send photos and news of Julie's spinning. Amazing.

Snafu - Technology Almost Wins

After a wonderful 4th (and I would post photos if I could, and that's what this story is about) I went back on my mission to get what I needed to upload photos. Here's Friday's tale of woe: I could not find the chip adapter for the chip in my phone to upload pics onto my dear little computer. I looked in all the knitting bags because I was positive it was in one - even took things out and dumped project bags looking - four or five of them. Bit the bullet, went to CVS and bought another for 17.98. Then got home only to find my digital camera deader then a door nail - battery drained because it looked as if battery door was not closed completely. No big deal - just get a new battery right? Went back to CVS bought what I thought was the battery (OK I even had the battery with me but couldn't bother to look at it - I know you've been there so take that smirk off), got home, battery way too big. This was yesterday when I was on the battery hunt on the 4TH after a late knitting session at Border's. Just got home from BestBuy. Guess what? Even though my camera is very nice it's 4 years old. A 23yr old informed me that one year is considered the generation of a camera and that they probably A. don't make the camera anymore, (fur shur) and B. they don't make the battery either. ha, ha.
She started showing me more cameras that started at $109.00 and went up. I need a new battery you know, not a new camera...
I have a feeling this will continue. I'm about to search on the web...I'm going in, wish me luck. What if I put up an old picture of an apple pie or something?

Ok - apple pie on top; scene from Cooks' Forrest (one of my favorite woods in the world!) to the right -

Good news is that I spent 2 hours knitting with Crazy Becky -
She was doing cross-stitch using a beautiful wooden frame to hold her work and she also has the biggest kick ass floor loom I've ever been up close and personal to...I knitted, we drank coffee and we had a very nice time: that was BBB (before Best Buy).

Good news about the fishies. Tonight at knit group, as we checked out the blog, Trina discovered that the food is now up and running! Click your cursor in the koi pond and a piece of food will be left for 'da fishies' to eat. Crazy.

A Quickie

Duffy wanting dinner now please!

I have photos to upload and lots of news but I just haven't been able to find the time since Mon.

Will get some done tomorrow for sure. So many things I want to talk about, hmm do I even have time tonight - it's 5.25 and I have our Yarn Over The Falls Group at 6.00pm. Plus I need to outline some marketing ideas for Kathy at Cornerstones -what a great shop!

I might try some spinning with my feet and hands tomorrow at Kathy's. Don't ask me why. Crazy talk but if this is what I need to do to stay in the game then I'm there...somewhere.

There's more to come: 1. My Day at Knitting Day Camp 2. Lace Weight? 3. What Makes Good Traveling for a Project?

My current lace project is interesting. Did I say that? Not as much swearing as the entrelac (almost done - photos tomorrow) but different in a tortuous way. Lace takes on a life of its own.

Only had to start this 5 times and feeling PDL (pretty damn lucky) at that.

Good night, keep your knitting close and your enemies closer...

And could y'all feed da fishies for me too please? Don't forget Ergo, he's one of the black ones.