too little time

Spring has sprung!
There are way too many things
going on in my head
and all seem possible,
but I MUST start and then finish one thing at a time.

The arbor and picnic table need painting
the deck needs to be cleaned and stained
the glads need to be transplanted (80% done)
the vegetable garden needs to be planned
the birdhouse needs to be taken down and replaced
garden stones need to be made
front yard needs some serious landscaping
lawn to be fertilized and weeds killed off
bird feeder area must be cleaned up and re bricked
Maggie's area made pretty
and that's only on the outside!

I had a wonderful trip to Missouri for the Fiber Festival.
I really felt like it was a REAL vacation.
I haven't had one of those in a long time!
I stayed at a hotel, rather than the bunk houses and am glad I did.
The pillows were something to be forgotten, but the rest was wonderful.

I took four classes of things I needed to learn.
Spinning with Icelandic fleeces...these are dual coated sheep and need to be spun a bit differently that the Romney I am used to.

Spinning Cotton... yup..right off the bush....the teacher was awful. She knew what she was doing, but conveying that to we students was difficult. I took it upon myself to get this, and get it I did. OK Alabama folks...let's send some cotton up here!

I learned to spin Llama and blend with all kinds of fibers..even bunny! I really like Llama! The teacher was great! My time was wrong so I got to my class when it was nearly over. The wonderful teacher taught the whole class again, just for me!

The last class I took was how to use the right fiber for the right project!
The most amazing sheep lady! And she gave us tons of samples! Animal and plant fibers....bags full!
I was sitting on the end next to a British lady.
She would take half of the left over samples and give me the rest.
At times, I felt really badly that the first few girls didn't take more to start with!~

I have now spun 300 yards of icelandic in the grease....that means, not washed first.
It spins really nicely. I will wash it in the skeins next week when I can dry it outside. It smells and feels so wonderful!

I know this sounds silly to most if not all of my friends...but there is just something comforting to me about it! I would love to go into a sheep's pen in the heat of the spring...summer would be too hot, and plunk my nose down into the wool right on their lil backs! mmmmmmmmm

Anyway.....when days are chilly or in the tired evenings, I will spin and knit.
I discovered a loom at the festival, so I may have to invest in one next year.
The more for my homespun yarn, as knitting takes to long.

Have a blessed day!