Wow! I have been SO busy, that I haven't even have hardly had time to turn around let alone blog. What has kept me busy? Well, let me tell you.
First of all, I have taken a booth at a flea market in the city where I used to work as a police officer. My best friend Judy called me one day and asked me if I wanted to go in on her with a booth. Knowing that I had tons of stuff that I needed to get rid of in preparation for downsizing, I said sure! So far, it's going well. I still have alot of things to go through here at the house, but it is slow going. It's been so bloody hot that I haven't gotten out to the shed yet and that's one place I need to get to. I also have been hitting a few yard sales on the weekends to beef up my inventory. I did really, really well on the yard sale front last week end.
Also, I have been getting things lined out to start my yarn dying business. I've finally gotten some dyes in and some yarns. Now I need to sit down and think about some different colorways and start dying. After that, I'll have to do all the photography and posting online. Once everything starts rolling along well on Etsy, since I already have my own URL registered, I'll work on building my website.
Lets, see. What else. Oh yes. I skirted and cleaned 6 fleeces and got them ready to send off to the processing mill. I sorted through my raw fleeces and made my decision as to which fleeces I wanted to have professionally processed. I have several small fleeces and I have several large very very nice fleeces. I decided to send of my biggest fleeces and have them done since they would be the most labor intensive for me to do by hand. I had to do alot of research to figure out which mill to use. I hope I picked a good mill, but from all reports I've read, I think I did.
We've been doing some work on the house. We replaced the front door and bought a new storm door. It's so nice not to hear that screech anymore. I didn't realize just how loud that old door was when it opened and shut. My new door has a window in it and I just love the light it lets in. We still don't have the storm door up yet. We had quite a time getting just the door in because apparently this house has settled quite a bit. We really had to coax the thing in the opening and I mean coax as a way of saying force politely.
Time is going to get even more precious in the immediate future. Next weekend we are going to St. Louis. Mainly we are going up there to see Tony's new doctor. But also, while we are there we are going to get to attend a Cardinal's game. That's going to be fun!
I'm also heading back to Calif. in the middle of Sept. and will be gone for a month. While I'm there, not only will I be house sitting for my sister and bro-in-law while they are on vacation, but I'll be looking at houses and checking out the layout of the town. I'm sure that any house I find that I love won't be still available when we get ready to buy out there once we're ready to move, but at least I'll have a good idea of what's out there. There is ALOT of property available in town so in all reality, I wouldn't be surprised if something I liked wasn't still available. But, stuff is still coming up in the listings all the time too. I am SO anxious to get moved I can't hardly stand it. I'll miss my daughter and grand daughters like crazy and it will just break my heart to move because of them, but I know because of my health I have to get out of this climate. I just hope one day my daughter can understand. I know that once she see's the area, she will like it.
She went to Calif. once before and HATED it. But, she went to the San Juaquin Valley in the dead of summer. That is the worst time to be in the valley number one. And, number two, the valley absolutely SUCKS these days and you couldn't PAY me to live there anymore. That's why I left there in 1984! The area I am moving to is up in Northern Calif., right up in the forest where the air is clear and clean and the sky is chrystal clear and blue. It is luscious and beautiful. It is absolutely beautiful. It's just about as country as it can possibly be. My grand daughters will love it. It is just so pretty there and there are so many beautiful parks and lakes and forest trails to walk.
On my needles right now is the Interweave Knits "Tomato" sweater. I'm doing it in the Knit Picks Shine Worsted. It's the first time I've used this yarn and I've got to tell you, this is some great yarn. Super super soft. Pima cotton and model. Lovely drape. I can't wait to see how it turns out!
I'm also spinning alot. I've got a basket full of roving drafted and ready to go. One bobbin is already full of what is in the basket so once it's spun, I'll get it plied and see how much yardage I get. I hope it's enough for a pair of socks. I don't know if it will be. I kinda doubt it. I'm saving my handspun so far for a special project. Don't know what yet. But I've not used any of it yet.
