Beautiful things

 

 What a beautiful progression on the sunrise the other morning and I was so lucky to be able to watch it!

 Sammie believes snow is the most beautiful thing and really wishes it would snow in Kansas more often.

 Hosta and Hazel coming up for some scratches. Two of my beautiful Icelandic sheep.

Ok, maybe not beautiful, but I just finished these warm mittens!

Beautiful sunset after a beautiful winter day.

Busy, busy, busy

I am so glad it is the slow time of winter. If it was nice weather out I would be just crazy busy. As it is there is always something to do. It all keeps my mind good, well.... atleast that is the hope. :)

Last Sunday I spent all day inside washing more mohair. And I still have more to wash!! I wish the weather was a little warmer so I could take some pictures of it outside, but 11 degrees as a high is just to cold to be fussing with fiber outside. So only a picture from inside.

I just love feeling washed mohair. It is sooo soft!!

The beginnigs of my knitted mittens! They are made with a strand of wool and a strand of acrylic. So the best of both worlds. Warm and washable. (but no dryer please)

Then I have totally challenged myself to make these socks. They are part of a knit along that I saw on one of my yahoo groups. It really is cool. Every week you get part of the pattern. At the end of the month you have a finished project! These are socks made from the toe up. If you want to join the knit along go here to find out more information. Oh, and it is free! They are having great prizes and it lasts for six months. So six projects.  And the best part are the wonderful patterns! This is the first one, but I think it is soooo cool!


Ok, I have one more project I am working on, but will have to share pictures later in the month.

Hope everyone is staying warm!

An ingenious idea!!

My 'new to me' loom still is not put together and in usable condition yet. To read about how I came across this loom check out this blog post.
One of the things that need to be done is replacing of some of the dowels on the sectional beam.

So I started out with a 3 foot piece of dowel rod and cut it into short pieces the correct length.

Then I had to figure out how I was going to taper it at one end like all the others. Sand paper was the only thing that I could think of.

Then my wonderful husband came up with this ingenious idea of using a pencil sharpener. Not just any pencil sharpener, but he big kind made for those flat carpenter's pencils.

Wow!! In no time at all I had all the little dowel pieces 'sharpened' down to match the original dowels.

All I need to do now is just smooth them on the edges so no yarns get snagged.
Then the messy part come. I need to drill out the old ones that have broken off. Going to have the shop vac running at the same time so, hopefully, I won't have a huge mess!

Thank you so much Rob!!

Inside, outside, or flash

I took some pictures of some light grey mohair that I have recently washed. I wanted to really be able to show true colors when people ask for pictures of my fleeces so I took three pictures to try and compare which looks like the real thing.

 This first picture is taken outside in afternoon sun. It really shows the natural luster of the mohair.

 This second picture is taken inside with a flash. It almost makes the mohair look like polished silver.

And, yes, this third picture is the same mohair as the other two pictures. It looks so much darker. This picture was taken inside without a flash while the second picture was taken with a flash.

I think the third picture actually shows the true color of the mohair. But then I think there will be a difference on how it appears on other computer monitors. So it is so hard to REALLY tell the true color until it is in your hands.