Beautiful New Knitting Caddy, A work of Art

Look at the beautiful knitting caddy that Angie sent me for my birthday.  She not only sent it but she made it!  It is so beautiful and it is the perfect gift for an old knitter.  She knows what makes me happy!
I am trying to convince Ang to sell these beautiful caddies. 



This is the top of the box. 



I stayed up late last night.  I got out baskets of fiber...the closet, the bedroom, and under my work area...

I listed fiber for sale last week and I was swapped with emails wanting fiber.  The fleeces that I had listed went very fast and I received many requests for fiber.  I decided that I could part with some of the fiber that I had set back for my own persoanl stash but which fleeces can I let go?

I have not made a decision yet...Will I part with China's fleece?  How about Isabel's?  What about the partial fleeces that I have?  A few spinners did not want a full fleece, just a pound or two, that's OK, I will just put the part that did not sell in my stash and spin it up later to make socks or a scarf or a new vest now I think I will ask the spinner's if they are interested. 

I also washed another fleece last night that I had stored in the wool room in the barn.  It is a BFL/shetland cross.  A beautiful long wool. 

I also found Molly's fleece.  She is a polypay sheep.  The last issue of the Spin Off Magazine had an article about polypay fleece.  I personally love to work with polypay and the socks and scarves out of polypay are so warm and nice.  I have not washed her fleece from last year yet but it is on my list.

On a Wild hair, Danny and I got out in the cold misty foggy weather  and cut across the country on old hilly and curvy old blacktop roads to get to the Amish country store about 25 miles from here.  Danny was reading the shopper this morning and saw that the store had a new batch of molasses ...he loves molasses on biscuits with butter. 

 The Amish store owners are building onto their store.  It is going to be very nice when they are done. They have some very nice items for the kitchen on their shelves as well as selling foods  in the bulk.  We have been talking about buying in larger quanities so we will make less town trips with the cost of gas and food going up. I have to get some new air tight storage containers for sugar and flour and rice.   We are also hoping to have a good garden this year to stock our shelves again.  We have ordered garden seeds and part of our order is here.  We love Tendertreat sweet corn and can not find it locally so Danny ordered 2 lbs for the garden...for the next 2 years.  I am ready to start gardening and seeding the pastures! 

Cool and damp summer in Missouri

Here is some snapshots of what we are looking like here on the Spinning C in the middle of July of 2009. I plant sweet corn every 2 weeks so that it does not all come ready at the same time. We plant a very large garden and freeze and can most of our fruits and vegetables for winter. The cabinets are looking pretty bare due to the slow growing season we are having.

I am so far behind blogging...so many things have to be done in the summer here on the farm. As you can see our large gardens demand lots of my time.

Washing wool is one of my top priorities....I have a new stainless steel sink that has not been put in the building yet so I set it up out by the old clothesline and I soak my bags of wool in cool water to remove lots of the dirt before taking it inside to wash. I then hang the bags on the line to drain out most of the water. Hopefully the new sink will be installed and this yard adorment will not be sitting in the yard in just a short month or so...even though it has been nice being out in the nice weather while working with my wool.

I also drain the dirty water from the sinks into buckets that later gets put on the garden. (Almost a compost tea.)

Look at the wool on the new lambs. So many of the lambs are white this year and look lots like the old man, White Knight. Their wool is getting long and it has a silky feel. At times I wold like to have coats on them protecting the wool but I just don't think I can justify the time and expense of the coat thing... The brown ewe is Isabelle with her daughter, Dotty.

Here are a few of this Spring's lambs, we have 3 brown lambs this year and rest (36 lambs) are white.

Our garden is so very far behind due to the cool and wet Spring. We did not get the plants and seeds in the ground as early as we usually have in the past. I planted a heirloom climbing bean on the trellis and it is a beautiful red and putting on beans now.

Tomatoes are usually ripe and corn is usually ready by this time but we are just starting to get ripe tomatoes and I have picked a couple batches of green beans.

We have heirloom tomatoes here and there, I save the seeds so I put the different varieties in diffierent locations so they won't cross pollinate. We really like the Mortage Lifter and Brandi Wine Tomatoes and we are trying some

new ones out this year. In the picture is a new one we are trying, it is the Elberta Peach.

The sweet corn is just starting to tassel and making ears.