Surgery...

Its official... I will be having Gall Bladder surgery on Wednesday the 28th... I go in around 9am and surgery is scheduled for 11:45am... I am sort of freaking out, because I do not like the idea of being knocked out and cut open... but there really are no other options.

Hoping that everything goes great, quick recovery, and that my kids get to keep both parents :)

Navajo-Churro...

So, on a whim, I decided to purchase three Navajo-Churro fleece from Rancho Del Sol, out of Paso Robles, CA... I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into, much like many other things in my life... Well, after talking with the owner of the ranch and discussing a bit, she directed me to Jan... Jan has been purchasing, processing, spinning, and knitting with the NC for quite some time now and was a great help.

Raw NC still in the box

When the box came in, I was pretty surprised at what the fleece actually looked like... very long staple length. This is #74 and she has an 8+ inch staple length (wow)... I should probably let you know that here is still vegetable matter in the fleece, as well as some "organics" if you know what I mean... I picked out some of it before washing, but left a lot in and let the hand cards help me out...

Guard Hair

This particular sheep does have a guard hair (or kemp)... although it is not a guard hair like that in alpaca... these are about 2" long, very crimpy and super stiff.

Cold Water Prep

Navajo-Churro sheep are not a a high lanolin breed, so the water does not need to be as hot to thoroughly scour the fleece. To start, Jan told me to let the fleece sit in a cold water bath over night or for a couple of hours. This helps to remove all of the suint (basically it's sheep sweat), that has been building up on the wool.

After the cold water soak

First soap bath

After the cold water bath, I then made a bath of hot water (around 140 degrees) and some Dawn dishsoap (about 45 minutes)... I proceeded to then rinse the fleece in hot water, another wash with some Orvus (horse shampoo) again 45 minutes, another hot water rinse, then a wash with some Pantene Pro-V, once again 45 minutes... I know it sounds weird, but think of what shampoo does for your hair... it definitely helps the fleece out too... One more hot water rinse... spin cycle in the washer (make sure that your washer is capable of doing just a spin with no agitation, before you stick the fleece in there)...

Once the three washes and three rinses are done... as well as the spin... I soak the fleece in a mix of vinegar and hot water for about 30 minutes... drain and then do one more rinse in hot water for about 30 minutes... spin in washer again and lay out on a towel to finish drying...

 After all the washes, rinses, and spin cycles...

From there, I hand carded the fleece in super tiny batches, into rolags (little bundles of prepped fiber that can be spun from the rolag)... 

Prepped Rolags

Now the NC is ready to be spun into beautiful yarn that can be used for anything from weavings to shawls... just depends on how thick or thin the yarn is, also how soft it is against the skin :) Enjoy

Dad is Coming to Visit :)

Well, just talked to dad this morning... and he is coming for a visit :)

He has been battling stomach cancer and they believe that the cancer has returned. Looks like he may not make it past spring... so, he is going to come and meet his grandchildren before its too late.

They should be down here on the around the 22nd and will stay for a couple of days. I haven't seen him in almost two years now, so it should be a good visit. I just really want the boys to get to meet him. I know that they will not remember him, but at least this way, they will have some pictures with him when they get older.

I have been trying to come to grips with saying goodbye to a man I barely knew. My brother and I used to go spend the summers with him and some Christmas vacations, but that was really it. As we got older, I decided that I would rather stay here and work, so thats what I did. I have always sort of held onto the hate that I always had for him and its not a good thing.

When I was younger, I couldn't forgive him for hitting us and mom. All that I wanted was for him to die and leave us alone... and now that I am older, it really bothers me that I was such a hateful little brat. I know that its all part of life and learning to grow up, but it is hard to deal with as an adult.

I know that he will not be here to watch my boys grow up... and being a kid who had no grandparents, because they all passed, it is very difficult to think that my boys are going to have to go through it. But, I guess that is life...

We are going camping for work this weekend, so the kids should have a ton of fun with that... then next weekend, dad should be getting close :)

First Dyeing of Fleece :)

Since I am very new to dyeing, I decided to give dyeing fleece a try... I bought some raw washed fleece from twillsheep on Ravelry and gave it a shot :)

Everything came vacuum sealed and is perfect for storage until ready to use.

The fleece was pretty free of vegatable matter... there were a few little sticks and such that still needed to be picked out, but not much.

I used food coloring, but this time, I did half with blue and half with yellow, figuring if they mixed, it would be green :)

Last night, I went ahead and used the hand carders and started "brushing" the locks... here is the box of little rolags that I got... ready to spin :)

The Dyed Yarn :)

And here is the outcome of the dying :)

This was drying... and here is completely dry...

And for reference, since I never posted a picture of the before product... Here it is :)

Dyeing with Food Coloring :)

As the title says, its exactly what I did... Found a skein of 100% wool at Big Lots the other day, so I decided to try and dye it...

There has been a discussion on Ravelry going on about how to dye in a crock pot, so I tried it... although I didnt listen to the post, just sort of did whatever I wanted, and happened to get lucky, lol...

Here is the yarn in the crock pot - I didnt wind it into a skein, I wanted to try and spin it into a thinner yarn...

This is fresh out of the pot...

And here we have partially dry... I pulled the inside of the ball out, to help with drying, also to see what the color was like

Ill keep you all updated as I finish up :)

Mosquitoes...

Since we have been getting so much rain down here in Florida lately (welcome summer showers)... the mosquitoes have been getting over bearing...

This gigantic mosquito got me today... on the top of the head (through my hair)... last time I saw one that big, was in the Costa Rican rainforest at Tortuguero :)

The Yarn Room...

Well, my boyfriend has told me that unless I get my yarn room under control or come August 1st, 2012... he would be going in there with trash bags and throwing everything away... so, after trying to put it off for about 3 weeks, I finally went in there on Sunday (7/22)... Here are all the pics of before, midway, and after...

This is the before picture... there was so much yarn and stuff... that I could open up the door, but couldn't actually walk into the room without having to crawl over stuff :(

These are the midway though pics... As you can see, the yarn has over flowed into the hallway so that I could have room to work... The shelves are already full, and the storage bins are coming along...

This is after... as you can see, I share the room with all the extra toilet paper and paper towels... but at least I can now get into and enjoy the room...

More yarn... the craft table (which is an old painting table)... and then some sock yarn that is bagged and in another container.

 Here are those book shelves all covered in yarn, lol... and some what organized :)



And then the space bags that still need to air sucked out of them... but the room is at least accessible now...

Hazel Scarf Test...

Well... This week I started testing a pattern for someone on Ravelry (the best knit and crochet site ever)...

Its a scarf, named The Hazel Scarf... it is knitting up very nicely... the creator is YarnGenie... Im only in the beginning stages, but so far, it looks really good :)

Ill try to get pics as I keep progressing... but I am pretty happy with the progress this far :)

Mother's Day...

Well... This will be my first year as a mommy :)
The families will all be getting together at different times this weekend, so life is going to be going full force, lol...
Im trying to finish up my mothers present and I really hope that she likes it... I am making her a "Bath Poofey" because she absolutely loves them, I figure I can make a whole bath basket with it...

The beginning :)

Well, let me start by saying "Welcome"... My name is Ann and I have twin boys... Dylan and Ethan :)

I started to crochet because all the store bought hats were just too small for their big heads, lol... I have since started knitting again... and have always been a beader.

I can be found on ravelry.com under Twinmommycreation and on Facebook under Twinmommycreations...

Thanks for stopping by :)