Sale sale sale!

Just doing a bit of a drive by post here. The kids and family life have been keeping me busy.

In celebration of my 25th birthday (again) ;) I am having a sale in my Etsy shop. Just use the code Birthday25. Sale ends on Feb. 14, 2013 at noon. http://www.etsy.com/shop/knittedtoat

Stop in and take a look around.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have been in a bit of a frenzy trying to get things dyed up for my first show of the season toward the end of next month. With having the kids home all day and it taking time and concentration to dye I have only been able to work on it in the evenings after Kevin gets home.

So far my tally dyed is:
31 skeins Baby Alpaca/Silk/Cashmere Lace (Opulent)
55 skeins of Merino SW Fingering weight (Sensational)

I have been winding yarn while the youngest takes a nap and have 30 skeins (400 yds each) of a new Corriedale/Nylon Fingering weight done so far, and about 25 of BFL fingering weight. Things are coming along slowly.

I have been very diligent at dyeing every night, well that is except for last night. :( Kevin sent me a msg from work yesterday saying that his left hand and foot were kind of numb, his jaw was hurting, his chest was heavy, had a headache and so on. With all the heart problems in his family I told him to call 911 and get to the hospital. The stubborn man that he is finished work, came home, showered and tells me he felt a little better after a shower. Umm that wasn't going to fly with me. I played the kid card and he decided to go to the ER. ;) They took him right back, gave him a nitro pill and nitro paste, did an ekg, blood work, battery of other tests. He said that after having the nitro he felt much better other than the pounding headache from the nitro. Finally all the tests came back and he was told that everything looked fine on paper, but with his symptoms they wanted to do a stress test to be safe. This meant they wanted to keep him. Of course he wavered and wanted me to tell him to come home, but even though I wanted him home I knew that he should stay (don't make me play the kid card again lol). So now it is a waiting game as to when they will ever get to do the test. I sit here at home nervously waiting to hear something/anything.

In my "spare" time I have been working on a shopping cart for my website! Yes folks it is finally in process. Not as fast as I had hoped, but a little here and there is better than nothing at all. :)

Sorry for the photo-less post. Photo taking, just has not fit into my day recently. Hoping to get photos of all the dyed yarns, but that is going to take quite some time to get a picture of every colorway that has been dyed on each yarn. LOL

Long Time No Posts

Wow I can't believe how long it has been since the last time I have posted on here. So much had gone on. Our oldest is now 6, if you can believe that and our youngest is 19 months old! Boy does the time fly. Most of my time is taken by my boys. Not only am I a SAHM I am also now school teacher as we are home schooling the oldest. He is currently doing 1st and 2nd grade work. :)

Also on the agenda is processing and spinning alpaca fleece for a local alpaca farmer. I thought that this would be a one time venture, but she was so pleased that she wants me to continue to do it for her every year!


Currently I am nurse to my 2 little guys as they both have the flu now. We have had a very bad year for sickness here. It all started in October when were were all at the KY Wool fest. We all ended up with a stomach bug and have been getting sick with everything that is going around since. I am hoping with the warmer weather will come the healing of our immune systems so we can finally be on the mend.

I have been knitting a few things here and there, but mostly been concentrating on spinning all that alpaca. It is like a bit of heaven getting to play with all that and get paid for it in the process. I am excited to see it all form the upcoming sheering!

Better get back to spinning. I am hoping to post more often as it has been far too long and I always enjoyed having my blog. I will leave you with a picture of some yummy alpaca batts. :)

Me Busy?

Well I guess you can tell that James is back and I have been spending time with him. LOL For some odd reason I just don't get much time.

I get the bad Mommy of the week award. I finally broke down and decided to take away James' pacifiers. He never used them during the day. The only time that they were used were at nap time and at night. He could fall asleep at my Mom's or my In-law's without it and in the car. I just never had the guts to do it. This past weekend I think I finally made the decision when I saw 4 and 5 year olds walking around with them in their mouths. I DID NOT want him to be that dependent on it. So before his nap on Wednesday I removed them from his bed. I explained to him that we had to give them to babies that needed them. He has whined a few times and woke up crying once a night, but actually that is less than normal. So I am just wondering if he didn't sleep as well with the pacis.? I feel so bad doing it, but I know that it has to be done some time and it is better now than later. I really think that it is hurting me way more than it is him. He is doing great at falling asleep without it, so I am hoping after a week he will hopefully have gotten used to it and won't whine before I put him into bed. :( It is breaking my heart and I am trying to be so strong. I am so thankful that he has been so good about it. I am afraid if he would have been one that woke up all night long that I would have broke down and gave them back.

Still no knitting to show. I am so boring.

We did go to a tractor show in Rushville this weekend. James is in awe of the steam tractors. They are my favorites as well. There is just something about them that is so neat.

(as always click for bigger)



Steam tractors aren't just for guys. :) There are two younger women driving this one.


Aren't they too cool?

James even found one that was his size. It was all made by hand. Someone is seriously into the mechanics of steam tractors.


It was so hot too. Poor James was just exhausted from trying to see everything and the heat. We made him rest in the shade and soaked him down with some water. We made sure that we watched him very carefully in the heat. I took off his shirt and at first he wanted it back on, but once he figured that it was cooler without it he was loving it.

He even thought that he had a little Captain in him. LOL


We had a nice rain that cooled things off a bit. While we waited for the sun to set we sat and listened to a fiddle contest. The girl who won was awesome.

That evening once the sun set they were going to have a spark show. It is the steam tractors that load up with tons of wood and saw dust and they end up blowing a ton of sparks through the stacks. There were 3 of them that were doing it. It is so neat and James loved it.

(Be sure to click these to make them bigger!)




It was a fun time even though it was hot. I had planned on taking some knitting or at least a drop spindle. I decided against it and realized after being there for a while that I should have brought it. We went with Kevin's parents so at least I had his Mom to talk to while the guys went out looking at everything under the sun. Oh yeah they also had a steam calliope! I am excited for next year, but I will make sure to take something to kill the time from the 2:00 parade to the night spark show.

Hope you all have a great weekend.