The Lamb Shoppe

There are no words.

A few weeks ago, we finally made it over to The Lamb Shoppe. This is the knitting shop Caleb had found for me when he was looking for a place to live.

Unfortunately, we forgot the camera. If I had taken my camera you would have a better idea of what it was really like.

You would have seen the white sheepdog with dreadlocks.
And the "coffee baa." It serves coffee and tea drinks in two sizes -- skein and hank.
And the lady that works there? So nice! She visited with me for some time, even though I didn't buy anything (I just couldn't justify it when it is so hard for me to knit right now.)

And gosh, I haven't even gotten to the yarn yet. What a beautiful selection! And they had baby yarn that wasn't so...you know, cheapo babyish looking.

They offer lots of classes and she said people tend to just come and hang out on the couches and drink coffee and knit.

Seriously, I could have cried.


p.s. Abby -- is there a way to get more of the posts to show at once? My sorry sausage excuse for fingers are getting a little behind, and then you don't see my comments.

leave the suspense to Hitchcock

Here revealed is one of the FOs I've hinted at. Not that I really think Brandy's been in suspense. She definitely has more important things keeping her occupied nowadays! And actually I showed it to her in some stage of spinning over the summer before I saw you (Abby) to give it to you.

Yarn spun for Abby!!!




Don't look too close, (not that you could with the crappy picture, who takes pictures with a phone-what a loser) there are certainly lumps and bumps and it is not the sock yarn it had been indended to be, but for a first attempt, I'm quite pleased. I told her she doesn't have to knit with it if she doesn't want to. And of course now, she'll have her own wonderful handspun to knit with. Definitely make something out of the first handspun you've made, whatever it is. And I think the yarn looks great. I couldn't make spindle spun look that good now!

So here's the only picture I thought to take in Chesapeake City. It truly deserved more pictures as it's a very neat little town. But everytime I started to take a picture there was this bridge thing in the background....



You may think she's contemplating this yarn but actually she's thinking, "must. spin. wool. now." It's all this time looking at that spinning wheel I tell ya. She was doomed when she came in the shop. Even I could hear the drop spindles calling her name.

p.s. Speaking of suspense, what about the promised pictures of the "boob toaster"

Spinning sans wheel

Jen and I met at a yarn/spinning/weaving/basketmaking store in MD. Jen bought lots of beautiful fibers - I bought a drop spindle and some "starter" fibers. Perhaps for my own self esteem I shouldn't make these images public...but here they are.

I guess that first one isn't so bad, but that's only because I have mostly covered up the horrendously uneven stuff from the very beginning. You can see a little bit of it peeking out in the second pic.

Oh, and a lot more of it in the third pic. And yes, I will ply ALL of it, even the horrendously uneven stuff for no reason but to keep myself humble. It'll make some really interesting...yarn...for something. I'm reasonably certain that I could make a small bracelet out of it if I really wanted to. I only bought like 1 oz of this stuff...

I was also given a very special present, details of which I assume are to be kept quiet. But, I had to mention it...if only to increase the anticipation for Brandy :-)

Lecture anyone?

I too should be working instead of knitting, spinning, posting about knitting, thinking about knitting, thinking about spinning while I'm knitting...but nevertheless, here I am! This will be picture intense because I haven't posted for a while. Just warning ya'!

I actually have a few more FOs than can be posted here because....ssshh, they're secrets for...well you two!! I will reveal them to all once they have found their new homes!

So you'll have to see not only the FOs I have but the evidence of my summer travels via purchases too!

FO #1 for darling nephew Pierce: he needs to learn right now the importance of Halloween in this family! I haven't actually sent this little hat yet but I assume, and rightly I'm sure, that his parents have much more important things on their mind than checking this page to see if I've knitted Pierce anything!!

FO #2 for darling...me? I'm loving this yarn. My first real attempt at woollen spinning and while it is not very good and is actually probably a bad idea to knit with it, I really want a fuzzy orange/red sweater from it!! In the end there will be around 12 skeins of this crazy stuff. Of course, as always, it's hard to convey the color here. It might not be as bright as this looks but Mark did suggest that the color really "radiates"...hah! radiates/radiator! He's so cute.


Now on to the booty:

Do you know the Chibi needle? Wonderful curved tip for finishing seams/sewing in ends but the size can only be described as "honkin' big". Well, they finally came out with three smaller sizes so they can be used for smaller yarns. I'd heard this rumor but had to travel to AL to discover it was true. I want to finish a sock just to sew in the ends with the tiny little one!!

But Texas was the real score! Brandy is not surprised. Hobby Lobby was having a huge sale. I only ended up there because Loree needed something for the nursery. 99cent sugar 'n cream cotton by gad!! And Patons Katrina (which I made that pink shrug out of) for $2.14, normall $5 something. That's more than 50% off. No pretty colors but who can't use black!


AND my favorite, cotton combs. They are worn but a lovely old patina look and actually being broken in is a plus. According to most fiber people you want them at a point where they've been used some. But here's the best. Not only are they old and broke in, they were $18! I haven't seen nice new ones for less than around $40! WHOA!!

Did you stick to the bitter end? You're so sweet!

Homework, anyone?

So it's the Saturday after my first week of graduate school, and one would assume that I would be hard at work reading all those pages for next week. He or she would be wrong, however, since when I sat down to read earlier this afternoon I found myself unable to concentrate. What was floating through my mind? The image of the nearly complete fingerless gloves that were sitting on my coffee table. What did I do? I put down my book (Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People, by Jon Butler) and parked myself on the couch until I completed the gloves. And here they are:


PS: It really does only take one ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran!