On to May...

Right. Time to update the old blog. It's been languishing the past, oh, 4 months. Now that I am officially selling handspun yarn, handknit items, and soon--carded batts of fiber, I think it's time to dust off the blog.

About three months ago I purchased two adorable French Angora bunnies. A silver-gray doe (Nuit Noire), and a light cream-color buck, Primo Torto. Over the past months I've noticed that they have developed personalities. Nuit (I call her New-ee) is a bit timid, but will always come right up to the door to say hi to me. Torto is very gregarious. He hops right up to the door before I even unlatch it, and insists that I rub his nose/head before anything else occurs. They are about 3/4 through their first fiber shedding, and I've been combing it versus shearing it. As a handspinner, I find sheared bunny fiber tends to have coarse ends where cut. Combing or brushing ensures a better spinning fiber.

French Angora bunnies are smaller than the English/Giant breeds, and therefore have less yearly fiber yield. However, I think I'm going to get at least one, as the fiber yield can be anywhere from 1-3 lbs per year--which is 2-3x more than FA yield.

I finally got new yarns and some knitted hats on my etsy site. Even made 2 sales in the past week! I'm very excited, as I hope this leads to Vtknitboy on Etsy becoming a larger part of my life.

Will try to post more often, as I will be listing yarn, knitwear, and batts (to spin) later!

Cheers!

Summer of...spring and deconstruction

It's been just ages since my last blog post! I blame it on Twitter. Really. Once the lampooned fad of the month, Twitter is extremely popular and can be quite useful for developing contacts and connections for inspiring entrepreneurs and small business people. (Hint: I will be opening my Esty shop selling handspun yarn very soon!) And, I am vtknitboy on twitter.

Where is summer?
I'll keep this short. It's been a very cool and rainy summer so far. Only a paltry few days higher than 80 degrees. 'Nuf said.

July finds our household, well, literally, the house itself, under deconstruction! After years of complaining about the cold seeping through the thin 2x6" walls, and cool breezes streaming through the now gas-depleted double-pane windows (in winter, no less), we are having some work done on the house. The house was built in 1973 and all its parts are original.

We are having the roof replaced, all the windows replaced with energy-efficient double-hung windows, insulation and new siding, and insulation placed in the garage. We are also having the screened-in porch converted into a year-around sun/tv room. The room will have windows taking up the majority of the wall space on the north and east sides. And, the old walkway (ick) and decks have been removed, and will be replaced with a smaller deck on the east side, and there are dreams of a stone patio and sitting area on the south side, in the faraway future...

Etsy!
Yes, I am finally doing something about getting my handspun on my etsy site. I have weighed, measured, and reskeined several skeins of handspun. I just have to take pics, and get the info on the site! I have dozens of skeins to list on the site. Just trying to get in gear, while completing tasks needed for the house remodel. My site will be vtknitboy.etsy.com I will do another blog post when it's active!

Not much for pics this post. I'll see if the pics I took on my Blackberry work out on Blogger.

Hope you are all having a nice summer! Enjoy the pics of the raspberry color astilbe and the beebalm.

Chris

Of Blueberries and of Lace...

Well, it sounds like a good title! Kind of Victorian or something.

Click on pics for a larger view...

Of Blueberries: we have 4 or 5 blueberry bushes in our fenced-in garden. Basically every other year we have a bumper crop. I've read that honey bees are the number one pollinators of blueberries, and with the tremendous loss of honey bees in New England and the U.S., J and me were really worried about getting many berries--and big ones at that. Well, take a look at this bowl of berries! They are huge! (Note: that's a quarter in the bowl.) J's been picking them (and blackberries) for a couple of weeks now (he's the #1 berry picker in this house), and I've been reaping the benefits of his hard work and time amidst the prickly bushes. Don't worry--I do a fair share of the work! I do all the canning and preserving (including occasional blueberry jam!). The really talented hard work.

Of Lace: Sigh. I lost the 'Sunray Shawl' I started in May. Somewhere between here and Easton (NY) it disappeared. I've also ditched the 'Rose of England' for a spell, as it was too frustrating to accomplish with dull needles. So, I found 'Springtime' from the same book by Marianne Kinzel: First Book of Modern Lace Knitting.

This pattern is a square one (the 'ROE' was round) and a lot more fun--but maybe I will bore of it too soon? I'm using the dusty rose alpaca/merino lace from Elann.com.

The second picture is a shot of the pic in the book. The last picture is a closeup of the center square, which is the part I have finished, chart A.

So, as you can see, there is lots more to do! But it's fun...

Note to self: less Plurking and more Etsying (putting my stuff on my Etsy site)