Aurora Colony Handspinners Guild

Spinning Saturday was held for the Aurora Colony Handspinners Guild. There were a number of classes, fiber galore and a huge spin circle. It was a lot of fun looking at the interesting projects which were going on. Wonderful knits, hooked rugs, felted objects and, of course, spinning. There were quite a number of spinning wheels, by a number of manufacturers and styles. I found out something about the reproduction chair wheel that I had. It was made in 1977 by a woodworker in Vancouver, Washington. He made a number of wheels and this was one of his later wheels with a lot of differences from the one I saw which was number 13. Mine is number 57. By looking at these, one can see the development of the design of the wheel. But the one thing is the incredible woodworking. The finish is wonderful and the wheel is true and balanced.

I know that I will be returning to the Aurora Colony Handspinners Guild again because the people that I met and the ideas they were willing to share. Good people, good fun and all in all, a good road trip.

Tailspun Alpaca

Today I took a look at the yarn I spun last night. It is the honey blond suri alpaca. It was incredibly soft to spin. As I worked with it I found that it had certain characteristics that I want to build upon. I am going to be building a series on it so that I can use it to be a specialty yarn. This is a picture of my first tailspun alpaca. I am not finished yet as I have 14 pounds to play with and permission to do my "art thing."

Judy Evans Steele of Polo Field Farm is the owner of these two alpacas from which I received the fleece. Absolutely gorgeous blankets. I finally have had the time to create and work with the fiber so more is own the way.

Busy day at Elizabeth Drake Designs

I spent a couple of days taking pictures and getting some of my yarns on line. I have been having so much fun posting them and seeing them on line. Now I need to get people moving to the site. I have knitted up some really nice new objects and the more I work with my homespun the more I like it.


This yarn is going to be used in a sweater. I almost have enough of the purplish color to make a nice sweater. I think putting the designer yarn on the collar or the neckline or across the front as visual element would make it very nice. Then the rest of the sweater could be knit with a stockinette. There are about 4 ounces left to spin.

Love, love, love, my suri alpaca. It is soooooo soft. It will be thread spun as a trial to see what happens. Hope it works like I want it to. It has been washed and carded. Now on to the work.

Finished a few hats and shawls in the last few months. I especially like the green one with the flowers in the yarn.
I then wove more yarn through the length of the shawl and it has a nice look to it. It is a simple shawl and just garter stitch on big needles but it does have interest by the colors and flowers from the designer yarn.

New pictures in my shop!

I spent most of yesterday taking pictures to add to my website. I am always amazed when I start looking at all the things I have created. It seems like just yesterday when I started to spin and now I have boxes of my own yarn. I love each yarn I make for different reasons. I start thinking about what made me do this particular blend and the different add-ons I used. Sometimes I use them for my own use and at other times I want to share them. I have wanted to get these on my site for a while but never had the uninterrupted time to do it. My web site is coming along, although I still have to figure a few things out.

New Items for sale

Wow, sometimes it is such a time consuming project putting the new items on the website for sale. I have put fleeces and alpaca fiber out this weekend. I want to get all my stuff done so that I can sell them to get a van. That way I will be able to do my business for Alpaca Spinsters. With all the things going on, I hope to have the information on the web site finished in the next couple of days and then be able to get it started soon.

So check out my web site for more information.

Busy, Busy, pictures and more

Busy, busy. Trying to get the pictures of the fleece I have on line so that I can sell them. I have way too much fiber, not enough money and the need to get things under control. Then...I will be adding the yarns I have decided to sell. i have 4 BIG tubs of yarn that needs to move along. So I have to just get busy and add something every day.

NBC Olympic coverage Censorship

Per Yahoo's news coverage, "NBC’s effort to convince Olympics officials to schedule certain events in the morning so the network could show them live everywhere except the West Coast." This just is plain censorship, not allowing us to see the live coverage but forced to wait 3 hours, long after it had concluded.

Therefore, those of us on the West Coast had to wait until long after everyone else had seen the races, 3 hours in fact. I would much rather get to see the competitions when they happen, cheer on the teams and send them my positive energy, than already have the news that my chosen person won or lost.

In the case of the 4x100 relays, I didn't even bother to turn on the show I was so disgusted. In fact, I quit watching the Olympics and didn't even bother to watch the closing ceremony because it went late and I was already sleep deprived by watching the men's basketball team live at 1 oclock in the morning.

I already knew that I would not be able to see a replay of the opening games because I had not purchased my television coverage from an authorized vendor and thus could not see the closing coverage in review as well. Had it been shown on TV when it occurred and not 3 hours later, I would have been able to coordinate it with my schedule.

I resent someone else making the decision that the west coast had to wait for 3 hours to watch a race that was already won or lost.