Happy Birthday Heidi!

Well, belated birthday that is.

Heidi, the owner and operator of the prestigious London-Wul Farm, had a special birthday this past weekend.



The staff of LW, Sherri and Linda, very smartly threw her a surprise birthday party last Wednesday night at the shop of course!

Wednesday night is the regular knit and spin night so it wasn't much surprise for Heidi to see fellow spinners and knitters arriving. But when her neighbors from down the street showed up the cat was out of the bag.

We all had a wonderful time sharing wine and drinks along with delicious snacks! And of course a birthday cake with just the right number of candles.



Thanks to Heidi for sharing her birthday with all of us, and a special thanks to Sherri and Linda for planning such a well thought out party and inviting us (all behind Heidi's back). Great job girls!

Two topics in One

First off I just received my second Secret Pal gift. Thanks Pal!



The gloves are hand knit by my pal with Alpaca and the yarn you see there, is Alpaca sock yarn! That's the most amazing thing ever! It's so soft, and it's blended with 20% wool and 10% Nylon so it's strong too. Those white candies are chocolate covered toffee almonds... Yum! This is a terrific package and it arrived just in time for my birthday.

Next, the Maritime Spinners Retreat... WOW was it fun! Line and CJ beat me to the punch and blogged about it already. Check out their posts here and here for a terrific recap of the weekend.

The London-Wul spinners were well represented by Roselyn, Line, CJ, Manon and Dorin. Missing from this photo but close by are also Catherine and Sherri, and of course me taking the picture.



I didn't take that many pictures for some reason (I was too busy spinning and chatting I guess) but you can see all my photos from the retreat here.

I would highly recommend this retreat to anyone interested in spinning, new or old. I'm signing up for next year for sure.

The vendors were great there too and I bought a ton of fiber, from silk to Romney and everything in between. I'll post some pics of them soon.

I'm so Excited

What a crazy week! Where do I start!

First off last Friday I dyed some Coopworth Fleece I'd bought in Halifax at the Loop in the spring.


It was grey and I wanted a fall colorway so I mixed some dyes to make red, orange and green.




It didn't turn out like I expected but it is a fall colorway and I like it. It's coming with me to the spinning retreat, but I'll get to that in a minute.

Next on Sunday was the Yarn Harvest Sale at London-Wul and Heidi had also invited us out to stay and knit as well. I hadn't been out there for a while to sit and knit because of my Wednesday night classes so I really looked forward to this. I also bought some yarn and fleece, no shock there. Two bags of dyed Polworth (Pumpkin Patch & Little Hearts Ease), 6 balls of Alfosso Lopi for felted clogs and a Fleece Artist Garter Jacket Kit for me! It's in amazing brown and pink tones.





Tuesday was a big day. First I found out I won the Secret Pal 11 Contest 3 that our group leader put on! That was the highlight of my day. Later that night I found out that our sewer backed up and we have roots growing in the pipes in our front lawn. I won't bore you with the gorey details, but let's just say it is gorey!

Wednesday night I presented my individual project in class. Thank goodness that's over with, but it went well all considering what went on the night before at my house with a snake and a plumber.

Now it's Thursday and it's Troy and my 4th year wedding anniversary. We went out for supper at an Italian restaurant called Pastelli's. It was delicious! I had stuffed Marsala chicken with mushroom risotto and creme brule for dessert. YUM!

Now I'm packing to go to the annual Fall Maritime Spinners Retreat which is in Mill River, PEI this year! I'm so very excited as I've been looking forward to this since before I could spin. The knitters and spinners at London-Wul were always mentioning it and it sounds like such a good time. Well it's finally here and I've got my fleece, UFOs, wine, salty and sweet snacks all packed and ready to go. There will be lots of pictures to come next week!

Lots of Knitting going on

I've been really productive this last week (but my school work is not progressing very fast).

It's time for some show and tell.

First off, here are my finished Sweet Pea socks. Just in time considering the sock eaters around here.


Knit with Fleece artist Merino.

Next up, a slightly felted version of the Foliage Hat from Knitty.

Troy is modelling so I can take the picture. I knit this with Briggs & Little and did not check my gauge first. It was a fun pattern and a quick knit. Turned out a little big on me so I felted it a tad. B&L felts very slowly so it didn't shrink too much but now fits perfectly.

More fingerless mitts

This one is Fetching knit with the yarn I spun after dying it myself. Was supposed to be socks but I didn't have enough yardage.



These ones are from Weekend Knitting and are knit with my handspun alpaca.

And last but not least, I've started another pair of Heat Wave Socks with Regia yarn.


Ok, now back to working on my HR class project... presentation is Wednesday!

Sock eaters

Last Friday was a bad day for socks at my place.

In the morning I woke up to Clancy chewing on the toe of the socks Deirdre gave me as a secret pal gift. I'm so sorry to show you this Deirdre! I yelled at Clancy from you and from me. He actually went into my closet and got the sock. I'm buying a hamper next week!



Then I went to work... then I came home and took my shoes off.

This is what I found... a big hole, my sneaker had eaten off the heel of my sock! And I don't have any more of this sock yarn :(



Time to get knitting some new fall socks!