A Day at Yarn Hollow

Last Friday Kelly planned a surprise 50th birthday party for Linda at Your Local Yarn Shop and my assignment was to get Linda out of the store for the day.   Pick her up at 11:00 and return around 5:30pm. This may not sound like a difficult task but how does one go about getting ones boss out of the store on her normal work day?  By enlisting the help of others, of course. 

I called Rita to see if she could help me out by letting us visit her studio for the afternoon.  She graciously agreed and as luck would have it, so did Linda.  I wasn't sure we could stay at Yarn Hollow for the amount of time I needed to keep Linda occupied so Kelly also added a couple of stops to our agenda for the day.  She just had to have some yarn from both Threadbender and A Grand Skein.

Everything turned out well except it took us 1 1/2 hours to drive back to Battle Creek due to an awful rain storm.  Linda did admit she thought something was up because I asked her to leave for the day but she had no idea the surprise that awaited her at the store when we returned.  Friends, family, a taco bar with all the trimmings, veges, fruit, cake, doughnuts, margarita's and sangria......what more could a girl ask for.

Birthday girl with hubby Fred

Felted birthday hat by Jone Rakoski

Pics of the Yarn Hollow fiber I couldn't leave without.....

On my bobbin is the Finn I purchased at The Spinning Loft. It was only 4 ozs. so I took it with me to Rita's and found this braid of BLF, colorway Spumoni, that I'm currently spinning  to use for plying.

These two braids are Merino Tussah Silk Top in two different colorways. Morning Spice and Electric Chai..... 

and this lovely pair of Merino superwash braids in colorways Spumoni and Bengal Bees.  I now have some colorful spinning in my future!

Thanks to Rita and Ruby at Yarn Hollow for the fun afternoon and to all who helped make Linda's surprise a success!

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!!

New Adventure

Last summer at Michigan Fiber Festival my husband traded one of our Suri alpaca fiber boys for two Pygoras and Wednesday we tackled our first shearing.

We watched several Youtube video's....read some books.....and jumped in. 

 All hooked up.......our friends from 4 Musketeers Alpaca Ranch gave us this alpaca shoot they made and then never used.  We were able to place a board across the supports which put the goats at eye level.......very little bending over.  This was a god send! 

and here we go.........snip, snip, snip....

I could not believe the amount of fiber on this gray boy....thought I'd never get done

 one blister, two Pygoras, three pair of scissors and four hours later....exhausted but done.......

 two happy boys! 

Now to do some research on cleaning and processing this beautiful fiber.  I think I feel some Suri Pygora blends in my near future.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday......don't forget to pop on over to Wisdom Begins in Wonder and check out what everyone else has been working on.

Show Girls

Three stark, white styrofoam heads transformed into show girls......

Almost finished spinning my Panda Top from Yarn Hollow.......

Just two small bundles to go to complete my second bobbin.  I'm thinking of leaving this as a single and using it to knit Citron.

And moving along nicely on my Spectra....

A pretty awesome week!

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!!