Studio 206 “Grand Opening”

Come check out the new studio (#206)

We have moved into new studio space and we are inviting everyone to the “Grand Opening” of all the new studios on the 2nd floor.  Refreshments will be served.  Come plan on a fun day with 4 floors of artists to explore.

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 at Western Avenue Studios, Lowell, MA.  Directions/Info found here.  Open from noon until 5pm.

Hub Mills Outlet will also be open until 4pm that day.

Perfect Weekend

What a glorious weekend! The weather was perfect – for summer that is. It hit 90F! I got a little color in spite of the SPF 55 I put on my face and arms.  And my boys, the Red Sox kicked Yankee butt all weekend in some really great games.

I really should have been doing house stuff but instead, Lucia and I went to Connecticut for the 2009 Sheep and Wool Festival.  I love this one, it’s small and intimate and the weather is usually decent.  In general it’s a great way to kick off the sheep and wool festival season.

These were the poor sheeps that were awaiting their turn with the shearer.  Aren’t they cute?

There is no dignity in getting sheared.  But this sheep didn’t seem to mind too much.

After the shearing – it’s off to the skirting table.

See all the yummy bags of fleece for sale.  I know I wasn’t planning on getting a fleece, but alas there were a few that were already scoured and read to card, so how can a girl resist that!?

I brought home 2.5 lbs. of scoured Border Leicester in a lovely light grey.  I’m thinking I just might spin this up to knit something for me.  I didn’t get a picture of the fleece, but I did card some up Sunday to test out.

Check out this batt of loveliness.

Of course where there are sheep you might find a couple of llamas.  Aren’t they handsome?

And here is Lucia demonstrating her prowess at Navajo plying.  I really wanted to see the demo of cable plying but alas they were not prepared to show that.  I did ask a lot of questions and was told to really over ply one of the two plys and underply the other set before cable plying them.  So when I got home I finished spinning some of the yummy alpaca/silk roving that I got at Halcyon when we went to NETA Spa in February and decided to give the cable plying a shot.

Not too bad eh?  I might want to try this again soon on some hand-dyed stuff just to see what it does with the colors.  It does however halve your yardage but it does make for a very nice and firm yarn.

Sunday it was over to the studio to dye some ’sale basket’ skeins of yarn.   Gun Metal, Cranberry, or Salmon as over dyes can make any yucky yarn really nice.

Then after the studio it was off to my sister’s to say hi and give her the belated birthday card and yummy sock yarn I got her at the festival.  We sat out on her back deck drinking lemonade, she knit while I got her Wee Pippin Wheel going again.  It has been sadly neglected for years and was covered in dust, needed a good oiling and a new drive band.  But now she will have no excuses not to start spinning again.

Then it was home to clean off the grill for the start of grillin’ season.  Marinated chicken, burgers, asparagus, all grilled with a fresh garden salad – topped off with another Red Sox kick Yankee butt game.  Does it get any better?

I guess this is my definition of the perfect weekend.

Wild Rover SnB Pub Crawl

What fun we (Donna, Rosalinda and myself) had last night. Meeting up with old friends (Judy and Brian).

As well as some new friends.

I knew I should have written down everyone’s name now that they have completely left my head.

Brian won a prize!

And so did I….. Jade Sapphire CASHMERE!

April showers bring May flowers

I know I haven’t planted more crocus bulbs in years, but for some reason they are multiplying   There are even a few random crocus in my lawn!

I have added some new stuff on my etsy page – (see link in upper right corner of blog page).

It’s been a busy month.

Success

I would say that most of the overdyed yarn came out better than expected.

Yes?

The New Studio is offically open

and almost ready for business I actually got in to do some dyeing last night. SEE!

It’s not finished yet, I am going back over to play with over dyeing tonight.  See how awesome the Ikea drying rack is working.  Thanks for picking it up for me Brit!

Here are  the new Ikea counters installed!  It is so awesome!  Perfect counter top height,  stainless steel with big back splashes because I am a messy dyer sometimes.

Plenty of storage underneath for my steamer and dyeing supplies.  This is a sweet set-up.  And the best part, since we cannot have running water in our studios, the utility sinks are just steps away.  We still have to decide on what we are going to do for the floors (probably cheap linoleum sheets) and a few lighting changes but we will save that for another day.   At least we are 99% done with the construction part.

I even have the mirror and display hangers installed   Don’t you love my little Gecko?  I do!  I will be at Open Studio (206) this coming Saturday from noon until 5pm – but the big Open House Open Studio for all the new Studios on the second floor is May 2nd, so put that on your calendars now