Tag: Homestead Wool and Gift Farm

Update, organize, advance!

The update: My dad is still in the hospital in Tampa, but due to schedule conflicts Mom and I came back to North Carolina this weekend.  It was a long drive but there are lots of craft stores along the way 😉  She’s flying back on Thursday for the long weekend but I can’t handle that much flying so I’ll be here on my lonesome with a huuuuuuge stash to play with!  We’ll have to go back to Tampa again to pack up his apartment by the 26th and move his stuff to NC, while he is being transferred to an Army hospital at Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA.  We may or may not be visiting him there, the schedule is tight as it is since I go back to the UK on the 30th.

Organizing: I have bought so much stuff!  I had ordered more fiber from the Homestead Wool and Gift Farm before I found out that I would be able to attend Convergence 2008.  No, not the goth one, the biennial conference of the Handweavers Guild of America.  I was only able to go for one afternoon at the exhibit hall but oh my, what a wonderful experience!  I don’t weave much yet (although that’s something I want to do more of in the future) but the vendors included sooooo much for spinners and dyers.  Dyeing, too, is something I have only toyed with really, but I hope to take a natural dyeing course through a lovely SCA lady in the UK if she is ever able to resume doing the courses.  Plus there was plenty of “weaving” (read: knitting) yarn for me to buy 🙂  So I loaded up a lot on fiber and yarn and got two new spindles, a nostepinne, a new lucet, some wooden bobbins, a sock loom from a company I’d never heard of before and several books for spinning on spindles. It was fabulous!  (And many thanks to Mom for financing it all 😉 )  Mom really, really fell in love with the Ashford Elizabeth 2 but I have yet to make up my mind as to whether I prefer a double treadle or a double-wide single treadle (like on the E2).  I just don’t know which is better for my knees.  And anyway, I want to get a drum carder before considering a wheel!  (Plus I am holding out for a reasonably-priced electric spinning “wheel” to appear in the UK, alas I can’t just get a US one because of the power/voltage issues :/)

We also stopped at 5 scrapbooking/stamping stores and one quilt store plus Michael’s had a big sale on scrapbooking stuff while we were down there and we hit a Hobby Lobby.  (No Serenity looms though, do they still make/sell those???)

So as a result of all of this wonderful stash enhancement, I’ve been spending most of today trying to organize everything so that I can get the most out of what little crafting time I will have available to me this trip.

Advance!  On to bigger and better things, I say!  I’m really gunning to get crafting, I just have several more chores and a few doctors appointments this week and then I can hopefully get my pics off my cameras to post them and also get back to making stuff!

Hope everyone is having a great week, and happy 4th of July to those who celebrate it.

 

PS. Don’t miss today’s episode of Yarncraft (the podcast by Lion Brand) which is on Loom Knitting!  I’m bummed that I never really got the chance to call in for it but oh well.  I’m going to go listen right now!

Getting Ready!

My walk is tomorrow!  Please consider donating!  I lied about wearing my sequinny All-Stars, it’s a bit too hot and t managed to fix my broken Z-Coils (sandals with springs in the heel, much easier on the back) so that’s the plan.

I’ve started making thank-you cards.  Not quite satisfied with the design yet but I’m still working on it.

I’m also starting to make my packing list for my trip.  I’m trying to be minimal about what craft supplies I take — tools only — but when dealing with things like hand carders and jewelry pliers it’s starting to stack up :/  I need to be less than one suitcase on the way over and will bring three home but one of those will be mostly magazines and the two small quilts we plan to make, plus I’m stocking up on pillows as I can’t get the ones I like over here.  I vacuum seal them but it’s still a lot of bulk.

Homestead Wool and Gift Farm got another batch of new fibers today so I finally placed an order. Several pounds of fiber, about half raw and the other half roving.  That should keep me for most of the summer for spinning and felting, I don’t know when I will find time to dye, quilt and embroider! My beading stuff is mostly going over to do the annual repairs on mom’s substantial collection, including re-knotting all of the pearls this year.  

But I’m worried that we may spend a few weeks in Florida in the hospital if my dad doesn’t get better.  He has a mass that is squashing his intestines that they don’t know what it is yet. I think it’s a hematoma like Helen has, but there’s a chance it may be cancerous 🙁  Anyway I may also be stranded in NC when I first arrive as Mom may be down in Florida with Daddy. (Remember he’s only in Florida because of the Army, he’s due to retire any day now but they are keeping him down in Florida until this health crisis is over which may be many more months. So Mom goes to visit as much as she can.)  So I need a lot to keep me busy as my looms may not be in by then!

I also have a ton of beading work to do for her before I go. I don’t want to take beads over if I can help it, so all of the stuff I have bought to make things for her needs to get done next week, ideally.

Plus I have two swaps to do (already started on both but need to finish) and two care packages to send out (Project Superstar and Purlpower).

So I am a very busy bunny the next few weeks!  But unfortunately my body has other ideas and is making me rest a lot so I’m just going to have to prioritize.  But just right now I have cards to make and emails that need writing, so I’d better be off!

I’ll leave you with a picture of some of the fiber I have ordered, a beautiful white baby alpaca…I bought a pound but there is still more for others!

Photo Courtesy Homestead Wool and Gift Farm