Ready for Rhinebeck!!

Wow!! It's hard to believe it's October already! My two oldest have already gone to their Homecoming dances and it's Farmer's Fair time in Dillsburg. It's also time to head to Rhinebeck for the New York Sheep & Wool Festival. This is one of my favorite times of the year. It's crisp and cool and everyone is wearing all their beautiful hand-made sweaters, shawls and anything else you can imagine. I love to go to the fleece sale and do lots of other shopping as well. We leave this coming Friday and it is sure to be a fun-filled girl's getaway!

A Terrible Sadness

Well I have been avoiding writing about this for long enough. A terrible sadness has struck my life and it's time for me to get it out. At the end of January one of my dearest friends and co-workers passed away unexpectedly. Her name is Angela Place and she was one of the sweetest, kindest, loving people I knew. She was our Marketing Director and creative genius at work and always fun to be around. I miss her terribly, sometimes so much that when I think about her it hurts. I still cry a little and get teary eyed when talking about her. She was just a wonderful person. A great knitter, spinner, blogger and dear, dear friend. I said my formal goodbyes at her services but I feel the need to say goodbye in this way too. I can only pray that she is up there looking down on me and smiling as we try to find a way to honor her at work in the way she would approve of. She left behind an loving husband and three wonderful sons.
This has been a hard time in my life. It's not often that you lose someone your own age, and she was young in life. If I could have the chance to talk to her one last time there are many things I would say to her. My letter might go something like this:

Dear Angela,
I miss you. I wish that the last time I had come to your house I had just walked in instead of texting you later. I will never get that chance back. I want to thank you for helping me to love knitting and spinning even more and for re-igniting my love of crochet which ultimately led to my first original design. I have you to thank for that. You were so positive about everything. You were so creative and always coming up with new ideas and designs. I hope that you are no longer in pain where you are and that you are surrounded by yarn and with your Grams again.
You are terribly missed and I wanted you to know that I love you.

Bye,
Tasha

So, that would be my letter if I had to chance to write one for her.
Thanks for listening to me get this off my chest.

Bye for now.

A New Year!!

Well it's 2011! Did you make any New Year Resolutions?? I usually don't and didn't again this year. Other than to try to finish more knitting projects than I start and to spin and weave more. The problem is finding the time to do all these things. Raising three kids, two of which are active busy teenagers, doesn't leave me with alot of free time to get these things done. I moved one of my spinning wheels into the living room hoping that will entice me to spin more since I can do it while sitting with the family instead of in my studio. The problem is our bulldog Bella loves to eat my fiber. So I have to make sure that the basket of fiber is always up out of reach. I have a skirt and sweater that I started that I really want to finish while it's still cold enough out to enjoy wearing them. And I want to weave some shawls and scarves. That's alot of lofty goals but I am up for the challenge, I think :)

Maybe it will get a little less crazy when my oldest can drive but that's still a year off. Shortly after her my middle son will start driving. See?? Busy, busy, busy!!! Oh well, that's life I guess :)

So, what are you hoping to accomplish in this new year? Leave me a comment and let me know. Maybe we can get together and work on them :)

Bye for now!!

Random life happenings.

Let's see.....where to start. So much has been going on most days I don't know if I'm coming or going. First, today is my youngest son's birthday so, Happy Birthday Kyle!! He is eleven years old today, wow did they go fast!

My oldest, the daughter, has been dealing with a ton of high school crap lately. Just stupid girls picking and bickering but it really gets to her. It seems that no matter what kind of support I try to give it's not right for her. Go figure, teenage girls!! I guess I forgot that when you're 15 you know everything and your parents know nothing :) Oh well, we'll get through it somehow.

My middle child, the other son, is goofing off in school. Just had parent/teacher conferences and they did not go well :( Apparently he LOVES Algebra and Science and even Spanish since he has A's in those classes. However he has a C in Social Studies and a D in English. His teachers know he's super smart and able to do the work with no problems, he just doesn't feel like it. UUUgghhh!!!! Teenage boys are sometimes worse than teenage girls.

So, we have the youngest's party this weekend, my daughter's party next weekend and the following weekend is Thanksgiving. So basically, I'm gonna be super busy for the next three weeks or maybe more.

I guess that's life :)

So long for now!!

A new design!

I have also been busy do some designing. I recently designed this crochet shawlette for work and it seems to be a little popular on Ravelry :) YAY!!! The question I have for myself is this, "Self, why can you design a shawl in crochet but not in knit?". My self has no answer to this other than the math involved in knitting lace scares me. I am trying though and have lots of designs in my head. I need to get them out cuz my head is getting full.

Here's a pic of my design :)

Now, go make one for yourself!! I'm not gonna do it for you :)

It's been awhile!!

Well it has been quite a while since my last post and I have no excuses :) Just busy and life getting away from me. So what have I been up to you ask? I'm glad you asked, I have been up to alot lately.

Lots of dyeing going on at work, I'm talking CRAZY BUSY DYEING!!!! As in we ran out of base before I could even get it all dyed!! But that means people love what we do and I am happy and proud to say I do it! I love my job and can't even imagine where I would be without it. You know those people who say things like " God I hate my job!" or " I really don't want to go to work today!"? We all know those people, well I am happy to say that I never have those days. I never get up and not want to go to work. I never wish I had a different job. My job brings me joy each and every day. I get to be creative, work with one of my BEST FRIENDS and have tons of fun. Sure there's lots of yarn to dye that I can't possibly get to quick enough for my liking. But our customers understand that they are getting a quality product made by hand and that takes time. So bottom line.....I absolutely love my job:)

What else? Well I went to Rhinebeck and had tons of fun and spent lots of money(which I earned) and bought my very first wool fleeces!! Since I raise alpacas I don't get wool fleeces but they were yummy Border Leicester fleeces and are already at the mill being mixed with some of my alpaca and silk into some wonderful worsted weight yarn!! I can't wait to get my stuff back from the mill ;) All that yummy yarn from my baby boys!! I also bought my first Golding Spindle, the Celtic Knot spindle and it's amazing!! It spins like a dream :) I highly recommend one.

Anything else? Let me think.......I guess that's it for now. I will not promise to update more often, cuz I probably won't :) But I will post when I have something to say!

Oh!! I almost forgot!! Brian (lovely husband) took me and the boys to the Renaissance Faire for the first time just a few weeks ago. It was so much fun! I had a blast listening to the Celtic bagpipe music, and buying cool incense to burn and looking at all the people dressed up. I can't wait to go again next year. Here's a pic of me and the hubby!!

Bitten by the Crochet Bug!!!

So, the crochet shawl is finished and I love it! And it seems that now I have been bitten by the crochet bug. I am currently working on designing an original crochet shawl :) It's going well and so far no problems.
Summer has been crazy as usual. My middle son, Cory, was on crutches for a while after a 4-wheeler accident in which he messed up his knee. We'll just add this to his LONG list of injuries in his SHORT life. Also he just turned 13!! Yay, one more teenager is just what I need. And growth spurts have hit the family! Cory can no longer wear any of last year's clothes and my daughter, Sami, has hit the same dilemma. So, that means they both get new winter wardrobes and Kyle gets Cory's hand-me-downs. Which he loves, so everybody wins :)

As far as other things going on, I am also working on a new Knit shawl design which I will finish when the crochet shawl is done. I also have a cowl in the works as well, so keep checking back as I will probably post them here for you to enjoy as well.