Fiber, Frankenmuth & More Fiber

So about a month ago Beth, her DD Maggie, DS Ryan and I took a trip to Zeilinger's Wool Company in Frankenmuth, MI. Beth had a boat load of fleeces that she wanted to have them process into roving and I had one fleece from last fall's shearing of Maria.
We dropped of our fleeces, wish I would have had a before pic, after packing them in the trunk of Beth's car. They said it would be about 4 weeks til they were all processed and ready for pickup. We then went to eat our chicken dinner at the world famous Zender's Restaurant....it was yummy!!!! Strolled in a couple of shops and then headed back home.

Well, yesterday was pickup the fiber day for me and my youngest, Steve. We head over to Frankenmuth to pick up all the fibery goodness and wowza!!!! The lady at Zeilinger's went upstairs to get our batch of rovings and the bags just kept coming down one after the other. Steve's eyeball just about fell out of his head when he saw how many big bags of roving rolled down the stairs! He asked me if I was sure that it all belonged to Beth and I checked each bag and for sure they all had her name on them so they were definately hers!

We grabbed bag after bag, eight in all, and took them over to my PT Cruiser waiting patiently in the parking lot. I opened the back hatch and we started loading them in one after the other but the back section got filled up quite quickly so it was then on to the back seat. I put one side of the back seat down and we then started loading again and managed to get each and every bag into my little PT.
I should have taken a pic of my car loaded down with all that fibery goodness but me being me, I forgot to even take my camera with me....are you surprised?!!

This is my bag of roving from Maria's fleece. It was rewashed and carded into a very fluffy roving that is just beautiful.
Here is a pic of Beth's bags of roving.....believe me, they are bigger than they appear in the pic! I love the swirled rovings.

After picking up our fiber stash, Steve and I went for the traditional chicken dinner and then strolled through the town. I don't remember ever stopping in and looking around the Woolen Mill but we did and I found these awesome cute sheep slippers. Not only are they cute, they are very very warm and comfortable!

After visiting shop after shop in downtown Frankenmuth, Steve and I decided that we were exhausted and should head for home, so we did.

We had a great time seeing the sites although we only made it through about half of the downtown area. We decided that we would finish the other half on our next trip which will be soon since shearing time is rapidly approaching.

Some Project That I Have Been Working On

Since I have had so much pain and bouts of pain for the past couple weeks or so, I have been very busy working on a few projects. I did manage to get a few finished even...YEAH!!!
So I thought that I would share a few of them with you all in cyberland.......

I handspun/handknit this whimple for my MIL's 70th birthday back in March. It turned out great and I am very proud of it, especially the lace detail and softness of it. I think she likes it too! It is knit from 2 ply handspun 100% Merino wool.
I didn't spin the yarn for my latest pair of socks, as I just took a class on spinning sock yarn and am not that good at it yet but I am practicing! I knit these socks using yarn that I bought when I was in Berea, KY last Oct. I don't know the name of the colorway but I do know that it is from Misty Mountain Farms.

This is a first of many more skeins of yarn from batts that were made by Abby Franquemont.This fiber is Merino, Silk and Cashmere....it is very soft and is such a soft color.I hand spun this skein using my Golding spindle, it is a 2 ply yarn.
I made this skein using some BFL top that is so soft you would swear that it is cashmere!I hand spun it on my Golding hand spindle and it is very soft, uniform and thin.I am very proud of this skein!!! I just love BFL fiber and it is fastly becoming my favorite fiber to spin and knit with.
My Handspun/Handknit Danish Tie Shawl......this shawl pattern is in the latest issue of Spin Off Magazine.
I spun up the single ply yarn for this shawl on my Ashford Joy wheel using Louet Northern Lights Pencil Roving in the colorway called Ocean Waves.I really like how this shawl is turning out and I just love the richness of the colorway as well!
These two skeins I spun with my Golding handspindle. They are 2 ply and are a beautiful rich rust color.
I'm not sure of the fiber content. This batt was in our kit from our sock yarn spinning class with Abby Franquemont.
My first handspun sock yarn.....I am still practicing on spinning sock yarn since I took Abby's class. I am getting better at it :o)

I have a couple more projects that are WIP but I will share them with you at a later time.

Updated Pics of Our Girls

So after another bout with the nasty flu bug and hubby Jeff bugging me to update my blog with the pics he took of the girls....here I am updating and adding pics of the girls!

They are very close to shearing day as their wool is growing so nice and full. We are trying to wait until next month for shearing day so Aaliyah's wool can catch up with Aida's a little more. She is almost there just a little more to go.

Jeff captured some great pics of the girls so here they are.........

I love this pic of Maria, isn't she so photogenic?


Aida is no slouch in the photogenic department either!

Here is my baby girl Aaliyah and her sis Aida devouring their hay!

Aaliyah is the only one that we have been able to get a good pic of her fleece......ooh la la, look at that crimp, SCRUMPTOUS if I say so myself!!!

We Have New Family Members

Ok so I'll admit it....I am a crappy blogger!!! There, I said it now lets see if I can get better at keeping up with this blogging thing. I know, I know I have said this before and I do have good intentions but just don't find the time to come here and post when I should.
Again, I will try to be better at posting!

Well, I had this terrible flu that started last Wed evening and lasted almost through the whole weekend. As I sat and knitted my socks, I kept thinking that what I was feeling was my new medication but the dizziness wasn't from the medication, it was the onset of the flu bug.

I luckily felt better on Sat and good enough to go to the MSU Livestock Pavilion and enjoy the rabbit show....not to mention pick up the newest members of our family, Phoebe and Kastor.
Phoebe and Kastor are brother and sister English Angora's, they are 4 months old and both are already champions as they have first place blue ribbons from their first show!
They are now living here with us in our first basement and we are loving having them around. They are so much fun to watch as they hop around in their cages and come to the door each and every time they see you come close to their cages.

They sure are a bit of work to keep groomed and clean but they are still very fun to have around and I know that we are going to have a great relationship with each other in the years to come.

The cutie yawning is Kastor and the pritzy looking one is Phoebe...thank you Gina from Green Barn Farm for not only the pics of Phoebe and Kastor but also for allowing us to adopt them from your farm. Gina and her hubby are wonderful people to work with and Jeff, Steve and I enjoyed meeting them on Sat and spending the day with them learning all about English Angoras and the show circuit.






Hopefully soon I will have more pics of them along with some pics of their gorgeous wool spun up! I am looking forward to spinning their first wool cuttings and then knitting it into a beautiful angora shawl.

Stay tuned.........

My First Handspun Sweater

One of my biggest projects right now is my very first Knitting Pure & Simple Neckdown Sweater.....I bought the pattern from Jimmy Beans Wool after looking at all the neckdown sweater patterns from Knitting Pure & Simple for a long time...I think about 6 months or so actually.

Well anyway, I finally ordered on a week ago Thursday and it came in the mail on Tuesday this week. Once I had that pattern in my hot little hands then it was time to decide what yarn to use for it. Now mind you I already have so many ongoing projects right now.....and I'm sure you can all relate to that!!! But how could I not get started on that sweater the day the pattern arrived in my mailbox.....well I finally decided on the yarn and I went with my handspun BFL & Baby Alpaca in a natural brown color. I bought the roving from my friends Cindy and Margarget from the Pitchfork Ranch last month at our January Spinner's Flockmeeting. The roving is so so soft, light and airy with a beautiful light brown color.

As I've been knitting it in this sweater pattern I am really in awe of it's softness and the feelings that I have for creating a knitted garment from roving that you have spun yourself. There is no better feeling I can tell you!!!

I have a couple more projects that I have started with other handspun yarns but I will wait til next time to post them here.
They are on my projects list for you to see if you are on Ravelry....feel free to look me up there. My name on Ravelry is MaddiwoodFarms

Hope to see you there!

Wow, It's Been A Long Time!

Oh my stars guys and gals.....I can't believe that I haven't posted to my blog since December, and before Christmas at that!!! What a bad, bad girl I am!!!

But never fear....I am here now and decided that I needed to post a little update. Well ok, a big update since it's been so long.
Well let's see......I have been spinning and spinning so much since I decided to try this new craft back in October....and I must say that I am having the time of my life with everything that goes along with spinning and also meeting the wonderful new people that I have had the pleasure to meet in the spinning world.
Some of my newest friends are also some of the coolest and most helpful too!! You guys/gals know that I love you all and thank you all so much for all your help answering my questions and just plain putting up with me in general.

Last Saturday, I participated in Knit Michigan and had so much fun meeting alot of new people and especially meeting so many Ravelers!
Beth from The Spinning Loft
was so great to ask me if she could enter my first handspun/handknit item-a scarf-in the fashion show for her shop. Well you know that I was more than honored to be even asked and of course I said yes with a big smile on my face.
I couldn't resist taking a couple pics of this nice lady as she modeled my scarf. So here they are.......





Knit Michigan was a great event for a more than worthy cause and I am looking forward to doing it again next year.
For those of you who don't know already, I hand delivered 100 cloths from my charity group Loves Many Cloths as well as 19 chemo caps for the cancer centers. I am sure that we will have many more for them next year!

So Sorry But I Love My Spinning!

Hello fellow bloggers.....me bad and so sorry for not keeping up on my blog posts again. Thank you Beth for commenting and reminding me that as usual I have been neglecting my blog.
I can't help it....REALLY...I just love my spinning so much that I just can't seem to get on my laptop and update my blog. I know it's my fault and excuses are just excuses but my excuse it valid and worthy of taking note of....I am a spinner who just can't find the time to blog like I would want to.....and that's my final answer and I'm sticking to it!!!!

I hope to have some new pics of my latest handspun yarns....oh I just love working with baby alpaca, even more than the BFL that I have come to fall in love with lately.
I bought some black 100% Baby Alpaca roving and some really prime super soft Merino roving from Beth at The Spinning Loft this past week and have spun some up and started knitting it....oh boy, oh boy is it gorgy to work with both spinning and knitting.
I'll catch ya all up on it with pics soon....I promise Beth, I really do LOL