We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

Christmas festivities are in full force here at the McAlindin's!! I am frantically knitting/crocheting and we are having a lot of family time. Here are our trees:

This is the train tree. It is an everlasting tree and it sits in my knitting room and can be seen from the street as you drive past our house. I never decorate this tree, but I love to have the lights on all day.

This is our Family tree it is a real tree and this is where Santa leaves the gifts for everyone. This tree is in our family room and is so nice to smell… Otis really digs the water… blech!

This is the candy cane favor tree and it is in the formal living room.

Last but not least is another everlasting tree in our entrance foyer… it is a new tree this year and I love it! I collect snowflakes and this is the first year I was able to display them all!

Giving Thanks

I am reposting one of my favorite blog posts from 2008 for 2 reasons:

1. My super-duper camera is broken and is in the shop (don't ask)

2. I will be baking these this afternoon with Marin.

Go Here for the post!

Veterans Day

Giving a shout out to the Navy Men in my life:

Thank you Dad for your service.

The Perfect Procrastinator

As a designer, this is my busy season. I seem to have a bunch of designs due mid November which causes me to panic mid September. Everything seems to be put on the back burner except the designs - laundry, decorating my house, basic cleanliness, etc. Every year I say to myself, Kimberly, don't wait until the last minute with these deadlines, get your fanny in gear and write those patterns.

Obviously, I don't listen to myself! This weekend is no exception. I have 1 and 1/3 of a sample to design and knit and what did I do this weekend????

I learned a new spinning technique on my spinning wheel.... Yep! Here are the photos.

I bought this fleece in September: I washed and dyed the fiber (I tried my hand with dying something brown, and I wasn't that successful - so I thought I would practice with this part of the fleece, no harm done if I don't like what I was going to do)

Here is the fleece washed and dyed (see how compacted it is)

I hand picked the fleece apart and made it fluffy:

The fluffy fleece went into the drum carder (my birthday present this year from Mr. Fantastic) and I made a batt:

The batt was split in two and then I stretched it to make the fibers nice a loosey-goosey:

Using a large knitting needle I wrapped the stretched batt around the needle and when it was wrapped once around the needle I broke it off from the batt... I rolled the section around the needle .... And

Viola! A rolag made from a batt.

I really can't describe how much fun I had during this entire process - makes me look like a real fiber geek, but I was giddy with this whole process. The entire basket took me.... ready? 2 days!

On Sunday afternoon I was feeling very clever and sat at my wheel to begin learning the English long draw method of spinning fiber. Long draw creates a lot of air in the yarn as you are spinning and you end up with a really squishy yarn....

EPIC FAIL..... total frustration (a few bad words), thrown rolags, and a shot of Captn' Morgan later...

I sat down to finish my designs that are due....

Halloween 2011

We had a wonderful Halloween at the Mac house:

There was a beautiful southern belle (with her real hair that took forever to curl)

There was 'Graham n Em'

And.... a teenager who didn't trick or treat... or dress up (and didn't want his picture taken)

The Spanish Peacock

My spinning obsession continues with a Russian supported spindle and bowl set from The Spanish Peacock.... I think this is one of the coolest things ever.

I have to do a lot more practicing to get it going smoothly!! This set is made of Lignum Vitae and it is so beautiful, the wood smells like roses. The whole spinning thing fascinates me!

15 Years

"In the name of God... I Kimberly take you Christopher to be my husband....

To have and to hold from this day forward...

For better, for worse...

For richer, for poorer....

In sickness and in health....

To love and to cherish....

Until we are parted by death...

This is my solemn vow..."

The grate....it must be Fall

This morning we woke up to a 50 degree house.... I had to turn the heat on for a bit to take the chill out of the house.

Our house is old... and our heating comes up from the floor vents... a favored spot for the McAlindin children.

Fall is here!

The Crafty Knitter

Yesterday was my niece's 9TH birthday. On Saturday we went to her house to celebrate. She showed me her current knitting project for her baby sister... it's a scarf - I love it!

What I really loved was she made me a necklace for my birthday AND she lent her knitting needles to her younger sister, so she used pencils as her 'knitters'.....

Crafty and Brilliant!!

Real Quick

Real quick post this morning... I am super busy and under the gun to have 2 designs completed by Thursday. Both designs are knit and my friend Natalie will be wearing them this weekend to Vogue Knitting Live in Los Angeles this weekend....

Last night I went to bed real late (actually it was this morning) and I left my current project on the couch. This morning this is what I found....

Looks like Otis loves Namaste Farms yarn also!!

Moss Fern Wrap

Look what made the Crochetme newsletter!! My Moss Fern Wrap From Interweave Crochet. This shawl is an easy pattern repeat and does not take forever to finish.

This morning it was 48 degrees when my children left for school - a wrap is perfect for this fall weather.

Dying for Fall

Well, I have been in a dying frenzy for the past two days. I have to say that I was a bit nervous when I started dying and I am getting used to the whole thing, but I LOVE it!

Monday I started with 1lb of the Cormo. I washed it and dyed it with Jacquard dyes. I mixed two colors together and I like the results. It's almost dry and I can't stop touching it!

Tuesday I washed 2lbs of Cormo and I tried a different dye this time... WOW!!! I tried 2 colors again. As I put the first dye in (called chili pepper) I noticed little specs of blue on the while fiber... hmmm. So then I put in a little bit of yellow. I mixed and mixed and looking at the fleece, it looked a beautiful red.... but if you looked at the dye bath... the color was a gorgeous blue.... so I added a little bit more yellow (thinking blue and yellow make green) and added a bit more wet fleece to it.... THIS is the result!! Fantastic!!

It looks like Fall around here!!

Garden State Sheep Festival

This weekend Marin and I (along with our neighbors) went to the Garden State Sheep Festival in Ringoes NJ.

It was a fun day! There was face Painting....

Goats....

Sheep of all sorts of breeds. This sheep is a Cormo sheep....

And this.....

11 pounds of fiber (cormo) that I scored at the sale! I was so excited and happy I felt like a kid in a candy shop (the human kind, not the baby goat kind)! I walked around with this huge bag of fiber for a bit and was stopped along the way by other fiber lovers. I gave some away, I let people touch it, it was great.... But the the best part was this.... the Cormo sheep and fleece that I bought was from a young 4-H boy. I almost cried!

Today I am working, working on new designs and finishing up some old ones. I am also going to wash up some of that new fiber.... I am so excited!

Look at that crimp... SQUEEE!!!

Hurricane Irene

During Hurricane Irene - I was ready for no power, flooding, and downed trees. I have never been that scared in my life. Seriously. We were so lucky during the storm. We never lost power, had my parents and my brother and sil here with us and it turned out to be... well... fun?

Before the storm it was beautiful and Marin and I decided that we would prepare some fiber so I could comb it during the power outages.

Here is the raw fleece:

Now, this fleece this is a Teeswater fleece is from Namaste Farms and my friend Natalie is the coolest chick I know. She sells her fleeces on Facebook. They go real fast, so go over and friend her and keep looking to see when she sells. Her fleeces are clean, long, long, long wools and spectacular.

Next we washed it. We wash it first with Dawn dish washing liquid and then we use a product called Unicorn pour scour... order it from Here. Really. It's that amazing. Look what the fleece

looks like after it is washed!

That is his George Washington impersonation!Here is my brother helping out and is fascinated with combing (he was so good at it!)

His little nest ready for spinning.

After it was spun, I took this picture of it with one of Natalie's yarns available over at Yarnmarket. I am in the process of knitting something with them now and hopefully will have it done soon. This project is currently my snuggle with Marin while she is going to sleep project. These projects are so special to me because sitting with her while she falls asleep has become one of my favorite things.... one day she won't want me there, so I am savouring all the snuggle time I can!

And They're Off!!

What a craptastically rainy day to send off my babies! Here they are:

7th Grade:

5th Grade:

2nd Grade:

Guess who was SO excited for the start of school that he couldn't sleep last night???

OTIS..... he is napping now - it sure was a busy morning!