Friday, March 8, 2013

Spinning, Spiles and Kindness

With all the excitement about Mabel and Frankie's babies, I forgot to show my first finished piece of spun-by-me yarn! I've already decided what the first two pieces will be once I get to using our own animals' fiber - the first will be some time of art piece to show off our first animals on the farm - I'll hang it in the house and admire it forever. The second piece will be something for someone very special in my life. He's the one that helped me make my dream of owning a farm come true. That being said, I decided to make myself a little something with the purchased roving that I spun. So...I decided I needed a new hat! That's the original intention of that purple roving was a hat for me - the gray and lighter purple were roving I bought at JoAnns, just to play around with. I'm happy with what I created though. It's fascinating to me to watch something turn from a blob of fiber to yarn to a crocheted wearable piece. Love it!
This is just as I had completed it - one day, hopefully, I'll be wearing a homespun, hand knit sweater to match.
Here's another picture - after someone (Mark) was being so so wonderfully helpful - after Frankie pooed on my hat (I was helping her nurse and she decided to poo on my hat, after I laid in on the ground - my fault) - he decided to wash...and dry my hat. What happens to wool when it is dried in a dryer? Felt. The hat shrunk a bit - but I got it stretched back out and it looks super cute. 
In the second picture, you'll notice that I'm in a classroom. I asked Mark if he'd like me to bring little Sweet Pea into his class for a little show and tell. Since we can't just say "here's a goat, come pet it" - where's the learning in that? We also brought in the spinning wheel, fiber and carders etc. The kids were so excited to touch everything...they are 1st graders...so there were lots of questions, lots of comments...lots of AWWWWWwwwwwwWWWWWs when I got Sweet Pea of the her travel pen. LOL I love it! At the end of the day, I held her as we walked to the bus lines for bus duty and got stopped a million times on the way - Mark and I were quite popular yesterday. I sometimes wish I could just do stuff like that all day...teach children about animals and farms and everything that I've learned over the past few years. I would want to be an everyday teacher - more like a traveling teacher that just teaches about special themes and helps support the main teachers. Maybe I'll win the lottery and be able to do something like that....one day. Sweet Pea behaved perfectly - so snuggly and cute, letting everyone pet her and love on her...but it was obvious when she was ready to go home and go back to her mama. It was really cute - as soon as Frankie heard me get out of the car, she baaad really loud and Sweet Pea heard her and responded with a loud baaaaaaaaaaa - and back and forth they went until I got Sweet Pea back in the pen. Immediately Sweet Pea went to nurse and Frankie wanted to clean the smell of all those yucky humans off their baby. Oh! I also wanted to share something else...the amazing kindness of some of the people in my life. About two weeks ago, on Facebook, I put it out in the universe that we were looking for spiles (the taps that go into trees for Maple Syruping) - we were thinking of buying a kit, but they are over $100 and we just didn't have the funds. I was looking for a place around here that we could buy just a couple spiles and couldn't find anything in this area. So thinking that maybe someone knows a guy who knows a guy, I thought I'd just put it out and see what came back. This past Wednesday, I received a box from UPS - it was clinking...hmmm what is this strange sound?? I opened it up and realized that my awesome cousin, James (I call him Jimmy, because I've known him since birth) and his beautiful wife, Kim, had sent me 25 spiles! 25!!!! Man, how cool is that!??!?!!??!?! Looks like I've got some tapping to do. Another awesome thing - my friend Alysia sent me the cutest little heart shaped planter that has hens and chickens plants in it. I absolutely love it. I wish I had more money and time to show the people around me how much I love them and that I'm always thinking about them and I appreciate them. I guess that's why I make them macaroni and cheese?!?!?!?! LOL

1 comment:

  1. Great Post Shelby. You look and sound so happy. Yeah, that would be a great job, teaching young children about life on the farm. Perhaps in a few years you can open the farm to regular school visits. Better still, i dont know if its the same there, but people pay alot of money here to get that "Farm Experience". I have. Lovely gifts from family and friends. All that giving comes back, Karma. Yep still up, 1.54 am. Its 29 degrees still and its hard to sleep plus i slept a little this afternoon. Knee is super painful, especially being so heavy on it. So it was a lovely surprise to boot up and see a new post from my "bunion buddy".

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