Time is Zooming By

It's true, it's almost Thanksgiving.  Last week I thought I had written a blog post the week prior, but I had not, so it has been almost 3 weeks since my last post.  

It seems there is not a lot to write about, or at least not a lot of photos since the weather has been very dreary.  But I have finished some things and Grover and I went Bar Hopping (agility trial) and there are more things coming up.

First of all, Grover and I did go attend a 3 day agility trial Nov 3, 4 & 5.  It wasn't as great as the prior trial for us, but it was still good and lots of fun.  We had no Qs for 3 runs on Friday.  On Saturday, we had 1 Q for 3 runs.  That was a standard Q.  Then Sunday we Qd in both standard and jumpers, for our 12th QQ.  Which brings our QQ total to 12 out of 20 needed for our MACH.  We still also need 356 points out of 750, so we're (more than) a little behind on that, which means we need to be faster AND accurate.   Grover and I are attending a trial in Zanesville this coming weekend.  We will miss Friday and also Saturday morning since we will be going to Dayton for Thanksgiving.  We will leave my truck in Zanesville on Thursday on the way to Mom's and Sam will just drop Grover and me off on Saturday and he and Rowdy will go on home.   

And of course Thanksgiving is only 3 days away.  Our gathering will be a little larger this year than the last few years, with my brother's family having moved back to Ohio from Arizona, but we will still be missing the Michigan contingent and my own kids living out west. I know life is change, but there are people whose presence will be greatly missed.  
 
It was cold a dreary all weekend as I said.  Today it is cold, but the sun is shining, which helps a little.  Since it was cold and dreary, I spent some time in my studio over the weekend finishing up some projects and starting a new one.  I also did a little tidying up.  The finished project is several towels all from one warp.  Originally I wanted to make them all with the Christmas borders on them, but I had so much trouble with the plain weave parts that I gave up.  The yarn was fine and I had all kinds of tension problems with it.  If there are too many problems and the project is not fun, there is no point in struggling through.  I do this because I enjoy it after all.  A week from this coming Saturday is our local Christmas Festival and I will have a booth space there, so these towels will be part of what I have to sell.


Having done a little tidying up of the studio, I thought I'd make a record here of how it looks now, 6 months after I moved into it.  This is the front to the right of the door as you come in.  








 


Continuing around to the right is my storage shelving and the alpaca rug where Rowdy likes to spend a lot of time.  He was not out here when I took these photos however.

On the back wall is my sewing machine, and my drum carder for processing fleece is under the window.  The big empty spot to the left of that will be where I eventually put the large cabinet that is currently in the loom room at the office

And here, before we get back to the door, is where my loom is set up.  This loom will eventually be moved to the other side of the space (first photo) and my big rug loom will go in its current location.  I need some more lighting, particularly over my sewing area, but in general I am very happy with this space.  And I should be.

Grover and I have been taking a fairly regular morning walk of about a mile.  This morning I had my camera with me and took a photo from the "flat" we walk across looking down toward the house and buildings.

Now that the leaves are off the trees, the alpaca barn (red roof) and studio (white door, green roof) to the right of the alpaca barn are somewhat visible. The sun is just coming up over the ridge behind me and you can see it on the ridge on the other side.  Our valley or  "holler" is quite narrow.

 I have been knitting a sweater with my handspun alpaca/shetland yarn.  It has interesting construction, starting in the center of the front and then the right sleeve.  I am also doing some Christmas gift knitting, so this is going slowly.  

 We have had a lot of rain, so the creek is running.  The 3 hens on the far end of the bridge are the old hens.  The new ones seem to be watching them in order to figure out how to get to the other side of the water.  All the new hens are laying eggs now.  We are getting 10 eggs a day, so we once again have eggs for sale.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!