Friendship...

Do you have friends, who just out of the blue, who just randomly do nice things for you? Ruth Tice decided I needed some flowers. Reason? Just to be nice. Aren't these beautiful? They have the most wonderful fragrance, too. What can you do for a friend today? Call them up and tell them how much you value their friendship...hand write them a card and drop it in the mail...or send them some flowers. Spread a little sunshine around in your little area of the world today and let someone know how much you care. Thank you, Ruth! You are one in a million and I value your friendship immensely!

Fun in Farmersville

I cannot begin to tell you how much fun we have when we head to Diane's shop, Fiber Circle, in Farmersville. Our Thursday, fiber day, ladies try to make a trip up to Diane's shop once per month.

Diane has been knitting and crocheting since she was three. She has published multiple magazines on knitting, machine knitting and crocheting. The best part? Diane is wonderful about sharing her knowledge with others. When our group makes our monthly trek up to Diane's yarn shop, we pick out a project to knit. Diane sits down and teaches each of us something new.


Here, Anna shows off a scarf Diane helped us make. This pattern is called "Pom Pom Frenzy". I've since made about eight of these scarves for gifts.


Tatsuko and Kazuko show off their "Pom Pom Frenzy" scarves, too. There are many variations of this scarf, with each of them being Fun! Fun! Fun!


Lois and Evelyn are experienced knitters. Evelyn machine knits some incredible fantastic suits, shawls, skirts, pants, etc. If you have a machine knitting question, Evelyn is a "go to" person. Lois is equally skilled. We are blessed to have them in our little group. They are a joy to be around.


Iris spends her time hunting down the most incredible yarns in the shop. She "teases and tempts" us with her finds. Iris knits around the clock, so she doesn't hardly sit down at the yarn shop to knit, but instead spends her time finding yarns to work with for the remainder of the month. Iris teaches a knitting class at her church and is always on the lookout for new and excited yarns to use. Diane's shop always has plenty to choose from.


In this picture, Anna is showing off the scarf I finished that day. This pattern is called, "Diane's Favorite Scarf". It involves increases and dropping stitches that makes the knitting go even faster. This scarf is made out of alpaca yarn with some fun ribbon yarn.


Lastly, Diane sent us each home with some homemade fudge. Oooooeeeee! This is some of the most delicious fudge EVER! Chocolate pecan and Peanut Butter fudge were two of the flavors I came home with. They are SCRUMPTIOUS! This would make a wonderful gift for someone this Christmas. So, make the short trip to Farmersville this Christmas. You won't be sorry!

Kid 'N Ewe and Lamas, Too!

This was my first year to attend the annual Kid 'N Ewe and Lamas, Too event in Boerne, TX. I coordinated the Spin-off Competition for the State of Texas Alpaca Ranchers. It was a huge success with 111 entries. Whoo hoo!

Joyce Jackson helped me setup my booth. We had everything from raw alpaca fiber, to scarves, shawls, teddy bears, bags, aprons, etc.

Sales were pretty good. I paid for my expenses, plus a little. I had the most wonderful time enjoying the company of old friends and meeting new friends, too! Cindy Telisak, of Jacob's Reward Farm, a good friend of mine, situated her booth next to mine. We left the partitions open between us and setup an area for spinners to drop by and spin with us. Our group of spinners became so large we had to "move them" to the center aisle.

I met a wonderful new friend, Mary Bensel, aka Grandma TuTu. Mary makes some amazing things. She has a delightful personality and was a joy to spend the weekend with!

If you get the chance, you need to make the trip down to Boerne next year in November. It's a craft person's delight!

Another visit at the farm...

Iris Arias, a close neighbor of mine, invited the women from her church and knitting group, out to visit our ranch. The objective: to learn how yarn is "created". Ah...I love this kind of field trip. The trip began by showing everyone the animals. Everyone gets a kick out of feeding the alpacas and being surrounded by faces looking up at you exclaiming, "feed ME! Feed ME!".



We then went into the breezeway for a quick (very quick) lesson in picking, washing, carding, and spinning fiber. I think it was an eye opener for everyone to realize just how much work is involved in making yarn. So, the next time you pull out some yarn to use in your projects, remember what all is involved to get it to that point. :o)

As the group began to leave, a few remained to check out what was left of my vegetable garden. We cleared off most of the remaining peppers and some cherry tomatoes. Aurora Diaz left with a bounty of vegetables to enjoy. She loves her garden and is looking forward to getting some compost to add to her garden next spring.

We ended the visit with the kids getting to hold some of our chicks. What is it about kids and chickens? Every visit we seem to have out here, the children say the chickens were their favorite part of the trip. Go figure...