It's time again.

Old Time, that greatest and longest established spinner of all!.... his factory is a secret place, his work is noiseless, and his hands are mutes. ~Charles Dickens

Time seems to have flown by since I last posted. The little section of the universe I call my own is slowly moving in Spring. We are officially in the 'tween season known as Mud.

I have to admit to getting the smallest twinges of Spring fever. I have been washing windows so I have a better view of all the changes. I still have so much to do inside but have been taking little outings. I have been cleaning up the greenhouse garden (chives and rhubarb are just breaking the surface) and this weekend we cleaned the chicken coop out. The man hauled a load of composted cow and sheep manure down, dumped it in the greenhouse garden and I have to spread that. I have some fence repair to do also. I checked and I didn't start my seeds until the end of March last year so I am not fretting...yet!

Cyndy was able to get into her garden to trim/trellis her blackberries but I am still unable to get into the large garden. Most of it is still under snow and the parts that aren't are very wet so that has been put on the back burner.

In the lapse of blogging I have also been knitting, carding and spinning.

I had some off white alpaca from Farmer Dave. I washed it then dyed some pink, yellow and blue-very Easterly isn't it?! After I carded it I remembered I had some beautiful black alpaca from Kuhn's River Country Alpaca and I carded some of that up. Then I thought the black might look nice with some bits of color in it. It was atrocious! I will not damage your retina's with the vomit I created. I put it outside for the birds to use if they will have it. Let's just leave it at...I am not ready to blend! I never thought there could be bad alpaca, but oh the sin I commited! The man is color blind and even he was appalled!

I moved back to knitting to soothe myself. I knit two pairs of baby booties, an umbilical cord hat, and a shorter version of the Cherry Garcia cabled neck tube.I have been going through patterns I had saved and trying to see if I like them still or not. If I do I have been trying to make those that will use up some bits of yarn. I took apart a beautiful frosty sky blue J. Crew wool sweater I got at the thrift store. I skeined, washed and dried 650 yards of merino wool for $1.98. I sewed (!) a curtain for a kitchen cupboard. I stained some shelves for the bathroom, hung some more pictures and we moved one load of #1 daughters things home.

With the mud season and Spring I find myself thinking of 1000 +1 more things that need to be done each time I sit down. I am starting to make lists and prioritize them so I don't forget any. And I am trying to get the man to the doctor for a physical since he has not had one in the nine years we have been together. I keep telling him I need him healthy to clear the lists off! I haven't been very successful in convincing him. Hopefully I have more success ticking things off the lists.