But not just any dip. It’s a vegan friendly dip that tastes good. I’ve had a crab and artichoke dip that I’ve made for quite some time but no vegan equivalent. Not that I minded not eating the dip, but I thought it was about time I made something that I can eat too. Since I was making the crab dip for Husbeast (a father’s day request) I thought I’d make something else to bring to the BBQ.

Spinache and Artichoke Dip

2 big handfulls of fresh spinache - chopped
1/2 can of artichoke hearts - chopped
1-4 garlic cloves - minced
1/2 cup of onion - minced
1 can Cannelini white beans
1/4 cup Nayonaise or Veganaise
1/4 cup soy milk
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375F

Rinse the Cannelini beans and put them in the blender with the milk and the nayonaise. Blend them up well. If it’s too thick you may need a touch more milk but you don’t want it really soupy so watch how much you put in. Set it aside.

Saute the onions and garlic in a little bit of olive oil. You want them to brown(carmelize) just a tad. Add in the spinache and the artichoke hearts. Cook until the spinache has reduced.

Mix everything together. Add salt and pepper to taste.
I sprinkled some fake parmesan on the top. My Dad likes that junk so I figured I’d add a little bit. Although it’s not necessary it does add a little texture to the top. Bake it in the oven until it’s bubbly and the top is getting color.

Let it cool a bit and eat with crackers, pita points or veggies

In the Spinning world…..
Between MA Sheep and Wool and Maine Fiber Frolic, I was able to finish my Hello Yarn Club from last month:

300 somthing yards of a light worsted. It’s very pretty.

I chose a batt to test out the little Norwegian after the Frolic:

I made a 2 ply sport weight. The colors of the batt were wine, sage, and brown.

In taking the pictures of these, I realized how well they stick to the fireplace. They’ve been sticking there for a while.

I’m thinking it would be interesting to cover the fireplace all in hanks of yarn. Of course I don’t think that idea will last oo long once it’s time to be burning wood again.

Once I finished the batt I decided I needed to really get going on Cosmo again so I can start on the others. I have alot of yarn to make before I can start that sweater. The original sweater idea was for a lite Lopi style of a sweater but now that I really want to spin a finer yarn, I’m thinking more along the Alice Starmore style of fair isle. I’m going to borrow the Starmore Fair Isle book to help me tie down the pattern I want to do. Who knows, I’ll probably change my mind twenty times before I’m even finished processing the fiber. Here’s the first bobbin (2 ounces or so) of Cosmo:

And in other news - These are the new Louet flyers!:

I’ll put them up in the shop soon. Or email me if you can’t wait. I have 3 in stock now.

I don’t know how I got it all done in such a short time.
ok
ok
It’s not all done. I still have to go through the spindles and the kits. Everything else though is listed and up. I toyed with the idea of installing a new cart while I was doing all this inventory junk but I just couldn’t get both done (new cart and update) in a timely manner. Rest assured, I will get a new cart installed. It’s one of my goals for this year.

If you were interested in these:

Go see what’s left at SPUNKY ECLECTIC
As well as New merino tencel yarns and fiber, Merino bamboo, and merino cashmere.  I won’t list it all. Seriously, there is a ton of stuff. I took almost 200 photos if that tells you anything.

Hopefully by Monday my brain will be in full working order and I can tell you about what has been coming off the wheels and what’s been going on the needles.

Someone asked me at the show about the wheels that I own and the wheels that I buy. First, the shop wheels are not MY wheels. They belong to the shop. My wheels are mine, they belong to me. There is a reason for each one of the wheels I have. Of course I carry wheels that I like to spin on, but there is a reason why I buy certain wheels for myself (whether I buy them from myself or someone else). The reason I prefer lately to buy the old wheels, is the details. Today, I’m going to explain why I chose the little Norwegian this past weekend.

This is the picture I showed on Monday:

You can’t really tell much about it or about it’s color from that photo. So many people that came by my booth were in love with a little black Norwegian wheel that the same people were selling. I stopped by thier booth on Sunday morning before we opened to try out Blacky. Blacky was nice, and so very pretty. She was in really good shape and spun really well, but we didn’t quite get along. I felt there was a hitch in her giddy up (read: the treadling had a little plunk). I liked her well enough but I was ready to walk off without her.

My Mom was still milling around and looking at them all (read: passive enabling) so I sat down and at the next Norwegian. The color was a nice reddish tone. In case you didn’t figure out, I’m a sucker for reds and blacks. The spinning was smooth. No hitch or plunk and she was just gorgeous. For a single treadle, there really was no dead area at all. The fiber sample that was with her was just not suited for her at all. It was a slubby novelty fiber and this little Norwegian wanted to spin thin yarns. Even with the fiber that was with her, I could spin a fairly fine yarn. I think she might have still been there, because of that slubby fiber (I’m not complaining). If I had any doubt about her, I would have grabbed a finer fiber. Even without doing that, I knew with the right fiber she would sing.

She looked like a brand spanking new wheel. So so pretty. Then Esther showed me this:

A two bobbin lazy kate that was all attached. You can see I’m pulling out the beautifully turned wooden peg that holds in one of the bobbins.

Mine.
That little bit hit me. I had to have it. I don’t know exactly why but I just had to have it. By the way - The sellers of the wheels are Nordic Weaves in Wiscasset Maine. They pick up old wheels and make them usable again. Really quite the artform. If anyone is interested I can get you a phone number and you can visit them. They sell these beauties out of their home and at shows.

I brought her to the booth for the day. Cheryl and Teresa got to spin a bit of one of my batts on her. They both spun a nice section of fine yarn so they can attest to her beauty. Really, how it operates is first on the list of why to get a wheel. At least in my mind it is. If it’s not a joy to spin, no matter how cute it is, I probably won’t buy it. Notice I said probably, I didn’t want to make any definite announcements. It’s not happened yet, but you never know when I might be overcome with the cute.

Once I got my little wheel home, I found so many other reasons she is perfect.

The top of the footman is so pretty and the top of the wheel upright. Oh my, the construction:

Ok, this little bit where the footman connects to the treadle:

Cotton.
I’ll be getting a nice piece of leather to change that out. It works great with the cotton, I just really need it to be leather. It’s all in the little details.

There was a little orifice hook that came with it. I didn’t really care for it. It was unusual and interesting and fit in the little hole quite well. I was willing to use it until I learned that my skully orifice hook fit there too:

This wheel really was made for me. Some where, many many years ago, this wheel was made for me. I’d like to know more about her history. I think I have some digging to do.

I’m not the only one that appreciates how pretty it is. Baby Boogie spent some time yesterday petting it. Which is odd, for some reason I have been wanting to name it “Pony” and here BB is petting it like it’s a little pony:

She ran her hands all over the wheel. It really was as if she was appreciating the wheel. We all know Baby Boogie likes her fiber and yarn, it’s possible she’s starting to fall for the wheels too. Or it’s possible she was checking it out for potential animal homes. Yesterday (since I don’t get to spin on the usual work day) it could be seen with a whole host of barn yard friends.

I stayed up late Monday night spinning on this one (I’ve been working late so late spinning is all I get lately). I just enjoyed the spinning so much. I finished the 3 ounces and yesterday I plied it. Then I made the executive decision to spin the remainder of Cosmo and the rest of the fleeces on her. I started making Cosmo as a worsted/Aran yarn. I wanted a thick sweater. I think I’ll end up making the rest a sport weight yarn. It will still be crazy warm and then the fair isle can be a little more intricate. Ideas are swirling….

Something smells like a flock of sheep in here.

Now the car doesn’t smell so sheepy but the garage does. And I know you want to see why.

I picked up the last 2 fleeces that I needed for my Coopworth fair isle, Alice and Honeydew:

Then of course I stopped at the Fiber Frolic Fleece Barn…
I was all business with the fleece barn. The fleeces I picked up there are slated to be made into batts for the shop. Not that you will see the same potential (I see all these in multicolors not just grey, white or black) that I do in each and every fleece, but I’m looking forward to making some fantastic batts.

First I saw the Millers fleeces. Anyone that has ever asked for a recommendation on buying a fleece at the Frolic FIber Barn will know that I’ve said to look for the Millers. If you want Coopworth I suggest Ruit Farm North or Hatchtown but the Millers have Moorits, Merinos, Romneys, Border Leicesters, and I’m sure more that I’m forgetting. I managed to find 3 of theirs’ that I like.

^Moorit

^White Merino (those tips will clean up ok)

^Merino - Black Cherry is her name.
If you click on the photos and then go to see them full size, you’ll see what I mean by look for the Miller fleeces. They have quite the write up about each one of their fleeces. You can tell they put some time into this making it easy for new comers to the barn to pick a decent fleece.

Then I went chose some from famrs that I hadn’t purchased fleeces from before. They looked really clean, super soft and with such nice staple lengths, I had no choice.

^Liz Grover provided this lovely Romney

^Arch Tower Farm had this incredibly soft Romney with an intense staple length. It’s at least 7 inches long.

^And finally a lovely silver Romney from Arch Tower Farm

I can’t imagine what I would have found, had I made it to the fleece sale on Saturday. Still, I am walking on air at the thought of processing all these fleeces. If tomorrow is nice I’m going to start going through them and washing them up. Carding is going to wait for a new toy. With my sprained wrist and all the carding I did before the Frolic, I’m done carding by hand for a couple of weeks. If I can stand waiting that long. I’m itching to start on Dafka and some of the new blends for the shop.

Fiber Frolic didn’t end there though. Are you tired yet?

I picked up my Hitch Hikers.

That’s right. I’m carrying the Hitch Hiker wheels from Merlin Tree. I’ll be listing them on the site soon. I’ve also pre-ordered spindles from Dave. As soon as he has them in production, I’ll be listing them on the site. I gave Dave the pieces to the Jensen that needed to be fixed (I think he’s sick of seeing me). I’m sad to not have Jensen to spin on….

But not too sad…

I moved the poor flyerless Jensen to the studio and this Norwegian has taken his place. Yeah, I know… Like a hole in the head. I’ll show you some features another day. There were things about it that made me HAVE to have it.

Oh yeah, I bought some Llama from West Mountain Farm. Again it’s for the batts I’ll be producing. I’m going to go to the local Alpaca farms and picking up a few fleeces for more of the batts. I already have angora…. Yeah, there are big plans. And while we’re on the subject of batts, you should know there are a few left.

I ended up with 5 baskets of batts. Crazy crazy amount. As soon as I can, I’ll be re-stocking the store front.

My favorite Coopworth Fleece lady, Nina, was at the Cummington show. I took off for a short run through the buildings and ended up chatting with Rita the whole time I had schedule myself gone. Husbeast watched the booth but he wasn’t familiar with the fiber stuff so I don’t think he was comfortable being there for an extended amount of time by himself. I can get to talking and lose track of time….. Husbeast was a good sport to help.

I found out Nina of <a href=”http://www.ruitfarmnorth.com/”>Ruit Farm North</a> and Botinacal Shades (Who is often near me at shows) will be right next to me at Fiber Frolic. Still I stayed and talked sheep, I had to. I like Nina and I love her fleeces. My parents and I keep talking about a barn and some animals so any chance I get to talk to someone about that dream, I take it.

I finished carding up the Cosmo fleece and have one large skein of worsted weight all ready to go.

I also started to wash Dafka and will start carding after the Frolic.

I’ll be picking up 2 more fleeces at the Frolic this weekend. I’m getting a tan and a light silver. I’m so looking forward to having the full 4 colors here. I know I’ve had people asking but I’m not sure if I’ve talked about it here. My “Grand” plan is to make myself a new fall jacket in natural handspun fair isle. Natural? Yes, I’m not dyeing these guys, they will be all natural. I’ve got most of the pattern worked out in my head, I just need to get the rest of the fleeces turned into pretty pretty yarns. In my spare time of course, I’ll get it done. We won’t look at the WIPs and see how many other half finished sweaters I have……

I suppose you can really tell that I’m all about the process or I’d be more concerned with finishing something. I like wearing things but when I’m not knitting for a zine of some sort or a gift, I’m knitting to make me happy. Happy means I flit around from project to project until I settle on something that I’m enjoying knitting. Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s not. It all dpends on the mood.

And for those that are curious I have photos of the “triple play” batts I’m making for the frolic.
Brights:

and sparkles:

and obviously I like burgundy, a whole basket with burgundy as one of the colors:

I hurt my arm the other day or I’d have more done. I’m hoping in the next 2 days I’ll fill up at least one more basket and maybe get some specialty blends done. I’m loving the one I made for me so I’m going to try to make some for the show.