Flooring

After a long day twelve hours on Saturday we managed to get the great room and hallway flooring finished.  Sunday we did the trim work, polished/waxed the floor and replaced the heating vents.  The project took quite a bit longer than what we planned.  Some of the old flooring had been glued down and was rather difficult to remove.  Plus the fifty gazillion staples that needed to be pulled up didn't help matters.  What does help and is awesome, is Tylenol and lots of it! 

That's Roper in the big chair on the left.  He supervised us this weekend and made sure everything was square and layed down correctly.

We did a bit of redecorating with the furniture.  The room seems more spacious and we both really like facing the tv rather than having it in between the windows.  The little black fuzzy guy under the window on the right is Kiwi our house bunny.  He is litter box trained and really cool.   

The plan is to put the new floor in our bedroom this weekend.  It's a smaller area with less cutting (we hope) and should go a bit faster.  It's a lot of work, but we are saving a ton of money by doing it ourselves.  Yeah, that's what I keep telling myself.  Saving money on labor means more yarn money.  Yeah that's the ticket!

Spinning

My goal this January was to card and spin the Jacob fleece that I purchased two years ago at Maryland Sheep & Wool.  It was a small fleece, just two pounds before scouring.  It was really fine with a short staple of about 1 1/2 - 2" and had little grease/lanolin.  One of the volunteers working the fleece sale helped me and told me that she thought this was most likely a lamb's fleece.  While it's not quite as soft as merino, it's pretty darn close. 

Andy helped me do a bit of the carding when my arm got tired from cranking the drum carder.  It was a fun challenge during January and helped to keep the winter dull drums at bay.  I wound up with a total of 1,005 yards of a nice worsted weight.  Enough I hope for a short sleeved sweater.

In the middle of spinning the Jacob fleece I got a note from my friend Jamee' asking me to do some spinning for her.  She and her mom Joyce have llamas, goats and sheep.  Joyce's farm is Posy Thisisit Llamas.  I always love it when they ask me to spin!  So far Ive spun up a total of 2,204 yards of worsted weight yarn for them.  Just in February!  It's really helping to keep my legs in shape too which is a nice added benefit.

Bobbins of plied yarn waiting to be skeined.  This fiber came from Ivy Lace, Jamee's llama.  It's a beautiful oatmeal color.

Skeins of the same yarn waiting to be washed. 

Im taking this weekend off from work so Andy and I can install a new floor in our great room, hallway and bedrooms.  That doesn't really sound like time off...

Here is a before picture:

The carpet doesn't look bad from a distance.  Up close is another story. 

To be continued.