Wonder Why Gal Full of...Wonder!

Well, members of the ZPDK got together on Saturday for our final sendoff to Elizabeth who is off to Michigan Tech (way, way, way up in Northern Michigan) to begin her second year of college and to celebrate Em and Crystal starting their first year of college here in Battle Creek at KCC.

Our visit was complete with spinning on the wheels and spindles along with knitting, plying, combing suri, alpaca love (Elizabeth got some love from our cria, Sunshine), doggy love (our two miniature schnauzers), kitty love(the Wonder Cats) and best of all taco love (Yup, the Wonder Why Gal can cook, sort of)!

Yes! We had all of our favorites here...except for Holly because the Ogre was being...well, he was being the ogre.

As usual, the Wonder Why Gal was full of ....Wonder! What were you thinking? Yes, at times I am quite full of "it" too but that is all part of my charm.

So what made this visit so wonderful? Well, first of all, I totally adore my ZPDK friends. Shannon, Emily, Elizabeth, Crystal are great to be around. Not only is the conversation good but I am surrounded by some amazing fiber artist and three of them are still so young. They truly amaze me.

Emily started the afternoon off by Navajo Plying some sock yarn she had spun. Her three ply yarn is as thin as my single ply. She is amazing!











Crystal was knitting her Kidney Kozie in some fun colors! Why couldn't I be that creative? I picked one color, a pretty purple. She took the colors and is making them into a fun kozie!








Shannon was plying her yarn that she had spun on her drop spindle and was also plying it on her drop spindle. YIKES! Now that is amazing! Shannon also found the secret foot warmer of the house. Our miniature schnauzer, Tucker, who turns eleven this year. Now he doesn't just sit on anyone's foot so Shannon was indeed "lucky".













What was I doing? Well, I had been asked by a friend of mine to spin a pound of gray merino and I was like, Oh Yeah Baby! So I had filled up two bobbins full and plyed it! So far I have 460 yards spun. I am curious how many yards I get out of this pound.

It isn't as wonderful as MY WONDER ROVING but it still is a sweet merino to play with.









Oh, crud! I forgot to get a pic of Kai, Shannon's son, who is weaving bookmarks to sell. He took a ribbon at the Calhoun County Fair and sold his first woven bookmark this week to a neighbor. I did, however, get a picture of Abby, Shannon's youngest daughter, who is becoming quite the spinner. She is spinning some nice yarn on a drop spindle made by her Mom.








Elizabeth spun for a bit but her main pursuit of the evening was knitting the sleeves for a lovely sweater she is making. I tell ya, I was surounded by amazing fiber artist.












The best part of the evening was getting out the English Wool Combs that I am borrowing from Cheri Parks at Wind Walker Ranch. I tell ya, these things are NOT toys. Emily has been reading up and watching YouTube, etc. trying to figure out the best technique so we can hand comb my Confetti Reign, Buccaneer and Metallica since their fiber length is long plus their color is so amazing that we wanted to try and maintain the pattern that each alpaca has. We played with Metallica's fiber and it was WONDERFUL! It is a long process though but as you can see well worth it! I am going to let Emily play with the combs a bit longer since it's hard for me to do with my kids home for summer vacation but when the Wonder Kids go back to school I am so going to be helping Emily out!








So that was our amazing send-off to our beloved college gals! May they excel in academics like they do in fiber arts. These ladies are WONDERFUL!