The Trip Home

Well, this was left a bit late, but here it is.....

Left the house a bit after 1030am 21 Dec for the Honolulu airport for the trip back to Seattle. (My son lives less than 5 mins away from the HNL airport) Got through checking in my bag, paying the $15 to check it, getting my seat assignment, all the usual etc. Got through security, they didn't even blink at all the yarn and Addi Turbo's, and went to get a cup of coffee and a danish and a bottle of water.

Sat down at gate 58 and started to knit. At 12pm they made an annoucement. Gate changed to gate 31. Gate 31 is the farthest gate away from gate 58 that it is possible to go, minus 3. The gates go up to 60 in the wing that I was in. to get to the lower numbered gates you have to hoof it quite a distance. So pack up the knitting and start walking ..... got to the new gate at 12:30ish. Long hot walk. While waiting to board the news about the plane in Denver is being shown.. Lovely.

Anyhow, get on board, get my carry ons stowed and turn to sit in my seat 26G. There is a bag in the seat that wasn't there when I was putting my yarn under the chair; I assume the young fellow that put his bag there is waiting for me to get out of the way so that he can get to the middle seat. Nope. His boarding pass has him in the same seat as me. Hmm... and... HE IS NOT MOVING THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THIS IS HIS SEAT. We discuss it with a stewardess (there was a flight that was cancelled (HIS) and the pax have been put on our flight). She had me move to another seat since he was loud and vocal about his refusal to move, 3 rows up and in the next section. No problem, still an isle seat. I'm not going to complain. Little irritated about his attitude, but... I have a seat and it is an isle so it is all good. I had nice seat companions too. A lady from Eugene, OR and a fellow from Tacoma on the other isle seat. (we were in the center isle)

Got to SeaTac on time (9:10pm) give or take 5 mins. Snow. Lots of Snow. We are on the ground but stopped. Not moving to the terminal. Snow plows... have to plow us a way to the terminal First they tell us 15 mins. Ok, fine, no problem. I call my ride at the cell phone parking lot and tell them it will be a few mins probably. My ride has just pulled into the cell phone lot. Cool! Told her that I would call back as soon as I had my bags. As soon as I got off the phone, the Pilot comes on the intercom and says that the delay will mostlikely be another 45 mins. And so we wait. Then, we have a delay because they don't know what gate that we are going to get to go to. Mind you it is now well past 10pm and we are still on the plane. Finally they get the plane up to the drawbridge thingy. They can't get it all the way to the plane so there is a bit of a gap. And it is icy. Lots of people are grumbling. I am just glad we are on the ground and safely at the terminal. Get down to baggage claim. It is now about 10:45pm. Still snowing outside off and on. Get to Hawaiian's bag carousel;. Wait. Wait. Wait some more. Nothing new about the waiting ... heck, we have been waiting since 9 pm. Finaly a bag or two starts to show up. Then the carousel stops. About 5 mins later it starts back up and for the next 20 mins everthing is good. bags are starting to show up, slowly it's true but they are begining to show. Yea it is only a bit after 11:30pm and we should all be getting out of here soon. Right? Not so fast.... When there are still about 50 of us left standing around the carousel it grinds to a halt and this time it doesn't start back up in 5 mins. Not so good. Eventually we go enmass to the Hawiian bag agent... Poor, poor lady. It is Late, people are cranky and they want their stuff. She gets on the phone as she is clueless to why there are so many without baggage. She thought that all the baggage pods had been brought up and unloaded already. Her conversation with the ground crew: Is the plane empty? (yes it is.) Did some stuff get left behind in Hawaii because of the gate change? (No, all the pods made it.) Ok, then why do I have a crowd of people here with out their luggage? (Oh... Well a pod is stuck in the snow. We should have the bags there in about 15 mins.) Bag Agent Lady wants to know why she wasn't informed of this and who was the idiot that got it stuck in the snow? (She looks like she wants to rip someone a new one) Alright, so word is that the bags will be here in the terminal in about 15 mins. Ummm... It's after Midnight and still no bags. 15 mins? Someone can't tell time. 12:30 still no bags. One of the fellows from our plane said to the bag agent that he could probably get a group of pax together and go fetch our bags quicker. (He may have been correct) Another anouncement... Bags should really be here in 10 more minutes. Um yeah right. Ain't no body holding their breath. Finally got my bag off the carousel at 1:10. Called my ride who has been waiting at the cell phone lot all this time bless her heart, and let her know that we were (Finally) ready to roll. Knitting kept me sane through all the waiting around.

Did I mention that it was snowy out? Got home about 2:40ish; I had to go to work in a few hours. What a treat. Alarm clock set for 4:30am, so just stayed up and toughed it out. Went to bed at 5pm and slept for 12 hours. About 5 mins late for work the next day. I had hit my alarm off and went right back to sleep.

Oh, and Happy New Year Everyone!

I plan to Knit in the New Year... if I can stay awake that long.

Cute Dude in a Hand Knit Sweater

This is Little "K" in his hand knit Mexicali Ole. This is the newborn size. I had my doubts as to whether it would fit him or not. (So of course I made him another in a 12 month size) This one fits him perfectly, at least for the next few weeks. May not be practical when he goes out, but it is fine in the house as long as the AC is on. Woolies in Hawaii probably arent the most useful thing.

He's fresh out of the bath in this photo. He'd done quite the number in his britches. A few measly diaper wipes just weren't going to cut it.

I have started on the heel flaps of the socks that I was working on before I left. I haven't really gone very far on them. Don't want to be fighting the dog for possession of the yarn. Also, holding little guy as often as I can. Sunday comes far too soon.

Knit on!

Sock Monkey

Monkey done. I like the ears... but the way I read the pattern or the way the pattern is written... not sure which at the moment... both ears are knit the same. Which makes one ear appear, at least to me, like one ear is upside down. Ah well. Perhaps I will figure it out for the next one. And there will be at least two more.






The blankie is finished as well.

Smaller than I liked... but I will use a needle size or two larger next time as well as a few more stitiches.

Knit on!

Stormy night

Had to wait till the rain died down and the sun(?) came up in order to take a photo. This and buckets of rain were what I noticed at 5:00 yesterday morning. I don't think that we saw the sun at all really here in Hawaii yesterday, it did get lighter but stayed overcast and rainy all day. Oahu was under a flash flood watch till a bit after 10 am. Several schools were closed. Not my eldest grandson's tho. Was however a wet and blustery drive to get him there. The dog had to be bathed after her morning constitutional. Luckily she is a little beagle so I was able to carry her through the house wrapped in a towel to the tub without too much trouble. She didn't get nearly as many walks yesterday as she would have liked. She absolutely loved being out in the rain and the wind. Leaves are very, very fun to chase after and pounce upon.

Sock monkey is knitted. Just have to attach his arms to his body and felt him on some eyes. I brought a felting needle with me, and some green Lopi scraps. If I don't totally mess him up there will be photos. If I do mess him up there will be whining and fussing till I figure out how to fix it. Can you pick off the felted on bits if you "F it up"? I am eager to get back to regular sock knitting and my sweater, but I have at least one more Monkey to knit. They are fairly fast tho, especially since I have pretty much made one. Not that you would know it from the speed that I have finished this one. The Grand puppy really is a terror when it comes to yarn. We had another episode two days ago involving a half knit monkey arm and the remaining ball of yarn. It wasn't pretty tho it did end well. No monkeys or doggies were harmed in the process, tho the monkey's arm was nearly pulled from the needles. Had to wind up the yarn from the needle end, then re ball it once I reached the end. After un knotting it of course. I was knitting from both ends of the ball at that point and the yarn cake was at the point of collapse already. No I didn't bring my ball winder with me. I did however consider it at one point. No room.

I have learned that it is possible to knit with a 4 year old on your lap. It does slow stuff up a bit more however, and little boys are wiggly. Ants in the pants wiggly. Not that I had forgotten that it is all but impossible for a healthy boy to sit still, but I had never tried to knit with a boy on my lap. Mine were past the sitting on the lap stage when I learned to knit. I haven't tried to knit whilst holding the baby tho. I can't seem to concentrate on anything but him when I am holding him.... ah well... they are only little for such a short time and I leave (boo hoo) in 9 days to go home. I can knit then. As much as I miss my hubby and my own animal family and my knitting buddies, it is going to be hard to leave here. This little guy looks so much like his daddy did when he was a babe.

Well, nearly time to hit the road with the big kiddo and get him to school. Thank goodness the rain is gone. Great big beautiful moon and a clear sky out there this morning.

Knit on

Wii

Learning how to play the Wii with my 4 yr old grandson. I'm not very good. I am also the only one that he can beat. :-) Good for him to be better than someone else at something. We had quite a few laughs about my spinning in circles and bouncing us back to the main menu because I kept pushing the wrong buttons. I think we were playing something called Rampage. Funny looking critters (ala godzilla) that had to destroy a city.

One sock monkey almost knitted. The 4 year old wants one as well... So his is next up on the needles. I am probably going to have to mail myself some items home. I bought enough stuffing for quite a few sock monkeys I think. I don't know if I will finish knitting the one for Middle K or not before I leave. Depends on how much knitting the grandpuppy lets me do. Most of my knitting is happening between 4 and 6 am.

Well, I get to feed the baby... so gotta go.

Knit on!

Unable to send

For some reason I am unable to send photos in an email... Keep getting a stupid error message. ARGH!

In Knitting news... there hasn't been much what with the new baby. I did however, finish knitting the baby blanket... still have to weave in the ends tho. The Grand puppy Coco doesn't like me to knit. She prefers to have me chase after her after she has snuck up and grabbed my yarn and run off. Granted she is only 6 months old, so is still a cute little beagle puppy... but I don't like playing chase and recovery, at least not when it is yarn. She has plenty of toys, and I would be happy to play the same game with those. Took me almost an hour to recover and restore the last ball of yarn to it's original untangled state. We won't speak about the drool. I am just glad that it happened to be a super wash yarn. And worsted weight, and the yarn was all still in one strand tho horrifically tangled. I have managed to squeeze in a few rounds of sock here and there, but other than that... Knitting deprived. :-)

Hopefully I will have the time to go out to the local yarn stores while I am here. We shall see.

Not wishing to return home, tho I miss my knitting buddies, my animals and of course the hubby. Would like to stay and snuggle grand babies and nothing else.

Knit on!

New Grand baby

Little K entered the world on 29 November after keeping his mommy awake for three nights in a row He's a cutie.... see....

Bye now... I'm busy being a granny.

Multi-tasking

This morning I knit on the Felted Slipper, and as I was sitting in the sleep inducing chair, it took longer than it should have for the progress I made. I fell asleep. With a cat on my lap. Was hoping to finish it today... well I suppose it is still possible to finish if I stay up awhile longer. If not there is always tomorrow.

Then switched to the sock in progress. As you can see, I was multi tasking. Playing Yahtzee on the computer. Granted it does slow me down a bit, having to take my turn and all, but my companions don't complain if I must finish the row before rolling the dice. It also keeps me out of the sleepy chair. It's a win win situation on some days.

Yarn is Pagewood Farms. Color is Misty. Don't have the ball band as I traded with a knitting buddy who lusted after the brown skein that I had. It's all good! Love this color too. Reminds me of grey days and sunsets and misty mornings on a small pond. The yarn is very yummy and squishy. As you can see, one sock is darker than the other. They will be siblings... not twins. I divided the ball in half by weight. I noticed this effect when viewing the socks my friend has knit up (in different colors) with this yarn as well. This yarn trait doesn't bother me at all. I don't mind if my socks are unique or on rare occasions match perfectly. I do know of knitters that this would drive completely batty. If you are one of those knitters... you have been warned. :-) Though honestly, I don't know if every skein is like this or if we just managed to get odd balls.

Doing a simple K3, P1 ribbing down the cuff. I may or may not carry the ribbing down the top of the foot. Undecided on that at this point. I am doing both socks at the same time, using the basic instructions in the book "2-at-a-time Socks" by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. (linked to Amazon cause it is easy) Both yarn and book were purchased at my LYS though.

On another note:

Kitchen is cleaned, living room straightened and most of my clothing is located and washed, one load yet in the dryer. Back pack halfway packed. Sudoku book(s) and pencils are in the lap top's bag. All cables and cords located and stashed there as well, except the cell phone charging cable. I will grab that and pack it on Monday. Still have to wind yarn cakes and divide a few balls of sock yarn. Have to simplify my necessities bag for my carry on. Will stash most of my knitting tools in the main back pack. Must still decide what to take for plane knitting besides the socks.

I will be trying to go to all the yarn shops I can locate near Honolulu. Will probably not purchase much while I am there... hard to justify yarn purchases when I am taking more yarn than I know that I can knit. Will see about writing up a bit on each of the ones that I make it to. I was surprised to find that there are indeed several listed in the 2007-2008 Travel guide. The book shows 8 in Honolulu, and 5 others in different cities on Oahu. (there is at least one on 2 other islands as well it appears)

Knit on!

On Vacation

Whoo!
Don't have to be back to work until the 22nd of December! Flying out on the 25th to spend time with my youngest and his family in Hawaii and awaiting the birth of their newest one. Hoping to get plenty of knitting time in. I know what yarn I am taking... but still must wind some into cakes. Haven't packed ckothes yet at all... will have to do that sometime this weekend. (or Monday) ;-) The pet sitter has been briefed and has spent a few nights here so that the animals all get accoustomed to having someone else here. (0ne of hubby's friends will be staying here)

Trying to get another Christmas present finished before I leave. Another pair of felted slippers this one for my eldest. Have the pair for his Sweetie done already. They will both be wrapped and gifted un-felted. I think we will have a little felting party while they are here so that they can try them on for fit in the process. They both have larger feet than mine and I don't want to be guessing and guessing wrong and felt them too small. Photos later... will do a before and after shot. I am using the Fiber Trends pattern and Lopi yarn

Well, tea water is nearly done and so I am going to finish fixing that and curl back up in the recliner and knit some more with a nice cup of mint tea.

Happy Knitting!

sock swatches

Lately it seems my "standard" cast on number will often resort in a sock too small to get over my heel, which means that sock pair goes to my mom or I frog it. With all the different sock yarns I have been purchasing, I have noted that my cast on number has had to change at times as well.

So, I pulled out half a dozen different sock yarns off my shelf and started making little swatches out of them last night. I am casting on 40 sts with a size US 1 (2.5mm) additurbo circular knitting an inch or so, picking up the US 0 (2mm) purl a round then knit an inch or so and then one more time with the US 00 (1.75mm). Need to pick up some tags at Office depot or some such place so that I can mark the swatches with yarn type and the needles I used and the gauge I obtained. Won't do any good to make the swatch and then not be able to tell what the yarn is in a year or two. WPI (wraps per inch) might be a good idea to record as well. hmmm...


By doing all this I am hoping to cut down on the amount of time frogging. I know that if I can feel the difference in thickness between the yarn types by running the yarn through my fingers that there is going to be a definite difference in the circumference of the knitted item. I would rather spend the realatively small amount of time kniting the swatches than ripping 5 inches or more of cuff because it won't go over my ankle. (bad words, bad words, bad words). This makes more sense to me now that I plan to start doing both socks at one time. It is painful enough to send one cuff off to the frog pond and I know it is going to be more than double that with two. I don't suffer to badly from SSS (second sock syndrome) but it does indeed take longer for the second sock to be completed, that is one reason for starting to do the socks in this manner.

Also started a new project(s) yesterday evening. My DIL has the little one's room done up with a monkey theme. And... I have a sock monkey pattern/kit from Blue Moon that I purchased down at the Black Sheep Fiber Festival earlier this year. Also ordered two more skeins of Heavy weight STR this morning hoping that they will arrive before I leave so that I can wind them and take them with me. Just Right Red (red obviously) and Sunstone (orangy yellows). EldestK likes red, SecondK likes orange, and LittleK is going to get one of my favorites, Pond Scum, since he isn't born quite yet and can't vocalize his opinion on the matter.

Happy Knitting!

Another one done

Yea! Love getting stuff done. (quit giggling) I really do enjoy getting things done. Just, sometimes the actual doing takes forever and ever.

Two skeins of southwest trading company Bamboo 250 yards per skein so 500 yards in this scarf. There is aprox 3 feet of yarn in that little pile... that is all that is left. The pattern can be found here at the Yarn Harlot. Love the pattern, works well with any yarn, not just handspun.

This scarf is aprox 6 feet in length and aprox 7 1/2 inches in width. It is a gift, (over due) and I don't mind posting it as I don't think she knows about my blog. Will be getting it to the recipient this week at any rate.

I'm itching to cast on another pair of socks... but I am going to be strong and go and get another UFO instead. We'll see how long I can hold out without casting on something.

Go see Rachael's baby! She's a cutie!

Happy Knitting!

Done and done

This " Lilly's Little Sweater" is for my DIL's sister who is due in the next couple of weeks. Decided on a fairly neutral green as they opted not to find out the baby's sex.


Just have the buttons left to sew on. Should get to that tomorrow.

Too late for me this evening to go and find a sewing needle. I know that the yarn needles won't go through the button eyes.






Two hats for the knitting guild charity. I am so slow at getting things done. A product of having way too many things on the needles at one time. Lots of variety and while I am knitting all the time it seems that very little gets done in a timely manner.






And yellow socks for the oft complaining hubby. He has been sadly neglected during this year of Baby Knitting. Poor thing. (not!) He says that he hasn't gotten anything so far this year. So these will be awaiting him in the morning.





I am holding off on casting on anything new... and picking up another UFO to see what if anything can be finished up this evening or tomorrow. Failing finishing, perhaps I can at least get a little further along on something. Oh... one other finished item but it is a christmas present and so don't want to post till after it is gifted.


Knit on!

Election Day

Please get out and VOTE today!

Happy Halloween

May your holiday be full of frightful delights and loads of candy!

Wet and rainy out today. So glad my kiddos are grown and I don't need to do the "trick or treat" thing any longer. Of course, we did start a bit of a tradition once they hit 11 or 12. We would go out for pizza, rent some movies, come home and pop up a huge bowl of pop corn and shut out the lights and settle in for a long night of movies. We started doing this when Ellora, the dog (rottie) we had at that time, decided that she really, really didn't like the hordes of kids in costumes coming to our door any longer. She was about 6 years old at the time. She loved all people as a general rule... just not in costume... or hats of any kind for that matter.

Knit night this evening... YEA! Gonna be a mess getting out of the neighborhood with all the ghoulies and gobblins running rampant through the streets tho, so will probably head out early. Reminder to self to bring some easy knit in the dark kind of stuff for the wait in the car.

Stay warm and dry and Drive Safe!

Almost finished

I have to admit the first hour was fun. Then the experience went downhill from there. I have decided that I don't really like to paint celings. I don't like to "tape in", and I didn't like removing the waniscoting. Walls I didn't mind painting however.

The color on the right side of the photo shows the olive green 'baby turtle" color correctly. I couldn't get the color on the top half "flowering herb" of the wall to show up properly... it is a very light green. The area on the right looks a bit greyish... but it isn't really. (flash too close to the wall I think) I re-painted the celing with the "flowering herb" today, I didn't like the pale yellow with the greens in reality. They looked good together on the color cards tho. Will use the remainder of the yellow in the laundry room, should have plenty. Was planning on yellow in there anyway. I think that it needs to be a bright and cheerful color since I don't really like doing laundry.

I still need to rip out the toilet and get the wall paper off of that one bitty section behind said toilet and then wash and paint. Have to wash and then re-put up the wainscoting and it will be done. I have decided to wait till the hubby comes home before ripping out the toilet. I don't want it to be my fault if it breaks. :-) I'll get the wainscoting washed and ready but I think that I will let him put that back up as well.

Finished knitting 3 items. Yea! Two hats for a charity knit and a pair of baby socks for a young lady at my Thrusday night group. Trying not to cast anything else on. I still have way too many items to finish. So far I have been good... we will see how long this lasts.

Spinning

I'm going to a spinning guild meeting tonight with a Knitterly Friend.

I have been spinning for a few years now... though by no means on a regular basis. I have an on again off again relationship with my spinning. As in I walk past my spinning wheel (a babe double tredle production model) and or spindles (I have 3 drop spindles and 1 turkish spindle currently) and will think I need to sit and spin a spell... granted, some times I do, and sometimes it's just a thought. I do however keep buying Fleece and Roving and show no signs of slowing that process any more than I could give up buying yarn that takes my fancy.

I can spin a decent yarn, and I enjoy knitting with my hand spun. I also know enough to realize that there is so much more that I don't know. And those thoughts make me want to learn a bit more.

For instance: How to make a yarn for a specific project, instead of spinning the yarn and deciding what to make based on what I have spun. How to recognize when I am mucking it up and how to fix it before I totally screw it up. (Fiber is expensive if you muck it up; I can almost always justify the expense if I get a usable object). How to spin a lace weight... tho I think that I can do this with silk, but not wool or at least I don't think that I can. How to spin a 3 ply sock weight.

I am thinking that if I enjoy tonight, and I am reasonably sure that I will, that this will give me that extra little push towards my wheel (or spindles) just a bit more often. And you know what they say about Practice. I also need to move my wheel back out to the main room as there isn't room in the "Yarn Room" for spinning. I can store it there... but no room to sit in there and have the wheel in front of me. Yet. One of these days. Of course keeping the wheel in the main room has issues attached to it as well. I moved it to the "Room" in the first place because the dog is allergic to wool, tho he doesn't usually bother my knitting and spinning so I might bring it back out and cover it with a drop cloth and see if that will work.

Well, have to get away from the computer and get ready to go if I am going... and I am... so that means stuff to do before I can go play. Like Laundry and Dishes and Vaccuming. Some times (like now) I don't want to be a responsible adult. But a balance is good, tho I do think sometimes that work gets in the way of play. Ah well... that's a rant for another place and time.

Happy knitting!

Book Signing in Seattle

The drive to Seattle... Lake Forest Park looked a bit like this. Cold, wet, grey and rainy. Perfect for knitting. The trip to Third Place Books took me a little over an hour.










This was the occassion:

A wonderful talk and reading from her current book. Much laughter. Many people.













And till this point in the evening a perfect ending to my day... then I turned my cell phone back on and listened to my messages and returned some calls. One of my co-workers had been found in his room.

Dead.

Just a young fellow. About the same age as my own kids, mid 20's.

Life is short. Tell those you know and love that you do indeed love them.

Photos and stuff

From my eldest child on Friday... my birthday









What I did Saturday afternoon... Yellow socks for hubby and bruised pink for me.









What I started doing last night. Half of the room is stripped... can't quit now. :-) Have to find the paint sample that I picked out a few years ago. I procrastinate a bit.



Happy knitting

A knitting kind of day

My Favorite!

Finished the sleeve of the Mexacali Baby in the Opal Tiger this morning. Have to pick up the neck stitches still and knit that up as well as sewing up the side seams. So still a bit to go on that.

Went to The Lamb's Ear , my LYS and knit there for a few hours today. Had the dog with me, he stayed out in the car tho. :-) He didn't want to stay home alone this morning. worked on the Lilly's little Jacket while I was there. I had ripped out the neck ribbing the other day as I had made a mistake, and what ever I was doing, it certainly wasn't a K1 P1 rib. That's all fixed now and am an inch or so past my idiot spot. Also cast on for that other project... The Braided Cardigan. It is knit virtually in one piece with very little seaming. I am using Cascade 220 in a brownish color. Will get it put up on Ravellry one of these days... complete with color numbers etc. Scored yarn for 3 pairs of socks and another "tank/shell" type of top as well. yummy fiber! The shopping for yarn from a gift certificate from a very good friend who's birthday is Sunday.

I will be heading back for Knit Night in about an hour. Like I said it was a knitting kind of day. Now I just wish that the yarn shop was a little bit closer.

Happy Knitting!

The Time Suck

I have just been updating some of my Ravelry projects. I Love Ravelry for various reasons. It is however a horrid time suck. I have spent the last 3 hours uploading some photos to Flicker and entering some of the items that I have started and some even finished that had yet to make it to the Projects page. Three hours.... and I am no where near being done.

Speaking of another Time Suck I also need to get started arranging my stash again. The plan is to take photos when I go in and shake the stash up this time. ( Still have to enter a lot of yarn in the Stash portion of Ravelry) Shake it up is probably the wrong phrase to use. Skeins of yarn are being pushed off the shelves at me when ever I enter the room. The yarn on the back of the shelves are being squashed as more keeps being added to the front. I am thinking of getting some of those large ziplock bags... I think that they would be cheaper than the Vaccume seal bags. (not the kind used for freezer food storage) the kind for sweater /blanket storage. However, I did see roving packaged seal a meal style while at the Black Sheep Gathering in Oregon. So, will the hubby notice if the large roll of seal a meal stuff is gone?

Vaccumed the floors in the living room and bedroom today and took Hubby off to catch his flight. He will be gone most of October to Malaysia. Visiting his parents, his mom's birthday (87th) is the 1st of Oct. I went in late January with him for our yearly visit. I am not fond of traveling there during our winter... too much of a temperature change and way to many sick people traveling. The last 2 times we have gone during this time frame one or the other of us has gotten sick. So the next visit will be in Spring, Summer or Fall. He may get to go yet again this year after our trip to Hawaii. We will be heading there in late November or the first week in December.

I am going to try taking advantage of his not being here to get some of my "junk" cleaned up. Go through closets and drawers etc and get rid of whatever has dust on it. :-) So what am I doing in front of THIS time sucker.??

ARGH- There is always something!

Happy Knitting!

UFO Outing

This is Sophie... who is checking out the sweater that is taking forever. I don't reccomend knitting a 40-44 inch sweater with 2mm /US 0 needles and sock yarn unless you are a fast knitter. Which I am obviously not. That or I am extreemly bored by black sock yarn in stocking stitch. I don't want this to be a textured sweater. Just a plain and simple sweater. You can't see the body of the sweater because of Sophie dear... but it is only 3 inches in length. The arms... they are done.
A washcloth... I wanted to see how this yarn worked up. Hempathy ... like it so far. Just a wee bit splitty but not too bad. I don't know how well the blend will work as a washcloth, hemp, coton and modal. (think that was the spelling. Can't find the ball band. Will have to look that up and see exactly what Modal is. A synthetic of some sort I am sure.










A baby blanket for our little grandson due in Dec. Have made it almost through one skein of yarn in both colors... 2 more of each to go. I will probably be picking up stitches on either side and knitting on a border. I think that it is turning out a little skinny. We shall see. Using Cascade 220 superwash.



This is a Lillie's Little Sweater for my DIL's sister who is due in Mid November. Should be able to get this one finished. Also have to do one in Pinks for a friends co worker. Using Dream in color yarn. Love it.









Hubby Yellow socks.... what you were expecting another color? If I can, I do his primarily in yellow as it surely is his favorite. He likes short socks too... and he has smaller feet. Did I luck out or what? I did have to frog the second sock, I was at the turn heel, or rather I forgot to TURN the heel, picked up the gusset stitches and started the decreases and hadn't been looking at my work. I was disgusted when I finally did look down to check my work and realized that I had nearly finised the decreases but forgot to turn the heel. ARGH. I was a bit enthusiastic about the frogging and didn't stop till the sock was gone. Now I have to restart.... Haste makes Waste. Must remember that.









This is a feather and fan shawl for my daughter in law. As you can see, she will be waiting a while before she gets this. Luckily for me, she doesn't know that I am knitting it, so she isn't waiting for it to be finished. Good thing huh?









This is another of the Baby Mexacali Ole sweaters but in the largest size this time. Just about finished with the last sleeve, then have to pick up the neck stitches and make the collar.









This is the Marihone by Dale of Norway. Only partway to the armpits as you can see. The hat is all but finished. Have yet to weave in the ends and put the spots on the lady bugs.









There are a few projects that didn't end up making the photo op. One is a pair of purple socks that I am knitting (baby) for a lady in my Thrusday night group. Made her a cute little hat as well and already gifted that to her. Didn't take a photo. Also the sock yarn scrap blanket. Didn't get a photo uploaded of that. It disappeared twice after uploading. Don't know what I did, but sure it was me and not the computer. The MS4 Stole that I showed you yesterday. A Philosophers Wool Sweater that I started a few years ago, one sleeve nearly finished.... It stayed on the shelf in all the stash tossing that I did the other day. Now I have to organize it by how much to do and when it needs to be finished and START working on them. All in all I am shocked that there are so few I somehow expected more. Now to curb the urge to cast on a few more items... for the moment any way. I am doing a KAL with a friend and we will be casting on next weekend (not this one) I believe.

Knit on!

Finished and Unfinished objects

First the UFO. This is my start at the Mystery Stole 4. Only part way through the first clue, so ages behind the crowd I know, and no hope of catching up. I should be getting a bit more time to knit in the next few weeks, which will be nice but there are quite a few projects on my knitting "plate".


The beads on this project are Amethyst... tho they are dark in this photo. I will try another day to get a better shot. I'll wait till I'm further along as well. The color of the yarn however is quite accurate.





This little guy is wating to go for a hot water swim in the washer, and then a bit of stuffing once he's had a chance to dry out. He was one of the many projects I pulled from the UFO shelf this weekend. He was all but done, when for whatever reason he was stuck to the back of the shelf. Probably cause I needed to take 5 flippin minutes to sew his body together and then pick up stitches and knit his apendages. I will be needle felting on his eyes. once he is stuffed. ( It was finish work... not knitting, that's why he got the back shelf). I realized that he would be done in about an hour if I just sat myself down. So... he will be off to Hawaii this winter, to live with his new owner... my soon to be born Grandson Kaden.

This is a finished object. Hooray! I have been working on it about 2 years. It has had a few incarnations, and spent rather a lot of time in time out for bad behaviour. It started out with a feather and fan motif on the lower half and then switched to stocking stitch for the upper portion. Couldn't have the ladies covered by lace... When I tried it on, I discovered that the lace did indeed come up way, way too far... and frogged that puppy back completely. Restarted just as a basic shell. Details on my Ravellry, didn't think to bring the pattern out to the computer. If anyone is interested, leave a comment and I'll get back to you with the details. Missed getting it finished for this summer, but I am going to Hawaii this winter, so it will be worn lots then. Glad that it is finally done.

So, that is 2 sets of needles that were freed from use, and I frogged 2 other long term UFO's as well. Wow! Now need to organize the UFO piles. There are quite a few projects stacked around. I think that tomorrow's post will be a PHOTO of each and every one of them and details as to how much work I think that they will actually need. Maybe this will shame me into resolving their status one way or another. Gotta do something. As much as I love my LYS I'd rather be buying yarn and not duplicates of needles that I already have that are just in use. And the pity is that while they are indeed in use, holding the yarn on UFO's, for the most part they aren't being used actively. The turtle sat for over a year... granted I don't use size 10 1/2's on a regular basis, but that isn't the point.

Off to take photos of those that haven't seen the light of day in a long, long time.

Back Again

The computer arrived yesterday afternoon about an hour after I arrived home. So nice, as someone needed to sign for it. Surely did miss my toy. Yea for fast service!


I've started on the mystery stole 4. I am dredfully slow. Still on clue number 1 and clue number 3 arrived today. Doing both ends at the same time, so each "row" is forever long, I timed myself on the row, both sections takes me 40 mins. The "way back" is a purl row for the most part and no beads, so much faster. I think the final estimate on the bead count is aprox 1000. Yikes! Hope that I have enough. I was told that each of the tubes I purchased had about 800 beads. I surely hope that number is correct. I am keeping the ones that won't slip easliy onto the crochet hook in a separate baggie. Just in case there isn't enough, I will see about getting one of those bead borer thingies. Or begging to borrow one at the shop where I purchased the beads as I won't be using beads enough myself to really warrant the purchase of one.

It is an interesting process, but is a bit tedious. Each of the beaded stitches is done individually, the beads aren't threaded onto the yarn in advance. I am using the smallest crochet hook I own (1.25mm- I believe) and size 8/0 beads. Oh... and I need to wear magnification glasses so that I can see the buggers. The beads are amethyst colored, and are a higher contrast with the yarn than I originally intended. (I was thinking about a barely there beaded look) However, I believe that this will be a good thing. I didn't end up purchasing the beads until after I had the first clue and could see how important a role that the beads were to play. Going to be a pretty piece. I will have to purchase clothing to wear with this stole. I don't have anything that would do it justice.

To bead the stitch, you first knit the stitch you wish to bead, then slip a bead onto the crochet hook. Slip the bead up past the hook. Grab the stitch you just knit with the beaded crochet hook, pull it (the stitch) taut, and slide the bead onto the stitch and place the stitch back on the needle correctly oriented with the bead below (obviously) the needle. Did I mention that this is a slow process? And that the pattern calls for nearly 1000 beads? I think that this stole will be a long time in the making as I really don't have vast amounts of time to knit and there are a gazillion things I wish to knit. Don't look at my Ravelry listings.... that is not nearly updated enough. I don't seem to have much time for that, can't knit and play on Ravelry.

Photos soon!

9-11

We will never forget!

Computer Update

Just got off the phone with the HP guys. Boy was this an improvement over the Dell Customer Service. I was really happy. One hour total on the phone. Good and bad news though. Bad news is the computer has an issue with the mother board. But... good news is that it is a known problem and so it will be fixed free of charge even though my warranty is of course out of date. A computer won't break until a week past your warranty coverage. So I will be without my laptop for a week or two... Fellow said 9 days average... but it will be fixed! Back up is done.. just in case they have to wipe it.

Happy knitting!

Harder than it looks...

to pick the pit bull out of a line up. Took me 4 tries to get it right. I thought I would be better than that. However, I don't think that they used a very good photo either.

I heard about the "photo line up" while listening to the report about the elderly lady that was attacked in King County. I hope that she recovers fully from the attack.

OUCH....

Screen doors hurt... Just ask my kitty.

I went out to the back deck last night and shut the screen door behind me. Spice ran up the back steps and through the closing screen door... and very nearly made it... but not quite. I took her in to the vet today, as she was comfortable last night and in good spirits despite the sore tail. Unfortunately, she did have to have her tail amputated as the cut was deep and went nearly all the way around. So her long beautiful tail is now just a short four inches. I talked with her vet just a few hours ago and she was waking well from surgery despite the funky cone hat, and wrapped up tail. Let's hear it for good kitty feel good pain drugs.

What's more important?

"What's more important, Knitting or Camping"? That's the question my husband asked me. My answer was of course "Knitting". He then re phrased his question stating what he really meant to ask. "What's more important.. Knitting or Me"? Well, put that way, I had to answer that he was more important.

No that doesn't mean I have to stop knitting, it means that I will not be at Friday Night Fiber Frenzy at the Lambs Ear this friday night. I will instead be up at Silver Springs camping. As much as I want to go to this knitting meeting I have to admit that my husband comes first. This should also be the last camping adventure of the year, pity that it coincides with the restart up of knit night. I tried to get him to agree to let me drive out later that night, but there is a $9.50 charge for additional vehicles. Ah well.

I finished up my bamboo tank top. Will be wearing that to the Thursday night knit group. If I make the pattern again I will have to make a few changes. The shoulder straps are to thin for my liking, and the neck shaping is higher that I would prefer. It fits nice, with just a wee bit of negative ease... I was quite unsure of that bit, but it worked out well.

Still needs to be washed and blocked out. Have to check and see if "blocking" would be the proper term for the bamboo yarn. May just need to be gently patted and smoothed into shape. Have to find that swatch and check it out. No I did not block my swatch... I knit it and it gave me the gauge I was looking for and all was good. amd so I knit. My swatch has never touched water. I am now afraid to let my tank touch water. I need to test this before Thursday. Yikes.

What's more important?

Missing file

I will have to call HP in the next day or so. The file that I need to update is listed on their downloads page, but that particular file is not there when you actually try to download. Grrr. Hopefully it will all work out in the end. I have all my files that I don't want to lose backed up. Mostly photos. 10 gigabytes of photos. I didn't know that I had that many.

Long weekend coming up. Camping out at Ocean Shores for the holiday. Yea! Knitting will happen!

Home Again..but still wireless

I thought that I may have had my internet issues taken care of when we were in Idaho on the way home. Unfortunately that "fix" only lasted a short while. I am currently on line (internet) with a tech support fellow. Have been on with him and one other person for about 2 1/2 hours so far this evening. I am currently on ignore I believe.

ARRGH . He just got back to me, wants me to do a system restore from the recovery disks. I don't want to! Have to back up all the photos and a few other things before that can be done. I think I might also talk with some one else before doing all the recovery bit. I will definately do the backing up tho.

Knitting... yes it has happened. I am about 1/3 of the way through a baby blanket. Almost finished with the baby Mexacali Ole sweater Opal "tiger" in the 18 month size (I think it is that size anyhow) and picked up one of my languishing projects... my bamboo tank/shell. It is only August, and winter is just around the corner and this tank still isn't done. I started it awhile back, I think that this is its second summer in the construction phase. Luckily I will be going to Hawaii in December so maybe it will be worn this year. At least there will be a chance for that to happen. I had put it down due to my inablilty to count correctly and needed to tink back through one armhole bind off so that I could get the correct stitch count for the front. I was 13 stitches off. Couldn't figure out why I had 26 stitches left before I reached the marker. Cause I counted twice, and got the number I was counting. But I was counting 70 for the smaller size and not 83 for my size. Tink, Tink, Tink, pass the scotch. That is corrected now and the back neck and shoulder shaping is correct. I have the front neck ready to bind off stitches for the neck shaping so all in all just a wee bit to go. Will have to pick up stitches around the arm holes and the neck band and do a round or two. Remind me to read the "Constructions" as my hubby would say. I am going to kitchner the shoulder fronts and backs instead of doing a three needle bind off as the pattern suggests tho.
Take care all... and Happy Knitting.

Wireless Woes

I know that it is because I am going on vacation, and wishing to take the lap top with me that it has decided that now would be an excellent time for the wireless to have a glitch. I had to bring it out to the main computer and plug in the DSL cable to get on the internet. Going to see if I can update the drivers... as checking for new updates didn't do the trick.

Knitting is packed, the trailer is packed but I still have to clean house and pack my clothes. Also have to give our pet sitter the "tour" and the mail box key.

If I can't get this wireless thingy fixed before tonight then there won't be any postings from me until the end of next week. Take care everyone and Happy Knitting!

Vacation

Today was my last day at work until the 25th. Hooray! Hours have been long and hard since the begining of June and I feel a bit burned out. Four days to rest and get my yarn ready for travel. Tuesday we will be leaving for Colorado. Taking the fifth-wheel, so turtle like, we will have our home away from home with us. Hubby's niece is getting married the weekend of the 15th. More about this later. Taking the laptop with me so may, if we encounter service, post while gone.

Enjoy what's left of summer!

I just signed up...

...For the Mystery stole 4 this morning. I missed last year's sign up because I delayed checking out the various links I saw while reading different posts until after signups closed. If you are interested, sign up closes on 12 Sept 2008. Should be fun. New skill to learn. I have used beads with cross stich projects but never with knititng. I have a drawer full of lace weight, with 3 different colors that aren't already "spoken for" and are also in an amount that should work reguardless of my gauge. The supply list calls for 1100 yards w/notes elsewhere in the "help section" saying the orginal was knit with ~200 yards less... the extra being added for "insurance".

I have decided to go with the Jagger Spun Zephyr Wool-Silk in a 50/50 Merino Tussah Silk blend. 4 oz and 1250 yards. The color is Mushroom. So a nice easy off white. Now for beads... I am undecided as to whether I want something that is of a high contrast, or something that will definately show, but not be shouting "Look here at me... I'm shiny"! Hmmm... having just writen that I think I will go for the more subtle "Beads? Yes there are beads. See just there."

I think that my yarn and I have a shopping expedition ahead of us. I think I need to have my yarn with me to help make the decision easier. I know that there are some bead shops in the area, have to check them out. Now the question will be if I can get out of the store with ONLY the beads needed for the stole and nothing more. Ha! I think my chances are probably small.

Finished Object

The Shibui Cardigan is finished. Ends woven in and button attached. Still needs to be washed and blocked. That is a project for next friday as I am taking the day off from work. Will be getting all the baby gear ready for the shower.

Button close up as you can't see the detail in the larget photo. The colors are darker in this shot, (indoors w/flash)

I used Koigu 5 skeins with approximately 94 grams or 3 3/4 oz left over. Plenty for a hat and some socks for the kiddo.

Thinking of making a helix hat and will be checking out some sock patterns sent by a friend last week for making up some matching socks. Several pair probably looking at the left over sock yarn.

I will be visiting my LYS soon and hoping that she still has some of the yellow Koigu in stock. I made the mistake of telling my husband that the yellow was originally planned for HIS socks and instead I made a sweater for our grandbaby due in Dec. "Those were my socks?" with a pitiful look on his face. Like he Never, Ever, Gets Socks. Ha! I know he was just teasing me... and because he was teasing... he Will Get Socks. Yellow ones. Made from Koigu.

Baby knits

I am going to try to get as much done on the baby knitting as possible this weekend. Have to go shopping and get a bag, card and some baby tissue, and perhaps a few purchased items as well. Need it all ready to go for the baby shower next weekend. I am a procrastinator when it comes to finishing up on the "little details". But the shower will be for my DIL and my first grand child... So I want to have my act together. :-) As much as it is possible for me to do that. Then it will be a slightly slower pace for finishing up the rest of the baby knits that I have planned.

This next week will have me organizing what I need for a road trip, yarnish as well as clothing. Need my yarn shop locator book too. Don't know how often or even if, I can get hubby to make a yarn store stop... but I have to try. More to come on this later. I will be taking the laptop, so will be able to post if I can get internet access. Can't wait!

Roving

This is the roving that my friends purchased for me. Pretty colors! I am having a bit of trouble with this however. I literaly cannot draft it. I am thinking that it is the addition of the icicle. Or maybe it felted slightly in it's journey to me. I am not sure.... Any ideas? I will keep playing with the piece that I have managed to work loose. It may just end up being spun up as a chunky.

Dog Tired

Cherries were picked there were 8 of these tubs picked full.

Poured into the hopper ...

and juice was made.

This was a long weekend... not the type with 3 or 4 days to it, but long as in lots of things to do, tho it was still nice. We went to my SIL's in Oregon, a 4 hour drive, and picked sour cherries. Lots of sour cherries. We pitted aprox 11 quarts for pies and the remainder was turned into juice. yummy!

I also picked 6 gallons of blueberries. I don't like dwarf blueberry bushes. Bending over for long periods of time in order to harvest blueberries isn't fun. Luckily SIL has quite a few standard sized blueberry bushes as well. That meant that I could skim over the smaller bushes and just pick from them when there were large clusters of ripe berries. I have blueberry bushes here at home as well, but only a dozen and they are still young yet, and not heavy producers and I want to make jam.

Knitting did happen, and I am back to "fresh yarn" on the Shibui cardigan and have a hat finished to the crown decreases. Photos of those to come.

This is how I feel today:

Dog tired.

This was Fishy all the way home.

I am glad that his water bottle didn't leak.

Lame post...

Not a thing to blog about today.

Thought that I would grab a couple of sheepy photos from the Black Sheep Festival. One of the lovely ladies that I was with that day asked me to take these photos of this sheep. Probably ought to get her a copy of them... Certainly was a cute bugger. Waiting patiently for his/her(? I didn't ask and didn't look for gender) turn with the woman who was shearing.


Have a happy sheepy Wednesday !

edited to add... click for bigger ... wow what a surprise. Is there a way to adjust the size that pops up? Huge, absolutely huge!

Unexpected gifts

My camera battery is charging so that I can take a photo of my present.

Our neighbors went on vacation and saw a yarn store on their way home. Knowing that I knit and spin, they stopped in and got me a little something. They stopped by The Navigator's Needle in Thermopolis, WY and picked up 4 oz of Teeswater Roving blended with Icile by Lucy's Sheep Camp, also of Thermopolis. I hope that the camera will be able to pick up the colors in this. Beautiful violets and purples a hint of white and sky blue. Pretty stuff.

I was able to pick up my stitches successfully on the baby cardigan, running some sock yarn through the left arm of each stitch was helpful. Now have to overcome my disgust at my self for my failure to measure and pick it back up again. Hope to have it completed for the baby shower on the 10th of August. There is no reason that it shouldn't be finished by then. I just have to get busy on it when I get home from work instead of doing anything else. Other than supper... gotta feed the hubby... unless I can get him to cook. :-)

Probably a good thing that all my bobbins and my drop spindles all have yarn in progress on them . Silk on the turkish and the top whorl drop spindles, and some Coopworth ( I believe...) on the babe. I probably ought to order more bobbins from the Babe guy so that I have the ability to change to something new. Oh wait... I have a new drop spindle that I got at the Black Sheep Festival. hmm... gonna try spinning some of this tonight.

Pass the Scotch

Rip-it Rip-it Rip-it.

That's what I will be doing this afternoon. I've been working on a baby cardigan, the Shibui Two Color Cardigan. Nice easy pattern worked from the cuffs to the center first one side then the other. I am on the second side, and about to start the left side neck shaping when I decided to hold the two sides up and look at them together. ARGH! The Right side arm length is a correct 6.5 inches in length and the Left arm length is only 5 inches. Growl! I will have to rip the left side front and back to the armpit, about 3 inches, and restart from there. Going to try and insert a life-line after the fact as I am not that good at ripping back and picking up a good long row of stitches. I inevitably will miss a few and not notice the buggers until I am way past them again.

Wish me luck!

Finishing what I've started

I sat down this morning and sewed up both of the booties and finished up the BSJ, weaving in the ends and doing the shoulder seams and picking up the crochet hook and going around the collar. Then grabbed the sweaters and headed to the store for buttons. $34.00 and an hour later I have buttons. More buttons than I need for the sweaters that I have. More than I need for the baby sweaters that I still plan on knitting before the baby is due. I think I might have a button acquisition problem. I put button holes on both sides... ala Elizabeth Zimmerman... so that they would be correct for either sex. Have to go look through my husband's closet to determine if what I recall about button holes/buttons is correct before sewing on the buttons. (I would have been wrong) His dress shirts proclaim that boys buttons are sewn on the right side and the holes are on the left as the garment is worn. I have very few button up type blouses but I did locate one and the buttons were on the left.

It feels good to finish things up completely. I will have to remember this. There IS a second thrill after the joy of finishing up the knittign portion of a project. Now it is a finished knit and a Useable one as well. Happy Knitting! Off to sew on buttons!

I don't know how it happened

... but when I was uploading some photos of baby knitting to the computer today my photos of the Black Sheep Festival uploaded as well. They weren't still on the camera as I checked there the other day and again today before I snapped the photos of the knitting. Yet they were there to upload when I plugged my camera into the computer. Oh well! All I can say is Yipee! I will take a bonus any time one comes my way.

Baby booties knitted using a Mary Maxim pattern for a womans medium bootie with the changes as follows... sock yarn and 1.75mm addi turbos. Instead of worsted and the appropriate sized needles. I wanted to try out my new addi 1.75's and the pattern and yarn were right near each other on the desk. So... :-) The camo ones are from an unlabeled ball of sock yarn in my stash. The brighter ones are Panda Wool by Crystal Palace Yarns 51% bamboo 39% wool and 15% nylon. Both need to be sewn up.

Pattern in "Babies and Toddlers- a knitters dozen" by XRX books

Mexicali Baby Ole Yarn... Stray ball of sock yarn I had. Smallest size to fit a newborn. There was yarn left. If I can find it I know there is enough to do a pair of booties. Must look.

EZ's baby surprise jacket. The yarn- Cascade 220 (not the superwash either) Must remember to tell my DIL that it is a hand wash item. But if it gets felted oh well. The darker rust is a solid 220 shade, leftovers from a felted purse for my sister. The other is my first hand dyed there were two skeins of that and I should have enough left to finish up the seaming without difficulty. Still needs doing up and buttons.

The baby shower is in August tho baby isn't due till mid Dec. I want to get as many items done as I can before then. Currently in the works is another cardigan and Marihone by Dale of Norway photos of those two later.

Playing hooky...

Sort of any way. I have a dentist appointment scheduled today, so decided to take the whole day off instead of just leaving work at noon. Bonus.... it is an absolutely gorgeous day! Sunshiny and cloud free. Hurray for summer!



Went to visit my friend Ms. M. this morning and trim her doggies nails. She has two good looking dogs, a boxer and a lab. After leaving her place I headed over to Dawn's place to drop off 2 dirty sheep fleece to be turned into roving. I would link to her web site, but I am not sure how to do that yet. As soon as I figure that out, (I may be begging help from friends on this one) I will put up a link to her page.

I bought a length of felt from Dawn in a light grey color that I will be making into a vest. I have some felting needles that I recently purchased from my LYS (will add this link too when I have it figured) and will attempt to decorate said vest with some felted goodness. I think I will practice first a bit tho.
Home for lunch and then back out the door on the way to the dentist and then stopping by vehicle emmissions to get my car checked out so I can get my new tabs. Not exactly the best way to spend the day off... at the dentist and doing emissions, but I will have knitting and the sun is shining. It certainly could be much worse. If I have time today (and still feel like it after dentist) I will be giving the stash a good toss.. have to organize a few things now that the 2 fleece are out of the room.

Now that I think about it... I should have gone through the sheep pens at the BSF and looked to see if she (she being the ewe) was still there after I purchased the fleece. Tho it wouldn't matter really other than seeing her, as ALL of my photos from that trip disappeared from my computer after the transfer from the camera. And yes, I clicked the option to erase from camera after transfer as the photos were only going on my laptop and not the main pewter so they aren't still there either. ::::bad words, bad words, bad words:::::

Failed to take photos of the fleece darn it. One is a chocolate brown Romney (cross?) lamb's fleece that I purchased a year and a bit ago at the Puyallup Fair. Weighed in dirty at 4.7 lbs. The second fleece was a beautiful grey Merino x Corry that I purchased at the Black Sheep Festival in Oregon this year. The ewe's name is "Grey Mom" and her fleece weighed 8.72 lbs in all it's sheepy dirtiness. So all in all, roughly 13 pounds of dirty sheep. Wonder what I will end up with poundage wise? I know it is probably best to figure close to 1/2 the start weight lost to grease and veg matter, and if it you lose less than that consider it as a bonus.

Time to go to the dentist.... ewww....

Happy Knitting

** got the link thing figured out I think**

Well... here goes nothing!

An old (ish) dog learning a new trick here. Well, trying to learn more like. Guess we'll see, or not, how well I manage.

This will pretty much be a knitting blog, with some spinning, some travel, and some crazy animal antics thrown in just to keep it happy.

This photo was taken 31 July 2005 while in Malaysia out at Pulau Tigas. (Survivor Island the first) I followed this flutterby around for about 20 mins before I got a shot I liked. It is here because I wanted to see if I was able to figure out how to up load a photo.