Grandbaby time

Took the day off on the 11th and spent the morning at the Pacific Science Center with the grandkids. (the big guys are 8 & 5, little guy is 3 months... he'll need another trip or three!) We had a blast. It was my first trip, as when we moved up here to Washington again, (I was here from '78 - '81) to stay in '98... the boys were in high school and a trip to the PSC would have been totally not cool as a trip. Nothing like dinosaurs and bugs tho when you are a kid. My boys did the dinosaurs in London when they were about this same age. After the PSC it was lunch time and then a date at the trout farm to see what they could catch. The two big boys caught 7 trout between them, good thing KungKung(grandfather in chinese) likes fish. All in all it was a long, long day. Everyone had fun. Unfortunately no knitting happened during the day. I left my my knitting on the table, I had pulled it out of my purse to organize a few things and didn't put it back in. So, instead of knitting to and from Seattle I stared at a sleeping baby. :-) They headed back to Hawaii on Sunday morning, won't get to see them again until June.

Lots of knitting on Saturday and Sunday afternoon as well as most of Tuesday, I am now out of yarn on the afghan project, two squares done, so will need to pick up another 2 skeins for the next two blocks this friday. Six inches from the armholes on the braid cardigan, that's moving along slowly but still quite nicely. Will need to put another skein or two in yarn cakes this week for that project. Working on the feet of a pair of socks, perhaps another 3 inches before the toe decreases. Also working on the border of the pi shawl, this section requires me to pay attention, so I had to put it away while we had family here. I had to tink (knit backwards) a section because I was trying to carry on a conversation and knit lace. Nope, can't do it.

Oh... got the yarn room organized before all the family showed up. Had a bonus cleaning day (and yes... I needed that extra time) as they messed up on their flight time and showed up for their flight 24 hours late. OOPS! We all got a giggle out of that, especially as they got really lucky and they weren't charged any extra for their mess up. (Hubby's sis did exactly the same thing about 6 weeks ago! ) Those flights that are just before midnight seem to mess people up easier than those at other times.

Knit happy!

Frustrated

I need some one to come to my house and help me organize and pitch out clutter. Not knitting related stuff... but paper crap and misc. junk. I have way too much paper clutter. I am totally unorganized as well it seems. Rocks that I have picked up off the beach and on different trips scattered in baskets. Do I really need all this? I need some one ruthless to stand over me and say to pitch it.

Trying to clean and organize as my youngest and his family are going to be in WA for a couple of weeks. They won't be staying here, we don't have room for all of them at this point (would perhaps have space if it were more organized) but they will be over visiting for several hours at a time.

Bonfire? perhaps that is the answer. Just burn it all. ARGH! Three more days.... At least the bathroom is clean.

GAH!

Change of Plans

No Knit Night for me tonight... and I forgot it was Thursday last night by the time I should have left, and didn't remember that it was Thursday till knitting was nearly over. (having a day off in the middle of the week sure messes up my mind) But for tonight, my Sweetie's flight arrived in country around 12:30 am and he is now just a few hours from Olympia where I am to pick him up.

Happy Knitting Everyone!

A bit of this and that

This is Spicy. She has taken to sleeping on, or next to, any knitting project left unattended. Here she is keeping company with one of my husband's Felted Slippers... still not felted. waiting for him to return before I shrink them.









The tower of strange stuff. I purchased this at Madrona Fiber Festival along with a small spindle. This is destined to be spun on the wheel.












Ah the first bit. Looks like something you might find in the dryer lint catcher. Albiet with a bit more cohesiveness.









Not so bad spun up however. I am finding the odd bits that are in this quite interesting. Every section is different and the little bits behave differently when drafting out. This section they behaved quite nicely. The third section however was a bit more of a royal pain. I didn't take photos of that section. I am going to spin it all up and then ply it back upon itself. I get the feeling that a Navajo 3 ply won't look the best with the diverse colors that are in the tube. The changes between colors will be too extreeme










Look... in the front flower garden! Spring is comming at last!

All of my knitting projects don't seem to be making much progress even tho I am knitting and knitting away upon them. The pi shawl still has aprox 2o rows before the border... so endless rows of stocking stitch. The socks are still in the cuff stage. K3 P1 rib, a charity hat in a K2 P1 rib cuff. Um... yeah... nothing there photo worthy at the moment

Oh... I will be at Knitting tonight and possibly tomorrow night. My honey didn't get on his flight that was due at Sea Tac this morning so didn't get home today as planned. Hopefully will be on the flight tomorrow, but that one lands in California and if he makes that one, he will be driving north from the Sacramento area with another fellow that lives in Olympia, and I will drive down to pick him up there.

Happy Knitting!

Promised photos

The brown was hard to photograph...








This is the antique in a close up

Still here...

So I have been neglecting to post....

Lots and lots of spinning is still going on around here. I took some photos of the grey yarn, or rather what's left of it... I have been knitting it. The yarn turned into a pair of fingerless mitts and most of a hat. Yes, most of a hat, I have been distracted by yet more spinning. . (My mom has claimed the mits) She will get the hat too if it fits her. The hat will be too small for me. I washed and blocked the mitts last night and they are still drying.

I started to spin up some of the Chocolate Fleece so I could have a break from the grey. So far I have spun up ~150 yards 2-ply and ~58yards of single ply of the same Chocolate. Working out a swatch on size 5US 3.75mm with the 2 ply. This one is a bit too loosely plied I think. I did get the weight of yarn I was trying for... It is 11-12 WPI (wraps per inch) which puts it at a heavy DK weight or a Light Worsted weight. Perfect for a sweater I think. Need to work on plying a bit less loosely the next go around.

Yesterday I went through my fiber stash and found some "antique" that I purchased from my favorite LYS a few years ago. Had roughly 4 oz left out of the 6 I had purchased. Spun that up last night and today I finished spinning and Navaho plyed it to preserve the colors (umm that was the plan any how) I don't know how well I did on color preservation but I have ~211 yards of a nice 3 ply that will probably be a bit bulkier than I really prefer, but will turn in to... ?? Don't know yet... We shall see.

Knitting... almost finished with my hubby's felted slippers. One more sole to make and then to attach it and sew up the seams. Need to go shopping for some Camo colored yarn for my eldest grandson, who said that he would like a sock monkey if it could be in camoflage.... Have to see if I can find some in a yarn I can tolerate long enough to knit a monkey out of. :-) Have the yarn for the second eldest's sock monkey already. When is Easter?

Photos in the next post

Spinning Wheel, spinning round....

... And as a result I now have 208 yards in 2 skeins of 3ply yarn from my Grey Fleece. Approximately 6.5 ounces spun up... leaving roughly 6 pounds and a few ounces to go. ;-) Umm, yeah.... I will be spinning the grey fleece for quite some time. As soon as these skeins are dry, I will measure the WPI (wraps per inch) I am thinking that I have a light to medium worsted weight. Which is what I was working towards. This first little bit of yarn is going to be knit up into fingerless mitts. I want to see how the yarn holds up and decide if I want to spin up a sweaters worth right away or not. (I have a funny feeling that this yarn is going to pill... ) It is a Merino cross. Photos of yarn to come later. Camera battery is dead.

I am thinking that I want to spin up a bit of my chocolate brown fleece next and see what it feels and looks like. It was yummy looking when I bought it all sheepy and dirty, such a wonderful color, and still a yummy color now that it is all clean. And the three drop spindles all have stuff that needs finishing on them as well.

It has been awhile since my spinning wheel has gotten much use, and thanks to three friends that decided to have a "sit and spin" day yesterday, I remembered how much I really do enjoy the spinning. Spent most of this morning spinning as well. I am glad that we have decided to make it a regular event. Now perhaps some of my fleece and roving stash will be turned into yarn stash.

Now to knit for the rest of the day and get this one project finished up. I can do it. There is very, very little left to do. Just have to attach the second sole to the bottom of the last slipper and sew up the final seams on both of the slippers. Then we are having a "felting party" on Wednesday evening. I am hoping to get the pair of socks I am working on close to the toe decreases as well today.

Knit On!