Flying Squirrels

On Monday or Tuesday morning, I was looking out my kitchen window. Now, my kitchen window faces the driveway and the street. Out by our mailbox, under our flowering ornamental cherry tree there are masses of wild strawberries that we purposefully planted there. We enjoy seeing the little white blooms in the spring and then the tiny, red berries. I've tried them, there's not much flavor, and it mushes when you pick it. So, I was looking out there and I saw this little furry tail sticking up in the air. I thought it might be a kitten, it was pretty small. Then I realized it was a squirrel in these strawberry plants. He sat up and was eating the strawberries. Oh he was so cute!! You can just see home sitting up here.










I tried to get closer and he went flying. Too cute!!

Why is it.......

Sometimes when you are discouraged over events that happen in your life, something else happens that lifts you up? I've been discouraged, mainly because I have procrastinated on some knitting projects for CIC that I wanted to do in the name of relatives. I've done three little pairs of these socks, but have said I would do 24 pairs. Well, tonight I happened to turn the TV on and Dateline NBC was on. There was a family that had adopted two twin babies back in 1999, these twins were 7 in 2004 and their family took them back to Russia to meet older siblings, two more sets of twins, they had recently found that these children were in orphanages, when they hadn't been before. To make a long story short, they showed images of these children in the orphanages, and how they did end up adopting these children ages 10 and 12. It was such a sad story, with a happy ending, it has inspired me to keep knitting on these socks and vests so I can say, "I accomplished my goals this year!!"

My Weekend of Fun!!

Friday morning had us on the road by 10:00 AM to Eugene and the Black Sheep Gathering. I did not take any pictures while I was there but took some of the stash once I got home. I did take the camera, but it sat in the van most of the time. DD did get some pictures of her cousin and aunt though. We stayed with our sister-in-law, Na. So, on Friday we did our shopping. DD bought three bunches of roving, and one skein of STR in the colorway Sherbet. She got home today, started up our borrowed spinning wheel and is spinning a Corriedale pencil-roving from these folks at Crown Mountain Farms. The colorway is Watermelon. She's doing a pretty good job of it.




I bought mostly alpaca lace weight for a couple of projects I came up with while I was there. Actually one of them I did have the idea earlier in the week, while I was working with some cotton colors at Blue Moon Fiber Arts. My blog pal, RandomKnits is doing a pair of fair isle gloves, so in working with these solid colors of cotton, I was able to visualize a bit with the colors. When I saw the alpaca from Pacific Meadows Alpaca(no website, but I do have their email address) in Junction City, I knew that would work for these gloves. It is almost sport weight.




Later Friday night I thought about this yarn and realized I could make some nice lace scarves for Christmas presents, so I went back and got these colors. Even later on Saturday night I thought of another project, but I didn't go back for more. I hope they will be at OFFF in September.





From Mckenzie Alpaca Breeders, I also got some other lace weight alpaca. Some for myself and some for a friend. I think a shawl is in order from this blue alpaca.







Let's see, I bought sock yarn, from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, in Star Sapphire, that's the bluish one, it should be more purpley, and Waterlilies.




And from Crown Mountain Farms, this is by Dicentra Designs, in Goldwine.




One of the very first buys of the day, though, were quilting yards. One booth, Bear Dog Yarns(no website)had quilting material as well as roving and yarn. She told me it was a last minute decision to bring it and I was the first one to buy any. I some how ended up with two of the rainbow looking one. Oh well, I am sure I will use it.




I think we were out of there by 2:30 on Friday afternoon. I went back on Saturday to meet up with some other bloggers. You will have to check out their sites for photos of the small group. One woman, Dene, came from near Houston, TX, with her dh for vacation. They were touring all over Oregon and parts of Washington. This was the last day of their vacation and they were headed back home to TX on Sunday. That was pretty cool!! I also met Chrissy, a local knitter, mom, and designer. Nicholette from Vancouver who is blogless, but she teaches classes at Yarn Garden, Jen who is on the Summer of Stash site with me and her cute little boy, who is 9 months old, and then there was Lavender Sheep She was off shopping while we sat and knit for an hour. The time flew so quickly!! After taking one last look through the main building, I drove back to Na's, rested and knit the rest of the afternoon and evening.




I finished my CIC socks, they are so cute!! I knit them on one circular US 3's out of LionWool, colorway is FlowerGarden. It looks like stained glass to me.




Left Na's this morning about 10:30, we got home and it was about 100 degrees out. We are in a heat wave right now. Upper 90's for at least the next day or so. Then it's supposed to cool down, but I haven't checked how much. It kind of sounds like not a lot!!

UGH!! Too much time has passed.....

In between posting here. I have good intentions of keeping updated here, but then I sit down and really have forgotten what I want to write about. I do have some awesome photos to share though. I finally got a project done, and another almost done, etc.

First is dd's quilted head scarf that she finished last week. She's been learning the quilting trade from my aunt. The darker side, is material with all kinds of fruit on it. The pink side, obviously is all pinks and greens, dots and stripes, big and little. She has now started on a 16 patch hotpad.









My FO, Jeanie Townsend's Spring Twists in STR Spring Fling colorway. I enjoyed this sock so much that I must have ripped it out at least 3 times. I didn't follow the pattern completely. There are four repeats of four rows for three sections, I didn't do the fourth repeat on each section, so it is shorter. Then I decided to do PGR's short-row heel. (I think that's the name of it). It seems to fit my heel better, though I think on the next sock I need to make the heel a little bit deeper. I did these on Magic Loop, then finally as I got past the heel I put them both onto one needle. It went a bit faster that way. Jeanie has a yahoo knitting group with her great patterns. She is such a great designer and very generous.













And I finally finished spinning up some roving I had gotten from BMFA about 3 years ago or so. I am pretty sure it is merino/tencel, in Black Cherry colorway. I haven't measured it either. No plans currently on the drawing board. This is actually one of the better pictures of it. One of the photos was nasty, it looked orange.







And now blogger had decided it doesn't want to load any more of my photos. I was going to show the CIC socks that I am doing two on one circular needle. Oh well, another time.

I think I am all ready for the weekend. DD and I are heading out for BSG tomorrow morning after setting up for communion at our church. Hope to see some of you there. Oh, I heard tonight the most ridiculous thing about BSG. Some government organization wants them to change their name. Black Sheep Gathering apparently isn't politically correct, so let's change the Black to Rainbow. Have you ever seen a Rainbow sheep? I will check into it and let you know what I find out, if I was hoaxed.....

I've Been Busy Today

It's been a full day!! I finished my Purple Lace Shawl, which you will see in the previous post. And I had my WWKIP Day as well. Last week, dh got an email from one of his coworkers, advertising this. It's only the second annual festival. We thought "hey, why not go and check it out." I thought, "hey, there's my "Knit in Public" venue!!" I had my CIC socks that I knew would be an easy project for this event. One woman came up to me and asked, "Are you purposefully knitting in public? You do know this is Knit in Public Day, don't you?" I told her yes I was and yes I did know!! It was kind of cool. Then later another woman came up to see what I was knitting. She thought it was socks, but it could have been golf club toppers as well. She was one of the security gals there for the day. She thought I was doing a great job!! It's always fun to hear others react to knitting. I had a good time, too much beer though, since I hardly drink anyways. I didn't take my camera to record my KIP, but I did take a picture once I got home. I'll finish up the socks tonight.

The Mess of Unravelling

The Amazing Lace Challenge Part 2

UGH!! I never knew how hard it could be to unravel something knitted, from the beginning. It's not a simple frog, it's under here, over there, hmm, it's through here several times. Not a pretty sight!! (For those who aren't knitters, frogging is ripping out your knitted product, as in ribbit or rippit)






It took me 4 days of off/on working on it to finally get it undone, and BACK ON THE NEEDLES AGAIN!! I came up with this little song to go with it.







(To the tune of Back in the Saddle Again)
I'm back on the needles again
In where a stitch is a friend
Where the playful kittens romp
On the lacy purple pomp
Back on the needles again.

Well, I won't take up song writing anytime soon, I promise.












And the Final Take on the Purple Shawl:




This was a definite learning experience, I won't take it for granted that even though the ball says it's the same color and dye lot, I will compare them closer. Seriously, though I did learn that I could undo from the wrong end, and start knitting "backwards", and it looks close enough that most people wouldn't know it had been done.

Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful

Amazing Lace Challenge # 2.......... Part 1


I think this shawl has turned out just beautiful. I love the way it washed up, it is nice and soft. And I finished it in record time for Na's birthday next weekend!!












What is this?????? I found this when I was weaving in the ends. The very first ball of yarn must have been a different color of purple. It is very noticeable and I will have to start at the beginning of the shawl to frog it!! It will be shorter than I had intended it to be, but what else can I do? You can kind of see the color change right in the middle of the photo. To be continued.............


Last but not least, I finished this last night. It is cute. Not hard to sew at all, and has some nice pockets inside and out. I have seen some other fabric to make some with horses, some with musical instruments and notes, other girly ones, and some that remind me of Pride and Prejudice. It's dimensions are approximately 12 inches across and 9 inches tall.

Summer of Stash

I did join one more blog group, but the only thing I have to do is not buy any yarn this summer, until Labor Day. I have to go back and read the rules, but I think I can have at least one exception, maybe even two. I can buy books, patterns, and needles or anything else needed to keep knitting, just no yarn. I can do it, I have 2 more shawls to make, yarn for two sweaters, tons of yarn for socks and tanks. My exception will be for Black Sheep coming up in 3 weeks or if I need to get more yarn for Kim's shawl, it will be somewhat different than the rectangular ones I have done so far.

I received "A gathering of lace" in yesterday's mail. I am very happy with it, and will let any of you that are local, borrow it. Amazon was very quick this time. I ordered it the same day I ordered the sock yarn.

I did finish the dark purple feather and fan today. I was weaving in ends when I saw the most dreadful thing I have ever seen!!! The very first skein of yarn is a different purple, lighter and not as pretty. I bought them all at the same time, same dye lot, etc. I am seriously considering buying some dye to fix it. It's LionBrand Microspun, so is acrylic. Will it work? I'll take a picture as soon as I figure out what I am going to do and have blocked it. I am very proud of myself (not to the point of falling though, I hope) that I have completed a gift for someone and it isn't late or after the fact.

Tomorrow I am going on a field trip, by myself no less. I found 3 quilt stores just on my side of town, and I mean MY side of town. I don't have to go through Beaverton at all, in fact, I go the opposite direction, towards Hillsboro. I can't wait to check them out!! I sewed a quilted bag today, well, most of it. I found I didn't have the little magnetic closures it called for, even though it was on my list for the fabric store last week. It's not my fault they didn't have the right size. As soon as it is done, hopefully tomorrow afternoon, I'll post a picture of it as well.

She's Reading, She's Reading, Uh HUH

Ok, you have to be in the right frame of mind to hear the above Title. I am so jazzed right now!! I've got this stupid little tune from Nemo that Dory sings, I don't even know the words to it, but the above title is running through my head with this tune.

So, the conversation at our house this week goes a bit like this:

DD: So, when does the Library Summer Reading Program start?

Me: This week on Thursday, do you want to sign up for it?

DD: What are my reading options?

Me: Well, there's the "Read to Me", or the "I Read it Myself". You can do either one. (Age wise they will only let her do the "I Read it Myself", but why does she need to know that right now.

DD: No, I don't want to sign up, I want to do my own reading program. I want to be reading by the end of the summer.

Me: Ok, I have a good program we could start.

DD: (with a raised voice) NO, I want to do it my way AND WITH DAD!!

Me: Ok, but you have to realize that Dad is tired when he gets home and wants to play on the computer, and you will have to be responsible for pushing him to help you.

DD: Ok.

End of conversation.

That very night, after I have gone to bed, dd and dh proceed to read a chapter in Mr.Putter and Tabby Feed the Fish. Dh tells me about it when he crawls in bed. The very next morning after taking dh to work, I come home to find my girl sitting on the love seat with a blanket over her legs reading the next chapter to herself, but out loud. And she read it again last night to her dad.

AND I CAN'T PRAISE HER OR SHE'LL STOP READING. What's a mom to do??

On to knitting, I am almost done with the purple feather and fan shawl, less than one ball left to knit up.



I received this in the mail today, it took 3 days to get here, I am seriously impressed with their service.



I designed and knit these (from leftovers) last week for an afghan for a local homeschool mom who recently had a heart attack.