A few Pictures

I took very few pictures at Black Sheep Gathering. Not enough time. I had a great time helping out at the BMFA's booth. It was a long weekend, and it shows on how I am feeling this week, as well as Kim. It was entirely overwhelming for her.

These guys are Blue Face Leceister. I don't know if that's how it is spelled or not. I met the gal who raises them. I was just trying to get some pictures to show on the blog, but she thought I really liked the sheep. :) They do produce some wonderful fiber.







One view across from us.


Our booth.

Our booth.



Another view across from our booth.

I bought a spinning wheel. It should be here on next Tuesday. It is a Baynes, from New Zealand, and I did test it at the Pacific Wool and Fiber booth. Kim tested it as well and is just itching for it to get here. She keeps asking when it will come. That's a good sign. I'll be signing up for a class at Northwest Wools. I've taken a spinning class with Laurie before. She is really good at teaching. I saw her on Sunday and let her know about our new wheel. She said she would help me get it oiled up and ready to spin.

I'm knitting. I have 3 pairs of socks on the needles. One is a test knit, and I am probably 2/3 of the way done with them. Very cute!! Then there are my 4th of July socks, about the same spot (2/3), and the new club package from BMFA. I'm just barely started on that one, and only one right now. As soon as I get about 3/4 of an inch into it I will start the second one and put them on one needle. I really like doing magic loop both at the same time. It makes it so my socks match in size and gauge.

At BSG, I bought three things of roving, lots of purple in all three, one of them is pencil roving. I also bought soap from FogWash in Yachats, and skeins of alpaca dk weight from Pacific Meadow Alpaca. I wanted some special lace weight from Mckenzie Alpacas, but she didn't have any this year. Oh well.

A scarf, some socks and tamales, Ole'

I finished my scarf for the International Scarf Exchange. I don't want to go into too many details, because I want my friend to be surprised when she gets it.

It is made from Handmaiden Sea Silk, I don't know the colorway because I can't find the tag, and I know I saved it!! I used the feather and fan pattern. It measured something like 70 inches once it was done and blocked out. I think it wil be a nice spring/summery scarf. I also sent her a bunch of goodies and I hope she enjoys all of it.

I also finished Kim's socks. She's wearing them today, so maybe I can get her to do a photo shoot with me. They are Lorna's Laces Sock, out of Black Purl. Very pretty!! The pattern is from the booklet "Calendar of Socks" I think. I want to say the pattern is called "Autumn Equinox".

We made tamales yesterday for our own little Cinco de Mayo. Oh they were good. Tamales aren't too hard to make. It's time consuming, but that's the wrapping part. I have made them one time before, several years ago. I saved the extra sauce and froze it, so I didn't have to make that this time. It was a green sauce, using canned tomatillos and a spicy pepper of some kind. It was good having been frozen for such a long time. We used grilled chicken and sliced it up instead of shredding it, and I just followed the recipe for the masa harina that was on the package. I steamed them for about 2 hours. It was delicious!!

Gray, Blue and White

New Socks for Robert. He's gotten from me, 2 hats, and 1 other pair of socks that are more for fun, not really wearable. He was admiring some handknit socks last weekend when one of John's friends was over. So, here I am working on a pair for him now. It is an easy pattern. I think it is called Garter Rib. After the cuff it is a row of K2, P2, then a row of all knit. Very easy to remember. I am using Regia Silk for these, on size US 0 Addis. The color is Pewter, or 91. I am going to try to get them done by the 5th of March, for our anniversary, but I won't hold my breath either. Oh, I bought the yarn from Loopy Ewe. I ordered it on Sunday or Monday, I think and she had it here on Thursday!! I need another 1 1/2 inches then can start the heel.


Titania's Revenge by Cookie A. This was one of the Rockin' Sock Club socks from last year. The colorway is also called Titania. This is a cool pattern, but it is a 10 row repeat and takes a long time. I think I am partially through section 4, and need two more after that. On the foot part it switches to a cable pattern, so it is totally different than the leg.

Last weekend's sky.

This week is going to go by fast. I work two days at least. We have sock club shipments to do this week. 2000 members. Ugh!! We'll see what happens later in the week, I really need to do other things, but I know that these need to get out too. Then it's on to the weekend, again. It's anniversary weekend, so we are going to do an overnighter some place, maybe home. ;)

I am going to have a contest soon. Hmm, maybe an anniversary contest. More on that later this week. I promise!! Maybe throw some STR into the mix...............So, be thinking chickens this week.

February!!

A new month, a new beginning, right? Phil did not see his shadow, however, the hedgehogs here in Oregon did!! AND hedgehogs were the original animals used centuries ago in Europe when this superstition came about.

I missed the first day of February and Project Spectrum, but I have a really good excuse, I just can't tell you. I can tell you I was working at BMFA, and it has to do with the 2007 sock club, but not for the actual shipment. In a few weeks I'll be able to tell you more about it. I am thrilled to say the least!! Getting paid to......, okay enough. I've got some pictures to share and a little more information on my biopsy. I guess I can start with that and get it out of the way.

Yesterday the nurse called and said the final report said the same thing as the preliminary report. So today I needed to call them and follow up with what we are going to do about this lump. I figured we had a couple of options, do another biopsy to take the whole thing out, like aspiration; or we could leave it there and it would 1)show up on future mammograms and freak us all out again, 2)show up on future mammograms, but we know it's there and just watch that it doesn't get bigger, or 3)take it out and not have to worry about it at all. So, the 4th option that we are going to do at this point, come back in 6 months for another ultrasound to make sure it isn't growing or doing anything strange. I told them that if my doctor wanted to have a consultation with Robert and myself we were fine with that and could come in anytime. But nope, it looks like I have 6 months then a recheck. I think I'm ok with that, though I don't know now. A friend I talked to tonight told me that I could call and talk to the Dr. and ask my questions, then I realized that I also have the option to email him. It's on all of his business cards and I've actually done it before. So, now it's in the back of my mind to do this and I am trying to process the questions that I want to have answered. Robert also said I could call the nurse at the radiologist office and ask her.

Ok, I finished my socks last night, tried to take a picture and they turned out YUCKY, so I waited until today, so I would have the natural light from out south-facing sunroom. I have the buttons and you can see them on one of the socks, but I have had a time sewing them on, I don't like it and will be fiddling with them to get it right. They are the Rock and Weave pattern from BMFA Rockin' Sock Club 2006, in the colorway Fairgrounds. (Hey, does anyone know how to do the TM for a trademark sign) I know that the term Rockin'.......is trademarked. So is there a little keystroke that makes it?



Kim's violet opened it's third bloom, it is so pretty now. It opened sooner than I thought it would, about mid week, but I didn't take a picture until today.



Hmm, what else. I don't have my yarn yet for my grey project, though I do need to re-do John's cable hat. It really was too big, even though he said it wasn't. He wasn't warm enough in it, so I took out one of the cable repeats in the hopes that it won't be too small and it will keep his head warm.

I finished my quilt blocks for the Quilt Block Swap and sent them out yesterday. I won't post pictures of them until I know Jenny received them so I don't spoil the surprise. I did have a break through though on the swap. Now, why I didn't think about this before, I don't know. In fact, Robert thought of it for me as I was struggling Monday afternoon/evening to come up with a pattern to use for the swap. I do this every month. I get the name of my swappee and their colors/themes. Then I think about it for at least half the month, what do I want to do? I agonize over it, then as the last week approaches I plunge in and get it done. It's hard on me!! I have tried to make every single block different than the last block. I can't do that anymore. I don't know enough or have enough experience to keep going at that rate. So, my blocks will be the same ones each month, with different colors, or whatever theme they have going. I also decide to email Kristin a while back, we have an ongoing conversation. She is a young 20-something, finishing up college in IL. She was homeschooled!! I am swapping months with her, because, even though she started this swap, she hasn't been able to do a single month yet, due to an odd number of participants. So, I told her she should take the month of February and I will take a break, I need it anyways. I am also going to help her out with moderating the group as I can.
Project Spectrum: I was over at the Flickr site for it where Lolly and others have posted questions. I saw the one about the read-along. That would be kind of cool. They were posting some of their suggestions of books. I have one of the books for this month. Blue Latitudes, it is about Captain Cook's exploration of the South Pacific, I think. It was given to us as a gift several years ago and non of us have read it. Then I also picked up The Red Tent at the library this week. I am thinking I should save that for the red month.

I also saw on another blog that someone has presented the idea of a Harry Potter read-along for the 6 weeks before HP7 is released. Right, like I can read one of those in a week? Sure, if that's all I am doing, instead of knitting, or computering. But, I had considered listening to the audio versions while I am knitting, and starting on them now. That way I can actually get through them.