Birthdays

Sunday was dd #3's third birthday. Guess who she loves???
This work of art was made by me and my mom. We had fun rifling through my sister's cupboards to find all the right components. Equally enjoyable was watching Princess get into the party spirit:
Yep, she's a shy one all right! Pink cupcakes, sparkling candles, and many, many presents later, she was still going.....I love this girl, she is a bright light in a dim world.

I'm not very good at formatting stuff, so bear with me here. We spent three days in Chico, about an hour north of Sacramento. My two sisters, bil, niece and nephew were all there. It was sunny and crisp, perfect Thanksgiving weather. I skipped the post feast shopping frenzy on Friday and spent the day knitting and watching hours of cooking shows. They were all about...leftovers. Somewhat anticlimactic, but fun for someone without cable at home.

On the knitting front, I started a pair of self patterning socks for my sil. I knitted on them about six hours....they were beautiful, and just the perfect colors for her. All went well until I tried to.....put them on. Ooops.

My gauge was 1/2 inch off!!! Seems I knit tighter around my relatives.

So I frogged it all, and turned my attention elsewhere:

Here we have a little hat for my dd #2 - Horsey Girl. Most unpromising in the skein, it is knitting up to be rather interesting. I'm impressed by the striping thing going on here....not colors I'd normally choose, but I'm learning a lot. And knitting my own handspun is a fantastic experience so far! Incredibly soft and warm on size 10 1/2 bamboo needles...this is merino from a place in Half Moon Bay. I still have a couple of ounces that I plan on dying in a blue - green colorway. Sunset Over Santa Cruz got plied last night - more pics later. Later!

Gobble gobble!!!

Well, alrighty then. Here's the part where I admit to being a Martha Stewart fan. This little guy came out of the November issue.

Whatever you think about Martha, I don't care. She has given me so much over the last ten years ....including the ability to realize that there is NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN, folks. I have repeatedly found ideas, patterns and instructions in my travels through vintage resources that Martha has unabashedly ripped off. OK, maybe she (her interns) got them from somebody's friend, Grandma, etc. But who cares? Through the magic of media, she manages to pull it off....making the old look new again. Isn't that the point after all?
It was a nice diversion for me and my 11 yo dd on an otherwise boring visit to my mom. She made one out of lighter yarn, to give to her Dad's family. This one is peace fleece and some (garage sale) red acrylic, felt tail, etc. I made three more for mil and sil (mailed off to Colorado) and this one will travel with me to Chico for tomorrow's fesitivities. My family LIVES for this stuff.
I am so happy to have this blog. Especially since while waiting for the pics to download I can spin within eye's distance!
On the left we have merino single spun on the borrowed Ashford travellor. This wheel is cranky at best, I struggled all morning but with persistance it is now doing its thing. (???) I enjoy spinning as much as I thought I would. As an avid knitter I seem to be working backward through the process...oh by the way, everything above is Koolaid dyed since I was getting bored silly spinning plain old white (though I enjoyed watching the vm fly out every once in a great while).

I wish to death I had written down the colors for these yarns but alas! Process overtook product and here we have something y'all wish you knew the colors for just so you would NEVER do something like it:



The beautiful thing is, dd number two (the 11) LOVES it since she watched the process of spinning and plying and hearing Mom swear (always a thrill - a chance to interject the age old "MMOMMM!"!) So I promised to knit a hat for her with it and she requested "a pattern...like stars around the edge, or something". The mind whirls.

I'm gonna call it "Uncle Sam Threw Up." It may not be half bad.

Stay tuned for the other fiberball....a more promising mass. Looks like the sunset over Santa Cruz.

I did it!

It's incredible, but I did it...finished the socks with NO YARN TO SPARE. Yes the Knitting Goddesses were smiling indeed last night as I furiously kitchener'ed the toe of my final accomplishment. And just in the knick of time (before I threw them into the trash that is) I am so sick of knitting with toothpicks that I will not be picking up size one's again for a long, long, loooooong time believe me.


And now I'm onto smaller, more important projects. Yes that's right....dishcloths.

After a 2 hour tutorial with the 14 on Friday, I am lucky to have a couple of blogs in the sidebar (my absolute favorites of course! LOVE YOU GALS) Imagine my surprise and pleasure at actually receiving a REAL COMMENT from Christine. Thank you thank you!!!! I'm on my way....

So Close.....

Do you think I'll have enough yarn to finish the 6 sox socks? I found this pink yarn at a garage sale, and now I finally have a good reason NOT to use garage sale yarn. I think these socks are turning out lovely...I decided I liked the contrast and I especially love doing the knit - a - long. It turned out I needed help doing this "moderate strong heel" method. It's a lot different than knitting a seperate heel flap and picking up stitches at the sides. (I hear you sock experts snickering...)


Meanwhile, I've never blogged about my spinning efforts. That's because, well, I'm just starting. Here's the latest yarn I spun on my drop spindle:














And here's what it looks like in a skein. Not bad for a beginner, eh? (OK, terrible picture. But trust me, it's lovely!) I did most of this at my Spinner's Guild meeting last Saturday. Many of the wonderful, talented women there, spinning along on their gorgeous wheels, confessed to a hatred for the humble drop - and unabashed admiration at my skill! (tee hee) But I had to confess to my yearning for a wheel, and to the fact that all the drafting experience I had collected over the past couple of months only gave me a smidgeon of the confidence I needed to tackle a wheel.

However, at the member's insistence, I came home with THIS: (on loan until next time)

This is an Ashford Travellor (sp?) that was purchased on Ebay and is for sale, but I can't afford it right now. The owner wants $350.00 but I would like to find something used for about half that much....I have dipped my toe into the Ebay abyss but since just blogging spins my head around you can imagine what the online auction scene does to me. (Read: must lie down now.) Actually it takes soooooo long to down load these pics that I'm getting quite a bit of cleaning done in between waits...


The last bit of news: I have a new French door! We have a deck that looks over the forest. Dh worked very very hard and here's the opening: (talk about your indoor/outdoor living! TG for mild fall weather!!!!) I'll show you a picture of the door when it's finished. Until then....back to the wheel....Love and light to all.