Monday, October 31, 2005

Three Bobbins Full...Almost

We had a lovely family spin out yesterday afternoon and enjoyed the nice weather from our deck. It was good to be out in the fresh air watching and listening to the birds while enjoying some fiber time.

Here are my bobbin, daughter's, and husband's:




Sunday, October 30, 2005

My SP Really Knows Me

My Knitty SP really knows what I enjoy! A package arrived from her yesterday, and it contained some of my favorite things: Lamb's Pride worsted weight in a gorgeous red, some natural colored alpaca yarn, Godiva chocolates, a copy of Vogue Knitting magazine that has some lovely shawls in it, and a bag of candy corn and candy pumpkins. Thank you, SP! Oh, see that card? It is truly LOL funny. Trust me on this. I LOLed when I read it. The front says "I'll be handing out those tiny candy bars this Halloween." and you open it up to read "I think they are called bite me-sized." See. I told you it was funny! Here's a photo of my goodies.


Here's the first of my pair of Opal socks.

I used a six point star toe on this sock. It was really easy, and I like not having the "seam" down the sides of the toe. I'm about 2/3 into the cuff of the second sock, so it should not take much longer to finish it. The weather is cool, so it's time for new socks!

Saturday, October 29, 2005

SAFF Report

We had a great time at SAFF last weekend. It was a bit of a downer for me because of having to leave earlier than I wanted to for the business trip, but oh well. I don't see how I could possibly miss SAFF!

It was nice to see Shea and her family. Judy and Kim were also there, and I'm so sorry to have missed them. We'll just have to plan better for next year, girls!

There were more vendors at SAFF this year than in the past few years we've been. That's good and bad! I think the downer to this is that the spinners' circle was non-existant. Spinners had to resort to sitting on the hard concrete steps or taking over the few folding chairs available resulting in having to fight off some irritable instructors who insisted on taking away those chairs. I'm going to send the organizers my feedback on that one. It's great to have more vendors, but please leave a little space on the arena floor for the spinners!!

We used some constraint in our SAFF purchases this year. I hope that means we are getting wiser and more discerning! Of course, we had to stop by Little Barn and visit with Lewis...who now has a fair chunk of change from us! He actually receives funding from us on a fairly regular basis. You just can't beat the quality of his products, the price, and the customer service. His show specials are always excellent, too.

We enjoyed some time visiting with Karen Haggard, the breeder from whom we got Phoebe and Patrick, our bunny babies. Karen likes hearing how our babies are doing. It can be dangerous to spend too much time with Karen, however, because she has trained her angoras to look pleadingly at all passersby which leads to many of the buns finding new homes. We didn't come home with a new baby this year, but there was a certain little calico buck who tried hard to make me bring him home. If Karen had turned her back for a moment, he may have dived into my backpack and headed for SC! (just kidding! I'd have paid for him.) He was such a little doll!! The seal color babies were also very pretty and sweet. If you are in the market for a rabbit, Karen is the one to see. (E-mail me for contact info.) She takes very good care of her animals and loves them.

We took the opportunity to test drive some new wheels at SAFF. That was fun! Take a look at the Winsome Timbers page and scroll down to Patience. Isn't she beautiful? She spins like a dream, too. Her price is a king's ransome, so I doubt she'll join our family any time soon! Some of my ancestors were Polish, so the Kromski wheels were a natural enticement for me. The Polonaise is wonderful to look at, and she spins like a dream! I'm rather partial to the walnut finish.

I fell in love with a Corriedale fleece at SAFF, but the high price tag meant it had to stay there. It was $70 which was just a bit (OK, a lot) out of my price range. I'm itching to spin something in the grease, and those locks were just calling out to me.

We met a celebrity at SAFF--Otto Strauch and his wife Joanne. What wonderful people they are! We enjoyed a nice, long visit with them. We recently bought the "Finest" model drum carder which is one of their products. If you are in the market for a drum carder, you can't go wrong with one of these. The Strauches also make a jumbo ball winder which is fabulous.

I bought a ball of Opal Brazil at SAFF just to have something to play with--my wheel stayed home since I had to leave early from the festival. This is my first time knitting with Opal. It's nice yarn, but really not any better than other sock yarns I've used. I have finished the first sock of my pair and hope to get the second done this weekend. I'll post pictures later this weekend.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

The Best Thing I've Ever Done

The best thing I've ever done in my life (and probably the best thing I ever will do) is have my daughter. She is the light of my life, even when she's being an annoying adolescent! :-) She called me today (to say she's forgotten her knee pads and inquire if I can please bring them to the volleyball game this afternoon) and hearing her voice on the phone made my day. Of course, said knee pads are nowhere to be found in that bedroom, so off to the sporting goods store I'll be later today! She needed new knee pads anyway.

Cozy is coming along. I completed 4 pattern repeats (that is 32 rows) last night. I have a skein and a half more yarn left. Will I finish by Monday morning in time to wear Cozy to my meeting? I don't think so, but I'll keep plugging away.

We are off to SAFF this weekend. I'm kind of looking forward to it and kind of not. What do we possibly need??? I'm sure we'll find something to bring home. As long as it isn't a living thing, that's fine by me.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Uninspired

The title of this post pretty much describes my outlook on life in general these days--uninspired, just going through the motions. I don't know why. Maybe I'm tired.

I was in Chattanooga this past week on business. I'd hoped to get over to Genuine Purl, but that didn't happen. Maybe next time. Of course, now that we have a real yarn shop in town, I don't feel quite the need to visit every other one in existence anymore.

SAFF is this coming weekend, and frankly, I could not care less. I'm not necessarily looking forward to it. What do we possibly need?? It's just one more thing on the to do list as far as I'm concerned. I would skip it entirely except for the fact that I have to fly out to DC on Sunday, and my ticket is already booked with an Asheville departure. Oh well.

Speeking of DC, I'll be there all week after next, so there won't be any blogging. And how exactly is that different from the past several weeks? Well, I was here in SC and there was still no blogging!

Cozy is coming along. I'm half way done with her, and she is lovely. Will she be done in time for SAFF? Fat chance!

Daughter was out of school Thursday and Friday for parent/teacher conferences. I took off Friday to meet with her teachers. I got good reports on grades and her participation and preparedness for class. Apparently, my child is a joy to have in class. Now there's something to be happy about. Daughter and I celebrated by going out to lunch and then going fall clothes shopping for her. We found some great deals. The kid knows the value of shopping the sale racks. I've taught her well.

Saturday, we hit Goodwill and bought her a dress for Halloween. She's going as a good witch. We found a great formal dress (two piece, tea length, deep cranberry wine color) for $9.99. We got a witch hat and some fabric for a spooky shawl at Wal Mart. The fabric is shimmery with a spider web, moon, and stars kind of woven design. The fabric changes color in the light as you move it around--kind of holographic, I guess?

Oh, husband has a new toy. He found a great deal on a drum carder--a Strauch. Someone had purchased it then decided she didn't want it. It's never been out of the box and is in pristine condition. I think he's enjoying it.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

New Toys Keeping Me Busy

I have a few new toys that are keeping me busy lately.

First, Diana Gabaldon's latest book, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, has come out! It has been a long wait for this book, and I'm reading it with mixed emotions. I'm so happy to have another installation of Jamie and Claire's story, but I'm afraid of what might become of them. Remember that newspaper article that I think it was Roger found when he was still in the 20th century? Well, the time of that article is drawing near!

My next new toy just arrived today, Sensational Knitted Socks. I've heard rave reviews of this book from the people on Socknitters, and being a sock addict myself...how can I resist?

My final toy is this lovely new Palm Tungsten E2. And, yes, order it from Beach Camera! They had the best price I could find on this PDA, and I got the item super fast. I ordered late Saturday night, and the shipment went out first thing Monday morning. I got the PDA yesterday afternoon and only paid $6.95 for shipping. They also have a free shipping option which would probably taken twice as long. I am loving the Tungsten E2. So far, I've only loaded my knitting needle inventory and started updating my contact list. I can also load photos and music. The E2 is Bluetooth compatible, so when I upgrade my cell phone early next year, then I can potentiall do internet (for business purposes of course!) on the PDA.

I am still plugging away at Cozy, and she is looking just lovely. I've finished one skein of the Nature Spun and got about 13 inches of Cozy out of that. I have 3 skeins left and am figuring on a finished length of about 52 inches. I think that will be just perfect for what I want.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Various and Sundry Things

Long time no blog. What can I say? Life has been busy.

A whole lot of dyeing has been going on around here. Here's a sample of some yarn that husband dyed this past weekend.

Isn't it pretty? He also dyed some sample skeins of Cascade 220 to promote a dyeing class at the LYS--yes, one that he'd teach. I don't have photos, but the skein he was knitting last night was quite reminiscent of Mountain Colors. The man does have an eye for color.

Here's daughter wearing her Fibertrends hat...pre-felting.

This sort of reminds me of a character from Fat Albert. Remember Dumb Donald from that cartoon? One of daughter's friends spent the weekend with us and presented me with the hat Saturday morning. She wanted to know exactly how something like this was going to become a hat. She seemed to accept my explanation. Too bad we didn't have time to actually felt this thing over the weekend.

I'm one of the last people in the world to knit Cozy. I'm doing it in charcoal grey Nature Spun worsted weight. The pattern is wonderful! I modified it a bit by adding on an additional 18 stitches to give myself a slightly wider wrap. My goal is to finish this by SAFF. We'll see.


Have you read about Stephanie's encounter with the weenie? If not, you need to. Judging by the picture, I'd guess said weenie is a frequent business traveler. The male of this species are known to be asses! Trust me on this. I traveled extensively for business for 4 years.