Work in Progress

This is my latest cast on. I cast it on while on the plane. I haven't gotten a lot of knitting time in... been so tired in the evening I'm falling asleep in the middle of it. But...for the next two days, we're going to be very good and go to lectures all day long....honest....we are!!! And I'll be knitting for two days straight!!!! yay!!!

The lovely Robyn, who's my hostess for sp10 is doing a little contest where she asks us to post a pic of our work in progress. This is pretty much it...except for that gift I can't post a picture of yet.

This is a sock from Panda Wool (bamboo/wool/nylon) for my son.





and today...we saw this:

the Pennsylvania State House....aka Independence Hall.

And this is where the supreme court justices met for 2 months a year (while they were'nt split up traveling around being district judges)

And this...um....this is "The Signer" but from behind it looks like he's a Singer! hahaha

who me?

Oh....(he he) OK then.
I have no idea who that man is.


mmmmmm candy!!!!



So...we played a little hookie from lectures this afternoon and did a trolly tour of the city...it was pretty fun. Went to the National Constitution Center (I'd highly recommend it). And of course...we saw the Liberty Bell Exhibit. Very cool.

busy week

It's been a busy week....work, work, errands, work, work, fly across the country, (my arms are tired)adn conference started today....I am trying to adjust to the time change...we got to the hotel around midnight Philly time, and of course, me being the night-owl that I am...fell asleep sometime around 2:00, wake up at 7:00 (aka 4 am my body's time) and start the conference day...I don't mind admitting that my eyes may have closed (head nod) more than once while trying to listen to a few lectures....it was tough to stay awake even though the topics were good... There I was knitting and listening and falling asleep during both! So, fairly early to bed tonight I hope .... though I'm looking at the clock on my computer and it's 6:40 CA time....it's just doesn't feel right to be thinking about going to bed already!!! Weird.

um Nichole...if you're out there, we're thinking Tuesday for NYC...I'll e-mail ya. (in case you're not out there).

Um...sister....jeez have some self respect and show a little restraint at Heartstrings annual sale...hahaha or not.

I did bring a couple of projects to work on, socks that I cast on during the flight...and, another one which is a gift and I'll blog about it in the fall after it's been given.

OOoohhhh and speaking of fall....dear sister and I are planning a lil trip in the fall....um...somewhere with a reputation for beautiful foilage and ....a three hour time difference. ( oh did I forget to mention a fiber festival as well?) More on that later.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend !!! Have fun....but don't forget to remember!

lunchtime surprise!

I am home for just a few minutes at lunch and when I went to check the mail, this is what I found on my doorstep:


This is a very nice package from my secret pal!!! Cute bracelet/anklet....very summery!!!
And can you see in the box?? yummy vanilla scented body was and candle, bayberry candles (also yummy smelling), incense ( I think my pal can sense that my house is starting to smell like savory beef flavored catfood since the cat moved back indoors hahaha).
The yarn, is knitpicks sock yarn and there's a pattern for summery ankle socks. Theres a cute shower poofy scrubby thing and an uglydog uglydoll...lol. oh oh see the cute notecards and nifty "R" shaped post-its? Fun package!!! thanks Pal :)

back to work Happy Monday everyone!!

minestrone meme (Heather got me)

Yep, been tagged....this is what she says I have to do:
Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write on their blogs 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and need to read your blog.

seven random facts:
1. I taught myself to knit with a knitting for dummies book (appropriate? hehe)
2. My sister, brother, and son are my closest friends.
3. Most of my next closest friends....I've met through knitting.
4. I wish I could travel more than I do. (someday)
5. I can't picture things in advance (room decoration, color combinations etc...) and yet I have
this strange fantasy that I'd be able to do a good job dying yarn/rovings.
6. I still miss rocking my little baby boy.....who's now 25.
7. I'm not nor have I ever been into disco....but I sing along with the BeeGee's...(it's just wrong
on so many levels) ps....Teri, da da da " I think I love you"...how's that song go again?
ahahahaha.

I don't think I have 7 people to tag who have blogs! So, um....here goes: my sister, Rachel (sp8), Zana and Nichole (both sp9), Susan, Julie, and....A my current sp10 spoiler, (I did it....yay)

Stinky Wool Update

Well, I've done a little wool washing this week and here's what that looks like:
This is the beginning of the first wash

This is the nasty water from the first wash....no wonder that stuff is stinky, yuk

This is the final rinse.....looks and smells much better!

for each small basket of fleece, I'm putting it through a wash/rinse/2nd wash/rinse/rinse. A bit time consuming but it's working. I don't want this stuff in my washer so the sink it is!

Now, I wanted to show a picture of the clean, dry wool but....my camera batteries died before I could put them on the computer...so I'll have to show that next time.

I'm afraid I may not be able to do much with this fleece, the Dorsett is mainly raised for meat, so probably not the most spinner/knitter friendly fleece. It's fairly short....and I think the shearers were pretty inexperienced too so, I'm not sure it will be "spinable". I thought I'd give it a try, picked through looking for the longest fiber I could find and have washed some of it. It's good practice, I'm not afraid to wash fleece now! :)

Also, I wanted to put a pic up of the yarn I have been spinning on the new wheel, it's spun, plyed, washed and is hang drying as I type this. It will have to be in the next post as well.

On the secret pal front....I got a short note from her today saying she mailed a package to me yesterday....weeeee....so I'll anxiously be awaiting it's arrival!

Today I Lost My Mind!

It's true....I have completely lost it. Here's the proof:

hmmmmm what could this be?

Oh Joy!!!

And then, while I was attempting to spin ..... on my new Ashford Joy spinning wheel..... there was a knock on the door and this arrived!

Can you smell it from there?

My neighbor is in FFA at her high school, and she raised a lamb this year. Today was lamb shearing day, (next week is fair). So she was kind enough to glove up and put the fleece in a big plastic bag for me. Did I mention that before they sheared today, they had to wash the lamb? Yes it's true, the fleece is sopping wet....and I'd hate to see it before it was washed...cause it's nasty. Smells like the sheep barn at the fair...go figure.

And......there's a lot of it. I didn't have time to start washing it tonight, so I thought I should spread it out to let it dry so it doesn't get all nasty (like it isn't already). Guess what I'll be doing this weekend? :)

Now that's progress!

My Mother's Day was celebrated a day early this year, as was my son's 25th birthday!!! (wow)

He had to work on Sunday so he spent the day at my house on Saturday as did my brother. They made big progress on a little project (I like to call my patio structure) that's been pretty much in the planning stage for about 5 years or more. (that's not counting the 5 or more years before that when it was in the thinking stage....me thinking it would be nice to have)


So, it starts like this.... ok those little metal things sticking up near the lawns edge, those were put in place in concrete about 4 years ago, in hopes of finishing this project that summer. Um, well that was a busy summer so it didn't exactly get much farther than that. so.... after a few trips ( ya know...me tripping over them) and banged up ankles ....I've learned to navigate and trim around them...more or less.

Fast forward 4 years into the future....say to the present.... this showed up at my house on Saturday: Now ya have to admit...this looks promising! :)


and when you add to that some brain power....times two

(brother on the left, son on the right)

and a few power tools.....
You end the day with something like this:


I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about this!!!! I have wanted this patio structure/arbor /whatever you want to call it....for a very long time!

Now the guys are on a break because they both have to work for a living and unfortunately are not at my beck and call 24/7 (wouldn't that be something).....but I do belive this thing will be finished soon!!! Yay!

I'll be spending my weekend starting the staining process....picture espresso brown....and me sitting underneath this finished thing with my morning chai tea!!! YES!


While they were busy building....we also did the barbecue thing for dinner.....my son opened his birthday gift....and gave me a gift certificate for a local spa for Mom's Day.....nice.....now I just have to decide whether I want to get a facial, pedicure or massage...hmmmm well life is just full of tough decisions isn't it?

But I'll press on.

Happy Mother's Day

To all my knitty friends, I hope you're all spending the day doing what you love the most with your favorite people!!!

this past weekend

ds was part of a team of four who took part in a 24 hour mountain bike relay race. It took place in the foothills not too far from home. The route was a 12 mile loop with a 1500 ft climb in elevation and each person took turns riding for 24 hours. I went up to hang out for a while in between his laps, it was a windy...sunny...and overall nice day!!! This is ds after his second lap. He looks pretty happy to be near the finish line here.







That took up pretty much all of my Saturday but of course I took my drop spindle with me and worked on consistancy in my guage. That and trying to find the right guage to ply together to have about sock yarn guage! I don't think this roving is good for socks, but it is great for practice right? This little ball of yarn is about 90-100 yards.I think it's getting better.....certainly better than the big two toned purple stuff :).




I love this book!! The Dizzy Ewe told me about it
and I can't wait to try some of the dying
methods they teach in the book. And the socks
are amazing!

Sunday...yardwork followed by housework,
Tonight I dinner with my sis and we hung out
at my house afterward while I spun and she
knitted on her Noro Transitions Vest....it's almost
done and so beautiful!

oooh and my sp got her package....seems she liked it!!! And that's all I can say about that...wouldn't want to give my identity away just yet hehehe.
Have a happy week everyone!!!