Long Weekend

Well, the long weekend finally got me enough time to finish up some things, ...er, a few things, ...er, one thing. (And technically it's not even finished finished - I have to wash and block it and sew up the front and put on a button.)

But it's cute and soft and I can't wait to see my neice in it (I have to wait a while - it's a 6-12 mos size and she's not even born yet.) So I present the Blue Sky Alpaca's Baby Dress:


It's knit out of Rowan Cashcotton 4-ply on US 3's. It was fun and fairly quick to make, and the angora gives it just that tiniest touch of softness and bloom. I'm working on a diaper cover to match.

I also did a fair amount of spinning this weekend. I haven't spun in a while, and I managed two skein of this Blue faced Leicster I dyed in my first foray last spring into dying. I didn't really like the way the roving looked - I was going for green and pink and lavender and ended up with lots of pink, a tiny bit of lavender and a fair amount of an icky greeny-gray color. I figured it would be a perfect over-dying project.

So I started spinning it - quick and dirty, not really caring about eveness. Once I started spinning though - I started to really like it. The greeny-gray drafted and spun out into a pretty silvery gray! That gray blended nicely with the different shades of pink and lavender.



Not sure what to call it, but I spun it up nicer after the first few yards and got 2 fairly even skeins out of it. I really like the way the gray comes up - some dark, some light. There's actually a bit more gray in it than the photo shows. And some of it is more purple than it looks. I wonder what it'll want to become? ;-)

The good ol' 70's

One of my friends hosted a 70's era themed party last night! It was...interesting. Nah, it was way cool and fun!

This was our groovy host, Scott:


Wow, I never noticed what pretty eyes he had! ;-) Nice smile, Scott, way better than chipmunk face!

Here's Scott and Jake:


Tired already, Jake? Come on (snap, snap) wake up, open those eyes!

Our resident lovebirds, Steve and Erin:


I think he said he already had that jacket on hand. Uh...

Ah, there you go, Jake. Hey, you have pretty eyes, too! ;-)

Amy, Leah, and Tanya:

Aka Flower Girl, Roller Derby Girl (see the elbow pads), and...Future Girl? Did she dress up? (J/K - Tanya was wearing the ubiquitous peace symbol as a sign of her commitment to the era.)

And of course any theme party wouldn't be complete without my brother:


Yeah, man! BTW - the sideburns and 'stache are real. He grew it out just for this. I tell you, he can really go all out!



Hanging out with the Jakester (after he woke up of course!) :-)

Me and Amy:


Aka Disco Girl and Flower Child! Thanks to Leah for picking up the shirt for me!

And the group shot:


What a great group of friends. I love all you guys and I thank God every day for you! :-)

Well, I noticed I hadn't posted in a while. (Someone may have also mentioned it to me.) The last three months it's only been about once a month. Getting lazy, guess.

Anyway, I have finished a few things in that time. Including this blanket for my soon-to-be neice:

It's four large log cabin squares sewn together. The log gabin squares were inspired by MasonDixon Knitting. I knitted it with Lionbrand Cotton Ease on US 9's. I like how the colors compliment each other. Kitty would like my brother David and his wife, Anna to know that he helped too:

Lexy says that she helped, too...by not being in the way!

By the way, Anna...(if you're reading this) there will be cat hair on all the stuff I make. (shrugs) It simply can't be helped! :-)

Now for any Stargate fans...I have to brag...

Yeah, baby!! All ten seasons!!!

In other incidental knitting, I finished a sweater for myself. Of course, I don't think I'll be able to wear it until fall, but I was able to wear it a couple of times right after I finished it (cuz - you know it hasn't been spring until now!) :-)

As evidenced by the picture below:

Took this while walking yesterday. It was simply gorgeous, and today it is raining. Yeah for Spring!

Phoning It In

It was such a beautiful day on Saturday that I just had to get outside. I knew I shoud have taken my camera, but fortunately I did have my phone with me. All the bird and flower pictures were taken with my phone. The knitting pics I took with my regular camera. All in all it was a pretty busy weekend. I went to a BBQ on Sunday and got some sun, and had fun with great friends. Then yesterday, it was still nice, but very windy and somewhat cloudy. (Very windy as in 75mph winds.) This morning I wake up to...snow on the ground. Albeit, just a dusting but it was cold this morning - and started snowing again about 7am. There is also a possibility of snow next weekend. Ah, so much for spring! Apparently, there is a cold snap all over the States.

Anyway, on my walk I saw a grebe, next to some sort of duck with a white body and black wings and neck. You can see it below:

And you definitely can tell it's spring when you see little goslings and ducklings being shepherded by mommy and daddy:

The daddy was chasing away other ducks and geese as mommy brought the little ones closer to the shore:

Daddy climbed out first, followed by the 3 biggest goslings:

...as mommy tried to get the rest to climb out.

It looked like it was going to take a while, so I kept walking. It was very cute, and neat to see.

I noticed a lot of trees in bloom - a lot of pink ones:

Those of you who know me, you know that pink is my favorite color! :-)

I did get some knitting done this weekend. Actually I was surprised by how quickly this finished up. I started this tam Friday night and finished the last 3 or 4 rounds Sunday morning. This is my first true fair-isle project, and I really enjoyed it.

I used the pattern out of this book, using KnitPicks Palette, on US 2's and 3's.

And of course the gratuitous inside shot:

I am very happy with my tension throughtout - although the last few rounds on DPN's could have been a little better. I haven't quite wove in all the ends yet - that'll be for this upcoming weekend! :-) I also need to re-block it using a larger plate. All I have are small luncheon plates, and the hat looks like it has two tiers. Not true tam form!

Okay, now I need to go knit plain stockinette!

Birthdays and Baby

Wow, I hadn't realized I hadn't posted for so long. It's actually been more than a month since my last update. March has been pretty busy for me - Easter was a big part of that, but now that that's over, I have a little more time and energy.

I've been walking much more frequently now that the weather has been okay, and the time changed. The little lake near my place is hosting a flock of cormorants (the big black birds in the picture below.) I had seen them before - but only thier backs and necks. I'd never realized just how big they actually were. While walking this morning (before it got cloudy and cold) I saw a couple of them diving and coming up with nesting material. There is an interesting congloeration of fowl at this manmade lake. Last week I saw a pair of grebes but didn't have my camera with me. It was probably just a resting point for them as I haven't seen them since.

Ducks and geese and other birds are pairing off, trees are budding, tulips and daffodils and narcisus are blooming - its definitely spring! Yay!



A couple of my friends are celebrating significant birthdays this weekend, so I've been working on a couple of presents:



100% BFL in two different colorways plyed together, approx 525 yards. Enough for a nice pair of socks. This is going to my friend who knits.



And these are for my other friend (she doesn't knit) who loves pink just like I do. Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the colorway "Tickled Pink." I think I have enough yarn left for a pair of shorties for myself.

Now I mentioned in my last post that I found out I'm going to be an Auntie. So of course I've been working on some things. One of them is this:



A log cabin square out of Lion Brand Cotton-Ease (see, mom - cotton and washable) from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I'm going to do four squares with the colors in different sequences and an I-cord edging to finish it off. I had originally planned on something else with this yarn, but it just didn't work out as easily as I'd hoped. I am really happy with this though, and am almost finished with the 2nd square already.

On the spinning front:



More BFL (handdyed by yours truly) and chain-plyed for color retention. I really liked how the brown came out. I'm not sure what to call it - Tiger Lily or 1970 (you know for the orange!) :-)

Happy Spring!

Vacation

I was on vacation last week and really enjoyed it. 4 days off of work, two days relaxing in SoCal, a whirlwind of family, friends, kids, dogs...and fiber?!! That's right, not only did I get some beautiful handpainted fiber, I also visited a couple of old LYS's. Friday I stopped by Stitches West on my way to visit some friends in NorCal. Anyway, lots of pics to follow.

On Tuesday, I left early enough to be able to catch the sunrise over Mono Lake.




This is why I drive. Especially through the mountains. Seeing God's creation in all it's unfettered glory is simply amazing. The amount of snow we've gotten this winter so far is a boon for the water levels.

My brother, David, called me at about 6:30am, just after I took these. I'm going to be an aunt!! :-) It was really exciting finding out. I was grinning most of the way into Bishop. She's due in Sept, and they don't know what it is yet. Hopefully, we'll find out soon - you know, so I can start the wardrobe! ;-)

Anyway, got down to Orange Cnty and visited one of the yarn shops in my list - Velona's. It's in Anaheim Hills and the most un-organized and chaotic shop you'd ever see. The owner seems to know where everything is though, and they carry some really old stuff (like Pengoiun yarn and Anna magazines.) I stocked up on sock yarn, as you'll see, and found what I think is some old Rowan called "Donegal Lambswool" in a medium gray that'll be great for either socks or gloves.



The next stop was the Yarn Lady in Laguna Niguel. Again, some more sock yarn, as well as a stripey cotton blend in either boy/girl colors for a baby sweater. It'll be for...you guessed it, my new nephew or niece! :-) They had a selection of pretty nail files up at the counter and couldn't resist the spinning wheel one.



Then I was done for the day - literally and physically. I was beat, so went to my aunt and uncle's house where I stayed for the next couple of days. They have the cutest dog named Buddy - a sweet Laslo-Apso/Std Poodle mix. He's only a couple of years old and still wants to play...a lot. He had a lot of energy.



How can you resist that face!! All together now...Aawwwwww!

On Wednesday I visited my friend Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Arts (she was the one who taught me to spin 2 1/2 years ago.) I wanted to get more of her handpainted fibers. See what I got! At the top is 50/50 merino/bombyx in the colorway "Jungle", and along the bottom from left to right is pinks merino/mohair (which I started spinning already), merino, and BFL.



On Thursday my aunt and I went out to visit my cousin's family. They have two kids - Devon and Dylan. They were a riot to be around, really sweet kids with a lot of energy. Devon will be 5 in August and Dylan 3 in June.

This is what we saw as we pulled up - the parking lot.



Couldn't resist taking a picture of that - all thier scooters and cars all pulled up nicely at the top of the driveway.




And while Devon learned to knit...



Dylan read a book.



An hour into our visit and we all trooped outside for some air and a chance for the kids to run around and play. Here are a couple of action shots. Dylan looks so determined, his lips pressed together as if he's thinking, "I'm going to do this, I will go down the steep driveway when mommy's not looking." Devon was just happy to be outside.




Friday I left early and drove to Santa Clara for Stitches West. Once I got past the valley and was going west, the landscape was so beautiful and lush...and green! I'd forgotten how green everything is in SoCal during the winter. Though this picture was taken farther north, the coloring is similar.



At the Stitches market I was almost overwhelmed by the number of vendors and people. I'd been before about three years ago, and was totally overwhelmed then. This time I made it through all the booths and kept (mostly) to my budget. I couldn't belive how much money was changing hands - and this was only Friday. Two more days still for people to buy, buy, buy!!

These patterns called out to me, all being very feminine and sized/shaped for my body type (hopefully!) :-)



This is the rest of my loot - at the top a BLF/Alpaca blend roving, from left to right - Tess Designs 100% silk in silver and purple, Toots LeBlanc handspun jacob/alpaca/mohair fingering weight, Claudia Handpaints 100% 20/2 silk, colorway "Bearded Iris," and 100% Kid from Brooklyn Farms(?). In the middle (if you can't read it) is a stamp I found at Village Spinning and Weaving that says "Handspun By:" with a spindle below. I thought it was very cute, and I can definitely use it.



Friday afternoon saw me heading up to Placerville to visit my good friend Jessica and her husband Mark. I stayed overnight with them and left Saturday afternoon to head back home. I was a little pictured out, so didn't take any. They have two friendly dogs and a herd of cats. :-)

This whole week I encountered all types of weather. Starting with the clear sunshine on my drive down, followed by serious fog while dropping down over the Cajon Pass, then it rained both Tuesday night, off and on Weds, and poured most of Thursday. Friday morning it was raining hard still, but cleared up through the valley. Wind was gusting through the valley, then it was back to rain and clouds on the coast.

Didn't dampen my spirits, nope - not even the snow over Donner Pass coming back. I had the novel experience of chaining up for the first time. It took me about an hour to get throught the pass and drop down into Truckee. All things considering, it could have been worse. They closed it later that night.



This is what I came home to. Yay, more snow!! :-) It snowed a good 6" Saturday night, but it all melted by Sunday afternoon. :-( Oh, well, there's still 2' more on the slopes. My brother and friend and I are planning on going snowboarding this Saturday.

Black and Brown

Funny title, I know, but those are the colors I dyed this weekend. I was very please with the rich brown - combined with the orange and pink, creates a nice autumnal flavor. As for the black - I was trying for purple and orange and got red and black. (Shrugs) Oh well, I am very pleased with the outcome. In fact, the third pictrue shows it spun up already. :-)








I also got some merino from Ashland Bay called "Sapphire." I forgot to take a picture of the roving before spinning, but this is what it looks like spun up. I really like it - and being merino, it's so soft. I tried to spin it a little thicker than usual, as well as not so much twist.



This post is also catching up with some other finished items since the last time I posted. This sweater is something I started last year and never got around to finishing. It is made out of Jaeger Chamonix, a blend of merino and angora. Oh, so warm and cuddly. I tried to get a picture of myself wearing it, but couldn't get a good one.





I made this cute pullover for my little cousin that I'm going to see this week. (Aunt Carolyn - If your reading this, please don't tell Nicole. Or Devon!) :-) She has a little brother and I'm making a sweater for him, too. Just not done with it yet.


Purple seems to be the color of the day. I ripped out a vest I'd been working on for a couple of years now and re-knit the yarn into this little scarf. Purple yarn is Cascade Sierra, a half and half blend of cotton and wool.




That's it for now - I'm on vacation for the rest of this week!! ;-)