On Hold

Look at that - another month's gone by. Anyway, fall is shaping up to be as busy (if not more so) as my summer has been. So this blog's going on hold. I haven't felt the urge to for a while (haven't even been doing any other writing) so until my life calms down - this will remain un-updated. See you when I see you!

Busy Summer

Sorry about so long between posts - I hadn't realized until last week that it's almost been two months since my last one. But the time in between has been filled to the brim with losts of exciting and fun stuff. This has been a very busy summer for me, and I'm having a great time.

There was hiking:

This was in July - see the white patch on the other side of the lake? Yeah, that's snow! :-)

There was birthdays:

...with awesome food and friends.

Great times hanging out with the girls in Sacramento:

..and even some cute animals:


...red panda's (I want one for a pet!) and young tigers.

And there was lots and lots of knitting!

Socks for presents:


Socks for me (with help from Kitty):


Wedding presents:


Baby gifts:



And knitting up some of that handspun, handdyed stuff I have just lying around:

I dyed these separately - the orange in my first foray into dying, and the brown/darker orange I dyded earlier this year. Both are Blue-Faced Liecester I spun after dying. I really enjoyed knitting on my handspun - especially the brown. That turned out great.

The baby clothes went with my brother to Phoenix when he went to visit our other brother. My niece is due in the middle of September and her name is Ilse (pronounced Il-sa.) There are a few more things I've been working on, which I'll try to get to them before she's born.

I'm visiting my parents for a couple of days, and yesterday I helped my mom pull out some of my old baby clothes and blankets - most of which my grandmother made. It was really neat to remember (or have my mom remember) what I looked like in them. Most of the littler pieces will go to my niece as they are still in great shape, with the understanading that they are to be passed to the next little girl in the family.

Hopefully, I won't be as busy in August so there will be more frequent updates. And of course lots more knitting. You know, Christmas is coming up! ;-)

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!