Say hello to "Woodland Sprite"!!!! I had this design just come to me the other day while on the treadmill. I couldn't wait to finish and grabbed my design book. It's a lovely leaf sweater that I will make over the next year. I have to have at least one sweater OTN at all times and this I can't wait to C/O.... just too busy right now and I have a lot of research left to do on the patterns. This is my merino worsted weight that I hand dye for folks. I did up many colors of green with just a hint of blue and purple popping through,,, and it's just lovely! I can't wait to see it knit up!

Eunny Jang designed this Fair Isle sweater. Normally I don't do this but I went ahead and bought all of the yarn for this project from Knit Picks. Recently I had the pleasure of doing up a FI project for them and I just LOVE this kind of color work. I can't wait to dig into this but I'm waiting for a bit more yarn as I don't like how much brown is in this sweater. I'm going to change out the brown with navy and then I have to change out the navy in the sweater. I will wait till I have all of the yarn to decide just what's going where.

The buttons were hand made and just perfect for this sweater! I love the pockets, the way that black just peaks out. I tailored DH's black and grey sweater off of this one. I made this one flat in 6 days. DH's on the other hand was done in the round and took me months! LOL cause it wasn't the only thing I was doing... which while I was working on the brown... it was the only thing I was doing. It's XXL and 6 days... pretty good eh?

Who could resist an update on our recent adoptee? He has had a change in name as most who come through our doors do. His new name is Boopie! Cysco just never stuck, he's more of a Boop and he responds to it so well. He has finally gotten comfortable enough to lay with his under belly exposed and doesn't have to be on my lap all of the time which has freed said lap up a good deal.

He's just the cutest, sweetest little guy. Well, little to big, the poor guy has to go on a diet as he's DOUBLED in weight! Poor dear! He's had to fight over his food for so long that I was hoping he'd free feed but alas... he's down to 1/2 a cup of kibble. He's so cute. He does love his kibble and will DANCE for it! He tosses it high and over about 3 foot,,, then will bouce up and down as if he's slain a dragon! Silly dear thing. After dancing for it about 6-10 times he will swoop on it and eat it up. With such a vigorous dancing / eating routine you'd think how could he gain weight with this manner of eating? I do love him though.

Not at nice at the brown one that I made (still can't share that photo yet) but it's nice. It's made from the softest, warmest and best of all yarns, IMHO 100% Pure Wool from Uruguay. I just love this yarn and order it all of the time now. I have 17 more skeins coming in as we speak. I get undyed and then dye it up to my needs. Just yesterday I over dyed all of that yarn for my winter coat... which I am currently doing the provisional c/o for! :-) We had company today and all of them choose this button over another which was black with bits of white,,, looked like the black granite... lovely. Everyone agreed that these looked best though.

The friends we had over have a boy Shane's age and a girl Katies age with two younger siblings as well. The children always have a blast when they come over. Today they were making waterfalls in the front yard! LOL seeing as we live on 2.5 acres there's not a lot of landscaping out there just yet. The boys had the front yard and the girls had the back. Katie and the girls are starting a club for girls in which they will be making coded messages to send back and forth. She's really amped about it. Childhood,,, what a lovely time of life.

Decided with the children that before school starts again we are going to do a bit, mondo State report together. I think it's a good experience for their future to be doing reports and I will make it fun for them to learn. We will be starting school here in the next few weeks and this will be a good little nudge back into it. There's a great deal of information available on the net that I didn't have when I did my reports. Sure does make the teachers job easy! I'm looking forward to starting tomorrow. Hope you are all well and happy today.

I pulled out a ton of beads today and I'm knitting a bracelet out of random teal, royal, lime translucent beads. There are some larger leaf, heart, odd shaped beads as well as seed size 11, 8 and 6's. So it's intricate but beautiful! It will look great with my new outfit. Now I just need to find some MELLO sock yarn as that's the last thing this is.

Started and finished Calormetry or however it's spelled. Didn't look good on me so it went into the gift pile.... which is growing at an alarming rate. Katie has been cranking! She doesn't want to get left high and dry like she had in the past so she's really cranking! Good for her I say. One of the presents (currently OTN for her) is a lovely bamboo lace shawl!!!! She rocks! I so love her.

OHHH How could I forget! I'm knitting my sock blank! It's red and black and I'm doing toe up 2 at a time! It finally clicked in my mind! I just wouldn't give up and say ok so this is the only technique which has me stumped that I will have to go to a teacher for! LOL nope, still self taught! HAHA YUP I have toes! TADA! Such a good feeling. The yarn has been fun to work with too as it's not at all solid.... rather fun that. It is extremely fine lovely yarn and since it's black it's not an easy treadmill knit. Pi shawl is still out there but mostly it's bagged. Althought I did put in a half a row today. It's down at the edge and so a row takes a long time.

DH's sweater... I gave him the wool for Fathers Day and for his b-day 11-15 he will be getting a lovely sweater! I just steeked up the front and chopped off the front center in order to pick up and make lapels so I'm really close on that. I had spun two skeins of fingering together to give them more strength for the front placket as well as the pockets. Those are just plain black and the sweater is a hand painted black, light and medium grey and a bit of white... gorgeous! On the sleeves, in some places it striped and in some it pooled up a bit and I really like it. I'm hoping he likes it too. Course I lost the written directions so I will have to re-invent the wheel AGAIN!!!! when I make the next one for him. It's coming together really well, I really like it, I only hope he does. I need to search through my POUNDS of buttons for a few for this sweater now.

Pulled the Lorna Lace tote indoors today... thinking I would like a nice snuggly warm sweater for me for the Fall. I can decide if I want to do it in Tahoe or Watercolor. I have enough of both.... so today I dyed up some Pure Wool. They are very close in texture and size so it's a good match. I have totes full of % Pure Wool dyed and undyed that I pulled out. I took out 2 light teals and overdyed them in a deeper blue and a violet overdyed into a purple... now they match the LL perfectly. I also have another box coming in from Uruguay with undyed so I am sure to have plenty of yarn. Since I don't have a nice winter coat that's where I seem to be aiming with all of this yarn. I think in the round with a provisional cast on from bottom up then pick up again to do the full skirt to get over my skirts... belted of course. Yup, I think that's where I'm headed. I was remembering a lovely sweater I had as a child and I think that I will do up the bulky in that type of sweater. It's the standard 80's solid, belted, thich length sweater with a holey pattern. :-) I can't wait to get to work on them.

So, that's where I can be found... most of the time, the rest of the time I'm doing penance on the treadmill (2.5 HOURS!!!) for the roasted marshmellow addiction I have recently fallen into. :-) Fortunatly 4 are only 100 calories so I'm not doing too badly... course I did get the children into it too! I hope you are all doing well.

I have been calling this PPPutting on the Glitz as it's all ribbon yarn, rayon both slub and slick... silk ribbons, ladder yarn and the like. I just love it. It hasn't been blocked so it's a bit weird here. Course it doesn't look like this any more and I only took this a few days ago. I wore it to JoAnn's and matched up the perfect buttons! They are all of the colors in the sweater and look like glass seed beads. I found a chenille that matches really well and have steeked the front. It has been cut not just up the front but also for a V at the neck where I'm making a bit of a shawl collar now. I have the skirt started. Put the elastic in and started there at the top. So far it's just longer then a mini skirt and I keep it there at my chair. A little here, a few minutes there and it will be past my knees with a little ruffle in no time. I can't wait. I almost bought the perfect sock yarn to match today when I realized I probably have some here that matches so I will be making up socks too. It might be over kill but this is my first matching set. I will go for a solid for the next pair. HAHA yeah right, me,,, not peacock? NEVER!

JoAnn's was having 40% off of all knitting books and on top of that 10% off of your entire order so I was able to get all of the Vogue Stitchionaries as well as many other books. I'm very pleased with all of the books coming in from Knit Picks as they have 40% off too! I cleared off an entire shelf from the great Wall O' Books.

Need to get you a photo of that and of my TOFUTSIE TEE! I'm so happy to be able to share that I am wearing it. The camera's not here or you'd be looking at it too. It's a very comfy Tee I might add. I like it. I was a hostess for SWTC during the KAL of it on their Yahoo Group. It's so feminine, colorful but not too much and HAHA you know me... can't leave well enough alone! I steeked the front/center, crocheted all round. Added more beads to of course. Oh and my snazzy little belt too! It's so cute! It's a floral, beaded number, Tres Chic ma belle! I look like I lost weight, I will have to weigh myself. I don't care much so I don't weigh in.... but I look thin! HAHA now I really can't wait to get a photo tomorrow night. Course we have plans and so there wont be any time to upload but I should be able to get a nice shot off... with a green background,,,, in the city some where. Oh so close! :-) Soon and very soon now.

Ok here we go! Here I am at our local park in the late evening sunlight. See my nifty floral, beaded, crocheted belt? I love it!! On the right after returning home the same evening in this photo you can see the steeking I did on the neckline a bit better. I used my beaded picot cast on and bind off in this project too.

I have also been working on PPPutting on the Glitz which is a long sleeve pullover I think. LOL I always may change my mind of course. At this time it's 3/4ths or more done. It's a bottom up and I'm just joining in the sleeves. It's made out of many different types of glitz yarns. Some glitter, rayon, chenille, loopi, ladder, etc. The thing that holds them together is their color. They are all blues and purples with a hint of a blue green. One sleeve is done and knit into the round and the other is about half or more finished. So I'm very close to finishing up that one too. I'm going to push for finishing that before the test knit gets here. I'm sure to finish as the yarn can't get here before next week. It's a fast finish at this point. More to come and PHOTOS! YIPEEEEEE

We watched the sunrise in HD over Lands End the other day. Just stumbled on it and it was wonderfully calming. You could hear the seagull and Puffins as the sun was coming up. The colors changed continually, it was very peaceful. Our Little Man really loved it to. Before the sun rose completely he was on the coffee table watching from about 3 feet away. When the seagulls were right in front of the camera he decided he needed another look. When the seagull flew off of the top left of the screen he didn't understand why he couldn't still see it. When it went off screen stage left... he went round the TV looking for it! What a riot! We had so much fun watching Little interact with the puffin! His head tilted when the Puffins did! See that red orange nose? I don't like orange but WOW do I want to knit his nose. The eyes were incredible with a straight black line going from them to the back of his head. There's a triangle in orange feathers just outside of the eye. The way God made these birds is just incredible. We all enjoyed it a great deal so I wanted to share with you.

Off to 120 minutes on the treadmill, finishing my summer socks and finding something else that needs to be finished, OH I KNOW! I have got to finish that collar on my Tofu tee! It's finished with the exception of the collar as I'm trying to design it so the process is slow... and the beads are high. :-) It should be next though as it's that close.

GET THIS! yesterday I cleaned up the closets that have yarn in them. WILD I emptied the extra large Rubbermaid tote almost completely of sock yarn to sell. I filled it with yarns that I had stashed all over inside of the house. Well, last night I was talking with DH (it was our 14th anniversary!) and I realized that I have 3 smaller totes full of sock yarn in another closet (STR and Tofutsies) AND half of the Lorna's Lace large tote is full of sock yarn! HELLO! What was I thinking? AND I'm opening a co op list to purchase even more,,, much more cheaply too.

This stuff's so addicting. Some one should have warned me. Well, I doubt if I'd have listened anyway! HAHA I believe I have enough yarn to start a small LYS. :-) who knows what the future might hold. There is a large complex coming in here shortly... we are going to finally get a grocery store.

So since we literally have NO money... I gave DH a clutter free and some what cleaned up home and helped the children to get a lovely Mexican dinner on the table. They did most all of the work. All I did was cooked the meat and made organic lemonade from our lemons we had juiced and set up in the deep freeze. It was so nice. They made tacos, rice and beans with all of the trimmings. DH was very thankful for his "presents". All through to late last night when he crawled into clean sheets. He thanked me again. I had moved everything out of the living room except for the furniture so there was a tremendous change in the look of the room. I knew after 14 years that the only money free thing I could "give" would be a clutter free home. He's so easy to please, I am very blessed indeed!

I wish I'd have gotten a photo of the table. The children really did knock themselves out, each year they get better. They gave us dinner for two.... even made the table so that only two chairs would fit!!! They HID all of the other chairs too!!!! so cute! They had lovely linens, royal blue candles in large twisted gold holders that we have never used. The candles matched the royal blue anniversary glasses. I purchased those glasses when we wed and had our names etched on the top part and the date down on the flat stand part. We have moved more times then I'd like to count and they have lasted through each and every move. They used the good china and gold utensils Mom gave us. Mom had purchased the utensils for them... they have her monogram on them. Well, my initials never changed when I wed so we were a shoe in for being the happy recipients when Mom wanted to let them go.

OH one last thing. I'm finally back to exercising after the appendectomy, I gained so much weight!. ;-(. The incision site that popped open hasn't healed and I have a rash over my entire body but I'm back and almost up to the 120 minutes! Yesterday was the first time I hit continue after hitting 99 minutes. So it's right around the corner now.

So today I organized the puter a bit. Worked on some designing. Organized the files a bit. Set up a bought knit patterns folder. Did the dying for the hankie skirt and just finished putting the triangles on there. That worked well. While I had the dye stuff out I did up my Knit Picks sock blanks. I love DD's its AWESOME!!!!! I LOVE her's but then mines red. I needed a pair of red socks so red it is, not my favorite color.

This is the Goddess Mystery KAL, clue #2. The best part of this KAL is that you get to pick how your shawl will look with four different patterns in each Clue. HOW FUN IS THAT! I love these lace KAL's. Without all of the encouragement sometimes it's hard to get through tough knits. This one has been a lot of fun and very hard to put down. I'm doing this in Knit Picks Shimmer which is 70% baby alpaca and 30% silk... the colors is Turquoise Splendor. I was hesitant to use a variegated but as you can see the lace is still real obvious. What you can't see too much is the beads. They are #8 (tiny!) and clear with inside peacock colors. The beads are the center of the "flower"... which is why I choose the circular patterns. I just love this one and I think, make that I KNOW I will get a ton of use out of it as it's so my color. Most of my wardrobe is teal so this is wonderful.

I have been designing the Shawl in Fall mystery which is designed expressly for using hand painted, varigated yarns. So much of the time the lace is lost in the color being too wild. We buy these yarns with the best intentions and then find out that we can't use them as the lace doesn't show up on anything but tone on tone and solid. Well, my shawl will use the busy color to the best advantage. I can't wait but alas it's not until Fall... hence, Shawl in Fall. So if you are like the rest of us and have purchase multi colored lace that just sitting there, please do join us.

If you are already registered with Yahoo Groups... send a blank e-mail, reply to their confirmation that they will send to your e-mail address and you will be in. If not, then go to www.yahoogroups.com, register and then search for IcelandicLaceShawl and sub from there. I look forward to seeing you on the list.

The other day this brought me out into the front yard.... the house up the canyon from us was burning down. Seems they were mixing up drugs there... we kept hearing mini explosions as their chemicals went up in smoke. I wish I could give you other photos but they are all test knits... shhhh I will post them after they are published.

6-20-08 I'm bogged down with knitting currently. What else is new. I just finished the 4 socks in 11 days. They were each charted with each stitch different OUCH! What a knit! I've been napping and just recovering from that. The other day I was commissioned to make a pattern for an afghan and a matching pillow... as well as a rockin baby sweater. Today a design came to mind that sooooooo rocks! I can't wait to test it out. The neat thing is the lady who highered me is a yarn dyer so she can make the yarn I need for the sweater, LOVE IT!

Oh and I have a pair of socks here for another company. What else? I have to dye up some sock blanks and some fabric triangles for my Celtic hankie skirt.... ran out of tapestry for that. Other then that I have personal knitting like 3 lace shawls, 4 or more socks, encluding the glacier one, I have a bunch of spinning projects too.

OHHH I finally broke down and bought me a wheel! There's a gal who needs me to spin for her... they sell art yarn... finally I will be set up to spin. I'm very pleased about that. I got me a Rose Majacraft! WAAAAAAAy expensive but it will pay for itself. I made a deal with the guy I got it from,,, bartering half of the price for test knitting!

6-16-08 All my e-mailing's finished soooooooo stinking early as the dogs got me up at like 5:30 or so. Barkies sooooooo stinking cute, he jumps on me, waging his tail for all he's worth and making me feel like I'm the bestest person in the entire world! He's a wonderdog in my book. He loves all of us so very much. No favoritism here,,, except that he know's he is DD's dog and loves her for it. So what with the two of them drooling and waging, I don't stand a chance at staying in bed.

Late last night I was having a GREAT time. I nixed the pod casts and worked on my Slow Bee lace shawl. AHHHHHH it was a wonderfully relaxing time. I was looking through the photo's of the various ones in the Yahoo Group and just had such a yearning for it. I only worked on it about once last week due to all of the work.

My eldest graduated Cal Poly Pomona on Saturday. Unfortunately I couldn't attend what with the hole in my stomach and the rash that I don't know if it's contagious or not... I opted to save myself and all of So. Cal the pain. He's very sweet and said he understood but... it's a big deal. We are all very proud of him. His father (my ex) gave him a trip to Europe. Not being able to compete with that we are putting the finishing touches on an afghan of 8" squares that we will deliver to him after he gets back from the trip.

We got the garden planted this weekend! PTL! I couldn't be happier! We have tomatoes, green peppers, hot peppers, basil, lemon balm, mint like crazy as it's last years PLUS all over,,, it grows like a weed and we live in the desert so I want it to take over everything. What else? Zucchini, Crenshaw melons, summer squash, lemon cucumbers and regular cucumbers. Then in the seed packets cause we couldn't find them, lettuce, watermelon, bush beans, more basil, love that basil! YUM Chop fresh basil, tomatoes, a bit of EVOO and WOW it's a grand topper. Ok, so carrots, 2 different sun flowers one huge and the other multi.

Then we replaced the flowers in the wine barrel with new ones and Katie has her own pot this year. She wanted to have her own flowers to tend so she also bought seeds. She's got two flowers and a morning glory for the back yards pillars. She's really pleased with them all. Our roses are flourishing. Roses do real well here and when I find bare roots on sale again for $2.50 I'm getting another 20 or so for my English Garden.

Out in the front of the house I made this wood walk out of chopped up 2 x 4's. On each side of it we have a small border that I'm trying to get going. There's carnations at the end away from the house and closer to the house the English lavender is doing real well. OHHH and the star jasmine on the front pillars has finally taken off! I'm so pleased with it. I think it's just gotten much more water then last year as it's really a profusion of flowers. I have to get some green plastic to tie everybody up with. We are finally getting some growth after what? 2 years? When we first got here we had nothing at all as we are a new build.

7 pm One more time! I have been having a blast! Today I took a bit of time to run some hand dyed merino, silk in the blue color way, white angeline, teal nylon and put them through the drum carder. When I had done up two separate bundles into lofty rovings I spun them on my lace whirl into fine thread like yarn which I plied back to itself. I have very little single ply left! It almost came out perfectly even length wise. It is lovely and the first of many different colors I will send through the drum carder for some very special hand spun socks. See, I got this book from the library...

The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook by Lynne Vogel. I am in love with this book! They go from the hand dyeing process all the way through, spinning and then sock construction. The colors are glorious, lively, exhuberent and right up my alley! I'm so thrilled to report that the spinning I'm doing with my hand dyed (see below 6-6 entry) is going to be made into a wonderful sock via the information in this book. I haven't latched on to anything like this since I learned about Elizabeth Zimmerman... what fun to have such a passionate nature that just digs into all of this and says bring it on! I can already see my socks. What fun this is. The color way that I spun up today was the top row, middle sort of a darkish blue. With all of the goodies added to it and the carding of all of the different colors its become more of a light blue. The plan is to isolate some of the dark blue next so that I have two different colors from the single color. Then to mix it with the others in different quantities until I have a great many yarns with which to do Fair Isle knitting techniques.

Needless to say this book will go back to the library. I have it on my wish list at Knit Picks awaiting a pay check and a certain date. Another secret that I can't share... but the day is coming shortly when I will slip it quietly into my cart and be able to make it fly home to me. {{{Flappflappp flappflapp}}} I can hear the rustling of the wings it's on. Course that list... it's about 2 pages (tiny type) long! I may never be able to complete it in my life time but it sure is nice to drool over.

8 am --- Gee, this getting up early is wonderful! I actually have time to chat with you all, I have so missed it. I haven't been able to stay up past 10:30 for the last few nights and I have been early rising, what a wonderful thing to be able to get up before 9!!!! I'm loving this. With all the meds I have to take I don't always have a choice in any of my sleep/rising times.

I have a few close friends who get to see my, what I call,,, Whiney Wendy side. See, life can and does pile it on and I am very blessed to have a place to go when I can't quite pull Pollyanna out of the closet. For sure I'd rather be her then Grumpy Gal or GG. HAHA one day I'd like to change that to GG to Grumpy Granny! I guess I can give him a few more years though as he's only just graduating college.

Mom has a great lemon tree! We are the beneficiaries of her lemons and we love it. The children go and pick them all once every 6 months or so. Since she lives in So. Cal on the valley floor,,, they can and do, grow year round. They are the best lemons I have ever tasted. Somehow I want to give Mom the credit as everything she does is singular. Her cook all day red sauce is totally incredible. Imagine my shock to find out it was the jar stuff. HAHA what I don't know doesn't hurt me eh? Back to the lemons, they are organic and the tree is only about chest high but prolific. So when the children pick, there are just bags full of them. We have a juicing day and put it into the freezer in two cup measures. Those keep for a good long time and see us through in lemonade to the next picking. I cut them in half for my water kefir and freeze them just taking them out as needed. Then I have them sliced and 1/8th's for drinks. These are all frozen so the drink ones are great in the lemonade, tea, mint tea.

Oh now there's a topic! Don't get me started. LOL looks like I got myself started. So mint grows like a weed right? It's something that our harsh winters and SW summer temperatures can't kill. We harvest the mint by striping the leaves only, not the stalks. Wash them up well and pack them into a Dutch oven. Fill it with purified water and simmer for about 20 minutes. That makes a great concentrate that I add just a touch of Stevia to for sweetening. WONDERFULLY refreshing drink.

6 am --- Did you get the new Knitty? It's up and I think I printed off four patterns,,, two of which were the socks of course! Did you see the cobweb shawl? Such fine, light, loftiness... you can almost see it just gently falling to the ground,,, only to be snatched up before touching it and becoming defiled. Love the chocker, matter of fact, I already have the neck piece as I got in some cashmere that I spun and knit up with rainbow seed beads. Just didn't know what to do with it. I will have to chop it up and add some buttons and flowers now.

Well the very first thing I noticed out of all the business of tea time was the mothers face! Come on! There are three extremely cute little girls, each with a gorgeous dress, huge bow/flower they used to wear in the 50's, each has a doll and they are in the middle of a tea party! What do I look at? The mothers face!! Of course this was subconscious as I was reading the caption and looking at one of the DD's with a charming, engaging smile, it dawned on me that the mothers face was the first thing I looked at.

So then I looked closer to figure out just WHY did it attract my attention? First I should tell you that she's very plain, bordering on,,, well, not beautiful by any stretch of the imagination. So then I scrolled down to what she's wearing... a sweater of course. Now get this,,, in construction, it's very like the one I have been designing in my head! I was startled and looked closer to see why it drew my eyes upward to her face. It's all in the construction. See across the upper arms and chest is a pin stripe of a deeper green then the light green of the background. All of those stripes pulled me to her face.

My sweater isn't like this really,,, well, it sort of is in the construction,,, wide ribbed waist band in black, buttons up the front and then a checker board of the black with a multi/hand painted or fair isle making up the alternate checks. All of this to say that I really do need to get my sweater OTN! :-)

6-11-08 Repurposing. What a great thing to do. So before you toss that out,,, see if you can look at it in another way, see if you can't transform it into something else. I knew when I purchased my Celtic tapestry that I was going to be making it into something else. See, I couldn't see it on my wall, nor even on my couch... it had to be a skirt! So I 1/4rd it and chopped it all up into gores. I have it all cut and am sewing it back up again.

I dreamt up a shawl pin to which will rival the most expensive of them out there. Mine is full of silk ribbon embroidery, floss, seed beads, velvet, lace and all things wonderful. It's so me. I hope to have photos of my new creations up for you soon. Till then enjoy repurposing in your life.

Yesterday on the way off to the doctors appointment. This is my 5 day top that I just LIVE in, I have designed the next 12 necklines to experiement with. I so love the teal/turquoises don't you? I dyed the silk hankie at my waist and the silk scarf around my head. Soon I will have on these socks with my teal outfit.

The surgeon said I'd healed well and all was well... but he didn't think that terrible rash came from the surgery and we needed to go to the urgent care cause you never know when something could be West Niles or something equally bad. On Sunday night the entire body was covered with an itchy rash,,, cold/flu like symptoms, low grade fever and a new dot which is just a tiny high red pin prink made me think I had to be seen. Who knows when stuff like this is contagious too.

So we spent the entire afternoon and evening in ER/urgent care holding waiting for a doctor to come in and basically tell me that she had NO idea what she was doing! URGH! That it was probably a reaction to the surgery even though it was in place for TWO WEEKS prior to surgery. They ran a blood test oh joy! Your sitting there with a person who's got this rash from head to foot and you don't run a culture? She said it would only come back as dead skin with a bacteria. She had no idea if it was an allergy or what it was. So they came me a shot of steroids (3 hours sleep thank you!) and a anti itch pill. I bought Aveno and got some relief from 8-3. Slept from 12:30 to 3:20 woke cover in sweat, just drenched! and itchy! So I couldn't wait till 5:30 to take another pill. sigh

Came home to a box of yarn for the socks I get to test knit. From 9pm-12 got a good start on the foot of the first one... toe up which is new to me I'm a cuff down girl .... so I practiced while waiting for the yarn and made up Seeds N Beads part Duo. Got through the short row heal yesterday in the hospital. I have about 3 repeats of the "new" Seed N Bead pattern done. I really like this one even better then the first. So, if you don't see me, I'm either soaking in Aveno, cranking out the knitting, or trying to sleep! This shot, from past experience with steroids... should stay in my system for about 3 nights. The good new,,, you know I'm a Polly Anna right? I have to find good in every thing. Steroids sometimes help the FMS pain so while I hurt now, I might be feeling ok later. Oh and my blood pressure was through the roof. At one point it was dangerously high 165/90! That bottom number is the bad/heart one. I did have a heart "episode" the minute before they called me in. My heart doc has only been able to find Mitral Valve Prolapse. So after a bit of a nap I was better. Kev makes me really stressed out and he's stressing from the finances, they are cutting his hours at work and his pay right along with it.

So I have all these socks,,, only one pattern so far, shhhhhhh they are brand new, hot off of the designers grey matter as Hercules Poirot would say. I get to make a sock bag for a lady who ordered one. Then there's the block a month lotto to make one for. Quilt block that is. Then there's that tapestry throw that I need to make into a skirt with the hankie points. LOVELY in my head. So I have a bit of sewing to do here but not until there's a halt in the socks... from either not having a pattern or seeing double.

Of course, I saved the best for last. We all agree this is the single most lovely dyed item I came up with. This is lace weight for one of the many KAL's I have going on. So, now it's up to me to make something lovely with all of these wonderful new yarns I have. YUMMY! While at it I did up 2 silk hankies and 2 silk scarves. One each in teal and the bottom blue, of course!

Well with a subject like that you already know where I've been eh? Yup, I went in at 4 pm last night, the appendectomy operation took place at 1 am and I was kicked out of the hospital at noon! My how fast they have made it all. I'm going to have to take it easy for the next 3 weeks so you might not hear as much from me as normal, please bear with me. Between the pain at the site, incisions and the gas that they pump you full of to have their "look see"... I'm pained sitting here and not so very smart. Definitely not on my game.... so without further ado, I will turn you back over to your regularly scheduled programming. Enjoy yourselves but don't have too much fun without me. :-)

Heather Ordover from Craft Lit has challenged us to make something off of her glacier photos. Before she even got home I had claimed this photo as my own, I just about flipped when I saw it and knew that I had to have it on me... so I had ordered the dyes to try to capture this. I'm planning on sock yarn for sure. Then I have black alpaca roving, white merino and I will dye the white into all of the blues. I'm thinking of a 2-color work sweater with the teal sky and clouds at my face... going down to a dark blue ribbing in the sea. :-) Just for fun I have ordered the Fiber Trends family slipper pattern too and I will perhaps work up some of my hand dyed, hand spun into slippers for presents to my family.

You know my little Yorkie that we rescued? He's doing so well. I'm so happy for him. The people who had him were killing him by feeding him all cooked meat and starch. The poor thing was so deficient when he came to us that his teeth were all loose and what he has teeth wise are covered in plaque! He had so many problems. I'm happy to report that his remaining teeth are starting to firm up! I'm so happy for him. He had NO ZERO hair on his nose... now he's got the sweetest black fuzz coming back there. I tell you I just couldn't be happier for the little guy. He's a gem... forever protecting me from everything... and everyone. He has to learn that my hubby isn't a threat! ;-) He only recently stopped barking at him when he comes home at night. Short attention span. I guess that's about everything, I hope you are having a great day.

It's a beaded slouch sock... that I ADORE! I want to make them in every color. I have another one that I'm getting the pattern for which is along this line. I want to make an entire study of this style. The pattern is only $5.50 retail (available to LYS in bulk for less) and I take paypal.

5-19-08 The sweater that I started 10 days ago is finished. I took 4 days off from production so this only took me 6 days to complete. I made it in pieces as the pattern called for it and this isn't for myself. It's an really large men's sweater, it's 31" long and 50" around the chest.

I just love the buttons I found for it, they are perfect. I love the rolled edges and the pockets being the different colors. I will make it in a different color, circularly and with a shawl collar instead of a lapel collar. Other then that... I have to have a sweater this this for myself I just love it. The pattern is by Wendy Baker.

Later the same evening. I had a problem with a sweater I have been doing for work and I had to pull out a days worth of work. Instead of continuing to work on it I decided to take the weekend off. What a GREAT idea! I had a lovely relaxing weekend and even got in a few long naps. ZZZZZZZ here's what was produced. This is Slow Bee mystery,,, still not finished with clue one but I LOVE IT! I'm so very thankful that I joined this group and that lovely Moni is producing this grand pattern for us to enjoy. You can't see very well but there are bead on this shawl. You can see it in the close up below if you scroll down. I just love beaded knits and this one has been wonderful. I was listening to Irie Knits pod cast late Saturday night and she's a Yoga instructor. Well, between the wonderful peace generated from knitting and the relaxation techniques she was using... I was sooooo jello! It was wonderful. I'm going back for more now. I just wanted to share a bit of an update with you.

5-18-08 pm I have been doing a lot of spinning and enjoying every minute of it. My Kiwi will not spin either lace or bulky and of course those are the yarns I want. I have wanted an Alpaca shawl in all of the shades of Alpaca I have and the lace weight is difficult. After making it a 2 ply for strength, I end up with a fingering weight which is too heavy. DD suggested plying with sewing thread, I think that's where I will end up. I have spun for about 6 hours and only have a small amount on my bobbin.

Today I spun for a swap for a friend. I love her yarn. It's the stuff you see on eBay and Etsy selling for $100 or so. It's art yarn which is great on cuffs of gloves, brim of a hat, yoke of a sweater. I just love these colors. There's Merino wool, silk, rayon and locks of undetermined type.

My Darling Boopy, as you can see he's very happy in his new home. Diapers and all. It makes life easier... I found out AFTER we got him that Yorkies are known to not potty train well or totally... doesn't mean I wont still try. He has fewer accidents every day which is very encouraging. We all love him a great deal.

Here's the update on my Peacock. WOW I just love looking at it. This is the lace weight from Pure Wool that I dyed up myself. Every now and again there's a little blip of green and there's a bit of a lighter purple... I just love how this is coming out. I get a good deal of enjoyment in just spreading it out and looking at it. I'm glad I got a lot of this lace weight to dye and I'm ordering more. I forsee getting a good deal of this yarn in the future.

This is the Slow Bee mystery beaded shawl. It will take all summer to finish up getting the clues. They come out each Friday. What with all of the test knitting I do and all of the other stuff I have going on, I don't know if I will ever be able to keep up with this one but as you can see... I'm giving it a go. I love the beads... this is the first time I have ever worked with 8/0's and the Zephyr wool/silk thread. This is the greenish beads,,, as you can tell (even with my camera that doesn't do close ups) you can't see the beads so they aren't detracting from the lace. This is going to be a hug shaped (Faroese) shawl rather then a triangle. I have long wanted one. I do this late at night, very slowly, sighing contentedly as I look over my work. I am really hooked on this lace work.

My DS Shane made me these very cool and hip drop stitch fingerless gloves. I wear gloves to chuch each week as it seems to keep the little germies off of me. With all of the illnesses I have the last thing I need to invite to dinner are germs. Between the gloves and the probiotics, I rarely get a cold. I think I had all of one in last year.

This is the beginning of my Peacock shawl by Fiddlesticks. We are doing a KAL on IcelandicLaceShawl on Yahoo groups if you would like to join us. Mine is much larger then this already... we started on 5-8-08 and I just ripped on it as I knew I was getting a test knit in so I tried to get as much done as I possibly could. This shawl is so addicting that I steal a few minutes late at night to do a row or two even though I should be working on the test knit. I can't help myself!

Katie and I had a terrific time dying up all of these rovings for her to spin and knit into a sweater. She's already got the teal spun to the pink and should be casting on any time now. The plan is a color study along the lines of color fading,,, with 2-plies, from blue and blue then pink and blue to pink and pink. I think she will learn a lot if I can get her to do the plying correctly we will be all set. She's just a wiz at knitting and has really taken off with spinning.

She got a wee bit distracted with bears though... she's making our family into a knit bear family. First there was Daddy bear in yellow and blue which is the closest thing to getting him to saying he's got a favorite color (Lakers). Just now she finished the skirt for Momma Bear... an awesome blue tiered number. Gotta love it. She said that you will have to wait for the photo though as Momma has to have ears at least. :-)

A good deal of this past week was spent wondering where my bead order was. I cancelled the order that never should have been and just got back from my LYS where I purchased these babies. Unfortunately they didn't have exactly what I wanted so I bought enough in all of these to do this shawl. This is for the Slow Bee (also at Yahoo but a closed group now) mystery shawl. DS and I both like the ones in the center. you can't see from the photo but the ones on the right... are purple... or else they would be the winner. I really like the dark ones but they are a smidgen too dark and will stick out like a sore thumb so they are out. The purple ones... well lets just say that they are still in the running. I will have to sleep on this.

A good deal of my time has gone into the beaded socks I made for the gal I made all of the socks and shawls for. It's my first (2nd if you count the Tofu sock pattern) official pattern and it's currently being test knit up. As soon as it's in the final edit I will have it available for sale. How fun! Between that and the new test knit... I have been very busy.

The test knit is for a man's sweater which is 47 inches around and 30 inches long! It's a big one! Get this though,,, I finished the back in 24 HOURS!!!! Wild eh! I just got the most perfect buttons for this sweater. I should have read the contract though. I didn't see if there was a limit on the price of the buttons, these are hand crafted leaves and are perfect for this item. Sure enough! There was a 10 dollar limit and these are 17 and tax. They are soooooooooooo perfect though that I will probably eat the difference as these HAVE to go on this sweater. Have to check with accounting and see if they can handle someone they "pay" making a donation. LOL

5-6-08 Well all of the work got done, PTL what a challenge I had set for myself. Since seeing is believing, here are the 3 pair of socks and the lace shawl from last week. These were handed off on Saturday... well all of them were. We had a GRAND time meeting my people! WHAT A BLAST we had. Just before they came over I got the dinner all ready so that all I had to do was hit start 1 hour before we wanted to eat... this way there was very little socializing time lost. I had to bind off the shawl while they were here and then I had to block it and that was the only time I could be with them but Kevin enjoyed their company and I went about it as fast as I could. The shawl was much larger then the pattern which was just supposed to be a little shoulderette. I did 13 pattern repeats (instead of 10) on this green one and still had plenty of yarn left over. These skeins are a generous 450 yards.

4-27-08 WOW I just realized that I c/o this shawl on 4-23 which was last Wednesday, I just b/oed it today which is 4-27 which is only a matter of 5 days. It would have been finished last night but I fell asleep. I was all done in. The three pairs of socks were also knit last week. The Arnica has been out and on my shoulder. :-) Thanks to Nancy reminding me that it works great on my bursitis and my hurt neck. I hope to have a repeat performance this week with socks and another shawl. These will be going to TNNA to show what can be done with sock yarn. YUP one skein of sock yarn and I have a bit left over. That last little bit that you wonder if it will make it around yet again and figure you don't want to chance it. It's always more the I think it is. As it is I went beyond the pattern in size. It's supposed to just be a shoulder shawl but it's a good size. I think I added an extra row to the border too... not sure at this point.

This past week I have been rolling a design for a baby ensemble. Last night I got it all down on paper and I'm going to go for it. This design features knit, crochet AND embroidery... possibly beading but that will all depend. I'm excited to get to it but I have that green shawl and the three pair of socks. I really want to get them done before I start but you all know me with time and all.

Here's the purse I made. I won this roving from a Yarn or a Tale a fiber shop that I frequent. I spun it all up except for the violet locks. Lovely eh? I want to do a bit of colonial knot embroidery with floss in a bit of a lupine look in honor of the wild flowers here about. This bag is larger then a clutch at 7 x 12 so it has a short handle made of the same roving. I just love it. The hand beading was essential. The last bag sold for $150 and I think I'd be willing to part with this one for a bit less if anyone is interested... just let me know.

There's a photo around on the net which shows a canyon full of poppies and lupine, buttercups and a small white flower... it's our local hills. We live in this lovely stuff. This is our front yard! I wanted to take the children here so that we can see them growing up while our poppies multiply. I did plant a red one but I guess the seeds were bad as only one came up. I love my family. My children are the best in the entire world! Katie wouldn't agree.... but that's just one more reason why I love her so!!

The poor children were used to 70 degree, clean and clear mountain air... they WILTED in the Los Angeles sunshine and temperatures.... approaching 98 - 100 degrees. Needless to say, not even Disneyland could keep them there. Especially without Mum and her wheel chair to have them not waiting in lines for hours in that miserable heat. I was so happy when my family came home today. :-) I love my family so very much.

Is this not lovely! These are SOOOOOOO our colors. These are part of the payment for the work I'm currently doing. Katie's getting the one on the left and I the one on the right. We love them a great deal. You can tell that they are my colors as you can see a bit of my skirt under the one on the left! LOL yup, teal and covered with flowers! That's me.

Here's Katie with a big smile to show you here first all over lace shawl. She's really pleased... I couldn't be happier for her. This will hold her good through her entire life. When she hurts,,, she can knit... for solace... memories of our good times... knitting and the Lord will pull her through all sorts of rough seas ahead. So many things that life will throw at her... and she will find solace in the Lord and her knitting. I'm so happy for her.

While Boopie doesn't like the process he really loves the cuddle afterwards. Daily bathing is really important if he wants to sleep with us and sleep with us he must. After a towel dry, he gets put into his Peace Fleece sweater I made for him. I did it up in 3 ply PF which is 100% wool for warmth as he shivers so much you would think he was going to shake himself right off of the planet.

After the PF sweater he is then bundled into my woolen lapghan. I love this afghan. I made it from my hand spun and other yarns that I saved up for a bit from my Festivals. Boopie's pretty happy with it too. Of course all of this drying time is spent on my lap. He's more and more like a baby daily... what with yesterday coming up with a diaper (diideedoo) to keep him from "marking" my home. We do what we have to so that we can live in peace.

This is my Tofutsie Tee Shirt! The one I'm doing on the SWTC list (see below). I love this fabric! It's sooooooooo wonderful! You can sort of see the shaping on the sleeve... yes, that's the sleeve,,, we are working left to right... those thin straps are the back and front seam under the arm... so it's the body working left to right. I'm beading it,,, random beads up at the neck and center low on the sleeve. I added my beaded picot trim that I dreamed up for my Ice Queen, I really like it on my Tee. I changed the cast on numbers so that the tee fits me to a T. HAHA I have been working on a few design elements for my top. I'm going to have a cut flap at the side seam at the bottom... I will be having the back longer. Adding darts to the front for shaping and I have the same treatment at the sleeve edge going in at the waist bottom. Then for the neck,,,, I have soooooo many different ideas. One is for a peter pan collar... another is for a crocheted beaded one.... another is the same treatment that the sleeve got... another is to take o rings and cover them in single crochets... then hook them all together to for this weird shape,,, triangle sort of with dripping beads! I really love that one. I saw some French Market place run way things... they were all trampy but the endings,,, edgings were all wierd, wild and wonderful! Right UP MY ALLEY! So I'm going to get ending creative. My top is so totally me already.

Cisco is the newest addition to the family. He's my dog. All my life I have wanted a lap dog and he's more then I bargained for. We traded our AKC Pembroke Welch Corgi for my ex-show dog and I love him so very much already. I have only had him for a 2 days, in that time he's had 2 baths, multiple combings, bones for de-placking (is that a word?) and de-matting's... he was a show dog a long time ago... as well as has had to learn to eat kibble,,, poor baby! One of the baths was a shower... but if he MUST sleep in my bed then he will learn to like the daily showers. He's wonderful.... we all love him a ton. Today I knit him up a thick wool after bath, poor dear shivers for an hour. He will get used to it though I'm sure. I use my shampoo and this wonderful, thick hair conditioner on him as his hair doesn't shed but matt's up quickly. This herbal conditioner makes my hair totally tangle free,,, his too. :-) I have an after bath detangler for dogs as well. He's well cared for now. He doesn't mind all the ministering too terrible much and it's been a good thing for me... with all my illnesses all I can manage is to sit and knit... so to lavish love on him isn't too hard. I will steek his towel/sweater and get that ready for tomorrow's shower.

This!!!!!!!!!! UGH! This is my Mystic Lights shawl, complete through Clue 2.5... I finished Clue 3 today. It goes through the green and into the light blue again now. Clue 4 comes out tomorrow, and I'm READY! I'm sooooooo ready for it this time. :-) I had NO idea I would be able to keep up and am SHOCKED!!! that I can. I really thought I wouldn't be able to do it after ripping and ripping through Clue 1 but here I am. TADA!!! I'm so happy to have this done. I'm so encouraged and think I might just make it through the only -- two more to go.!!!! YEAH PTL as I really didn't think I could do this and only set out to try. I LOVE the way it's going. So I have signed up for the Slow Bee this summer. Why not!

DH was made Regional something or other,,, coordinator? For Clan Donald of late. When we attended the local Bakersfield games this year,,, we were hounded for photos! I was so surprised as this hasn't happened to us in the past. DD really attracted attention too, a gal took 100's of her. This came from Bakersfield Life I believe? A local magazine. There were so very many who stopped us that I couldn't keep them straight.

I said I suppose you get this all the time but you two are so stinking cute,,, could I have your photo please? HAHA they looked at one another and said that... well, we have never been called,,, stinking before but you are welcome to it. :-) HAHA TOO CUTE! Her bodice,,, black velvet with tiny green flowers embroidered all over it... LOVELY! She was an angel and he was a ARGH VIKING! HAHA LOVED IT

This is a child sweater that I got done last week,,, well ok, no photo, it's a test knit. When it's published I can share that. Got the yarn in on Friday and shipped it out the following Friday! YUP I'm fast! At the same time I worked on these socks... I am sooooooo fast! I can't show you them though, shhhhhhhh they are a secret test knit too.

Sparkey was sooooooo sad that I had a new baby to love on... his eye's tell the story better then can I. Poor dear hasn't been replaced,,, it will take a few more days for it to sink in... he went from being the boss and top Alpha dog... to second in command... size DOES NOT matter. Cisco is 1/2 his weight.

Well, what a week eh? It's been packed but I have one more thing to share. I met a gal at the Scottish Festival, she and I hit it off real well. She came over today, we knit, talked and had a half (crackers, cheese and apples as opposed to pot pies) tea. It was great, we all loved out time and she's slatted for two weeks or so from now. We are all going to join the Bobbin Lace Guild up here... or at least visit them and see if we would like to join. She told me she's always wanted to try it and every time I see them in the local newspaper I think, I sure would like to sit in with them. Well, she's always wanted too,,, I have always wanted too.... we like each other enough that she's coming back! HAHA so why not, eh? What fun we will have. She and I are so alike it's frightening. We had a blast and the time just FLEW by! Before you know it FIVE HOURS were GONE! I still can't believe it. I can't wait to see her again. LOL she said she was old enough to be my mother,,, funny how she's so much more out there and fit and all then I. She would have had to have had me when she was 17,,, possible... but I don't think of her as anything other then my own age. She's a blast... her name is Bev so when you hear me talk of her in the future you will know of whom I speak.

I have been suffering from Finishitupitis of late as well. Is that suffering? LOL I don't think so! I finished turning a halter top into a tank top. Finished a lace scarf that I made from some yarn from a secret pal swap. She sent me the pattern which is free on the net. It's the Orca lace scarf.

I made two bags for soap out of a pattern from my head. Those work GREAT! I did them in hemp and crocheted them. They are closed with a satin ribbon. These work so well. I just roll the soap inside of the bag and tons of lather pops through... then the hemp works as a great exfoliator... not to rough,,, just right. I even was able to use it on my face. These could work well in wool too,,, a super wash!

3-31-08 WHAT A GREAT DAY! Not a good day, a GREAT day! I used to hate and despise Mondays but this was a grand day. I was so content even though I was ripping out my Mystic Lights shawl for what the 6th time? Sitting in my rocking chair surrounded by my loving children... listening to old radio shows on my I Pod over the speakers. We had already cleaned the house really well, I had been on the treadmill for 2.5 hours and had showered. We were waiting friends and we were all in such high spirits. I had listened to Jane Austen's letters that I had downloaded from Librivox.org earlier. They are a fun listen.

I looked at my DD and was oh so content. I couldn't contain myself for even one more minute and I just erupted with joy! Spilling over and onto every one. I crawled up the length of my DD and told her how much I loved her. I guess her dog was threatened by me as he decided to nip me on the nose! Silly boy! He was smacked by his girl and his mum. Then he was so penitent! I guess I waked him and he didn't know what side was up. So he licked us both and then laid over us and he slept. DD held me and I slept! It was so peaceful and lovely I just can't express it in mear words alone. Occasionally I would crawl up from the depths of sleep to find I was still in her arms sleeping safely and all was right in the world.

Our friends came over and we all had such a wonderful time. We haven't been with them for 10 months but it was as if we didn't miss even one day. We both have children the same ages and so this is a wonderful, fullfilling time for us all. Their mother and I sat in the living room and chatted for many hours... getting in so much deeper then either of us had ever dreamed we would. Neither of us had come together thinking for even one second that we would unburden our hearts as we did! It's lovely to have such a friend as she. I so enjoy her company. So many of her issues are mine, the world is really so very small. She's a lovely girl who attends our church and we are kindred spirits, to go for such a long time without speaking only to fall right into our relationship without missing a beat. That's friendship for you.

Since a picture is worth 1,000 words I will save a few of mine. Above is a photo of the winnings from a fiber contest. I send a photo in to a place where I like to shop for my roving and every month there is a drawing. The photo is of an item which I make from her rovings that I have spun. Last month I won on my green purse that I ended up selling. I had requested the colors green, purple and blue of course! So I have that on the left. The right are some lovely, soft and nummy dyed locks. They are so soft. I'm sure that all of this will go into a new felted purse for me to replace the one that sold. DH is taking the brown socks as they are just his size.

This is the item I paid for. This is less then $60 in sock yarn! I found this site last week due to Ravelry, thank you Ravelry! Normally 60 would get me no more then enough for 3 pair of socks! Here there is enough for EIGHT! Now that my children are turning out socks as fast as I am I had to have more yarn.

This yarn is part of the payment for the purse that I sold. She ended up giving me $120 and the yarn to make it up to $150. I love this yarn. It's old but still in excellent condition. It's space dyed silk. I shall be whipping them into my 5 day tops. I find that I love the silk for tops very well and live in the two that I currently have. I keep seeing roses... don't you?

One thing that I didn't take a photo of is the other free thing that came in today's mail. BMFA made a mistake on my order. They told me that they would be sending me a replacement skein of STR due to the mistake. So I sold the mistake and got in the free one today. It's PERFECT! I love it and it will work perfectly in exactly the right way. It's the black, gray and white that I needed to make my chicken socks for my barred rock named Lacy. So far I have her, the rooster and the aracania. I have to purchase them slowly as they are $19 for each skein. Also I want to knit a few of them up to see how I like them. I'm planning on designing the socks as to the personality of the different chickens and making a matching stuffed amigarumi (sp) tiny chicken to go along with them. I can then wear my chickens and play with them too!

Ok, so how does the Lord end the perfect day? With a JOB! I tell you when it rains it pours and I so love today! I asked just this am if there was work from the test knit job that pays me money and sure enough I came to see my messages tonight and there's a job for a sweater! Something I can probably crank out in a week. I couldn't be more pleased I tell ya! It's been a wonderful day and I'm praising the Lord for it. He has been very good to us. Very good indeed. I don't deserve this magnificent treatment and I certainly don't expect things to come up so wonderful. HAHA you are all probably saying what's she making such a big deal about! No, I'm perfectly content and happy with my lot in life. Life is good and I will dwell here.

We went to Newton's Spring Fling today and WOW! He's my 4$ man. I bought some GREAT, high quality, cheap yarn! Cashmere, rayons, sock yarns, chenille, all lovely and CHEAP! We got out of there with 3 tall kitchen garbage bags full of yarn for only 150! I'm so pleased to have all of this cashmere and cone after cone of rayon and chenille! You should see this one chenille cone is about 10 pounds HUGE! RAYON and fine elastic thread for the top of my socks LOVELY GOODIES! (photo's to come.)

I had so much fun! We walked through this one door and up popped a gal who said, "I'm your enabler!" HAHA we hugged! She then said to everyone we met, "She's the Sock Queen". That's Goddess! If it weren't for Nancy from Custom Handweavers I wouldn't have been able to get such good deals as she told me to come on down. She's a lovely person and I would love to sit and talk with her for a good long time. I asked her for work and she immediately put me in touch with a man who wants me to spin for him. How's that for action!

Then there was a little, tiny Chinese woman who stole my 11 y/0 DD away and took her round to everyone... saying she's my little grand baby! HAHA It could have happened! I know, my 23 y/o has brown skin so I REALLY know. Anyway, she made me promise to do the fashion show at the next one with all of the children sporting their wares. We all knit and we all wear our knits which is why she was showing my child around to all of the teachers. I had on my silk top and my Kauni, beaded shawl. It's the dark colors, navy, purple and black. I love that shawl and get so many compliments on it every time I wear it.

3-19-08 Here are the socks I made this week. They are the Sock Bug pattern for River Rapid Socks made in my very first Socks that Rock (STR)... boy do they ever! These are in the lightweight and they worked up so very fast... I can't believe how fast they went. I did the legs in a size 2 and the foot in a size 1. They feel GREAT on me. I will be getting on more STR asap but first I have the two test knit socks to do and I want to finish up my homespun. YUP I did a sock in homespun! It was so fine that I had to use the size 0's on it and I had to c/o 70 something stitches. So I double plied it and it was still finer/thiner then the STR! So I figure I have a winner. I have nylon to add into my handspun in a deep teal or I can add it by using a Wooly Nylon spool. I have many colors. The world just split open for me when I came to find that I really could make socks from my homespun. So many people said not to bother even trying. I listened to them. Why? I do not know - as normally I would have tried much sooner. I'm sooooooooooo happy to report that this is the only way to fly.

Here's my handspun... it needs to be blocked. Those cables are my seaweed and you can't see the fishys. You can't see it in the photo but the seaweed starts skinny gets wide at the ankle and then gets skinny again at the toe. Don't you love the yarn! It's a stretched merino and it's the softest stuff on the planet! I soooooo love this yarn. I plied it last night. The sock above is on the single ply. I can't wait to try on the double ply!

Laurie, it was nice talking with you. Here's a coat I designed from recycled silk. I used the really soft yarn on the sleeves. I'm thinking that would look great done up in my 5 day top. Those tops can be done with any neckline, placket, ties, buttons, I just haven't had the time to make one up yet.

These were supposed to be for a sock monkey but I loved them so much that I might have to add some of these trims to them and actually wear them instead. DH (love that man!) bought me a sack of exercise socks so that I can use up my old ones for sock monkeys. So there are more monkeys to come. There are two monkeys so far, this black one and a pink one that Katie obsconded. These were supposed to be for me but Shane stole the black one so I really have to work up a few more. We have it down to a quick assembly line and they are just churned out very quickly.

3-10-08 Well this has been a good thing. The Lord always makes me see the good in everything, for that I'm very grateful. They were my babies... well I'm going to immortalize my most beloved of them all! I have been designing chickens and socks! I'm making a pair of socks and a tiny chicken for each of them.