Stuff That's Happened...

So. Long time, no chat. Lots has been going on. Since the Kittitas County Fair we've had two massive spin-ins. The Fall Fiber Festival in Ellensburg in October was an amazing success. We had many come for the day and many more that heard about the event through the local paper and through random comments at our local farmer's market. Also, we had several gals visit who heard about it on Ravelry! Only two of the pictures I took weren't blurry, so here they are.

Everyone and their wheels!

Janelle creating some beautiful yarn.

Also, we had the Veteran's Day Spin In at Terry's house out in the country east of Ellensburg. I did get some good pictures from there. A lot of ladies were there and all of them had beautiful wheels and even more beautiful fleece to spin! Terry made some lovely lamb soup and someone brought pumpkin cookies (my favorite kind!) and there was plenty of coffee!. So here's some pics from the event:

My wheel in the sunshine.

Terry spinning on her Polonaise.

Some of Terry's sheep enjoying the sun.

A couple of weeks ago everyone at work went to the Wild Horse Wind Farm just east of town. While there I got some awesome photos.

The Kittitas Valley from the wind farm's meeting hall.

An old windmill with the new windmill behind. I like the old one better.

And then a few days ago we had one of the most amazing skies I've ever seen and so I took pictures of that so I could paint it.


About a month ago I decided to try my hand at painting with watercolors. I must say that I thoroughly enjoy it and have created several paintings already. If you go to my Flickr site you can view them there. Below is the first one I did which I gave to my dear friend Wendy for her birthday. It's of a garden in Montana (Great Falls maybe? Could have been Helena. Don't remember.)


So I would have let you all know about my knitting adventures, but it's taken two hours just to get this far and now it's time for bed. Good night and dream of the knitting to come!!!

Kittitas County Fair 2008

So, I spent most of last week at the Kittitas County Fair manning the Fiber Arts division with Mary and Wendy and Sue and Julie and Lynette and Amy. Yeah! It was really fun. I got only two red ribbons, the rest were blue and I won Best of Class for my 12th Planet Coiled Yarn. Mary won Best of Class and Superintendent Choice for her 1/2 Project Basket. She got all blues on her stuff, too!




Hope to see you next year!

Fire and Butterflies

I've been working on a lot of different stuff. Unfortunately, I have only successfully completed a few things. It seems like every time I start a project that I think is going to work out, it doesn't. And now that it's super hot out, I'm not much in the mood to knit or spin at all. I did some sewing, but even that didn't turn out all that great.

Here is the final pics of the Socks for Veronik that I actually started in January and finished finally last month.

YARN: Aracaunia Ranco Multi
NEEDLES: Size 1 double points
PATTERN: Socks for Veronik from Interweave Knits Holiday 2007

I loved the pattern and I love knitting with this yarn. But the socks started felted within a few hours of wearing them, so I won't be able to put them into the fair. Bummer.

Also, I used the Light My Fire yarn that I spun dk weight and knit a cute vest. It went very fast and is really comfortable. And it fits perfectly.

YARN: Handspun Superwash Merino in the Light My Fire colorway.
NEEDLES: Size 5 and 7 24" circulars
PATTERN: Tank Top, Long Version from Twilleys of Stamford, catalog 455
SIZE: Big enough to fit me! LOL!

I really love the way the yarn striped and how different it is from front to back. I have quite a bit left over, so I'm going to knit some socks to go with it.

Mostly my mind has been on God and what He's doing in the church, here locally and throughout the world. And I've been reading a lot. I just finished a book called Blessed Child by Bill Bright and Ted Dekker (Ted Dekker is one of my most favorite authors!) It was very intense and really made me want to see the Kingdom of God in a new way. The other books I'm reading is Red Moon Rising by Pete Greig and Under the Overpass by Mike Yankoski. I keep wondering what I can do that is daring for God, like these guys.

I was leaving this morning for church and discovered a visitor in my lilies next to the front door. He was having way too much fun and didn't mind me watching him, so I ran back inside and grabbed my camera, hoping he wouldn't fly away. When I got back outside, he wasn't in my lilies anymore, but I saw him hopping about on the lilies next door. I crept over there and got some awesome shots of him.
It wasn't long before my cat, Gus, decided he wanted to know what was up. He crept up to the deck above the flowers and stalked the butterfly for several minutes. He made a jump for the little visitor, but looked more like a falling brick than a ferocious cat and didn't get the snack he was looking for.


BTW: The cabin in the banner is the Olmstead family cabin at Olmstead State Park off the Kittitas Highway. I went with a rather large crew from work and volunteered time to pull weeds and lay chipped wood on the trails. It was really fun, despite the heat and the mosquitos. They would love to have volunteers out there any Wednesday and Saturday. For information, just click this link!

Sorry!

I have really been neglecting this! No posts since May and it's already July! I will try to remedy that this week and get some new pics up of fun stuff I've done and projects I've finished, etc. It's super hot here, like in the 100s quite a bit. It cooled off for Independence Day, even had a beautiful thunder and lightning show that morning!

I'm going to leave y'all with a picture from the local Dachshund's on Parade and I'll be back in action here shortly!

Not Too Sick to Knit

I have spent the last week in bed with mononucleosis. But, I have not been too sick to knit and have finished two projects! Yeah! The first is the lovely Tangled Yoke Cardigan:

PATTERN: Tangled Yoke Cardigan from Interweave Knits
YARN: Rowan Felted Tweed in Phantom
NEEDLES: Size 5, 4, and 0

This pattern took me a little over a month to complete. I purchased the 10 balls of yarn that the pattern called for, but only used 7. Also, I used size 4 24" circulars and size 0 double points instead of purchasing the 40" circulars that they wanted me to. I did use the size 5 40" circs, though, in order to fit all the stitches on there once you get the sleeves added. The pattern was very simple to follow. I truly love this sweater more than any other I've knitted to date. Particularly because there are no seams anywhere. I hate sewing up seams!

The other project I finished was the Frock Camisole:
PATTERN: Frock Camisole from Interweave Knits
YARN: Royal Llama Silk
NEEDLES: Size 7

This pattern was super easy and only took about a week and a half to knit. The size ended up being perfect. I used all 7 of the balls of yarn I bought, with enough left over to make some wrist warmers. The yarn was great. Really soft and not at all itchy. The color is great also.

A little while ago, I used some left over Blue Sky Alpaca Alpaca Silk to make these Wristlettos that I found in a recent copy of Spin Off Magazine. I really like them and plan to knit a couple more pairs in different colors.
Some other stuff I did, was last week I went to The Dancing Ewe's one year anniversary dinner at The Palace. It was really fun. Several of us brought knitting and I got to hang out with some really great ladies who love to knit. There were door prizes and cake and yummy food, also.

I also got a skein done of the Light My Fire fiber I bought over in Puyallup. The results are awesome and I'm excited to knit with it. I'm going to knit a vest, I think.


Ok. That's all for now. Mary and I were both too ill to go to the Fiber with a Twist Spin-In down in Richland. The first time we've missed it in years! Oh, well. I have enough fiber to spin and yarn to knit and if I'd gone, I'd have only spent money! LOL!

Wooly Birthdays and Stuff

So, I'm sort of back in the land of the living. I've been battling a nasty cold for the past month or so and am finally starting to get some energy back. In between bouts of bed rest, I've done many things. Like design a cute little handbag for a cables class.

YARN: O-WOOL Balance, about a skein and a half
NEEDLES: Size 6 16" circulars and size 6 double points

I also went with Mary T., Janelle, and Cheri to the Shepherd's Extravaganza at the Puyallup Fair. The trip was wonderful, if quick, which was a good thing as Snoqualmie Pass was closed down shortly after we made it back home. It was cold and wet and windy at the fairgrounds and the piroshky place had yet to receive their shipment of salmon and cream cheese goodness, but a good time was still had! I bought a pound and a half of some really beautiful wool from a German dude named Klaus from Yelm. I just liked to listen to him talk because he had such a great accent. LOL! Mary bought a ton of wool also and some Polish pottery that is truly beautiful. Janelle and Cheri also got some great wool. I only ended up taking one picture while I was there, so if you wanna see the fun, you'll have to check out Janelle's blog. You'll find the link over there on the right. Here's some pics of the stuff I bought.

This is some superwash merino. It's called "Light My Fire." :)

This is what it's looking like spun up.
And I got some Corriedale in a color called "The 12th Planet"

Also, I tried to spin some angora top and failed terribly, so I used my handcarders and blended it with some superwash merino I a bought at the Shepherd's Extravaganza last year. The result is beautiful and soft.

Also, I used my new book Intertwined and created my first skein of fabric yarn. I totally love it, but I have no idea yet what I'll do with it. I used a cotton thread for the core and then 1 inch strips for the fabric part. I used some old wool I had laying around for the "glue" and made little bows with some extra strips of fabric.

Also, Mary had her birthday and spin-in this month. It was really fun with lots of beautiful desserts and fun gifts and decorations. Everything was pink and white.

Lori made the cakes, which were amazing. I used my china that's been passed down to me from forever ago and bought all the other decorations.

This is the happy group spinning and knitting away.

And this is some silk that I won from Janelle's blog. It's dyed with cochineal, which are bugs. Lots of bug bodies ground up into a dye. Don't look at me like that! It made a super pretty color and I'm gonna knit my bug body silk skein!

I also went to a concert up at the college. My driver, John, is the lead singer of a band called Mon Marie and they'll be going on national tour this summer. I wish I could have stayed longer, but being still not well, I only hung out for about 5 songs. My pics didn't turn out so great, but here's a few of them.
Lots of fun the last two months! Also, I went intertubing and drove to the Tri-Cities and almost finished knitting a sweater, and many many other things. Maybe I'll post more about that someday, but it's getting late and I'm ready for bed! Night all!

A POST....

Will be coming soon from Mary and Sarah! Stay tuned and Happy Spring!

Intertwined

I was down at The Dancing Ewe and spotted a book called Intertwined from Lexi Boeger, the Pluckyfluff Handspun Revolution. I had seen it briefly on Amazon.com, but was anxious to get my hands on it and so I purchased it and lugged it home. Besides the pictures of these artful yarns being rather mind-blowing, the chapters of designer diaries are fascinating. I was instantly inspired to try my hand at some of the techniques presented, so I pulled out some wool I didn't particularly like (just in case my attempts were a total mess). I tried the Super Coils first and below is my first attempt. I love it! The colors, bland and boring on their own, blended well together and the feel of the squishy coils is glorious. I knit a cute little neck warmer since I only had about 30 yards of yarn by the time I was done.
The cowl is part knitted on size 13s and part crocheted with an N hook. This yarn is a bit difficult to work with because the coils don't want to pull through the loops. I cast on seven stitches and knit garter stitch for four rows. On the fifth row, I knit one, yo twice, knit 2 together until the end, then knit straight across the next two rows. It took every inch of the yarn to make this. It's super warm and cozy. The buttons are just plastic ones I got in a grab bag over the weekend.

The other yarn I tried out was a boucle with little nubby twists and sparkle. The roving I used was merino. I think it's too busy and the mohair takes away from the nubs and sparkle. I think I'll use this for the ends of a scarf and just spin the sparkle and nubs with the rest of the roving for the main body of the scarf.
The other yarn I worked on was some beautiful hand-dyed alpaca I got from Janelle. The colors are subtle and beautiful and I mixed a bit of sparkle in with it to give it a little extra pizazz. The result is a soft luminous yarn that will make a great... something... LOL! I have no plans for this other than to drool over it! I only have about 5 ounces of it, so my idea of a cuddly bed jacket won't work until I knit it with something else.




I've also been out thrift shopping and so I'll leave you with some of my favorite most recent finds, a wire basket with long evening gloves, a pincushion tea cup, an architectural drawing, a pretty tea cup, Laura Ashley curtain, a set of antique plates, a pretty white and blue mini tea pot, and some pretty fabric to recover my cushions for my couch: