The Chickens Have Landed

Houston... We have chickens! LOL! These five little furry gals are soooo cute! And since I took these pictures last week they've grown tremendously! They even have real wings with feathers now! The chick in the picture at the top of the page is mine. She's Spartan 117 or Sparty for short. The orange and black chick below is Pippin and the orange and gray one standing behind her is Naruto. You can see Bombur in the back corner and the beak and forhead of Sparty on the far right. Merry, pictured by himself, was very obliging and stood still for her picture. Right now the lot of them are in Mary's kitchen. So far the cat and dog haven't been overly interested in them. Yeah!

Maria from Jerrol's stopped by work on Friday before Mother's Day and gave us some beautiful carnations. This is a picture of mine. I love the way the light shows through the petals. Pretty!

The lovely staff at HopeSource congregated at Olmstead on Friday and helped prepare the flower beds for seasonal visitors. We weeded and weeded and weeded! It was an amazing day weather-wise (though I did get a rather nasty sunburn!) and we had some yummy snacks, provided by Ada Graaff, my boss Susan Grindle's lovely mother. She provides our office with the most delicious cookies every Thursday or Friday. And she was recently honored with the Spirit of the Red Cross award at the American Red Cross Real Heroes Banquet at The Lodge at Suncadia. She has been volunteering with the Red Cross since WWII and is just now retiring.

Below is the picture of the Olmstead homestead.


On Saturday, Janelle, Mary and I attended the Fiber with a Twist Spin In down in Richland, WA. It was another beautiful, warm day. The place was pretty crowded with folks spinning and vendors. Lots of great people and great wheels. I purchased four bumps of handdyed merino... from Janelle! LOL! All the way down there and I bought stuff from the person I went down there with! The wool was too gorgeous to pass up. I also bought a bump of Potluck in Midnight Mulberry that I will spin fluffy, knit big, and felt into a purse.

Our stuff awaiting the doors to open.

Janelle's half of the table she rented.

So also this weekend, I finished my black cardigan and made a cute red camisole top to wear with it. The cardigan was very easy to knit, though it took much longer than I anticipated. The sizing is perfect. I made a large and it fits exactly like I wanted it to. The camisole is from McCall's Easy Stitch 'n Save pattern number M5787. It's a little big, but I like it too much to alter it. I used one yard of Kona Bay fabric and some red solid left over from an apron I made last year. It worked out perfectly.

EYELET CARDIGAN
PATTERN: Eyelet Cardigan from Blue Sky Alpaca
DESIGNER: Alison Williams
YARN: Julia from Nashua, an alpaca/wool blend
NEEDLES: Size 7 24" circulars
NOTIONS: Yarn needle, fabric-covered buttons

Thrift Sense

So I've been a few times to Goodwill and St. Vinnies....

Ok, maybe more than a few times. :)

Here's some fun stuff I've found that I really like.

Brown Faux Leather Purse
$3.99

Straw Bonnet from Frederick and Nelson: Seattle
$1.99

Handmade Pottery Bowl
$0.49

Bright Kitchen Towel
$0.99

Angora/Cashmere/Wool Coat from Facconable
$5.99

Fossil Purse with pretty fabric lining
$3.99

Grey Wool Dress
Wool Fabric: $2.99
Amy Butler Fabric Lining: $4.50
Pattern: McCalls 4319 (This is a pjs pattern, but the nightgown was so cute that I used it to make this dress.)

Sometimes I'm amazed by what I find at Goodwill and St. Vinnies. Sometimes I'm more amazed by how much I actually spend there! LOL! Then I'll go over to Fred Meyer or Mountain High and look at how much it costs to buy clothes and stuff new and I'm so thankful that we have Goodwill and St. Vinnies.

In other news: Today is Easter, the day that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Blessed is the King of Israel! Hosanna!

Yeah!!! It's finally spring! It's GLORIOUS outside this fine Palm Sunday. We had an amazing service today at church followed by one of the best potlucks I can remember. The food was spectacular!

For those who are curious as to what I've been up to, check out the pics below! (No, they are not in chronological order. LOL!)

Flower Tote
PATTERN: Easy Stitch 'n Save M5362
FABRIC: Outer, flower linen I picked up at Goodwill
Inside, satin brocade I picked up at Goodwill
EXTRAS: Snap closure I cannibalized from another purse
Brass Broach that was my grandmothers
NOTES: Super easy pattern that took me all of 3 hours to sew (would have been less if I hadn't messed up and had to pull out a big section. I modified the pattern by adding the clasp.

FLOWER POWER SKIRT
PATTERN: Easy Stitch n' Save 5566
FABRIC: Green: from Sew Much More (now the Sewing Corral)
Unbleached Muslin: from Goodwill (I bought 10 yards for $8 bucks!)
EXTRAS: Various bits of lace from various places.
NOTES: So this is what happens when you read the wrong part of the pattern and you don't have enough fabric. I wanted an all green skirt, but the 3.5 yards I had didn't match up with the 6.5 yards I needed. So I improvised by putting in three cream colored panels and cut out several flowers which I zigzag stitched on. Then I added bits of cream lace to the cream panels (not visible in picture.) I modified the pattern by doing only 6 gores instead of 8.

BUTTONY
INSPIRATION: An awesome button necklace from Anthropologie. (It had more buttons and red yarn)
MATERIALS: Cream antique bone and shell buttons in various sizes and designs, green buttons in two sizes, handspun soy silk I made up as a sample for a Seattle fashion designer.

SOMETHING NEW
So I decided I needed a change from the usual, so I checked out some fun hair magazines and some knitting magazines and some websites and found that I really wanted bangs and a total make up overhaul. Kacy at Hanna Marchel Salon took my idea and made it way cooler than I thought it would be. I even invested some money into some good make up and watched a few videos on how to put it on appropriately! It's amazing how much better I feel when I put effort into what I look like instead of just throwing a hat on and not bothering with the make up. And I've even been trying to dress a bit more professtionally for work (I even bought some heels!). Though there are days when I just want to grunge out and feel good about doing so.

COZY
PATTERN: Cozy from Danielle Schoonover at Knitty.com
YARN: Kid Mohair Blend from Sublime in 0022, 6 balls
NEEDLES: Size 8
NOTES: Beautiful shawl that is just what its name states: cozy. The yarn is gorgeous and feels great. But... it sheds terribly. Don't wear this with black! The shawl seemed to never end. No matter how much I knit on it, it didn't seem to grow at all! Still, it's a great pattern and if you're looking for some mindless knitting to do in the car or while standing in line at the DMV, this is certainly it!!!

FRENCHY HANDBAG
PATTERN: Frenchy Handbag from Amy Butler
FABRIC: Wool suiting I found at Goodwill for the outer
Poplin from Denver Fabrics inside
EXTRAS: Bit of lace for the inside pocket, flower pin I found at an antique store
NOTES: Great pattern! Super fun and easy. I really love this bag and will be getting a lot of use out of it!

PRECIOUS CHOKER
MATERIALS: Fine silver wire from Fred Meyer, pink beads and clasp from The Agate Shop
PATTERN: None. I placed the beads on the wire, then cast on 4 stitches and increased every other row until I had 12 stitches, then knit for awhile, then decreased back to 4. Knitting with wire is fun and a lot easier than I thought it would be.

So that's all for now. I've been thrift store shopping a bit lately and will soon put up a post with all my findings!

Happy Palm Sunday! Hosanna!!!!

February Stuff

Ok. So I decided to get into shape this week. Actually, I've been gearing myself up to it for awhile, but today was the day I finally started. I went to Mountain High and got some shoes, Salomon XA Pro something or other running shoes with Gortex cuz it's wet out. And I bought some sweatpants that are soo terribly comfortable I'll have a hard time wearing anything else! LOL!So this afternoon I went to Morgan Middle School and walked a bit around the track. Briskly walked, actually. Then I ran half a lap, walked half a lap three times and then walked home. It took all of 20 minutes and I realized that my leg muscles have nooooo idea what running is all about! So. I'm hoping to be able to slowly build up to real running and not just this stop and start thing.

Knitting items of note:

I finally broke down and bought the yarn to make the Klaralund. I've been wanting to make this sweater for about 2 years, but couldn't justify spending that much on yarn (Noro Silk Garden is not extraordinarily expensive, but there's not a heck of a lot of yardage per skein.) I had tried a couple of times to knit it with my handspun, but never had enough of anything. I finished this on Wednesday and wore it Thursday and thoroughly adore it. I'm so glad I knit this!!!!

Pattern: Klaralund from Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Hand Knitting Collection Book Two
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden in 245
Needles: Size 8
Joy Factor: Yipee!!!

I am now working on a pretty green wrap for the shop. And a pair of socks that I'm certain will be the death of me! I love the pattern, but it is seriously taking forever to knit!!!!

Also, I've joined Facebook and have been hanging out there a bit lately. And I've started playing Guild Wars. Talk about a time suck!!! It's way fun though. My character is named Cludda the Deathles and is a Ranger/Elementalist. Right now she's a level 15. It's taking forever to level now. Grrrrr.....

Finally a New Post!

Hello all! Been knitting and painting and haven't had a chance to put anything on here! Also, I got Guild Wars and have been playing that quite a bit. I am still keeping up with laundry and dishes and work, though, so I don't feel too bad about the hours I spend online killing skales and Grawls and Charrs.

Anyway, I finally broke down and bought some of the new Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. It's GLORIOUS!I love how the colors came out totally different from one sock to the other. One has a lot of pink and one has a lot of orange.

Pattern: Whitby from Knitting on the Road
Designer: Nancy Bush
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Sock in 284
Needles: Size 3

Also, I finally used up my 12th Planet handspun corriedale that I got at the Shepherd's Extravaganza last year.

Pattern: Notions Purse
Designer: Me
Yarn: The 12th Planet Coiled Yarn
Needles: 9 circulars

I had a really hard time trying to figure out what to do with this coiled yarn, especially since I had so little yardage. It finally came to me when I was hunting around my dining room table for my yarn needles tin. It's lined with black cotton inside and has a snap closure.

Pattern: Felicity
Designer: Wanette Clyde
Yarn: The 12th Planet 2 ply
Needles: Sizes 4 and 5 16" circulars

I totally love this pattern! I went down a needles size on both and added 20 stitches because my handspun was sport weight and not worsted.

Pattern: Moria Cowl
Designer: Me
Yarn: The 12th Planet 2 ply
Needles: Size 5 16" circulars

I really enjoyed designing and knitting this. The colors and the way it fits reminded me of Moria. The leaf pattern is from an old pattern book that I have and after the first repeat I started taking out some of the decreases and adding rows so the leaves get bigger and bigger.

I've also knit a few things for the LYS. You can see them at The Dancing Ewe Yarn and Teas or at the Ravelry link to your right.

Ok. I guess that's all for now. It's snowing as I type this morning. I'm glad.

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!