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