Update

Surprise! 

I felt I should drop in to report a few momentous events this past year.  The Photographer and I became first-time Grandparents this past November.  Not under the most ideal of circumstances...

Our youngest daughter and her husband's first baby was due February 12, 2013 but the little one decided she just had to come early - the middle of November.  Three months premature, it was very scary but Mother and Baby Girl came through just fine.  Baby weighed 2 lbs. 4oz at birth but is now up to 5lbs at two months old.  Doctors say she is perfectly healthy if small.  We are all so grateful considering what might have been. (I haven't been cleared to post photos of Baby Girl but you know we have lots and lots!)

And on a sad note we had to put our beautiful dog Annie down on November 19th.  She had cancer and at 13 she was just to old to put through chemo.  Even if she was old and deaf it was an incredibly hard decision.  I miss her constantly, so many little things during each day remind me she's not here anymore.

I'm still knitting; just terrible at taking the time to document finished items. I don't blog about them and I don't put them on Ravelry.  I keep trying but... I guess I'm lazy?  I did find an app for my iphone called Yarma that let me send photos directly to my Ravelry projects,  doesn't seem to be helping/forcing me to put up my knitting items.  Now if they'd write an app that took pictures for you.

BlackJack is the new black cat in the house.  (we just call him Jack) He was adopted from the Las Vegas Humane Society by his second owner.  When he couldn't keep him, we saw the posting on Craig's List right before Easter and went and fell in love with this tiny little black furball.  He now is grown and surprised us when his fur started to get longer and longer and he turned into a long haired cat.  (He has long-black hair over white skin - have you ever heard of that?) Jack keeps our older short-haired black cat, Sam, in shape.  The two of them are chasing each other all over the house.

Hopefully, it won't be another two years before I post.

where was I...

Saying, "Things have been busy around here" is quite an understatement!

Last Christmas I made everyone at the Shop similar project bags for Christmas; they were so popular I was ask to put some up for sale. They've been selling fast enough that sewing has been using up much of my free time.

The hardest part of making these bags is finding zippers in colors that work with my fabrics. I'd never noticed but zipper manufacturers don't change their colors to keep up with the changing fabric pallets. (Most blue zipper colors are stuck in the grayed out 1980's hues, for example.) Wonder why these zipper companies are so out of touch with what fabric is currently on the market?

I've still been knitting but getting items finished, blocked and photographed has really been neglected. My latest FO is a shawl from the pattern Springtime Bandit knit in Canopy Fingering Weight Yarn. Of course, I didn't knit the pattern with the right weight yarn; the pattern is written for a worsted weight.

The pattern was knit as written except I did 16 repeats of the Body Chart. Using two skeins of Canopy I finished with just a few inches of yarn left. (I hate that nervous knitting when you're worried about running out of yarn!?

I used the Macaw colorway; these photos don't do it justice. This yarn in the hank looks very different from the knitted item. This colorway has a prismatic color shift depending from which direction you look at it. I've never seen a yarn do this before. Oh, and I have to mention the yarn is a dream to knit with, never had one split stitch!

We lost our 13 year old Siamese, Ty, last week. We'd been running Cat Hospice upstairs for him the past six months so it wasn't a surprise. He had a degenerative disease called Cerebellar Abiotrophy and lost most of the use of his hind legs. We sure miss him, he was a very loving Boy.

Milkweed Project

My submission to the Milk Weed Project is posted here

Little Entrelac Bag

When I looked through the new Interweave's Holiday Gifts magazine and saw Susan Lawrence's Little Entrelac Bags pattern I knew I was making it as soon as I got home.

It was a fun quick project with Noro Kureyon. The pattern called for a twisted cord, I made a square cord on a Lucet with several strands of thread and pearl cotton. The hardest part has been finding a button for the drawstring.

I have other finished objects but they all need a little something before I take pictures and blog about them.

Ysolda Teague has some great patterns and I'm drawn to her patterns on Ravelry. There's one through that always makes me smile and remember some mystery books I've read. Have you heard of the Aunt Dimity books by Nancy Atherton? The main character has a knit bunny from her childhood that was made for her by Aunt Dimity who lived in England. Well, Ysolda has a knit bunny pattern called Sophie that is exactly the bunny I envisioned while reading. It makes me smile every time I come across this pattern.
(This just proves that you can play "7 Degrees to Knitting" with anything.)

The sun is so low in the south now that it comes further into the house than any other time of the year. The cats are loving it! They follow the sun around the living room during the day. Bright sunlight, the best way to photograph our Sam.


Old man Ty really loves the heat.

Lambtown 2009

Last month the Photographer and I headed up state to attend Lambtown in Dixon, California, west of Sacramento.

There was Sheep Judging


Strolling Alpacas


Penned sheep ready for dog herding trials


The Fiber Show

The seated woman in blue is Shari McKelvy of Morro Fleece Works.

The view from the back of the building


A rare breed of sheep (sorry I've forgotten the breed name) whose coat was like bristles. The man said there was no known use for the fiber; the Photographer throught it would be perfect for bristle paint brushes.

That coat is not soft at all, felt more like a hair brush!


Angora Goat - look at that FACE!! (Is that really an Angora or Mohair Goat?)


Alpaca Show


I found three bags of Alpaca fleece on display near the pens. There was the most gorgeous black fleece that I coveted the moment I saw it. I went around asking who owned it until I found her; the fleece was brought for display but she was happy to sell it to me. (I walked it right over to Morro Fleece Works and saved the cost of shipping) The beautiful, super-soft fiber was from Midnight, the black boy in the center below. (That's him from the rear in the above photo)


And here I am having a wonderful stroll, third time around, in the Fiber Show.


There was a wonderful Sheep to Shawl going on that I wish I had pictures of. Looked like there were eight teams - that's the largest S2S I've ever seen. It was fun to look at all the wheels, drum carders and looms.

Charity Knitting Report

I usually have many projects going at once but for some reason four Charity Projects seem to have gotten finished one after another.

The first were the Camo Hats for the Troops

These Hats are being collected at Two Sister and Ewe. Two Customers, one in the Military herself and the other a Military Wife, are sending these hats to Troops in Iraq. The Shop stocked Camouflage acrylic yarn just for this project. I got two hats out of one ball of this worsted weight yarn.

The second project or projects were my Red Scarf Project donations this year. Two Sisters has a collection basket for this Orphan Foundation of America project. They'll mail them all in the beginning of December. I hope we have Red Scarves everywhere. (Several years ago The Shop was the collection point for Pink Scarves that were going to be sold at the Breast Cancer Walk with all the money going to the Susan Komen Fund. I never saw so much Pink in one place in my life!)


My first scarf is the Li's Reversible Herringbone Scarf. This is a very nice pattern - write to Li if you'd like her free pattern.
Pattern close-up.



My second Red Scarf is made from the Pattern "Men's Cashmere Scarf" in Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. Of course, I didn't use cashmere yarn both of these scarves are made with Marble Yarn from James G. Brett.(I was several rows into this pattern when I realized it is nearly identical to Yarn Harlot's Handspun Scarf pattern that I finished just a few weeks ago. I wonder if both authors are aware of how similar their patterns are?)

I recently had a Birthday lunch with my Sister and her daughters and grandchildren and my daughters (neither have children, not for lack of my encouragement!) Here is a photo of my great-nephew Joey (2.5 years)

and my newest great-niece Lily

A Few Finished Things

My handspun scarf has been finished for awhile but I finally got around to blocking it. Pattern is the Yarn Harlots One Row Handspun Scarf.
Ravelry Link


This picture has the truest colors.


and a full length shot


The second finished object is a Flame Stitch Shawl made from a new 75% Bamboo fingering weight yarn from SRK called "On Your Toes." This is a very soft yarn; fabulous to knit. The stitch pattern was given to me by SDAHT on Ravelry. I designed this scarf not realizing that it was the same stitch pattern I'd used for my Evelyn Clark's Shetland Triangle until I'd knit a full pattern repeat.



the scalloped edge (this photo shows the best stitch definition)


and the backlit shot


Lastly, Charity Knitting: I've been knitting caps for a friend's church that has a few people going to Tibet. I don't know why they're going but they wanted to take something for the children but they are only allowed to take one carry-on bag. It was decided that knit hats could be tucked into any empty spots in their luggage. I've knit two hats for them to take.


And the Red Scarf Project. This is my second year knitting these red scarves. Last year, who knows why, my scarves were crocheted. This year I'm back to knitting scarves using Marble Yarn


I'm making Li's Reversible Herringbone Rib Scarf. (Leave a comment on her blog asking for this free pattern)


This is a great pattern that is interesting to knit but not so difficult that you can't watch TV.

And I stumbled over a display of Hatch Peppers while in our local Bristol Farms. I've always wanted to go the the Hatch Chili Festival this is as close as I've ever gotten.