beware...

Forgive me dear readers, it's been a long time since I posted. I have no real excuses. October was just very busy and I just didn't post much. I did an awful lot though. And I did an awful lot of fiber stuff...

October 13th the part of my family who lives in North Carolina and Virginia went to the NASCAR race at Charlotte. We had a lot of fun even if Mom won't go to Arizona to buy Car-osaurus for me (Barrett-Jackson). And no, I don't know what I'd do with it but does it REALLY matter?





I mean, come on... it breaths FIRE!

The next weekend some of us went to Sinkland Farms for a spinning demonstration. It was chilly and very windy but it was great company.



And I got the cutest little white pumpkin.



Then, Laura and I headed off to SAFF! Oh my did we have fun!! I had one basic rule: no buying yarn I could buy at home. Well, and to stay within my budget. And no bunnies. OK, so maybe I had a few rules.

Laura tried her hardest to talk me into bringing a bunny home. There was one I was quite fond of. This isn't him but he's close in color. "My" bunny had gray ears (and I met his new Momma and he's going to be a shop bunny!):



I did bring some some alpaca and a silk brick:





I got some sock yarn:





And some general wool for a felted back pack (a pattern that I also bought)





How/why this wool is "From Down Under" is beyond me. It's a product of Turkey and the shop is in Alabama:



But that's OK. I think it's pretty and will make a great bag.

The coolest thing either of us brought home was Laura's antique circular sock machine:



We're going today for a class on the finer art of making socks with it. And various other things.

The second coolest thing either of us brought home was my lucet:



My all time favorite thing:

My new wheel! OK. So, technically, she's not mine YET. And she didn't come HOME with me from SAFF and I'm going to a semi-local place to buy her but I fell in love with her at SAFF. And furthermore, have already sold my Ashford Traditional so I'll have both more room and more money to buy her.

The Ashford has gone off to live with Amy. I posted the wheel for sale on my spinning group on Ravelry and within an hour I'd say, Amy had contacted me about her and we made the deal. In fact, I've already shipped her off to her new life in Michigan. Be well my first wheel. And bring Amy all the wonder and joy you brought me!

I've got oodles of llama pictures and various "crowd shots" of SAFF that I'll get up on flickr or use them sporadically here.

OH, I almost forgot another great thing at SAFF. I finally met Mary! We've both been at the same fiber festivals all year but never realized we were seeing the other one or crossed paths or something but after my cast on class (which I'll blog about later) I went to get lunch and there she was! The three of us sat and ate a little lunch and visited and had a great time! I'm SO glad I finally got to meet her in person. She's the one who got me in touch with Robin who gave me all the information about my knit/spin group and ended up with me spinning and having a knit/spin group and all kinds of great friends! Thanks, Mary!! It was great to meet you! And wow, it's been a smidge over a year since that all happened... how time flies!

Laura and I both took two classes but I'll blog about those later. And I'll update you on all my knitting progress. I figure I've rambled on enough for now. Plus it'll give me more things to blog about so it won't be 2 weeks between posts! (and hopefully blogger will be willing to upload my pictures then too!)

And I can't believe I almost forgot my favorite October happening of all!! My sweet adorable little nephew was born at the beginning of the month:

A Finished Item!

Yes! I AM alive and I HAVE been knitting!!

proof of both:



For the record, that is the back of my head... and yes it did take me about 100 pictures to get the picture right.

I know lots of people knit sweaters for the upcoming fiber festivals but hey, let's face it, I'm not a fast knitter. Plus I missed the memo saying while not a pre-requisite, a newly knitted item for said festival wouldn't be a bad idea. SO, I knit a hat! It's the Cinchy Hat from Interweave's knitscene. The yarn was a gift to me by my friend Catie. She said they were my colors. And I believe she was right.

The best part, I still have a about a hank and a half left! What to make now...

Fall Fiber Festival

I know in my last post I promised actual knitting content. I may have stretched the truth a bit. I was planning on knitting content but well, I changed my mind. You are going to get lots of pictures and fiber though.

Saturday I loaded up the truck (in the rain I may add. In the dark rain since it was 6:30am) and drove to Bedford. There I met up with Dianne, Dana and Linda. Then off we went to Montpelier for the Fall Fiber Festival (and sheep dog trials. That we missed. It was really hot y'all).

We made it up there with no trouble at all. I will spare you the very blurry pictures of the signs along the way. You may thank me later. Dana and I made plans to "Kinnear" someone and to take some suitable pictures to send to Dave for a future edition of Ass Watch Wednesday (or whatever day the next Ass Watch falls on). We failed in both plans. I'm totally blaming the "fiber fumes". You know how it is, you have great plans and the next thing you know you've got a handful of gorgeous roving (or yarn) and bammo. You're hopeless and forgot all your plans.

So we got to FFF:



We bought stuff:






We ate lamb instead of the packed lunches we had. (it was so much better than MY packed lunch at least!)

We saw sheep and lamas and alpacas:







We totally missed any blogger meet up in the skein and garment tent (sorry guys!) and apparently everyone else who was there (such as Mary,Robin and IndigoMuse).

But we had a great time and bought a lot of stuff:



(no. this is NOT all mine. It's our combined haul!)

However, despite much planning and desire. We did NOT bring home a small animal. (We were all leaning towards bunnies but then this little fellow came over to snort at me and well, I thought maybe he should come home to live with me and the heathens).



But despite all that, I did buy an alpaca:



What?

I brought some camel home with me. I've found several sources including the most recent Spin Off, but if anyone has any suggestions/tips for camel, I'll happily take them.

I got some lovely dyed wool roving:



8 oz. I have no idea what it'll become but I'm sure it'll be lovely! Linda liked it so much she bought a bag like it too!

I also got some freebies: notecards, wool wash, some ordinary ol' white wool (that will be used for dyeing after SAFF)... but most of all, I had a great time!! Even if it was 90 degrees outside!! and dusty.

Pink for October

I read on Jane's site a "movement", for lack for a better word, where you change your website/blog pink to help create awareness for Breast Cancer. I thought it seemed like a good idea. I am very lucky that my grandmother is a breast cancer survivor and if turning my blog pink through October creates any more awareness that can save someone else's grandmother, then I'm all for it!

Here's the site for Pink for October.

And just for additional goodness, go here. Help some women get mammograms (and you know, it really only takes a minute so go on and click on all the other tabs to help out those sites too...)

Next post, I promise there will be actual knitting content AND pictures!

Goodies

Yesterday, I learned that I won a blog contest. A mighty cool prize, I may add (even if I don't entirely know what it is yet!). You see, earlier this year I found Spindle And Wheel (there's also a link in my sidebar). It's a really cool online spinning magazine. I would read each of the new issues and occasionally read the blog. Well, I started reading the blog more often and made more of an effort to comment when Allena mentioned having a little drawing and to enter all you had to do was comment. So I started commenting more. I mean, I almost never win anything so I'm not gonna win but we all like comments, ya know? So. Yesterday. I read the update and guess what? I'm the first winner!! I've chatted back and forth with Allena and she's customizing a little basket for me. I don't know what all will be in there but I know she is going to include some of her own Shetland wool for me since I haven't spun any Shetland before. The rest, is all a surprise right now.

Don't worry, I'll post when I get my package. But in the meantime, all you spinners (and knitters, I mean there are patterns there) go check out Spindle and Wheel.

Now... I've been waiting for the right time for this and this seems like as good as any. A little bit ago I signed up for a whole "pay it forward" thing on The Yarn Yarn's blog. N is paying forward her own good luck. She's sending out a little surprise present to three people from her blog and well, I'm doing the same. All I ask is that you have a blog so that you can continue to pay it forward. The first three people who ask to be part of the whole Pay It Foward in the comments will get something nice from me within a few months I'd say. It may be yarn or fiber, if you're a spinner, or it may be something I've created (ie - knit/spun) for you or something else all together. I'm not sure what's going out yet. It'll be personalized.

Just to be clear, you can comment without participating in the pay it forward. But to participate in the pay it forward (and get a nice little present) you have to comment and ASK to be part of it - and be one of the first three people to ask to participate.

Socktoberfest!

It's Socktoberfest, y'all!

Here's my modest Socktoberfest goal: to finish these socks. OK, I mean I want to DO more but that's my goal. I'm still working on Dad's sock so that's more socky things and well, I'm sure I'll get some kind of sock yarn this month but I want to make sure these socks, MY socks, are done by the end of Soctoberfest.



If (and only if) I finish Dad's socks this month then I'll cast on for Pat's socks. I've yet to decide if she'll get some sort of designed pattern or just good ol' stockinette socks. However, because I love my Pat so, I did get her some austermann step sock yarn to keep her feet soft and cozy.

Stay tuned for exciting news and while it won't be a contest, prizes may be involved...

Roanoke's NoSo Knit

Today was Roanoke's 10th Annual NoSo Knit. I heard about it too late last year (or way early this year?) and didn't go but this year I was going. I even talked Mom into going. I have very few pictures because my camera battery was on the verge of death. I however did get a picture of our table.

We have Laura (who I'm going to SAFF with):



Christy:



Nancy:



and from left to right Knit Nana and Pam:



Oh, and me and my Mom:



Mom won some lovely blue yarn who's brand I've promptly forgotten:



I won some Berroco Tutu which must be hiding in Mom's car because I don't have it with me now and I know it made it TO the car so click the link to what it looks like. It's the black one.

Other prizes at our table included 2 pattern books, a handmade cosmetic case, a legwarmer kit and some other wool. Yes, I did pay attention but that was a long time ago. We did a lot of talking and laughing and window shopping and some not window shopping and I just don't remember who all got exactly what, ok?

Speaking of shopping, I did very well. I only bought 3 things:

Orchid lace weight Malabrigo:



This WILL be knit into a scarf or some such for me but oh, my. It's so lovely I could just pet it all day long. (BTW, this purchase is all Christy's fault. She was looking at the Malabrigo and said that I should definitely knit some lace...)

A green skein of Cotton Classic for a baby bib (for my nephew who will be born ANY day now!):



and a Fiber Trends Raindrop Lace sock pattern.

That's it. Mom got some sock yarn of unknown origin. Well, SHE knows what brands they are but as I said before, we did a lot and all I know is one was a blue tweedy color and the other what looks like will be a nice blend of browns/grays.

Oh and I almost forgot, amongst our goodie bags (needles, patterns, coupons, various knitterly goodies) was this:



Sportweight Claudia Handpaint... mmmm...

All in all, we had a really good day.

A long trip home

I went to visit my sister this weekend (we had a lovely time) and spent a little over an hour in this on the way home:



So, except when we were at a very very slow roll, I did this:



Does sitting in your truck all alone in the middle of a traffic jam (standstill?) still count as Knitting in Public?

Dad's 3rd Hat

Hmm, OK, just this year alone, I've knit Dad 3 hats. In all fairness the first one didn't fit (hey, it was my second hat and mine didn't fit me either!) and this one is out of (drum roll please) my own handspun.

Catie gave me some fleece named Brother when I got my wheel. I preservered and spun enough of Brother to knit a hat (plus some. I could probably get another hat out of what's left). I think Brother is a beautiful gray. Catie kept fussing at me to throw it away.

I finally knit some of my own handspun. I think this is my most favoritist hat I've ever knit. Ever. It's certainly the most beautiful hat I've knit. And yes, I realized I'm biased. But if I didn't make this specifically for Dad (cuz he asked for it) I don't think I'd give it away. I love it.

Now, after all that hype:





I showed it to Catie... she was glad I didn't throw it away and was inspired to maybe even spin some of Brother herself.

(See, I finished this last week or so and have been holding out on you so I could give you some more blogging...)

A funny story

I was at work today and at lunch was sitting there quietly knitting on Dad's sock. One of the managers came up and sat down with me. After she got her lunch all ready and was eating she looked at me and said, "you're really knitting socks!" In that tone that maybe she heard I'd knit them but thought they were being silly.

me: Yup

Bosslady: Are they slippers or like sock socks?

me: sock socks

Bosslady: huh...

me: Next time I wear a pair I'll try to remember to show them to you.

Bosslady: OK (in a more enthusiastic tone than I'm really able to convey here)

It was really just kind of funny.

And just so you don't think I'm completely evil bringing home a pink litter box, I did bring Bartholamew home his favorite toy: a cat nip pillow!



We lurves the 'nip...

ooo, pink...

Well, it's been an exciting week around here.

Bartholamew finally got out voted and a PINK litter box was brought into His Home (hey, it's our home, too, B!)



Don't worry too much, there's still the big gray box for him but he doesn't seem to mind the pink (he was the first one in there...)

They've got a bigger one that involves a little ramp for them to get in and out of the box and supposedly cleans the litter out of their toes but it's HUGE and we don't have the kind of room around here. Plus I'm not sure his Highness would use it. Pepper I'm not so worried about.

I've been plugging away at Dad's socks:



I'm an inch away from the ribbing and then I'll cast on for sock #2.

I started my own socks:



I know, there's not much there but I just started them. They're going to be Marigold Socks. I'm looking forward to working on them some more.

My sweater went out this morning on it's "inagural" wearing and I do think I'm going to have to rip out the bind off and add a couple more rows to the bottom. It's just not quite long enough. It's not bad but it's not perfect and why knit sweaters if they're not going to be perfect, ya know?

Hopefully, I'll have more to say than just another update next Sunday.

Finally!

Well, it took me more than a weekend (even a 3 day weekend) but I finally finished my Weekend Pullover:



I did get everything done but the sleeves last weekend which is why I didn't post about it, I wanted to see how much I could actually get done and there just wasn't a lot of knitting time at home this past week. The yarn is what I got last weekend - Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky. The pattern is Knitting Pure and Simple's Weekend Pullover. If you scroll down it's in the middle. It's knit on size 17 needles. The cicular the body's done on isn't too bad but the dpn's are a bit of a pain to get used to.

Looking at the picture I should clarify, I do need to weave in the ends. I need a little help on that because I tried to weave two in and because the stitches are so big and the yarn so lofty I feel you can see where it is. I'm waiting for Mom the Knitting Guru's help (not like I need a sweater in this weather yet).

That would make it my first finished sweater. Well, the first finished sweater that will fit a person. I also made this last weekend:



I've also been knitting on Dad's sock:



I got lots of help. Bartholamew supervised the finished sweater photo shoot:



Pepper supervised all the knitting:



Well, most of the knitting. Yesterday I went to the Big Lick Blues Festival with some friends of mine. Yes, I took my knitting. However, I didn't take anything that couldn't stand to get dirty since it was outdoors. So I took some dishrag cotton:





Sometimes, it's nice just making plain ol' garter stitch squares.

Fiber-licious Saturday!

Today was a fiber-licious!! It started out my friend Laura and I braved the traffic and went to Blacksburg to hit Mosaic's sale. I mean all the good stuff goes early right? Never mind that it's Virginia Tech's first home game of the season and that ESPN's Game Day is going to be there and they're playing ECU so those folks are driving up too... (and really, we went early enough that for all but the last 2 miles of the journey it wasn't bad at all and even those 2 miles were a rolling stop not a dead stop).



Then I came home and found the mailman had left me some delightful presents in my mailbox. Some of these are for presents so you're just going to have to look and enjoy, not ask too many questions. I'll tell you the STR is in colorways Metamorphic and In The Navy. And I'll tell you that the roving consists of one of each of these fibers: Blue Faced Lancaster, Alpaca and Silk. yummmmm





Y'all know where Socks that Rock comes from (if you don't, just leave a comment I'll be happy to point you in their direction), and the roving came from Sakina Needles. Catie ordered from her before and recommended her so I ordered from her, too. The first order admittedly had some snafu's but they were resolved and there was a legitimate issue not something horrible and the roving and resulting yarn was so wonderful, I ordered from her again and am here recommending her to you.



Pepper thought today was fiber-licious, too!

FO updates

I have several finished items to share with you today. One is completely and totally done. The other well... I'll tell you about it in a moment.

My Baby hat for NoSo Knit:



The second one is my clapotis. I've called it done. I've marked it done in the sidebar but honestly it's 99% done. I have to finish unraveling all those dropped stitches then weave in a couple ends. I tried to weave in the ends before the unraveling but it didn't work.



Oh and I almost forgot:



I made a teeny sock for my sock blocker keychain!

Lastly, not a FO but an update. I got my invite for Ravelry. I'm listed as "Nikki" if you want to look me up and come by to say hi. I'm reserving all opinions until I can really get in there and do more than get my feet wet. So far it is a very neat place but I'm just not sure I'm that organized with my knitting.

Ravelry

Well, I suppose I should just go on and admit it. I'm on the waiting list for Ravelry. I have some personal observations to share with you. These are in no particular order by the way.

I put my name on the list (on June 17) mostly because everyone else was. I wasn't sure if I'd like it and have use for it (and still have some reservations). But I wanted to see what it was all about.

Having 2664 people in line in front of you is WAY better than having 194 (as of 6:35pm) people in front of you. I'm almost ashamed to admit this but I've been checking that damn site at least once a day since I got under 300 in front of me. And I was right tickled when the number hit under four digits.

I'd sort of figured out I'd get my invite the end of August based on the amount of people getting in but that means it's almost the end of August now. Which makes me wonder where the hell the year went!

I did not take people's suggestions of inventorying everything knitting related I own before my Ravelry invite. But as Robin pointed out as she was adding her books, I'd just forget what the yarns were anyways. (Hey! It's possible. And sounds very reasonable to me so stop it.)

There are still 17,516 people BEHIND me in line!! That's a whole lot of people. I mean like a WHOLE LOT of people!

Going back to the whole picture issue for a moment, I did however go on and open up a flickr account. It was just easier. Yahoo was (is) closing their photo section and I had to transfer my photos somewhere or lose them. So, in anticipation of Ravelry, I chose flickr. Which was especially convenient since Yahoo now apparently owns flickr so they tranfered all the photos over for me.

The worst part of my Ravelry invite coming sometime late this week or this weekend (more than likely)? I volunteered to work this Saturday. Fortunately it's just 3 1/2 hrs but still. I could be knitting then! Or taking pictures of my stash. Or something other than working!! Which also reminds me, if someone asks you if you want to work a Saturday... unless it's for yarn, say no. It's just not worth it. Really. Even if it is just for 3 1/2 hrs.

I forgot one more tidbit: it took me over 9 weeks to get my Ravelry invite. It took me 6 1/2 weeks to get my passport (for the record. I applied for the passport AFTER I applied for Ravelry). I find it both interesting and a little bizzare that knitting is more popular than international travel. (OK. that's a stretch but still...)

I'm at a loss...

for a title for today's post. So let's just get right to it.

Thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes. I think it probably was one of the best ones I've had!

I got some lovely fibery gifts and a lovely cake (courtesy of my loving Mom):



It was chocolate too! She's such a good Mom!!

Here's my latest spinning, Briar Rose:



Not the best color representation but it's not all bad either. I feel the same about the spinning. Not the best but not all bad. And even though I am not (yet) skilled enough to do this intentionally, I'm quite happy with the mixing of the colors in the plying of the singles.

I'm a little stalled on my socks. I have lots of great sock yarn but am lacking a some great sock patterns. Well, that's not true. There are some great sock patterns I'm just having trouble pairing the yarn with the pattern to make something that will make me happy.

Oh and I got my class confirmation for SAFF. It's going to be a one pot dye class and a cast on class. A little fun and a little practical. But also fun. I'm looking forward to the cast on class as much as I am the dye class. I know for sure that will get used in the future.

32 yrs ago today

Edited to add: As pointed out by an astute commenter I WAS born to two very wonderful parents who DO love me. Then I was blessed enough for them to divorce and marry two wonderful step parents who love me. (And I must admit, I'm quite fond of all of my parents, too!)

The Birthday Meme... ("tagged" by Robin)

3 events (and yes I can't count. I was going for the Women enlisting but damn I love me some stainless steel so I had to include that one!)

3114 BC - According to the Lounsbury correlation, the Maya calendar starts.

1913 - Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.

1918 - Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist.

1961 - The German Democratic Republic closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin, to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West.

2 births (again, I know, I can't count)

1860 - Annie Oakley, American sharpshooter (d. 1926)

1899 - Alfred Hitchcock, English film director (d. 1980)

1971 - Patrick Carpentier, Quebec race car driver

1 Holiday

International Lefthanders Day

Also lifted from Robin's blog:

The Birthday Calculator:

13 August 1975

Your date of conception was on or about 20 November 1974 which was a Wednesday.

You were born on a Wednesday
under the astrological sign Leo.
Your Life path number is 7.

Life Path Compatibility:
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 1, 5 & 7.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 4 & 22.
You may or may not get along well with those with the Life Path number 9.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 3, 6, 8 & 11.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2442637.5.
The golden number for 1975 is 19.
The epact number for 1975 is 17.
The year 1975 was not a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 2/11/1975 and ending 1/30/1976.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Rabbit.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Salmon; your plant is Raspberry.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Paopy, the second month of the season of Poret (Emergence - Fertile soil).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 6 Elul 5735.
Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 7 Elul 5735.

The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.18.2.1.13 which is
12 baktun 18 katun 2 tun 1 uinal 13 kin

The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Wednsday, 5 Sha'ban 1395 (1395-8-5).

As of 8/13/2007 6:57:45 AM EDT
You are 32 years old.
You are 384 months old.
You are 1,670 weeks old.
You are 11,688 days old.
You are 280,518 hours old.
You are 16,831,137 minutes old.
You are 1,009,868,265 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:

Dan Fogelberg (1951) Don Ho (1930) Pat Harrington, Jr. (1929)
Fidel Castro (1926) George Shearing (1919) Alfred Hitchcock (1899)
Bert Lahr (1895) Annie Oakley (1860)

Top songs of 1975
Love Will Keep Us Together by Captain & Tennille
Fly, Robin, Fly by Silver Convention
Island Girl by Elton John
He Don't Love You by Tony Orlando & Dawn
Bad Blood by Neil Sedaka
Rhinestone Cowboy by Glen Campbell
Philadelphia Freedom by Elton John
That's the Way (I Like It) by KC & the Sunshine Band
Jive Talkin' by Bee Gees
Fame by David Bowie

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 4.57455968688845 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)

There are 366 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 33 candles.

Those 33 candles produce 33 BTUs,
or 8,316 calories of heat (that's only 8.3160 food Calories!) .
You can boil 3.77 US ounces of water with that many candles.

In 1975 there were approximately 3.1 million births in the US.
In 1975 the US population was approximately 203,302,031 people, 57.4 persons per square mile.
In 1975 in the US there were approximately 2,152,662 marriages (10.1%) and 1,036,000 divorces (4.9%)
In 1975 in the US there were approximately 1,921,000 deaths (9.5 per 1000)
In the US a new person is born approximately every 8 seconds.
In the US one person dies approximately every 12 seconds.

Your birthstone is Peridot

The Mystical properties of Peridot

Peridot is used to help dreams become a reality.
Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)
Sardonyx, Diamond, Jade

There are 134 days till Christmas 2007!
There are 147 days till Orthodox Christmas!

The moon's phase on the day you were
born was waxing crescent.

Another Weekend Update

Well, thankfully the heat broke (some. It's down to "normal hot" instead of "OMG are you KIDDING me!?!? hot").

Today I thought I'd spin the second half of the Briar Rose roving I had. It's been a couple weeks since I've spun. I think it showed in the singles but when plied they looked just fine. I'll take pictures in a few days for you. It's near dark out now and I'd like to try to capture good color for you.

But it was very slow going when I was trying to spin. Seems I'm not the only one here who's infatuated with the wheel.



Pepper, in true cat fashion, rolled right before I snapped the picture. She had moments before been laying there with her legs intertwined with the treadle and other moving parts.

Bartholamew doesn't care so much about the wheel but loves to sit in my lap while I spin.



I had another picture of his cute little face but he looked surly and you've seen him surly looking before. I thought I'd show you his sweet snuggly side. And for the record, no, I can't spin with him in my lap.

After many cat breaks I finally got it all spun. I had intended it to be a swap present but the swap came and went and I still have the yarn so it's mine now.

I've been knitting on my clapotis when I knit:



I'm to the 3rd section called "straight rows" but I like to think of it as the "dropped stitch" section since that's what you do:



I ran into a couple knit/spin group friends over the weekend. They invited me to go to SAFF with them and after glancing at the website I gleefully said yes! Tomorrow I'm mailing off my class registration for a knitting and a dyeing class. I don't think either of these will fill up but just in case I'm going to keep you in suspense as to what they're for.

Tomorrow's a bit of a special day for me so please to stop back by for a special post.

I'm melting....

Ok. You really do need to imagine that in the Wicked Witch's voice...

I'm back from Savannah, GA where we had the memorial service for my uncle. I think pert near the whole church came. It was a very beautiful service with great songs.

I did get a smidge of knitting done. Dad's sock is about to take a large trip to the frog pond. I just do not like the yarn and am not happy with how the sock progressed. We're not discussing that I was already starting the leg from a toe up sock when I decided this, OK? I am still plodding along with my koigu clapotis.

We had record breaking heat today. The cats and I are managing just fine but after the stress and travel this weekend and not sleeping so well in the heat, I'm tired.

I'd like to leave you with something a friend of my Uncle Don's left in his obituary's online guestbook:

If our eyes had no tears, our souls would have no rainbows.

How very true...

Stay cool y'all.