Another Finished Baby Sweater

I have been busy knitting away for the grandbaby. "Au" is still trying to have the baby prematurely and so I am trying to finish as many things as I can. I finished this sweater about three weeks ago and did the little socks while at the hospital last week waiting. The little sock are the pieces of eight by Susan. They worked up very quickly and I had a pair in two nights waiting with "Au".

Life has been busy. I have sold the vehicle "R" wrecked the first of this month. A neighbor who works on cars as a hobby, and for airplane gas, bought it. He wanted the engine to put in another van for his daughter. I also got a few boxes packed today, bought new church pants for "C" and set the spinning wheel up in the bedroom. I haven't touched a wheel in two weeks and I needed that therapy today.

I have many more projects on the needles and need to get them completed so I can start the Summer of Socks 2008. I would like to get some Christmas gifts completed during this challenge period. It would be nice to have those done.

The orchid is still blooming and I have lots of new growth on the other orchid plant. I might even get blossoms!
Happy knitting & spinning.

Sorry for the Long Absence

These past two weeks have been extremely busy. ES came home on the 16th for ten days. The fiber fair was that same weekend. "R" graduated from high school on Tuesday the 20th and "J-b" came home from his mission on the 21st. We had family here almost that entire time, with someone on the computer every time I wanted to get on. On Sunday we had "J-b's" report and "Au" ended up in the hospital trying to stop premature labor. They, the hospital staff, did get the contractions to stop. No preemie baby! And "E" called this morning to say "Au" is getting to go home today. I know she was getting tired of being there. The doctor is hoping to postpone the baby being born by about four more weeks.

We have set a date for when "C" and I move back to Virginia. About August 1st. My niece announced that she and her boyfriend were getting married July 26 and the grandbaby is due around that time, if not sooner, so we will leave after those two events take place. ES is working on getting us a house. He is putting in an offer in the next week or so, as soon as the financing is in place.

The pictures at the beginning and the end of this post are of the orchid I got at a really good discount at the store where I work. I got two orchid plants and the one blossoming now already had buds when I brought it home. But now it has opened up and has this pretty flower. The second plant has lots of new growth and is forming buds now.

I do have some knitting content to share, but didn't get the pictures I wanted. I will post them on the next post.

Teenagers

So this hasn't been a week with every other day posts which I "try" to do. There has been t-o-o many things going on.

On Wednesday "R" had an accident in the van. He rear-ended a 4-Runner. He said he was only going about 15 mph and he just looked down for a minute. Not "much" damage he said. Only $2705 from one estimate.
We really did need the use of this vehicle this coming week! I am thankful that when I bought my "new" used car last week, I hadn't taken the "full" coverage off this van yet.

In other news, ES came home yesterday for about ten days! It is taking some adjusting to get used to having him here right now. I am glad he is here though!

The real kicker is that "C" went missing this evening. He was supposed to be at work at 5 pm. He never showed up! I couldn't call him, because I had taken his cell phone away from him yesterday. I don't know what to do with this last one of "my" teenagers. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank goodness tomorrow is the Fiber Fair and I can relax, I think, for a day of classes. Although last year at the fiber fair "C" called and had been in an ATV accident. ES will be home, all will be well.

Happy knitting & spinning.

Vests Show up at Performance

Ok, here are the vests I made last Wednesday night, in action. All of the choirs from the school preformed their final concert of the season. C belongs to the Chorale group. The "Chorale" group did selections of songs from "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Oliver".

C is the first young man at the left wearing the first of the brown vests. The first picture is from the "Fiddlers" melodies and the second picture, with C on the left again, is from "Oliver." I was very proud that C had enough courage to be one of the main characters.
C said, after the performance, that he was shaking really bad during the whole time he was out in front of the choir. He says, "At least I didn't have to do a solo. Otherwise I wouldn't have done it." He had all the guys singing when it was his part and he liked that.

While waiting for the concert to start, I was able to knit about two rounds on my Pi Shawl. It's coming along nicely. It might even eventually get finished!

Happy knitting & spinning.

Happy Mother's Day

This afternoon I finished spinning the two bumps of "short", six months growth, fibers purchased at the "wool-trek". I plied it with the viscose I had been spinning. "Au" says it looks really purple which is really weird as the dominate color in the viscose was blue. I don't think the brown shows up as the dominate color in this blend, at least not in this picture. I do have a basic idea for what I want to do with this and the few yards of two-ply brown which I got all spun and plied.

Hope everyone has had a nice Mother's Day. I know mine was.

Happy knitting & spinning

Sewing Accomplished

The vests were completed. All but the button holes and buttons on Wednesday night. I laid out the pattern pieces and C cut them out. He didn't do too bad of a job, having never done it before. We had all the sewing and the hand sewing done by about 12:30 am Wednesday night. Then we went to bed. I told C he would have to bring them home from school on Thursday, so I could do the button holes and buttons. But Thursday morning I woke up at the regular time, 6:30 am, and couldn't go back to sleep. I got up and finished the vests before the boys woke up for school.

One of the girls from the choir class works at the same place as me. I asked her if C had worn his vest and she said he had. C even said Ms. B liked them and they looked pretty good for their section of 'Oliver' which they will be singing in concert next Tuesday night.

My knitting progress is coming along. I probably won't be at the silk challenge unveiling in May, I will have to work, so have a balled up picture of my challenge project, along with my Pi Shawl. The Pi Shawl is coming along pretty quickly. I had to buy new Addi's in the 47" length and now the shawl fits on there pretty good without being all scrunched up. Thank goodness Tish was having her anniversary sale and I could get a good deal on the Addi's.

Happy knitting & spinning.

Choir Concert Vests

So, C came to me tonight and said, "I need two vests for choir tomorrow!" Great! It's 9 pm and the fabric stores are closed! That means a trip to Walmart to see if we can find what we need. C is now cutting the paper pattern pieces apart. Then I can pin them out. I think I'm short on his preferred fabric choice. And then try to get them sewn for tomorrow by choir time! No pressure!!!

I thought I would show pictures of the Pi Shawl. Didn't get home until too late for the natural light. I have used all of the first ball of yarn. So, I am further in the knitting than I was when I frogged the shawl on Sunday night.

Hopefully, there will be pictures and knitting content next time. Now it's on to sewing vests! And C and his friend will have to model the vests at the concert and you will get to see the pictures!

Happy knitting & spinning.

Nowtlwonk Springs

The "Wool-Trek" was well worth the trip this year! We had a lot of fun. There were five of us who drove down from the Pocatello area and four who drove down from the Inkom area. Just about half of the people attending Jo and Fred's knit-in, spin-in, touching and feeling of wool and the ultimate in b-u-y-i-n-g of wool were from Idaho.

Before lunch, some of us went to look at the new lambs. I like this picture of Catherine taken by the pasture the lambs were in. The
ewe looking over her shoulder seems to be checking us out as much as we were checking them out.

There were two little black lambs in this pasture and this young girl really liked the one. But she, the girl, was kind of grossed out because the lamb was doing her "business" while the girl was looking at her. I just had to laugh!


After everyone had their fill of the wonderful lamb stew and pot-luck lunch, Fred told Cindy that she needed to go outside. So we all followed. Fred said Cindy had said in the past that she just wanted to roll around in the wool one day. Well, Saturday was the day! Fred pushed her into the "skirts" before the "Skirt Scramble" began, just so she could say that she had rolled around in the wool. Cindy even had a pose in the wool for us.

The "skirt scramble" is the last item on the agenda at most of the "wool-treks" I have attended. This is the time when Fred and Jo get to get rid of the "skirts".
The Knowlton's have beautiful fleeces and roving for sale. They even have some yarn spun and the skeins are for sale. But I think the funnest time of the day is watching everyone dive for the "skirts". It's raw and dirty, but s-o-o-o much fun to see what you can get and do with the "free" wool. Some of mine is right now soaking in the sink getting it's bath.

I told myself that this year that I would get everything washed before a week had gone past. It's a good thing I didn't buy a fleece! I indulged just a little and bought some roving, about a pound and a half of white and two bumps of a very dark brown. I think I have a project for the dark brown and it might be the next fiber on the Lendrum when I get the viscous spun.

On the knitting front, I have used all but about two yards of my silk challenge. I still need to put a boarder on the project. It's a good thing I have some fiber that was dyed at the same time as the silk challenge, so I can complete the boarder.

The Pi Shawl has been frogged and I am winding the yarn to start again. No, I didn't miscount or anything. I just liked it better on a larger needle size. It won't be too long until it's back to where you say it before.

Happy knitting & spinning.

No Real Knitting to Show, Just Pictures

Okay, knitting content is non-existent right now! I am s-t-i-l-l working on the silk challenge, but I think I am coming to the end of my yarn in just a few more repeats. So I should be done with this knit soon. But the unveiling will have to wait until the challenge is over the end of May. I like to enjoy the suspense of seeing everything all at once. It makes it easier that I am in IF and not in Poky with the other members of the guild.

I have been busy spinning the Copper Moose fiber. I now have three full bobbins and am ready to start the fourth in the morning. I like how this is spinning up. I find myself watching the color blends more often than not. Because of this it's taking longer to read the blogs on bloglines every morning. But the spinning is going faster. I also have gone back to spinning the viscose I bought at SOAR in 1996 which has been sitting on a bobbin for about six months. After spinning the silk, I find the viscose not quite so hard to deal with. I only bought an ounce and have about 1/3 of it spun so far. I am hoping to have it finished a week from now or thereabouts.

I thought I would leave you with one of my favorite pictures taken at the beginning of the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC. ES's pictures turned out much better. He spends more time setting up for the pictures than I do. But I think the Washington Monument is framed very nicely in this picture. It's also interesting to note the different colors at certain levels of the Monument.

I do have to mention that C made dinner tonight. It was a Birds-Eye bagged dinner, but it smelled s-o-o-o good coming into the house after work tonight. The boys also talked me into ice cream, but that wasn't hard. Ice cream was going to hit the "spot" tonight.

I'm really looking forward the the Wool-Trek this weekend. I need to put the bench seat in the van just in case we have more people wanting to go to Cornish.

Happy knitting & spinning.