Best Wishes

Today was spent getting the last minutes items done for the marriage of E & Au. They were married this evening in a short but sweet ceremony. There were lots of members from all sides of the families. Au's family doesn't like E, so we thought there might be fireworks, but everything worked out well. C asked me today what I thought about my oldest child getting married. I told him E was still my first baby and it was hard to think of him now married and ready to start a family of his own. Both E and Au looked very happy and as if they were meant to be together.

As for the Angel Rest socks, that were started at the November sock class--they are finished! Well, I do have to graft the other toe and weave in the ends, but they are close enough to say they are done. I think they turned out very well. They are loose on my foot, but they should fit A-g just right. I like how the design turned out and the color sequences were off very little. They almost match which is a pretty big thing in my book. The socks are knit from a Knit Picks yarn and of course I have lost the ball band, so I can't tell you which sock yarn or the color way.

Now I just need to finish some other projects that just need the finishing touches. Most of them are gifts and should be given to their recipients before too much more time passes.

Welcome to the family Au from all of us!

Happy knitting & spinning.

Window Galaxy

These are the kind of pictures you get when you wake up at 4:45 am and there is a lot of frost on the bedroom window. Hopefully, you can click on the picture and make it bigger. Then you can see that the speckles around the moon look like some kind of galaxy. It was a very pretty night with a full moon and I couldn't resist taking a picture, even if it didn't turn out quite the way I wanted.


This picture shows it's been really cold here the past few nights. All of the windows in the sun-room have some kind of frost on them. This window reminds me of the trees in the forest, dense and full. Ok, don't think about the transformer above the frost trees, I know that's not in a forest.

Can you tell, I don't have any knitting content. And I have only sat at the spinning wheel for a total of 20 minutes yesterday morning while contemplating frost trees. And that's with the Hitchiker underneath the computer desk. Not much interest until after the wedding Saturday evening. I am still working on the sock and have even done a couple of rows on the felt clogs. Just not enough progress to warrant a new picture.

Happy knitting & spinning.

Too Cold

Not much has gotten done in the knitting and spinning field today or yesterday. Today we have vehicles that won't start! The temperature last night was -17(f) and I don't think it got higher than 15(f) today, but the sun was shining. This evening has been spent trying to get the cars going. We need running cars for everything that is happening the rest of the week and the weekend.

E and Au are getting married on Saturday. This means wedding plans have taken over. E needs his car to be running so they can get all their stuff done. So much to do, not enough time and energy to do it. We are having a small wedding and reception on Saturday evening and as the groom's mom, I am in charge of the backdrop, flowers, and probably a cake. Au's mom is doing the food and table decorations. E and Au chose who they will have marrying them and where it is happening. Now if everything comes together smoothly!


I just wanted to leave you with a different picture of the skein from Sunday. This has a better representation of what the true colors are. I like this picture better than Sunday's. Au says she really likes the colors and she is not a purple or pink person. She would really like something from this yarn, but I think I have a project in mind for it and so she will have to wait.

Happy knitting & spinning.

Productive Weekend

It has been a great weekend. The fiber guild met on Saturday. We had our usual pot-luck which was really good, but made for not wanting to make dinner for the kids later that night. We were all able to meet Judy, who was able to try the Lendrum. She says it spins really smooth and her mind is made up. She didn't even spin on the wheel for very long, but she was able to spin her angora very nicely.

Here is a picture of Lyn and Judy picking out dirt and gunk from the angora that Judy brought with her to the meeting. Judy raises Angora rabbits and I think she said she has seven of them. The fiber is really nice and some guild members were jumping at the chance to get some. I think it would be really pretty in a blend of some kind, but I refrained from buying as I really don't want to move anymore stuff than I have to.

Here is a bobbin and a third plied of the "Dew on the Moab Desert" and then the skein from this bobbin.

I ended up with 211 yards in this one skein. I came home last night and while watching "Bourne Ultimatum" (love Matt Damon in these movies) I was able to spin another complete bobbin of this roving. This means I have spun about 6 ozs of the 16 ozs purchased. I am excited to finish spinning this and start a project with this color-way. I really like it!

I have also spun three bobbins of the Knowlton's dark brown roving for my Notlwonk's sweater. I can ply them altogether in a 3-ply, not Navajo plied, and use them as the base color of the sweater. This project may still take a few months.

Well, off to make meatloaf.

Happy knitting & spinning.

Beacons

Let me show you a gift I received from ES at Christmas. He said he wasn't going to be there to give me massages, so this is the next best thing. Can I tell you how many times I have sat in this chair with the heat and massage going? This morning was a prime example. Not enough rest and relaxation. Waking up to a tight back made sitting here this morning a priority. It really helped!

This morning I also sat down at the spinning wheel for my 10 to 15 minute spin time. I left the lights off in the living room and watched the airport beacon. It was really cool to watch the reflection in the cloud cover. I thought of how each of us at sometime need our own personal beacon. Showing us the direction we could go for our own selves. I thought of how each of the blogs I read inspire me in some way. Margene's was the first blog I read consistently. I always wanted to see what she was doing. As I've read other blogs, it's interesting to see what people are working on and where they got their inspiration from. I see something and think, "I can do that!"

Now j a r e d has posted about his EZ pi shawl. Even before he posted about it, Lyn has been working on one and I thought I would like to do a pi shawl. Now my beacon is pulling me to do one. I'll keep you posted.

Now I better go get some plying done so I can take some empty bobbins to spinners tomorrow. I'll show you the first skien of the "Dew on the Moab Desert" in Sunday's post.

Happy knitting & spinning.

Late Night-Early Morning--Not Even Knitting

Have you ever had one of those nights when sleep eludes you? When it seems like you wake up every fifteen minutes? This is what last night was. And today it was a run, run, run day. I woke up about 4:45 am and dozed until about 5:30. I was then wide away and not able to go back to sleep. I checked bloglines, email, and showered all before 7 am. Ran C to his doctor's appointment. Took R to his doctor appointment. Took C to school (he is in the suspension school for the rest of the week--idiot!) then took R to school and I was 20 minutes late for work. It didn't get any better!

The only bright spot is that R advanced into the next phase for his treatments. That means he could be done with everything right around his high school graduation!

R took the car tonight, so I had some uninterrupted knitting time. I could only knit for about half an hour until there was no more interest. The socks are coming along. They are at about six inches for the foot. The person who will be wearing them has a size 10 woman's foot, so I have to go another couple inches before the decreases.

On the bright side: E has been wearing these socks I made in October and gave to him at Christmas. How do I know? They were in the laundry yesterday! I am glad he is enjoying wearing them.

Looking forward to the weekend. It is the fiber artists weekend meeting. Lyn emailed me and asked me to take my Lendrum as she has a friend who would like to try it out. I think I'll take a couple of extra bobbins also. We could get her hooked!

Steady Progress

This weekend has been one of working on projects. I have done quite a bit on the Angel's Rest socks. One of the socks is half-way down the foot. The other sock is about two inches behind the first. Once I remembered the pattern, these socks are moving along fairly quickly. I have decided to gift them away. A-g didn't get the socks she picked at Christmas, they ended up going home with J-g, so these will go to her in the not too distant future. I will have enough yarn left that I can use them for accents in another pair of sock, maybe for myself, because I really like the color.

I also have almost a full bobbin on the Lendrum. Not too shabby of progress when I was only at the wheel for about an hour or two this weekend. I really like how the colors are turning out. There is definitely dye lot differences, but I think it will turn out alright when combined with the other roving. I am interested in finding out what this will look like in the skien.

Happy knitting & spinning.