knit a car

well, i'm completely freaking out. our home school charter program officially begins monday-as in day- after -tomorrow-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! i'm not ready! school should not start till sometime after labor day! i'm having major anxiety. i just feel unready to tackle the new year.-i enter it with a sense of dread. i just want to unschool for a year and do nothing-except what we want! Liam is not the easiest child to home school-he's a redhead for crise sake-(BTY did you hear the NPR report of the rapid decline of redheads in world? something like 3% of redheads in the world-down from 10%-don't quote me on the fact!) anyway-carey was a piece o cake-i'm not comparing(well, i guess i really am-but carey is such an easy going kid!-liam is his own breed!) carey just started his sophomore year at bitney springs charter high school-his first shot at regular 5 day a week school(home schooled his whole life)-he seems to be sooo excited as he is super social-unlike the rest of us-just give us a rock to crawl under and we'll come out on the full moon-dance a jig and retreat for awhile. hermits unite!!

my new etsy shop has been fun-i've even sold a few things-halla-effin-luia!!!! i still have more to upload but just no time. my favorite merino roving sold-the one i was gonna save for me but thought-what the heck- no one is gonna love yellow as much as me-it won't sell, than i can use it when i have the time. the color just looked pretty in my shop. it was the first thing to sell-i sadly wrapped it up and kissed it goodbye-lesson learned. here's a pic:

inspired by my neighbors yard in spring. but i would like to give a big thanks to all that support my small wooly business-hugs to you all!

last night i had a slumber party with my dearest friends-J&S. beer, talk, boy george, tears, laughs galore, no sleep, cheese, bread-salami -that grossed me out. our schedules are so busy we get to do this maybe 4 times a year if we are lucky. i treasure these times-i love you guys! you help me endure life. we are like three happy hens when we are together.

i leave you with this image a friend sent me eons ago-meant to post sooner-thanks ken! it's a knitted car. click on link below. go gurl!

http://www.bathspa.ac.uk/about/news/default.asp?article=426

etsy update

the computer will be traveling for a few days so i will be unable to blog-oh my gracious! gee maybe i will get some long awaited chores done instead-ha! anyway, just wanted to update you on my etsy shop; i finally got my new shop up and running-i have not had time to finish listing items and plan on dyeing tons more. please check it out: http://www.thewoolydaisy.etsy.com/ let me know what ya think-it is an on going process.

i thought i would leave ya'll with a picture of kamakaze-liam's chicken. liam seems to be having trouble learning the "no chickens in the house" rule. every time i turn around-this is what i encounter:

garden update!

despite my garden being so small this year what i did plant is producing enough that we have extra to sell at out local rebel ridge growers market. here's a box of what we brought:

we had six big zucchinis today- my zucchini plants are 3 feet tall- no gopher wire!!!! i need some new zucchini recipes! help!
another thing that grows well in my garden is tomatoes-i seem to grow a jungle and harvesting is difficult-must be all our sun! this a german johnson:
i love the sun sugars- they are a sweet orange cherry tomato and they are prolific!
i thought i was being really smart by planting vine beans on the inside of my garden fence. as you can see the chickens and wild turkeys have cleaned off the bottom leaves and the top part is still surving. might have to rethink that next summer.
this year i did a quick gogher wiring so i could grow my favorite purple beans-without sharing with the gophers(gophers go crazy for purple beans-i watched whole plants disappear last summer)-i also tried edamame this year which loves our hot climate-will plant more next year-

yesterday-late afternoon liam and i went to the river for cooling off as i was pissy-heat? or possible pms? anyway we played with water snakes, ran into friends and neighbors and had to report a fire. scary!-and we all forgot our cameras as we were being dive bombed by helicopters dipping their buckets into the river and planes dropping flame retardant. we had front row seats! this is the 2nd fire in the past week that was close to home and we love our fire crew-you guys and gals rock-we love you! i look forward to rain. I LEAVE YOU WITH YET ANOTHER PICTURE OF OUR SWIMMING HOLE. yes, i love where i live. no swimsuits required!
ahhhh the emerald waters of bliss.

and she lives!

just when i thought luca brassi (devil cat)lost her R.B.R. (rock, bag, river) status; she has to pull this on me. i finally decide to do something lacy with really thin yarn. something i am unaccustomed to because of an impatient character flaw i seem to have. i want results and i want them quick-i tend to do bulky or worsted weight projects. if you look back to my may 15th post titled rock... bag...river... you will see whom i am speaking about. and yes, it was merino-she has been so good about being nonfibery lately-i got lazy and left my project on a table. but why does she only attack my precious merino fiber. the cat's got taste i guess. and she lives!

look at how fricken thin this yarn is:
my finger nails aren't usually that gross(hopefully.) it took an hour to wind back into several balls. i had to cut in order to save the yarn. but i did it. sigh! i just found a current picture of luca-"mafia maniac" as liam calls her-can you say "linda blair?"yes, you could say i'm more of a dog person. maybe that's the problem.
speaking of my dirty nails-liam and i have been blackberry picking-i want to learn to make jam. wild blackberries run rampant here. we freeze them for winter use-but i really really want to learn to make jam. check out my awesome blackberry picking gloves-i cut the tips off as they were too long for my fingers-but look at that arm protection-yea!
i will end this post with a picture of our treasured swimming hole that keeps us cool during these sweltering summer months.

there's nothing like the fair!

one of the highlights of our summer is the county fair. the nevada county fair is the best county fair i've ever experienced in all my travels. the boys scored this year-carey's poem got a blue ribbon and liam's photographs brought him 2 blues. liam and his best buddy did a diorama of a junkyard and they also got a blue. roy's beer got a second!

our fiber guild always has so many amazing, outstanding and truly creative works of art. my pics of the fiber section don't do it justice so please visit these sites if you want to see some awesome pictures. amy's fair photos. sharon also has some awesome photos-and i'm bummed that i missed seeing amy, sharon and birdsong at the fair this year.-i went on different days. amy's spinning wheel is an art piece in itself. she burned in the outline and then painted it. thanks for the photo sharon!

you really need to see it in real life to see the artistic beauty. it is truly amazing. besides drooling at the fibery goodies; my favorite part of the fair is the animals. here's mama and her sweet babies-wow-she must be the nursing queen. gee, i had so much milk when i was nursing liam i could have fed a litter of piglets too.-umm, sorry if that grossed any of you out but man o man i felt a bit like this sow!
i fell in love with a merino sheep-she loved being rubbed behind the ears-what a sweet pea! and her friend here: ah the sweetness of life.

now, if you ever spend time at the fair you will notice how much the kids are into their animals. -this young lad gladly posed for this photo. he is one proud dude!
every year i watch the haflingers-but i missed them this year. boo hoo! when i win the lottery i will buy me a haflinger. this fellow is mel. a total sweetheart. i also missed the icelandic ponies and working dog demos this year too. lame, i know!
liam's favorite entertainment vessel was some concert band that played glen miller sort of stuff ( gee, is this the same kid who found my old butthole surfer tapes and keeps begging me to play them-ha!) i loved this guy-reminded me of henry fonda in "on golden pond."
i'm very financially fortunate that my kids don't like rides at the fair-i was a freak for them as a kid-there wasn't one that was too scary for me. but we always do one ride on the ferris wheel.
ya gotta love the colors of the fair: what another color study-wow!

now, call me weird but one thing i used to love about the midway was people watching and checking out all the freaky carnies. a plethora of creative imagery. i love them!!!! i mean where are the freaks suppose to have a living? butler entertainment is now priding themselves as the "cleanest"show in the west .(i did see the drug testing booth, but, but ,but....) bummer- no more toothless freaks-i'm bummed. some of you may think i'm sick. but i've always wanted to interview these individuals-folks,characters-human beings. i want to write a book and tell their stories. they're people too!

the fair is never complete without a hug from "smokey"-he's the man!

see ya next year!

sunflowers and art

seems like forever since i've actually posted. life happens ya know. last saturday much fun was had in forest city. there was a small art gathering called "sunflowers and art" happening. birdsong has a house there so some of us from the foothill fiber guild met there for spinning. i just love hanging out with these gals-always tons of laughs-i sure have been needing some of that! i brought some of my hand painted fiber and handspun yarn to sell and did quite well. i almost did not bring my stuff. thanks to all that supported me!

forest city is a very small town in the sierras. we gathered in the park. set up our wheels under the big trees and cool mountain breezes greeted us. what a treat not to be all pissy and hot. sue was spinning buffalo fiber. it feels like butter-you'd never believe it by looking at these shaggy beasts. i'd like to know how they shear them. or if they pick up loose fiber-which could explain the cost-gulp!-the american cashmere:

jan was spinning up some beautiful roving she hand dyed and plans to make a kaffe fasset treasure. what patience jan has-you should have seen her gauge swatch-it was almost the size of a baby sweater-sheesh! and i'm such a bad gurl-i hardly ever make swatches. wish i'd gotten a photo of her swatch. hey jan-can i have your swatch-i'd hang it on my wall for inspiration!
sara is spinning some of my fiber here-i'm amazed at her speed.-she's the nascar champ of spinning. bobbin after bobbin being filled in a blink of an eye. i believe my boys named that roving "laffy taffy." i can't wait to see what she creates with it.
here's birdsong spinning away despite her ailing back. what a trooper. thanks for getting us together birdsong-it was a great day.
the dance hall and museum where open for the day-and it was an incredible scene. the dance hall used to have a spring loaded dance floor on the second story.
liam would have been in heaven here:
here's my favorite-gotta love the vintage dresses:
here's the old bar. unfortunately there was no beer to be had. yes, i was also chastised for bringing a cooler with no homebrew in it. we are in between batches. sorry gals! don'cha love the yellow bar? very sweet.

besides sunflowers and wool; there was pottery, handmade guitars,cards, quilts, grass valley honey, photography, paintings, brownies, cheesecake, watermelon and downieville doug supplied us with music. he wanted me to bring my banjo but i was too shy.-i don't play in public. i'm sure everyone is glad that i indeed did leave frankie(my banjo) at home.

my boys favorite youtube