fiber and spring snow!

i love a spring snow!!!! sorry for those of you with fruit trees. i hope your blossoms weren't damaged. my blog doesn't show it but i have been fibery lately. last thursday rhodie and i decided to spin at our LYS as we can never make it to spinning saturday nor can we ever make it to one of the many knit nites that occur in town. but thursdays are different. we are both there all day while our kids are in their once a week set of classes. the hum drum of errands was delightfully remedied with some spinning mixed in.

rhodie is on the left and barbara sue stopped by-she was so excited she ran home and got her wheel. there was a class happening and others knitting on the couch. it was torture to drag myself away for dreaded grocery shopping. bj was there and she shared and taught us many things! thanks bj! i started this beautiful BFL roving called "mosswood."i wish i had dyed this. this a miss babs creation-lovely!!!! i want to wrap myself in it!

i'm doing a trade with a dear old friend from minneapolis-some of her black and white photos of horses for some hand knit black hiking socks. sorry cynthia! another skein bites the dust: thanks BLUE!!!!!!who me? he keeps scraping the pigment off his nose...does anyone have any suggestions about this? i'm concerned. it grows back then he scrapes it off again. weird!!

our family decorates eggs on the spring equinox instead of easter. it sure snuck up on me. i was totally unprepared this year. unable to get to town i called all tiny markets in the vicinity looking for egg dye-nada, nothing, phooey!

getting resourceful i used what little we had at home:
tumeric for yellow. i had an old squishy beet hiding in the back of the fridge for pink. and blue food coloring from a camping water purifier kit(??????) check it out:we did some creative mixing as well to make new colors-we had the primaries-ha! and the use of crayons as well. here's this year's spring altar! happy spring everyone!!!

HAPPY OSTARA!

ERIN GO BRALESS!!

happy st. patty's, green, guinness, shamrock, ___________ (you fill in the blank) day! march 17th has always been favorite holiday of mine. as kids we always wore green so we wouldn't get pinched-but never never orange with our green-mom made sure of that. we always ate corned beef and cabbage-my mom's was the best ever!!!!!(and she wasn't even the irish one-shhhhh!) i get my irish from my grandmother-dad's side. growing up outside chicago during my elementary school years-i remember going to see the chicago river dyed green!

michelle obama -a chicagoan kept the tradition at the white house this year by dyeing the fountains green at the white house-you go gurl!well, keeping with a family tradition we will be watching this tonight:one of my all time favorite films! we will also be eating peasant food-so if anyone grumbles at you tonight when asked "what's for dinner?" tell them they can come over to my house for cabbage and potatoes!! yes, that'd be corned beef and cabbage without the beef!i didn't want to take the crock pot lid off-wrecks the efficiency ya know. i'm going to make soda bread too. soxchik asked if i was cooking with guinness tonight. no- i'm gonna drink it instead. but horrors of horrors, i realized i bought the wrong guinness-i got it in the bottle-not the pub draft kind-oh crap! this guinness is made in canada-can you believe it? nothing against you canadians(love ya!)-torntorians to be exact- but it's guinness for christ sake- i want to drink beer made with water from the emerald isle-damn! guess i'll have to pretend.
check out the label above- sure enough-toronto, canada! heavy sigh! what's a purists to do? anyway-have a great day everyone! and remember:

another kind of stitches

yesterday i missed spinning saturday as we headed to chico for my younger son's version of my "stitches." yes, he's been saving and doing extra chores to get more of the green stuff for his "stitches"-the 43rd annual bidwell bottle and inulator show/sale in chico. we took the beautiful drive thru the olive groves and green hills speckled with majestic oaks to get there.

you might remember last years excursion. this year hubby got to come and we had a great time!!! we saw friends, got treasures and afterwards went to the sierra nevada brewery! yes, sharon-i finally got to try the torpedo IPA-yum!!

on the way home we took side roads for exploratory reasons and searching for places to let "blue" run. the best place we found was billy bobs!!!

everything you could possibly need or want- look they even cater!!! here's the other sign above the door!


liam totally scored-it helps when you're a kid-lot's of free stuff! here's a picture of his loot! what a score:he's been counting the days for this sale. he was a happy guy when we got home!! i gave myself a 10 dollar budget. here's my score:

i collect swanky swigs-see the little glass with the red flowers-it was one i do not have!!!! check out the diner soup cup behind the gnomes-made in los angeles! i'm pleased with my score!

busy!

life has been very busy here at the ole homestead. schooling, sick animals, construction and fibery goodness consume my days. i'm still working on holiday gifts....gads! i know i know! don't say it. one project i'm very happy with is some fingerless mittens for "she who shall not be named." i had a bunch of this nondescript light gray heather wool. i dyed the yarn in three shades of purple and knit another pair of berry hill fingerless mittens-i LOVE this pattern!

pretty boring eh? add a little color-

i'm very pleased with these. i hope the recipient is as well! it's amazing what a little dye will do!

getting new fiber to spin from "stitches" really got my butt in gear. i finished spinning the masham see past post! so i could begin one of my new treasures. here's the masham ready to spin.

here is the masham spun and plied. i was hoping for enough for socks as it's real strong but i'm not so sure. ugh!

here's another project- a close up of the patti socks i promised! they are coming along swell.

i leave you with a touch of spring- these daffodils are in such poor soil-they are stunted-they are only five inches tall-but still a joy to behold.

stitches -part 2

i'm still glowing from stitches and now-all i want to do is dive into my new fiber and do nothing else but knit and spin!!!!! damn it!!!! rhodie managed to finish her ultra soft "babushka" scarf while we were there.


here's some lobby action: we protected young agatha(our waitress) straight from poland from predators- yes we are mother hens!!!!

we met Zardra(ravelry name) we invaded her table. during "show and tell" she unveiled her...gasp! ball of qiviut-good scrabble word! for those of you who don't know-it's luxurious fiber from the musk ox! can you say ooh la la ! much petting and fondling occurred!

looks nice with the cab. eh? we won't talk $$$$$. lovely melinda joined us-she got some great thong patterns from white lies designs! we sure had fun at that booth!!

when i go to stitches-i look for things that i can't get from my LYS. i focus on the little people-small businesses-especially family business. i always hit the "sweet grass" ladies from montana-they are sooo nice and have great targhee items from their sheep. they sell other things too-i got some sock yarn and wonderful patti started me on a sock-thanks for the pattern patti!! i'm calling them my patti socks!

i love the tactile booth and a verb for keeping warm as well. wonderful natural dyed goodies!!! i always visit judy from utah- and load up on her dyed corriedale fiber. she's always ready with a good story!!!-this year i got her "lake tahoe"-mmmm-starting to connect with the blues! OMG! a new vendor this year i really enjoy was knitting notions- a family business. mother and daughter drove all the way from nashville tenn. with their treasures. i got a lace shawl pattern and yarn for the shawl-they were so sweet-i just had to support them. their wooden items were amazing too-check out their website!!!

also from tennesse was the fabulous miss babs! what a color extravaganza!!! i bought some BFL roving dyed in the winter pansy colorway-her dyed yarns and rovings are inspired from nature-amazing! there is fibery goodness happening in tennesse!

i could go on and on about the great deals-like the 9$ sock yarn and the 880 yards of undyed merino lace yarn i got for ten bucks... but i think i'll just post a pic of my spree:


yum yum! see my patti socks? i will post a close up later. the coin jar is getting filled again for next year!
when i arrived home very late friday nite i was met with a plateful of homemade chocolate chip cookies-with pecans! i hate cake! my three boys got me the beautiful polish heart plate for my b-day. i collect polish pottery. rhodie got me a beautiful mug set for the holidays and those tea bag holders are from my dear sweet mom!! awhhhh! thanks everyone! it was the best b-day ever!

i encourage you all to check out soxchik's blog as she got wonderful pictures of some of the colorful characters we encountered! thanks soxy for a great time and cozy room!

stitches- part 1

after getting our chores done and families situated rhodie and i hit the road last thursday morning for "stitches west" in santa clara. i mean-heck we were going to be gone a WHOLE TWO DAYS AND ONE NITE for christ sakes. i know-it's a bit much.
after dropping off older son's school books at his mom's house-gee how easy it is to forget these important things when you are 17. rhodie and i hit the bank to turn in our coinage. i had all my coins rolled but 20 bucks in dimes-i ran out of paper rollers. we had the bank in "stitches" over my dime bags!!!!
even the manager had to come over and see what what going on. it was quite a spectacle-i filled her desk with rolled coins. i don't think they really believed us when we told them we were going to a knitting convention. the funny thing was-while i was standing in line at the lisa souza booth the woman next to me said she was just at the bank turning in her rolled coins and her kids gave her their coins too! yes, i think the economy is hurting when us fiber addicts are using our rolled coins to pay for a fix!

after turning in much weight in coins we finally hit the road- made one gas stop and one food stop. us serious fiber addicts know we need to eat in our rooms and not at the Hyatt restaurants-that is fiber money going down the toilet!!!! we got to the convention center in great time- we missed all the traffic- we called soxchik when we arrived-she had generously let us crash in her room. little did she know all "peace and quiet" was about to become an unknown experience. hey- we don't get out much!!! she had been busy in a class-and came to meet us at break. unloading our cargo into her "neat" room-another thing that would become unknown!! she went back to class and rhodie and i sat by the pool had a glass of wine and knitted. we were so excited!! soxchik joined us after class. poor thing her seat was wet-

luckily she had this gorgeous shawl she had recently dyed the yarn and knit, to cover her wet spot-as were just about to go into the Market Preview -OMG!!! we had no time for changing. seriously! unfortunately- no photography is allowed in the market-damn! such eye candy!! i have just a few-some sneak peaks but they didn't turn out so good.
i need to make this entry into 2 posts-sorry gang-but i will leave you with a pic of our daily food intake:firstl-we brought our own water-those aquafinas in the pic-we did not imbibe in-they charge it to your room- the price-slanderous!! as you see there was wine and hummus and tabouli and olives and more wine and cheese and almonds and organic salami and fresh sweet peas. what more do you need? besides more fiber?
okay i lied... one more picture.

we had this bathroom-don't need to go into too much detail here-i could.... but that would be a whole other post..but there was this magnified light thingee that send rhodie screaming out of the bathroom-yes, she is turning 40 this year. little does she know it only gets worse!

STITCHES OR BUST!

OMG! the excitement is more than i can stand. tomorrow-on my birthday rhodie and i are heading off the hill to santa clara-stitches west is happening-a very fun knitting event!!!! we are meeting up with soxchik for a few days of fiber bliss. between my b-day $ and my change jar-(i've been saving my change for this very event since last years Stitches and have been rolling coins all morning!!!!) i hope to find some goodies.

no i'm not having beer for breakfast- i began counting last nite and couldn't find my coin rollers. had to borrow a bunch from rhodie this morning as she is doing the same. i took this picture last nite. can you believe there was 98$ in this jar-wow!!!!! guess we'll have to stop off at the bank and trade in it. don't think the vendors at the fiber market want rolled coins. plus it weighs a ton!!!

i hope Kama feels better soon! she's been in the hen spa(aka laundry room) since yesterday.


i have to admit i'm a bit excited to get away from the beast-i mean" blue" for a bit. his adolescence has me worn to the bone. can you believe he weighs 50 lbs. he's almost 9 months old. i wonder how much bigger he will get.
blue enjoyed watching the oscars- especially the commercials! the bunny ears worked!!! and we got the station in-not that i've seen any of the films but i've always enjoyed the oscars since i was a kid. loved the crystal curtains!!!
i took another with the flash on but that showed too much of my unvacuumed carpet!! welll-i have tons to do before the trip-will report when i return!!!!

ewe are so gorgeous!!!

we are on a week long break from school-liam and i had great plans for this week-getting ready for the upcoming chick arrival. fencing, banty coop building and yet another extension of the existing coop. i love the current moisture we are receiving-but it makes for bad construction time. instead-we've been catching up on schoolwork-due to all the days missed. the call of the sled was just too strong!!!

i have also decided to focus on spinning. seemed like months since i last spun-it was before my back went out. i had been spinning this wonderful Falkland roving i had dyed quite awhile back. bright and breezy!!!the colors are deeper than this. still doing the camera struggle. bright green, aqua and chartreuse! i want to make socks! here it is on the wheel-when i didn't use the flash it was too dark -this with the flash-too washed out and reflective or something. i plied it but haven't set the twist yet!the other night i started some masham wool dyed by pippi. her website isn't up right now so i won't link. gorgeous! i've never spun masham before-very long locks-strong stuff! hopefully enough to make another pair of socks. i struggled at first but-it's coming along fine now. will post pics soon. but check these sheep out-they are from northern england-telly savalis-eat your heart out!!!
oops! sorry telly! i forgot telly passed away in 1994-i'm sure he's got a mane where ever he is. hhmmm- let's see who else can eat their heart out? okay-paul shaffer- eat your heart out!!!!

don't get me wrong-i find bald heads sexy- especially bald women! check out this website! lot's of eye candy there- well-it's not ALL eye candy! but you might like some of it. gotta get back to spinning my masham!!!

every knitters nightmare-

-we had a beautiful little snow storm

which knocked out our power and phone-still waiting. good thing for satellite and battery in the lap top. we also have a small generator so roy can continue to work during these times.-it's nice to be able to flush a toilet!

before the storm we headed to sacramento on saturday for free museum day-we go every year. on the way we decided to drop off some recycling--now-most of you won't get the visual here-hey birdsong are you out there?-yes-only you will totally get the full mental picture as i was too distraught to get it on camera.

we dropped off our recycle at the north san juan transfer station-before we left i took my knitting from the back of the car so i could knit some once we got on straight roads-yes-hubby was driving. i was organizing my knitting knitting project(a sweater for liam) as we turned the corner-right when we were in front of the" brass rail"- i start freaking- my yarn my yarn!!!photo courtesy of the web- hubby screeches to a halt right outside of the brass rail- birdsong-it was about 9:00a.m. the booze for breakfast crowd was already hanging outside-i jump out of our subaru shrieking" my yarn my sweater!" the locals stare at me like i'm a freak! as i realize my full ball of yarn dropped on the ground back at the dump- when i took it out of the back of the car-i got in and shut the door. as i was getting situated i realized my yarn was shut in the door and my ball was nowhere to be found.

what can i say? the folks on the porch of the 'RAIL" got a kick out of me jumping out of the car and winding my sweater project all the way back to the dump! you could see the yarn trailing up the road!- i can laugh now but i was freaking at the time. not to mention the yarn is from my stash and is now discontinued as it is very very old-i would not have been able to finish the sweater if i'd lost all that yarn. the yarn is a bit grimy but i'm sure it will wash out-ugh-hopefully!

our first stop was hoppy brewing company as one of our favorite not so local blue grass bands plays there the first saturday of each month. (11am-1pm) great food, good beer and toe tappin tunes!

we then ventured to some of the museums- wow! can you say "recession?" the lines were blocks long-we've never seen it this way-remember -it was "free" museum day. we really wanted to tour the governors mansion-the one nancy reagan poo-pooed! the line was phenomenal- hey nancy- i would have lived there in a heart beat!!!

we were met with line after line..blue needed a walk we took him to the river..he had a ball chasing geese, swimming and attacking waves with a vengeance. he went ballistic on a rock sticking out of the river..as if it were an alien.

we ended up at the towe auto museum. one of my favs- i'm a classic car drooler. here's a few of my favs. this 58 edsel station wagon is for sale-love the plaid seats!
next we move on to an awesome beach surfer mobile!!! the wood work was phenomenal!

check out this beauty-note the nice wench on the front! a real working vehicle!

the museum has great dioramas all thru out the place-taxidermy chickens, bears and wonderful mannequins!
there is also a nice collection of old bicycles as well-this one is for you milissa!

wow! i could post like 20 more pics but that would be over doing it a bit. we had a great day even though we only went in one museum.