internetless on the frontier!

where the heck has wooly been? i've been in the land downunder-the land of no interenet use. it was real scary for awhile. i had to come to terms with the fact that yes, i had developed a real addiction to my laptop. facebook, ravelry, surfing and checking the weather was taking up way to much of my time.

Now, this lack of internet was not by choice-it was a situation with a horrible satellite company-who shall remain nameless, caused me to go without and living life on the frontier(i live in a place not considered to be "rural" but rather "frontier", so i'm told)-there just aren't many options for high speed internet.
the first few weeks were pretty darn hard.....then i just let it all go and saw the ridiculousness of it all. i used to be fine without a computer-got along just fine in fact. i just engaged myself in new or old favorite activities.

my friend claudia taught my youngest and i to bake bread. liam is a natural. he's great at kneading it. here's our very first batch.

we now bake several times a week. Been knitting up a storm!

unfortunately i haven't had time to photograph all my stuff-but promise to very soon!!!! as soon as this crazy spring weather calms, i can get out a take some pics!

i've visited historic cemeteries-one of my favorite things to do. guess i like hanging out with dead people. feels so calm and peaceful.



also, adorned in buckskin and calico i learned to shoot a black powder pistol and a rifle....

yeeha hot damn! that rifle had quite the kick to it. yes, i must admit-life is never boring-even without a computer. Been so dang busy haven't had a chance to even catch my breath.

i also became an Auntie again-squee! it's a girl! Rory Mckenzie. can't get any cuter than that. i get to knit gurlie things-yes!!!!

well, i must admit. i'm not internetless anymore. as of 6:28pm this evening-Houston, we have contact! but it has been a lesson well learned. it's okay to step away from the computer. it's amazing how much more there is to do. try it sometime-just unplug!

i'm a north fork gurl

bad internet connection and my busy life has certainly gotten in the way of my blogging. i swear i write daily blog posts in my head but they rarely make it to the computer. don't know how you regular folks can keep up with it. i have major fiber related updating to do-but can't dive into it right now. hopefully this week i can catch up. instead, i have a mini post about my favorite river.

i live by three amazing rivers and i must admit the north fork is my favorite. my boy and i woke this morning and decided to take the dragon on a spring hike at the north fork and check it out after the storms and raging waters that carve thru the canyon all winter.

big tree across the beginning of the trail. lot's of storm damage but most of it was cleaned up already. liam was scoping out the trail for future mountain biking adventures.


a few of the big trees still stand! see the bridge below? we almost lost the dragon today. he went down for a drink under the bridge and fell in and couldn't get out. this is a creek that flows into the river-we were very scared as the creek was raging full force and there were bigger falls further down that eventually

end up dumping into

MAYTAG! a rapid named by the river rafters!!! what a relief that Blue was able to get out before reaching the dreaded washing machine! glad you're still with us buddy! even though you can be such a pain in me arse!!!

"what? who me?"
wild flowers were blooming.


the succulents are always my favorite.








video of the river and MAYTAG- you will see why we were worried about the dragon ending up at MAYTAG!

how fortunate we are to live in such an incredible and beautiful place -everyday i am so thankful of this.

Planting Placenta

i can't believe after 13 years we finally got Liam's placenta planted. for 13 years the placenta was housed in this salsa container in the freezer. It survived 4 moves and many many power outages. i can't imagine how many times it has thawed and been refroze. look-the plastic has finally started to deteriorate! just in time i'd say.

we always wanted to plant the placenta under a fruit tree and it finally happened today. anyone who lives in these parts knows that digging holes is no easy feat. the ground is hard, rocky, and full of clay. maybe it's a good thing we waited 13 years as liam was very helpful with the shoveling and picking! note the pick in the background! a must in these parts.

of course the dragon always right there helping!

liam picked a self pollinating skeena cherry for his special tree.

check out the placenta! it's totally molded in the shape of the salsa container.

gee it's a bit frozen still. but the dragon was trying desperately to get a little taste- we had to start burying it.
we planted other trees today as well. let's see, we planted an o' henry peach, a royal blenheim apricot and a mystery fruit tree. we won't know till it grows more! here's the peach tree:

after a day of shoveling, picking, and hauling wheel barrow loads of soil my boy is snoring on the couch and i'm sure feeling it as well. gonna sleep good tonight-i just hope the placenta doesn't attract bears!

INSPIRATION

this week i was inspired by two women in scotland. these women are on my blog roll. i love reading about their lives and what they are creating. the first one is magnusmog. she's traveling to america to visit a friend. look at the photo of her handknit socks she is packing for the trip. can you say awesome? this picture brings a smile to face. she is inspiring me to be diligent in my 12 in 12 challenge for 2011. yes, i am attempting to knit a pair of socks each month of this year and keep up with other knitting projects. i'm on my 3rd pair. i will post pictures of the socks soon. i hope to have a nice line up like that in year!

the second woman is Saz. here's her blog. i've always wanted to learn to quilt. she just finished this amazing quilt she named the pink pansy.

go to her blog and check out the other photos-it's super cute. i just love the colors! she also knits up a storm! prolific people amaze me.

well, that's it for now- short and sweet.

stitches west 2011 part 2

Dang, i better wrap up my stitches west trip-before it's ancient history. we spent the entire day friday till 6pm on the market floor. oh the intensity!!! i found a few new vendors that i just adored and thought i'd share them with you.

there was WOOL CANDY from san carlos ,ca. adrienne had beautiful colors and ultra soft fibers. sorry, i didn't get a photo. i bought some roving from her-couldn't resist.

BECOMING ART was a definite must! Lisa was super sweet. here's rhodi and i modeling with our favorite colorways-merino and cashmere roving- buttery soft!


of course there was SANGUINE GRYPHON. amazing-about sums up their booth.

here's another booth photo- the photos don't do it justice. they had some awesome steam punk stuff too! i wish i'd gotten some photos of the gals working the booth-their costumes were amazing.

we spent a lot of time at the SUNSHINE YARN booth. dani put up with our weirdness and out came the credit card....shhh!!!!

SOXCHIK and i had the opportunity to meet ALI MacGRAW!!! OMG! she was so nice and sincere! ALI just loved my fraggles. she still looks fabulous! she was there promoting the ali hat from "love story."note her hand on my shoulder!


about half way thru the day-i was overcome with waves of intense nausea and faintness. oh no! i was beside myself-i just couldn't get sick at stitches. then my mom's instant cure popped into my head:

works every time!!! there's nothing like a cold icy coke when you need one. i was feeling refreshed and ready to walk the floor again, breath in more yarn fumes and spend more money.

found some awesome buttons- my computer has decided the picture should be sideways-????

this is the first year i took a class at stitches. i have realized that my knitting knowledge hasn't really deepened or expanded in the past years so, i decided to take a class- a real class. not a "fun" class but a "brain" class. i had to leave all my friends in the market place and head to my classroom. i was feeling a bit anxious. of course i was the last one to arrive to class-i wasn't late, but i wasn't there early getting all set up like a good student. i came in with fraggles, wearing a vintage apron, dropping all my stuff like the total geek that i am -at least i remembered my homework. but forgot my calculator-! i was taking J.C. BRIAR'S slick set in sleeves-seamless!!! after 5 minutes of the class i was ready to bolt. thinking about all my buddies having a gas in the market-and me sitting at a table in the back of the room, completely confused with a brain that was really hurting. wow! i realized- you haven't worked the old noggin in awhile. having a major conversation with myself-i talked myself into staying-mainly cause the class was not cheap. i'm sure glad i did. i ended up learning tons and J.C. was a great teacher. i'm hoping she can come and teach this class for our guild. i want to take it again!

after my class, i headed back down to the market to find my cronies. i had a fabulous surprise waiting for me. i had won one of the daily drawings-i felt like ed mcman just knocked on my door!

check it out:

i effin won a skein of BUGGA from sanguine gryphon!!!! blessed be! i chose a stormy ocean color, the name really got me too! potato leafhopper.

i plan on making the clothilde shawl with it. chomping on the bit to start-tying to be good and finish up some projects first.

needing a break, i sat at a table for needle felters... tatoos. right on!

here's the gals from girl on the rocks and pigeonroof studios. got some sock yarn and roving....wanted more.


saturday evening rhodi and i had to head back up to our hill before we turned into pumpkins- we said our goodbyes and sadly left the convention center.

as promised, my stash enhancement:

have a closer look!

the colors make my heart sing!

i reserved the fleece last year at stitches from judy gunn of judy's novelty knits in utah. the fleece is a from one of her merino sheep named "darlin." it's her 4th shearing. she has wonderful fleeces. last year at stitches judy taught us locker rug hooking.

nice! i also got many cool patterns. nice to see stuff knit up in real life before buying a pattern. another fabulous time at stitches...still floating!

stitches west 2011 part one

okay, i know it's been forever since i've posted-but i have good reasons. i went to stitches west(the most amazing knitting convention evar!!!) a few weeks back and was very excited about posting immediately. BUT- when i returned home the "courier" had to be done. for those of you that don't know , i do our monthy town newsletter. all my waking hours were spent doing the courier to meet my deadline. once that was finished-that very night,when i was about to start blogging- we had a major winter storm which knocked out our power, phones and internet.

i was S.O.S. what a bummer. finally the power has been restored(only 5 days this time!) internet still not quite right-but i am attempting to catch up today.

as usual, rhodi and i left the security of our "hill" and headed to the bay area in the blinding rain. as we hit sacramento we saw the coolest thing-a shuttle bus that said "The Llama Limo"on the back. we figured it was a chartered bus headed for stitches- when we passed ready to wave at the knitters we were met with a bus full of llamas!!! it was awesome.
unfortunately i didn't have my camera ready when we were right next to the bus-but there it is. the limo is from fallen oaks ranch. the journey continued and i got a lot of knitting done.

no, i wasn't driving! we arrived at the santa clara convention center around 2ish and had an immediate 'fraggle' party in luci and vail's room while waiting for soxy sue aka soxchik to arrive. luci is a hair braider extraordinaire. she always makes us look great at the celtic fest; so we figured braids were a must for this event as well. fraggles are my favorite braids-thanks luci!!! all the small photos courtesy of soxy -not sure how to make them bigger.

soxy arrived shortly and the party really began. we all got ready for the thursday nite market preview. it's my favorite part of stitches. the crowds are manageable and there are special deals to find and you get first pick of all the luscious fibery goodness. squeals of delight can be heard from around the market floor.

i bought some patterns from the fabulous designer rock star rosemary hill aka Romi.
she was so genuine and she blessed me with her magic wand-look closely at the photo below and you will see her wand and her tiara.
tiaras were big this year.normally we try real hard to have some sort of organization when walking the floor- so nothing is missed. this year-i had major ADHD and was willy nilly flitting all the over the place. i could barely contain myself, i wanted to run madly down the aisles shrieking with joy and delight. the colors, the fibers-the yarn fumes. it's all too much.

we headed to one of our all time favorite booths: VERB!
hey, look it's rock star podcaster, wonder mike of fiber beat running the register! nice view of the back of his head. at least we know he's not going bald.

the lovely proprietor, Kristine loved our braids so much, luci braided her hair as well.

you gotta see the back!


after an exciting market preview we headed to the ballroom for the ravelry party. here's soxy and i- not much happening here.

but i did manage to get a fiber rock star line up photo.

from left to right: mystery woman(so sorry! anybody know her?), rainy day goods(from ravelry), adrienne (verb), kristine(verb), cookie a., wonder mike, and dani from sunshine yarns(a new favorite of mine).

I need to get this posted before my internet goes out again. stay tuned for the next episode......photos of new favorite vendors, a movie star, and yes, embarrassingly so-a photograph of my new swag!!!! ta ta for now-