Darn Gall Bladder!

Well I have beeen out of commission for several weeks. I had my first - and hopefully my last attack. It is going to come out in a few more weeks.

My garden is doing really well - this week - I picked my first 3 tomatoes and them became BLT's - what I want most in the summer. I have picked beans 3 times and replanted them for a later crop. And squash??? - MAKE THEM STOP PRODUCING!!!!!!

Knitting wise, I am working on my Noni bag still - it is quite the challenge to manage 9 balls of yarn to knit it with. I am thinking about putting together a group for the ravelryolympics, but since I just read about it today - we need to decide FAST becasue today is the deadline.

How Does My Garden Grow?

Well, it grows with tomatoes, peppers onions, squash, garlic, turnips, watermelon, beans and more. I am trying sweet potatoes for the first time this year so we'll see how that goes. And up goes the water bill as I work to make my garden grow. See my little baby cantalopw? I grew plants last year and had several melons - I was quite pleases with myself over that.

Knitting knitting - I started the Noni tulip tote and now that I have done the bottom anm now starting the sides. The bag is done in intarsia and uses nine -yes 9! balls of yarn with the 2 colors. I emailed Nora to ask her how she managed the tangled mess and based on what she said - I am doing a good job with the noodles of color that I have. I will poast a photo of that later - but for now? my baby cantalope!

WWKiP

Well today was World Wide Knitting in Public Day and we here in Staunton spent the morning at one of our favorite coffee shops - well - knitting in public!! We had about 45-50 knitters who had a great time getting to know other crafters. We even had a spinner and spinning wheel.

Then we went back to the shop where many of the folks followed us to shop and we had even more fun.

After the shop closed, I made a mad dash to a friends wedding reception for some red velvet cake - yum. If I'm lucky, the MOB will bring home more and we can have it next week when I do a home visit.

I have put aside the rush to do the Pretty as a Peacock Shawl - I think that if I take the pressure off of me, then I will do much better with it. I am going to wokr on the Noni Tulip Tote bag for a while this evening - just plain relaxing knitting. Just what I need.

It's Hot In Here!

Well, Summer has arrived here in Staunton with a vengence! The temperatures are expected to be at or above 99 for the next couple of days.

I worked in my garden a little whille this am and there was sweat dripping off my little nose within 5 mintes of going out there. I was pleased to see that there is growth happening everywhere in the garden and even a small pepper on one of the plants. Everything got a dose of Miracle Grow this morning and tomorrow I will set the soaker hose to work before I go to church so that things can get a drink of water.

My current knitting project is about to be history. It is the Pretty as a Peacock Shawl that I want to enter in to competition thsis fall. I have done the same **** row the past 3 days and even though the number of stitches is correct when I start, I am, 1 stitch short at the end of the row. So Iwill take it out one more time tomorrow to try to see what is going on with this row.

Perhaps I will start the Tulip tote to give myself a break, but this has GOT to be done early September. It just has to!

More soon on this saga.

LONG TIME!!

Greeting all - My last post was in 2006 - Whew that was a long time ago and was at the Fall Fiber Festival Mudfest. I guess that I will try to do better posting now. This may be spurred on my the fact that I am doing a Secret palmexchange on Ravelry. Anyway - here is the information that is needed for that:

Do you knit or crochet? Knit mainly - I can crochet to complete a piece
How long have you been at your craft? 5 years
Do you spin? Yes What type of spinning? On a wheel mainly
What are your favorite yarns/fibers? I love alpaca and llama and blue faced leisterer, but i'll try most anything. What are your least favorite yarns/fibers? Short fiber lengths are not a favorite, but I will try it.
What are your favorite colors? I like most colors depeding on the seasonWhat are your least favorite colors? Orange and brown
Are there any yarns/brands that you are dying to work with but never have? Well there is always something new coming out taht sounds yummy, isn't there!!!!
What is/are your favorite types of projects to knit/crochet? I like to do felted bags and shawls. I keep saying that I am going to do a sweater, but so far I have only started 2 of them.
What are you currently working on? Anything you plan to work on this summer? I am currently working on the peacock shawl as I call it. WHAT!! stop knitting because its summer??? That is what air conditioning is for.
What is your favorite FO? (Post a pic if you would like.) I have a felted bag that I knit last year. With this bag I have won two 1st place and best in division ribbon.
What is your oldest UFO? I can't remember!!!!
Are there any techniques that you want to learn? Steeking is likely something that I would like to learn at some point.
Are you on Ravlery? What's your ID? Yep - and I am luvstoknit on there
Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? Nope - not yet! I have been told that hand knit socks are the best. I wear a size 11 shoe.
Do you collect anything? Besides yarn and fiber???? Charms for my bracelet.
Do you have a yarn winder and/or swift? Yes I do - in fact I have to winders, 1 I keep in the car!
Do you love sweets? What are your favorites? Well I am a diabetic and have to limit sweets. I tend to go for dark chocolate because it takes care of the need for chocolate quicker than milk chocolate.
What are your favorite scents? I LOVE Bath and Body works warm vanilla sugar. I have most of the ways that that scent comes. I also love lavendar and have that everywhere also.
Where do you keep your needles/hooks? My needles are in a jar that I bought for that purpose. My circular needles hang on the door knob.
, etc?)
Having a birthday this summer? Nope, my 50th birthday was in March. But I can continue to celebrate this summer if you want!!!

In The MUD!!!!! and Fall Fiber Festival - 2006

For some reason, I have a hard time keeping up with this blog even though there are folks that do them on a daily basis. SO, on occasion I will put newsworthy events here and we will see what happens!

When last we met, I was returning from Pittsburgh, PA where I met a knitting friend that I had chatted with on Knitters Review. It was such fun!

Since then, I have been busy working my full time job and helping my friend to open his new yarn store - On The Lamb. I am so excited for him because this is something that he has wanted for a long time. I never realized all the
stuff thas is part of opening a store. There were many nights that we were there until the wee hours of the morning pricing or arranging the yarn, but how pretty the shop is.

I have been helping to knit some store samples for him and the felted bag that I knit a couple weeks ago cought the eye of someone this week and she purchased the supplies to knit herself one!! Whoo hoo! I am currently working on the second felted hat from the same pattern. We are going to have one in the store unfelted and then felt one so that folks can see the before and after. Sometimes folks just don't get how it works, so this should help.

I knit a scarf for the Fall Fiber Festival that happened this past weekend. It was knit in cashmere and was the Falling Leaves design from Annie Modesitt. I was really pleased at it, but alas, it did not win any awards in the judges eyes. What did win second place that I entered at the last minute was a skein of yarn that I had spun last spring at the May Fair event held in Crozet, VA. It got a second place. So therefore my goal for next year's competition is to do a project that will be worthy of a prize. Last year I got a 3rd place for baby booties. I also have a felted project in mind that might be worthy also. I guess that it is never too early to start planning, huh??? By the way - it has rained here for the past 2 days prior to the event. This is what it looked like there on Saturday - and it was MUCH worse by the late afternoon. When I left, I had to get my car pushed out of the mud- which meant that there was then mud OVER the top of the car!


A friend just washed my car yesterday and it looks WONDERFUL!!! Well I am off to work.

Now the Summer is almost over!!!!

Well well, I was reminded that I have not posted in awhile - there was SNOW on the ground!!!

It has been a busy summer - I went to Pittsburgh in July for a conference - drove there - it really didn't take long, thanks to the wonderful directions from my truck driving friend. While there - in addition to the conference stuff we did, we took a dinner cruise, went up the Mongohalia incline, and shopped. Pittsburgh is not one of my favorite cities, but it'll do. I did meet one of the KR folks and we visited 2 of the yarn shops there - one was so so - the other was fantastic!!!! The folks were super nice, invited us to come back and visit any time.

An now I am on the advisory board of On The Lamb which is the soon to be shop of a very good friend of mine. It has been his dream to open this shop for years and he has worked in the fiber arts business for a long time. He is an excellent knitter and teacher. It is going to be a fun place to be - knitting, crochet, spinning, weaving, felting. He will also teach classes there. It is about 2 blocks from both of our houses which makes it very convienent.

Miss Katie is fine, she has had a good summer, the week I spent in Pittsburgh? she spent with her Aunt Fran in Newport News, VA. She loves sepending time with them - they spoil her rotten and she gets treats such as burgers from Hardees.

Remember her? She is the United Methodist District Superintendant for the Peninsula District. A big responsibility - but she usually handles it well - when she is stressed? I get these early morning phone calls as she is tooling around.

Are houses ever a problem - during the week that I was away, I came home to find that there seemed to be a leak from my upstairs bathroom into the hallway. We watched it for a couple months and it did not seem to be growing - since no-one was in the house - how could there be a leak?? So finally this week, we took down that section of sheet rock and put up the new sheetrock. 2 days later, another small wet spot!! What the @#$%^&????? So we decided to start small and replace the ring on the commode in case that it the problem. If that isn't it - more sheetrock comes down!!!! OK enough about that.


AS the summer is over and kids go back to school, its time for my fall schedule to start, choir on Sunday, handbells sometime during the week and Celebration practice on Sunday afternoons. I need to be gat to Redhats on Wednesdays also. Soon it will be Christmas. And yes - I have already been shopping - who hooooo. I have a couple of knitting projects that I want to do for Christmas, but I have to get finished the stuff for Fall Fiber Festival finished. And then there is the simple matter of I have to knit some samples for the shop. So much to do - so little time - ans there is still that pesky leak!!!
Angel . . . . out!