finally finished something...

...for Tour de Fleece. Yay!

Yesterday I finished the second bobbin and plied Guerrilla Girl. I washed it this morning and it's drying now. Here's the pre-bath picture:

...and the dime shot:

The Specs:
Finished 07/20/2008
Tempted Yarns merino-silk (4.0 oz) in Guerrilla Girl
Spun and plied on Lendrum Folding wheel
Navajo-ply, yield: 208 yds.
Weight: 12 WPI average

I haven't decided which roving to spin next...I need to stash dive and pick something.

Since I haven't posted any pictures of my two knitting WIPs, here are Midsummer Paradise socks:

I'm knitting the foot, which is a little monotonous, but I love the way they look.

Here is Mermaid's Morning Surf Scarf:

I cast on 76 stitches, which in hind sight, is too many stitches. Had I known how long it would take me to knit this, I would have gone for a narrower scarf. I have knit 5 pattern repeats, with each pattern repeat being 12 rows. This is going to take a while...

I've started uploading the vacation pictures, but it's taking a long time to crop and edit them. Look for a Flickr badge in the right column that will link to the vacation pictures.

it's good to be back home again...

... I've got a ton of laundry to finish and some clean-up to do, but it's nice to sleep in my own bed and not be in a car. The cats seemed to miss us, after they got over their "who are you?!" stage. I got some primo snuggle time in with them last night.

The husband was happy to see that the drip irrigation in the back yarn worked and that his tomato and pepper plants are thriving. Sadly the irrigation setup in our atrium failed and my gardenia plant is a crispy critter. Oh, well...

I did a little spinning last night before fatigue set in. After I run errands today, I'll do more spinning and start uploading our Oregon pictures to Flickr. I also want to take pictures of the ripe tomatoes and peppers before the Husband picks them.

Boy, am I glad I took Monday off, too! Lots to catch up on...

Eye Candy Friday, road-trip version...

...let's hear it for a better wi-fi connection!

Yesterday, we said good-bye to my brother and his wife and they headed back to Seattle. We left Lincoln City and headed south down the Oregon coast, heading to Gold Beach. We stopped several times along the way to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. The morning started off foggy and windy, warming up around noon.

Some of the places we stopped were: Depoe Bay, the Devil's Punch Bowl, Agate Beach (no agates!), the Devil's Churn, and Battle Rock at Port Orford. I have lots of pictures, but even with a good connection it will take me a while to get them uploaded. (I have, however, uploaded all the pictures of the new stash to Flickr and Ravelry...priorities! lol!) For now, here's a picture I took at Agate Beach:

This is a searocket plant blooming in the wide expanse of this beach. There was a small group of these plants surrounded by nothing but sand.

During our travels, I managed to get the heels turned on the socks and I'm working on the gusset decreases. I didn't work on the Mermaid's Morning Surf scarf at all because of all the stopping we did—it's harder to keep track of that pattern and I didn't want to mess it up. The socks were perfect for a start/stop project. Still haven't been able to spin much...

We're taking our time going home, as there is no need to spend 15+ hours in the car to get there. I'm really enjoying the Oregon Coast and will have enough beach time to hold me for several weeks.

Not sure where we're heading today, but the sun is up and there is no fog...always a nice way to start the day!

supposed to be WIP-it Wednesday...

...but the connection here is weak and sporadic. I can't get all of my pictures edited and uploaded, so we'll have to be patient.

Yesterday, it was so cold that I wished I had brought the hat I knit earlier this year. There is a yarn store here in Lincoln City that I hadn't intended on visiting. However, my head was really cold so I decided to see whether they had a chunky yarn that I could use to knit a simple hat. It's only a half-mile from the hotel, so I walked over and checked out Nestucca Bay Yarns. They had a Plymouth Encore Chunky on sale, so I bought a couple of skeins. They also had their own hand-painted yarns, so I bought two skeins of that, too.

I whipped out a simple K2P2 ribbed hat last night. This morning, I was very thankful that I had it—the weather was cold and windy. It did warm up later, but it was still windy on the coast. Here's a beach shot by the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.

I have lots more pictures, but will upload those when I can.

As for the WIPs, I'm finally ready to do the heel flaps on my socks and the scarf is progresing. Sadly, I have not been able to get any spinning done since Sunday. Oh, well...I knew it would be tough to do on vacation...

Back on Friday with some eye candy. Hopefully the next place will have a better wireless network!

Monday is travel day...

...we drove from Seattle to the Oregon coast today. We are at Lincoln City for three days, exploring the area. It's a lot colder than we expected, but we'll have a good time anyway. My brother's dogs think that this is a great place to vacation--the beach is wide and fun to run on! Here's a quick picture I managed to get tonight.

A quick report on the Seattle-to-Portland ride: My brother and the Husband made great time and thoroughly enjoyed the two-day ride. Because they did so well, they arrived back in Seattle a couple of hours before I expected them.

While they were off doing their ride, I did my mini yarn crawl. And I kept it mini--only two stores. But, I picked the right two stores to visit. First I went to The Weaving Works. This store has a great selection of yarn, but it was the fiber that caught my eye. I bought some 1 ounce samples of bamboo fiber and seacell fiber. Not sure what I'll do with them, but the price was right... I also splurged and bought a Cougar spindle made by Cascade Spindle Company. It's light and spins very well.

The other store was Acorn Street Shop. This store had a ton of yarn, some spinning supplies, and some needlepoint supplies. They had a Tish needlepoint canvas that I hadn't seen before, but I just couldn't justify the cost (especially since I have several of her canvases in my stash). I bought three skeins of yarn and a little book called "Yoga for Knitters." I did manage to restrain myself! (LOL!)

I spent quite a bit of time with my other brother on Saturday afternoon and then again on Sunday when we went to brunch. In between my yarn store and brother visits, I managed to get some knitting done on the Midsummer Paradise socks and the Mermaid's Morning Surf scarf. I also spun another spindle full of the Plumthorn roving that I started last month.

Anyway, that's it for now. I hope to upload more pictures later in the week.

not your typical Eye Candy Friday...

...not many pictures to show yet. We arrived at my brother's late last night, after a 15.5 hour car ride. We chatted a few minutes and then crashed.

Today, we've been running around getting our riders ready for the Seattle-to-Portland ride that starts tomorrow morning. All I have is pictures of my brother's dogs. Here's one:

This is Bucko, with all of Vixen's toys. Bucko really didn't care about the toys, so we just kept piling them on to see if we got any reaction. Nope!

Since I'm not going on the ride, I'll have time to take some pictures after they leave. Tomorrow, I plan on going to Green Lake and doing a mini-yarn crawl. I'll also visit with my other brother who lives in the area.

I did get a little spindle spinning done this morning for Tour de Fleece. It doesn't quite make up for not spinning on Wednesday or Thursday, but I knew there would be a few days where it would be impossible to spin.

I got a lot of knitting done on the drive up—I worked on the Midsummer Paradise socks and cast-on the Morning Surf scarf. I'll get pictures of these when I can.

That's all for now...

run, run, run as fast as I can...

...can't pack fast for vacation [man!]. I have some of my clothes in the suitcase (I wouldn't call them "packed" yet); my project bag is packed except for my spindle (gotta remember that!); my computer bag is almost packed (did I remember my iPod cable?). Trying to pack clothing for cooler weather as well as warm weather without taking the entire contents of my closet is a challenge!

Plus, I'm trying to spin daily for Tour de Fleece. Here's what I've done the last few days:

That's about 2 ounces of the Guerrilla Girl roving on bobbin 1. I'm spinning it on two bobbins just in case I decide to do a two-ply instead of a Navajo 3-ply. I like the long color changes on this, but I'm not sure if I want to maintain them or let it barber-pole. Since I won't finish this until after vacation, I have time to think about it.

I'm not sure whether I'll be able to maintain a regular blog schedule while we're gone. The Mac is excellent at picking up wireless networks, but my older Mac didn't play well with the network at my brother's house. Maybe this new Mac will...

Anyway, I'll post when I can. Keep your fingers crossed that I get some good pictures of the Oregon coast!