Livin' La Needle Loca

...looky here ...a picture of my yarn and some kudos!! I took a small skein of handspun seawool to the Creatively Dyed booth to show Dianne how her fiber spun-up for me (for the record, it is soft and sproingy and just yummy). She took a picture and posted it on her blog! What a nice thing to do! Thanks, Dianne! After my second all day class, I am exhausted! I learned lots in Cat's moebius class and my project is coming along very nicely. It's too dark to take pictures now, but I'll post a bunch when I get a chance. Tomorrow is the last day of Stitches...that went by really fast! I'm meeting a friend for lunch at the market and then I'll do my last cycle through. I've been eyeing a Namaste bag at the Yarndogs booth...gotta think on that one!

...so here's a quick Eye Candy installment. I got home after 5:30 and saw this: Sunsets are not something I normally see on Fridays, so this was a nice change. I had a long day at Stitches West. My "Spinning Cotton for Knitting" class started at 8:30 and was really good. I tell ya, spinning with a charka is not a slam dunk. You use your left hand to feed the cotton and the right hand to turn the charka wheel. My left hand...not so dextrous and kind of clueless. It paid no attention to what I wanted it to do! I did manage to kind of get the hang of it and got a small skein of yarn. I decided not to invest in a charka right now. Instead I'm going to use the fast flyer on my wheel and practice spinning cotton on that before I go back to the charka. I'll have a longer report on the market after I've had a chance to take some pictures. But here's a sample of some of the yummy stuff I bought: This is Manos Silk Blend-30% silk and 70% Merino Extra Fine wool. It ...

...my hair is cut, and I'm (almost) ready to go. My little Saturn is hardly a jet plane, but it will get me to the Santa Clara Convention for Stitches West!! Tomorrow I pick up my registration packet and go to the Market Preview—I plan on doing most of my shopping then. Friday and Saturday I have all day classes, so I won't have a lot of time to shop. I'll go back on Sunday to finish my shopping and have lunch with a friend. So looking forward to this! Anyway, for WIP-is Wednesday, here is the Chocolate Covered Raspberries yarn that I'm spinning: Off to check my list and make sure I have everything... (Open...Open...Open...)

...and they fit! See: The picture makes it look like the cuffs are different lengths, but they're not. Here's another view: Specs: Finished 2/21/2009 Pattern : Jaywalker Socks by Grumperina Yarn : Blue Moon Fiber Arts , Socks That Rock Lightweight in Incredible Shrinking Violet (2008 Club color) Needles : US 1 1/2 (2mm) I love the way the striping turned out. There was a little color pooling, but not too much. I spent a little time gathering my things together for Stitches West. However, before I could so that, I had to put away a bunch of fabric I had pulled out when I was sewing the tote bag. I had gathered several purple fabrics to see whether they matched the tote bag colors...I thought I might add a fourth color. However, just as purple is a hard color to photograph, it's hard to match purples in fabric. Anyway, I needed to get that back on the shelves so I'd have enough room to lay out my knitting stuff. One of the things I needed to do was find a yarn that wa...

...starting with a sky picture (because you knew I would). Things are still drying out, but the rain is supposed to start up again soon. Our garden is starting to come to life again. The weeping Santa Rosa plum tree has lots of buds and a few blossoms: Our daffodils are starting to bloom. I've been playing with Picnik again...here's an edited daffodil picture for you (click to embiggen): There are a couple more pictures in my Flickr photostream . On the craft front, I've wound the yarn for my Rockin' Sock Club socks and strung all the beads: As soon as I finish the Jaywalkers, I'm starting on these socks. I'm finally to the toes of the Jaywalkers (YAY!), so I'm hoping to finish them this weekend. Also up this weekend, start getting my stuff organized for Stitches West. I'm taking some extra time off next week, so I have plenty of time. I just want to make sure that I know whether I'm missing anything and make sure to do my homework for one class....

...we're enjoying a little break. Here's what I saw when I got back from the gym: ...a little crescent moon, some blue sky, and a few wispy clouds. The rain is supposed to start up again this weekend, so we'll get a chance to dry out a bit. Back on Friday!

...I was totally engrossed in a craft project yesterday and didn't get done until late! Overall it was a very good weekend. For Valentine's Day, the husband and I decided we'd rather spend the money on a nice dinner at home than at a restaurant. I made us a nice dinner of steak (for me)and Tombo Tuna (for him), with baked potatoes (in the oven, not the microwave!) with sour cream and our own home-grown chives. Some fresh cauliflower and a salad rounded out the meaI. For dessert, I made some dark chocolate dipped strawberries and served them with whipped cream. That and a bottle of champagne, YUMMY! The rain pretty much kept me indoors, so I was able to work on both the scarf and my socks. However, I did not finish either one. Instead, I finished spinning Dragonfly Wings: and the close up... Specs: Finished 2/15/09 Merino-sil k top by The Yarn Wench Spun and plied on Lendrum DT folding wheel Yards: 536+ yard of 2-ply WPI: 15 average It felt good to finish this one. I...

... so looking forward to an extra day off! So remember the purple and silver stitch markers I posted about last week? They were part of the package I sent to Bianca for winning my Blogoversary contest. In addition to the Sundara Lenten Rose yarn that she won, I included a few other goodies, just cuz! You can see a picture of the whole package in her blog , but I wanted to give you a closer look at a few of things. I included this little bag that I made using Happythings' drawstring pattern ( Love this pattern!). The outside fabric is a fat quarter I picked up somewhere along the way, so I have no idea of what fabric line it's from: And, yes, I purposely turned the dotted side of ribbon to the inside rather that the outside...I just thought it wold be a nice little surprise. Here's a view of the inside. I used a Michael Miller "Fairy Frost" (one of my favorite fabric lines) for the inside. I included a pink scissor leash (fob) that I made. I made one for ev...

...leaves nothin'. I have nothing new to show. I'm still working away on the Jaywalkers, the Argosy Scarf, and the February Lady sweater. {sigh} I wish I knit faster—I really want to be done with one of these projects! One good thing: I thought that it would take a week before I got my sewing machine back. They called Monday afternoon and said it was ready, so I picked it up last night on my way home. Yay! It's all clean and oiled..they say it's working perfectly. Now I can work on a sewing project that has been percolating in my brain--a new knitting tote bag. I want one that I can use to carry my knitting stuff for my Stitches classes, that has enough room to carry a few market purchases, and that won't become a black hole that sucks up everything I put in it. A tall order...we'll see how far I get! Anyway, here's one of my older quilts called "Food Fight!" I used a Terry Atkinson pattern called "Lasagne" and some of my collection of...

...and I'm hoping that this week is a little more normal! I was determined to the make the most of my weekend and get a couple of things done that I've put off for too long. First off, I closed my craft account. For many years, I kept a separate bank account that I used for my hobby business and for my craft show spending. Before going to a stitching, quilting, or knitting show, I'd deposit a set amount of $$ in the account and use only that account for my purchases. It worked great for stitchery shows because they were always out of town (Sacramento or Southern California) and I didn't have to rely on credit cards. It doesn't work as well for International Quilt Festival or Stitches West because they are both essentially "in town." (15 minutes away is "in town," right?) I didn't have a lot in the account and I hadn't used it in over a year, so it was time to close it. Next, I took my sewing machine to a local sewing and vacuum service st...

...'cuz I'm really done with this week! I just feel like curling up on the couch with a couple of kitties, a good book, and some hot chocolate. I'd love it if the rain continued all weekend so I'd have an excuse to stay inside! Today's eye candy is courtesy of our trees that are blossoming like crazy. Here is a blossom from our rogue apricot tree with a tiny visitor taking a drink from a rain drop: Our flowering plum tree is almost in full bloom: As I was reviewing my pictures this morning, I noticed this cool reflection: Up this weekend: who knows!? I'm still suffering from a little knitting (who am I kidding?) full-on craft ennui. We'll see just how much I actually get done!

...the Husband and I are in denial that we have a 31 year-old daughter! (We refuse to be that old...) Anyway, she's on her way to Vegas to celebrate with some friends. I know she'll have a great time! Here she is in front of the Lincoln Memorial when she went to the Inauguration (she'll probably kill me for posting this picture! LOL!) No news on the WIP front...still working on the same two projects. And work continues to be fun with our flaky router...it's really hard to get anything done when the Internet goes up and down. Here's one more picture. Hopefully, this post won't take forever to upload!

...our router at work decided to be a PITA and not come back up after a reset. So we were offline for quite a while. We're back now and I can finally post my recap (see separate post) and my weekend report. First off, no spinning because my attention was focused elsewhere (see below). And I knit a little on the socks and on the scarf, but nothing else. I made soap!! I made some Gardener's Soap for a friend (lemongrass, peppermint, cornmeal, chamomile, and apricot seed.), a few bars of Butter Mint (vanilla and peppermint), and a few bars of Creative Dreams (peppermint, rosemary, rose, clove, and some Calendula petals). It felt good to get back to this. I love the scent of essential oils!) No pictures yet... I found some cool charms and beads at Michaels. I made two sets of stitch markers. Amethyst and silver: Sea shell: Saturday morning was cool and foggy, perfect weather for taking some macro pictures. It was the morning of the spider...several of my pictures have spider web...

Finished: 1/31 Shell stitch markers 1/31 Amethyst stitch markers Worked on: Jaywalker socks (knitting) [ Ravelry ] February Lady Sweater (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Started: 1/24 Argosy scarf (knitting) [ Ravelry ] 1/10 Dragonfly Wings Merino-Silk yarn (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Works In Progress, did not work on: Black leg warmers in Caron Simply Soft yarn (knitting) Morning Surf Scarf (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Sea Foam Wrap (knitting) [ Ravelry ] UFOs: Angora Cottage 70% Merino and 30% Silk 4 oz.roving in purple [ Ravelry ] Cascade Fixation anklets (knitting) Central Air socks (knitting) Chasing Rainbows Heather--one Merino-Bombyx (2 oz) and one Merino wool (2 oz) (spinning) Dogosaurus Rex sweater (knitting) [ Ravelry } Flower Power quilt; top finished, need to sandwich and quilt (quilting) Hopi by Susan Portra (needlepoint) Jungle Songs quilt; top finished, need to sandwich and quilt (quilting) Montego Bay wrap in Walking on the Wild Tide yarn, using Montego Bay scarf pattern from Interweave K...

...I'll post when I can.