Livin' La Needle Loca

...it's been a busy day so far. Not much new to report. I'm knitting away on the socks. I'm in the boring part—trying to get the foot long enough so I can start the toe decreases. [Sigh] I was hoping to finish these this month, but it looks like that might not happen. I'm holding off on the Morning Surf scarf. I decided to participate in Ravelympics (that's a Ravelry link) and the scarf is one of four items I'm doing for WIPs Wrestling. I've also entered the Handspun Heptathalon and have identified one Seawool top to spin and want to do at least one other kind of fiber. (I know, I know...over-commit much!? ) Anyway, since I don't want to have a picture-less post, how about yesterday's sky? I took this about 7am, just as the sun was rising...love the way the clouds look! Back on Friday!

...and I finished a yarn! Yay! This is Plum Honey Light: ...and the dime shot: The Specs Started 7/21 Completed : 7/27/08 Merino-Silk top from Yarn Wench Color : Plum Honey Light 1 Spun and plied on Lendrum DT wheel, Navajo-plied WPI : 12 (Worsted) This was record time for me, but I was motivated to start and finish at least one yarn for the Tour. What it meant was that I didn't do any knitting until I'd stopped spinning for the day (my left knee can only handle treadling for a few hours). I did manage to finish one pattern repeat on the Mermaid's Morning Surf Scarf an a few rows on the Midsummer Paradise socks. And a little housework, but really the whole weekend was spinning! I'm going to swap back to knitting for a bit while I decide whether to finish the Plumthorn yarn on the wheel instead of by spindle. It's coming out very thin on the spindle and I like it. It's just that spinning thin on the spindle takes a long time! We'll see...

...this has been an interesting (and short) week. Between transitioning from vacation-mode to work-mode, the fire at the Palo Alto dump (which put a lot of smoke in the air again and made my throat sore), trying to upload all our vacation pictures, general klutziness last night (broken bottle of wine and a broken bottle of fingernail polish), and trying catch up on Tour de Fleece, I've been a bit scattered. Instead of the beach, let's go to the garden for part of today's Eye Candy Friday. Here is a gorgeous flower that bloomed while we were gone: (No, I don't know what it is yet. The Husband may have told me, but, you know, mine like a sieve!) The Thai Basil is looking pretty: And, of course, there are the peppers... and tomatoes. And for some crafty eye candy, my first bobbin of Plum Honey Light: I love how the colors change on this one. My goal is to finish this yarn for Tour de Fleece. AND, I received my Rockin' Sock Club installment for July. Click this image t...

...and I forgot to take pictures this morning. Since I had Monday off, it's Tuesday for me! I'm not knitting right now. I'm trying to spin as much as I can for Tour de Fleece . Monday night, I started spinning Plum Honey Light 1 from Yarn Wench ; I continued spinning on it last night. It is a merino-silk in the colors of burgundy, peacock, and honey on a base of cream. I'm spinning it in thin strips to make the colors change more frequently. I haven't used this method before, so I'm not sure whether I'll like the results. Slowly uploading the vacation pictures to Flickr. If I didn't edit them, they'd be up there already, but some need a little cropping. (Also, I don;t know why the Flickr badge for the Oregon pictures is a little odd. They mist have changed something in the code because I used to be able to have two badges without the extra text.) In the interest of equal time, here is a picture of my brother's other dog, Vixen. Vixen hated me a...

...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 p...

... 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...

...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...