It's in the cards...

I swear, I did not cheat!

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
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It's HERE!

I can't believe it, but my Wollmeise is here, AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL!

My flash and horrid photography skills don't do it justice but it is so pretty that I can't wait to cast on!

But wait I shall! I have tulipa on the needles and it HAS TO BE READY to sew up on the 19th of November at the last class. I think this is going to be difficult for me since I'm still on the FIRST PIECE. I seem to be able to do it wrong more times than I can count.

Then I have the vest for mom which I will finish, I swear I will!

And the three pairs of socks, the cell phone cozy and the narrow rectangular shawl. Really...that ought to be enough!

I think if I tell myself that I can't cast on the Wollmeise until I get all of these off the needles one way or another I'll have my UFO problems solved, don't you?

Best Weekend Ever!

This weekend was the best. I took Friday off from work, which pretty much means I only worked a 1/2 day instead of a full day plus.

My parents arrived in time for a late lunch and we ate at a lovely Indian buffet close to my home. Tikka Masala, yum!

Then we did a little shopping and I found a gorgeous winter coat. Full-length cashmere and wool blend with a hood for, get this...80.00! Oh, I was so pleased! I had been fretting about what I was going to do with my current coat wearing out. This was just the right price and much better quality than I was expecting to get.

The weekend only gets better from there!

My birthday is coming up, and I should not be getting a thing at all for it. I recently bought a spinning wheel and it is everything I wanted and more. I am learning how to use it (slowly and rather messily!) and really am glad we invested in it. I am hoping it will last for years and years. So, when my parents brought a birthday present for me I was really excited. It turned out to be the most beautiful purse. Black and Brown and embossed with leaves - real leaves that are so perfect I really have to wonder how they did it. I'll post a pic when I get a decent one.

On Saturday I went to West Linn and visited friends of a friend who have alpacas. They aren't spinners and said they did not need their fleece. This was SOOO exciting for me. They were so incredibly generous! They gave me 4 BAGS OF FLEECE! I am sure that even with my lack of spinning experience that I can make something beautiful from this fleece. It is heavenly soft and in great condition.

The very next thing we did after picking up the fleece was to go to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival (Canby, OR). Here is the spindle I bought at the festival with a small amount of the alpaca spun onto it. Isn't it beautiful? The color has so much depth and it is buttery soft. At the festival I bought some hand carders and as I was looking at the carders a spinning teacher saw me and my indecision and gave me an impromptu lesson on carding and helped me decide which carders to purchase. Isn't that sweet? I was very grateful to her, she gave me so many tips that I was able to come home and start carding and spinning the alpaca right away.

I wasn't exactly done at the festival, though. I bought three skeins of sock yarn at the Blue Moon booth.

I also bought a pvc niddy-noddy, I've been wanting one and this one was exactly my price range, cheap!

I have a class that I am taking right now, a sweater class where I am knitting a wool/silk sweater and I do have to keep up with the class but, I am sorely tempted to just card and spin until I have enough alpaca yarn to knit something with. I wish you could touch the alpaca. We were all tired when we got home from the festival, but we weren't done for the day.

Dad had a problem with his camera, one of the pins that connects the memory card to the camera bent. Four days before they leave on their trip to Asia. This was NOT OK. So we took the camera to a local shop where they were very nice, but suggested that we go home and try to bend it back ourselves. Ummm....SCARY!

On the way home we stopped at the fairgrounds at an Amish quilt and home goods sale and mom got some great hot-pads and we bought noodles and I think there may have been some mustard that hopped into the bag somewhere along the line. The quilts were beyond perfection. If I had spare thousands all my beds would have them.

At home we tried, unsuccessfully to straighten the pin on Dad's camera.

Sad about the camera, mom and dad made dinner for us. One of my favorite chicken recipes, noodles from the Amish sale and a lovely salad. Even when they are sad they are the best cooks around.

After dinner mom and I went hunting a magnifying glass light and some better tools for fixing dad's camera. We were finally successful in straightening the pin! His camera is all better. WHEW!

In the morning mom and I left well before dawn for Susan B. Komen's Race for the Cure in Portland. Mom is a survivor, we go every year to help do our part in the struggle to cure breast cancer. We caught up with Matthew, Joey and Dad at church.

After lunch Mom and Dad headed home and I took a nap until I was no longer sleepy. It was cozy and wonderful.

I'm off to knit the back of my sweater. I know I'll do fine because the perfect weekend mojo is still with me.

Time flies!

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, but what a couple of weeks!

First the family and I went to Sunriver where we white water rafted, bicycled, walked, rode old west trains, shopped, ate and lazed in the hot tub.

Then we started Joey in first grade. My baby is a FIRST GRADER! I can't believe it. On Friday I went to my first ice cream social as a parent. I met his teacher. She said he was a good reader. Yeah! We toured the school. It was pretty different from the schools I went to, very open and it seemed like it had a lot of flexible space.

Yesterday I went to Farmhouse knits and was pleased by the store. It had all of its yarns, save those in the back room, arranged by color. They had a bunch of yarns I'd never seen in person, which was a treat. I left with a couple of skeins of sock yarn and some cotton/linen blended yarn that I am going to try out for some hand towels. I had hoped to see some STR but they only had orange and yellows in stock and I wasn't looking for those two colors. They did have an awful lot of Blue Moon yarns, though, and they are beautiful.

We haven't technically joined a church, but we've started going to one. We also started Joey in Sunday School. I think we'll become members soon. Its been along while since I attended church regularly and I think I'm glad we're starting again.

Today we had the gang over for a rousing afternoon of DND. That always makes me smile.

Oh, yeah, and I did a craft thing or two:

I finished the socks!

And I finally had time to work with Joseph on his idea for a "Wubba." I think he came out adorable. He clearly spends a lot of time looking over my shoulder as I read blogs. He loves the eyes that Lady Linoleum uses on her creations posted on Monster Crochet. He very specifically asked for ONE eye and EIGHT legs. It was my idea to make them curly but it was his idea to make the beastie hocky puck sized & shaped. Joey dyed the varigated yarn himself with Kool-Aide and a little help from mom. He's six folks, and already designing.

While in Sisters Oregon I went to Baabara's and found some nice wool to practice spinning with.

Then after some practice I thought I would try spinning on the wheel.

But what I decided was that I wanted to go back to something comfortable. Like socks! So I started my third pattern from the lovely "Favorite Socks." This time with Lana Grossa. I think they'll be lovely. I'll post a pic of the first one when it is done.

Hat and Sock and Frogging Tales

I got some yarn from the Jolly Ewe on Etsy this last week and I couldn't help but cast on, even though I am in the middle of a zillion other projects.

I also have a pair of socks that I have started knitting more than twice now and I'm getting tired of failing with that particular ball of yarn. I think it is cursed. My friend Jessica has bravely said she would accept the current sock, as long as I knit the other, because it is too big for me but might fit her. I'm thinking about it but it is at the bottom of my list, having frustrated me one too many times.

The sweater vest that I started for mom was frogged this week. It was lovely but rather large. I'll try again, maybe the front panel first this time.

I finished Dr. Daddy's hat. It is modeled by my dear son here who is being blinded by the afternoon sun. He wanted to keep the hat for himself but I will make one for him later, instead.

I recently bought a spinning wheel and I am completely clueless about how to use it. I have signed up for a couple of classes but they are almost 2 months away. I will take the wheel with me on vacation this week and see if I can produce anything from it.

I have also googled all the yarn shops within 50 miles of where I am staying and I hope to see them all, or at least a good portion of them. That is if the males in the family will allow me.

I'm taking my Jolly sock and mom's sweater and this month's square with me. If I need more knitting than that I'll buy some yarn at one of the lovely yarn shops I hit during my travels.

Oh, I almost forgot!

I've done two things I don't normally do in the last couple of weeks.

One: I sewed myself a skirt for Halloween. I don't usually sew anything more difficult than gift bags so this was an accomplishment for me.

Two: Then I did something else new to me. I dyed some sock yarn. I love green so I'm pretty happy with the way this came out.

Little things

A week ago a friend of mine reminded me of a sad happening. One of the yarn stores in downtown Portland was having a going out of business sale. I'd never been to the shop before, it is not on my beaten path, but I knew that the owner of my LYS was friends with the owner. I thought I would drop by and see what was left.

I bought 7 skeins of sock yarn. Beautiful. It is sad, though, the store was nice, and they had a great selection. It is a loss for all Portland area knitters.

My son, however, was delighted by one of the skeins I chose, a yellow/green Koigu.


Like his father, he only wears "short socks" but that's all the better because I only had to use one skein. I'm sure I'll find a use for the second.

Oh, and I read the new Harry Potter book. It was better than I expected it to be, and it surprised me more than once. Delightful!

This evening we went to the Washington County Fair and ate and road some rides and watched the rodeo for a couple of hours. It couldn't have been a better day.

Tomorrow morning I am going to walk with the gals. I need to, that burrito was HUGE!

Someday I'll learn to use a camera

Hand painted luxury for a dear friend.

A girlfriend of my distant past left her phone number for me just recently. As my thoughts dwelled on her this beautiful yarn called to me; knit something beautiful for her! She was very special to me, a friend, but also a mentor because she was a few years older. Extremely creative, smart and liberal, she was definitely someone that I looked up to and admired from grade school up to college. I haven't spoken to her in...I'm not sure, 17-18 years now and I can't wait to hear her voice on the phone. We're playing phone tag, but until I do get to talk to her...at least I can knit for her.

Annie...this is for u...

I only wish I could take a better picture, the colors of this yarn are so awesome!