Birthday Goodness

Today I had a lovely birthday exchange package from Karen in my mailbox when I got home. I wasted no time ripping into the envelope and here is a picture of what it contained. Karen stitched me the loveliest pincushion/needlebook/thread keeper. It's a freebie design by Blue Ribbon that I just recently saw and her work is just fabulous. The finishing on this piece is so clever. She also included some lovely fabric, two NPI silks on my wish list, the cutest doggie themed note pad that shows a dog that looks a lot like Cowboy with a giant stick in his mouth and the quote says "I'd really like to keep this one". Karen also included a chart by The Cat's Whiskers which I've been coveting. It's called Feed My Soul Stitches and I can't wait to get started. I immediately sat down to look over the chart and directions which are very clear and include photos of the finishing process - fabulous!


Thank you so much Karen!

Edited to add that Karen also sent me a lovely bookmark which I had already but into the new book I started. The blue colors match the cover of my book perfectly! :-)

Stitching Progress

Thank you everyone for sharing your wonderful and funny horror stories with your assorted four legged and two legged children! All is right in Cowboy's world for now as I went and got some new chew bones. I will share some new pictures of him I took last night once I get them uploaded.

I was able to accomplish a fair amount of stitching last week and completed one gift and started another. I can't show you that progress but here is a picture of my HIH Halloween Medley piece. I also need to get back to my CHS alphabet series as I really need to complete another letter to keep on track with this. I probably won't get much stitching in today as I am going to dinner at my boss's house after work.

Have a great Tuesday and stay cool! Our weather here continues to be hot and humid but there is hope that it will cool down a bit tomorrow. I'm ready for that!

Bad dog, Bad Dog, Whatcha Gonna Do?

This is what happens when you leave a JRT home alone too many nights during the week. I came home from a jewelry party on Friday evening to find this. My wonderful Ruby Slippers yarn from Heide.

It was a really busy week with something going on every evening after work so my walks with Cowboy were pretty quick. Plus, I was out of rawhide chew toys and evidently he had decided he'd had enough. Over the last two weeks, I've lost three pairs of underwear, a pair of shorts (he ate holes into the pockets for the treat crumbs I use for training) and now this!

And not only did he get into my SRT, he also got my in progress sock and ate the dpns out of it! So I had to make a trip to York yesterday to get replacement needles, pull out my sock - luckily I was able to pull back to the green color band and reknit the purple - and it took me 2.5 hours in my sweltering upstairs room to rewind the STR yarn into a usable ball. I hate the terrible twos.

And just to make matters more interesting, the obedience trainer left me a voicemail on Wednesday: "I'm making up Cowboy's graduation certificate and I really think it would be great for him to continue his training. I have another Wednesday night class that just started and it's really small and I think it would be great for Cowboy to keep going - and I won't even charge you." ................Okay, you can stop laughing now................ :-(

I couldn't resist

I lasted three days but this morning I wound my STR Ruby Slippers into a ball and if I have enough energy tonight, I will cast on for the first sock. I am going to try the butterfly pattern from the Fiber Arts Butterfly and Trellis pattern my Knit Sock Kit Swap partner Heide sent me. This will be my first foray into lace knitting but I think this is a nice basic pattern that should challenge me to expand my skills. Thanks again Heide!

Summer Sock That Actually Counts

Here is a picture of the latest pair of socks I've started that will actually count towards my tally for the Summer of Socks KAL. I started them on July 6th and this is my progress as of Saturday. I am knitting them with KnitPicks Simple Stripes yarn in the Partie colorway on size 2 dpns. The difference between this yarn and the STR that I was working with is amazing. This yarn is much coarser and feels so much rougher in my hand compared to the STR yarn. But these will make a fun pair of socks that will be a gift so I think they will be fine for basic socks.

I also spent most of Saturday and today crafting my bag for the Knit Sock Kit Swap. The photo is of the first one I made. It came out great and I think it's adorable. The problem was that it was too soft and floppy so I made an identical bag using a heavyweight fusible interfacing that gave the bag much more body so that it now stands up straight instead of sagging in the middle. I will keep this one and use it as a fun summer purse.

My bag is now ready and I've gotten the yarn, two patterns and two of the goodies I am going to include but some items haven't arrived yet. Depending upon the time frame for receiving the other items, I may send the bag with what I have and then forward on the other gifts when I get them. I'm so enjoying having recieved mine that I don't want my giftee to have to wait to long.

Super Galah Mail Day

Super Galah is a phrase used by my BIL to describe something super fantastic and it was definitely appropriate for what was waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday. This was sitting on my porch. The smallest box contained items I ordered for my Knit Sock Kit Swap partner so I can't show you what was in the box. The box at the back contained more Spunky Eclectic yarn that I couldn't resist because it was on sale. But the brown box at the front is what made it such a super galah mail day. It was my Knit Sock Kit Swap from my partner. When I finally finished opening all the goodness in the box, this is what it looked like:

I was lucky enough to have the incredibly talented Heide as my sender and she really did a fantastic job of creating a bag especially for me. She used all the colors I love, red, purple and green, and included hearts which I adore. You will also see her skills in the beaded fringe around the top of the heart which I'm just amazed by. This is such a wonderful bag. It has a great lining fabric with a pocket to hold needles or other small items and is the perfect size. Heide included a really great sock pattern by Evelyn Clark of Fiber Trends called Butterflies and Blossoms and some yummy Socks That Rock yarn in the Ruby Slippers colorway. Oh how I love this yarn! I will definitely be keeping these socks for myself. She also included some great purple stitch markers, a set of my favorite Brittany DPNs, some really yummy chocolate that I will have to restrain myself from eating all at once and a package of metal yarn needles which are definitely a step up from my usual blue plastic ones! And there was a wonderful sachet bag of lavender - one of my favorite scents. Thank you so much Heide for putting together such an incredibly thoughtful and fantastic package. I can't wait to start knitting my very own pair of "ruby slippers".

Sock finish and stitching start

This is a photo of the pair of socks I finished using Socks That Rock yarn. I really, really, really love this yarn. It is incredibly soft and a real pleasure to work with. Unfortunately, these socks can't qualify for an official Summer of Socks pair as I misread the blog and thought the official start date was June 1st when it was in fact June 21st! Oh well, I've started a new pair and they will count towards my tally - once they're finished that is!

I also started two new cross stitch projects - one I can show and one I cannot. I went to a stitch in at my friend Nancy's house on Saturday and she was showing me all the wonderful projects she has started. By the time I got home, I had the bug to start something new so I went through my charts and decided to stitch something for Halloween. I chose HIH's Halloween Medley as I thought it would be a quick and easy stitch. Here is my progress as of last night. This is what it will look like when it's done.

I am thinking I will either frame it as shown or I might try my hand at making it into a wall hanging. I am on a mission to increase my Halloween decorations and I thought this would make a good start. I love Heart In Hand designs, especially their Halloween pieces.

June Wrap Up

First, thank you everyone for your kind comments on the new look. All the credit goes to the designer as she was the talented person who put the template together. I do like the waves - very Maine and very summery. Now if the weather will just cooperate, I might get to the beach this weekend. I'm getting quite the farmer's tan at this point.

It's a few days late but here is a brief round up of what I accomplished in June:

1. Started and finished stitching F and G of the CHS Alphabet series.
2. Started and almost finished my first pair of summer socks. I actually finished them last night so they don't totally count for June. But, I have one Christmas present already finished!
3. Stitched to a total of 2,500 plus stitches on my HAED Storey Keeper.
4. Started and made good progress on CHS Dainty House Wren.

The only thing I did not have success at was my reading. I did read 1/2 of The Shipping News and I still have till this coming Monday to finish as we ended up moving our discussion date. I haven't started any of the three library books I got two weeks ago and they're due to be returned next Friday. I'm hoping that I can renew them if I don't get bitten by the reading bug.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with what I did accomplish. I'm not putting any pressure on myself so that the doing gets lost in trying to achieve the goal. I need to choose the next pair of socks to start for July and I'd like to choose a Christmas ornament to start. I started a HIH Halloween piece for me which should be a quick stitch and I am about 3/4's of the way done with a stitched gift. I need to go to my LNS this weekend before I can finish it. I'm out of one GAST thread I need and the beads to complete it. Plus I need to make a pillow form for it so I'll need to look for appropriate fabric-maybe tomorrow night at the s&b at the quilt store.

I've finally decided on a pattern for my bag for the Knit Sock Kit Swap and I've received one of the things I ordered, should get another this week in the mail and then the last few items I plan to include should ship on Friday if all goes well. Now to just get the bag made! I heard from the person that has me and she is already finished her bag! She was planning to send it off so I should have a wonderful new bag to show off very soon.

Happy 4th of July!

My town's biggest parade is the 4th of July parade and today's was even bigger than last year's I think. Last year I watched from the end of my street but this year I walked in the parade. What a difference a year can make! LOL It was a lot of fun - warm and sweaty just as a 4th should be with lots of kids and candy and tired feet. Another of those neat things about living in a small town - traditions are maintained and you see faces in the crowd you know!

As you can tell, I've been swept with the "new blog" fever as well. I used one of the wonderful templates you can find here. I still have editing left to do but I am liking the new look. There are several others out there with new designs and I love them all!

I hope you had a fabulous 4th - it's back to work tomorrow but it will be a short slide to the weekend as tomorrow is Wednesday already!

Thank you Handyman Dave!

Handyman Dave was able to come over yesterday and get my two other brackets installed so I was able to hang up my curtains last night. Unfortunately, despite all my measuring care, they were not level. So Handyman Dave came over this morning before going on a lobstering trip to move one of the brackets up. The result is as follows:

Sorry the photos are not the greatest. This is a dark room and although I tried to photoshop them closer to the original, they are not great pictures. Some things you will notice I'm sure - they are short. When I originally did the measurements, I thought I would have them hang just above the baseboard heaters. They are a bit longer and now I think they need to come to the floor. I have a few options, find a trim and add it to the bottom or add additional material and "fudge" the look to make them reach the floor. There are hold backs that match the rod and I think that would help to spruce them up. I could also use corded tassels or something like that. I do have a two inch brown fringe trim with enough to attach a row at the top or at the bottom but the bottoms will still be short of the floor I think. Here is a closeup of the fabric of the curtains and two other fabrics in the color grouping that could potentially be used to trim these. I was thinking of creating a tablecloth using one, two or all three of the fabrics.

Your opinions are welcome so please comment!

HAED Storey Keeper Update

Here are two pictures of my latest progress on my HAED. I've now completed 2,400 stitches. I took a close up and a distance (not the greatest of photos) because I think you get to see the affect better with the far away view. With the weather so cloudy and grey, it's hard to work on this - I really have to use the cheaters for this project. I am hoping we will eventually get some sun and that I can stitch outside. It's much easier to see with good daylight. I wish I had a camera with a zoom for these kinds of photos!

It rained quite a bit again today and most of last night. Everything is so clammy and damp I can't stand it. My towels are sour after one day and every piece of paper in the house is limp. I think even Cowboy is depressed by the weather. He's been moping around looking for something to do but being outside is pretty miserable as the mosquitoes are huge and hungry. Please oh please will someone send some sunshine????

Not A Total Washout

The weekend that is! Although it was a very gloomy weekend weatherwise, I did get some things accomplished. I sewed curtains for my dining room but I can't show you a photo yet because there were some issues with the installation of the rod. These types of things are when it sucks to be single and live alone. I am going to have to call Handyman Dave and see if he can fix the mess I made of some of my drywall and get the other two brackets hung. Hopefully he can get here this week and I will take a photo of the curtains hung. They are rather plain and I fell like they may need some kind of further embellishment but I'm undecided as to what it should be. I bought some trim when I bought the fabric (all from Walmart again!!) but I'm not sure it's right. I will look forward to your thoughts on that subject once you see them hung.

I did get quite a bit done on Dainty House Wren yesterday and today I put a lot of good time into my HAED. I will show you a picture tomorrow because I plan to put a bit more time into it this evening.

Although I had a three day weekend, I'm sorry to see Monday come. And I can't believe that next weekend is basically 4th of July weekend. Will we ever have a summer up here? I hope you had a great weekend and thanks for stopping by as always!

TGIF

I took the day off today and this is part of what I have to show for it: G is for Goose is now finished. I'm going to put this away for a little bit so that I can devote some time to my HAED piece and also start a gift for someone that will need to be done the end of next month. I also worked a bit on CHS Dainty Housewren so I will probably have update pics of that piece tomorrow.

The weather here is supposed to be rainy this weekend - again! We did have some this morning while I was on my way to get a haircut - my first in Maine - and it feels like it will rain again tonight. While I was hoping for some beach weather this weekend, I have plenty of things I can do indoors including more sewing for my kitchen and there are definitely a number of stitched items that could use finishing. We shall see what tomorrow holds.

Thank goodness for the weekend!

Happy Summer Solstice!

Today is the longest day of sunlight all year long and the day to celebrate the summer solstice. It was totally gorgeous here and I sat out on the patio at work and ate my lunch today. It was very hard to go back inside to my desk.

Sorry it's been a week without pictures. I have been working on my second sock and this morning started the heel. Tonight was obedience class so I won't make too much progress tonight I think. We did pretty well in class and the instructor showed me how to be a bit firmer on some things with Cowboy. We are half way through our 6 week course and I'm pretty happy with how we're doing.

I am planning to take Friday off this week so I should have some pictures of stitching and knitting to share before the week is out!

Hope you got out and enjoyed that extra sunshine!

Good neighbors

I have to say one of the lucky things about my move to Maine is that I live on a street with very good neighbors - something I never valued all that much as I tend to mind my own business. Tonight after walking Cowboy, I was watering my plants and grass when my behind-me neighbor Sue came out to ask if I liked salmon. The answer was a definite yes. Her husband had grilled salmon for dinner and they had extra. I was the lucky recipient of a "no cooking on my part" dinner of a salmon steak grilled to perfection. Yummy to say the least!

There is a nice cooling breeze blowing in so I'm going to sit and work on my sock for a bit. I also went to the library after work and came back with a renewed Shipping News and three other new books: The Conjurer's Bird by Martin Davies which I had out before but had to return, The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis and London is the Best City in America by Laura Dave. All new authors to me so I hope I like them! What a nice way to end a Monday. Now if I could just figure out my blog spacing error......

Arrrggh!

I spent countless hours yesterday afternoon in my 84 degree "office" trying to add a Knit Kit Swap button to my blog and start a list of all the blogs I read. Right when I thought I had it figured out, either Blogger failed or my PC failed because everything was lost. Sigh, I've now got to go back and recreate what I did yesterday and try and figure out my spacing issues. I thought this was supposed to be "push button publishing"????

It was quite a warm day yesterday - our first of the summer. I haven't put my AC units in yet and I must say I was sorry for that yesterday. But I put a call into my handy man guy to hopefully install them this week. One is just too heavy and the other goes in one of my new windows and the frames are different so I'm afraid it will fall out unless it's screwed in and I am not going to be the one to drill into my new windows. I will let Dave figure it out.

On the crafty front, I did managed to sew a curtain for my bathroom window and get that hung and I sewed up a panel to hide my storage space in the bathroom and I'm really pleased with the results. I also managed to get some stitching in so here are pictures of that and the progress of my second STR Pebble Beach sock.

Knit Sock Kit Swap Answers!

This is my first time joining a knitting related exchange and I'm really excited about it. The knitalong involves hand making a bag of some sort and then finding a pattern and sock yarn and other knitting related goodies and sending them along to your partner. I've already been mulling around ideas that would incorporate both sewing and stitching to create the bag but I had better not wait to long to get something going.

What are your favorite colors? My favorite colors are green, red and purple.
Are you a new sock knitter? How long have you been knitting socks? I have been knitting socks for about a year now.
Do you prefer solid or multicolored yarn? I have tons of multicolored but no solids in my stash so it might be nice to have a solid to use for a beautiful stitch design that wouldn't be seen as well with a multicolor.
What fibers do you prefer in sock yarn? I have mainly wool in my stash but am open to experimenting with cotton or combinations. Most important to me is how it will feel on the foot.
Where do you usually knit socks? Either in my living room chair or now that the weather is nice, out on my front porch.
How do you usually carry/store small projects? Right now all my knitting is toted around in a large Vera Bradley bag I got as a gift. I really don' t have any small project bags that would be perfect for sock knitting.
What are your favorite sock knitting patterns? My old faithful sock patter is Classic Socks by Yankee Knitter Designs. I also have Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road which I really like a lot. I'm knitting my first pair of socks out of this book. I plan to get her latest book at some point. My next pair of socks will be an attempt to knit some Jaywalkers.
What are your favorite sock knitting techniques? I only know how to knit on DPNs and I really love the "old fashioned" feel of this.
What new techniques would you like to try? I'm not sure I'm interested enough in learning how to knit on circulars because I really like DPNs.
Do you prefer circulars or dpns for sock knitting? Definitely DPNs.
What are some of your favorite yarns? I love, love, love Blue Moon Fiber Arts' Socks That Rock and have recently purchased some Claudia yarn but haven't worked with it yet. Definitely a preference for hand dyed and superwash merino but I'm open to trying new yarns.
What yarn do you totally covet? I'd like to try some Vesper, Lorna's Laces, Sweet Georgia yarns, Lisa Souza or Texas Hill Country hand dyed sock yarns.
Any pattern you would love to make if money and time were no object? Not that I can think of!Favorite kind of needles (brand, materials, straights or circs, etc)? I love Brittany needles and Addi Turbos.
If you were a specific kind of yarn, which brand and kind of yarn would you be? Oh I'd be Socks That Rock by Blue Moon Fiber arts - soft and colorful and just amazing. :-)
Do you have a favorite candy or mail-able snack? I love chocolate and nuts together and especially love dark chocolate.
What's your favorite animal? Horses
Do you have pets? What are their species/names/ages? I have a 2 year old Jack Russell Terrier named Cowboy that I recently adopted.
If you were a color what color would you be? Either red or purple or a combination because I love both colors.
Describe your favorite shirt (yours or someone else's). I am a t-shirt person - slogan or not, not too tightly fitting and soft, soft, soft and large.
What is your most inspiring image, flower, or object in nature? Any tree
Tell me the best quote you've ever heard or read. I read this on a headstone in the cemetery where I walk daily: "To live in the hearts we leave behind, is not to die". I just think that is soooo powerful.
Do you have a wishlist? Not really. I'm trying to stitch from my stash right now and not buy anything new. If I had to say something, I would like Mason Dixon Knitting or Wendy Johnson's new books.
Anything else you'd like to share with the group today? I so look forward to being in this exchange and to get to know my partner better.

There you have it! My answers and probably a lot more than you needed to know. I'm really very easy to please so whoever has me for a partner needn't worry about what they send. I will love it!

Yeah - A Finish

This morning I finished up my first summer sock! It is so unbelievable soft. I sure hope I got the sizing right as this will be a gift. It's for someone with a size 6 shoe size - do you think it looks right? Only time will tell I guess. I plan to cast on for the second one momentarily.


Last night I got some decent stitching done at my s&b group at the quilt store. Here are updated photos of my CHS Dainty House Wren and CHS Alphabet Sampler pieces. I started in the middle of Dainty House Wren so the part I'm working on is her skirt. I really like how the colors are coming out on the Ink Spot fabric.

Forward Progress

First, thank you to all for your thoughtful comments on yesterday's post. The great thing about stitchers is that although we come in many different shapes, colors and nationalities, not to mention geographic locations, we still seem to have so much in common and think alike in a lot of ways.

Tonight was my and Cowboy's second obedience class. Let's just say I'm drinking a big glass of wine while I type this! LOL It was 150% better than last week and I'm really proud of him. Last week he was so stressed out and overexcited I thought there was no way we would ever make any progress. He cried and flipped out for most of the hour long class and had to be located in a hallway rather than the actual room for the class. We did a lot of work over the course of the week and I saw a lot of improvement in his obedience. Tonight I got there early and there was only one dog there before us. This gave him a chance to freak out and then get over it as more dogs arrived. By the time the class was over, he was so exhausted from being excited and working, he ran out of steam. Overall he was really well behaved, sitting beside me and not doing the incessant crying and whining he exhibited last week. That's progress! I think he will sleep very well tonight and I know I will!

On the stitching front, I started CHS Dainty House Wren on Monday night and I've put some more time into G is for Goose. I'm happy with my progress on both pieces and hope to finish G by the weekend if I get some quality stitch time. I'm much happier with how the outlining looks now that more of the design is visible.

Goal Setting Phenomenon

Does this happen to you? If you've been reading my blog, you know I set a bunch of stitching, reading and knitting goals for myself for this summer. Well, I'm into the 2nd week of June and I find myself totally stressed out by the imagined deadlines these goals represent. As I was knitting on my sock this morning, I kept thinking I should be knitting faster if I'm to have any hope of finishing more than one pair of socks per month this summer. Lost in the drive to achieve my goal is the pleasure I find in the actual knitting. Instead of focusing on my pleasure in the fantastic yarn I'm working with and the satisfaction that comes from seeing the finished result of my time and effort is a frantic feeling that I need to work faster. This is the same with my reading goals - I've yet to start one of the books on my summer reading list and that's stressing me out! The only place I'm ahead is with stitching.

While I know there is satisfaction in checking off a goal achieved, the self induced stress of achieving them is sapping my enjoyment in the tasks. I've decided to slow down and enjoy the summer - as brief as it is - and be happy with whatever I have accomplished by the beginning of September. To take the time to savor my pleasure in the art of knitting, the rhythmic flow of yarn through my fingers and the feel of the needles in my hand. To enjoy the pull of thread through fabric and the developing design that results as I poke my needle in and out of the linen. The pleasure that comes with opening a new book and reading that first word and the anticipation of turning that next page, falling deeper under the spell of the author's words.

Note to self: Life is often too short - slow down and savor the simple pleasures and gifts that it brings each day. Won't you join me?

I leave you with the magnificent progress that is my first sock of June. I hope the giftee will eventually take as much pleasure in it as the gifter is having in creating it!

PS: I just came in from sitting out on my porch with Cowboy, enjoying the great breeze and warm weather and knitting on my sock! :-)

What constitutes an obsession?

This was waiting for me when I got home today. Six skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock lightweight superwash merino. That makes 12 skeins of hand dyed sock yarn in the last week alone! Do you think there's a problem? I don't think I can make a unbiased ruling on this one. Pictured are top row left to right - County Clare, Sherbet, Saratoga (definitely reserved for me!) and Dutch Canyon. Below that is Highway 30 and Fred Flinstone (reserved for me too I think!). I just had to buy all of this when I saw that Blue Moon had updated it's website. God I love this yarn. I'm really beginning to think I'm out of control. However, Amy the creator of the Spunky Eclectic sock yarn I bought at the Fiber Frolic said she had enough to make 200 pairs when she last counted her stash so I'm really not doing so bad right? :-)

I've also got an update tonight on my CHS alphabet piece. The goose is stitched in GAST Cotton Candy which is quite hard to see on my ivory colored fabric. So I decided to outline the goose in black and while it helps you to see the shape, I'm not sure I like it. I think I'm going to end up leaving it because I dread having to pull it out. What do you think?

I'm going to give myself a break from this tonight and start CHS Dainty House Wren. Danielle is almost finished her piece so I'm hoping she will change its UFO status to finished. I bought the fabric and NPI silks to do the design in both colorways. Tonight I will start the R&R Inkspot Black version. I just love the colors and the design on this piece. Anyone else interested in SALing along is welcome!

Finally drying out!

Today was actually a day with no rain! YEAH!! We had some fairly decent sunshine and pretty nice temps. Cowboy and I went for several very nice walks. I also managed to wash down my porch furniture - everything is covered in green pollen - argh. And I also cleaned off the grill and fired it up so I could use it to grill some shrimp kabobs this evening for dinner. I also ripped and cut out a bunch of maple seedlings that had started to overgrow my lilac bushes. I probably need to do some more cutting but it looks much better than it did. Yard work is hard work! LOL I also managed to do two loads of laundry, wash the dog, mop the bedroom and bathroom floors and clean the bathroom. Boy am I tired!

And I even managed to accomplish some stitching today too! I am supposed to be stitching on UFOs with the LAS bb but since I seem to be the only one UFOing, I didn't feel like picking up my Snug needleroll today. Instead I put some quality time into my HAED Storey Keeper since we finally had some sunshine. It's so much easier to stitch on this with good natural light. Plus I've recently gotten a pair of "cheaters" from the eye doctor to help with over one stitching. Here is progres from May (on the left) and my progress as of today. I will have completed 1,800 stitches with today's work. Seems like an awful small corner for 1,800 stitches doesn't it?

I hope you had a wonderful and productive weekend!

Maine Fiber Frolic

Despite today being a grey and rainy day - AGAIN!!! I decided to venture up north to my first fiber event. The 2006 Maine Fiber Frolic is taking place this weekend at the Windsor Fairgrounds. Windsor is east of Augusta and took me about 2 hours to reach. Not too many cars in the parking lot when I arrived around noon - I think the weather kept a lot of people indoors. My pictures aren't that great - it was soo gloomy even with the flash.


I wandered around the barns and looked at the alpacas, sheep and goats - some interesting displays of heritage breeds and angora goats. A man was giving instructions to two younger boys on how to show their goats which was fun to watch. There were also some adorable angora rabbits - the yarn for sale was just incredibly soft and lovely. I was also very tempted to buy some alpaca yarn but resisted!

Then it was a wander through the commercial tents and various booths with fiber related products. I wandered through everything first, had some lunch and then went back to buy some.... sock yarn of course! I bought 4 skeins of hand dyed superwash merino from a woman named Amy King. Her brand name is Spunky Eclectic and I bought two skeins of Dinasour and two skeins of Gunsmoke. It's so much nicer to be able to see colors in person versus seeing them on your computer monitor. There were some really lovely things available for sale but I stayed under my $50.00 budget - barely!

I think this would have been a more worthwhile trip if the weather had been better. It ended up being a 4 hour drive for just 1.5 hours spent at the event.

Green Goodness from Australia

This is the lovely package I received from Dot in Australia as part of the yahoo group we both belong to. The group organizes many wonderful exchanges and this one was about a specific color - my choice was green obviously! Dot sent tons of fabulous threads, two really great charts I can't wait to stitch, lovely fabric, the most adorable wooden kangaroo button and a lovely candle with a scent called Lime Mojito as well as some gorgeous hand dyed silk threads in "Tuscan Olive". I will have to go through my stash to find just the right thing to stitch using these beautiful items. Thank you so very much Dot!

In other news, I'm really glad today is Friday. Tomorrow I'm off to the Maine Fiber Frolic in Windsor where I will try to be good and not come home with tons of sock yarn but I'm not promising anything. I'm ready to turn my heel on my first sock with the Summer of Socks KAL and hope to finish the first one and cast on for the mate this weekend.

A little bit of sunshine

Today we had some sunshine for the first time in what seems like a month even though it was only a few days. So far June has not felt very much like summer. And unfortunately they are forecasting more rain - including over the weekend. Ugh. Everything is nice and green but I want to go to the beach and it has felt more like fall this past week than summer.

However, I have been making progress on my summer goal projects - with this weather it's good to have indoor hobbies! Last night I started working on G is for Goose on my CHS alphabet piece. Once I pick this up, I always end up working on it longer than I intend to because it goes so quickly. If I keep up at the pace I've been going, I'll have this particular stitching goal accomplished by the end of June! Which wouldn't be a bad thing as I've got the itch to start a new project - most likely CHS Dainty House Wren which never seems to get started and I've had it kitted up for months.

I've also been making great progress on my first pair of summer socks. I've got about 1/2 an inch more and I'll start the heel on the first sock. This yarn is so incredibly soft to work with - I am definitely in love with this yarn.

I've also read about 65 pages of The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. It's going much faster than the first time I read it but its been long enough since my first reading that I don't remember much so it's all new reading. I'm considering renting the movie version once I've finished to book to see how it compares to the book.

Nicely Productive Weekend

Yeah - I finished F is for Farm - once step closer to accomplishing one of my summer stitching goals! I also started my first pair of socks for the Summer of Socks KAL. I love the yarn I'm working with - Socks That Rock in Pebble Beach.

The picture isn't that great - it's a combination of greens, turquoise, brown and tan. It is really soft and it will be hard to give up these socks but I'm earmarking them for a Christmas present. Now that it's in public, I have to follow through right?

Tonight I plan to make a start on The Shipping News by Annie Proulx so that I can also start one of my designated summer reads without feeling guilty. I have to have TSN finished in time to discuss it on the 28th.

Summer Goals

Okay, I don't usually post goals but I've been inspired to set some reading, knitting and hopefully stitching goals for this summer.

This is my reading list:
1. The Parrots of Telegraph Hill by Mark Bittner
2. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Froer
3. Do They Wear High Heels in Heaven? by Erica Orloff
4. Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire
6. A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipul
7. Chocolat by Joanne Harris
8. The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman
9. Beginners Luck by Laura Pederson

I think a goal of reading three per month should be doable. I will also be reading The Shipping News by Annie Proulx for my June library book group. I've read it before but it was a very long time ago so it will be almost as if I haven't read it at all.

My Knitting Goals:

I am planning to KAL along with the group doing Summer of Socks. I've committed to knit as many pairs of socks as I can by the end of the summer. I also plan to knit a cardigan and the tank sweater I mentioned in my last post.

With just those knitting and reading goals, it's hard to imagine having time to do much stitching but here are a few goals:

1. Finish the letters F, G, H, I and J by September 1 so that I can send them to Vivian.
2. Stitch A, B, C and D from the Erica Michael's freebies for the alphabet book.
3. Finish stitching page 1 and start page 2 of the Storey Keeper.
4. Finish my Snug needleroll UFO project.

Stay tuned to see how it goes!