A little of this, a bit of that...

I started this the week after I got home from the state fair. It is a scarf, knitting for intermediate/beginning knitters, knits and purls make the pattern. I've had a lot of fun with it, so much so, that when I had to frog it because I had miss judged the amount of matching yarn I had on hand, I gladly started over with lots of 'like' handspun. ...I think the smudge in the middle of the picture is a Joy finger print....

Trying Something New!

When at BSG this past June, I heard Heidi, a fellow CSSW'er from Reno, talk about this class she took where you ball up two strands of single onto a ball winder, then ply them from there. It sounds great doesn't it? It is, I've seen her do it. Although I'm inclined to believe that she has had either a very good teacher or lots of practice.
For me, it was a study in patience, as so many things I do are, because I tend to start something without all of the steps for doing it, and so usually end up starting in the middle, whereupon I have to turn around and complete the first steps before I can complete the project. (another story in this post will prove this)
So I have this gorgeous purple and white top, merino and tencel, bought at BSG, just spinning it for something to do. I finished spinning it, thinking all the while I would ply it from a center pull, but then realize it would be a great time to try this method that Heidi told me about. So here I am with all 4 ounces on one bobbin. duh.
So I sit down in front of my wheel with this 4 ounce center pull ball with the aim of putting half of it back on a bobbin. I thought it would be really handy to have my scale there so that I would know when I had put half of it back. Then I realize it would be great to have both halves on bobbins, so I could use my built in kate to ball from. After several starts and stops, a few birds nests and knots, I managed to get it all onto the ball winder. I have typed all this out so you would know, I always do things the hard way. It was a challenge to keep tension right while winding onto the ball winder, but after a fairly long time, I managed. Despite my efforts with the scale, I still wasted about 2 tenths of an ounce of single.

Here is where I learned something - about this method, not about my need to make everything complicated - I really like to control how two singles twist around one another.
Do you see how it looks like one single is wrapped around the other, rather than two singles wrapped around each other? I don't know if it makes any sense to anyone else, but as in the picture above, sometimes one single has a thick spot while the other single is thin. In these cases, I will hold the single with the thick spot straight and let the thinner one wrap around the thick one. I know this sounds like I am intentionally causing the issue above, but honestly, it actually fixes this problem when you relax tension on the thick part. With this method I can't control which wraps around which if I need to. So lets just face it. I'm a control freak. :)
Regardless of my 'lack of control' this is beautiful yarn and I have learned something and had a new experience! Thanks Heidi!

Joy's Hat!

While in Oregon, again during BSG, I spotted this top in Laura's stash. This is some of the top that Mim got from Ashland Bay for Laura and I, merino, bamboo and silk (ohhhhh soooo soft! and shiny too!).
Laura had dyed this herself, and I fell in love with it, knowing as soon as I saw it that I had to make something for Joy out of it.

I found a pattern that is just so cute! It has green on the bottom, blue on the top and little white sheep marching around the middle! But, since I don't have any green yarn, and well, no blue yarn and I really didn't want to make it just like that... I decided to change it. I kinda followed the pattern! It was also written for a newborn so I had to change the size. That was all well and good until I go to the reduction around the crown, because it was based on the number of stitches around. Well I got round that too (see? I gotta do it the hard way!) and finally finished it. It was so cute! But you see in the above picture, the curling rim? Although Jari thought it was cute, I didn't like it. And besides, I want to make a scarf to go with it, and matching the curl was problematic for me. So, I frogged it. I'm really glad I did!This is the finished hat, again modeled by the ever joyful Joy! I put in a few rows of seed stitch, then went on with knit stitch to the crown, then, (for some reason, I actually did the numbers before I started) started reducing to the top, and made the pompom :)
Next will be the scarf, stay tuned!

Wow, sometimes there is just so much more to do than blog!
Well, I had good intentions of posting more about the fair, just didn't seem to get the minutes and the want to together.

My Mom's birthday was Monday, so we all went to the park for fried chicken, potato salad and other odds and ends. We had a great time, but Mom had the best. Joy has started babbling, precursor to talking, so everyone is working on 'ma-ma', or 'pa-pa', or whatever easy sound we can get out of her. She made Na-na's day, when she looked up at Mom and pointedly said "Na-na!"
But, even though it was Grandma's day, Joy was the constant object of the lens. Just can't keep it off of her!
It was a very nice day, not too hot, nor too cold, no wind to speak of and the kids (meaning Kevin, Jari, my nephew David and niece Mikah) had a great time playing with the soccer ball and foot ball. It was just a nice day.
Joy got her first swing ride and had sooo much fun!
Then a walk back to the picnic table...
And she's out!
I started working on a scarf while in Reno, and here it is as modeled by Joy!



She makes an awesome model doesn't she?

In other news, our county fair is this weekend. I've been volunteering for three years to help with the fair and someone finally took me up on it. We had a great fair for many years here, with nearly the whole community coming together every year to enter things or set up booths or participate in some way. But, the generous lady that spent 8 years of her life organizing the fair and making it what it was became ill and eventually passed. In the 10 years or so since then the fair has gone down hill to the point where only half of the civic center is used for displays (and even then sparsely), whereas it used to be filled to capacity and it took two or three hours to wander through it.
I'm hoping, by becoming involved myself, to help bring it back to at least something of its former state.
My part this year is only to organize and see through the pet show. I have a groomer friend doing the judging, and we will give out ribbons and a grand prize. I will post pictures sometime after Saturday.

Almost 6 years ago we started to build a fence around our property. Between money constraints, work, and ...whatever, it still isn't finished. With Kevin leaving in December, I talked Derek into setting a date where we could invite friends over to help finish it. We will BBQ a crown rib roast and a leg roast (lamb of course), have potato salad and whatever else comes to my mind between now and tomorrow noon.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

State Fair

Yep! It was better, it was louder and, I have no doubt, it will be even better next year!

This was the scene in the arena, the back half was set up like a frontier village, complete with a napper, a blacksmith and a general store. The front half was to be used for many things, such as hunter jumper displays of the mounties and cavalry, and the Wild West show!


The Hoop dance was a special treat, I have heard of this but never seen it, it is really pretty impressive.
The chuck wagon races! These guys went around this arena at break neck speed! One of the chuck wagons lost its back wheels, Mim and I couldn't decide if it was part of the show or not, but it was certainly entertaining!

This is a multi-talented cowboy! He may be the leader of the show, as he played so many parts. He also did some trick riding, very impressive!
Doesn't this little car look like it should be in the movie "Cars" or something like it!? I couldn't resist taking a picture, if the owner sees it I hope they don't mind. Its just so darn cute! I don't know if you can tell, but the frame is bent, the bumper is crooked and the sun visors look like eyebrows! I don't know that I would have it fixed if it was mine; so much personality!
Here is my main winner this year. A skein of alpaca/silk blend spun in a gossamer to lace weight two ply took reserve grand of show, a skarf made by a beginning knitter won grand and I was glad to come in second to him, it was beautiful!
This was one of the highlights of the weekend; the Dutch Oven Cook Off! They sold tickets to about 40 people per night, at $5 per person, you could be a judge! There were 4 teams, each making at minimum, a main dish, a side, and desert. As a judge, you went through from team to team tasting some of each dish and grading it on creativity, presentation, and taste. By the time I got to the last team, I was reeling! Such wonderful tastes and aromas, I actually went back to two of them and got just a small second portion because it tasted so wonderful! Thursday night the main dish was pork, we missed that one, but on Friday, the main dish was to be lamb. We made sure we didn't miss that one :) I got some good ideas on ways to cook lamb and am going to make a similar dish tonight to one I tasted there. Although, it wont be near as good as I will have to use a frying pan instead of a dutch oven.

More later!