Fiber = Spinning

I've mentioned my October plans so I'm spinning until October 1. I do want to make a couple of pumpkins too, so I'll get those started tonight.

Sunday night I spent the evening working on the rest of my 2 oz. of what I'm calling the 'Blueberry' merino/tencel up. Here's what it looks like resting before I use it for my next attempt at navajo plying.

Today I was thinking of jumping into some of the new stuff (of course!) and remembered that I had some lovely merino/silk that I had started before the wheel on my drop spindle. I spent a few hours today spinning up the rest of the 2 oz braid. It came as two 2 oz braids. It's tempting to do up the second braid on the wheel but I'll do it on another drop spindle and then ply them with the wheel. Here's what that single looks like.

Tonight's plans are to start a pumpkin, I have two different patterns to try out. I may also start a drop spindle of the second Embarrassment of Riches braid.

Nessa discovered the fish in the pond yesterday again. She hasn't paid attention when I've been feeding them but yesterday she was. Knocked one of the rocks into the pond by trying to use it to get in after the fish. She was there again watching this afternoon. Its fun to watch but Brandon's semi-concerned she may actually catch one. Norbert continues to be happy chasing his balls. Though convincing him to set them close enough to my feet while I was spinning was a bit of a challenge. So it became a timing thing - letting wool go on and scooping up the ball without loosing rhythm.

Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival and Halloween Bazaar

We were up and out of the house bright and early and found our way to the Clackamas County Fairgrounds in Canby. William dropped us off and then headed towards Woodburn to check out the stores at Woodburn Outlet. Brandon bravely came along with me. We did a circle around the vendors on the lawn then after chatting with Cindy (maxfun on Ravelry) and she flashed the camel and I got to feel its softness, so turned and headed towards the 4-H barn and Crown Mountain Farms booth. Its where Blue Moon was located so a bonus. Luckily they were also next to each other. I was tempted to buy the yak/merino at the same time I got the camel, but I opted to wait in case there was something 'better' to be found.

I found two 'mill end' lightweight Socks That Rock in the same colorway. I think they are Moody Blues, since I did go with the plan of getting a couple towards a shawl, they were easily snatched up. Missed Tammy there (lavendarknits on Ravelry), so was Tina apparently when I commented on hoping to see her there. ;^)

We went through the 4-H barn lots of lovely yarns and hand dyed fibers, books, wood spindles and glasswork. Then headed over to the second barn trying to find Village Spin and Weave. I never saw them but I might have been undergoing sensory overload by that time. Brandon who was following in my wake commented on how distracted I was walking several times. I think he got to check out the different kinds of spinning wheels and the one he liked the design best was the Mach-1, but really its not that pretty.

We headed back out to check out the vendors on the lawn that we had missed by being redirected to the 4-H barn and found some cormo, cormo/silk, and wensleydale there from Bellwether Wool. Which then caused me to go back to the 4-H barn to get that yak/merino I had stroked fondly to begin with. Then I was down to my last $5 of budgeted money and we were over checking out the food area to see if there was something there that Brandon would eat, not, when I spotted Duffy coming from the livestock barn. She let me feel some of the softest alpaca and I think she said 'Opal'. So I headed in to see what I could find. After feeling up several bags of alpaca I had one bag of brown locks that were marked as $2 per ounce and so I was going to get what I could with my last $5. As they were starting to measure it out I mentioned that I loved the feel of the bag of 'Opal' but it was priced for the whole bag. The nice lady at Stonyridge said that it was no problem to get me a few ounces from the bag, so I switched to that. This is really soft stuff!

I let the dogs smell all of the different rovings I picked up today and Norbert shoved his face into Opal's alpaca and then came back and looked for the bag.
Here's the collage of what I picked up today:



After checking in with Bobbie and showing her my finds and seeing Barbara's beautiful woven shawl I went to find Brandon who had wandered off to find a bench to sit on. We tried to find out if William was returning any time soon but he was another hour or so. Brandon opted for taking a walk down the road to see if there were any eateries nearby. We found Flutanos Pizza on Highway 99. It was great because we were able to get our own mini-pizzas.

William arrived and we headed back to Portland so that the boys could check out the Halloween Bazaar. While we were going through we ran into Camille, whom I hadn't seen since the WWKiP day get together. She's still busy with grad school work at Portland State. Brandon found a pair of horns for a costume and both he and William got a cool Dark Horse Comics preview book they were giving away for free. Lots of cool costumes on people too. Since we had parked at Lloyd Center and MAXed to the Coliseum we did go through some of the stores. We also got to see friend, Jessy (Toez on Ravelry), one of their D&D players, in the ballet shop she works in.

If you'd like bigger pics of my OFFF purchases you can find them in my stash at Ravelry. Click on the 'homespun' tab for all but the STR.

Happy Birthday Kaisha and Norbert - both 7!

Kaisha is Brandon's brother's daughter and oldest. She is currently in the first grade, and just turned 7 today. The Pasha Penguin and one of the cupcakes were made for her. We didn't see her tonight but will get them dropped off to her this weekend. Here's the finished Pasha:


I must say that getting Pasha completed was a challenge. The knitting part wasn't difficult at all. It was sewing the front and back pieces together that was a bit of a challenge. I think that it might be possible to do it in the round and intarsia like for the white and black halves, not that I'm going to rush out and do this brain twisting feat soon.

I'm crazy, I have eight projects planned for the month of October as part of the Malabrigo Junkies group's Holiday Stockpile 08. Here's the description if you want to join the insanity:

Holiday Stockpile 2008

Since the Holidays are fast approaching, and there’s always a birthday or newborn baby sneaking up on us, why not be prepared? Starting October 1, 2008, we’re going to encourage knitting for others - as one of the most generous groups here on Ravelry, it’s time we show our generosity off the boards too! Whether you’re knitting for your own family, friends, a homeless shelter, your favorite charity, preemie babies, your local hospital or nursing home, or simply stuffing your closet with things to give away (or keep for yourself - you need a little self-charity too!), this October is the month to do it!

Of course, there are those Competitions:

Prize winners will be selected for the first and second place in each of the following categories. Each category has been given it’s own board - just click on the name up here to find out more about it! The rules are category specific, but in all the categories there are some basic guidelines:

* The project must be made out of Malabrigo (some contests are worsted-specific, others will let you use anything)
* You must start this project no earlier than October 1, 2008
* All entries must be entered into your notebook. We prefer that you have pictures, but, if not, make sure you’ve got good documentation on your project pages!

Most Generous Member
One-Skein Wonder
Achievement Award
Prettiest Packaging
One-Skein Design

And, after all this, who could forget the PRIZES?

First places in each category will receive a skein of Malabrigo Merino Silky and a skein of the new MALABRIGO SOCK YARN! In some categories there are additional secret prizes!

We’ll also be doing five random drawings from participant threads for a skein of sock yarn! So everybody has a chance to win!"

I'm using the contest to my advantage. One I got to buy a few skeins of the mmmmmMalabrigo yarn crack for knitting delight and share with family members in the form of hand knit gift items for Christmas giving. I'm done with some of them early allowing me to get started on the other planned projects in a timely manner. I have gifts planned for people and yarn matched up with projects. I'm really ahead of the game this year and hopefully not going to have delusions of ability to finish them like a certain Yarn Harlot. ;^)

Norbert too had a lovely birthday for a dog. He got to go out and check out his yard for any interlopers and scared off a large bird, think it might have been a heron, from the pond this morning. Slept on his favorite perch and his boy went to the store and bought him two new mini-balls for his fetching pleasure. There were a couple of pork rawhide bones too, but the balls had his full attention. Nessa enjoyed hers over the next hour. I've spent the last half hour throwing them for him, so he's happy. We hope to have him for another 7 years and more.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. We plan to be over at OFFF for opening at 9am. I have hopes of a mill end or two from Blue Moon and have a few things to look for from Village (camel, yak and natural bfl), plus all the other vendors. Possibly a lamb sandwich and then heading to the Memorial Coliseum for the Halloween Bazaar for the boys.

Wednesday night Bobbie showed me how to navajo ply with her green. I have some yarn barf to show for it. I'm thinking of using it for the top of the pumpkins. With Pasha done, I need to finish up my Leapfrog Moss Grid Hand Towel. It's also a gift item, so working the list already.

Yarn, Squirrel & Flowers

Well I couldn't resist. I spent Monday afternoon spinning the Schoppel Wolle pencil roving singles up and now have "Caribe" because of the turqouise blue-green color reminded me of pictures of the Caribbean:

I'm going to take the 2 oz of merino/tencel with me tonight if I actually do other spinning than the Navajo plying that Bobbie is going to teach me with her green.

I received my Knit Picks replacement needles this afternoon too. So back to working on Kaisha's Pasha Penguin. I'm half way through the back so just have the front to finish. I fully expect to have this ready for Friday to drop off for her birthday along with the cupcake. It's also Norbert's 7th birthday on Friday too.

I've mentioned the suicidal squirrel before. I spotted him/her this afternoon making forays into the actual yard rather than along the fence line. Clearly in search of nuts but rather bold and daring all the same with my two squirrel hunters in residence. Here he is in the yard:

I think Nessa heard me saying the 'squirrel' word while talking with Brandon and looking out the kitchen window where the crazy rodent was checking out the grass because I heard her stick her head out the patio doorway and saw the squirrel scamper for height. She lead the CHARGE! and Norbert joined her for barking at the base of the trees:



My sunflowers aren't lasting as long as the daisy's or other store bought flowers. They do have their little baby flowers blooming though:

Spinning, Knitting, Books & Medieval Day

Wednesday afternoon William and I met up with my dad in Sheridan. He'd given a call to Leon down there to see if he had any cars that would be a good first one for William. He got back an email with photos of a 1996 Honda Accord. Price was right, mileage was low, so we headed down for a test drive.

We ended up leaving a check and a request for a few repairs - driver's seat too far reclined; latch on console and A/C. All were done by Thursday afternoon, so another trip down to bring her home:

Since we were going through Carlton, I had to stop in at Woodland Woolworks since I'd checked online that they had some rovings at really great prices. I took a look in their used equipment area and was tempted by an Ashford Traditional, would prefer a Traveler, but the price was awesome at $250. Since I didn't have it, it obviously didn't come home with me.

I was going to come home with a nice blue green merino to pair with my Schoppel Wolle single, along with a couple of merino/tensel rovings when near the checkout I spotted a Schoppel Wolle pencil roving that looked exactly like mine, and it was! Exact same color and dye lot. How wild! Only drawback was that instead of being the marked $7.95, the price had just gone up that day by $3 because they'd gotten a shipment in saying the prices had increased by that much. Still got it, along with the others:


I had also gotten in the mail two balls of Rowan Scottish Tweed DK from Melissa in Poland, OH. I'd been looking at the recommended yarn for the Driver's gloves in my queue and it was the yarn. She had it for sale - two balls for $3. Another $1.68 for shipping and an awesome deal: I'll be able to do two pairs with this much. Two more Christmas gifts acquired for.

I've since then spun up the pencil roving and now have it and the first one resting, this is what they look like:

I'm hoping that on Wednesday I'll be able to ply it up with Bobbie's help. Someone in the Beginning Spinners forum also has said something about putting the center pull balls into paper bags and using paper clips as a low tech lazy kate when you don't have enough bobbins to ply onto.

We went to the Beaverton Farmers Market today, Saturday, for their Medieval Day with the local SCA. Talked with a former co-worker Les, who has an apple farm and bought some Gravensteins for an apple pie and apple dumplings from him. The boys got a bag each of fresh kettle korn - honey and caramel. While they were watching the sword fighting demo I went back and picked up some Irish Smoked Salmon, Creamy Havarti, a pint of fresh blueberries, and from the flower vendor a bouquet of straw flowers (the pretty dried ones) and some sun flowers before meeting back up with them. I ran into them coming to find me and some food. So a trip back through to get some egg rolls for William and I and a teriyaki chicken and rice for Brandon. Our spoils:

They boys had hopes of watching the rapiers, so took our food back to watch that. We'll they did. I found a bench, ate and then started Maddy's baby booties. The rapiers didn't start when they were supposed to and the boys lost interest so we headed out.

A stop at Rainy Day Games for William and Brandon netted William a couple of disks for disk golfing. I went for the first time into the Franz Bakery Outlet - great deals there! Remembered I had a few paperbacks for resale and between those two stores was Jan's Paperbacks, so took them in to see what I'd get. They had a two for one deal. I only found one book that I had on my current Amazon Wish List so went for that. Kind of a good thing really, because I still have a large number of books waiting to be read next to my bed, plus all the ones that have just come in from the library, plus the ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy: I need more time in my day to allow for spinning, knitting, reading and cleaning, or another me. ;^)

One more week until OFFF! ETA: Will & car photos. Sorry about the heavy photo post, if you're a slow connection....

Cupcakes & Oops!

So the last few days have had a few knitting needle catastrophes. Sunday night I was working with my size 6 Harmony interchangeable needles when I started noticing I was having difficulty with one of the needles. As first I thought I had a tension issue of being too tight, then I figured out that it was the needle. One of the layers of lamination had separated and was catching the yarn. I'm using them because they are the only pair of size 6 that I have. I'm using them to work on Kaisha's Pasha Penguin. So that project is on 'hold' until my replacements come in.

I started late Sunday Kaisha's Birthday Cupcake with my size 7 dpns, also Harmony Wood. It wasn't until Monday afternoon though while working the 'frosting' on Bailey's that I had my second catastrophe - one of the tips chipped off/broke off. Nice jagged edge. These things don't sand down well.

Here are the finished cupcakes though:

I spent an hour last night and a couple hours today at the Louet spinning the Schoppel Wolle pencil roving. So my other 'oops' - I've run out of roving. ;^) I'll have to see if Bobbie or Duffy can teach me how to Navajo ply it Wednesday night. So I'll have to either pick up some roving from Sharon to play with tomorrow night, or use 'Spicy' the merino/silk roving I have. I would like to spin it on the wheel, but I think I'd like more wheel time before spinning it up.

Here is what I have:


I did go down the bobbin and realized I had more at one end and then brought it back. May not have been the best idea, but I'll have to deal with it at plying I imagine.

Spinning is fun! I hope I can have my own wheel sometime soon. Need a 'name' for the new yarn though. Any suggestions?

Spinning & Fish

I've done a few short stints at the wheel since getting it on Wednesday and after Bobbie's tutorial on how to use it. Today I backed pretty much all of that off the bobbin and started over. I'd noticed that it was pretty loose on the bobbin and you could see that in the yarn. I then spent about an hour with the Schoppel Wolle pencil roving I picked up at Knit/Purl. Since it is pencil roving it's almost pre-drafted. I still did a little bit more. There's some thick and thin going on but I think when plied it might end up being a fingering weight.

Here's what I have right now:


Brandon and I picked up the pond fish on Friday after work. Four came home with us that night and it was a bit of work just to get them. I think the longest orange one is about six inches long. Mary also sent us home with some 'lettuce' and 'hibiscus' plants. I put them in quotes because those are what my memory came up with and I'm not sure if that's the 'real' name for them. Saturday she gave a call to Brandon, but he's down in Lincoln City helping with the roof, so Norbert and I ran over to pick up two more fish and a palm and iris that she thinned out of her pond. I really should have taken the camera to get a shot of her pond - very pretty. These are the shots I have of the first four fish in the pond:



The fish are pretty skittish still. The two new fish - one red, smaller than the others and a white with yellow headed one that she thinks is female so that we too can have babies next year. The dogs are curious about the what's in the pond, right now anytime anything comes near it they dart for hiding under the plants.

Nessa is stressed by Cedi. Cedi has a nasty habit of resource guarding the kitchen and since she's taller than Nessa, she just finds it easier to hide out in the bedroom. I did take her out and got her a doggie cone at Dairy Queen last night that she did enjoy and shared with Norbert. I'm sure she would be counting the minutes until both dogs are gone if she could do that. ;^) Norbert is much more relaxed about them and hanging out on the back of the couch.

In case you were wondering, I've taken the Beach Glass Basket Rib Handtowel out of my projects. When you dread knitting something, you shouldn't. So it will get frogged once again and become a Seafoam Hand Towel I have in my queue. Damn boucle.

I also discovered I can't count. I have five nephews, I had four fish. So I whipped up another one yesterday while watching TV:

I've also started work on Kaisha's Pasha Penguin. The feet are knitted as well as the wings. Cast-on for the body, it's two pieces. I foresee this as a quick knit, it's going to be all the seaming up that will take some time, of course.

I'm going to check with Knit/Purl to find out if they have more of the pencil roving so that I can either ply it with the same colorway, or a complementing one. Question is, drive or MAX? May have William practice the drive down before his drive test on Tuesday. I'll have to get in touch with Kim to see if I can get the third bobbin for her so that I can ply.

Squirrels & Grapes

Its a nice balmy morning, not too cool not too warm and there's a good breeze going. I retook photos of the Malabrigo in natural light and am much happier (so that's what happened if you saw them late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning).

I was still at the computer and could hear a blue jay squawking its annoyance at something when I heard an answering chitter - the suicidal squirrel. Norbert and Nessa of course both heard it and there was the resulting 'charge!' and accompanied frenzied barking to make sure that the crazy squirrel wasn't in their yard.

I followed at a much more leisurely pace to check out if the squirrel really was in the yard so I could then quiet down the barking. A quick check of where the dogs were identified where I should also be looking, but not in our yard, over the fence. The squirrel was spotted in the outer branches of the filbert tree and still having a 'conversation' with the jay.

Fast forward twenty minutes or so and William looks out the kitchen window to see Norbert still out in the backyard. Our little couch potato had assigned himself 'squirrel watching duty':

Nessa of course came out to check what I was doing and then checked in with Norbert:



Since the squirrel still hadn't decided to tempt its fate by coming over onto the fence our or trees I decided to check the status of the grapes. They're coming along nicely. I picked a small bunch of red ones for munching. Here's what the rest look like:


I'm going to have to set up the apple corer/peeler/slicer tomorrow and get started on the apples that will be saved for future: dumplings/pies/tarts/etc. Brandon still needs to put together his apple press for the others to become cider. Not hard cider though. Check out the link I have for the Pioneer Woman, she has some apple recipes that look sinfully delicious I want to try out.

Things that came home with me....

I had mentioned in the Knitting Bee forum about the new classes and asking about wheel rental. Someone read it and sent a post saying that I could borrow her unused Louet S51 wheel. I took Kim up on her offer and met her tonight there for the knit night.

Here's the wheel:


The Knitting Bee also had their Malabrigo show up today and we were told that we would be able to get it tonight. So I did a quick queue check and came up with projects that wanted Malabrigo, or I could use it. ;^) It also means that I broke out the Christmas Gift spreadsheet, so I could start planning gifts out to match recipients. I had three skeins of worsted and one of lace come home with me:



After sharing finished projects with Trish and moving the wheel to my car with Kim and then ogling more yarn for a bit and watch a pirate sweater in the making, I headed out. My thought - to see if Bobbie was at Haggen's so I could pick her brain on how to spin with a wheel.

Bobbie and group were there and she did kindly spend time showing me how to treadle and how to work everything on the wheel. I need to get some duct tape and its glue off of one of the bobbins and thoroughly dust it off. She has set me the task of getting my treadling down and then have some yarn to show next Wednesday. ;^) I only have the two bobbins so plying may be interesting. I think I could do up one bobbin and then try Navajo plying to the second. I'm also supposed to bring it with me to OFFF and also to try out the wheels there. With the Louet and a couple of weeks practice with it, I'll be better prepared to try theirs out.

Jewel YMMV Footies

Ow! I have absolutely no idea why I pushed myself so hard to get these done so quickly. Both wrists are feeling pain and my right forearm is not happy with me.
I introduce my Jewel YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) Footies:


The bad thing about pushing is that I have another project that I need to complete by Thursday afternoon, a red fish dish cloth for Brandon's co-worker.

Can't remember her name but she and her husband also have a pond and the goldfish have been prolific that she is thinning out her stock of fish and some plants and also helping our pond out. So Brandon thought it would be nice if I could do something knit for her. I remembered the blue fish that I had already made up for the nephews. I thought one of those and another in a different color. I have I think enough red left to do that. If it's not red it may be a cream color with little flecks of color. We'll have to see.

The really cool thing about having the footies done is that I now have another two pairs of socks from the same two skeins of sock yarn. I was able to get two pairs out of the Knit Picks Felici Hummingbird too. Okay this pair required help to complete, but I think having the black toes looks cool. ;^)

I'm going to rest up the next few hours before going to The Knitting Bee for their knit night. I'm meeting Kim there so she can show me her spinning wheel. She's offered to let me borrow it. If it works for me, I may be able to arrange a purchase plan with her.

I'm going to take the Schoppel Wolle pencil roving with me to try out the wheel with:


No, I haven't forgotten about Pasha. I'll have to see how things feel later in the week, but I hope to start it this weekend. It's not needed until the 26th. Kaisha and Norbert both turn 7 that day. No, we didn't get him for that reason. I did get Nessa on my birthday though. ;^)

I can also work on Bailey's birthday present, her's is October 19th. I already have it all planned out. I do have her kitty for her, but I'm leaning towards saving it for Christmas.

William and Brandon are going to help Uncle Dave down at the beach house this weekend replacing the roof there. So I'll be flying solo Saturday and most of Sunday. I'm going to try to get down to TKGA and try to just 'look' at what the vendors have. The classes looked cool, but couldn't really do any this year. Hopefully they will be back here next year. I really am trying to save my $$ for OFFF in just a couple of weeks.

In other weekend news, I will have company. Greta is off to Canada again for a flyball tournament and her other dog sitter fell through. So her aussie, Nickel will be coming to stay the weekend with Norbert and Nessa. They like him and he's a mellow mature guy. She was going to also leave Cedi with me but may need her as a back up for Mellie. Mellie apparently gave her a pretty good scare this last weekend health wise and may need to put Cedi in for her.

Fall has arrived

Why do I say that? Not because school has started but because the filberts are starting to ripen and drop from the trees. We still have part of the filbert orchard behind us and a suicidal squirrel who keeps going through the yard trying to stock up for the winter.

William said he saw the squirrel this morning so Norbert and Nessa had fun barking under trees following its progression. This squirrel must have nerves of steel because it made a return trip through this afternoon. Running along the fence line, traversing four willow trees and our huge maple tree to get to the back fence to get to the filberts. Getting to the filberts involves getting off the fence and making a dash for it across a ten foot gap. Some enterprising cat could possibly snag a meal this way. Norbert who is known for being a couch potato with some ball chasing thrown in has been going beyond his normal sunbathing on the patio to checking above for more squirrels.

I'm keeping an eye out on the grapes. The red seedless are starting to turn color and a few of them were juicy sweet. The green ones I tried definitely need more time. We'll have a lot of both this year. I have to decide if I'm going to do jelly, as well as eat or also share.

I have my fingers crossed for a possibility of getting some fall raspberries for jam making. I was checking the pantry and we are totally out of jam. We have some of the pepper jam that works as a glaze or appetizer but that's not something you use with peanut butter.

WIP - Jewel YMMV Footies

I started them Saturday night and had good progress started before bed, I had the cuff and heel done. Today while enjoying the free HBO/Cinemax movies recorded (we watched Licensed to Wed, Miami Vice, Hairspray and Pan's Labyrinth) I continued working on it. I had just enough of one ball of the Jewel to get the footie to the toe. I then used some of my black Essential to get it finished:



The Essential and my red Happy Feet are planned for a pair of Dark Isle Socks. The look so cool, its hard to resist starting them soon.

I've been letting my right hand do all the work though and the arm is feeling a little sore. Tomorrow I'd like to cast on for the second footie, but should probably working on something else. Spinning comes to mind.

Speaking of spinning I had someone offer the loan of their spinning wheel to me. I'll see if I can meet up with her on Wednesday at The Knitting Bee and get a lesson to see if it would be a good match. If not, then I'll see about getting over to Woodland Woolworks about renting one. Maybe they have a rent to own?

Blue Happy Feet Mitt Envy are done!

Talk about a fast knit! I think they each took one day to do, so definitely something to remember when there is a need for a quick gift. I also was able to use up the ~140 yards of blue Happy Feet that I had leftover from the Jaywalkers so double bonus!

Unfortunately, the Happy Feet is horrible to photograph! The cables are noticeable in person, but you'll have to trust me I guess. They are a nice snug fit on my hand and I don't think they'll have the wear issues that I've had with the Fetchings. If you have larger hands, you'll need to definitely do a gauge check to see how it works for you.

I'm tempted to scoop up the leftover Shibuiknits Jewel and make another pair, but I think I'll try out YMMV first so I can possibly get two pairs of socks. If it doesn't work I can always frog and make another pair of Mitt Envy.

What I really should be starting on though is Pasha. He's going to go to niece Kaisha for her birthday at the end of the month. I've also picked up the fabric for niece Bailey's wall quilt. I had done a cross stitch picture years ago and its been collecting dust since because I couldn't afford to have it framed and matted. Still can't but someone else did a sampler as a wall quilt and I thought, why not? Just need to get the dust off of it first.

This is a free HBO weekend so I loaded up the TIVO with tons of movies and shows and we've been going through them - No Reservations, Dreamgirls, Things We Lost in the Fire, so far lots more still coming up. So knitting, vegging and having a generally peaceful weekend.

ETA: I've mentioned that I've been working on the Embarrassment of Riches merino/silk blend, doesn't it look gorgeous!