Fair results & other new things.....

The 'abstract' photo won third place:

From the knitted stuff:

The Bobbie Blue Falling Water Scarf (you can see the yellow Sunflower Tam above the 3rd place Adult Hat winner with the fugly fun fur.)

The Lillia Hyrna Shawl won in the knitted handspun other category. (You can see Rachel's Pearl Stole received second, and a peak of the blue shawl Carissa knitted took third.)

From the handspun yarns:

The yak-merino yarn in 2ply

The coopworth yarn in the 'other'

Mt Doom in the commerical dyed

Last category entered was under the miscellaneous and was my 'recycled' rabbit:

In Tour de Fleece I had entered, like everyone else in the Random Number group and was one of the people who won. I have this coming from My Heart's Exposed in the UK. I had hoped to see it today, but most likely Monday. She has some pretty rovings, check her out. ;-)

Craigslist had an 'antique replica spinning wheel' listed. I took the hour long drive to Estacada to check it out and came home with the wheel. It had been listed as $35 but she felt guilty about her dogs scratching up my car doors with their nails so took $5 off. As Shelia and I suspected, the wheel is a Great Wheel. Not standard size, but still pretty large. The rim of the wheel was cracked in a couple of spots when I looked at it and one spot was apparently a bit more than suspected because it broke through on the drive home. Brandon was going to try to glue it back together, but Shelia thinks it would be better to just make a new rim. It's been varnished, so that will also have to be removed. The quill is a bit longer than it should be, so a new one of those will be needed. Still over all a worthwhile purchase. It's a wheel that I'll be able to take to SCA events and be historically accurate for the period. Here's what it looks like now, you can also see my Lendrum for size comparison:

Can you see the break?

She went with me to look at another low price spinning wheel listed on Craigslist on Friday. I'm glad she came along because I might have taken a chance on the wheel. She pointed out that the flyer wasn't the right size for the wheel and even if there was a drive band it wouldn't have been a working wheel. Definitely a 'pure decoration' wheel. Not worth the $65 asking price. Thanks! Shelia for the help and for looking over the Great Wheel and giving it the thumbs up!

I finished the first pre-literate sock for Brandon this last week (the one started at West War earlier in the month). It fits him perfectly, and he's looking forward to the finished set. I'm well on my way towards getting the second sock done.  Knee highs are a bit more work than my normal socks:

I have to reorganize the den in the next few weeks so that I can move all my craft stuff out of the family room. Judy (B's mom) is selling her house and buying a condo. Brandon's piano that has been stored at her house needs to come here. The grand piano is an Iver's & Pond and Brandon thinks it was made in the 1930s. I haven't checked underneath for a model number to get a better idea. It's a flat black and not the shiny lacquer black I remember my mom's baby grand Steinway being. I knew she would be moving, I just had hoped to have a couple more years for W to get done with school and move out. Then I would move my crafts into his room. Life's more interesting than that, so into the den my stuff will go.  Upside, is that once we do move it and get it tuned (you always have to retune after a move), I'm sure B will be happy to be able to play more often. I enjoy when he plays, so something to look forward to.

What's new with you?

Leeloo does Earthdog and Fair Entrees (pic heavy)

Saturday we made the drive to Canby so that Leeloo could have an Earthdog experience like Norbert did shortly after her arrival. Leeloo wasn't as excited as they like the dogs to be when they see rats. She did though at the end finally check one out:

Sniffing noses with each other.

This was the introductory station. Meet the rat, do a simple 'L' course. They also had a couple of boxes to try it out above ground.

Leeloo sucking up to the instructor of the intro area. I had to ask the little girl sitting just outside the course to find some place else to hang since she was a distraction for Leeloo.

This was the 'Senior' course that after going through the simple course she played in. We had her entering in the beginning, middle and ends of the course.

Last year I had fun entering things in the county fair, so its that time of the year again. Entered in four photos that we took this last year, some may be familiar:

I entered three items under the 'knitting' category - Sunflower Tam, Bobbie Blue Falling Water Scarf. and the Burnside Winter Twilight Mitts. The Lillia Hyrna Shawl is in the photo, but is under a different category:

The shawl is in the 'spinning' category. Its knit with handspun, and since there wasn't a class for shawls its in the 'other' listing. Did 'other' for the coopworth yarn too. Put the yak-merino in the 2-ply and the Mt. Doom in the commercial dye lists:

One of the Goodwill sweaters I picked up recently to try to unravel was just a tiny bit felted. I had thought about making it into a bag, but looking at the different categories, cam up with the idea of making a rabbit. Well I meant to do two rabbits but the first one was a learning experience. I drew the pattern on the sweater, then sewed up the different parts, keeping an opening for stuffing. I was trying for a smaller than 10 inches and one larger. Ended up using the head and ears for the smaller on the larger. Here's a pic of the rabbit with big head and ears and before felting more in the washer:

I also felted the sweater underneath the rabbit. I'm going to make a bag out of it. It may be entered next year in the recycled category. ;-) I used the sweater I had made out of the yarn samples from Knit-Purl. The sweater didn't cover the legs, so had to come up with a way to cover those up a bit, so again using the sweater, sewed up a skirt for her. Here she is:

I finally put tabs on the quilt that I entered last year. I had originally intended it as a wall hanging for during the summer but didn't have time then to do the 'hanging' portion so entered it in the 'miniature' category. This year with the added tabs, I re-entered it under 'wall hangings'. I really don't expect to win, but figured - why not?

I used leftovers from all the colors, except the light blue to make a tab. I then hand sewed the tabs to the quilt. I had also done the quilting by hand, so why its getting extra time. I don't do much hand sewing. The rabbit also had a bit of hand sewing. I was on a roll. ;-)

What did  you do this weekend?

Noble Woods Walk

Hillsboro has some really nice parks in the area and there has been one I've been meaning to visit for years, Noble Woods Park. Tonight seemed like the perfect time to visit. We've been enjoying mid-70s weather and it looked like a shady park. Turns out I was right, lots of shade, so on hotter days this would be the perfect park to walk. Both dogs seemed to enjoy it too, well less the graveled area but they trotted on.

We walked the outer edge of the park, paved, graveled and wood chips along the way.

Beginning of the walk, can you find Leeloo?

Leeloo liked leading the way, with check backs to be sure she was doing okay. Towards the end she was more alongside. 

Lovely shade

Cool tree, and a look out point

Fast dogs!

Got them to slow down to take a drink, kind of Leeloo was so distracted it was hard to get her to drink

This little guy almost fell on my head, until we startled him to go higher

This was an attempt to take another quick pic of the squirrel. Kind of cool.

This was a nice walk for both us and the dogs. Little bit of a hill at the beginning down and a bit on the way out (we didn't come out at the exact same point). Variety along the way with the different path surfaces. I guess if we had strictly stuck to the paved path it would have been a mile, I think its a bit longer the way we went.

A walk in the park

Today was a comedy in errors. I had a 10am chiropractic appointment. I was working at the computer at 9am and the next thing I knew it was just after 10am. Oops! Called and apologized and rescheduled for noon, since I had a 1pm physical therapy appointment. I got a few minutes of spinning done before heading out.

I took a book to the chiro and finished it up while waiting for the pt appt. No sense in going home in between after all. I went in and checked in and then waited for fifteen minutes. Then I went up to check on what the wait was all about. That's when the guy checked again and said he couldn't find my appointment for today, because its on Tuesday! Ugh!

Back home and there was some more spinning, no pictures, but just look at the Lavender Mist from yesterday's post and you have an idea. I popped Leeloo into her harness, loaded up the water bottle, poop bag and camera to take with us. Tried walking her inside to the vet's office on leash but she didn't want to go inside. Two pokes - rabies and blood work. The rabies tag is almost as big as she is! ;-)  I asked to have her weighed and they reported that she weighed in at five pounds eight ounces. She was still wearing the harness and it weighs and ounce, so five pounds seven ounces.

Since it was too early to pick Brandon up from work, and I prepared. We went over to the Main Library to walk around Dawson Creek Park. It has a nice series of ponds that have attracted local ducks and Canadian geese.

Leeloo danced for a couple of little girls she spotted at the beginning of the walk about here. Then we got to the more grassy areas of the walk and she was able to really smell all the birds around. When we got even with the birds in the pic she stayed near the path but looked at them. No barking. I think she may have realized that they were bigger than her and more than willing to take a nip at her.

Looking towards the pond. There's that ear!

She had been looking towards the reeds, not sure if there are ducks in there or not. 

Looking out towards the ducks from the observation area. There was a little boy to the right of her that was spitting at the fish to get them to come to the surface. Not koi or gold fish. I think I've seen people fishing, but couldn't imagine eating anything from the ponds.

The ducks that Leeloo was looking at above.

Of Ears, Yarns and a flower

Leeloo is five months old now and I have her puppy black almost all cut out. She's all silk blue and tan now. She's still in the process of losing puppy teeth. When we left for West War she went without any bottom teeth between her canines. Today, she's lost one of the bottom canines, finally. The other 'new' thing is her ears. The right one will consistently perk up at attention, then fall over. Sometimes both will pop up, but that's harder to catch. Here's some pictures of the ear and how she's looking right now. I think she may be close to five pounds but won't know until tomorrow when she goes in for blood work (its in prep for her spay in six weeks as a check):

I finished up the Mt. Doom yarn, the lovely Dicentra Dyeworks BFL in red, fuschia and purple roving. I ended up with 466.3 yards of a lace weight. I chain plied it, so its a three-ply, just not sure of the wpi yet:

After I got done with Mt. Doom late Wednesday, I switched back to some unknown dyer's 50/50 Merino/Silk that I received from Morgaine when I bought my Lendrum last June. I have the first two ounces spun up nice and thin:

One of my new tiger lily's had one of its last blooms last night and it was looking particularly pretty. We pulled out the tripod and Brandon played with the timer and settings and we used natural lighting (one in the collage had flash). Since it was out and set up, Brandon played with a flashlight and made a heart for me too. ;-)

This weekend involved lots of yard work in the front and back yards. Lots of weeding and pruning, things look different. I found out that the lemon balm under the willows was kind of choking out my gooseberries. Hope they rebound next year. We'll wait for the fall to move blueberries and a crab apple tree. I think we'll also be taking out an apple tree - small spotty apples for the last few years means - outta here! The peach is trying to show that it might rebound, but Brandon thinks its definitely out. I'd love another one, but this is the second one in that spot. Wonder if one would do better where the apple coming out is? The asian apple may also be coming out or a severe pruning. He let it get a little overloaded last year and it almost uprooted. It was propped up and thinned, but I have concerns about a tree that needs propping. The little fig will also come up front now that it has some growth. It's under the shadow of the Chehalis apple tree. Lots more yardwork to look forward to in the fall I guess! 

I harvested some of the broccoli this last week and had it for a couple of dinners - yummy! This afternoon I picked two zucchinis that will make a nice lunch/dinner side. My early blueberries are the ones that need to move, so just starting to enjoy the middle blueberries that are ripening. Like the cherries, I get a handful each day to enjoy off the plant. I've never grown patty pan squash before, but I think I have one or two of them ready to pick and eat too. There are tomatoes growing, but still green and the hot peppers are getting ready to produce. We are fruitful. ;-)  How is your garden growing?

ETA: I forgot this cool page I found for those old tomato cages that you may have in your garden shed. We have a couple of them that I'm going to try this out on.

Tour de Fleece 2010 and Cupcakes

St. Cupcake Deluxe had a contest for the 4th of July on Facebook that I entered before leaving for War. While I was gone, I found out that I won. I was supposed to pick up my dozen dots on the 4th, but no way to do that. I contacted them on Tuesday (closed on Mondays) and they said I could use my gift certificate anytime. I opted to make the drive then. When I got there, I realized that a Zupan's was across the street. I checked out what they had in their produce area and scooped up three white corn on the cob, and a couple of Mexican Mangoes (their labeling). The mangoes were all yellow and slightly smaller than the green/yellow/red ones I'm used to seeing at the grocery store. Like Whole Foods, they have an interesting selection of cheeses, and some in little sample sizes. So for under $2 you can try a cheese out and not feel too bad if you don't like it and feed it to the dogs. They also had an awesome smelling Cream of Leek and Mushroom with White Truffel soup. I brought home two servings of it and ate it on Wednesday and Thursday. I think I found a similar recipe here to try out. Loved the soup!!

Deciding on which dots to bring home was the hardest part of the selections. I went with Lemon Berry, Big Top, Carrot Cake, Toasted Coconut Cream, Chocolate with Chocolate Buttercream, Chocolate with Coffee Buttercream. I had high hopes for the Lemon Berry, but was disappointed that the cake was kind of a like a corn muffin and not terribly lemony.  Here they are, can you tell which are which?

I ended up not starting Tour de Fleece until Tuesday, three days late. I've joined three teams - Team Yorkieslaves, Sprinters and Team Lendrum. I have the merino/silk that I need to work on, but I wanted something really cheerful. So I pulled out Mt Doom, the red, pink and purple BFL by Dicentra Designs. The first two ounces are all spun up and I've started the second two ounces:

Now I just have to decide what to do with a pair of cream colored crop pants that had bleach splashed on a thigh. Very obvious white spots. Do I try to bleach the rest or try to over dye? If I over dye, what color? I have a pair in light brown, dark brown, sea foam green and a navy blue. Would I be able to do a tea dye?

Of Socks, weaving, and other War stuff....

Thursday morning we loaded up the car and Leeloo and headed south to the Gold Beach area for the An Tir - West War. It was a lovely sunny day and a nice drive down. We arrived mid-afternoon and found the Murphy's encampment we had been invited to camp within. A nice 75x100 foot area big enough to eight family groups of varying sizes and a couple of common areas.

Friday morning I was wore one of the dresses that I had been up late Wednesday finishing. Took my supplies for Sock War, in case I wasn't able to get one of the twenty kits that were donated, and went to wait to sign in. Brandon also came along early because he wanted to take a Japanese Book Binding class. That class was cancelled so he went with a different book binding class.I signed in that I would work on the sock and be available for picture proof that I was working on the sock. The kit consisted of three skeins of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in Charcoal and a set of size US 6 Lion Brand needles, in a pretty lavender color.

Went back to camp and found that the yarn was in skeins. Me without a ball winder or swift, I made use of one of the kids in camp to hold the yarn, under the guise of teaching him 'patience and fortitude'. ;-) He did really well with it until near the end where I had to remind him of the 'fortitude' and to be 'patient' we were  almost done.  He then turned it around and offered to puppy sit during the weekend for a $1 and hour. I did end up taking him up on his offer a couple of times, so we both won.

Friday afternoon I learned how to weave in the round with a board loom. Celia is the instructor's name and she's working on a Master's of Textiles degree. She doesn't spin but does weave and knit and a few other skills I can't remember. Caffeine was on a definite shortage this weekend.  This is how far I got with my pouch with a flap:

You go around both sides on the lower 'pouch' part and then just work the top part with the purple stripe for the flap.  The class was only $6 and that paid for the board loom, all the yarn and the needle. I paid an additional $8 for the comb that pushes the yarn down. I have Brandon on board to make me some more boards/needles/combs of varying sizes as something that I can do as a class in the future.

Thursday night I had the distant sound of drums to help me fall asleep. Friday night I found out that the Spartans camped across the 'road' from our camp were also drummers. There was drumming until 3:30 or 4am. How do I know the time? I'd gotten up to walk to the facilities and the drumming could still be heard from one of the encampments ;-)  Leeloo liked the Spartans, they were often wearing open toed shoes. Saturday there was more drumming, but Sunday I missed the drumming for the drinking they were doing. I may learn how to drum now that I've gotten used to the sound.

Saturday was another early morning to show up for a class/event. Brandon and Arlo wanted to take the Ghillie shoe making class but were also interested in the Haversack class. I volunteered to go to the Haversack class so that they could come home with shoes. Brandon's Ghillie's:

The haversack or pilgrim bag is a fulled wool with blanket stitch to close. I added more blanket stitches around the flap and around the shoulder strap. I ran out just a foot short on one side of the strap. The yarn is Paton's so I should be able to find some more red to finish.  This is another easy project to do and something that could be done as a class for an event.

I was working on the blanket stitch detailing when I felt the earthquake that was centered south of us in Brookings. 

Saturday night we went and checked out the Fire Dancing. While there I had the Queen of the West sit down on my hay bale and watch too. She looked over and noticed Leeloo, and said 'cute puppy'. Leeloo wasn't enjoying the Fire Dancing so I offered up my seat to the Lady that was chatting with the Queen. Brandon let me know who the lady was after I got up. Here's a picture of her he took at one of the War scenarios:

Sunday while I was working on the weaving and knitting on his sock, Brandon was off taking more pictures of the War and acted as a Standard Bearer for House of Iron Ring. He got a nice shot of the Spartans coming in and another of a battle. He's still deciding if he'll post his movies on You Tube. Barry was busy both days fighting and took a neck hit on Saturday. He came back to camp very upbeat on Sunday. ;-)  It was a hot day and the pretty velor like green surcote that I had made wasn't breathing well, so I lounged around in my chemise - how shocking! LOL

(They wear short togas, you know.)

In the Sock War information they said we were supposed to bring them to the Sunday Court that was happening around 6:30pm (time found out after checking the book, but no specific ending time had been printed in the official book for the entire event). I went to the Arts and Science area at 5pm and the person who had stressed so adamantly that we had to promise to work on them and that we had to bring them so she could photograph them said that I was supposed to be there by 3pm. That it was 'too late'. That the person who had the measuring tape, and official records was gone from the area and that it was just 'too late'. 

There were three parts to Sock War. First was who got a sock done first. I knew that someone had done that Saturday during my Haversack class. The second was judges discretion. The third was total inches knit by each side. So my 14 inches done before 5pm or the 12 inches around 3pm didn't count. The person letting me know this was never nice to talk with while I tried interacting with her over the weekend. I happened to find out on Saturday that she had enlisted someone (a Baroness) to knit because there were only 3 people that had signed up to compete from the West. I tried offering up that at least my inches should count, but she was adamant that it was 'too late' and wasn't interested in getting a picture or anything. I was pretty pissed, but unsurprised by her attitude. I opted not to take a class I was interested in because she was the instructor. 

Here's Brandon's sock in progress:

I've worked the calf decreases and just have some length to do before working the heel. He has a long leg. ;-) He will get two pairs of socks out of this as a bonus. You can also see the turtle necklace Brandon bought for me. 

Leeloo overall had a great time. She loved the babies in the camp, little Q the most though. She liked having D puppy sit her. She saw dogs of all sizes and shapes - fluffy Newfie, tiny Shih tzu that was standoffish in Merchant's Row but had a blast playing while everyone was packing up their campsites, Mastiff, Scottish Deerhound, Cavalier, a little pug mix that she had fun playing with in Merchant's Row as examples. One lady was so taken by her that she went out of her way to buy her a dog cookie while in town, she's a cat owner but loved Leeloo. Hairy men were also a preference - men with bushy beards in particular. We ran into one of these gentlemen on the way to move the car and he appreciated her attention because his 'little dog' was home with his wife. She decided that the horses that went by the camp a few times a day were scary after all. I think that's because she was within feet of them the first couple of times they went by our canopy. They look different from the perspective of the ground instead of being held by mom or dad. So where we first heard her 'ferocious' growl barks. One of the woman riders heard her and growled back one time.

Other items picked up over the weekend - a pretty belt to wear with my surcote, another two ounces of natural cashmere from the same vendor as the one at Grand Thing, and I think its a 10 epi heddle for a future box loom (similar to this one):

I found out I won a St. Cupcake competition on Facebook, but I was supposed to pick them up on Sunday. They're closed on Monday's. So I'm going to hopefully pick them up on Tuesday. Cupcakes - yummy!