State Fair Results

I picked up my five entries from the Oregon State Fair this afternoon. I had entered in my Lilia Hyrna Shawl from handspun yarn, the Burnside Winter Twilight Mitts, the Bobbie Blue Falling Water Scarf and the Sunflower Tam. Those were all my knit items. I also had the Recycle Bunny.

They all won a ribbon! The Fair doesn't give 'premiums' for the Textiles category, so no money, but that's okay.

First Place - Lilia Hyrna Shawl and the Burnside Winter Twilight Mitts

Second Place - Bobbie Blue Falling Water Scarf and Recycled Bunny

Third Place - Sunflower Tam

Definitely going to enter things again next year!

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.

Bobbie Blue Falling Water Scarf Done!

I'm on a roll! I spent a few hours this morning working to finish up Bobbie Blue. Then there was the blocking. Best place was the ironing board, its out of the way of the dogs and has cushion. It's 77 inches long blocked and my ironing board isn't that long. ;^) So blocked in sections.

Took it outside and it was just starting to sprinkle when I started taking pictures of it. Brandon tried out a few photos with it up in the grape arbor.


What to do with the unknown bit of Malabrigo Lace?


After getting that all out of the way, I started plying Hydrangea. Both of the spindles fit into my shoe box lazy kate and up through the top hole to make it easier than the last time to ply. It's coming out to be a gorgeous purple dominant yarn. I can't wait to see it skeined up.



I alternated plying with time cutting strips and then sewing them up. Then came cutting and then sewing them into blocks. I ended up with fourteen block sets. I still have the squares to cut out to make the complete block. It will end up being eight inch blocks. So the quilt will be 3x4 and most likely a four or six inch border with cornerstones. No pictures of the quilt progress yet.

I'm trying to resist casting on for another hand towel. Need to get the quilt done. I figure I'll work on Sinuate next, though for which project came first, the Habu shawl should be next.....

Nearer to a craft room!

Brandon today made my new craft table. He took the door that had been made into a desktop and cut it down to four feet long and then created the shelves at one end also doing double duty as legs. I have storage under the table other than just crates, I have one of those that will have the stuff stay in there for a while. The stuff that have been in bags though will go on the shelves. My cutting board (the huge three foot wide one) is on the top and I just need to move the sewing machine over to that table. I have a folding table that I'd gotten from Costco that I've been using a sewing table but it's wobbly. Moved a run that had been out in the garage for Brandon's D & D gaming into the craft area to break up the floor.

We're getting a new sectional from his dad and stepmom on Wednesday. They're bringing it up from the Bay Area because of a family reunion on Saturday. So my chair and a half that has been in the garage will come into my craft room for seating (reading or knitting without TV). Brandon will move the two couches out into the garage and balance furniture out there until we can decide what goes on Craigslist. He'll do the carpet cleaning (vacuuming, steamcleaner running) also while I finish getting the craft room presentable.

Tuesday is also the start of quilt construction. I have the plans in my head, have plenty of fabric to accomplish it, I don't even have to go get more thankfully. So sewing/cleaning/knitting/plying over the next few days. I may also try to sew up a few burp cloths from the flannel too.

I'd like the quilt done by Thursday so that the Insomnia group can see it before the shower (Alyssa said she hoped she could see it) and think that's a good plan. I also got the last of the Hydrangea spun up as a single. So need to ply that. I've been putting time back in with Bobbie Blue Falling Water Scarf too. Four repeats done so far and hopefully one more before bed. So this puts me at 75 or 80 percent done depending upon if I do 70 or 74 inches long.

Burp Cloths - surprisingly difficult sometimes....

I tried on Thursday to do the Burp cloth with the Plymouth Fantasy Naturale-Multi that I had picked up on sale Wednesday night at The Knitting Bee. I should have known that the multi-color wouldn't show up the details. It didn't, but I wasn't totally sure until I was all done, I can be a slow learner sometimes.


So I ended up frogging the whole thing and starting all over, but with a different project. One that wouldn't matter with the color changes:
Cool to see how the color pooled.

I started it Friday night after frogging the BURP cloth and then all day on Saturday. It made it bearable to being in the back of the car for the ride down and back to Salem for my dad's and stepmom's 40th anniversary celebration. I didn't finish it in the car but not to long after getting home.

After photographing it while the sun was still out but not visible on the pond waterfall rocks, Norbert came to supervise, I unpicked out the castoff for the Honeydew Happy Hour Hand Towel. I finished up that skein of yarn and debating a lace repeat on the Bobbie Blue Falling Water Scarf or starting the last ball of pre-drafted Hydrangea so that I can possibly ply on Monday or Tuesday. I do think that I'll try to make sure to let the last single sit overnight before plying this time though.



Monday will be homemade salsa day. We have a lot of Romas that are ripe so when we were at Winco I picked up some jalapenos and tomatillos. We have a few peppers ripening on their plants that will also join the mix. I also need to start work on the baby quilt for Keri's baby shower next Sunday. Really wished that I could have had more than a week and a half lead time before the shower!

Of course have the problem with the baby quilt is that the fabric is stuff that I over bought for another baby quilt and do I do something more than the simple blocks that I did for the last one or get fancy? I'm leaning towards a little fancier than the simple blocks but not by much. I think I'll need to also pick up some backing material, I'm all out of the cool yellow chenille that was used on the last one. Okay, technically the next to last one....


So I should spend sometime looking at designs. I shouldn't cast-on a new project. I have three that need to be finished. Of course two are scarfs and one is a shawl so they aren't quickies by any means! I'm not that far with Bobbie Blue, so that will get attention first.

Here's to a good productive week!

What a week!

We finished up summer school this week. My one student that can get violent also was having a birthday on our last day of classes. This lead to a week of high tension with him and lots of stress for me trying to keep him from lashing out. I did it though!

I wasn't able to get to the Wednesday night knit at Hagen's. Grandpa was at the aunt and uncle's recovering from surgery. He had a tumor removed from one of his kidneys that they had been watching for a year and it was time for it to leave. I was also just really tired and didn't feel safe driving alone.

I did manage to work on mattress stitching the blocks together after Alyssa showed me how to do it live. Yes, I'd checked out the Knitting Help video but that was for side by side and I needed top to bottom. Yes, it works out the same but my visual learning brain needed the live demo that she helpfully gave. ;^) She also let me borrow her 'gold' needle. I'll have to use a Jo-Ann's coupon to buy my own for future use.

As of Sunday, I have two strips seamed together. Another two strips almost seamed together and then it will be seaming the twos to complete. I will get it done today as a goal. Here's a picture of the blocks laid out before I started joining them in rows, the photo isn't the end layout though so you'll have to wait to see that.



I've also been spinning with Hydrangea and have this much to show for it:


Since they don't seem to be showing up in my progress bars because I uploaded them from my computer to my projects, I'll show the progress that I've made on Bobbie Blue Falling Water Scarf and the Honeydew Happy Hour Handtowel:




We're getting Romas rippening, I think our water melon is ready for picking so that all those flowers its throwing out can try to produce another one. The summer squash and zucchini are also producing. I noticed that there are a few peppers on the plants so jalapenos and romas will be getting together in a salsa soon. I seriously need to get out and deadhead the gerberas. I've also enjoyed handfuls of blueberries this week. We were surprised to spot some Asian Pears that survived the frost/heat early this spring. Apples will be good this year too. Yesterday a handful of figs were picked with more still on the tree. Now I have to figure out what to do with them. Turns out this is a fig that I don't enjoy eating fresh (it's green, I like the black ones).

Next couple of weekends have milestones/events - my dad and stepmom are celebrating 40 years together - amazing! Then the following weekend is a family reunion on Brandon's side of the family. Next weekend is the last one we'll have with Luke as he goes off to Moscow for college on the 21st (that's in Idaho). We're as a family working Hood-to-Coast (H2C). New team captain and so we have an (UGH!!) early morning shift on the 23rd before heading to the reunion. D&D Jesse is also turning 21 next week and is having a party the boys will be going to, she's doing a super hero theme so costumes will be needed.

This has turned out long, so I'll make sure that I don't go a week between events for posts. ;^)