Busy Week!

Monday and Friday have been 'learn the new job' days and apparently the 'busy' days at the shop. RaNaye had made the comment this morning when I came in that the rest of the week hadn't been busy after my Monday for a spring break week. Today was plenty busy! There was a partial shipment that *finally* arrived from Malabrigo so I was able to pet some of the new worsted colorways that I hadn't seen before. Yummy! Thankfully for my pocketbook the sock yarn didn't come today. ;^)

I've also come up with at least four people for an afternoon class (3-5pm) on Wednesdays with a possibility of two more in the class. I plan to use my class money as a 'wheel fund'. Shelia suggested on Wednesday that I might like the Louet Julia, it does look tempting. It says single, but looks double.....

Wednesday morning was spent spinning camel and I spun more Thursday night and still have more to spin. I'm enjoying the heck out of it but really looking forward to having this done.

I've spent time washing Anne's fleece and took the 1/4 left of Bobbie's Big Bertha fleece. Big Bertha is a black and grey fleece and also has a bit of dandruff, just not as obvious as in Anne's. I'm trying to get all fleece washed by this next Wednesday when it will be our turn with the drum carder. I let Duffy go next in line because I knew I wasn't going to be ready in time.

Picked up my two twenty-four inch US 1 needles today so that I can do the Cat Bordhi two circs sock knitting. Cindy has loaned me her two books on it, and it looks much easier than the 2 on 1 circular method. I need to start these early enough Saturday so that I can take them along to Brandon's "pre-reunion" get together.

I also have some Dundee yarn from Abstract Fiber to turn into a sample of my choice. I've been hunting for patterns that aren't sock yarn to use. Leaning towards a shawlette, but have a couple of hats that are tempting too.

Late Monday and all day on Tuesday were spent on this, Burnside Winter Twilight Mitts:
It's made out of Abstract Fiber Supersock Burnside Bridge and Knit Picks Essential Black. Need to get the second one done so I can put them away for gift giving. It's a little snug on my hand and a little longer in the wrist area than I like but overall an easy pattern. The sides are mirrored so both gloves are identical.

Upcoming fun things - April 3-5 is the Gem Faire as Washington County Fairgrounds. $5 for a weekend pass and it will get you in free to the next one at the Convention Center in July. May 1-3 in the Faire In the Grove at a new location - McMennamin's Grand Lodge. If you're interested in a Mother's Day Tea, the Scholls Grange is having "Fine Feathers and Fabulous Friends on May 16th, tickets sold in advance only. Let me know if you'd like contact info for this event. (The Scholls Grange Women also have a plant sale the first weekend in April if you'd like to take a drive in the country.)

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.