Some fibery stuff

As mentioned in previous posts I have tried to get some knitting done. I have a few pictures to show what's been done.  The progress of the Burnside Winter Twilight Mitts:

How I knit them

From the right side

The coopworth that I was spinning on the Traveler and plied on the Lendrum. I still need to finish plying up the little bit and then I'm thinking of re-plying for a 4-ply.

I still need to finish up a couple of other projects and really shouldn't have started another one, but the plan was to finish at least one of them while on vacation so I could start the new one with a clean conscious. I didn't finish either of the WIPs, but I still went ahead and started Ishbel with my handspun. I'm resisting the call to pick it up again and make more progress until the WIPs are done. Here's how far I got though:

While playing outside with Leeloo I was looking at my lavender starting to bloom. I had the thought of making some wands out them as something to sell at future events. I thought I might be able to get some done before the one upcoming the weekend of July 4th, but apparently the ribbon weaving needs to be tightened up as they dry out. I am also thinking about some batches of mustards - wine and beer varieties. Not sure that they would be done for next weekend either. At least I'm coming up with these ideas for money-making, just have to get them implemented.

Vacation Part 2 - Leavenworth & Seattle

On Tuesday, for my birthday we went in to Leavenworth for the day. It's an hour long drive or 54 miles. Up an over Steven's Pass, where we did see snow near the ditches and mixed in with the rain coming down.  We arrived in town in time for brunch. It was still slightly overcast, so felt safe in leaving Leeloo in the car while we ate. Cheese Blintz's with blueberries and red potatoes for me, Brandon had breakfast with a German sausage.


Fortified with food, we set off to re-explore the town:

Rachel had told me about Wooly Bully Yarns and without a lot of effort we found it. The big disappointment was that she was all out of anything local. It was alpaca too. We found out that Tuesday was a common day for many of the stores to be closed. They weren't fully into their 'summer' hours I think. After walking around for a couple of hours, we found a park to hang out in for a bit while we decided what next to do:

On the way out of the park, Brandon used the tripod and the timer to take a 'family' photo:

Brandon found a cool tea cup with a strainer and lid at the Cup and Kettle tea store. The Candle Connection had a fun glass ball candle holder that has an opening on the side for the tea lite to go into with a metal chain to hang it with. We plan to use it for our SCA camping. We were directed to A Paw Above, by the nice lady in the Russian store I can't remember its name, where I found some Yorkie signs to have fun with. We tried out a dog cookie, but it turns out it was pretty hard and too hard for Leeloo to eat without soaking. The store owner was very nice and tried to find us other Yorkie stuff to tempt us with. Here's Leeloo with her:

She was also able to list out dog friendly eateries that we could try. Mainly because they had outdoor patios. One was just kind of a beer garden with sausages. Not what I really had in mind. So we went to the other side of town to one called 'South'. Found out why, it was a south of the border restaurant, so I still ended up having a German sausage with sauerkraut and a side order of sweet potato fries with a garlic mayonnaise aioli. The fries were yummy with the aioli! I took the leftovers back to the cabin to enjoy the next day.

  

It had started to sprinkle while we were waiting and Leeloo had been doing some walking during our adventures, so she was really tired by that point. She didn't even wake up while I was eating over here head.

After our early dinner, I wanted to take back some German Chocolate cake for dessert. You would think in a Bavarian town this wouldn't be difficult to find. Those restaurants that were on the main walk street with menus outside, none had any listed. We finally ended up at Gustav's and brought back a piece of their 'Chocolate Tower Layer Cake' - five layers of cake and frosting - HUGE! I ate it for four days. Brandon brought back a piece of Key Lime pie, and said that I make it better. Sweet of him.  ;-)

By that time we needed to walk to the other side of town to get back to where we had the car parked to head back home.

On out way home from the cabin we stopped in and said hi to my mom who was visiting my sister for the weekend. My niece Bailey loves dogs, but her dad doesn't, so she played with Leeloo in the front yard:

Brandon was able to get a shot of three generations of 'Gilmore' girls (mom's maiden name), with Leeloo too:

We couldn't wait for Bailey's parents to get back from their appointment, so headed on to downtown Seattle and Pike Street Market to look around:

Found some lunch to share, BBQ Pork on a stick, I think Leeloo liked it:

We found another dog store that I got a little Yorkie zipper pull and a dog item for my mom's birthday. After stopping by the donut guy, Brandon waited in line for them, we opted to head home.  Leeloo found that she liked being on the pillow on top of her crate, rather than in the crate. We'll change that out for the next road trip she's on. I'd rather have her safe inside the crate than a potential projectile.

Vacation Part 1 - Cabin and River

So after WWKiP day we started packing up the car for an early departure north. We were able to get out of town shortly before 10am and arrived up there shortly after 3pm. The cabin is just north of Skykomish on the Foss River.  The cabin:

Some inside pics of the cabin, my sister and BIL helped remodel the kitchen and bathroom recently. My stepparents have owned the cabin for twenty-five years now. 

We stayed in the downstairs 'guest' room. The loft has a double bed and two twin beds. There's a futon on the right side of the cabin, not visible that can sleep a couple more people. The other two sofas can also act as beds. So in total if you don't count floor space, the cabin can sleep ten easily. I know that it has hosted Thanksgiving dinners many times in its history with that many or a few more staying there.

The cabin is used every weekend through the fall into early summer by my stepparents when they switch over to using the boat. There's a month and a half trip planned for going through the San Juan Islands and along Vancouver Island and a bit north. Since they are twenty miles south of Steven's Pass there's skiing (I think mainly cross country these days) and snowshoeing.

We saw a squirrel and a chipmunk on arrival and lots of stellar jays. The largest population of wild life were the humming birds. I spent the week keeping the feeders full so they would stay popular. I identified Anna's and Rufous that are native to the area. Here's a video of the little things fighting for space around the largest feeder. I'd actually see some sitting on nearby branches waiting for a turn:

Here's another one with the humming birds and the river.

In general there was a lot of hanging out and relaxing while we were there. Brandon got a lot of sewing done on outfits. I managed to start cutting one, but had a hard time trying to do it while Leeloo was napping, she'd always wake up when I started, darn pattern paper crinkling noises. Brandon with his helper:

I did bring my spinning wheel and plied the Coopworth that I spun on Rachel's Ashford Traveller. Filled one bobbin, but still need to get some off of one of the bobbins. I didn't bring the ball winder, so have to finish that up this week at spinning. I got a few rows added on the fingerless mittens that I've been working on. I also started a new project, I really had planned not to start anything new until I finished stuff. I started the first rows of the Ishbel shawl with my handspun, the red Louet merino/silk I'm calling Garnet Yarn.

We took a walk down the road that the cabin is on looking for trails, but didn't find one. It was a nice walk. So we took Leeloo down to the river and she showed us that she's a little rock climber, hopping from rock to rock and up and over boulders. 

The cabin has a train track that kind of wraps around the area. You can look out the window and up the hillside across the river and see the train through the trees. Pretty much you can hear it really well and feel it vibrate the cabin when its a heavy train. It's amazing the amount of trains going through. I would hear one at 5am, 6am, 7am, and 8am then a break until later in the morning. I didn't pay attention to those times because I wasn't trying to sleep then. ;-)

We drove up to where the train goes over the river:

Brandon tried taking a picture of a Leeloo standing still, but she was in demonspawn mode attacking her flexi-leash and this is one of the shots of it.

Wednesday before lunch we felt some vibrations non-train related. I had been working in the kitchen and laid down on the couch under the window to watch a movie when I felt the couch moving. I thought it was Brandon foot jiggling it, but he said it wasn't him, both feet were on the floor. He said that he'd been feeling them for half an hour. Checked in with my sister via text messaging and the area is known for tremors and a pretty good earthquake in the past.

Brandon helped out and cut some wood while we were there:

Yes, we were using the wood stove to stay warm. It was down in the low 40s overnight. Mid-60s a few times in the afternoon.

World Wide Knit in Public Day 2010

It was a wonderful day at the Hillsboro Farmer's Market with lots of knitting, yarn destashed - some went to new homes to become future chemo caps, comfort shawls for hospice patients and other useful items. We had lovely door prize donations from Jami at The Knitting Bee. I was even lucky and won a pretty shawl pin. We had a male knitter, EvanP (Rav link sorry) who had a lovely sweater project but didn't get to chat. We had a young lady knitting that impressed the knitters around her. There was also Noriko who came down from Bellevue just to knit with us. I wasn't going to ask who was the oldest, not polite! ;-)

Now off to start packing for our trip. I'm going to take the laptop, but don't think we'll have internet connection. Maybe when we're in Leavenworth? If not, know that reading, knitting and sewing will be happening along with walks and resting.

Goody Bags for WWKiP 2010

Tomorrow is once again our local World Wide Knit in Public day event. We are at the Hillsboro Farmer's Market this year. This is our third year and our third location. I think this will become our home location so long as things work out with the organizers of the market. We also will be back there again for World Wide Spin in Public in September.

Once again local knitters stepped up and volunteered to make project bags and stitch markers. Debby and Sara both returned with bags. Angela and Chandra stepped up to add in their bag styles. Rachel and Rachel both made stitch markers as did Dorothy. Trtlgrl made 40 and Rachel 20, with Dorothy's 10, I found myself 10 short of being able to give each bag 2 stitch markers. I put out a call and then remembered that I had the equipment to make some so came up with another 10.

Local indie dyers were contacted, but they seem to be busy getting ready for Black Sheep and a few headed off for TNNA. Thankfully, Valeska of Chic 2 Geek had contacted me long ago to volunteer some yarn samples so the bags have at least one yarn sample in them this year.

Here's the collage of bags, stitch markers and yarns:

Sharon at Stitchjones has donated two skeins of her hand dyed yarns as part of the door prizes:

The Knitting Bee will also be providing some door prizes for our lucky participants. They have been a sponsor of ours since we have been doing this event. Okay, if you've been reading here long enough, you know this is our third year. ;-)

The bags are all assembled and packed in carry bags to get them to the market. I have a knitting project ready to take with me (historically I get about 15 minutes of knitting done in the three hours). The tickets for the door prizes along with the draw container are along side the bags. I have a sling for Leeloo made (sewn last night and I made two!) and her water bottle ready to be filled. I'll need to stop for a bit of cash for snack/lunch. Need to get Brandon to pull out a chair in the morning. Sunscreen will need to be rounded up, I burned the first year and don't want to do that again!  Camera batteries are charging. I think I'm set!

Some spinning and fiber

I borrowed Trtlgrl's Ashford Traveler to use last weekend at Grand Thing V. I mentioned that I did do some spinning while there. I'd started before leaving so had a bit on the bobbin, added to the bobbin and then last Monday finished off the two ounces of Coopworth I had been spinning. I still had two ounces so I started the second bobbin and while at spinning on Wednesday was able to finish up the second two ounces. Here's the finished bobbins:

The Coopworth is some stuff I had bought from Kathleen to help out the family when her husband was unemployed. It was a small purchase. I understand why it was being sold cheaply, not by Kathleen, but Louet. It was full of grass and hay to be picked out. I used it as an attempt at some long draw practice. For the most part it worked for me. I need to ply them still. Maybe something to do this next Wednesday.

Here's a couple pics of the cashmere I picked up at Grand Thing. Very soft stuff and I wish I knew who the vendor was so that I could look for them at either Black Sheep or Oregon Flock and Fiber. The lady that was in the booth said that the person who had the fiber would be at both.  I'm going to check the program to see if the vendors are listed and if that doesn't find the vendor, check with the Autocrat.

Shelia had brought a Border Leicester fleece to spinning the week before from Loyce's flock. Dana snatched it up. A steal - five pounds of heavily skirted fleece for $10. There were two more to be had so Rachel, Robyn and I said that we were interested. Rachel and I agreed we'd split one and leave the other for Robyn. I brought it home to split, but missed my opportunity to spread it out on the patio Saturday during our break in rain. I'll have to try for Monday if there's no rain for a few hours.  

I had to keep Leeloo from making off with locks, she liked the sheepy smell. ;-)

I plan to wash the fleece this week in between other projects. I think it might be fun to use with some natural dyes. Not sure if I'll try dyeing the locks or wait until after its been spun....