Mishmash

What's been going on.....
We had another Gem Faire the weekend after the County Fair. I knew I wanted to find some silver crimp beads and found those. I also thought about adding some beads the Ishbel that is languishing in my project basket and found some pretty red ones that may still be used with it. Rachel met me there and I showed her where I found my red 6/0 beads and then she tempted me with the $1 strands of swaroski beads. I restrained myself and only bought a couple strands. Lots of lovely things to tempt, but unless I had a specific project in mind, I didn't want to spend the money. I wished afterward that I had picked up more than two of the little glass hearts, they were .25 each.  He's local so I'm sure he'll be at the next one. There's another Gem Faire in November and I may definitely have more ideas then.

There was a Spinning Bee at The Knitting Bee where an idea was hatched out further with help from friends. I'm going to tease you with that and there may be an explanation later. ;-)  After the Spinning Bee a group of us went to Goodwill to try to find sweaters to re-purpose. There was some success, but I didn't come home with a sweater. Instead I came home with some cream brocade, a wood tray and a salad bowl set - all that I can use with our SCA adventures. There's enough fabric for a dress and only $4.99, the tray was $3.99 and the set was also $3.99 (large bowl, three smaller ones and the fork/spoon). The fabric will be dyed, I'm thinking of a nice burgundy color.

Items taken to the Washington Country Fair were also entered in the Oregon State Fair, except the yarns. They have different handspun yarn rules, that I might try to compete in for next year, but not this year. Not sure if we'll actually get down for the Fair. I might have to wait until September 9th when I pick up my items to find out how they did.

I finally finished the Pre-Literate Socks that I was making for Brandon. This weekend is Shire's Defender's Tourney.  We're going down for the weekend since its at Willamette Mission State Park.  He'll try out the socks with his boots at the event. I have a snood (thumbnail in the sidebar) started that I'm going to bust a stitch to get done so I can use for the weekend.  Here's the socks:

Leeloo turned six months old and a couple days later had her spay surgery. I've spent this week trying to keep her from running around and overexerting herself per the vet's orders. She was on board for this idea the first couple of days but the last few she thinks I'm a terrible person for not letting her run and play the way she wants to. Her spay was done a few weeks earlier than I had planned because she had three baby canine teeth that hadn't fallen out and weren't acting loose. One was coming inside towards the palate and would affect her bite so why there was a push to get it out before it started to fully touch the top. The night before her surgery she was really mouthy and must have been when she lost one of her baby canines because when I picked her up they had only removed two. She now weighs six pounds. 

At spinning I took advantage of the Grange's long table to cut out another surcote from the the one that Brandon had cut out for me out of muslin. The cream muslin will need to be dyed tonight, but I have it sewn except for the hem. I'll sew up the second surcote tonight after deciding if I do the center gores. I have chocolate zucchini bread made up from garden zucchini that we'll take along. Brandon will be making up some of the family recipe of beans for the Friday night potluck. I'm trying to figure out a way to reheat stuffed pasta shells or if its too much of a hassle. My fall back idea is to take chicken curry. I get lunch with the family on Saturday. My stepmother turns 70 and my brother-in-law turns 40 this month so there's a family get together in Salem. I'll just leave the event for a couple of hours to participate. We'll do oatmeal for one breakfast and I think I'll try to get some blueberry (fresh from our garden) scones to take too.

ETA: If you like babies, check out this blog where the mom has been posing her baby while she naps.

Days 5, 6, 7 & 8 and a Bead Faire

So days 5 and 6 found me with a migraine after working in the morning. They were muscle triggered. I had a muscle group in my right shoulder that were triggering pain up my neck into my head. So not your typical migraine but they weren't going away with massage or the use of a vicodin. So there wasn't even knitting going on those days.

Days 7 and 8 I got the last of the Habu Romney and Corriedale all spun up. They are currently drying in skeins. Yup! I even have them plied. The Green Tea Corriedale doesn't have much, but then since I was only working with 1/2 an ounce, I'm happy with what I got. I still need to measure to see how much yardage/wpi I have.

I took this:


and the two on the right of this:


along with all of this, all plied (but forgot to take a picture of that!):


and then found that some of it wasn't plied together correctly because I re-plied it all together to get this:


They are all washed to set the twist and drying on my swift as what will be one skein of yarn. Okay, it will be a most interesting skein what with the color in the middle along with the white twist, but should make an good hat, if there's enough yardage. Will need to see how much combining the bits and pieces all together gets me.

Brandon and I went to the Bead show in May when it was at the Washington County Fairgrounds. We had paid $5 each to get in and they gave us coupons to get in free to the next show. The next show is this weekend at the Portland Convention Center. We hoped on MAX yesterday afternoon and went to check things out. I had a few things in mind, but nothing set in stone. I used my time on MAX to start another Chinese Wave Dishcloth. I worked on it there and back and had 90% of it done to show for my time on the ride. Here it is:


I picked up some magnet clasps so I can use for two projects (anklet and something else). I also found a pretty curve carved rose quartz massage wand for only $6. Previous tables had just plain rose quartz wands for $15, so an awesome deal! No pics of it, sorry, enough of those already. ;^)

Day 9 will see me breaking out my Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester sliver to start spinning that. After all it is all that is left in my stash! I have hopes for a really fine spin and ply for these two bundles. I'm going to go slow and put in a lot of effort to get that, so there may not be lots of progress unless things go well.

knitting, plants, beads and prom

We were up early enough to arrive at the Tualatin Valley Garden Club plant sale and purchase some large tomato plants. Last year by the time we got there, there were a few of the larger tomatoes, luckily a couple of the Romas I like to plant. Brandon picked out a third one that I can't remember the name of to add to the two Romas I picked up. We also from that vendor got a pumpkin, crook neck squash, green zucchini, colossal pepper, egg plant, anaheim chili, and giant jalapeno. There are a few other plants for the yard but for the most part we held back from making any purchases for things in the yard. I want to do a major revamp of flower beds so it didn't make sense to buy anything when I'm not sure where they would live.

From there we went into the Gem Faire that was in the building close to the plant sale at the fairgrounds. Brandon found some coins he can string and make a bracelet that he has been wanting. I found a a nice selection of stone donuts that I can make into drop spindles. I do need to make a few additional purchases before they can be put to work though. I don't have any pictures of them yet, but I'll post when they are available. I also found a nice selection of size 6 beads that I can use with knitting. My bead needle broke so I'll have to get a new one of those too. With the beads I was able to get I think I figured out $32 worth of beads for $17. Pretty good savings!

I also checked out the new location of Kathy's Knit Korner. They were supposed to be having a Grand Re-opening sale but the two skeins of yarn I purchased weren't given any sale price and I didn't see any signs on particular yarns to know if I should have asked about it or not. I was also disappointed that no one could answer my questions about the cotton-soy blend. No one knew if there was a smell issue with the soy or not, I thought I had read somewhere about it possibly being smelly with body heat. Since I was planning to use the yarn for a couple more Scalloped Edge Beaded Necklaces as gifts, I didn't want 'smell' to be part of the gift.

Sunday morning Will mowed the lawns, Brandon got the veggies planted and I attacked the weeds in the flower beds in the back yard. Brandon too attacked the weeds and mistook my day lily as a weed. I'm now owed a day lily replacement. We just now need to get some bark dust for the flower beds after I decide what is staying and what is going. I suspect there are a number of things going or moving. The rosemary didn't fare well over the winter and it is gone.

Will and I met Luke and Jyneal over at Men's Warehouse for tux rentals. They are both dateless through no fault of their own except waiting too long to ask a girl who didn't already have a date. It does make it a cheaper event for them though. Will went with a red vest and tie and Luke with a navy vest and tie. They'll both look pretty snazzy. Prom is next Saturday at the Melody Ballroom downtown. Jyneal offered the boys the use of her car since they don't have dates, so they'll just have the joy of trying to find parking in that area.

Today and tomorrow I'm subbing at Evergreen Middle School as their In-school Suspension officer. Means I get to watch kids how got in trouble but not enough to have a parent come get them. I knew it was going to have the potential to be terribly boring so brought along a book and my sock. I did get a lot of work done on the sock as well as a lot of pages read in my book. I may even get the sock done tomorrow, so I'll have to be sure to bring my written instructions for kitchener stitch with me.

Tonight Brandon is going with Sean to finally see Ironman. Will and Luke went on Friday as part of a group. Luke went again on Saturday with his parents, and Will went again on Sunday with his dad. I have had absolutely no interest in seeing it, so frustrated Brandon. I told him I'm totally signed up for the new Indy movie later in the month though. I have a Grad Nite Party meeting - graduation is a month away!!! Plus Will wants a haircut before prom, so it's a busy evening all round. I'm even going to try to squeeze in a walk around the neighborhood with the dogs tonight if Brandon is up to it after the movie.

I forgot that I was supposed to have an author start at the beginning of the month. I tried adding her to the group last night and sending out a welcome post, but nothing else has been posted to the list. This is a popular author so I need to check in with her. I also still need to read a few dog books that have come in to be reviewed. Sigh. It interferes with knitting. ;^)