Exhausted......

from all the yarny goodness and the hangover of a FABULOUS summit!! Yes, sadly Sock Summit 2011 is over for me for this year but what an amazing time!! Seriously ...life changing!!! I had a great time in my one hour lectures on Saturday and yesterday's class with Mary Scott Huff was AMAZING!!!! I honestly wasn't even looking forward to the class as I thought I would HATE colorwork.  Still, it was something I had not tried before, so I wanted to take it and see if I could do it.  Not only can I do it...I LOVED it!!!!  I am working on a cute pair of socks right now and I'll be sure to post when I am done.  Yesterday before I had to be in class, the girls and I took the train to downtown Portland for the Saturday market.  All I can say is WOW!!!  There was so much eye candy there.  Hundreds of booths with such amazing artisans...truely good for the soul.  I was a little rushed so I couldn't see it all, but what I did see made me happy, happy, happy.  Lots of great work.  Today, we are heading to the beach (2.5 hours away) and then to some outlet stores to do a little more shopping.  :)  It has been an AWESOME time so far ....I can't believe its almost time to come home!!!

Sock summit 2011 flash mob

SOCK SUMMIT 2011 - WHOOOOT!!!!

Good morning from PORTLAND!!! The knitters have taken this city by storm!! :)  Safe trip down from Kelowna and other than one wrong turn in Seattle we did pretty well.  We did manage to hit rush hour but up until then it was smooth sailing.  Arrived around 7pm so not bad overall.   Yesterday, we drove to Lloyd Center (mall) and hopped on the train downtown.  I jumped off at the Convention Center and the girls carried on downtown for some shopping.   I schlepped through registration, which took about 3 minutes (amazing) and then headed off to the tables to knit with a few of the ladies as I had about 2 hours before my first class!!  That was fun. I met people from all over the country.....and they say "I" have an accent!!! Pffffttt!!! Apparently I say "about" funny!!! ...and I guess I do say "eh" alot...I never noticed!!!LOL!!! :) My class was awesome although it was a tad toooo beginnerish for me.  I did learn stuff though and did get a new spindle with a fun bunch of roving.  :)  Then the MARKET opened!! Wheeeeeeeee!!!!  I held back from the lineup as there was a freakin' STAMPEDE to get through those doors.  Once I was in though....it was amazing!!  All kinds of yarny goodness in there.  I didn't take any pics as I think they just might frown on that...but it was truly yarn paradise!!!  A few hundred vendors with tons of yarny goodness to share.  I can't say I came out unscathed as I did manage to pick up a wack of fibre...but it could have been MUCH worse.  Ah well, today is another day....I'm sure my CC will have some damage when I'm done.  I have my eye on a beautiful drum carder too....and with the Candian Dollar being what it is.....ACK!!!!  Anyway, after my classes and the market ...I headed over to the ballroom for the opening ceremonies.  What a riot.  I have not laughed that hard in a LONG time (I'm sure the beer helped a little....yes, we have beer at knitting conventions!!).  It was soooo fun.  Then the girls picked me up and we rode the train back to Lloyd Center and headed home where we all had a fashion show of our purchases.  I think mine were a little less interesting to them...but I loved showing it all off even though they looked at me like I had three heads!! LOL!!  Anyway - Day 1 = AWESOME!!! Day two - here we go!!! Today I have two lectures and should be done by 3 or so.  Then I think we'll do a little more shopping and see the sites.  Might take in a movie tonight!! :)  We'll see!!!  Hopefully I'll get a few more pics today! :)  Have a good one!!

This totally cracks me up....

You may or may not know...but I have a calendar on my fridge that I made a few years ago.  I don't usually even notice it and I seldom change the numbers from month to month.  That's something that Brayden does - he likes to do it.  Anyway - it looks like this:

Now goodness knows, I'm in the fridge a bizmillion times a day ...and I barely notice changes to the thing....but this morning, this little white arrow caught my eye!! What the....????  Upon closer inspection...I saw this:

Is my kid a CFL fan or what??? That boy takes after his mama!!! LOL!!!  This is just one of those everyday little occurrence that totally cracks me up, brings a smile to my face and makes me feel sooooo happy that I'm a Mom to a GREAT kid!!!

Stampscapes and Copics...

Had some time today to play and prep for my copic class on Monday night.  Thought I'd take my air compressor for a spin....did up these little guys today.  I have to say - the pictures do NOT do these justice...they are WAY better in real life!!! Anyway - I love how they turned out for my first time playing!! Stay tuned!!

Doing lots with the copics lately too, but mostly for my classes.  Stay tuned...I'll have lots to show you shortly!!! :)

Thanks for stopping by!!

Catching up....

Well, today's post might be a little longer.  Lots to share today!!

First off.....have a peak at these lilies!!!! Do you think its the paca poo???!!!

My tomatos are doing pretty good too!! :)  Crazy eh?? My thumb is about as black as they come so I'm pretty impressed with these!! :)  They didn't look like this last year!

So this weekend has been a little bit of a blur so far.....! On Thursday I headed to Vernon and taught my first card class.  I did a series of simple "kraft" cards for the ladies and I think everyone had a pretty good time.  One lady even bought two kits!! :) Whooot!! :)  I have my first copic class on Monday night and that one is sold out with 2 extras!!! Yahooo!!! :)   Here are some cards I made recently using my copics:

It's fun creating again!! These are on display in the store in Vernon and of course I will be adding them to my Etsy store (see the sidebar at the right). 

So this morning, I joined about 100 other geocachers and we met up for the Shuswap Mass Cache Dash event.  I was truly surprised to see such a GREAT turnout for this event.  We were all up and attem and at the park in Canoe by 8:00am.  We downloaded all the caches (over 100 new ones for the day) and then all dispersed and went our separate ways to cache for the day.  Sadly, I had a previous commitment, so I couldn't make it back for the wind up party and CITO (cache in/trash out) event.  Still I did manage to find about 6 caches this afternoon on my own.  I saw a deer and a little black bear.  I was glad that I was back in my van when I ran into him.  Not sure where mama was...but I'm sure she wasn't far behind!! ACK!  The caches I found were pretty easy...if I'd had some proper footwear, I could have found a few more but alas, my flip flops just weren't cutting it.  The highlight of my day was meeting a fellow cacher who has 18,000+ caches under his belt!! 18,000!!!!! That is insane!!! He's is in 2nd place in BC.  He was telling me that he's travelled to the states and has met fellow cachers that have over 50,000!!!! Are you kidding me???? Apparently, these people are retired and caching is their life!! Um, ya think???!  Sheesh.  I've done over 100 and I think THAT's alot!!! I can't imagine doing 1000's!!!!  Crazy!!! Anyway, I asked him what his favorite cache was and he said it was the Iron Horse in the Snoqualmie Pass.  It sure sounded interesting....I'd love to have time to do it one day!! :)   

Anyway, the reason I couldn't continue with the caching is that I had to meet my guild ladies for a fun DYE DAY at one of the gals homes.  We had a hoot.  There was probably about 10 of us - all with fibre and yarn in hand.  We dyed and overdyed and really had a ball comparing techniques and using different methods.  I learned alot as I always do with these gals!! They truly are an amazing bunch.  I dyed a few skeins and some fiber and even got a bag of locks to play with.  I can't wait to dye those!! :)  I don't have any pics yet as everything is hanging outside drying but I'll be sure to share once its dry and I've skeined it all up.   I have a pretty busy week ahead but hopefully I'll find some time to play in the dyepots soon!!!

So on Friday, Brayden wrapped up his week long soccer camp.  Yesterday his little buddy, Carl, came for a sleepover.  They had a ball togther....basically together for 2 days as Brayden stayed over there on Thursday night so I wouldn't have to haul him to Vernon.  It was fun having Carl ...the laughter coming from the basement as they played Mariocart on the Wii was priceless.  So fun to hear little boys laughing hysterically.  Get Wayne in there and it was like three five year olds.  Wayne cut the cheese this afternoon and Carl ran to the basement screaming "RETREAT!!! RETREAT!!!"  I thought I was gonna die laughing!!!  He's a funny little kid! :) 

Anyway - tomorrow I'm looking forward to a quiet day at home.  There is a spin-in at Haney House but I think I'll pass.  I've got my copic class to prep for and I also need to work for a few hours!!!  I also agreed to make some thrumbed mittens for the lady we bought the alpacas off of.  She sells the kits in her store and also the finished product.  I agreed to make a sample pair for her....you know...cuz I got all kinds of time!!! GAH!!!! Anyway - hopefully on Tuesday I can spend some time on those when I attend knit night.  I'm also going for a spa day that day (haircut/color, pedicure, etc.).  Looking forward to that.  Hopefully I'll feel human again!!  :) 

Well, I guess that's about it!! I'll leave you with some yarny goodness!!! The pics are bright as the sun was out and it was hot.  Still, you'll get the idea!!

This is some roving and yarn....and then below are some locks!  None of this was mine sadly...I decided to "finish" mine at home so it was still in bags!!  I just love the colors.  Too bad the picture is so lousy - as it really was truly beautiful!!! :)

Anyway, if you're still reading this - thanks for sticking with me till the end.  I appreciate you stopping by and hope to have another post soon!!! Happy crafting!! :)

Day FIVE!

Yep, if you've been following along - yes...I missed a day!! Somedays there just isn't time to spin! (*sigh).  Anyway, I started a new bobbin today with the 2nd 2 ounce bump so hopefully once I get this bump spun up...there will be two bobbins with pretty even spinning for plying.  :)  It's going a lot smoother than when I began.  I'm interested to see how this one turns out!!! :) 

Not much else happening here.  Wayne left for Vancouver today.  He'll be there until Friday taking courses with Hydro for his new position on the transmission side.  Brayden has been at Higher Power Soccer Camp all week and he is really enjoying it.  Each day he comes home with a new song and story about what they learned.  I think he is enjoying the "religious" portion of the camp as much as he's enjoying the soccer part of it.  Interesting......!!  Anyway, I am enjoying the 3 hours of peace I have every morning.  :)  Tomorrow I head to Vernon to teach my first card class.  It helps that I know almost ALL of the participants so that should make things go smoother!! :)  I am still a little nervous and hope I haven't forgotten anything!  I'll post the cards tomorrow night or the next day - just simple cards this time...nothing fancy.  I just wanted to get the ball rolling and get my feet wet again.  It's been a long time since I taught anything!!!  :)  Brayden will go and stay at his little buddy Carl's place overnight.  We'll take Carl on Friday night and possibly keep him for the weekend.  :)  Hopefully my dog behaves himself.  There were coyotes in the surrounding area today and although he was "doing his job" ...two hours of constant barking is enough to drive me to drink!!! I finally stuck him in the garage for a bit to shut him up.  All the dogs in the neighborhood were going off, so I think they were all just egging each other on.  Man, that sure gets annoying after a while!!  Anyway, he seems to have settled now...so I'm off to sleep.  Hopefully I'll still have two LIVE alpacas in the morning!! :(

Thanks for stopping by...

Day Three....

Spent the day today hanging with my good friends Peggy and Tiffanny ...they scrapped and I beaded!! Made some stitch markers for the store.  I'll post those tomorrow.  In the meantime, I had to clean up some bobbins for more spinning, so I plied and got these two beginner spinning projects completed.  Man, I've really come a long way.  This will still be cool to knit up into something - the orangier stuff will be a cowl.  I got 182 yards and the pattern calls for 160 (whew!!).   This was a spin-a-long/knit-a-long that I joined a while ago.  It is finishing up this week.  I probably won't complete it in time, but I'm going to start working on it anyway!!! Anyway - here's my plied up handspun yarn:

Adding another pic of the orangier handspun now that it's been washed and thwacked!!!

Day Two.....

I didn't get as much done today as I would have liked ...but I did spend the afternoon with the members of my group "The Eclectic Collective" dyeing fiber and carding batts!! I finally got to try carding my own raw alpaca...it was a riot.  Add one of these fabulous drum carders to the list!! (*sigh).    Oh...and on another bright note....I sold my first hand dyed skein in my Etsy shop this morning!!! WHOOOOOT!!! I'm super excited about that!!! :)  I really hope she likes it cuz it would be crappy to get negative feedback with my FIRST customer!! :( 

Anyway, here's my spinning for day two!!! Thanks for stopping by!!

Day one!

Well, I had to work today and cut the grass (we have lots) so my spinning was only kept to a couple of hours!! Anyway, here's what I accomplished.  I forgot to mention it earlier but this is a 4 ounce bump of BFL (85%) and silk (15%).  Its fun to spin....so far so good!! :)

I definitely need practice at wrapping my bobbin!!! Perhaps it might look a little better if it was a little more even!! (*sigh)  Still lots to learn...hopefully by the end of this race...you'll be able to see lots of improvement!! :)

Let the tour begin!!!

Well, as you probably know...the Tour De France starts this morning!! You know....the bike race!  So what does that mean to the fiber community???  Well, for us....it's the Tour De FLEECE....and that means SPINNING!!!!!  .....Yes, for each day of the tour...we have to spin.  We have all joined teams (I'm on two) and we will spin for each day of the race.   We have a couple of rest days as commonplace for the racers and a "challenge" day as well.  We have all set pre-goals and will spend the next couple of weeks spinning our little hearts out.  Wheel, spindle, trindle...it doesn't matter - as long as you're spinning!   :) 

I have chosen to start with this bit of lovliness:

...and here is what it looked like after I unwound the braid:

Now sadly I don't know enough about spinning to worry about keeping the colors all separated and frankly, I could care less.  I just want a nice blend anyway, so I'll just spin and then ply and see what I come up with.  I'll keep you posted along the way so that you can check my progress.  Sadly, the spinning will be delayed this morning (slow start) as I am off to the optomitrist and then I will be coming home to work for a few hours.  I can only hope that this weather keeps up and I can do some spinning on the deck this afternoon/evening.  Hopefully by then, the mosquitos will have figured that summer is here and they can head elsewhere.  :)  Have a great day - hope its gorgeous where you are too!!