Pluggin along...

Good morning peeps!  Happy Thursday!  Are you ready for the weekend??  Well, I've been a bit of a fail at the Wednesday blog posts and I even skipped last week but that was more due to a stressful week more than anything else.  Sadly, there wasn't much knitting as my work last week consumed me.  This week has been a little more productive.  I am still working on my afghan squares and am happy to report that I am on track with these.  I finished up my Julie B. Levy square and here she is in all her splendid cabled glory:

 

Not sure which squares we're knitting next month yet, but I'm anxious to get started. 
My colorwork socks are coming along and I still have a few days to get those completed.  Clue 4 is out now and so it's smooth sailing from here -just need to spend the time to complete.  Not sure I love the pattern, but I do like how evenly my colorwork turned out, which leads me to believe there might be future colorwork projects on my needles.  This is tricky business and if I can get my floats to sit nicely without bunching and puckering - I'm a pretty happy camper!!

 

On the test knitting front - I had a nice email in my inbox this week from a talented designer.  She said she enjoyed looking at my project page and really thought I had produced quality work.  She asked me to join her test knitting team.....FOR CROCHET!!! Now, I'm flattered that she asked me to join - but I wonder if she realizes that I'm self taught in crochet and not 100% sure I deserve to be a member of her team, but I guess we'll see how it goes.  So far, she hasn't released any designs - so I'll just wait and see what she offers.   I did take on one more test knit this week - not due till the middle of February - and that is a pair of cabled socks - that don't actually use cable needles - WIN!!!  Here's a sneak peak:

I'm excited to report that my business cards arrived this week - aren't they cute???

Can't wait to hand a few of these out this weekend.  I'm getting lots of vending calls and my travels will be taking me to Kamloops, Cache Creek and Williams Lake this spring.  Looking forward to starting the vending trail again as not much has been happening around here.  I still have items to add to my site - but you can check it out at www.yarnmakesmehappy.com if you're interested.  Love having my own site! :)
Soooo I don't know if you remember - but many moons ago I posted pictures of my alpacas, Popcorn and Brutus.  I'm not sure if I blogged about it but I had some of their fiber processed at a mill in Alberta and I was VERY dissapointed with the results.  It took about 8 months to get processed when the owner had said their turn around time was 6 weeks and when it finally DID arrive - it was horrid.  Completely unspinnable for my liking.  Well, I ended up selling it to a friend of mine for the price I'd paid to have it processed.  She figured it was cheap enough (2 whole fleeces) and have a gander at what SHE created with it:

Yep, that is MY alpaca!! She is one crazy talented designer who makes masks and now hats with her fiber.  This sculptured hat is incredible.  You would think it would be sooooo heavy - but it is not.  Quite surprisingly light actually.  I'm in awe of her work.  You can check out her site here - Soul Fibre Studio - amazing talent!! Check out her Grinch mask!! Crazy!! :)

Anyway, back at the ranch - we have sent Wayne off to work in Trail until the spring sometime.  Always something new with Hydro - we never know where he'll be or for how long.   Brayden is doing really well with his dental appliance and now actually has a GAP between his front teeth.  I'm so shocked how fast this little device has worked and the minimal complaints I've had from B.  Sooo proud of him.  :)  He's really loving his iPod touch and has been a texting madman with his friends (mostly girls).  It's funny to read the posts back and forth - mostly stupid stuff but funny as all get out.  Oh how I remember that age!! :)

Well, I hope you all have a GREAT week.  I'm hosting a crop this weekend at the Mt. Ida Hall out Salmon Valley way so I'm hoping for a decent turn out.  :)  Should be fun. :)  I'm bringing my yarn and my Scentsy products too so hope to have a few sales in that area.  You never know.  I only have about 20 people coming this month but I think that's a fairly decent start.  We'll see how the next months go.  I think I can hold 40 but this will be a good trial run.  I've kept it mostly to people I KNOW so at least I'll be forgiven if there are any hiccups.  We'll see how it goes! :)

Alright...until next week then....have a good one and create something FUN! :)