Tour de Fleece

Want to see why I'm doing Tour de Fleece this year? 13 pounds of roving and a gorgeous 4.5 pound fleece that I didn't have the heart to send to the processor. (Planning to spin it lock by lock.)

Grover; 6.75 pound Lincoln-Columbia cross

This is just what I sent to Aunt Janet's Fiber Mill a few months ago but I think it's all of the raw fleece I had stored in the house.

2.44 pound black and silver Karakul

I love the smell and feel of unwashed fleece;

2.88 pound white Karakul

once I see it, I can't stop touching it - and that's just a short hop away from it needing to come home with me.

.94 pound Jacob (I think)

So I've made a deal with myself - no more fleece until all this is used up.

4.5 pound Karakul fleece

Any bets on whether I can keep that bargain?

Progress

Last 30 minutes of the Suits pilot episode, plus two hours of Glee, Season 1, equals six rows of christening dress. And no feeling left in my fingers. Time to stop for the day.

Potato Chips

These things are like potato chips - you can't make just one. Or at least I couldn't. So much fun to make and all of them are from supplies I already had on hand. (hee) Having a stash is a wonderful thing when you get the craft equivalent of the muchies. Looking forward to sharing them at Guild in the morning. And the purple and gold ring that started it all? Remade it. That gold just had to go.

Great-Grands

We took the two little girls out to visit hubby's mother today, while Naia was in summer school. Hubby had wanted to go on Monday - by himself with the two girls - but Marie and I managed to convince him of just how crazy he must be to wait another few days.

Great Grandma was thrilled to have the girls there.

Checking each other out - Leanne is fascinated

On the way to Llano (out beyond beyond) we taught Leia to say "Grandma Poco", which is what our kids always called their paternal grandmother. Leia made major points by saying it, loud and clear, with only one prompt from PopPop. She also entertained with dances, animal noises, songs and other general silliness. Not sure how much hubby's mom could actually hear, but she and Leia both seemed to enjoy themselves.

And what were hubby and Leanne doing a lot of this? Hubby swears Leanne went to sleep first. Uh,huh.

Ruffles

Sometime you just gotta go with the silly.

Not deliberately Lakers colors; I just like purple and gold.

I saw this ring on Ravelry and HAD to have it. Took me about an hour, a little bit of size 10 thread and an owww-my-hands-ache tiny hook. Love. It.

And yes, I've already started a second one - with plans to add beads to the third. I think I'm hooked.

New Pattern

**Just posted a new, free Tunisian pattern on Ravelry (here). I love this ripple scarf. Just two stitches - well, three if you count "Make 1" - and an ability to count to 5 3. Which can occasionally be a problem for me. Yarn is yummy Manos del Uruguay 'Silk Blend' but any DK-weight yarn will work - or any other size yarn, for that matter. Just adjust your hook size accordingly. Enjoy!

**Oopsie - I found a mistake in the original version of the pattern. Guess I was in too big a hurry last night to get this posted and get to bed. The new, error-free version (fingers crossed!) is now live at the link below. Sorry! Hope you enjoy the pattern.
download now

Daddy's Got A Brand New Bag

Well, a new hobby anyway. That song's been running through my head all afternoon, ever since hubby and I took a drive to Carpinteria to visit the orchid farms. Hubby's decided to try his hand at growing orchids - and I'm strongly encouraging him. I get orchids all around me and don't have to remember to water them (or not water - I'm big on over-watering too). All win for me! He's purchased a couple of plants locally but we wanted to see what was available on a larger scale.

Boy oh boy, does Carpinteria have orchids! Huge greenhouses; acres of orchid beauty. It's the end of the flowering season, so the stock was pretty picked over at the two nurseries we visited, but we still had plenty of choices. We got three cymbidiums for outdoors - hubby's not crazy about this brown one, but he humored me; I think it's gorgeous! - and one indoor dendrobium to go with the phalaenopsis he already had. Now we HE just has to figure out how to keep these alive. And maybe get them to flower again next year.

Growing

This is my favorite in-progress project. My first time doing knit short-rows; I had no idea they were so addictive. The longer the scarf gets, the better I'm liking it. I need to put this aside and work on the christening gown but, right now, my heart is with Helix.

Who Knew?

Sunglasses for infants?

Leanne, 4 months

Who knew??

Survivor

Last year, hubby planted some purple mini-pansies in the blue tri-pots outside our front door. He figured they'd last a month or so and then we'd replace them with something else. The pansies had another idea. They spread from planter to ground and bloomed for months. Once winter came - and the pounding rains that flood that part of the yard pretty badly - I figured they were gone for good.
Wrong. Looks what's back, better than ever. They're even coming up through the new flowers we recently planted. These things are determined to live - and are probably planning to take over the entire yard. See those teeny, tiny things in the walkway by our front door? Want a closer look? Oh, pansy yard-domination is underway.

Water Monkey

My little monkey started swim lessons today with her daycare buddies. She's in the youngest group - the Seahorses - and the instructors had the kids working from the stairs, practicing their kicking, putting their faces in the water to blow bubbles, taking rides on a boogie board, without the board and then jumping off the side of the pool into the instructors arms. One little girl spent the entire 30 minutes in tears but Leia took to the water like a, um, seahorse. This class runs for two weeks, with the option of extending - and advancing to Guppy class - through the summer. I'm betting we'll be taking that option.

Waiting for class to start

Crochet Brioche

One down, two to go. Ok, who am I kidding? Lots to go is much more like it. My WIP* list on Ravelry is almost embarrassing. Done is the Pashmina Brioche Cowl - made with two colors of super soft, luscious madelinetosh pashmina in 'fig' and 'posy'. The pattern is from the Winter 2011 edition of the online magazine "Tangled". I love that they have both knit and crochet patterns and that they 'cross-pattern' - designing the same item in both fiber mediums. I added a row of picots to the top and bottom edges and didn't make it as wide as the pattern called for. This is So. California, after all. Don't need a thick cowl that's likely to give me heat stroke.

Leanne's christening dress in under way once again, with the ceremony scheduled for July 2. I tried it on her before I got to the skirt - good thing since, just like Addy's dress, I needed to add 2 rows to the bodice to accommodate my long-waisted baby grands.

And while I should have been working on the above (or the sample I still owe the shop for an upcoming class), I just had to start this last night with my handspun yarn. It's Colleen's fault, talking about how much fun she had making her Helix scarf. Love the yarn, love the pattern, not sure I love them together. Opinions??


*Works in progress