5.23.10 Little Bits and Pieces

This week there has been knitting, sewing, spinning, laundry, dog medicine giving, movie watching, finch visiting, and oh, some shopping.

The knitting on the MS&W Miss Woodhouse Shawlette and a stealth project continues. Miss Woodhouse is just about finished and I added an additional repeat of the first chart.

Sewing of two quilt blocks from the Block of the Month series at Quilter’s Corner in Midlothian. Sweet little 30′s reproduction prints into highly geometric and classic quilt blocks, one a month for a year. Not too much to tackle when I have been out of the quilting game for a while. The 30′s reproductions fabrics are sweet. Mary Had a Little Lamb, Three Bears on the other. Mr. Lady said “those are really pastel-ee for you”. I don’t use these colors much but they are irresistible.

Quilt Block #1

Suzie-dog is sick with some sort of protozoa that she picked up from who knows where, maybe the kennel on one of her nature walks. The vet said maybe she drank bad creek water or ate the wrong thing. $60 and 2 antibiotics and a reluctant doggie. Deli ham makes the pills go down without awareness and she is feeling better. And the p**ps are formed now. Like you needed to hear that.

We watched the new Russell Crowe/Cate Blanchett Robin Hood in the theater! $30 for 3 tickets and $8 for a giant bucket of popcorn that made me feel ill even though I shared with Caroline and Mr. Lady. Mr. Lady doesn’t like popcorn but I could live on it I think. Yep, with “butter” (what is that stuff anyway? Gross thought). I hardly ever go to the movies and I want to do it up right so I always seem to over do it. The movie was weird. Good, lots of sword fighting, funny lines, costumes, horses, longbows but not what I was expecting and the theater had a whopping total of 12 people in it on a dreary Saturday afternoon. At $10 a ticket I think I know why. Wait for it on DVD people.

I saw the finch family yesterday and today, the one that made the nest in my wreath. The parents and the 5 babies visited my front porch windows and chirped and sang as I was coming down the stairs yesterday morning. It was nice to see them because they have not been around since the nest emptied out. It has been weeks and the mom is still feeding one of them. I guess he might have been the last to fly out of the nest. After they sat in my windows they flew up to the flag and sat on the pole then flew up into the beech tree. I swear they visit me on purpose just to show off.

The shopping?
Some cotton for double weave stuff. More on that another time. I just wound a warp of cottolin for some more twill tea towels. Hobby weaver. Multicraftual.

Bye!

5.19.10 Way too long away.

Yep. You know you have been away too long when your stats drop to zero. And I have been away too long. I keep reading that on blogs, that the bloggers are sorry they have been away, apologizing for not posting. Is blogging blogged out? Mine might be.

M and I did journey to Asheville NC to the UNC-Asheville commencement ceremony last weekend. What a beautiful day: 6000 chairs in rows in the sun of the quad. By the end of the 500 names people had retreated into the shade to stand and watch and be cool and drink the water that was provided. The emergency crew rescued a poor old guy from the heat. I have no idea how the graduates and faculty survived in their robes. It was a beautiful day nonetheless and Nick, Lindsey and Rachel (Hi Rachel!) all made it through with their degrees. They are siblings. They are my twin nieces and nephew, my brother LawyerK’s children, who all graduated on the same day! See this article in the Asheville paper. It is the first time in UNC history that 3 sibs have made it out on the same day. Oh, and we got to see Roy Williams, basketball coaching legend, but not Dean Smith that other basketball coaching legend. Good thing for the Dean because we are dyed in the wool UVA Wahoos and we remember his 4 point stall technique at the end of basketball games in the old U-hall in Charlottesville. We called BS on him numerous times.

I am not sure what it is going to be but I did weave something in the past week. Plain weave, weft faced, cotton, rayon, linen, silk warp. I bundled some finer cottons for the weft. Perhaps cushion covers? Yay!?

I did finish Citron on the trip. Yay!

That’s all.

5.3.10 The Aftermath: Hurray Hurray the First of May….

On the First of May, Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (MS&W) was like heaven and hell. It was divine and it was overwhelmingly hot. I was among people who understand my fiber obsessions but it made me not a little ill to see how much materialism is involved in fibercraft these days. We all need a 7 Step program I think. Still, I am glad I went with my friends Linda, Issy and Barbara from TNK!

Of course I came home with a bag of items that I am happy with. Being a MS&W first-timer I really just wanted to go for the sake of being there at least once. I had no real mission to carry out which for me is the way I roll, maybe to minimize disappointment. I have been to numerous fiber events and know that if I get my heart set on something it will probably not cross my path in the adventure. I am also not determined enough to enter booths that are packed with people grubbing for things I probably already have.

I don’t have any photos of the actual experience. That was an “on purpose” due to the fact that I would have had to carry my camera. And I had other things to carry, namely water. Anyway, a camera can focus attention or distract. There are probably lots of other blogs out there with pictorials of the people (and poor animals!) sweating and panting in the 90-something degree heat. I do wish I had a photo of the young boy scout taking his turn with a sandwich board advertising sandwiches. He was staggering up and down the hill in front of his troop’s booth. He deserved to get his photo taken and put on a blog. He didn’t give a rat’s ass about fiber but he was doing his part.

I do have photos of my swag.

From our stop at FibreSpace in Alexandria. This is a gorgeous friendly shop in Old Town on Fayette Street. You need to go there if you are in the area. The yarn is Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine and it is started to be a Miss Woodhouse Shawl by Wendy and the ball became a tangle. I have my work cut out for me as soon as I finish this post. The little project bag is a “Pretty Cheep Project Bag”. Cute eh?:

From the HGA booth with very friendly ladies and info about Convergence. This is 18oz. (+/- 3150 yards) of “Silky Too” which is 75% rayon and 25% silk, hand dyed by Laura Bryant of Prism Yarns. Plans for it to be a warp for the loom.:

From Gretchen at the Solitude Farm booth:
I will put a picture in later. It is 2 skeins of Karakul in a bright red. Very scratchy but guaranteed to felt any yarn held with it.

From Barbara Gentry at Stony Mountain Fibers. I always patronize Barbara’s booth wherever I see her. I bought my first wheel from Barbara in about 1991.:

From Deirdre and Greg at the Still River Mill booth (they sell gorgeous yarns with cashmere, yak, bison and qiviut). I had my first fleece processed by these nice people.: This is 1 oz. of a gorgeous blend of 50% qiviut/25% silk/25% merino called Spring Fling.

From Gale’s Art booth, a Trindle. This was the only thing I sought at MS&W. Don’t really know why. The Trindle drop spindle is the brainchild of trindleman on Etsy. Probably best to read his statement there. It is difficult to photograph a Trindle, this one weighs 0.7 oz and is production #929. Can you imagine making over 1000 of these? I wish I could remember what the shaft is made of but the beads are raku.:

From a booth that I can’t remember, a block print and some bargain yarns:

And lastly, the finches are almost fledged. Their parents sit on the banister and scream at them to get out of the nest and get going. I am screaming as well because I want to get that nest down and scrub the wall!