Wednesday night knitting group

I went to my Wednesday night knitting group last night for the first time in about a year. It was nice to see all the old knitting friends again and meet a few new ones. The place the group meets now is a comfortable, used book store with a coffee counter. Its an inviting place and its nice to be able to order a cup of tea. There is a big room upstairs with a long table which the knitters gather around. Customers come upstairs to see more books and I ran into an old friend who I hadn't seen in years this way. She was surprised to see a group of knitters chatting away as she came upstairs but we were happy to connect.

I meant to take a picture of the group but I forgot so I found this copy of an old painting of a group of knitters on-line to use as a graphic.

Even though knitting can be a solitary endeavor, its nice to be part of a group like this to get inspired in your craft and have a social outlet. I'm quiet so I don't converse much but I love to listen to people's conversations and get ideas for new projects. Several people had made the French Market bag and I was able to look at one up close. They were so cute, I think I'd like to make one or more. It would be a great gift - everyone can use them for grocery bags or to carry all sorts of things.

I'm glad to be able to be back with the group and hopefully will be able to attend every other week now.

Three Irish Girls

I came across this yarn company in an on-line advertisement and I've never seen such beautiful photo marketing of yarn as they do. (See their photo to the left) Three Irish Girls is a fairly new (within the year) on-line, hand-dyed yarn company. They have clubs - stash clubs and sock clubs. And a web site full of drop-dead, knock-down beautiful photos of yarn in just amazing colorways! There is a blog - Yarnista - that tells the story of their beginnings, I've just read a bit so far.

I fell so in love with their yarn that I had to join the sock club. I've never joined a sock club before, but I've wanted to. Most sock clubs I find are too expensive to pay all at once but don't have an option for monthly memebership - this one does. You also get to choose from two color options each month and they send you little goodies in between the yarn. I'm so excited!

I've gone from never-joined-anything to joining two different yarn clubs in two months. It must be that I'm getting old - 40 is only two days away.

Scarf of the month

In June I joined Patternworks 'Scarf of the month club'. Its the first 'joiner' thing I've done and I'm excited for the challenge. I am going to try to finish each monthly project before the next one arrives.

This club sends you a scarf pattern and a different type of yarn to make the pattern each month. It sounds like the pattern and yarn will stay seasonal so cooler fiber and smaller designs for the summer. June's selection was Nashua's Creative Focus Silk, a 100% silk yarn in a sea-foam green. The pattern is a 22 row lace repeat in a diamond pattern that repeats about 14 times to make the scarf. This will be a very decorative scarf.

The end of school and beginning of summer have been very busy on the kid and job front but I'm hoping that I have settled into a summer schedule now that will allow me more time for blog posts. I LOVE the warm weather and all the light. Morning walks and lunch-time park sitting are in the plans for the forseeable future!

Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D

Is there more fun than seeing a movie in 3D? It doesn't even have to be a great movie - the 3D makes it so cool. We saw Monsters vs. Aliens on Friday night - two middle school girls and two 4th grade boys - who missed the Blazer playoffs to watch the Monsters defeat the Aliens (and the selfish men) in 3D. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. And you get to see the trailers of upcoming movies coming out in 3D - several movies based on books - Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs and Where the Wild Things are (not in 3D).

We even played some video games in the arcade after.

It was a fun Friday night.

A new project and an FO

I finished the Uptown boot socks. Originally I was making them for myself but I messed up on the size so they ended up being for my little sock model. Its nice to have a child appreciate my hand-knit socks so much.

Gossamer was having a sale this weekend so I went in to see if there was anything that struck my fancy. I was drawn to the sock

yarn, of course. So I bought some Koigu - but not for socks. I think I will make the Chevron scarf. Its such a pretty scarf but I know I'm going to be tired of weaving in ends when the knitting is over.

Its a nice, light, summer's-coming knitting project.

Easter

This easter, in addition to searching for what the easter bunny left behind, we babysat some chicks, explored some caves east of town, and had a yummy Easter feast. Here is a pictorial review. (No photo documentation of the feast available.)

Hunting for eggs

Baby chicks

Conner really loved the chicks

Heading down into the cave

Our little spelunkers

We had a fantastic day!

Fiber Festival

It seems like ages ago but its only been about a month that we visited the Crook County Fiber Festival in Prineville. I'd never been to a fiber festival before so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The only thing I didn't see that I was hoping to was the actual sheering of a sheep. This festival had lots of animals and indoor exhibits included plenty of fiber, spinning wheels, and hand-spun yarn. Along with lots of beautiful finished knits. I am not a spinner (yet) so I was not so tempted by the fiber but my kids could not resist some spectacularly packaged fiber and had to make a purchase of their own.

The festival had classes and presentations on different techniques including some dyeing techniques. The kids and I watched someone show us how to cover plastic easter eggs with dyed fiber which was a hit, especially since easter was coming up in two weeks as that point.

I also saw a carding machine for the first time. As a kid I remember getting to use hand carders to card roving but that seems to be a thing of the past now that everyone has carding machines. This was a 21st century fiber festival but this part will never change.