A Fish for Caroline...

A friend of mine is having a baby this fall. She also has a 3 year old darling little girl named Caroline.

I made a Baby Surprise Jacket with matching hat for the new baby and Caroline loved the fishie buttons so much, she just sat down and buttoned and unbuttoned and buttoned and unbuttoned the little fishie buttons on this little jacket.

I thought she might be feeling left out - as she is the youngest of 4 (plus one coming) - and her older sibings are all boys...

So, I decided she needed something of her own! So, I started making this out of her favorite colors (pink, purple and yellow)... I planned on making it big enough to carry around, or in the car, or for naps, (like 30" x 36")etc.. Well, I got moving along and carried away (hard to believe, right?) and it turned out to be nearly 5' long and 4-1/2' wide! Almost big enough for a twin bed! It was made out of Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Yarn" and it is so soft and washable too!

While I was working on this, I came across this pattern... Who could resist a little fishie purse with little fishie buttons for a little girl in her favorite colors!

It has little fishie buttons (same as on the little jacket) on both sides.

Our Bunco group met at their house this past Friday so I gave them to Caroline. I think she was a little overwhelmed, but her Mom told me she LOVES purses. She just get hooking and unhooking the loop around the fishie buttons. It was so cute! She is just a doll.

I loved the look on her face as it was like "this is for me"?

Doing my share to help the economy...

This weekend was the expo: Stitches-Midwest held at a big hotel/conference center in Schaumburg, IL. There is just no way to describe it. For the horse folks - like going to a National Show and having booths and booths of vendors with everything horse and bling related to tempt you. For guys - like going to McCormick Place for the Auto Show -

There is just so much. It is definitely overwhelming and is most certainly not for the weak (as far as being way too tempted by all the goodies).

I was 'somewhat' weak, but, did "ok" - at least 1/2 the items I purchased had specific projects in mind and 1/3rd of what I purchased was to make gifts (both birthday and Christmas). I actually attended 2 days - (went with 2 different sets of friends) - thus my 'weakening overnight' - gave me too much time to think about things and to rationalize purchases - hahah

So, here's a picture of what I added to my stash!

I had stated to all my knitting friends that I was ONLY going to purchase one skein of sock yarn for socks... And I stuck to that - so, that was a GOOD thing - because I could have gone completely insane in the Miss Babs booth! I did purchase 2 other sock yarn skeins to use for other types of gift projects - which were on my list to purchase - so no harm there.

I planned to buy some fiber and I did. I bought 3 different colorways of Miss Babs fiber (which she really NEEDS to add to her online store) - 2 different blends. I didn't mean to buy 12oz of the SAME thing. Here's a story to show how predictable I am: On Friday, I bought a 4oz bundle of fiber - loved the blend (Merino - Seacell) it is in pencil strips (the fiber is long strips about a pencil width) which is how I like to spin - but usually have to waste spinning timing breaking up a braid of fiber INTO pencil widths- it is awesome to have this done already! On Saturday, because of how pleased I was with this fiber upon further inspection and thrilled to already have in pencil widths - I decided to purchase more - thinking an 8oz grouping to get more yarn for something a squoish bigger (more yardage) - So, I picked out a lovely colorway. When I was putting everything together for the photo - imagine my surprise that I picked out the same darn colorway? Two separate days, with different folks, so, now I have 12oz of said fiber. Not enough to make a sweater, but, more than enough to do most anything else with. I am just so predictable err consistent when it comes to choosing colors I like - HA! Here's the gorgeous consistent fiber:

I also came across a new vendor called Maple Creek Farm - hadn't known them before - but, they had the nicest Alpaca-Bamboo yarn - the dyeing and colors were just fantastic - so, I had to get me some of that. It's a gorgeous two tone brown - rustish- Heck, I don't know how to describe it - so here's a picture -
I was thinking about making this wrap/shrug type of thing that Dr Kate made when she worked at The Fringe - (I emailed her for the instructions if she remembers what / how she made this) - It's basically a rectangle type stole/wrap and I believe she added buttons to the edges that when buttoned would become sleeves allowing you to wear it as a wrap unbuttoned or a shrug - I think this would be gorgeous in that way.

I also picked up some cute accessories, notions, do-dads and the like for gifts and such - so I can't show you or else I would have to kill you and if you are perhaps on the list to be a recipient of one of these - that wouldn't be fun -

We all had a fantastic time enabling each other, seeing new fibers, yarns, patterns and the like and I am so thankful (so is Bill) that this only occurs one time a year!

If you're prone to getting lost...

You definitely do NOT want to try this:

That is this year's corn maze design at Jonamac Farms in Malta, Il. We went for the first time last year in October and not only picked apples, but pumpkins too. This year they have the 'early' season apple varieties available, so we figured it would be a fun thing to do. We picked Galas - Crisp and Sweet, also Cortlands and Jonamacs which are both Medium and Tart. We picked about 15lbs... They smell SO good!

We then attacked the orchard store and got fresh homemade fudge in 1/4lb increments which Bill and Bree have made a big dent in - Chocolate, Cookies and Cream, Chocolate Mint and Dreamsicle. I ended up with some apple donuts - warm from the oven with cinn-sugar sprinkled on top and Bree got a fresh HUGE carmel apple - which she ate on the way home!

After leaving the orchard, we took a drive in the country, looking at land, farms, horse barns and the like! We had a great day driving the back roads, just hanging out! At one point, Bree and I decided that we must be in Iowa as all you could see were cornfields!

We'll be going back in October for the middle season varieties and pumpkins - not to mention more fudge, donuts and FRESH, non-processed, apple cider (not ready this past weekend - BOO!!!) We love the pick your own! And I'm sure we'll have all these eaten by then!

Also, in October they add the 'haunted' part of the corn maze - which should be fun too!

Knitting News...

Yes, amongst Squirrel trapping, horse shows and the like, I have been knitting. I have been keeping in line with my restrictions of only 2 pair of socks per month! As of today, I have completed 17 socks. And have found time in between to knit other things too! (or crochet)!

My latest has been having fun knitting the Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman. One of the ladies in our bunco group is due in the beginning of November. It's so nice to know of a "little" one to knit for! I knit this BSJ and hat set.

Also, back in May, Jackie, a friend I met thru Paige and the horse forum had a baby girl, Annaleigh, and I made these for her!

These are Fleegle's Seamless Saartje Booties:

And I have to post a few socks, now don't I? These are a test knit pattern I did for Linda Welch, called Socks for Christy. I used Sundara Sock yarn in the Jump for Joy color. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this color. These are a toe up sock and it is a great pattern!

These have to be one of my all time favorite color/pattern combinations! The name of this sock is Shur'tugal Socks by by Alice Yu and I used Plymouth Happy Feet in Jade Green (color 14) - they were an incredible easy knit and the pattern just flew by!

And lastly, our knit group held a "Christmas in July" swap to kick off our knitting of Christmas gifts! I am proud to say, I have 2 gifts completed and 1 on needles! But, for the swap, my person is ALWAYS cold, so, I made her the warmest gloves I could think of. These are the My Bagatelle Thrum Mittens. I used Cascade 220 for the glove in a dark plum and the thrums are a roving with glitter (romney) from Esther's Place in big rock - they were a big hit! Fun to make as well! The beauty of warmth in these mittens is that the wool thrums (a piece of roving about 6" long folded in half - think like a Q-tip) - is held together with the yarn when knitting every so many stitches. The ends of the Q-tip piece of roving are on the inside of the mitten and feels like a fleece seat cover, keeping your hands extremely warm.

That's just a mini-recap since my last post back in April! I signed up for this cool internet site tabulator for knitting called "knit meter" - and you enter in your projects and it tracks for a month or year the amount of yardage of yarn you have consumed. Well, year to date, I have consumed 21,715 yards of yarn. How cool is that?

Hit the road Jack and never come back...

Yesterday, we caught rat with a tail number 2. Mr Animal Tracker man was here to collect and I told him when he first arrived that I SWEAR that there were two (including rat no 2) -

I told him that NO ONE believed me in the beginning and that when I heard the playing on Wednesday that there were sounds on both sides of the soffit at one time and I was betting that there were 2 playing...

VINDICATION once again... While he was here removing rat no 2 with a tail, he got to hear yet another one... Ah, being right feels so good (also knowing that I am not NUTS)!

So, here is the 'juvenile' removed yesterday

So now we are on the hunt for rat with a tail number 3 - 'it' was quite active after Mr Animal Tracker left yesterday - totally ticked off I presume...

The other cool thing was that he had located and confiscated a runaway Ball Python - they are smallish - 3 to 4' - Bree got to mess with it - NOT me.... It got loose in an apt when a guy was moving out and they couldn't find it - it was under the burners of the stove (in the ledge that separates the oven) - good thing someone didn't cook on the stove...

He also had a 'dead' brown bat, a couple of possums, and a raccoon in the back of his truck, and his trusty Golden Retriever mix, Max, in the back seat! The next door neighbor boys and Mom came over and the kids got a pretty decent science lesson on the evolution of snakes, the python breed, bats and the like - it was actually pretty neat (why I didn't take pictures is beyond me - I think I was just so happy to capture rat no 2 and know that he heard rat no 3 that I got sidetracked)... They got to see the snakes teeth, the pits in the upper lip that allow it to know where 'heat' is (think thermal imaging and how they find their prey in the dark) and where the feet have evolved off, etc.. Lots of info!

He sat on the lawn and conducted class - it was pretty funny looking back at it.

We seem to have a quiet weekend ahead which is good as I think every other weekend this month is full to the brim.

The wheel on the wheel goes round and round...

Ok, so I changed the words to this kiddie song a little bit, but, it is true... The wheel on my spinning wheel goes round and round. I know I've said it before, but, I just so enjoy spinning! It is therapeutic in its own way, different from knitting, but so relaxing all the same.

I also think it is contagious and Kate took some spinning lessons and is building her addiction and Rachel caught the bug and has even purchased a wheel which should be arriving in the very near future! I think that makes four of us now that have wheels - I forsee one of our 'knit nights' turning into a spinning night!

To get caught up from my last post back in April (I know, bad me) - here's what I've accomplished! I have even actually SOLD some of my handspun - how cool is that!!!

I just realized that the last one I posted was handspun number four and I am now on Handspun number 17 - So, I won't post them all - just a few of my favorites!

This is a nice, soft green Merino/Silk (80/20) that I spun for our Christmas in July swap for my person. It was so easy to work with and is soft, soft, soft!

The next one was my 12th handspun, it is a SW Merino by Julie Spins which would be great for mittens, hat, something along those lines as it is a washable wool! I love the 'woodsey' color!

The last for now is a neat turquoisey blue with a touch of black. It is a Rambouillet roving by Julie Spins called 'Stormy' and I never realized that Rambouillet spins up so soft - I thought it was a shade coarser, and I was pleasantly surprised. I will definitely purchase more of this wool! The color is rich and it is easy to spin! This yarn was used for a scarf for my Mom - It's a perfect color for her and it is nice to know that it was handmade from start to finish!


There are many more photos and spinning finished objects - you can see them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14597896@N02/sets/72157615046367463 - (why I cannot get links to work in my blog is beyond me)

Oh, and I purchased a SECOND wheel in June... The Lendrum DT! So, now I have 2 projects on wheels at once which is so fun... I just have to figure out how to 'power' them both at the same time. Kind of like riding 2 bicycles or 2 horses at the same time - yeup.. gonna figure it out!

Bree's Successful Sunday!

As if our weekend wasn't busy enough, Bree ran in a speed horse show on Sunday - and run she did!

This was her first show of the year and first since July 3rd of last year! Bree and her horse, Tess, have been working very hard to polish their skills!

She ran in 6 classes:

Trot poles: (kind of a warm-up class) her time was 39.51 (seconds - LOL) and she placed first



Then she ran in the "Novice Rider" poles and finished first in that class with a 25.52.

That class led into the Youth (13 and under) poles which she also won with a 24.43.


She also ran in the open which is all age kids, adults, professionals, trainers, etc.. She held her own placing 7th with a 25.02

We all ate lunch then after lunch, barrels started:

She seemed kind of sluggish in the Novice barrels and placed 3rd with a 20.94, but came back in the youth barrels running 2.2 seconds faster with at 18.74 and placed first - This is my most favorite picture, both Bree and Tess are so focused!


She also ran in the 3-D race - this is an intersting race - and runs much like a NBHA (National Barrel Horse Assoc class works). Everyone (all kids, adults, pro's and trainers) run and the times are recorded. The fastest time is called the 1-D time and wins 'first' in that class and the next 4 fastest times place 2nd-5th. The fastest time was 17.34.

Next, they add one second to that time so now it is 18.34 and the person with the closest time (over that number) places first in the 2-D. And the next 3 fastest times take 2nd thru 4th in the 2D

Finally they add two seconds to the fastest time making it 19.34 and the person with the closest time (over that number) places first in the 3-D. The next 2 fastest times take 2nd and 3rd in the 3-D.

Bree ran a 18.93 and missed 4th place in the 2-D by 2 tenths of a second! All in all it was a great day, they learned alot, know what they have to continue to work on and are chomping at the bit to attend the next show (mid-September).