Birthday wrap-up

Hi Cindy!

I've survived the birthday and have a working wheel! We got it mostly put together on Monday night although I didn't take it for a test spin until Thursday. Margi was quite interested in the assembly process and had to take an up close and personal look at it.

Teddy wasn't so interested in what was going on but he had a great time attacking the papers all the parts and pieces were wrapped in. Abby just made herself scarce.

About three or four years ago I found a fairly nice wood chair dumped in our alley. It had one arm broken off but the rest of the chair was in good shape and it was really comfortable too. I painted it with a crackle finish and then polyurethaned it so that we could use it out side. It is actually the perfect height for a spinning chair and has a good cushion on it. The cotton that I covered the seat with had pretty much faded away in the brutal AZ sun so it was time for a fix up. Last weekend I brought it in the house and decided to use one of my scavenged felted sweaters to cover the seat. It was a big enough sweater that I used the back for the seat cover and then folded the front to use as a back cushion. Margi thinks the chair is the greatest, especially for checking out the leader and the string holding the hook. Other than that she hasn't gotten too close to the wheel yet. I think she's a little intimidated by it.

I took Friday off work so that I could enjoy my birthday. I ended up taking DH to work, we are having issues with the latch on the driver's seat of the truck so it's not going anywhere until we can get it repaired. I went over to Fiber Factory in the morning to treat myself. I've been lusting after the Ozark Handspun yarns for a few weeks. Normally they are $26 each. I was talking to one of the store owners at the checkout. They had gotten their selection at a show and paid quite a bit less for them. They were offering them for $20 each. They had about 8-10 skeins total. I chose one that is mostly natural browns, grays and tans but there are a few areas of pinks, purples, greens and blues. I knit it up yesterday into a scarf. I used size 17 needles and started off with 3 stitches. After about 6 inches I increased to 5 and knit until I got down to a few yards left then decreased back to 3 stitches. I used up all the yarn and wove the ends back in. It took only about an hour to knit and looks great. This morning I added a 1" button with a Celtic knot. Since the knit is so loose I can button it anywhere I choose. I don't know that the lampshade is the best model. Maybe I'll have to have DH take a picture of me modeling it.

Well, that about finishes up the birthday news. Thanks again for the 'zine from your friends. I'm thinking about making a few of the coffee cozies for a few people at work. I'll leave you with a picture of our Christmas tree. Take care and stay warm! Love, A