Happy Birthday Harry Potter!

And JKR also, who I see in the paper this morning is 44. A good age, don't you think? Even though I have to wait 8 days to find out . . .

Here's a picture from about 2 weeks ago of the family with our 2009 cherry harvest! I haven't done the promised spinning & knitting post yet but have been staying out of trouble with domestic duties, seeing the HP6 movie with DH (we l0ved it), following the Tour in the newspaper, going to the geology museum's quarry fossil hunt, babysitting neighbors' pets, and the like. Only 1 month until school starts and I am both very keen for it and sad to see the summer race by. How did you do on the Tour de Fleece?? Was it fun? I'm thinking we maybe should form a team some year. More soon, love, Cindy, almost 44

Before the kids wake up . . .

I thought I'd toss a few pictures up and try to catch up on blogging! First, two pictures of he lovely Estonian lace socks DH bought for me from a charity fundraiser at his work: they really are from Estonia, cool, eh? I wear them in bed on chilly nights (like last night! It's about 15 below now, 6:30 am, and schools are closed cuz of wind chill danger).

Next is a HP-inspired hat I made for DS top-down so that it is the size I intended. Yay!

Also here is the lovely Faroe Island roving I got at the Sow's Ear as my first "exer-stashers" reward. I joined an exercise support group on Ravelry to support my New Year's resolution of very regular exercise and healthier eating, partly so that I can lose those last 5-10 pounds I've been wanting to get rid of but mostly because I need to lower my cholesterol some.

We took the kids to Cave of the Mounds a few days after Christmas, and we all loved it! It was the first visit there for the kids.

More soon (perhaps tomorrow cuz the wind chill warning lasts through midday Friday), C

Happy Christmas!

Hope all is well there. Without further ado, a FO! The modified Cactus Blossom as a cardigan made top down, by hand & machine, with 3/4 sleeves . . . er, make that 5/8 sleeves (they came out a bit shorter than planned but work well for at home as you can see). Photo by DS.

We went to my family's party yesterday at my younger sister's. Her baby is 10 mos. old now and adorable! We had a good time and came home in yet another storm , this time blowing snow being most of the difficulty. It's been quite a month for storms with more ice than we've had for a long time. While at the party I cut my finger slicing rolls; not serious but very annoying and will put me off spinning for a few days.

We finally got to see the HP OoTP movie! I really liked it although several sets were quite different than I imagined. I'm looking forward to seeing the special features on the DVD soon.

I had been trying to spin some Finnsheep wool but was having difficulty. I believe it was in excellent shape when I got it in 2002 (!) but seemed a bit dry or matted or something now. I wasn't sure. I decided to use it for a dyeing experiment and use up the last of my tie-dye stuff from this summer. I was careful not to let the dyepot boil (I've only tried dyeing roving once before and I felted part of it). I must have used too much dye because the pot never exhausted. Alll that leftover dye meant lots of rinsing and somewhere along the way the inevitable happened . . . I have a gorgeous blue-green soft thick rope of felt. Hmm. Methinks I'll leave the dyeing of roving to the professionals and stick to dyeing yarn (I've had good luck with that so far). I thought I had a picture of it but I can't find it.

More soon on my crafty plans for 2008 and on how I became a low stasher. Oh, and did I mention I'm on Ravelry now? Love, Cindy

UFO's- Progress?

Hi Cindy,

Hope you have dried out from the weekend. We have heated back up. The record today is 110 and we stand a good chance of breaking that. They are predicting a chance of rain for the weekend though; possibly the moisture from Dean will push far enough west to get caught up in our wind flows.

Margaret has been perusing my UFO's and she's concerned that I have too many WIP's to accomplish much anytime soon. I think she's trying to use occulmency to figure out what I was thinking when I started all of these or maybe she's trying to use her mind power to just get me to leave more knitting around so that she can "help".

You may have noticed the new sock project that appeared on my list last week. One website I love to poke around on when I'm bored is Knitting Pattern Central. They have tons of free patterns that are lurking out there on the web.

About 2 weeks ago I found the Bellatrix pattern linked from there. It was one of three Harry Potter themed sock patterns featured last month over at Socktopia. The others are Fawkes and Nagini. I've saved all three and will probably try them in the future. I've just started the cuff on Bellatrix. I always have to modify the upper part of the legs since mine are so big so I added an extra repeat on the first needle. Hopefully that will be enough. I am using the same yarn that I made MIL's birthday socks from. I had a lot left and bought another ball in case I want to make them longer. Oh, and I'm re-reading the series too. I found my book mark from the last time I read the whole series. It was the campground layout for the place we stayed in Moab on the way back to our wedding party four years ago. I'm about a third of the way through Chamber of Secrets.

Here are DH's socks. A couple of inches of progress since the last time I posted them. The endless stockinette is taking forever. I've had DH try them on but I have an inch or two more before I start the increases. He really likes the yarn though so he'll be happy with them. He wants to use them as zen socks so I need to have them done by the time Roshi comes for the 3 day. That will probably be at the end of November--three months. He's hoping to get measured for robes soon so he can have them by that time too.



Here is another new project I started last week. I'm planning that it will be a purse out of these two ribbon yarns. They are both Trendsetter Calliope that I got at Tuesday Morning last year. I thought to make a scarf out of them but nothing I tried was making me happy so I decided on a purse instead. I have one ball each of two different colorways so I mixing them, two rows at a time. It is simple mindless knitting that is great for in the car while commuting.

Looking at all these pictures you might think I have to pose Margi with the yarn. Wrong, she loves the camera and comes running whenever I get it out. I took one picture of the Bellatrix set-up and then there she was, ready to ham it up. The combination of yarn and camera really draws her attention.

Take care, stay dry and finish that ark (felted I presume?) Later, A

Finished!

WOW !!!!!!! Ahem, I now return to my regularly scheduled programming . . . er, life . . . although my Hedwig project will sort of be part of a new HP-inspired project and I'll soon be reading Books 1-7 in order (usually I just read the newest one over).

4:36 am

All is answered.

HP

Our copy arrived on the doorstep, not by owl, at 10:10 this morning. We'd been faked out just 15 minutes earlier by Witnesses but fortunately DH checked the eye hole first. I got through about 3-1/2 chapters before I had to leave for J's jewelry party. I've gotten a little farther since being home. I'll probably stay up for another 5 or 6 hours tonight reading it. Don't know if I'll finish tomorrow or not. So far, pretty good, although Margi's not so sure.

Things are looking up

Whew, kind of a tough reentry to the non-vacation. But I've had a good peek at Book 7, read the first 2 chapters, and finished spinning the Wensleydale singles while watching Doctor Who. My Tour has been mixed; I didn't got as much spinning done on vacation as I hoped. I did get a lot done on Not-Hedwig. Pictures and more soon, I hope.

Warm feet on a summer day

Hi Alene! This blog idea of yours is inspired and already fun. I don't have any spinning to show today, but here's a recent finished project: slipper socks for DH made of commercial and handspun yarn. The main colors are a fall-color commercial wool and gold Tiur doubled; the "timbers" are assorted handspun experiments. I machine-knit (is that a verb??) the main parts of the sock and then handknit the ribbing, heels, and toes. They fit him well and he doesn't mind the seam; I tried a method new to me that was supposed to be flat but it didn't work too well with yarn this thick. The chart is from the good folks at Philosopher's Wool.

Have you see Charmed Knits? It's a great book! I'm considering a HP costume for DS for next Halloween . . . stay tuned.

Your spinning looks great! What type of spindle is that? I read somewhere it takes about 8 hours to feel really proficient, so you are well on your way. Cindy