Summer is sooooo Over ;>(

Andy and I are now spinning indoors and I already miss being outside on the porch.  Seems I spend more time on the computer, too, which is not a good thing.

And, it is getting colder and darker earlier at night.  Yuck!  Hello winter.

I am looking forward to the Quilt Road Trip I signed up for that is next weekend.  Not sure whereall we are going, though it is on a bus thank goodness.  No driving required - my favorite type of trip.  I know we are going to the Watkins Glen quilt shop ... I may have to sneak over to the yarn store.  And then there are two other shops we are going to visit before coming home to Ivy Thimble in Victor for dinner.  This will be fun and I will be sure to take my camera.

A busy summer Sunday

(L to R) Ron, Andy, Madeline, Ben, Jessie, Mandy, Lila, Nate.  (Below) Mandy & Lila













Ron's kids and their kids were in town this weekend.  We had a really delicious picnic  (thank you for a beautiful day) and some nice outdoor time.  Ben, Jessie and Madeline flew in from Texas; and Mandy, Lila and Nate drove in from Glens Falls.  Andy behaved himself and was in his glory with all the attention from the babies.

Summer Monday Afternoons at Cyn-d's

It is so nice to work outside with friends.  Here are Ginny, Cyn-d, Vi and me outside on Cyn-d's porch on a recent Monday afternoon.

We have fun and dessert, and actually get some things done.

Tour de Fleece

Picture of stuff done during the Tour de Fleece.  Collage was done with Picasa/Flickr.  Andy is right there at my feet every day, so he gets to model some of the wool.  I've been working so hard spinning, my wrist is sore.  So, I may have to take it easy for a while.  I skeined up almost 500 yards today.
    

de Fleece, de fleece, de Wool, de Heat!

Here is a bit of what I have been spinning for the Tour de Fleece.  It was so hot yesterday afternoon I had to come inside.  My hands were so sweaty I couldn't handle the wool.

Experimenting with using Picasa.

Tour de Fleece 2010

Coinciding with the Tour de France, the spinning world's version – the Tour de Fleece – is the hot topic on Ravelry.  There are hundreds of Teams and thousands of participants.  The group has 2,796 members registered.  I am on Team  Spinning Bunny.

Daily prizes are given away to those who have posted pictures of their daily spinning.  Winners are chosen by a random number generator.  Yesterday there were 451 entries.

I've been spinning outside on the porch where it is still somewhat cool in the morning. I keep going as long as there is a breeze and until my hands get too sweaty to work the wool.  Then Andy and I come inside.  I am getting a lot done and finished.

I am also trying to get fiber ready for the show at The Company Store this Saturday.  I don't know how much wool yarn I will sell in 90 degree heat, but who knows.  I like to knit in the summer.  Maybe there are others out there, too.  And, I will have product to put into my Etsy shop.  That will be coming soon

Vision Hyundai is AWESOME!

Now I can really take some Road Trips to farther knitting and fiber venues.  Here is my new (well almost new) Hyundai Tuscon.  I love it.  And the guys at Vision Hyundai in Canandaigua are the greatest.  Polite, honest, helpful ... what more can I say.  My sales person was Andy Weagley and one of the first things he said to me was that he was not a salesperson he was a "people person."   If you are looking for a new car and live near Canandaigua or in the Finger Lakes, I highly recommend this dealership.

Ron and I are taking our first trip in it with Andy this weekend to the Adirondacks.  It's his granddaughter Lila's first birthday party and we will be there.  Yea!  

Today is the first day of summer and my garden is looking really good.  I can't remember having such great roses so early.  Usually as soon as there is a blossom, the Japanese beetles move in.  So far this year no beetles - thank you.  We even have lots of vegetables on their way to good growth ... tomatoes, peas, beets, onions & beans are all up and hearty.  The weather has been beautiful this spring.  Hopefully it will continue through summer.

Ron created this garden "eagle" several years ago from old plow parts and a rake.  He is still standing strong.

Knitting Projects aplenty!

I love to knit in the summer and when I find a new project I have to get started.  I now have three lace shawls underway.  And, because I finally got the pattern, I started a Baby Surprise Jacket for Lila.  I am working it in a wool/alpaca blend in pink.  This one isn't handspun.   As soon as I finish this post, I am heading to my outdoor knitting space to make some headway.  My goal is to finish it by her birthday – maybe.  It will be close.

One of the shawls I am working is from handspun Finn/Silk that I made last summer.  It is pure white. I love this wool and so I love working the shawl.  The Finn/Silk came from Firefly Fields ( in Wisconsin) and I will be ordering more roving from them soon that I will dye.

This afternoon

On Monday afternoons the Cheshire Monday Afternoon Ladies' Group meets.  A few of us who love handwork get together to knit, quilt, sew or do whatever we want to work on.  We have tea and treats, laugh and work on projects. 

Support your local yarn shop? Maybe not!

I love going to yarn shops. I love yarn. I love spinning yarn. I love good yarn. I love store owners who treat me with respect. I have quite a few knitting friends and I teach classes occasionally.

This is a tale of poor customer service by a local yarn store. This may be one reason why customers are buying off the Internet. Anyway …

When one of my good friends asked for my help in selecting yarn to make a sweater for a new grandchild I was honored to help. She wanted something nice for a gift but as she had only ever bought less expensive stuff from the discount stores, she really didn’t know what to buy.

Road Trip.
We drove about 20 miles on a Friday afternoon to visit one of the stores where I have bought yarn in the past –not just once, but often when I needed something new and wasn’t spinning it.

When we arrived my friend was really impressed with all the different choices and colors. And was eager to get started looking for “the” yarn.

We are both over 50. And, because we had just driven a half an hour she wanted to visit the ladies’ room.  So, we asked to use the restroom and were told by the owner “WE DO NOT HAVE PUBLIC RESTROOMS”.

I was in shock. I have never been denied use of a restroom at a place that was supposedly a good quality store.  I never thought this store would be so unaccommodating,  or I never would have brought my friend there.  Clearly we didn’t look like street people or just those hanging out on the sidewalk. We were there to buy. Well, we didn’t buy anything there.

We went to a Friendly’s - bought ice cream  and Coffee and used their restroom. Then we drove 30 miles the other way and went to another of my favorite LYS (whose restroom was clearly visible).

She looked in awe. Bought $60 worth of stash and a pattern.

Note to store owners: The Internet has just about every color, manufacturer and very good sale prices. If you are not going to treat us well - we will buy elsewhere.
I will not recommend this store to anyone else.  And, I will not go back.

And, since I have told friends of this incident, they have mentioned other places where they have been treated poorly, snootily, or ignored, and where the shopkeeper was more interested in working on the computer than helping, etc. 

Anyway I am happy to say that 99% of the shops in and near Rochester, NY are excellent and visitors and newbies and experienced alike are treated very well. Thank you. You will get my business.

Quilting, etc.

The new issue of Piecework Magazine has two tatting articles in it. One of them looks pretty simple (picture left), so I am going to start  it this afternoon at our Monday Afternoon Get-together with my creative friends (We are trying to decide on a name for our group).

Doesn't this look cool.
The shuttles came from Handy Hands.  I scanned the picture from the Piecework  May/June magazine.


Piecework has had some really interesting articles in it lately, so I've renewed my subscription so I don't have to drive all the way to Fairport (about 20 minutes from here) to get a copy at Borders.  I'll miss getting to Borders, though.

As promised here are pictures of two of the quilt blocks I've been working on.  In these, I was auditioning the turquoise color for the joining strips.   I now have all six of the blocks joined and they look pretty cool.  As soon as I can find a place to lay it out to take a picture of the whole thing, I'll post it.

  

My daughter, Jen,  is now a Certified All Breed Dog Groomer and she is working at  A Dog's Dream doggy day spa in Pittsford, NY.  I surprised her at work on Friday.  The dog's name is Rosie and she was Jen's first client.  It seems Rosie is used to having her picture taken because every time I pointed the camera at her, she looked right into it.  

  
Anyway,  Jen has always loved dogs and animals and I am sure she will do well.

Time flies .... I can't believe it's April

   

I have been practicing tatting and have two finished projects to show.  So far, I can only do rings and chains, so I have to look for easy patterns.  I don't think I've made too much of a mess of these.

The first is a heart from the Handy Hands site that I started at our meeting on Saturday ... we gab so much I didn't get far, but I chipped away at it and finished yesterday. I used Lizbeth "Tutti Fruiti" and really like the colors.

The other is Betsy Evans' Shamrock that she posted to the HBT site on 3/14 with no pictures.  So I followed the instructions and made it for my teacher, Sherry Townsend.  I gave to her on Saturday at our meeting.   The variegated thread is DMC and the solid is a Lizbeth sample Sherry started us out with for class.

We are now going to meet the first Saturday of every month at the Liberty Cottage store in Canandaigua. The store will soon be carrying tatting threads and accessories.  What fun!

... and it only took me all afternoon!

My granddaughter is now seven.  When she was born, her mom asked me if I would tat the lace for the trim on her christening gown -  I took a deep breath and wondered (being new to tatting then) how long it would take me and could I do it in time.  I said yes and decided to do a foot a night until it was done.  Below is a sample of the lace.

Because they live about 600 miles from here & I live in upstate NY I wanted to be sure she liked what I did - so here is the sample I sent down. It is definitely beginner's lace, but it worked.  

I finished on time, and here is the picture of my beautiful granddaughter in her christening gown with the lace border on the hem.  

Now seven years or so later, I am starting all over again -  and here is a picture of the flower it took me all afternoon to do.  (After several emails to my instructor, Sherry Townsend - Celtic DreamWeaver, for help).  

What fun.  Hopefully, I will get better.  

    

The days March on.....

My friend Cyn-d and I have been quilting on Mondays.  We took a trip down to Material Rewards last week for some background fabric for her work in progress.  We are both putting together our own versions of a Cottage Beauty quilt.  Hers is the nine block version (large wall hanging for her LR), mine will be only six and only a small wall hanging size..

These are some of her unfinished blocks pinned onto a design wall for placement.  They will be quite stunning when done.   I'll take some pictures of mine soon.  My colors are a little different.

I've also been taking a class on tatting on Saturday mornings.  I first learned to tat about 8 years ago but haven't been practising and I forgot a few things.  So, I signed up for the class and lo and behold when I walked in, the teacher, Sherry Townsend, is the same woman who taught the class I previously took.

Sherry is very talented and has a blog at http://celticdreamweave.blogspot.com where you can see her work.

Here is a picture of our class in progress  from Sherry's blogspot.  I'm the one in pink with my mouth open in awe ....

The Olympic Socks are Finished ....

Just finished tonite at about 6:30 ..... These are cool and I can't wait to wear them.  The color is really, really gold.  I even have some yarn left over.

And now I have to get back to other unfinished projects.

A leg up ....

First leg is done, turned the heel and coming into the finish on Sock #1.  I think I will really finish this on time.  Cool.

I realized as I was spinning that this was more Merino than anything else.  So, for the heel I decided to use a mohair blend hoping that the heel would last longer than it would if it were just Merino - which I have had to replace on a few other pairs.

Sock Wizard helped me create the pattern.  This is a really great program.  Just enter the gauge you want and needle size and the dimensions and it creates the pattern.  You decide on what stitch patterns you want to use.

The first 100 yards ....

Just off the kniddy knoddy  ...

I like the color.  I was trying for a little bulkier than what I usually spin.  Now I wish I had gone a little thinner.  And I have to find a new pattern for  bulky yarn.  On with the challenge.

I have a bit more to ply.  I should get another 75-100 yards.  Hopefully enough.  If not I have more to spin.

The Road to Gold - I'm spinning, I'm spinning ....

Getting closer and closer to starting those socks .... I have two bobbins spun and am ready to ply already ....

I haven't taken quilt pictures, yet.  Later.  Today I want to ply those first two bobbins and by tomorrow cast on for Olympic socks.   Whoopee.

I have to do house stuff, too; like go to the grocery.  It's so cold out, but we are out of bread and little stuff.

Today is Quilt day

I recently requested a quilt kit for Quilts For Kids.  I decided today was the day to put it all together so I could get it quilted and sent back to them.  The fabric is really sweet.  Pink, yellow and Blue.  The pink fabric is a print of colorful pixies/fairies.  So sweet.

I am going up to my friend Cyn-d's later - we have a quilt day on Monday.  So, I will probably get the top  put together there.  We are each working on a "Cottage Beauty" scrap quilt. She has most of the pieces of hers ready to assemble .... mine is going to take a while.  Today I really want to get the kid's quilt top done.

Pictures later.

Drying under lights

 

Green & Dark Gold

  Gold

It's drying, it's drying.  I should be able to start spinning by late Tuesday or early  Wednesday.

I used to can tomatoes ...

I really had a good time at Guild meeting yesterday and I was inspired to go for the Gold.  So I guess this is my Olympian dyeing effort.   They kind of look like canned peaches, or squash & spinach.

  This will be great for my Olympic Socks.  As soon as I can get this rinsed and dryed I can start carding it and then spinning.  I need to blend the golds together cause they are different wools - shetland, mohair and border leicester - and the color varies just a bit.   

My project for yesterday was to finish this scarf ....

The wool is handspun Merino/Alpaca/Silk in the Chocolate Covered Cherries colorway from Susan's Spinning Bunny.   The pattern is from Interweave Knits (Winter, 2004) called Pine Cone Scarf designed by Robin Melanson.  I think you can also buy it online at the Interweave Site  - at least I think I saw it there a while ago.

I actually changed the Old Shale pattern a bit, but the original is pretty easy and works up quickly.  A few years ago I made it in a natural handspun Shetland.  That one is getting a little shaggy.  So I can't wait to wear this one.

My project for today is to try and figure this blogger thingy out.   This is either too simple or I have been away from web site publishing too long for it to be intuitive.  I started writing html using Microsoft Word (yeah that was a few years ago).  

I am trying to figure out why the post time is set to 7am.  It is actually 10:20am.  I guess I'll keep looking around.

Tomorrow is our Lake Country Spinning and Fiber Artists Guild meeting.  It will be nice to get out and get together.  I love to spin away from home.  A few of our members will not be there because they are so busy with family things, but Bob and Patrick from Winderwood and Sue from the Critter Ranch are coming in for the meeting.  Bob is bringing the new "Knitting Traditions" book he just got in from Interweave - so that is my purchase for the day.

I am trying to stay in my budget.  That is difficult.

My buddy Andy ....

This is my buddy Andy who is usually at my side or nearby throughout the day.