Boredom Sets In with the old WIPs

I have been just having a heck of a time getting excited about what is on the needles. Maybe it is my New Year's Resolution of "Thou must finish one of your WIPs before Thou starts a new Project." I was trying to do this with Spinning fiber and Knitting objects, but apparently that is just too darn hard for this gal.

I did get Colette plied up (276 yards in this skein) and here she sits on the jumbo bobbin and with Georgia and Painted Desert:


So that is looking good for the Mill Pond jacket I want to make by Ron Schweitzer. Remember that I need five colors and it looks like these are going to be three of them, however, I am not 100% sure about the Painted Desert staying in the mix since the last skein I set the twist on still bled, and I don't want all my hard fair isle work to go to waste. . . I will try one more time to set the color and if that doesn't work, I will have to try Plan B. Plan B includes more pinks being spun up from another source!

So since I reasoned that I did finish the two bobbins of Colette, (let's not mention that the basket still holds a lot of her fiber, tho) and I got two new bobbins in the mail this week, I started this fiber called Blackberry by Loop:
I think I have dyed and gone to heaven! This is some amazing stuff, made out of alpaca and bamboo and the smallest bit of glitz! I am aiming for mittens for some recipient for next year's Christmas gift. The stats are that I am getting approximately 28 wpi and all in all I think I'm in love! I personally think she is a bit pricey, ($15 for 3 oz) but the ease of spinning this has made up for it in spades! Caryn took this picture with her new camera, but I have decided that getting a good shot of wpi is just about impossible!

And here is the bobbin getting started, I think I got interrupted about a bazillion times, so this was it yesterday. I did use the method that Vicki showed us way back in April 2007 to start the leader on this new bobbin. It works really well and I highly recommend it!

Hope you all are not experiencing the avoidance problems I am with your knitting and you all have a great week!

Blue Man Group Rocks!

Caryn talked me into buying tickets to see The Blue Man Group at the Sommet Center in Nashville. I have to say that I was skeptical that I would like this, you know, I'm kinda getting older, but in fact it was a blast! We went into downtown Nashville and walked Broadway for twenty minutes looking for a reputable restaurant to have dinner.

We followed a couple of hookers (and not the crocheting kind) for four blocks until we ducked into a Bar & Grill that we walked straight through and out to the alley way back to the street! Ok, so off we go, back on the other side of the street and twenty minutes later, we finally went into Merchants Restaurant (which is the first one we came to out of the parking garage, I might add). The food was fabulous, and the desert even better! (Chocolate chip bread pudding, OMG Yum!) Ok now we are on our way back up the street to the Sommet Center - we had crappy seats, because dear ole' Mom didn't understand the seating chart, and there were some very old people (I mean older than me) sitting next to Caryn that were definitely not into loud rock music, (What the heck were they doing there???) but, we still had a great time! Rock on!! Caryn most definitely gets me out of my box, and I thank God everyday that she is in my life.

So, since I am on a kid roll here look at the pictures both Bryan (on top) and Caryn have done in their senior year in High School Art with charcoal:
They get all their talent from their Daddy-O. The doggy in the picture is our Holley dog, our first dog, and a Golden Retriever in her last months with us.

Tuesday, Chris and Caryn are going to UK for a school tour and to pick up Bryan for the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday. Yeah! Bryan is coming home! It has been decided that I will stay home with the animals since it is an all day affair, and therefore, we won't be coming home to a mess. They do fine during a normal day away - 10 hours or so, but we haven't ever done more that that, so, since I am cooking for Thursday dinner, I will stay. Look at what I am planning on as one of our deserts:
This is definitely another thing out of my box, usually I only have pumpkin pie -

Ok, since this is a fiber blog, lookey what I am trying to spin into lace weight yarn for the upcoming Spring Shawl Surprice starting in January.

I have been really really trying to spin from the fold, I am not doing that well with it, but I will keep trying! I think I am going to start over and work on the Jensen, since I have the lace flyer for that wheel, it's just that I have this on her right now:
More Colette, but I have the next coming week almost entirely off, and just our immediate family to tend to, so I should be able to get it going I think. I will give it one more try on my Rose and just see. Just so you know, I never end up doing KAL's as they go, I always wait until the entire project is revealed to be sure I really want to do it!

Speaking of which, look at this fingering weight that I bought:
to make these Marvelous Mitts.

I think I have a pink problem! Not to mention a yarn problem. . . and a fiber problem. . .

Anyway, time to help put groceries away, so I want to say Happy Thanksgiving to All the Americans that might be reading this!!! And have a good upcoming week to everyone.

Weekends are Too Short!

We are pretty sure that this guy:

did a big stomp and cut our electric fence that we use to keep these guys:

In the yard! Our neighbors just got themselves a new little Dachshund puppy to replace the Dachshund Doggy they had for 10 years that passed away two months ago. Poor Ginger has been running for her life and we didn't even know it, until one morning I found Bailey in their yard! What a way to start the morning, let me tell ya.

So, yesterday was spent looking for the break in the wire. . . and roaming Walmart to find radio wire and batteries for collars. Then standing in line at Walmart to buy new batteries. Standing at the customer service desk at Lowes to have someone help me find radio wire. Standing at the customer service desk at Tractor Supply Co. to find radio wire. . . HOW can everyone be out of the same thing at the same time?!!! Drive to Bowling Green to get radio wire. . . Chris finished fence, June takes a nap!

On to better things! I finished up this bobbin of Colette on Friday night:

This stuff is just like Georgia, and almost spins herself! She is a mix I think, and definitely feels different than Georgia did, but she is mindless spinning and I need that by Friday evenings!

And I know you all remember this as I just showed it to you last week, but this was fun to spin up too. It was 3.5 ounces of mixed mediums that an Etsy Seller put together. (I'm an addict, and I haven't given Etsy up yet.)

We just watched Mr. Brooks - oh what a good movie! While we watched Kevin Costner killing people, I made this:

I am up to the thumb on the left hand, it is a really quick knit, and I have to say I love how these are turning out. What do you think I heard after Caryn saw what I was working on? MoM! What are you doing? What about my sweater? Well, her sweater is up to 20" on the left front, and I am off to finish that now - Have a good week everyone!

More Campus Tours -

You know, I am getting anxious for the time to change. It's so hard getting up when it's dark out isn't it? So normally on the weekend I sleep in a little (yeah, like to 7:00 instead of 6:00, but hey, it's not dark out at 7:00!). So as usual, we did that yesterday, then took off around 9:00 am to venture to places we had never been in Kentucky. We were headed to the campus of Murray State University, out in no man's land! It was only 120 miles from our house but it took 2 hours and 40 minutes to get there. We saw some gorgeous scenery on the way, the tree colors are really coming out now! We passed through the land between the lakes, and saw Barkley Lake and Kentucky Lake, oh it was so sad to see how low the water levels were. So, in any event when it was all said and done, and we finished getting a little turned around on the way home this is the final verdict from Caryn:
This camera shot was actually not intended for public use, so let's keep this one to ourselves. She was mugging up for the camera in a totally different content, but hey it works for me!

So lots of driving time results in some knitting time for Me, I had started the Charm sweater for Caryn, and it was a bit too small, meaning it fit exactly right, and we wanted it to have more ease, so here is that result, with Nitro supervising my camera shot:

It's kind of hard to see but, the top garment is actually wider and has more give to the fabric and I think this one is right where she wants it to be. All of #2 was done in the car yesterday, except the cast on and a few rows of the lace pattern! I am almost to where I measured the first one (on bottom) again, and decided it was too small.

I have been spinning too, this is Colette:

She is spinning up so much differently than the Painted Desert or Georgia! But, she is fun, and actually half of her fleece from this year's fleece is still available on Skylines Farms website. She is spinning up like this:
I don't have any stats yet, I will try to get that together the next time I post about her.

So, there is not much left to say this week, except I am tired! Whew! It's been a whirl wind at home and at work. So, I will leave you with this shot of Bailey in the paddock, where she doesn't belong, and look at Jake in the background! This is just so typical for our two doggies. Bailey runs the show and Jake is say "huh? what's going on?"

I love that big dumb doggie! I love Bailey too, but she is too smart and cunning for me sometimes! Have a good week everybody!