Chief gets a crown

Last weekend I had the chance to work at the MN Knitter's Guild table at Shepherd's Harvest. For 2 hours I sat and talked to a couple other guild members and the people that came to the fairground. We were surrounded by fiber, fiber critters and people who love fiber. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

I did come home with a skein of Happy Hands sock yarn. a lovely merino/bamboo hand dyed yarn in pale purple/lavender that will make me very happy when I knit it. The weather has been dark and grey all week so I didn't even try to get a picture of this, because this beautiful yarn needs to see sunshine to show itself off.

With all the rain and grey we've had this week Bert has been bored and getting into things in the house. I've found a partially used ball of Malabrigo spread out over the guest bedroom (no damage was done thankfully!). I've found every kitty toy put in new places every day including several placed in the bathroom (your guess is as good as mine). When I try to knit Bert has to spend much of the time trying to do cute kitty poses on the rocking chair next to me.

I'll just lay here and pretend I'm not looking into that bag - Bert

OK. Nothing in the bag. Maybe there's something over here to play with. - Bert

Nothing in the bag, nothing over there. Now there's nothing over her to play with. This is pretty boring. Guess I'll have to try another spot. - Bert

While Bert is look for another place to play I'll just stand here and look regal. - Chief




OK. I tried regal but Mom, this yarn band crown is not what I had in mind. - Chief

While the Boys are busy getting into trouble I've started a mystery sock on Ravelry. The Sock Knitter's Anonymous group (SKA) is doing a mystery sock this month designed by CookieA. I have clue 1 & 2 done on the first socks and started the 2nd. Clue 3 comes out around midnight tonight so I'd better get ready.

The Fiber Critter Fest

This weekend is the Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival in Washington County just outside St Paul. I decided to take my friend/knitting student (A) along and another friend's sister (J) who has some special needs - physical and mental. I thought J would enjoy seeing fiber critters and how yarn was made and A just needed a nice little distraction from her hectic life.

The weather was a bit cool but better than last year when it rained and left the parking areas very muddy. We got to the first building and J pooped out half way through. While she was resting on a chair A and I walked around to the other aisle and found a lady sitting their spinning. Not a big deal cause - well - its a fiber festival. There will be a lot of spinners. But the fiber in her lap was a bit different.



The fiber moved. She was spinning directly from the angora bunny! The hair she 'pulls' is the loose hair that would normally come off when the bunny is brushed and he obviously didn't mind it. The bunny sat in her lap very happy the whole time we watched. We brought J over to the bunny and she got the spinner to stop so she could feel the yarn on the bobbin.

After finishing up the first building we headed over to see some sheep sheared. Unfortunately, we got there just as the sheep was finished. Once done they let kids pet the sheep and were very good to J and let her pet the sheep too. She got a bit of the fresh fleece so was very happy. But - what made her even more happy....

They brought out another sheep and sheared it. It only took about 4-5 minutes and that sheep was all ready to go. The pile of fleece behind them is the bad bits. As they finished the fleece they did a little bit of skirting to pick off the worst of the bits and piled the fleece on the table with the others they had done today. Lots of fleece waiting to become sweaters!

Just behind the sheep shearing were a couple llamas hanging out getting a bit of fresh air So - J got to pet the llamas without having to walk over to their barn which was a bit too far for her. Looks like they had already had a bit of a hair cut!

All told it was a nice few hours. J had to stop and sit several times and got cranky a couple times but over all she enjoyed it. A got a chance to just walk around and see new things and see where her yarn comes from. And me - I managed NOT to spend a boatload of money and just enjoy the day through them. I did learn an important thing. Being a person with limited mental abilities can be a huge advantage. J would go up to people and want to pet the sheep, get a bit of fleece, stop the spinning wheel to see what the yarn felt like and everyone was very happy to let her do what she wanted. As a result, we got to see and do some things I would have been "too grown up" to ask for. So- I had more fun than I would if I went alone. Lesson learned - don't be afraid to be a kid when it comes to asking questions about things you don't know about.

All the pictures on today's blog were taken on my my cell phone. I'm impressed with the quality indoor and outdoor seem to be pretty good. My old phone was needing to be charged every night and the cost of a battery was about the same as the cost of a new phone with all my discounts. I have issues with the old phone - a blackberry with the teeny tiny keyboard that I can't see without my reading glasses. So - I got a new one. My new phone is a LG Incite. It's a touch screen, has windows mobile and all sorts of fun new features that will take me forever to learn but - the camera... easy to use and download to the computer. I like it!

Alpacas and Llamas and British Shorthairs - oh my!

Lots to catch up on.

Last weekend was the Shepherd's Harvest Festival and the MS Bike Ride. I promised a yarn raffle and you'll get one - but first some llamas and alpaca.

I've got a thing for critters like most of us do. Here's the alpacas and llamas from last weekend.

Can you tell the difference between the llamas and alpacas? The last pictures is the alpacas. It's hard to tell the difference from these pictures but at the festival it was much easier - they all had signs telling me which they were!

Bert has become thrilled with the nature channels lately, well, with HD in general. Any time I put on a show on one of the HD channels, he sits and stares. Makes it hard to see but then -

he gets all excited by whats going on the screen and wants to be part of it. I'm worried that the screen will get damaged with all his pawing on it.

The gray blob is done. It's now a gray lace shell. It's made from Berroco Denim Silk - part silk, part rayon. The pattern is on the Elanns.com web site. Time to start the shrug that goes with it.

Finally - the MS Bike Ride give away. The randomly drawn name will be receiving a skein of Lang Jawoll sock yarn which comes with it's own little skein of reinforcing yarn, and a sock pattern from Amazing Threads - my LYS. I took all the names of people who donated and let the Random generator pick a number. The winner is: kmkat. YEAH!!! I'll be contacting you to get your prize sent out.

Thanks again everyone. Your donations will help the wonderful people at MS Society work on finding a cure.