Author: missouristar

It's about time I posted and proved that I am indeed still here and blogging.  This summer is proving to be very, very busy.  Hubby's advice that I would find myself this busy in retirement has proven to be true!  In fact, I'm discovering that I really do need to be careful about over committing myself.  However, it does give me a lot to blog about.  Where to start?

Last weekend I went on a road trip to Sisters, Oregon with some ladies from our church.  Every year the town hosts a huge outdoor quilt show.  It grows from a sleepy little town of about 1700 to over 100,000 visitors in one day!!  Even with that it didn't seem to be too crowded, although it was plenty warm.  That didn't dampen our enthusiasm too much and we all had a great time.

I did most of the driving – about 18 hours total – and was exhausted at the end of it, but it was well worth it and the ladies seemed very appreciative.

No, that's not our car, but it is kind of cool!  Don't think I have that much time on my hands!

I did break my fiber diet a little – souvenir fiber doesn't count, right?  I found a shop that had a small spinning section and scored some beautiful blue Colonial top:

As soon as I finish spinning the yarn for Ben's sweater, this will be my next project for a shawl challenge that my knitting group is doing.  More on that later.  But, speaking of the sweater project – I'm making progress.  I finally caved and started plying, trying to mix up my bobbins as much as possible, although I do seem to be staying fairly consistent.  Four skeins down, ? to go:

 

Of course, there are always other temptations.  The last Mixed Blessings offering from Fat Cat was absolutely luscious – alpaca and silk.  And I was thrilled to discover that I won one of the random prizes – a beautiful braid of Falkland (alpaca/silk on left, Falkland on right):

And just to prove that I'm still finishing – two FO's.  First up, a blue shrug for Isobel.  As you might recall, she absolutely refused to wear the brown one I made for her.  I asked her if she would wear a blue one and she said yes, so Nana complied:

It seems to be a hit.  I also am working on mastering toe-up socks.  My goal is that they will be as intuitive to me as top down socks are now.  These are the Seashell Socks.  Pattern by Wendy Johnson, yarn is Regia Silk, size 0 needles:

Although I count these as a success, I don't highly recommend the pattern.  The stitch pattern biases terribly and is a little boring to do.  But I learned a lot about toe-up socks and will continue to explore, even though the next set on my needles is top down.  But they are for a gift and I want to finish them quickly.

Last but not least is a little project that taught me a lot about children and how we can go terribly wrong trying to impress them.  It seems that as adults we often think the big, expensive things are what make children happy.  We couldn't be more wrong.  When Mei-Mei was born I had made her a little Minkee dog that became her favorite "lovey".  She can't go to sleep without it.  They are a little reluctant to take "Bobo" in the car for fear of losing him.  Just before they got ready to leave here after their last visit, Ben asked if I could whip up something quickly for them to take in the car because they really wanted her to sleep on the way home.  I went in my sewing room and found a little square of Minkee.  I stuffed the head with some leftover cotton yarn, tied it around the neck and hubby drew on a face with marker.  The little ghost was promptly dubbed "Carbo".  All the way home Mei-Mei petted Carbo and told him how much she loved him – and then she fell asleep.  When she got home she had to take Carbo up to her room, introduce him to all her toys and have him give each one of them a kiss!  And just to prove Carbo is as simple as they come:

Sometimes we just try too hard!

My marathon spinning has begun:

I have three bobbins down on the BFL for Ben's sweater.  I have seven bobbins, so the plan is to spin six bobbins of singles and then start to ply.  I should be able to mix them up enough to even out any spinning differences.  At least that's the plan.  I've joined the Tour de Fleece as a rookie and my goal is to have all the yarn spun for the sweater by the time the tour is over.  At least that's the plan.  But life may get in the way, so we'll see.

I won't be be able to spin for three days next week because I'm taking a road trip to the Sisters, Oregon Quilt Show.  Three elderly ladies from our church wanted to go and asked me to go along, so I will be the designated driver.  They are absolutely charming ladies and I think we're going to have a great time.  Bill and I went years ago and it's a beautiful show.  In the 20 or so years they've had the show it's only rained a couple of times and wouldn't you know – it rained the year we went.  I hope I don't bring bad luck this year.

In the FO department, I finished Damson:

This was knit from my own handspun, a merino/silk blend.  This was probably the nicest yarn I've spun so far and it made me ridiculously happy to knit with it.  It is so much more satisfying than knitting with commercial yarn.  I highly recommend the pattern as well.  It's quick and easy and I love the way it drapes around the shoulders and stays put.  No modeling shots until I manage to change into something besides a sweatshirt and jeans.  With our weather that may be a while.

I'm having to take a good, honest look at my sewing room and make some firm resolutions.  I've come to the conclusion that I have more than enough fabric, yarn, fiber and books to keep me occupied for many moons.  In fact, it's getting to the point where I'm running out of room to put everything.  So – you heard it here first.  I'm going on a fabric, yarn, fiber and book diet until I manage to use up some of what I have.  I'm not going to put an exact amount in, but I need to get things down to a more reasonable level.  The only exceptions will be supplies to finish projects already in the stash and the Fat Cat fiber club when she offers it again.  That one only runs for 3 months at a time and it's one I really don't want to pass up.  And speaking of the club – I think I may have won a prize!  On the Ravelry group she posted the names of the prize winners and one of them was Dorothy W.  There just aren't that many Dorothys around, so I'm hoping.  She won't confirm, so I just have to wait until my shipment arrives.  I'm hoping it will come today.

Anyway – one of the first things up on my stash utilization program is to dive into this bag of cotton:

I have loads of dishcloth patterns to try out and right now they're the perfect project for my brain, which seems to be incapable of attempting anything more challenging.  Two down and a third started:

Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th.  Our plans are to have a barbecue here with the family tomorrow and maybe even take in the parade.  And of course, fresh strawberry shortcake from our local fields!  Yum!!

No, not the running type.  A 2-mile walk around the block with Maggie is as intense as I ever plan to get.  This will be a spinning marathon.  I've cleared all other spinning projects off the calendar and will be concentrating on this lovely BFL:

At the Spin-In in April I bought 3 pounds to make my son a sweater.  I've subsequently learned that 3 pounds is probably overkill, but I'm going to go ahead and spin it all up in the hopes that I may even have enough for two sweaters.  I've already sampled and will be spinning a 3-ply heavy DK weight (I hope).  My experiences so far have taught me that I really need to do this all at once rather than intersperse it with other projects.  So it will be a marathon.  However, I am finding this a very relaxing fiber to spin.  After spinning so much merino/silk, this has a very different feel.  It's not as silky, crimpier but even though it's very clean, has a wonderful lanolin feel to it.  

My most recent project has been the aforementioned merino/silk.  This was the fiber:

 

When I 2-plied, I tried to see how much I could get on one bobbin – it worked out to 7 ounces!  However, toward the end it was very hard to treadle the heavy bobbin:

But it may have been worth it to get over 400 yards of a heavy laceweight/light fingering:

Another FO to report – Winterscape socks from Austermann Step.  These will be for a quilting friend:

And I am sad to report that Whistler has indeed been frogged.  The yarn is neatly wound and bagged and awaiting another Dale to be chosen when fall rolls around.  Although, at the rate our weather as been going, I may be casting on for warm woolies in the middle of August!  This leaves my knitting calendar also freed up to work on a project for my sil.  Her son is getting married in August and she has a rather ambitious afghan planned for him.  She enlisted the help of myself and my other sil (nice to have knitters in the family!).  My portion is two 6" x 60" panels of a leaf pattern – very easy and fun to do.  Almost mindless:

The yarn my sil is using is Wool-Ease.  I've never used it before and I'm finding I really like it.  It's 80/20 wool/acrylic, but is very soft and not at all "plastic" feeling as some acrylics are.  I've been looking for a go-to yarn for charity knitting and everyday wear for the girls.  I've been very, very disappointed in the Encore I've been using.  I know some pilling is inevitable, but the Encore's pilling has been horrendous.  Anyone out there have any experience with high wear garments made of Wool-Ease?

Back to spinning now!

My vacation is over and I think this is one of those times that I need a vacation to recover!  My sister and I flew back to Missouri to visit my parents.  Those of you who have followed my blog for a while might remember that my hometown is pretty small.  It's one of those places that you might miss if you blink:

Yup folks – that's it!  It was a little traumatic seeing my parents' house for the first time in a few years as they had to cut down the old maple tree in the front yard.  It was huge – I couldn't put my arms around the trunk – and had been there as long as I could remember.  But age and disease had taken its toll. 

Other than that the old homestead was as I remembered.  One of the nice things about Thomasville is the laid back lifestyle.  An exciting evening consists of hanging out on the front porch swing:

While I was there I relaxed and spent a lot of time knitting.  I found a good pattern for my handspun and completed a Multnomah shawl:

 

I wasn't able to make it full sized, but it turned out to be a nice little shoulder scarf/shawlette.

My parents flew back to Washington with us and it was great fun to see them meet their great-granddaughters:

The girls took to them immediately and showered them with hugs and kisses.  The girls had come up to our house on Wednesday and met my parents for the first time.  On Thursday we went down to their house.  When Mei-Mei saw my Dad she went running up to him, hugged him and said, "I missed you so much!"  Yes – they definitely made big points.

We were even able to get the whole family together for a portrait:

On Saturday we had our 4th Annual Spring Tea.  The tea was almost over before I remembered to break out the camera.  As you can see, Mei-Mei was quite proficient at serving tea;

Mom and Dad left yesterday and made it back home without incident.  The house is strangely quiet, but I've managed to fill my time productively.  I spent most of the day in my sewing room, straightening up and spinning.  Maggie even got to go out for a walk.  Life is back to normal.

It's raining, it's pouring.  No snoring that I know of, but we've got a lake in our backyard. 

While this is not unusual for winter, usually by this time of year things have dried out and we get a little more sunshine and warm weather.  We haven't even put our winter clothes away yet.  Brrrr.

This weekend has been a whirlwind of FO's.  Ok, so only 2, but still FO's.  First off – Evenstar:

 

I really thought the beaded border was going to do me in.  It seemed to take forever.  There was a little drama at the end when I grafted.  I got the wrong sides together (well, actually the right sides together, which was the wrong way), so I had to carefully unpick the grafting, which meant some dropped stitches.  All was fixed in the end and I'm quite pleased.  I may even do this pattern again.  As I've mentioned, I probably will not do a Mystery Shawl again.  I do not like working blind, especially with a pattern that has some "issues".  I won't come right out and call them errors, but there was quite the drama on the Ravelry group, with some members being unfairly criticized for expressing frustration.  I do not need drama in my knitting, so I think group KAL's are probably not my thing.

Also finished were my very first handspun socks!!

The pattern is Winterscapes, size 0 needles.  Do you notice something?  Yeah, they don't match!  I bought this fiber at the spin-in here in April.  It was sold in packs – one pack makes one sock.  Since these were the last two of this colorway on the table, I assumed they were a perfect match.  Not so.  That was completely my fault for not checking.  I also learned that it is probably wise to spin all the yarn for one project as close in time as possible.  I did another project in between socks and I spun the second batch of fiber a little finer than the first.  So, the first sock is 56 stitches to start and the second is 60.  Despite that, they are about the same size, although they don't quite look like it in the picture.  The photo of both the socks and Evenstar are not very color true – the colors are really much clearer and brighter.  But the rain and gloom has made good color photography challenging at best.

Next week I'm off to Missouri to visit the parents.  So, of course, I gotta get busy and plan my knitting to pack.  I probably won't be taking my computer, so no blogging.  I did pop on down to the Apple store in Lynwood to purchase an iPad to take with me, but alas, they were all sold out.  However, I did order one and it should be here in about three weeks.  Hubby and I are getting it because we are planning a big road trip at the end of summer.  I'm very excited that I have plans on meeting up with some blogging friends.

In the meantime, I close with cute granddaughterly sayings.  I was visiting this week and Isobel and I were out in her front yard making clover necklaces.  A delivery man drove up with a delivery of organic veggies for Abby.  While I was taking the delivery, he said to Isobel, "That's a very pretty necklace you have."  She said, "Thank you.  My grandma made it. (elaborate gesture toward me).  This is my grandma.  Her name is Nana."

All of us knitters have been there – the Black Hole of Knitting.  Sometimes it's sleeves, sometimes it's endless rows of stockinette.  You put down your knitting and when you come back, it almost seems as if you've made reverse progress!  And without any frogging.  This shawl border has been that way.  I could swear after putting it down in the evening, when I pick it up the next day I have twice as far to go as I did the day before.  Theoretically I know that's not true.  I have 16 repeats to complete out of 56.  I really, really would like to have this finished before I leave on vacation.  It is definitely NOT plane knitting.  Can you imagine hundreds of little beads rolling around on the floor of the plane??  So I continue on.

I did finish some spinning that I wanted done before I left, though.  This was the April Mixed Blessings fiber from Fat Cat Knits.  I spun the two braids separately.  The red I split vertically into about 4 long pieces, the purple I broke up into random chunks, both vertically and horizontally.  This is what I came out with:

Then I plied them together.  I couldn't for the life of me figure out how in the world this would come out to anything remotely resembling usable yarn, but lookie:

After spinning mostly neutral yarns, I was just tickled at the wonderful colors.  As I was spinning I was getting a little nervous.  There were stretches of almost fluorescent pink, olive drab and it seems just about everything in between.  How in the world did it come out to something this pretty?  I guess that's what makes Ginny a dyeing genius.  Alas, I only have about 320 yards of fingering weight, so I'm not sure what I'll do with it.  Any suggestions?  A small scarf or shawlette would be great, but the ones I've been interested in take about 400 yards.

Hubby wanted to do a garden this year and I talked him into giving Square Foot Gardening a try.  We decided to go with just one and see how it worked before committing ourselves.  So far, so good:

We've planted spinach, lettuce, radishes, carrots, beets, onions and strawberries.  Everything except the carrots is doing great.  In fact, we harvested some spinach to have with our salad last night and it was so tasty – tender and sweet.  And we have lots and lots of little baby strawberries.  Hubby built a critter cage to put over it – we have deer and rabbits.  It seems to have done a really good job of keeping them out and it's lightweight and easy to remove for harvesting.

I finally had my last dental appointment yesterday.  The permanent crown was placed and it really was a piece of cake.  I love this dentist – after your appointment you can have fresh baked Otis Spunkmeyer cookies and a cappuccino.  But I will be glad not to see him again until my check up in November.

And speaking of dentists – the woman who replaced me as office manager has quit.  Sad to say, most of the staff is looking for new employment.  It's a little discouraging to see all that you have spent years building up going down the drain, but I comfort myself in knowing that I can be really proud of all that I accomplished while I was there.  And pat myself on the back that I am retired!!!  It is such a relief to know that I don't have to deal with any of it. 

I've started the edging on the Evenstar Shawl and it is taking forever!  I'm not a stranger to long shawl edgings, but the beads on this one are adding a whole new dimension – in more ways than one:

However, I do love the effect and think it will be well worth it.  At the rate I'm going it will probably take at least another month or so to finish.  Stay tuned!

It seems that since I retired, my life and sewing room have both become more and more cluttered.  Hubby warned me that I would be more busy than I ever thought possible, and he is right!  I seem to have found so many fun things to do, but am sadly coming to the conclusion that I just can't do them all.  So, I am going to be looking at my commitments and doing a little culling.  Culling also needs to be done in my sewing room:

Despite my best efforts, this seems to be more normal than not.  I'm slowly going through things and have recycled a ton of magazines, but still have more to go through.  I'm also going to go through my projects and get tough.  I'm thinking that if I don't love a project, it either needs to be frogged, trashed, or given away.  If I love it – it really needs to go into a queue to get finished.  I actually don't have that many knitting projects going (most of my UFO's are quilting), but two are going bye-bye.  The first is the Queen Silvia shawl:

I started this right after the Nancy Bush Estonian workshop, and as you can see, didn't get very far.  I really never did feel the love on this one, so it has already been frogged.

The next one is not so easy.  Whistler:

This one started out with great excitement and anticipation.  Until I got to the three color rows. Not only are they a bear, but I'm just not happy with how they are coming out.  I dread picking it up and working on it.  I have lots and lots of Dale books and I'm sure I can find something I like as well.  So, with a little sorrow, I think this is going to the frog pond too. 

I do have projects that I am excited about.  I joined the Fat Cats Mixed Blessings club and received my first shipment:

This is the first multi colored fiber I've bought and I'm excited to see how it comes out.  Looking at how others are spinning this, I've decided to make a 2-ply as close to fingering as I can get.  The reddish fiber has been split into 3 lengthwise strips and will be spun as is.  The purple will be broken up into random chunks, spun and then plied to the reddish singles.  More experienced spinners (Pat, Kathy) – does that sound like a plan?  I can't quite wrap my mind around the fact that it probably won't look like a muddled mess.  But looking at what others have done – I think it will come out quite nicely.  This is Polwarth and is an absolute dream to spin.  I don't even need to predraft:

Off again tomorrow to see the family in Snohomish.  Abby is taking me to see the movie "Babies" and then we'll do some shopping with my sister.  Hopefully there will be time for a little granddaughter snuggling sometime:

A fun time was had last Sunday as we celebrated two birthdays.  I won't mention any ages, but here's a picture of the honorees:

We weren't sure what to get Isobel for her birthday.  Our son said that she had so many toys already and suggested that I sew her a superhero cape.  It really didn't seem like much, but as it turned out, it was a big hit.  Of course, it's always important that superhero capes be kept nice and tidy:

I also gave the girls their shrugs with very mixed results.  Ivy loved hers:

Isobel, on the other hand, refused to even try hers on.  For some reason, I think she got it in her head that the shrug and cape were exclusive of each other and a choice had to be made!  Once that was in her little mind, she would not budge!  Hmmm – I wonder where that stubborness comes from?  Certainly not her paternal side of the family.  Right, Abby??

The girls and the dogs also had a great time outside chasing bubbles.  Of course, sometimes two can go for the same bubble at the same time!

 

On Monday, I loaded up my spinning wheel and supplies for a three day workshop with Anne Field.  It was a very intensive three days and I was exhausted by the end of it.  I do have mixed feelings about the workshop.  First of all, three days was a little intense.  Secondly, we worked exclusively with raw fiber, although it was cleaned – after a fashion.  It seemed that we spent about half our time preparing the fiber.  This is not something I enjoy and I don't see it in my future.  I learned that the quality of your spinning has a lot to do with the quality of the fiber preparation.  Since I was so new at the prep, my fiber wasn't always of the best quality! 

However, I did learn a lot about the different breeds of sheep and how the crimp affects the finished yarn.  I learned the difference between worsted, woolen, semi-worsted, and semi-woolen and somewhat successfully spun all four.  I also spun from the fold for the first time.  Anne was a wonderful teacher and very patient with us newbies.  Her New Zealand accent was charming, although we often had to listen very carefully and occasionally ask for clarification.

It was nice, though, to get back home and to my own spinning.  One of the major things I learned in the workshop was to sample.  I know this should be a no-brainer considering my previous experiences, but I'm not always able to grasp the obvious.  So, learning that, I started spinning on the fiber for Ben's sweater.  I made two mini-skeins – one 2-ply, one 3-ply and knit them up into gauge swatches.  I'm waffling between which to use, but don't have to make a decision until I start plying.

And – speaking of handpspun – how many of you wagered that I would dive right in on my handspun sock yarn?  Those who know me well, knew I would!

The pattern is Winterscape and is free on Ravelry.  The yarn was actually a heavy fingering and so I did need to decrease the stitch count a little.  I was sweating having enough yarn, and only ended up with about a yard to spare!  Of course, this now gives a new meaning to Second Sock Syndrome.  I not only have to knit the second sock, I have to spin the yarn for it too!!

Well, I don't have handspun socks quite yet, but I am certainly on the right path.  I was very excited to find that I can indeed spin a 3-ply fingering weight yarn.  The breakthrough came with the workshop with Amelia Garripoli.  Behold:

Of course, I am chomping at the bit to reel this off into a ball and cast on, but I'm trying to restrain myself.  For starters, I already have a pair of socks on the needles and this is only enough for one sock.  I still have to spin the rest for the second sock.  With a busy week coming up, I may not get around to that for a week or more.  We'll see how long I can hold out, but if you are a betting person, I think you know where I would recommend you place your wagers!

I do have two FO's to show – a quick and easy project courtesy of Knitting Pure and Simple.  In just two days I knocked off two Little Girl's Shrugs:

The picture is kind of dark courtesy of an overcast day and the dark yarn.  The yarn is Knit Picks Cotlin, color coffee.  This was such a fun and easy pattern.  They were literally accomplished in two days of fairly easy knitting.  These will be perfect for keeping little shoulders warm during our cool spring evenings.  I mentioned last post that I mistakenly ordered 3 instead of 4 skeins.  When I called to order another one, it was backordered until the end of May, which also meant a different dye lot.  I decided to plunge ahead and was pleased to discover that I could make the two shrugs out of 3 skeins, with some left over!

Hubby mentioned the other day that my quilting has really taken a back seat to other endeavors.  Perhaps it has, but I haven't abandoned it entirely.  I've been working on a bunch of UFO's in that area and actually finished one this week:

It does actually lay flat without rippling, but I was trying to get a quick picture before a certain puppy could make herself comfortable right on top of the quilt.  This was a machine embroidered piece and was great fun to make.  I was able to find all the blues in my stash, with the exception of the long border strips and binding.

Quite a busy week coming up.  This afternoon I have to trek back to the dentist.  Yuck!  I've had enough of dentists to do me for quite a while.  This appointment will be to start the crown on the tooth that had the root canal.  At least the extraction site is healing and I'm relatively pain free in that area. 

However, the rest of the week will likely prove to be a lot more fun!  Sunday we are going over to Ben & Abby's to celebrate Isobel's and Bill's birthdays.  I'll be sure to get pictures of the girls in their shrugs.  Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is the spinning workshop with Anne Field.  I am so excited about it!  I really hope to greatly improve my skills, then start spinning on the yarn for Ben's sweater. I will try to remember to take my camera and get some pictures.  Usually in such circumstances I'm so excited that I completely forget!

I'm learning a lesson about my spinning.  I'm not quite good enough at this point to be able to make too definite plans about what I am going to do with a yarn before it is spun.  Once again I've had to change plans for my silk/merino yarn.  I started the Beech Leaf Vest, got gauge and merrily knit away.  However, it quickly became apparent that my yarn was way too "rustic" for the delicate lace.  Hmmm – what to do?  I checked out my Elsebeth Lavold books and found a pretty vest – Ylva.  I didn't quite get gauge, but I did some calculations and figured if I made the smallest size, it would come out about right.  So far so good:

I am taking a chance on the size.  I keep reading that negative ease is flattering in shaped garments, so I am making this with 0 ease.  I really hope it fits!  I do find that I love knitting with my handspun, even if it is a little less smooth than commercial yarns.  I also started an attempt at spinning a 3-ply sock weight yarn and I think I'm coming close!

It's a little hard to see since the single is almost the same color as the dime.  I'm not sure if this was the best choice for my first attempt at a fingering 3-ply.  Don't get me wrong – the fiber is wonderful, a merino/tencel blend from BJS Fiber Creations:

 

But because of the color gradations, I can't split the pieces vertically to thin them down, so I'm having to draft across the full width of each piece.  It's challenging my skills, but I think I'm being at least semi-successful.  We'll see what happens when I ply it together.  However, this may have to wait since I am very, very slow at it.    I have to finish spinning up the yarn for my vest and then I have to leave my bobbins free for the big 3-day workshop I'm taking next week.  The topic is "Spinning Beyond the Basics" and is taught by Anne Field from New Zealand.  I signed up for this workshop in January, when I was still  a very, very new spinner.  There was a caution that this was not a beginning class, but my spinning group assured me I would be up to speed by the time it rolled around.  I think perhaps I am, but I'm still just a wee bit nervous!

I have plenty other projects to keep me busy, though.  The 6th clue just came out for Evenstar.  Here's a photo through clue 5:

As you can see, the straight ribs I wasn't sure about have morphed into some beautiful arches.  I also found beads for the edging.  The picture really doesn't do them justice – they are so pretty and irridescent.  I should finish clue 6 in a few nights of knitting and then a two week wait for the next clue.  That's what I don't like about these mystery knits.  I have a feeling that with 2900 beads to knit in, the edging will take several weeks and then it will be time to start thinking about a new lace project!  I'm debating about starting the Wedding Ring Shawl.  I've had the pattern and yarn for a while, but just haven't felt the courage to jump in.  Maybe the time is ripe.  But perhaps I should make myself work on Whistler first.  I've gotten a little bogged down in the three color rows.  They are an absolute bear, but I think I only have 5 more of them and if I just forced myself to do them, they would be over!

But I have other distractions to keep me busy.  

A Knit Picks order arrived in the mail!  I ordered 4 skeins of Cotlin to make shrugs for the girls, a book, a knit shaver, some needles and connectors and a funky little Norwegian yarn carrier that was on closeout.  I'm not sure it's going to work, but I thought I would give it a try.  I was a little disappointed to discover that I goofed and ordered 3 skeins of Cotlin instead of 4!  Now I have to order one more and pay shipping for a single skein.  Rats!

Busy week coming up – two birthday celebrations.  Hubby continues to march through his 60's and Isobel turns 5!  Ben & Abby have her signed up for kindergarten and she's is SO excited.  Where has the time gone??