March 31, 2007

Monica II

I cast on my second Monica yesterday and am using Fan and Feather for this one. I frogged so much of this so many times because I just wouldn't trust the pattern.

Yahoo just destroyed my post! Damn!

However, I'm getting really good at transcribing patterns written for flat knitting into patterns for knitting in the round. Both the eyelet pattern for the first Monica and this were from patterns written for flat knitting. And both worked!

Spring must be here as I found half of a birdie egg shell under the lemon tree yesterday. However, I hope the cool night air (low to mid 40s) isn't too cold for the little birdies. Had to dig out my wooly robe this morning! It's down right cold in the bedrooms!

Not much planned for today....so I guess knitting is at the top of the list!

Here's a pic from the Ren Faire...look at all those future sweaters!

March 11, 2007

To the Cuff.....

I did get some knitting done! I've got about four or five rows of cuff done. I need to do about 3 more inches and then on to the heels.

You know those white family stickers people put on the back windows of their cars? And the little boy peeing on ___________________? Well we had one custom made for our "family". My daughter, me, my teen age son, and then the two grand daughters. And yes, we are Mickey Mouse fans! It amazes me how reflective windows can be! This picture was taken from outside the car.

Here's another one of the Fiber Art projects. It reinforces the whole Mickey Mouse fandom! This was a picture from a color book we bought at Disneyland.

Today's my trip to the Ren Faire with F and B. It will be lots of fun. F got me thinking about the chocolate covered strawberries, which led to thinking about the other wonderful food choices that get washed down with a cold beer. Yes, it will be lots of fun!

March 11, 2007

Can you guess what this is?

This, my darlings, is almost two pounds of alpaca! There is a re enactment group at the Ren Festival every year and they set up a camp and cook all their food, etc., as well as spin, weave, etc. One of their group had bought alpaca to spin. She found she was allergic to it so she bagged it up and sold it. For $8. I got almost two pounds of raw alpaca for $8!

It's pretty clean, although I will spread all of it out today and check it. I may just be able to pick out the vegetable matter (VM) and card it. If not, I'll wash it once just to get the dust out and then card.

I was a very good girl and knit part of the way both up and back to the festival. I have less than an inch left on the cuff of the second sock and then put the heels in!

This is the Swan ride at the Ren Festival. It's totally human powered. That grungy young fellow on the left and his buddy push the swing back and forth until it gets about 8 feet off the ground. No big deal, but it adds to the ambiance of the Festival.

F, B and I had a great time at the Festival. We watched three shows. Zilch the Storyteller transposes beginning consonants on words to create hilarious fairy tales; the two nuns in Hey Nunnie Nunnie! cast an irreverent look at Catholicism/Christianity. Irreverent enough to be funny, but not to be offensive; and Cast in Bronze is a musician playing a medieval instrument called a carrillon.

He played among others, Carol of the Bells (one of my very favorites) and Tubular Bells (better known as the theme for the Exorcist). We sat a little too close, but it still was absolutely wonderful.

Oh, and F got his chocolate covered strawberries. Lots and lots of chocolate covered strawberries!