Spinning

I finally took the plunge and learned to spin from Katey. My first yarn was Blue Faced Leicester wool in the Klee colorway by Chameleon Colorworks. I spun this on a Louet S10 that I am renting from Only Ewe.

Pretty bad, huh?

Next, I finally got to spin up some wool I had bought (for the purpose of spinning on my drop spindle) at least a year ago at a fiber festival. This one came out just a little bit better.

I bought more Chameleon Colorworks fiber in Flamingo Sunrise. This was a merino tencel blend and I really like this one. It came out really nice with great colors, and shiny from the tencel, but I only have about 30 yards.

I couldn't resist a "trip" over to The Loopy Ewe, since I knew Sheri now carries roving. This is 8oz. Creatively Dyed SeaWool (70% wool, 30% seacell) in the Ocean colorway.

Here's Sakina Alpaca in the Mango colorway. I love this mixture of colors. It looks so interesting and I can't wait to see how it spins up.

Currently I am spinning a wool/llama blend that a bought a huge bag of close to two years ago at a fiber festival with the very optimistic idea that I'd drop spindle it.... riiiggghhht...

And now for some knitting:

Presto Chango Baby Sweater

Made for: Carrie's baby shower

Yarn: a little over 1 skein of Cascade Sierra cotton yarn

Buttons: sheep!

Notes: Great pattern but I wish I'd done my seaming better. More details in Ravelry.

Water Bottle Holder

Yarn: 1 skein Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy

Needles: US 3 douple points

Notes: I made the strap somewhat shorter than the pattern called for because I am short. I love this yarn and would like to make a summer top out of it.

Quick Yarn Shop Review

Creative Yarns in Macon, Georgia: very large space, nice selection with good brands, lots of accessories, various kits and patterns knit up, spinning supplies, needle felting supplies, small sale section, good atmosphere... and only an hour and a half away...

On my way home I had a fried green tomato sandwich at the Whistle Stop Cafe! It looks exactly like it does in the movie...

My Day

I walked out of my door today and noticed this snail right in front of my door...

When I arrived at work I found a gift on my chair from 2 of my co-workers. A couple of the highlights of the gift were a cute crocheted cupcake card and a Knitting to Go deck...

After lunch, I came back to some flowers at the reception desk for me from my family...

I left work early and went outside to take pictures of my gifts and saw how well my little mini garden is doing...

see all my herbs in the bottom corners of the picture?

pineapple sage

I have tomatoes!

Two Great Weekends

Last weekend, my mom and her boyfriend, along with my grandma, came to visit. We had a great few days, including spending sometime in Historic Roswell, where mom looked for some art. We also went to Stone Mountain, where we took a train ride and the Ride the Ducks tour. The carving on the mountain is large and impressive. It's not as large, but more detailed than Mt. Rushmore, but really, they can hardly be compared.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee, and
Lt. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson on Stone Mountain

This was the first year in a long time I've had plans on Independence Day. My friend from work called me Thursday and told me her husband had tickets that a friend had given him to an Atlanta Braves game!

Christina, Becky, & Ed

Look at what great seats we had!

Tasha La Rae from Arrested Development sang the
National Anthem and God Bless America

It was a great night out. I don't think I'd ever been to a live baseball game before, and definitely not a professional one. The Braves won 6-2 to the Astros and there were fireworks after the game!

Today was the Ice Cream Festival in Newnan, GA, which we've been planning on going to for about a month. Our little gang kept growing and growing, but here's a picture of just the girls:

Becky, Christina, Courtney, Laura, and me

The best flavors I tried we lemon cream and orange cream (all homemade, of course). There were some cute little stores that we visited, and the town itself is beautiful! It is the City of Homes, and with good reason. The houses are large, mostly Victorian, and have huge wraparound porches, with beautiful gardens and stained glass windows.

A pretty church in Newnan

There are lot of little critters running around my neighborhood. This is partially just because we are in Georgia, and partially because there are woods behind my house. A couple of weeks ago there was a dragonfly on my porch the size of my hand. Today I saw a tiny lizard on my front porch that was about 2" long with a bright blue tail. And the other day, a squirrel was having lazy nap right outside my deck:

Forecast Sweater

Pattern Notes
Pattern: Forecast from Knitty Winter 2005
Yarn: Ella Rae Classic
Needles: US 7 and 9

Modifications:
- 3 stitch instead of 5 stitch bobbles
- longer ribbing on sleeves
- ended sleeves in seed stitch, instead of purl ridges, as suggested by Katey
- I think I shortened the ribbing on bottom of sweater, but I don’t know if I also lengthened the bobbled section

Surprise from a Friend

The other day in the mail, I got a birthday surprise in the mail from my friend in PA. It was a very generous gift with some sock yarn, lotion, notecards, bath fizz, a decorative dish, craft scissors, and best of all, a scissor point protector that she made herself!