A Productive Week

I actually got a lot done this week, in spite of working way more than I really wanted. The Bobble Sweater is finished! And I've actually got a picture ready. Somehow when I was figuring yarn amounts, I totally blew it on the main color. I only had enough for the body and ended up buying 4 more skeins on the internet since Wendy only had 3. Part of the reason was that I added some length to what the pattern called for, both in the body and in the sleeve length. Once I was finished, I had a ball and a little bit left over so I could have just used the 3. But I did not want to take a chance on not having enough to complete both sleeves in the same dye lot. In the right light you can tell the sleeves and body are different dye lots, but it's not something most people would ever notice. I'm happy it's done and am now waiting on some cold weather to try it out. And I've got enough of all three colors to make a matching cap!


I think I may have mentioned finishing spinning a skein of the combed merino x romeldale yarn I was doing on the Country Craftsman. It came out pretty good considering the learning curve and all. Now I want to spin a couple more skeins so I'll have enough for a project. I thought I was spinning pretty fine when I was doing the singles, but once washed, it's more of a fingering weight. I should have known better with the merino.


Then today I spent the afternoon teaching my friend Esther how to spin using a drop spindle. I think she's hooked! We managed to spin a little test skein in two hours. She is a very talented knitter, and so I doubt she'll have any trouble picking this up. A bunch of us are having dinner next weekend so she's going to bring what gets finished this week. I can hardly wait to see it!

We're back!

Wow! This was an exhausting weekend! James arrived home from Topeka early Saturday morning and took a nap while I delivered Bailey to the kennel so we could make the trip to Dallas to see my stuff at the State Fair. And off we went! Fortunately (or not, depending on what you think of driving fast), we hooked up with a group of trucks that were making very good time so it only took us 3 hours to get from home to Mesquite! After a mess up with our hotel reservation, we ended up in a jacuzzi room for the night, which felt good after being so tense on the drive up. I was too nervous to even knit (plus we had the top down and it was too windy).

Sunday arrived and was just beautiful for our trip to the fair. We went to the Creative Arts building first and started making our way around the displays. About an hour later, we were getting to the end and still hadn't seen my entries. But there was a new display right in the middle, and lo and behold, there they were. I felt very special to have both of my entries in such a prominent position! They do such a good job of displaying things at the State Fair. It's always amazing how they can come up with so many themes for each showcase using just what's entered that year. I was really surprised that there were not many entries in the knitting catagories. In years past, the competition was pretty fierce. But I still feel very humbled to have won two 1st place ribbons. Below are a couple of pictures.





Since James' mom was also gone this weekend, I took the opportunity to try out a new kennel. It's not actually new, but new to us. It's called the Pooch Pad and we were very happy with Bailey's care this weekend. She's still on drops for an ear infection, and they made sure that she got all the drops and pills on time. In addition, they take her out to play 6-7 times a day! That's more playtime than she gets at home. She was still glad to be home again, though, and came in with a cute Halloween bandana. She's such a cutie!!



I haven't got much knitting done this weekend (actually none), but I did manage to get one sleeve finished on the bobble sweater before we left. It's really looking cute, and it actually fits! Hopefully I can finish the 2nd sleeve by the weekend. I'd like to have the sweater to wear for Kid 'n' Ewe weekend in case it gets cold. We're really looking forward to getting away for that again. I've already got more fiber than I can spin in a few years, but I do want some more yarn from Jojoland. I'm using the yarn I bought last year for the Victorian Shawl and it is wonderful to work with. And the colors are beautiful! Last year Roddie bought the cashmere and I bought the laceweight wool. The colors are great and the prices are very reasonable. My only other big purchase will be another case of wine from the Fredericksburg Winery. If you're ever in town, stop by for the tasting. They really have some good Texas wines. And their port is delicious! I never really liked ports, but this is great. I need to stock up on the Christmas wine which is wonderful during the holidays. The only problem is not drinking it all ourselves!

It's October already?

Gosh! It's been a whole month since I posted last. Time sure flies! I've been working more, but James has been busy with the SCCA National Tour so I've actually made time to exercise most days and have almost finished a sweater I started last month. I'm doing the Bobble Sweater out of Jamieson's Shetland Knitting Book, but substituting Rowan Felted Tweed for Jamieson's DK. I've only got one sleeve left to do so hopefully I'll have it finished by the end of the week and get a picture up.

Last week on the spinlist there was a post on reconditioning the wood on old spinning wheels. They recommended Howard's Feed-n-Wax. After reading up on the product, and it is available at the local Home Depot, I decided to give it a try. The wood on my Country Craftsman was pretty dry, and the stool had several substantial scratches and blemishes to the finish. So I used the Restore-A-Finish first, then went over everything with Feed-n-Wax. It looks like brand new!!! This stuff is great. I spent the rest of the weekend waxing all my dry antiques.

It looks like October is going to be a really busy month with stuff planned every weekend. I'll just be glad when we finally get off of daylight saving time and back to normal. Who cares if it gets dark early? At least I won't feel like I'm getting up in the middle of the night. If I had my druthers, I'd skip DST altogether! I'll try and post a photo of the finished sweater and of my stuff at the state fair, but probably won't have time for much else. Only 74.5 months 'till retirement...

Hurray! I won!

Ok, quit reading now if you don't want to hear my shameless bragging. The letter from the Texas State Fair came early and I won first place for both of my entries! I was pretty confident they would win, but you never know. There are a lot of talented people out there. But I find that most people are very hesitant about having their work judged, which makes the entry pool smaller. What you have to realize, is that judging is often very subjective. You can't take criticism personally. Once I entered things a couple of times, I quickly learned what "helps" when everything is equal. Especially at the county fair level. The judge is not necessarily a knitter, so good use of color and texture can go a long way. For the state fair though, I usually agree with most of the placings when I see them all in person so I'd bet that the person judging the knitting is probably a knitter.

So now I'm planning an extra trip in October to go see my stuff.

I almost forgot...

The kids surprised us and came in last weekend to take Riley to NASA while I babysat Tucker. We finally got to see Tucker walk! He's been taking a few steps at daycare, but wouldn't do it at home. We still didn't manage to get him to walk while we had a camera ready though. In fact, I hardly got any pics at all! Trying to sit those two still for 10 seconds is like pulling teeth. So here's the best of what I managed to capture...


Bailey takes advantage of her opportunity to give Tucker a smooch.


It's no wonder this child is so skinny - he never slows down!

Woo-hoo! A long weekend! (sort of)

After being off work almost all week with a stomach bug (I worked Monday and Friday), I went in for a little while today to see a few people who had missed treatment while I was out, and also caught up on my paperwork. That's not so bad since I get Monday off. I also indulged myself and spent the afternoon browsing antique shops, with no real purpose other than the fact that I felt like it. Last night I caught the end of a story on 20/20 about "soft addictions" (bad habits) such as being late, messy, overweight, etc. The gist of the story was that we develop bad habits as a way of destressing, then they get out of hand and no longer provide the stress relief. In fact, they cause more stress. The cure? Identify what it was you were trying to relieve - such as loneliness. Indulge yourself in something nice (do something you enjoy), then remove one thing you don't like (clean off that messy table, be on time for one meeting, cut back on spending, etc.). As you take care of your inner self, the soft addictions will resolve themselves. So now I'm going to go clean off my messy kitchen counter. No need to tackle the whole house, just baby steps. This is pretty much the same philosophy as Flylady, the most sensational organizational system I've ever run across. I still do it in fits and starts, and it's time to get back on the bandwagon now that I'm feeling better. So that's what I'm planning on doing tomorrow while the laundry runs and James comes home from racing in Fort Worth (he won 2nd place today).

On the knitting front, I finished the body of the Victoria Shawl and have started the edging. If I really buckle down, I may be able to finish it in time for the county fair in October. But it's just killing me not to start any new projects right now. I've really got a bad case of "start-itis" now that fall is approaching.

Fun Test

I was reading one of my OT magazines on Sunday and ran across this fun cognition test. http://www.lumosity.com It tests your mental processing speed and accuracy. I took it on Sunday (after being up most of the previous night worrying about Hurricane Dean) and scored 104. I tried it again tonight and scored 138. It probably helped immensely that I wasn't over tired and understood how to play the games. I had so much trouble with the monster game that I was seriously considering subscribing to the service for a few months to see if I could improve my memory. Just goes to show why it is so important to get enough sleep.