MD Sheep & Wool...a month later!

Yes. You read right. I'm finally going to post about MD Sheep & Wool.

Three of us went. Me, my Mom & a friend, Melissa. Melissa's Mom was planning on going, but was sick that day, so she stayed home.

We left early enough that we could stop for breakfast. :-) Oh! And we went to the Sheep & Wool Festival on Sunday, instead of Saturday. I'll tell you what. Sunday is now my favorite day to attend the Sheep & Wool Festival!

Last year, we went on Saturday and there was so much that I missed! You see, I'm not fond of big crowds. If I have to fight through 40 people to get near enough to a stand to see what they have, I'll just walk on by until I come to a less crowded stand.

We walked into the Sheep & Wool Festival and looked at a few of the stands. Melissa was in the fairgrounds about 10 minutes when she came up with a great idea: we should go together on a spinning wheel. The wool fumes and sensory overload must have already taken over. You see, neither of us know how to spin. And, quite honestly, neither of us had spinning wheel money that day.

Our next stop was the MDS&W merchandise building. Last year I'm sure we waited in that line for over an hour. This year, it was a short line, and we spent maybe a half hour in line. The kind people in line behind us took a picture of us. Notice that Melissa thinks she's funny...

After we got our MDS&W merchandise, we stopped at The Fold's stand. There was still Socks That Rock yarn - as well as other yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. It was tough deciding what to get - and I'm sure all three of us could have spent all of our money at just that stand!

The weather was nice this year. It was windy & a little on the cool side, but I'd rather have it cool when I'm going to be walking around. Last year was very warm & I thought I was going to pass out when I got to the center of the large exhibit hall.

Eventually, we took a little break from the fiber & went outside to get some fries and drinks. We sat outside to rest and eat and drink...and we also took pictures of our goodies so far.

Here's my Mom with her Trekking yarn. She decided that she wants to knit some socks.

Here's Melissa with her stash. She has some Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn around her neck, is holding more yarn and...some roving.

Meet her Jacob. She & I both bought 4oz. of Jacob roving from Tannery Spring. Why? Well, because of the pretty colors and it's sooo soft! I know we don't spin! And no, we did not get a spinning wheel.

After we bought our Jacobs, we went into the main building. In there, we saw that Interweave Press had a stand (something I totally missed last year!). I renewed my Knits subscription and was talking to the lady who was waiting on me. It turns out that she was none other than Amy Clarke Moore, editor of Spin Off magazine! When I mentioned to Amy that Melissa & I both purchased this Jacob roving, but don't know how to spin, she promptly pulled out two cd drop spindle kits for us (she's such an enabler). So, now we have the means to spin our Jacob roving!

I have already played with my drop spindle. I've "spun" the fiber that was included in the kit. I'll save those pictures for another day. I'll just tell you that my spun fiber is...interesting.

Here I am with my goodies...see my Jacob?? Oh! And for renewing my subscription at the festival, I could pick a free magazine, so I picked Spin Off.

My Mom decided to have fun with the camera. She went a little crazy, taking pictures of me & Melissa, while we drooled and walked around with our mouths hanging open.

Then Melissa took the camera, and she took some animal pictures...

Now on to the pictures of my goodies...

This is Peace Fleece.

Here are some buttons I bought.

Some yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Don't ask me what yarn this is. I can't seem to find the ball band. I swear I have every ball band from every yarn I've ever used - I just can't find this one! But this yarn is soooo...nice! I'm not sure what I want to make with it, but I had to purchase it. I'm sure you understand.

That's all for now. Yes, I still have some fo's to show you...as well as the result of my spinning.

MAKE it a great day!

More to come...

I'm still here (lol - isn't that how most of my posts have begun lately??). I have alot of pictures to post. I just haven't been able to find the spirit - you know - the spirit. The one that "moves" you.

I have some beautiful garden/flower pictures. I'm such a slacker this year with blogging, that I haven't posted any spring flower pictures yet!

I also have some pictures from Maryland Sheep & Wool. We went a week ago. Yes, we went on Sunday instead of the more popular Saturday. I have to tell you, I prefer Sunday!

I've also been knitting. I even have some finished items!

But. I'm still waiting for that spirit to come & move me to blog.... :-)

MAKE it a great day!

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mothers out there - Happy Mother's Day!!! :-)

The field trip

Well, we had our "field trip" to The Mannings today. If you ever go, you too will say The Mannings. We were there for three hours! My Mom & I had been there before. The two women we went with had never been there.

I took my camera along, to document this wonderful event. Didn't take a single picture! I was too busy looking, touching and ooohing and ahhhing. There's Koigu and Regia silk, cotton and wool. There's Trekking - even the Trekking the Yarn Harlot showed on her blog recently. There's Lopi, Mission Falls and Brown Sheep and Wool in the Woods and Debbie Bliss and Claudia's Hand Painted and Gems Opal and Lily Chin and Manos del Uruguay...and so much more! There are 4 rooms filled with yarn and books and notions and spinning wheels and looms and patterns...and oh my! It's so amazing! And get this! When you get to the register, if you give them your contact information, they keep track of what you buy. So if you run out of a yarn, you can call them, they'll be able to tell what yarn, color & dye lot you bought!

So...sorry - no yarn shop pictures. But if you're ever in my area & want to go, let me know! For you, I would force myself to go there again. :-)

But here's what we (me & Mom) came home with (I didn't get pictures of what the other two women bought).

The Yarn:


*Lopi (in two colors)
* Regia Cotton
* Gems Merino Opal (this is going to be my Mom's 1st pair of socks)
* Manos Cotton Stria - Manos del Uruguay
* Bamboo Splash from Wisdom Yarns (this is for the QP, who has decided that she needs some bamboo yarn)
** and a program for the 2007 Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival - anyone else going?

The Patterns:

*Fiber trends - Felt Flock (felted knit sheep!)
* Fiber Trends - Bathroom Blossoms (washcloths & soap sacks)
* Fiber Trends - Felt Alpacas & Llamas
* Fiber Trends - Options Jacket
* A Dozen Dishcloths To Knit
* Not A Celebrity Scarf

Oh! And I finished one of the Ball Band Dishcloths from Mason Dixon Knitting. I finished it a week or so ago, but didn't take any pictures of it until today. I used Sugar & Cream cotton yarn. I'm really into cotton right now. Well, cotton, linen, bamboo & soy.

*I tried to finish this post last night. In fact, I had it all but finished - then my computer decided to act up & the browser shut down. So now it's Sunday & I'm finishing the post...again.

MAKE it a great day!

Where did the time go?

It's been over a month since I posted anything! Can you believe it?? To my one reader that's left, I'm still alive! :-)

I've been knitting. I've even taken some blog pictures. But then I don't get them loaded and too much time goes by, and before you know it, it's been over a month!

Here's a brief rundown of the last month:

*The QP turned 8!

* I had a throat infection, and then had an allergic reaction to the anitbiotic. The rash still is not gone.

*The QP started playing TeeBall. Her 1st practice was last week. She likes it, and says her coach is awesome. I volunteered to be a Team Parent. The TeeBall glove the QP got is "signed" by Derek Jeter. She thinks he's going to come see one of her TeeBall games. :-)

* Right now, I'm busy knitting things for the auction at the QP's school the first weekend in May.

Tomorrow, me, my Mom & two of the women from my church knitting group (the Nutty Knitters) are having a field trip. We're going to this store. If you're ever within a two hour drive of this store, you have to go! It's incredible!

A few weeks ago, my Mom decided to knit a hoodie for the baby of one of her co-workers. She found a pattern she liked, which called for Lion Brand MicroSpun yarn (the yarn she wanted to use for the hoodie).

This was her first sweater. It was also her first time knitting in the round with two circular needles. She did that rather than knit the sleeves flat & then seam them.

She finished it and last night, we went to one of our local yarn shops (which does not have a website) to get the buttons. Aren't they cute? And the blue is almost the exact same shade of blue as the yarn.

She gave the hoodie to her co-worker today. I can't wait to see how it looks on the baby!

That's all for now. I need my rest for the big field trip in about 12 hours. :-)

MAKE it a great day!

My "Poor Me" Story

Yes. More snow. What you can't see in the last picture (I took these pictures from inside the house - I'm refusing to go outside & acknowledge this stuff!), is that it is still snowing. It's been snowing all day. Schools were cancelled today. The QP has been home all day. Here's where the Poor Me part comes in - today is my birthday. And it's snowing. And school was cancelled. And I'm home...all day. Yippee.

In case you don't remember from last year, March is a busy birthday month here in Blogland:

Maribel ~ March 9th

Iraida ~ March 10th

the QP ~ March 12th :-)

Margene ~ March 14th

Yay for the March Pisces babies! :-)

MAKE it a great day!

Fun with second graders.

Yesterday I helped out in the QP's class. I do this every Wednesday. I help during their "Writing Center". It's very entertaining and interesting. If you've never read stories written by second graders, you should!

This week, they're learning when to use: 's and s'. The teacher was going over the "rules" for using those two things. She gave some sentences as examples, and then asked the class to give some examples.

The QP raises her hand, and gives the teacher this sentence: "Angelia's Socks That Rock yarn is awesome." I started laughing. The teacher was a little confused. The class was also confused. So we had to explain what Socks That Rock yarn is. The QP also had to say that I got mine from my Secret Pal - which only added to the confusion!

That's my girl! 7 years old, and knows that Socks That Rock yarn is awesome!

MAKE it a great day!

Some finished items.

Do you remember a while back, when I mentioned intarsia knitting? Well, this is the first intarsia square.

I'm knitting the Mod on Mod Afghan, from Yarn Play by Lisa Shobhana Mason. I have some other squares finished by now, but haven't taken pictures of them yet. There are five yarn colors in this afghan. I'm using 4 - Mission Falls 1824 Cotton colors, and 1 - Wool in the Woods Cotton color (which is the varigated color you see in these pictures).

I love this afghan! There are 4 square patterns. The afghan consists of these 4 squares, in 5 rows. There are 5 colors of yarn, and each square has a different color combination. The squares knit up fast - they are 39 stitches wide and about 72 (I think) rows long. The intarsia keeps the stockinette interesting. I love using the cotton yarn, too. I can't wait to see all the squares put together!

Maybe 10 years ago, I bought this bedding set. Blue comforter, green flat sheet & pillow sham, purple fitted sheet and pillow sham. I love these three colors together.

I recently won this yarn from Pippi Knee Socks. The colors she put together for me almost exactly match my bed set (which means that I love them!). It took me a while to realize this. In fact, this is how much I knit before I realized the colors matched:

This is a Moebius scarf. It's my own pattern of knitting & purling.

Last Saturday, I happened to catch the Knitty Gritty episode that featured Cat Bordhi. I loved the lace pattern she showed for a scarf. So I ripped this scarf out (frogging a Moebius is not fun!), re-wound the yarn, & Sunday, cast on for the lace scarf. As I'm writing this, I am about 8 rows shy of finishing the scarf. So I'll have the FO picture in my next post. It's so pretty - I just love it, and can't wait to wear it!

A month or so ago, I signed up to knit chemo caps for kids with cancer. The kids love the eyelash yarn. This is a picture of the first hat I finished. I mailed all of the hats today & didn't get a picture of them. :-(

I ended up finishing 5 hats, my Mom did one, & two of the Nutty Knitters each did one - for a total of 8 hats.

The hats are a quick knit. Keeping in mind that they're for kids with cancer makes them knit up even faster. :-)

A local radio station is collecting Preemie hats for Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center/ Penn State Children's Hospital this month (February must be hat month!), so some of the Nutty Knitters & I knit some of those as well. We made 8 Preemie hats. I made 2 and two other women made the rest. I dropped them off today. They will be going here. I forgot to take pictures of these, too.

I think that's about all I have for today. It's still below freezing here. And the forecast is for more snow tomorrow. Hopefully, it'll be a little bit, and won't cause any problems with the morning commute on Monday.

MAKE it a great day!

My winter wonderland.

Tuesday, February 13th, it snowed here. It snowed all day. The schools closed early. Evening events were cancelled. It kept snowing.

Then came the freezing rain. About 3 inches of it. On top of the snow.

Then it snowed some more and there was also sleet. Schools were closed on Wednesday (Valentine's Day). It kept snowing.

The temperature dropped (to less than 20 degrees - usually around 16 degrees, with a wind chill of negative numbers). The snow finally stopped (maybe Wednesday night). Schools ended up being closed all week. Two of the major highways had major problems and were closed. There was even part of a day that a section of the PA Turnpike was closed due to a wreck.

It was crazy. So we stayed home. We played in the snow. We shoveled the icy snow. I took alot of Advil (I basically was shoveling boulders - icy snow boulders!).

The picture above shows the start of a fort/igloo thing for the QP. That's as far as it got.

This picture shows the "mountains" (as the QP & the two neighbor girls called them) that were formed by the snowplow plowing the parking lot of the church that's next door to us.

See those deep footprints? I made those Tuesday or Wednesday, when I walked through the snow. See those footprints that are barely there? Those are the ones I made the day I took these pictures (it was so cold that you could walk on top of the snow - it was all frozen).

A picture of the side yard. You can see the "mountains" (on the right hand side of the picture)that are alongside the church parking lot.

The house. This picture is the view of the back of the house.

It's hard to believe that the sky was this blue and this pretty but the temperature was below 20 degrees!

Because of the cold temperatures and the ice on top of the snow, road crews had a tough time clearing the roads. The city of Lancaster had these awful, bumpy, ice chunk covered streets. It was actually easier to get around on the "country" roads than it was to drive on the city streets (which is unusual).

The QP finally went back to school on Tuesday (they had off for President's Day). This made us both happy. :-)

Yesterday, the temperature was almost up to 50 degrees - so there was alot of melting snow. Today it was pretty warm, too - in the mid 40's. That helped out alot with the city streets. We can no longer walk on top of the snow - the snow's pretty slushy.

MAKE it a great day!

My SP9 Rocks!

On Saturday (I think), a package arrived for me in the mail. It was my final package from my Secret Pal!

The picture above, shows most of what the package contained. There was a cute dish towel (if you look closely, you'll see the sheep on it), some hot cocoa packets, a small package of some flavored coffee, a cute little tape measure (which I needed), some stitch markers (I LOVE stitch markers!), some house socks (they are soooo soft), some Opal sock yarn, a needle case for dpn's (I needed one of these, too!) and some novelty yarn (this may end up being a hat for the QP - she loves this yarn!).

My secret pal also sent some goodies for the QP. I didn't get a picture of them, because the QP took all of her goodies. She sent a Valentine's Pez dispenser (the QP loves Pez!), a coloring/sticker book, and some Hello Kitty candy. Thank you, from the QP. She was so excited to get stuff, and she had to open everything right away (I think the candy is gone by now).

All of those things were great.

But what REALLY thrilled me was this:

SOCKS THAT ROCK YARN!!!!!

I have lusted after STR yarn for about a year. I have never bought and/or used any. I wasn't able to join the STR club last year or this year & have been sad because I really wanted to . But now I have my very own STR yarn!!!

This is my very first STR yarn! I'm sooo excited! I keep fondeling it. I haven't wound it into a ball yet because I like to look at it as it is in this picture. I keep it on the nightstand by my bed. It is soo soft, and smooth and beautiful! I have an idea of what sock pattern I want to use this on, but I won't tell you just yet.

Thank you SP!!

It's been an incredibly long week (lots of snow & ice here - and school was closed early last Tuesday & then cancelled Wed-Fri). Then the kids had off today for the holiday - it was a very long week! and this package arrived at the perfect time!

I'll have knitting updates for you tomorrow (I have the pictures taken, uploaded into my computer and everything).

MAKE it a great day!

My discovery

As you may have guessed, I'm not the most up to date person on gadgets and technical things. In my defense, it was the way I was raised.

My Dad is one of these people who never buys electronic stuff when it first comes out. His reasoning? Because in a short period of time, it'll be obsolete.

We didn't have cable tv until the mid-late 80's. We didn't get a VCR until around the same time period (and the only reason we got one, was because my Mom went out and bought one). My Dad didn't get a computer until the late 90's. So, you see, it's how I was raised.

So, for Christmas, my Mom gave me an iPod (she won it at her work Christmas party). I love love LOVE it! I can load all of my favorite songs onto it and listen to them. I like songs from several different decades and genres. With my iPod, I can play all of them - randomly! It's so awesome.

Well. I was reading Dave's blog. He asked his readers to tell him which podcasts they listen to. Then, a few days later, he mentioned the women at Lime & Violet. That gave me an idea. I could load my audiobooks onto my iPod and listen to books while I"m knitting.

I spent about 5 hours on Sunday, listening to The Magician's Nephew (from the Chronicles of Narnia) while I knit!

This got me thinking that I should check out this podcast thing & see what all the fuss was about.

Why didn't anyone ever tell me about these things????

I mean, sure, I've read about podcasts - like when Grumperina talked about the It's A Purl, Man podcast - but why didn't anyone ever tell me how much I would like them???

I love them! I spent something like 6 hours yesterday, loading podcasts into my iTunes. I now listen to podcasts while I knit (did you know that it makes your knitting go quicker?).

So far I have about 300 songs and almost 60 podcasts on my iPod (some of the podcasts are video podcasts). I figured that my iPod memory (or whatever it is) would be at least half used up (I have the 30GB iPod). I've only used a little over 2GB!

I know some of you are probably shaking your heads. You have to understand (and with that last paragraph, you probably do understand) that I have no concept of giga bytes. I also have no concept of square feet (as it pertains to a living space). So if you tell me that you just bought an 8,000 sqare foot house, I have no idea if that's alot of space or not. Same with computer terminology. I had no idea that 30GB is so much!

I know I've been promising knitting pictures. I have taken some - I just need to load them onto my computer. I haven't had time to do that because I've been downloading podcasts! :-) Actually, since I now have these podcasts, by the time I get pictures on my computer, you may have 50 finished objects to look at - or alot, anyway!

MAKE it a great day!

And now it's winter.

Remember a few weeks ago, when I posted about how spring-like the weather was? And how the trees had buds on them? And spring flowers were coming up?

Yeah. Well. Now it's winter here in South Central Pennsylvania. We got some snow yesterday. Just a "dusting", really. But this morning, most of the schools had a two-hour delay. I think the delay was because the roads were icy early this AM. By the time I took the QP to school, the roads were just wet. Some were even dry.

The QP was so thrilled this morning. She got to help clear the snow off the car. She said it was the best day ever. She feels very grown up now because she used to "just sit in the car" while I cleared off the snow & ice. But now she can help me. How long do you think it'll take her to decide that clearing snow off of cars is NOT fun??

I was happy for the school delay because I was up until 2AM. Why? Myspace. Is anyone else addicted to myspace? You see, my best friend lives in California. I get to "talk" to her online alot more often now - thanks to myspace. The only problem is, California is three hours behind PA (which means it's barely late for her but really late for me!). Oh. And then we were also "talking" to a guy we went to high school with (I started high school in CA and finished it in PA - so this guy is from the school in CA). I need to take naps during the day, or something!

That's all I have for today. I've been knitting, but don't have any pictures (the sky has been greay here for days). I can't wait to show you some of the things I've been working on (there was some intarsia involved!)!

MAKE it a great day!

Hat knitting.

Lately I've been "into" knitting hats. I really like to knit them. They're quick and easy. They're useful.

Today (yes, I'm behind on my blog reading - and missed out on ALOT) I read that there's a woman who is collecting chemo hats for kids in the Boston area. The kids love hats made from eyelash yarn (like Fun Fur). Well. A few weeks ago, I was going through my stash. I have quite a few skeins of Fun Fur (from when I first started knitting), and I wondered what I would ever do with it all. Now I know! I'll make some chemo caps for kids!!

As if that's not enough, Cara (January One) is donating some prizes (Socks That Rock yarn!). Click here to read Cara's blog entry about the prizes. Click here to learn how to sign up to knit the caps.

So, go! Sign up to make some hats! Use up the Fun Fur you have laying around (come on now, I KNOW I'm not the only one who has some!).

Stay tuned for some finished objects, some new projects, and some intarsia knitting!

MAKE it a great day!

Wait, what's this?

Why, it's 2 items that are finished! Can you believe it? I know. I'm having a hard time believing it, too.

This first item is a French Market Bag (or Basket, can't remember it's exact name). The pattern is from Knitty (sorry - don't have the link). The yarn I used is a wool/alpaca blend. The outside that you see is actually the inside, but I liked the nubby texture better than the smooth texture of the actual "outside" of the bag. So I turned it inside out and now the inside is the outside (did ya catch all of that?).

I now use this bag as my "knitting bag". Anytime I go somewhere, I grab this bag. It holds alot of stuff. Here's what I have in it:

*Knitter's Companion (book)

*various knitting patterns

*sock that I'm knitting

*baby bib that I'm knitting

*yarn & needles for a hat I want to knit the QP

*2 "notions" bags

* Magic Loop instruction book

*a pack of Puffs to Go (it's still allergy season here!)

And there's still plenty of room!

This baby bib pattern is from the Mason Dixon book. I love it! It's so simple. I've already cast on (& almost finished) another bib. It's knit using cotton yarn (I used Sugar & Cream). You can easily make one bib out of one ball of Sugar & Cream yarn. **I still have to add a button, but other than that, it's finished!

That's all for today. More finished items are on the way! MAKE it a great day!

Springtime in PA

Hello. Happy New Year. And welcome to Springtime in South Central Pennsylvania! Temperatures today were in the high 60's with some areas getting up to 70 degrees (F).

I took a walk around the yard today, and look what I saw:

Buds on the red maple tree.

Flowers poking up through the dirt.

Buds on the pussy willow tree.

Buds on the walking stick tree.

Buds on the other pussy willow tree - in fact, I think this one even has a little pussy willow (if that's what those little fuzzy things are called).

We went to the park, so the QP could play on the playground. My Mom & I had our knitting along, of course. The park was crowded.

Here's the QP. She doesn't look too happy here because the friend she was playing with (who happened to be a girl she knows from summer day camp) had to leave.

Yes, it was a beautiful April spring day! But wait! It's only January! That means that my Mom's birthday and the Farm Show are coming up. One (or both) of these events usually bring us snow (it's a fact!).

So, break out the inhailers, the antihistimines, the antibiotics, and the decongestants and buy facial tissue by the truckload because this never-ending allergy season still isn't ending!

MAKE it a great day!