Sorry about the lack of posts guys, Williams 1st Birthday was Saturday, and my Mother in Law decided to come at the last minute.  She hasn’t been out to visit in two years, so I have tried to focus on that as much as I can.  Here are a few pictures from the party.

William, loved the new truck, given by my lifelong friend Liz and her family.  They all enjoy it and it was the perfect, and most loved gift received I think.

The cake was enjoied by the birthday boy, and he had his first taste of chocolate.  He was done, and ready to get out by this point, so he was alternating from happy to mad.

Now, you know me, and so instead of party favors and games, we dyed wool, for all 12 kids.  It was a huge hit and all the children had a fun time.

This little one really enjoied dyeing the wool, and she got really excited.  I should have thought to photo the results because they were really beautiful.  I am always amazed how lovely the dye jobs are when kids get busy.

Finally, back to spindle and wheel business.  I decided that for November, we will have a special Holiday Issue, full of last minute gifts.  That’s it, no articles, no features, just quick and fun little projects that make good gifts, so email me right away if you have a pattern posted on your blog, or something of your own design.  We will take almost anything, if there are pictures to go along with it, and it works.  So let me know, this is a great time to get involved.

So the top triangle, is the beginning of my entrelac shawl.  I am not finished with the design, but I am getting close, I like it.  This will be for the base triangles.

The second is a pattern for the Holiday Exclusive hee hee.  It is very simple and knits up very fast, yet looks quite lovely.  I knitted one strand of fingering alpaca yarn with one strand of laceweight silk/wool blend for a slightly mottled effect.  I am now knitting up the lace edging, and refining that for the finished scarf.  It will be knit only with the lace weight silk/wool yarn and should be lovely.  I’m in a bit of a hurry, because I want to send it along with my Mother In Law.  She has expressed much interest in it, as has everyone else who has seen it   My sister also hinted aroud quite a bit, that she wanted it.  LOL so I guess it’s a hit.

I will finish up my contest winner package once my company leaves, I apologize, but I can’t exactly get out to finish it all up until she leaves on Wed.  So be patient with me guys!

The fiber frenzy has begun and there are a few questions, so I thought I would answer them here.  If you haven’t heard from all your pals, please let me know right away.

Goodies, this means that you look at the person’s list, see the things they like, and make and go get stuff that they will enjoy.  It’s the fiber grab bag sort of thing.  It can be yarn, fiber, chocolate, gift certificates, whatever.  Surprise them, but do something cool.  It should cost the amount you specified to spend, 20, 40 or 60.

Fiber, pretty easy to figure out.  Pick fiber, check to be sure your pal doesn’t dislike it.  The groups were, 4-6 oz, 6-8 oz, or over 8 oz.  Of course you may always send more.

Hand spun.  All of us signed up for 125 yards or more.  Send something they want, and make sure theirs plenty to make something.  Challenge yourself.   This is about learning something new, and meeting new people.  So take advantage of your pals’ expertise and be sure and drop some extras in like chocolate, tea or a small handmade gift.  Attention my secret pal, a trip to tahiti would be really fab!  oh well, I tried lol.

Next swap, I’m thinking of doing in a few months, is the sock swap.  You will buy enough yarn for a pair of socks for yourself, and so will your pal.  You also need a pattern that fits you.  You send a copy of the pattern and one ball to your pal, and they do the same.  Then you each knit one sock from each pattern/yarn and exchange.  neat huh?  Only knitting one sock would be cool.

I need to complete 7 rows each day to get caught up by a week from Friday. Clue 5 will be released then, so if I can get caught up that would make the whole thing a lot more fun. Of course I got some lovely yarn from my dear friend Heidi in Norway. MAN is this yarn nice, sock yarn. Just when Yarn Harlot solved all my ladder problems. Coincidence? I think not. SO it is possible I could get distracted… I have to say, if you haven’t read her book “Knitting Rules” stop everything, go find a copy right now and read it. You will not be sorry.

On a personal note, William had his very first cupcake. He enjoyed it quite a bit as you can see. He picked up all the frosting off the top first, and crammed that into his mouth. It was a mess to say the least.

The biggest news, is that the girls’ got Popcorn for their Birthdays,

It doesn’t get better than that for a third and fifth birthday. Everyone is thrilled.

Oh boy, I have to start with a short fit today. Our site is kind of hosed up and it’s all because somebody had to nag us about updating a utility we use on the back end. Well ok, its a free utility and I am grateful, but the update wasn’t ready, and it has caused some problems in the blog and site, so bear with us.  I and my husband are software developers, so we can be a little harder on folks. Do NOT nag people everyday to update when your update makes all sorts of problems appear and the old one worked just FINE! There I said it. Not everyone wants to be bossed around and told what to do with their site and when to do it and how to do it and on what schedule to do it. I prefer to do it when I’m darned good and ready, and that’s not usually until it’s been around long enough to mess up other people’s blogs, and thus get fixed. hmpf!

So I now have completed all the feature articles, and uploaded the pictures. All that is left is my three patterns, and the shawl. I bet you wish you knew what they were huh? I’m not telling, you’ll have to see for yourself. I don’t want to be the only one waiting for issue two breathless, lol. So I am getting some pictures taken of the shawl and three other patterns I made for your enjoyment, and I even talked my crocheting wiz sis into making some of those hookie thingie patterns for you. Thanks Renee!

So I am ahead of schedule, and not sure how that happened, but I think it was because of Yarn Harlot, and Mystery Stole 3. I was a little peeved when I read on Yarn Harlots blog that she joined, and all the arguments of the person who coerced her into joining made. It was really the “Everyone will be having fun without you” and also the “Knitting is fun” comments that got me sucked in. SO I joined despite it being a BAD idea, and managed to turn it into a GOOD idea. Here’s how: I decided I wanted to get caught up, (sorry the group is closed for this one, I signed up at the very last minute) and Clue 2 had already posted (so 150 rows or so). So I made a list of work, and when it was completed I get to knit on MS3. I am on row 60ish. It is beautiful, and I will get a picture for you to see soon. I hope to be caught up to the others by next Friday, clue 4.
Anyway, this leads me to another idea. Maybe this would be a good way to get ufos turned into fos? You MAY start another project, but you may not knit on it, until you have done say 10 or 15 rows on that other thing you are sick of. I used to do this when painting, work on my “hot” painting only after punching my time-clock in on the old boring one. It works, try it out.

Sorry there’s no pictures or anything, have to get back to work.