Looking back Sunday - Happy Blogoversary to Me!

May 7, 2006 - my first blog -

May 7, 2011 - my 663rd blog -

Wow, where has the time gone??

I took this picture of this peony on 5/7/2006 - it has been so cold and rainy this year, this peony hasn't even thought about blooming yet...










Looking back, it was also the weekend of our church's plant sale. (these pictures are from that weekend - a nice sunny day)

Today was this year's plant sale - We previously had it at one of our member's home - she had a nice BIG garage for us to sit in - chilly but DRY-but, all good things must come to an end - she sold that house, so we moved our sale to our church premises in Blaine - No big garage p in fact, no outside covered area at all.

Well, this year, not so much on the sun, in fact, it was raining like a son of a gun when I got up - this morning, and all the way to Blaine, it was pouring so hard the windshield wipers were on double time.

Oh, man, I thought, I sure hope the put up a "canopy" to sit under... (I take the money)

When I got there, no canopy, but also, no rain. By the time The Shepherd got my chair out of my car, the rain had miraculously stopped - (the power of prayer??) and it did not rain the entire 4 hours of our sale - in fact, when I left the church, it was actually a little bit sunny.

We didn't do as well this year as before - we had built up a "clientele" over at Vickie's house - people who knew to look for the sale - so now we are starting over again - and, it has been so rainy and cold, I think that people just aren't thinking of gardening yet.




Oh, I suppose I shouldn't complain - my home is warm and dry - I can still (barely) afford to put gasoline in my car so I can drive the 25 miles to Blaine to get to our church, and the nearest tornado - well, we have never had a tornado in our area -

So, on this my 663rd blog, I say thank you to all my loyal readers - I know you are out there, even if you don't leave any comments. (hint, hint)

Oh, and Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there.

Spring Green

Larch



Coral Bark Maple






























The first Green Bean - up and at'em












Bonsai Dwarf Astilbe



Still hoping for sun.........

Wordless Wednesday

Loking Back Sunday - Happy May Day

Every year on the Sunday closest to May 1st our Sunday School teacher at church organizes a May Pole "event".

Everyone wears crowns of ivy,






There is a small park adjacent to our church where one of the members puts up our May Pole that Margot has festooned with ribbon.

Although these pictures are from 2009, today's "dance" was much like this one - the sun was out (for once) and the group was in good spirits.



Everyone is given their ribbon and assigned either to "sky" or "grass" - ie - you go over first or under first - the finished pole is colorful and festive.

One year she took all the ribbon off the pole afterward and made it into a beautiful woven wall hanging.






Not much is made of "May Day" any more - When I was a little girl my sister and I would make paper baskets and fill them with flowers from my mom and grandma's gardens - for who else? My mom and grandma -





This year everyone came back to the church to share a yummy Transylvanian lunch that our minister had made to benefit our partner church in, where else, Transylvania.

On the home front, The Shepherd is still sick with the flu - I say still - he's been sick since Friday the 22nd.

I'm more than ready for him to get well.

So, Happy SUNday (which we've had might little of here in the Pacific NW - April was the coldest and wettest in HISTORY) and Happy May Day!

Mission Complete

This was the scene at the Sunset Fibers booth at my spinner guild's March 2010 Spin-In.

Faced with so much yummy lushness, my eyes always glaze over and my hand immediately reaches for my check book.

"My Pretty - My pretty" - I sound like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings!

I decided that I absolutely needed to purchase enough wool to make sweaters for my bosses impending twins.



I chose a colorful rainbow mix for one.

It ended up that I didn't get as much as I should have (12 ounces instead of 16 that I really needed), so I blended some of the rainbow with a white Shetland wool single (and some of the lavender pastel with grey Shetland single - )







And a lavender pastel mix for the other -

Little did I know that they planned to name one of the girls "Violet"

If you have been following my blog for a while, you'll remember that I told you about my first BIG mistake HERE (ahh - the first round through - they were too small)



Could I have "revised" the sweaters so they would have fit? Maybe. But I wanted them to be better than that.

So, after all the frogging (rippit, rippit, rippit) I finally got them re-crocheted and finished - washed, blocked and buttons sewed on -









Can you see this adorable lavender rose button?
(click on the picture to biggify it)









Here is Annie's "coat of many colors" - on the "re-do" I was actually able to make the pattern of the colors from the sleeves match the pattern of the colors on the hood. I thought I was very clever for that...










And I found these sweet little heart shaped buttons for her coat.











And here are none other than the recipients themselves.

Probably the cutest babies I've ever seen.






And the sweaters fit! Their grandma Mel said that she thought they'd be able to wear them for a while.

Spring and summer in the Pacific NW is often chilly, so I'm hoping that they will get a lot of use out of them before they outgrow them. The hazards of making a sweater for a baby...




But it was a fun project and I actually enjoyed myself.

Thank you to Mommy Rachel for the lovely pictures of the girls.

The end...

Happy Easter - Looking Back Sunday

This is a combined post to wish you all a very Happy Easter and to look back a few years ago when it was a much warmer and nicer spring!

Our choir is singing for church this morning - some special cheery spring songs. We've been singing a lot this month, and had our annual "Choir Service" on the 3rd. We've been doing some new and challenging songs this year.






Won't you come hunting for Easter eggs with me?









I think Mother Nature gives us daffodils so we'll know that she hasn't forgotten about us.

Even though we've had the coldest and wettest April on record, there are still bright yellow dafs and big clouds of pink flowering cherries and plums everywhere.










The Shepherd & I are having a nice spiral cut Easter Ham for our Easter dinner. It's my favorite!

I think I'll surprise him and make a pumpkin pie for dessert since it's been too cold for the rhubarb to get much size yet.






I hope you and your family have a great day and find all kinds of fun things in your Easter Baskets.

New Socks

Some gifts really come from the heart. My friend Yvonne (and the host of the Farm Sale that we were involved in last weekend) made me a pair of wool socks!

Wow - they are really cool. (or, as the case may be, really warm)

OK, I know my leg looks kind of like a tree trunk, but things are what they are.

Anyhow, I've never had a pair of handmade socks. I do know she's been working on them since my birthday (in January) What a neat present!

Thank you Yvonne!

Wonderful Woolies Fleece & Fiber Sale

Last weekend our friends Yvonne & Doug of Spinner's Eden Farm had a fleece & fiber sale at their farm here in the county.

We had about ten farms participating providing everything from CVM, mohair, Shetland (ours and our friend Nancy's), Alpaca, Llama, Corriedale, and a huge luscious colorful mountain of combed top and potluck roving from Kathy Green's Ferndale Fiber (that's Kathy on the left).





We had many discerning customers who were willing to brave the windy COLD (in the low 40's) day to come out, feed their fleece habit and get bargains right off the farm.


















A happy customer with two bumps of Ferndale Fiber and a beautiful big bump of Yvonne's CVM.







And YES, did I mention it was cold?

Here I am in my "little nest" - I had two shirts, a fleece vest, a winter coat (fleece lined and a wind breaker outer skin) - I was sitting on a fleece blanket that had been doubled up AND I had a down coverlet over my lap. Oh, and my new cowl/hood that I made from a blend of merino, alpaca and mohair.

I forgot to bring my fingerless mittens home from work, so I tried to wear my gloves, but I was cashiering and it was difficult to write with gloves on - I was also working on a crochet project in the down time (which there wasn't much of, it was really pretty busy!) and that really didn't work with gloves on.



OK, I know that I don't need any more fiber, but I just couldn't help getting these three bumps of Kathy's combed top. The colors will work really well for a crochet project I'm working on for a arts & crafts sale I've been invited to be in this fall.







Tables and tables of fiber - I'm sorry that I only took pictures of what I could see from the cashier table - It was a really fun day.









We got to know some very nice new "fiber farmers" and my ulterior motive for being cashier was that I got to meet and greet every single person who came to the sale. Many were folks on my spinner guild email newsletter list who don't come to meetings so I got to meet all those people too.


Yup, it was a really fun day!

Can you guess?

What is it?

Wordless Wednesday

Oh, it's - Lunchtime

The lambs grow so fast - this was a week ago and now the "Olambpics" have started












Ptooey - this straw stuff is just blechy -


Blanco, straw is for bedding, not for eating - why don't you go check out what your mom has to offer...






Hmmm - don't mind if I do...

I hate to complain, but

This was the scene in our front yard last Thursday, and this was after it had almost all melted -

The 14th of April and it snowed.


OK, the earth is not shaking,

The wind is not switching,

The house is not pitching,




and the hinges are not unhitching -

But it is the middle of April, and it's snowing!

Cutting it just a little too close...

Those of you who are seasoned knitters or crocheters have probably been following my baby sweater project with a fair amount of amusement (to say the least) - I don't think swatching would have made any difference (but getting a measurement on the babies sure would have) -

Well, they are done - still have to wash and block them, but all the little ends are tied in etc.

And this is what I had left of the two ply Corriedale that I was using - one itty bitty ball of each colorway. Well, I still have a small ball of each of the Corriedale/Shetland mix, but I really didn't want to use any more of that yarn as it wasn't as vibrant as the plain Corriedale.

This is the sweater for Violet.

I actually picked out the wool way before they had chosen names, but it couldn't have ended up a more perfect yarn for her sweater.

The darker band around the middle and the yoke is plied with some gray Shetland wool from one of our sheep.

If you click on the pictures to biggafy them, you can really see the colors better.


And this is the sweater for Annie. They are actually pretty much the same size, I'm not sure why this one looks smaller... The lighter band around the middle of this sweater is Corriedale plied with a cream colored Shetland single.

I was pretty pleased with how the remakes came out actually. I was able to monitor the colorways a little more than I realized I'd be able to - the only thing missing on this sweater is a little more red on the left sleeve.

I'll get some pearl buttons tomorrow when I go to town (I have today and tomorrow off to get ready for a wool sale that The Shepherd and I are participating in this weekend) I hope I can find some red ones for Annie's.

Washing and blocking is my LEAST favorite thing to do - but I will get them done so they will have them before Easter (and before they get any bigger!)