Update 1

It's raining. I have the day off and it's raining. YIPEEE! You'd think that as we progress into August that I'd be savoring every single sunny day left, knowing full well that the rainy season is just around the corner. Quite to the contrary. I find myself sighing with relief as I look out the window as the rain brings with it a chance for me to do some catching up inside. Right now my house looks much like a family of baboons live here with general housecleaning having taken a backseat to whatever else has come along lately. Cleaning the house during the summer happens in fits and spurts.......when the house is so dirty it's giving me fits......there are spurts of cleaning. I live in horror that Kim and Aggie from "How Clean is Your House" will drive up my driveway one day. NOOOO! So today, there will be some cleaning going on around here. I'm hoping as fall hits and the rainy season takes off with gusto that I'll be able to use some of that time to glean out some of the stuff we never use and dispose of it. That however is waaaay off in the future. Today's goals are just to get the surfaces clean and recognizable again and to dispose of the mountain of burnable garbage that built up during the recent burn ban. With a little luck, I'll get some organizational time in the craft closet as it's time to start a new project.

What was that?!!!........A new project?!!.......Does that mean one's been finished?!!!! As you know, that's not always the case with me, but this time yes, it's true. With road construction slowing things down at work, I've been getting some knitting done at work. The boss stands there and watches me sometimes, which cracks me up. His mom taught them to knit and crochet when they were kids and he just enjoys watching it, so he says. lol With the extra knitting time, I managed to finish the second sock for Don in record time (for me) and cast of last night. The second one came out better than the first in my opinion, and the strips are only a hair off, but hubster is very happy with them. I even have some yarn left over to darn them with should a hole appear. It felt good to cast them off, but was also a bit of a downer. I have several projects that I want to do and one of them is slated as the next one, but I seem to have the post project blahs. I'm hoping a session of "looking" in the stash will snap me out of it. lol. Next up is to be a pair of slippers for Melissa. The project has changed so much that I'm not sure which ones she'll get yet......but I have a cunning plan.

I know I mentioned previously that I'm learning to ride a motorcycle. The class that I'm taking to get my endorsement is the first week of September, and with all the practice time Don and I have been squeezing in here and there, I'm feeling much more confident. I can actually visualize riding the thing down the road now! lol When I first started I couldn't visualize leaving a parking lot.hehehe Last weekend we picked up a 25 year old motorcycle that's almost identical to Don's for a super good price and now it's getting it's overhaul. As it needed carburetor work, it had been sitting for awhile and this meant that it also needed to be detailed out. ;) Don's in charge of the mechanical end of things, but I'm sure I'll end up getting a wrench turn in here and there. He has no interest in the detailing and polishing part so that's my lot. I was really impressed with how good of condition it is in. There's really not much damage to the chrome at all and the painted parts are polishing out nicely. I'll post pictures when I get it done. All of this of course takes time....hence the lack of posting.

I think I'll close this one out at this point so that the posts are not too long. Oi! I have a LONG list of post ideas to get done! lol

Sunday post on Tuesday

We'll just open with the only reason most of you read my blog anymore. There. Happy? I was looking online at images of Anatolian's today and found that the reddish coat he's displaying is common, as are the goofy ears, the markings on his legs and his build. He seems to be deeper in the chest than any of the one's I'm seeing online though, so I'll continue to look. To explain the pic, Tucker is looking at me in the garden. Don took this and a few others of me working in the garden on Sunday and if I didn't dislike how I look so much I'd post them.( I may do so anyway later as the pooch is so cute. ) However, in this one he's watching me and trying to get me to come give him kisses at the deck. lol.

I'd like to encourage you all to go see Knittingal and say hello. She's running a contest and anyone who comments is entered. There are LOADs of wonderful pics on her blog, ( have her on my feed reader so I know when she updates!) including some of Oliver, Tucker's other online buddy. (Grover being the first, lol) Anyhoo, you'll run across lots of fun people there! Same can be said for Woven N Spun. I didn't win her Knitting bingo contest, but it was fun all the same. Turns out we were all needing the same word, and I was wrapped up in a book when she announced it. lol. Maybe next time!

There is finally pictorial proof that I've been working on Don's other sock. I started taking it to work with me as it's so very quiet at work right now. (There's some major road construction going on and the boss is ok if I knit between taking care of customers and other job duties. ;) At this rate the darn thing will be done in just a few days. This pic was taken tonight. See? I am working on it!

I am making progress on the Tour de Fleece. There's not much to show as I'm working on the Alpaca and it's taking some time. I had Saturday off from spinning so I could go see The Order of the Phoenix and have dinner with Don. (A real date even! lol) And Sunday was filled with minor chores between chapters of The Deathly Hallows*. I figure I'm still doing good as there are a couple of days that the riders take off and do not ride and some of my spinning days are power spinning days. Like 6 to 7 hrs worth of spinning. So I feel good about it and don't feel like I'm cheating or anything. I never did pick a jersey color as it just never occurred to me. hehehe. Duh. I should be able to complete the Alpaca this week and then there are a couple of small bags of roving that I'll work on. That will make the completed list look better, lol.

I leave you with a picture of Abbie. She's checking out the contents of Grover's graduation pressy from Tucker. This should be hitting the postal service tomorrow. There's a little something in there for Grover's mommy too. ;)

*On the whole HP thing....I devoured that book way to quickly. It was really an uncontrollable thing. Honest. Now I'm re-reading The Order of the Phoenix and will just finish the books to the end. I'm not one to spoil the ending so don't worry about that. lol

Knitting, Motorcycles, Ravelery and Stuff

Ta Da! In the wee hours of the morning, before dropping off to sleep.....I finally cast off the first of Don's pair of socks. I did not "immediately" cast on, but will cast on for number two tonight, after a little alpaca spinning. ;) It's been so long since I cast this one on that I'll be looking up how to do the figure 8 cast on for toe up socks again. lol. All that plain knitting in the round has me decided that before I cast on for my pair, I'll be looking for a more interesting pattern. Don tried it on, proclaimed it comfy and is probably thinking he'll have the pair by January. Oh innocent man, if only you were that lucky!

With all the hubbub on the blogs lately about Ravelery, I thought I'd check it out. It wasn't until Cindy said she signed up that I seriously looked at it though. With words such as "time suck" and "stash organization" being bandied about I was much fearful. With everything going on around here I avoid all "time suck" type things as I just don't have that kind of time. And seriously. If I were to get my "stash" organized, Don may realize just what kind of stash I have and decide that I need a recovery program or something! But when I saw the pattern sharing.......well, I admit, I caved. Signed up so fast I didn't realize what I had done until it was too late. As they are still in Beta testing mode, maybe I won't be granted entrance into the golden gates that are Ravelery until Fall, or better yet early Winter! Then I will have more computer time available! Uh huh, yeah. Right. Oh crap, what have I done?! lol I am really not a "joiner" and here I am joining my third thing in almost the same number of weeks! First there was the Tour de Fleece. Then there was the knitting bingo thing over at Woven_Spun (I won't win, I never do...but this was new and sounded like fun!) and now Ravelery. Ah well, let's hope I don't get sucked into that site too bad.

And now for a change up.....

Don started riding a motorcycle last spring. He bought it, all his gear and took the Rider Safety Course as well. He's been loving it completely. About two weeks ago I bought a helmet so I could ride on the back with him. Not all the time but just to see if I was interested in learning to ride myself. He did tell me that I wouldn't like being the passenger as much as being the driver. I thought that he was teasing me, as I'm a great one for telling him how to drive. lol He was right though. I am learning how to ride the bike myself and as long as he can stand it I'll take lessons from him and am scheduled for the same rider safety course that he took. My class is early September. There's a bunch of free time being spent on learning this now, so that's another reason there's little craft posting.

Ok now for a really cool thing! Donna left a comment on my blog about Tucker so I went back to hers to do the same and guess what I saw?!!! I'm linked on her blog! That is so cool! I've never noticed before that I was listed there! So drop by her blog and tell her I sent you! She's getting ready to start a contest. I'll probably join that one too. Why not? I'm in the joining mood lately!

I ordered the new Harry Potter book through Amazon last week but didn't pay for the shipping so I won't have it on the release date. No spoilers! Do Not Tell Me! I should have it soon after though and to keep me happy in the mean time, "Charmed Knits" is on its way to me as we speak. That should keep me happy for a bit of time. I have not seen the Order of the Phoenix movie yet, but I will soon. I've been so busy this summer that I've not even had time to go see the Pirates movie. (Yes! I know! It's terrible! Don! We need to go see a movie!) Granted, I'll probably buy both, but either way, we should see them on the big screen!

Ok I've got to get the left overs put away and knock out some spinning for the tour. Time to end this one. I believe it's long enough as it is.lol

Garden, Spinning, Knitting and Life

OK, so today's "update" is going to be a bit sloppy and informal. (I know...HUGE surprise there huh?!!) Cut me some slack...I stayed up way, way too late, and did too much today. Really, anything more than napping was going to be too much. lol

Last night was Scrap Night with Maria and Tracie. Maria hosted this one and evidently we were all needing to let our hair down because all three of us showed up with a bottle of wine! lol There was lots of food and laughter.

I did get to a point where it was just too hard to put the page kits together as each one had at least one picture of Mowgli in it. It's been nearly 5 months and even though we added Tucker to our lives, I still miss The Mo everyday. It's getting easier....but those scrap pages will just have to wait a bit longer.

Today was filled with "whatever" type stuff. After I achieved my goal of not having to cook breakfast, but scarfing down a huge breakfast nonetheless; I set about accomplishing I could today. Laundry, of course, was high priority. As was roughing up the pup and wearing him out in general. Then it was time in the garden.

I managed to get three of the 5 planting beds turned under and the cover crop chopped up. I'll try to get the other two done after work one of these nights. Then I'll cover with black plastic for a couple of weeks before planting so that the soil heats up. This will help the cover crop to start breaking down as well as making the beds a nice warm place to put the seeds or transplants into. ;) The last task out in the garden today was to transplant the raspberries and the strawberries. That done, I picked out the very few weeds in the walk ways and spread out the last of the pine shavings. Now I can break down the old strawberry boxes that are on the soon-to-be-again gravel pathway next to the house. That will give me the space to clean up the gravel walkway and rake that out nice.

It felt nice to be outside working in the garden again. I've been wanting to start weeding for weeks, but the weathers been so wet or cold or both that I've stayed indoors. Today was so balmy that I thought about going back out to work on the rose bed. However, I don't want to over do it to bad as I have a growing pup to keep up with. ;)

I'm still have the silk blend on my Traveler and am STILL working on the sweater. Don's sock has been placed in the bottom of the basket as I think I need to frog some of it. I will have to sit down and talk out the pattern and look at the as yet completed rows before I make the decision, so the sock is on the back burner.

I'll need to make some room in the knitting basket fast though as our Guild Meeting is Tuesday and that means dyeing sock yarn! I should be coming home with a skein of dyed---ready to be steamed sock yarn and it should be a self striping pattern! After it's all done, I'll take pics of the board that we received through this class and the results. Hopefully I remember to take pics of it BEFORE it's dyed. lol

Well, I better wrap this up as I still have Tucker's post to do and laundry to fold. And I'm tired. How tired am I? We had our Corned Beef, carrots, baby reds and cabbage today instead of yesterday. I didn't steam the cabbage. Totally forgot it. Completely. Ah well. It's will make a fine treat with the left overs, won't it now? ;)

In a Whirl Wind

Spinning

I've finally been able to get some spinning done and today was able to get the pics taken to prove it! There is a completed skein of white drying right now that I didn't take a picture of. I believe it's destined to be be dyed for a pair slippers.....not positive yet though.

In this picture Abbie is modeling my first attempt at Navajo plying. The fiber was some from the jar dyeing experiment last year. I'm not altogether pleased with the yarn. The colors stayed nicely separated, but the yarn itself is over twisted in my opinion. I'm considering running it through the wheel again and removing some of the twist. The colors themselves are o.k. and it's asking to become a felted bag. We'll see how it feels after a bit. It may change it's mind if I remove some of the twist and soften it up a bit.
Here is a picture of what's on the wheel right now. This was suppose to be black, but the fiber split into teal, purple, gray and pink. In it's carded roving state, it's a bit grotesque. It has to be in just the right light for the colors to stand out. So far it's spinning up nicely and very thin. It's fascinating to see the colors change as it spins up and I'm interested to see what it becomes. I'm thinking of spinning a single of something solid up and plying this with it. I just haven't decided yet. The trouble with this fiber right now is that I cannot get a true color picture of it. In these pic it shows purple but really .....it shows almost black at a bit of a distance. Maybe when the sun comes out again I'll be able to get a good color reading outside.

Knitting

The sock is not getting any real amount of work on it at this time. I've hit the point in the pattern when I'm starting the shaping for the heel. It seems so long compared to the other socks I've knit but then again, it is for the hubster. The only real time I have for knitting is right before bed and I'm at a counting point in this pattern, so right before bed's not a good time for that. I need to take a bit of time and get past the heel so I can get back to basic knitting and can work on it more often.

These pictures are proof of two things. First, Abbie will do anything if I will just lock the puppy outside for awhile! As long as she gets some time under her lamp she's a happy cat! Second, I've been making progress on the sweater. I'm between 4 and 6 inches away from completing the first half of the front. In the second picture you can she the arm hole shaping decreases, and the stitch holders that are currently holding the pocket in place. I'm anxious to work on this regularly but really feel pulled in so many directions right now.

With Spring fast approaching I've got many household projects waiting as well as gardening to get going. It sure is nice to be held back a bit so that I can work on these knitting projects and spin a bit. Before you know it, it will be wool washing time again! ;)

Garden

Yep, it's begun! This is the beginning of the gardening season. We've started some flowers, herbs, and veggies in the house to be able to transplant in the garden this year. There are several things that will be planted in the garden this year as seeds. I'll be picking out some more flowers this week to start in the house for hanging baskets.

Update

Well to be honest with you all, there has been no crafting done in the last week. My time has been split between "new puppy" duties and regular house and work routines. No complaints here. I know that the puppy phase of his life will pass all to quickly and I'll wish for the puppy breath, sleepy lap times and puppy play all too soon. Eventually he'll grow into his position in the family and move outdoors permanantly and I'll wish he was a baby again. It's been so long since we had a puppy that I forgot some of the things that go along with it. Such as needle sharp teeth, constant attention needed on what he's doing and what a complete time vaccume they are! lol

I did pick up Don's sock to work on it during "nap time" last Thursday, only to discover 6 rows later that I had a) measured wrong and had started the pattern change 1" early and b) had somehow incorporated a yarn over 6 rows previous causing a hole in the sock. So I spent the remainder of that days knitting....unknitting. Fun. I'm back where I was, only then realizing that I have new puppy brain and cannot multi-task in four directions. heheh Oh well. I have not worked on The Sweater since Pup came home as the dog crate is blocking the closet door that hides the craft stuff. ;) It's time will come. I've not had any real knitting time to work on it any way...so no biggie. (Ok, I've had knitting time....I've just been using it on "cute-little-puppy-needs-to-be-played-with-and-cuddled" time. If you could see him in person, you'd understand. I even find it hard to wedge blogging time in! I have many pictures prepped for the blog and have not found the time to get the posts done. lol I fear this will only increase as the gardening season takes over. (I have visions of rainy spring and summer days being spent catching up on my blogs and not spent on the coveted spinning or knitting. lol)

Puppy has a name, but I'll save that for the next post. I have a puppy goal in mind that will be explained in the next post.