Sweater weather? Again?

What’s a guaranteed way to ensure a cold snap in late spring? Yep, you guessed it. Unpack and buy the appropriately seasonable clothing. It never fails that when we finally get everyone suitably attired for the season change, it changes back. Sarcastic smile So all you middle Tennessee folks who were cursing the chilly wet weather that began this weekend, you can blame us.

Speaking of cool weather, I did almost finish the Bel Air. I have the collar knit and the first sleeve sewn in. Yay!  I took a couple self portraits that aren’t that great, but here ya go.

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Here’s one with my head not chopped off, LOL,  and a “laying on the porch” shot.

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I will be casting on the second sleeve tonight. It would be awesome if I could get it finished for the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival.

On the reading side; I did finish Dragonfly in Amber and all I will say is it is hard to not pick immediately on the third book to see what will happen next. Will Claire go back to find Jaime? Will she take Roger and Brianna? What further role will Gillian/Geillis play? But I have also been waiting to start the Hunger Games for the last month and simply must read them now. They are so much shorter that I am sure the brief interlude will be a welcome change to these long novels. Don’t get me wrong. I adore long stories. It’s just that they take me so much longer to read than they used to. I like to dip into shorter stories in between longer ones. It’s kind of like with knitting; having a plain vanilla sock, a sweater and a lacy shawl going for the different complexities and time investments.

I am itching to cast on for Vonica with that blue Cascade 220. Remember that? Must finish the Bel Air and the Sprossling. Well at least the Bel Air. Then maybe a sleeve swatch. Who me?

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Better Late than Never

Sorry for the blog silence. I always think I will have more down time when I am at shows than I ever actually end up having. You would think that I would have learned that after doing this for, what, five years now? I started attending festivals in late 2006, so yeah, it will be 5 years in October. But I digress. I did want to share a few more pictures of our trip.

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Elijah was having the best time with the luggage carts. It was so hilarious!

We got home on Tuesday afternoon and I spent the next two days getting caught up on things. I’ll spare you the details on that because trust me it’s not very interesting. It may surprise you to know that the life of a business owner/professional dyer is not ALL fun and glamour. Eye rolling smile 

On the knitting front, I have got the stitches picked on the collar of the Bel Air and knit a couple of inches of it over the past week, but that’s the totality of my knitting since my last post about it. No updated picture on that either. Sorry. Maybe tomorrow.

Oh, I never did let you know what I thought of that movie I was watching last week, All Things Good. I liked the first two thirds of it but the last part left me kind of meh. I am watching through the first 6 seasons of Criminal Minds right now when I knit. I am really enjoying that. I have always had an affinity for crime dramas, especially ones like this where there is a lot of psychological drama. I think it is well cast with interesting characters. I am like that with shows and books too. I have to like and believe in the characters to really get into a series or a book.

While we are on the topic of books I will share what I am reading right now. I have a Nook, which it the best thing EVER, and was introduced to the Diana Gabaldon Outlander series because the first book, The Outlander was offered as a “Free Friday” download. I then bought the whole series and am up to the second book at this point. I am almost finished with it. It’s not like anything I have ever read before and I might have totally missed out on a good read if it weren’t for the enticement to try the first one for free. So, kudos to Barnes & Noble for the incentives which worked pretty good on me. They gave me one book, but I then bought 6 more. Some of the dialogue can be a tiny bit cheesy, but overall I recommend them.

I do plan to take a short break between book 2 and book 3 to read The Hunger Games series. I resisted this for quite awhile because EVERYONE was reading them. That will turn me off in a heartbeat. But the reviews from everyone was so positive and when people I knew were saying the same thing, people whose opinions I respect, I caved and bought them. I started the first chapter or two of the first book, but held off since I had just started Dragonfly in Amber and didn’t want to drop that one in the middle. So anyway, I am excited about starting The Hunger Games very soon since I am 60 pages away from finishing Dragonfly in Amber.

Okay, that’s about all I have for now. It has taken me all afternoon to write this post as it is because I have too many people parked in the room with me, and it is making it difficult for me to concentrate. Story of my life. Eye rolling smile

 

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It’s been a long day

The booth is all ready and we are excited to meet lots of new people this weekend. It’s been long and tiring day today and I expect that will be true for the next couple as well, so I promise that while the blog may be a bit sparse until we return home, I will hopefully be more chatty when I am back. Here’s a couple pictures from the booth setup to hold you over. Smile

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Quickie phone post

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Well this will have to be a quickie post due to the internet being down at the hotel and posting from my phone is annoying. I am not as fast at typing on a virtual keypad.

So we made it to MN fine. Gas prices are higher than in the south that’s for sure.

Here is a some what crappy phone picture of us crossing the MN stateline. Hopefully the internet will be fixed soon. Good thing I have plentyto read and knit. :-)

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Tired, but it’s GOOD tired…

We had a much smoother and productive day today. I m making  quick post before getting the baby ready for bed so I can unwind after a busy day of making ready for our road trip early tomorrow morning to Minnesota. I am feeling much better at the close of this day than I was yesterday. Maybe it’s just that some days your perception just gets off and others you can take the setbacks in stride.

I started watching a movie last night on Netflix while getting a bit of knitting done. I believe it’s a fairly new release. It’s All Things Good with Ryan Gossling and Kirsten Dunst. I watched about 2/3 of it before I turned it off to do some reading before sleep. I am really looking forward to watching the ending tonight because it is pretty good. A little bit love story mixed with some psychological twists. I think I’ll try to get the collar on my Bel Air done while I watch.

Sorry to cut this sort of short but the baby needs a bath. I’ll try to get in a post from Chicago tomorrow night.

Here’s a shot of my “rig”. I just love my pretty red truck. Open-mouthed smile

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On the Road Again

Well soon anyway. Today was a little crazy for awhile there, but the dust has settled and most of the priority stuff got done…I think. Well in any case the trailer is ready to go. I had to get a tire fixed but it was a minor thing, thankfully.

You know how some days you just feel on top of everything and productive and all that? Well today was not one of those kind of days. I had a gazillion things that needed done before my next trip, to Lake Elmo, MN for the Shepherd’s Harvest Festival, and I felt like I was drowning and no one even saw me go under. There was laundry, school lessons, meals to be cooked and cleaned up after, packing, orders to ship, baby care, etc.… you get the picture. There were a few meltdowns and sadly most were mine. It’s hard sometimes when your team is made up of individuals with their own agendas, that aren’t necessarily in line with yours. What’s up with that anyway? Sarcastic smile 

Oh well, at least there was yarn to take the edge off. Web’s Anniversary Sale yarn in a color of Cascade 220 that just had to come home with me. It’s the Sky Blue Heather. I think it may become a Vonica 

 

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What’s on my needles?

I don’t tend to be one of those knitters with dozens of projects on the go. It overwhelms me and makes me feel unproductive if I have too many things going at once because the progress on each is so minimal. My knitting time is pretty limited and it seems that my time is better used when I am focused on only a few things at once. Now, does that mean that many more worthy projects aren’t always calling to me and tempting me to just throw caution to the wind and cast them on? um..that would be a big fat NO. It’s the same with books. There are always so many things in my reading and knitting queues that I would have to live to about 200 to hope to get to them all. Sigh.

So, what IS on my needles? Glad you asked. I am working on a Bel Air and a Sprossling, primarily. The baby needs a couple new wool soakers too so I have a bigger one going. My favorite pattern for these is Butt Knits Soaker (Ravelry link) or Non-Ravelry link here. These fit great, work well, and are fun to knit with their interesting seamless construction. My go to yarn for soakers is believe it of not, Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool. It’s economical and is available in many more natural colors now. Anyway, you’re probably more interested in the sweater knitting right? Okay.

First, have you ever knit one of Anne Hanson’s designs? Well if you haven’t you don’t know what you are missing. She is my favorite knitwear designer, and I promise you that it’s not because she has designed with my yarns. I was follower and fan long before that. So the Bel Air (Ravelry project page) is getting the most action right now since I only have one sleeve and the collar to go. Love it so far.

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I’m not quite as far long on the Sprossling but just look at the sexy shaping on this sweater! I have the back finished and as soon as the Bel Air is done it will be front and center for getting done.

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Okay, I have spent all day working on this blog and I have GOT to get some real world stuff done today too.

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Just getting started….

I am getting my feet wet with this writing thing. I have resisted it for quite some time but maybe I do have something to say after all? Anyway I will give it a go and see how it feels.

We know that no post is any good without a picture, right? Let’s see what I can come up with here…..

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Babies are always good, no? Okay that’s good for a test run. Let’s see how this thing looks live, shall we?

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