L is for Llama

On Sunday I went to a fiber festival at Woodsedge Wools Farm. I met up with Pam(mackenzieknits55 on Ravlery) and we saw this baby llama. It's only one day old.



And it's mama.




There is an amazing barn on the property and there was lots of fiber to see and touch.



There were alpacas, which are just so cute.






And bunnies. One person was spinning right from the bunny.





Of course there were spinning wheels. This is the kind I always see in my mind when I think of spinning wheels.







I knit on size 50 needles, really strange, but fast.




And I got to weave on a loom. It was much easier than I thought.



I bought some beautiful yarn and some honey soap and Pam fed me lunch, thanks Pam the sandwich was great! I really enjoyed it. And then we went out to dinner for Father's Day. The sun finally came out, too, which made it almost a perfect weekend. Oh and I almost forgot, Reese and I found out we have matching sneakers.

K is for KIP

Did you KIP on WWKIP day? My plan was to go to the boardwalk at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware where there were knitters planning to be in the pavilions.



But after walking up and down the boardwalk, I couldn't find them and it was hot! So I went back to Allison's shop where I knew there would be someone knitting on her front porch. And there was.


Of course Allison was there knitting a sock.



But I also met Michelle who was on vacation with her husband. He was fishing and Michelle was working on a sock.




Dorothy also had a sock going out of beautiful hand-dyed yarn. Her DIL Kate does this at Dragonfly Fibers . It was just gorgeous and so soft.



Then Nicki showed up, she was test driving some needles.



With Nicki was her daughter Tammy who had the most beautiful lace weight yarn.




But the best was Tammy's son Robert who was crocheting a blanket and an amigurumi.



Afterwards, Mr. Truck and I relaxed with some of these.





I was working on a sock but it wouldn't cooperate so I made a baby bonnet instead.

Shhh, it's a secret!

A couple of weekends ago, BDE and I met for lunch and a trip to an LYS I hadn't been to before. I was looking for sock yarn for a KAL that's starting soon. And I found some beautiful Malabrigo in a green called Lettuce. I can't stop petting it.





BDE, who is afraid of wool, actually had a good time walking around picking yarn up and looking at it. She really liked some of the sock yarn, so being a good mother, I offered to make her a pair of socks. What she really wanted was another pair of pedicure socks instead so we checked out all the yarn. She decided that the Regia Silk Color was really soft and not itchy at all. And I totally lied and told her that was because it's silk. You see, she's not allergic to wool, she just thinks it's itchy and if she doesn't know it's wool then it won't be itchy. So don't tell her.



Pedicure socks are quick and fun and don't take much yarn at all. I don't use a pattern I just start late and end early on my plain vanilla sock pattern.

I is for Insulation

Our house is really old and there's no insulation in the walls (although we did put a lot in the attic) and we have balloon construction and the price of heating oil is unpredictable at best. So last summer, Mr. Truck decided we were going to insulate our walls. After much internet research, he decided on this blown in insulation. It's made of recycled paper fiber with some sort of fire retardant in it. I totally approved of his choice.



But then he took me to Lowe's and showed me this blowing machine. Apparently, he thought we could do this ourselves. He'd be up in the attic and I'd be running the machine. It would all work out just fine. Now he knows I'm really afraid of machines. I can run the snowblower because I have to but it always scares me and I stay away from all the other power tools. And, as I reminded him, I'm little and old and not very strong. And did he not remember when we carried the stove down to the cellar and it got stuck half way and we spent a long time yelling at each other because I couldn't pick up a stove? So finally he agreed that maybe that was not the best idea and did more research on the internet. It turns out that there are people who come and do this for you. And they're very nice. They promised us that they could do the whole job from outside, just move the vinyl siding a bit and blow the stuff in, we would never know. Then they got here. It turns out that the siding on the top of the house, which we picked because it kept the house looking original, would not cooperate. So the had to poke holes in the walls upstairs, about every 16 inches, and blow the insulation in from the inside. In every room. They did fill in the holes but it still looked like this when they left.




And that's why we're still painting. One room left. Now I'm not complaining too much, we probably were due to repaint anyway. And the insulation is wonderful. The house was much warmer this winter, no breezes at all and the best part is we used a little less than half the amount of heating oil this winter than we did last winter. And we're being green. Oh, and Mr. Truck admitted that we could not have done this ourselves, they blew in 75 bags with a big machine.

More Squares

I just got the Celtic Collection by Alice Starmore. And I'm probably not ever going to knit one of these sweaters. But I thought it would be fun to knit one of the cable designs for my afghan. There are some really amazing cables in this book.






So for my first one I picked the center panel of Cromarty and did one repeat of the chart. It really wasn't hard at all, although doing the whole sweater would be a bit daunting.





I also realized I had never posted my April square. It's the center of the Elegant Celtic Cabled Rug by Donna Druchunas which is also something I'd never make.





This project is one I'm really enjoying because I can knit bits of things I really like but I'm not committing a lot of time to a sweater. It's like going to the buffet, I can have a taste of a lot of things. I'm thinking of doing another one next year, maybe fairisle.

Roses & Rhododendrons

It's been such a cold spring this year we haven't been outside long enough to enjoy the garden. Oh I've weeded and tidied up and planted some flowers and vegetables and Mr. Truck has been cutting the grass, but not really walking around admiring things every day, not noticing the little changes because we're inside trying to stay warm. But when we got back this weekend this is what greeted us out the back door.





I guess the roses bloom even when we don't pay much attention to them.





And the rhododendron by the back door doesn't seem to mind the cold either.



And they're even better today.

Lots to say

It's been a long weekend for us and one without much internet connection. I can usually find a wifi spot near our condo, but it wasn't working very well this time. Four days with almost no internet is a very long time. Anyway, Cherry Pie and I did a little retail therapy. The sales were pretty good. I got new sneakers, ones that show off the socks.




And of course some yarn. I really like this color. We had to run in and out of the store because all we could find was the 30 minute parking spot. I only went for size 7 circular needles but I couldn't resist more sock yarn.



We went to the beach and the bay but it was a bit chilly. And the water was very cold. But Reese liked it anyway. Even when her teeth were chattering.




Afterwards, Reese and I wrapped up in the clapotis and watched the birds flying over the pier and saw the ferry pull in. Can you see the sandbars in the distance? This is the very end of the Delaware Bay where it meets the ocean and at low tide, the water just disappears. People come here to clam at low tide and they walk out hundreds of yards just to get to the water. And the kids all run around and chase little crabs. You can see tiny crabs and hermit crabs and even starfish up close. Oh and those really ugly horseshoe crabs. There's a barbecue spot just off the beach where everyone cooks their clams and have feasts. We went to Outback.



Oh and I forgot to show you the Mother's Day card BDE got me. She gets the gold star for this one.




I hope all of you had a nice Memorial Day weekend and I hope you took a minute to remember those who died in the service of our country. And if you're not in the U.S., I hope you just had a good weekend.

How do you take a picture of a clapotis?

I showed you the beautiful handspun from my swap and I so wanted to take an equally beautiful picture of my clapotis, but it's big and it won't fit into the little camera. I tried all over and I even had Mr. Truck take one of those shots of the back of me but it came out blurry. Anyway, it's finished and I love it and I've been wearing in because it's cold here. I've gotten many compliments and I wish you could see the whole thing.





But this is the best I can do. You'll have to take my word.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!

April Socks

For my April socks, I thought I'd make a real pair of socks from the Christmas Stocking Pattern. I had to alter it a bit, fewer stitches and no bobbles or eyelet row and a bigger heel, to make it fit a real foot but I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. I wrote it all down and made a chart but I'm still searching for the lady who wrote the original pattern. I never want to be accused of copyright violation. I think I might have found her but now I find I'm too shy to contact her. How would you feel about that, would it be really weird to have someone contact you? Should I do it? I don't know, I have to think about it.