2nd GVHG Fiber Weekend

During my travels the end of last week, I came up over a hill and saw these sheep. There were hundreds of them scattered about the pasture. I figured it was just a hint of good things to come.

This last weekend was our 2nd GVHG Fiber Retreat weekend at Stella Maris Camp on Conesus Lake. There are not many better ways to spend a weekend than with great friends, great fiber and great food/drink.

One camper was so excited/distracted that she left her home like this. Good thing the weather was even better than predicted, highs in the low 80's, sunny and just perfect, no shoes needed!

She did remember the important stuff...spinning wheel, fiber and snacks.

Most of us spent the days on the deck overlooking the lake. This last weekend was the first really nice, warm weekend since sometime last September or so. Since it snowed last weekend, we were all super-ready to enjoy basking in the sun. Besides, sun-warmed fleece spins ever so nicely.


Sunsets over water are just phenomenal. The colors and reflections are endlessly fascinating to me.

Does this look like a skein of yarn to you? I think I'll just try the technique that Cara's been using to choose colors.

Is this better? I see at least two different skeins...one of the sky and one of the water or maybe this is the time to try making my own self-striping yarn. Either way, I think it's time to make one of those warping boards that Scout wrote about and open up some dye!

Gotta Go!

No pics today. I'm off to Conesus Lake for a spinning guild retreat. How can you go wrong: a bunch of friends, good stuff to eat, much to drink and it's supposed to get up to 70 F and sunny all weekend?

Hope all of you have just as good a weekend!

Who Knew?

Who knew that I would still be here after a whole year? Yep, today is my first blogiversary. Much has happened over the last year, besides being another year older.

Gypsy clearly believes that there has been enough computer time, bring on the cuppy-cakes!

One of the best things to happen this last year is to become part of this knitting blogland. Not only have I made many new friends, but have actually had the opportunity to meet a few them in person. If you get the chance to meet a fellow blogger, do it. They are every bit as nice, clever and fun to be with as they are on line!

I'd have to say the most inconvenient award goes to being laid-off. I do miss having a job, but I don't miss working for that company. I keep on job-hunting, so something is bound to come up, sooner or later!

The sock (and I) were taken out to dinner Friday night. I thought it was mighty convenient of the restaurant to supply props for sock pictures. DH said if I took one more picture of the sock he was leaving us both there. Now one would think that this was quite muggle-ish, but he did mention both of us...

There has been fibery goodness this last weekend. I went to Knit One Scrapbook Too for a sale and came away with some sock yarn and another 11" Addi size 0. Another stop was at the Artistry in Thread event at the local museum. It was a nice shopping event, but to be honest, I was really expecting there to be more textile exhibits. All was not lost, as some hand-dyed merino-tencel from Winderwood Farms had to come home with me.

The previously mentioned sock has been completed. It is the ridged feather pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks (Charlene Schurch). I tried a new toe this time...since there were 66 stitches, I chose to decrease 6 times, evenly spaced around the toe. This makes a nice round toe for my short, wide little feet. I've even started the second one.

The daffodils took another beating earlier this week. Thankfully, not quite as crushing as the last time. We were saved, get this, by warmer air from Canada!

Fresh Air

My seasonal job brought me all the way up to the lake shore today (Lake Ontario). It had finally stopped raining and had even warmed up a bit. I came around the corner saw this:

Ahh, fresh air, windswept tree and a waterscape.

Obviously, a much better smelling scene than my home at the moment.

As near as we can tell, Gypsy startled one of these nocturnal creatures the other night, causing it to spray in the general direction of our house. The breeze blew the scent cloud over Gypsy, then to our garage and then into the house.

For those of you who live in areas where there are no skunks, count your blessings. If you have never smelled their odor, it is one of the nastiest, most obnoxious, pervasive smells known to mankind. Again, count your blessings.

We have deskunked Gypsy (which was much easier than you would think). We opened all the windows yesterday (a chilly proposition...only 40 F). What I wouldn't give for a few nice, warm breezy days! I was out for awhile yesterday and noticed that my car smelled like skunk, so I ran it through a carwash. We have sprayed couches, chairs, floors, curtains and air with various scent-removing products.

The house still smells like skunk. Not as strong as it was, but it still smells. So tell me something? Why can't the air freshener people come up with something that smells better than skunk and lasts as long?

Another Tuesday

I'm telling y'all, Tuesdays are days that are just meant to be difficult. Again, today was no exception, but there were some good bits.

I went off to my seasonal job, got to the designated neighborhood and started estimating. After about 1/2 dozen or so, I noticed that I was running out of some supplies, only had 1/4 tank of gas and was very, very hungry. Normally, I just run off and do all the estimates and come back to the shop. Nope, not today. I go back to the shop, get supplies, fill the tank (both me and the truck) and return. Not very efficient, but we can handle that.

I heard a somewhat new song today on the radio: Ticks from Brad Paisley. It's so random that it just made my day!

Also, while traveling around, I found these: Alert! We may be about to be invaded by pastel-colored dinosaurs or maybe just very large chickens!

Here's the other reason why Tuesdays are not a good day. Last night (about the time that it might as well be Tuesday, rather than Monday), DH and I were sitting in the living room. Suddenly, we both start wrinkling our noses, simultaneously saying "Where's Gypsy?". In a moment of panic, we discover she is outside. We were much relieved to discover that she was not the source (or receiver) of the stench. However, it appears that a wayward breeze brought eau-de-skunk into our garage/house and it. is. still. here.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all of you! Rather than show you the rather large amount of candy, that none of us really need, but all want, I thought I'd show you a few other goodies.

As I mentioned earlier, I've been selling off quite a few items on ebay that have been laying around here gathering dust and/or taking up room. I do, sometimes, actually buy stuff on ebay. DH brought home this really nice green and clear glass bowl last year from an auction. When I brought it out for spring (I often rotate glass for the seasons and holidays), it just seemed a bit empty. Ebay to the rescue...I found this little glass fish. He is the finest little fish to have...doesn't eat much and is very, very clean!

Another find were these nifty martini glasses. I looked all over the place earlier this year for some nice glasses and could only find some that had some really, really long stems on them. They were very nice, but those stems just really got in the way. Since it snowed today, has snowed for the last 3 days and looks like there's snow in the forecast for the next 3-4 days, it seemed appropriate to put something in them tonight. I mix a pretty good Cosmopolitan, if I say so myself!

Speaking of snow, what's up with that? It's the middle of April! I gave this some thought today. I imagine that people from milder climates actually find that there are actually 4 more-or-less equally spaced seasons. In this area, the growing season (last frost to first frost) is approximately 4 months long (sometimes 3-1/2 months). Snow from mid-October to mid-April this season adds up to 6 months, add 4 months of growing season (which may or may not be summerlike) and get 10 months. That leaves 1 month each for spring and fall. This is clearly not very evenly distributed. You've got to admire the hardiness of plants that can go from completely frozen and snow covered to blooming in the space of a month.

Believe it or not, there has been some knitting going on around here. I finished these socks last night, another pair of Trekking. I had a serious case of SSS to the point where I thought about frogging them completely just to reknit them using a stitch pattern to break up the stripes.

Awhile back I promised pictures of another finished object and then didn't get around to it. Stuff happens. At any rate, this is the Emma sweater from KnitPicks. I fell in love with the pattern, happened to have enough handspun (Ashland Bay Sandlewood) and starting knitting on it as soon as the pattern showed up in my in box. The KnitPicks folk are very quick. The only changes I would make if I knit it again (and I probably will) would be to do a 3-needle cast off or something like on the shoulders for a bit more sturdiness in that area and to make it a bit longer. I'm going to run a bit of clear elastic across the shoulder seam area which should pull that together nicely.

Spring?

Earlier this week, the spring weather was just delightful. You really wanted to be outside in the sunshine. Bubba sunned himself and Gypsy showed off her "summer do".

I did a bit of garden clean-up, including putting some round-up on a particularly invasive perennial. I gave some thought to what to plant and where to plant it. There's lots of time for that; we don't plant annuals around here until the last weekend in May and even that's a bit risky.

My favorite daffodils were coming along nicely and just beginning to open up. Yesterday, the weather was forecast to change back to winter, so I picked a bouquet of them. They opened up nicely once inside.

I wish I had picked every last one of them because this is what they looked like today. Damn, why did they have to be right this time?

WTF?!?!

Just to give a little background, there is a local advertising paper that has a column called "Gotta Vent" in it. This week, someone had written in how disturbed they were to observe something changing their baby in a restaurant. I must admit my first reaction was who would do such a thing and that they must be making it up.

Well, I sure hope that we saw the same person (and that there are not 2 of them in the area) today. We were in a reasonably nice restaurant this afternoon enjoying a nice beer and burger when, to my disbelief, a gentleman (and I use the term loosely) a couple of tables away proceeded to put his baby on the window ledge and change her diaper in the dining room. Not only that, but he chose to set his baby back in her high chair, finish his meal and left the debris on the ledge for another 10 minutes or so before eventually getting up and taking it somewhere.

Now a baby is a delightful little creature, but there is a time and place for everything. In my book, he should have taken her to the restroom or out to the family vehicle and changed her there (and washing up would be nice, too).

I thought about bringing this to the attention of the manager, but, when you think about it, what was he/she going to be able to do? Give us a discount? It wasn't the restaurant's fault. Throw the other party out? There were 5 other children (who were reasonably well-behaved) and at least 9 other adults in that party.

What did we do? Nothing. We paid our bill, left and continue to be mind-boggled that there are actually people that do such things in public. Oh, and the kicker...this was not an uneducated boob...he had already announced loud enough for us to hear that he had applied for positions teaching English and coaching sports at local school districts.