On the left is the Fiber Optics green Kashmire and on the right is Be Sweet Bamboo in color Storm.

On that ADD-ish note I started up some mini socks for my cousin’s baby girl that will be arriving in the spring.

Hopefully the socks will be finished before spring

I present! Susie’s Reading Mitts With a modified thumb by me in Be Sweet Bamboo yarn in color Storm.

Most likely, this isn’t rocket science (nothings been confirmed yet) and I could have just picked up another pattern with a thumb design that looked like what I wanted but hey, I wanted to do it my way! And mostly it’s working out with only one minor rip back so far. I really think this designing thing will be the only way I’ll learn to read charts so here’s to a December full of knitting, crafting and learning.

Ps: This year I’m planning daily posts (hopefully!) with pictures of yarnie and soaping goodness and who knows what else! If I get desperate for idea’s there’s always the completely un-edited novel, lol.

Oh my. The last several weeks have been a roller coaster.

1. Mom’s cancer is back.
2. Transmission issues with our car led us to acquire a new suv (ahem, I will Not mentioning locking the keys in the new car!)
3. Mom in and out and back in the hospital.
4. Several get together’s including English high tea, Knottie Ladies knitting (read eating and chatting, love!), monthly book club, friend’s birthday, and Apple Hill trip with my girlfriends.
5. My sick cat….that was nasty. I threatened her with a trip to the vet and I think it worked because she seems fine now….I was bluffing…mostly.
6. Prepping for what has become a traditional themed Halloween party at our place. This year we chose Harry Potter. This means costumes to fit the theme and lots of themed food.
7. I’m going as Fleur and hubby is going as Bill. My hat isn’t finished.
8. The holiday shopping season has picked up and I’m working on a steady stream of orders and items for donations.
9. I’m posting a blog instead of sleeping but can’t seem to drag myself to bed yet.
10. There are only 45 days till my Christmas gifting deadline with little to show yet.
11. Next month is NaNoWriMo where I’m supposed to write 50,000 words….not sure how to fit this in with all the knitting….it’s causing a little stress….and I still want to do both.

Let see…this would be more interesting with a few photos….

Wet felting is a labor intensive process but usually worth the effort and a lot faster than knitting something and Then felting. This is just the first three layers with a sudsy foam all over. Likely it will also need some starching to help hold the shape.

It seems I missed posting about Lambtown 2011 from the beginning of October. As always it was a lot of fun taking classes and spending time browsing the vendor booths.

Since I am getting tired I’ll write up a full post about it later but here is a picture of the mittens I started at a class about using home spun yarns.

and spinning in class on my new wheel.

One last photo. It’s a yummy sort of homemade whoopie pie. I baked pre-made cookie dough from a co-worker’s kid’s fundraiser along with some Noah’s Bagel whipped cream cheese, about 2 tables spoons plus a teaspoon of powdered sugar mixed together for the frosting.

Stresses are definitely high lately and I’ve been coping with little thinks like breakfast quinoa

and knit mittens

quick crocheted scarves

and filling orders and posting new things to my store

This cute cupcake soap is now available in my shop.

There is so much going on this month it’s hard to keep up on the blog (especially when it’s been hacked and needs fixing by hubby, thanks hubby!) And now I’m off to the races!!!

Ps: Hopefully November will be filled with lots of weird novel type stuff, it’s NaNoWriMo month!

I think it was a result of all the fiber fumes at the Sock Summit Market Place but it’s Wonderful to spin on. It wasn’t too hard to set up the first time although it was easier after I read the directions. The tension is really easy to adjust even for a beginner like me. I even tried some pencil roving I’ve had sitting in my stash forever and look at how it turned out. Not too bad.

No. 32 ‘SUPERSTITION’ superwash merino/nylon Foot Notes UNSPUN pencil roving from Fiber Optic.

First peek at Portland, Oregon.

From our hotel room we could see a lot of the down town including the glass spires of the convention center in the left of this picture. The entire time we were in Portland we walked or took the free train. I really wish we had something like that here at home.

I was feeling pretty shy about taking photos in the market so I grabbed this one quick before too many people noticed.

Our first meal in Portland, in between my two classes on Friday, hubby and I stopped at the highly recommended Burgerville. Amazing veggie burger! Wasn’t too sure about the onion rings but hubby seemed to enjoy them. My Duckies sock also followed us around.

Friday night hubby and I stopped in at Stanfords for dinner. The atomsphere was lots of fun and the staff very nice. Here’s a picture of me after eating.

Saturday turned out completely different than expected and I for one was very happy about the mix up. The plan was Powells books and the evening riding jet boats. It was a lovely day so we decided to walk to the book store. That was about a 1.5 mile walk that neither of us was physically prepared for but we enjoyed it anyway. We walked across a large bridge.

There may or may not have been sharing of pictures with a friend still stuck in her cube….comments of jealousy may or may not have been shared….the weather was perfect for walking (but maybe a little warm for this office dweller!)

After our lovely jaunt down town we stopped into Powells books cafe where I met a lovely knitter (insert name when I find her card!) AnneLena Mattison

After a lovely chat and amazing pastry hubby and I headed off to enjoy the crazy maze that is Powells books.

A quick peek into the knitting isle.

After browsing the store I did come back for a few books and I found a super cute babushka ice mold.

For lunch we stopped at one of our favorite place Noodles & Company. I was impressed with a lot of the (local?) art displayed. Obviously Portland is a very creative place.

With our tummies stuffed we headed back to our hotel via the electric train in a rush to board the jet boats with proper clothing. We never would have made it in time (annoying traffic!) so graciously (cough) the jet boats let us reschedule to Monday. Instead hubby took a nap and I headed back to the convention center for the flash mob where I met Steven Ambrose and did some more market browsing.

Sock Summit Teams in the front of a giant flash mob dance.

For dinner we walked over to Pastini for pretty pomegranate lemonade and tasty vegetarian Italian dishes. If you’ll check out my sock it has moved to some much nicer KnitPicks needles I picked up in the market.

I picked these cute earrings up in the market. The week before Sock Summit I spotted these on Ravelry but didn’t have time to knit them up before the trip. I’m so glad someone decided to sell them. They fit in perfect and I had a lot of people comment on them including our waitress at Pastinis. After dinner we headed back to the convention center to drop off my donations for the For Eloise donations to SnowCap charity.

Two knit monsters went along with a bundle of wash clothes and four scarves.

The Yarn Harlot

A beautiful baby sweater and so many other generous knits for donation. When I left there were four tables covered in hand knit donations.

On top are two Kashmire yarns I picked up from Fiber Optics. I went back for a Spectra scarf pattern and superwash yarn to go with it. Now I’m a little nervous because the pattern calls for 420 yards and I ONLY have 420 yards!

Sunday morning and afternoon was full of classes. In the morning I took the Crystal Heels – Afterthoughts with a shape that fits! class by Lynn Hershberger. On our drive home I finished the first sock that turned out a little short so it might be going to grandma for Christmas (shhh! don’t tell her though) Lynn was a wonderful teacher with a definite love of color! She had multi-colored felted ball earrings that were so fun and she brought this amazing knit self-portrait.

Here is the cuff, funky afterthought heel and the beginning of the foot.

There was a few minutes between another stop at Burgerville for lunch and my next class so I stopped in the market to see the spinning contest and the beginning of the final fastest sock knitter contest.

A sock knitter contestant with a beautiful shawl.

The second class Getting Comfortable Knitting Socks by Angela Davis was three hours of answering questions people had. I always have issues matching my first and second socks and Angela had some ideas for the class. One idea, I’d only just heard of in my Friday class, was keeping a knitting journal or scrapbook with all of your project information and ball bands. It’s such an easy suggestion but I had not thought to carry a journal with me. Hopefully this will help with Actually coming out with matching socks. She even gave us a little welcome gift that included a starter journal. So far using my Rav project pages have gotten me only so far. It would be nice if they had an app for the Droid phone. The scrapbook/journal will be keeping me company from now on. One other thing I took with me was the idea of replacing SSK with a S1 K1 Psso for a less bulky look. Ok, I’m remembering other suggestions like preventing “donkey ears”, too. Anyway….

By 4pm the market was already packing up so I headed to the hotel to collect hubby for dinner at the Blossoming Lotus a vegan restaurant that was recommended by a co-worker. Best. Food. All. Week. mmmmm. I was really unsure if we’d end up with a bland or really weird dinner even after ordering our food. I was surprised and amazed.

Hubby got the Ginger Citrus Stir Fry

I got something from their specials Orkra Gumbo something or other that was amazing!

A great meal was the prefect end to a wonderful Sock Summit. Sadly I was full long before the food was gone with no way to take the leftovers with me. That was also fitting for a weekend that left me with memories. And yarn

Thursday night we made our way into Portland. The traffic here is rediculous! I can deffinitely see why there is a rail system available. So far we have walked to all of our desinations. That’s all well and good but by 3pm my feet were killing me and hubby and I headed back to our room for a few hours of rest (read sock knitting). I’m getting ahead of myself.

I had a wonderful self striping class from Deb Barnhill and an amusing lecture by Tina Newton from Blue Moon on dying yarn.

I will admit to being too chicken to approach Stephanie Pearl-McPhee when I saw her TWICE and also having a celebrity freak out over seeing Steven Ambrose just Sitting! Do celebs really just SIT?!?! This really must be what people feel about Hollywood stars. I did tell on myself and he obliged by calling me a chicken (self-requested) and asked if I would be around tomorrow.

Lunch was very yummy at Burgerville. The veggie burger was delicious. The order line as ridiculous as the traffic.

Well it seems I’m having issues getting the rest of my photos so gratuitous yarn photos will have to come later. What I do have is sock progress.

Sock Wednesday

Sock Friday

More tomorrow and eventually a really late post on the California State Fair fun.

The trio.

This guy was the first and sports a fancy cabled scarf. Eyes and belly button not added yet.

Ok, time for bed.