weekend update

We've all survived a wonderful weekend of houseguests, scroching temps and a birthday party for a soon to be 5 year old. (Five years old already. It seems impossible.)

Despite the crushing heat, Jess' birthday party was a success. We are now knee deep in Playmobil around here.

Now Jess' actual birthday is a little more than a week away, but she had the unfortunate fate of being born the week in between our two family reunions, so we always celebrate early.

Despite the weekend's festivities, there has been some knitting. (even a trip to the yarn shop.)

Behold my new sock yarn.

My LYS had just gotten Fibertrends FELTED SQUIRREL PATTERN. So I snatched that up, along with the new IK.

That red blob is a felted hedgehog; pre-wash.

Then there is also the Perfect Pie Shawl, and the Boobalicious tank.

My read a good book swap book came! It's a mystery set in Manhattan, and the partner even included a map for me. How very cool! Thanks, Liz!

Here we are now going to the south(west) side...

Yesterday, I dropped Jess off to spend some time with her Auntie, swung by Jennifer's to pick her up and then we made our way to My Sister's Knits.

I have to say that the shop does a lot with it's very limited space.

We got there early, perused the shop made a couple of purchases, and then headed up to Ridge Park to wait for the Harlot speech. We were less than enthused to be in 90 degree heat, with no beverage options in sight. (Well, the park did have vending machines, but they were all broken. What a tease.)

Stephanie was witty, and funny and wonderful, as she always is. Afterwards, Jennifer found Katy and we walked back to the yarn shop, where Stephanie signed books.

The wait in line was pleasant, although we were SO THIRSTY. As we waited, we heard rumors of a water cooler in the back of the shop, and spotted it, right after it broke. d'oh!

Anyway, I saw Stephanie, got our books signed, petted the fleece artist sock, and gave Steph a chicken. It was a lot of fun.






Hmm...seems I have no pictures of my purchases. I bought some sock yarn and some alpaca laceweight. (Made in good ole' Indiana.)

As you all may or may not have noticed, I collect laceweight. I haven't made but one item that has called for laceweight, but I keep buying it. This time I think I bought it in anticipation of Jess' return to school and my three hour break during the day.

my mess.

My guest room/craft room/etc. (I can't believe I'm actually showing you all this mess.) It needs some serious help.



Saturday I will be having guests stay here. (Yikes!) This week will be a "stuff and go" kind if clean up. But it seriously needs help.

Last night I couldn't sleep so I finished up some headbands for my SILS and made this little eyeglass case for my Ma.

I'm in a serious knitting slump. My WIPs right now are two blankets and 3 or 4 pairs of socks. I don't even want to look at them anymore.

Maybe I'll be reinspired when I see the Yarn Harlot on Monday.

Welcome to Texiloy

We hung out with Jennifer and Zander today. Jessica renamed the park "Texiloy". I have no idea, but the kid gets marks for originality.

Jennifer scored some Ravenclaw Yarn from Sunshine Yarns for me.

Jessica's honeybee socks.
See how far I am?

Last night I had both socks down to the heel turn and I though I would do another fitting before the gussets. They didn't fit. I couldn't even get them past her ankle. They fit two weeks ago. I was crest fallen. I frogged them both and started over.

I found a new way to use my vintage buttons.

On the sewing front, I have more chickens, and a couple of bigger projects in the works, along with a few more aprons to finish up.

My main concern right now is my inhereited Pfaff 360. I have no info or accessories for it. They are all probably still at Ida's somewhere, but I'm not about to drive 5 hours just to find out. So, I've been searching for these things via goggle. I have a couple leads, Pfaff is sending me a photocopy of the manual. The only other info I have is that my Pfaff was made in Germany sometime between 1960 and 1969, and parts are "limited".

I'm also once again considering where we should move our little blog to. I need something that allows multiple/guest bloggers. Typepad has my attention, but I'm not sure I want to fork over the $$. I'm just going to have to think on it.

I'm also thinking about what to do with our guest room/craft room/old computer graveyard. I've been inspired by Dan, and his room makeover, so expect some pictures soon.