Great Suprise!

What is the greatest thing to come home to after a long day at work?











That's right, totally unexpected package in the mail with beautiful Alpaca/Tencel sock yarn. Given to me by a non-knitter. Great choice and enough for 2 pairs of socks! How cool is that? A wonderful pick-me-up. I love getting packages in the mail, even if it is just a really thick envelope. (I'm easy to please I guess)

Thanks Tara!!

(I'm pretty sure Emy picked it out though)

I took it outside to take the picture because the color wasn't coming out right indoors, and to let Lauren pose with it of course! She thought it was the Bee's Knees

Tit for Tat

FISH
Originally uploaded by laurenswool

Ok Kirk and April are you happy?

Here is the story:
April posted record breaking fish pics on her blog and the fishermen at my work said "WHERE DID YOU GET THAT PICTURE", exactly in that way I might add. I said, "Not telling you". They said "Come on, we've been looking for that pic". I said "a knitting blog". They said, "WHAT! Well you need to have a fishing picture on yours then"

Sooooo, long story short, here is Kirk pre-fishing (approx 6.5#). No he did not actually catch this at the real tournament (his troller motor broke, likely story :))

Hope you are happy...

Hehehehehehhehehe!

I'm giddy with excitement can you tell?

Happy Birthday to me!

























I love love my new drum carder! Am going to experiment this weekend...


I also went to a spinning meeting this Sunday in Squaw Valley run by my fiber hero Sandy. (They all own sheep!) It was relaxing and we had a potluck and I got a ton of answers about my fiber prep answered and shared some projects (self-striping yarn and silk hankies). Am planning to attend again, might even show my striping contraption for yarn. I however forgot to break out the ol' camera, sorry guys.


Dad came this weekend on one of his whirl wind trips and convinced me I needed sconces by the mirror Jeff hung in the foyer (OK wall next to the front door). Jeff likes it when my dad comes because he always convinces me to decorate or add something to the house in some way. Last time it was shelving in my sewing room. I don't know why but my dad is a better decorator than me, also better than his 3 sisters (those chicks are stuck in the 80's black lacquer, sea shell on the toilet, etc. stage of their lives).











Small steps, I'm a minimalist.

Lauren got this from Woman for Easter, she loves it.

Easter

Happy Easter!

Wouldnt it be creepy if you opened your egg carton and they were really all smiling at you?














This is Jeff's Egg. He looks angry.



















I did this for fun!
















Yea Jeff hates ham, but good Easter dinner!















Here was the fam at St. Patricks day!

Where have I been? Where do I start..

Ive been busy and blog lazy....



Ok this is in no order whatsoever, but here goes.



Congratulations Jeff, Tulare County Fire Officer of the year!














I found a dog, named Max, he was in our front yard and his owners didn't want him, told us to "let him go they were going to get rid of him anyways because they had to move"



Well I said "What the %#$*&^@^! are you kidding" Well fortunately they allowed us to see if they could try to find him a home. ( I reeeaaaaalllly wanted him! but Riley was not having it) And thanks to a mass email to my knitting group someone called right away and a great family with 3 children took him. I was also surprised to receive multiple calls from people who had seen and forwarded my email. What a great response, Thank You and Max now has a great home!



Here he is. Ok those who know me, doesn't he kinda look like Spike? He had the same squishy face, even tho he was a boxer not a bulldog. He was so cute and wiggly.

















And very important news, I took a solo mini yarn vacation and went to Stitches West....



http://www.knittinguniverse.com/ you can read about it here



O my it was GREAT. I drove up on Friday and stayed with Jeff's parents since it was in Santa Clara near their home. Robin was generous enough to go with me even though she is not a knitter, but she said she had fun and was greatly surprised by the shear number of people.



I saw Cookie A. and Casey from Ravelry (very cool)














And Vicky Howell.... (she's a famous knitter for all of you non-knitters) Don't look at my work jacket I forgot to take it off.

I won this in the Ravelry raffle... Sheep to Shoe kit from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.

Robin and Rodney took me to the Fish Market in Foster City and I had the Cioppino. People were eyeballing my plate wishing they had gotten my dish as they walked by. It was delicious. Thank you Rodney and especially Robin for making my mini vacation so much fun!

Jeff and I along with Danny, Jackie, Vince and his girlfriend went to a Fresno Falcons hockey game. It was fun

I took this along to do during the game














And son of a biscuit if I didn't finish, and had to look up this on my phone during the game to finish it.










Yea the Kitchener stitch, I really have to get one of those dog tag thingies to memorize it, this is ridiculous. It is good to know that knitting stitches are available at a moments notice. :)

I was also up to different ways to make self striping sock yarn. Love the results



































I re-dyed the Kid Mohair, The rose thing wasn't working for me, now its Fabulous!



I attended a dye workshop at the Weavers and Hand spinners guild that Cheryl invited me to. I had tons of fun, and am now an official guild member!











Here are one of the many skeins Cheryl dyed













And what about this! Cutie Patooties, Happy Birthday Emy & Carley (belated) and Mason you're a good sport for putting up with the "hat thing".