Beatrix Again

My second Beatrix is all finished and ready to be mailed off to baby Alejandra. I am so happy with how she turned out, just lovely. Of course, this one I knit and frogged, and knit again because my gauge was horrifically off. Quelle suprise...

Knit in gorgeous Koigu this is my second Beatrix. I must confess that this was a happy knit because I got to use a non-traditional pallet for a baby girl. Alejandra's mommy is a decidedly unpink girl, so there were no thoughts of pink or pastels for Alejandra. I love the little teacup button closure.

I knit this adorable stripy beret out of the left over yarn. It was part of the bundle that I donated to my church's Harvest Festival. Another mutual friend of her mommy was shamelessly talked into buying the beret as a gift for Carmen, the mom, so they could have a "mommy and me" moment. I am so ashamed that I convinced him to buy it...I cannot see Carmen ever wearing it. Oh well, it was for charity....hehehehe.

Oh, and I had my first sale on etsy! Yippppeeee!!! I wish I had a beret to toss in the air...

Back from the West

Back from another Thanksgiving in Nevada at my uncle's. It was a very lazy vacation with a lot of lounging, reading and knitting. I finished off the last book in Dorothy Dunnett's series, House of Niccolo. It has taken me a long time to read all eight books and I took even longer with the last book, making it last. Anyone want to have the books to read? They are a great time for any history buff...and they are taking up half a shelf in my closet...really, does anyone want them?

Much progress was made on EB's Christmas socks and the scarf I am making for handydude, Bill. Of course a lot of that progress was made while sitting in the Phoenix airport for eight hours waiting for clearance to take off on the way home.

New additions have been made to the Johnson menagerie. This is India, named for the tawny spot on her forehead that looks like a bindi. Like all kitties she is by turns sweet, wild and ferocious. Its been a while since I was this scratched up and infatuated.


India is not the only new member; there is also Meaghen, who would not sit still long enough for a photo. All were a blur of reddish gold fur. She is a golden retrevier who looks and acts more like a dippy Irish Setter. She has all the potential to be a wonderful dog if anyone had the time and energy to train her.

This beatiful, but dusty boy is hopefully going to be the next member of our family. He doesn't have a name yet. He just showed up in my uncle's drive way and hopped up in his lap when he opened the car door. The cat looks a lot like my uncle's old kitty Midnight. Midnight was the love of my life...you know how I love black cats.

The Friday after Thanksgiving all the lights start popping up in Carson City. This Wal-Mart inspired gem was down the street from my uncle. Wish I had taken the time to learn how to use the movie feature on my camera so I could have captured the Muzak Christmas music that was being broadcast into the night.

This house was nothing when compaired to one of the houses in Virgina City. Saddly I did not have my camera with me to capture the splendor. They had not one, but a dozen blow-up snowmen and other important Christmas figures like Tigger and Pooh. There were prancing light-up reindeers, several Santa's workshops, old fashioned plastic choir boys and more.

Best was the nativity scene with the light-up baby Jesus. Boy, was that kid throwing off some serious lumens!

Our one field trip was to Truckee, CA. A very cute little tourist town, with the standard gift shops and a candy store that was blowing the most intoxicating chocolate aroma into the night air. My fat cells started to sing with glee with one whiff and positively danced after a cup of their hot chocolate.

The sky that evening was so cool looking. A bank of dense clouds where hovering just over the ridge of the Sierra Nevadas, a last bit of light shining through the break.

Imagine my surprise when I tried a different setting on my camera and captured all these "little folk" skiing on the hood of this wagon!

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving with lots of turkey, trimmings and minimal family disfunction.

The Haul

These are my lovelies that I bought at Southwind Farms. Sadly, I don't know which alpaca's fleece this came from, unlike Marissa and her pedigreed yarn.

I just cannot say enough about how wonderful our visit to Southwind Farms was, love those alpacas! Penny and Jim Mullen are wonderful, warm people.



And this is my Webs haul...Cascade Pastaza for the Cozy V-Neck sweater from Fitted Knits.

Tahki Ghost Prints for Urchin.

And a sweater's worth of Stockbridge from Valley Yarns in light grey to make the Cable Luxe Sweater.

I am off to Carson City, NV for Thanksgiving. Everybody have a happy and safe holiday!

Are We There Yet?

This weekend, Regina, Marissa, Rhonda, Sherry and I headed up to New England for our own fiberfest. I was first introduced to Webs at Stitches two years ago, imagine my surprise when I learned that they were only an hour away from my parents home in Connecticut. All of that yarn, so close, and I never knew?

A road trip to Webs became a frequent subject of conversation during knitting get-togethers. This weekend, we finally loaded up a rented mini-van and hit the road. Most of the baggage going up were WIPs...there was a whole lot of knitting going on in that van. My "So Called Scarf" is finally making some progress and hit a real growth spurt.

Yes, this is Marissa actually skipping with glee across the Web's parking lot.
And a sweet gentleman in a nifty granny square sweater, who brought his wife to the yarn Mecca; we heard no grumbling. Hmmmm....do we think that Flint, Robert or Mike may mellow like that with age?Everyone was incredibly well behaved. There was no pushing or shoving to get to the yarn. No one fibbed about how a color would look on someone else so they could score that colorway. We all played nicely in the yarn-box of Webs and left with lots of goodies. I'll detail my score later.

While in Northampton we stopped in at Northampton Wools and checked out all of their goodies. We chatted up some very friendly people there. Sherry was even giving spinning pointers and doing her very best enabling. Marissa scored some Jitterbug that was later spotted on the mini-van's dashboard having elicit sex with the yummy tweed she bought at Webs.

This gem of a bumper sticker was spotted on our way back to the mini-van. I think I could live in Northampton.

Today, on our way back to Philly we stopped at Southwind Farms in Watertown, CT and indulged in some mad alpaca love.

At first they were very shy with us, but warmed up as their curiosity grew stronger. The fleeces were incredibly dense and so soft.

Alpacas are incredibly bright animals. In some ways they reminded us of cats...for the most part they knew their names, but would choose to ignore you anyway. They are also very clean animals and not at all barnyard stinky. It was lovely to see the close bond between the alpacas and the farm's owner, Jim.

I loved the handlebar mustache on this gal, just like my dad's. We were told she is a bit ornery and quite a spitter. She was very well-behaved with us, despite Marissa smooching it up with her baby boy.

This adorable little guy is six-weeks old and a future champion alpaca. Watching him bounce and gamble about the enclosure was so much fun.

Lots of soft, lovely alpaca yarn came home with us. Southwind Farms has a nice selection of yarn from their alpacas. A huge thank you to Jim and Penny Mullen for opening the farm so that we could come and visit their herd! If you are wandering through western Connecticut, give them a call and go visit. I cannot recommend them enough.

Another huge thank you to my mom and step-father, Ed, for hosting us this weekend! It meant a lot to me to have my friends meet my parents and have my parents get to know my dear friends.

Tag-Team Quilting

I am a bit of a control freak, particularly when it comes to my quilts. I have very definite ideas about fabrics, straight lines, and how many stitches to the inch are in my quilting ( there are a lot BTW.)

Then along comes my wonderful friend Marissa with her, and I quote, "lackadaisical and creative" artistic nature. I fell in love with the quilt she made for another friend's adopted baby. And thought hmmmmm....maybe I could use a little loosening up?

Our adorable mutual friend here, I get to show you the reveal!

All the knitting glitteratti gathered at Rosie's to celebrate Flippy's imminent arrival. There was champagne, cupcakes and chocolate cake! Yum! A grand time was had by all and some of us even did a little knitting.

Marissa and I were both very happy with our tag-team quilt. But the expression on Courtney's face when she unwrapped it was the best. Mariss and I are hoping that this becomes the future security blanket, you know, the one that secretly gets packed when Flippy goes off to college.

My quilting mojo may be making a return. Thank heavens, because I have several quilts that need to be finished. How could that be, you might ask?

These eensy tiny baby mittens were knit by Emily. As Kate would say, "they are so stinkin' cute!"