How I spent my weekend, and a new knitting book on the front
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Toto "Ninety Nine"
Topic: A bit of everything

No knitting to speak of. Saturday was spent visiting my father, and then we went up to Ashfield to Cranstons Christmas Tree Farm. We picked out a lovely balsam fir and brought it home. We'll be decorating it tonight I believe.

Sunday was spent visiting my dad, and then I took my mom and kids out to lunch at Applebees. We finished up the day watching the Philadelphia Eagles football game (they lost unfortunately).

Like I said; no knitting or anything fibery happening. However, I will be getting this knitting book in the next few days, and I'll be reading it and reviewing it for Sandy. All proceeds go to her Warm the Children project and Relay for Life for Franklin County Massachusetts; both very worthy causes! I'm really looking forward to getting the book. There is even an angora headband pattern in it. :)

Snow Day!
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Frankie and the Knockouts "Sweetheart"
Topic: A bit of everything

There will be knitting content at the end of this, but I have to say how much I'm enjoying XM radio! AOL has something called Radio AOL; you turn it on while online, and they have 120 different types of stations to listen to. Then a month or so ago, they teamed up with XM radio. I had my doubts, and really didn't listen to the XM stations, except the Oldies Holiday station. I have my favorite AOL stations: Awesome 80's, 90's Pop, Super 70's, Motown Sounds and One Hit Wonders. These stations keep me entertained throughout my day on the computer. And then earlier this week, Awesome 80's and Super 70's were replaced by the equivalent XM radio stations. I wasn't pleased. But upon logging on this morning, I hear the above mentioned song playing. "Sweetheart" was a hit in 1980; the group was pretty much a one hit wonder, but I bought the ALBUM (yes, remember those???) at the age of 13. I loved the entire thing. I even found a CD for the group a few years ago, and listen to it on occasion. Imagine my surprise upon hearing it on XM this morning! I've heard a few other songs that were favorites of mine in the past few days; remember Saga "On the Loose"? Yep, heard that yesterday too. They were another favorite group of mine in 1981. So, I'm really beginning to enjoy XM radio. Would I buy it and listen to it in my car or home? I'm not sure. I LIKE not having to pay for listening to the radio; I mean, who needs another bill? But it is something I may consider in the future.

Now, for the fiber content. Christmas shopping for my husband is difficult at best. So, this year, I'm working on making him some items he can wear. The first thing I'm going to be working on is a pair of fingerless mitts. So, a trip to Webs yielded this:

Brown Sheep's Superwash in Shane's Red and a 12" #5 Addi Turbo. If I haven't said it before, I LOVE knitting with 12" Addi Turbos; these are my needles of choice, but because they are so expensive, I don't have a complete set (yet). I will be working on these mitts today; maybe even get one done.

And since we have a snow day, the kids are home and I told them we could bake cookies. And I should clean up a bit too. But I'm feeling like a kid myself knowing that because of the snow, I probably won't get many calls regarding work, so in essence, I have a day off too. :)

I'll sign off now as I listen to Ambrosia "You're the Only Woman". Aaaah, great 80's tunes!

Actual knitting content!
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Air Supply "Lost In Love"
Topic: A bit of everything

Well, it's been another long weekend.

Thanksgiving went well, in spite of the early snow. I spent lunch with my dad and I know he appreciated my being there. I'm thankful he is still here and that he still laughs at my jokes. :)

I came home and made dinner for the four of us. The cookbook said that a 20-24 pound turkey without stuffing should take 4 1/2 - 5 1/2 hours to cook. So, I put the bird in at 1 p.m. At 4:30, I decided to go up and check on it and get the potatoes cooking. Oops, the thermometer says 177 degrees (a turkey is cooked at 170!) and I forgot to set the alarm on the thermometer. Great. So we had Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, stuffing, corn, homemade cranberry sauce and two kinds of olives. Usually, I have 2 more side dishes to go with all that, but not this year and it was actually o.k. My husband pronounced this the best Thanksgiving meal I've made yet, so I guess it was a success. And even though the turkey cooked longer than it was supposed to, it was still a juicy turkey. Buying a fresh turkey directly from the farm really does make a difference instead of one of those "fresh-frozen" ones at the grocery store.

Here is a picture I took on Thursday afternoon while the turkey was cooking. It was beautiful outside, and perfect weather for doing some barn chores. I couldn't resist taking this photo as I thought the sky looked beautiful behind the bare trees.

Friday was spent doing some work, and I did take a trip to Webs. One of the things we discovered with the snow is that our youngest son doesn't have any mittens that fit him. So I promised that I would make him a pair. I picked up a skein of Brown Sheep Lambs Pride yarn, and some dpns (which those of you that know me, know that I really don't' like knitting with them. But, for my son, I'll do that.

Here is what I have so far:

Not too bad for someone that hates dpns. :) And my son is enjoying sitting next to me while I knit, asking to try on the mittens every 15 minutes or so. ;-) I will say that I'll never use this mitten pattern again. This is my first pair of completed mittens, and I pulled a free pattern off the web. I'm not finding it to be a user friendly pattern, as the designer makes assumptions that the knitter is familiar with knitting mittens. I'm one of those people that learns best being shown how to do something, but if I have detailed instructions, that is good too. I should have just looked in my bookcase, as I have a copy of "The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns" by Ann Budd, and that gives detailed instructions on mitten knitting. Next time though, I'll call Marcy and we'll do a mitten knitting session.

All I need is a needle for weaving in the ends, and I'll have these babies done later this morning.

Blogiversary
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Foreigner "That Was Yesterday"
Topic: A bit of everything
Today I celebrate my 300th blog posting! I've been blogging since April 12, 2004. I've really enjoyed every minute of it, and have met so many bloggers in real life who have turned out to be exceptional people. :)

This showed up on Steph's blog.

You Should Get a MFA (Masters of Fine Arts)

You're a blooming artistic talent, even if you aren't quite convinced. You'd make an incredible artist, photographer, or film maker.

Since I originally wanted to be a professional photographer for sporting events and musical concerts, I'd say this is right. :)

Nature's show of color
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Kool & The Gang "Too Hot"
Topic: A bit of everything

Last week, while pulling out of the Service Center Road in Hamp (those of us that have been around a long time call Northampton "Hamp", the newbies call it "Noho" which makes anyone that has lived here longer than 25 years just cringe) after visiting Webs. These trees struck me as being so beautiful. There was a burning bush on the left side, which didn't show up as vibrant in this photo as it did in real life, but I had to share it with you. We didn't have a particularly "red" autumn. This year was mostly golds and yellows, but these trees were especially pretty.

The only colors that are left now are the deep browns and burgundy's from the oaks, a few yellows on the remaining sugar maples and the deep merlots of the Japanese maples. But it is beautiful still. Fall never ceases to amaze me, in the colors that show up on nature's pallet.

My cold seems to be abating. Maybe the Airborne is working after all, but I'm still not going to further irritate my respiratory system by breathing in a lot of angora fur and shearing the rabbits. They will have to wait another day.

Fiber? What Fiber?
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: John Waite "Missing You"
Topic: A bit of everything

Yes, again, no fiber. No rest for the weary as they say. But it isn't like I haven't been doing anything fun.

Saturday was the Old Deerfield Christmas Sampler down at the Big E. Because I missed the summer and fall fairs in Old Deerfield, I made it a point to get down there on Saturday morning, early. This is where I find some of my best Christmas gifts by unique artists.

And I wasn't disappointed either.

A new vendor was there, called Ripple Pottery. Brian, the potter, makes gorgeous working dinnerware and vases. He had something there that I've never seen.

See those red pieces in there? According to his assistant, those are a hard color to get, because you must deprive the kiln of oxygen which sets the red color. Oxygen will cause the red to turn white.

The red mug is for my mother's Christmas present. The rest is for me. :)

Sunday was spent up at my friend's house on Norwich Lake in Huntington. Carol makes decorative and functional birdhouses. She held an open house to showcase her creations. This is a birdhouse she gave me two years ago when I helped her at a craft fair over in Northampton.

I have ordered a working bluebird house from her which I'll put up next year in our back yard because we do have bluebirds in our little spot of the Pioneer Valley.

And thank you to those that wrote to me about Mac. It has been an adjustment going out there and not having him to play with and talk to. His brother Sparky is adjusting to him not being there and I do think he's lonely. But he does have Snow on the other side, and they are hanging out more together than they did before. Nature has it's circle and people and animals adjust, however slowly.

Rain, Rain, Go Away
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: Foreigner "Waiting for a Girl Like You"
Topic: A bit of everything

Actually, no, we don't want it to go away. We need the rain. Everything here in Western MA is extremely dry. However, I'm questioning if we need 3+ inches of rain today! Yes, just for today, that is what we are expected to get here in the Pioneer Valley. Since DH and I took the boys out for haircuts at 8 this morning, we already saw evidence of flooding in the low lying areas where there are small streams or brooks. I suspect by tonight, there will be some serious flooding going on later. Thankfully, NECN is showing that tomorrow will be cloudy, and cool, but no rain in the afternoon. That will make it a fairly decent day for the NH Wool Tour (year 8 for me!).

I plan to do some yarn dyeing today. It probably won't dry, unless I put it near the dehumidifier, but it will give me a head start on things. And since I made up the new yarn labels for the angora/wool yarn, I'm very pleased with their outcome.

I hope to see some of you tomorrow! Look for Marcy and I to be visiting the various stops.

Autumn in New England
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts "Crimson and Clover"
Topic: A bit of everything

Now this is inspiration for dyeing!

This picture was taken driving home today. The way the colors just seemed to bounce off the blue sky was too appealing for me not to stop.

And this tree was just farther up the road:

Seems to me I'm going to have to work on these colors some more in the dyepot. And since I purchased some great tools at the beauty supply store and Michael's, I have a few more ideas going around in my head about ways to dye. :)

And it continues....
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Foreigner "Waiting For A Girl Like You"
Topic: A bit of everything
More dyeing continued this weekend and today. Here is just a glimpse of what I've been working on.

This first photo is Icelandic and Angora in the same pot. The angora is on the right of the picture.

And this is Icelandic roving.

My other pursuits this past weekend included cleaning the house (I'm very slow at this, as it is my least favorite activity!), and doing some reading. Right now, I'm reading Harvard Yard by William Martin. I bought this book for DH as a Christmas present, and he hasn't read it yet, so I picked it up. I'm really enjoying this book, as it spans a family from the late 1500's to the present time. I've already decided to pick up Back Bay, which is Martin's book about Peter Fallon written before Harvard Yard.

Now I'm off to watch a little tv, and spend time with my husband. More tomorrow....

Busy, busy, busy!
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Jennifer Paige "Crush"
Topic: A bit of everything

What a weekend so far! We've been busy looking at new vehicles. The $100 fill up on DH's truck is getting a bit high, so we are looking for something that is more fuel efficient. If we buy something, I'll get to use the truck for farming stuff whenever I need it (rather than wait for DH to get home from work). :)

I'm hoping I can wash some fleece and dye some today too. The weather is perfect, and I have 41 days till Rhinebeck to get everything done that I want for my booth space. I will it filled to overflowing!

Here are some more pictures from vacation. Since I have no fiber stuff to show you, I'll show you some pretty pictures instead.


Vaca photos