Tree Boy

I know most of you have seen in on Ravelry, but here is Kenneth's tree costume.

When we started talking about Halloween he said he wanted to wear a hat. A blue hat with a red B. Hmmmm, you mean the baseball hat he wears everyday? Yes. So I thought this would be a costume-less year. Then we went camping and he hugged a redwood tree. While his hands were full of splinters he decided to be a tree for Halloween. It was really fun, we went shopping for the fabric and accessories together. First it was a "leaf tree", then a "bug tree", then a "bug and apple tree". About a week ago he said from the backseat "Eyes. Eyes for my tree". I asked if he meant the letter or eyeballs. Eyeballs it was. Fortunately he forgot about that, because I ran out of time to craft eyeballs.

We worked on the tree together over the weeks, he did a little cutting. One night he told me he wanted to be a mommy for Halloween. I hoped that would blow over, he's already getting teased for having long hair. I asked if he could be a mommy tree and he said okay.



I didn't get the best photos. There's a pipe cleaner nest on his shoulder, and little twigs that stick out here and there. I knit the hat really quickly out of Lopi. Here's some silly video of him walking in the school parade, he's handing me his hawk at the end.

Halloween Dense Moment

Today I was thinking about the word Jack-o-lantern, or Jack O'Lantern, if you prefer. I wondered why a carved pumpkin that is lit up at night has that name. What does it meaaannn?!!! Today, at age 40, I realized that the word "lantern" is part of the word. Yeah, I think of it as jackalantern, one long word, never considered the parts.

Curious, I looked it up on Wikipedia. Carving vegetables has a long history in Ireland and England, but allegedly did not become associated with Halloween until 1866 in the USA.

On a related note, Urban Fauna Studio sponsored a fiber night Monday. We made needle felted pumpkins. Some made squash, others jack-o-lanterns. I just made a pumpkin.

The Knitting Lifestyle

The other day I stopped in a local shop where my friend works, she wasn't there but I chatted with her co-worker. I mentioned that I was one of her knitting friends. He said "oh she's so serious when she talks about knitting." I played along and said "yeah, well, knitting is serious. Very serious." He said that was nice and all but he just didn't understand it. Understand what, I wondered? It was like we have this weird lifestyle that he can't relate to. Does he think we have sheep living in our homes? It's just a nice, normal hobby.

Really. I don't live the knitting lifestyle, do I? Here's a glimpse into my life this week.

Part One - Things delivered to my home:

Monday - skein of yarn from a Ravelry destasher

Tuesday - my first package of Wollmeise, from Germany. I blame the flu that kept me up coughing until all hours. Doing research about how to catch a shop update distracted me from the agony. This photo does not do it justice, trust me. The colors are so saturated and lovely.


Thursday - A Raveler flat out gave away a skein of boucle yarn, which I snagged, plus I bought a few things from her stash. She threw in a ton of other awesome (read pink) yarn. Seriously, it was a huge box, those are enormous skeins, and you can't even see it all here and this photo is crap.

Saturday - my second package of Wollmeise. No photo yet.

Oops, I seem to have forgotten the Lopi pattern leaflet from Ebay, don't remember what day it arrived.

Part Two - Things drying on my back porch this past week

• More Lopi felted bags

• Two other felted bags

(Hey - I used that skein of yarn that came on Monday for the flap.)

(I absolutely adore this one and how the Prism Bubbles pooled.
I got that yarn recently from a destash, too.)

• Yarn

Part Three - Some Stuff I Did this week

• Went to a knit night and had my photo taken with yarn (thanks Tracey).

At knit night at least seven of us started the same project - French Press Knits Slippers. So much fun working on a KAL, especially on size 15 needles. I was the slowest, it starts with three strands of yarn and I was using two ends of one ball. The tangling got me.

• May have had photo taken with everybody's slipper soles.

• Came home from knit night, frogged and re-knit the soles of the slippers.

• Petted yarn

• Spent hours on Ravelry

• Cut out felt leaves as part of K's Halloween Costume

• Dreamed about yarn

• Ordered yarn from Ebay (just four skeins, I swear)

• Was thrilled that last year's pumpkin hat still fits K and he wore it three times this week.

• Sold some yarn and bags (picture me sitting here in my bright pink sweater, you guessed it, knitting):

Upon review of this evidence it is safe to say I do not live merely the knitting lifestyle, in fact, I live the fiber arts lifestyle.

Lutefisk!

On our drive to Boonville we got stuck in slow traffic. I saw all these fish, could tell they didn't say Jesus, or IXTHS, and had no "Darwin" feet.

We got close enough, and what do you know, a school of Lutefisk.

Dyeing for Halloween

Here's some spinning content. First, there's a contest at Martha Vineyard Fiber Farm. Go over, commiserate about moving, and enter the drawing for a total of two pounds of their fiber.

I've been getting ready to sell stuff at a craft table at the preschool's Harvest Festival on the 24th. I'm planning on felted bags, yarn, and maybe a few knitted things. I've been dyeing.


I dyed and spun this:


And I guess this is my first art yarn:


I didn't dye this, just spun it:


I also made some costumes for the school to sell. Two pink poodle skirts (easy):


And two Dorothy dresses which were very intricate.

California Wool & Fiber Festival

I started this post on September 24th. I didn't have a camera to take photos of my class objects so the post languished. Then I caught the second bug since preschool started, and then I caught the flu. I am finally feeling like I'm getting better, and I used Photo Booth for my felted items, so here it is:

We spent last weekend in Boonville at the 3-in-1 California Wool and Fiber Festival, Mendocino County Fair, and Apple Festival. Like last year we camped at Hendy Woods.

The highlight for K. was the rides:


(Note this is the exact ride as last year)

He also enjoyed S'mores.

I got to take two classes, I was thrilled. On the un-godly hot day I learned some fancy spinning techniques. On the second day I tried needle-felting for the first time. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to embellish some knitted items.


That's an apple, an art piece, and a leaf. It was a fun trip. I didn't spend too much at the show since I had paid for classes.

Camping was okay except for some awful partiers. Ironically one woman/girl was screaming "sorry, sorry, sorry" at three in the morning. The next night people almost walked into our tent looking for the bathroom because they saw the light on. In the morning the ladies room was covered with vomit. Better there than our tent, I guess.

We had campfires both nights. I actually got to knit by the fire for a couple minutes. But my favorite time camping is drinking perked coffee from the bit blue pot in the cool morning. My least favorite part was having a three-year-old crawl into my sleeping bag in the middle of the night. There is not enough room!

I had to wash K's clothes twice because they had so much dirt ground into them.

Preschool

Whoa...I just noticed I haven't posted in over a month. One of the main reasons is that I got a call in the middle of August saying there was space at the co-op preschool three mornings a week. So I had to get doctor's notes; pack up extra clothes and gear; sign up for committees and work days; work one day a week there; and learn all the rules, rules, rules.

And voila, we have a preschooler. I didn't get first day photos because I was busy working there. He comes home each day soaked in paint. There are kids, trains, and a huge sandbox so he is thrilled to be a "preschool kid". The only tears were mine when I dropped him off on the second day after a sleepless night, and yesterday when he didn't want to leave because he wasn't "finished having fun".


I have already made one dump run for the school. Sigh. And there are two Tuesday night meetings a month, so I'm going to miss a bunch of knitting nights. Boo.

In other news, I crocheted for the first time in years. This is my interpretation of "Mouse and His Cookie".


We took a five day Labor Day weekend to visit up in Oregon. Lots of space to run in and cousins to rough house with for K. Of course we were suffering from a bug, thanks to preschool, no doubt.

Of course we found heavy equipment. This is at the really neat High Desert Museum on highway 97. There's a working saw mill, pioneer town, museum, and raptor area. We only saw a small part of it. Hope to visit some of the lava tubes in the area next time, too.


I took my bike a rode a couple times in the country and around downtown Albany. My sister and I took a few hours to shop and visited Baabaara's Wild and Wooley, where I learned to spin last year, and Jupiter Fiberworks in Bend. I was very restrained in my spending. Convinced my sister to buy a spindle and I got her fiber. Of course, met a few Ravelers.

As far as knitting and spinning lately, I better go back and see how I did on my summer knitting goals. Soon, I promise, no really, I'll post again soon!