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If you ever feel that your 4 year old has been watching too much TV, and you decide to do something about it, whatever you do, don’t hide the antenna in your yarn stash. The results won’t be pretty and will put you two nights behind on your gift making schedule.

I’m sparing you pictures because the results were too grisly. While no yarn was permanently injured, major yarn abuse did take place.

And before you think I’m totally crazy, I did close the door to the room before I hid the antenna. It just never dawned on me that he knew he can peek through the keyhole to see where I hid it.

Not much of an update rigth now as everything I’m making is a gift; I’m going to have to wait until after Christmas to show off everything. But, I do have my mom’s tam blocking so I can show that off once it’s dry. Pictures soon!

Thanks everyone for getting in your donations for the flood relief contest. We are up to $180 dollars now!!! And remember it doesn’t matter if you donate $5 or $50, every bit helps the farmers out and gets you a contest entry. I also wanted to add that you should still enter even if you’re not a knitter as I’ll have a nice non-yarny prize for you if your name is drawn.

If you haven’t entered yet, check out the sidebar for information. You have until the 29th to get your donation in.

After a year now of wondering about all the Japanese craft books and magazines I keep seeing on the blogs, I finally broke down and ordered two from Superbuzzy to see what all the fuss is about.

Wow! These magazines are beautiful!!!! Such a different style from the US magazines and the detailing is amazing. While I do wish I knew Japanese  so I could read everything, the pictures and patterns are enough in themselves and well worth the $17 price tag. And the schematics are great, so I should be able to figure everything out.

So Little Man was at day camp last week. Its at the same place he has pre-school, but his usual crowd wasn’t there, it was all new kids. This of course means new moms. There was a very friendly mom who’s daughter was really liking Little Man and kept calling him her new best friend. The the mom and I chit-chatted quite a bit over the week during the drop off/pick-up times and all was well. Then I saw the needles.

I honestly was only walking past her car when I noticed the two giant (I’m talking green 14 inch aluminum here) needles sticking up out of a bag on her front seat.  This was great: another knitting obsessed mom! I mean, anyone who has knitting needles just sitting there in a bag, poised for action much be as obsessive as me, right?

So the next day after we dropped off the kids and were heading back to the parking lot, I casually mentioned, “I noticed you’ve got knitting needles in you car…are you a knitter?” This is where I expected the “Oh, yes!!! Are you a knitter too?” Then we would have the exciting knitting conversation and it would be fun.

Instead I got this: “Oh…yeah…I knit.” Then nothing.

I replied that I knit too, and asked her if she had a knitting group (thinking I’d invite her to SnB). She replied that yes, she did, and well, it was only three people and they only met once a month. She then said they were always looking for more people and invited me, but was really weird about the whole conversation, not her usual chatty self. I mentioned my group and that she’d be welcome to come anytime as well, and that was that. See ya’ later.

The whole conversation was just weird and awkward and then I realized there are three possibilities.
1. She’s really just not that into knitting and my enthusiasm for it is just too enthusiastic.

2. She thinks I’m a weirdo who was standing there looking in her car. (I swear, I seriously just walked by a noticed them. She was parked right next to me!! I do not make a habit of walking around parking lots looking in people’s cars. I mean, this is Minneapolis, you’ll get arrested for that here, right?)

3. Both.

And with that, I’ll leave you to ponder it all. The Skeptic is waiting with coffee.

So I’m finally on the toe of the Embossed Leaves sock. I’m happy to report that I actually had three nights in a row to knit, three nights!!!! Amazing that all kids were asleep without a fuss by 8pm. Life is good.

I was slightly disappointed Friday night however to discover that this pattern does not use the short row heel but a heel flap. I was ready to tackle it but oh well, another night, another sock.

Here’s a shocking photo. You may all gasp at the danger in this picture:

It was a close call but no knitting was damaged.

This is much better:

And a close up:

I”m not sure how the lace is working with this yarn. I love this yarn so very much, but I’m on the fence as to whether it works with the lace pattern. Either way I’m keeping it, no ripping for me thanks but I’d still love opinions.

I got some sewing done too but I’ll leave that for another post. We’ve got a world record to go and break this morning.

And I give you the Estes fiber:

Naturally dyed roving from Handspun by Stephania:

My messed up spindle plying is with their fiber too. It’s actually untangled and done but I forgot to take a photo.

Merino roving, silk hankie and baggie of Buttercup’s lovely angora from Leadville Ladies (no URL):

Batts from an unknown sheep and unknown saleslady:

Romney. I wasn’t going to buy this but the seller (same as the bats above) had the audacity to spin it right in front of me. What could I do?

That’s it from Estes. Who bought more, me or Chris??

Finally, I should prove to you that I really do knit. My WIP updates have been pitiful. So I give you a mess of socks:

And my Leaf Cardigan from Knitty:

Finally, last night the Urban Farmgirls got together for a Christmas in July meeting. I had the idea to take an old felted sweater and make a coat for Little Man. Since he’s a big dragon fan I decided to try some free form needle felting and make a dragon on the back. I expected a mess of green that really didn’t look like anything. Instead I managed to make this:

Sometimes I surprise myself. I’m more proud of this than anything I’ve made in awhile.

You all thought I was done with the yarn, didn’t you? Nope, there’s more coming as I have yet to show you all the fiber I collected while at Estes. But before I do that I have another type of catching up to do!

When I got back from vacation, my Bloglines said I had nearly 1300 blog posts to read. (I know, I need to stop hitting that “subscribe” button but there are just too many funny, talented knitters and crafters out there. I can’t stop.) Anyway, I was finally getting to my “knitting” folder today when I saw that my incredibly wonderful SP10 spoiler, Marsha, named me as a Rockin’ Girl Blogger!!

I’m thrilled she picked me, and now I have the tough job of nominating five of you. Not an easy task as I think you all rock, but off the top of my head here we go….

Pamela : Love her attitude, plus her Marigold socks are fab; if I only could finish the five other pairs of socks OTN so I could start her pattern.

Guinifer: Because she is the ultimate yarn-pusher and manages to knit a sock in five minutes.

Redoing this as WordPress just cut off my last three when I published, grrrr…

Catherine: She’s practically my neighbor, knits up a storm and is a total sweetheart.

Jennifer: She does patchwork in her sleep and has twin girls. Impressive!!!

Kittymommy: Perfect blend of knitting and parenting, plus she has all the best parenting links on her sidebar that I always mean to add.

There we go! I’d cheat too and add more but I’ve got to get dinner done and I hear Knittybaby up to something in the kitchen.

We’re in the midst of our little teething crisis. Two have poked through on top, and the bottom two aren’t all that swollen yet. I’m really hoping to get my needle rolls sewn tonight. Yes, I’m that behind. Never fear contest winners, they will be done!!!

But before I drag my machine out I’ll actually let you know what all those Flicker pictures were about.

So Shepherd’s Harvest was a blast. The guys and I started out in the morning. We went right for the llama barn and then the sheep shearing. Little Man was enthralled and had a million questions for the shearer and even got to take a sample of the fleece with him.* A shepherd in training perhaps? Knittybaby just wanted to walk around and wasn’t that impressed with the sheep. The Skeptic? Well, he’s a good sport.

At the shearing we met up with my cousin who gifted me with two, two bags of alpaca fleece!!! She was given them by a breeder to use and report back on, so all I have to do is let her know what I think of them. She gave me a bag of suri and huacaya. You’d think after that I’d have all I needed already, right?

No, because I met up with my friend Jen, my queen fiber enabler. I can completely blame her for the closet full of yarn and fiber I have, because five years ago she kept coming into work going on and on about all this knitting she was doing, and running off to spinning class. (People, I thought she was going to the gym for three months; then I realized, wait…. knitting…. spinning…. oh spinning, like, with a wheel????) Anway, I wish I had pictures of her stuff because she’s awesome (locals: buy her yarn under Knittergirl at the Textile Center!) both as an amazing spinner, knitter and all around wonderful human being. Who else will chase sheep all day with me and not get bored?

We shopped for hours. The guys left to go to a birthday party and we girls just wandered around, going nuts for all the amazing stuff we saw. I seriously could have spent a thousand bucks but kept it at under $125 as I’m saving for another exciting fiber event in June.

Here’s the rundown:

1. My first fleece!!! Blue Faced Leicester/Romny from… this is terrible, I have no idea!!! I felt the fleece, saw 4.5 pounds for $36 and paid cash. They were so nice too. But the receipt doesn’t have their name on it.

2. Huacuya from my cousin.

3. Felted squares from Misty Meadow Designs. She has some seriously cool felted stuff.

4. Suri from my cousin.

5. Shirts for me and Little Man.

6. Roving from another mystery vendor. (darn cash…there’s no trail to follow!)

7. Merino roving from Carpool. She was very friendly!

8. Wool fat quarters from River Rock Wool. These will be put with those felted squares for some sort of bag.

9. Silk hankie, mystery vendor.

10. Pink fluff from Spinner’s Web.

11. My only yarn purchase from Morning Sun Fiber Barn. Don’t you love the yellow??
12. Same yarn with the 5 ounces of mohair I bought.

13. A sweet face

14. Ready for a haircut
15. Little Shepherd

16. Cozy

Sorry I don’t have more links. My memory just did not serve me well and  either the places gave me generic recepits or else they are so small they have no web site. But man, what beautiful, beautiful stuff.

*Little Man put his sample in my back pocket. The next day I threw on the same pair of jeans and ran off to a party with Little Mr. Runny Nose, I mean Knittybaby. I reached into my pocket for a tissue and found fleece, of course! Doesn’t everyone walk around with fleece in their pocket??

I have approximately 3.5 minutes before Knittybaby will wake up again for the 80th time this evening. Therefore, there will be no long incredibly detailed post on my wonderful day at Shepherd’s Harvest. If you want a sneak peak, check out my Flickr badge. There’s lots more on my page. Otherwise stay tuned for:

A really detailed account of Shepherd’s Harvest and all the cool stuff I saw and bought.

An update on everything I’m knitting, since I realized most of my “In Progress” stuff is actually done and the stuff I’m working on isn’t even on this blog yet.

A cool community project I was a part of.

Okay, he’s still asleep. Maybe I’ll have time to brush my teeth too before I give in and just stay in bed for the night.

I’m training them already.

Not only will they be doing the dishes for me, but mopping and folding laundry too.  I’ll sit on the sofa drinking coffee and knitting socks. Seriously, it’s really going to work. Look how hard they’re working!

Okay, I’m delusional because soon after I took that picture there was a tidal wave of water on the floor and I had to rewash but hey, a girl can dream, right?

Shepherd’s Harvest is this weekend! I’m excited, although it looks as if we’ll have to be out of there by 12:30 in order to get Little Man to a birthday party. The idea of maybe skipping it so we could stay longer was not met with much enthusiasm (many tears in fact) so we’ll try to make it back for the last hour of the party. That means I plan on getting the family there at 9am sharp.  I really wanted to pick a meet up time, but not so sure how that will work with limited time there now. But, we’ll probably be around the sheep shearing area around 11 or so. Just keep your eye out for the pink flowered baby sling (with the baby of course!) and a very shaggy four year old. Hope to see some of you out there!