It is an Honor

Short post..Dragon knitter yes I watered the mulch down, then it rained just in case so we are good to go there. This Friday there is an all night knit at Manglesons, 84th and Center.
Th real purpose of this post is to say The Yarn Harlot responded to one of my comments to her blog. (can you hear the angels singing?) Oh I am So honored, I just had to tell every one. I may even move to Canada and take up the metric system. I am so not worthy!
(teenage sigh of an adoring fan)
Toodles.

Not so bad..Ouch!

Rose bed, no blooms Test bed, no mulching


The Landscaping has passed a major milestone. I have finished the whole first tier. We are planted, fabric-ed and mulched. The second tier is the second milestone and we have high hopes for late spring if not next year.
Babies pride and joy!

I went to visit the boys this weekend. Fuzzy and fine is Coals description. He seems more a reddish deep chocolate than a black. Escamillo is dense. More thickly packed than Coals fleece but he has more guard hair issues. Otherwise both are fine and I can't wait till shearing day!

The Spring Festival arts and crafts fair was...Ok. Boring and repetitive since I've been going for 3 years, twice a year. Next topic.

The knitting...aahh the knitting. Hubbies sweater front is done, and the back is well begun. Toe up socks and a PI shawl are in the creative stages. A sweater for me will prob come towards fall.
oh yeah and then this..


Oh yeah! Hold on to your graphics card.





Next is spinnng, I had 2 balls of single home processed Romney, and decided to make one big ball by joining them together. (This involves putting one ball on the bobbin, and then spinnng the end of the first to the beginning of the second. Then balling the whole thing as one continuous strand of yarn.) I'm gonna do this with some black lambswool balls just as soon as my hands work again.
ok, and now..Finally...This!



AAAHHH! Perfection.









Well my wrists are screaming so,
Toodles!

How big ya gonna get?

Ok, remember I was ranting about how big my husbands sweater was going to be? Well I had to rip out the armhole decreases and decrease faster. So now I decrease 4 stitches per row instead of 2. Then I get to 10 inches, for the armpit length, and find I now have 16 extra stitches. So I hold it up to The Man and find I have 2-3 inches left to knit up his chest/shoulder. The decreases will slow down from here I think, cause at my current rate I would be done decreasing in 1 inch.

Another thing I noticed, or rather He noticed, is that the sweater didn't come down far enough. It was about 3 inches too short! (way to go on the measuring) so now I have to rip out the ribbing and knit 3 more inches. Great googeldy moogledy! There is a song called "How Big?" by a blues band called Blue House (a local band I think). One of the lines asks.."How big ya gonna get?" Now I'm wondering the same thing. Save me..Someone save me!

Ok, lets talk about landscaping..fun fun fun! I've planted 2 more roses, one floribunda, and one gandiflora. In purple and yellow. (I don't know, pink, purple, and yellow. It's not even like I planted them with the yellow in the middle. It's on the end like a wild hair or a bastard stepchild or something. SHEESH!) Then I laid down some landscaping fabric, staked it down, and covered it with western red cedar shredded mulch. Smells great, but looks like wet alpaca. It took 2 bags to cover the 120 X 36 inch space I planted the roses in! Now I have to get 1 more bag for around the tree, transplant more tulips and iris', 1 more bag for the round in the back, transplant some of the late summer lilies that have grown a muck, (dramatic intake of breath) pull the rest of the plants from the front tiers, plant rhodies, and buy several more bags of mulch, landscaping fabric and stakes, and finish. Before I can do any of that I need 2 things. Rain and lots of it and my next paycheck. I also need to see if the shredded mulch will hang on in the wind and rain. If not, I'll have to buy nuggets and they cost more (like twice more per bag). Despite the monumental tasks ahead I'm having a good bit o' fun. But honestly how big is this project gonna get?
Wow, I have to go lie down.
Toodles!

No, they are not All gay!

Ok, I have listened to the podcast: Its a Purl Man, and Guido is not gay. Digging back in he memory cells I seem to remeber a man who knit when we went to the Nevada show back in 04 or so. ( The perfect team, she spun and he knit, wow!) So that makes two. The search continues.... I like the podcast, but I have to f.f.>> thru the music. More later..Toodles!
post script- I found a bunch of knitting blogs all by men who knit called..wait your gonna love this..MenKnit.net! Isn't that cool? Ok, the hunt is over, I'm cool.

SPRING into...spring?

I've been bit by the spring bug. If you live anywhere in the midwest you know that the weather has been...odd. The winter was warm and the spring early. So in order to celebrate, I have been working my garden! Daffodils, roses, tulips, iris', lily's, and those cute packs from the local M.U.D. one is a Plains Coreopsis and the other pack is Forget Me Not. Seeds of those, and cotton yet to be planted. The kids and the dog have gone a little nuts as well. Always wanting out....

Any who, the sweater is now about 10 inches but we're still on the front. I have an order for stitch markers that I'm trying to fill. The charms and supplies have been found, the beads are coming tomorrow as well as probably more charms. Hobby Lobby, I forgot that was such a cool place. On the Wheels, I have a three ply alpaca, silk, and wool yarn, (only my second) maybe about 1.5 oz. On my Joy, I have the cotton. My bane, my...oh my why did I want to spin cotton? I spun the single. Then repun it so it would live thru the plying. It broke in 3 places. This means I will have yet another ball of 2 ply cotton I cannot sell because of the knots. I love the challenge but I can't seem to get it right. I can spin any animal fiber or silk, but plants? I guess now this is my new frontier. My drop spindles have been busy. Easter green wool. (Maybe I need to try cotton on a drop spindle? Hmm.) I'm sending off some Romney and last years alpaca fleece to be processed down in Kansas. I usually do my own but this years fleeces will be coming soon and I need the space. I also wanted someone else to blend the wool and alpaca seconds.

In other news, Spring also means taking the dog to the vet, the annual fight against mites begins anew, dealing with the hill from hell (thank god for little Mexicans!) starting the retaining wall, constantly worrying about the rain flooding the basement, or leaking into the back porch... Ok I'm depressing myself. STOP!

I've been blog surfing again, checking out It's a purl man, Quirky Nomads, The Panopticon, and Mason Dixon Knitting. I am esp. Interested in men who knit lately. My question is.."Are they all gay?" (No I have no issue with gay people. But I'm trying to convince my husband to go back to knitting. He says most men who knit are gay. I'm wondering if he is right or not.) I have not listened to their podcasts yet, but I have read their blogs. Looking good so far. I have also reviewed the book One Skein. I didn't like it cause there are some really big skeins in that book.. (One of them is a cone of yarn which does not qualify in my eyes as a skein) That might be how some of those items were created. I am also not interested in making any of the things in there which is prob. the real reason I don't like it. I am currently looking at getting the latest Yarn Harlot book. You have to know I would cut out my tongue before saying anything bad about her/it so we won't review it. That's all for now.( Good lord isn't that enuf?) please excuse my negativity, I promise it will pass...Toodles!