Crazy Knits

I did it! I finished the bag that I was going to felt! I'm so happy that it's done and I can move on to newer crazier projects. Here it is before felting: The handles on it were huge! I did run it through the washer twice to help shrink down the handles a bit. Here it is post felting:I am quite happy with it. I think it came out well. Now that it's done I can start a new project! I thought I should start the mohair shawl that I bought yarn for at the festival! Here it is on my umbrella swift:Here it is all wound into balls:As I have been working on my lacy shawl, I realized that I need an easy project to do at the same time since I can only do a few rows of the lace at a time before I need a break. My felted bag was my easy project that I could work on when I need that break. Now this mohair shawl will be. I'm almost half way done with the body of the lacy shawl. I did need my life lines and I was so glad that I put them in!!! Without them a lot more cussing would have happened and I don't think I would be able to finish it! Thank you ladies at Just Our Yarns for the life line tip!!!!! I own you one big time!
Next weekend we have a nice long weekend! My good friend is planning to come up and stay with me. We are talking about going on a bus tour of the Finger Lake wineries. I went to a few this summer when I grandmother was here but it would be fun to go and see different ones. We are looking into it! It sounds like a lot of fun if we can find a good deal! ^_^

Loss of A Friend

A childhood friend of mine has passed away. She was in a car cash that left her with serious head trauma. Unfortunately, she could not recover from it. My mom called me today to tell me that she passed last night. I'm sad and I started to remember all the good times we had together.
We went to Girl Scouts camp for a week of horse camp. It was crazy! We were in grade school and we thought we were so cool! We both hated mucking out the stalls, and we both screamed on the first day with the horses after we were told we couldn't scream.
Our families got together a lot and one year they drove their RV up to my grandparent's cottage. I got a sliver in my hand and was so scared to get it out, so she showed me that she had a rock in her hand that she never had taken out. I wanted to be like her and have a sliver in my hand forever, but I lost that war... I had it taken out and cried all the way though the process. She had a mad big canker sore that week and only wanted to eat gummy worms.
We would swim in her pool and see who could come up with the best dives off the diving board. We also tried to be synchronized swimmers, but it never went very well.
I know she will be missed and I pray for her family in their time of need.

It's Fall!

I love fall. It's one of my favorite seasons!!! The leaves turn colors, the temperatures drops so I can wear sweaters, and it's cool in the morning and warm in the afternoons. I love it! Our weather has not really cooled off too much right now. Yesterday was HOT! This morning feels hot again. My flowers that I planted still think it's summer and started to bloom again. It's nice to see my backyard with so much color!!! I have ambitious plans for gardening next summer.
This week flew by for me. Classes went well, kids were happy. Life is pretty good here. I also worked a lot on my lacey shawl after school each day. Here's how it looks so far:The blue yarn in the middle is my life line. The woman at the festival last weekend was right! They are a great idea! I'm so glad that she shared that with me. When I bought the yarn, I thought it was more pinks, but as I'm knitting it up, it's pinks and reds. I love how it looks so far. This is just the body of it. Once I finish that, I will knit the border on. It's been challenging so far, but I'm starting to memorize the pattern and that makes it a lot easier and faster to knit! I got the yarn at the festival but I discovered the other night that they have a website. The shop was call Just Our Yarn and you can find them here. Check them out, the women who run it are very kind and wonderful to talk to! I spent a lot of time chatting with them and they acted like I was the only customer in the shop... it was full both days of the festival!I plan on buying from them again, once I finish the lacey shawl and the other lace project that I bought yarn for. ^_^

Fiber Fest!

Well, school is back under way and the past few weeks have flown by! So far the year has started off pretty well. We'll see how the kids are in a month or two once they are use to the new teachers and rules of the classroom!

This weekend was fiber fest! It was awesome!! I went on Saturday to shop and stock up on fiber. My drive there reminded me of Hokkaido. Here are some of the pictures from my drive there:

I bought some lace weight yarn that I have started to make into a lacy shawl that is in the book Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby. The shop that I bought it from had the shawl knit up and it looked amazing! I had bought the book forever ago, but never made anything in it... it looked too hard! However, I was very excited to find out that it's not as hard as I thought it was! I also bought an umbrella swift so I can wind my yarn easily. I bought it from a wonderful lady whose husband mad it. Here' my swift with the lace yarn on it:

Here's my lacy shawl that I started Saturday:I love how the reds and the pinks are blending together. I have a long way to go, but I'm so happy with how it looks right now!

I also bought fiber... almost 5 lbs of it. Here' some fuschia that I bought 2 and 1/4 lbs of to spin and then make a sweater out of!

I also bought a pound of a creamsical color and a three color green swirl. Then I bought this blue that I want to spin up and knit up for my mom for Christmas. I think she'll love the color, but I'm not sure what I want to knit it up as yet... I went back on Sunday to work at the festival as a guild member. It was great! I worked for two hours with my friend and then we went shopping again. Here she is spinning at the festival while we were working: I did buy some more lacy yarn from the same shop that I bought the pink one. I was tempted to buy a shawl kit from them, but in the end I didn't. Last shawl kit a bought I haven't finished and I can't get it past row three. So, I just bought the yarn. I will pick another pattern out of my book and once that's completed I can think I about a shawl kit from them.... that should be a few years in the making!

Poison Ivy and Back To School

I have no idea how I did it, but I managed to get poison ivy on my pinkie toe. It itched for 2 weeks before I thought about what might be wrong. After figuring it out, it's mostly gone after washing it and putting hydrocortisone on it. It's not FUN!!!!
I spent the last few days of vacation relaxing and doing nothing. I did a lot of knitting, spinning, reading and jewelry making. It was nice. Today was meetings and tomorrow the kids come. We started to hash out my schedule, but it's not complete yet. I hope that we can get it more focused tomorrow. I'm excited to see the kids tomorrow. I know that they probably think they need more vacation too (I KNOW all the teachers do!). It will be fun to see all their smiling faces and shiny new stuff! It's going to be fun!!!