Hooray!

Hooray! I had my first Etsy Store sale. I sold 2 skeins to a weaving couple in California! I swear it was the most exciting $30 I have ever made! I couldn't sleep that night I was so excited about shipping it! I hope they love it!
I got some amazing blue faced leicester handdyed roving from Twist of Fate Yarns. I love the colour so I bought 200gms of it and am spinning it with my jumbo flyer on the ashford tradional. It's not a particularly thick single but I have no intention of plying it so I don't want the twist to tight, I also wanted to spin the whole 200gms into one nice long skein. The plan for this yarn is to spin into a single ply of considerable length so that there is enough yarn for a decent size project at a reasonable price.

I actually got up early this morning so I could watch Red Dwarf and finish spinning this yarn...I'm such a nerd...

The Good Ole Day

The other day an old friend of mine came into town. We went to highschool together. He's one of those people that I haven't seen in over 12 years, and can't find on Facebook. It was supercool to hang out and talk about the good old days, and he's still in contact with a lot of people that I haven't seen in forever so I got to hear about them. When we were in Grade twelvish he bought this little concrete ornament company and sold ornaments at the Saturday Market. He gave me a little hedgehog once, which I still have. He moved to Duncan and turned his company into a very succesful venture. He also started raising money for the David Suzuki Foundation with his 100th Monkey. He's raised $27,000 dollars for the David Suzuki Foundation! Super cool! But more importantly his wife knits, and she is just learning so I am going to give her some handspun yarn!
He gave me a monkey.
This monkey (who is as yet unnamed) is going to be kickin' it in the garden with the gnome.

Things are starting to slow down a little at work I had some time for knitting and have been working on this.
It's made with Mermaids Tail yarn from Twist of Fate. It's a merino/seacell blend which is very shiny. The magpie in me loves the shiny!
But I need to put that off to the side to finish the mystery project...aren't you intrigued?

In Which Many Things Come to Pass

Words cannot describe the busyness of the last week... Last weekend was the icebreaker softball tournament. Sunday night was my Birthday party (more on that later). Monday was work and the beginning of my Pool League Tournament. Tuesday work, taking my stepdaughter to ball (and was my actual birthday, although I forgot that until I was almost at work). Wednesday was work and silkscreening tote bags. Thursday crazy busy work day and then the Body Beautiful piercing and tattoo show. Friday absolutely insane work day and drive up to Sun Peaks for the Twist of Fate Knitting Retreat. No word of a lie from Monday until Sunday afternoon I spent 5 waking hours at home...

It was all worth it though. As crazy busy as I was, they were all worthwhile pursuits.

My birthday was super awesome. There were a heck of a lot of people there.
I had no idea that so many people liked me, although I do admit the food may have been a big draw...seriously...the food...
I have never seen so much kalamari in my life...there was wings, dry ribs, veggies, fruit, spinach dip, kalamari, meat, cheese...I don't know...it's all a blur...a wonderful sated blur...
My friend Michelle brought a kick ass carrot cake.
There was lots of fun and ridiculousness.
And some karaoke judging.Adam gave me a 10!

I don't know if my brother will ever forgive my for making him wear a Hannah Montana Tiara...
Although Cliffy seemed to enjoy it...
It was without a doubt the best birthday party I have ever had! I asked people to not bring gifts, but if they wanted to they could bring a donation for Knitters Without Borders. We raised $180!

The Body Beautiful piercing and tattoo show was very cool as always. I really enjoy that show because of the eclectic group of people it brings in. There was a professional photographer there, so I will have some professional pics to put up soon. In the meantime here are some I took with my wishy washy little camera.
The knitting retreat was fantastically awesome. The instructor was Barb Brown of Wild Geese Fibres. She was a fantastically cool lady who knew an awful lot about knitting. She was very knowledgable about history so I really enjoyed listening to her theories on the exchange of ideas and information through women travelling throughout history. Her Great Grandmother showed Cowichan ladies how to knit Fair Isle, so I am going to check out her sweaters at the Museum the next time I go to Duncan. It was really nifty to hear about the evolution of the Cowichan Sweater. Barb's pretty famous in the knitting world and she hardly snores at all! (we shared a room).

I learned to knit Fair Isle and I really enjoyed it. I'm not even that great at it and it made me feel like a knitting genius! I can knit with both my hands!! I met lot of cool people and knit all weekend, after the week I had it was just about the funnest thing ever.

So yeah, things are slowing down a little bit now. I am still busy, but not exorcist head spinning busy. Hopefully now I can finally get back to some spinning and glass work, I finally managed to add a couple more products to my Etsy Store, but I have to get batteries for my camera to add anymore...stupid thing eats batteries...because I always forget to turn it off...


Oh and for those of you that have been wondering...yes Herman the Spider is still with us...