November is

National Adoption Awareness Month.



In honor of this I (Megan) have committed to blogging every day on my Adoption FYI blog. Please visit me there.

adoptionfyi.blogspot.com

I have kicked off the month by supporting and promoting a wonderful organization, Birth Mother Baskets. Gina Crotts, a birth mother herself, is the heart and drive behind BMB. Her goal is to give birth mothers a basket full of pampering gifts to carry with her as she leaves the hospital. She does not want these HERO birth mothers to leave the hospital empty handed.

She has created sweet little WORD BIRDS to help her organization really "take flight!" Please consider purchasing one of these little cuties or making a contribution to BMB.



Also, be sure to visit Adoption FYI to sign up for the chance to win your very own, personalized, WORD BIRD.

Spinning for Sanity

For those of you who know the torture of the unknown that we are living through right now, you will understand why measures must be taken to maintain sanity. Spinning and other antique past times are fulfilling that need.


In addition to the lovely stuff I all ready showed you I have continued on a spinning frenzy. There is something both calming and satisfying about spinning.


This is some yummy Corriedale from Judy' Novelty Wool. (no website, but she goes to a lot of festivals- or visit her home studio in Centerville, UT.) It was a step outside of my color comfort zone. I really like it. And like all of Judy's fiber, spun like a dream. It's a 2 ply light worsted weight.


This is some BFL. I can't remember who dyed it, but I do remember that my mom bought it for me at Village Yarn and Teas a while back. It was happy to have a turn on the wheel! It is a 2 ply heavy worsted weight.


And THIS!!! This is from a beautiful batt (that I should have photographed before I spun it, but was too excited and didn't think about it.) I was so excited about it that I didn't even remember to get the fiber information on it. It is a wonderful wool and silk noil, but more than that I could not tell you. I will look for the information and get back to you. It is a 2 ply nubby dk weight.


Fall time in Washington of course means apples, and lots of them. I found an excellent price on them, acquired a nifty little apple peeler-corer-slicer, and turned them into. . .


eight quarts of apple sauce and 15 half pints of apple butter so far. (although there are only 14 left, as we have all ready eaten one!) I still have one more batch of apples to cook before I decide if I am done or not.

I suppose that depends on how my sanity is holding up.

How did I not know about this?

If I'm in Seattle, I will be going.



Click on the button to visit their site.

Hey YARN!

I've decided that Yarnnation must be experiencing our own kind of recession. Our economy is based on fiber, yarn, and things that are produced with them. There has been a lack of production as of late, but we aren't in a depression yet.

This year just before I went to OFFF I went through my yarn and fiber collection to see what I had. I still had a lot of fiber from last year's trip to OFFF, which was a very helpful tactic in limiting the amount of fiber I brought home this year.

One of those fibers was some lovely stuff from Sarah Anderson's Great Ball of Fiber. (Also- This year she was there, but might as well not have been, she didn't have ANY dyed fiber. So sad.) My sister picked it out last year and I told her I would spin it for her.

I asked her if she wanted it barber poled or striped, and she said striped. Then I asked her what weight she wanted it - fingering please. ***HEAD BANGING ON WALL*** Yup, I asked her THOSE two questions out of order.

So, I set to work spinning itty bitty singles so I could Navajo ply (that's 3 ply people) a fingering weight yarn. Yes, it too me a year (OK, really it only took me a week, but I put it off for a year.)


400 yards


Navajo Plyed


Proof of Sisterly Love

I must say, though, I did the first 100 yards on my Ashford Traditional (no lace flyer) and the next 300 yards on my Matchless on the smallest ratio. It was WAY faster on the Matchless. (Don't worry Tara, girl, I still love you, though!)

On a related note, my new girl needs a name, any suggestions?

Interview with a Sheep

We had an amazing time at Oregon Flock and Fiber.

I will collect photos from the various cameras and share our wonderful weekend, but until then, enjoy my interview with a sheep, courtesy of Miss Sarah!

Time to get the Quilts out (or finished!)

This is a quilt that my grandmother made for me and gave me 12 years ago when I graduated from high school. I love this quilt. It is soft and comfy, and perfect in every way. The only problem is that the Duke thinks so too. Often when I go looking for it I find it, with him cuddled up beneath it! Sometimes I join him, but the quilt is only a twin size quilt, so then we are pulling and tugging and it just doesn't work. A new solution had to be found.



Last winter I purchased the fabric for a quilt just for the Duke. I let him choose from one of the Turing Twenty quilt patterns (of course he chose the most intricate one!) I got a good start and then, like everything else it got put on the back burner as I struggled to finish school and be a mom.



It has been on my TO-DO list all summer. I even took it to Utah and worked on it, but I forgot some of the pieces, so it didn't get finished. Well, today while Little Sir was happily playing with his friend and their nanny, I got the top done!!! Now of course the quilt isn't done, but I am "outsourcing" the quilting and the binding, cheating? maybe, but the Duke will be happier with a finished quilt and a sane wife.

Knitting? Yarn? What?

Yes, yes, but it's a surprise, so you'll have to wait. Also, knitting with a two year old is actually completely impossible, so it's going kind of slow.



Little Sir was given this vest a few weeks ago by the Queen Mother. Yeah, I love the vest, the colorway made me want to puke.



So in a moment of insanity when I had 8 zillion other things to do, I decided to do this to it. Problem solved. (I don't know if you can see a very big difference, my flash sort of washed out the second photo, but it is a pretty dark gray now instead of white.)



Also, this weekend was the Duke's Birthday. We went camping (I know, what was I thinking?) And since cakes don't travel well, he got cupcakes this year. They were fun to make, I swirled vanilla and chocolate batter together.



Here they are frosted! They were tasty if I do say so myself. Oh, and in case anyone is wondering you CAN make "butter" cream frosting with high quality margarine. You just have to add more frosting than you normally would. Tastes pretty good too! :) Oh, and don't add food coloring to them- it doesn't work well.



And just for the record. . . :)