This is a brief post to answer Phyllis (Spin, Knit, and Life) who tagged me on October 4. It's taken me this long to respond, but I do enjoy reading other blogger's tags, so here goes.....

Six Random Things About Me:

1. I love Chocolate, but the caffeine in it seems to bother me at times. Does that stop me from eating it though? Nooooooo :)

2. I HATE the wind. We just recently had a windstorm here 100km/hr. It tore the top off of our carport. One of the plastic/canvas ones that you buy from Costco.

3. After wrapping Christmas presents for a marathon six hours I went to bed (at some ungodly hour) and had a hallucination/dream that somebody had put wrapping paper up in the ceiling light fixture. My husband woke me up as I was standing on top of the bed trying to clean out the 'said' wrapping paper.

4. I love collecting rocks for our outdoor pond, and for edging around my flower gardens.

5. Now this is really out there, but I think George Bush is kind of cute. I know, I know, what is she thinking? His politics suck, but I've always thought that George was a funny guy...I find that appealing.

6. I'm fanatical about the British soap, Coronation Street.

Blog...I'm back....

It's almost overwhelming. Where to start?

Back in August we had heard about the Okanagan Fall Wine Festival that's held the first week of October in British Columbia. We thought about going, but our first priority at the time was for our Uncle Otto. Since his passing on September 19th our days before and after the funeral were so emotionally draining, and busy that it was a welcome reprieve to think about getting away. So October 3 we left for Valemount, B.C. picked up my mom and headed for British Columbia's wine country for some wine education. A few pic's......



Fall colours heading into the Alberta Rockies







Just taking a leisurely walk alongside the road.








A view from the balcony at Gray Monk Estate Winery.










Grapes waiting to be processed.










Mom and DH tasting some grapes right from the vine.











The cellar at Mission Hill Winery.













The view from the outside bistro at Dirty Laundry Vineyard.












Wine tasting at Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Winery.






It was great to get some knitting in while driving, and I started a new sock KAL designed by Kirsten from Through the Loops. The free pattern can be found on Ravelry: Fans of Through the Loops.

I had full intentions to get all these 'in progress' sock pictures with the vineyards as a back drop, but after the wine tasting I never remembered to do it...Geesh.

A great time was had by all three of us. We visited 16 wineries in five days, and we all agreed it would be something we'd love to do again. There are so many wineries and vineyards in the Okanagan that a person could go back and not visit the same ones.

Of course no trip is complete until I've visited the local yarn shops. There was only one shop in Kelowna. Kelowna Yarn and Needlecrafts........




I bought this......

And I couldn't keep my hands from smooshing it the rest of trip.

The second fibre shop stop was in Armstrong B.C. on our way back to Valemount. We stopped in and had a visit with Sharon Wickstrom from Homespun Haven. What a wonderful shop she had! It's in her home in a big room situated over her garage. I was inspired, and she had such patience with all our questions. I found out that she's hoping to teach some courses at next spring's HWSDA's conference at Old's College in Olds, Alberta, May 22-24, 2009. Hopefully next spring I'll be able to attend one of Sharon's classes.









I've never seen so many spools of yarn. Click to embiggen.










Sharon was showing me one of Ashford's looms. This ones called The Knitter's Loom. She gave us a mini demo and I'm putting it on my Christmas list.


I bought this for the stash...............










This grey is something I never heard of before. It's combed wool in a natural gray colour. It is a bit on the itchy side, but it has some wonderful fuzziness to it which I'm hoping to incorporate in some projects..................................>






So I need to take pictures of my works in progress right now. That'll be my next post....Stay warm everybody!

Sorry for the long absence.....

Just wanted to say that the last several weeks have been so busy attending to matters concerning the passing of Uncle Otto. Since then my husband and I decided to take a week off for a bit of R and R, and visit with my Mom in Valemount, B.C.

I will be back home soon to share in our travels.....

We lost our dear Uncle Otto due to Alzheimer's and a subsequent stroke at 9:20am this past Friday.













September 25, 1929 - September 19, 2008

Through out our lives Otto was more than anybody could want in an Uncle. His passion for the outdoors, planting trees and long drives on the family farm, fishing, photography, and all things related to nature including the changing of seasons. He had a great sense of humour. We would laugh about the phone calls we would get from him, on June 21 (first day of summer), reminding us that we're heading back to winter and the days are getting shorter. It was inspiring his obsession for details, and keeping care of things (neat and tidy), and documenting events (writing in his journal). More than once we heard him say, 'There's a place for everything, and everything in it's place'. Even though he didn't have children I know that he held his nieces, and nephew close in his heart. The same can be said of his faith in God and his Church. Through out it all there was nothing greater than his love and dedication that he showed to all of us.
We love you Otto.

A completed something.....








Revontuli Shawl.

This was a really nice project to knit on the go. I could pick it up and each row was easy to follow. I loved the yarn. Kauni Effektgarn Wool. It's a bit rough, but I gave it a wash, rinse, and then soak for about 30 minutes, and it softened up a bit. A bit. Sorry but I don't have a photo of me wearing it as nobody is home to take the picture....so blocked on the floor is all I can do.

I originally purchased this yarn because I fell in love with this pattern, but then decided that I probably hadn't ordered enough to make for my size. So it's getting used up in other projects that won't be close to the body. I'll have enough to try a felted project...we'll see.

That's it for now. I'm looking forward to a hopefully quiet weekend.
Wishing you all peace as well this weekend.

WooHoo!!!!!

What better treat, besides Chocolate, is there? Getting fibre in the mail? I think so!

All the way from Ontario..............








Jody and I sort of did an unplanned fibre exchange. I picked up some Finnsheep fleece for her, and she sent the following loveliness.....



All neatly packed for a new home.








Beautiful handspun alpaca. One thing about alpaca you can feel the weight. More so than merino which is lighter.




This is great! Tagged with the name of contents so I'll never forget.








Black Corriedale from a Canadian Supplier. Val from Life With Sheep.
Such a deep rich black.









What more can you say about dark fawn Alpaca, and...







Fawn Suri Alpaca.....it's like feeling clouds in you hands.







Noodles enjoys opening presents as well. Especially when she smells, and discovers that there were other kitties living where this came from.

Thanks so much Jody! You work so hard with fleece. Cleaning, combing, spinning. I can tell that it's a passion for the love of fibre. It's great emailing with you and sharing in this obsession.

More of the same spinning update............

I just love this colourway from Bountiful. Now 2 plied.







A close up of the alpaca staple requested by Jody. (Gypsyspinner)......Purchased in Valemount during my last visit.








Recently I was inspired to look back at my history in rug hooking. It all started with Phyllis (Spin, Knit, Life) mentioning another blogger Robin (For the Love of Fiber) who is a rug hooker besides many other talents. I loved rug hooking back in the day, and actually it was the first thing that I had ever started regarding a fibre craft even before knitting or spinning.
The only thing I have to show for it is .............

I even joined the guild and got a name tag............





But alas, it was unfortunately a craft that fell by the wayside because of family commitments, and the meetings were a long drive away. The meetings were an important aspect because that's where the strip cutter was. I don't know if that was the proper name for the machine, but it would cut strips out of the wool used to hook into the backing fabric. It was a craft that I first spotted, while on holiday, in a mall in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. We were walking through a shopping mall, and a couple ladies from the local guild were working on projects. They had also set up some tables showing some beautiful finished pieces of rug hooking. I had to stop. I was compelled, and made a commitment to myself to start something as soon as I got home.

Well that was nearly 20 years ago, and yes as a young mother I got myself signed up with the guild and went to the meetings and really enjoyed meeting most of the mainly senior ladies. We just recently renovated one of the bedrooms into my craft/sewing room now, and one of the things that had to go to make room for wool/yarn was my wool fabric for rug hooking. Gosh in my next life I'm putting in a request for a bigger craft room..lol.

Too many crafts, and too little time.

We're having a heat wave..............

This is the thermostat reading inside the house last night.








This has been the norm for the last 10 days. The last couple of nights the weather has decided that that's not enough to make sleeping miserable....it throws in fantastic lightening shows with window rattling thunder at 2:00am just for good measure. We're staying in the basement to keep cool, and I've discovered this yummy drink mix that we've been indulging.

(I have since discovered while taking this picture that the calorie count is 190 for one scoop. We've been putting a total of four in a double batch which fills a blender. Gosh everything good is bad. Who would of thought that that little scoop of powder would count so high in calories. I guess we'll have to limit this drink to maybe once on the weekends from now on.)




So what else to do in the basement, but some spinning. Yesterday I got my order of Variegated Merino from Bountiful. Colourway: Sage. I have to say I've never spun Merino, and this was my first time....I love it. It's a little shorter in staple than what I'm used to with the Alpaca, but I've adjusted my tension on the wheel, and my short draw, and it's been spinning up great. I'll be 2/plying this and I'm considering knitting it up into a shawl....we'll see.....







Click to embiggen.



Canadian nickel for spun single size reference.


Next is the Alpaca, that I blogged about earlier, from Joyce in Valemount. It's from her Alpaca named Camron Steele, and the two bags are divided up as first and second quality fleece. This has yet to be washed, and then combed. I went delving into the bags today, and it's a gorgeous fleece. Hardly any vm at all, and I have to say whatever Joyce is doing to keep the Alpaca's clean, it's working. No plans for any projects for this fleece yet. I'm just looking forward to spinning it.




First quality







Seconds


This is a sample of some Rose-Grey Alpaca from Joyce. It is my understanding that this colour is one of the most sought after regarding Alpaca fibre. Could this be true? Joyce had agreed, but now I'm doubting myself on that tidbit. Opinions anyone?

Noodles couldn't give a flying fleece about colour. She just wants it to cool down.Have a great day!

As promised.......

My Folk Festival project.....






Revontuli-shawl. Knitted with Kauni Effektgarn Yarn, 100 % wool, colourway EQ - 150 grams. Needle size 8 (5.00mm) Knit Picks Optional Interchangeable Harmony Wood Circular Knitting Needle Tips (love these needles).

It is a free pattern offered by AnneM from Finland. I would love to read her blog, but of course it's in Finnish. I use the Babel program for translation, but there's no option for converting Finnish to English. Is there another way to translate it?







I fell in love with how this pattern shows off the slow colour changes that Kauni yarn is noted for. I was having a bit of difficulty understanding how the pattern sets up on Chart 1, but then found out that I was doing my left, and right leaning increases wrong. I also put in stitch markers after each of the pattern repeats, which is a total of eight. It helped me focus on my position in a row especially when knitting the 'yarn over' rows. Each row in the pattern is very easy to memorize, and it was a great project to bring along for the weekend at the Folk Music Festival.








The next thing I'm excited about is this.......




It's going to come in handy when blocking projects. I was surfing some knitting blogs and saw this product, unfortunately I can't remember what blog it was, but it's such a good idea.






It's like puzzle pieces when attaching them together.




Add another square......






And ta daaa....



(This isn't an actual blocking....I grabbed one of my shawls for display purpose.)



I never would of thought of using these square foam carpeted interlocking squares for blocking....I have to thank whoever it was that blogged about this as it's saving my ironing board cover from my blocking pins. I'm only showing four squares being used here, but there's two more that will expand it up to 24 sq. ft. I purchased this at Rona for $19.97 Cdn.

Going back.............

It all started with a bridal shower.









It was my cousin getting married to the above beautiful bachelorette. It's always a great day meeting up with extended family. Good times, good drink, and of course cake.

Next came the August long weekend and we headed out to Valemount, British Columbia where my Mom lives.





We had such a good time, it was just too short. There's always time though to go visit Joyce and her alpaca's.....how more sweet can these animals be?.......

Joyce has 22 alpaca at the moment with enough room to go up to 30. She had, I believe, most of them shorn this past spring so she has a bus load of fibre. Literally....





It's absolute heaven in that bus. You spinners know what I mean. It's wonderful talking with Joyce. One fibre addict to another. My Mom, DD, and DH sort of get it, and don't mind going to visit and look at fibre, but it's a real treat when you can have a conversation with someone else who's just obsessed as I am about fibre/spinning. Joyce was showing me a swatch she 3/plied with grey, cream, and black alpaca. I thought it looked gorgeous, and I wanted to post a picture of it knitted up....

Click on picture to embiggen it.



While out at the alpaca farm I managed to snag some dark grey which has minimal vm in it, and it's taunting me in my craft room right now. Don't know what I'm going to make with it yet. I'm just looking forward to spinning it after its cleaned and combed.

Our next jaunt out in Valemount is our favourite place by Kinbasket Lake. We follow along a logging road which winds around the lake. This picture is taken at the west end of Kinbasket, and eventually one day we'd like to canoe it.






Our resident rock thrower.....DH








Another spot which is always fun to check out is a pedestrian bridge which is over Swift Creek in George Hicks Park right in the town of Valemount.












This is a well known tourist stop to watch the salmon run which hasn't started yet....it'll be closer to the end of August when they reach this area. It's a lifetime experience. I've never seen so many fish in my life at one time. For me it was a little sad as you begin to think that all these fish are returning back to their birth place to spawn and eventually die. All for the sake of their natural instinct to make new life and start the cycle all over again.

So that's about it for now....gotta get supper going....tomorrow I'll post about my next knitting project which I had a great time working on while listening to some fantastic music at the Edmonton Folk Festival. I promise more fibre/knitting pictures.

Wishing you a great day!

DD, Me, Nana