owls

I've been looking for cute owl things online, and I love all of these cute accessories.....

This one's from the "Go International" line at Target by Sophie Albou (of Paul & Joe). I'm thinking of making a hoodie with this owl on the back (the owl is inspired by jewelry designs of the French jewelry maker Lea Stein):



Here's one I found on Etsy (I can make this, right??):



Another cute thing from Target, an owl brooch:



And here's a cute coin purse (also from target):




The infamous owl keds skimmers (not sure if I want these, or if I'm just crazy about owls):

Cute Birthday Surprises

Check out the supercool times ten birthday gift that I received from fyberduck !


When I opened the bag, I was totally thankful for fyberduck's generosity....

I love the cute pink sock yarn (taking ideas for socky or other project ideas), the rose baby alpaca (my favorite color of alpaca, and probably my favorite fiber all-around). The owl fabric is adorable, but I haven't been able to come up with any ideas yet (other than a knitting bag).

And beaudupp made these adorable owl cookies:




Thanks for the cute bithday presents!!

early birthday present

Tonight I thought that I was headed to Burrito Boy for a quick bite before weaving class, but I didn't have any idea of what was in store for fyberduck and I.....
When exiting the parking lot of the restaurant, we felt a little bump, and then heard a strange noise like plastic scraping on the ground.

I pulled over a few yards down Franlin Blvd. in the parking lot of the 7Eleven, and this is what we saw:


Upon closer inspection, we found the scrapnel lodged in the tire....a piece of metal which was about 1.5 inches by 3 inches:


Sigh.....
So I opened up the trunk to get the spare......and all I had was a spare.....no jack.....no tire iron....

So Chris and Jerry came to our rescue, and after about an hour of waiting and hoping, we drove off to weaving!

Weaving class went well, however nobody finished their project :(
So Fyberduck and I will have to return in September (the Craft Center is not really open again until September 18th).
And at weaving Fyberduck gave me the best birthday present ever (pics tomorrow)!

One Skein Secret Secret Pal Exchange

I thought you'd like to see the gifts I've been sending to my One Skein Secret Pal (R.E.E. Hare). I've copied posts from her blog:

August Package:

My last One Skein SP gift arrived several days ago. It’s absolutely delightful. I’m tickled over my SP-she’s a treat. Now I have a real name, and hilariously she’s not based in Colorado as I’d gathered by the return labels on her packages. She’s in Oregon! Ha! Had me fooled.

Anyway, have a look:





Now I’m trying to figure the best way to show off my clutch. Isn’t it fine? Since I haul knitting everywhere, I think I’d show it off best if I pack a credit card, a fin, and a few SIPs. It should easily hold two socks so I can have variety. Don’t need anything else.

I just happen to have a ton of social correspondence to catch up on, so the note cards are ideally timed. And they look like something I’d select myself. Eerie how Emily seems to know just how I think.

And the yarn. Oh the gorgeous yarn. I’ve got plans for this baby…

THANK YOU, EMILY!

July Package:

Now for cool stuff.I received the second package from my upstream SP in the One Skein SP round. What a treat! Just look.

Ewe_spinster had the tin neatly done up, with a tag reading “Felted Bowl Kit”. Also in my package are a wonderful hand-written note, naturally a cat is featured with a remarkably true statement about cats. And look at these note cards! See? She’s a knitter! Too, too fine. I cut & pasted the note card to put it all into one spot. Clearly I am unable to match colours or take a level picture. (Yes, I blanked out my name, just to keep folks guessing. I love Photoshop). Look at this loveliness. My SP really paid attention to the questionnaire-green Lite Lopi-if I could be any colour, I’d be green. And, because of that questionnaire, ewe_spinster included a rainbow’s worth of bright bits of roving, since I’d stated my inattention to broader use of colours. Lookee here, at the bottom: a felting needle! I can tuck the roving in here and about with impunity!!!

Thank you, ewe_spinster! You are a dream SP!

June Package:

The One Skein Secret Pal is a riot!

Can you tell I got my first package from upstream today?

I’ve never done a SP before, and this seemed a nice way to see what it’s like. Boy, am I glad I did.

I’d found a great yarn for my downstream, and sent it off the other day. I hope she likes it as much as me. It’s Noro Sumile Multi, unfortunately now discontinued. But it sure is pretty, and the discount too good to pass up. I really wanted to keep it.

And today, while I’m embroiled in the Mistaken Corporate Identity problem, I get a package in the mail.

Look at this:

See how everything is neatly protected in poly bags? This is a person who cares. I smiled over the yarn-my favourite colour, green, with lots of flecks and streaks of brightness-reminds me of my gardens and lawns, and very soft, too. I was puzzled over the square.

Then read the note card she’d tucked into the box. This charming person had knitted a square for SSK!’s charity knit-due this coming Tuesday. Wonderful, and a person with a kind heart.

Of course I flipped the square over to the bumpy side after removing it from its bag, but it’s a good-looking knit on both sides.

Thank you, Ewe Spinster!

An email from R.E.E. Hare:
Emily, I just don't know where to begin!

I guess THANK YOU is a good start. :)

OMG, what a package-it's like Christmas morning, and it arrived when I was in a deep grey funk over uncontrollable events. Man do I ever feel better. I'm having a ball with everything.

The clutch is gorgeous-it's soft as can be and so very much my colours. You dyed the yarn used-did you spin it too? I'm learning to spin from a one-armed man! Ain't it great? I hope to make fine yarns someday. He's teaching me to dye rovings too.

The note cards-I never can have enough, I pop out notes to all and sundry and am known for the cards I write on! How'd you know?

Oh, the yarn. The yarn. I'm in a tizzy now, with all this lovely new yarn, so many ideas in mind and just can't get enough of fondling it.

I am one spoiled rotten downstream and loving EVERY BIT of it!

Bless you, dear, you're a gas.

I enjoyed reading your blog-you're a vivacious lady who makes me want to be young again-you have off-the-cuff fun like I always did. Still do, sometimes.

I'm about to start knitting up a bunch of new projects, and all the YARNS you sent will be so nice in some of them. I ain't sharing them, either.

You were immensely clever to disguise your mailing address. Had me entirely fooled.

I am updating my blog as soon as I can-managed to get bogged in my latest wild idea of installing a second hdd solely for a second OS, and am still trying to get things right-mainly getting the internets to work on the other OS. sigh. I'll give a day to normal work tomorrow and maybe tomorrow night I can make the Thank You entry. I'll add your blog to the bloglist too. If that's okay. I think folks would enjoy it as much as me.

Oh, I just can't say it enough, Emily--

THANK YOU!!!

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One Skein Swap: Third Package

The Final Package for the One Skein swap arrived today, and I was so excited to see what CrochetCrazy (Mary) had sent to me!

For the month of August, we were each supposed to send our partners a small gift made from one skein of yarn. CrochetCrazy had been so excited about the task, that I think she croched my gift in July ;)

When I opened the box, the gift was wrapped with care (in a pretty gift bag with matching tissue, how adorable):

And look what I found inside!

I just love the croched purse...I wish I could crochet like that....but the picture doesn't do it justice....The purse is in a lovely fall palette, and CrochetCrazy somehow embroidered those beautiful flowers by hand! I don't know how she did it....at first I was convinced that she had applied a store-bought embellishment, but upon closer inspection I could see that the flowers were all done by hand! And the different crochet techniques for the handle and the body were very impressive! I'm not sure how many years CrochetCrazy has been crocheting, but she's really mastered the technique. In her letter, CrochetCrazy revealed that she came up with the pattern too!
I can't wait to start digging into the Harry Potter book too! I'm sure it will come in handy when the next book is published. I started looking at the book, and it's amazing to learn the historical significance of the names and symbols in the series.

Check out this close-up shot of the embroidery:



Even Chompy loves the purse (normally she's afraid of anything new):


Mary,
Thanks for being an excellent swap partner. You made my first swap a memorable experience, and I can't wait to participate in the handspun swap this fall!
You are a very caring and generous person, and I am glad to have had the chance to get to know you!

Emmos and I in class

Emmos weaving her rya:

My progress on the loom:

And that's all. Good night.

knitting in the park; & tubas too!

This week our knitting group met at the UO campus McMenamins for beers and pub grub.



After grabbing a bite to eat, we all headed over to the park to hear a tuba concert.



We knitted (or would that be knat ?), and sat, and listened to the music. The people in the row in front of us (who I am graciously not picturing) became angry at our low decibel chatter (well, I guess it was a concert after all). Damn, I really should have taken their pictures.....For some reason they did not want to hear about the recent living history presentation at the Eugene Library by Tames Alan.
Everyone enjoyed the music and the warm summer evening:



Next week we'll meet at 5:30 @ McMenamins, then head over to Washburne park for the Oregon Brass Society concert at 6:30.
Check out the list of meetings/concerts.

day at the beach

Anna, Chris and I headed off for a day of fun at the beach.
We decided that we'd try taking Hwy 99 of Junction City, and then head west on Hwy 36. On our way to the ocean, we stopped by to enjoy Triangle Lake, and Chris couldnt' resist te urge to take a dip:

Anna and I watched on the dock, and enjoyed the scenery. At first Anna was camera shy:


Then somehow I convinced her to take this photo of us:


After about an hour of fun, we headed west again. We stopped by the Tide Wayside (about 4 miles west of Swisshome) and enjoyed the Siuslaw, and picked blackberries for a little while...

I'm sure that the wayside was nice about 50 years ago, but now the benches and fireplaces are in a state of disrepair. There's an old country store across the street, but it looks like it's been closed for a while now.

Next we headed to the coast, and north to the Adobe resort. The resort has also been going downhill. We went into the dining room to see the view, and the whole room smelled awful, like the carpet was mildewing. Once we headed outside, the view was much more pleasant, althought very windy!



After eating lunch, we headed south to Old Town Florence. Anna and I found a cute sign for a store, but it was closed for the evening:


A car show was passing through town, so we caught some photos:





We stopped off for a quick Root Beer Float:




And then it was time to head home.

weaving class

Emmos and I are taking a weaving class together, on Rya, and I promised to post the pix I took on Wednesday night.

Here are some absolutely fascinating photos from yesterday's weaving class... Of Emmos setting up her loom (my loom is in front, only way I could catch her at first), then her threading, then her helping me wind my warp on, and her demonstrating the proper way to do a Cat's Claw.




As it turns out, this photo (taken by fyberduck) will be featured in the Fall Term Schedule of Classes for the UO Craft Center! GO Bad Attitude Weavers!!!!
So, yeah. I remembered!

Gift for my Secret Pal

One Skein Swap: Second Package

This afternoon the package from CrochetCrazy arrived, and I was excited to see what yarn she had chosen for the month of July........
Last month's yarn was so much fun, so I couldn't imagine what was inside:




I love the Wildfoote yarn (superwash, my fav) in camel.....I think I will turn this yarn into a tiny hooting friend :)

I think I'd like him to look like a knitted version of this stuffy:



CrochetCrazy also included a British copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets!

For me the book was also very exciting, as I do not yet own copies of COS and POA! (although I do own copies of Harry Potter Books 4 thru 6).


Yet again, CrochetCrazy surprised me with adorable yarn and an awesome book.


Mary,

Thanks for this amazing gift! Once again, I was surprised by your generosity and thoughtfulness!
I can't wait to see what you have in store for August!