Adorableness

Get ready for adorableness.

Georgette made these booties using a kit she bought during their recent trip to New Zealand. 

We met for Common Threads at Margareth's new place. She has moved in with her fiancée. The house is really nice. 

Margareth has a nice room for her looms. Here's the big loom:

Here's the little loom:

She has a nice place for her thread supply:

She showed off her Finished Blanket, woven on the big loom using the double-weaving technique to make the fabric twice as wide.

She's making socks for her fiancée using Zauberball yarn. 

Margareth has also made progress on her pullover:

She's pretty adorable, and she sparkles more than that ring on her finger, and that's saying something!

Julie's making a pullover for her granddaughter. The pattern is  Dale Baby Ull 21011 from Dale of Norway's booklet NR 201. I couldn't find this booklet on Ravelry, but the sweater was there, having appeared in several other booklets. 

Friday several of us went to Joanie's to work on UFOs. Joanie and I worked on our Yei Figures Bag (Nicky Epstein pattern), which we started in 2009. We both found the duplicate stitch tedious and hard to do on the dark navy wool. I had two figures finished when I put it aside. It feels good to be making progress again!

Janet brought her languishing Sipalu Bag to work on. She's so close to finishing it! We're going to meet again next week and whenever we can to keep each other working on these knitting UFOs. (Now I need a quilting UFO group!)

The Madison cardigan is coming along. This is what I had done by Saturday afternoon. 

Sunday was Ellen's birthday, so friends from Common Threads met at Ruby Tuesday for lunch. She'll be leaving in another week, so this was the last chance for some of her local friends to say goodbye.  

What? No photos of quilts? My readers who are quilters need some eye candy, too, so here you go: The great Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show 18-month Calendar, "The Men Behind the Quilts."

I definitely need this calendar...for the quilts, of course!

Maybe this isn't really adorable, depending on your taste. Laika's latest movie, The BoxTrolls will be out in September. Please go and see it, so you can enjoy the hard work put in by our DS2 and the rest of the Laika team.

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-news/the-boxtrolls-exclusive-trailer-premiere-cee-lo-green-172204722.html?vp=1

OK, here's something really adorable. Soren enjoying his dinner...

...and Daphne at dance class.

I'm trying to get photos of Zachy, but I guess he doesn't stay still long enough! He's adorable, too, of course!

What's on my needles: Madison cardigan, back done and progress on the front. "Green Tea" socks, second sock, working on the foot. 

What's on my loom: Waffle scarf, a few more inches done. 

What's on my Featherweight: Piecing the second I-spy quilt, this one for Soren. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to Audible's Sheepfarmer's Daughter by Elizabeth Moon, another fantasy. It was good, but there was a lot of gruesomeness. Then I listened to David Baldacci's Innocent, checked out from the library using the Overdrive app. I finished that on Saturday. Spellbinding! Just started Georgette Heyer's The Foundling from Audible, for a definite change of pace. Finished reading Dragonseye by Anne McCaffrey from the library on the Kindle app.

What's my app of the week: iBooks. I keep all my patterns, instruction manuals and PDFs organized on it, as well as books to read. 

What's in my wine glass: Corbett Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon, another big bottle. 

What's my tip of the week: If your yarn is in a round ball, instead of a center-pull ball, put it in a bag or a bowl, so it doesn't roll all other the floor. Unless you like to entertain the cat while you knit. 

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Spooky Times, Good Times.

The scarf I wove for my friend Rebecca is finished.

I hope to be able to give it to her this week. Rebecca let all the Vintage Stitchers go through the bins of fat quarters she wanted to unload, and we each came away with a pile of very nice quilting fabric. Later, she gave me a big bin of yarn for charity projects and weaving practice. In it were two balls of Koigu hand-painted fingering weight merino, which had been very expensive. She must have liked the colors when she bought it but then couldn't decide what to do with it, so it ended up in the bin. I warped last week for this scarf, and now it will be hers, to thank her for the yarn and fabric. 

In other weaving news, I took custody of this cute little Schacht table loom, which belongs to the weavers' guild. I'll be renting it for my class in rug weaving next month with Jason Collingwood. (Obviously I can't take my floor loom to class!)

Common Threads met this week. This is one of our hosts:

He lives with Jean D. I've added the initial because we had two Jeans this week. Jean R. also came. If you have been reading my blog for several years, you might remember her from the meeting where she taught us how to steek. (A steek is where you cut your knitting the way you would cut fabric when sewing. Sweaters are knit in the round and then cut for sleeve and front openings. Scary thought until you've done it a few times.)

We had show-and-tell, as usual. Julie brought the baby hat she made for a neighbor's baby.

Ellen's appliqué is coming along. 

Jean R. brought her current Dale of Norway sweater. She wanted to get some advice about facings and where to get clasps for the front. She's an amazing knitter, but she still likes to talk things over with other knitters before she does anything. 

Lynda just finished this sweater vest. 

The pattern she used is the Oat Couture Oregon Vest, but she changed it by using clasps instead of a zipper. Nice choice. If I ever make this vest, I'll use clasps, too. 

I worked on my appliqué. I have the stems on my third panel about 3/4 finished. 

Every year about this time, my friend Joanie has a big garage sale. Other friends of hers bring their stuff to sell, too. The evening before the garage sale is open to the public, Joanie invites her friends to come and go through the sale items. I found this cute little building-block train for Soren, who will be bringing his family here for Thanksgiving.

Gramps will have to find a dowel the right size to replace the missing one connecting the last two cars, but that should be easy. I also bought two big baskets, which will be great for holding yarn and fabric. 

As people finish shopping at Joanie's garage sale, they join the party in her home. She calls it her "Halloween Spooktakular."

Most of the members of Common Threads showed up. Here is Joanie and some of her friends. 

There were More in the kitchen. The woman to Joanie's right is her daughter, Kristie. She's a great knitter and beader. She makes some beautiful beaded jewelry. Julie, our long-arm quilter is to the far right. Joanie, of course, is in the middle, with the hat rimmed with skeletons.

As usual, they had some tasty snacks and some good wine. 

Jean D. hadn't been to Joanie's before. Here she is in Joanie's fiber studio with its new curtains. (This was where my loom lived before it came to live with me.)

Saturday we took the pups on a hike in Moose Hollow, an area a few minutes from our home. There is a great view from the trail, and the leaves are still pretty. Here's Rocky on the trail. 

Here's the entire family. (Except for me. I'm behind the camera...er...iPhone.)

After the hike, we ran into some friends who live in the area and had a nice chat. They showed us their new 5th wheel, which is huge and beautiful. They're getting ready to leave town to spend several months in southern Utah and Arizona. Nice!

Baseball has been taking up some of my time this week. My beloved Red Sox have been doing well. I'm not willing to grow a beard or wear a phony one, but I did knit some red socks, just in case the team made it to the World Series. As of Saturday night, my wishes were fulfilled. I will be wearing my "Fenway Pahk Sox" on Wednesday evening for game 1 of the World Series!

It will be great if they win!

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms, Christmas Waffle and Green Tea socks with a few more pattern repeats finished.

What's on my loom: Waiting to warp for more scarves for Christmas presents. I have the pattern worked out and how much warp I need to put on. Ready to go. Also need to warp the little table loom for my class.

What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving in "Wolf". First bobbin almost finished. 

What's on my Sewing needles, Featherweight: Delectable pathways, appliqué panel #3, more than half of the stems done. Still need to sew the blocks together for the pieced strips between the appliqué. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Icebound by Dean Koontz on the Overdrive app. It's starting to get cold here, so maybe it wasn't a good choice. Its a good book, though. The eBook Out in the Country by Kate Hewitt, purchased through BookBub, is on my iPad in the iBooks app for bedtime reading. Listening to the Fiber Hooligan podcast and the Knit Picks podcast.

What's my app of the week: Talkatone. It's a free app that allows you to make and receive phone calls using Google Voice, which makes phone calls over the Internet. I'm finding the 300 minutes a month I get with my cell service adequate for most months, but it's nice to be able to make some phone calls without using my minutes, just in case. Since I have unlimited data, it doesn't cost me to call. 

What's in my wine glass: Foxhorn Merlot, the big bottle. Nice value! We had some anxious days this week when we were concerned that we might not get our Social Security deposits because of the government shutdown. It was nice to have a very affordable wine so we didn't have to deprive ourselves. (And a glass of nice wine to lift in celebration when we discovered that our money had been deposited.) Spooky times indeed!

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post, although some were petted, cuddled and had the ball thrown for them.