Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival

This coming Saturday!!! Squeel!

Ok. Ok. I'm fine. Really i am.

I'm very excited, to say the least. This year i'm going in - better prepared. Last year was my first time ever and i was so very overwhelmed. This year we're going with a couple of other gals, so that should make it even more fun. Last year we managed to miss the "Bloggers Meetup". This year i have yet to see anyone mention anything about one.

So, if you're going to be at MD Sheep & Wool: I'll likely be wearing the hat that i have on in that little photo over to the right. It's a Chicago Blackhawks Floppy kind-of-a-hat...i'm very fair skinned with thin hair and my scalp burns very quickly. I will also be carrying the green & white string bag to hold goodies. I've not yet decided which top i will be wearing with my black-stretchy-fat-girl-pants...i'll post that info once it gets closer to Saturday and i know what the weather will be like. I will have year and a half old Birkenstock - Boston Clogs in Taupe Suede on. I'll be walking s-l-o-w-l-y with the aid of an ugly silver cane. Please, do not mow me over to get to the yarn. Thanks.

Around Noonish, we're planning to lunch at our van. Our van will be parked in handicapped parking near the gate. It's a green Ford Windstar with too many "bumper" stickers on it...that include this, this, and this. If you see us lunching, please stop and say "hello". We don't bite. Much.

~Suz~

Views From My Room

I hadn't really planned on posting this early in the day, but then something happened...

After rummaging around in the storage tote for yarn for a new cast on, i decided to bring the camera over to the window. I scooted the window up, opening it wider. Then i decided to take the screen and shove it as high as it would go. I hung out the window a bit and took a look around.

Normally, this is what i see off in the distance if i sit on the edge of the bed. It's really, across the road and down a bit of a hill...


The trees are all coming to life. The front yard here at Deb's Mom's has two, large trees...i think they are Japanese Maples? Here's a closeup...


...and a birdhouse hanging from one of them.

If i lean out and look down and to the right, i see this...

Can you tell that it rained? See the raindrops still left behind? I LOVE our new camera!

These were put in the "Cow" planter by the front door, just last weekend...


Deb's Mom has a thing for Cows...they're everywhere...mostly the black & white kind. One can even sort of be seen behind that tulip up above.


I couldn't resist the delicate color in this last shot.

Happy Friday!

P.S. I uploaded a few more shot to my Flickr account. They can be seen here.

~Suz~

Huh?

Oh! Is this post 301?!! I almost forgot.

Ha! Just kidding.

For post 301, i bring to you...generous gifts from Erin. I think this was all really just a bribe so that i would never offer to test knit anything for her again, but i'm not quite sure. ;D Actually, Erin claims that this was all a "little" thank you gift. Little?! Yeah, little...just like my arse! WOW! Fun stuff.

What? Ohhhh. You wanna see, don't you?

I already showed you the really cute envelope that everything arrived in. When i opened up the envelope, this is what i found inside...


~My very first Alpaca yarn, ever. And in my favorite color...Green.

~Really cute sheepy postcards.

~A tissue holder in a totally serene fabric. Ahhh.
~Totally gorgeous stitch markers. (Pinned onto the tissue holder)

~The prettiest tissues i've ever seen. And they are so strong that one toot of your snoot does NOT destroy them. Very nice.


~Fabulous lip balm. Which i always need!

~A much needed double point needle protector.

Last, but never least...a sweet hand written thank you note from Erin. Awww. Erin, thank you so very much. I LOVE everything that you sent.

Now that i posted and took pics of everythign, i can start using it all. Weeeeeeeeeeee!!

~Suz~

300

I lied. For the contents of Erin's package, you'll have to come back for post 301. But i promise you it's worth looking at this post anyway.

Deb and i went for a drive yesterday afternoon. It was a very interesting drive. I pressed Deb to take new turns and different roads and oh, the creatures we saw! We saw cows with their calves. Horses with their foals. Sheep with their lambs. And then we saw this..


It's an Alpaca Farm. Most of the animals look as if they've been newly shorn. The little turfts left on their heads are really silly.

These are not so frequent here...

This one came right up to the fence to say hello. I love when animals cooperate.

The best part of the whole road trip was when i spotted this...(edit: i did a little internet research and learned that this balloon is "DreamStar" out of Howard County, MD)

Believe it or not, it was actually smaller to the naked eye when i spotted it.

The chase began!

We hunted it down to a place where it looked like it was about to land.

But then it started going back up. I zoomed in.

And watched it lift back up. Higher.

And higher.

It was well worth the chase.

~Suz~

On The Needles

I have several projects on the needles, but the one i'm focused on right now is this...




I'm revisiting Erin's FREE String Bag pattern to see if i can't do a better job of it.

This is how i look as i concentrate.


Scary, isn't it?

I'm using plain kitchen cotton again, but i'm being very conscious of my knitting. I tend to knit too tightly with cotton for some reason and especially with cotton on metal needles. So, for the portion of the pattern that is done on dpn's i did stick with my "Comfort Zone" flexible dpn's and that caused me to knit more loosely. The drawback to this is that i managed to break a few more of the needle tips. Oh well. I'd already broken a few off just knitting socks. I might see if i can sand them back to being pointy.

I am having a better go of the pattern this time. It was all me last time, i think. Here's the bottom of the bag a bit more close-up...



I'm actually a bit further along in the pattern and on into the Turkish Stitch that makes up the body of the bag. I'm actually doing the Turkish Stitch in the proper manner this time! Woot! Go me!! ;)

EDIT: Update...

Speaking of Erin, look what *just* arrived!! Erin sent me a groovy package for helping her out, test butchering, errr, knitting her String Bag. Since Deb just asked if i'd like to go for a drive on this gorgeous day, you'll just have to wait until POST 300 to see what's inside.




We're off on a drive, think we'll take the camera out! ;)

~Suz~

It's Broken!

EDIT: Ok. It's fixed? I have no idea what the problem was.

Almost everything i do online...is broken.

Yahoo will not let me check email. Broken.

No Typepad blogs will open. Broken.

Flickr will not open. Broken.

Some blogs will open, ya know, that are not on Typepad...but if they have photos hosted at Flickr. Yep. You guessed it. Broken.

I want to read. I want to respond. I want to connect. It's ALL broken!

Guess it's either back to Pogo for more games or pop a movie in and knit?

I think the one that is making me most crazed is the email part. Yahoo will take me to a page that shows the sender of my first four emails and the email titles, but i can't open them. So, i know that there's an email sitting there from a high school classmate of mine...a guy i've not heard from in years...and of course, i'm curious to know what it says. Ok. Well, it's not that it's an email that has arrived by accident...i had the sad task of forwarding on the information that a fellow classmate of ours from High School had passed away at the age of 39. Very sad. I'd reconnected with two or three classmates and thought they might like to know and asked them to forward the info on to other's whom they thought might also be interested. That email, must've made it's way to the sender of the email that's STUCK in YAHOO and YAHOO refuses to GIVE TO ME!

Ok. I'm clearly losing it. Must go knit!

EDIT: Ok. Now Bloglines has gone haywire. Is there a full moon? Bloglines has listed as new...posts that go back to June of 2006 on all 69 of my feeds! Arrrrrgh!!! 5,912 posts, it's trying to load. Freakin' chatty people!

~Suz~

It's Not Easy Being

What Your Favorite Color Green Says About You:

Balanced --- Relaxed --- Flexible Compassionate --- Philosophical --- Humble Loyal --- Inventive --- Unique

What Does Your Favorite Color Say About You?

SP 10 - One Month Down

It's been about a month since the pairings were sent out for Secret Pal 10. My very first swap.

You know, i never anticipated this Secret Pal thing to be so nerve wracking. I'm waiting for my recent package sent out to my pal to land. I'm worried over whether she will like the things i sent or not. I wonder how long i'll have to wait? Wait. Wait. Wait. Waiting.

On the other side of things. I've not heard from my Spoiler in a while and i'm worried if things are ok in their world. I was getting really frequent emails and some comments on the blog and it's been quiet since about March 28th. Secret Spoiler, if you're out there and you read this...i hope you and yours are well. Drop me a quick note so i won't worry so...ok? Thanks! ;) If life's got ya a bit riled right now, don't fret...just let me know, i'll understand. Life happens.

If you're participating in SP 10, how's it going out there for you? Are you having fun? I sure hope so. I really think our hostesses are doing a great job!

Ok. That's about all i have today. It's been a very strange 24 hours. Deb came down with some horrendous 24 hour stomach flu or food poisoning or something and ya know, there's nothing worse than a whiny butch. ;) Shhh. Don't tell her i said that. She's actually not been all that whiny, she's been sleeping a lot.

~Suz~

Knitters had a good time

On Saturday we had our meeting of the Carroll County Sit and Knit group at the Irish Moon Cafe in Taneytown, MD. Our group is pretty small, but we always have a good time. This week we had me, Deb, Amanda, Elaine and her two young girls. We kept Rhonda pretty busy making us beverages and yummy things to eat.

At least a couple of us have noticed that we get next to no knitting done at these meetings. We're usually too busy talking. For instance, i think i managed to knit about 10 inches of a three stitch iCord...in 3.5 hours. How pathetic is that?

Elaine kept getting lost at the end of her rows, she would be fine knitting or purling along but she'd have to set her knitting down to help the girls with something and when she would pick it back up...lost. She's making this baby blanket from the Lion Brand website...it has many colors of Microspun and Baby Soft. Well, she was using a circular needle set up and since she was knitting back and forth, i happened to have a spare set of size 10- straight needles so i just slipped the stitches onto the straight needles for her...hope that helps some!

Amanda was working on a poncho for her little girl. I think it was the item that ended up growing most during the meeting. Amanda is pretty adept at knitting in the round and chatting it up.

Deb set up her little plastic loom and tried to get started on making some "mug rugs" for her Mom for Mother's Day. However, she got a bit into it and then realized that it was not turning out like the pattern in the picture she was referencing. She frogged it and will have to give it another go.

I was working on the iCord for this...



I got the idea from this website, but altered the pattern to change the bottom. The original pattern called for there to be decreases at the beginning of the round and the half-way point, decreasing down to 20 stitches and then kitchener-ing the bottom of the bag closed. Hmm. That got me thinking that the bag might not sit well? So i changed it to this...



See that really pretty ribbon yarn? I don't know that i would have ever bought that. That happend to be a "left-over" that Amanda brought to knitting group the very first and only other time she ever joined us. I totally took it because i thought it was pretty. I had NO idea what i would do with it. I was thinking maybe some kind of a headband, but then i realized that that sucker would slip off of my perfectly straight, fine hair in milliseconds flat. So, that idea was quickly tossed. When i ran across the pattern for a dice bag on that other site, that's when it hit me. Aha! What a cute little drawstring bag that pretty ribbon yarn would make!! WooHoo!

Now that i've made the one little bag, i have an even better idea for a dice bag. We'll see how long it take me to develop said idea. ;)

Dave & Cookie have been after me for pics of these next items. I'd been putting it off because the weather has been such crap. Well...i don't think the weather will be playing nice any time soon, so these will have to do for now. When the sun decides to come back out and the wind decides to die down, i'll go outside and get some better shots.


These socks are made from Dave's hand dyed/hand painted sock yarn in his "Kaleidoscope" colorway. These socks are a part of my contribution to the...

...Knit Along! Tada! LOL!

I have loved knitting with this yarn. It is so soft. The color changes have been a blast and i actually like how the bits of pooling happened on the heels and toes. Deb has actually hinted at wanting a pair in the same colorway. Yes. My Deb. Ya know, Ms. Boring Plain Color! Unfortunately i don't have enough for a whole pair left. I'm trying to talk her into a pair with the leftover used for heels and toes and a solid color for the rest. We'll see what pans out.

Well, the electrical seems to be flickering wildly with the wind and there's actually a very interesting episode of Knitty Gritty on HGTV this time...Cat Bordhi and some new sock making technique...so i'd better go.

On the Knitty Gritty front, Vickie mentioned on her blog that the episode with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee a.k.a. "The Yarn Harlot", will be airing Tuesday on DIY at 2pmEST.

Happy Monday!

~Suz~

Imus Canned

I admit now that this post will probably cause some people a bit of anxiety. It's my blog. I'm voicing my opinion. However, with that being said, i'm quite interested in your point of view...even if it's different from mine. Comments encouraged.

I watch Imus from time to time. I'm not a daily watcher/listener. I tend to turn to him when the other morning news programs on CNN, Headline News and the locals are just repeating the same thing over and over again. I like news. I'm a news junkie. But a whole day of the same stories is really lame. When Imus would get dull or brusque i would simply turn the channel. On the day of his latest and probably most offensive foot-in-mouth comments, i happened to not be watching. It wasn't until it hit the airwaves all over the news media...and then i tuned in to hear why all the commotion?

Oh. My. He did NOT say that?! What was he thinking? I could not believe that even Imus, of all people, could say something so demeaning, racist and sexist.

I, like so many other people am upset about his comments.

But i wonder these things: How is it that what Imus said is any worse than most of the lyrics in today's hip-hop music? How is it that it's ok for black people to use this same type of language about themselves or for black people to refer to white people as "cracker" or "honky", and they don't lose their jobs over it? How is it that Major League Baseball player John Rocker has made homophobic comments in public and he's only had to pay a small fine and possibly be suspended for a game or two? He's not lost his job.

Consider Isaiah Washington of Gray's Anatomy and his anti-gay slurs...not once, but twice. Has he been fired from the show? Have advertisers pulled from the time slot? Of course not. In fact, here's video and transcript of Glen Beck from CNN's Headline News discussing the incident in an interview and asking what the big deal was. He says:

"GLENN BECK, HOST: But anyway, Dave, what is the — what is the controversy? One of the guys called another guy a naughty name."

A naughty name. Isn't that exactly what Imus did? He used a naughty name. A name that some people, me being one of them, take offense to. This is just one example of a Media Talking Head, diminishing that offense and yet in the case of Imus we have other media and celebrity personalities calling for his firing. Hmm. Interesting.

Even today, one of the people speaking out loudly against Imus, Oprah Winfrey , was heard to make a comment about a "White guy's" dancing, during the course of her own show. How is that not a racist comment? Why not just say, "guy"...it's always the "white guy" with no dance moves. Oprah herself was even fully involved in a huge movie that used the phrase, "Nappy Headed". Remember the Color Purple? I see she didn't talk out against that or against it's Director - Stephen Spielberg or against the Author herself - Alice Walker. Of course not. Because she was a part of it, a party to it...so it was all okay. Whatever Queen Winfrey does is coated in gold. Right?

Of course there are also those few infamous people who are always around to fan the flames...Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, just to name two. Like Winfrey, Al Sharpton also holds to that same double standard where it's just fine for the African American population to use these phrases, but fire the white person who dares to even think about uttering such things.

As you can tell i'm irritated by the whole thing. The words Imus used were hurtful to people. He's clearly in the wrong. But why should he lose his job where all of these other people and countless others have not had the same treatment? Why not a fine and a suspension like John Rocker? Why not "foot-in-mouth" rehab like Isaiah Washington? I just don't get it.

I'm irritated. I'm pissed. Who's getting fired over that?

Share your views. I want to know.

~Suz~

McStiffy? Priceless!

BwaaaaaaaHahahahahahaha!

Ok. Ok. Seriously.

It's been a really long time since i've posted about my other obsession. Reality TV. Yes. I know. But, yes!

I'm currently knitting to "Dancing With the Stars" each week on Monday nights and the "Results Show" on Tuesday nights after watching NCIS on another channel.

I think the judges on DWTS are hysterical. Bruno usually sends me into fits of laughter, because you can hardly understand half of what he says and the stuff that flies out of his mouth, oy...but this week was the best. Did you see it? Did you hear it? It was right after Ian Ziering and his partner danced their Waltz and Bruno was going on about the performance. Bruno said something like, "...you went from McDreamy to McStiffy...", the look on Ian's face was priceless as he glanced over at the host and the host looked back. What made it even better was that the live audience reacted and then Bruno was like, "...What? What did i say"...". I really hope that someone clued him in later. But, oh my...that was priceless!

EDIT: You can watch the Episode of "Dancing With The Stars" here, but if you just want to giggle at what Bruno said, go to about 26:30 into the show and he says it at about 26:40. LOL!

In other Reality TV news, i'm currently entangled with The Amazing Race, Survivor and Top Designer should be ending this week. I'm undecided on if i want to watch the new Bravo show - Top Stylist, or whatever it is. The one thing that may draw me into it...the hostess, Jaclyn Smith, YUM! Oh yeah, and i've been trying to remember to tune in to this season of "Workout", but i'm in it for the Dyke Drama. I want to see if Jackie finally drops that little, yipping, biter...Mimi. Gag! She's such a hideous person! Jackie, move on, woman!! Sheesh!

Over and Out

~Suz~

Good Shot

A few of my favorite pics from our road trip to The Mannings...ya know, other than while we were there. ;)




It was snowing in this picture, so it looks a bit hazy.

Deb took this one.

And this.

I've come to realize that sheep are shy creatures who do not really like their picture taken. They tend to run off if you are not quick and you end up with shots of sheep arse. But i did get a few good ones in before they fled. Cows on the other hand will come right up to the fence and eyeball you for a while, they're very nosey creatures.

An old grist mill.

On our way home, the sun finally came out behind us.

~Suz~

The Back Room

...at The Mannings looks like this.



I was actually sitting at the back of the back room, so i walked in from the far end of this photo. By the time i got here, my head was a little woozy, so i had to have a bit of a sit down. All the wheels, all the looms...oh my!

Here's the mother of all looms...


I sat on that wheel bench toward the bottom of this next picture. It was really comfy!


I think this is the type of loom that Deb would like to move on to next.


As i think i said in my last post, i think i missed out on one room so i'll have to check it out next time.

~Suz~

To The Mannings

***WARNING***: For those on dial-up, i am so very sorry. Photo heavy post ahead. Well, because you just have to see it to believe it and even these pics don't do it justice! Run to the loo, grab a cup of your favorite beverage, let the dog out, hug a child, kiss a loved one and then come back.We should be ready to roll by then.

Deb and i took a bit of a road trip up to "The Mannings" in East Berlin, PA. If i believed in the concept of "heaven" then this is the word i would use to describe it. However, being Pagan and not buying into that "heaven" vs. "hell" stuff...well, nevermind, i digress.

As we were leaving town we stopped off at the local McD's. This is what i did while we were waiting in line.



After a quick breakfast, off we were. We took a lot of scenic shots along the way and later in the day some cow and sheepy shots. Some of those may show up at a later time. Our main interest in collecting photos of Maryland's scenery is that when we move back to Indiana, Deb wants to blow some photos up for a collection to have on a livingroom wall so that she can remember what she won't have in Indiana.

We arrive at The Mannings.



Upon entering, there is a round kitchen sized table and four chairs filled with a display of books, some brochures and a box or two of patterns that you can thumb through. To the left of the "Front Room" there are racks upon racks of magazines and books devoted to knitting, crocheting, spinning, weaving, dyeing, tatting, etc. I'm talking at least 4 large magazine racks and eight book racks. Filled. There were also Videos on a few shelves. In the middle of the front room, one side is where the register area is, past that on the same wall is about a ten foot wall covered top to bottom in knitting needles and notions and stuff.Ii forget what is in the middle, but the other wall has tubes filled with buttons and clasps all in a few cubicles and maybe 6 feet of the wall covered top to bottom in totes and project bags. Past the totes was the Koigu and then on to the sock yarns: Trekking XXL, Regia in tons of varieties even Bamboo, Fortissima, Opal, Mountain Colors Bearfoot, Step (with Aloe and Jojoba), Tofutsies, Wildefoote. It was endless and i was starting to drool. Further down that same wall looks like this...



The pic is taken from a resting spot that i found in "Room Two". As is this one...

Yes. That's Deb, fondling a shawl. I know. You never thought you'd see that day! Oh, wait. Look! There's yet another huge rack of patterns. Ok. Let's face it...patterns where displayed in every possible location.

The wall behind and to the right of where i was sitting as i took the photo above. Turning the other direction looking into the next room...



Past that wall display of cones is the "Back Room", where the looms and wheels are. We'll just save that a bit longer, shall we?

As i pivot and take a picture across Room Two...



Can you make out the door across there? I didn't go in there. It looked more like an "employees only" sort of warehouse room. Deb went in i guess and said there's more and it leads to the studios where the classes are taught. On the wall to the right of it are shelves of rovings mostly in natural colors. On the wall that runs perpendicular and to the left of where i was sitting earlier...



It's the Rainbow Cone Wall. Pretty! Needless to say, there were cones of fiber everywhere in Room Two and leading into the Back Room.

The staff that we encountered was very friendly and helpful as were the customers that we chatted with. I had a few conversations with a woman who had driven up from Baltimore on a day off from work. Being the clod that i am, i never introduced myself, but i did manage to tell her my blog url. Lovely fellow fiber enthusiast, if you visit here, drop me a comment and say hello. Thanks!

I don't even know how long we spent inside. I don't even care. I just want to know when we can go back? Deb registered for the Four Day Weaving Class that she wants to take. Good thing too. We didn't know how many they took for a class, but it's six...and they already had four registered. Yikes! I'm not going to be able to afford the drop spindle class in May, so maybe i'll shoot for November or see about a private class if they offer them? I've got enough to keep me busy and i want Deb to get into her new hobby, so we're a bit more focused there right now.

This post is long and winded so i'm going to make you wait until my next post before i show you the "Back Room" and what we brought home. Ha!

Happy Crafting!

~Suz~

Say Hello To My Little Friend

A post or so ago, i noted that there would be some exciting news to come. Well, that day is here.

Oh Happy Day!

Along with the happiness is a bit of sadness. Here is the last pic of our old digi cam, an Olympus D-425. It was a great little camera for just over 12 months, of course, and then it started eating batteries like nobody's business. I've grown very tired of taking the batteries in and out with every use and it certainly was not worth the whole buying price just to have it opened up to see what was wrong with it. Forget that!



Our new Kodak Z 710 arrived today. After eyeing this camera on the Target.com website, adding it to my wishlist there and visiting it from time to time; i started browsing for customer reviews and critics comments. Time and time i kept coming back to this specific camera. Flickr.com recently added a feature where they track what type of cameras their members are using; so, off i went searching through those. In our price range and for what we're looking to use the camera for, the Z 710 still remained my top runner. Then it happened. The seal on the deal. I came across the photos of "welshlady" on Flickr. I was totally sold! I realize that part of the greatness of these pictures is in the eye of the photographer, but to know that this camera has this potenial...that's what i needed!

Take all of the information above and add to that, the fact that i then stumbled upon a fantastic price at OfficeMax.com with a FREE 512 MB memory card included in the deal. Well, needless to say, Deb told me to go ahead and buy it. I didn't need to be told twice.

Here's are new digi cam, pictures reluctantly taken by our old one. Thanks old friend!

~Suz~