It's been a while... Blue Moon Fiber Arts & Molly

I haven't blogged in a while as some of you may have noticed. To make along story short, I had some disappointing news that hurt me and I found that I should refrain from blogging as I didn't want to call people names etc. So, to keep things from escalating, I stopped blogging for a while.

Here is what has been happening with me knit-wise and new Molly pictures. Since she such a j0y in my life, I'll begin with her.
The green and white hat is the newest of knitted items I've made for her. Below is the inspiration for a new sweater I am going to make for myself and the yarn I've dyed for it and a picture of the main body yarn. It's Louet Gems in fern green. The original was found over a year ago on someones blog and for the life of me I can't find my notes as to where I got it from. I remember it was made from left over sock yarn for an infant. I fell in love with the color combination and had to have something similar.

This past weekend I went to Oregon to take part in the destashing sale that Blue Moon Fiber Arts was hosting with two friends Rhonda & Ialiuxh. It was held at a lovely B&B in Scappose Oregon called the Scappose Creek Inn . It was about 3 hours from Seattle, NE from Portland, along the river. We had such a nice time we plan on making a few other yarn excursions together.


They had chickens roaming the property and Llamas corralled for us to feed. I just snapped a few shots of them. The sale was held in a Red Barn like structure that is set up for events, such as weddings and their receptions. I enjoyed myself so much that I hope to take a trip back here with Lyle sometime in the future.


The line outside just before they let us in and me, with my first haul of yarn prior to my reality check.

It's too bad I didn't get any photos of what the racks looked like before people began snatching yanks of yarn from the hooks, it was truly impressive!

Bare racks..
My yarn haul: 10 skeins work of sock goodness! I plan on giving 1 skein away as a gift to a fellow knitter I used to work with. With the change in jobs back in May I haven't seen much of her. We try to get together outside of work but with our busy schedules it hasn't been easy. I'm hoping this gift will convert her to a Socks that Rock groupie!

*smile* Her skein is covered by one of mine! I know she looks at the blog and I want it to truly be a surprise!


This is the first pair of socks I've ever completed. They're Toe-Up with an afterthought heel, also made from Socks that Rock. This was a purchase from Madrona in January 2007.



Lyle's pair is made from Duet Sock yarn( purple and yellow, kinda UW colors ), sold by A Swell Yarn shop. I happen to have the owner and creative genius, Angie, as part of my weekly knit group, RentonStitchers.

The 3rd pair is in the colorway Chicabiddy from the stash sale. It's a lovely combination of yellow, pinks, red, and cream.

ta ta...

Getting caught up with life and work

I've started a new job and so far it's going quite well. It's with the same company but at a different location and duties. I ended up with a much nicer raise than I thought I was going to get and it's resulted in a net increase in my yearly salary of about 7.5k. That's a nice jump because we've now got a mortgage payment to make, (YEAH!!!). We finally own our own place! We live on the bottom level of a 3 story building. Part of our unit is below the ground up to 10 inches below the window sills. This is great when it's hot as it helps keep the temperature down inside!

This is a kinda view into the side of the Condo park we live in. Note the wonderful trees and seasonal stream that runs through the property. We have a view of it from our dinning room and sliding glass doors. The arrows kinda point back in to the property where our unit is. You can't see our unit from the road so its quite private.

(The trees viewed through the windows are the same ones that have the arrows on them in the first picture. This view is from the dinning room and the sliding glass doors.) This is before we moved in.

Best of all, I have a garden!!! The previous owner had planted quite a few things and was kind enough to leave plenty of them for me. I've supplemented what was present with some Lavender, Dahlia, Rose, Yarrow, Poppy, and a Japanese Maple plant. I'm lucky enough to have a shade and sun garden. So I've also planted to really cool Hosta that have white stripes on the leaves.

I'm also fortunate in that it's a quite area and I can leave the window or sliding door open and hear birdsong! It's just so relaxing. I really can't believe just how lucky we were in finding it.

The challenge we're currently facing is picking colors to have on the walls. Everything is a nice shade of beige or white and well that's okay, if you want something a bit plain. We don't. At this time we've a lovely shade of orange that we're testing on the living room wall. As much as I like it, I can't seem to get over the idea of having that much orange in my living room. I keep thinking I should choose a shade with more red it in, then I do and it just doesn't seem right either. We haven't been able to agree on a theme or inspiration picture to choose colors from either. We have to get the walls painted this weekend as the 16Th is our housewarming. Cross your fingers and toes we can make a good decision.

On to fiber…I AM GOING TO BLACK SHEEP!! WHOO-HOO!!

I can barely contain myself! I get to go to Black Sheep and see all the lovely sheep/ goats /rabbits /alpacas! I've got an idea of what my budget should be for fiber goodness but right now I'm not sure. I really want to make sure whatever I buy is for a specific project. So, keeping that in mind. I really need to go through my pattern books and make a list of what I want to make and the yarn
requirements. That includes a skein that I'm sending to my Secret Pal in the UK as I've been a somewhat bad Pal. With all this moving and new job craziness I have to say the exchange went on the back burner. Now that things have mellowed I can actually take some time to finish the item I was making for her and get things to her in a timely fashion. I've also started a second item to send to her in the last package. I figure I'll have 12 hours of driving time to knit with so I should be able to get at least 2 hats and 2 pairs of fingerless gloves done.

My new project….. Drum roll please……

The Clapotis from Knitty.com!! Ta Da….

I've been waiting for an excuse to buy enough Silk Garden (244 A and 245 A, I've got 5 skeins of 244 and 6 skeins of 245) to make something other than a scarf or hat but couldn't decide on what to make. Seems a chance visit to my new LYS Nancy's Knits on my way home was a key factor. They had a sign up stating 20% off reg price items. However, when I asked the clerk, whom I believe to be Nancy, she said 30%, gee.. Whom am I to argue! I ended up with the only 5 skeins of 244 lot A they had. I figure that should be enough for a medium sized wrap. If not.. Well, I could always frog it then make a triangular shawl.

Of course I had to photograph them in all their yarny glory!!

My red alpaca sweater has gotton a lot of time latley as I was trying to hold back on any new purchases. I had put it aside because it wasn't turing out as I had imagined it would. Not to say it doesn't look lovely, but well…. Its just so darned big.. And I hate to really see myself as quite that large. I am though.. And I have to deal with it. So, I've picked it back up, knit the body to the length I think it should be, knitted 1 arm and have to finish the second. Since it's being knitted in the round, I've got neeldes in all three places right now. In the end, what was supposed to be a long/lean pull over, will turn into a 3/4 wide sleeved, simple st stitch, ribbed cardigan. It'll be my first progject with steeks too. Wish me luck! After it's steeked I'll and the final edging to the bottom/button band and cuffs.

On to Molly updates! The lucky girl is now 1 year old! It's amazing how time will fly! It was just yesterday she couldn't turn over.. Now she's nearly walking on her own! She birthday party will be this Sunday. I can't wait!!! She's such a special girl and I just love her to death!

Mollys cabled hat finished and a trip to Madrona Fibers Arts Retreat 2007

I like most of how the hat turned out. As I fudged up in a few places and didn't want to frog it, I modified the pattern and completed it. It doesn't look as cute as it could, but for my first cable project is isn't half bad.Here are my newest stash acquisitions and a few photos of projects I'm making with the new yarn. The colorful balls are my stack of Mt Colors Bearfoot sock yarn mill ends. I was able to purchase them for 2.50 an oz from Linda’s Knit ‘N’ Stitch. The yarn is destined to be a wonderful shawl I found on display at the booth. I purchased enough yarn to possibly make two shawls. The pattern is free on the web.
The green -blue-brown ball to the left is Socks that Rock by Blue Moon Fiber Arts. The two in chocolate and pinks is from Angora Valley Fibers. The yarn I chose is called Monarch Sock yarn, sport weight.

This wonderful multi-colored yarn is also from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. It's called Twisted. I was able to purchase this yarn 560/8oz/skein for 28.00. I bought 3 of them. ** After further reviewing this yarn I believe its Henry's Attic Licorice Twist dyed by Blue Moon **. So far their website only shows two colorways available to purchase in this yarn. I hope to see more up there soon. They had 4 at the show. I had intended to make a sweater from the yarn, but came back to the booth and saw this wonderful vest. It was in a colorway not represented at the booth, but still very lovely. It's essentially 2 rectangles that are knit in 2x2 ribbing. One is the back panel and the other is shaped more like a scarf. Since they didn't have a pattern written up I've needed to make up my own. It's attached along 3 edges, leaving room for armholes. I'm currently 2/3 the way done with the back piece. I plan on adding some sort of edging to it. Perhaps a seed stitch or lacy pattern.



I had the best time at the show. I met many wonderful and friendly people. I have been inspired to make the Swallowtail shawl from the Fall '06 Interweave Knits. The gals, Rebecca & Peggy, I sat with had shawls on. Here's a link to a KAL for the shawl.

Molly's first waterbabies class!

Molly is a star swimmer! Isn't she just lovely!

.... and here she is all tuckered out on the way home! She's wearing one of the sweaters I knitted for her too!