I've got a pocket full of.......

does anyone have that song stuck in their heads? I can't stop singing it.
Summer here still has 5 weeks to go.
I've had a summer full of deadline - the entire fiber world seems to love Aug 1 as a deadline :-)

Here are a couple of things that have kept me sane with the kiddos this summer:

Crafts - our house is packed with crafty goodness















This is chalky paint:
1/4 c water
1/4 c corn starch
food coloring
It dries to look like chalk
It makes great body paint, but the blue has to wear off




















Technology Tickets
Each kid gets 6 a day. They have to use them for
anything with a screen.
It's totally stopped the summer OD on tv &
the fighting associated with tv, computers, wii, ds..........

I love knitters

Just took the girlie to see Kit the new American Girl movie.

I'm walking through the lobby after & a woman says "Are you Jillian Moreno?"
I smile & she says one of my favorite lines
"I'm a knitter". (one of the others, "Beer?")
She's here from Texas for her sister's wedding (she's knitting a blanket & no she didn't bring it to the movie because she's at the assembling stage; she was going to X Files).

We chatted knitting, movies, sweaters in movies, that I knit during the movie. It was great.
Knitters, we need a secret handshake, perhaps like the one above, an all fiber handshake.

Kit does have good sweaters, of the cardigan variety. My moment of bliss came near the end. I'm knitting on a secret project, secretly in the dark, Kit comes on screen wearing a sweater with little arrowhead (it's in BW #1) as the stitch pattern - the same stitch pattern I was knitting. I smiled that knitter's smile of secret pride.
Also, the movie with lovely sweaters, was produced by a knitter, Julia Roberts.
I had an afternoon of zero degrees of knitting separation & never went to yarn store.
Now knitting & the hammock are calling. Beer?

Janel Laidman color goddess

This past Saturday I took a Color & Spinning (a.k.a What the F to Do with All of Those Painted Rovings You Have In Your Stash) class from Janel Laidman at The Spinning Loft. Janel is a great teacher, she manages to explain clearly & get you to do A LOT. For the first time I actually did all of the class exercises. I did not take a lot of photos.

Our hostess, Beth. She is adorned in some dyed Masham that I gave her. I love to make her happy.




















Here's Carla , spinning away, all casual. If you look on the floor behind her left leg, you can see that she is hoarding an entire BAG of orange sparkly Abby Batts. She eventually shared.






































Here's Janel, her hand is in her pocket hiding a wee whip she carries to class, kidding!




















World famous Denny, who came down from Toronto to be moist with us, is assisted by Beth. I have no idea what's going on.
















Look at all of that spinning! 9 of those samples are mine the rest are Carla's & Kat's( yea Kat!)
















Shhhhhh, don't startle her. I've never seen Denny so still - she's beautiful isn't she?
And a Guinness, a must after spinning class

Vacation food & fiber

We went to Arthur Bryant's in Kansas City - one of the best barbeque places in the country. We had pulled pork, beef & ribs.
Oh, yes.



























































There was fibering. If you look closely at the back of our packed car, you'll see freshly spun & set yarn drying on the top of our bags. Merino, Spunky Eclectic.















I spun in the car. Used my Bosworth, sat cross legged in my seat & let the spindle drift toward the pile of crap on the car floor. It worked great, i spun 4 oz of BFL (It's Black Bunny)

















I knit a uterus for my friend in Kansas who lost hers to ovarian cancer. I figured she needed a spare and a laugh.

Vacation - the kids

Over the week of the 4th we loaded up the car with the kids and headed to Lawrence, Kansas.
The kids weathered the car trip spectacularly, with only a couple of threats.
I tell my kids that we have blood family, which we don't get to pick & love family based on love, time and shared experience. Lawrence is our land of the love family. Jane and I have been friends for 20 (!) years, and we always vowed our kids would be friends.
Here's photographic evidence.
Two things we learned in Kansas:
1) stock tanks make great back yard pools
2) a little propane torch beats a punk for lighting fireworks every time

Make my funk the P-Touch

Yes, I have a whole vacation to write about & even stuff before then.
But today when I was pacing the house in that post vacation "I have so much to do, I can't quite manage a list" mode, I went out & bought a label maker.
It's my friend, it makes everything seem organized.
Ahhh, much better.



In fiber news Miss Pippikneesocks is back online! Don't try to buy the Falkland - I already did :-)

On the Road!

We're in the midst of making our annual vacation pilgrimage to Kansas.
I spun a few ounces of BFL on a Bosworth spindle in the card and finished up one of my 67 projects I packed for the trip. Love knitting (& now spinning) in the car.

Right now I'm trying not to annoy my family with my morning-personness. I wake up early & I wake up awake & silly & talking, usually. Poor Amy & Carla who have to travel with me the most - though I try to soften the morning person blow by hunting the elusive Starbucks before they're out of bed.

More on the trip, and yes, spinning in the car after we arrive.