Totally Thomas

This past weekend featured a trip up to the Scenic Valley Railroad in Boone, IA to see Thomas the Train.

 It's become an annual event for the Dreams in Fiber household.  Remember how lovely it was last year?  It was nice and sunny and perfect for taking pictures.  That was not the case this time around.  It was cold with constant rain and/or drizzle but perfect for sporting the hand knits!  

 

Little miss didn't want to wear her other mitten because it would obstruct her view of the temporary tattoo featuring James and that was out of the question.

 The minions had a good time which was all that really mattered.

I have some finished objects and some handspun ready to photograph for the next post :)  Hope you had a nice weekend!

Full Serving of Fiber

I was perusing through past blog entries and it's been a little bit since I've posted anything fiber-related!  Why didn't someone tell me I was so lacking in that department lately?  Without further ado...

I've been doing a little sock knitting.  This is one of my newer patterns - Dumbledore's Christmas Stockings - and I knit this sock using my Superwash Merino 3ply in the Wizened Colorway.  I'll make the second sock one of these days ;)

I did manage to finish up the first FIFA sock though.  It was my mindless knitting project for a while and evidently I needed a lot of mindless knitting ;)  No idea when I'll get to the mate for this one either.  I am detecting a pattern here....



I did manage to complete this PAIR though.  I don't think I'll mention that it took me about a year to do it... (hangs head).  These were knit using a skein of Black Bunny Fibers that I've had in the stash for more than 3 years now and I believe it was a wool/nylon blend.  Bled like you wouldn't believe when I washed them!

 While I'm on the subject of socks, this is a better photo of the actual back-to-school pairs for little man and little miss respectively.  They both picked out their "special yarn" a while back and it was the first time I've worked with either of them.  Little man's is a blend of wool/nylon/cotton/elastic which was a bit weird to work with, I'll be honest.  But, so far they've held up well to the wear and tear of an almost 6 yr old.  Little miss' socks haven't been worn all that much yet, but they felt pretty sturdy while I was knitting them and I've used a spare piece of that yarn as a stitch marker for a few other projects and it still looks new - that's sort of my gauge for how well a yarn will stand up (i.e., if I can abuse it while knitting another project and it doesn't fall apart or pill like mad, the finished products usually do pretty well).  It's all very scientific!  Ha ha :)




Now that school is back in session, the fundraisers are in full swing.  You can insert your groans here.  For part of the current fundraiser, each classroom is responsible for putting together a special themed basket that will be raffled off later this month.  Little man requested that I "whip something up" (evidently I use that phrase more than I thought I did), so I made a set of rival beanies (U of I Hawkeyes and the ISU Cyclones) which fits in with their Hawks vs Cyclones basket.  These were knit out of the good 'ol Cascade 220 Wool and will fit up to an Adult Small-Medium I think.  They fit the minions and me anyway and I have a tiny little dome.



In keeping with the Hawkeye spirit, I also finished up a Hawkeye scarf/hat set for a friend of the family.  I had a friend of mine, Gherkin, dye up some SW merino pencil roving for me in Hawkeye colors a while back and I spun up the 8 oz and came up with this.  I haven't been able to get together with the recipient yet, but I don't think he checks the blog so I'm feeling pretty safe in regards to posting the picture.



During the perusal of older blog posts, I realized that I was a bit negligent when it came to posting what I have been sending out for the Dark is Rising Club as well.  This was what went out in August - it was the Greenwitch shipment and included a skein of handspun (or a braid of fiber) in greens and browns and with it went a hand sewn spinning and/or project bag made by yours truly and a little journal for any secret keeping that might be going on.  I've had a nice response to these bags and I will be listing some (in various fabrics) in the shop so stay tuned for those!

This is the latest shipment - The Grey King - and the sock yarn is my Superwash Merino 3ply in the Cafall colorway and I sent out a pattern for the Pendragon Socks along with a few other little goodies.  I've had a very nice response to this sock pattern so I thought I would mention that both the cowl pattern from a previous shipment and this sock pattern will be released on Ravelry for purchase in the first part of December.



That's about it for the FO's right now.  I have a few other projects on the needles that are nearing completion and I'll be doing a bit of spinning again for the final Dark Is Rising Club shipment but I have a few skeins to spin between now and then so with any luck, I'll have more fiber-y posts coming in the near future!

"Me Turn, Me Turn"

Miss Independent.

We weren't excited at all.

(she chose where she wanted to stand for her pictures)

"Mom, you no need to come in with me. Me know where me going!" "Can I come in for a minute to at least take a picture and see where you hang your backpack?" "Yeah. Little man told me you would be sad with both us at school so you can go to the library and reads lots of books and then you wont miss us!"

She knew right were to go and where to hang her backpack. She saw the daily routine so often last year when we dropped little man off at school that she knew what to do when and found her chair and that was that. "You can go now, Mom." "Okay, sweetie. Have a good day!"

"Me will and I'll let you know how the socks work out!"

It's too quiet around here.

Summer's End Part 2 of 2

After exhausting ourselves during our zoo exploration, we loaded ourselves back into the van and headed down to the in-law's lake house.

It was nice and windy and perfect for kite flying!

If you happen to live in or are visiting the Midwest right now, you can attest to the fact that it is now grasshopper season and boy were they in abundance last weekend! Little man has become quite skilled at catching things and he didn't even have to stop flying his kite to catch this one.

Speaking of catching things, I think I've lost count when it comes to how many frogs and toads little man has caught over the Summer. Here's his latest toad.

Naturally he was very pleased with himself and why shouldn't he be? It was a nice catch! He does like to introduce himself to all of his finds and shakes their hands (I use the term loosely) before he finds them a nice little habitat and he always releases them. And then I make him wash his hands thoroughly ;)

The hubby was the one that actually found this little fella in the garden while he was harvesting some peppers.

Little man had to get in on the action!

At least this one wasn't saucy!

Little man is really enjoying Kindergarten and now considers himself to be "an even bigger man". Little miss starts Preschool soon. I've been busy dyeing and shipping out Club stuff and finishing up various projects that I promise I will show you soon, but it happens to be a gorgeous day and I am going out to enjoy it and to mow my yard because our neighbor across the street hasn't been out doing his for a few days now and it always gets him fired up when he hears someone else's lawnmower! Seriously. He mowed his yard twice one day last week because a person a few houses down was mowing theirs in the morning, and another guy on the other side was mowing his in the afternoon. Our neighbor just can't be outdone I guess ;)

Summer's End Part 1 of 2

Labor Day weekend has come and gone and it took Summer with it. Summer must have had some pressing agenda because she left us more abruptly than normal. I thought I would break up the Dreams in Fiber Holiday Weekend activities into two posts since they are both heavy on the photos.

I threw some stuff in a few bags on Friday night so we could get a jump on Saturday morning which involved driving over to Omaha, Nebraska and visiting the Henry Doorly Zoo. Little man wanted to explore the Desert Dome and had fun checking out the animals and cacti.

After the Dome, we headed into a different exhibit to see what it had to offer and had the opportunity to learn what tiger fur feels like along the way.

Little miss wanted no part of that action. She was rather curious as to how the sloth can "hang out" like that for "so yong" (we're working on our "l" sounds).

These guys were a lot of fun. There were swarms of people around but this little one in particular found something of interest to look at.

I guess whatever it was amused him.

Then we found more saucy animals. Maybe I just have a knack for finding them.

Of course, it is entirely possible that they are not saucy at all, but amused. Perhaps I amuse members of the animal kingdom. I mean if the monkey thought something was that funny, maybe they just can't help themselves! Either way...

Here's a few more images from our zoo adventure.