Sugar Bunny Boulevard

Eye Candy Friday

Attention Carol of Placerville, California:  There's a message for you at the bottom of this post!

The first night we were in Estes Park (and walked to the Dunraven for dinner) we ooh'd and aah'd over the candy shops on the walk back to our car as we browsed through a few shops along the parkway.  This one, in particular, caught our eye with the beautiful apples in the window on one side of the door and these pretty strawberries on the other side.

I love seeing those well worn wooden spoons hanging up and the pretty copper bowls.  Their specialty seemed to be fudge, candy apples, and English toffee.  My kind of place!  The window displays were definitely eye candy - and check out the name of the shop!  Maybe she'll be ready to hand over the spoons in about 16 years when the babies are out of high school and Jeff and I are ready to retire??!  Hmmmm....!  :)

Another treat for the senses was taking a trip through the animal barns at the Wool Market!  The sweet faces, sheepy smells, baas and bleats, rustling feet and jumpy animals were a treat.  The llama and alpaca didn't really seem to like having their pictures taken but the sheep didn't seem to mind at all.  For some crazy reason I didn't visit the goat barn but I understand that they're supposed to be the most entertaining of all!  Next time I'll spend extra time with them.  hehe

Every time I show Emeline these animal pictures she reaches out to touch the screen like she's petting their heads and squishing their fur, saying "Awwww, sweet thing.... So soft...."  She loves looking at them on a slide show on the computer.  :)

Daily Square Report:

It was a quiet mail day (two packages) so I think it's time to address a few more FAQ's.

My squares aren't "square" - what am I doing wrong?  Don't worry - my squares aren't "square" either when I first finish them!  My theory has always been that gravity isn't kind to anyone and always seems to stretch out the second half of my squares.  I repeat - DO NOT WORRY!  After August 15th gets here I will be washing every single square and shaping them into actual squares before sorting them into afghan packets for seaming.  Gravity has the same effect on all bias garter stitch squares.  Plus blocking covers a multitude of sins - I promise to take pictures to prove it in August.  :)

I just learned about the project - is it too late to start knitting squares?  No!  It's not too late!  Please knit as many squares as you would like until August 1st and get them in the mail by August 10th if you're inside the US, or August 5th if you're outside the US.  We hope to collect MORE than our goal of 2240 squares (40 afghans!) so if you wish to knit or crochet squares please do so!

Today's mail brought three new squares from Marianne in Tulsa, OK and twenty more cloths from Diane in Greenwood, FL for Love's Many Cloths!  WooHoo!  That group has really been awesome.  Marianne, are you coming for the seaming party???  I hope so!  At least one or two other people in the Tulsa area are coming up September 15th!  Yay!!

A shout-out to Carol in Placerville, CA:  Carol, if you read this blog, Jenn of the blog KnitWit Momma in the Sierra Mountains would love to hear from you - apparently knitting pals are rare in your area!

Everybody have a wonderful weekend - I'm trying to get more movies of the babies - maybe this weekend will bring good results.  Anybody have a recommendation for a good free video editing software?  Does such a thing exist (the free kind, I mean!)???

Take good care of every little thing!  XOXOX

How Did It Get To Be Thursday Already??

Hello again and Happy Thursday!  This week is just flying by - the big kids will be home from Texas before we know it!

The fun weekend in Estes Park was over before I knew it.... and there I was saying farewell to Margene and the new friends I made during the weekend. 

We packed our fiber and spindles and yarn and needles and everything, then waved goodbye.  I'll see you all again some time - I had fun - I hope you all did too! 

They drove off to pick up Miriam in Loveland (minus Chris who was on her own like me), and I drove down to the parkway to find a parking spot.  I still had to pick up souvenirs for the kids and me and grab a cup of coffee and hopefully sit and spin or knit a little before leaving town.  I did find the souvenirs and coffee and found a spot to sit down by the post office while I filled out postcards to mail the kids.  It was a nice shady spot by the river to sit and wind my singles and begin plying the last skein of yarn for the homespun Comfort shawl I'm making for the Spun Stitches knitalong.  Here's the new spindle in action from my shady spot (bad picture but you get the idea).  I've begun knitting the shawl since getting home and will have a progress photo for you in a few days!

I couldn't leave town without a fun sock photo:

I left .... oh, around noon I suppose.  I took a different route back that took me through Boulder.  It's a nice drive and always a little sad to leave a place and weekend and vacation when you had so much fun.  Bye Mountains - see you next time!

I was soon seeing the flat plains of eastern Colorado and western Kansas again.  The landscape is just pure flatness.  Often there is not a tree, not a hill... nothing for miles to see but flat land and sky.  I took my time going home, stopping when something in a little town by the road caught my eye (flatness makes that very easy), taking pictures of whatever I liked and not feeling too rushed to get home.

When I left the road to look around the little town of Collyer, Kansas, pretty much all I found was the train and old school house above, one church that I didn't take a picture of.... and two cemeteries (might be just one but they were on opposite sides of the road).  I'm one of those people (I hope there are others) who like to walk around old cemeteries reading headstones.  I like taking pictures too but the light isn't usually as perfect as it was at this hour (around 7:30-8:00 pm) so I took a lot of pictures.  If you're like me, you'll like some of these pictures.  If you're not like me feel free to skip ahead.  :)

As always I underestimated how long I would spend at the cemetery in Collyer so it was time to move on - I still had a lot of driving to do.

Another spontaneous stop in Ellis, Kansas:

Farewell wonderful weekend.  I'll have to do it again some time. 

Looks like I've taken up enough space with weekend pictures on this post - I'll save the Wool Market animal pictures for tomorrow and drag it out yet another day.  :)

Daily Square Report:

I hope you're still with me!  I've got more lovely squares to show and yes, a "stack" picture today too!  With today's mail and package left at the office from a lady at the church we're adding 115 more squares to the total today!  WOOHOO!!  We're past 1500!!  We have received a total of 1542 squares and still need 698 squares to meet the 40-ghan total!  GAH!  THAT's just AMAZING!!!!!  I am so extremely happy about this.  Last night at church the ladies were just amazed by how many squares we have received and wondered how we'll get them all seamed up!  I said "We need quite a seam team!"  I'm hoping we can have at least 80-100 people helping seam afghans on September 15th.  Don't you think we'll need that many??  I think if we have teams of four then we can get each team to seam two afghans that day.  That would be a lot of afghans finished but I think some people will not be able to stay for the entire time.  We'll be having lunch for everyone that comes and plan to work on afghans from 10am to 4pm.  Please let me know if you're planning to come and how many people might be with you!  I'm taking names in a serious way so I know how many are coming and can drag people off the street to help if necessary.  hehe

Keep on knitting as many squares as you would like until August 1st then finish what's on your needles and put 'em in the mail by August 10th if you're in the US and August 5th if you're outside the US.  That way I can start sorting squares and organizing them into afghan packets beginning August 15th.  I hope I can get it all done in a month!

This is so great!  I have a few knitting and spinning projects to finish up and then I want to start selecting squares for an afghan to assemble myself before the seaming date.

Today's squares came from the following people:

• Vicki and Carin - Algonia, IA (this it at least the third or fourth package from them - I've lost count!
• Gay - El Dorado, KS
• Anne - Essex, (does this mean England?) UK (Yay!  From outside the US!)
• Karen - Glen Arm, MD
• Emily and Rose (Great Gran!) - Bay Minette, AL
• Cathy for Love's Many Cloths - Chapel Hill, NC

Have a wonderful rest of your week and I'll be back tomorrow with animal photos!  Take care!  :)

It's All About The Layers

Ready for Day2? 

The Estes Park Wool Market was a really fun experience that was wrapped up in so many wonderful layers I can never describe it in photos and text but I'll try.  As Margene says, no yarn or fiber would ever cause her to drive that kind of distance - she goes for the friendships and people.  All I can add is that it's rare to find so many people in one place that have the same enthusiasm for yarn and fiber without driving 8+ hours!

When I was a kid growing up our family hobby was collecting/flying/restoring antique airplanes, aviation history, and the people who had similar interests.  Part of the hobby truly is the people and the travel part is just another layer of the fun I had over the weekend and when I was a kid.

Saturday morning I woke up at 5:30am Mountain Time (6:30 in Kansas).  I was amazed when I realized what time it was because it was total daylight outside!!  I made a tricky batch of scones - high altitude never crossed my mind when I was preparing the mix so I had to wing it .... and then ended up overbaking them anyway because of the further oven adjustments that should have been made.  They were okay but eh... not as great as they should have been.  If there's a "next time" I won't be forgetting about the adjustments necessary!

We did a bit of spinning and knitting then packed our water bottles and left for the Estes Park Fair Grounds.  Estes Park is a pretty small town so everything is within just a few minutes drive and often within walking distance - and the streets weren't ever very crowded during the weekend.  I'm sure it gets a little worse during the busiest tourist season but still I just can't imagine it being too crazy.  I definitely want to return to Estes Park and explore the Rocky Mountains National Park - I was sorry to leave without getting to take some hikes and really visit the mountains.

The market was free to enter and parking was $4 per car for all day, even if you left and came back.  Our password to return after lunch was "Troop 10" because the Boy Scouts were helping with the parking.  heh 

I was on Margene's heels for a good part of the day - she already knew of her favorite vendors and where their "spot" would be after visiting prior years - so she made the wise choice of hitting the Plain and Fancy Wool corner first thing!  Getting there early ensured the best selection and wow - people were walking around there with armloads of yarn!!  Gorgeous choices - mostly single ply sport weight yarn spun from the wool of Grayce's own sheep and dyed in a mind boggling array of irresistable colors.  I kept thinking "what? buy yarn at the first place? shouldn't I pace myself?"  But when Margene said this would probably be the only yarn she bought during the entire weekend I decided I better take advantage of this opportunity!  I left with two skeins for a Comfort Shawl and one skein that I hope to use for a Forest Canopy shawl.  Good call Margene!  The only other yarn I bought at the show was one skein of Trekking XXL in a colorway I couldn't resist!  :)

Somehow I got seperated from Margene at this point and she made a bee-line for Tracy Eichheim's spindles where she picked up a hummingbird design spindle with our Hummingbird Whisperer, Val.  There was a hummingbird feeder at the cabin where we stayed and the hummingbirds kept coming over and sitting on the windowsill just outside where Val was knitting by the window. 

I soon made my way to the Tracy Eichheim booth because I was also searching for a new spindle on this trip.  Little did I know of Tracy's reputation as a master spindle maker and the experience I would have chatting with him and his wife Jean.  When I got to their booth I was talking to Jean a little and asking a few questions.  She was mentioning a few details on their spindles but kept saying "he can tell you all about it, he can tell you why it's like that, he can tell you what would work best for your needs, he spins on every one before he's satisfied that it's ready to sell."  I thought "oh, maybe I'll still be here when he's done talking to those other people."  Wow, it was worth the wait!  He came STRAIGHT over to me when he was finished talking to the other people and we had a very long pleasant and educational discussion about the physics of spindles, their construction, what type and weight I need for the weight of yarn I want to be making, what makes them spin well and many of the special features that make his spindles work so well.  I left with joy in my heart and a 1.9oz walnut comet spindle in my bag.  After reading all of the comments Margene received about her hummingbird spindle I am even happier that I asked to have my picture taken with Tracy, and there at the bottom you can see that I'm holding my new spindle.  What a treasure and awesome experience - and yes - it does spin like a dream.  I hope to collect more of Tracy's spindles and I can only hope that I get to purchase them directly from the master himself.

At 11:00am was the blogger meet-up!  Yay!  Look at all the people - and I hardly know any of them except Margene!  Oh yes, I do know Miriam and Marissa and I met Jean and Erin and Kara too.  And Kristi!  Can't forget her... and I was happy to see that I managed to get her picture holding the famous cover-socks from Spin-Off (in the first picture below of her chatting with Mim). 

After lunch and a quick run back through the market (to pick up a few things we had to think about and see if there was anything else we couldn't live without) a group of us went back to the cabin to rest up before dinner and wash the dust from our feet.  We ooh'd and aah'd over the fleeces purchased by Karen and Miriam, knit a bit, tried new spindles, and showed off our yarn purchases.

We soon concluded that it was time to head off to The Stanley Hotel for cocktails.  It was a fun place to visit and I'm sure it would be a wonderful place to stay.

This is the view from the parking lot next to the Stanley Hotel.  Their swimming pool is behind that fence on the right.

I even got a little video clip of Mim spinning in front of The Stanley Hotel:

So we had some drinks, I took a million bad pictures, and then we went to dinner.  Bye Stanley Hotel - see you next time!  On to dinner at Claire's on the Park!

It's possible that there are bad restaurants in Estes Park but we didn't find one, and the service was always friendly and sometimes even fun!  By the time we left Claire's our waitress was ready to take the weekend off for next year's Wool Market and learn to knit and spin so she could hang out with us!  We should have told her that knitting and spinning isn't required.  :)

Everywhere we went the mountains were an automatic background - at the fair grounds and even during our dinner on the patio at Claire's.

We went back to our cabin after dinner for more knitting and spinning with pleasant company.  It was a wonderful ending to a wonderful day.

Tomorrow - how could I forget the animals at the Market?!  And my trip home.

Daily Square Report:

With today's mail we're adding 40 squares and one cloth to our totals!  Hooray!  That makes 1427 squares received (can you believe we're almost up to 1500!?) and only 813 needed to reach the 40-ghan goal.  Whew.  That is just a LOT of squares!  Forty squares came from just four packages y'all!!!  I'm using the word "amazing" a lot to express how I feel about this project and the daily squares, etc - and I guess I'll probably wear that word out because I continue to be amazed by the squares coming in and the correspondence accompanying them. 

URG.  I could not get a good "stack" photo today and they're already put away - sorry.  Also the movie I promised is WAY too big to upload to YouTube (there's so much to learn about this stuff).  I even went out and took another movie and it's too big too!  You'll just have to check out the "put together" pictures today and this picture of Lila Pearl with the afghan.  :)

Two of today's packages were extra fun surprises.  I'm really enjoying the bond I feel with the people sending squares (and other stuff!) but some people like to remain more private than others.  Of course that's just fine - but do I love getting letters and cards with packages telling about the people who knit them and what makes this project special to them.

Beautiful crochet afghan squares.  Can you see the heart in this shadow knit square? Cool!

One package I got today was from someone that I already feel like I know because she's been on my list of favorite ebay sellers for over two years (before I even moved back to Kansas!) and people mention her all over blogland.  Linda of Emtnestr fame sent a package of squares and a lovely letter explaining that years ago when her children were babies she lived in this area and had the experience of taking cover in the basement for protection from a tornado.  She lives in Vermont now and it was such a happy treat to receive her squares and nice letter.

The second surprise package was packed full of squares and a letter from Tricia in Pennsylvania.  Tricia explained that she read about this project soon after it began and was so touched that she took the story and pattern into to her spinning guild meeting in May asking for help from her friends at the guild meeting.  At the June meeting she was greeted with a beautiful stack of squares.  Her young neighbor Kathleen (16yrs old) also knit a square when she came over for dinner and to spend the evening.

Oh how I love these letters and the expressions of caring that are being extended to the families of Greensburg.  I'm so anxious to look into a crystal ball and see the end of this afghan story - to know how many afghans we will have and to express to the families in Greensburg that they represent a lot of prayers and caring and reassuring hugs from people around the world wishing them the best possible future as they rebuild their lives and community in Greensburg.  But I know it's the process and experiencing the project as it seems to take on a life of its own is quite an adventure.  Thank you everyone for all you're doing to help.

Today's squares have come from the following people:

Donna - Reston, VA
Linda - Wallingford, VT
Barbara - Papillion, NE (this is at least the third package from Barbara!  Woot!)
Tricia - East Stroudsburg, PA ("North Country Spinners" Jean, Tricia, Jenny, Caroline, and 16yo neighbor Kathleen)

Knit On everybody!  I'll be back again tomorrow with more squares, more pictures, and a farewell to Estes Park.  :)

Home Again Home Again

Where do I begin?  There is so much to tell and so little time!

First of all, we had a wonderful time at Estes.  Would you expect anything otherwise?  A beautiful place, lovely people, and enough fiber to intoxicate every knitter spinner and weaver for miles around.  I'll tell about my trip one day at a time.  This post will show the trip and my arrival Friday, including a little side-trip.  I had already bought yarn before I ever got to Estes Park!  hehe

I left out of El Dorado about 6:15 Friday morning - it was a misty morning and I was well prepared to take millions of photos all along the way since I took Carole's advice and exchanged the camera on Wednesday last week.  My new(er) camera will take some getting used to (lots of new settings!) but I think it will do a nice job on the macro photos.  I'm already amazed at what good pictures I can get by pointing the camera toward the window and clicking as I fly down the highway at 70+ mph!

Along the way (so boring to Kansas folks, I know)... see those stone fence posts (below)?  I'm so fascinated by them since we have one next to our driveway.

Ever since reading about it on Tracy's blog at least a year ago I have been wishing to visit the Gove City Yarn Shop.  Gove, KS is a tiny little bitty town (population around 85 people) in western Kansas and is the county seat of Gove County but it's probably one of the least populated counties in the state of Kansas.  Despite the population you'll find this to be one of the best stocked small town yarn shops anywhere!  This lady has great yarn!  The owner, Mary Lou McDonald, was a joy to meet and happily showed me around the store discussing her selections of yarn, spinning fibers, and knitting and spinning accessories.  It was a hard choice with all that gorgeous yarn to choose from but I finally picked up two skeins of beautiful Manos Del Uruguay for the "My So Called Scarf" (I picked a colorway that looks almost exactly like the pattern photo) plus a skein of lovely Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool for another chemo cap.  The Gove City Yarn Shop is definitely worth the 10 mile drive from the highway and I'll be writing a little more about my visit there on the Kansas Knit Bloggers Webring blog - my first Kansas yarn shop review!

This is pretty much all there is in Gove.  Post Office, court house, yarn shop.  (limestone fence posts!)

On down the road, leaving the highway for lunch and gas took me a little off the beaten path in Colby, KS.

 

Finally I got into Colorado and after an eternity of anticipation I could see the faint outline of mountains on the horizon.  I wondered how many days the pioneers moving west could see those mountains before reaching them?  Did the earliest ones even know the mountains would be there?  What a surprise it must have been for some of them to look up one day and realize they were there.

Just past Denver is Boulder then another small winding mountain road takes you into Estes Park from the southeast.  This is what you see what you come around the mountain into Estes Park:

The Stanley Hotel.  A very striking image as it carries its regal posture against the mountains around it - the Stanley Hotel is the first thing you notice from the direction I came into town.  More about the Stanley Hotel tomorrow.  :)

I called Margene for a little help locating our cabin and joined up with lovely knitters and bloggers.  I was so glad to get there and we were all famished!  We wasted no time driving down to the parkway and finding a great place to eat dinner.  We made a lucky random choice of the Dunraven Downtown - excellent Italian food!

(Click to make bigger) From left to right:  Chris (Stumbling Over Chaos), Margene (Zeneedle), Karen (Sleeping Dragon Yarn), Happily BlogFree Hummingbird Whisperer Val, and Cheryl (Hither-n-Yarn).  All are Utah Grrls except Chris who lives in Minneapolis, MN.

We made an early evening of it since we were all exhausted from travel and eagerly anticipating the open of the Wool Market Saturday morning!

More about the Wool Market on tomorrow's post!

Daily Square Report:

Wow - it's been a WEEK since my last square report!!  Sorry about the wait - I'm ready to get back to reporting daily now that the big travel weekend has passed.  I didn't have a lot of time for a big photo shoot because wow we have received a lot of SQUARES and a lot of OTHER STUFF TOO!!

Since last Tuesday we have received .... I can't believe this.  We have received 307 squares, 20 cloths, 3 scarfs, 5 hats, 3 baby bibs (incredibly adorable), and 2 entire lapghans already made!  Isn't that just an incredible amount of stuff in just one WEEK!!??  I've been looking at this project day by day and felt amazed.  But wow.  In a week we received all of that!!  One of the lapghans will be shown on the blog tomorrow because I took a little movie of the babies modeling it out on the porch last week before I left for Estes.  The second lapghan, oh - you just have to see this.  It's so beautiful.  It's both knit and crochet, and is made entirely from fingering weight yarn.  It's just beautiful and I wish I knew more about it.  It was sent by Eleanor from Wayland, NY (the large pillow-like package Jeff made reference to in his post when I was gone).  Eleanor wrote me an email to say that the package she sent (which also included 50 SQUARES!) was a collection of items from the ladies in her knitting group.  Whoever made and donated this afghan, thank you ever so much.  It's beautiful and I promise this is one of the great yet difficult parts of this project - I can never adequately express my gratitude for the thoughtfulness and generosity of the people sending items for the families of Greensburg - and some of it is VERY difficult to let go of!  I've done my petting and put this afghan away for a lucky Greensburg family to receive later this fall.  :)

Last week's squares from Wednesday and Thursday including scarfs hats and baby bibs:

Squares from Friday Saturday Monday and Tuesday (today):
 

Somebody wanted to help model squares ("this is a pretty SQUARE!") but hasn't yet learned to sit still for photos.  :)

Squares and hats and scarfs and bibs and lapghans came from the following people over the past week:

Ann and the Lucerne Knitting Group of Ballwin, MO - Chesterfield, MO
Lana - Overland Park, KS (tomorrow's lapghan + squares!)
Jennifer - Kansas City, MO
Julie and Larissa - Morehead, KY
Vicki and Carin - Algonia, IA
Launa - Southern Pines, NC
Anna for "Heavenly Angels in Need" - West Valley City, UT
Barbara - Silverton, OR
Becky - Whitehouse, OH
Lindsey - Florence, KY
Margaret - Grand Rapids, MI
Sydney - Mt. Laurel, NJ
Katherine - Dallas, TX
Angela - Pepperell, MA
Bethanie - Coffeyville, KS
Julie - Superior, WI (darling baby bibs + squares!)
Sandy - Brookfield, WI (squares + hats and scarfs!)
Line - Denmark (as in, DENMARK!!!)
Eleanor - Wayland, NY (squares + today's lapghan)
92yo Ruth - El Dorado, KS
Rebecca - Big Spring, TX
Anonymous - Tucson, AZ
Carol - Placerville, CA
Polly - United Kingdom (yeah, like OVER THERE! Yay!)
Toni - Riverside, CA
Lisa - Bellaire, TX
Carol - Honolulu, HI (my gosh, hello.... how about Alaska now? - all 50 states would be so COOL!  Thanks Carol!)
Karla - Topeka, KS
Linda - Canton, MI
Theresa - Eugene, OR
Love's Many Cloths - 20 more cloths!!  Thank you!!
Donna - Oberlin, OH
Margene and Ann - Salt Lake City, UT

Whew!!  Okay, we're all caught up!  That makes our total squares received 1387 and 853 needed to reach the goal of 40 afghans!  I've received more than a few emails and notes in the mail with squares predicting that we'll FAR exceed the goal of 40 afghans!  I really hope you're RIGHT!!  :)

Have a great week and I'll be back tomorrow with more photos from my trip to Estes Park and a new afghan report plus another movie of the babies modeling the pretty afghan we received last week! 

Oh Macro, How I Loved Thee

Hello hello!  The evening is dark and quiet (getting on toward night now) and all you can hear is the computer grinding away and the washing machine running.  Babies are asleep and things are winding down.

As promised I have a bit of spinning to show off.  I'll start by saying that I am still not 100% satisfied with our camera choice.  One very good thing is that the girl helping me when I bought it (at Wal Mart) said that they have a 30day return policy.  If I try it out and don't like it, bring it back in the box, etc, and I can exchange for something else.  I've pretty much concluded that I will never EVER be able to take the very very close-up macro photos with this camera that I was able to take with my older camera.  Awesome macro is an incredibly important feature to me in our picture taking life.  Without a good macro feature I won't be able to get the very closeup pictures of etches on Jeff's glass pieces that he sells on ebay.  And my gosh, it's a form of entertainment for me!  Seriously.  This camera won't take macro pictures any closer than 15cm (6").  That's just not good enough.  I need more like a 5cm range.  I think that's what the old camera was.  OTHER pictures are awesome with this camera.  Nice color, blah blah blah.  I just really need a better macro feature.

SO!  I have pictures of spinning, but not closer than 15cm!  Ugh!  As I said, this bit of spinning is to make a shawl for the Spun Stitches knitalong.  The shawl pattern I hope to make is a faroese shawl called the Comfort Shawl, a free pattern issued when you subscribe to the Interweave "Knitting Daily" newsletter.  It has a garter stitch border about 2" wide with some simple lace just above the border, and the rest is stockinette.  I think this will be a good simple pattern for showing off the wild and crazy sampler-style spinning I'm doing.  I am combining so many things in this spinning because..... because why not?  Because I can!  Because it's my spinning and I am having FUN with it.  Hopefully I won't start hating it when I get to the knitting part.  This will definitely knit up with a stripey effect because of the way the colors and fibers are arranged.

There are six skeins finished so far.  The purple you see is a wool blend which I think has some mohair and possibly "angelina" or some shiny fiber mixed into it.  The third skein from the left has wensleydale locks and also llama fiber in it.  The next to last skein on the right is mostly Fleece Artist merino - gorgeous color transitions through browns and rose/berry colors.  The skein on the far right was really fun - it has a fiber blend of baby camel and tussah silk.  Mmmm.... that baby camel is a very fine micron that is similar to cashmere and yak.  You can already see the bloom just from handling it.  The camel/silk blend is soft beyond description!!  I have quite a lot more of that fiber blend and now that I've experimented with it a little I'm looking forward to using it for something special!

In the center skein:  gray is wensleydale locks - quite a fuzzy halo with that fiber because it's so CURLY!; white is wool from Jan's sheep Tootles; reddish brown is llama - a very smooth hairy fiber similar to mohair but much softer.

I've really been excited about this spinning as an experiment with different fibers.  The spinning is fun but wow, I'm really looking forward to the knitting!!  My only concern is that I might not like how the color changes look when they're knit up in this pattern.  I don't know.  I need to stop saying that because I'm really not worried that I won't like it.  My BIGGER concern is getting gauge with this faroese pattern.  It calls for what I think is a sport or possibly DK weight yarn.  I'm close with my spinning.  But the pattern calls for size US10 knitting needles.  THAT makes no sense at all to me based on the pattern photo.  It doesn't look like it's loosely knit.  Maybe it's a pattern error???  Surely not after this long.

Daily Square Report:

People - I am constantly amazed by this project and the people who are contributing.  As of yesterday we needed just 12 squares to hit the "1000 squares received" mark.  Since the project started, Tuesday has been a slow day with the mail but I was still hopeful.  Today I only had two packages at the church, and one came in the mail at home (Hi Lana!).  So I wasn't in any big hurry to open the packages... I ate a slow lunch, worked on laundry, etc.  I'm TRYING to get a long list of things done before leaving home for a few days and three packages was just what I needed to keep my focus on housework.  So finally I decided to get these packages opened so that I could get pictures taken before it got too dark.

Today's three packages..... three.  THREE.  Three packages brought us 92 squares.  92!!!!!  Can you BELIEVE THAT??  This isn't someone pulling a box of squares out of Granny's Attic.  These are three knitters.  Devoting their time and energy and thoughts and prayers and caring to families in Greensburg, Kansas.  Everyday people like you and me.  I usually don't tell how many squares a certain individual sends because one square is as important as a hundred squares.... but I just have to say - Lana sent 54 squares in her box.  It takes 56 to make an afghan y'all.  Can you believe that she sent 54 squares??  My gosh.  If I had thought I could make 56 squares in any amount of time I might have stayed quiet and knit this one afghan all by myself and never told anyone about it and never started the whole project at ALL!!  Our total square received is now over 1000!  We have received 1080 squares!  Only 40 more squares (less than 1 blanket worth!) and we'll be at the half way point.  Can we get a WooHoo!?!?

   

I generally don't tell how many squares a certain individual has made because I don't want to minimize how many ANYONE has made!  But since I told how many Lana made, I'll tell you that Eleanor also sent 35 squares.  This really just boggles my mind when I think that a project I'm talking about has caused so many people to do something so awesome.  It's not me doing this.  The people of Greensburg really didn't do it either I guess.  This honestly is not. my. project.  It's your project.  Every one who makes a square.  It's my 10 year old daughter's project.  And 92yo Ruth's project.  It's more than making squares for people who lost their homes.  I love knowing so many people want to help others when they're suffering from a loss.  The response to this whole thing has overwhelmed me.

Today's squares came from the following people:

Elizabeth - Lebanon, IN
Eleanor - Wayland, NY
Lana - Springfield, MO

Bless your hearts.  Every single one of you, for telling your friends and writing about this project on your blogs and telling your knitting groups and Yahoo groups and for knitting one square or 54 squares.  Thank you SO MUCH, everyone!

Have a wonderful rest of your week!  I guess most of you won't read this until Wednesday - only a few more days until Estes!!!  Yay!!!  :)