Wanna Play?

A Day at the Beach

Since we go to the beach pretty often, I'm sure that you have been wondering just what, exactly, it is that we do all day every day when we are there. Well, my little buddy Casey decided to help me document how tough a day at the beach can be.

First, you greet the sand. You run on it. You bite it. You dig, dig, dig and then you snuffle and sniffle. Sometimes you can smell crab and when you do, you dig and dig and dig as fast as you can to try to catch that little bugger!


Then, you have to get a tennis ball out and find someone to throw it. They have to throw it over and over and you have to run get it and run as fast as you can to bring it back. Then you throw it back at whoever threw it for you and bark until they throw it again. This is one of the most important things to do on the beach and a lot of time must be devoted to it. Sometimes you have to run thru the water, even if it's a hundred yards out of the way back from getting the ball, just because it's there.

You mustn't forget that the children need help with their castles in the sand.
And Mom needs help looking at all that beach debris for good things - this dead crab smelled really cool. And then she needed help finding this sharks tooth - can you find it?

It's very important to keep an eye on the children when they decide to go swimming. Small dogs don't mind getting wet, but those big waves sometimes scare dogs. That could be because just one wave can toss a small dog quite a ways.

The beach is always best when there is a tide pool and sandbar - the girls like to play in the tide pools and there are no waves, so a little dog can join them. Swimming is fun when there aren't waves trying to drown you!

And you have to maintain a keen lookout for anyone who needs to throw toys - someone MUST want to throw this toy!

Then you head back to the house. Someone always insists on rinsing little dogs off with the hose (COLD water, let me tell you) then wrapping them up in a towel and cuddling them in the backyard until they get dry. Sometimes there are other critters sleeping in the backyard too . . . .

Easter Critters

I made a bunch of Easter critters, Cadbury Bunny, Cadbury Chick and Cadbury Duck.

Mom put a bunny and a duck in the gift basket for her Red Hat Easter gift exchange and the rest are for my sons for Easter.

They were fairly easy to make and quickly done. The pattern called for worsted weight but I had pastels in DK weight so I used that. There was no pattern for the duck, but mom suggested making the chick in white and changing the beak to orange and rearranging it slightly. So when I did that, it made a very nice duckling.

They each have a Cadbury egg inside for stuffing. The first chick and rabbit were on the table and I had put them in my knitting bag when a bunch of little ones were here for me to babysit. The fuzzy white dog got into my knitting bag and ate the Cadbury egg out of the chick. So now I keep them out of the reach of kids and dogs.

Black Cat

Here is a picture of mother's black cat, Ubu. Actually his name is Ubu 2. This is also a picture of Andrew's black cat, Midnight.

Midnight is on the wood brace for the bridge and Ubu is hiding behind the weed. Why he won't pull up the weed and haul it off is anyone's guess.

Now THAT might have been a mistake . . .

I finished spinning the second 4 ounces of the lovely Midnight Corriedale Roving from Northern Lights Fiber. It was so nice to spin that I spun the entire second 4 ounces in one sitting last night. Then I set out to ply it this morning and after a good soaking, it's now hanging to dry. I promise better pics tomorrow. I haven't done anything with the scraps yet.



And the extra 4 ounces of chocolate brown alpaca/merino blend that I bought from North Star Alpacas came today. I had mentioned to her that I was considering buying some brown/white/gray alpaca that she had in her shop and she said she'd tuck a sample in for me to try - well, her sample was a full 2 ounces! She is the nicest lady to deal with ever. And, since the alpaca is so easy to spin, and so lovely to knit with, I have lots of good reasons to buy more. Not the least of which is . . .

The new spinner in my house! She kept watching me and asking questions and finally got up the courage to ask if she could try it. She's been trying it for two days and is getting pretty good. So far, she's just been practicing on the wensleydale - which I bought for practicing/learning on (for me to learn on anyway). She's getting pretty good and she sure likes it a lot! Good thing there are a couple of wheels and a couple of spindles in the house!

Letting her learn to spin on a wheel might have been a mistake . . . good thing I have more than one wheel . . .

Needlefelting and the Farm

I have decided to needlefelt myself a Farm! So far I've got a cow, a milking stool, a chicken, and an egg (the chicken came first!!)




Moooo!!!!


Here's the chicken. Aint it just darn cute?

Here's the chicken that came before the egg.

Look at that lovely Ladybug Mommy made!

Here's the Bluebird of Happiness!

Posted by RSF, not TRH.

Finished the old and starting anew . . .

First, I finally finished the sockalong socks. I did not enjoy making these and I won't make any more like this. This yarn wasn't very nice to work with and knitting them on too small a needle hurt my hands. I did find someone to wear them after I finished them tho, so they won't go to waste.

So now, I'm going to start the Leyburn Socks with this yarn - it's Bearfoot by Mountain Colors but I don't have the label handy to get the colorway. I like this yarn a lot - have another ball of it ready to make some socks but it's darker.

This is the Midnight Corriedale Roving from Northern Lights Fiber. It's very pretty and much more colorful when spun than I expected. It spins very nicely and is making a nice yarn. Don't have a clue what I'm going to knit with it yet . . . .

This is some of the wensleydale roving that I brought back from SAFF. I did not spin this - this is the Midget's first attempt at spinning on my wheel. She didn't do half bad for a beginner and she really seemed to enjoy it. I can tell you right now that I am NOT going to fight her for wheel time . . . just won't buy her any fiber.

Round Squiggly Wiggly Hot Pads

After reading about the squiggly wiggly hot pads I had to make one. It was fun and I really like it as a hot pad.

Then I was reading about the squiggly wiggly hot pads on Crochetville Forums.
They have some rather interesting discussions and fantastic photos. And one of the entries mentioned doing these hot pads in the round. I searched and Googled but couldn't find the directions.

I worked it out on paper first and the result is the red/blue/pink one. Works okay but the crocheting didn't work out as planned. So I went back to paper and pencil and planned out another attempt. This one worked out as far as crocheting, is nice and thick for a hot pad but I think it could be fuller. Maybe after I get everything else caught up, I will work on the design some more.

Mom's pond

Andrew was down here for a couple of days of Spring Break and he undug the pond and redug a new hole so it would be located near to mom. This way she could look out of her kitchen window and see the pond.

Fred assembled the bridge and helped Andrew install it over the pond.

From the sounds of all the plants she wants to put in it, we might have to rearrange things so that the bridge only goes over a wee corner of the pond instead of the center to allow more room for plants.

Isn't that a good-looking pond, a great looking bridge, and a terrific looking boy?

More to spin . . .

The roving and scraps I bought from Northern Lights Fiber came in the mail today and they are lovely. I still have some of the lovely chocolate alpaca to spin and then I'll start on these. That should keep me busy for a while (I hope).

I'm going to make the Ridged Eyelet Shapely Shawlette by Judy Pascale from the brown alpaca. The pattern calls for a sport weight and mine is a dk weight, but it calls for a size 9 needle, so it should be ok. I bought this pattern about 5 years ago and made a lovely blue shawlette from it and have used and enjoyed the product for a long time. And I enjoyed making it too, so another one in nice, soft, brown alpaca will be nice.

Tomorrow, I will post pictures of the needle felting the girls did this weekend. I would have had them today but it's very difficult to take pics of small things so that you can see them. I might have to have one of the girls take the pics for me.