Windfest 2011

We survived and surprisingly, had an amazing time too. I'll add more details later, but for now, enjoy my "ego deflater."

Colorful

I've decided to remodel my house. I want my walls to look like this. The MOTH will probably be moving out, so does anyone want to be housemates? :)

Festival's coming up fast!

Nite Nite

I'm Maryland-starved and here's one of the reasons why....

The knitting has been slow-going, but the festival is gearing up. I'll pick the needles back up after the 16th of April. :)

Knit On!

"Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises." Elizabeth Zimmerman

• and sinus infections
• bouts of nausea &
• intraveinous dilaudid :D

What's scary is how well I knitted while juiced!

Lately :)

Hello World,

It seems like I've been doing everything but knitting lately. Life took over for a little while, but I'm getting back into the "fibery" swing of things. The festival is less than a month away (butterflies in stomach) and I'm very excited. :)

Here's the latest from Smith Mountain Lake....

We have a new dog, Max. He's a German Shepherd and wickedly smart. He's
also quite cunning/sneaky, so watch where you put your shoes - - you've
been warned.


P.S. He's three months old and his paws are the size of softballs.

Andie, a couple of her friends and I went and saw Enter the Haggis again.
They were wonderful, as always! We danced, carried on and had a great
time!

And to prove it, here's a video from their performance in Roanoke. Enjoy!

No Cascade or Jean Dunbabin for me.

Please read the e-mail exchanges and learn why I will never again

purchase a Cascade yarn:

My Request:
-----Original Message-----
From: Dana Soltani [mailto:danaknits@aol.com?]
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 6:57 AM
To: sales@cascadeyarns.com
Subject: WW Contact from web siteName: Dana SoltaniEmail: danaknits@aol.com
Comments:
Hello, My name is Dana Soltani and I am a co-founder of the Olde Liberty FibreFaire (OLFF). My partner-in-fibre, Dianne Nichols, and I established theOLFF to benefit our community and to share our passion for the fibre arts. From 2008 through 2010, Dianne and I organized the Sedalia Spring FiberFestival of Big Island, Virginia. For this, the OLFF's inaugural year, Dianne and I chose to donate the proceeds of the festival to the Bedford Hospice House, Inc. In addition to the festival, we have established a "donate-a-square" contest. For every six inch square donated to the festival (those squares will become blankets that will be given to local charities), the knitter or crocheter is entered to win a prize. I am writing to you to request your assistance with prizes. If at all possible, would you and/or your company be willing to donate a prize to our contest and/or raffle? In gratitude for your generosity, we would, in turn, list you and a photograph of your donation on our web site's raffle and contest pages. Furthermore, we would also list and link to your organization on our sponsors page. I invite you to visit the web site and encourage you to take a look at the"Gallery." There, you will find photographs of the previous festivals Dianne and I have held. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you for time and consideration of this matter. With warmest regards, Dana

The Cascade Reply:
-----Original Message-----
From: Jean Dunbabin jean@cascadeyarns.com
To: 'Dana Soltani' danaknits@aol.com
Sent: Mon, Jan 24, 2011 2:30 pm
Subject: RE: WW Contact from web site

I think no.

Having received this reply, I cut and pasted the e-mail the exchange on Facebook at the Cascade Yarns page. The posting has since been deleted by Cascade, but to paraphrase it, it

read something like this. "Someone at Cascade is having a very, very bad day. I cannot believe that this is company policy. Shame on you, Jean!"

A couple of days later, I received this via e-mail:

-----Original Message-----

From: Cascade Yarns - Shannon shannon@cascadeyarns.com

To: 'Dana Soltani' danaknits@aol.com

Sent: Wed, Jan 26, 2011 7:36 pmSubject: RE: WW Contact from web site
Thank you for contacting Cascade Yarns regarding your event. I would like
to start by apologizing regarding the prior contact you received as the
person that replied meant to forward it internally rather than reply.
It has been our practice coordinate donations through our retail accounts
with very few exceptions. Should you organize an event such as this again,
I would encourage you to work with at least one retail yarn store and have
them contact us.
Thank you,
Shannon [Dunbabin, Jean's daughter-in-law]
Cascade Yarns
shannon@cascadeyarns.com

And I replied:

Hello Shannon,
Thank you very much for your kind reply; I am grateful. I have been a Cascade purchaser
for years and Cascade 220 is my "bread & butter." When I received that reply, I was
genuinely stunned. I searched your web site and blog high and low for another way to contact
management and forward the e-mail exchange. There was no other address to be had and Facebook was the only way in which to say "heads up" to the people who run your organization.
Continuing to search for another means of contact, I learned from Google that Jean is the owner of the company. This may sound stupid and melodramatic, but the truth is that Jean's e-mail hurt my heart. My one year old niece sleeps with a handknit sock monkey made with 220. I have given out dozens of baby blankets made with Cascade. I've got a child-sized summer sweater on the needles using your Sierra.
Shannon, the festival is scheduled for April 16, 2011 and I do need prizes for the square donations. My local Cascade retailers are Gwen of Backstitches and Karen Kennedy of Motif Needle Arts. Both are located in Lynchburg, VA. If Cascade, as a company, cares about this consumer, and more importantly, the people I am trying to help, a small, overstock/non-fancy/lightweight donation would be greatly appreciated. In return, I'll list the company as a sponsor and raffle prize donator as mentioned in my earlier e-mail.
Thank you again for writing to me and best wishes,
Dana Soltani

And finally, this arrived tonight:

Dana,

As Shannon mentioned to you, we only accept donation requests through our customer accounts. Currently, we do not have a working relationship with any of the stores near Lynchburg. If you are interested in pursuing this, you could contact one of the local stores and work through them.

Rob Dunbabin [Jean's son]

Cascade Yarns

I think I'd rather let this one go and forget

that Cascade even exists. It's made me

sick to my stomach, time and again.

- - - - -

Rob & Shannon - Thanks for trying.

Where The Wild Things Are...

...and what they wear. :)

Here's Trevor in his Wonderful Wallaby. Denise liked it so well that she asked me to make three others; one for her, one for Briana & a third for a family friend. :)

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Snow Day Knitting Slam

Here's what can be done during a couple of unexpected snow days....

One ITouch sock made with Mirasol's "Hacho."


One finished Wallaby for nephew:

And the mate to my fingerless gloves:

Now, I'm waiting for the elbow to recover! :) Happy Holidays everyone!

Projects Galore

Good morning!

It's been knitting galore here in the country. I took on a couple of big projects and chose to ignore several smaller ones for the moment. This is, by far, the highest number of "on the needles" projects that I've had going at one time. Let me think...there's six right now, I believe.

First of all, there's the Adult Surprise Jacket. This is a Knit-A-Long that I'm doing with Dianne, Linda, Teresa, and Catherine. All of my increases are finished and right now, I'm just knitting for length (and color changes).

And then there's the Wonderful Wallaby for Trevor. This is a pattern from the NoSo in October. All that remains is finishing the hood and it's done!

I did a small project for an acquaintance. Patty's son has wanted a "Link Hat" for several years. He grew up playing all of the Nintendo "Zelda" games, but his mother couldn't ever find the hat.
Ravelry!
Very reluctantly modeled by my son. ("Do NOT photograph my face!") I should've named

the photo, "Sh*! my mother makes me do." Once the ASJ and Wallaby are done, I'll get

back to my Citron Shawl, fingerless gloves and others.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Namaste.

FOs' and In Progress

I finished Cash's dead fish hat. It's baby-sized and it came out very nicely.

This is the "Perfect Beret" I did for myself from David Simpon's Green Dragon Yarn.

The fiber is phenomenal and his colors are mouthwatering!

On the needles right now is a "Wonderful Wallaby Sweater" for Trevor in a nice
sage green colorway and...

a Citron shawl using Wolle's Yarn Creations in the Serengeti colorway.

And I've been running the roads to Maryland a lot lately. I can't stay away from my munchkins!

Life in Pictures

I've been having entirely too much fun lately!

I found this at a local fleamarket and couldn't resist it. Apple Cinnamon is the scent of the week.

Linda and I went to our third NoSo Knit (September 25, 2010) in Roanoke. Rae and Tere did an amazing job and it was a great event!


Linda gifted me this beautiful skein of "Whipperwool" from the Unplanned Peacock Studio.


This past Saturday, Linda, Catherine and I went to the Fall Fiber Festival at Montpelier. Linda and I planned to invade Wolle's Yarn Creations and that's exactly what we did. :)

Catherine at Wolle's booth
Linda at the booth

And four out of the five skeins I purchased.
Linda and Catherine "oooohed & awwwwed" over the loose fiber that was in the Gatherings tent. Gatherings raises angora rabbits and sells both the rabbits and their fur. Linda did get a small box of fur and it was a pleasure to touch.


What amused me (since I'm a sorry spinner), was what was being made with
the fiber. Look above Linda's head. Is that what I think it is?

Yeppers, an angora bikini! That's some interesting "mistletoe" you got there Linda! ;)

Knitting and A New Family Member

At long last, I have an FO. I've been knitting fairly consistently, but lately, it seems like my projects are taking forever to complete. At my five-year-old nephew's request, I made a Dead Fish Hat. I hope Trevor will enjoy wearing it this winter. My aunt saw me making Trevor's fish and asked if I could make an infant-sized one for her grandson, Cash. I've cast that on and am modifying the pattern [ha..ha...mathmatically illiterate me] to make it work. Please wish me luck - - I'll need it.

I also finished the 3 Way Wrap below. The wrap looks very grape-colored in the picture, but it's actually a pretty claret.

And last, but not least, meet our new family member, B.C. ("Boy Cat"). B.C. belonged to my grandmother, who recently passed away. The picture doesn't do him justice. First of all, he's HUGE. You wouldn't know it to look at him, but he's a thoroughly spoiled lap baby and he and I have completely bonded. He sleeps with me at night and wants to be cuddled regularly. Look closely at his belly fur. This cat has "ringlets" of fur - - kind of like an angora goat and extremely silky. If I were any kind of spinner at all, I'd be swimming in fiber because this cat sheds like a chemo patient. So far, he's shown no interest in my yarn but to sit on it as I'm knitting, letting me know that it's his turn for attention. :)

And if I don't drop the knitting fast enough for him, the claws come out - - seriously!

Ten On Tuesday

Ten Things I Would Tell A College Freshman

1. DO


2. NOT


3. OVERINDULGE

4. IN

5. ALCOHOL

6. Or you will end up on the internet like these idiots.

7. Have fun (these memories are some of the best you'll ever have).

8. Study hard.

9. Take Philosophy 101.

10. Be smart & safe.

Ten on Tuesday - 10 Reasons to Love Bacon

As an AVOWED bacon lover, I'm happy to do this blog today. Bacon, as far as I'm concerned, is its own food group. I firmly believe that bacon outweighs the other, less tasty, food groups such as dairy and vegetables. However, if you combine bacon with the other food groups, they are considerably improved.

Case in point: Cream cheese on a bagel. Tasty, but tame. Add some bacon bits to the cheese and that bagel is a lot more yummy! Bacon wrapped plantains? Bacon wrapped shrimp? The list goes on and on...

For the wounded bacon lover...bacon bandaids.
My dream BLT.

Need to clean your teeth, but want a more flavorful floss? Here ya go.

I'd wear mine cooked, but to each her own.

Does your car need to smell better? Your closet?

Bacon wrapped scallops. Nom.nom.nom.

Bacon & Twinkie "Stonehenge". Not so nom.nom.nom.

Bacon Tuxedos...these kids look cute enough to eat.

Last, but not least, the new and improved Thanksgiving dinner!

Have you hugged your bacon today?