If your name starts with A and you have a daughter whose name starts with V, you might not want her to see this post…

So, I won the Pen1s Bone (aka os baculum) guessing contest over at Northern Woodlands! Mama knows her boners….

They sent a really lovely book,

It’s a collection of some of the posts from their magazine, arranged seasonally. I’ve only flipped quickly through it, but it looks like a perfect commode library item.

We took the doggies for a walk yesterday, before today’s rain (some folks near here had snow!)…

And the view from behind the Augusta Airport, looking to the NH mountains,

Here’s the quickie project,

I was surprised at how much I liked this yarn, Lion Quick & Cozy. I blathered more about the project on my Ravelry project page.

I finished knitting a hat to felt, no pics yet, but it is really ginormous. I couldn’t find the pattern in Ravelry, but you can see it here. I’m making it out of red lopi I got at the goodwill last month… I plan to put bells on the points. If it shrinks enough that is. I’m hoping the laundro has wicked hot water, since we only have cold to our washer.

Now it just needs to be away!

This is for the Orphan Foundation of America Red Scarf Project that Norma champions. Hope it will keep some college kid warm and happy!

When I dyed the yarn, I knew some skeins were redder, then I overdyed that… and the difference wasn’t as great. I couldn’t tell when I reached for the new skein when knitting… but I could when I blocked it. Oops.

Since it’s not so noticeable folded up on that rack, I figure it’ll be fine.

In short, loads of fun! Fiber overload. Cute critters. Time with friends.

Mostly I got a bunch of undyed yarn to dye with mushrooms. Enough for a sweater for DH (in his preferred Bartlett) and a sweater for me. And undyed lovely alpaca for a shawl or something. And a bunch of undyed organic cotton that was too cheap to leave there. Bargain rayon (sort of sagy), cotton/rayon (another bargain and may be dyed), good deal boucle, and some alpaca sock yarn for a friend. My mountain of yarn…

The splurges were lace weight merino and sock yarn in a color called “crapshoot”.

And a bunch of mordants for dyeing,

And a bunch of NY wine… haven’t had any yet because I’ve been sick with a nasty cold all week. I had been told that NY couldn’t ship wine to ME, but this past weekend I learned that they can ship once if you went to NY as a tourist.

Mel saw Uma Thurman (she bought stuff from him!), but I saw him…. hmmm….. is that like sort of seeing her?

This beast tried to eat my sweater,

On Sunday I fell and ripped the skin off my knee and had to go to the first aid station, where they decorated me like this,

Beats having blood running down your leg, eh?

Two of the three friends I went with had never been and they had a great time. They thought Sara (she who never blogs because she’s always on Ravelry) and I talked too much! As in to too many people… but that’s the joy of going. They were all great traveling companions.

Now to knit down my stash… Will it ever happen???

But who’s counting?

Off to NY Sheep & Wool (aka “Rhinebeck”) early in the morning!

Sadly the Phaeolus sweater wasn’t staying closed well…was gapping, etc. So I sewed some grosgrain along the edges where the hooks and eyes are, and it seems to work well!

chickens and hens

fungus that is…

I think the chicken of the woods (the orange slabs) is so called because it’s “meaty” (for a fungus), and the hen (the brown on the right) because it looks like a hen’s ass. I like its chewy texture. Made Hungarian Mushroom soup out of these the other night (from the OLD Moosewood cookbook, before they got all righteous about fat and salt).

num num!

beaver leavings

Must’ve been some crazy beaver… I wonder what the plan here was…

packed?

No, not yet… Except for the gin and basil.

But I did get gas in DH’s mom-mobile (a minivan), and new wipers, and different music (gawd save me from eightymillion hours of Jerry)

I even wore it today…

It really glows in the late sun… which was gone while we were taking the photos. Actually, we had to go inside to get DH’s camera. He’s a great photographer of mushrooms and other plants, but when he takes pics with my super skinny point and shoot, he shakes the camera.

So, I’m holding up the mushrooms used to dye the sweater… old (brown) and new (yellow), both are dried out here. The color is brightest using the new.

I don’t think I have a career showing off prizes on game shows, eh?

In the end it’s a bit loose and I could probably have made it a bit smaller. I would keep all the waist shaping though. I might shorten the sleeves. More details over on my Ravelry project page.

In Other News

My mum came to visit over the weekend… we had a great time. She’s a hoot. We didn’t do much, it was just nice to spend time with her.

I’m taking a conversational Spanish class through Augusta’s adult ed… I am enjoying it well enough, but wish it were a bit more challenging. So I’ve taken to writing in a notebook every day (which I just started two days ago!). I’m hoping this will spur me to remember how to conjugate verbs, remember vocabulary, etc.

Hasta luego!