Purling Oaks

Lucky

I'm so glad I blogged about heading to northwestern Wisconsin.  I got an email from kmkat saying she lived up in that part of the state, where was I heading?  The next day I read her reply and she is *so* near-by where I'm working and hoteling.  Our schedules had a convenient match-up and we met up Tuesday, after I was finished with work.  We originally were going to meet at 5 pm at the cool coffee shop/art gallery/etc store but they closed at 5 pm.  Hmmmm.  Never fear.........we are in Wisconsin.  We just walked down the block to the new sports-bar, each had a beer, and we knit and talked and had a very nice time.  

I could insert a photo here but I'm just going to link to this blog entry of Kathryn's because her photo is much more flattering to us both.  When you read her blog entry, you'll read  we found we have more in common than just knitting.   I did more frogging on my sock than knitting but Kathryn made great progress on a lovely bamboo yarn sweater.  Chance favored me this week with a meeting with Kathryn.  Lucky me!

Winners and the 300th post

The randomly selected (DH, paper slips, and a tupperware) winners are:  blogless Nicole, Julie, and Stacey!  Congratulations and thank you everyone for your great suggestions.  The redo of the studio is in the preliminary planning stages.  That is code for we are waiting for the general contractor's bid and the check from the insurance company.  I won't be able to avoid blogging about the basement re-do, so you will see, eventually, the final studio with all the suggestions taken to heart.

My 300th post finds me in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, and thankful for high-speed Internet access.  All of Wisconsin is lovely and this area is no exception.  It is so green here and the traffic is certainly much lighter than around the southern part of the state.  So, even for a Monday after a week of vacation, I feel pretty good.

Thanks to everyone who reads this weblog and to all of you that comment.  I've been blogging for about one and a half years and it has really enriched my life.  I've found wonderful new friends through blogging and I've even gotten closer to members of my family that read the blog.  Thanks for enriching my life, you guys.

Squirrelly memories

Whew.  Gosh.  Oh Boy!  I'm home for a few breaths after a marvelous vacation.  Look at the very cool stitch markers that Stacey made and gave me.  Isn't the squirrel great?!  He looks so dashing.  He'll definitely add style to anything I'm knitting.  Stacey gave me only mildly naughty word markers, which I appreciate.  *g*  I'm trying not to expand my naughty-word vocabulary any wider than it is all ready.

I love the colors in these silk hankies from Stacey.  Of course, Her Wickedness expects me to spin these up soon.

But look, what's this lovely item rolling in my silk hankies?   

Why, it is the Merlin Tree spindle from Norma!  It arrived safe and sound from out East.  It immediately jumped into the luscious silk.

Norma also included tea and Vermont maple syrup with my spindle winnings.  Thank you, Norma.  It is a really beautiful spindle.  I'm so glad my name was the lucky one.

I will have a nice recap of my fun with Stacey as soon as I make sure I have our negotiated terms correct.  I may even throw in a few other photos in that post.  I'm heading back to Brew City tomorrow so I better go pack my suitcase!

ETA:  Well, the suitcase is packed.  But then it was pointed out to me *ahem* that I forgot something.  But not on purpose.  Stacey also shared her very local yarn with me.  She has something that I don't have....a hardware store that sells yarn.  Pink furry yarn at that.  Which is probably why we went fiber crawling on Thursday.  :D

She's real!

Today was Meet Up with Stacey Day.  My DH, DB, DN, and I drove east/northeast today and met Stacey!   She apparently decided we looked relatively harmless and decided to join us on a day of outdoor fun in the mountains nearby.  We climbed and visited a cave, hiked in the high desert, saw signs of wild life AND some one two of us took photos of the signs.  We picnic lunched.  We also did a few more things that I'll save for later blogging...........................after Stacey and I work out terms. 

Oh yeah, we did look at our various yarn projects but we didn't have anytime to knit.  Stacey is even more fun in person than she is on her blog.  She's also a pretty darn nice person.  She took meeting me and three members of my family without blinking.  I had a marvelous time and I'm looking forward to Thursday, when we meet again for what some might consider more conventional blogger meet-up activities. 

But who knows......I wonder if anything we do together will ever be considered conventional. 

Now, if I can only find the pain-killers and my pillow........

No Pink Carnation required

I left work yesterday and ate a quick supper at Cosi.  As I was contemplating my sandwich, it occurred to me that Nora and I had not set up a way to recognize each other.  No pink carnation in my lapel!  Then, I remember that she knows what I look like so I don't have to approach every likely looking woman in the St*rbucks.  I would have had a dilemma.  I didn't see any knitting anywhere.  Does this woman look like a likely Nora?

If you said yes, you would be correct!

I enjoyed a great conversation with Nora last night.  We covered a lot of ground for a first meet-up.  Sanity was discussed.  (I believe it is relative.) It was an enjoyable evening and I hope our next meet-up is sooner rather than later.

She had started Forest Canopy all ready!  "Just" 15 rows yesterday.  I still have to buy my pattern and find yarn to KAL in Knit with Nora.  The KAL is definitely a no rules, unstructured, no pressure shawl knit-a-long and promises to be fun.  I'm counting on it since this will be my first lace shawl.  Please join us!

Waiting for Wednesday

I'm working in Milwaukee this week.  So far, the weather has been pretty nice and the rain missed us today.  I'm enjoying the view of melting snow banks because it means that "real" Spring is on the way.  Unfortunately, the potential for flooding has increased dramatically so I should hope for a very slow thaw.  (I won't EVEN talk about the coming snowstorm.)  The potholes are multiplying like rabbits and there are even a few that look like a few bicyclists could be lost in them, forever.

There is some very good news though here in Brew City.  I'm going to meet with Nora tomorrow after work!  ::bounce, bounce, bounce::  She's still camera-shy so we'll just have to settle for another form of blogger meet-up evidence.  I just caught up with her latest post.....how many KALs?!?  I'll be able to get the details Wednesday if they are settled by then and the rules (Nora's rules) haven't changed (again). 

PLUS, in less than two weeks I'm going to be meeting up with Stacey!  ::bounce, bounce, bounce::

LIfe is GOOD!

In search of.....

I've realized that a number of my posts are (or have been) decorated by or about a photo I've taken outside.  Since I think I've seen enough snow this season and I'm sure I'm not alone, those photos have been fewer lately.  Spring better hurry up so I'll have some interesting posts.  Anyway, today I'll be working on blog fodder.  I'm driving north to pick up my mom and we're doing some yarn shopping and going out for lunch.  We signed up for one of the Midwest Masters shawl classes scheduled in late April and we need our class yarn.  :D  And needles, we'll need needles.

We'll both be working on keeping our spirits up since yesterday would have been my dad's 83rd birthday and this coming week is the first anniversary of his death.  So, I'm charging up the camera battery, finishing up my coffee, packing my most recent finished objects to share with mom and making sure my extra heavy coat and outside pants are in the car.  It is COLD this morning...something like seven below zero.  However, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and the roads are clear.  We have the makings of a great day for a blog fodder road trip.

Under construction

Purling Oaks is having a bit of a design crisis but we've put a call into the helpful TypePad folks. With luck, the blue sidebar will change to a more acceptable color soon.

ETA: Thanks, TypePad.

Deep water

Ever jump in the pool and realize you couldn't touch the bottom?

I signed up for Ravelry and finally received my invitation in August. Cool. Ravelry is a wonderful place even in beta. However, to take full advantage of the projects and stash functions, I needed a Flickr account. Oh geez, another account, password, and other stuff to remember...but I really liked Ravelry, so I opened a Flickr account and managed to successfully upload photos so that I could then upload them to my Ravelry pages. Great.....that works super. Life is busy, so if stuff isn't broken, I'm not going to worry. Several months pass.

Here I am now. It is after the holidays and 2008 is getting off to a good start. I'm nearing the end of a two-week plus vacation and I'm feeling good and ready to try new things. I am participating in NaSpiMoMo for the month of January to develop my spinning skills and I signed up for the ABC Along to nudge my creativity and find out more about my Canon PowerShot SD 600. (I've had the camera for almost a year now.) The ABC Along has a companion Flickr group, so I got an email from Vicki via Flickr that she added me as a contact. What in the heck is a contact? But Vicki is "hosting" the ABC Along and I asked to be added to the Flickr group so I followed the email trail and *presto* now I'm part of the Flickr group.

Today I got a Flickr notice that a member of the ABC Along Flickr group added me as a contact. Hmm, okay, sounds fine to me, I guess. I better find out what a contact is and see if I should be *contacting* other people. Is a contact the same as a family or friend in Flickr? Or, is it like "friending" someone in Ravelry? So, I read a bit more in Flickr that I can send, that is, email photos to my blog from Flickr or from my mobile phone to Flickr. Flickr and email? There is so much depth to Flickr and to Ravelry. I'll just dog-paddle here for a while while I figure out how to swim in these new pools. Anybody know where there are some waterwings? *g* Should I even be swimming here? Hey, are there sharks? Seriously, I believe there are but probably the same ones I may see in the Internet ocean.

ETA: My post today was meant to bemoan my lack of knowledge of the sites mentioned--certainly not to infer anything negative about any person. I just am just a bit behind the rest of the pack in being proficient with Flickr. Now I know how my mother feels.

Snow Dust

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We had a light dusting of snow late last night which transformed the backyard in our early morning light. As the day progresses I'll be better able to view the evidence of deer and squirrels making paths to the bird feeders. Perhaps we should call them animal feeders. I think a junco was captured in flight in this photo. Snow is expected tomorrow with the amount uncertain as the storm appears to be tracking south of the original expected path so perhaps we will just see a few inches.

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of this blog. I have enjoyed the past year of blogging and I plan to keep on blogging, knitting, crafting, cooking, and sharing the good things in life. Thank you to everyone who reads and comments, or just reads (Hi Aunt Jane!). No matter how you participate, you enrich my blogging experience.