I finally finished! ....(clue #2)

Well, it's not much but it is some progress. Sooo, I am only 5 clues behind (Moni posted clue 7 today). Oh, yes, guess I should mention that I am talking about the Slow Bee Mystery Shawl. I don't yet have a picture of it as it is rather difficult to lay out but I may try and get one this weekend. I am not sure why they call this a Slow Bee Shawl. I figured they would be small clues for those of us whose life interferes with our knitting but .... Last night it took me nearly an hour to knit just 3 rows! And those were rows without beads. At the end of clue 2, there are already 347 stitches per row and this increases by 12 every 4th row! I am scared to figure out what the count is for the end of clue 7 and I am hearing rumors that there are 12 clues in all! Oh lordy, what have I got myself into? On a positive note, it is going to be absolutely stunning when it is done. I am using a pale gray laceweight (might be cobweb, actually) by Lane Borgosesia and putting on clear, silver lined beads. They look like little raindrops suspended in the shawl.

Although I have not been making much progress on my shawl, I have been busy. Not only did I take my mule packing course, but I helped out at another combined driving event this past weekend and I have been making lots of hats! Can't remember how many I have finished exactly but I think I have given Kristy eight already with two more ready to go after I show them off to my Monday knitting group. Here are some pictures of the last ones.



This hat is called Foliage. It is done with bulky weight yarn on size 10 needles and only uses about 80 yards. I really like it although it is naturally much too warm to wear here in California. Terrible picture of me but I wanted to show you what the lace looks like when it is stretched out.



How do you like my two versions of the Fake Isle hat? Hat #2 is the negative of Hat #1. Number two is now finished but I don't have a photo yet. I used Cascade Yarns for these hats: Cascade Heathers in a light mauve and Cascade Paints for the darker color. Both skeins had 220 yards on them and I still have tons left of each. Will have to figure out what new pattern I can make with these yarns.

For now though, I think I am done with hats for a while. I really need to make some progress on my shawl and I am still waiting for Jen to send back the sample I sent her of the Marvelous Mitts so I can make the second one in time for the Stanislaus County Fair. I finished the first Ankle Biter sock and need to get to the second one before second sock syndrome sets in. I am putting it off at the moment since the sock uses the same needles as the Marvellous Mitt and I reaaallly don't need to be buying any more needles!

I guess that's all for now. This Sunday, I will be trekking over to Lavender Hollow Farm in Escalon and meeting some of my knitting friends for tea and scones followed by knitting under the "Chicken Tree". No, there are no chickens roosting in it now but I guess they used to. It is a lovely big fruitless mulberry kind of tree whose outer branches hang down to the ground leaving a lovely shaded alcove underneath. The folks at Lavender Hollow have furnished this with chairs and a couple of love seats and we have reserved it for the knitters on Sunday afternoon. Ummm, lovely location, good friends, knitting and fantabulous lavender lemonade! What could be better?

ETA: Woo hoo! I have finished the first 5 rows of Clue 3 already. The rows go so much quicker when it is straight knitting with no beads. The only problem is I have to get up in about 6 hours to go to work and I haven't been to sleep yet. I'm blaming it on the heat. It has nothing to do with the knitting .... really.

Mystery Yarn

I bought some yarn a couple of weeks ago that I do not know very much about other than the fact that it is soft and very beautiful. Here is a picture of the two skeins that I purchased.



Isn't it gorgeous? I do have to admit that I do know a little about the yarn, just not the yardage or what might be blended with the main fiber. Can't remember, did I tell you about the Packing Class I was taking? as in mule packing? like in the old westerns? Anyway, it was a great class and, while I did not get to go on a trail ride with a pack string since I no longer own a horse, I can tie a pretty mean box hitch! Anyway, one of the classes was about dealing with other folks we might find on the trail. We had a backpacker talk to us about his perception of horses on the trail and then we met this fine fellow.



His name is Rubicon and he is a 3 yr old male llama. His owner, Lora Crawford, brought him along to tell us about using llamas as pack animals. Rubicon has never been out as a pack animal but he did condescend to wear his training saddle to show us how it fit.



Notice the mini van behind him? That is how he travels. I had the privilege of playing with Ruby while Lora answered numerous questions from the class and when it was time for him to go home, I got to load him. Just took him to the open door, told him to get in and voila! Up he stepped, bending his head down low and he was set. He travels in the back with no problems at all. Lora had just got back from a show in southern California the day before and they went in the mini van. Would love to see the looks they get on the highway.

Finally, I just have to show you his beautiful face. Don't you just love those eyebrows? That is Bernadette in the picture with him. She was a classmate of mine and it is her camera that provided these pictures.



Oh yeah, this post started out to be about the yarn, didn't it? Well, a couple of days after meeting Lora and Rubicon, I travelled down to her ranch in Turlock. Lora has 40 llamas there! The little guys who were 6 months old were just adorable! Anyway, each year she shears her llamas and sends the fleece off to a co-op who then combines the colors with fleeces from other llama ranches and spins it up. Then, after paying many dollars, she gets the yarn back in equal proportions to the amount of fleece she sent. Unfortunately, she doesn't know anything about yarn. She thinks it might be combined with another fiber to give it more elasticity but she doesn't know what and she doesn't know how much yardage is in a skein. Oh well, it will be an adventure to knit with it and see what I come up with. And, after all, we do want to support our local farmers, don't we?