I'm a Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin... and you?

You Are a Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin

You are smart, sophisticated, and savvy.
You love taking risks, and you are the first to know about new trends.

You are curious about the world and tend to have many interests.
You also are very talented. It sometimes seems like you are good at everything.

You are very social and inclusive. You'll be friends with anyone.
Even though you're very cultured, you're not a snob.

Go to the link below to find out what kind of muffin you are... Who knew?

http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofmuffinareyouquiz/

What are you?

You are The Empress

Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents,
beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home
decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

I've been remiss in posting, but life has me on the run.... At last I can tell you that I'm in the final stages of a kitchen remodel and my hands feel like they have been in battle. I have so many nicks, cuts and scratches.... not to mention my sore muscles, neck and aching back... so have fun with the quiz and tell me what you came up with...

Thanks

more later

Long Time No See....

I went to a 2nd annual event this year, SheepiePalooza in St Louis. This event is put on lovingly by the local OES club and they did a remarkable job. A woo hoo for the St Louis OES Club, they are a remarkable bunch!

Above is a bunch of running sheepdogs. I love this photos and so glad I was able to take it. I have it as my desk top at work and love looking at it every day.

Here is a sheepie looking for his mom or dad. They are such sweet dogs, even though I couldn't travel with my babies I was not lacking any sheepie love.... They are truly Velcro dogs and give lots of love.

I just loved this bright red door. The front door was off set from the center of the house. I also loved the distressed exposed brick.

I also got a little artsy. We were in the West End and had a rained out lunch. After it dried up a bit, I was able to take some great photos of some front doors on the stately homes we found. These homes were just beautiful, and the fact that the light was so soft, it helped make such nice photos.

The federal blue with the red brick here is what attracted me

Another bright red door, I loved the columns and the flower pots. Really a lovely home.

I'm partial to black doors and grey shutters.

On with the art!

this is one of our party walking down a little ally that was so perfect, as if it was posed, it was not!

We went to the Arch and this is the view as we were walking up from the parking structure, just so beautiful. I love St Louis!

Here is one of my online friends who I had just met for the first time the day before. She is in a paddle boat with her two babies, Beauregard and Genvieve

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WHO is Daisy or is Daisy a WHO?

This is my mom's dog Daisy. She is the funniest dog ever and the most patient too. I took a scruchi band and put her ears up. She looked just like a Who from Whoville. I wanted to share with all my knitting buddies the crazy things I manage to do when I'm not knitting.

In this one, she looks like she is smirking at me.

Today was the MKGSFBA meeting, it was fun and informative. We had a speaker who showed us lots of different skills on the knitting machine... Who knew that you could whip out Icord on a machine? It is so beyond simple. Also, did you know that you can needle felt your fairisle knitting and it will felt the floats on the back and not disturb the design on the front. Great idea for a fairisle scarf and needle felt it so the floats are stuck down.

Short but sweet!

Stitches West!

I belong to the Machine Knitters Guild of San Francisco Bay Area, along with a bunch of really talented knitters. Above is our Booth (#946) at Stitches West. I was responsible for all things Stitches for our guild this year. While it was a lot of work, my best knitting buddy and I had a ball designing the booth and setting it up. The garments above were all knit on knitting machines and designed by the knitters from our guild.

This is a two piece garment made by one of our members, this outfit is well designed, knit and is just plain old stunning!

Really some beautiful garments and they really made the booth look good. This is a membership drive for our guild. You have no idea how many knitters have knitting machines under the bed at home and have no idea how to use them. I know this because I was one of those knitters. I bought knitting machines, I had 2 before I even knew how to use one. So this is a demo booth to let other knitters know that we have a local guild and it is for the express purpose of teaching machine knitting.


This is my best knitting buddy, she is demonstrating a knitting machine that is on loan to the guild from Newtons Yarn Country. We had so many garments volunteered for the booth, we tried to pick one from each of the knitters to highlight.

Above is a wedding dress that one of our newest members knit. The amazing thing is that she knit it on the Ultimate Knitting Machine and hand manipulated all the lace in the dress. Her knitting machine has no ablity to auto pattern and if you want a pattern in your knit, you have to hand manipulate every stitch. It was a daunting undertaking, she finished her dress and wore it when she got married, I will bet she was a beautiful bride.


Our knitting guild is an amazing cross section of knitters and designers. I feel blessed to have found this group of amazing people. The talent is one thing, but the sharing of knowledge and experience is priceless. The green sweater above was also knit by the same member who knit the wedding dress. This green sweater has leather details that she designed and incorporated into the sweater.

A Hat for Me!

I got busy this holiday season and knit my self at hat. I used some yarn that I bought huge amounts of. I was invited to take a dyeing class with Nancy Roberts and so in my preparation for the class I wound off some hanks and used some yellows, greens and teals to over dye the bland original green. The very expensive model I used for this photo essay is none other than the top model, Taggart James!

Don’t you just love my hat model? This is my sweet Taggart. He always poses so I asked him to model my hat. I frankly think it looks better on him than on me, but I’m the dork who wears it to keep my head warm and dry and it works great!

Now here is a side view!

And now the other side!

Fear of Knitting

Here is my conundrum, I have some beautiful Scottish wool that I bought at Uncommon Threads in Los Altos, California http://www.uncommonthreadsyarn.com/ many years ago, on sale. Darkish heather green worsted and is screaming to be knit into a fantastic deeply cabled cardigan. I even know which sweater I want to knit, a pattern from a Kristin Nicholas book. Here is the pattern, it is from a choice of two sweaters named "Greener Pastures" and a close up of my Scottish Wool.

But here is the rub, and I wonder if anyone else has these issues. I will worry about what to knit with a certain yarn, not wanting to “waste” it on the wrong sweater. You know, will I later think that I should have saved it for something else. I must also confess to you that I have no shortage of yarn, I have a personal yarn stash that could keep a small country warm. I am also in the process of cleaning up my moms house and I have unearthed yarn, some of mine that I have long forgotten, and much of hers that I’m sure she has forgotten, and much we both remember. Needless to say, another small country could be kept toasty.

If I could only get over my fear of knitting the yarn I have into the wrong sweater. Does anyone have a cure for that feeling? Don’t get me wrong, I know the logic that if you use some of the stash, there is then this empty void so you must fill it with another yarn purchase. What better excuse to buy more, than I used up some? But somehow the logic escapes me and I sit frozen wondering if I’m choosing the right sweater for the yarn or the inverse, the right yarn for the sweater.

I thought some time ago that I had faced my addiction and finally put all my yarn into one place so I can see it all. Come clean about my stash and the fiber addiction that has taken over a small room in our house. When you have a small house, that’s about ¼ the house! Not to mention the snide comments from my husband and non knitting “friends”. The reality is that once I get the yarn from my mom’s house and really put it all in one place and really face the facts of my addiction and frankly my mom’s addiction to all things fiber, fabric, quilting and sewing machines (I think I counted 3 the other day, now all sitting in the back of my car and it was 4 not 3). I may have to move out of my very tiny house. You would think that I could get some perspective about the gravity of it all, all the hoarding, and collecting and stashing. I would bet we could probably fund a college education on the money we have wrapped up in yarn, fabric, tools and equipment. But the urge to buy more is never very far. I have managed these last several months to keep it at bay, but my resolve is thin, very thin.

Do you want to see my stash? here are a few examples of my collection: This first yarn is yarn that I dyed with Nancy Roberts in her class.

This is some Mohair that I purchased years ago. It is so beautiful, I just really have no idea what I want to knit with it....

Below,is some of a collection of Cotton yarn that I purchased early this year, one of my last yarn buys. Next, a couple of close up shots of this cotton.

Rose.

Teal

Spring Green

Lavendar