Our 4th of July trip to Ohio in pictures.

Last month we were able to take a week off and make the 16+ hour road trip up to visit our family in Ohio!  We had a wonderful time with lots of memories made.  Some of the highlights were meeting the girl's new twin boy cousins, spending the day fishin on the lake, and getting to spend an afternoon at our Aunt's house for 4th of July celebration.  We all enjoyed the trip and were so thankful we were able to make the drive up to be with our family up there for a whole week in the summer!

Let's first start with this word summer...now FL had been having a very hot summer but I had not realized that Ohio had been having a very wet and chilly one.  Not sure what I was thinking but I didn't pack a single pair of pants for the girls and I.  Thankfully I did grab some pullovers for the three of us and those came in VERY handy the first couple days when it was quite chilly for us FL folks.  The girls did look very cute in their Wonderful Wallaby pullovers I had knit them late winter so they had not been able to wear them yet. 

We had so much fun on Austin lake!  We originally went for a short time on Monday and rented paddle boat and just went around the lake but then Special K got the idea we should take the girls fishing.  We got a great deal on a pontoon boat and spent 4 hours on the boat with these silly girls!

 The girls did so good and really enjoyed watching the worms try to escape from the little container.

 And learned how to fish from their daddy!

 

 And fishing with their new frozen fishing poles.  We have some for them here but since we didn't think to bring them we did a quick trip to the store and bought some.

  

And those Frozen fishing poles caught lots of fish!  The girls themselves did not catch fish but daddy and I did!  The girls just wanted to touch them before we threw them back in.

 Daddy's catch! 

 

 Mommy's catch!

 

Happy girls in our Happy place!

 Daddy's Happy Place!

 And that was our boating trip!  We are already planning another trip!  We may not make it up again next year but we plan to take the girls again!

Here are some cute pictures of the girls...one at our 4th of July celebration and their Graunt's house.

 

 And here they are riding the cart when we were checking out from our hotel room on our way home.

 

As I said, we are so thankful we were able to make the trip happen and were so glad to spend this time with family and friends.  Here's to next time!

Happy Traveling!

Have you done any traveling this summer?  Do you have any end of summer travel plans? 

My first attempt at Cabled yarn.

This past week has been full of plying yarn and re-plying and adding twist and so on!  I have taken a bunch of pictures so we'll do this with pictures! :)  For starters, what is Cabled Yarn.  The definition I got from this site is as follows: "A cabled yarn is simply a plied yarn that is plied back on itself. In its most basic form, a cable yarn is 2 - 2 ply yarns which are then plied together."  There is more details about how this is accomplished on the site referenced but I will tell you how I did it.

We'll start with talking about the singles.  I first spun up two singles of brown Merino clockwise or with a Z twist. Which by the definition found on this site means "This is twist that is inserted into the fibers when the drive wheel is spinning to the right or clockwise"  To view a picture of detailing this click here.  I then over twisted it by running it back through the wheel clockwise to make sure there was lots of twist.  This is requires when it comes to cable plying yarn.  I also spun up a single of white Cormo and a single of  white Corriedale.

2 brown merino singles, 1 cormo, and 1 corriedale

After making sure these have plenty of twist, I plied together the two brown singles the opposite direction, counter clockwise or S twist and plied the two white singles together as well. The S twist is the opposite of the Z twist where when the twist is added to the fibers when the drive wheel is spinning to the left or counter clockwise. We will call these the original plies.

Brown Merino original ply

 I figured since I was over-plying them that I would not have to run them back through the wheel, so I started plying a white with a brown ply clockwise on my wheel...ummm...boy was I WRONG!

Under twisted original plies, over twisted yarn

So, after a good conversation with my spinning mentor/adviser/friend Jasmin from the Knitmore Girls podcast,  we decided that I now have several yards of pretty yarn to show off but I need to run what's left of the original plies back through the wheel before plying the rest together.   So...back to plying I went.  I ran a bobbin of each of the original plies back through and added twist...again we are plying counter clockwise to add twist to the original plies.  After making sure these had plenty of twist, I started back plying the original plies clockwise for the final cabled yarn.   This was much more productive!!  I finished plying the two bobbins of original plies last night and am VERY happy with the results.  So, far with the two skeins I set the twist last night, I have about 250 yards of worsted weight cabled yarn!

Successful, cable plied yarn!

I was originally hoping to be done with all the plying before heading off this weekend to the Florida Fiber In with Manda, but I just wasn't able to finish.  So, I'm bringing all my bobbins, some singles left to ply, and the other original plies with me so I can finish the rest of the yarn.  I am really hoping to have about 600 yards when I'm done so I can make the Lady Kina with this yarn but we'll see.  I'll let you know after the weekend.

Speaking of weekend, Manda and I are leaving to Orlando as soon as I get of work on Friday and we'll be in Orlando at the Florida Fiber In until Sunday!  I'm looking forward to meeting new people, and all the fibery goodness in store for us this weekend!  I plan to get lots of pictures and some audio to share!  So, look forward to that!

Have a great weekend!  Happy Spinning and Fibery Fun!

Travel, Yarn Store, Hospital, and clean fleece.

Last weekend went by so fast!  Most weekends do...Friday night we flew up to Ohio to visit Special K's family.  The weekend was great but went by so fast.  Here is a quick recap of the weekend.  Saturday, we went to the Festival of Arts in the town that Special K grew up. It was so cute and lots of good food, craftiness and fun.  We walked around and I got to meet one of Special K's friends he grew up with that is a knitter.  I'm working on getting her to spin. 

Favors from the baby shower

Sunday, I thought we were going to go back to the Festival but turns out that my MIL had different plans such as throwing me a fantastic surprise baby shower!!  I had no idea they had been planning this or that it was actually the reason why we flew up there in the first place!  The baby shower was awesome and again lots of yummy food and family time!! 

Guests at the baby shower

The rest of the weekend was spent with family.  We stayed with SK's grandparents and it was really nice spending time with them especially since Papa has been sick. 

Standing outside Natural Stitches

Our last day was Tuesday and since SK got to go golfing on Monday I insisted that we stop at a yarn store on the way to the airport.  I had called around and asked for references and the one that I picked was Natural Stitches.  The store had a lot of room and lots of inventory!!  They had this wall of cascade with every color you could imagine!!  They also had some awesome steeler yarn but Sk didn't want me to buy it.  I did buy two things:

Tosh sock in Tart

Malabrigo Worsted in Polar Morn

We managed to get to the airport on time even though we got a little lots in Pittsburgh.  This was the first visit we actually drove into Pittsburgh so it was awesome to be able to see the city!  Love all the bridges.

Tuesday when we got back, we went out to dinner for SK's dad and by the time we got home it was after 10pm.  I was pretty tired and went to bed as soon as I could.  Since then, I managed to get a head cold which is now taking residence in my chest.  This is actually the first time since I've been pregnant to really be sick so I guess I should say I've been lucky.

Yesterday, we had our Tea and Tour of the Baby hospital we are delivering at.  It was great to see the area and to know what we are supposed to do.  The rooms are nice too!

Today while Special K was off golfing with his dad, I finished scouring the black corriedale fleece I bought at SAFF last year.  I'm still planning on making it a Cardigan...right now there are two patterns in the running.  I'm going to spin it up from the locks and then decide which to knit.  I had this fiber drying outside but then it started raining so I moved it in before SK got home. :)  He normally doesn't like wet fiber in the house but we are both stuffy and this fleece is nice and clean so that house doesn't smell that bad.

Fleece drying on table.

Well...hope everyone has had a great week.  I'm postponing recording the podcast until my throat gets better.  Hoping that is before next weekend....which is Florida Fiber In weekend!  YAY!!

Happy Knitting, Spinning, and Weekends!!!

Maryland Sheep and Wool here I come!!

So, this weekend was full of spending time with my family and my dad and planning my upcoming fiber adventure!!!

I decided last week that I wanted to go to Maryland Sheep n Wool...the next step was making it happen. In the end, it all just seems to be working out! My plan is I'll be flying up to NC on the Friday before the Festival and my friend will pick me up from the airport, then we'll drive up and meet another friend up in the Baltimore area and stay at a hotel for Friday and Saturday night! During those two days, we'll have plenty of meeting new people and fiber fumes!! I can't wait!

Saturday, I'll be joining a couple other podcasters, when I get the final details I'll let you know, for a meet n greet at the festival from 11-1pm! It should be tons of fun...and I'm sure I'll be just as big a fan girl with the other podcasters as the people coming to meet them! :)

Sunday after shopping a bit, we plan to head back to NC and then I'll be staying there for a couple days as I spend time with my best friend from high school!

I'm looking forward to the whole weekend! If you are going to be at the Festival please let me know!! I look forward to meeting everyone! I'll be wearing my barknknit shirt on Saturday so other than my latiness..hehe..that will be a way to recognize me. If you want to pick up some barknknit apparel you can to at www.zazzle.com/barknknit.

This is a picture of me in my shirt chatting away at SAFF.
Other than planning this weekend, we did manage to get our whole house spring cleaned! It took us several hours and lots of sneezing on my part but it's done! My MIL will be arriving LATE saturday night for a weekend of fun!! I can't wait for a five day weekend and enjoying family time!

Thankful Tuesday and Wedding Wednesday!!

So, Our last day at Sea Camp was so much fun. We went on 2 boat trips and enjoyed the wonderful weather. I brought my sock with me and got some knitting done while the instructor lectured before we went snorkeling. Check me out!! :)We saw some amazing stuff during our boat trips, such as a shark or two, some rainbow Parrot Fish, which me and my snorkel buddy chased around for a while...and we caught a Moray Eel. While we were snorkeling on the soft coral a student in my group picked up a conch shell and thought it was empty but little did we know that this awesome Brown Spotted Moray Eel was inside. Our instructor Adam managed to get him to come out of the shell but he was not too happy about that and he slimmed out of the bucket and was on the boat and we all SCREAMED and jumped on the benches of the flattop boat. It was funny afterwards, when he managed to get the Eel back into the water. :) Adam was calm the whole time and we got some great video of it. I learned that when eels bite they never let go and you have to kill it to get it off. I'm really glad no one got bit because it was a pretty eel.

The kids and chaperons had a great time and we ended the trip with a bonfire last night, with songs, marshmallows, and some stories. We cleaned up and heading out on time this morning. We should be getting back to St. Pete around 5ish. This driver speeds!! I do think it's pretty awesome that I'm blogging from the bus. We watch 3 spiderman's on the way down and so far we've seen Transformers and are currently watching Monster's Inc.

Thankful Tuesday, I just want to thank God for the beautiful world we live in and all the creatures he has created for us. We need to spend more time conserving out environment for our ancestors. Did you know that humans kill 200,000,000(yes that's MILLIONS) sharks a year and there are a reported average of 75 shark attacks a year and an average of 10 a year that die from shark wounds. And just for your knowledge a shark attack is defined as any time a shark touches a human. Is that amazing or what?? It's amazing when you think of how we effect the world. A saying that I liked during the trip was "Don't leave anything but a footprint." That is a great way to say don't litter and such. I thank God every day for the breath we breathe and the sites we see. Nature is so amazing and beautiful and we owe it all to God. I just hope that we learn to conserve and that our children's children still get to see what he made.


For Wedding Wednesday, I don't have much. I have not been up to much planning with everything that is going on. I guess I'll have to make it up to you guys next week. :)

Well, I'm going to get back to my knitting and rest a bit. I hope everyone is well..

Happy Knitting and Traveling!!

Quick Post from the Keys!

Hey, I hope everyone is doing well. We made it safely to Big Pine Key yesterday. Sea Camp has been a blast so far. Only trouble was last night was very hot and I had trouble sleeping. Today was full of fun in the sun. Tomorrow is going to be even better with two boat trips to the coral reefs!! Just hope the wind dies down so we can head out on the flat top boats. The kids are doing good and I'm enjoying the free time to knit. I've got a TON of knitting done. I brought three projects with me to work on...so I don't get bored with one. :) I brought the Malabrigo hat that I'm knitting for Surfer Girl, the 9-5 socks that I'm redoing, and my Bellatrix socks for May's Sockdown and my person may socks. So...I've got tons to work on and my ipod is full of great podcasts. I listened to them and rotated my knitting the whole 8 hrs it took to get down here. :) I plan to do the same on the way back. I've only been knitting my socks while I've been here because I don't mind if a couple sand particles sneak into my sock. I can wash that easier than I can wash the malabrigo hat.

I think my Bellatrix socks are coming along nicely. I didn't use the 0s for the leg. The ribbing was pretty tight so I figured the gauge would be fine with the 1s. They fit snug but they are good!! I think they are pretty!!


Well...I hope everyone is good. I'm glad this is my last trip for a while because I do miss my time with Special K and my puppies. I haven't had a lot of time with them in the last couple weeks. I'm excited to get my life in order and start a new job soon.

Well, our night wade is about to start so gotta go! Happy Knitting!!

Dogs on Thursday and update.

I've spent the week recovering from my trips last week. I had a great weekend in St. Augustine with Special K. I enjoyed golfing and already plan to go again. :) Who would have thought?? I also liked St. Augustine a lot to. The old town part was fun and had good restaurants.

Well, to start out on Friday I ordered a cake from Publix. I asked them to rush the order and the size I wanted was the one that they give free for kids 1 yr old birthday. When I asked the lady assumed that Special K was 1 yr old and I let her believe that. :) At least I got her to put "Happy Birthday Kenny" on it instead of Happy First Birthday. hehee I did manage to fit 24 candles on it. Yes, Special K is 24 now. I'm a tad older than that if you're wondering....a couple years. So, here's his cake that we had in the hotel room in St. Augustine, FL. (I guess I should say that I paid $5 for the cake...she rushed the order because I think she thought he was 1yrs old. To get the small cake free you have to order a regular size cake and it comes with it.)
Here he is blowing out the candles. He's so cute. :)
On Saturday we headed to the World Golf Hall of Fame and I actually had a great time. I snapped a picture of Special K standing on the replica of the old bridge at St. Andrews in Scotland. I learned a lot about golf that day.
This is an awesome picture from the top of the tower that holds all the trophies.
We got to see an IMAX movie and play putt putt on a nice 18 hole course there. It's not like a normal putt putt place it actually has golf greens and the flags come out of the whole like they would at an actual golf course. I played well but still loss to Special K. That night, Special K's dad and step mom met up with us and we went to dinner. The following day we played an actual round of golf at an actual golf course. :) I say it that way because it's my first time playing a round of golf. I can't tell you my score because I really just had fun. If I had a good shot of the tee then I played it, otherwise I picked it up and placed it where I wanted. I had a great time. The course was hard though and I may say that the boys had their work cut out for them.

Well...our trip was fun and I'm glad that Special K had such a great birthday weekend. Now, I just have to figure out what I want to do for mine. :) It's coming up soon. 20 days from today I'll be turning 28. hehehe. Told you I was a tad older than Special K.

Well...since today is Dogs on Thursday I figured I should add a picture of my pups. They are doing well and we haven't officially started our walking in the morning but the plan is there and hope to start soon. Here's a picture of when I took them to a local swim spot to check it out. We decided not to go there because I felt the water was too stagnant but they enjoyed the nice walk in the park.
They sure are cute and they have a great stay when there are no other dogs around. :)

Hope everyone is doing well. I hope to get back on blogging more regularly but with all these trips and getting ready for my new job, I haven't had as much time as I'd like.

Happy Dogs on Thursday!!

DC Day 4 - Last but not least

We got home safely last night. All 34 of us, 29 kids and 5 chaperones. I was too tired to post last night but here's a quick one. We are heading to St. Augustine in about 2 hrs and I'm doing laundry, re-packing, and getting my house and dogs ready for my step-sister. :)

Ok...so quickly...We started off the day, packing the bus with all the luggage and picking up the tour guide. Then we headed to the Jefferson Monument. I love the building, which I didn't get a good picture of and I just think he looks so regal and big. I did a lot of walking and knitting this day so the sock does grow a bit between pictures. :)

See...he's big. He's 19 feet tall, the 2nd tallest statue in DC, with the Liberty statute on the Capital being the biggest at 19.5 feet.
He's got a great view as well. I wish all the Cherry Blossoms had been in bloom.

Next stop another one of my favorites, Roosevelt Park. He's one of my favorite presidents. I love all the water features of this park, which I didn't get a picture of. Oh well.
Had to get a picture of his puppy with my sock. :)

And of course his wife.
Next stop was the Vietnam, which I didn't get a picture of the wall because I didn't feel it was respectful to place my sock on it and one of our kids was placing a picture of her cousin who was on the wall, and doing a rubbing so we were helping her. She cried a little even though she had never met him. It was moving. I do love the statutes around the wall as well.

Next up was the WWII Memorial. I got some pictures of my sock with places on the wall. First was Florida of course, since that is where I live.Then Ohio for Special K and Sharimom.
The Pacific side which I grew up on. And I wanted to get some water in there. :)
And last was Puerto Rico for my mother.
Well, from there we headed to lunch at the Old Post Office Building and then to the Spy Museum which is awesome. We can't take pictures in there so none to show. After that we swung by the Peterson House and the Einstein Statue and then off to the airport. I didn't get any more pictures from those. I was exhausted at the point and I knit a little more but honestly I spent most the time getting the kids organized and then relaxing with my ipod and fellow podcasters voices. I caught up on some good ones.

Ok...welll...I better jump in the shower and get ready to go. Special K is getting off today at noon, and hopefully we'll be on the road by 12:30. My friend, who I'm test knitting for should be here around then to drop of the supplies so I can get started.

I've also got to pick up a cake that I ordered for Special K from Publix. He loves their cake so I called this morning and had them rush me a 1 year old cake for him. It's a surprise!!

I hope you all have a great weekend. I'm not brining my laptop so I won't be able to talk much until Sunday. I miss you all!!

Happy Knitting and Traveling!!

DC Day 3 - Sunny as can be.

Another quick post. Day started at Mt. Vernon...the house of George Washington. I love this property.

Look at the little lamp. Oh so cute!!
and check out the fiber. heheh no, I mean sheep. I asked around about where all the fiber goes and was hoping that they would sell a little or even have yarn for sale but we knitters haven't reached them yet. :) They did say they keep it and during the winter, when the local kids come for colonial day, they have demonstrations on how to spin, weave, and knit. I thought that was awesome and satisfied my lack of ability to purchase any. ;)
We then headed to lunch at Pentagon mall. After all the walking at Mt. Vernon, I needed some food. The sock and I needed a little pick-me-up.
From there we swung by the Iwo Jima memorial. I love this statue and it has Panama on it. It's a memorial for all the marines that have fought in wars. They were in the Panama invasion in 1988-1990. I lived in Panama that whole time. I have stories about bombs going over our house into the city the night of the major invasion on Dec 19, 1989, the marines coming to inspect our house and make sure that we were American the next day, my father taking us downtown a couple days later and seeing whole city blocks leveled and looters everywhere. I can go on but that's all I'm going to say. So, you can imagine that it was nice to see Panama on there.

I got my sister, who was in Houston, TX during the invasion to pose with me. I guess she's lived in Panama so it works. That's Fleas by the way. :)
Can't forget the sock pictures. :) Oh and notice I'm at the heel!! YEAH!!

Florida Indian Wars

Then we headed to the Newseum, the brand new museum about the News that opened about 2 weeks ago. It's amazing. I could have spend HOURS and HOURS there. There are 15 movies and 16 galleries and we only had 2 hours and so we had to pick and choose. They have the largest hydraulic glass elevator in world. The view from the top of the capital is beautiful! Check it out!!


They have actual sections of the Berlin Wall which is awesome and the one of the watch/death towers. It's amazing!! Have I said how much I liked this museum. I found this picture of the Peruvian Yarn. I wish I could share the story line but I don't know if I can read it. It's a pretty pretty picture though. My sock and bag looks great next to it.The Newseum also had a great section on 911 and the videos made me cry. You must visit it if you ever go to DC.

I thought this wax figure of J. Edgar Hoover was pretty neat to. The section on him isn't open yet but the sculpture was very real. He looks great with my sock. :)From there we headed to get some pictures of the White House. It's such a pretty house.

Well, I ended up writing more than I thought. :) Hope you enjoyed it. Tomorrow we'll be heading home. I'll probably post Friday or at the airport tomorrow if I get a chance. I'm going to be test knitting some socks for my friend so I'll be putting these socks down until I finish those. I think my April socks are going to be finished during May. Especially since I have 2 pairs of socks for April. :) I'll tell you about my test knitting when I'm done and I can.

Off to help get the kids to sleep and to get ready for bed myself. Hope everyone is having a great week!!

Happy Knitting!!