Wave Hot!!!!

Sockergirl is sooooo glad the last game of the season was last week. IF we had a game this week the temperature would have been 41.5 degrees. (For you Americans, that would be 106 F.) For this NW girl... 41 is too hot! I want my meter of snow and this Character back so I can wear my wool socks.

Since Sheldon was trying to crawl out of his shell to stay cool, we jumped in the car and headed west. Having no AC, we kicked in the "460", 4 windows rolled down going 60 MPH. Driving in the sunny day was making the steering wheel & gear shift HOT, I wished I had my Mario Andre driving gloves to keep from burning my hands. But we were headed for cooler grounds. You know it, first stop was:

It was quite busy as we were not the only ones with this genius idea to move closer to the Pacific O. We ordered up our ice cream then wandered into the work zone.

Sheldon was quite excited to see his favorite cheese being made before his threaded child proof eyes. When we got to the cheese tasting section he dove right in, and had to have a picture laying in the cheese.
After the Cheese Factory Sheldon realized he was moments away from meeting other Sea friends. He soon was dashing down the trail to see the ocean for the first time.
Then he posed for you readers and fans:

And tried to make a friend:
Sheldon's new friend was a bit stingy... and we moved on. WE knew a day at the beach is not complete unless you build two things.

A drift wood fort AND....
a sand castle complete with a king turtle.
Sheldon was mesmerized by his sand shadow following him everywhere.

As the sun got lower in the sky and his shadow BIGGER, Sheldon wanted to go back to the cabin for the evening. This is the best sunset picture I captured before heading inside for the night.

Wednesday we woke up to heavy fog and temperatures in the teens, 16 C / 62F. This was wonderful weather for finding the local yarn shop, in an explodingly BUSY beach area.

Can you believe this was a Wednesday? Don't these people work? Or are they ALL hermit knitters like myself? Parking was another issue at the Exploding Beach, again thanks to my yarn shop who has me covered with private parking. :)
Then we retreated to our quiet town to knit and blog, without a sunset view.

I hope these pictures make you feel cooler if you are burning up in an unnaturally warm climate. Here is a shout out to my fans in Iceland.

Jackpot!

I hit the gold spot! See? Here is my hard earned yarn from the Sockamania Knit along group. This just might be worth more than a bar of gold...... to me. :)
While I was awaiting my bar of gold, I whipped up another two pairs of socks.

This is Knitpicks yarn with Fixation scrap yarn in the heels and toes. There is a heart pattern camouflaged into the stripes.

This sock here is Darcie's disaster. It was headed for the trash can until Scokergirl swooped in to save the sock's life. You see, this associate of mine, let's call her D. She picked out the Tofutsie yarn and the colors fit in with her color scheme, so she started the sock. She knit away steadily getting past the heal turn and then... the yarn won. It is kind of splitty and started pooling. D was really going to toss it in the garbage at the coffee shop. SO I collected the abused yarn, took it home and gave it a little TLC. It now has a mate and is ready to make a debute.... well after the heat wave passes. (If you likes temps in the 100s come on over, Sheldon and I are headed to ocean.)
Here is a shout out to my fans in Antarctica, wishing I was knitting with you. What day does your knit group meet, again? To all my other Fans stay cool and keep knitting.

You Nice

Many good things going on over here in the northwest. Well, maybe a little to hot, but it is never too hot to knit up some wool socks!

What you see here is the color of the yarn I won from Anni and the Sockamania sock group. Yippy! The yarn is in the air and some bird is flying it across the Atlantic Ocean. Thank goodness it is not yet hurricane season to displace my package of Aztec Gold yarn.

Like I said the colorway is Aztec Gold. I am hoping this guy is not in the package with my yarn. Thanks Sockamania!
While waiting for my yarn I managed to get through the second pattern in Cookie A.'s book, "Eunice." These socks are a bit intense, in comparison to the other pairs I have knit. Really fun especially with these results:

You nice socks, Eunice. :) Sorry I could not resist the cheesy play on words. These socks are knit with Malabrigo Turner colorway. Very NICE! I am still surprised I managed the 80 stitch rounds AND even added a repeat to get my favorite 6 inch leg length.

As you can see Sckergirl is a little behind on the marionberry picking so Sockermom can bake up one of those famous Sockermom berry pies. I better put down the soccer ball N socks and get back to the homestead to pick those berries.
Thanks again to all my fans. Next blog should describe Sheldon and my camp trip. I hope to appease those fans everywhere from the east coast, Europe to Asia.

All dyed out

After dyeing 10 skeins of yarn and soon after winding 4600 yards of beautiful sock wearable fibers, I went off to my yarn cave to drink 45 gallons of delicious Kool-Aid. I think I am back to tell the tale.

It all started that morning with Sockergirl scurrying around town searching for more Kool-Aid colors. (Especially Lemon-lime, I was not sure the Kiwi Watermelon was green.) But no store had much variety. I settled with the 50 packets to bring to the party. My buddy, Angle K, purchased about 10 packets to assist the cause. Angle K prepared the dyeing facility while Mama Ann was out... of all things .... SHOPPING for yarn! Once Mama Ann returned to the scene we gathered up our teenage elves and went to work. 10 skeins, 10 elves, 60 packets of sweet smelling deliciousness, 1 soaping station, 7 clear glass boils for the dyes, 3 burners boiling water, and one drying line hung by Papa Bear. And we were off for 3 hours to Dye to our hearts content.
Step 1:
Step 2:
Step 3:
Step 4:
End results:
A day later:
After weeks of sleep:
Yes still contemplating which sock pattern to go with the special yarns. Do you feel like the yarn is making a funny face at you? Maybe I should knit it up soon.