Three years ago, I wrote about the Mother Bear Project and showed you my first bear.

You know where all my good intentions are?  Oh yes, still sitting in my craft room.  I don’t know why I didn’t mail that first bear.  I just didn’t.

A year and a half ago, I started another bear.  Guess where that one is?  Yep, still here.  At least I’m consistent.

Well, after I declared this to be the Year of Finished Projects, I found that second bear and embroidered her face.  It didn’t take too long, even with Pipsqueak hanging on my arm.  I took her picture for posterity and she and her buddy are going in the mail.  Hopefully it won’t be too long before they each off to bring a little love to a child affected by HIV/AIDS.

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…of How I Won Yarn.

Perhaps I should call it a yarn, not a tale.  Either way, it’s pretty convoluted, so stick with me.

I happen to have a fondness for variegated yarns.  Lorna’s Laces, in particular.  I may or may not have quite the stash of their sock yarn.  I’m admitting nothing.  And this little yarn store called Jimmy Bean’s Wool happily keeps me supplied in all the Lorna’s Laces I can use or stash. Jimmy Beans Wool (JBW) also has a Limited Edition of Lorna’s Laces dyed just for them every month.  It should come as no shock to you that I am a member for the JBW Lorna’s Laces Limited Edition Fan Club.

Way back in October they announced a little contest on their Facebook page to name their upcoming December yarn.  I was one of the first ten people to suggest a name, and the first person to come up with “Ribbon Candy.”  A few hours later someone else suggested the same name.  Six *days* later, yet a third person also suggested it.

The deadline for name suggestions passed and they announced their top three choices which would be put to the vote.  Choice B was “Lisa’s: Ribbon Candy”.  WHAT?  Lisa?  Who’s Lisa?  I’ve been called “Laura” before, and I’ve had my named misspelled more often than not, but no one has ever mistaken me for a “Lisa.”

I pondered this situation for a while.  I might have let it go (ok, not really) except that there was actual yarn on the line.  The winner of the naming contest would get the yarn as a prize.  So I sent JBW a very nice email, pointing out that I had actually suggested Ribbon Candy about 5 hours earlier than Lisa did.  I heard back from them right away.  They apologized and acknowledged that I was indeed the person who first submitted the name Ribbon Candy.  They were unable to amend the post, but in the comments they corrected themselves. They assured me that if my name won, they would address the confusion again and I would be the winner.

So…voting closed and they left us hanging until December 1st.  Ribbon Candy was the winner!  Yippee!  So I just sat back and waited for my prize.  Later in the day the JBW December Newsletter arrived, announcing the new limited edition yarn.  Imagine how far my jaw dropped when I read this line:

Why thank you very  much.  But stop calling me Shirley.

Shirley? Shirley?!? Surely you jest.  What in the world was this all about? To quote Charlie Brown’s little sister Salley, “All I want is what I… I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.”

Turns out that Shirley was the person who suggested the name 6 days after both Lisa and I did.

After I got over my sputtering indignation I sent another email to JBW.  It took them a few hours to respond this time.  Meanwhile on their Facebook page, they’d already mentioned that someone would be getting their December yarn prize that day.  Then the email came that said my prize yarn was on its way, one hank of each weight.  I got a shipping notice shortly afterwards.

I’m guessing that Shirley got a huge surprise on December 1 because my yarn just arrived yesterday.  I’m thinking that poor Lisa got nothing.

So I named a yarn and got no credit, but I did get my yarn.  Here it is, the December Lorna’s Laces Limited Edition color: Ribbon Candy.

  You can get some for yourself, before it runs out,here: Ribbon Candy.

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This assignment was to add a decorative border around the subject of your choice.

The picture and video demonstration were provided for a different assignment. I didn’t use the swan picture, but I wanted to try the technique of painting something white and painting water, so I just did it in the empty corner of the ladybug page.

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Another one working from a photo. Our assignment was to add a background and a border. This is one of my favorites because it reminds me of Susan Branch, one of my watercolor inspirations!

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Here’s another from my watercolor class. Once again, we were working off a photo. In this assignment we were working on showing roundness and on the shadows. I will refrain from telling you all things that I see are wrong with this! It was a challenge, but I like the results well enough not to go back and mess with it. Go ahead and click the picture to see it larger.

By the way, if you’re interested in taking some online watercolor classes, the new ones are posted here: Imaginary Journeys.

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I signed up for an online watercolor journaling class which started last week. It’s perfect for me because I don’t have the time to attend a workshop outside the house. We get our assignments through PDFs and videos, which is also cool because I can watch the videos while I paint and stop, rewind and replay anything I need to.

I’m going to be brave and share my assignments.

Both paintings are from photographs.

Find out more about my watercolor class and others that are offered here: Imaginary Trips

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Hat! Soccer hat, specifically.

I have actually managed to squeeze in a little knitting here and there. It took me 2 weeks, but I made a hat for Boo that matches his soccer uniform. He plays in a club that has the same uniforms every year, so no need to make him a new one every season.

Spring soccer in Colorado is a chilly affair. As I type it is 52 degrees and falling, and soccer practice is still an hour away. Last year we had a game canceled because the snow from earlier in the week had made the field too wet. I think that was in April.

I send the boys to their games and practices with hats, sweatshirts, and even gloves. I keep telling them that suffering breeds character.

This is another hat from The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns. Just a basic K2P2 rib for 2 inches, knit until it fits, decrease evenly and finish. I like to reference the book for the exact numbers to cast on based on the yarn I’m using, the needles I have available and my gauge.

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While the baby is busy enjoying his limited days in my belly (he’s on 30 days notice to vacate), I wrapped up some final projects for him.

Here’s a little hat from Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns.

It’s a great book if you like to pick your yarn with only a vague notion of the sort of project you want to use. Or if know what you want to make and the yarn you want to use, but don’t want to do the math to figure out how to make it all work out. An any gauge, any yarn, any needle, any size book. Love it!

Also, love the yarn. Usually, all the different colors and patterns would be achieved with different yarns and complicated charts, but this is self-patterning yarn. So the simpler the pattern, the better, which totally works for me.

And matching socks, just because.

I’ve got one more hat in mind to make for him and then I’m ready for him to arrive.

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Not too long ago I was inspired by the watercolor journaling posts by Melissa Wiley: Scribbles and Bits (scroll down a bit, the watercoloring is towards the end of the post).  I followed all of her links, including one to a watercolor journaling post by Alice Cantrell.  She, in turn, linked to a great Watercolor Journaling DVD.

Did you follow all that? No?  That’s OK.  The gist of it all is that I’ve always wanted to be an artist, the kind that creates original art, not just follows the directions of someone else’s patterns.  I was completely taken in by the Watercolor Journaling DVD website, especially by the tiny little picture of Mont St. Michel .  In their site header, it’s the second picture in the top row.  Mont St. Michel is one of my most favorite places on earth.  I knew I wanted to paint like that and I felt like I might actually be able to learn.

So I ordered the DVD, watched it and was amazed.  I COULD do this! I watched it again.  I got some supplies and got started.

(Somewhere in this timeline, I’m not sure when, I also picked up the book Watercolors for the Artistically Undiscovered.  Excellent book, and I highly recommend it for anyone, children or adult, who wants to get started quick with watercolors.)

I started drawing and watercoloring anything I could think of. A little bit of nature, stuff sitting out on the counter, whatever.  Here’s just a sampling out of my journal.

This is Bip’s friend Big Fat Mickey and the story of the day we got him.  Click on the picture to read the journaling easier.  Bip’s really name is smudged out to protect the innocent.

This is a map of our block, again with actual names smudged out.  You can see the dry creek behind the house, the park across the street with the black diamond sledding hill and the bluff where the coyotes howl at night.

I haven’t painted much lately.  It’s not time consuming or particularly difficult, but I don’t have all that much energy right now.  I will again soon, and I’ll paint more then.

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The hotter it gets, the less I blog.  The less I blog, the more  I knit.  Feet propped up, cold water within reach, watching HGTV and knitting.  Could be worse.  I’m kind of addicted to “Holmes on Homes.”  (What’s up with all the shady Canadian contractors, eh?)

Philip may be getting annoyed with Mike Holmes and his proper way of doing things because it’s costing him time and money.  We’re having built-in bookshelves put in our music room.  Nine foot beauties that run from one wall to another.  The thing is, they will permanently and forever cover up a heating vent on the floor and will cause an electronic thing to be removed from a corner of the room.

After countless episodes of Mike telling me how things should be done, I was insistent on finding out if we could just close the vent or if it needed to be rerouted or something.  So I made Phil leave messages for our HVAC guy to find out the deal.

Do you have “guys”?  Now that we own a home, we have guys.  HVAC guys, landscape guys, hardscape guys, a wood guy, a drywall guy and now a cabinet guy.  I’m planning on sticking their business cards in a binder labeled “Guys”.

Reminds me of when Bip was a baby and we had this shadow box thing of mini Korean theater masks hanging in the hallway.  We passed by it every time we went into the bedroom.  He liked them a lot and when he started talking, he’d point at them and say, “Heh!  Guys!”

What was I saying?  Oh yeah, the HVAC guy.

So Kevin, the HVAC guy informed us that the easiest and cheapest solution to the soon to be unusable floor vent was to have the cabinet guy just cover it with a piece of sheet metal.  This would be fine and not cause the shelves to heat up and burst into flame, or need to be torn down at a time in the not too distant future to get at the vent and close it off properly.

Then there’s this electronic thingy mounted into the corner of the room.  The corner which will soon be covered by the bookshelves, of course.  Phil has dismantled it so now it is just a couple of wires hanging down, attached to a tiny little computer looking panel. He says he can just cut the wires, tape the ends, shove them into the hole in the wall and call it a day.  And you know, it’s not that I don’t trust him, but yeah, I don’t trust him.  Why does the Talking Heads song “Burning Down the House” keep running through my head?

So I’m making him at the very least, call a handyman and have him come over and advise.

He’ll probably cut the wires, tape the ends and shove them back into the hole.

So, my whole entire point of this blog post is that it’s been rather hot, so I’ve been propping up my feet, watching HGTV, filling my head with construction horror stories and knitting.  Knitting funny hats for our new baby, to be exact.

Did I tell you we’re having a boy?

Well, arriving as he will, at the end of October, he’ll need a pumpkin hat.  I’ve actually made 2 of them this summer, a newborn size and a toddler size for our friend Sam in DC.  Here they both are, with Bip’s big-boy pumpkin hat for scale.

And since we live in Colorado, he’ll need some sort of hat for the first 8 months of his life, so I made him a Sweet Pea hat.

And a funny stocking cap for Christmas time, so he’ll look like a right jolly ol’ elf.  My model here is Amy, our Bitty Baby.  The hat still needs a ginormous pompom at the end to pull off the look.

So, in review: heat, Holmes, guys!, hats. Questions?

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