Holes in One

Clickety-Clack Ewe finally decided on the new project. It will be the Cameron Lace Shawl from Heirloom Knitting.

The Jamieson Cobweb Ultra Shetland yarn isn't the thinnest in the CCE stash, but still, it seems as it it might break if breathed upon. We'll see what happens....

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Sheep's Clothing

As you can see from the passenger window, Saturday morning was a perfect day for a jaunt to Sheep's Clothing, a 75 minute drive to Valparaiso from my house. Elizabeth drove her MIL, Michelle, Vicki and I to that mecca I consider to be my LYS. I suppose it's a good thing that the shop is not closer - I would be spending all the grocery money.

Paula, the owner of Sheep's Clothing (left in photo), posed with two of her knowledgeable staffers, Sue and Tracey.

In case you haven't been, this shop has four rooms filled to the rafters with yarn. There is a large section with all the books - and I mean all the books (the photo shows just a few).


Another section has a huge array of patterns. A third room holds a big selection of needles and notions - and more yarn. A fourth room serves as a small classroom for maybe eight students - even more yarn is stored there, too. (A larger classroom is located in another part of the
building.)

Elizabeth and her MIL checked out the button selection in one picture. You can catch a glimpse of Elizabeth's spectacular cardi - she spun the yarn for it!

I was also happy to spot fellow guild member Bettye G. enhancing her stash. Since neither of us attend our guild's official meetings any longer (problem with location), it was especially delightful to see her again.

We spent several hours browsing there and at "La Beada Loca", a bead shop located across the small parking lot. If you make the trip, there are several interesting restaurants within walking distance.

Sheep's Clothing offers 10% off with your guild membership card. It is located at 257 Indiana Ave in Valparaiso. The hours (Central time) are:
M-F 10 - 5:30
Thu 10 - 9:00 (open late! Yaay!)
Sat 10 - 3
Closed Sunday.

FO (OT)

Yep, finished object with porch, off topic (see post below):

The Doghouse

Okay, it's a cat house, but I was afraid to put it in the title slot for fear of the clientele it would draw! Anyhow, Clickety-Clack Ewe took a brief hiatus from knitting to put this together for two feral cats, Tux and Light Mama. The house came in three flat packages from RTA Woodworking in Ontario, Canada, where Pierre Desjardins and his family make such wonderful houses for outdoor pets. RTA's workmanship is truly impressive. Mr. Desjardins also made a great custom sign with the cats' names on it, which will be placed over the door when the last of the work is done.

The house is built on a raised insulated platform, and its walls and roof are also insulated. The door is cut to the side to allow for more warmth inside. Clickety-Clack Ewe also cut a grommeted hole in the back to allow for plugging in a vet pad. The pad, covered in sheepskin, heats to the temperature of a cat's body when the cat beds down.

The door is a stiff plexiglass swinging affair. Clickety-Clack Ewe intends to install a more lightweight temporary panel (a length of clear plastic bag) this afternoon. It will remain for a few weeks to get the cats to get used to going in and out. It seems that they don't know how to enter the house yet.

There is also a covered porch. The floor of the porch is visible in the photo, but the roof, support posts and flashing will not be attached until the house is in exactly the right spot. (We'll need to fiddle around with placement in a few days, when we also install a separate plywood platform to shelter the food and water supply.) BTW, there is knitting in this project: two knitted mice (Vicki Mikulak's pattern), filled with catnip to entice Tux and Light Mama inside.

Frost on Pumpkin

Yikes! It started to snow lightly this morning. I stuck my hand with camera outside the front door and quickly took this picture - too cold (36 degrees) to linger with the door open for a second shot. The fine snow isn't visible in the picture, it remains to be seen whether it sticks. At this rate, all the Trick-o-Treaters next week would be well advised to pick Yeti as their persona...

Anyhow, the snow in the air makes me want to spin some fiber.

I had a wonderful time at E's knitting/spinning party on Saturday. While I was there, Vicki gave me a thorough lesson on using a spindle, as I had groused that to her I hadn't been getting the hang of it. I had spun for years on a spindle as a kid, and I couldn't understand why I wasn't just resuming where I left off: muscle memory and all that. I was actually beginning to worry about a neurological lapse...

Well, it turns out that my big problem was that I was trying to spin upside down! NO! Not me upside down - the spindle. As a kid, I had used a bottom-whorl spindle, and the one I bought recently was a top-whorl spindle. Well dontcha know that things are spinning along fine now, and with a little practice drafting, I'll return to my childhood.

The 48 Things You Could Care Less About Meme

The Akamai Knitter egged me on....

1. FIRST NAME? Jessica (Jess, Jessi)
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Jessica Mitford.
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? About two weeks ago, immediately after I turned down a dream job in Washington DC.
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Not on the shopping list when I'm scribbling, but I like it well enough for letter-writing. I print like a draftsperson.
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Does prosciutto count? Otherwise, hard salami. Yum!
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Yep, I'm a straightforward, loyal and loving friend. I don't make friends very easily, though.
7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? That would be my blog....
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? I do, but I squeaked by with 'em. As a kid, I always had tonsillitis.
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? No way in hell! But If you asked me ten years ago, the answer would be different.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Cocoa Krispies or Sugar Smacks (but I eat oatmeal).
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No, I skootch out of them by scraping the back of each heel with the other foot. But then I untie them to put them back on. Odd, huh?
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? You betcha. My sister calls me "Popeye."
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Chocolate! Chocolate! Ultimate fave was the unfairly discontinued Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Cherry Garcia. But I've been eating Edy's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough lately and liking it. I could write paragraphs on this subject.
14. SHOE SIZE? 8.5. Sometimes a 9. Hey! If I wear a 10, I won't have to bother with untying shoes at all!
15. RED OR PINK? Pink, but not that candy pink made from carmine or vermilion pigments - the more subtle pinky-brown made with burnt sienna.
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My belly. There's too much of it. (See q 13.)
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? I miss my mother the most. She died in 2000.
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Of course.
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Brown Jeans, brown T, pinky-brown shirt, brown flats.
20. LAST THING YOU ATE? Chicken Korma.
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? A cat is snoring in my lap, and my husband's phone is ringing.
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? From the 96-crayon box, Pacific Blue.
23. FAVORITE SMELL? Pine or Eucalyptus after rain.
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My neighbor across the street, who called to thank me for the baby sweater DD delivered yesterday.
25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Warm, twinkly eyes, kind eyes.
26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON you stole THIS from? Found it first on Opal's site, and then Bonne Marie's. I'm not sure whose blog I stole it from (and I certainly can't remember where they got it), but I like both Bonne and Opal very much.
27. FAVORITE DRINK? Scotch. Sometimes a Cosmopolitan.
28. FAVORITE SPORT? Baseball in the summer, hockey in the winter. TO WATCH. I hate playing team sports (see q 16...).
29. EYE COLOR? Hazel.
30. HAT SIZE? 22-3/8. I don't know why on earth I know this.
31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Glasses. I have at least dozen pair of reading glasses, and can never find any of them.
32. FAVORITE FOOD? Boring but true: Dark chocolate.
33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings! Scary movies are on my top ten list of things NOT fun to do, along with bowling.
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer, if I must choose one of those. Actually, spring is my favorite.
36. HUGS OR KISSES? Well, both.
37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Opera cake.
38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Only a few people who read this page ever grace me with comments...
39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Everybody else.
40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War by Michael Isikoff and David Corn; The World of Gerard Mercator by Andrew Taylor.
41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? A mouse. Oh! -Printed on the mouse pad? A jellyfish from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? Nada - I took DD to DD's boyfriend's hockey game.
43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Bells - Church bells, cat-toy bells, sleigh bells, temple bells, open-the-general-store-door bells, Thai language because it sounds like bells, Tinkerbells.
44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES? Beatles.
45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? Liechtenstein, I think.
46. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? Music, though I squander it. I am a very good advocate, too.
47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? California
48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I commandeered it from a friend's blog (see q 26).