Spinning and a red rigatone

*** Edit: I found 2 cool contests you should enter (and they are really cool blogs too - I just found them through some other blogs, and have been thoroughly enjoying reading them!) -- Jean at the Golden Purl is having a contest celebrating 6 months as a blogger, and Rachel at Yarn Over is too excited to wait for her first blogiversary to start the contest. be sure to mention me when you post there - Brownie Points! and if you post them on your blogs, you too can earn extra entries! Nice prizes too!

Spinning yesterday was a hoot (I think I love spinning ... a lot! Not enough to totally give up knitting, but enough that I don't feel guilty spinning when I could be knitting!)... Sharon set me on the right path! I was drafting and guiding the draft at the same time -- not good to do with a drop spindle. Since I stopped doing that, I am doing much better - no splits!

J got some tips too, and she even was given some silk/merino roving to try -- It is gorgeous and soft and lush! Love it -- want to get some when we go to Sharon's spinning studio! At the Museum, Sharon and Ann were the display, showing people the ways of old, and J and I were being tutored at Sharon's knee. Ann spent most of the day combing flax (and sniffing it -- don't ask!). We were joined by a young knitter named Grace who took to spinning like a duck to water - nice spin and even texture to her yarn.

When we got ready to leave, I was checking my bag to make sure I didn't leave anything behind and couldn't find the homespun yarn that I had shown Sharon and Ann. I emptied my bags twice, checked the camera bag, searched the area all around where I was sitting, in my pockets -- it turned up in Sharon's bag (I think she was trying to steal my yarn!! in the picture above, she has it tucked in her bag)

Yesterday was my nephew's 3rd birthday and his party was today ... he got a rigatone (dunno where that came from, but if you say guitar he looks at you like you are speaking Greek) and a bunch of other cool gifts. I took our bubble machine to the party --

it was a lot of fun to watch all the kids play in/with the bubbles.

My nephew has a peanut allergy, so he can't get a fancy decorated cake from the grocery store, and he oogles them every time they go to the grocery store ... so his mom decided to make a homemade version. Aunt Heddy was enlisted to do the decorating -- I don't think I did a half bad job making it look like a construction site (and all things used as decoration were certified nut free!) - there is a rock pile (Smarties), a pile of Class A (crushed cookies) and a pile of asphalt used to pave the road (frozen then crushed and grated Aero bars). A bit of green grass and some low green shrubs, and the site was ready for the trucks!

That's all for now - tomorrow I will post my SP11 questionnaire (#2) and possibly a picture of my sock in progress.