A Finish and a Start

Last Sunday I attended the annual hook-in at Joan's in support of her local Adams County Animal shelter.  The pictures of the rugs have already been posted twice on Joann's Snippets and Scraps of My Mind and Kathy's Rugs of Mine...in Time, so I won't post them again.

I just wanted to mention that I love going to this hook-in!  The setting is so lovely.  Joan lives along this beautiful little trout stream near the South Mountain and it is one of the most relaxing places a person could be.  This is the driveway going in.  It was a cloudy day to begin with, but it cleared in late afternoon.

Joan made us a scrumptious lunch (with donations from a few other people).  I wish I had gotten a picture of the buffet.  There was a lot of hooking, talking and eating.  Hookers seem to excel at all three!

Jill found a   day-old kitten abandoned by it's mother in her barn and brought the tiny one along so she could feed it regularly.  I have never seen a kitten so small.  I don't know if the little guy has survived the week or not.

There were games and prizes, a raffle, secret auction, and show and tell with two special guests who are working on a secret project that will soon be unveiled in Rughooking Magazine.  So keep an eye out for some amazing hooking of...hint!  It starts with an A and involves fur, feathers and scales.

I had a wonderful day!  Boy, was I exhausted when I got home!!!

In addition to the monetary donations, and proceeds from the raffle and auction,
Look!  we Filled the Truck!!!

It has been rainy and dreary here for days (weeks???).  Where was this water when we needed it so badly for our garden earlier this summer?

Zip and I have had a lot of 'indoor time' to work on our favorite hobbies.
As many of you know, Zip is a flyfisherman.  He Goes most evenings of the week when the weather is good. Right now he's trying to get in as much fishing as possible before the weather turns cold.

He ties his own flies.  He has help.  Just can't do it on his own!

Notice the little white paw on the flytying tool.  Also check the difference in Zip's hair in the two pictures.  Is he becoming frazzled???  Ha-ha!

With all the tempting feathers, fur, and threads, who could resist!  Penny is resting while Isabel takes over the harassment.

Check out the crossed tails!  Is that like a kitty high five?  Kinda a 'look what we did to Daddy now!!!' kind of thing?

And now!  Ta-daaaaah!!!
The sweater is finished!  I am so happy with this pattern from Deb Gemmel at Cabin Fever.
It is knit from the top down, all in one piece, with no seaming at all.  When you are done knitting, you're done!  It is done with A-line shaping for larger women and it fits beautifully.

I had trouble finding buttons.  Our Joann store has such a tiny selection and when I did find anything I thought would work, there was only one or two cards left.  And darn, I needed more!

So after reading about other knitters who had purchased really pretty handmade buttons on Etsy, I decided to make some from polymer clay.  Working with Fimo and Sculpey is not my favorite thing to do but I bought the clay and went home with three different colors to mix and create the perfect button (ha!)

This easy little project took HOURS!  I tried using all sorts of things to get texture on the darn things.  I even tried stamping them with a piece of burlap.  Finally I used the blade of my serrated tomato knife to make a woven look.  Then the baking had to be done twice because I thought they were still too pliable after the first round.  And still not the right color!!!  Yikes.  So back to Joann's for some acrylic paint and sealer.  Finally a finished product that is acceptable.

Here they are!  Half a day's work and two trips to Joann's worth of buttons!

Now you may ask (as I did) will they hold up in the wash???  They did!  And the dryer too!

I needed a project to take along to Joan's last weekend so when I got up I quickly drew up this little mat to take along.  As soon as it's finished there will be a give-away for my long overdue celebration for 100 Followers.  More about that in a future post.

Have a good week, everyone.
Happy Hooking!