What a glorious few months it has been!  Becca and grands arrived in late January and stayed on for an extended visit until March!  It was so wonderful!!  We stayed incredibly busy and accomplished so much!  It was 5 absolutely perfectly glorious weeks!!

First up we headed to Stash in Corvallis for a pop up show by The Lemonade Shop!  Of course we both came away with some lovely skeins!

After seeing all that loveliness we decided to play with the dyes ourselves.  Bella had been wanting to try her hand at dyeing and I am a firm believer in encouraging the creative process!!

Look at this loveliness!  Bella dyed the first two on the left!  She did an amazing job!

The next step was to wind all that beauty so we could cast on!

Our final endeavors!  I’m very much in love!!

We are all tea drinkers and decided we must put in an order to Davids Tea.  So excited to receive our package!!

With Davids we must use the good tea cups and have a formal tea sit down.  Of course they were delicious and it was great fun trying out so many blends!

In all that business the littles had a grand time building forts and playing!  This little one is just as sweet as a honey pot!!

Two adorable sweet peas!!

We were fortunate enough that Cozy in Eugene was having a StevenBe Trunk show.  Of course we had to take him one of our bags!  Had such a great time and of course more yarny purchases.  We both got supplies and whipped up hats using a bulky combined with a mohair.  We had both sworn off mohair, but you cannot meet StevenBe and not give in to mohair and sparkles!!

I had always given my girls free rein with fabric and the sewing machine.  While Becca was visiting I redid my sewing room as Matt was kind enough to put together Ikea type shelving for the room.  Bella was more than happy to have my cast offs and I told her the sewing machine is all yours.  With some simple guidance from me she went to town and sewed up gifts for her sibs and mom.  She definitely inherited the crafty gene!!

Along with our busy gab abouts we also found lots of knitting time.  Obviously we had to cast on those newly dyed yarns…right?  But first I finished Emmy’s vest which I started with another of my earlier hand dyed yarns.  I’m very pleased with it and she loved it!  This is a vest pattern from the book Swoon by Carrie Bostwick Hoge.  It was a fun, fast, and easy knit.

Then socks on my newest dyed which I named Pretty on the Outside.  I adore just a splash of color here and there.  I cannot stand a heavy variegated look so tend to stay away from them when hand dyeing.

I also did up a quick fingerless mitt from my Such a Ghastly Woman.  This yarn just will not photo true to color.  It is mauve with black and grey yet looks so pinky in the photos!

This is the Multnomah shawl on my Westside hand dyed.  I wanted to capture the colors of the PNW so did a mix of browns, rusts, and spruce on a gray base.  I adore how this is knitting up.  I recently dyed an Eastside which I will share on another blog.

Believe it or not there are a few other projects I cast on but did not get photoed.  I will include those next time.  I have nearly completed a darling deer vest for Maddox as when he saw all the dyeing and knitting and Emmy’s vest he wanted one for himself.  What else could a grandma do but cast one on!!

All too soon it was time for Becca to head home.  Oh how quiet and sad was the house when they left.  But with our etsy business I had little time to dwell on my sadness and had to jump back into bag making!  Oh how I love my sewing room with all the neat new shelving!  It is still not totally organized and I promise photos after it that is completed!

Becca went home in a bit of a snow storm over the pass and within the next few days we also welcomed snow in March no less!!  But it quickly cleared up and the rains returned.

And now life is back to the usual routine.  I am once again staying home for a period of time which I absolutely adore!  I love being domestic and am an incredible homebody.  I love the freedom not working gives me to have the grands over for extended stays which will commence again this summer.  To me heaven is waking each morning to have an entire glorious day ahead with infinite possibilities not beholden to any outside schedule and all the dysfunctional crap that seems to have taken over our work environments.

Next on the agenda I have booked train tickets to visit Erica and grands and finally see my newest grand!  Oh yes I am positively living the life of Riley as my dear Grandmother used to always say!!

Happy March!!

Patrica