Narnia and RI Sheep and Wool Festival

Heyya. Long time no post. My computer has been really slow lately, so when it takes 30 mins to check and reply to 2 e-mails... there is not much time for anything else.

Today is the 1st ever Rhode Island Sheep and Wool Festival. It's from 9-4 at the Cogshell Museum in Bristol. Sounds promising even though the weather is not that fine. It's drizzly and spitting... but so long as it don't rain outright we should be fine. If you go make sure to look out for Su DiNola. She is the owner of R.I. Handspun, a little shop in Burriville (across from the police station.) She should be there today, so make sure to give her a looksee.






















Swamp Meadow Community Theater presented Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe last week. And it was pretty good if I might say so myself. The next play is going to be the Summer Children’s production of Charlotte's Web, for children ages 8-16. Open Auditions will be June 5, 6, and 7, from 5-8 at Captain Issac Pain Elementary School in Foster RI. (right off Rt. 6) All candidates will need a 30 second monologue as well as a wallet sized picture of themselves, as well as the song, "America the Beautiful" (one vrs. only. (It's a musical.)) Hope to see you there!!






















Randomness, I know... but fun randomness all the same.
~Amanda

Happy May Day

Well, Dad fixed my camera................... ... .... ......... .... Now I just need to find the cord to hook it up to the computer.....

~Katie

It's Been A Long, Long Time...

.......Since I posted last, hmm? Sorry. My camera broke, and Amanda's computer broke, and yeah. It's not much fun posting when you know you can't post pictures! And Amanda found it rather hard to post anything with a broken computer. True story. Yup. Really. What, you don't believe me?


Anyway, we've both been really busy with life in general. Narnia's coming up fast, which is one cause for chaos.

Let's see..... some of the other things we've been doing when not exploring Narnia.....

Amanda and I are getting ready to help with Swamp Meadow's summer production: Charlotte's Web. It's a children's musical. .........Or, at least, we're doing it with children. Yeah. Amanda is the Musical Director, and I'm helping her.... Between the two of us we can not only sing all the songs, but we can even come close to hitting the right notes! Pretty impressive, huh?

I've started my first job, working over at Morning Star Christian Center, in Apple Valley Plaza, behind the Micky D's. The pay's not great, but it's better then what I was earning before.

Also, I've entered a Knitting Contest. Check it out and wish me luck: http://www.purlescence.co.uk/storytellers/index.html

Here's my pathetic little doodle's, which were part of my entry. I'm busy working up the patterns for them now.




I also posted the story parts on FanFiction.Net.

Every Girl's A Princess, and The Scarlet Cap: www.fanfiction.net/s/3510964/1/ and http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3511063/1/

They're not that bad for one afternoon's frantic work, considering that I've never finished a single one of my stories before now. I should change my pen name to 'Procrastinate Kate'.

We're hoping to go to the Spin-In tomorrow at Su DiNola's shop; RI Handspun. Stop in and visit if you get a chance, it's awesome.

You can read her Blog here: http://rihandspun.blogspot.com/

She hasn't updated in awhile. Oh well.

Anywho. I'm gonna shut up before you folks (if, indeed there are any) reading this get bord and decide to start throwing moldy fruit at me.

TTFN,
~Katie

Narnia, Choir and Frogging

Choir went well yesterday.... (IDK about myself... I couldn't hear... But poeple said
I was ok.) Everyone else was perfect though. And we had a pratice again tonight, very fun.

After our choir director, Larry, told us a dozen times to get into the mikes more we decided to play 'Catholic Idol,' and each got to hold our own mike... interesting.

Narnia pratice is again tomorrow... very fun. For anyone that would like to go and see it, it will be May 4,5,6,11,12, and 13 at Captain Issac Paine Elementary School in Foster, RI. (Try to spot yours truely... look for the cute silly clumsy wood nymphs in the corners!)

Ugg... I started knitting the 2nd part of the dragon scarf only to realize I did it wrong. So I had to 'rip it' out (frogging) and start over again. Uggg.

~Amanda

Choir and Little Rays of Sunshine

It's just amazing how much a flower can cheer up a day. They are just little rays of sun shine when the sky is dark.

Yay, Church Choir today! Me and Kate sing in St. Josephs Youth Choir in Scituate, RI.

This is one of the few days that I actualy volunteered to sing a solo, and I'm very nervous about it. I feel I'm pretty good at the piano, but singing is somthing that I need a bit more help on.
I have probs finding the right note in a guitar chord, so I tend to be either a bit flat or sharp.

I practiced all week in hopes I will get it right, but I'm still not sure. Wish me luck.

But yes, try try and try again. My first attempt at the dragon scarf (as shown below,) has failed. After getting to the tail, running out of yarn, and still not getting the desired effect, I had to rip it out and start w/ a different pattern.

This one I think should work better. It is knitted in 3 parts, sewn togeather and then stuffed. (Kate helped me think up the pattern, I'm not the smart on my own!) This one will work, I hope.

Will post when finished!

~Amanda

Counting Blessings

Ah...... My newsletter is out, Narnia practice is going well, Rummy is cute, and all is right with the world.

Hmm, hmm, hmm..... I'm in such a randomly good mood today, I just can't stop thinking about all the little things that are working together to make me happy......

What kind of happy drug am I on, you ask?

The kind that has these ingredients: getting everything done that I was supposed to yesterday; getting a goodnight's sleep; waking up at a decent time this morning; not having to rush anywhere untill after lunch; and, the secret ingredients: sunshine and orenge juice.

You laugh now, but just try it. It works wonders.

I can see you're looking slightly confused, still. Wondering if there's something you missed reading in one of our posts. Well, never fear, because you haven't missed it; we just haven't mentioned it yet.

Amanda and I, and two other girls, are going to be Wood Nymphs in 'The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe,' which our local theartre group is putting on for the first two weekends in May.

Originaly, we were suppose to be in just two sceanes, at the very begining, and the very end. We were supposed to dress up, look pretty, and move a few things around on the stage. We were supposed to be pretty, composed, graceful, and largly invisible.

Well, that lasted through the first rehersal. I think they got the hint, when every one of us 'graceful' Wood Nymphs banged into this big metal door as we were exiting the stage, one after another............ Repeatedly.

After that, I noticed that the directer quickly changed 'graceful and pretty' to 'bumbling and funny.'

But they seem to like us anyway, since they've decided to extend our stage time from two sceanes to being scattered through the entire play....

Oh well. At least we're good at being the random people in the background who get to react to what the other people are saying. Anyway, it's much more fun than before, and we're all much better at it.

Now, we actually have permission to make fun of the other characters behind their backs!

Mwaheheheheheeeeee.......


~Katie

God Works in Mysterious Ways...

...Who ever said that was so right.

I'm the Editor of our church, Saint Joseph's, Youth Newsletter; 'Carpenter's Tools'.

Just the other day I was complaining about it; How I've never seen anyone read it, or even pick it up. How it's more trouble than it's worth, and I should let someone else deal with the deadline headaches. How I hate having to worry about it every month, and no one ever sends me anything for it, so that I'm stuck writing the whole thing. How I'm always forgetting to e-mail people until the last minute, and NO, I WON'T have meetings for it, because I HATE meetings, and no one comes to the meetings, and the ones who do don't have any ideas, or suggestions, or anything useful to say.

That was on Sunday.

On Monday, I remembered to get paper for my newsletter, but I wasn't looking forward to working on it at all.

Then I went to the Youth Ministry Meeting.

Wouldn't you know it; two different people asked me when Carpenter's Tools was going to be out, and said that they always read it, and asked me how it was coming.

I was so surprised, I think I just stared at them, wide-eyed, for a few seconds before my brain caught up enough to answer.

When I got home and checked my e-mail, there, lo and behold, were e-mails with things to put in the newsletter.

I do believe that was a sign for me to shut up, quite complaining, and put more effort into my poor, sad little newsletter.

God works in mysterious ways indeed.

As Eugenides, from Megan Whalen Turner's 'The Queen of Attolia' says,
' "Moira came. She brought me a message from the gods.... Stop whining,' Eugenides said.
"What?" Eddis's expression shifted from wary to puzzled.
"That was the message. For me, alone among mortals, the gods send their messanger to tell me to stop whining. That'll teach me to go hide in a temple." '

Peace. Out.
~Katie

Of Spinning Wheel Doctors, Dragons, and Kittens

Well, I added new name skill to my repituar yesterday.... Spinning Wheel Doctor.

Yesterday afternoon I went to visit a friend who had been given a spinning wheel.
A neighbor had found it in their basement and thought she might have a use for it, although it did not appear to be in working condition.
So after assessing the situation Katie and I were able to find out the problems.
The single tredle peddle had come unattached, as well as the mother-of-all, and both the actual wheel and bobbins had swollen over to as to be very tight on their dowls preventing it from turning.

Luckily after some playing with some super-glue we were able to get the mother-of-all and peddle back on, but those were the easy problems. We ending up having to take the wheel off completely, and lubricating it in oil until we were able to get it to spin fairly easily, and even though the wheel has come with 3 bobbins, we were only able to get one to work properly without drilling new holes in the bobbins.

Thank goodness for some-assembily-required spinning wheels! ( Me and my Dad assembled my Ashford: Travler spinning wheel a few years ago. )

I also finished my shrug yesterday. I thought I had finished it before then though.
I had just sewed up the side seams and was ready to try it on when I realised that the back was going to curl and pucker somthing awful. So I had to unsew part of the seams, knit on some extra ribbing along the back, and crochet around the edges to prevent unnessecary curling there.

On a happier note however, I have started knitting a dragon scarf.
A little while ago while surfing on Knitty.com I saw an advertisment for a knitting dragon scarf, but, upon clickin' on the link, I realised that the website that was selling it only sold the pattern in a kit form.
Not wanted to buy the whole kit I surfed the web to see if I could find a free on-line variation, but, alas, there was none to be found.

So I decided that I would just have to make it up my self. This is what I have come up with so far, but I still need to finished the tail, attach the nostrils and eyes, and the spikes along the back. Promises to be interesting.

I was browsing my pictures from my digital camera when I found this picture of Rummy. I totally forgot I had taken this! He is just the cuttest kitten!



Speaking of cute kittens, guess where I found my cat Cassey the other day? Sitting on the wood pile in the living room, pretty as you please. Only a cat can make a stack of wood a throne.

This is my second time writing this post, seeing as the first time I wrote it my on-line clicked off and lost the post... Darn you dial-up internet!

~Amanda

Blanket Squares, Broccoli Soup, and Rum

I have found the perfect project.

It is small enough to carry around, simple enough to knit while watching TV, colorful enough to make me happy, interesting enough to keep my attention, fun enough that I will not get tired of it, and, best of all, it will use up all those funky little half-balls of fashion yarn and endlessly boring acrylic yarn that people keep giving me.

In a Stash diminishing experiment, I am knitting a blanket. When it is done, it will probably be big enough for a bed, and certainly big enough for a throw.

It will be made of large mitered squares with a gauge of approx. three strands of worsted weight yarn knit together on size 11 circular needles. Every square will be different, the color and texture changing at my whim.

As an added bonus, because of the way I am changing colors, I won't have any ends to weave in, and I don't have to trim the yarn tails, unless I feel like it. Go me!

I've only finished the red square, so far, and am half done knitting a blue square.

After I'm done with the blue, I will move on to another color; pink, green, purple, or yellow. I haven't decided which one, yet.


On another note, I have a new favorite soup; Cheese and Broccoli. Mom found a new recipe for it, and we had on Saturday, with fresh, brick-oven baked brown bread. Yuuuuuuuummmy.....

I also have a couple of new pictcures of Rummy The Teen-Aged Kitten. Like this one:




I'm almost done cleaning my room, and if I don't get it done today, I probably never will. So we shall bid thee farewell, until next time,
~Katie & Rummy

Sun shine, daisies, butter mellow...

I love posting pictures.

Unfortunately, I believe I must leave now to clean my room... The plus side is that I get to listen to Beka Cooper: Terrier, by Tamora Pierce. Good book.


See ya on the other side,
~Katie

"Who needs hansome idiots, when we can have kitties!' -Aniki, from Beka Cooper: Terrier, by Tamora Pierce

Black Socks and Rum-Tum

Black socks and Rummy really have nothing to do with each other, but I wanted to post another picture of my kitten, Rum. So I did. Obviously.

Anywho. Amanda decided that it was time I wrote something for this, so here I am. Drum roll, please.

I was surfin' the net just now, and, for some reason, a little song that Amanda and I wrote last summer popped into my head. It's a spin off of that camp-fire classic, 'Black Socks,' and is sung to that tune. It goes like this:

'Black fleece, it never gets cleaner,
the more that you wash it, the more dirt comes out.
Sometimes, I think it might turn white,
but something inside me, keeps saying,
'it won't, it won't, it won't!''

The moral of this song: Always be wary of free fleece. Especially black fleece.


Lots o' Luhv,
~Katie

On The Joys and Sorrows of Hand-Knitted Socks

aaaa, kand-knitted socks.... the most comfortable things you feet will ever wear, but boy oh boy, you will pay for it before hand with the time and energy you put into them.

I, sadly enough, am suffering for secound-sock symdrom. ( for any of those who don't know, it when you knit the first sock, but then want to move on to bigger and better socks insteed of finishing the pair you are on, ) For exsample: I started knitting Kate a pair of socks in Opal: Tiger sock yarn. I started the pair in October... and still have not finished the cuff of the secound sock yet.... whooops. Kate though has one up on me. She started knitting her mother a pair of socks in August, and is now working on the 2 inch cuff of her second sock.... sad, i know... and all those experianced sock knitter know exeactly what i'm talking about.

One of the greatest things about sock knitting though, is the self-striping yarn availale to knit it in. There are dozens of different bands w/ tons of different yarn colors, all slightly different for every slightly different knitter. For anyone who has not yet experianced the joys of knitting socks in self-striping yarn, i'd hightly advise it.

And ohyes, we must not forget what comes after self-striping yarn. Some knitters think that the self-striping variaties are mearly cheacking yourself out of your talented way. Fair_isles knitting is the way for them. ( knitting with 2+ strand of yarn at once. ) Kate made the pair of socks above for a little fair in my home town. She used 3 colors to make this pair of flame socks.

If anyone has any interest in learning to knit socks, we would be glad to help out with lessons and the more!
( www.KAknits.com )

~Amanda

Rummy-Baby

And as no knitting website is complete without a cat or a baby, here is the kitty!!
Meet Rummy, Kate's kitten.

Actually, Rum is a bit older now, but still just as cute! And we still call him 'Da Baby-Baby!'

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines Day!!

What I'm knitting: I'm very happy... I'm finally knitting something for myself! I'm knitting a on-line shrug pattern that Kate actually found last year at this time. ( would you believe I have been waiting to knit this thing for that long?! ) It's really simple, knit in Black worsted, with pink trim and bell sleeves, but I really like it. I'll try to post a pic of it when I'm finished.

What I'm reading: aaaa, the ever present couple... reading and knitting... Oh yes. Right now I'm re-reading Tamora Pierce's, Beka Cooper: Terrier. Very good book, and I recommend it to anyone just looking for a good heroine adventure novel.

This one goes out to anyone who has visited our website ( http://www.kaknits.com/ ) recently... we are sorry about the button problem ( it seems that the ' buy now ' button is refusing to work. ) and the lack of recent updates. Our website designer has been very busy letely, and we are currently not smart enough to fix it ourselves. But if there is anything you see that you would like, or if there is anything you would like to order... feel free to give us an e-mail and we will see what we can do. ~wink~
-Amanda