a few of my favorite things

As promised, here is a little exhibit from PIQF last weekend. It was a pretty good show this year and seemed quite crowded on both of the days I was there.

Some of my favorites:Model Homes by Karen Flamme of California -- I always love houses!

Red Vase at Midnight by Barbara Lies of Wisconsin -- just stunning!

The Same But Different by Karen Fisher of Arizona. This measures only 37" square -- I'm a huge fan of intricate, modern miniatures and I adore this one!

Pomegranates by Janet Smith of California. Those are beads at the bottom-- very pretty.

Solaris by Christel Pietschmann of Germany. This is composed of a particular kind of mathematical spiral.

Green Fire by Chris Kenna of New Zealand. Detail below -- an astonishing amount of work! This is about 77" square.

I hope you enjoyed the show! Tomorrow DH and I are off for a long weekend in Astoria, Oregon just for fun -- and just in time for a big rainstorm. I see some serious knitting ahead of me...

a question of climate

So... here are a couple of questions for those of you in cool climates: do adults (women) wear mittens? are these fingerless glove/mitten things useful? Inquiring minds want to know!

I've always lived in coastal northern California, so I don't know these things! We think it's freezing when it's 45 degrees out. But my in-laws are all in Madison, WI and I've been thinking about making a slew of mittens or something similar this year for the relatives there. I'm going back for a visit in a couple of weeks and everyone keeps telling me "dress warm" so I decided to make myself a pair of these mitts so see how they worked -- and because I had never done cables before and I wanted an excuse to try some!

Next up -- favorite photos from PIQF, as soon as I get them downloaded.

why am I not surprised?

My hubby is turning 60 this weekend, and we're having a party. So of course I went to the party store and bought all the requisite "stuff". I managed to avoid all the black "over the hill" plates, cups, balloons, etc -- but I thought I few little decorations were in order so I picked up one of these:
Kind of cute, right? But when I got it home and opened it up, I realized that something was wrong with the picture...

Someone (making about 10 cents an hour) was not paying attention! I keep saying I'm going to stop buying anything made in China, but for anything more or less disposable it just doesn't seem to be possible. Is anyone being successful at this?