I mentioned in the last post that my Mom and I were going to tea for Mother’s Day and would post details.  So here tis.
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Savannah Tea Room was offering a high tea for Mother’s Day on Saturday as they are not open on Sundays.  If you are familiar with Nashville, it is located on 8^th Avenue near Zanies and Wedgewood.  When we arrived, they had a few tables set for tea.  Inside the front door to the right, there was a room full of tea pots and accoutrements.  In the main room behind the counter, there were rows and rows of shelves full of glass jars containing tea leaves.  
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    We were seated in the Green Room for the 3:00 pm seatingand everything was decorated very prettily.  A group of ladies sat in the room where the hats were and they made themselves glamorous for tea.  How fun!
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Tea anyone?
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 My Mom and I went to Miss Mable’s in Dickson a few years ago on Mother’s Day and did the hat thing then.  This time, we were just in the mood for tea and the goodies that go with it and let the other ladies have fun with their hats.  Speaking of goodies, they had a tea tasting and we got to pick our tea cups and saucers.  Ladies came through the room periodically with different tea pots.  I tried Crème de Caramel, Chocolate and Raspberry, Blueberry Bay, Berry Berry and Rose Hips Oolong.  Ma tried the Jamaican Rum and said it did not taste like rum and was out of the mood for hot tea so she switched to Pomegranite iced tea instead.  I am not so sure there wasn’t RUM in that tea…..
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What do you think?   Rum or No Rum??? 
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While we were waiting, they brought clotted cream in a wine glass topped with a fresh blackberry, little scones, then little carrot cake muffins and then spinach/artichoke quiche.  I was so into the goodies and what was coming that I forgot to take pictures when the three tiered server came to our table.  The top layer held fruit:  pineapple, kiwi, oranges and grapes.  The middle tier held spinach swirls and little chicken salad sandwiches and cucumber sandwiches.  There were little wedges of cheese and carrot sticks there too.  The Bottom layer held the mother lode.  Yumm…..strawberry coconut macaroons, raspberry cheesecake cupcake things and chocolate covered strawberries.  I think my favorite was the strawberry.  To end the meal, we had peach sherbert with cream.  
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I read a few blogs where people wrote about their Moms and how much they miss them because they are gone, some wrote about missing seeing their Moms because they were far away, and then some wrote about what they did with their Moms on Mother’s Day.  The thing we all have in common is that we do have (or have had) a Mom.  Lessons learned from the first mentioned bloggers is to appreciate and enjoy the time you have with your Mom while she is here.  
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 I knew my Mom (and me too) had fun with the tea experience so I was excited when I found out about Savannah Tea Room. I wanted to do something with her that she would enjoy.   Like my Mom said after we got there, “It is easy to find and we could get back there again.”   I also brought a little case and filled it with little things–little things that I spent time in picking out that I thought she would like.  It is fun for me to spend time thinking of things someone would like and finding them.  
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All in all, we enjoyed the tea room, but we are still on a quest to try different tea rooms.  What a fun assignment. Big grin.
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 (click the picture to see her) Before our tea outing, the mobile groomer came and waved her magic wand and made all my dogs pretty and clean again.  Lacey will be 14 on June 1st and is still pretty as ever.  Wonder why dog’s don’t wrinkled???

Free sock Pattern time.  Carole of Carole Knits posted a picture of the socks she received as a gift and they are called Artichoke Socks.  Very pretty!  Carole’s socks are modeled and they represent what the pattern looks like much better  than the empty socks shown on the pattern.  Check them out!

Teyani, Intrepid Fiber Wizard, knitted a pair of the Primavera Socks that I posted recently, knitted and shared the link a few posts ago.  She shares a picture of her Primaveras on her blog and also another free sock pattern called Hedgerow Sock pattern.  This sock is very pretty and a little lacy looking.  It was designed for solid or semi solid sock yarn.  Be warned, the pattern is 8 pages, but the nice thing is that you can download a printer-friendly PDF file which includes directions and pictures. 

My Majacraft Alpaca talked to me this weekend and said she wanted to spin the Spunky Club offering from Dec 07 called Party Dress, SW Corriedale (4 oz).  I saw this CLOUD YARN that looked JUST like clouds.  I wanted to spin something like clouds too.  For a first effort, I didn’t do too bad at spinning yarn, but my clouds are way flat next to Maggie’s!  
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I wrote to Maggie and asked her how she did it.  I was partially on the right trail, but she offered several other suggestions that I think will help me get to where I can spin clouds.  For starters, I need to spin the fiber thicker.  Goodness, it felt like I was spinning rope, but I guess that would happen after spinning lace weight for awhile.  Next thing is that I need to use a tighter twist when plying.
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I was not wild about this colorway and figured I had nothing to lose.  I think it will be fun yarn to knit up as it will stripe and be fluffy.  I think it will become a scarf of some sorts. 
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 Fluffy 4oz turned into 180 yards at 8-9 wpi (bulky worsted).  I was shooting for CHUNKY/BULKY.  I will certainly do this again and Soon as it was a lot of fun and very liberating to spin 4 oz of wool in less than an hour.  It took me longer to ply it than it did to spin.  What did I ply it with?  It is one single of the Corriedale and one strand of Wooly Nylon in sort of a Raspberry color.
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 another view, and another….
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Too fun, I definitely recommend trying.  Give Maggie a shout and leave a comment on her blog if you go see her yummy fiber.  She is such a nice person to share her technique and a great spinner as well!
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I am taking my Mom to have High Tea tomorrow.  I will be sure to take pictures…how much fun, I can’t wait!

Beth suggested that I might have a problem with the ‘buy me now’ button.  My reply to that is that it is kind of like a drinking problem.  I drink, I get drunk, I fall down….No Problem.   The problem isn’t with the button, it is staying AWAY from the button….or would that be the internet in general???   There are lots of things that I do resist, but there are some things that I fall in love with and want.  In some cases (like the Digitessa), I see something, but don’t act on it.   I will live without that something, but then something comes along and revisits me and I then decide that I really do want it.  No rhyme or reason to it. 
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I guess if you are a Thinker (and a knitter/spinner), you might be asking if you can be named in my Will

A few weeks ago, I shared a picture of a mitered square shawl that I just started using Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn.  It starts on the big side of things and gets smaller as you go.  I am using the Loop De Loop shawl pattern and you begin by knitting a mitered square using worsted weight yarn.  I *gasp* swatched and ended up doubling the numbers to cast on for double the amount of stitches called for in the pattern.  It is taking for bloody ever, or seemed like it, to decrease down as you only decrease two stitches every other row.  I have decreased over 100 stitches now and still have a way to go.  It is going faster now as the rows do not have as many stitches in them.  I am using a size 5 circular needle and the colors are very pretty.  While the yarn does get thick and thin, I have not found any knots so far.  It is a great mindless knitting project and feels softer than you would think when you go back and feel it.  I hear that it softens up more after it is washed.  Once I am done, I will soak and block it and will let you know if it does soften up.  I think it will be very pretty when finished and visually interesting as the stripes will be going in several directions. 
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I got this little gadget (I love gadgets and containers) to use as a bobbin for my WIP.  I like to leave a long tail in case it can be used to seam up a side when finishing or who knows what.  I have one of these things on a sock in progress (SIP) too.  They are fun and come in all kinds of colors. 
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There is a little to talk about in Spinning.  My Alpaca wheel was calling to me as I have not spun on her in what seems like forever.  I like to spin outside better than inside as I can see the colors in the natural light so much better and it is a lot about the color for me when spinning.  I have been spinning lace to fingering weight for at least the last six months and that seems to take for darned ever.  I subscribe to the Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club and have many fun bits of different kinds of wool to spin in my stash.  For some reason, the Party Dress (which is very brightly hand painted Superwash Corriedale) said that it was time to be spun.  I read a blog post (can’t find it now) where someone spun a tightly twisted single and then plied it with thread with a loose twist….the resulting yarn looked like clouds or moguls and was very interesting looking.  I tried spinning thick and felt like I was spinning rope.  Four ounces of fiber was spun in less than an hour.  Wow, how liberating.  The bobbin has the fiber resting on it and I am going to try and ply it tonight or tomorrow night.  I am hoping the single is thick enough to give that cloud or mogul effect once it is plied.  We shall see.   
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Dogs.  Agility.  Toys.   Many people ask what you ‘get’ when you compete in dog agility.  They are amazed when they hear “I get a ribbon if we place and the dog gets a toy.”  Agility is not about monetary prizes, but spending time with your dog(s) and building a bond with them and working as a team.  Other dog events such as Confirmation, do result in big money and I think that complicates things a little.  I am happy with the way things are in Agility.  Now, if you are highly competitive, there are levels of competition where you could get sponsors and maybe make a living at it.   
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I ran with Jake and Gracie this weekend in Decatur/Priceville, Alabama.  It was pretty much a practice weekend….both Friday AND Saturday.  I forgot to move Gracie from Exc A to Exc B Jumpers, so our one Q in Exc A didn’t go to our Exc B count.  Darnit.  Jake didn’t Q the whole weekend, mostly due to his bad handler (me).  He is at the level where you cannot have any mistakes or you are disqualified.  I ran for the first time last week and this was my first trial since my surgery.  I felt pretty good up to the last run of each day and then I was out of gas.   
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There are usually great vendors attending the competitions and this weekend was no exception.  They are coming out with the cutest toys for pets nowadays.  I think about people saying “I wish they had these cute toys when I was a kid” when I see these toys.   
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How can you resist these faces?    
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 How about a cat fish, er catfish?  
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 Balls?  How about Biscuits?   These biscuit-shaped balls are a HUGE hit at my house.  They are soft and squishy and squeak – until Jake gets a hold of them.  I have learned to only give one or two toys out and let the crew play with them rather than giving each one a toy.  Now, they have a huge amount of toys in the brass dog bed that only holds toys, but new toys are more interesting and fun to everyone involved.  I give a few of the new toys out and the dogs follow around the lucky one that has a new toy.  The dog plays with the new toy till he/she gets tired of it and someone in line pounces on it to play with it some more.  Back to the biscuit balls.  My dogs are wild about these balls.  I only had one the first go round a few months ago.  Jake carried this ball around for two or three days.  He put it down long enough to eat and then he would pick it up again.  He finally relinquished the ball after carting it around and guarding it.  The other dogs followed the one dog around with the ball and this went on for two weeks.  The vendor at the show this weekend finally got some more of these balls in and I got them all.  I gave out two of them to the pups and the rest are safely resting on the counter for now.   
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Jake says it is MY BALL and I am NOT giving it up! 
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Hunter and Pierre came Saturday night to visit with us until next weekend.  Their people went on vacation so they came to stay and play with my crew.  Hunter and Pierre are Papillons and compete in agility as well.  

 Hunter        

 Pierre