wool gathering etc

hello again, i have a feeling that this will be a long post, so hang in there.

first, here are some photos from the trip to the Brown Sheep yarn factory and outlet store. the roads were a bit crappy, but we made it! i bought a lot of wool to continue in my bag making schemes, and anna, sam and christine also did some major yarn shopping. look at those happy faces!

in addition to all of the felt-able wool (mostly Lamb's Pride) yarn, i bought some sock yarn. i have decided to make some crocheted socks. most patterns i've found are for things that closely resemble slipper socks, but thicker, since crocheting ends up thicker than knitting anyway, and people think that crocheting a pair of socks with bulky fuzzy fugly yarn makes neat projects. however, after much searching, i have found a pattern for socks that actually look like wearable socks. it calls for some tricky stitches, and i'm not that great at reading patterns (i mostly just wing it), but i have the first toe done! it is taking me quite a while to get the patter figured out, especially now that i'm into the crazy stitched, but so far, so good. here's a picture of my pretty sock so far:

now for non-fiber news:

the week after the wool gathering expedition, i bought raffle tickets, thinking that i was simply donating money to the alternative spring break group, as i almost never win raffles. well, it turns out that it was my lucky day! i won! the prize that i got was from corale west, and contained an ariat polar fleece vest (size small - hopefully i can exchange it, as its rather nice), a horse figurine (also by ariat), and a justin boots rodeo bag. it's a figgin nice bag! it's a good sized duffel bag, with pockets on each side for your cowboy boots, which is fortunate, since i purchased a pair of justin boots at the stock show and rodeo for riding this summer. and they even fit in the pockets! sweet! here's a picture of the bag:

the next week was anna's birthday, so we celebrated on monday night by going out to eat and then we had ice cream cake at my house. i bought a plain one so i could decorate it, and it turned out pretty cool, in a way that says that i should definitely not become a professional cake decorator. :) here are some photos from a flattering angle:

for her birthday, i gave anna HIV from thinkgeek.com. she loved it! there are also several other awesome giant plush microbes, and i can think of so many people who need one of them. so much fun. think geek has now become one of my favorite websites. :)

*oh! and, on the trip, we stopped at the local winery, did some tasting, and bought some wine. i'm saving my bottle (a semi-sweet called 'neighbor's choice') for when jessica comes to visit for easter. :)