Sofia's visit

        I missed all but the tail end of the big  the big pokemon birthday party because I was teaching bee classes at the Country Living Expo in Stanwood on Saturday. That was an enjoyable experience, but it can't compare with the excitement of a grandchild invasion. However, I had committed to teach the classes several months ago, long before the big party was scheduled.  The Country Living Expo really is quite the event.  It had over one thousand attendees, all of which are interested in a lot of the same things I like. It is a fun time hanging out with people who are gathered together to learn about things like poultry, sheep, cattle, fruit trees, honeybees, green houses, etc. Our little display table was right next to the table for Gretchen's Woolen Mill and across the aisle from The Black Sheep Creamery and a place selling Border Leicester fleeces. I talked with a lot of familiar faces from past bee classes, the spinners guild, and the fruit club. I had a great time, but was still very happy to get home and hang out with the grand kids for a bit.

      As the Romero's were getting ready to leave, Sofia managed to wangle permission to stay for a few days.   As much as I enjoy having the whole bunch there, it is a special experience to get to spend some time with just one of the grandchildren. It was a lot of fun sitting behind Sofia during sharing time in primary. She is so very smart, just like all the other grand children. She actually conceded at the end of church that my primary class is rowdier that Anthony's primary class. Apparently, that was a pretty significant concession. After church, Sofie made a very nice venison-vegetable soup for lunch.

     This evening, I took advantage of  Sofie's interest in making things to do a little felting project with her.  We wet felted a beret of sorts using white alpaca fiber.  Sofia decided we should make it into a mushroom hat so we dyed it red and attached little white spots using felting needles.  At this point all the hat needs is a bit more drying and some bias tape attached to the rim to give it a more finished look. I think I'll let her mom help her with the rim.

      As I was working on this blog post, Sofia was busily needle felting a cat. (More specifically, she was making a toy cat using alpaca and wool. She was not using the felting needles on Rachel's cat.)  I am not totally comfortable with kids using the felting needles as they are wickedly sharp and can really hurt if not used carefully.  After an hour of relatively close supervision, Sofia seemed to have a good handle on it so I backed off a bit on the supervision. That is, I went from hover mode to frequent nervous glances over my shoulder.. The toy cat is coming along nicely.  You can see a little bit of the cat in the middle photo.