Last week, Pat and I loaded up the truck with his bike and my weaving and we made a road trip to Albuquerque, NM. Pat has a long time blog friend, Patrick O’Grady, who writes an interesting, entertaining, and extremely thought provoking blog called Mad Dog Media. He also writes bicycle reviews and columns, and draws cartoons, for several bicycle magazines. Long story short, Pat and Patrick (yes, it did get confusing at times) planned a bike ride along the Rio Grande River bike path called Paseo del Bosque. The weather almost cancelled their ride, but the sun finally shined upon them and they had a great ride. They rode thirty two miles of dedicated muti-use path, which also happens to pass by the Biopark. I’m taking my bike next time we go.
The next day we took a trip to the Albuquerque Biopark which has an aquarium, botanical gardens and zoo. I LOVE aquariums and even though this one is small, it had some very nice tank displays, and I especially liked the one where you walk through a tunnel in the large salt water tank.
I didn’t get any pictures of the Botanical Gardens, but Pat took several of the zoo. Here’s one special picture for my niece, Liz.
After our day at the Biopark, we had dinner with Patrick and his brighter half, Shannon. We went to El Bruno’s Mexican restaurant and had a great dinner with pleasant company. We got so busy eating and talking we forgot about taking a picture. Maybe next time.
Duffy did a sleep over at a bed and biscuit kennel while we were away. He always comes home a little clingy.
And to finish up this post, Happy Mothers Day to my mom, my sisters and all mothers everywhere. 
See ya,
Sandy O’
A warm sunny day is also a reason to bring out the solar oven. Pat makes a wonderful meal with fingerling potatoes, bell peppers, carrots,onions and pork chops in the solar oven. There is no kitchen in our house during the summer.
There is some weaving going on. I am still intrigued by Saori weaving, a free form style that you can try different yarns and colors. I will be cutting this to make a vest. (Yeah, right. I say that now.)
Take care and see ya,
The next shawl was woven with Yarn Bee Soft Secret in spring colors that my mom picked. 
Tapestry weaving has been on the small scale lately. I used my Hokett loom for these miniature hangings. I added turquoise beads on the blue weaving.
The kids at the after school knitting class tried out my small looms. They had a good time playing with different yarns and colors. Here’s one of the kits I made. The craft stick worked well for weaving but I couldn’t make the hole for the yarn any bigger without splitting the wood. I devised a threader from 20 gauge wire and a macrame bead. It works!
See ya,
The sad part was a ceremony honoring my father. He was inducted posthumously into the Kentucky Cattlemen Hall of Fame. We were so proud of his recognition and so proud of my mother receiving the award. 
Yes, we had to do the “Wise Monkeys”. Mom doesn’t like it, but she loves us and puts up with it. Hers was not the only strange looks we got.
I also finished a scarf from my hand spun yarn. Actually, I had knitted this yarn into a cowl, but the colors just washed out in the knitting, and I hated it. So, I ripped out the knitting and put it on my Ashford SampleIt loom. I am very pleased with it now.
Happy weaving!
Here’s Frosty, the snow car.
The “pile of snow” is in our back yard.
We didn’t decorate much this year. But I did find some snowmen to hang on the front door. And a reindeer made the milk can rather festive. I will probably get some remarks from my sister, Terry. She puts out over 65 Christmas blow molds at her house.
Here’s wishing the merriest, joyful and peaceful holiday season!
This one is all my hand spun yarn, mostly alpaca, with a couple of wool and wool blends. I didn’t follow any particular pattern, just played with the textures and colors. It is hard to pick my favorite, but I am partial to the browns.
My next one is woven with my hand spun baby alpaca from Black Watch Alpacas in Kentucky. I wanted to highlight the softness of the yarn, so I used a simple weaving pattern at each end and plain weave in the body.
By the way, I devised a way to hold the end of the shawl while twisting the fringes. I used two pick up sticks and two Sears clamps to clamp the shawl to the cross bar on the loom. 
After all that white, it was time for some color. This was leftover yarn from several knitting and weaving projects.
Not all weaving was done on the rigid heddle loom. I finished some mug rugs on the Hokett loom.
These are coasters woven on an old Rug Weave-it loom from the 1930’s, a gift from the Head Yarn Babe, Nancy. I glued them to cork backings. They make neat gifts.
Whew!