daft crafter

Working Goats

2011-02-02T09:05:00.000-08:00

I've recently realized I've been avoiding this blog. Without going too much into it, I'll just say I was contacted by someone who used to read it, and who used my willingness to open up here in a way that really hurt me, and it honestly scared me away from the blog for a bit.

The thing is, though, life is really too short to let bad people have any kind of power over you.

So, moving on.

This past weekend, I worked goats. Well, I helped to work goats. What does that mean? Well, first, you have to be on a farm that has goats. Fortunately for the verity of this blog post, I was. Then, you go out into the pastures with your worming medicine and hoof clippers. Don't forget your Actual Shepherds Who Know What They're Doing. They are indispensable, and I do not recommend working goats without at least one. I, fortunately, had two. Actually, there were three, but one was in charge of photography.

Once you're out with the animals, kind of hang out a bit and play with the pigs and puppies while the Actual Shepherds do most of the work. I was REALLY good at this part.

After a while of this, you may find that either you're bored, the puppies are sleeping, or what the Actual Shepherds are doing looks kinda fun. This is when you jump on in, grab that massive syringe type thing, fill it with some medicine, and do your part to protect the kids from worms.

Pay attention here, because this skill will come in handy if your dog ever develops an aggravated kennel cough and you need the cojones to stick a big plastic syringe down her throat to administer esophagus-soothing medicine every morning and night the way I do, but that's a different story.

Once you've wormed all the baby goats, it's time to trim some hooves! This is one of those rare and special activities in life that is at once absolutely disgusting and yet totally satisfying. Don't be afraid, just don't trim too deep in the center part.

Be sure to stretch first, this activity can be murder on the hamstrings.

See that other woman there? That's Erin. She's one of the Actual Shepherds. Seriously, this chick is all out capable. She pretty much kicks ass.

Once you're done with a long, hard day of doing about 5% of the actual work, it's time to reward yourself with some sweet goat love. This is Jack. He looooves me. :)

2010-10-31T16:07:00.000-07:00

We went to Rockport today. It was nice.

2010-10-30T13:55:00.000-07:00

So, we lost our baby. Just one week before seven months, I went in for a regular prenatal appointment. After a family baby shower my sister-in-law threw for us and a day of setting up the nursery, with all her little cloth diapers and toys and clothes in place, a spot for every tiny sock, for every copy of Goodnight Moon, for every little hooded towel. I went in for a regular prenatal appointment and they discovered her heart, once so strong and fast, had stopped beating.

As I lay on the table, with the ultrasound technician whispering how sorry she was, I realized my whole future was gone. The best gift I'd ever been given, the one I'd wanted more than anything since I was a child myself, had been taken from me with no good reason, and with no explanation of why.

The midwife gave me a mug of tea and gently explained that I'd have to give birth to her, that day or the next. I waited for my husband to arrive, as he had to go back through the security gate at Logan with the news that his daughter was gone, take a shuttle to get to his car and drive up 95 to get to the birth center. He sobbed on my shoulder while I told him how sorry I was. It was the second time I'd ever seen him cry. The first was at our wedding when I sang to him, the song was At Last.

At last, my love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song

At last, the skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you

I found a dream that I could cling to
A dream that I could call my own
I found a thrill to rest my cheek to
A thrill that I had never known

You smiled, you smiled
And the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
For you are mine, at last

We gave birth to her in the hospital, surrounded by midwives and nurses, wonderful women who had been there, who were there, who called in to check on us after their shifts were over, who wrote us personal notes and cards after we left. Our experience at the hospital was like being wrapped up in a safe cocoon. I thought it would be its own brand of hell, but it was the most special time of my life, it was the closest I ever got to my daughter. We held her, we named her, and way too soon, we let her go.

Since those days at the hospital, I've been in a bit of a fog. I see a therapist. She suggested, and I agree, that the fog is subconsciously self-induced, as a way of distancing myself from life, so that I can observe what's going on around me and consciously choose what to apply meaning to, and what to let float away. I spend my days knitting, baking, cooking, or just lying on the couch looking at the television. Some days I feel like myself. I can laugh and joke and spend time with others. Some days all I can really do is just stare blankly. Really, these times of myself and not-myself don't take up entire days, they occur in shorter periods of time. I'll be fine for a few hours, then suddenly be sobbing so hard I can't hold myself up, which will last for five minutes, then I'll be done, I'll stand and continue doing whatever it was I was doing. Or I'll be completely unable of getting out of bed, off the couch, of moving at all, and my husband will suggest we go outside and sit on the swing, and that suggestion will be all I need to pop up, get myself a mug of coffee and step outside to breathe some fresh air.

We go to a particular beach, a very small beach, with lots of sea glass. We collect it. Since our honeymoon, we've collected sea glass while at the beach. While pregnant, we decided it would be a tradition, a family activity we would do with our kids. We found that while we were on a great sea glass beach on PEI when we started, once we got back home it was very difficult to find any at all on the beaches of New England. We looked, we may have found one or two pieces of white, but nothing much, and no colors. My biggest goal in my sea glass collecting life was to find a blue piece. It had been over a year of looking and I'd never found one. White, obviously, green, sure, even yellow, red and black, but not one blue piece, ever. The day after we came home from the hospital, after giving birth to our Ellie, we went to this new beach for the first time, and found piece after piece of sea glass. White, light green, dark green, medium green, and even some very light blue. Not the blue I was looking for, just barely tinted white-blue, but it was still very pretty. We filled our pockets and took in the sunshine, breathed the sea air. We walked through the little coastal town and bought some coffee, looked at the little shops that were mostly closed down for the season. We bought some fudge. It was my first moment of peace, being there on that beach.

I didn't find much peace, except at that beach. It's our beach. I needed to go back every couple of days. I smiled at our beach. It was at that beach that I found myself answering my cell phone for the first time. I'd just been letting the calls go to voicemail, but without even thinking, one day at the beach I just answered.

We decided to have her little body cremated, and to scatter her ashes. We felt that was the best way to honor a life that never got to live. To scatter her remains somewhere beautiful, so she could experience some part of this world. We were discussing where to put her while we were walking down our beach. The thought occurred to me to go there very early in the morning, and share her with the world at sunrise, right there on our beach. My husband liked the idea. Immediately after I made the suggestion, I looked down and there was a piece of dark blue sea glass. We found many more that day, piece after piece of beautiful blue sea glass.

Blue and green, those are Ellie's colors. And that beach has become Ellie's beach. We went there yesterday after not going for two weeks. I missed that beach, I really needed to go back. I didn't get enough. I think we'll go tomorrow morning. Just after high tide.

I'm changing, bit by bit. I'm still so very up in the air, I don't know exactly how I'll end up, or who I'll end up, though after 31 years of being me and only three and a half weeks of being The Woman Who Lost Her Child, I'm sure the me in me will win out. That's the thing that keeps occurring to me. I've become one of Those Women. We are That Couple. That couple who lost their baby. My whole life, my biggest fear was exactly this. I've had two nightmares in my life that have stuck with me throughout the years. One was when I was probably around ten years old. I was in a rainforest and found a baby swaddled in big, tropical leaves. She didn't have a family, so I took care of her. She died, and I woke up sobbing. I remember that dream like I had it yesterday. The other was when I was a sophomore in college. There was a little girl who had never known love. She had been mistreated by her parents and all the adults she had ever met. I took her in as my own and vowed to protect her. I was the only one she trusted, but I couldn't protect her from the bad men who were out to kill her. One of the men shot her, and as she died in my arms I was furiously telling her how much I loved her and how much she meant to me. At that moment my focus, all I had to do, my entire purpose in life, was to let this small child know, for certain, that *someone* had loved her in her short life. That she was loved. "You are loved, you are loved," I kept saying, over and over again. She died, I woke up and that dream just knocked me down. I've never had an experience like that before or since. I was pretty much down for the count for a week after that dream. I couldn't figure out why, it was just a dream. I still don't know. But I remember sitting there in my dorm room, surrounded by notes and textbooks, cute outfits, beer cups, all the stuff of a normal college experience, during a time in my life when children were the furthest thing from my mind, *mourning* this little girl from my dream.

I don't think these dreams were prophetic. Nor do I think my baby died because I had these dreams. They were just dreams. But I just can't believe that the thing I have been terrified of since I was a child, at an age when children shouldn't realize how truly against nature it is for a parent to lose a child, when children shouldn't be thinking about loss at all, has actually happened to me in adulthood.

One thing I felt would be of paramount importance as I entered into motherhood would be a particular transition I would have to make. I've been nervous about this for a while now because I wasn't sure I'd have it in me. I knew I'd have to be stronger to be the kind of mother I want to be. I'd have to be able to stand up to people, for myself and for my child. I'd have to be the protective one, instead of the one who needed protection. I've always been kind of a fraidy-cat. I've let people walk all over me, I've failed to stand up for myself, I shrink from confrontation. I'm the type who, if someone started running after me, I'm embarrassed to say only half-jokingly that my reaction would probably be to drop to the ground and go into a fetal position. Not so much a fighter, this one. Slowly, as the years have gone by through my later 20's and early 30's, I've started to be a little stronger in these ways, but I knew I'd have to somehow really Get There as a mom. I wasn't sure how that was going to happen, but I hoped some sort of instinct would kick in.

Something interesting happened the other night. I was in the living room, alone in the house, when I heard what sounded like the front door closing. I waited to hear my husband's voice, but I heard nothing, it wasn't him. The dog's ears were perked and I realized there might actually be someone just outside my house. No one was knocking, but I had distinctly heard a noise. Of course the worst ran through my mind, but instead of my first thoughts being "Where can I hide?" and " Where is the phone?" I found myself thinking, "Okay, time to get into ass-kicking mode" and realized my fists were clenched, and I was walking confidently toward the door. Before I had time to be surprised by that, I noticed a big box had fallen, which had caused the noise. I think, despite the fact that my baby is gone, whatever instincts I would have needed to keep her safe from danger have in fact kicked in. I think part of that also, is a realization that I have been through something so terrible and there is such a white-hot anger living full time inside me, god help anyone who tries to inflict any further pain onto me. (For now we can just ignore the utter stupidity of walking confidently toward a potential threat with nothing but my totally inexperienced fists.)

The problem is that now there's all this momness in me, but I have nowhere to put it.

So, as it happens, I'm changing. But right now I'm looking at that through the fog, and focusing on living the life I have left. Some days I eat because I'm hungry, some days I rely on the routine of a construct such as "mealtime" to remember to eat.

So it goes.

2010-08-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

Things I'd like to be doing:

-Finishing the Surtsey (Rav link) in red and brown that I'm knitting for my friend (she doesn't know about it, but she also doesn't know about this blog). It's due on Sunday.

-Making this awesome patchwork cube:

A woman on my preggo board made one and it is absolutely gorgeous.

-Finish sewing up the cloth napkins Susan inspired me to switch to. I've got about 17 left, which means I've sewn about 24 so far.

-I went to the SoWa Open Market with Jane this past weekend and we saw this artist whose name I unfortunately did not get, who had made these awesome little prints on onesies, baby and toddler clothes. I have all the materials already to make these, except for the ink (easy and cheap at Blick) and the actual onesies (easy and cheap at Target or wherever), and I'm dying to sit down, carve me some stamps, mix me up some fabric/screenprinting paint and get to work decorating a little wardrobe.

-Making wall art for the baby's room. I'm thinking something in a Wonder Woman.

-Papercuts

-Organize my kitchen.

so by the way

2010-06-29T16:23:00.001-07:00

I'M PREGNANT!!!

But if you read this then you probably already know me, and therefore you know that.

Some people want to be rockstars, some people want to be on Broadway, I want to be a mom. This is my dream come true. Which of course makes me paranoid that something will mess it up, however that's also just how I am. When things are going really well I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Once I realized that that was just how I was, I realized that the other shoe will probably not drop, so I'm okay.

So. What am I doing about this pregnancy, crafty-wise? Not much, actually. I've been freakin' exhausted and only in the last few days have I bust out any needles and yarn for the baby. I'm knitting Surtsey (rav link) which I LOVE, in a deep teal and brown (stole the idea right off the pattern).

I'm just waiting and waiting for this burst of second trimester energy to kick in and inspire me to clean, organize and craft, but so far just a bunch of sleepy evenings and an incredibly (and increasingly) messy house. Fortunately I have a wonderful husband who can keep just ahead of the mold spores.

Seven pounds.

2010-03-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

Seven. Seven pounds.

Seven pounds of white, undyed wool. I organized my fiber stash yesterday and found that I have seven pounds, JUST of white, undyed wool. Doesn't count non-animal fiber, certainly doesn't count dyed fiber.

I am not a production dyer, and I'm not the type to spin up enough wool for a sweater (spinning up 4oz of the same stuff is borderline too much, I need novelty), I've just somehow accumulated seven pounds of white fiber.

I think I should get to work on dying it in 4oz increments (28 4oz increments- that's 56 PAIRS of socks). Hell, I could open an Etsy shop if it turns out I have any talent in dying (which, who knows?) I can't buy any more fiber, though. Holy lordisa wowie.

totally uninteresting post

2010-02-01T06:29:00.000-08:00

about comments. I have confusion. I have not set anything to need to be moderated, but I stumbled upon the fact that I had four random comments that needed to be moderated before they were published. Usually, comments just appear, but these four for some reason needed my approval. Not sure why...

Also, I have a friend who can't leave comments on my blog. I don't know why not, or what happens when she tries, so I'm really thinking there's something I'm missing here.

Any blogspot owners who know more than I do and can shed some light on this, your comments (ha! possibly counterproductive) would be appreciated. :)

Love,
Jenny ;)

a quick bit of awesome before I scoot to yoga

2010-01-25T15:24:00.001-08:00

This is my husband and I:

This evokes a magical autumnal/academic feeling and I desperately want that skirt (and the narrow hips that would look awesome in it):

Um.

All images from hitchcockblonde

crunchy granola

2010-01-25T11:17:00.000-08:00

I've never made homemade granola. I wanted to try.

So, last night I grabbed these ingredients (whoops, vanilla got cut off):

and the end result was pretty much exactly what I was looking for. For this batch I didn't want any dried fruit or anything, just the basic oats and nuts, and it's perfect.

It doesn't take an overly pretty picture, but it's proving to pose a MASSIVE problem for me, in that when I walk by it, if I take a small handful, I seem to lose time and then awake 15 minutes later to find myself still standing there, with crumbs all over my breastal shelf and a significantly smaller amount left in the container.

I used about a third cup honey, a quarter cup each syrup and veggie oil, 2 T water, some salt, vanilla, cinnamon and brown sugar, and mixed it together to cover about 4 cups of rolled oats and a cup of crushed pecans. Baked it for about 35 minutes, stirring it every 10 or so.

This is basically the recipe in my new favorite book, Artisan Breads (the link is in a post below. Granola makes me lazy) with a few small mods.

I also had some temporary blue streaks in my hair last night, given to me by our friends' 12 year old daughter, so perhaps that helped to inject some awesome into the granola, but I don't think the blue streaks are necessary.

my little fambly

2010-01-21T07:53:00.000-08:00

said the devil to the jenny "is it cold in here?"

2010-01-19T12:24:00.000-08:00

Two things I really Just Don't Knit- sweaters and scarves. I'm a socks, hats, cowls, mittens, gloves, fingerless mitts kind of knitter. The occasional lacy shawl or something. I like bitesized projects that have lots of variety within them. If I get too deep into lace or colorwork and I'm desperate for some plain ol' stockinette, I'll do a simple pair of basic socks.

I've started a few sweaters. I've finished a couple too, but they're all too short because I have NO patience for MILES of stockinette. Being a chesty little somebody (I use the word "little" euphemistically here. "Little" in this case actually means "XL"), it's hard to find sweater patterns that fit well, plus it takes a lot longer to knit them. I get really bored and end up binding off way too soon and have something that stops at about waist level. While, sure, I have a pretty hourglassy shape, it is, ahem, a "little" hourglass, and no sweater is going to look good stopping at the narrowest part of, ahem, a "little" hourglass. Emphasizing my big squishy belly by having a sweater that stops just above it is really NOT the head-turning, show stopping look you might think it is. I just can't seem to keep knitting until I get to an appropriate length, it just gets boring and the sweaters end up lost in my pile of UFOs forever (see: CPH.) Even an interesting lace or cable pattern will probably drive me crazy, and in all honesty, if I can't finish a project in a pretty short amount of time, I'm going to lose interest. I lose interest in things pretty quickly. I've been married for about three and a half months and frankly I'm shocked we aren't divorced yet.

As you might imagine, things like scarves drive me SUPER CRAZY. Ugh! I HATE SCARVES! EVIL scarfy fuckers! Like all new knitters I started with a scarf. It's currently on the needles buried somewhere deep in my mom's house. I gave up on knitting. Years later I tried a new one. Also on the needles buried deep in my mom's house. I gave up again. I tried a third and just frogged it. Forget it. I just can't do the same thing over and over and over and over again. Fortunately at that point I made a hat and had the delight of FINISHING a project, which gave me just the taste I needed to become an addict. That's what scarves are, though. Just boring repetitions. There aren't any heels or toes or increasing or decreasing in scarves, or even any sleeves or buttonholes or anything. Even the pretty lacy ones, it's just the same damn thing over and over. When I'm teaching people to knit they always say they should probably start with a scarf, but I am of the belief that scarves are TERRIBLE projects to begin on. If you're learning a new skill, you want to have something to show for it pretty quickly. You don't want to pick up your needles for the first time and then NEVER GET TO THE END. Start with a hat. Or a dishtowel if you seriously need to do something square. Do something that makes you feel smart, because we seasoned knitters know, it's all just the same two stitches over and over again, and nothing is ever as complicated as it seems.

Anyway. So it goes. I hate scarves.

Well lo and behold, look at what I just finished:

It's a scarf. It's a fucking scarf! Not only is it a scarf it's a LONG scarf. It's probably about 10 feet long? It's two ENTIRE skeins of Blue Moon Socks that Rock in Jade and, um, I... don't know. Something darker that goes with Jade. That's about 700 yards, Kyle. I knit the Chevron Scarf from LMKG. I was INTERESTED in this scarf THE ENTIRE WAY DOWN. In fact, I was sad to cast off! WTH!!!

YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT ELSE???!??!

WHAT?!?!!????

I KNIT A SWEATER! It FITS me, and is long enough and actually looks awesome. I freakin' LOVE it and am totally not treating it as delicately as I should, but instead wearing it whenever I possibly can. The yarn is a gorgeous, amazingly soft superwash wool DK weight and was bought on our honeymoon to Prince Edward Island at an AWESOME place called Belfast Mini-Mills, which was about a 5 minute drive from the beach house we rented. I loved this burnt orange color they had, but this blue just kind of caught my eye. It was the color of the island, it reminded me of the Northumberland Strait, so I just had to get it. So this is my honeymoon sweater. :) The pattern is Wicked, the worsted weight version, and it was cardiganized based on FlintKnit's awesome instructions. I made the sleeves a lot longer and used coconut buttons. (If I had to do it over again I'd cast on way fewer stitches and just allot more of them for the body, which turned out fine, and fewer for the sleeves, which were FRICKIN' HUGE. I ended up just tapering them down, which works well enough. The sweater is built a little more like a sweatshirt because of those arms, but that's okay with me.)

So there it is. My last two projects. A sweater and a scarf. Will wonders never cease...

1 + 1 = Crusty, Awesome Bread

2010-01-18T09:28:00.000-08:00

Last Christmas, as in, Christmas 2008, I asked for and received a book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day.

I was so excited, but in reading it I realized that I apparently needed a pizza stone or dutch oven to bake the bread in, neither of which I had. A regular loaf pan wouldn't work. I put that feather in my cap, put the book on the shelf for when I could get me a pizza stone, then somewhere around 2 months later decided to plan a wedding and forgot entirely about the whole thing.

Last weekend, as in, January 10, I bought a pizza stone, having forgotten all about the book.

Yesterday I realized that I have everything I need to make 5 minute Artisan Bread, so this morning, I woke up, took the dog for a snowy, haily, slushy walk, then came in and mixed up the dough. It rose for 3 hours and it is now in the fridge, hopefully getting MUCH less sticky. In a few hours I will bake some bread! :)

ETA: I would have taken a picture to post here, but I sliced into it too fast, and now there's only crumbs. :D

more!

2010-01-14T15:04:00.000-08:00

Susan, I swear I'm not copying your awesome Probably Something You Would Like idea here. Well, I kind of am (and if you read this you'll no doubt notice things that you've posted before), but I'm also totally stealing crush party's idea... It just never occurred to me to keep track of all the random things I find and love in online storage. Until now I've just had cluttered bookmark bars...

So, this Color-In Wallpaper is wicked cool:

I love these lists, (and I love that there are more than one!) about my beloved home state of New Hampshire.

100 Things You Should Do To Know the Real New Hampshire (I've done 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 24, 25 (ugh!), 26 (again, ugh!), 32 (but on Ossipee, not Grafton), 35, not 41 but Chocorua, 42, 43, 46, 48, 57, 60, 72 (well, I've seen it, I haven't matched any wits), 78 (only one church, though), 79, 83, 86 (possibly my most random one! They are twins in their, I don't know, 60s? who I used to serve coffee to when I worked at BNG in Durham, and who I later found out went to my summer camp back when it allowed boys, and came back to sing on a CD camp made of our classic camp songs. Which, by the way, was recorded and mixed by the same guy who we worked with in my a cappella group in college. It made me realize what a small state NH really is. :), 90, 91

101+ Things to do in NH
A few are repeats, but my list includes: 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31 (we got married on Lake Ossipee!), 33, 35, 38, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 53, 57, 59, 61, 64, 70, 73, 75, 84, 86, 88?, 92, 97, 100, 102, 103

These lists make me realize how connected I am to lovely New Hampshire. :)

I find this to be helpful, and it makes me want to dye with Kool Aid again!

One of the highlights of my honeymoon was finding that Lime Green Kool Aid is sold in stores there. Here it's hard to find. I stocked up (though now I can't find it!)

Oliver + S kids clothes make me want to have a baby girl RIGHT NOW, just so I can start making her adorable clothes! :)

My absolute favorite fiber dyer is The Yarn Wench. She gets the colors Just Right. :) She updates her stock every week or so, and check it out any given week, it's full of amazing goodies that I could easily blow my entire paycheck on.

I've never been one of these Fairy People. You know who you are. Actually, you're probably Faerie People. I kind of get it, faeries are pretty and fun, but some people are REALLY into it. Having said that, I think if I do have little girls I will TOTALLY use them as my excuse to make these!

Craftster tutorial here.

things i'm in love with right now

2010-01-12T07:41:00.001-08:00

To kinda take a page out of my friend Susan's book at Juniper Moon Fiber Farm, here are some things that I am in love with right now.

This is my newest love. "New" as in "I discovered it roughly 15 minutes ago." A photo blog called crush party. This brilliant woman does the kind of thing I do- instead of taking her own pictures (or perhaps she does, I'm new to her, but I do not), she copies photos she loves and posts them on her blog. I've always copied photos I loved, but it never occurred to me to post them on a blog.

Here are a few of my favorites from the first 3 pages (as of today) of her blog:

My brand new Vinturi Wine Aerator

My also brand new pizza stone. (I did a little registry-finishing this weekend at Crate and Barrel) I bought it, went straight home, and my friend Betsey and I immediately got to work drinking some aerated wine and making a pizza. Forgive the crappy photo, it was taken on my iPhone:

We didn't know what we were doing, and we figured we might come up with some pretty good results that way. Turns out, we did. This is wheat crust from Trader Joe's, brushed with olive oil, then topped with sliced pear, prosciutto, basil, and gorgonzola. It smelled ridiculous, but was WAY too salty (lesson learned regarding prosciutto and gorgonzola) so we drizzled the baked pizza with honey and it was gorgeous.

I love this book, Material Obsession by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke, also introduced to me by Susan.

It has inspired me to go out and make a quilt, something I haven't done for YEARS and years. I went to JoAnns and bought way too many fabrics in competing patterns, and I need to find a way to ground it a little (I have some ideas) but for now, this is the (very busy) gist of it. Again, iPhone photo, so the colors aren't quite right.

I'm just really into purple, turquoise and green right now, I guess.

Speaking of quilts, Ken and I went to the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, MA on Jan 2, and I fell in love with this quilt

These gnomes

From left to right we have Joseph, Norman and George. All three were needlefelted. I made Joseph and George, and Betsey made Norm. At first, George was David the Gnome, but Ken was fiercely jealous of him. It bordered on frightening. However then Ken said "wait, actually, he looks like a George," and I actually agreed, so George was born and Ken loves George.

Whoops, George got cut off. That's okay, he was playing with my webcam a few weeks ago:

And finally, two things I am in love with in one picture. The vases (part of my little Crate and Barrel trip) which were like $3 each, and the sunflowers, which my darling husband brought home for me last night.

We have a pupster!

2009-11-02T11:58:00.000-08:00

Last week we adopted a 2 year old Beagle from Great Dog Rescue New England.

All we know about her is that she was dropped off at a high kill shelter about a year ago with a brand new litter of puppies when her owners decided they didn't want to breed Beagles anymore. A wonderful woman rescued her and fostered her for a while, then she was sent up to MA to be fostered with a great couple in Shrewsbury, Elaina and Alan. Elaina keeps a blog about their rescue fosters here. She was named Cherry by the original rescuer because she had a cherry eye. A vet took care of that for her, and we have renamed her Beasley.

Ken and I have fallen head over heels in love with this little doggie. She is so sweet. She's pretty low energy, when she's inside she's snuggling up to one of us on the couch, or laying across the whole thing if we're up and about.

When we go for walks though, she likes to run ahead. When she gets going her back legs trip her up, so she ends up running with her front legs and actually skipping with her back legs. A-dorable.

She's shown a little bit of separation anxiety, so this morning before we left for work (the first day we've had her where we're both gone all day) we took her for a loooong walk, packed a kong full of yummy treats and hid it, gave her some calm pets before we left, filled up her food ball (sort of like a puzzle she has to figure out in order to get her food out- she scarfs it up without chewing otherwise!) and while she was occupied with that, we quietly snuck out. She didn't make a peep while we left, so we are really hoping we don't come home to a stressed out puppy and a lot of pee on our floors! Last week I left her alone for a little under 3 hours while I went to Yoga, and she did just fine, so I think she'll be okay.

I'm just surprised at how much I miss this little ball of beagle! I can't wait to get home to her!

2009-10-20T12:39:00.001-07:00

My long lost friend Ariel has recently started blogging again, after she moved her sorry ass out to crappy northern California which is full of golden sunshine, flowers, cheese and wine and left me here in awesome Massachusetts-where-it-fucking-snows-in-fucking-October.

It occurred to me that I never blog anymore, and the reason why is because I hate taking pictures, getting them onto my laptop, uploading them to Flickr and putting them here. I think I'm going to stop feeling like I have to do that. I'm also going to stop feeling like I have to put out tremendously exciting or lengthy blog posts. So there.

I went to Rhinebeck this weekend, and stayed in a big, fat house with like 12 women who were all totally, incredibly awesome, and only 2 of whom I had ever met before. It was very... how you say... kick ass? In particular I met this one woman named Muffinista (can you BELIEVE her parents named her that?!?) with whom I did a lot of Rhinebeck shopping, and a lot of Rhinebeck laughing. She actually reminds me a LOT of above mentioned friend Ariel. The two are kind of each other's bizarro twins. And they don't even know it. It's weird. In particular, I got to know this other woman named Kate a little bit better, and discovered that she's also freaking awesome. In particular, I got to hang out a bit more with my ever-shepherding friend Susie, who always puts a smile on my face.

In addition, there were so many other incredible people there with whom I'm sad I didn't get to spend even more time.

I did NOT go overboard on the spending. I am incredibly proud of myself here. I simply bought a rug hooking kit (I'M A HOOKER! A DIRTY, DIRTY HOOKER!), a few bits of roving with which I'm going to make thrummed mittens for myself and my new husband, some needles for needle felting, and a new small tahkli spindle with 3oz of baby camel. Not bad, right? Oh, and a lot of cheese and maple cotton candy!

We spent the weekend eating, drinking wine, telling stories, being snarky, fondling gorgeous fiber and laughing our asses off. All in all, a damn good weekend.

In other news, I'm a wife. That was pretty damn kickass too. :) I won't go into that now except to say that our wedding was like a big community barn raising, and if I had it to do over again I wouldn't change a damn thing. I'll post about it later, but for now here are some pictures. And here is a slideshow. Music plays on that slideshow, so if you're at work turn your speakers down.

In further news, we think this weekend we will be getting a dog! :) We found a beautiful, sweet, loving little Beagle to rescue, and we want to rescue her. They've checked our references and tomorrow night they are coming to do a home visit (ACK! I NEED TO CLEAN!) and we are very, very excited about it! We've been wanting a dog for years and it's finally time.

One more thing. If you have any interest in quilting at all, get this book.

Wedding Papercut!

2009-09-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

I finished a Scherenschnitte for my wedding! Initially I had an idea of what I wanted but I knew I could never do the drawing/designing part myself, so I asked this amazing artist who I follow, Cindy Ferguson, if I could commission her to design something for me. She responded a day or two after I sent her the email, and in that time I thought I might just take a stab at it just for the hell of it, and I just kind of dove in and ended up drawing out exactly what I wanted! So, although she was very gracious and offered to design something, I hunkered down, cut my own design out, and here it is:

Stupid blogger won't resize, it just cuts the image off, so this is a small view. To see it in real size it's here.

I haven't been doing any knitting at all except for The Wedding Shrug That May At The Very Last Minute Not Work Out At All, however I am ARMED with some Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm bulky in their awesome Kiwi and a Menemsha sweater pattern in Baby-Size for Heavy Kevvie's 1st birthday, which I will attack on our honeymoon.

I'm also planning a stop on my way to the train this afternoon to Windsor Button to pick up some Manos, perhaps, for a beautiful bulky shawl that's on the new Knitty which I COVET.

Clearly I've had my fill of laceweight yarn for the time being, lol.

I'm also dying to spin up some yummy stuff for a cowl/hood on Knitty.

As for the wedding, I am so excited I think I might piddle. I'm also approaching BROKE, BROKE. This shit is expensive, and I'm becoming glad that we cut our wedding down to a smaller size than we originally wanted. It's insanely expensive, but I feel like we might recover. With our original plans, I would have just been feeling nauseous!

I seriously can't wait to be knitting on Prince Edward Island... It's one of the many thoughts of wonderful times ahead of me that are holding me through these last couple weeks of work! :)

pictures and some yuletide love

2009-07-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

The dyed fiber and yarn (post black wash):

The sun wasn't shining directly on it, this one really is this bright

This is actually quite toned down after the black wash:

Meanwhile, Christmas came about 5 and a half months early this year, when my mom came over yesterday and decided she couldn't make me wait to give me these:

A brand new set of Valkyrie mini combs! I am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled. Mom did some dyeing of her own yesterday, you can see it here, and one of the many lots of fiber she dyed were some Romney locks, in this absolutely gorgeous combination of orange and coral. I just fell in love with the luster and color of it, she just up and gave them to me, so today I combed them up, spun and plied it and now I have 74 yards of this gorgeous yarn. Just need to find something to do with it.

2009-07-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

My attempt at self-striping sock yarn turned out very well, I believe, (I won't know until I actually knit with it to see how good the striping is), however the colors are SO FREAKIN' NEON it's like being back in 6th grade and listening to the Micky Mouse Club group The Party and watching Back to the Beach.

So, this morning I mixed up a very watered down black and overdyed it. It's cooling now. I think it toned down the colors a bit. I'm just hoping it doesn't come out all muddy. Right now it's hot and wet (heh heh) and looking a little muddy, so we'll see.

This weekend I don't have much going on, I just dropped off my wedding dress at the seamstress to have it altered, so I'm nervous and hopeful about that.

Ken and I are pretty much planning on a whole lotta nothing this weekend, which sounds just about perfect to me. We might go out and look for some wedding clothes for him, otherwise, I just plan on doing a lot of knitting and spinning.

It's damn hot and humid, though. I want my next house to be on a small, swimmable lake. A lake on which no motorboats are allowed, only canoes, rowboats, kayaks, and where you can just swim across over and over for exercise. There isn't slime or too many weeds, and no bitey fish. A nice, clean sandy lake floor, and maybe an island where we can canoe out and have a campfire.

dye, bitch

2009-07-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a fiberlicious day. I got an awesome dye kit from Hello Yarn and I dyed up 3 different lots of 4oz of combed mystery-wool top (which is something very similar to merino, we just don't know for sure) and a skein of Bare yarn from knitpicks.

I am not overly adept at color theory. I mean, I get the basics, but I don't have that natural talent that some people have, though I'm pretty psyched about some of the things I got. The first batch I definitely put too much dye into, so it got a little muddy, but after that things ended up pretty much how I wanted them to.

It's cooled overnight and when I get home I'll wash it and hang it to dry. I need to get a bunch of superwash sock yarn. All the stuff I dyed is not superwash, and I'm kind of over handwashing.

That could be the percocet talking. Again.

My mom-turned-obsessed-fiber-junkie bought a drum carder which she has loaned to me, which is great. I've always wanted one. However, now that I see how drum carders work (producing batts) it's becoming clear that what I really want are a set of combs. I want to be able to create combed, um, whatever they ares. Though, batts are wicked frickin' cool too, so I still want a drum carder (or just unlimited usage of hers. :)

I dyed some roving a year ago with food coloring, and it felted a bit in the processing of it, so I'm flicking it open with my new flicker brush that I got, and I'll card it up into batts. I can't WAIT. It's nice to get into processing fiber again. The wedding has kind of taken over my life.

the perks of perc

2009-07-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

Starting on my 3rd pair of Monkeys. Don't know what it is, really, I usually hate knitting the same thing over and over again, but I just' love this pattern.

I'm using this special colorway of STR lightweight dyed specifically for a yarn shop called Tricoter in Seattle. I bought it when I was out there visiting my lovely cousin Jo. I WANT to knit these for her, but I may decide to be selfish and keep them for myself. :)

We'll see.

I had a dental implant put in yesterday. I'm in a bit of pain today, so I'm utilizing the Percocet. It's a good thing. :) I feel like my perc-high is probably coming through in my blogging right now. Which is a-okay.

Just sent the dude out for Rice Krispies and some marshmallows. We're going to the birthday party of his Best Man and I wanted to make these amazing cookies, but I just don't feel like going too deep into it, but RKTs are super easy, so I'm going to make those.

I pretty much just want to stay here, buzzing on the couch knitting and listening to old episodes of the Ricky Gervais radio show. Really kind of digging the ride. :)

2009-05-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

I bought Angora fur. Lots and lots of angora fur. White angora fur. I spun it into a laceweight single. I knit it up into about 3/4 of a shrug. It's soft, it's beautiful, it's... about 437 shades darker than my wedding dress, and looks like unbrushed teeth next to it. It won't work.

It's currently in the guest room being punished.

I've started on a pair of socks I'm knitting my aunt.

I want something I've spun and knit for my wedding, but now I don't know what. What can I spin that's going to match the white INSANITY of my wedding dress? I guess I can't really spin anything, because that color white simply does not exist on the back of any animal, so I want to knit something, but I don't want to start over on that shrug with different yarn. I don't really want a shawl, because I find them to be unwieldy. I thought of a veil, but I don't really want a veil either.

I'm sure I'll come up with something, but right now I'm just feeling betrayed by the Angora Shrug.

I guess I'll knit it, then dye it some different color and just have a shrug. Or, actually, I'll make the full on Whisper Cardigan that pattern is supposed to be, and then dye it and have a very light sweater.

The play is this Friday. We're in full on panic mode. I think tonight is my turn to just FLIP OUT. So far I've been very sweet and positive about the whole thing, so we decided that if I'm the one to just spontaneously LOSE IT, it'll carry more weight than if Kevin the Director does it, because he did it last year and they're expecting it from him.

I'm kind of looking forward to my "performance." :)

Picture of the dress

2009-05-01T07:18:00.000-07:00

So, I know I'm supposed to keep it a secret, but that's dumb. I'm going to show you a picture of my wedding dress! This is not ME in the dress, of course, this is someone else's picture, but this is the EXACT dress I'm getting.

Isn't it so lovely!!??!?

meanwhile...

2009-04-24T06:08:00.001-07:00

I totally want this: http://www.sleeptracker.com/

I HAS WEDDING GOWN!

2009-04-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

Well... I've sent $295 to a woman named Casper in Illinois. Hopefully that means that I'll get a wedding gown. The right wedding gown, that's in good condition. Yeah, so we'll see. :) I guess I shouldn't be surprised if she, ahem, disappears with my $295. Right? Get it? Casper??

Yeaaaahh... heh heh. Ooookay.

Hopefully this is not a case of me being too trusting, but rather a case of me being just trusting enough. :) I used Paypal, so that's good. She sounds very down to earth and reasonable. We estimated that shipping would take it to around $295, she said she'd refund any overage, and I said I'd pay the difference if it went over that.

I am excited. :)

confessional

2009-03-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

Confession: When it comes to being a musical director for a high school musical, I'm really starting to think I have no idea what I'm doing, and as such, have no business trying to pass myself off as one.

I'm realizing how long it's been since I've had to read music and be good at it, and suddenly I've got these high school kids, some of whom have a hell of a lot more theater experience than I do, and they're all expecting me to... um, well, see that's the problem. I don't really know.

So, I'm making it up as I go along. There's this one great kid who plays piano, and he's playing during rehearsals. The problem is, I'm still in that awkward, beginning, feeling-my-way-around (not literally, that would be felonious), trying to get my footing phase, and the piano player kid has had to miss like, 4 rehearsals for a very worthwhile reason, but that leaves me with kids who need to learn their parts, a libretto and a cd player. So, I've been having them sing their parts along to the CD. Fortunately, in general they are all very cool, forgiving kids, and apparently this is how they did it last year when my (did I mention) ex-boyfriend-who-is-and-always-will-be-an-infinitely-more-knowledgeable-musician-than-I-could-ever-hope-to-be was their teacher, so it's going alright.

I think it's really going to be a matter of just getting through this weird part, and then hitting our stride at some point. They will start to know the songs better, I'll start feeling a little more comfortable and confident, I'll have the piano player kid back, and we'll get into a rhythm wherein the kids start improving and I won't feel like I'm constantly giving them reason to think "Where did they find HER?"

For right now, though, I go to each rehearsal with a little bit of dread that I'm going to make a complete ass of myself. Mixed in there is a bit of excitement, too, though, because through it all it's still really fun to get out of work early and go hang out with cool, intelligent high school kids. Way more fun when you don't have to be one of them.

But I'm ready to hit that stride now. Aaaaany day now.

2009-03-24T09:30:00.001-07:00

Not that there's anyone who reads this blog who doesn't know this, but Ken and I took a vacation a few weeks ago to California. We flew into San Francisco, then rented a car and drove down the coast to Los Angeles. On the first day of the drive we stopped on a turnoff at a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

We took pretty pictures of the ocean

Then we took a picture of ourselves

Then Ken got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!

(I said yes)

What? You want to see another picture of the ring? Well... okay.

It honestly took me a few days to get used to the idea that we were engaged- as much as I knew it was going to happen at some point, it threw me head over heals in shock that we actually were. Once we got home, though, and got back into our lives in our house and our routines, once I was able to tear my eyes off my left hand and could get through an hour of work without sneaking another peak at Offbeatbride.com, I settled into the idea and I've been FLIPPING OUT WITH JOY ever since at the notion that I now, officially, get to spend the rest of my life with this awesome, very tall, gorgeous, lovely, sweet, funny, sexy man.

So that's my big news. :)

The right side of 30

2009-02-28T07:18:00.000-08:00

Well, it happened.

I'm 30. I will never be in my 20s again.

Though, I have to say, while I was feeling slightly panicked in the days leading up to my birthday, when the day actually hit I not only felt relieved, but actually a little empowered. This is probably due to the fact that I've always been at least 13 years younger than ANYONE in my family, and therefore, even in my late 20's, have never truly been taken seriously (Mom, I'm not talking about you- you have taken me seriously since I could walk and for that I am incredibly grateful), but once I hit 30 I guess I felt a bit more valid. I told that to my friend Betsey when we were at the Paradise for a Sara Bareilles concert the night before and she yelled back "What?!? You feel PHALLIC??!?" So, of course realizing that feeling phallic is probably more awesome than feeling valid, I went with that. But inside I really meant "valid."

So, it turns out I am actually incredibly happy to be 30.

Something besides validity and empowerment that comes with being 30 is apparently a massive and very appreciated increase in knit speed! My mother, god bless her newly fiber-loving soul, bought me the absolute HAPPIEST skein of sock yarn on earth and I started knitting with it on Monday. I finished my first sock FRIDAY MORNING. WHAT?!?

Mom also got me a Spindolyn. It is SO COOL! It's a spindle, but not a DROP spindle. It sits in that base there on the bottom and spins freely, and you draft upwards, then wind it on. It's like learning how to spin all over again, but it's just SO COOL!

Speaking of my mom, she's prolly gonna kill me for this, but these are the absolute most adorable pictures of her I've ever seen. Unfortunately, they were taken by me, so they are incredibly blurry because I have NO talent for photography, but she is just SO EXCITED about the hat and scarf she knit with her own handspun.

I told her she should post that second picture on her blog and she said "Well, but, do you think people will think I actually look like that? Or will it be clear that I'm making a face?" So I just want to make it very clear that she was making a face.

Meanwhile, I've been working for a while on the Socks That Rock kit that I got at Rhinebeck. For some reason, I'm spinning this INCREDIBLY slowly, but the other night I was working on it and realized that what was on the bobbin really kind of looked like a sunrise. I tried to capture it, not sure it worked, but you can kind of see what I'm talking about:

I finished that bobbin last night and instead of starting on the 3rd and final bobbin, I decided to do something totally different, so I whipped out some Spunky Eclectic Superwash Corrie in her "Autumn" colorway, and thought I'd try to spin a thick and thin single, then ply it with thread, something I've always wanted to do. What I discovered, to my absolute SHOCK, was that for the first time ever, I was able to spin a consistent, thick single! So I'm not quite sure how I'll ply this up, but I'm just incredibly AMAZED at this newfound ability, and I'm attributing it entirely to my turning 30.

Something else I've been wanting to try is the Andean plying method. I got this amazing Bosworth spindle for Christmas and immediately started spinning up some Merino/Silk blend that I got from A Touch of Twist at the Gathering. I reached a pretty full cop so I decided to try Rosemaryknits' method of winding the single on a book with a popsicle stick to create a loose enough bracelet to ply from. I was scared, envisioning all sorts of evil tangling happening, but was comforted by her statement that this has worked 100% of the time for her, and I was thrilled with how easy it was!

So first you take the single and you wind it, you wind it. Onto a book with a popsicle stick stuck in it. You have to wind it on in the Andean Plying way, which I could never describe but know how to do (there are a million and one tutorials on the web for this, if you're actually interested.)

Then I took it off the book (a somewhat harrowing process, admittedly)...

...threw it on my wrist, plied it up against itself (not with enough twist, I'm afraid), and voila, my first mini skein:

Easy as peanut butter and jelly. :)

That's all the fibery news that's fit to post, however I will briefly recount the adventures of the vacation Ken and I were so looking forward to.

So the plan was to wake up Monday morning, get to the airport, fly to San Francisco, go on a wine tour, rent a car, explore the California coast on the way down to Los Angeles, stay with my sister for a few days, meet up with some old friends, visit some family, then fly back.

We got as far as waking up Monday morning.

Ken contracted some VIOLENT stomach bug that morning, and instead of going to the airport we canceled our trip and went to the hospital, where the poor guy was forced into a flowery hospital gown and made to lie in a bed at least a foot and a half too short for him, with a pink bucket by his side and an IV in his arm which pumped a ridiculous amount of fluids back into his body. He was given some very powerful drugs and felt a LOT better by the next day, but we were unable to go on our vacation.

We WERE, however, able to reschedule the vacation, exactly the same, but staying at one cheaper hotel and one better hotel, we're getting an extra day in San Francisco and the new dates cut down on our car rental price by about $150. We leave tomorrow morning. So help me god, if anything stands in the way of us and this vacation, I will commit murder. I will. Or at least kick something really hard.

I have not been happy with the precedent set regarding vacations and hospitals, what with our accident last August on the way up to our lake house rental, and now Ken's evil 24 hour belly bug. Though, I will say that I am one to try very hard to look on the bright side and I am grateful for several things. 1. He started feeling sick at 3am, and not 10 am, when we'd been on the plane for an hour. 2. This OBVIOUSLY happened because of some horrible accident that would have occurred had we actually made the trip. I don't know, maybe our car would have gone off a cliff to rest forever by that car Kerouac mentions in Big Sur which is apparently still there, resulting in I don't know how much money lost in paying back the rental company, not to mention insurance rate hikes for bad driving, not to mention a horrible, fiery death.

So now, we're out a few more hundred dollars in cancellation fees, but we're alive and healthy. Hopefully we'll be that way tomorrow on the plane, too. :)

2009-02-10T14:28:00.000-08:00

My mom has a knit blog! Well, actually, it's really more of a spin blog. I gave her a spindle for Christmas and unleashed a MONSTER inside of her. A FIBER-HUNGRY MONSTER. Like daughter, like mother! Anyway, I'm loving her blog because she's a funny writer and says things like "I mean, this may need to be a short scarf. Maybe the first person to ever create a scarf had the same problem, and she said to her equally ancient husband-master, 'Shit, this thing is scarfing up all my yarn!' And so she named it 'Scarf.'"

Anyway, as of yet I'm the only person who comments, and so, in true only-child fashion, I'm taking that to mean that I'm her only reader, and I can treat her comments section like a personal email to her, but check it out if you have some time. The woman is DETAILED, so be warned. :)

Sooo in the life of me, lately I've been wondering if I'm pregnant. Not because I think I might be pregnant, but more because there has been this TOTALLY unprecedented, unexplained need to clean the house. I don't know what is going on, it's kind of ridiculous. I've also been busy on the fiber front too.

What? You say you want to see what I've been up to? WELL, OKAY!

So, this I finished in like, early January. It's been a while. It's a cowl for Ken to wear when he's out shoveling the driveway. Not only does he actually WEAR it, but he LOVES it. That makes me feel special. :) He made it very clear that the only way I was allowed to post pictures of it was by not including his face. Ummm, let's not tell him about the other times I've shown his face... kthanks!

This was knit out of the single that I spun from the gorgeous gray alpaca that Sarah of Sarahland also bought (her first unspun fiber! I WILL CONVERT YOU AAALLLLLLL!) I loved the fiber, loved the yarn, but when it knit up I actually found it to be a teensy bit scratchy. I think there are guard hairs in it. I've only ever heard of these irritating little hairs so I'm not totally sure, but I think that's what it was. Ken doesn't seem to notice it, though. It must be because of his very manly and already roughened-up neck.

For this next skein (see below), I bought the fiber from my new favorite dyer. Seriously, she's FRICKIN' AMAZING. So amazing that I'm not going to tell you who she is so that she doesn't get any more customers so that I can always be assured that there will be enough of her stuff for me. (okayfinehernameisLynnSIGH)

This is Falkland in a colorway called "Unfurl" and it is pure fibery SEX:

(below)

Right?

So this is what I'm currently knitting with it- a pair of elbow length fingerless mitts with an alternating cable down the middle. I have one completed and one just a few inches in.

Now, these I've already finished and worn and they are currently being washed, so I only have this picture from weeks ago, but ladies and gentlemen, I give you... MALABRIGO SOCK!

The yarn is a duh-ream and I loved knitting with it. Now, I can't tell you why this is, but I have this near-paranoid, um, paranoia when I'm knitting socks that I'm going to run out of yarn. However, I simply like to knit one at a time top down, so I always tend to make the legs of my socks SUPER short. It's really dumb, especially in this case. I wore them and they started all twisting around my foot just a little bit. It's entirely the fault of the knitter, and not the yarn, but it's annoying nonetheless. I don't know what I'm thinking, I have half the ball left over (which will soon be mittens for a friend's girlfriend, actually) and I absolutely would have been able to make them both INCHES AND INCHES longer, but no. It's like I assume that the sock yarn companies are like "let's just give them enough to make not quite long enough socks! Muahahaha!" Come on, Jenny, these people are KNITTERS, and by extension inherently trustable to provide me with enough yarn for a lovely, long pair of socks! Whatever. I think I've finally learned my lesson. I'm sure my next socks will be gloriously longer. Well, but actually, my next socks will be out of handspun yarn, so... hopefully I've made enough!

Speaking of said handspun yarn, this is a second bout of 4 ounces I got from the aforementioned not-to-be-mentioned (okayitsawesomeLynnagain) kick ass dyer, this time Merino in a colorway called Plum Honey:

You know, it's entirely possible, for those who care, that the Unfurl is Merino and the Plum Honey is Falkland. I simply am not sure at this very moment.

So, I do have a bit of really bizarre and exciting-to-me news. In early January, or, actually, late December, my favorite high school English teacher, who was also our drama coach and who I have seen exactly once since 1997, called me up and told me that the school was doing musicals now (oh, how I wanted to do musicals when I was 16! A feeling which has, admittedly, waned some as the years have gone on) and would I like to be the musical director? They were in need of one and he thought I'd just be perfect for it. How this guy even remembered me is totally beyond, but I told him that, as flattered as I was, I couldn't possibly. I work a full time job in Boston (well, I DO work from home a couple days a week) and I have absolutely no experience with anything even remotely like this (well, I WAS a music major in college and I DID direct my college a cappella group for 2 years) but I seriously just am so totally unqualified, I couldn't even play the piano in rehearsals, that thank you so much for thinking of me, but I didn't think so. He said "Well, why don't I get your email address and email you the details. I understand it's a long shot, but there's no harm in it."

I agreed, said goodbye and hung up, and went back to work. When Ken came home I found myself talking about it, and then thought "why am I talking about this like it's a possibility? There's no way I could ever do this," so I stopped talking about it, and then eventually forgot about it.

About a week later Murph emailed me with the details and for whatever reason I COULD NOT GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD! He said they could work with my schedule and provide a piano player, and the band teacher would take care of the band kids. I still had this idea in my head that I was totally under qualified for it, but you know how every so often someone presents you with an opportunity, and you realize that it's the very fact that you're scared of it that means you HAVE to do it? That's what this was like. The best experience of my life came about the same way. Plus, I don't do anything besides work, spin, knit and hang out on the couch with Ken. This would get me back into a school (a place where I've always had a sneaking suspicion I'd end up again anyway), and very excitingly, back in touch with my favorite teacher from high school (I LOVE this guy. He's surly and brash and very, very funny), working with teenagers, and back in a creative capacity that's very different from where I've been focusing my creativity for years. So I talked to my bosses the next day about the possibility of shifting my schedule just a bit for the next 4 months so I could make rehearsals up in NH (their response was "OMG THATISSOCOOL! OF COURSE!") and I committed to it!

At this point we've had auditions and cast the show, though we haven't started rehearsals quite yet. We haven't gotten the materials yet, so I've been going up to meet with the director (a kid who graduated in 2004! He's a FUNNY kid, I like him) and Murph to work out various details, and also to meet with the cast a bit and do some get-to-know-ya stuff.

I am ridiculously excited about it.

Three other things I'm ridiculously excited about:

1. Upcoming Vacation that will be the Awesomest Vacation In The History Of Vacations
2. Turning THIRTY YEARS OLD in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS. (fewer than two weeks? Yeah, I think so)
3. Ken is out for the evening and that means I get takeout from the Thai place down the street. :)

MASSAMAN CURRY HERE I COME! CLEMFO OUT!

A little update while dinner cooks

2009-01-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

Here's what I've been working on:

I made a new pair of Monkeys with the yarn that I got in the skein swap. This was incredibly good timing- the day I started the second sock, my original Monkeys just fell apart. All in one day- I put them on in the morning, they were fine. At night, there were 3 holes in each sock. Seriously, beyond repair. Darning is not an option. But all is well, because now I have some replacements! :)

And check out those snazzy sock blockers Santa brought me!

Santa also brought me a new spindle- a Bosworth Midi!

I LOVE it, it's the most amazing spindle I've ever spun with!

I will fo sho be getting a new one come Fiber Season. I mean, Spring.

Continuing with what is apparently my Blue Period, I got this fiber from Spunky Eclectic. Merino in the Castaway colorway. This is my attempt at spinning chunky.

That is all. :)

I MIGHT have some ridiculously exciting news, but it's not actually news yet, it's just a possibility. It has nothing to do with marriage or babies, but once I know for sure I'll talk about it. Mind, it's not actually exciting to anyone but me.

I'd just like to take a moment to send a shout out to my girl Ariel, for whom tomorrow, Jan 7th, will be her final day as a smoker. I'm super proud of you! I did it, 3 and a half years ago. It sucks, but I know you can do it, too, and you will be SO HAPPY when you do. :) You have my number if you need to call and anguish.

2008-12-16T13:23:00.000-08:00

So, the skein in the skein swap was received, and received well (YAY!) so I can post pictures now!

I LOVE this yarn- it was South African Fine in the colorway Burning Bush that I purchased from Spunky Eclectic:

I was sad to see it go, but last NIGHT, I got some of the most beautiful rovings I've ever seen. I am officially a HUGE fan of the Yarn Wench, who is does the most genius color combinations I've ever seen. It's like she knows what I need in my heart and she gives it to me VIA MERINO AND FALKLAND WOOL!

I'll take pics at some point, but one colorway is already on the bobbin. Squeee.

Where did the word "meme" come from, anyway. It makes me uncomfortable in a way that I can't really explain.

2008-12-13T08:24:00.001-08:00

I've never been one to follow or participate in memes, even when tagged. I always want to, I just never do. But today I'm breaking with tradition due to the spectacularly unique nature of this day (and that's also the excuse I'm using to explain away the fact that I was not actually tagged in this meme, I just stumbled upon it and decided to post it here.)

The reason why this day is so spectacularly unique is because it is the second weekend day in the history of my relationship with Ken (2.5 years) that I have had entirely to myself. Due to the horrible ice storm that appears to have affected every New England town except ours (seriously, we got a bit of rain) Ken's mom and my mom have both experienced horrible trees-falling-down-and-taking-out-their-phones/cable/internet (Ken's mom) -or-the-above-plus-electricity-and-heat (my mom) situations at their houses. As such, dear Ken, the man who I love so much for his sense of duty, honor and responsibility, got up at the ungodly hour of 8 this morning to drive to his mom's house to take care of all the downed branches (and one vacated eagle's nest!) for her. My mother actually hired this kid she knows to come over yesterday and deal with everything before I even knew anything had happened, so now all she has to deal with is just a lack of electricity and heat for several days (oh, is that all!) so she will be coming over later today to take a shower and fill about 30 gallon jugs of water for her horse, and pay some bills online.

Aside from that visit, to which I am certainly looking forward, I have had THIS ENTIRE MORNING TO MYSELF! Now, I work from home half the time, so having the house to myself is no special thing, however I AM NOT WORKING. So I made myself some coffee and toast, put on some really excellent music, and have spent the morning updating some Rav projects, and just in general surfing around on knitterly sites, reading updates and whatnot that I never ever ever get to do.

Which is how I found this little game a blogger named Not An Artist had posted. (I'm sure that's not her real name- I found her because I plan to knit her adorable infant mittens from Knitty, her name is Michelle Hotchin.) Anyway, she posted this and I'm stealing it from her.

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was 19, midway through my Sophomore year of college at UNH, about to move from the dreaded Stoke Hall into the lovely and wonderful Fairchild where my friends were. I was thinking about running for Musical Director of my a cappella group next year (a position that was one of the greatest things I've ever done and also led to one of the worst nights of my life, but crap happens and I don't regret a minute of it.) I had not quite yet fallen madly in love with The Boy To Whom I Would Give My Precious Flower (and who, as friendly as we are today, seriously makes me wonder what I was thinking!) I was about to, though. Fall in love. That was a good and deliciously dramatic time with a very specific soundtrack (Indigo Girls, Jump Little Children, the Beatles, Kenny Rogers, and Sarah McLaughlin)... I was just about to start smoking (also a good time, GOD I miss smoking!), I had short hair and my friends and I spent a lot of time quoting the Spice Girls movie (in an ironic way, of course- but we still genuinely loved the ridiculousness of it all.) I was 2 months from entering my 20's which would prove to be an extremely difficult decade for me.

College was an amazing time filled with wonder and possibility. I was very, very happy then and haven't been nearly as happy since until recently, and I feel I am on a Happiness UpSwing. Finally.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Go to Trader Joe's and buy a shitload of white and dark chocolate chips
Make a shitload of white and dark chocolate peppermint bark for a party and workplace cookie swap
Clean the bathroom before my mom gets here
Spin and knit (that's two! I'm a cheater!)
Turn the music up in the kitchen and dance around, singing at the top of my lungs, totally relishing being alone! As Sark would say, YES!

3) Snacks I enjoy:

Crackers & Cheese, in many variations
Chips & Salsa (or nachos, which in my mind actually belong to the Crackers & Cheese category)
Edamame
Veggies & Dip made from Lipton Veggie Soup mix and sour cream, which we only really make on special occasions.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

I'd give my mom, family, Ken's family and friends LOTS of money. I'd pay off this house and either expand onto it, or buy another one in another town. I'd break Ken down to tell me whatever it was he wanted, and I'd make it happen for him. Even if that meant Thanksgiving every day. I'd get a small apartment in the Back Bay and buy a lakehouse somewhere in NH or Vermont, and I'd get my furniture at Mohr & McPherson, C&B and places I've still never heard of. Just really excellent furniture. With character. I'd have a whole staff of people to clean the homes I'd have and I'd pay them extraordinarily well out of a deep sense of guilt. I'd go on an EXTENSIVE traveling tour through Europe and Asia. I'd do whatever it takes to allow my dear cousin the trip to Italy she so desperately wants to take with her mother. I'd visit that cousin a hell of a lot more often in Seattle, along with my sister in Los Angeles and the Bio-Dad in Ireland. I'd gather a big wishlist of charities and give a lot of money and time to them. Um, I'd totally quit my job (obvi) and get a big isolated, soundproof studio with wheels, dyeing supplies, a pottery wheel and kiln and any crafty supply that struck my fancy. Part of this studio would be a yarn/fiber shop with too many awesome details to go into right now. I'd go back and work at Camp Huckins for another summer or two as the Craft Shop Director. I'd hire a personal trainer and top notch chiropractor to force me to do whatever it takes to make my back better. I'd finally get my big boobies reducted. I'd go back to school and finally get my degree, but probably in something totally frivolous and fun. And I'd get an English Bulldog. And a Boston Terrier. And a Boxer. And an English Mastiff.

5) Places I have lived:

Beverly Hills, CA
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
Pelham, NH
Durham, NH
Newmarket, NH
Boulder, CO
Missoula, MT
Wakefield, NH
Freedom, NH
Brookline, MA
Wilmington, MA

7) 5 peeps I wanna know more about:

Ariel
Susie
Kat
Sarah
Jenny (the other one)

Christmas crafts and skein swaps. Basically just a lot of alliteration.

2008-12-11T10:53:00.000-08:00

Have you been to Starbucks lately? Have you seen their awesome yarn wreaths? I'm not going to post a picture of it, because I don't have an original one, but if you Google "Starbucks wreath" you'll find several pictures of it.

So, my friend Crystal and I decided to get together last weekend and do a craft, and I thought it would be fun to recreate the wreaths. I didn't, unfortunately, get a picture of hers which was GORGEOUS, but here's the one I made:

The colors are a lot softer and prettier in real life. I love it. It took longer than I thought it would, but it's a GREAT craft. Smaller ones would be fun to make with kids, as long as they were old enough to handle winding the yarn, which can require a bit of dexterity.

The craft also provides ample opportunity for "balls" jokes. And sometimes opportunity for "ample balls" jokes.

Meanwhile, I'm doing a skein swap on Rav with a wonderful spinner/dyer named Kristin, aka AllSpunUp. The yarn I spun her is drying and will most likely be sent out today. I can't post pictures until she receives it, on the off chance she stumbles onto this blog. However, I CAN post pictures of the gorgeous skein she sent me!

I love, love, love the colors and it is AMAZINGLY soft. I mean, SOFT.

I'm really excited about the skein I'm sending her in return. To be honest, I think it's the best skein I've spun so far, and I'm totally in love with it and frankly, completely bummed to be parting with it. :) However, I really wanted to send something where I really tried my best, so at the same time, I wouldn't send her anything BUT this skein, BECAUSE it's the best one I've done. I REALLY hope she likes it!

I'll post pics once she receives it so I can have a record of my best skein ever, LOL.

Aaaand that's about it on the dafty crafty front.

2008-12-02T14:35:00.000-08:00

So first I took this:

(that pinkish one on the bottom there- purchased at The Gathering)

And spun it into this:

(spun long draw woolen, then navajo plied!)

And then, over Thanksgiving, I knit it into this:

(colors not so great on this picture, and the pattern gets lost in the yarn, but whatevs 'cause I loves it)

After that, I took this:

(gorgeously soft Alpaca purchased at Rhinebeck)

And spun it, single ply, into this:

WAAAAAAAA!!! WASH AND WHACK! WASH AND WHACK!

(Aaaaahhhhhhhhh....)

Now I'm spinning this:

So that gray Alpaca- the curly, prewashed single. As insane as that looks, I could have swum in a pool of unwashed single like that and drowned in it, and been a happy, happy woman. If I wasn't so eager to begin knitting a manly cowl for KEN, WHO ACTUALLY WANTS SOMETHING I SPUN AND KNIT (will wonders never cease...) I would have just left it all active and curly like that and just loved it up.

A dumping of the bowl

2008-12-02T05:54:00.001-08:00

Picture a bowl somewhere in your gut that collects all those little niggling experiences that just kind of keep poking you when something is just not quite right in your life. You inadvertently insult someone and don't get a chance to make it right. You have a fight with your Sig O which doesn't get QUITE resolved enough. You make a little mistake at work and disappoint your boss, without getting that eventual "hey, it's cool" pardon. In these situations you move on with your life, but the contents of the bowl keep rising up, sometimes with such subtlety that you don't recognize it's even the bowl at all, but it's unsettling just the same.

That bowl lately just seems a bit fuller than usual, and I'm not sure if it's Mercury in retrograde or just bad luck, but there's one issue in particular that I simply can't do anything about at this point, and which honestly is not even a big enough issue to warrant such persistence, so I'm using this blog to dump the bowl.

Briefly- I manage projects at work. I am a project manager. As the project manager, I do not do all of the parts of the job- I interface with the client, I plan out how the project is going to go, I work on the financial aspects of it, I write the technical spec, and make any random decisions that need to be made. I also rely on two other people at my office to do their parts as well. One to write the code, one to QA the code. We, as a company, have put certain processes in place to ensure that the client never sees the finished project until it is FINISHED, and has been checked to make sure it works and hasn't broken any other parts of their system.

In one recent project the person who was in charge of writing the code decided suddenly and without explanation on Wednesday to bypass the multiple steps in the process wherein we do all our checks to ensure that the project actually works and is not breaking any other parts of the system, and he just pushed the code live. Right then and there. With the holiday, I didn't notice until Friday. I asked him to remove it and go through the process and he argued with me for a half hour. It was a conversation beyond ridiculous, almost laughable, both because of how he was reacting and also because if this was noticed by the client, it would be MY ass. Which I told said code pusher, who didn't seem to think that would be an issue worthy of his attention or acknowledgement. With much arguing, he finally pulled the code and put it in the right place. My boss was aware of the situation and called me to tell me I handled it well.

Monday morning I noticed that on Friday night he had written some VERY snarky (and NOT in the good way) comments on a private (but visible to all coworkers) part of our system, and was clearly trying to project a sense of guilt and utter incompetency on my part with these comments. I kinda blew up about it and contacted him. And... well, I kinda blew up about it. Seemingly out of nowhere, since it had been 2 days since he'd written his comments, but it was just then that I had seen them.

We all have lessons we need to learn in life. Mine are vast and varied and I'm certainly not aware of them all, but those I am aware of include two things in particular that apply here. The first is that I have a tendency to assume that there's a LOT about a situation I'm not privy to so I will reserve judgment or very strong opinion on it. This can be a good thing in a lot of situations, but in other situations it can be read a bit closer to "lack of backbone." Because of this assumption that I don't have all of the information, I can never stand strong behind something because I can never believe without a doubt that I am right.

There are a few exceptions to this, of course. The issue of gay marriage is one (it's simply a civil rights issue- denying people of a certain classification the same rights as other people), and this issue was another. I have no doubt that I'm right on this, which brings me to the second issue I have historically had, which is standing up for what I believe in. However, because the reason for this is that there is always doubt entwined in my beliefs, in this case that doubt was gone so I felt able to stand up for myself.

I told my coworker that his attitude was totally uncalled for and that he needed to quit bitching about having to do extra work that he created for himself by not doing it right in the first place, and that I was completely within my rights to expect that he'd not put me in the shitty position he put me in, and just do his job. All that is fine, but it was so out of the blue, looking back on it now it just reads like I was baiting him- trying to get him into another argument for the sake of arguing.

Sooo now, my boss who is aware of all of this, is pissed at me for engaging my coworker again on it, and has asked me to leave it until he and my coworker's boss can work it out.

My problem is that I can't shake the crappy feeling I've gotten from starting this back up. I look up to my boss and I don't like that I've pissed him off. I can see I made it worse.

Having said that, I didn't make it THAT much worse, and damn it, this was a big deal and I have every reason to be upset about it, and to convey that to my coworker and ask that he stop being such a bitch in such a public way about it. Honestly, what I did- stepping about three toes out of line (meanwhile everything but those three toes is entirely IN line) comes nowhere close to how my coworker has acted on this (not to mention myriad other situations wherein he has reacted COMPLETELY inappropriately- he can be disturbingly insubordinate and condescending at times.)

So, here's the crux of my situation. Yeah, fine, I was a bit hasty in yesterday's admonishment. And yeah, it irritated my boss. Overall, though, I'm in a perfectly fine place. I need to shed this icky, stereotypically-girly feeling of needing validation from my boss (specifically something along the lines of "hey, we all blow up sometimes, and you're totally in the right anyway, so don't worry about it!") and just buck up and move on. Since yesterday this situation has just kept catching me in the gut, to the point where I'm wondering if there's something else that's bothering me and I'm just assuming it's this. Whatever it is, though, I needed to take this situation here and write it out to get rid of it. Because, seriously, the mistake I made is so minor.

So that's what I'm doing. Emptying the bowl. Fuck it, I really didn't do anything wrong.

Aside from this, I wanted to keep this to myself until I had some good news on it- but I've recently had a medical scare, but I received some test results this morning (actually, while in the process of writing this) and it has shaken out to be fine so far. I don't want to get into it here, suffice it to say things are looking very good and I have a large chance of being perfectly fine. And yeah, it doesn't take a genius to think that perhaps one had to do with the other and vice versa.

Hopefully later today I'll post pictures of the most kickass hat knit from my most kickass handspun yet. It's so pretty you'll want to put on a frilly dress and sit down to an ice cream sundae.

2008-11-23T11:47:00.000-08:00

I like this picture- it's of a bobbin of singles I spun longdraw, more or less hopefully maybe evenly from some superwash BFL I got at the Gathering from the Woolen Rabbit. I finished it this morning, took a walk, had some lunch, saw a freaky picture on PostSecret which now has me a bit queasy, and soon I'll sit down and try very, very hard not to overply it, since I plan on Navajo plying this bitch into hopefully enough yardage for a pair of socks. I was going to 3ply it from three separate bobbins that I very carefully weighed out on my meth-lab digital scale, but I saw a really pretty pair of socks that had been knit from navajo plied yarn and made it all pretty and stripey and decided I needed to do that, so that's what I'm doing.

Oh yeah, the picture:

I never like the photos I take. I need to take a class or something. But this one I like.

Speaking of bad photos, here are the pictures of the mittens I made from the Spunky Eclectic shetland I navajo plied (and hopelessly OVERplied at the Gathering), which I knit with a couple ounces of MVFF Cormo (we think) I spun up last Sunday. They have made warm, lovely mittens that have made me very, very happy.

The end.

PICTURES OF STUFF! (seriously, get ready)

2008-11-09T12:03:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday afternoon. I have an entire house to clean.

Okay, let's start!

I've been busy this past month...

But later for that. First things first, here we have pictures from a few weeks ago, when Ken, my mom and I went to go see MY president, Barack Obama, in Londonderry, NH.

I have too many words. Suffice it to say I am proud, proud, proud of my country, and for the first time since I remember I believe in my newly elected leader. A lot. And DAMN is he one fine elected leader!

This is a fiber and crafty-like blog, though, so let's move on.

But YES WE CAN! Okay, for real this time, moving on. :D

Socks for Betsey's birthday!

I knit these from Araucania Ranco Solid, the pattern is Twinkle, Twinkle pattern from Laurie Lee.

Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm had it's annual Fall Shearing! This is the shearing which will lead to my first spinner's share of cormo and mohair!

Here are a bunch of goats waiting to be separated from their fleeces.

A sheep!

A goat!

Susan with a newly shorn kid. Little guy's like "Aww, come ON, man! I'm COLD now! Lemme go, I'm hungry!"

Here are a few shots from when Ken and I went apple picking at Smolak Farms in Andover. North Andover? Um, yes. North Andover. I think.

A view across the parking lot, across the pond to their tree farm and, more impressively, the 80 solar panels they have. Ken was super excited to see those. He dreams of running our entire lives off of solar panels, and that's one of the many reasons why I love him. :)

Me, literally stuffing my face. :)

We went a bit late in the season, so we walked around for 20 minutes before we finally found a place where there were actual apples on the trees. In the span of that 20 minutes, we saw one.

Discouraging at the time, but makes for a pretty nice picture.

Here's a skein of, um, something? I got the fiber at Webs, it was unmarked and had been dyed by someone there. That's really all of the information I have, but I spun 3 thicker-than-I-thought singles and plied them together to create this, with which I am delighted.

Ooh! Ooh! Okay, now we get to the really good stuff! Rhinebeck and The Gathering!

Rhinebeck is like, the mothership calling us all home. And you know it.

I went with my knitterly friends Ariel and Sarah. We missed Jess very much, who couldn't make it last minute because of a family emergency, but she will without a doubt be there next year, and she will love it.

Sarah, Ariel and I friggety freezing at the Rav party

Here are Logan and Harry, sons to Patrick, beloved of ShepherdSusie of MVFF. The game was, take off your glasses and shake your head as hard as you possibly can while someone takes a picture of you mid mouth-waddle

Logan

Harry

We had fun. Then later Susan told me that someone asked the boys who they'd been talking to and they said "Some ladies" which somehow made me feel elderly, lol.

And now for the things I spent way too much of my hard earned money on.

SOCKSTHATROCK DAMMIT!!! IT WAS THERE! THIS WHOLE EFFING AREA OF STR! We stood in a 45 minute line and loved every damn second of it. We emerged, battle scarred and exhausted, but with a pretty tidy little haul.

Now, I need to say here that this place was so riotous that I really have no idea what I bought or where, so please forgive the utter absence of details here.

I also got some very autumnal sock yarn, with which I made some Halloween socks. I was wearing them when I was finally taking all these pictures and completely forgot to photograph them. Doh.

In addition to the above, I scored 3 bottles of wine and some yummy cheese, and some maple cotton candy. DUDE. YUM.

The Gathering, is a weekend spinning workshop event hosted by the Northeast Handspinner's Association, of which I am a member. It happens every other year in one of the New England states or New York, depending on whose turn it is. This year it happened to be held in a hotel about 12 minutes from my house. I took two classes, Spinning Sock Yarn with the amazing Abby Franquemont, and Wheel Plying Techniques with the equally wonderful Jenny Bakriges.

My class with Abby was a full day thing on Saturday, and the Plying class was just for 3 hours this morning, so I have much more to show from Abby's class. But boy, did I learn a lot!

Here's some of what I produced, given the LA LA AWESOME fiber Abby provided for us for FREE, as it was donated to her by Louet and Spunky Eclectic. Both of whom, by the way, make some pretty effing amazing fiber.

At the top here, I honestly can't remember what this was. The pink is Louet 80% Merino, 20% silk. I actually have some of this in a gorgeous olive and I can't wait to use it now. It's a DREAM to spin. I spun both using a short forward draw and plied them pretty tightly. The blue and purple are a 2ply yarn and the pink is 3 ply.

The white was Louet's Organic Merino Top. This picture won't do it justice, but I mean this- this is the most wonderful fiber I've ever been in contact with. Apparently, Louet has decided to discontinue it. If it sounds interesting to you (and I promise, it's more than interesting), please talk to your local fiber shop and ask them to request that Louet continue making it. Here I used a long draw, which was the first time I had done that, so it was pretty thick and thin, but oh man it was like... what was it like? Okay, it was like you know how when you're making rice krispies treats and you get to that point where the butter and marshmallows are all melted together, and the color and texture combine to provide just this ridiculously creamy, satisfying experience? That's what long draw with Louet Organic Merino Top is like. So I spun up a couple singles and plied them together and I'm just wishing I had several pounds of it for a big, thick, soft, chunky, butter-and-marshmallow sweater.

We got 2 oz of Shetland from Spunky Eclectic, mine was in the Rocky Mountain High colorway. I spun those singles long draw and then Navajo plied them together, and was literally newly delighted with every inch that came together. It was a very exciting 15 minutes! There really isn't a lot of this, but I want to try to do SOMETHING with it. Maybe I'll have enough for mitts?

Speaking of Spunky Eclectic, I had bought a couple of Corriedale batts from her in a gorgeous Aquamarine colorway, and brought two very full bobbins of singles to the Gathering with me. Last night at the spin in, while we listened to some AMAZING live traditional Irish folk music played by three immensely talented teenagers, I plied it up into this.

This morning I learned some really excellent tips for plying, and was able to ply together some older singles I had, which I thought I'd never be able to find anything good for. I plied them together as practice, but fell in love with the yarn they produced. The color doesn't QUITE show up here, but I have to find something to do with this.

And hey! I went shopping, too!

From A Touch of Twist:

Four ounces of the most brilliantly dyed silk I've ever seen, plus some hankies with which to... do... something?

Two ounces each of the following colors of 100% tencel (colors REALLY did not make it here to this screen)

A bobbin, and some very pretty merino top which, once again, really looks nothing like its picture :)

From Foxfire Fiber and Designs I got some intensely soft Cormo & Silk Roving, 2 oz in Olive and 4 oz in just plain old white, which, I promise, will not always be plain old white:

And finally (FINALLY!) from the Woolen Rabbit, 100% Superwash BFL, 4oz in each colorway

DAFT CRAFTER OUT!

That special synergy that happens when Jennifers come together.

2008-10-10T11:07:00.000-07:00

I have this friend, Jenn. I met her in high school. We were in chorus together, I was an alto, she was a soprano. Despite that, I thought I'd like her. I remember watching how she would joke around in class and thinking "I'll bet if we were friends we'd laugh a lot." I was totally right, that's EXACTLY what our friendship has been like. We did have our arguments, of course. Jenn is a firm supporter of the "Double N" movement, wherein a Jennifer, when shortening her name, should use two n's at the end. I take my stance on the extreme opposite end. I think that extra n is just redundant. Horribly redundant. But, through all the strife that differing basic belief structures like these might have caused, we always managed to laugh a lot.

As it happens when two friends graduate high school and one goes on to wander the country aimlessly searching for some vague wisp of purpose in life (um, ahem, me) and one goes on to get her Ph.D in Economics with an almost impossible immediacy (that's MY friend, Jenn!) we have lost touch for years at a time. But when we get together, either for a random night of karaoke in Ohio (circumstances, my friends, circumstances- and yes we did sing 867-530niyeeyiyeeyine) or her beautiful wedding, we go right back to the status quo, which usually includes bizarre looks from people standing around us.

Recently I started signing onto a chat through my email client, The Almighty And Omniscient Google, where Jenn also has an account. I don't quite have conversations with anyone like the conversations I have with Jenn. This one started off in reference to my little status message thing, which was "Purple Lightning" (in response to a friend's "Yellow Thunder" - he's always changing his status to make comments on mine, so I was doing it back to him, though I had no idea what his, or mine for that matter, meant)

jenn: does that precede purple rain?

me: aaaaahahahahahahahaaaa. no.
but thanks for putting that song in my head.

jenn: i do what i can. it's not much

me: it's enough, though... it's really more than enough.

jenn: well, at least i am adequate

me: don't sell yourself short, jenn. not in this economy.

jenn: but i am short! i can't even see over my cubicle wall without standing on my tiptoes

me: that's what heels are for! that's the economy "boost" we need!

jenn: ahh... of course!

me: 700 billion dollar heels!

jenn: call congress!
heels for everyone!
and they can be from payless!

me: YESS

jenn: we can save the country billions!
well, i want the jimmy choo's
and you should get them too for thinking of it
but no name-brands for everyone else, because they were no help

me: they really weren't!

jenn: god we're brilliant... i'm not sure what the world would do without us

me: i love how our conversations go

jenn: it's that special synergy that happens when jennifers come together

me: that it is, my friend. that it is.

Please understand, I don't actually expect that this conversation will be very funny to anyone else, but it had me in stitches. Specifically the part where she insists that no one else gets name brand shoes because they were no help.

And now... some pictures of yarn, a new bathroom floor and a new baby!

Upstairs by WollSchnegge wrap that I'm knitting with some new Malabrigo lace I bought. I LOVE LOVE LOVE knitting this.

Three skeins of Socks that Rock that I bought IN THE STORE (!!!) at Tricoter in Seattle. That one in the middle is called SeaMar, it's a custom color dyed just for Seattle.

For those of you who have seen our bathroom, you'll know it as that pink-tiled monstrosity. It was PAVED in pink tiles, walls and ceiling, and had these teeny tiny white and black tiles on the floor. All that has changed. Here's our current floor (with bonus paint swatch of a possible wall color!)

And finally, last but not least, a fuzzy picture of Ken's new nephew, born on Monday night! YAY FOR KEVIN MICHAEL! He's so cool...

PATOOTIE!

Here's the boyfriend with his new nephew. Note the adorable little smile on Ken's face.

And a very tired me with the kid. Love that kid.

This weekend we go apple picking, and possibly paint our bathroom. Oh, and I have to buy a car. That too. In this easy, smooth, warm and fuzzy economical climate. That'll be a breeze, I'm sure.

Seattle

2008-09-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

I don't have any pictures of yarn or projects, which is too bad because I'm working on 3 new projects and got 4 new skeins of yarn recently (well, actually 7, but 3 are the same).

I'm still going to post an update though. I am writing this post from a beautiful craftsman home in the Ballard neighborhood of gorgeous Seattle. My dear cousin, one of my top 3 favorite people in the world, practically a sister to me, recently had major surgery, and that in combination with three children and a husband who needed to go back to work made her need someone to come out and take care of her. So I have. :)

I got here on Friday night and I'll be going home on Sunday, so this week I'm working from her house and playing chauffeur to teenagers going to jobs and 11 year olds going to soccer. Speaking of soccer, I recently got a Soccer Mom haircut, so fortunately I have a place to show it off now. Though it's more like a Soccer Second Cousin haircut. Or, as I'm more often referred to, a Soccer Aunt haircut. Or, as I'm most often referred to, a Soccer Uncle Jimmy haircut. They call me Uncle Jimmy. I don't know why. They're related to me, which means bizarre senses of humor running amok. I'm okay with that. :)

My beautiful cuz has been able to make small trips here and there, so we've been having lunch at this AMAZING Pho place nearby, and yesterday we went to the Space Needle! So awesome!

Here's me and my cuz:

She loves Seattle so much. She is so happy out here, it makes me really happy to see it. This town is amazing, I love it. There is a definite element of Crunch that is missing in Boston that I miss from my New Hampshire and Montana days. We're going to the Public Market tomorrow and I am SO looking forward to going to that famous cheese shop, whatever it's called. And I couldn't get any pictures of Mt Rainier, but it is about the hugest and most majestic thing I've ever seen. It's ninety miles, two and a half hours away from Seattle, roughly the distance between Boston and Quechee, VT (where Idiot Teenager smashed into my car) and from my cuz's house it still stands OVER, WELL over, the cityline. I am fascinated by this volcano, it's so beautiful and so incredibly powerful, I can't quite wrap my brain around it.

Speaking of discoveries of absolute stunning magnificence, I have discovered two amazing things about the Pacific Northwest.

Blue Moon Fiber Arts' Socks that Rock is SOLD IN STORES here, and so is Anderson Valley Summer Solstice beer.

I bought 3 skeins of STR, and, so far, a six pack of the beer to send back home. I plan on buying more, if I can find it so late in the season.

That's really all I have time for right now. I am one very tired Jenny.

Over and out, peeps.

My Summer Vacation

2008-08-31T10:04:00.000-07:00

Short version: Idiot teenage girl blows through a blinking red, plows into me, and pushes my car into someone else's. Car totaled, hand broken, vacation totally ruined. Which means, fine, I'm gonna have to take a loss on the car even if her insurance pays it off, but more importantly, no knitting for who knows how long. I've tried, it's really not happening. Can't crochet either. Absolutely can't spin.

So, I'll pass the time blogging about recent fibery accomplishments. Because I now type one-handed I'll be keeping the text to a minimum.

I could not, absolutely could not be prouder of these mitts. My first colorwork project, and also my first experience with Malabrigo.

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Crofter's Cowl using gorgeous Sundara:

I actually messed it up in the grafting, and I must say I liked it better pre-blocked, so I'm actually not sure what to do here. I still have half a skein, I may do it over again on one size smaller needles, as it's a touch too big and floppy.

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Merino dyed from natural dyes with the lovely Librarian-In Training a couple months ago. When I washed them a couple weeks ago they all felted just slightly, and the red felted a bit more than slightly, but I think I can still use it. This came with us to Vermont, as did my wheel, and would be yarn right now had Idiot Teenager not crashed into my car and broken my knuckle.

No, but all jokey-bitterness aside, I actually am legitimately bitter.

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One Twinkle, Twinkle, being knit for Miss B's birthday. So, I guess it's a Twinkle.

Good god but that is a terrible picture, isn't it?

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I have pictures somewhere of what was left of our vacation, the crash and all my bruises, I might post those later with a slightly more involved description of what happened. On the good side, we stayed at a cottage on a lake in VT that we loved so much and was so wonderful we are definitely going back next year, and the next, and the next... Pictures of that to come, too.

Womp woooommmppp.

Love my boyfriend, but...

2008-08-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this?

Turned on. Like, sexually excited.

Oh, I'm gonna knit you so hard... You're gonna be SOCKS, bitch! You won't even know what hit you.

Taken along for the ride...

2008-07-29T07:08:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my knitterly friend Jessica and I trekked on down to unspeakably beautiful Martha's Vineyard to stay with her parents Friday night and visit Susan, Patrick and all the lovely aminals at Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm on Saturday. The plan was to meet Susan at the Farmer's Market, go visit the newly sprung lambs and kids, meet back at Jess's parent's house for dinner and head on back to the mainland that evening.

At the mention of an open bar and possible celebrity sightings, however, our plans went severely and delightfully awry, and we were taken on a wonderful, unexpected ride. Basically, it was so, like, totally cool!

Unfortunately, neither Jess nor I had our cameras with us, so we have no photos. Womp womp.

So we got to the Island on Friday night, found our rental car and drove to Jess's parents beautiful cottage, where we immediately found crackers and yummy bluefish pate to snack on (who would have guessed that I would ever have liked bluefish pate? Oy! Meshugena!) I met Jess's wonderful parents and two of their friends, and we spent the evening talking.

I woke up the next morning next to an open window, breathing in fresh Island air. We were the first ones up so I was going to sit outside and knit on the deck while Jess took her shower. I gathered my knitting, walked outside, realized all the chairs were wet with dew, and came back inside to get a towel to wipe them off. Except, of course, the door had closed behind me and had effectively locked me out. So, there I was, with my sore morning-back, and wet benches and chairs around me. I had to laugh at the situation and was just glad that it was so beautiful outside. I only spent about 15 minutes before Jess discovered me and came to my rescue, but it was really lovely just walking around their deck enjoying the early morning air.

Jess's dad made us delicious crepes, which we filled with Fig Jam. Do it. Seriously. Now. Go get some fig jam and make some crepes. It's amazing. We certainly didn't suffer for good food this weekend. We decided we wanted to get to the farmer's market, so we hopped in our little Kia Spectra and made our way to, um, wherever the farmer's market was. On the way we stopped at an adorable little general store to get some coffee, and on the way out we saw this dude driving one of those old cars from the 60's- fake wood paneling, convertible, you can hear just hear the Beach Boys playing and see the surf boards sticking out the back. The guy driving, we only saw the back of his head, but decided that it was Sammy Hagar. We were so excited to see a celebrity (even though it was probably actually some guy named Paul or something) that we decided to tell everyone that we ran into Sammy Hagar. Well, actually, we decided to tell people that we met Sammy Hagar, I complimented his ride, and he drove us around the island while Jess gave him a blow job and he snorted lines of coke off my ass.

So anyway, we got back into the car to realize that the farmer's market was less than a block away, so we parked and immediately found Susan's tent. Yay for Susan! We plunked ourselves right down and started helping her wind big messes of yarn into balls (apparently Customs on the Canadian border had de-skeined about 20 skeins of yarn and not put them back. Thanks, Customs). While we sat there, beautiful morning, I saw STANLEY TUCCI! FOR REAL! He was right there in a popped-collared polo shirt and shorts, carrying... something farmer's market-like. And in a FLASH he was gone. But I was so excited! First Sammy Hagar, and now, for real, Stanley Tucci! So Jess and I ran after him and he drove us around the island talking about what it's like working with Meryl Streep and the cast of ER while she went down on him and he snorted lines of coke off my ass. You know how it goes, right?

So, once Stanley drove us back, the farmer's market was over and we packed up and went to Susan's house to drop off all the stuff. We grabbed some lunch and somewhere during this time Susan mentioned that that night she was going to the Island Affordable Housing Fund's Annual Premier Party Fundraiser and could we come with? At first we said we had to leave that night, because I had the birthday party of Ken's niece to go to the next morning, but after a bit of cajoling I was convinced that if we just left on the very first ferry out the next morning (6 am, wretch!) that we could do the fundraiser that night. Susan said it would be way more fun for her with us there, and given her near rock star status in our little world, that was very convincing. Plus, she mentioned there might be a few celebrities there, and I just can't give up the opportunity to see celebrities. I don't know why. I get really star struck and tend to make an ass out of myself so I really should just avoid them altogether, but hey, I'm not made of stone, people. I am totally intrigued with the rich and famous.

Soon it occurred to us that all we had to wear were the soon-to-be-covered-in-sheep-and-goat-poop clothes we were wearing, so off we went to Oak Bluffs to go shopping! Jess found a beautiful outfit which we convinced her to keep, and I found a lovely white skirt which would go well with the shirt I had worn to work the day before. The damn thing cost $70, though, so the entire trajectory that night was to keep it clean.

Once we had our clothes we went off to the place that drew Jess and I to the island in the first place- the farm! Oh those goats and sheep are SO ADORABLE! And Susan's watchdogs, Biscotti and Fettucini are amazing. Biscotti likes to scratch so I stayed either right next to or far away from her, given the fact that we were walking through poison ivy and I didn't want it to get INTO the scratches, but she is WAY too adorable for a dog. Like, it's really just not fair. She is the smiliest dog I have ever seen.

I totally made friends with little Sweet William, one of the bottle babies in the Mohair Goat population. He is so adorable, looks like a little surfer dude! Wherever I would stand, he'd come up to me and squeeze his way between my legs, so he was always standing with his little curly topped head peeking out from between my knees. I fell in love with him, Bay Leaf and Cumin. Because they are bottle babies they are very used to humans and came RIGHT up to us to be pet. In fact, when we drove up in our golf cart they came running up to us, tails wagging, just like little puppies. Really just melts your heart.

Please, please go to Susan's Blog to see the best pictures of these little cuties. Read her blog, because it's totally fascinating, but even if you don't have time just scroll through the pictures.

I really want to go back when my back is even better and I can spend more time working with the animals. It was so amazing to meet them and see how incredible they are. The best part was my discovery that they speak to each other. A baby, somewhere in the flock, would cry out (sounds just like a child), and somewhere else, ONE mama, HIS mama would answer. Apparently, these mama goats don't make these sounds until they give birth, and each parent/child matchup has their own call. It is so ridiculously cool! I love it!

So we spent the next two hours in a mad rush of showering the poop and poison ivy off of us, having an AMAZING dinner with Jess's parents (her dad can COOOOOOK!!!), getting all dolled up for the party and dropping off the rental car. I may or may not have accidentally flashed the vag to the guys at the car rental place. Hey, when you're wearing a white skirt that you want to return the next day and you're climbing into a farm truck that's taller than god, sometimes it's necessary to show a little Mainland Bush when climbing into the truck. It's all in the name of keeping the skirt clean, folks.

So we got to the Ag Hall in West Tisbury where the benefit was being held, which, incidentally is now where I want to get married. It is this BEAUTIFUL, HUGE, open barn that was decorated in Christmas lights and white gauzy fabric, with little "lounges" of white couches and white armchairs. The bar was exactly the best kind (read: open) and the blues band was really amazing. Perhaps I'm looking back on the night with rose tinted glasses, but it was the most beautiful venue I've ever seen. Very relaxed and rustic, yet elegant at the same time, with a constant airy, open breeze running through it. It was perfect.

The drink du noir was the South Beach, a mixture of rum, lime juice and pomegranate juice. Delicious but not too strong. Susan did such a great job of making us feel included, even though we knew NOBODY there. Susan and her dude Patrick, however, seem to be the social butterflies of the Island, so we got introduced to everyone. While we were standing around, talking to some new friends, Jessica, in true Jessica form, noticed a beautiful German Shepherd outside. If you know Jess, which you probably do, you know how deep her love for animals, especially dogs, goes. It's truly amazing, she is so incredible with dogs and loves them more than she loves people, I think. So I'm pretty sure it went like this, with Jess and Susan simultaneously pointing out the window to the lawn out back:

Jess: "Gasp! Look at that beautiful dog!"
Susan: "Gasp! Look at Jim Belushi!"

So Jess, who can be a bit shy, threw that purse over her shoulder and boldly walked out to the lawn, proceeded to completely ignore Jim Belushi and fawn all over his dog. I love her.

Meanwhile, I was introduced to this really nice man named Michael, who I was later told had the title of "Big Hollywood Producer." That can mean such a variety of things I decided to not get completely celebrity retarded about it, but it was still cool. We stood by the fried shrimp station where I proceeded to get splattered with hot, hot, burning oil. In my eyes, all over my shirt, and yes, all over the white skirt. I'm really hoping it's not that noticeable, however for the rest of the night, I had these big dark splotches all over my top. Sigh... I really just can't be taken anywhere.

Sooner or later Jim Belushi came in to sing, which was really fun, and Jess spotted Ralph Lauren, who, I could tell, was ridiculously impressed with my oil-splattered outfit. I know, I'm like a fashion goddess. I don't even try. Susan spotted some actor on the show Jericho. I saw the dude, but I've never seen the show, so for all I knew he was just a guy named Paul.

After hours of drinking, meeting really wonderful people and dancing (on the STAGE with Jim Belushi, btw), we were beat and decided to go home. Ooh! But we got gift bags! SO COOL! I've never gotten a gift bag before!

Before bed, however, we drove back to the farm to bottle feed the babies. All three of us were in heels of varying heights, wearing really nice clothes, and riding in the golf cart, then walking on the dirt paths, and feeding the babies with the bottles. In the middle of the night. It was awesome. :) Those kids can TAKE A BOTTLE, man! I thought it would take like, 20 minutes, it took about a minute and a half for little Bay Leaf to suck down a full bottle. Oh, such happy little babies!

I love those goats, I can't wait to see them again!

So, exhausted as we were, we had been invited to an after party. Susan said she wanted to go just for a little bit, just to see the inside of this house, since she'd seen the outside and it was amazing. We said, sure, let's go for a minute, check it out and come on home.

Oh. My god. This is the hugest, most amazing house I've ever been to. It wasn't a real house from real life, I swear. It was a set from a movie. It had to be. We walked up this long, winding, wooded driveway which had tiki torches flaming from either side, and came up to the guest house, which acted as a covered bridge to the driveway, with living areas on either side, plus an attic-type canopy over the top. The guest house was bigger than my house. We walked through that and saw the real house. The most beautiful hydrangea bushes I've ever seen bordering the house, a beautifully lit outdoor living room to the right. We walked in, and I just can't describe it. It was beautiful and modern. There's Jim Belushi again (god, it's getting boring at this point). There's the lit-from-within swimming pool. There's the Edgartown Harbor, right there where that sail boat is 200 ft away. There's the hugest, gaudiest, ugliest chandelier I've ever seen constructed entirely from seashells. There's the bar. There are the little notepads next to each phone that say "Summer House" (as opposed to the "Winter House" pads in Palm Beach and the "Ski House" pads in Vail). There are the 3 refrigerators in the kitchen. There's the wrap-around porch, looking into the house's seventeen THOUSAND rooms on this floor. There are the 15' ceilings. There's the screening room. There's the East Coast version of the cast of The Hills, hanging out in the bowling alley on the bottom floor. There's Logan Huntzberger. (Okay, Logan Huntzberger wasn't there, but if he was real, he would have been. Is what I'm saying.) There's the modest collection of vintage cars in the garage. There's Jim Belushi again (yawn).

As Susan said, the whole place looked ready for the magazine photo spread at any moment.

So, after Jess went down on Jim Belushi in the '59 Corvette and he snorted lines of coke off my ass, we headed home, just in time to get 3 hours of sleep before having to get up for the 6am ferry.

All in all, an amazing, amazing weekend, for which I don't even know how to thank Susan and Patrick. They put us up for the night, gave us nice party shoes (thank god we all have the same size feet! Well, not Patrick) and treated us with such warmth. Not to mention letting us tag along to this $350 a ticket party and taking us to the craziest house I'd ever seen! The rest of the world is simply spoiled for me now...

Fortunately, I have a date with my girls at the Tam on Thursday. Just the thing to bring me back down to earth, in the most wonderful, dive bar way. :)

oops! hee hee!

2008-07-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

So I decided I wanted to knit these using this:

I had never done stranded knitting before, and I saw a cool little tool that's supposed to make it easier, so I decided to buy it. So I went to Windsor Button to buy this:

And only that.

I came away, however, with this:

...And these:

(here's another picture of the pink)

I am a whore. I have become a whore. But I can't help it. Have you TOUCHED Malabrigo? Have you FELT it? Have you smelled it? It's effing heavenly.

So here's what I have to show for it, after that first evening:

If only you could feel how soft it is. It is amazing. It's like a tiny little kiss on the cheek from an angel. It's like a summer's day walk through a meadow filled with wildflowers, and sun coming through the leaves. It's like when Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe finally fell in love. It's like $240 worth of puddin'.

Oh, and then there's THIS, for which I fought tooth and nail over the span of two hours on a website that crashed every time I clicked a button. I'm surprised I haven't been fired.

Ladies and... well, I'm pretty sure the only people who read this blog are ladies, I present to you, The Most Beautiful Skein Of Yarn In The World

Another, truer to the color, but blurry.

And another.

Seriously, when I look at these pictures I get this jelly-like feeling in my stomach.

I'm useless. I'm spent.

2008-07-11T05:53:00.001-07:00

You know how you get going on, say, two projects, both on size 2s, which means that you can't cast on any more socks because your third pair of 2s are in New York with your best friend who simply hasn't sent them back yet, even though they've been sitting on her dresser since late February, and you don't want to harass her for it because there was that time 2 years ago when she visited you and left her black kitten heels in her apartment and it took you MONTHS to get around to sending them back to her, so you feel like an asshole asking her to get a move on already, but you don't want to buy a whole 'nother set of size 2's, except that you know that, embarrassing as it may be, you could so be content with FOUR sets of circular 2s, because FOUR sock projects on the needles at once is actually a totally reasonable situation in your eyes, but there's that little voice in your head that's like "Um, hello little missy, you have THOUSANDS of dollars in educational debt to pay off, you don't need to spend another $13 on a FOURTH set of size 2 circs" so you decide that you need to just finish up the projects that you have going, even though they are both seemingly in that stage where you knit on 'em for like 5 hours and you haven't even gained a half inch of progress, and besides it's summer, so what are you gonna do with warm wooly socks anyway, but then you sign on to Rav as soon as you get into work (because you desperately need to be writing that spec that your boss wants you to finish two weeks ago so CLEARLY, Rav is the place to go) and check out the new Friends Activity tab which, even though you NEVER go there, you just heard that Casey added cool new features to it, and you see these that Ariel queued, and you realize it has been AGES since you knit up a lacy pair of socks and you MUST KNIT THESE NOW with your jade STR?

Yeah, me too. I'd just go out and buy the needles, except that no place near me sells my favorite size 2 circs. Sad. Womp Wooooomp.

Ariel, from above, and I had a little dye day a couple weeks ago, during which we dyed a buttload of undyed sock yarn and roving with natural dye extracts. I wanted to wait on this until I had more pics of the final products to show, but I haven't actually gotten around to even washing the yarn, and it has now "air cured" for two weeks. I'll wash it this weekend, I 'spect, but I just wanted to throw a shout out to my homes Ariel, and post some of the pics that I have.

This is what we started with:

Ariel dyeing with madder, which goes on babypoop brown, and sets a gorgeous dark reddish color:

Note the baby bottles- a clear stroke of genius on my part when we couldn't find squeezy bottles anywhere in the state of Massachusetts (read: the Woburn Target)

A sock blank, pre-set:

The plan is that when I knit this into socks, they will stripe more or less the way they were dyed. We'll see.

My kitchen when we were done (one point for every beer bottle you can find!)

Aaaand finally, this was my FAVORITE SCORE from the whole experience: dyeing some Lucy Yarn (her undyed sock yarn, merino/tencel superwash. Effing AMAZING) with some Brazilwood bark that Ariel generously purchased for me on a trip out west...

...which I proceeded to BURN TO A CRISP IN THE GODDAMN MICROWAVE:

Aaaand a picture of me, after I realized the extent of the damage, and that I would never be able to knit anything with that yarn:

Womp wooooomp.

After an hour of true, genuine moping around and sad, heavy sighs, Ken distracted me with dinner and a series of Entourage episodes (lately, he's used Entourage to cheer me up after several sad events, and might I say it really works! Especially when combined with ice cream. The ice cream is important.)

2008-06-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

Here's what's going on RIGHT NOW.

1. My back is ACTUALLY GETTING BETTER. I am no longer in constant excruciating pain, now it's more like an on and off somewhat to very annoying pain, that has, lately, been off just as much as it's been on. I attribute this almost entirely to my acupuncturist, who found a place on my body to stick needles into which, when he's touching it, doesn't make me cringe with embarrassment for not shaving/exfoliating/knowing my own boss. My shoulders. How it is that sticking needles into my shoulders and arms has significantly reduced my back pain is something only those kooky Chinese medicinal practitioners know, but I'll take it!

2. Last night was our company party. I got drunk and am living today in a haze. A foggy haze.

3. The recent heat wave brought about a virtual EXPLOSION of dark red roses in our front yard. Who knew we had rose bushes? Love that first summer in a new house- discovering all the awesome things that start to grow when the weather gets good. This is something I want to do here, I just haven't had the time to set it up- I want to create a photographic tribute to Why I Love My House. If it's nice this weekend and I have some time on Sunday morning, perhaps I'll be able to finish the photos I'm planning and put that up.

4. I've spun my first skein on a drop spindle. It's spun from 70% Alpaca, 30% Tussah silk, plied to within an inch of its life, and is now what I'd call laceweight. It's actually quite wiry, and though the washing and whacking of it did get it a lot softer, it's still not something I'd want to wear. So, I'm planning on knitting some sort of Household Thing with it. Perhaps a lacy pillow or a lamp shade cozy.

5. Speaking of handspun, here are the socks I'm knitting with my handdyed, handspun Merino. The first skein of yarn I've actually wanted to knit with!

6. I really don't understand street cleaning. Why do we need to wash the street? It's the ground.

7. I'm actually incredibly busy today, since I'm taking tomorrow off to go down to Martha's Vineyard for the Relay for Life. I'm really hoping to be able to take a bit of time to go visit Susan and the kids and lambs at the MVFiber Farm while I'm down there. However today, I have TONS to do. So, naturally, I've updated my blog.

An AMAZING four days off...

2008-05-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

I took Friday off, it was Ken's birthday and I just needed a day off. I spent the morning spinning and finished this, my favorite handspun that I've made. It's the first handspun that I actually want to knit with.

It started off as plain white merino top roving, which I dyed with food coloring and then spun up into roughly 4 or 5 ounces of sock-weight-ish yarn. I think. I'm not really sure of the "weight." I should figure that out.

Any suggestions on what to knit with it would be greatly appreciated. I am leaning toward socks, however I'm open to anything. It is about as soft as it can be, I may just keep it looped around my neck, to be honest. I'm kind of in love with it. :)

I also went to my second acupuncture appointment. This was with a different acupuncturist than the first appointment. I didn't like him as much, and what he did (staying away from the problem area- my sciatica- and treating me remotely) didn't help me as much as the first one, which is actually REALLY too bad, since that means I'm going to have to go back to being bare-ass-up on that table while the guy who I could have gone to high school with and who knows my boss sticks needles right into my dimple-butt (as it's affectionately known 'round these parts- I embrace my cellulite, people.) I don't know if you've ever seen my ass, but I assure you it's not my greatest feature. Why couldn't the cute acupuncturist decide that my back will get better if he sticks needles into my ample and luscious bosom or much better yet my sparkling sense of humor? Sigh... Must remember to exfoliate...

So Ken came home from work (what? It's okay if I take his birthday off and he doesn't, right?) and we went to Wally World to pick out a patio set

then out to dinner at The Loft in North Andover, which is famous for it's Lobster Mac and Cheese. Rightly so. Excellent corn bread, too (enter: dimple-butt). Then we went to go see Indiana Jones, which was certainly entertaining. For the first 10 minutes I was aware of how old Harrison Ford is, but after that I kind of let that go and bought it. I definitely recommend it, it's a fun two hours in the theater.

Saturday I went with my knittas to WEBS and then to the Mass Sheep and Wool Festival, and despite a VERY annoyed back I had a ridiculously awesome time. I bought entirely too much loot and couldn't be happier about it. My newly acquired fiber and I had a little photo shoot the next morning on the cedar swing in my back yard, which is my new favorite place.

Two hanks of roving and my gorgeous new Kundert spindle

Let's see that spindle again

8oz of astonishingly beautifully dyed merino which spins up in a way that kind of makes me weak in the knees

Merino/Tencel roving. You can practically feel it from this picture. I bought it because I want to be like Lucy

I was drooling over this skein of naturally dyed sock yarn when the woman who dyed it told me it was half price AND pointed Ariel and I to the woman who makes the dyes. I bought the yarn, then Ariel and I bought the dye kit.

Two ounces each of blonde and brunette Alpaca/Tussah silk roving...

...which will be spun and plied on my new gorgeous cedar Kundert spindle!

Yeah, I really love the spindle. Though, I will say that the hook is a bit fragile. I've dropped the thing a few times (why do you think it's called a "drop spindle," heh) because the single slipped off the hook and then the hook got a little bent. I'm not loving that. Everything else, though, I'm loving. It spins beautifully, and I am so in love with the wood he used. It changes and even glows in the light.

After leaving the sheep and wool festival, we continued with our now-tradition of stopping at this ice cream place/nursery on the way back home. I got a delicious (and HUGE) malt sundae, plus two little 6-packs of Alyssum and a small pot of Rosemary.

Sunday we had Ken's family and my mom over to celebrate his birthday. The new patio set held up beautifully and the steaks were delicious. Then Monday Ken and I celebrated our anniversary (which is technically today) by spending the morning drinking coffee on our swing and coming up with baby names for his brother's unborn son and doping out our plan of defense in case of Zombie or Velociraptor attack. Our plan is very good, but must remain top secret, since there is the remote chance it could be considered offensive by pretty much anyone. But hey, you know, when it comes to life and death situations one can't be too careful and must be willing to go the extra mile, no matter how distasteful that may be. I will say, however, that we both decided that we would be able to shoot each other in the face if the other turned into a Zombie. I feel good knowing that Ken will be able to put his feelings for me aside should I ever decide to try to eat his brains.

For the afternoon we decided to take a drive up to Gloucester to see what we could see, and ended up checking out the ocean for a while, then taking a lovely drive around Rt 127 before stopping for dinner at Tom Shea's in Essex. We ate on their back patio which docks out to the channel so that people can drive their boats to the restaurant. I didn't have my camera with me then, which is too bad because it was beautiful. Their Lobster Pie was really, really amazing, as was their Blue Moon.

Here are some shots of Ken and I in Gloucester, sitting by the sea

Smiling for the camera

Smiling big for the camera

Smiling fake for the camera

It was a lovely day

Plus, when we got back home, Ken gave me a present, a Lazy Kate for my wheel with three new bobbins! Now I can make 3 ply yarns. Muahahahaa.....

As dusk fell we decided to make a fire and end the day back out on the swing. Really, really wonderful day.

...distracted...

2008-05-20T07:05:00.000-07:00

The Central Park Hoodie has been placed officially On Hold for the following reasons: Noro Socks and Portable Spinning. For these are my two most recent obsessions.

First off, I could not be more psyched about how the Noro sock yarn is knitting up, with one exception. I should have either knit them up on US1s (I'm on 0s) OR, added just a few stitches. They are just a TAD bit snug around that undefined part of the foot that no one thinks about but sock knitters. You know, that point of widest circumference from the bend of your ankle around your heel and back. However, I am willing to make the sacrifice and just pray that it stretches out a bit.

I took the ball of Noro, skeined it, then wound it into a center pull ball, and now I am knitting in 5 row stripes from either end of the skein.

Regarding the portable spinning, I got an interesting comment yesterday from the Stalked-by-Comcast Spinnifer. "Pretty funny you being so excited about 'portable spinning'. Centuries worth of peasants would laugh."

True, true, spinning was a chore for those folks. I mean, Columbus's sails were woven from thread spun on a drop spindle, however that is precisely the reason I love it so much. It's something my ancestors did. Well, my ancestors weren't Spanish and surely didn't help with Columbus's sails, but my ancestors surely did this.

Wait, I just found out that Columbus was Italian, and, as easily as I burn in the sun I do have Italian blood, so that right there is irrefutable PROOF that my ancestors helped with the sails.

So, while my ancestors were spinning Columbus's sails and doing all the very hard work that people in that era did simply to survive from day to day, they were NOT working in an overly air conditioned office spending 40+ hours a week creating mock ups in Excel, trying to avoid soda, remember fish oil and increase their intake of dark green leafies, and having argumentative debates about the perfect web based software applications to support the future of the mystery shopping industry. Good for them, really, because while the certainty of food on my table every day, warmth in my house every night and the assurance that I'm not about to be raped and pillaged by evil, corrupt nobles is a luxury I am eternally grateful to have, the software industry and all the rest of it starts to seem a little pointless after a while.

So, I spin because it puts me in touch with a simpler, more meaningful yet much more difficult time, when the hard-won victories and every day drudgeries that people devoted their lives to actually mattered on a very personal, concrete level. Plus, it's fun, it's calming and it centers my mind.

Having said that, I agree with Spinnifer. Though these peasants, upon seeing the ease with which we live our lives and the ridiculously superficial things we fret over on a day to day basis might actually be closer to irritated than amused that I'd be so excited about the ability to do for fun what they had to do for survival, while in a car that goes WAY faster than horses on the way to a movie theater to watch some film in which the very same peasants were grossly misrepresented by Hollywood production companies who simply didn't bother to do enough research.

(Is it obvious that I have several huge projects I need to start on? Really, my name should be Daft Procrastinator).

So I filled up my spindle (or, possibly, I was just so excited to unwind it that I'm just calling it "filled") and wound the single into a ball. I found this awesome suggestion on Rav about taking a paper towel roll and cutting/taping it to fit snugly over my ball winder, then winding the single onto that. So I've done that and have just started spinning the second spindles-worth. Once that's done I guess I'll just spin up as many singles as I can, then ply them together in some way.

This is what I have so far. It takes SOOO much longer to spin on a spindle, but I still really enjoy it.

And here's the second spindle JUST begun

Oh, squee.

2008-05-11T16:54:00.001-07:00

So, I've been kind of absent lately, even when I'm present. Sorry for those of you who are desperate for me to post (snarf), and apologies as well to those who see me in person and have to put up with my not-really-theredness and constant-bitching.

Life has its ups and downs, and while the love and friendship arenas of my life are aces right now, for which I am incredibly grateful, currently in the health, job and family departments things are a bit stressful (and often downright painful). Back pain, stressful projects that won't end and take up half the weekend, and an uncle in the hospital. Blech.

However. Today was Mother's Day, and after a nice brunch I took my mom to the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival and, as Sheep and Wool Festivals are wont to do, it made for a pretty awesome stress-free (if not entirely pain-free) day. I'ma gonna take a few moments right now to listen to some chill Indigo Girls and show off a couple fun things.

So, unfortunately I didn't bring the camera with me, which is too bad, for the cute animals were abundant and I could take no M&M pictures of the day (M&M- Mommy & Me. No matter how old I am or how seldom I refer to her as "Mommy," {that would be never} we will always have M&M days.) Still, though, we had a great time. She was so psyched to see the sheep dog demos, which are always really interesting. I was psyched to see all the yummy yummy fiber!

Speaking of yummy, my first purchase of the day is currently a hotly debated item on Rav. I am personally positive through past experience that I will side with the "deliciously awesome" side of the debate, as opposed to the "horrifyingly awful" side. The question, of course, is "What's it like to knit with Noro sock yarn?" Well, now I can find out for myself!

Hohhh man... love it.

I also bought some lovely roving, whose colors aren't necessarily accurately displayed here, but it is four ounces of Merino gorgeousness, and to go with it I bought a drop spindle. The second I had purchased the drop spindle I started spinning with it. While walking, while sitting, on the drive home (wasn't driving, of course). I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, I've just never been attracted to the idea of the drop spindle, but I spoke to this wonderful woman there who was spinning on one and immediately knew it was the answer to all my problems.

Hello! PORTABLE SPINNING! IT'S FUCKING GENIUS!!!

Speaking of spinning, I picked up two more bobbins for my Minstrel (I had planned on 5 but forgot my damn checkbook so only had enough cash for 2) and I found this antique (according to the woman who sold it to me, of course) print of a wood carving. I absolutely love it. I can't read the name of the artist. Harris Fehnersomething perhaps? It's called "A Difficult Decision" and something about it just spoke to me. Ken, of course, took one look and said, "Heh, you just love it 'cause there's a spinning wheel in it!"

That may be partially true. But only partially.

So that was the wonderful day at the NHSW festival. Very nice.

Meanwhile, I'm knitting the Central Park Hoodie by Heather Lodinsky and I've recently finished the back.

Mmmmm, tweedy, cabley goodness! Wow. What an Ariel thing to say...

Ryan Seacrest is entirely too tan

2008-04-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

FIRST! THE FIBER FEST!

So, as you may know, I purchased a Fall fiber share from the Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm, and this past weekend was their Spring sheep shearing festival. Here's what I have to say about that.

Susan Gibbs is my hero. She decided she wanted to be a shepherd, so she just... became a shepherd (it was THAT EASY, too!) She's the kind of down to earth that you don't realize is missing from so many people until you see it again, and she's funny and was so welcoming and sweet to us, and thankful that we bought shares into her business without really even knowing what we'd be getting. For some reason, I simply didn't have any doubt at all that it would be quality. But really, it wasn't just a fiber fest, it was a full on love fest as well. Starting, of course, with the star of the day, Basil, 2 months old (and HUGE):

Basil and I have a little snuggle:

Jess is in her element:

The handsome Roquefort:

Roquefort and I totally making out:

Ken and our charge for the week, Sandy (with whom I have fallen in love and almost cried when we had to give her back to Ken's mom Sunday). Yes, that's a mohawk. Because I can, and because she let me.

Look how fluffy she is! I LOVE this dawg.

Nothing like a man and his (mom's) dog

So, you may be wondering what the yarn looks like- the stuff that comes from those wacky animals on Martha's Vineyard. Well, I happened to get a skein! This is a GORGEOUSLY soft worsted weight in an incredible variegated green called Parsley. I insist you all go immediately to Susan's Etsy store and buy some for yourself.

The current combination of this yarn and size 7 circulars is producing the Sofia Cowl from One Skein Wonders with it, designed by Jessie Dotson.

Also on the needles is a plain vanilla pair of socks, knit in one of my favorites, Austermann Step, with a Trekking XXL heel and toe just for the hell of it.

And finally, the finished Eyelet Swirl socks (that rock.)

2008-04-11T11:27:00.001-07:00

Okay now this is just crazy talk. It's been a long time since I've updated, and I even have a couple things to FO off. I don't feel I have anything particularly interesting to say, so I'll just break the block by putting up some pics. It's been pretty busy, though, I gotta say. The weather gets a bit warmer (FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST THANK GOD), little sprouts start springing up (see figs. A and B), my back gets a little worse, then a little better, and people in my department start using their vacation time, selfishly leaving me with more work to do. Don't they think of ME when they are making their plans? Inconsiderate...

fig. A

fig. B

But look at that sprouting! And these pictures were taken about 2 weeks ago. There are actual FLOWERS now! Or, at least, little flashes of purple, if not full flowers.

In knitterly news, I've completed my Embossed Leaves socks, which I knit with the Trekking XXL I got from Ariel last Christmas, and which have become my favorite socks. Heh... I just got that...

In addition, I've started on my second pair of Socks That Rock, mediumweight, in the Socktopus colorway (you remember good old Socktopus... she used to be so innocent...) This isn't an established pattern of any kind, I just took a stitch I liked from the Vogue Stitchionary Vol 1 called Eyelet Swirls, I converted it to knitting in the round, figured out the gauge and started knitting. This was a bit tougher than usual, given that the mediumweight is really too thick to use on usual sock patterns, and not quite thick enough to alter them by removing a full repeat of normal patterns. This pattern makes the socks a bit on the large size, but I'm okay with that. They're slouchy. :)

And finally, the most recent papercutting I've done. I've been holding back on the papercuttings, mainly because I'm having trouble finding the kind of paper I want to use, and also, trouble finding suitable frames. I got this image somewhere on the web. Couldn't find an owner for it, so I just printed it and cut it.

No real spinning news, mainly because I've too many projects and not enough bobbins. I desperately need more bobbins to spin my way out of the rut I'm in. I simply have nowhere to spin anything TO. Must resolve that issue... And fast!

I still smell like a beer

2008-03-18T07:59:00.001-07:00

So last week I scored two tickets to see the Dropkick Murphys on St Patrick's Day at the Paradise in Boston. Needless to say, I've been buzzing with excitement since last week. I surprised Ken with them, all he knew was that we were going Somewhere on Monday night and we would be out late. He did figure it out yesterday morning, but that was okay, because that way he got a full day of the Excitement Buzzing as well.

The show was really amazing. A bit rowdy, since we found ourselves in the dead CENTER of the little mosh pit that started out of nowhere when the DKs came on. I have fun in that situation, it's fun to be kinda thrown around a bit, and to keep your balance and shove people back, but when I looked up at my very quiet tempered boyfriend to see if he was having as good of a time as I, he looked positively ALARMED. I looked in front of me again and realized that it had changed from a fun little bit of moshing to an all-out testosterone infused, beer-and-aggression fueled, sweaty man-fest in about the blink of an eye, so we moved to the back. I still got knocked into several times, but about half way into the show I realized that if I just kept my fists ready at waist level, if some stupid boy knocked into me I'd have the perfect opportunity to do something I've always wanted to do but have never had the opportunity or guts: randomly throw punches without any recourse to speak of, since my punch would simply be an anonymous one of many.

:D

So the Dropkick's were way cooler than I ever thought they'd be. So much fun! I find that one of the better feelings in life is knowing a song well enough to punch your fist in the air and scream "OI! OI! OI!" at all the exactly right moments. It fosters a warm sense of camaraderie, much like when you've crashed your plane into some snowy, mountain-top tundra and you band together with your fellow passengers to kill and eat the most annoying one of the bunch for survival.

I've also realized how incredibly OLD I've become. We left and instead of talking about how KICK-ASS the show was and how PUMPED we are and LET'S GO GET MORE BEER AND TEAR UP THE TOWN! It was all "Oh my goodness I thought those boys were going to hurt themselves!" and "man is my back sore" and "what?! speak up! I can't hear you for all the ringing in my ears!" Not to mention a few choruses of "It is NOT 11:30! Oh, my god, it is WAY past our bedtime!"

Yeah. So there you have it, my old-lady-already slash young-kid-still experience of last night.

Meanwhile, some friends of mine really came through on the Belated Birthday Present front last Friday night. I got 2 kickass books and the current issue of Interweave Knits Magazine. One of the books is about opening a specialty business, something to read when I'm getting closer to opening a yarn shop. Still a dream for me.

The other, however, is a REALLY amazing book on fiber dyeing.

I also received this in the mail last night, which I purchased off of Amazon for like $6.

Also a really great book.

I plan to bring both to SnB tomorrow night, should anyone want to look them over, and maybe plan a dyeing day sometime soon.

On the sticks: I have one and a half Embossed Leaves socks completed, knit in the Trekking XXL I scored in our Secret Santa Swap. I had actually put it down for several months while I did other things, and I picked it up to transfer the stitches to another needle, so I could use the needle it was on to start the Monkeys I'm planning on with the recently-deflowered Socktopus, however when I picked up the Embossed Leaves I found I couldn't put it down, so I decided to finish them. I finished that sock that night and am now halfway through the second, so hopefully by this weekend I'll have a new pair of socks, and be started on my second pair of Monkeys.

Aaaaaaand that's it.

FO FO Callisto!

2008-03-13T17:50:00.000-07:00

I am so glad to say that after months of work (and months of letting it rest) I have finally finished this wrap, and am so immensely happy with the outcome.

I love the ruffles, I love the yarn, I love the size, it's just beautiful.

Pattern: Callisto, by DoubleHelix (I'll give you her real name when she gives me permission to do so on this here innerweb.)

Yarn: The RIDICULOUS Noro Silk Garden. Absolutely ludicrous, this yarn. I had a damn yarngasm every time I touched it.

Meanwhile, I just got to work, threw on my At-Work-Slippers, and noticed this. Today, I am wearing these socks:

...with these slippers:

(not my photo- I swiped it from somewhere on the internet: http://snarkittome.blogspot.com)

I'm wearing my Monkey socks with my sock monkeys! Isn't it an exciting time to be alive?

it would have been better if I could have made the photos grainy...

2008-03-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like you are creating yarn porn when you take pictures of your new yarn?

First of all, I have to admit that today this blog will be the unwitting victim of bad photography. Which, really, just kind of pushes along the whole yarn porn thing. However, I am limited on time and much too eager to share the gorgeous colors of Blue Moon Fiber Arts to really strive toward the great photography of my comrades in the knitterly blogosphere such as Miss Macoco, whose photographs are inspirational each and every post.

We talk about her pictures when she's not around. Does she have a timer on that camera? Does someone else take the photos? Does she feel free to pose the way she does because she's alone and has complete creative control, so she can simply delete the embarrassing ones, leaving only the really great ones for us? Or is she just that confident around whoever is actually taking the picture to do all the cool poses she does? I know when I had to take the picture of the vest I recently did, Ken was the one holding the camera, and I felt like an idiot. I am very comfortable around Ken, hell, I'm comfortable around anyone, but posing for pictures makes me feel incredibly silly. Not comfortable in front of a camera, that's me. And, as you'll see from the slightly blurry pictures below, I'm not entirely comfortable behind one, either. :)

(EDIT: Several of the... photos... below were taken after this was originally written. Honestly, it started out innocently enough, I just wanted to take pictures of my new yarn, but then things just got a little out of hand. Next thing you know, as Ken says, "yarn on yarn action.")

Okay, so on to the loot. I got three, count 'em three more skeins of STR, in shades "Socktopus," "Jade" and "Rolling Stone." These are the last 3 skeins of yarn I am allowing myself to purchase until I am actually on fairgrounds of some kind, smelling sheep poop, with a belly full of hot dog and fried dough. This month, with the trip to NYC, the trip to Webs and the several times I've purchased "just one little birthday present for myself" I've gone a little overboard in my stash hoarding, and while I've enjoyed every minute of it, my credit card is starting to complain of shooting pains in its joints. (Wuss.)

So. The sloppy, half-assed plot of today's yarn porn has to do with Socks That Rock. And yes, you can rhyme those words with as many other dirty body parts as you can think of. :)

First we have Socktopus, a sweet, unassuming little skein of yarn. The kind of yarn creepy older needles (you know the kind, those metallic Susan Bates size 13s) might refer to as "barely legal."

She's just hanging out on the streets of NYC (well, on the fake black pashmina that was purchased on the streets of NYC). It's her very first time to the big city, and she's awestruck by the grandeur of it all, when along comes Jade.

Jade knows a few things about the streets, and what it takes for a young, naive skein to get by, so she takes Socktopus under her twist and introduces her to an old friend. One the other balls of yarn call "Rolling Stone."

RS, as he's known on the streets, immediately likes the look of Socktopus, and decides to show off his colors a bit.

"Hey..."

"Heeeyyyyyyy..."

Socktopus says, "Gasp! Wow... that end... it's just so... pink, and the other is such a deeeep purple..."

::Cue the theme from Shaft::

::Fade out music::

"Sigh..."

I think I'll call it Socktopussy.

Meanwhile, I'm officially a Masshole now!

I honestly can't tell you if I blurred out the license for want of some semblance of anonymity, or so that I could play with photoshop...

Honestly, I miss the NH plates already. I just like the green better. Plus, how cool is it to have "Live Free or Die" on your license plate?

Now I'm off, because I just received word that THE SPRING KNITTY IS UP!!!! YAY! YAY! PRAISE THE GODDESS OF SPRING!!!

What time of day am I

2008-03-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

I did it, I took one of these quizzes, and while in reality I actually hate 3:15pm, I still agree that I may just be 3:15pm.

Um, yeah... that's not actually to say that I hate myself. It's just that I'm not in school anymore and 3:15 is still too far away from when I get to leave work. Everything else makes sense, though. :)

In the meantime, I'm trying hard to finish Callisto (I've provided the link just 'cause, I don't actually have pictures of the WIP- just the gorgeous yarn) so that I can start on my Cowled Hourglass. I'm at that point where, while I really enjoy knitting it because that yarn KILLS me it is so wonderful (Noro Silk Garden), I really just want it to be done. Done done done.

Oh, also, a woman drove by my house today, slowed down, took a picture of the house, and then sped back off again.

So, uh, you know... if I don't ever post again, she was a blonde in a champagne colored sedan. Oh! And she had sunglasses. So that should be enough to pick her out of a line-up, right?

Is "braggy" a word? Because that's totally what I am in this post.

2008-03-01T09:05:00.000-08:00

Frankly, I think I caught the easy cold. About 60% of the people I know have been stricken down quite dramatically with The Killer Bostonian Flu. I, however, have had about 3 days of an annoying cold, and I'm feeling a lot better today. Nice. That flu shot, even if it was the wrong one, seems to have helped at least somewhat. Because of it, however, I haven't posted the pics of all the exciting, new, fun, awesome, shwag I've purchased in the past week.

My trip to New York was really awesome, as per usual. Jane and I have an amazing time together, even when we're wandering aimlessly around the city with no real clue as to what to do next. I've never been much of a clothes shopper, and I really wasn't this time, either, but I was able to pick up a pretty blue sweater, a beautiful Tibetan scarf, a cheap but soft off-the-street "Pashmina" and another for my mom, a Sox cap for Ken, and 3 really pretty frames from Anthropologie (On sale, of course. I'm not Jenny Warbucks.)

I saw a bus that had the most ridiculous advertisement I've ever seen on its side. Unfortunately, when my camera finally clicked it had started moving again.

What it says is "Clay Aiken in SPAMALOT" with a picture of current-day Clay, complete with moody smirk and tousled, emotional hair, in chain maille. In chain maille.

Jane and I also had occasion to stop for a drink (or 5) and a quiet little Soho bar, with grisly regulars and a bahtendah from Fall Rivah. The conversation centered around the Oscars that night, and eventually to Jane's current boy-troubles. The question being "Will he call?" and the answer (from me) being "Yes, just be patient," with the answer (from the grisly regulars) being "Are you sure he's really a firefighter? Have you actually seen him at work? Are you sure he's not married? Have you actually been to his house?" Which, while funny, pretty much put my very sweet but paranoid best friend off her center and flipped her out for the rest of the night. Thanks, guys. We, very soon after that, decided we desperately needed food in our bellies, and it had to be somewhere close since we couldn't walk in a very straight line, which led us to some Italian restaurant somewhere else in Soho. The only thing I really remember about the rest of the night is us eating as much bread as possible and it not really making us any more sober, there were two people on a date about a foot away from us, which, I fear, we were loudly critiquing, and our waiter coming on VERY strongly to the obviously inebriated Jane, sweetly telling us that while a) he had a girlfriend, sometimes he b) just gets horny and wants to get it on. Jane, somehow, did not pick up on this part, and happily accepted his card, until the next day when I reminded her of what he had said, at which point she immediately tore it apart. I vaguely remember a cab with a driver from India who would speak to us in English, but then, mid sentence, change back to Indian and continue talking. Also, I recently found this picture, which I in NO way remember taking.

Unfortunately, I am not the pretty smiling brunette. Unfortunately, I am the one who looks like she just stumbled out of Zeta Chi on a Tuesday night.

MOVING on to what this post is REALLY about: The Real Purchases, which came from Knitty City on W. 79th st, and Webs on the way home.

DID YOU HEAR ME?!?? WEBS!!! I got to go to Webs. I NEVER get to go to Webs. This was great fun.

First, I'll talk about Knitty City. I'm pissed it didn't occur to me to take some pictures of it, but it's a GREAT little yarn shop on the Upper West Side that really packs a yarny punch. They have an entire wall of sock yarn, and some beautiful boutique yarns. The women working there were incredibly helpful, both with yarn suggestions and lunch recommendations (dosas down the street! Yum!) I picked up this ball of Sockina Cotton, which has a LOT less stretch than I would expect for sock yarn, but I'll give it a shot anyway because it feels wonderful and I love the colors

And my first ever skeins of Lorna's Laces:

A word on these two. First, the skein in the foreground is the colorway I really fell in love with. There was only one, however, and one makes one sock, so I chose the second colorway because it went well with the first. I think I'll stripe them.
Second, and this in no way takes away from the gorgeousness of the yarn, I bought these in the same way some people buy Prada. I became a brand whore for this yarn. :) Isn't it preeettyyyy???

Now for what I bought at Webs. I seriously planned to spend about a half hour here, maybe $50. Pshh. What a noob...

Here we have the colorway of Austermann Step that I've been searching for all my life. No one has it, but Webs, of course, came through. :)

Inspired by Ariel's near-criminal obsession with tweed and Macoco's Greta Garbo, I picked up 12 of these:

I have no idea what I'll do with them yet, but it's a-gonna be a-fabulous!

I flirted heavily with this at Knitty City, but then I saw it actually knit up at Webs, so that's where I purchased it:

It's an incredibly thin yarn, I'll knit it on size 0's, which I've never used before, and it looks like it'll stretch out a lot, so I think a ribbed-all-the-way-down pattern is the way to go. It's su-hu-hu-huper soft, though, and every time I look at it I think "Yikes! Stripes! Fruit Stripes Gum!" which makes me happy.

I also bought some fiber for spinning. I picked up some good old fashioned undyed merino, however this merino also has some silk in it, so I think I may try dyeing it in the hopes that the merino will pick up the color more than the silk will, making for a very pretty variegation:

And here's an example of the same merino/silk blend, which has already been dyed for me, in just about the most gorgeous shade of green EVER ACHIEVED. It's called "Lichen," which makes me love it even more. Unfortunately, I'm not sure my camera really picked up on how pretty it is, but at least you'll get the idea.

Finally, some merino (I love merino!) that was hand dyed by one of the lovelies at Webs:

Spinning this will be a really fun discovery, I think. :)

In addition to the above, I also bought an adorable wooly sheep measuring tape (you know the one), plus a bottle of Eucalan no-rinse delicate wash soap, flavored Lavender, plus a pair of bamboo size 1 circs.

VERY worthwhile trip to Webs. Very worthwhile indeed. :)

In some very cool family news, I have recently recruited my mother into the Knitter's Fold. I gave her instructions on how to felt a toaster pad she wanted, and she got so into it she's already finished the back of a Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed Cardigan! And called me about 13 times in the last 3 days! :)

Some picture updates and I'm a girl

2008-02-22T12:44:00.000-08:00

Well, the snow has pretty much put the kibosh on driving to NY today, however it has allowed me to have a very chill day at home where I can get some laundry done, get my oil changed and do some damage on my Cabled Blanket. It's a slow project, but a nice one to knit while I watch Suzie's Gilmore Girls DVDs.

My mom and I had a great day in Boston yesterday. Tea at the Taj is a damn good time! Though I totally broke the "casual elegance" rules and wore sneakers. She brought the socks I knit for her for Christmas, as well as the kitchen towels I embroidered for her, so I could take some pictures of them.

The socks were knit with Austermann Step, in a basic sock pattern:

The kitchen towels were embroidered using designs from Sublime Stitching. Blogger has a habit of cutting off the right side of my pictures, so to save time I'm just going to upload smaller versions.

Finally, I've been able to spin up just a bit of the hand dyed roving from this weekend. I'm liking how it's turning out, I can't wait to see what happens with it.

2008-02-19T09:51:00.000-08:00

Yarn for Sarah!

Sarah's yarn was so excited about being so bright and happy during these dreary months, that it decided it needed to fly.

I also have pictures of the dyed roving! It bummed me out at first that the colors didn't come out the way I had planned, but I think this is kinda pretty. Or really ugly, I can't really tell, but I think it'll spin up well. I can tell you that the roving is really happy about itself. It is a very happy batch of roving. It still has a little bit of drying to do, but I'll hopefully be able to spin up at least a little this afternoon, and I'm SUPER excited to see how it comes out. It actually may have felted oh, so very slightly, but I think it'll be workable.

So the incredibly talented Cindy over at her blog, Scherenschritte, very sweetly gave me permission to show the cutting I had done of her awesome design, one of the four she created for a Little Red Riding Hood series. I definitely plan to use several of her original designs as templates, as I find my way through this really exciting new craft. I highly recommend taking a look through her blog to see what she's done.

And here's what I've done, which I think is really cool, and I'm excited about. Either Flickr or Blogger is being stupid, and I can only show the whole design if I do the smaller version, but here it is. Not to scale. ;)

It is currently hanging on the wall above my couch, and I'm excited to make the other three. Though, I'm actually thinking of doing them all a bit smaller, and perhaps out of origami paper. The paper I used is closer to construction paper, and I think it'll probably fade really fast. So now I just have to start keeping my eyes open for cool frames.

I'm almost finished with the socks I'm knitting for Jane, who I'm going to visit in NYC this weekend. I love STR and the fact that their mediumweight yarn is such a fast knit! I decided to try out a short row toe for these, however I find that the internal seam is REALLY obvious, and who wants to feel seams in their socks? So I'll redo the toe I've done and do the new toe differently. Not sure if I'll use my usual toe, or possibly a spiral toe.

My birthday is on Thursday and I'm SUPER excited about it. I keep expecting that Thing to kick in where I'll stop really caring about it, but every year I still look forward to it. I think the reason why is that, well, a) I'm kinda self-centered and my birthday is all about MEEEE, so that's cool, but then also because my mid-20's really kinda sucked in a lot of ways, and I had about 4 or 5 years in a row there where my birthdays were really just shitstorms of suck. My dad had just died, or I was 2,000 miles from my friends and family, etc. My mid-20's were an incredibly frustrating and lonely time for me, but in the past couple years that has really turned around. I have a job that I really enjoy, I've found the love of my life, a home of my own, some really great friends, and I finally have direction. Not the direction I thought I'd have, but it's a good direction. :) This birthday is a chance to celebrate how happy I am with my life right now.

So this week is jam-packed full of activities to celebrate. Drinks and yummy German food on Wednesday, the MFA and afternoon tea at the Taj with my moms, a romantic dinner in the North End and finally a long weekend in NYC with my best friend Jane, who will be the recipient of my very first pair of Socks that Rock. Tuesday I'm taking off, too, but that's just so I can get some general stuff done and chill out after all the excitement.

Perhaps I'll dye some more roving...

2008-02-17T09:47:00.000-08:00

I've recently taken up the very old and culturally diverse art of papercutting. I'mma show 'em to you now.

This I made for The Dude for Valentine's Day. It's a bit girly, as was the little verse I wrote below it, which was really too cheesy for me to write here. Ken's not one for girly things, but he still claims he loves it. I also am not usually this cheesy, but I thought the design was really gorgeous, so I did it up. I actually think I may do another one for Mother's Day, 'cause I think my mom will love it.

The template I actually got from the Martha Stewart site, but I've been looking for more to work with.

I found a great book called "The Papercuttings of Hans Christian Andersen" which tells the story of his life and shows many of the hundreds (if not thousands) of papercuttings he did. He was really incredibly talented, just doing them on the spot while he would tell his tales. If he was telling his stories to children, he'd finish cutting when he finished the story, and would give the paper to one of the children listening to play with. Many of the ones that have survived are from those children, which is pretty amazing.

From what I've researched so far the German form of the art generally shows my favorite designs. The German word for papercutting is "Scherenschnitte," and I generally use that word, because it's WAY more fun and impressive to say, and I find that it makes me appear REALLY smart to other people.

I found this awesome Little Red Riding Hood series on a scherenschnitte blog I found, and I cut one of the templates and framed it this afternoon. I've contacted the author of the blog to ask her permission before I post it here, hopefully she'll say yes because I want to show it off. :) If you're interested in this at all, you should go to her site, she does amazing things.

I'm super excited about this, and can't wait to do more. I don't do it the right way. REAL papercutters use scissors, I use an Xacto knife, but whatevs because I love it. :)

In yarny news, I've just dyed Sarah's yarn, and I think I'm going to dabble a bit in dying roving today. I love these days, where you have nothing to do but blast music in your kitchen and just Be Creative. Sarah's yarn came out pretty kickass, if I do say so myself. It's a variegated red and is currently drying in my craft room. Pictures to come when it's a bit more dry.

I'm sure I'll edit this in a bit to give up the results of the Great Roving Experiment. I'm a-gonna do it with food coloring. I could probably just wait to post this, but it's my blog and my rules so I win. :)

----

Okay so I'm not always great at picking colors (as those who remember the Jamaican Kool Aid Incident of 2007 will know) but I was pretty psyched when I was able to mix up a nice forest green, a sky blue and a very "bark"ish brown, however when I cooked it all up after I'd soaked the wool, the brown turned purple. So we'll see if this looks at ALL good. However, I think I may do this again soon, hopefully making a buttery yellow. Regardless of how it comes out, I'm going to spin it all up so I can see the process through from start to finish. Maybe it'll look cooler spun.

No pics yet, it's all very hot and wet right now (Ariel is sniggering), hopefully I'll have some good ones up in the next day or two.

FO! FO! FO!

2008-02-12T19:27:00.001-08:00

If you'd asked me last week, "Jenny?" "WHAT! Goddammit, can't you see I'm busy?"
"I'm sorry! God..."
"Sigh... No, I'm sorry, what is it?"
"No. If you're SO busy..."
"No, really, I'm sorry, I've just had a rough week and- I guess I just snapped."
"It's okay. I understand."
"Really?"
"Yes, it's fine."
"Okay, good. Hug?"
"Hug."
"Okay, so what can I help you with?"
"Jenny, do you think you'll ever finish that vest you were knitting with Crystal?"

I'd have responded with, "Pssshhh, prolly not, to be honest. I'm not that excited about it, and it's kind of annoying. I don't even think I'll like it when it's done."

But then Crystal happened to come over this weekend, and she happened to bring her Boogie vest that we started together, so I couldn't help but pick it up again, and next thing you know, BOOM! FO!!!

I actually don't even hate this thing on me. I might even wear it tomorrow. I've never been a vest girl, well... except for this brief phase in 7th grade when I would wear one of my dad's conservative knit vests with one of his crazy crazy ties, loosely tied with a white shirt, sleeves rolled up, in some bizarre interpretation of feminist protest against all the hip hop boiiiiii's in my school. I remember, also that year, I wore a pair of olive green Chuck Taylors with an OD tshirt and a corderoy jacket, dubbed by my friend and I "The Eddie Vedder Jacket" and one of the class meatheads asked me in all earnestness and without a hint of mockery, "So, like, are you making a fashion statement or something?" He just couldn't understand why I was wearing ratty old jeans instead of tight-rolled Z Cavs. This kid also, one year prior, upon hearing that I had a black friend asked me, again in all earnestness, "You have a black friend? Really? (he was totally jealous) So, is she like, Preppy Black? Or Ghetto Black?" And those were the only two options. Welcome to Pelham, NH! Yeah... I heard that kid got hotcupped sometime in high school, and nobody really heard much from him after that...

Sorry, whew! Anyway! So I think we were at I've never been a vest girl, but this vest I kinda like. It's cozy, that's for sure. For details on yarn and pattern, check out my Rav Page.

So, lets move on to my First Ever Contest!!!

Well, I really loved reading the dozens and DOZENS of suggestions for what to do with my Identity Thief from all my wonderful posters (someday I really pray I'll get to meet you all in person... I think that will be a wonderful day, a day full of love and light and hope for a peaceful future) however I was particularly taken with one suggestion in particular, given by Miss Sarah.

"I suggest sending them some serious hardcore gay porn or sign them up for extremely fundamentalist religion literature."

Um, OKAY! :D

So here's the plan, kids. TONS of Bill-Me-Later magazine subscriptions, membership in NAMBLA (The North American Man Boy Love Association) and empty envelopes sent from all the places around the world where I have friends who will simply drop an addressed, stamped envelope into the mail for me, about one a month for many, many months. Plus I'm going to call the Winnipeg police department.

So Sarah gets some sock yarn, which I will happily and lovingly dye especially for her while thoughts of passive aggressive vengeance flitter through my mind, but she won't get it until next Wednesday. :)

Clever Post Title

2008-02-09T08:02:00.001-08:00

Hoooo-eeee it's been a while. How've y'all been? Yeah? Cool.

Sooo let's start out with the knitting news. I made two pairs of socks for Christmas, neither of which I got pictures for, but they were both good. My mom couldn't love her socks more, and that makes me really, really happy. Ken loved his, too, but he doesn't express himself as well, lol.

I'm currently working on these top down short-row heel socks with my first (oh, but of MANY) skein of Socks That Rock, mediumweight which REALLY DO rock, in the Pebble Beach colorway.

This yarn blows Austermann Step RIGHT out of the water, my friends. It is downright bouncy, the stitch definition is totally boss, and the mediumweight is heavy enough to where you can get away with about 8 fewer stitches to the round, which makes the socks go faster. :) I desperately want to get two coordinating colorways and make the Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Gifts, which I do not own. If you search either STR or the Chevron Scarf on Ravelry you'll notice that people have done this and the results are incredible. I just have to get over the fact that I hate knitting scarves...

I'm also working on the Embossed Leaves pattern from Interweave's Favorite Socks, with Trekking XXL. The book I got for Christmas and the yarn I got at the Yankee Swap. I consider myself the luckiest person at that Yankee Swap, because it's such beautiful yarn, thanks to this kick ass stinker.

I don't have a sock model thingy, so to show the pattern I just threw a couple remote controls into it. MacGuyver? Yeah, I'll answer to that.

Here we have the burgundy cabley throw that I'm working on... Well, that I started, at least...

...one of the jumbo cables...

If I ever do actually knit the whole thing it'll be awesome. :)

I also knitted some mittens with an awesome colorway of Austermann Step, and found that I still had enough for a cute little pair of ankle socks! Happy surprise!

I have to say, I know I am in the minority here, but I don't mind it when the stripes don't match up. In fact, I actually kinda like it better. I like it when my feet are treated like individuals.

Spinning News!

After a couple months of not touching my wheel, I finally got the bug again and have been spinning spinning spinning lately. It's so great! I'm still not entirely consistent, but I'm actually noticing improvement in the balance of my yarn with each skein I spin.

Here we have the red and white roving I purchased at the Bazaar Bizarre in December, spun into a nice Candy Cane yarn. Yo yo, chiggety check it:

And, so far my favorite, I spun really tiny singles of a gorgeous dyed Romney that I got at the MA S&W, then spun up some thick and thin Merino top, purchased at Gore place about 10 minutes after I learned what spinning was, then plied them together:

I LOVE this stuff, but I can't figure out what to do with it. I think I'll end up with about 3 skeins of it. Ideas?

In farming news (I have farming news!) I just bought a CSA share from Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm! My $100 will go toward keeping the farm running, I'll go to the sheep shearing festival and in the fall I'll get all kinds of awesome, gorgeous mohair and kid mohair. WEEE-HAAAWWW!!!

And lastly, for the non-fiber-related news. I finally decided to join Weight Watchers and in the past 3 weeks I've lost 5.8 pounds! I'm really happy about that, I'm learning to make better choices, and I'm trying to eat as nutritiously as possible. I've recently become inexplicably obsessed with things like heart disease, silent killer blood clots, diabetes, etc. I don't know, I think it's all the evil gray hairs that are showing up on the top of my head... In addition my back has been getting worse and worse and worse, so my hope is that losing weight and eventually getting into much better shape will REALLY help that out.

Finally, some dude in Winnipeg somehow stole my debit card number and pin and charged over $1000 to my checking account! I've gotten half of the money back, and am one affidavit away from getting the rest back, I've cancelled the card and opened a new checking account. My bank doesn't want to follow up with it, so I'm left with an IP address, an email address and a street address, given to me by the fine people at karmaloop.com, who gave me every bit of information they had when they realized the $628.66 worth of merchandise that was purchased with my card wasn't actually purchased by me.

Soooo, any ideas as to what to do with that information? I'm thinking a big package with a return address that says "karmaloop.com" filled with dog poop.

If I get any kick ass ideas in the comments, I'll happily reward the commenter with some Candy Cane handspun, OR, hand dyed merino sock yarn, commenter's choice. :)

Where does this cabley focus come from?

2007-12-29T19:57:00.000-08:00

So I was actually planning (who knows if it would have/will actually happen, of course) on getting my shit together and posting a real post tomorrow, I'd like to share with my 4 readers (who see all my stuff anyway in person on Wednesday nights) all of my recent accomplishments which, it occurs to me now, add up to about 3 things, 2 of which I don't have pictures for so... um... oh well! :)

Anyway, I saw this blanket at Linens and Things a while back, it was a gorgeous shade of burgundy, the kind of shade that either doesn't exist or for which you have to pay $30 for a 10 yd ball of pure cashmere that you can't really do anything with except sleep with and dream about and rub all over your-- Ahem. Um.

This blanket at Linens and Things was cabled and soft and drapey and so gorgeous and $80. Like any self respecting knitter without $80 to spend on something she could knit herself I thought, "Jiiiiive turkey, please! I ain't paying $80 for something I could knit myownself!" So I didn't. Ever since then it's been in my mind that I should at some point start the blanket that probably, in all honesty, will never be finished, but I'd like to have started anyway. This Christmas I received a Michael's gift card, so I went tonight and found this yarn which I'm so ashamed I bought that I can't even say the name OKAY FINE it's Caron, but it's actually really quite gorgeous and totally cheap (CHEAP!) and was like, $3 a ball and oh, so soft and EXACTLY the color. So off I go to knit my never-to-be-finished burgundy cabled drapey throw that even if I did finish probably wouldn't really match my living room at all but I'd love anyway.

I got home and pulled out my brand new Stitchionary 2 (Cables!) to find some cool funky cabley awesomeness to apply to this surprisingly wonderful and cheap-ass yarn, when it occurred to me o SNAP I gots to look at Knitty, for her WINTER ISSUE MUST BE OUT!!!

HOW, in all this Christmassy Craziness, could I forget Winter Knitty?!!??

So I happily hunkered down with my laptop to e-flip through the e-pages of my favorite e-zine when lo and behold, I saw... The Next Socks... Please go here now.

Oh, these socks are gonna be knit...

These socks are gonna be knit and they aren't gonna know WHAT hit 'em...

YOU WILL BE ON MY FEET BY MONTH'S END, AZURE LOVELINESS!

If I hadn't already started embossing leaves on the gorgeous brownie Trekking XL that I got from Ariel at our Knitterly Yankee Swap last week I'd be Azuring the brains out of them...

What? Embossed Leaves? Why, thanks for asking! I DID in fact receive Favorite Socks for Christmas this year and I absolutely LOVE the Embossed Leaves pattern! It's a lace pattern that looks pretty impressive and is still easily remembered. I love not having to look at the pattern every row. It's great! It looks gorgeous on this yarn. Perhaps someday I'll have pictures. Of course, perhaps I'll just bring them on Wednesday when anyone who may be reading this will probably already be there.

In other news, Santa was good to me this year. Literally EVERYTHING I received on Christmas day was either knitting/fiber related or kitchen related. Um, couldn't have been more perfect. OH, and I am now the proud owner of an umbrella swift and ball winder. YAYAYAY! It's like I'm a real knitter now!

Ode to Austermann Step

2007-11-09T09:46:00.000-08:00

O Washable East Eurpoean Wool...

You, infused with aloe
You entrance me, yes, but how so?
So soft, and yet so strong
We should have a knit along

I love to knit with you
If alive, you'd be my boo
You calm me, make me chill
Much better than taking a pill

True, you cost some dough
But so?

You stretch, yet hold the stitch
You keep me from being a bitch
Despite my hatred of poetry
You make me rhyme, Oh Noetry!

Fine, I stole that from Drew
But if only Drew knew
How I was in love with you
He wouldn't mind the plagiarism.

--

Okay so it kind of fell apart there at the end. But here is a photo, surreptitiously taken with my cell phone at work. Hee hee! It feels so good to be so bad!

(Unfortunately that particular tastiness is tempered by the fact that no one would actually care if I was doing a sock photo shoot at work, so I have to infuse that experience with a faux sense of illicitness. It's kind of like being excited about Santa coming when you're 28. WHICH ISN'T ME AT ALL! Shut up, just go with it.)

Bad day blues

2007-11-05T13:04:00.000-08:00

NOBODY LIKES ME

EVERYBODY HATES ME

GUESS I'LL GO BUY YAAAAARRRNN!!!

BIG FAT FUZZY YARN

SMALL SKINNY SOCKY YARN

LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTSA YAAAARRRNNNNN!!!!!

::scowl::

------------------------------------------------

Aaaahhh, that's better. :)

Boston, you know we love you madly...

2007-10-30T09:37:00.001-07:00

I am back to having access to a camera!!! Yay!

Okay so first things first, we've had a pretty awesome week, baseball-wise.

Oh, yeah.

Ken and I at Game One of the 2007 World Series, which our beloved Sox won for the second time in three (and, like, 90) years.

As I write there is a HUYUGE parade of Duck Boats carrying our Hometown Heroes travelling immediately outside the window of my office. I, however, am watching it from home, which is where I'm working today. A few pictures (of the television) of that:

Here is Kevin Yoooooouuuuuuuukkkilis, and what you can't see is that in this picture he is right outside the building where my collegiate a cappella group recorded our album in 2001 on Boylston.

And some photos of the Dropkick Murphys playing on a flatbed truck, with my Baseball Boyfriend Papelbon dancing and acting adorable in the kind of way that would truly irritate me if it was anyone else. :)

Yes, I took those off my television. I wish I was there but, alas, I have to work today. And yes, I really am working, just wanted to take a little blog break and write an as un-Jenny-like post as I have ever written.

What an amazing city, man... I've never heard of a celebration like this for any other baseball team. Any kind of team, really. I think all of the people in Boston are at City Hall Plaza right now, watching Papelbon do a fake Irish jig in a kilt while the Dropkicks play Shipping up to Boston, Tessie and Dirty Water.

OH! AND! Ken and I flew to Ohio this past weekend for a wedding and who sat next to us but Josh Beckett's mom! No lie! She was in the aisle, Ken was in the middle and I had the window! She offered me an Altoid! See, Ken and I were both wearing Boston hats and when we sat down she asked if we were Boston fans. We said yes and she kind of half whispered, half laughed "I'm Josh Beckett's mom." We kind of half smiled and wondered why anyone would say that. What a weird joke. So then as we touched down (that's when she gave me the Altoid!) I joked, "So you're Josh Beckett's mom, huh?" and she was like, "Yep! Sure am." "Wait. Really?!" "Yeah. Want to see some ID?" Ken said, "Uh. Yes."

That was kind of the highlight of the trip. That and seeing an actual, real live DeLorian. Ken rolled down the window and screamed "HEY! DOES THAT THING HAVE A FLUX CAPACITOR IN THE BACK?!?" But, I mean, the wedding was nice, too...

Okay, so no, I haven't forgotten this is a knitting blog.

Please excuse the previous burst of pseudo testosterone. Back to the stitches.

Currently on the needles we have the Boogie vest from Knitty. It's coming along alright. At the same time I'm looking forward to having it done so I can wear it and I'm also totally realizing that it will probably be exceptionally unflattering on me, lol. Meh, if it's that bad I'll give it away and call it a hand-knit gift. :D The color in this photo isn't entirely representative. The real color is much more of a deep olive.

Also on the needles: I'm making arm/wrist warmers from the pink and green yard I dyed during the AWESOME weekend at Martha's Vineyard with some of the closer friends I've made over the past year in my open, public, weekly knitting group. As an aside on that topic, I don't feel guilty about making friends with other knitters. In fact, I look forward to forming more friendships from that knitting group.

So here's how the warmers are shaping up. I'm using that slip/knit/slip thingy that you do during heel flaps. Sorry, no idea what it's called. :) I'm really psyched about how the colors are forming with the exception of one REALLY weird anomaly.

Both sides:

As I'm knitting these using the Magic Loop and I haven't been rotating it, I've got a consistant split down each side. One is alright and flows well, but on the other side the colors split at EXACTLY that point where I change needles. It is the weirdest thing, it looks like a badly planned seam, but it's just how the colors have worked out.

Bizarre, huh? Really, I'm not that worried about it. We'll see how the other one comes out.

Last weekend Ken and I relaxed and unwound from our very hectic Housewarming Party by going apple picking in North Andover. We had a really nice time and last night I made a pie from our apples. Yum!

My artful photography:

My gorgeous boyfriend:

My favorite picture from the day:

Awwwwwww...

GO SOX!

There is no I in T-E-A-M people.

2007-10-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

Enormously inspired, yet again, from the lovely, creative and talented Librarian-In-Training, I have decided that creating a list of knitting goals is EXACTLY what I need to do right now! It is much more important than actually, say, working (not actually much to do right now) or PACKING for the move first thing tomorrow morning. I can't really put a time limit on these goals, pretty much rendering them useless, but at least it will help me to organize my knitterly thoughts.

1. Finish 2nd Kool Aid Charade sock

Once I've done that I can then compare the first (knit on US 2s) and the second (US 3s) and decide which one I like better, then I can get started on...

2. Knitting 3rd Kool Aid Charade sock

...using what's left of the ball (heh, ball) and probably having to unravel a bit of the reject. If I do not have to unravel the reject, I will felt it and make lovely flower lapel pins from it to place on my black Navy pea coat for the winter.

3. Finish the Boogie vest

I graciously offered to do a Boogie KAL with a newbie knitter friend of mine, then got so focused on finishing the back panel that I zoomed off on my own and finished it while the poor girl was still struggling with the 2 inches of 2x2 ribbing at the bottom. I'm a bad friend. :(

However, now that I've started it, it really just makes the most amount of sense for me to just finish it, right? Besides, now I will have already been through the pattern and I can focus more on her knitting next time we get together! See? It all works out!!

Ahem.

4. Set the twist on my blue handspun and get started on the mittens

Um, that one is self explanatory

5. Do SOMETHING with the ugly Kool Aid dyed superwash Knitpicks Bare

Seriously, it looks like a stoned Dead Head dyed it. I need to try to fix it or, worst comes to worst, just overlay it with something super dark.

6. Start the socks for my Rhapsody-in-Hot-Pink Knitpicks Peruvian that I dyed with, you guessed it, Kool Aid!

I think I will be knitting the Falling Leaves socks from Knitty... I think that pattern will look gorgeous on that yarn. Though I believe I may need to purchase a new set of needles for this one.

7. Finish Callisto!

Duh! I am so excited for this wrap! I put it down to knit roommie-Nathan socks and never picked it up again! Gah!

That's about it for now. Of course there are countless other projects both on the needles and ready to spring to the needles, but I can't focus on those right now. I need to get this stuff done first!

If you're REALLY lucky, I'll post UPDATES! GASP! OH, and just to let you know, a plain wooden dowel makes a fine Nostepinne. :)

So, in other news, today is my very last day as an apartment dweller. My very last night sleeping alone. Tomorrow morning, at the buttcrack of 9am, I am moving out and into the new house. I am so excited, even though I do LOVE sleeping alone sometimes, and even though I will miss living in Boston more than you can imagine. But like I always say in my supreme wit, as much as I love Boston I love Ken more. (Square.)

BAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!

(Dear readers, this is Jenny's wheel speaking. Please excuse the above horrendous joke. She's very stressed out right now and I think she might be losing it a little. I keep standing here, looking beautiful, trying to tempt her into more time working on me since it will make her feel better but she just keeps running around the apartment frantically pointing at things she will at some point need to pack and not packing them. Her hair is a MESS, too, it's flying all over the place. But hey, I just notice these things because I'm a wheel, and noticing flyaway fiber is just what I do.)

Fuzzy results

2007-09-26T12:44:00.001-07:00

WHAT?!? WHAT?!!??? TWO POSTS IN TWO DAYS?!!? That just doesn't make any sense.

So the Cherry/Pink Lemonade yarn turned out a beautiful slightly variegated deep pink. I love it. So does the yarn. In fact, the yarn itself felt so warm and fuzzy about the color that it just kind of up and felted itself a little bit. Like a big self-hug. Oh yeah.

I'm hoping that in the ball-winding process I might be able to pry it apart from itself and salvage the yarn. I think I can, it just might not be so easy. Oh, I so desperately need a swift and winder... For now I think I'll use a chair back (or someone's hands) and a homemade nostepinne (read: wooden dowel from the hardware store) to try to create my own probably very messy version of a center pull ball. We'll see how that works. :)

Meanwhile, I am finished with the roommate's socks, I just have to fix one little thing. I've moved onto the second of my first Kool Aid dyed pair, however there's a slight change. I knit the first sock on size 2 needles and it is a SUPER tight knit. I'm knitting the second on 3s. I figure if I like it, I'll finish it and knit a third on 3s and then just do something fun with the tighter sock. Rip it out and make something cool, or just felt it and make cute little flowers to put in funky places. Oooh, that's a good idea... It would make a fine lapel pin, I do think.

So I'm realizing that I may have to miss the next two OR THREE of my regular Stitch and Bitch meetings! BUMMIN'! It's just gonna be a crazy month I'm entering into. Moving into a new house, moving in with that guy... Lots to do. I have two trips planned for October. One very exciting one to Martha's Vineyard with ma bitches, and then to EXCITING OHIO for a wedding. I have to SING at this wedding. This makes me nervous.

To soothe my nerves I think I'm going to sign up for the February Sock Club at Yarn 4 Socks. I figure if I sign up and pay for it now, I'll forget about it entirely and come February, my birth month, I'll be surprised with a nice little yarny package!

Yay for little yarny packages!

Which reminds me, the boyfriend and I were having a (very serious, of course) conversation about dong cozies (koozies?) on the T a few weeks back, and what color he'd like his to be, were I ever to knit him one. I said, "Baby pink?" He said, "Please. Royal blue." I told him Royal blue was simply out of the question but that I might consider Navy blue, to which he replied "Canary!"

Kool Aid Serenity Dye

2007-09-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

So it's been kind of a frustrating day. Coworker issues.

I'm taking an hour for lunch so that I can dye some yarn with Kool Aid. I figure nothing to calm the irritated soul like a little childlike play and Carly Simon's "Into White" album.

Currently I am dyeing KnitPicks Bare 100% Peruvian Wool (fingering weight, of course- I have become a sock knitting addict) with two packets of Cherry and two packets of Pink Lemonade. I'm hoping for a little variation, but if the two colors decide to blend perfectly and create a gorgeous bright pink/red, I'll be more than happy with that.

I also want to take my recent FAILURE and futz with it a little. It came out like really bad tye dye, Ice Blue Raspberry, Changin' Cherry (which, it turns out, is emerald green) and Jamaica (what the hell does Jamaica taste like? Salt, dirt and BO? Meh, it's red) with a lot of bleeding into one another (yay, brown!) and some white spots. Yeah. Not pretty. Looks like a Grateful Dead concert, and not in a good way. I've decided to add a nice little overlay of Lemonade over it. I figure that's the least offensive color to mix around.

My hope is the red will turn slightly more orange, the green will turn brighter and the blue will turn a bit more like a spring green. The white will turn to yellow and the brown... well... the brown will just get browner. Which, actually, sounds like it could be even more hideous. Wot-eva, we'll see what happens. What are the successes without the failures, right?

Currently I'm writing this in my non-knitterly blog, which I'm realizing is just wrong. Hold on, lemme cutnpaste.

Ahhhh, here we are.

So I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason I NEVER update this blog is because I feel I need pictures for each post. I don't have a digital camera, I just use that tall guy's, so as we are not yet living together it's difficult for me to actually carve out time to take pictures, upload them and bring them over here.

In the interest of being more faithful to this here knittersome blog, I hereby declare myself free from the obligation of posting pictures!

Now that that's been taken care of (ooh! I think only two more minutes in the nuker!) I'd like to share some unbelievably exciting news with you which, GASP, hey! It actually comes with a picture!

Ahem:

We move in in two weeks! LESS THAN!!!! It is absolutely amazing to me how much buying a house (um, well, senor tall guy buying a house that I get to live in) inspires me to be every ounce the domestic goddess I so emphatically scorned as a super-liberal 7th grader discovering all the patriarchal injustices of our society.

Yeah, well, she AND her bad perm are gone and now I just can't wait to bake and CLEAN (WHAT?!?) and spin and knit in my new house.

First off, though, I'm painting my room. I have claimed the one very small extra bedroom as MY room. Well, what I call it is really dependent on the context of the conversation. If our friend Betsey is visiting, it's Betsey's room, if Jack is visiting, it's Jack's room. If anyone else is visiting, it's the Guest room. If no one is visiting and I'm doing something crafty in there, it's the Craft Room and if I just want to get the hell away, it becomes MY ROOM.

Ken can have the garage. ;) Kidding, the rest of the house will happily be his, I just want a room I can paint a bright, happy, funky color of appley green and sew in, with a bed that fits my back, should it ever go out again. Or, rather, when it eventually goes out again.

Ok kids, the yarn is done. Maybe someday I'll post pictures.

I GOT IT!!!

2007-08-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

Okay so that title is straight out of Are You There God, It's Me Margaret and I know that didn't escape a single one of you, but WOT-EVA BECAUSE I GOT MY WHEEEEEEEEEEEELLLL!!!

Seeeeeeee, my lovely boss decided to give us all a sweet-ass bonus, which just happened to be enough to buy me my dream-first-wheel... a Kromski Minstrel in a lovely walnut finish! Beautiful!

I have been dreaming and lusting after this wheel for months and months and months. Literally dreaming about it. I have never wanted something so badly (cue the Def Leppard). Wasting no time, that night I drove down to Middleboro, MA, about an hour south of Boston, to see the GORGEOUS Cheryl at Spin-A-Bit, to buy my wheel.

And ooohohohohoooo my lawdy is she beautiful... We made sweet, sweet love aaaalll niiiiight looooonnnggg...

The following are selections from the near-pornographic photoshoots I've done of my wheel and my first skeins of yarn. (You're a demure little kitten. NOW YOU'RE A TIGER!) There were so many photos, these are only the good ones. Sure, I could have narrowed it down even further, but ummmm, it was a big moment and it's my blog so I win!

First, I present to you... The Wheel (she is as yet unnamed)

Ahhhh...

Here we have the very first yarn I've ever spun- this was made from the combed merino top I got at the Gore Place Sheep and Wool Festival this Spring with my knittas

Plus some lovely brown Romney wool that I got at the MaS&W, of which I do not have a picture.

I spun 'em (having, mind you, no effing clue what I was doing) and then plied 'em, and this is what I got:

Still on its bobbin:

And here we have Ken, TBF, displaying and presenting the bobbin:

Letting The Yarn Commune With Nature

And finally, here are the two skeins I finished last night, which will eventually become light mittens, I think. Oh, they are so soft! This was spun from the hand-dyed bat I got from Cheryl when I bought my wheel.

Never had ONE lesson! Whaat?! Whaaaaat?!?:

I am such a happy Jenny right now! What's funny is that my boss, when he was but a wee long-haired, semi-mulleted bass player in the late 80's/early 90's, had a band called Spinning Jenny. IT'S LIKE IT WAS MEANT TO BE.

So now, I'm still knitting my roommate's socks (big man-feet+stockinette=NEVER ENDING SOCKS), but I have so many projects I want to get started on! At least I know I won't be spending money on yarn anytime soon. Maybe a few more sets of needles, though... And MORE ROVING!!!

2007-08-11T14:43:00.000-07:00

Sooooo, me and my knittas got together recently to do something we've been dreaming of for months now... To Dye.

I began the very exciting day by sending them a clip of Keifer Sutherland in the movie Flatliners saying "Today is a good day to dye." Because of course he was talking about permanently adding pigmentation in various shades to skeins of natural yarn... Well, as were we, my friends... as were we.

So, first let's start off with the undyed yarn (Bare 100% Merino fingering weight sock yarn from Knitpicks):

Aaaaaaand, the pictures post-Kool Aid:

The darkest color is Tropical Punch, the lighter pink is a mix of Pink Lemonade and Cherry and the orange is, of course, Mandarina Tangerine.

Pretty kick ass, if you ask me.

Meanwhile, I'm knitting a pair of socks for my awesome new roommate Nathaniel Daniel. He picked the yarn which, at first, I was not a fan, but now that it's knitting up I'm really liking it! I've decided to really go off the reservation and try a TOE UP pattern! Crizazy, y'all. I'm loving knitting this way, btdubs.

Here's the picture so far:

Okay so not a very beefy entry, granted, but I've not been in a blogging mood lately, so I'm just happy I put anything in!

Wheel Update: Still don't have one! But I'm hoping in the next month I will get my wheel. Hoohhhh I can't wait...

Visually stunted entry

2007-06-11T17:37:00.000-07:00

I pretty much suck at keeping this thing regularly updated, unless "regular" can mean "once about every month or so." In that case, I'm just aces!

I do not have access to a camera right now, but whatevs, I say! Whatevs to that, because I'm going to post ANYWAY.

I'd like to begin by humbly touting my own spectacular genius. Now, it may be that every knitter this side of Knitsville knows this trick, but I have never heard it. All I've heard about this is "Well, there's no real way to tell how much you'll need, so you pretty much just have to guess. Try, like, 3 times the length. Hopefully you won't run out."

What am I talking about? Only the great enigma that is knowing how much yarn to allot for the Long Tail Cast On. O, you nefarious dog! How do I be certain that I'm not about to cast on 293 stitches when I truly need 297? How to be sure that I won't have a useless two and a half feet of $25-per-skein-alpaca left hanging limp and loose?

I, my dear knitterly friends, have figured out the secret. It was an inspiration so glorious that even my two non-knitty roommates were absolutely DYING to hear me explain it.

Are you ready? Are you worthy?

OF COURSE YOU ARE!!!

Simply WRAP the yarn around the needle as many times as you need stitches, then leave a little bit extra for error. You really won't need much extra, since my method here is FOOLPROOF. All you need to do at this point is to make sure the tail is the part wrapped around your forefinger. That's if you're right handed. I have no idea how you crazy but creative left handers do anything in this world. I have tried and tried to figure out how my sister contorts her whole body around a pen over a piece of paper and all that comes out is beautiful handwriting. I just don't get it. (Honestly? I'm just jealous I don't belong to the Left Handed Club that several of the women in my family belong to. But that's neither here nor there.)

Anyway, I thought, as I wrapped, "No. This is way too obvious." I thought, as I cast on, "This won't work at all." But then BOOM, there I was. I had cast on 160 stitches and had a solid and respectable 5 inches of tail. Jimmy Hoffa, here I come.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox that I was knitting for my boyfriend Ken came out great, except that there's only one, it's not THAT great, and a guy at work said, "Uh, does Ken have cankles?" He does not, but neither does the sock I knitted for him indicate that he would, it is simply that the guy at work was being a jerkface. Jerkface Marc, is what we call him sometimes.*

*That's not true at all. Marc is actually quite sweet. Except in this case. He really was just being a jerkface.

Anyway, the Red Sock was my Very First Sock, knit without pattern or measurements or enough time to make two before the birthday, so given how ridiculously stupid it was for me to even attempt something like that, I think it came out quite well, actually. He seems pretty pleased with it, at least. I was fortunate that it fit, but not perfectly enough for him to want me to make him another one, because the boy has GARGANTUAN feet and it would have taken me another 2 weeks of constant knitting when really I was just itching to start my own pair of socks from my first skein of beautiful Mind's Eye hand dyed yarn. When I have access to a camera again I'll post it.

Speaking of my first skein of beautiful Mind's Eye hand dyed yarn, why, I did complete those socks! Also without a pattern, but this time made perfectly for my feet.

Wow, this really would be a great time for pictures, huh? Well, you'll just have to imagine. Picture a self striping yarn of subtle kiwi green and a gorgeous deep wine color (it doesn't look like vomit, it's actually quite pretty), every stripe a different color, however where the purple turns to green there's a lightening there of a lighter pink, that swiftly turns to white JUSTFORASECONDANDTHEN back to green. Whew. Well, that pinky part pooled in this really cool way so as to spiral down the leg, and then again down the foot. It was pretty damn cool.

Um, you'll see them, um, someday. I really need a camera. :)

Currently I am working on a surprise wrap for my mother, based off the piquant blue version of the Tie One On pattern by nona, only I have a different (much easier) pattern that I concocted about an hour after I got home with the yarn that I bought. I was at the anniversary sale at Mind's Eye Yarns in Porter Square when I saw this gorgeous yarn from across the room. I immediately put everything I had in my overloaded arms back so that I could buy enough of this to make something beautiful for my dear mother. I had absolutely no intentions of making anything for her (I'm such a damn lovely daughter, aren't I?) but I saw this yarn and it made me think of a particular challenge she is trying to overcome in her life, so I decided on the spot that I needed to make her something to give her the confidence she needs to overcome it. I thought of how she would wear it, whatever it was, where she would wear it, whatever it was, and I came up with the idea that it needed to be a wrap made from this yarn. It is Cascade Eden Madil in Sprite Green. Hooohhhh it's so lovely. Knits up like a soft, shiny, drapey dream and I lurve it with all my heart. Hopefully she will too.

The lovely and amazing Lucy at Mind's Eye showed me how to knit two socks on one needle while I was there at the sale, so the SECOND I'm done with this wrap I will be beginning my second pair of socks, made with (again) hand dyed yarn dyed by Lucy herself (Really, I should get paid for how awesome I'm making her and her lovely yarn out to be, except that it's true and I do it because I love). This time I chose a gorgeous varigated green. A woman at the shop looked at it in the light and said it looked like "spun grass" which made me fall in love with it all over again. It's so pretty! I will have such lovely feet when sock wearing season comes around again! :)

Once again, pictures to come. Sigh...

The best news of all is that I have a lesson with Lucy on Friday afternoon and she is going to show me how to SPIN! I will have the opportunity to spin on several Ashfords, though sadly not the Traveller, which is one of my top choices for the position coveted by countless hunks of wood across the globe of First Wheel, however she does have the Traditional, which is another of my top choices. I just can't wait.

On the Stanky front, I only really got to go knit with the Stinkers for about 15 minutes last Wednesday, (and I was three sheets to the wind when I showed up- last day for a buddy at work equals lots of beer consumed on the corporate dollar at the bar downstairs, if you know what I mean. Which, I'm sure you do since I'm not speaking in any way euphamistically) and this Wednesday, once again, I will not be able to make it, for I will be at Fenway Park for the first night of my Two Night Run of Red Sox games! It's a good week when you get to go to two consecutive Sox games. I may just bring my knitting. I mean, come on, could there BE a better combination? Knitting, beer, Fenway and the love of a good man...

Yeah, but no. Not bringing any yarn to Fenway.

So that's that. A boring and pictureless knitterly post. Thanks for reading, all 3 of you! :)

(Donations toward an acceptable digital camera or wheel can be sent to PO Box 121, Pelham, NH 03076. I also accept Paypal.)

Swapping and Spinning

2007-05-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

As I've always said, a happy Jenny does not update often. This is true with any blog I've ever had, but I thought perhaps a crafting blog would be updated more often, since it's not even loosely based on me bitching about my life.

I was wrong.

I was also hoping that whole "a happy Jenny does not update often" phrase would come out a little catchier, but apparently I was wrong on that count, too. Sigh... someday I'll be articulate and eloquent... Hopefully. (Just in case you're wondering, kissing the much-peed-upon Blarney Stone doesn't actually help in that area, as much as the experience may elicit quite a squak when your arse is slapped by the giggling old man working atop the castle.)

Anyhoo, I am a dirty slut for not taking pictures of the gorgeous yarn of which I have stumbled into ownership in the past week before winding balls and digging in to start several projects. I know. My plan is to do that today, though the pictures will not be as yummy as they would have been. Seriously, if you want to see some yummy pictures of yarn, head on over to see the Craft Pirate. Arrrr they be some yummy pictures of ye olde yarn!!!

Meanwhile, two yarny things of note have happened in the past week. First, the Stinkers held a little yarn swap last Wednesday. I'm excited just thinking about it. We all walked away very happy, I know I did. I got rid of a few skeins of stuff I loved but would never do anything with, and they went to good homes. I got ideas for some balls I've always loved but had no idea what to do with, and I SCORED with what I took home!

heh heh... I scored with some balls... (Sorry, I work with a bunch of guys. And I'm just really immature.)

So, I picked up some blue fingering weight yarn, with which I planned on using as my initial foray into the world of sock knitting (soon to be thwarted by other, greater yarn, but whatevs. I'll definitely still use it!) Notice the best part about it, something I never actually think about... it says SUPERWASH!!!!

I also got some sweet, hot-ass pink dishtowel cotton, with which I plan to make, of course, dishtowels! :) Good lordy check out that color! Love it.

I got my first ever Lamb's Pride from Ariel...

...with which I'm making the Fuzzyfeet slippers by Theresa Vinson Stenersen, as found on Knitty. They're striping up nicely, but they'll look totally different post-felting, of course.

Next up we have these two balls of Knit Picks... um... I forget, in colors Leaf and, um, I forget BUT THE POINT IS the colors were far more flourescent and obnoxious than the original owner had anticipated. So I swapped with her and now I'll make something fun and watermelony! :)

Here we have some lovelies who I picked up at a sweet sale in Meredith, NH a few years ago, which I've never figured out what to do with (what is going on with that sentence?) Anyway, I brought it to swap, because while I love the colors I simply had no ideas, but then Dear Blogless Jessica suggested I make wrist warmers with it for next winter. OKAY! :D

Now, see, Ariel confessed an early addiction (thankfully squashed) to Fun Fur and novelty yarns. We laughed at her, of course, but there was just something about the deep reds in this stuff that made me want to make pasties. This one brings to mind long strands of fake pearls, cigarette holders and flapper dresses. We call it... "Slutastic."

Hot sex. In that classy, subtle way...

Last but most certainly not least, we have what I considered to be the prize score of the night. Four leftover balls of KnitPicks Andean Silk in Lettuce. A yarn which I have been coveting ever since I saw Kat making her gorgeous Hourglass Sweater with it.

Sigh... what a lovely swap...

OH BUT I'M NOT DONE!!!

This weekend we all got together to visit the Gore Place farm Sheep and Shearing Festival! And what a festival it was!

I arrived late due to a slight error in understanding between Ken and I. It seems after borrowing his keys to get his GPS from his car he wanted me to throw them up to him on the balcony of his third floor apartment. I misunderstood and thought he wanted me to throw them onto the balcony of the second floor apartment, whose owners were away for the entire weekend. ::Forehead slap:: Whoops! Sorry! You weren't planning on going anywhere today, right Punkin? Great, see ya tonight!

First, the aminals.

Kingfella

I loved this little guy. I wish this picture could convey how incredibly small he was!

Now the Yarn!!!

I got this, my first real sock yarn, so beautifully hand dyed by Lucy from Mind's Eye Yarns in Porter Square (that's Boston, gov'na). Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it in it's gorgeous state of skeinhood. I wound it that very afternoon into this ball.

Isn't it so gorgeous? I lurve it. I'm knitting my first sock on it AS WE SPEAK. Figuratively, I mean. Not that I'm figuratively knitting. I'm actually knitting my first sock on it AS WE figuratively SPEAK. Here's a photo of my efforts thus far.

So here's the deal with that. I was told standard is to CO 64 and go from there. About an inch and a half into it I saw that it would be way too small, so I frogged it all out and upped it to 80. I'm hoping now it's not too big. Meh, it's a first sock. This is how I learn. Also, because I can't just knit a sock, I'm including about 10 little purly waves. Hopefully they'll turn out looking good, and not really, really crappy. :)

Okay, so the biggest news from the day is that I discovered a deeply hidden obsession with spinning. I am now focused entirely on getting my own spinning wheel. Well, after I deal with a few financial obligations (ah, being 28 and still totally effing poor). But I'm thinking somewhere in the vicinity of June I will be able to afford my own wheel. June or July. By August, definitely. I plan on ordering the HitchHiker, from The Merlin Tree, located in lovely Vermont. It's small, has everything I need, weighs 9 lbs and is completely portable. Not to mention it's the cheapest one available. Even still, though, I love it! We met a woman spinning on one at the festival and I was entirely transfixed by what she was doing. I can't WAIT. I went to sleep that night with my right foot peddling oh, so softly under the covers...

My commitment is so strong to this newly discovered (and not yet realized) passion of mine, that I bouht TWO bags of roving! YAY ROVING!!!

Here we have some gorgeous and silky bamboo fiber. It's even softer than it looks. I got this also from Lucy at Mind's Eye. She's just lovely and once I get my wheel I plan on joining the Spinning group there.

And here, le piece de resistance... One full pound of pure, gorgeous, baby soft 100% Merino top.

Can you feel that? That excitement in your belly? Yeah. That's the combed top. What is UP. Seriously, I know it kind of looks like brains or intestines, but I prefer to think of it as looking like pulled taffy.

Sigh...

I dream of a wheel, and successful dyeing...

1st Real Post!

2007-04-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

Well, hello fellow crafters! Hello, friends! Hello to any mortal enemies who may be reading this, too! (But watch your back if you truly are an enemy for I am forceful with needle and swift with high temp glue gun!)

I've been considering incorporating a knitty aspect to my regular blog, however I think my wonderful readers there might start to drool and go cross eyed at mere mention of my passion for baby kid alpaca and a new cabling method, so here I am! Inspired by two of the lovely ladies with whom I knit on a semi-regular basis, Kat and Ariel, who each have really excellent knitting blogs themselves (these two gots some serious power knitting juju!), I have decided to amble over here to Blogger(tm) and start up my own crafty blog. It's a crafting blog and not a knitting blog since I like to spread the Mod Podge love in other areas of my life as well. I have entitled myself the Daft Crafter since I rarely finish a project and I find it's a convenient nom de web considering the use of the word "daft" gives me a built in excuse to produce really odd and possibly not very good crafty results. (This way, you see, if I create something that's actually cool it will come as a surprise and make me seem modest, which will, in turn, make me look even more admirable as a crafter and, by extension, citizen of humanity. That's my grand plan, anyway.)

First up, the project I'm currently working on. This is my first attempt at lace knitting. As per usual, I can't just take a pattern and knit it, I need to change it in some way. I'm using the Branching Out pattern from Knitty, however since my yarn is so spider-webby thin what I'm doing is doubling the pattern with a strip of 3 knits in the middle to separate the two sides. I have found that my needles (size 3) are still a bit too large for the yarn, so that the pattern isn't too clearly defined, however I still like how it's turning out, and I'm hoping that blocking it may straighten that out a bit.

OKAY I'LL ADMIT IT: I have never blocked in my life. I'm simply too impatient. Same with sewing, when I was in college I'd make a dress, a skirt, whatever, and would just start wearing it before I even hemmed it. Fortunately I was rather adept at faking hippie back then, so combinations of unhemmed funky calico approached acceptable. Ah, college... The days of American Spirits and gallons of coffee...

::shake shake::

So, here are some stats, and some pictures:

Yarn: Filatura Di Crosa Baby Kid Extra
80% Mohair Kid (love that halo!)
20% Nylon
Color: 310 (which means something like Cloud, in my estimation)
Dye Lot: 0130
Purchased at: Windsor Button on Temple St in Boston, a yarn shop so very close to my heart.

Oh, I could die in a big nest of this stuff... It really is absurdly soft.

I've so far completed, oh, about 4 or 5 inches of the scarf. This is one of these turn off the television, the radio and the phone, lock yourself in a room with all lights off except for a spotlight directly on your work and don't even attempt to drink water while doing this for even that is too much distraction kind of patterns, so it's something I only work on between other projects, as I would probably go mad with the stress of it if I were to continue straight on until it was finished.

Here are a couple angles of what I've done so far:

So you can see it's a little undefined, but I still like it. :)

Meanwhile, a couple weekends ago I went to Woolapalooza at Drumhill Farm in GORGEOUS Lincoln, MA with my friend Crystal (who I taught to knit just last night! Haha! Another recruit to the wooly side!) and discovered my love of sheep and spinning yarn.

Here we have the adorable old man in his adorable knit hat with sheep on it, shearing the first ram of the afternoon. I had no idea how this was done, but it is an absolutely hilarious process. See, in order to be able to shear the sheep without it going all haywire, you have to get it into a submissive position where it'll just relax and let you do yo thang. I have no idea who the first person was to figure this one out, but apparently taking the little fluffer and sitting it right down on it's rump is the best way to do it. The sheep just sat there and let itself be shorn, with, I might add, a rather resigned look on it's face.

Sigh... domp dee domp dee domp... Go ahead... take my wool... Sigh...

And after:

That sucker looks relieved and about ready for a martini!

Here are a couple other awww-inspiring photos from our trip.

So that's that, the first of hopefully many posts. I'd like to foray into the world of sock knitting soon. As I said, I'm very inspired by my fellow knittresses, both of whom are sock knitting fiends.

Off I go to enjoy this GORGEOUS and sunny 70 degree day! Happy Spring, everyone!

test

2007-04-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

This is a test post, written mid-1st beer of the afternoon. Hopefully someday this blog will be more interesting than this test post is proving to be. Enough with the test post, time for more beer. Yay crafty!