The right side of 30

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. :)

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.