Black Cat Handspun and Fiber

Henry in Handknits

2009-02-06T10:19:00.004-05:00

Henry at 14 weeks in his handknit Kipling sweater (I'd link to the pattern, but the knitters blog is down) and Chucks crocheted by Miss Halloween!

YAWN!

Um, yeah...

2008-11-04T12:30:00.001-05:00

I've been busy:

Meet Henry Ryan, born Oct. 20, 2008 (2 weeks early) by c-section (not a choice, but not an emergency, either!), 6 lb. 14 oz., 20 inches, totally adorable!

Update Update Update!

2007-12-27T18:23:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!

There's a big shop update! Lots of batts, and some destash stuff, too!

Remember, you can sign up for updates by entering your email address in the Notify graphic on the sidebar!

Oh, and did I finish Christmas knitting? The world will never know...ok, I'll tell ya soon!

What to Do?

2007-12-12T22:30:00.001-05:00

What to do with 200 yards of laceweight mohair yarn, handpainted (by Tamara at Houndscroft Farm)? Soooo purdy, soooooo tempting hanging out in my storage system (I'll have to post pics - it's just a cheapo plastic shoe holder hangy thing, but it's so pretty with yarn stuffed into it!) What to do, what to do?

(stolen from Tamara's shop site...hope she doesn't mind!)

When it Rains, it Pours

2007-12-04T14:39:00.000-05:00

Into my basement, apparently.

But before I recount my tale of woe, let me first say a huge THANK YOU to the fiber buddies and bloggers who stopped by to say "happy birthday". I appreciate it SO much, that my fibery friends popped on over! Thank you all! MWAH MWAH MWAH!

There was copious stash enhancement from the bday, of which I have yet to snap pics. There has been knitting. And spinning. I met my self-imposed quota of handspun yarn (30 skeins) and handcarded batts (10) for Craftland, and sent those little suckers out mid-November. Hopefully they'll earn me some cash, because I vowed to put half on the credit card and half aside for MDSW in May. I would love to be able to not worry about how much I'm spending for once (I'm a splurger, I admit!) It's not like I have to add to the already embarassing stash, but I can't resist the pretties! So now I'm knitting Christmas presents (Durrow for hubby - body's just about done, just need the sleeves; the children's cotton tape sweater from Mac & Me for the toddler - 4 inches of collar to knit, then I have to sew in the snap tape to the front and finis!), working on sleeve 2 of the Tangled Yoke cardi (can I finish it in time to wear it to the Christmas parties I have this month? Inquiring minds want to know!), and I just plied 4 oz. of wool/angora/mohair blend batts to knit myself a pair of thrummed mittens. Oh! And I am 81 rows into the Hemlock Ring Blanket from the uber-talented Jared! It's a fun knit, especially since the feather and fan section is just one lace row and 4 knit rows, which I can power through. Granted, I only have 344 stitches in each round so far, and you increase to 600 by the end, but so far, it's a great time! I will also be having a big shop update hopefully by the end of the week, with lots of batts and lots of destash fibers and yarns.

So, I bet you're dying to know about the basement comment, huh? Let's put it this way - I've emailed our realtor to take our house off the market, probably for the next several months. Yes, it's that bad. Like, I should probably sell off my entire stash and maybe a kidney bad. Friday morning I ran a load of Hurricane's laundry, and when I ran down to throw it in the dryer, there was water in the laundry room. Not a huge deal, from time to time the washing machine leaks a little. So I mopped all that up, and when I turned and looked into the half bath, it was full of water, too! That's never happened before, so I thought maybe it was the tub the washer drains into (because it's almost right up against the bathroom wall - I don't know! I was grasping at straws!) and not the washer. So I mopped THAT up, too, and decided no more laundry would be done the rest of the day (boo hoo!) The rest of the day was a normal day, no excessive use of water, but when I ran downstairs real quick around dinnertime, I slid halfway across the basement floor through an inch-deep puddle of water! That's NEVER a good sign. Panicking, I ran upstairs and called the hubby, who had just pulled up outside, and then ran downstairs to get our computer out of the inch of water it was standing in. The entire laundry room and half-bath were in at least an inch of water, and it had seeped through the drywalled wall from the bathroom into the rest of the basement (which, luckily, didn't have carpeting anymore, just tile that I worked for MONTHS to lay myself). There was a stream of water flowing from the base of the toilet where it meets the floor, so I turned it off at the wall - oh, and the toilet? You can lift it up right off the floor - the seal around the base is completely gone!

Hubby and I got to work trying to mop and dustpan the water up (A wetvac! A wetvac! My kingdom for a wetvac!) The in-laws came over with a 13-pack of paper towels and a couple more mops and started helping. I emptied my linen closet of towels, threw them down to try to sop up the water in the family room section of the basement while we dealt with the laundry room/half bath area. I took pics and called the insurance company. The claims adjuster called within 20 minutes, sent a general contractor to help clean up the rest of the water and dry things out (we gave up after getting the majority of the water up, and had dinner instead). They showed up by 8:30, three knights in shining armor, who lifted all the furniture down there onto little styrofoam blocks to dry, tore all the tile from the laundry room up, cut the drywall that had gotten soaked, tore up half the tile in the family room up, set up dehumidifiers and blowers to dry things out, and put down Microban to prevent mold. I dread seeing my electric bill this month, since there have been SIX big machines running down there day and night since Friday night - they pick them up tonight. I have 3 litter boxes in my freakin' kitchen, since we can't let the cats into the basement with the Microban down, and we haven't had any more than a rudimentary internet hookup as I piggyback off of some weird "default" signal.

Hubby's cousin is a plumber, so we had him come by Saturday and see what the problem was, since we were afraid to use the water in the house and have a possible repeat performance from earlier in the evening - we'd ended up sleeping at the in-laws' house Friday night. He poked around, and was able to recreate the flood on a minor scale by just flushing the toilet a few times and running water into the drainage tub for a few minutes. Yup, definitely a backup in the main line, but he doesn't have a snake to snake out the clog. We called a plumber who did, and who luckily was having a $99 special, even on the weekend, and he spent almost 2 hours in the basement digging around. Turns out he could only get maybe 10 feet down the pipe before he couldn't go any further, because the pipe is so overgrown with roots the smallest blade the plumber had couldn't even get through. No, really. And, remember how I said you could lift the toilet right off the floor? The plumber said that means this has happened before, and they took the toilet off to snake the pipe and just never resealed it. Which means the previous owner most likely had the same kind of problem, and DIDN'T DISCLOSE IT!!! But there's no way to prove that it happened on her watch (although, according to public records, she lived there for 9 years, so chances are good). Sooooo...to the tune of an estimated (*estimated*) $6500, we have to replace the pipe with the "pipe burst" technique. Because we're in a rowhome, they can't really dig a trench through the front lawn (a small thing to be thankful for, I guess) so they have to dig up my basement floor at the front of my house, dig up the sidewalk in front of my house, and thread the new pipe right through the old, terra cotta one. WHY TERRA COTTA?!?! Doesn't sound like the best material for a water pipe that runs through ground in an area that FREEZES!! Even I knew that after one winter where I left a terra cotta planter out, and it split and then leaked whenever I poured water into it all summer. Hello? Terra fucking cotta?!?! (c'mon, you're secretly amazed I got through all of that and only cursed once, aren't you? That's because I cursed SO much Friday morning mopping up the first leak, and then Friday evening - but add copious tears that I'm almost cursed out. Almost.)

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK!! We have to take our house off the market, mostly to do the repairs, but also because our monthly budget can't handle a new expense like the financing of the great Alaskan pipeline in addition to a new mortgage. We're hoping to make it through the holidays by being conservative with our daily water use before we repair the pipe, because I sure as hell don't want a bunch of sweaty, burly men in my basement digging holes in everything during the holidays. What we're also hoping is that, by spring, the market will have picked up a bit and we can list our house at a slightly higher price in an effort to recoup the expense. How much do I not want to have to put $6500 (or more! Remember, it's an ESTIMATE) into a house we no longer want to live in, especially in a real estate market that probably won't support a listing price high enough to recoup our losses. Although, when we do relist, we'll have new flooring in the basement, and a brandy-spankin' new pipe that's guaranteed for 20 years for the next lucky schmuck who buys our house.

For never was a story of more woe than this of Amanda and her stupid fucking basement.

They say it's your birthday...

2007-11-12T17:36:00.000-05:00

Oh, wait, no, it's mine! A rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" from the students in the writing center, an e-card from a great faculty member, a check from the in-laws, flowers from the 'rents (and a card is on its way, but after *gulp* 31 years, mother dearest still hasn't figured out there's no mail on my birthday!), Tori Amos in concert (back in October) from the hubby (along with a mysterious bag on the dining room table that I can't open because he's not home yet), and a free ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery's birthday club! Oh, wait, scratch that last one! The one Cold Stone near me (that I drove to first through rush-hour traffic because hello? FREE ice cream!? From Cold Stone?!?! On my birthday?!? Sign me up ASAP!) was closed for NO REASON. So I drove another 15 minutes to the one that's actually closest to my home and that one? Closed FOR GOOD. All I wanted was some free ice cream! Sheesh!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear MEEEEEE, happy birthday to ME!

Quiz Junkie

2007-11-09T22:42:00.000-05:00

?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??

Morpheus
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IK

2007-11-06T19:43:00.000-05:00

Anyone else completely underwhelmed with the new IK? I got mine in the mail the other day, and I am completely not impressed. It's like they shot their whole wad with the fall one, and they had nothing else decent for winter. I mean, I like three of the patterns, (the bag, the El Sol Pullover, and the Ivy League vest - and what's with the Jennifer Garner look-alike? She's adorable!) Oh, ok, and the gathered pullover, but I'd love to see Knitting Daily cover THAT one for a D-cup woman. There's just nothing there I neeeeeeeed to knit, not like in the fall issue. Oh, well, I guess they can't be spot-on all the time, huh?

Ha! Verification from the Quiz World!

2007-11-05T07:09:00.001-05:00

what gothic animal are you??
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as black cat

you scored as a black cat. your dark and mysterious..you love witches..and magic..

black cat

100%

wolf

67%

bat

67%

panther

17%

What is it with Firefly?

2007-11-05T07:03:00.001-05:00

Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Serenity (Firefly)

You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you.

Serenity (Firefly)

100%

Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)

75%

Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

63%

Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)

63%

Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)

63%

Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)

56%

Moya (Farscape)

50%

Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)

44%

FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)

38%

SG-1 (Stargate)

31%

Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)

25%

Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)

13%

Enterprise D (Star Trek)

Another one bites the dust

2007-10-31T15:55:00.000-04:00

But there's knitting, at least!

Yup, another seller, another completely unreasonable expectation as to sale price. We put in an initial offer on a house that is an estate sale, has no mortgage, original owner, had a blank seller's disclosure, blah blah blah. It was a low offer, but then again, the house needs quite a bit of work. We figured we'd try to lowball by bidding about 10K less than we were willing to spend. The seller was "insulted" by our opening offer and countered with an offer only $2400 less than his asking price! Ok, fine, we came up another 7K (just below our final price, figuring if he countered with a more reasonable price, we could come up that last little bit). His counter? Only 3K less than his first counter. There is NO way this guy is going to meet us halfway. Or even close. I'm not even disappointed at this point, because I was totally not expecting this jerk to come down even close - and I knew if he did, that every repair that house would need before settlement would have been a catfight to get his help on. This is the THIRD unreasonable seller or realtor we've come across since we started looking back in AUGUST. It's getting old. Really, really old.

But there's knitting content at least! And fibery goodness!

These are socks in action that I knit for Ella out of Trekking XXL (colorway lots and LOTS of pink, damnit!). She likes them, and I have enough yarn left over to either knit another pair in the next couple of weeks when her huge feet get even bigger, or to knit myself a pair of footies.

And here's a hat I knit for a long lost friend I recently cyberstalked and finally got up the nerve to contact. He was impressed by the yarn and the knitting liberally sprinkled throughout everything I do, and asked for a hat. So I knit up some of my FAVORITE yarn into a soft squishy hat for him - it'll be winging its way to him by the end of the week (ignore me, I always look like a psycho in "self portraits"!).

And when all else fails, these pics warm the cockles of my heart (WTF is a cockle, anyway?!?!)

The best part? She did that with no prompting from me. Gotta love her!

Craftland Skein Count: 20 down, 10 to go (oh, and 9 of 10 batts, too!)

Wow...

2007-10-28T20:56:00.001-04:00

Ever see someone wearing a sweater that you could swear was handknit, only to find out it wasn't? I was at a Weight Watchers meeting this morning, knitting on a sock, and this older, very well-dressed and -coiffed woman came in wearing the most stunning sweater! It looked like it started in a circle along her one side, and the pattern circled out from there. It was a raglan with a ribbed collar (measuring less than an inch, I'd guess) and ribbed cuffs. And the color? Oh, the color was the best part! Predominantly a dusky lime green, with swaths of berry that slowly blended from the lime green, and then became the only color, and then blended back to the green. The yarn looked like a Noro yarn or something, rustic, not a solid green but flecked and just damned interesting. And the stripes CURVED off the main circular motif at her side. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. I asked her if she'd knit it, and she told me she wasn't talented enough to knit (a nice compliment, since I was knitting my vanilla stockinette sock at the time). I didn't have the nerve (or the thought, really) to ask her where she'd purchased it, and while I was DYING to pull out my cell phone and snap a pic, I didn't. Now I'm wishing I had. SUCH a gorgeous piece of work!

Soul Sucking...and a Meme!

2007-10-24T15:23:00.000-04:00

I swear, why do people bother to sell their house? We've only had our house on the market for a month, and what an entirely soul-sucking experience it's become. C'mon, people, what the fuck do you want from me? It's a ROWHOME. A great starter home, but after 5 years here with pets and a kid, there's NO MORE ROOM. What brings this on? Today my new realtor (yeah, we've already had to fire a realtor!) came by to take some new pics of the house, and gave me feedback from the showing Monday. The one where I had 90 minutes notice, and no hubby to help. I almost had a heart attack literally running around the house the entire 90 minutes trying to clean up. Even though the house has been cleaned and straightened almost every day, it took me 90 minutes at full speed to get everything done. AND pile a cranky toddler, 2 of the 4 cats, a 95 pound dog, and a screaming cockatiel into my overloaded Mazda and get over to my in-laws' house. And the feedback? The floors are gorgeous, and there's too much stuff in the house so it's hard to visualize it. That's from the realtor. Wow. Too much stuff, huh? Well, let's see, we have a 3 year old who has enough toys to support a FEW daycare centers, we have NO attic, NO garage, and a basement with only minimal storage. We already moved TONS of stuff to my in-laws' house and I have 2 contractor trash bags full of stuff over there for a yard sale, too. And my realtor told me to put pictures away and do things like clear off my fridge. My fridge is cleared of everything but my daughter's artwork, and there's NO FUCKING WAY IN HELL I'm taking that down. Spare me. If you can't visualize what the house would look like with your stuff in it because my daughter's artwork is on the FRIDGE, you're a retard, plain and simple. This house is spotless, and yes, there are a couple of toyboxes in the living room (but in corners) and yes, the smallest bedroom (seriously, it's 6x10 - more of a walk-in closet than a bedroom!) is full of fiber (all neatly stored in either cubbies or storage containers) but it's a ROWHOME. It's a big rectangle. That's it. There are no redeeming features, no special things about it. It's basically an apartment you can earn escrow on. That's it. Get the fuck over it. We've mostly had positive feedback - from the whopping 7 people who've been in the house - everyone loves the floors (damn straight they'd better!), mostly people think it's well-priced, someone didn't like the garden (it's been a very dry summer, so the garden's looking a little past it's prime - oh, wait, it's FALL! Of course it's past it's prime!), and I can't change how busy the street is, or the fact that it's a completely nondescript ROWHOME. Sheesh. And don't get me started on the house we've put an offer on and that asshole's idea of a counter-offer. Just. Don't.

So, on that note, Colleen tagged me for a meme. Here it is.

You have to open the book you're currently reading on page 161 and read the fifth sentence on the page, then think of 5 bloggers to tag with.

"These horses were all we knew and recognized because from time to time they'd wander together across the farm to the little wooded meadow at the southern boundary of St. Peter's domain and stick their heads inquisitively above the gate that backed onto Goldsmith Avenue, where the crap game I'd come upon was taking place."

From The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth. He's verbose, huh? Let's put it this way, that sentence? The fifth on the page? Started easily 3/4 of the way down the page. Great fucking book, though.

I'm not tagging anyone. Just consider Black Cat Handspun the blog where memes go to die.

There is knitting. And dyeing (check Colleen's blog for pics of the day - I forgot my camera). And spinning (for this year's Craftland - oooh, the suspense - can she spin 30 skeins of yarn and card 15 batts by mid-November?)

Edited to add: This, though, this makes me happy!

New Feature!

2007-10-24T07:47:00.001-04:00

FINALLY! I have a mailing list! Check out the sidebar for my NotifyList.com mailing list. Sign up for updates to my Etsy shop!

More later, promise!

Distraction

2007-10-10T09:54:00.000-04:00

You are Marianne Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are impulsive, romantic, impatient, and perhaps a little to vocal in your honesty. You enjoy romantic poetry and novels, and play the pianoforte beautifully. To boot, your singing voice is captivating. You feel deeply, and love passionately.

(Romantic? Sometimes. Impatient? All the time. Captivating singing voice? Oy.)

Dyeing to Dye!

2007-10-03T08:59:00.000-04:00

So! Excited!

I got an email update from loop yesterday, and they are having a sock yarn dyeing class with Beth Casey of LORNA'S LACES! I LOVE LL! And I've been DYING to learn to dye sock yarn (ha ha, yes, pun intended), really dying to learn ANYTHING fiber related from a pro - be it spinning, dyeing, carding, what-have-you. I dropped a quick email to Col, figuring she'd like to get in on the fun, and figuring it would be nice to have a buddy to drive into the city with! I checked my email at work every two seconds until she emailed back, and was on the phone to the friendly ladies at loop in a flash when she emailed back to tell me she was in. For $24, you get TWO skeins of the LL base yarn, and the opportunity to spend 2 hours dyeing with Beth, and hear about how she started her business (the opportunity to pick the brain of a successful woman in the fiber biz is irresistible!) What's not to love? It'll be a nice diversion, too, from house-related things (we're having an open house on October 14, and probably a big yard sale with my in-laws October 21 - oh, and we got positive feedback from our first - and so far only - showing...house is priced well, shows nicely, and the buyer just wasn't interested because he just started house-hunting. Maybe he'll be back! And we're thinking of putting an offer in on a house we really love, but that's priced too high, in the hopes that the seller, after having had his house listed for almost 8 months with no offers - because it's really priced too high - will take ours - ha ha! And isn't this the longest parenthetical ever?), medical problems for both me and Hurricane (possibly serious for both of us, but hopefully not), and just the stress of being back at work - albeit part time.

Can't wait till October 20!

Update Schmup - oh, never mind!

2007-09-27T16:12:00.000-04:00

But there is a SHOP UPDATE!

Some batts have already sold, so get 'em while they're hot!

Hello, bandwagon?

Let me jump on ya!

This scarf (pattern by the loverly Domesticat) was one of the quickest knits evah! Well, for a scarf! I usually HATE knitting scarves because they take so damned long (well, unless they're out of super-bulky, super-soft handspun!) I started AND finished it Labor Day weekend (yeah, it's a long weekend, but still!) I used yarn from Spincycle Yarns, which is totally overpriced for a 2 oz., 120 yard skein, but their colorways are irresistible. See?

That's "Rusted Rainbow" on the top (100% merino) and "Off With Their Heads" (100% BFL) on the bottom. There are "moments" in this scarf that I'm not totally flipped on, where the colors just didn't play out the way I wanted, but overall? Thrilled! I'm definitely planning on knitting another one of these, maybe in my own handspun.

Speaking of my own handspun, I got into Craftland again this year! So if you're in the Providence, Rhode Island area this December, you can find my handspun yarns and handcarded batts for sale! Last year I made a pretty decent chunk of change, so I'm hoping to have a repeat of that!

Oh, and WE HAVE A SHOWING TOMORROW! Our FIRST ONE! So you can imagine how much I'm panicking (and procrastinating, because, hello? Should I really be blogging right now? Um, what do you think - 4 cats, 1 overlarge dog who sheds if you look at him funny, a toddler, and a preoccupied football coach for a husband - yeah, I should totally be tearing the house apart!)

ACK!

It's official

2007-09-22T10:42:00.000-04:00

We're for sale!

This is the "big" pic on our online real estate listing right now, since the realtor came at night and couldn't get a pic of the front of the house (but if you've seen one brick rowhome in this area, you've seen them all - well, except for the fact that my entire front lawn is a garden!) Mookie is the black cat on the couch with the creepy glowing eyes - he says "You WILL buy my house! You WILL buy my house!" Anyone interested in a 3 BR, 1.5 bath rowhome in a great neighborhood with new laminate flooring in the LR/DR, hardwood in the master bedroom, a full finished basement, central air, and a fenced-in yard? Anyone? Bueller? BUELLER?

Ahoy Mateys!

2007-09-20T10:25:00.000-04:00

ARRRRR!

My pirate name is:

Iron Anne Bonney

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

DOUBLE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-09-11T21:14:00.000-04:00

Check it out!

A big MWAH and THANK YOU to the Lime n' Violet gals! Thanks SOOO much!

EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-09-11T20:26:00.001-04:00

My Ravelry invite came today! YAY!!!!!! I thought it would never come!!! And the best part? I can access it at work!!!! WOOT!!!!

Errata?

2007-09-09T21:06:00.000-04:00

Anyone out there knitting IK's Tangled Yoke Cardi in the largest size? I am, and the pattern's confusing me. I finally finished all the decrease repeats in the ribbing section and I'm at the point where I'm not sure what to do. I have to repeat the decrease row every 8th row 4 times
(check!) and then every 6th row 0 times. HUH? And then work 2 rows even to complete the correct number of rows and have the correct number of stitches - which I have (after spending a good 45 minutes doing the math for EVERY size and checking numbers, because things were off in the beginning when I cast on and started knitting - by at least a couple of stitches). So do I just work 8 rows even and then start the St st? Am I just overthinking this? ACK!

RIP Madeleine L'Engle

2007-09-07T21:19:00.000-04:00

Madeleine L'Engle is dead at 88. I am so sad. Her books were some of my favorites growing up, especially A Wrinkle in Time. I read that book over and over again, pretty recently, too. Go, pick it up and read it - you'll be glad you did.

Update Schmupdate

2007-08-30T08:53:00.000-04:00

Took me a sec to figure out the spelling of "schmupdate", but I got it!

Sorry I haven't updated with pics of pretty socks, or, well, just about anything else. I spent last week in Florida visiting the parents one last time before starting work(!!!!). I just finished my first "week" - if a week can be considered as 8 hours, spread out over 2 days! It's nice, though, since I'm an "english aide" at the private prep school my hubby teaches at. I can see him during the day if I want, I know most of the faculty there already since he's been there for 9 years, and it's great to hear the kids talking literature most of the time! And what I really like is the writing center tends to attract the more artsy/litgeek kids, so I can relate a little better to them! Next week I work one full day and two half days, and then I'll be on my regular schedule of 2 full days a week. Luckily, Hurricane's been ok with me leaving so far, and my in-laws are watching her, so I don't have to leave her with strangers. I'm a lucky gal.

So, um, I promised socks, huh? Well, here ya go! Basic stockinette on 2 circs (have I said lately how much I LURVE socks on 2 circs? LURVE!), CO 64 stitches, eye of partridge heel, blahblahblah. Knit from Icicle yarn in Apple Crisp from Cider Moon. I love this yarn. So much so that, um, I tripped and bought more. THREE more. I have enough sock yarn to knit nothing but socks for the rest of my life - some day I'll flash the stash!

Here's a closeup of the eye of partridge heel:

Not the best pic, sorry! I was getting terrible shadowing on the bottom of the pic and had to crop it like crazy.

So, here's the stash enhancement. From left to right is Taos, June Carter, and Pandora Rose. Like the Apple Crisp, the photos just don't do these yarns justice. I just can't decide which to knit first!

In spinning news, I have donated 9 batts to Cara for Spin Out 2007. Raffle tickets are $10 each for some amazing prizes, and it benefits Heifer International! Go bid! Here's the batts I donated - they're mostly merino blends, verrrrry gorgeous! I stole this pic from Cara because mine had my fugly couch in the background...

And in other news, here's a little toot of my own horn (or would this be ANOTHER toot? Am I getting too tooty?) I was just contacted by someone from Lime n' Violet's Daily Chum Pages because my Etsy shop will be a featured Etsy Site of the Day some time this week! So cool! I love gettin' love from the Lime n' Violet girls! Yippee!! Guess that means my shop update should be today instead of next week!

So that's all I've got right now! There was vacation knitting - a sock for Hurricane in some adorable stripey Trekking XXL in pinks, about five inches of Durrow for the DH for Xmas (I'm knitting it in the Kathmandu Aran Tweed, in a lovely tweedy grey - any excuse to knit with this yarn!), and more on the ribbed bottom of Eunny's Tangled Yoke Cardi from IK - just one more decrease repeat and I can start the main body. Here's a parting shot:

I know, I know...

2007-08-09T19:58:00.000-04:00

I was supposed to have a picture of the completed Icicle sock, but I am sick and feeling poopy and didn't feel like getting the sock on, and finding good light, and actually bending over to take the pic (besides, bending over with the way my nose is running? Let's just say I wouldn't want boogers on my new sock!) So I didn't take the pic yet. Maybe over the weekend. Maybe I'll even have TWO socks to show you - not that I'm all that far along with the second sock, but a simple stockinette sock is just what my aching head, tired eyes, and dripping nose needs.

So, why am I taking time out of laying on the couch moaning to myself to blog? I wanted to give 2 thumbs up to Annie Modesitt and her latest book, "Romantic Hand Knits". I got the chance to peruse it at the bookstore, and while I'm not lining up to knit any skirts anytime soon, and while there were a few nose-wrinkle worthy patterns, I was THRILLED to see that so many of them went to 50" bust measurements OR HIGHER. That just ROCKS! To acknowledge that we "well-endowed" women like to dress a little sexy sometimes is just great! Thank you Annie!

I think I have a new favorite...

2007-08-07T20:43:00.000-04:00

Sock yarn, that is. I just finished my first sock on 2 circs. The Icicle sock yarn from Cider Moon in the Apple Crisp colorway. I'll take pics tomorrow, since it's too late and the gorgeous colorway deserves decent lighting. But I don't know if it's just that knitting it on 2 circs has the fit absolutely perfect, or the fact that it's just a plain vanilla stockinette sock (which I've knit before, so I don't think it's that), or what, but this sock fits the best - no slouching, no stretching, just perfection! Pics tomorrow!

Stuff n' nonsense

2007-08-04T18:10:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I guess I'm "back". So for the both of you, thanks for sticking by me! Other blogs have covered the conundrum of being away so long you might as well stay away, so I won't go into it here. I have been busy, and when I haven't been busy, I haven't wanted to blog. But here goes nothing!

The trip to Disney was incredible! Hurricane's head practically exploded when she realized where she was - especially since just 2 days before, we were in the Disney Store in the mall, and she saw an ad on their TV for Disney, and said she wanted to go to Mickey's house. She must figure we have a hell of a great turnaround time, since 2 days later we hopped on a plane! Staying in a house off the property was a great way to go, because we never had to worry about her getting wakened up during a nap (the few times she actually napped) and we had access to the pool whenever we were around long enough to use it. Even though we were there for a full 2 weeks, it still felt like there wasn't enough time! But for a kid who only liked throwing things into a pool to have someone else dive after it, by the end of the 2 weeks, she was jumping off the steps into people's arms! Her daddy and I are both scuba divers, so it's great to think our little girl will be a water junkie like we are (and, needless to say, we're looking for a house with a pool when we move! Hey, we can dream, right?!) Here's a few gratuitous cute kid in Disney shots (I took, no lie, 965 pictures - the new camera worked like a dream!):

Facepaint at Disney! Unicorn Princess!

Hurricane with Snow White at the Princess Breakfast in Epcot.

Drumming with Daddy at Animal Kingdom (hottest. day. ever.)

By Cinderella's castle (she wanted to live there "Forever").

With Mary Poppins. How cool is this? Mary Poppins came along to her autograph area, and Ella was the first person there, so she asked if Ella would like to go on the carousel with her, and Ella (freaking the entire way - she wasn't too sure of the characters at Disney) said "yes" and went with her on the carousel! Too cool!

There's been mad knitting at chez Black Cat, as well. I started (or I should say REstarted) the ill-fated Jaywalkers on the Disney trip, figuring they'd be great plane knitting, car knitting, etc. Well, first I broke one of my favorite Crystal Palace DPNs in my carryon bag. Then I got about an inch or so into the pattern, and lost ANOTHER DPN in the car. Seriously, IN the car - I had it in this little well in the back of the minivan we were renting, and I went to pick it up by running it along the sidewall of the car, and it slipped into the crack in the car above the speaker - bye bye DPN. Luckily, I had a size 2 Knitpicks circ in my knitting pouch, and for whatever reason, I'd packed my DPN needle roll, so I had extra size 2s (albeit 8 inch ones, which suck for socks!) So I was able to keep knitting, but for awhile there, it seemed like I was doomed to never finish these stupid socks. But guess what? They're done! Knit in Pippikneesocks handpainted sock yarn in "Hester", the larger size on size 2 DPNs. Loverly!

And then Colleen taught me how to knit a sock on 2 circs, and this is what I had by the end of the day (2 circs ROCK!)

That's Icicle sock yarn from Cider Moon in the Apple Crisp colorway. I've knit with Lorna's Laces, Trekking, STR, and I'm sure a couple of others, and this has to be hands down my favorite sock yarn so far. The Lorna's Laces is great, Pippi has an incredible eye for color, the STR is great, but not as impressive as I thought, and Trekking has awesome colors but isn't the softest stuff to knit. Cider Moon's Icicle? Incredible! And I love knitting a sock on 2 circs! I mean, that's just a few hours of knitting there, folks. That's it. I turned the heel the next morning, finished Jaywalker that day, cast on for a kitty pi, perused the knew IK (is everyone else in love with almost every pattern in the issue? I've already cast on for Eunny's Tangled Yoke Cardigan in some Rowanspun DK in Catkin that I had set aside for an EZ sweater. People, I actually SWATCHED!) and am already through the heel gusset and well on my way to finishing the foot. I love my DPNs, especially my Knitpicks ones, but I think they're going to be relegated to the bottom of the knitting bag for now!

I've also finished the DH's winter hat (don't laugh! I started it in March, and it got warm quickly, so it got set aside - until I needed the size 2 circ it was on!) Here he is! Isn't he cute? (sorry he's a little blurry, Hurricane decided to tackle me at the same time!)

I also finished a Henry Rollins doll from SNB Nation for a good friend's birthday. I ended up needlefelting his hair on, because the double knitting? Was sucking all the life out of my very soul. Ugh.

And here's the Luna Moth Shawl I'm knitting (in Callista - nice stuff!) for Carrie's impromptu KAL.

I'm not as far along as I'd like, I'm only 2 repeats out of 6 through, but it's a nice pattern! Easy-peasy!

And here's a hat for Hurricane (I added a couple of stripes in alpaca I spun up) and a scarf for me knit with 2 handspun yarns from theredbuttontree. I love her handspun - merino and angora bulky goodness!

I THINK that's it! Phew! If not, that's cool, it'll be blog fodder for another day! I'm sure I've bored y'all to tears, anyway!

Etsy in the Inquirer

2007-07-29T12:33:00.000-04:00

Etsy scored an article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer! Check it out here!

Woot woot!

I'm still here

2007-07-25T21:20:00.001-04:00

Honest! I'm still here! I'm not dead, I'm knitting, spinning, batting, I'm just kinda taking a blog break right now. I need to take tons of pics of stuff I've been doing (socks! hats! scarves! no, really!) and get posting again. Maybe next week? I'm not making any promises, but I'll get back on the horse soon!

Mwah!

RIP Roy

2007-07-11T15:55:00.000-04:00

My thoughts are with you, Laurie.

Off We Go!

2007-06-04T16:21:00.000-04:00

We're off to Disney tomorrow morning, and I think the house we're renting only has dial-up (ick and ICK) so I don't think I'll be posting for the next two weeks! A quickie post, and I'm off to finish packing/cleaning/losing my mind!

Thanks to my destashing and the sale at my Etsy shop, I was able to get my new camera! I'm in LOVE! It's a Canon Powershot Pro Series S3 IS. Love love looooooove. So sharp, so quick, so sweet! So here are a few pics (like the one above) to leave you with.

Here's the Fred Sweater from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms that I knit for a baby shower Sunday. This was a cute, satisfying knit. I did it and the baby booties (One-Hour Baby Booties from SNB Nation) with less than 2 skeins of Cotton Fleece in Barn Red.

Dad-to-be is a HUGE sports fan, so I used baseball buttons on the neck and for the bootie closure.

I'm sure there's more, but my head is, um, a mess. I barely slept last night, the kid didn't get much of a nap today, and I'm SURE I'm forgetting about a million and one things. At least. So here's a gratuitous cat pic.

BYE!

Baby needs a new

2007-05-19T21:49:00.000-04:00

digital camera.

I've broken my old digital camera, and it's high time for a new one. Oh, it still works, but the battery door is being held closed with duct tape, which comes apart every time I put the camera away. We're going to Disney in less than 3 weeks, and I'd love to be able to get a new camera in time for the trip - I don't want to miss anything with my daughter's first trip, and every time I take the camera out, it resets itself and I lose precious time resetting the time, date, etc. before I can even use the camera.

So, I'm beggin' ya! I'm destashing a lot of fiber and yarn between the Destash blog and my Etsy shop (where all batts are now $5 or less, and there are 4 new handspun yarns and 2 handdyed rovings). I'm not saying buy stuff, unless you see something you like, but please, let your friends know, I'm getting rid of some pretty nice stuff! THANKS!!!

Here's a preview:

Shake it off

2007-05-16T13:28:00.000-04:00

Ok, I'm going to attempt to shake off the pity party blues and answer Colleen's meme.

Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog. Here are my facts:

1. I have a photographic memory when it comes to spatial things. For example, I aced every exam in my high school history classes because I could picture a page's layout in my head, and remember a photo on the page, and a nearby paragraph - I could almost "read" the paragraph in my head. Unfortunately for me, it didn't extend to things like organic chemistry.

2. I started out in college as a marine bio major, but had to seriously struggle with math and chem, so I ended up switching my major to English after taking a Lit class and cruising through it.

3. After graduating from college, I was accepted to Villanova's master's program in English. I got a job nannying for a family on the Main Line, and lived in their 24 room mansion with them for the summer until I realized that grad school (or maybe, really, nannying) wasn't for me.

4. I can really only learn things by having someone show me - manual stuff like knitting and spinning. Thank goodness Colleen was at that meetup the fateful night I went, or I'd still be trying to figure out how to make a slip knot out of Knitting for Dummies!

5. I have been treated for depression in the past (and, based on the way I've been feeling lately, I should probably get back into therapy). I was put on Paxil, but weaned myself off when I wanted to get pregnant. It was what I imagine coming down from a drug addiction would be like - I was dizzy, distracted, light-headed, sweaty, would get flash fevers that would go away in a couple of hours and then come back. I was paranoid, nauseous, got headaches, and shakes. Took me 4 days to feel normal again. Paxil is something I'll never go back to.

6. I really want to go back to school and learn something else - I've considered becoming a lactation consultant, but I can't afford to do it right now (plus, more chemistry!)

7. My favorite movie ever is The Princess Bride. I had a friend who also loved it, and we'd watch it together and quote every single line. I'm a dork.

Ok, I don't think I even have 7 bloggy friends, but I tag Kat, Faun, Natasha, Lori, Farm-Witch, and Briana. Enjoy!

Oof.

2007-05-15T21:33:00.000-04:00

Wow. Well, first I want to thank my loyal reader(s) for their positive job vibes on, um, yesterday (why is it I'm losing days now? I mean, seriously, folks, I'm retarded). But, basically, as I told Colleen, well, I'm going to just quote exactly what I told Colleen, because I'm tired and even though it's only 9:34 by my clock, I wanna go to bed (yes, I may be 30, but it's an old 30. Like, 50. Gimme my tapioca, bee-atch!)

The job interview was pretty much how I expected it to go. The "interview" was basically to make sure I didn't have a third eye in the middle of my forehead or something like that - much in the way a retail interview goes ("She's breathing, she's hired."). Right now, until fall, they can only offer me 7.5 hours a week. That's right. SEVEN AND A HALF. Mondays 6-8:30 PM, Fridays 10A-3P. Woo hoo. At a whopping $7.50 an hour. Not even $60 a week, $225 a month (BEFORE taxes). I'd be a front desk monkey, taking people's cards, signing people up, giving people info, things like that. Wow, now we can afford the house! Hell, we can't even afford to charge the digital camera I want. If I want it, I can start when we get back from Disney. I might take it just to see how many hours I get once fall comes around, when the college kids go back to school. If I can get 20 hours a week at that price, I can at least make $600 a month. And in a year, I can get a raise. Oooooh, $7.75 an hour? Sheesh. Can you tell I'm thrilled?

There it is. The email to Colleen. I'm a lazy bastard, huh? So I'm thinking I'm going to take it, because even a little money is better than, um, NO money, which is what this financial drain on the family, aka, the SAHM, makes now. I know there are studies that show moms who stay home for even a short time lose money in the workplace (because, you know, we women aren't getting fucked enough by the patriarchy making less money and working more hours than men, on top of having our reproductive abilities count AGAINST us, despite the fact that we FURTHER THE SPECIES [well, some of us]), but SEVEN FIFTY AN HOUR?!?! How insulting that I'd be making only a dollar more an hour than I did working at Borders FIVE YEARS AGO. But I'm not bitter. I guess I'll take it, because I'm not in a position to fall back on pride or the fact that, once upon a time, I made decent money (ok, decent money for an editor - which is basically only slightly better than decent money for a secretary - which I could have been if I'd not wasted my time going to college and amassing huge debt that will haunt me for the rest of my viable life, not to mention all that time I could have been working and SAVING). Geez. Ok, I admit it, you twisted my arm, I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO bitter. It doesn't help that today Hurricane and I spent the afternoon at the in-laws house (Hubster was at a Phillies game) and my daughter has SO much fun outside it's not even funny. And I can't provide that for her. We have a postage stamp yard that is basically a toilet for the 95-pound moron dog from hell, so no place for the kid to really play. And she just adores being outside, running around in the sun and the grass and the wind. And I hate the fact that, to get out of here and into even a decent house (because the market here, despite the downturn almost everywhere else, is still high - great for selling, shitty for buying) I'd have to work full-time. But if I go back full-time to afford a house, I'd have to leave kid #2 (and there WILL be a kid #2 - not right now, but soon) as an infant to go back to work. I didn't do that with Hurricane, and I'm loathe to do it with another child. And not having another kid isn't an option - hubster and I both really want one (not to mention the fact that Hurricane would make a great older sister). So there you have it - another pity party from yours truly. I've just been full of sunshine and happiness lately, huh?

Lookit the sheep. Cute little sheep.

Oh, yeah, and Col? I'll do the meme tomorrow!

Need your mojo!

2007-05-10T15:15:00.000-04:00

I wasn't going to blog about this, because I'm afraid to jinx myself, but I need some good thoughts sent my way! I FINALLY have a job interview! Monday morning, 10 AM, send good hiring thoughts my way! I'm going to interview for a part-time job at the local Y, which is within walking distance, would give me a membership so I can afford to get Hurricane in some group situations, and would give us enough money (hopefully!) to buy a house and get away from Psychoneighbor! So, please, 10 AM Monday morning, cross your fingers and send "don't-screw-this-up" vibes my way!

Here's a cute alpaca pic from MDSW, just cuz! Everyone say it with me "Awwwwww!"

Buried in Fiber at MDSW

2007-05-08T20:05:00.000-04:00

This is fiber that I have literally coveted since LAST year's MDSW. It's from Brush Creek Farm, and it's merino in a gorgeous colorway - Rocky Coast (I believe). I went past it easily 4 times, until Colleen agreed to split the 1.5 lb. wad of it - and the $40 pricetag!

This is fiber I'm splitting with Kat, who couldn't make it (but go congratulate her, she bought a house instead!) There's 2 oz. of white border leicester locks, mohair fiber and alpaca in jeweltones from Shadeyside Farms (love them!), and some Finn locks and mohair locks that were dyed in the same colorway. Fun fun!

Here's 4 oz. of Finn and a felting mix (I'm going to use it for carding) from the same vendor as the Finn/mohair lock blend. I love their yarn - I bought the yarn for Hurricane's baby surprise sweater last year there.

Here was an impulse buy, in that it was at the counter at the Misty Mountain Farm booth, and I was up there, and next thing I knew, the little slut threw herself at me! Just kidding - but I was in the market for a laceweight spindle, and while I was coveting the Tsunami spindle from Golding, but it was $40, and I was reluctant just in case I hated spinning laceweight with a spindle. So this one is a Schact, and I love my heavier Schact, so at $16, I couldn't pass it up! And what's on it? Some fiber from Cacao, which I carded into a batt for Colleen (and snitched some to try out myself. Oh. My. God. This fiber ROCKS! I am THRILLED with the way it came out, and very proud that I washed it, carded it, and am spinning it - and that Colleen is going to spin socks for her hubby out of it!)

This mix is SOOOO much fun! One of the vendors had 6 biiiiiig baskets out front, and each one was full of a different colorway - wacky fibers, lots of angelina and texture, and it was one of those "fill a bag" kinda deals, where you could stuff a bag full for $34 a pound. So Col and I split it. We were each able to grab what colors we liked best - a brilliant idea!

Sock yarn, the top from Misty Mountain Farm, the bottom 2 from Tess - I would have bought A LOT more Tess yarn (GORGEOUS colorways!) but I was trying to exercise self-control, since this was only the second stop. In fact, I only had 1 skein in my hands, but the line was FOREVER, and I felt that I needed to spend more to justify standing there for so long - not to mention, the sock yarns were sitting RIGHT THERE taunting me (or maybe that was the eleventy million skeins in Colleen's arms!)

More fiber...my first purchase at the top from Ozark Carding Mill, a Targhee blend in a beautiful ocean colorway, and some dark brown Targhee, full of VM, but only $1 an oz., and perfect for carding. I bought this while Col was drooling on all the Golding spindles. Then there's merino in the Cassis colorway (and in the Thistle colorway on the other end), a 2 oz. Corriedale "garlic bulb" (c'mon, it totally looks like that!) which is exactly what I needed to ply with another yarn I'm spinning, and some silk noil in various colors - pick your own again, I love it!

Mystery wool with sari silk snippets - spins up tweedy! Mmmmm, tweedy!

Painfully blurry Wensleydale locks - love these colors!

This is GREAT!

And it feels so good!

I have very little self-control. I only have control imposed by budget. That is all.

Oh, and the gates of hell are in South Jersey. HAHA!

(There will be more - I will blog about animals, and bloggers I walked past but was too afraid to speak to, and other stuff and nonsense. Later, my precious.)

So. Tired.

2007-05-05T20:40:00.000-04:00

Back from MDSW. STOP. I may have been attacked by some fiber. STOP. More tomorrow. STOP.

Nupp. Nupp. Nupp. Or, Why Lace is the Devil

2007-05-04T08:32:00.000-04:00

I didn't blog about this particular project because I was afraid to challenge the knit goddess. In fact, I found myself getting cocky once getting through the body of the project, and the knit goddess smacked me down like the bitch I apparently am. Ouch. But it's done, my first "real" lace pattern, and I didn't fuck it up too badly! Victory dance! I'd have spiked it in the end zone, but knitting doesn't spike too well!

I have learned something about myself in knitting this "simple" lace pattern - I am not a process knitter. There are those of you out there who knit like the journey is the thing, not the destination. I have a confession - I'm a destination knitter (man, I wish that meant someone paid me lots of money to knit in exotic locales, but alas, no one pays me anything for anything!) I knit to have an FO I can wear, or my daughter can wear, or my hubby can wear. Yes, I like learning things as I knit, and I'm amazed to go back and look at a project from the beginning of my "career" and realize how far I've come and how that project wouldn't be as great a challenge now as then, but mostly, give me pretty knits and give them to me now! But this project went faster than I thought it would...

It's Swallowtail Shawl from IK. Up there it's fresh off the needles. I knit it using just over 3 balls of Elann's Baby Cashmere yarn in Starlight Blue (don't bother, they're sold out), which is 70% baby alpaca, 20% merino, 10% cashmere. I started it on US4 Addi Naturas because I read on someone's blog (don't remember who) that Naturas were great for lace. This wasn't laceweight yarn, but I can't imagine knitting lace on these needles - the join is terrible for lace, and the points aren't pointy enough. Then I switched to US4 Inox, which were great for the body of the shawl - slippery, but still grippy enough to give this novice knitter some confidence. I switched to my Knitpicks Options when I started the nuppy sections. I started Swallowtail about 2 weeks ago (I don't remember exactly) and after frogging the first few rows several, SEVERAL times (even the stupid cast-on was giving me fits!), I was on a roll.

(ignore the crochet hook there, I realized what I thought was just an f-d up YO was actually a dropped stitch! I don't know how it hung in there so long, but it did, and it was fixed once blocking was done. I blocked using Eunny's excellent tutorial).

There were many tinked rows as I realized I should be counting my stitches more often, and when I got cocky - just after finishing the budding lace section and starting the first of the nupp charts I got all proud of myself, figuring I was in the home stretch...and the knitting goddess promptly disabused me of that notion, and I had to frog 8 nuppy rows, after spending half a day trying to tink and figure out where the extra stitches I had were coming from. Ever try to tink a nupp? Don't try it. Ever try to reconstruct a nupp that's been tinked incorrectly and fell apart? Save yourself the time, trouble, and yes, tears (I was frustrated, ok?) and just RIIIIIIP. Much easier. Luckily, that chart starts with 2 rows that are basically plain knit or purl, so I was able to use them as my point to frog back to. Oh, and nupps? Well, when you fudge them, too, they're not so much of a headache. Before finding this, no matter how loosely I knit, I could not P5tog, even using a US1 Crystal Palace DPN to try to draw the stitches out. So they're time-consuming, but not terribly so when you cheat!

After that, there were a few moments where I fudged as I knit because a nupp wasn't landing where it was supposed to, and I just decreased or increased to fit the nupp where it belonged, but I'm not proud of that. Well, at that point, I JUST. WANTED. IT. TO. END! Hmm...I just typed "Ene" there instead of "end" - maybe I should knit the Ene scarf next. I have a weird addiction to laceweight yarns, and have an entire basket of them, so I should start something else to use that yarn up. I could knit lace from my stash all year (don't get your hopes up!)

No pics of me wearing it, because my ass is huge and I'm feeling all fat cow-y today, but if you're at MDSW tomorrow, you can see it in person! All in all, I am very proud of my first "real" lace pattern, and the next time I feel like banging my head against a wall, I'll knit more. One day, I'd like to knit this or this!

And I needed some simple knitting now, and am bored with the kneesock I'm knitting, so I'm knitting the oh-so-creatively named "Bag" from Debbie Bliss' Noro Collection book in some Noro Kochoran destashed from Colleen ages ago (am I right, Col? Is it Kochoran? I lost the labels! It's the yarn I knit the Urban Rustic gloves out of - remember?) Nice, simple knitting - and not a nupp to be found!

Helping out

2007-04-26T21:19:00.000-04:00

I just found out about this through Lulubeans' blog, and linked to Pippi's to find out more. This is an amazing thing these ladies are doing - can you help them out? I am forever amazed at the kindness of those men and women in the fiber community - over 5 days left, and the bid's as high as it is. Go bid, help out a fellow human in need - this kind of thing gives me hope in humanity.

Customer Creations

2007-04-22T18:25:00.000-04:00

I've been selling batts like crazy in my Etsy shop, and some of my customers have been great at sharing with me the yarns (and other creations!) they've made from my batts. So I've decided to show my appreciation (and use it as blog fodder) by posting pics every once in awhile from my customers!

Here's three skeins of yarn spun from three 2 oz. batts I carded up for Joy of Fabulosity. I got some great wool/mohair blend hand-dyed fiber in exchange. Here's the yarns:

LEFT is a wacky batt I carded up from the leftovers from other batts. Whenever I get a decent amount, I throw a whole bunch of different fibers through the carder just once to keep the crazy texture. MIDDLE: a blend of light blue gulf coast wool and angora, cream colored llama (SOOOOO soft - I was very surprised at how soft it was!) and a light brown superwash lamb's wool. Oh, and some silk noil, too! RIGHT: white wool/mohair blend mill ends with bright turquoise hampshire X wool locks, sari silk in a gorgeous deep peacock green, and some cream-colored raw alpaca.

I love the way they spun up! Thanks for sharing, Joy, and for your support of my products!

FOs!

2007-04-17T15:33:00.000-04:00

No, really!

Basic, top-down stockinette socks in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock "Vera". 64 stitches, knit with a 12" Addi Turbo circ down to the heel, then put on Crystal Palace DPNs for the rest. LOVE these socks - the yarn is a great color combo, and nice and squisy (as Hurricane calls it!). This is the first sock yarn I bought, and it's been marinating in the stash for over 2 years!

Here's a (blurry) closeup of the Eye of Partridge Heel, which I've done on this sock and the one below. Me likey!

Trekking XXL, color #6, knit the same as the Vera socks. Love this yarn, too! Not quite as soft or squisy, but still nice. Notice how the stripes ALMOST match? Didn't plan that at all - they were actually only 2 rows off at the heel split, but came out different through the foot. I figured they'd be totally wrong (wouldn't have minded, either) but they came out pretty close for no planning!

Oh, and Clapotis is done, too, but unblocked. When I get up the gumption to clear off the bed and block it, there will be pics!

And what's this? This is the reason (well, one of SEVERAL POUNDS of reasons!) why I told Col no raw fleece for me at MDSW. This is Cacao, 3.8 lbs. of CVM fleece from Kim at White Barn Farm. LOVE LOVE LOVE! See that glisten? Gorgeous!

I took a big chunk and soaked it in the tub in Dawn with Bleach.

I threw the locks on top of some tulle so I could lift it all out, drain the tub, and refill for a second soak. Here's how clean this fleece is: the water wasn't NEARLY as dirty as other fleeces I've washed!

There's very little VM in this fleece since it's coated from day one. And SO clean and soft! I love the black base and the brown tips. I'm going to throw some through my drumcarder and see how it comes out. I may send it out to process, or just card it all up myself. I've already reserved 1/2 of Puffy's fleece for next year!

So there! I DO actually knit! Spinning? What's that?

Thank goodness for Colleen...

2007-04-13T22:40:00.000-04:00

And her love of quizzes!

You Are 48% Abnormal

You are at medium risk for being a psychopath. It is somewhat likely that you have no soul.

You are at medium risk for having a borderline personality. It is somewhat likely that you are a chaotic mess.

You are at low risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is unlikely that you are in love with your own reflection.

You are at high risk for having a social phobia. It is very likely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement.

You are at low risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is unlikely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer.

How Abnormal Are You?

I think I'm WAAAY more abnormal than this, but at the same time, I think the social phobia is 100% right. I'm a freak who'd rather huddle in the dark alone like a mushroom than socialize.

RIP Kurt

2007-04-12T22:01:00.000-04:00

(pic courtesy of CBC.ca obit)

From Colleen

2007-04-05T14:03:00.000-04:00

Your results:
You are Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)

Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)		100%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)		100%
Wash (Ship Pilot)		60%
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)		55%
Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)		55%
Inara Serra (Companion)		40%
River (Stowaway)		35%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary)		30%
Derrial Book (Shepherd)		20%
A Reaver (Cannibal)		20%
Alliance		15%

You are good at fixing things.
You are usually cheerful.
You appreciate being treated
with delicacy and specialness.

Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test

NEVER watched the show - is this a good character to be? I am SICKSICKSICKSICK again, so trying to stall for time! Dr. appointment tomorrow...hopefully drugs soon to follow!

The Kindness of People You've Never Met in Real Life

2007-03-27T14:50:00.000-04:00

I wouldn't exactly call Kat a stranger. We've done a fiber swap, emailed back and forth, enhanced each other's stash from time to time, and plan to eventually get together and spin while the hubbies talk shop (teaching). But we've never actually met in real life. So imagine my surprise when I got an email from her the other day in response to my last post telling me to watch out for a package. I thought maybe she was sending me a fiber pick-me-up (I was hoping not, only because I know how tiny her stash is and mine is, well, embarrassing! Keep your fiber for yourself Kat! Build that tiny stash up!) She told me it was coming UPS, though, which perplexed me a bit.

I heard a truck this morning, but didn't see anything out on my porch after the driver left. Hmm...turns out he'd tucked the box behind a planter, so I didn't see it. What did I find? CHOCOLATE! And not just ANY chocolate, but GOURMET CHOCOLATE! I couldn't believe it! Talk about a pick-me-up! Kat, thanks SO much (oh, and Brian, too!!!)! I just may name my next child after you!

(mmm, truffles. Yes, one is missing already!)

Thanks, too, to the other bloggers who've left kind words. I'm feeling a bit better. The housing situation has actually gotten worse (our dog has been having bad seperation anxiety and turns out has been barking and howling the entire time we're out somewhere, and our psychobitch neighbor has complained to us. We were playing music for him - as per her suggestion - and thought it was helping, but turns out it's not. So she told us about it the other day, and then called the cops on us on Sunday afternoon!) So now we have the impetus to get out of here - even though it means me getting a full-time job and leaving my daughter at home, we'll at least finally have a detached house! So I'm all anxious about it, but at least I know at the end of it all, we'll be away from that woman. Amazing how much bad neighbors can ruin a home.

Meh.

2007-03-23T09:10:00.000-04:00

Warning: Pity party ahead. If you're not interested, I'm sure there's someone else out there with a more interesting blog! ;)

I'm in a funk. Funkfunkfunk. And not the good, P-Funk kinda way, either. Nope. The I-wanna-crawl-into-bed-and-pull-the-covers-over-my-head-and-maybe-have-a-good-life-sucks-kinda-cry kind of funk. Ick.

I haven't knit or spin or carded anything in the past 3 days. Other than getting the socks to the point where I need to increase for the heel flap, I haven't touched yarn or fiber at all. Ok, not entirely true, I carded a batt up last night before bed (everything's still in our bedroom instead of the fiber room, as I tear it apart trying to find the yarn that's gone missing - might as well tear it up while it's half empty). I've spent the past two days reading through January One's archives - does that make me a loser? It's not like I'm procrastinating, really - I'm a stay-at-home mom, so other than cleaning (the house needs it in a clear-out-the-chaos-and-clutter kind of way that happens after guests leave) and spinning/carding, there's nothing I NEED to do. For whatever reason, I can't even find the motivation to get up and find a new project to knit. Or to work through the increasing in ribbing I need to do to get these socks moving - I LOVE them, they're a lot like a pair of Ragg wool socks I had when I was in high school that I literally wore out. They're a fast knit, too, but it's like the increasing and decreasing in ribbing is just too much effort.

Maybe I'm PMSing. I have no idea - my period's been all over the place since having Ella and I'm not on the pill. Maybe I'm preggers. That's a possibility. I'm also fighting the fourth (or is it fifth?) illness of this winter, and I've gained about 4 pounds over the past two weeks (oh, yeah, that's totally going well - I want to lose at least 15 by June and our Disney trip - now I guess I have to make that 19). Or maybe it's the absolute SHIT weather we've had around here for the past, oh, forever. Don't remind me that my parents just went back to sunny Florida - I may kill myself.

I'm just really feeling dissatisfied with my life. Shouldn't be, I know that, but I've always been that way. I get stuck in a rut, feel like nothing's going right or ever will, that's the status quo for awhile, and then I get better. I have bad days, days where I cry at the drop of a hat, all day. I'm probably depressed - I've been in therapy and on medication in the past for it - but when our insurance changed and my therapist wasn't covered anymore, I just stopped going. I was weaning myself off the Paxil anyway, because we wanted to start trying to get pregnant, and I didn't want that poison in my body, but the therapy was still helping. Probably need it again, but we're kinda too broke for it.

I hate where we live, our house, our neighborhood, the entire area. It's like a post-industrial wasteland, crime's getting worse, our school district is the second worst in the entire state - I wouldn't send my dog there, but have to figure out what we're doing with Ella soon. I want to move away (I know part of this is missing my parents - usually by the end of a weekend, I want to strangle my mother, but this time we went a full week and got along great! Made me realize how much I miss them!) but we can't afford it at all unless I get a job (and I SO don't want a job!) and where I want to move, my hubby would never want to go. I'm lucky that at least he's cool with moving into Delaware since he spends so much time at the school he teaches at with the 5 jobs he needs to work there to make decent money. My hubby's great, but obstinate at times, and just doesn't want to move away from his parents, or the area. I'm willing to move just about ANYWHERE but here...hell, I moved here away from my parents to be with him when I graduated college, but he lived with his parents until we got married, and we still live about 2 minutes away from them. Ugh.

How selfish and stupid do I sound? I know I sound horrible - I'm healthy, my daughter is smart and happy and healthy and beautiful, my hubby works his ass off for us, we have a roof over our heads, a new stove (thanks Dad!), a trip to Disney that's coming up (I'm trying not to think about the fact that it's 2 weeks with my in-laws and that we'll be broke for it because my hubby won't have his night job for extra income since it ends in May) and then we'll be trying for another baby when we get back. Trying not to think, too, about the fact that we are in a SMAAAAALLLLL house and I have no idea how we'll fit another kid and all the stuff that goes with another kid here.

Sheesh. I'm pathetic. It's funny, I've gone back and forth about sharing too much in such a public forum. I give tiny glimpses, but mostly I just show fibery stuff and that's that. I'm a private person, always have been. But I've noticed the blogs I like best all share something of themselves. So nothing like going overboard with the navel gazing all at once, huh?

As a cookie for making it this far, and because this is supposed to be a fiber blog, here's a pic of Ella in a recent finished project.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HURRICANE!

2007-03-21T10:20:00.000-04:00

Ella at one day old.

Ella in her going home outfit. See how HUGE it is on her? It was the 0-3 month size, but she was a little peanut!

My little girl is growing up - someone stop her!

(copyright Target blahblahblah)

Happy THIRD Birthday Ella! We love you!

(ok, so I'm one day late!)

2007-03-16T20:20:00.001-04:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Is there anybody out there...

2007-03-16T09:28:00.000-04:00

Who can tell me how to increase and decrease in ribbing? I'm knitting knee socks based on The Keyboard Biologist's formula. They're toe up (short row toe) on DPNs, in worsted weight handspun (not mine) in a K3 P1 rib, and I am already to the heel. I have to increase to do the gusset heel (shuddup, that's the one I want to do!) and then decrease and increase up my leg. I have no idea how to increase and decrease in the K3 P1 rib and keep the pattern. HELP!

Knitknitknit. Rinse. Repeat.

2007-03-12T21:30:00.000-04:00

Oy, it's been awhile, huh? I've been busy busy preparing for my parents' impending arrival - they're coming up from Florida for a week on Wednesday for Hurricane's THIRD birthday (bestill my momma heart, I can't believe my baby's going to be THREE!)

So, before I get to the knitting (and, OH, has there been knitting!) I have to share pics of one of the many things I decided to tackle before my parents come!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Of course, we'd planned to have the dining room done on Saturday and the living room done on Sunday, but the best laid plans and all that jazz...we hit a snag first on the very first row. The directions (oh, it's IKEA Hemse flooring) assume 2 things - that your baseboard comes all the way down to the floor (ours has a gap because there was thick carpeting) and that your walls are straight. Ha. It's a 55-year-old rowhome, so besides being old, it was probably built on the cheap. Halfway down the second board, we hit a point on the wall that bumped out, so every time we tried to connect another board in the second row, everything would pivot. Of course, laminate flooring is supposed to "float" and not be nailed down, but ours is! We had to nail down the first row once we adjusted for the bump-out, just to be able to attach every subsequent row. We spent a couple of hours waiting for Hurricane to get up from her nap so my FIL could come over to help (our dog goes absolutely apeshit whenever my in-laws come over, so we didn't want to have him wake Hurricane up). The a few more hours of figuring out what to do, how to compensate for the pivot, and instead of having the dining room done in one day, we ended Saturday with 4 rows. Out of, like, 10. Sheesh. But Sunday we made more progress and got through the dining room and 5 rows into the living room (we have an archway from one room to the other, and I wanted to flow from one room to the other without a break, so we went through the archway and down to the end of the living room.) We're going to try to get some more done tomorrow night when the hubster comes home from work, and we should get most of it done, but luckily it's only my parents coming, and not the whole family (we're having the party at the in-laws, they have twice the space we do).

Oh, wait, I'm not the Yarn Harlot! She's got a much bigger job than we do, and at least I have the hubster to help! And so, on to some knitting content. I don't have pics for everything, so I'll throw a couple up now and use the rest for blog fodder for another day!

Here's something I'm LOVING. I mean, wearing every damned day!

Fireside Footies from Pippikneesocks. Ohmigod! I love them!!! I knit them with Noro Kureyon #170, and I love this colorway like I love my daughter (I love it so much I forgive them for the knot leading to the harsh break between the orange and dark olive that should have blended instead)! I think I'll have to knit some more out of this yarn, or maybe some handspun, but either way, I know I'll have to knit another pair, because I'm literally wearing these all day every day!

Ok, I thought I'd get further, but I'm tired and sore, so I'm off to tubbie and bed.

Of f'd up mittens, ginormous sleeves, and ugly stitches

2007-02-12T21:43:00.000-05:00

Sheesh, it's been a looooong time, huh? Longer than I'd planned, that's fo sho! (Listen to me with my whitey-white girl ghetto BS, huh?) I came down with a phantom fever last Monday night that came literally out of nowhere. One second, I was fine, the next minute, I was freezing cold and my skin hurt. 100.5. No warning, no other symptoms. By the next morning, it was up to 101.7. And then the tummy ickiness started. Nothing major, not like the bug that's been going around, but it was Pavlovian - every time I got hungry, I would get nauseous too. That is a GREAT plan for weight loss, let me tell ya! I lost 6.5 pounds last week, and this week it's still around - not the nausea, but the, um, bad butt as Mama Scrapalotta so eloquently put it! Sheesh. Let me tell you what a crimp that put in my knitting last week (but I was able to finish a new book, The Terror, in the span of 2.5 days - 766 pages! It's INCREDIBLE! If you like historically based fiction with a supernatural bent, it's a MUST READ!!! Like, I put it down and wanted to pick it back up. I told my husband to hurry the hell up and finish the book he was reading so he could read it...and now that he's reading it, I'm jealous! Ok, enough gushing - go read it!)

So there was tres little knitting, spinning, fibery exploits at all last week because of the fever and resulting absolute sucking lack of energy. But before I got sick, I learned a new skeel! I took my butt down to Hayes in Wilmington and took a 2-hour "Managing Your Machine" course to learn how to use my old and busted Singer sewing machine. So now I do! Well, I sorta do - can't exactly remember everything I was told, but I know enough now to do this:

Not too well, tho':

But I think the purdy batik cotton fabric distracts from the hideousness, huh? This project actually inspired me to take a course, since I hate digging through my diaper bag to find a pen or lip gloss. So Natasha mentioned this pattern, and away I went!

Anemoi hadn't progressed much further than the last pic, but then it went, well, away. I went to the yarn shop Saturday to knit for a few hours, and the lovely proprieter (proprietress?) Laura took one look at my so-called tubular cast-on, and was like, "Uh, that'snotatubularcaston". Uh-oh. So Anemoi was ripped back, I was schooled in the proper was to cast on tubularly, and Anemoi is on time-out while I finish the Faux Fair Isle sweater from Spin to Knit. Especially since I have committed to knitting a swing top for my little girl for her bday March 20 (to the tune of $40 of yarn!). So I have to get on the ball, and Anemoi and Erte (oh, man, don't even ASK about Erte!) have to wait!

I've been plugging away, however, on the Faux Fair Isle from Spin to Knit, and I finished the body of the sweater the other night. So I picked up and started a sleeve, and OMIGOD! I put it on the other night when I had a few inches, and it was big, but the whole sweater is a bit, which is exactly what I wanted - a big, comfy, knockaround sweater. I was plugging away at the sleeve, thinking that maybe decreasing every inch was going to make the sleeve too small too quickly, so I threw it on to see. Well, it's almost down to my wrist, and STILL TO BIG. Check this out:

See that? The sleeve is TWENTY INCHES AROUND! My arm at its, ahem, fattest, is THIRTEEN INCHES. I HAVE SEVEN INCHES OF EASE IN MY ARM!!!!!!! I mean, the WRIST is still too big for my upper arm! So, I know there is frogging in my future, but I'm wondering now what to do with the ginormity of this sleeve! I set aside and cast on the correct number of stitches for the arm opening when I finished the yoke, so I'm wondering now if it makes more sense to pick up fewer stitches, or decrease sharply on the first round. Or maybe decrease every half inch? I don't know what to do to not make the sleeves look like poo! And how many to decrease so I don't go too far the opposite way and have them be too small? Maybe a trip to the yarn shop (and the pro!) is in order!

Oh, and this is something cute I just had to share! My daughter gets CLICK! Magazine, and I always look through to see what's in it before I give it to her. Well, imagine my surprise when I saw this!

And here's more!

Didja see that? A closeup is in order!

A DRUMCARDER!

And at the end, the little girls have llama sweaters that match their llama neighbors!

Drumroll, please

2007-01-29T18:21:00.000-05:00

Ok, all of you waiting with bated breath for the contest results...

First of all, thanks to all of you who delurked (let me delude myself into thinking you actually stop by to read my blog on a regular basis, and just don't feel like commenting, please?) to comment! I figured free stuff would get y'all out of the woodwork!

Ok, so I let my daughter Ella pick the winner - which I forgot to take pics of as she chose. Here's what I settled on...

And our winner is...

KAT! Hey Kat! Want the fiber or the yarn?

Karen and Marisol (blogless? Let me know, and I'll link on over!) had the other correct guesses...whichever one of you emails me first gets whatever Kat doesn't pick, how does that sound? My email addy is talamorgan at erols dot com.

Here's some spinnin' I've been doing lately. I hope to have an update on Yarn Rescue by the end of the week. And I have more batts to post on Etsy, but for some reason, I can't connect to Etsy at all! I have no idea what's going on, but it's upsetting me!

Dad's Flannel, from domestic wool dyed by Lynn at the Yarn Wench. Love Lynn - wanna marry her!

This is Grapevine (couldn't think of a better name right now) from fiber dyed by Ashley at Neauveau (I feel like mourning, she's posted a note that she's taking a break from fibery things to get her realtor's license. I wish her the best of luck, but man, am I going to miss her fiber - especially the hand-dyed locks! Must. Hoard. What. I. Have.)

And here's a gratuitous catslut pic - Groucho is a lazy whore!

BLOG CONTEST!

2007-01-22T20:34:00.000-05:00

So much for having this done the next day, huh? Well, I guess it's a good thing, because I know what I want to do! I have made good progress in the Erte cloche. I am almost done with the straight area before the repeats, so I figure I can get it done by Friday. Because on Friday, I'm casting on for Anemoi. And that's where my contest comes in! I want you to DELURK! COMMENT! Let me know I have more than 3 people checking in!!!

Ok, here's the deal. I have 3 different combinations of yarn for Anemoi. Here they are (all are from Elann).

This is Elann Baby Silk in Parchment and Moroccan Olive:

Here's Elann's Baby Cashmere in Morning Mist and Tapestry Blue:

And the final possibility is Elann's Baby Silk in Aubergine and Lotus Blossom:

So here's the deal. Comment on this entry with which combination you think I'm going with. You've got till Friday to enter. On Friday I'm casting on (don't worry, I've already decided which combination I'm using!) and what I'll do is go through the comments and pick the right choices. I'll throw the names of those people in a bowl and let Hurricane Ella choose the winners. If you're a spinner, you win this:

About 2-3 oz. of Falklands wool handdyed by me, and a handful of Cotswold lamb locks dyed by Frene Creek Farm.

If you're a knitter, you win this:

134 yards of a soft wool blend (there's gotta be merino in here, it's really nice and soft!) spun slightly thick and thin, in purples and pinks. Yes, it's blurry, all my pics are blurry lately. I hate my camera - someone want to trade me a good one for mine?! Hee hee!

So there you go. Delurk. Comment. Pick the right combo, get entered. Ella picks you, you pick your prize! Let me know in the comment if you're wanting the fiber or the yarn!

Oh, and don't forget about my destashing sale!

And now we are one

2007-01-18T15:55:00.000-05:00

Well, the blog is one. It's my first blogiversary!

I had grand plans for a contest and a destashing sale and a whole bunch of FOs and WIPs. But I still have a fever after 4 days, and really just want to crawl into a hole and drown in mucus. I will chatter on a little bit, but the contest will have to wait until tomorrow.

Here it is, a blog entry in 4 movements.

I. Reports of Clapotis have been greatly exaggerated.

Remember way back when when I bragged all over my skeelz, that I would have Clapotis done by that weekend? Yeah, well, that didn't happen. In fact, it's still not done. Case in point:

That would be Clapotis, 3 skeins of Manos down, and just about halfway done. HALFWAY. Over a MONTH later. I blame it on project polygamy - I can't have just one project going, and sometimes the new projects are just, um, better (ask me if Kepler's been blocked and seamed yet...)

II. FO's

Here is yet ANOTHER pair of socks, and the first FO of the new year! Monkey! LOVE LOVE LOVE me some Monkey socks! Knit in Socks that Rock Chapman Springs lightweight. I knit them on my Crystal Palace size 2 DPNs, and the only change I made was using a knitted cast-on (which takes longer, but I like because I don't need to estimate how much yarn to use!) Are there 2 socks, or just one sock on 2 feet? Well, I couldn't rest BOTH feet on the back of the chair to get natural light, could I? Trust me, they're both done! Look at that detail:

And check out that heel! Wow. Perfection! (The other heel is too!)

I LOVED this pattern and will definitely knit it again!

III. WIPs and stash enhancement

Because I can't resist having more than, um, 4 projects on the needles at once, I started the Faux Fair Isle sweater in Spin to Knit. I am using yarn handspun by Misshawklet for the yoke, and I added to my stash through someone else's destash 3 skeins of chocolate brown Cascade Ecological wool for the body. Loverly!

Here's a closeup of the color change (I'm loving it!!)

And I have added to my stash for Eunny's GORGEOUS Anemoi mittens. I have 3 different color combos, but I think that's going to be my contest, so I'll share them (and the prizes!) tomorrow. My camera is on the fritz, and only holding a little bit of charge, so I have no pics of the prizes yet.

And I bought some Rowan 4-ply at Jimmy Beans Wool (it's on saaaale!) for the Erte cloche by Marnie Maclean. Ohhh, tweedy goodness!

I love tweed!

IV. DESTASHING SALE!!!!

I've saved the best for last, I guess. I am having a bit of a destashing sale. There is a flickr set here, and each item has a comment by me giving details about the yarn, and costs. I accept paypal only. I guess if you want anything, email me at talamorgan at erols dot com. Put "destash" or something to that effect in the subject line so I don't delete you as spam! THANKS!

Well, that was a bit of a let-down since I really wanted to have a first blogiversary contest, but hopefully by tomorrow my camera will have some charge (anyone have a Kodak DX4530 with charging problems?) and I can take pics of some prizes - for spinners and knitters!

Cough cough cough - I'm off to drown in mucus!

We have a winnah!

2007-01-15T14:10:00.001-05:00

Me!

I won a contest over at Mama-Scrapalotta! I never win anything, and I keep entering contests on people's blogs, but never win! This inspires me to have my own contest. My first blogiversary is Jan. 18, so I will be posting a contest that day for either handspun yarn (for knitters) or handdyed fiber (for spinners). Hopefully by then I'll have shaken the headcold from hell I picked up from my daughter!

And I am also going to be having a DESTASHING SALE on my blog this week - as soon as the clouds clear a bit and I have the energy to take pics!

Gratuitous yarn shot - "Wood Nymph", a new skein at my Etsy shop - 134 yards of Falklands dyed by the lovely and uber-talented Yarn Wench, spun with Cotswold lamb locks from Frene Creek. Yummers!

Lime n Violet present...

2007-01-11T14:15:00.000-05:00

An Etsy customer of mine mentioned that Lime n' Violet had mentioned me on their podcast. Now, I've never listened to a podcast before in my life. I knew about Lime n' Violet (hell, I bought a skein of yarn - Violet's Pink Ribbon - for Miss Violet's boob fund) but I'd never listened to a 'cast of theirs. Well, they did a rundown of yarn porn sites they love, and they mentioned me! They were talking about Yarn Rescue (Lynnell has some cool new art yarns up they were giving a shout-out to), and one of them says "Well, I knew about Black Cat" like I'm a freakin' household name or something! It was sooooo cool!! She wants to roll around and lick the batts in my Etsy shop! HOW AWESOME!!!! I feel like a minor celebrity or something (only in my head, dahlinks, only in my head...)

Wootwootwootwoot!

2007-01-10T12:25:00.000-05:00

Or should I say "Squeeeeeee!!"

Or maybe "Hell, YEAH!"

I just got my unsold inventory back from Craftland. I sent 45 skeins, and got only 18 back! And most of what I sold was the slightly more expensive stuff! I made some pretty nice dough, let me tell you!! I am SO totally stoked!!! Of course, it has to go to defray my credit card purchases as of late (and is only a tiny drop in the bucket, let me tell you!) but it renews my faith in what I'm doing! Hopefully it will drum up more business at Yarn Rescue, and if I expand to consign anywhere else. Etsy sales are so-so - I'm selling more fiber than yarn (which is nothing to sneeze at! I'm having a ball with the drumcarder!) but it's SO flooded with handspun yarn. I must find new places to sell my stuff!

So, go me, go me! A little pat on my back from myself. I'm feeling good right now!

Oh, and hey Col, remind me to take a pic of my CROCHET SWATCH!

What have I gotten myself into?

2007-01-06T20:25:00.000-05:00

Ok, so Rachel over at Yarnagogo had this great idea to get us knitters off our tushies (or tusies as my daughter calls it) and get us running - or walking, or Nordic Tracking (great for my knees) - 100 miles by April 1. ONE HUNDRED. Not 10, not 50, 100. And what did I do? I joined up! I joined up the other day, and STILL HAVEN'T WALKED A MILE. I think I had better get my arse in gear, no? I can't run, my knees are too crappy. I can walk, and I have a course mapped out (Rach is right, Google's Pedometer is AWESOME! So now I know how far I have to go around my neighborhood to do a mile. It's doable, totally, I just haven't actually done it yet. I'm the queen of lame-ass excuses, basically. Throw off the idea I have in my head of what I need to do or how I want to do it, and I will promptly cut the thing I want to do least. I was totally planning on starting with 1 mile 7 days a week (walking outside, since my Nordic Track computer is on the blink, and I have no way of knowing how far I've gone on it), since that allows my knees to ease into it, and I figured that would allow some wiggle room if I have to miss a day. But I don't feel too optimistic about it so far, since I have already put it off about 3 days. Someone kick my butt, please? Please?

New wheel...

2007-01-03T15:40:00.000-05:00

Ok, so this is a bit of a survey post. I have had a decent amount of handspun sales lately, and find that I am about halfway or less to getting a new wheel. Yes, I know I have my Lendrum complete. It rocks, and I would never want to part with it! But I have a lot of spinning ideas that would tie it up and I don't want to have to be without it if I need to spin up a custom order or if I find I need to replenish one of the several sites I sell on. So I want a wheel that's good especially for spinning plied yarns, like sock yarn (I have this insane idea that I want to start spinning my own sock yarns) or yarns that are plied, but with locks and stuff (it would be nice to have an extra wheel to practice some things like corespinning on). So, any lurkers out there who want to give a shout out to their own special wheel? Don't need to spin anything too bulky, so it doesn't need any special features, but I want something that I can sit at for a long time comfortably, double-treadle, relatively compact.

Any ideas?

Oh, and just so there's SOME kind of eye candy, here's Danica! My first stab at entrelac - I LOVE IT!!!! Lady Eleanor, here I come!

Christmas goodies galore!

2006-12-27T21:24:00.000-05:00

And some new techniques you'll just have to wait until tomorrow for!

Hope everyone had a great Christkwanzhannukahyule! Did I cover everything? Whatever holiday you celebrate, I hope you had a good one full of fiber and yarn and knitting books and all kinds of goodness!

I got me some new knitting books:

(No, I'm not preggers - we're waiting till this summer to try, but that doesn't mean I can't start knitting the Bump sweater!)

And some MORE new knitting books:

(Let me tell you, EZ's "Knitting Without Tears" has me buying yarn to knit a seamless sweater without a pattern! Ok, so I'm going to knit one for my daughter first because it's just smaller, even though there are just as many chances to screw it up!)

And I got me some gift certificates (I'm already trying to figure out how to spend only $30 at Crown Mountain Farms!):

And some more STR!!!! I LOVE this colorway! Chapman Springs - sooooo purdy!

We live in a very small house, a rowhome (with a psycho neighbor, but that's a completely different post) with no room. And we went nuts for our daughter (well, not as bad as some, but we definitely went over-budget a bit). Just a bit:

Yes, we have a midgie tree. There was a bigger one and this one, and the hubby let the toddler choose, so we ended up with a tree that's even too small for my small living room! Sheesh. Oh, and our presents aren't even under the tree. They're on the chair because there was no more room (and we figured we should keep the presents out of Hurricane's hands so she wouldn't open everything - which she did try to do!)

This is everything after - our presents to her, my in-laws (who go insane every year, no matter how much we tell them to take it easy because we have NO FREAKIN' ROOM - they drive me nuts) and my parents' presents (who also went a bit nuts this year, although not as badly, because they're in Florida and don't see my daughter that often now - my mother is guilt shopping!) Oddly enough, it looks like less stuff because all those boxes are so big! And I hope the children's toy manufacturers' fancy houses sink into the sea for all the shit they use to secure the toys in their boxes. I swear, I have a sore spot on my thumb from weilding scissors all damned day trying to get everything out of the boxes!!! There should be a law!

Spinnin' n' knittin'

2006-12-17T12:03:00.000-05:00

First of all, I want to share this, which I found via Sheilah's blog. It's totally addictive and fun, and it's for a great cause!

I tried to post a picture link from the site, but for some reason it's not showing up!

Ok, on to the knitting and spinning (yes, I actually DO spin! I dye, too, but I have no pics of that just yet!)

Here is Soleil for my mom, blocking on my mattress. I use a spray bottle, so that's why it looks all weird and mottled. It's just some spots are wetter than others.

And here she is all done and ready to be wrapped and shipped to Florida!

Here's Kepler! All done except the blocking (and obviously the sleeves. What? You think I knit a TANK TOP out of wool/cashmere/silk yarn? Hee hee! I'm crazy, but I'm not that crazy!)

Let me tell you, I love me some quick knits. So when I saw Colleen was knitting Calorimetry, and I saw how quickly she was motoring along on it, I decided I wanted to whip one out, too. So I cast on that evening, knit knit knit, and by bedtime I had this:

I had just finished the 15 short rows and was starting the decreases. Not bad for a couple of hours of work. I was knitting it out of silk/angora blend yarn recycled and hand-dyed from Yarn Rescue (shameless plug: remember, I have my yarns there, too!)

So here it is, all finished (and blurry, I HATE my camera!) the next morning. Um, it's just a TAD too big!

How big was it? Well, big enough that it covered the entire top of my head, and I had it TIED at the nape of my neck, with a good 2-inch overlap on each side AFTER tying it. Hmm...frog frog frog, and now I'm knitting it on size 5s (instead of 7s, which is still a size smaller than the pattern recommends!) Hopefully this will work out better!

And here's some spinning I've FINALLY gotten around to! Here's some brown corriedale roving that I added merino locks hand-dyed by Ashley to, then ran through the carder.

Pre-carding:

Finished batt (sorry it's blurry - my camera is giving me fits not focusing well at all!):

Finished yarn, plied with shiny metallic gold DMC thread (it's a carry-along thread for cross-stitching, I just happened to have it on hand):

I haven't plied with thread yet, after the last attempt ended badly, but I figured out to stuff a piece of paper in the spool to slow it down on the lazy kate, and it worked well! Here's another plied yarn:

It's super-duper soft Merino hand-painted with black, purple, and green and plied with black thread. I have some more fiber from this left over, which will be listed in my Etsy shop either tonight or tomorrow.

And here's Glee, the last yarn I've gotten to this week, a nice, simple white domestic blend spun thick & thin with "butterfly blue" angelina. It's a pretty yarn, I think, nothing too crazy.

These are all going into my Etsy shop, along with some of the fiber I've dyed this past week - no photos, sorry!

Hope everyone is getting all they need to done before Christmas! I can't believe it's only a week away (especially since it's going to be 60 here today and 65 tomorrow!)

Hee hee!

2006-12-13T14:20:00.000-05:00

Your Elf Name Is...

Grumpy Sweet Cheeks

What's Your Elf Name?

Put them down and step away from the scissors

2006-12-11T09:05:00.000-05:00

Ok, really, I should not be allowed to make any major knitting decisions on 5 hours of sleep and first thing in the morning (I'm not a coffee drinker, so that wouldn't have helped at all!) This is what comes of it:

What's that, you ask? Why, it's my mother's Christmas Soleil, due to go in the mail to Florida by Friday, unraveled at the one shoulder. Why? Well, because I did the crocheted edging, and it came out sooo tight I don't think my 2-year-old daughter could have fit her arm through it. So I took what I thought was a close look, snipped what I thought was the end of the crocheted edge - and it turned out to be a random stitch! So I had to throw a lifeline into the front and back straps, rip them back, and reknit them. I seriously think I'm going to skip the whole crocheted edging, since I don't crochet (I mean, it was the most fiddly, frustrating, tight thing I've done with yarn in, well, EVER - Col, it was tighter than even my usual knitting!) and it came out so tight!

On to other things; there is this.

A tisket, a tasket, is it a little basket? It holds a ball of yarn...

No, it's a swatch for a boob holder! I decided to use short-row shaping in Kepler to give me some more, um, ease for the girls. So I decided to do the smart thing and surf the net looking for a million different mentions of short-row shaping within a pattern, and then I actually swatched! Look out, the sky may fall! I found invaluable help at Purlwise, Knitty, and Savannahchik (which mostly gave me the balls to try this on my own - me, blind follower of patterns since I have NO concept of how something should look when it's done...oh, and also made me want to knit a Somewhat Cowl, too!). But the best advice was from Juno, who not only posted a great entry back in May 2005 about it, but also had the decency to email me back (and quickly!) about my silly questions regarding the shaping. The best thing she said? That "short row shaping exists outside the structure of the sweater." In other words, you just knit to where you need it, knit the short rows, and then pick up in your pattern where you left off before the shaping. Easy peasy! Thanks SO much, Juno!

Wanna see some pics? Of course you do! I did something that made me feel like a teenager in a silly book (believe me, this was something I NEVER had to do growing up!) and stuffed the short-rowed area with socks to bring it out more for the pics...

Here you can sort of see the slope up the front. I added 12 short rows for a D-cup.

And here it is from the side! Mount Kepler!

And I have sleeves, too!

Now, the only issue is that what I read said to start the short rows 2-3 inches before the armhole shaping. So I did, but I didn't do the bust shaping in the Kepler pattern, which calls for an increase of 6 stitches over 17 rows (and since I'm knitting in the round and the front and back is the same, I'm actually increasing 12 stitches over the 17 rows, since I have to increase 2 stitches on the front and 2 on the back at round 1, then again 8 rounds later, and again 8 rounds after that). I don't care if I should have done the increases and then the short rows, I'm NOT frogging back (it took almost an entire 110-yard ball of yarn for just the short rows - not frogging, no way, no how!). Should I just do the increases by increasing 4 stitches on one round, knit a round plain, increase 4 stitches on the third round, knit a round plain, and then increase 4 stitches the fifth round? I worry that will be too sharp an increase and will make the top over my short rows (like, my breastbone area) look too baggy. Or should I just knit the increases like it says in the pattern, over the 17 rounds, since that will give me the 2-3 inches to the armhole shaping? Am I overthinking this? I know what's happening here...I got cocky about going off pattern all on my own (don't ask me about the internal debate raging about making Kepler a V-neck!) and the knitting goddess is slapping me by making me think I royally f-d up! So am I cool to just do my gradual, 17-round increases and then do the armhole shaping? Please say I am!

New Knitty

2006-12-08T15:56:00.000-05:00

Ok, seriously, I was going to blog with FOs and almost-FOs and new ideas and the like, but I just checked out the new Knitty, and I'm so enamored of SO many of the patterns that I want to dive into my stash and forget my current obessions. Oh, believe me, Kepler is moving right along (in the round!) and I'm going to knit myself a small swatch and try some short-row bust shaping for this baby. And Clapotis is, well, ever growing. I'm at the 5th repeat of the straight section, but I'm dying to get Kepler done so maybe I can wear it for a Christmas party I'm going to next weekend. So I WILL have pics! But on to the new Knitty...

I am in my heart an instant gratification kinda gal. I hate waiting in lines, hate driving long distances to see someone or something I like (why oh why haven't we perfected teleportation yet?!?), I'm just too damned impatient! That's probably why I have a ton of lace yarn and NO lace FOs to show for it - I just have the feeling it will take FOREVER. So I adore this new Knitty for all it's quick, painless, adorable patterns! I am seriously having a hard time deciding what to knit first. Although I think it will be these socks, since I have three, count 'em, THREE skeins of Socks that Rock yarn (bday gifts!) that are none-too-subtly calling my name from the pile of their kin (remind me to post a pic of the pile of sock yarn I have. It's a sickness.) In fact, I think I feel a contest coming on when the new year (and the last of my Xmas knitting - and Kepler and Clapotis are done) rolls around! Especially since I have 2 more colorways on my Christmas list, I think I'll have a new year contest to see who can guess which colorway I knit Monkey out of! Yah, I'm diggin' that idea - maybe scare some of you lurkers (please say there are lurkers out there, please!) out of the woodwork!

Ok, so I also love this (I no longer have long hair, but I can see how this would work for my shorter hair, too!) And this. I have about 450 yards of hand-dyed laceweight mohair that I MAY attempt this in - if not, some Noro. And this for the copious amounts of handspun I have, both my own and from others. And these as a nice intro to latvian mittens. And these because they're just TOO FRICKIN' cute! And these, but as bracelets and not napkin rings, because they are literally knit as if the designer was reading my mind as to what I consider to be uber-perfect jewelry!

And lest you think all I do is knit for me (yes, they would ALL BE FOR ME!) I would love to knit this for Hurricane, but I don't know that I'd have the yarn in my hands in time to construct it for Xmas. She would LOVE it, but her birthday is in March, so that would work, too! And, actually, I still need to knit a few of these and maybe this for her for Xmas - see, I knew I was getting cocky thinking I just had one more Xmas gift to finish up (I'm on the last 2 repeats, so I'm almost done)!

Hopefully I can do a lot of these things from the stash that ate Philadelphia, since the transmission on the hubby's car just went (anyone have $2000, or even better, a new car they can send me?) We're seriously considering becoming a one-car family, both to save on our ridiculous car insurance rates and the whole his car is crap and mine's not much better cloud hanging over our heads. We may trade in both our cars and get this or this (used, of course!). Ah, the joys of being a SAHM and BROKE!

Edited to add: Ok, and I really LURVE Eiffel (the lace! the eyelets! the ribbon!), but man, you can't have an ounce of fat on you! And is it just me, or does that lace pattern and the silhouette of the bottom of the sweater just BEG for bell sleeves? I lurve me some bell sleeves!

Now THAT'S service!

2006-12-01T13:18:00.000-05:00

I just want to share an online yarn shopping experience I just had! What? Online yarn shopping? You?!?! Well, yeah, I guess. See, I did a good thing by, ulp, finally getting up the nerve to frog Clapotis, since I figure I will NEVER find more yarn like that. So I went stash diving, and found 4 skeins of Manos in the same colorway. So I figured, YAY, stash knitting is great, especially right before Christmas! I knew I would need at least one more skein, so I searched high and low and found a shop that sells the colorway (it's #25, and the skeins I have are old, with old tags, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to find it anywhere - I only found it one or two places). So I Googled, and found it cheapest at Flying Fingers. I ordered 2 skeins yesterday afternoon, and was told they'd shipped yesterday, too. At only $3.99 for the shipping, I figured they were maybe shipping parcel post and I would have it by the beginning of next week. No biggie. Imagine my surprise when I opened my door early this afternoon and saw a box from them sitting on my porch! Wow! That's some EXCELLENT service! I'm already incorporating it into Clapotis (it's more pink than green, unlike my other skeins, so I'm going to work it in every few rows). I'm SO thrilled, and I highly recommend shopping with Flying Fingers! (Oh, yeah, and I'm just about to start the straight section, so hopefully I will have it done this weekend - or maybe early next week!)

UFOs and FOs (no, really!)

2006-11-30T14:06:00.000-05:00

No, really, I do occasionally have finished (or almost finished, or at least in progress) items! I've been making batts like crazy, mostly from this Coopworth roving that I bought ages ago from an ebay seller. I liked it, the colors were nice, and it was good yarn for felting and things like bags and such, but the roving quality wasn't the best. It's a small farm and they process their own fibers, so the roving wasn't blended well (more like strips of different colors just next to each other) and there were parts where one of the colors dropped out completely. So I decided to run them through the carder, and voila! Gorgeous!

And what's this? Why, it's a sock! (yes, it's blurry, sorry!)

And what's THIS?!! Why, it's the other one sock (as my daughter says)

Wow! It really is! A PAIR of socks! Finished within a couple of weeks of each other! No, REALLY! These are Wyvern from Marnie Maclean, a GREAT pattern!

I also finally finished all the bands for Kepler. Here are the sleeve bands blocking on my mattress a la Harlot. Yes, I realize they aren't even, I fixed it after I took the pic.

Here's the first 2 inches or so of sleeve 1. Moving right along! I LOVE THIS YARN! Kathmandu Aran tweed in a great olive-y green color.

And check out how those cables pop!

There are more, but I've used all my Flickr for this month, and Blogger's being a bit of a poop.

In a pathetic attempt to put off taking pics of FOs

2006-11-21T16:12:00.000-05:00

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

2006-11-20T09:17:00.000-05:00

This is why I love the interwebs! Thanks to Dana KBS (via Knotty Gnome), who commented on my last post, I now know that Pam's sweater is from Anthropologie, that bastion of overpriced, boho cool that I will NEVER be able to afford (or wear, for that matter, being bigger than a toothpick!). It's cashmere, it's $268, but all that matters is I now have pics! I can either find something close, or make this my first attempt to design something myself. Unfortunately, it's only saving the pic of the back of the sweater as a .gif, which I can't seem to convert. C'est la vie - the cables at the front travel up the middle of the back with a 3 stitch knit column and then what looks like a 6-stitch cable. Absolute gorgeousness! Thanks, Dana!

2006-11-17T12:56:00.000-05:00

Video from the Office with Pam's Sweater

Ok, so here's a video that has some good shots of Pam's sweater. I'm obsessed with this - there's got to be a pattern out there somewhere, right? Right?!

Shameless Etsy Plug

2006-11-17T10:37:00.000-05:00

How freakin' cool is this video? I love how at the end the chick who made the yarn earrings has all this stuff around her house from Etsy. It's so true. I spend more on Etsy than I make, that's for sure!
Etsy

The Office

2006-11-16T21:15:00.000-05:00

So I just finished watching tonight's episode of The Office, and Pam has a sweater that her mom knit for her. There's got to be some kind of pattern out there somewhere, right? Anyone else see it?

Meme-y

2006-11-16T20:30:00.000-05:00

I'm not a big meme-r, but I saw this one here and couldn't resist. I like pithiness.

one.word.only.

1. Yourself: trapped
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse): loving
3. Your hair: short
4. Your mother: foody
5. Your father: funny
6. Your favorite item: wheel
7. Your dream last night: gripping
8. Your favorite drink: margarita
9. Your dream car: volvo
10. The room you are in: messy
11. Your ex: young
12. Your fear: anonymity
13. What you want to be in 10 years? rich
14. Who you hung out with last night? hubby
15. What You're Not? stupid
16. Muffins: chocolate
17. One of your wish list items: house
18. Time: limited
19. The last thing you did: drink
20. What you are wearing: black
21. Your favorite weather: fall
22. Your favorite book: Handmaid
23. The last thing you ate: pasta
24. Your life: boring
25. Your mood: stressed
26. Your best friend: nonexistent
27. What are you thinking about right now? carding
28. Your car: green
29. What are you doing at the moment? tv
30. Your summer: busy
31. Your relationship status: married
32. What is on your TV? Colbert
33. What is the weather like? rainy
34. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday

Tomorrow, pics of batts off the wall.

Make just one someone happy...

2006-11-12T22:19:00.000-05:00

My yarns are all boxed and ready to go to Craftland! I'm SO nervous! I hope they are liked and people buy them and they make a funky scarf, or a warm hat, or a cool pair of wristwarmers for someone. Eeek!

Here is the obligatory yarn pile:

And here they are nestled safely in their big-ass box!

And here are a few sample skeins, aka fiber p*rn!

"Mint Neapolitan" hand-dyed (by moi) Falklands.

"Land of Confusion" hand-dyed domestic wool mixed with a batt from Natasha.

"Geyser" merino hand-dyed by the Yarn Wench.

And since it's, cough, my birthday, cough cough, I figured I'd share some of the birthday haul with y'all!

That's "200 Aran Stitches", "Yarns to Dye For", "Spinning Designer Yarns", and the Knitpicks Options needle set! And see that baggie of fiber in the bottom left-hand corner? That's some roving from Nistock Farm that's going to be spun up on this:

Why, what's that? Well, it's my very first (and hopefully not last!) Golding spindle!! It's "Midnight Sky", handcarved cherry whorl, walnut shaft, and WHITE GOLD leafed moon and stars! I've been drooling over this spindle since I started spinning over a year ago, and my dear sweet darling hubby got it for me as a total surprise!!! I can't wait to get some fiber on it! It's amazing how it feels, just holding it and touching the wood (sounds icky, huh?!?) I have a bunch of spindles, but they're mostly cheaper - not bad, just not such high quality. I'm so excited - more that my hubby remembered how much I liked it and went through all the trouble (for him, a non-fibery type) to find it for me! I lurve him!

Ta!

Whoa

2006-11-08T15:05:00.000-05:00

I'm floored.

And here's fibery stuff cuz I promised:

Samples on their way to San Francisco Craft Mafia's Mafia Made Trunk Show. These little babies will be in goodie bags they give out at the show. Hopefully they'll drum up some more business for Black Cat! Thanks for the opportunity to join, Barbe!

Here is Wyvern, three repeats in. I think the yarn is probably a little too busy for the pattern, but I'm loving both right now too much to stop! And I LOVE the toe-up sock! The toe is WAY more comfortable than the top down sock I knit. Yay toe up!

Santorum Concedes

2006-11-07T22:15:00.000-05:00

Well, it couldn't happen to a nicer bigoted prick.*

*I promise, there will be a return to fibery goodness tomorrow - FOs, almost-FOs, yarn piles, etc.!

Nekkid for a Good Cause

2006-11-07T14:08:00.000-05:00

I was going to just leave the VOTE post up front and center today, but I came across this in my almost-daily slog through the blogs I check in on when I get the chance.

This is important. This is incredible. More people should do things like this.

Getting Naked for Cancer

Go. Read up. Buy a calendar. Help someone out. Just cuz.

Cinderella says

2006-11-07T08:33:00.000-05:00

VOTE!

Figured I'd kill 2 birds with one stone, update with a belated Halloween pic and urge ya'll to exercise your right - preferably Democrat, preferably to vote the incumbent bastards out, but no matter what, it's your RIGHT.

I left my husband for a drumcarder

2006-11-03T21:44:00.000-05:00

Well, not really, but I may think about it! This is almost the best time I've had with an inanimate object.

white wool/mohair blend roving with llama locks and enchanted forest angelina.

merino roving with lincoln locks.

Corriedale locks from spincycle yarns, pre-carding.

Corriedale locks all carded up (the batt kinda got away from me when I took it off the carder!)

Cotswold lamb's locks from Frene Creek Farm pre-carding - amazing staple length!

Cotswold batt.

The fruit of my labors (from bottom - llama locks, white wool/mohair with llama locks and angelina, merino with lincoln locks, same merino alone, white wool/mohair with blue angelina, cotswold locks, white wool/mohair with black angelina, Groucho - wanted to get him in, hence the weird angle!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

2006-11-03T15:12:00.000-05:00

Even though it's 9 days early* - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Strauch 205 Fine Tooth drumcarder from Mom and Dad!

*my bday is Nov. 12 for anyone who's interested (just kidding!)

Put your head between your knees...

2006-10-27T21:02:00.000-04:00

And take a deeeeeeep breath. Yes, it's two posts - not in a week, but in ONE NIGHT! I think I'm feeling a bit frisky between Natasha's advice about posting pics and my new Netgear router letting me link to my own network and not to "default" which generally slowed down, crapped out, or didn't even start up on a regular basis. Woot! Technology!

So, what brings me back to blogging so soon? Synchronicity. I'm reading the archives of Marnie Maclean's blog (DH is away at a football game - he coaches - and so far they're winning 35-0; Go Archmere!) and have nothing better to do! Oh, c'mon, you do it too! So anyway, I come across an entry where she decides to knit a sock, and actually design a sock, and I realize it's the birth of Wyvern. I've had Wyvern printed out to knit for ages, but didn't know how to do toe-up. So I realize from the pic on her blog that it's a toe-up sock (wasn't hard to figure out!) Hmm, well, that's a start. So I check out the pattern, and it's for 26 stitches (the provisional cast-on for the short-row toe - not too many free patterns out there that are short-row toe - most of them are the figure 8 cast on). Well, I cast on 26 stitches to start my random sock, so that's good. But that's the small size, and I'm a size 10, so it's probably too small. But I'm excited, anyway. I whip off my sock (literally, I have no idea where it landed!) and measure around the ball of my foot. And it's PERFECT! I have cast on for a random short-row toe, and it happens to be exactly what I need for a toe-up sock pattern that I've been wanting to knit! Sweet!

But first, I have to do this:

The Adult Devil Hat - I don't dress up for Halloween too often, but we're going to be bringing Hurricane around right after work, so I figured a handknit, earflap hat with devil horns would be an acceptable substitute. I wish I'd known about this sooner, though.

I leave you with a pic of the red maple in my front garden, which apparently hasn't gotten the memo that ALL the leaves are supposed to change.

And a one, and a two...

2006-10-27T18:31:00.000-04:00

Ok, I'm going to follow the tip from darling Natasha and see if I can load pics from Flickr instead of through Blogger (which sucks royally in all picture uploading endeavors).

Remember Jaywalker? Remember how it didn't fit? Well, here it is:

The yarn is gorgeous and tempting, but it's in time-out until I decide if I want to try Jaywalker again larger. Sigh.

So, I'm a sock yarn slut, apparently. Can't stay away from the stuff, even if I haven't knit more than one successful pair of socks (ok, 2 if you count the pair for my daughter, but they were so small they almost don't count). Here's the beginning of a toe-up sock, I guess just a basic pattern.

I'm teaching myself toe-up, having never done it, and hope I did it right. The one side looks a little wonky, but I'm hoping it won't matter that much. The yarn is from here, her yarns are gorgeous! And SO soft! Look at that gorgeous color! That's "White Sage".

I have been spinning for Craftland. Here's a great little skein of yarn spun up from brown Corriedale from Hello Yarn and slubs and puffs from a fiber sampler from Yarnpunk. I LOVE this little skein of yarn, and want to keep it, but it will wing its way to Craftland soon enough. Sorry it's blurry, my camera sucks the big one lately.

Here's something I treated myself to, and I'm not spinning it up for anyone but me!
On the left is "Frog Meets Girl", 8 oz. of merino, and on the right is "Mountain Fog", 8 oz. of BFL. I got them from A Swell Yarn Shop, and they were pricey, but worth it.

And there are FO's, too! CHRISTMAS ones! Here's Soliel pre-blocking.

Hey, Col, should I block before the crocheting, or after?

And here's another FO that was supposed to be a Christmas present for the DH last year, but things sort of, um, came up and it sat with one arm to go until yesterday. I threw the arm on, and now it's blocking (and hopefully it will be dry before DH gets home and wants to get into our bedroom, where it's sitting, still damp, under the ceiling fan blasting away on high - in 45 degree weather!) I mostly want to get the bottom to stop rolling, so hopefully it will work.

It's the Berkshire Pullover from "Weekend Knitting". I knit it out of the Morehouse Merino bulky in Oatmeal, which is a gorgeous yarn, but not too sturdy. If I had been more aware of online resources, I would have probably found a yarn substitute - I found a few blogs recently that did it out of Cascade Ecowool, and that would have been a better choice for the DH, but oh well. What bugs me a bit is I bought the required amount of yarn (at $130!!!!) but still have THREE skeins left over! Hmm. Either it's a scam, or I did something wrong - except that I have exactly the right measurements. So what's a girl to do with 3 skeins of bulky merino yarn - 306 total yards?

And speaking of ideas for projects, I have 4 skeins of GORGEOUS handpainted mohair yarn from Houndscroft Farm that I don't know what to do with! There's 452 yards total. A shawl or something seems best, but I don't know. I'm not skilled enough at the maths to think up something myself, and mohair doesn't seem to be a good beginner lace project yarn, if you know what I mean.

I do have some Peruvian Baby Cashmere yarn from Elann in a pretty blue color (Starlight Blue) to knit a Swallowtail Shawl from IK (I was going to use the Peruvian Baby Silk like BrooklynTweed did - yes, I'm such a follower - of good, cheap yarn substitutions! - but didn't like the colors that were left), and some Peruvian Quechua in a pretty sand color for something else. I saw both on BrooklynTweed's blog, and they're just SO beautiful, I want to try them both. Of course, I've never knit lace, but they seem to both be decent beginner patterns, since neither use "laceweight" yarn, which is intimidating when you don't knit lace. and I want to find something to use this yarn for - I LOVE the natural colors, like Walnut. SO yummy.

Well, I've blabbed on long enough, and it's bedtime for the little one, so off I go! I leave you with this, a pic of the thinnest yarn I've spun to date. It's sitting in a center-pull ball waiting for me to ply it (I was a dope and just sat down and spun it all onto one bobbin, instead of splitting it onto 2 for easier plying).

Oh, hey, and Natasha, can you take a look at these plying samples and tell me what I can do? I'm trying to ply with thread, and you can see in some spots it works, and in others it doesn't. How do you keep the thread from snagging and tangling?

Oh, and Natasha? Thanks for the tip! This is WAY less stressful! Smooooch!

My fingers are on FIRE!

2006-10-22T19:49:00.000-04:00

I must "squee!" with joy, first and foremost, at the fact that my pics actually loaded! SQUEEEEEEE!

Ok, so I know I have about 50 skeins of yarn that I want to spin and send to Craftland (more, if I can do it, because, hell, better to have more selection than less, right?) Really, I do know this. Honest. So, here are all the things I'm doing instead of spinning... Here is the handspun sampler scarf FINIS! Spun with some of my own handspun (2 oz. of different fibers that I'd spun when I was first spindle-spinning), plus handspun from Lulubeans, Pippikneesocks, and probably some others I'm forgetting. Cool, huh? I lurve it!
This is a scarf I knit for Ella since the handspun scarf came out too wide for her (I didn't plan that, honest!) This is knit lengthwise (SO much more fun for some reason - I love scarves, but knitting them is painful!) with yarn orphans from Yarn Wench. So pretty! It's pretty long, and I almost snagged it for myself, but felt bad. It's so cute and girly, perfect for a 2-and-a-half year old princess.
This is a lengthwise scarf I knit for myself out of Blue Sky Alpaca bulky. Two skeins of dark brown, one of the Handpaints in a pretty grey with a touch of pale blue. SOOOOOO FREAKIN' SOFT!
This is the progress I've made on Soleil. I'm working one of the front sides, just have to finish up maybe a dozen rows, then finish the right front side, stitch the shoulders, figure out how to do a single chain of crochet around the neck and arms, and that's a Christmas present down, baby!
And to show you I actually AM spinning when I'm not knitting a ton of winter accessories, here's a pile o' yarn. There are 20 skeins here - I'm well on my way, and I have yarn I can pull off my Etsy shop and from Yarn Rescue if I need to.
This is "Ghoulish", skein #21! It's still drying, but I took pics before soaking it. It's for sale in my Etsy shop (I think I'm going to spend the next week listing most of what I'm sending to Craftland on Etsy - I figure it's cheap to list, so if a yarn doesn't sell by the time I need to mail things to Craftland, I can pull it - and if it sells before then, YIPPEE!) This is almost 6 oz. and 86.5 yards of black merino spun with fiber from a batt by Natasha. It's TOTALLY cool - some spots are just plain stretches of black merino, some are just fiber from the batt (a blend of wools, ingeo, angelina in a bunch of different colors like charcoal grey - where the HELL do you get CHARCOAL GREY angelina?!?! - silks, bits of other yarn), some are a barberpole of merino/batt fiber, and in some spots there are just random slubs of fiber stuck in long stretches of black merino. So great! I really love it! Go buy it (or just show it some Etsy lovin'!)

EDITED:
Apparently there really IS a 5-pic limit! I had loaded a pic of the Checks n' Charms hat and mitten set from Knitpicks that I knit for my daughter, and it didn't load! Huh. I guess that means I'll have to post again tomorrow!

WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

2006-10-12T21:24:00.000-04:00

I MADE IT INTO CRAFTLAND!!!

YAY!!!

I was sweating it, and then I wasn't. I don't know anything about it, other than you send in an application and they let you know if you made it. I was kind of thinking they let everyone in, but according to the letter (quoted below, I couldn't help myself!) they don't! I am SO excited, and now I'm going to be SUPER BUSY, since I told them 35-45 skeins of yarn and I have about 10. I guess this means any spinning for me I had planned from "Spin to Knit" (yup, I got it!) will have to wait!!! Man, I just wish I had my drumcarder already (a bday present, hopefully, from Mom and Dad!)

"Congratulations!! Your work has been chosen for Craftland 2006! The competition was fierce with over 200 applications and many wonderful designers in every category. Our space will only allow for the work of less than 100 artists though and so the jurors had to make some very difficult decisions as there were truly no applications that didn't contain quality work.

Please stay tuned to receive another email from us in two weeks containing vital information about volunteering, dropping off / shipping your work, promotional opportunities, pricing and labelling your work, and the big huge party on opening night! In the meantime, start cranking out as much work as you can so you can have it ready to go in mid-November. Thanks so much for being a part of Craftland 2006. We're excited to have you!"

Eek!

Woe

2006-10-11T21:59:00.000-04:00

It's too small.

Jaywalker won't fit over my heel for all the grunting and stretching in the world.

I just finished the heel flap and was about to turn it.

I don't want to talk about it.

Someone hold me.

Pix for my adoring fan(s)

2006-10-11T14:52:00.000-04:00

So Colleen and Lulubeans (I can't for the life of me remember your name! I'm a tard!) demanded pics, and Blogger actually ALLOWED it! Wow! Here goes...

Jaywalker sock - this is an old pic, I have less than an inch to go before the heel. The yarn is the "Hester" colorway from Pippikneesocks. This is GREAT yarn, I ADORE the colors, and this pattern really rocks! Simple enough that even I can remember it without the pattern in front of me, mindless enough that I can knit and watch "Dexter", but I'm still fascinated by how just a few simple increases and decreases can make the stitches angle! So cool! This is the cabled hat knit from "Seaspray" yarn from FeltStudioUK on Etsy. Such GREAT squishy yarn! I keep randomly putting it on while sitting and knitting or watching TV. I'm lame like that.
These are the fingerless lace-up mitts from Alterknits in a handspun yarn from an ebay seller I can't remember off the top of my head. The ribbon is silk, got it off of ebay, too! And as you can see, I took the pic the other day while trying desperately to load the pics!
This is a close-up of yarn I spun up - a white wool/mohair blend with slubs and stretches of fiber from a batt from Natasha, chock full of silks, cherry red ingeo, and screaming pink angelina. I'm trying to be a bit more funky with my spinning - these are baby steps, people!
Here is the handspun sampler scarf. See how it would never fit a 2-year-old's neck? So, mine mine MINE! There are samples here from Pippikneesocks, Lulubeans, a few mini-skeins I spun from fiber samples, and I'm sure there's some from other spinners whom I can't remember right now. It's almost done, and I'm going to put fringe on it, too!

Ok, I had a few more pics to post, nothing all that exciting, but Blogger won't allow it, so off I go! Enjoy!

Instant gratification girl

2006-10-09T10:08:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you just need to knit something quickly, you know? Like, you've been slogging away on Soleil, slogging away on a sock (Jaywalker, yes, I caved and joined the masses), slogging away on a scarf for a Christmas gift, and you just want something quick, painless, done in a few hours. I got this GORGEOUS handspun from a seller on etsy (yes, I spin my own yarn - but I am addicted to other people's handspun. Market research. Yeah, that's it, not a ridiculous weakness for pretty things), and decided it needed to be a chunky hat. Hey, it's getting chilly around here at night (ignore the fact that it's supposed to be almost 80 today - when can I pack my summer stuff away?!?! December?!?! There isn't enough room in our bedroom for summer and fall clothing to cohabitate, you know?) Anyhoo, here it is, instant gratification! The pattern is here - yes, it's cabled, yes, I realize you can't see the cables because of the yummy yarn, but I wanted something that would keep me interested, and a simple cable pattern did it! Plus, the yarn I had worked PERFECTLY! The yarn is called "Seaspray" from here. And I LOVE scarves, but really HATE knitting them. So I found a way to make it less painful. I took a whole bunch of mini skeins that other spinners included as samples with yarns I've bought, tied them all together at random, and started knitting. It was actually supposed to be a scarf for my daughter (because if it came out looking a little too wacky for me, a 2.5 year old girl is a great recipient!) but 1) I made it too wide for her and b) I really freakin' like it! So it's MINE. And I'll just have to knit another one up for her. It is really a fun way to knit a scarf, because you just power through it to see what the next color will be, and how it will look against what you just knit up. It's just a simple garter stitch scarf, but I think it looks pretty cool. I love how, even though all I did was knot the yarns together as I picked them out of the pile, it worked out that almost every color change happens at an end - so no little taggies sticking out, which wouldn't have bothered me too much, but it's still nice to not have them. I ALSO have a pair of fingerless mitts knit up, the lace-up ones from "Alterknits". I knit them out of one of the first skeins of handspun I'd ever bought, back when I first learned about spinning and handspun yarn. They're fraternal twins, a lot like Trekking socks! They were a nice, quick knit, even though I had to frog the first one after getting all the way up to the thumb gusset, because I knit the medium size thinking my hands were bigger than they are. So frog frog frog, reknit, and there they are! And here are the Jaywalkers, knit in "Hester" sock yarn by Pippikneesocks (SO FREAKIN' PRETTY!) This pic is older, I'm actually about 3/4 of an inch away from the heel, but just haven't taken an updated pic. I'm knitting them on one 12" Addi Turbo circ. Colleen mentioned how well it works for the leg of the sock, switching to 2 circs or DPNs when you do the heel and again at the toe decreases. It does work, but I don't think I'd want to do it for a more complicated pattern - I can see how you'd fly through stockinette or even ribbed socks, but anything with a lot more increases and decreases than Jaywalker could be tedious. And painful. I'm definitely forcing the stitches around the needle, and pushing on the size 1 needle tips gets painful, so I don't knit too much at once. Still, it's moving along, and it's less fiddly than DPNs. Still doesn't solve second sock syndrome, which is my biggest problem with socks, but I will learn to knit 2 socks on 2 circs eventually - oh, yes, I will.

Ok, so this is now DAY THREE of trying to load pics into this post, to no avail. I will have to post pics at another time, I guess...if Blogger ever decides to let me (hmm...maybe this is payback for my bitching about it awhile ago!)

Quickie

2006-10-02T17:17:00.000-04:00

Just a quick, photo-free post (I'm on my desktop and my photos are on my laptop, whose connection is being temperamental again) to let you all know that there is a yarn update at Yarn Rescue! Lynnell took great pics of my pretty yarns! Go buy!

Contest at Colleen's

2006-09-30T09:46:00.000-04:00

Mint green, pink, and brown Falklands wool, dishwasher dyed.

Pale green and olive domestic wool roving, dishwasher dyed.

Merino roving dishwasher dyed in beautiful blues and greens! YUM!

Hey! Colleen is having a contest over at her blog! Guess the number of bags of sheep fleece she has crammed into her car, and win some roving!

I think there might be a follow-up contest to see how many bags of fleece I took off her hands!

Cuff 1 from Kepler, knit in GORGEOUS (like, I want to ROLL naked in this yarn!) Kathmandu Aran in #115, a beautiful deep olive tweed.

This is a crappy pic of the bottom of Soliel from Knitty, which I am knitting for someone for Christmas (don't know if she reads this blog or not) in Elann Endless Summer Luna, which is a nice cotton/rayon blend. Christmas knitting also includes finishing a sweater for someone special (one more sleeve to go!), a fair isle hat and mitten set for my daughter, and a scarf for someone special, too! I'm hoping that's it!

Dishwasher Dyeing

2006-09-20T09:14:00.000-04:00

Why is is that Blogger seems to have only a 5 picture limit? It seems that whenever I try to load more than 5, Blogger says no way. Now I remember why I don't blog that often - between having to load pics on my computer, clean them up and crop them if necessary, and then wrestle with Blogger for an hour, only to post and have it disappear into the ether, I realize I'd rather spend my time getting cavities filled or something. Oh, well, we'll try to make lemonade out of this.

This is my first foray into dishwasher dyeing, a la Natasha (who got it from Shannon, if I remember correctly). Let me just say, it's AWESOME! If you want to dye a ton of fiber at once (and I only did about 4 pounds, just in case I bulloxed it up royally!) this is THE way to go! I learned a few things - a little bit of fiber in a quart bag will not dye all the way through, leaving white areas, which don't really bother me, but still. So next time I will be armed with more gallon bags than I had. Oh, and definitely leave the bags open to vent (thanks, Natasha!) but not too much - I had one bag fill almost entirely with water during the washing process, and had to run the dishwasher empty with just soap the next day to get the dye water sitting in the bottom out. I just threw in enough water to cover the fiber, added about a cup of vinegar (more for bigger bags, less for the quart bags) and threw them in!

Here are only a few pics of finished fiber, because that's all Blogger would allow me (you'd think with all the complaints Blogger bloggers make, they would improve the system - it's not like we're quiet about our complaints! I see them in just about every Blogger blog I visit regularly!)

This is BFL dyed with pale chartreuse and emerald green. There's the random, occasional splash of a pale olive-y color, too. Don't you just love the way BFL crimps? I love BFL - I think it's my favorite fiber to spin!
Here's some more BFL in reds, turquoise, and white - too "red, white, and blue" for me, but I may just list it to sell in my Etsy shop.
Ok, this IS a different pic, I swear! It's more BFL, and it has some green in it, too, in addition to the red and turquoise. I definitely need to squish the fiber around more when I put the dye in the bag, but I was afraid that the dyes would moosh together too much and would just turn out like mud. I need not have worried.
Well, I've tried three more times to post more pics, but that appears to be all I'm allowed. Another post to follow!

More FOs!

2006-09-06T08:57:00.000-04:00

Here is the Corriedale pencil roving from Kat all spun up into a pretty 2-ply yarn, probably a chunky/bulky yarn (I haven't checked the WPI yet). It's soooo pretty and the pencil roving was a dream to spin, just pre-draft and let it glide through your fingers. I only used one hand, it was that easy! Must. Get. More. Pencil. Roving. Here is a closeup of the cabled sock. I figured the other pic didn't really show the cabling, so how were you to know I wasn't lying?! Please forgive the blurry pics, for some reason my camera has decided it doesn't want to work too well with knitted things lately. Stupid camera. Hey, Santa! A new camera would be nice!
This is a baby hat knit for little baby Nate (welcome Nate!!!) out of a skein of Rowan Summertweed yarn. I knit this from the Last-Minute Knitted Gifts book, which called for Mission Falls Cotton, but I couldn't find it at my LYS and didn't want to have to order it. The Rowan Summertweed was GORGEOUS to knit with and knit to gauge. Very cute hat, quick knit, I will definitely knit some more of these hats!
This shot is for Colleen. This is the Irish Hiking Scarf. I started this scarf last summer when I first started knitting. She had been knitting one, too, and I thought it would be great as my first cabling project. Especially when I found this gorgeous chocolate milk colored alpaca yarn at AC Moore, called Alpaka (I have NO idea who makes it, and haven't found any info on it online - but it's still available at AC Moore). I LOVE THIS SCARF! I am completely besotted with cables, so this scarf is sheer perfection. I didn't block it yet, because I'm trying to decide if I want to or not. I kind of like it just the way it is.
Here's another skein of yarn I spun up. I just grabbed a bunch of fibers out of my stash with about 2 ounces of white merino roving, and went to town. There's natural brown llama, some yellow and pink bunny crack (angora), some pale blue and pale purple blended superwash merino batts, and some navy blue merino. Kinda neat, huh?
Oh, and just a note, my yarns at Purple, Pink, and Orange (I'm the featured designer on their homepage, too!) are on sale 10% through October, and my yarns in my Etsy store have all been marked down. My yarns at Yarn Rescue are selling quickly, so check them out, too - and there will be new yarns there in the next 2 weeks or so (and check out the cute banner down the page for my yarns - so cool!)

Before you throw something at me...

2006-09-05T08:54:00.000-04:00

I have FOs! I swear! Summers are so freakin' busy around here, with DH being home from school and trying to cram as much as possible into the days before he has to leave us and go back. Hurricane Ella and I spent 10 days down in Florida (before Hurricane Ernesto hit - I think Ella did more damage to my parents' house than Ernesto did!) and then were down the shore for 4 days for Labor Day. But now we're back, football season has started, which means I go back into football widowhood (those ladies out there with football fans got nuthin' on me! DH is a coach, so football season starts in early August and continues through November, with games, practices, scrimmages, scouting, etc. Little cards with plays sketched on them, breaking down videos at all hours, watching coaching DVDs, grass-stained socks, Sharpie markers going through my wash...it never ends! And while that leaves me wrangling a toddler ALL DAY LONG, it also leaves me plenty of time to knit and spin!) I was pretty productive while in Florida and since I've gotten back. Here's some FOs I have...

Up at the top there are legwarmers and a hat for Ella knit on the fly from yarn I got from this Etsy seller. It's Merino and Falklands wool yarn plied with strips of blue, pink, and white paisley fabric! SO cute and as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to make something for Ella out of it. Totally random cast-on and everything, the legwarmers are just knit tubes, and I threaded two of the scraps of fabric through the tops to hold them up a little better if the ribbing doesn't work (she's a VERY ACTIVE toddler!)

This is a baby surprise jacket from EZ. I used 2 200-yard skeins of handpainted lambswool yarn from Blue Ridge Yarns that I got at MDSW. I actually ran out of yarn and had to cut the pattern short 3 rows, and then seam the shoulders with a beige acrylic yarn I had on hand. So we squeaked by on that one, let me tell you! But what a great, easy, fun knit! I will definitely be knitting this for my girlfriend's new little boy for Christmas.

This is a pair of cabled socks I knit out of Trekking XXL 108 (I think!) I love how the Trekking doesn't match - they're like kissing cousin socks instead of identical twins. Don't look at the right toe, please don't! No! Damn...ok, so I was knitting the toe as from the Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook (get thee this book!) and read the directions wrong (plus just didn't get the natural way a sock would decrease - along the OUTSIDE of the foot!) so I decreased in the wrong place, meaning my decreases happen at the middle of the foot instead of the outside edge of the foot. I HATE frogging, especially with decreases and such, so I just left it. It's not uncomfortable, and I figure no one's really going to see it but me. Ok, I'm lazy and just wanted the damned thing done! I finished the first sock in Florida in April, and the second one finally the beginning of August. SSS? So? Actually, I've got some of the new circs from Knitpicks and am going to teach myself to knit 2 socks on 2 circs.
This is the Celtic Cap that I knit for myself out of Classic Elite Skye Tweed yarn that I picked up from my LYS. I LOVE this yarn, and I love this hat. I started it with the picot edging, but don't like the way it's the knit side up against the purl side of the pattern, so I am leaving it a rolled edge with the holes. Who cares? It covers my ears and keeps me warm! I would probably knit this again on smaller needles...oh, wait, I am! I am knitting one for my MIL, she picked an acrylic that blends from a greenish to a bluish to a white and back again - I can't remember the brand, but it's knitting up nicer than I thought it would. I'm about halfway done with it.

Random Saturday

2006-08-12T14:16:00.000-04:00

Ok, ok, this is a quick, totally random post, but here it is. First off is fiber from Kat, my fiber swappin' buddy! I swear, she must have been in my head when she dyed these fibers (and sent the yummy Tazo tea!) because these are totally the color combos I lurve! I mean, I wanna roll in them! So purty! Top of the pic (the dark fiber) is some Cotswold, below it in the braid is some pencil roving, the shiny stuff on top of that in the same colorway is mohair roving, in the bottom of the pic is some tussah silk(!) and then the big pile of fiber is Merino locks. Yum.

This pic is my ugly-ass couch (Ick! I love my slipcovers!) and the Pea Pod sweater from Interweave. I have the hat done, too, but no pic of it. This is for a very dear friend who's baby is now overdue! We figure she got married on my birthday, so she's holding out to have her baby on my hubby's bday tomorrow! I think she just might do it, too!
And this is my unfinished clapotis. Why is she unfinished? Because I RAN OUT OF YARN!!! And not only that, but it's a one-skein-only special handdyed skein I bought on ebay. I don't know what made me think I would have enough, but I have like, 8 more repeats. Ugh. I so don't want to frog it, and I don't have any other yarn to knit this with right now, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Any ideas out there?

Bar Island Adventure

2006-08-02T20:18:00.000-04:00

These pictures are from one of the coolest things we saw on the trip. Right across from Bar Harbor in Frenchman's Bay is a wooded island named, appropriately enough, Bar Island. At low tide, you can walk down Bridge St. in Bar Harbor DIRECTLY ACROSS TO THE ISLAND! How freakin' cool is that?!? See that car in the first pic? That car would be underwater at high tide. I wish I had taken a pic of the wall of the building that was right at the edge of town overlooking the bar. You can see the high tide line on it, and it's HIGH! I mean, it's so fascinating to think that the low tide is that low, so low you can walk across the ocean! Blew my mind! The third pic is the bar from the top of Cadillac Mt. on a foggy day, and the pic next to it is Bar Harbor from the mountain's peak, with Bar Island being the larger island to the left. And here are Ella and Daddy getting all mucky walking around looking in tide pools for neat creepy crawlies! So. Freakin'. Cool. Too bad the woman at the whale watching booth where we asked for directions to Bridge St. told us the wrong tide times, because we thought we'd only get 30 minutes or so until the tide came in - so we didn't risk going over to the actual island. Turns out hubby's chart was right, and we got over an hour. That's ok, Ella was cranky and wanted to be carried everywhere about 20 minutes into the adventure, so it wouldn't have been much fun for her, anyway.

Maine Part 2

2006-07-27T10:16:00.000-04:00

I personally find cliffs jutting out to the sea to be just about the most perfect "scenery" ever, and Acadia National Park has always held a sway over me because of that. I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Acadia, so being 5 minutes from the park was heaven for me! I only wish we could have done more in the park, but it was hard being on my own with Ella, who is still slave to her naptime! And she napped like a champ up in Maine, a good 2-3 hours a day. I got a lot of spinning done, let me tell you! Thank goodness for my wheel, the portable DVD player and the first season of the Gilmore Girls on DVD! These pics are the view from the Ocean Trail hiking to Otter Cliffs (go here for better pics than mine!). We were able to do this on the weekend because my husband was out of class and I was able to carry the diaper bag, camera, and specimen bucket while he carried Ella, who decided the second the trail got a little uneven that she was out of her league. It was great! The tide was coming in by the time we got to where we wanted to be (an area DH had been to with his class that would have been full of tide pools for Ella to poke around in) so we didn't do too much poking, but it was breathtaking, anyway!

The best part was driving (no hiking with a 2-year-old past her bedtime!) to the top of Cadillac Mountain to see sunset. Ahh, bliss! Blogger of course has decided NO MORE PICS FOR ME! There will be more, but Ella needs a nap, so I'll have to post part 3 of our trip to Maine later!

We're back from Ba Haba!

2006-07-27T09:46:00.000-04:00

Ok, now that I've fully recovered (I think!) from our trip through torrential rains for 12 hours straight, I can post pics of our beautiful, wonderful, better than I'd dreamed trip to Maine! Yes, it kind of sucked living in a college dorm again (especially with a 2 year old - who knew dorms were so freakin' LOUD!?) but the cafeteria food was actually good, and there were so many things for us to do while DH was in class day to day!

Here's the view from the cafeteria. No, really. You could see Frenchman's Bay and the fishing and lobster boats right from the booths in the cafe. Pretty cool! I wish it had been a better pic, and a slightly clearer day (who would have thought that fog would be such an omnipresent and alive thing up there? It was wacky!)

The school has a rocky beach called "Pebble Beach" that is actually right down the hill from that overhang in the first pic. It's small, and not really conducive to sunning or anything, but Ella had a BALL at it just about every day! It amazes me how little regard for cold water kids have - the water is wicked cold all the time, but she'd be in up to her knees before you could stop her! And the look on her face when she tripped backwards over that rock and ended up up to her chin in cold water - priceless! She loved climbing the big rocks, and this little crevice she's digging in held a little pool of water and some snails - my child is nothing if not easily amused! One of the many great things about her!

And once AGAIN Blogger bites the big one in deciding that two pictures are quite enough, thank you. I guess this means I'll have to post again.

u g h

2006-07-22T21:35:00.000-04:00

Yes, we're back. No, I'm not telling you how everything was or loading pics or anything like that. We drove TWELVE hours straight today (ok, I drove 12 hours straight today) with only 2 stops, through torrential downpours most of the way from Maine to PA, and I'm ready to die.

We're alive, but that's about it.

Oh, and new Black Cat yarns at Yarn Rescue.

Someone bury me where I fall, please.

Technology sucks

2006-07-07T22:31:00.000-04:00

Having problems with my laptop not connecting to the internet (connects just FINE to my network, but not to the server - anyone have any ideas?) so I had to reload pics from the weekend onto my desktop to get them posted. Only have time to post pics of the new kitty, since it's off to bed early for a wedding tomorrow and then getting up at 3 AM Sunday morning for a 12-hour drive to Maine for 2 weeks! Kitty's name is Groucho and we adopted him at Petsmart in Cape May via the Cape May County Animal Shelter (it's right near my in-laws' shore house). Here he is!! He's settling in quite nicely with the other Three Stooges, and he and the dog don't seem to mind each other, either!

The promised pics (fingers crossed!)

2006-06-23T09:12:00.000-04:00

All of these yarns will be available at Yarn Rescue within the next week or so, I guess.

Here are a bunch of skeins, not all of them, that I've been spinning lately on my wheel (have I mentioned I LOVE my wheel?)

This is "Understated" 45 yards of injection-dyed domestic wool - super bulky. I got the muted colors by injection dyeing but only letting the colors set in the microwave for about 5 minutes instead of 15.

This is "Trippy Hippie" 64 yards of Falklands wool dyed by Sheilah - the colors in this skein are WAAAAY brighter than the pic. It's gorgeous fiber, and I'm trying to see if I can get more of this fiber from Sheilah so I can spin a 2-ply yarn.

This is "Study in Purple" 95 yards of soft, squeeshy domestic wool dyed by Amy. Her fiber rocks, BUY SOME!

An oddly deflated skein pic - "Rocket Pop" 50 yards of hand-dyed domestic wool. Very pretty blend of orange, berry and sky blue.

"Rainbow Connection" spun slightly thick n thin, a soft Corriedale X fiber (not dyed by me). It amazes me that I take a skein off the bobbin that seems SO overspun (still working on a nice, even single) but that, when hung to dry, has no twist in it. I must be spinning a more even yarn than I think!

I have apparently angered the Blogger gods and that is all for today. We're going down the shore for the weekend, but I might bring the laptop and try to log in at the Starbucks down there. If not, have a good weekend, y'all!

Honest Injun

2006-06-21T20:40:00.000-04:00

I'm working, really I am! I just find it so time-consuming sometimes to log on and blog. But I have pics and goodies to share. I've been feeling really creative lately, and have decided to use some of the wool sweaters I picked up to felt and then needle felt - maybe make hangings or something with them. I go through phases where I feel totally drained of any creativity, and then I suddenly feel this fire within me. So I'm going to knit and felt and then needle felt neckwrap thingies for fall, I'm going to keep spinning and screw up my courage to go to the two LYSs in the area and see if they'll dedicate a tiny space for my handspun, and I'm going to use the felted sweaters to make bags, art pieces, maybe some stuffed animals like this. I know, I know, I can't sew to save my life, so I think the recycled fabric stuffed animals will be a challenge, but that's ok. I can hack it. Ha ha.

The fiber for my swap with Kat is almost done! Just 2 more ounces of fiber to dye, and I'll be all done but the drying. We want to get together, but I don't know when we're going to do it, since we're going down the shore the next 2 weekends, and then up to Maine for 2 weeks for my hubby to take a course at COA. I can't wait to go to Acadia! All my life, for some reason, Acadia and Oregon have been the 2 places I've held at the highest level of outdoorsiness (is that a word?) and nature. I have this wacko dream of living in a house on the cliffs in either Maine or Oregon. Of course, I hate extreme cold, and get too depressed for words when it rains for too long, so I think my dream will remain only that (not to mention we're broke and can't even afford to buy a detached home, destined to be stuck in our rowhome with our psycho bitch neighbor for eternity).

I firmly believe in the credo that you don't discuss politics or religion with strangers, but I feel I have to say something about a subject that affects us all, regardless of race, religion, political leaning, anything. We got to see An Inconvenient Truth last weekend. We went to the Ritz in Philly, which I love for their great, niche indie movies. If you care about your own life, your children, your grandchildren, hell, your dog, you must go see this movie. Al Gore (who was robbed, I think, but that's neither here or there) shows such passion and intensity for his subject matter, and makes such a strong, logical (not emotional) argument, that it truly amazes me that there are people out there who just don't get it. I spent the entire movie shaking and trying not to cry. It just boggles my mind that the evidence is RIGHT THERE in black and white, and there are still people who firmly believe what's happening is just a natural, cyclical change. Bullshit. Pull your heads out of your asses, people! Just because cataclysmic changes in our climate may not happen in our lifetimes, I personally would rather my child not have to worry about plagues, monster hurricanes, horrible heatwaves, and beachfront property in Philadelphia. Such minor changes can help, and it starts with each one of us.

Ok, ok, I'm done. I leave you with yarn pics - these are going out to Yarn Rescue before the weekend, so Lynnell should have them up soon. Have I mentioned how much I love my wheel? I mean, LOVE my wheel. It just brings me to such a happy place, I can almost forget about the vast ignorance on our leadership's part regarding the global warming issue (ok, ok, really, I'm done this time).

Hmm...apparently I need to get back on my wheel to get back to the happy place that Blogger has ripped me from. It will not let me post pics. Again. I hate Blogger. Spin happy thoughts...

PS - Jon Stewart for President, 2008!

Fiber swap!

2006-06-14T09:00:00.000-04:00

I'm so excited! I'm going to be dyeing up 8 oz. of random fiber and trading it with Kat, who I "met" through Natasha's blog comments. She lives near me, so we're going to try to get together and trade in person, and we're trying to get Natasha to come out to spin with us! Hey, N, wanna crash on the floor in my fiber room? Mind the smell of cat pee (the carpets are going to be replaced this summer, come hell or high water!)? Mind being wakened up at 7 AM by a rambunctious toddler singing "Three Little Ducks"? Then come on down! Maybe if we all ask nicely...