I BOUGHT A WHEEL!!!!!

I decided on the Ashford Kiwi, purchased it from Nikol at the Harveyville Project and am now stalking the UPS tracking site, which only tells me "in transit" and "on time". *sigh* PLUS I'll have to wait until Hubby gets the pieces stained and put together. Plus I've spun up all my fiber, so there will need to be a bit of fiber purchasing made as well! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

For now, I'm trying to knit up all the yarn I've spun so far on the begged, borrowed and rented wheels I've tried out. I've decided the orange yarn I made is really ugly yarn. Not in the cake, it's GORGEOUS in the cake. Just knitted up it's fugly as heck. I've just finished a scarf that I think helps it be the best it can be. I'll get pics soon. It's not as horrid as it was in sweater form, thank goodness! I've still got 3 balls of this left over, it may just sit on a shelf as it is looking pretty. We'll see.


I've also got 4 skeins of this stuff, not sure on yardage, just got a niddy noddy so will skein it up on that and measure it out. I spun it thicker, it's a light chunky weight and SOFT as cloud farts. I totally stole that phrase from Teri, who thought it was a bit icky so changed to something more appropriate....or was it soft as angel farts? Can't remember. Either way it's SOFT, man! I've got no idea what this bit of lovely will become, guess it depends on how much I've got. Maybe a hat and cowl or a bunch of cowls? Maybe I'll just walk around with it wrapped around my neck as is.


And, I've apparently caught something from the lovely Tiennie who always knits 4-8 of every project in every color of the rainbow. Probably fitting, since it's her pattern! I'm now working on BOTH my 2nd AND 3rd scarves in the Old Shale Scarf (ravelry link) pattern. I loved the red one (Vatican Pie colorway, baby) that I gave my sister in law so much, I've got about half-way through with mine. THEN I need to make a scarf for my mother in law also, so am making one that's thinner (only one full repeat with a half repeat on each side) out of some Socks that Rock. I'm also knitting my scarves in the garter version of the old shale pattern, basically the same, just with no purls. This pattern is unbelievably quick and fun. I'd highly recommend it. Who'd have thought sock yarn scarves would go so fast? I've got a sudden urge to knit 6 hats now for all the family....



Wow. I've gone from a knitter with ONE or maybe TWO scarves for five years to one that'll have one for every day of the month. AND it's almost SPRING for cripe's sake. I think I was so scarred from the first year I knit of making 28 (YES TWENTY-FREAKING-EIGHT) furry scarves. not that there's anything wrong with furry scarves, my eyeballs itch just thinking about all that fun fur. woah. I just got chills. Yes, I realize I have a problem. I'm ok with that. Just don't make me knit anything hairy, ok?

Felted Knee Pads and Calcium Pills

Well, I felted the wild & crazy thing. I thought I would felt it, fold it and make it into a purse with 2 pockets. HOLY CRAPAMOLY that thing felted THICK and HEAVY! It must weigh 5 lbs. There is no way you could haul that thing around and call it a purse. I've found a new thing for it to be. I am apparently in need of knee pads, elbow pads and probably big toe pads. I don't know how I'm going to make it as an old lady. I fall down ALL the time now. If these bones get brittle, they're gonna be snapping like twigs unless I outfit myself with some serious padding or become spontaneously graceful. Just in case, I'm adding calcium pills to my morning routine.

Yesterday I took a trip (quite literally) to the local grocery store. Only needing a few groceries, I used one of those short carts. On the way out, enjoying the sunshine, I was not paying very close attention to the cart. (Seriously, who does? How hard is it to PUSH a SHOPPING CART anyway?) Well, said cart's front wheels hit a divot in between the sidewalk and parking lot. I ran into the cart HARD, cart flipped over and pretty much took me with it. (Don't know why I grabbed onto a flipping object to try to get my balance.) SO, dented cans are rolling along the parking lot, I'm laying on my face STILL holding the handle of the cart and people are just WALKING BY me. One old man did turn his head to me with a strange expression on his face. I thought he'd at least ask if I was ok, or OFFER TO HELP ME OUT. No, all he did was say "wow," and not with much enthusiasm either. Cripes. It wasn't just a little losing-one's-balance-stumble, this was a spectacular flip and fall and I was actually LAYING on the GROUND with the breath knocked out of me. I must have been on the ground for over a minute. Two young stockboys finally ran outside to help gather both me and the groceries and I took my dented canned goods, dented milk jug and dented knees, elbows and toes home.

I'm used to falling down, I do it all the time...roller skating, ice skating, icy parking lots, normal dry sidewalks, stairs in my own house, etc. The only strange thing was that I bruised both below AND above my kneecaps. How do you do that? I must have really crammed myself into that cart before the flip. wow.

Other than creating new bruises, I ended up getting busy at my knitting and spinning projects as well last night...


Plied two extra large bobbins of purple heaven from fiber bought at the Yarn Barn. I've got another 2 lg bobbins' full yet to spin and have to return my rented wheel on Sunday, so will hopefully crank the rest out this weekend.


Plied the final bobbin of wool from Daisy the sheep that Teri brought home for me from the Wamego shop.


Sewed up and refelted the accidentally-felted sleeveless sweater into a cute little bag, knitted and felted an icord handle to boot. I'll probably give this to my cousin's little girl. It's adorable. Not nearly as adorable as the original sweater, but ah well.


Frogged BY HAND the tubey sweater I knitted long, long ago. I also hand-wound all the funky pinkish yarn into skeins, soaked them and hung to dry.

I also made 4" square swatches of both the daisy spun yarn (from an earlier spun & wound skein) and the grey frogged yarn above. I don't think I've ever in my life knit an entire 4" square swatch. I'm totally a swatch cheat and usually only make my swatches about 4" wide by 1" long. I also wet and blocked said swatches. I've never done either of those things before.


My goals for the weekend are to finish spinning & ply the rest of my purple fiber and to darn a crapload of socks. My sock drawer has recently gotten quite empty. I'm down to maybe 3 pairs without holes. If I put it off any longer there won't be any socks left to wear!

Have a good weekend everyone! I'm going to just try not to fall down. :)

Patriotic Knitting, Farm Babies and a seriously ugly wip

One of my friends at work is the father of a marine that recently graduated from the USMC boot camp. He's getting some training and then will most likely head out to Afghanistan within the next few months. I loved the opportunity to join the ranks of people that have knitted for the armed forces throughout history. The Marine Corps is very specific about the gauge and quality of yarn used for these patterns. If you don't know a marine personally, feel free to knit some and send to the USMC Museum which will send the helmet liners along to men and women that will greatly appreciate them.

You need to use 100% wool. As EZ used to say, wool is warm even when wet and will also not cause any harm if there's live sparks or fire near the helmet liner. I used washable Mission Falls. Marines prefer desert tan colors, but black will work also. These are modeled by me, so I'm sure they'll look much more official on a real marine. Marines rock. The pattern was well written and fun to knit as well.
USMC Museum info and USMC Helmetliner Pattern

OK, now for those asking (hello Chery) there will be NO FARM BABIES!!! I must apologize to my friends here in KC as they've heard this story at least 42 times. You know, I still laugh till I cry each time I think about it. I can't believe I didn't blog about the Farm Babies Incident....

Mexico, Oct 2008. My hubby and I got to go to Cabos San Lucas for a holiday/training session for the hubby's company. (My company does training in Minneapolis in the WINTER, I heart my hubby's company!) One night while there I saw the man at the most drunk level I've ever seen him. The man has a few beers here and there, but rarely gets to a level of stupidity like when he relaxed in Mexico. The man was drunk as a skunk, but with style. Part-way through the night, he came up with this great idea.......

J: Baby, we should have a BABY, baby!
ME: WHAT? (spewing out drink, choking and falling off barstool...good thing there was a lot of sand to cushion the fall)
J: We need a baby! We should have a baby. Let's make one tonight, RIGHT NOW!
ME: WHAT? NO!.... (much unintelligible reasoning followed)

I'd distract the man, we'd head over to yet another bar for yet more fruity and rum filled concoctions and it'd come up again....

J: BABY, we need a BABY!
ME: Do you remember our kids? OUR FOUR CHILDREN? How we're outnumbered? FOUR CHILDREN! (I was physically shaking the man now)

Time would go on. Again it would come back..

J: We need a baby. We NEED a baby. Our baby. It'd be so wonderful to have one together, baby.
ME: What about our farm, honey? We're supposed to move to a farm after our FOUR CHILDREN leave the house for college, remember? the FARM! Dang, can't have a baby. See?
J: Silence. Pondering expression on his face.....
J: Baby, it could be our FARM BABY, BABY!
The rest of the night, he would just look at me, smile and say "our Farm Baby, Baby!"

Let's just say that I made doubly sure to take that little orange BC pill each day while there. The next day Jeff felt like hell and had absolutely NO MEMORY of the whole FARM BABY idea. To this day he thinks I made it up. I found a few of his coworkers to tell him he was, in fact, rambling on about some farm baby.

OK, it's totally lame here in type, but in person, I can totally mimic his words and expression. It's wet-your-pants kind of funny. TO THIS DAY all I have to do is say "farm baby" and I laugh till I cry while he walks away rolling his eyes.

The only farm babies that will join our lives will be of the cow/sheep/chicken persuasion. Holy crap. Another child? Now? wow.


OK, I don't know WHAT the hell this thing will become. All I know is that I like it. I really, REALLY like it. It was this idea hatched in my brain back in yarn school 08. It didn't QUITE turn out how I expected it to, but I'm ok with that. I spun up some thick & thin singles, dyed it in apparently horrificly jarring colors and it's going to be felted. It may or may not turn into a felted bag. Or maybe I'll find an old black or grey sweater at good will, felt it and use this as accent material to sew up a felted bag? Or I may just pull it out at knitting functions just to see the knitters go "WOW!" and jump back. Nothing freaks out a knitter working on a perfectly normal sweater like a spectacularly fugly mix of colors swung out before their eyes. You know it's spectacular when your knitting friends have to fan their faces to get the vision to clear. Wow, indeed. When asked "WHY?" last night I said, "Well, I'm trying to learn to live with color." (I usually dress in black, white, tan, boring colors) I was told "Maybe you should learn to RUN AWAY from the colors!" Who knows what it will become? Maybe it'll get a bit muted when felted.

Such a pretty bloom

How do you selfless giving-away-of-the-knitting people do it? I knit this for my sister in law. I dearly love her and know she will enjoy this. I am not even a lover of the color red as accessories for myself, but I totally want to KEEP it. A little voice inside my head keeps saying, "MINE! MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE!" So, I will do the right thing, since I already showed her the scarf in progress, and she'll be wondering if I show up to family events wearing said scarf. Going to give it to her tomorrow.

I actually still have almost enough of the yarn to make another one for myself. Going to cast on tonight.
Pattern: Tiennie's Old Shale Scarf
Yarn: Collinette Jitterbug in Vatican Pie colorway. Yes, vatican pie. I know, I giggle each time I think about it.
Needles: sz 7's
Modifications: Knit in garter stitch instead of stockinette. I love garter stitch and it will help as I don't think the sister in law will block it if she washes it again.






OH, and we're in the process of buying a farm! 91 acres, a tiny farmhouse, a few outbuildings (one of which would make a fabulous dye lab/craft home), a spring-fed pond and well. It's about 10 miles south of Garnett, KS. NO, I won't be moving there any time soon. We're hoping to move after the youngest 2 go to college, about 10 yrs from now. YES, we'll be spending lots of weekends and summer get-aways there. YES, I'm totally excited and YES I'm also buying major amounts of bug spray. I'm also going to wear my hot orange Mexican Cowgirl hat every time I go down there. SO. FREAKING. EXCITED!

Thoughts of wooly animals grazing on the hills have entered my daydreams, but I'll have to get over my issues in dealing with things that poo. I'm just now getting used to the children, you know. Animals? Yeah. Someone has to feed them, water them, clean them, clean AFTER them, give them medicine, keep things from EATING THEM and clean up the poo. I'm proud of the fact that most of the 4 children now mostly take care of themselves in that area and am not sure if I want to start all that up again as soon as we send the last ones out of the house. I think I'll just read the blogs of those with animals for now.

Joey on one of his inventions at the lake this weekend. A make-shift zipline. Rope, a hill, a hook and a handle from some water-skiing equipment. And the bad mom of the year award goes to..........ME! Seriously? There's a beer bottle right in the corner of the picture. Yes, he's zip lining down a rope (that at least a tree trimmer tied the knots in) over chunks of wood and cement blocks in the winter while his mom's downing a coors light. Boy, motherhood doesn't get much better than that, does it? Cripes almighty. I do actually feed, nurture and look after the children now and again. No worries.

Your White Trash is Showing....

I apologize for the last wimpy entry. I was outnumbered, half deaf and quite overwhelmed. Scary White Trash Mama came out about an hour after the last post. OH yeah. YELLING Scary White Trash Mama, who is definitely NOT afraid of 9 yr old boys. Damn I do love her. Let's just say by 10:30pm all boys were either in beds on the floor or couches in the big tv/fireplace room. They all realized it was in their best interest not to upset the system. Or to upset the Mama. Lights were out, voices were at a whisper. Calmness reigned. I let them watch cartoons and as long as children stayed in their proper beds and voices didn't get loud enough for me to hear them upstairs, they could stay up as long as they wanted. They were all out cold by 11:30. Slept till at least 7am! The next morning they were totally behaved, normally squirrely boys. They played video games, legos, race cars and said "please" and "thank-you" at breakfast. I even overheard the boys comparing notes on how this was the "best sleepover EVER" so apparently I didn't scar them for life. I was able to sit and spin all morning with a smile on my face. Scary White Trash Mama rocks! I do love my alter ego's.

Note to self: The next time each mother jokingly (or totally serious in one case) gives me permission to beat upon her children, I need to ask if I can give them a little bit of benadryl instead. :) OK, OK, I'm totally kidding now. It is a pretty thought, though. It's really a miracle anyone ever comes to our house, isn't it?

Ok, this is totally a summer project for me. A table top at a local bar & grill had a design all made of BEER BOTTLECAPS! How cool would a table of Mike's Hard Limeade bottlecaps be? How much fun would it be to GET all those bottlecaps? I see many very, VERY easy knitting projects ahead for me this summer. Friends don't let friends knit drunk, and all that. right?


My poor-woman's niddy noddy. The key to it is to insert an old-time long, skinny metal knitting needle or tunisian crochet hook inside the bobbin and then the winding takes MUCH less time and effort. Of course, I didn't hit upon that little idea until the 10th bobbin I wound. Yes, I have a real niddy noddy in the plans for hubby to make for me and I have friends that have some I could borrow, I just was ready to skein up some yarn at 1:30am. What's a girl to do? It worked fabulously.

I know they LOOK like 9 year old boys...but they're actually brain sucking aliens taking over the world, one mom at a time...

Do you see me covering my ears and cringing in the corner? I didn't even know my daughter was snapping this picture. Slam dancing in the mosh pit of a heavy metal rock concert would have been easier on my ears and body than living through that version of the happy birthday song. What the HELL was I thinking? Sure, have 4 of your friends over for a sleepover party. Sure, Jeff, go on to the farm, it'll be no big deal, I can totally handle a few 9 yr old boys. OH MY HOLY HELL. It's 10:38pm and I've already turned out the lights and stuck them all on sleeping bags in the fireplace room. No, the fire is out. I was at least on the ball enough to have that little detail ironed out. I've already threatened that the next boy that starts wrestling and/or screaming will spend the rest of the night on my bedroom floor. God knows I won't be up there for the next four hours, but it did seem to freak them out a bit and (knock on wood) so far they're keeping it to a moderate roar. Did anyone SEE me smoking crack? Did I have a lobotomy when I wasn't paying attention? Did I forget that I don't like to be outnumbered by children? AND I've done absolutely NO knitting or spinning. Grrrrrrrr. In my head I was thinking that I had video games, pizza and movies. What more could I need? I'd sit and spin and knit and they'd just play away. 10:41. And the moms aren't coming until 11am tomorrow morning.

So, back to the original reason for the post. On Thursday, I had an epiphany. Not just any epiphany, a KNITpiphany. It was a brilliant idea! Something I couldn't believe no one had thought of before! I've been piling up a lot of socks that are in need of darning. SIX pair have one sock with a hole in it now. That seriously cuts into my wearable sock pile. SO, instead of wasting time darning up the holes, I have this great freaking idea! Why not wear two of the socks from the darning pile that don't have holes in them? At the same time? My feet will be toasty warm, I won't have to spend time darning and no one will be the wiser! What a brilliant idea!


Brilliant, except for the fact that apparently my new pair of slacks SHRUNK in the wash and I didn't realize that fact. AND though no one usually comes into our little office, that day I had at least EIGHT people to walk around the office and sit and meet with. SO with every step I saw a little flash out of the bottom of my eye......TEAL......BLUE......TEAL......BLUE.... you get me? Yeah. Those nice long black pants and the black shoes that should have made my brilliant idea, well, brilliant didn't quite work out as planned. I got really odd looks from the gentlemen I was meeting with. There's just no way to cover that up. My pants were literally an inch and a half higher than the edge of my shoes. WHILE STANDING UP! The only saving grace was at least I hadn't broken out one of the bright orange socks. Sweet mother. Every time I think of something and am astounded that no one had done it before...something like this happens to me. Yeah. Maybe someone DID think of it but had the sense to wear the socks while AT HOME or WITH LONGER PANTS or just spend the few minutes darning the darn things in the first place.

10:51pm. I've already had the whole bunch go ape and escape on me. Running around the house like crazy people. You'd have thought they'd be a bit worn down by all the jumping, running, dancing, wrestling and general craziness by now, right? Damn.

OH, I have shots of a baby knit IN ACTION! Little Harper (my new niece!) modeling her baby shrug in dream in color classy (washable wool) bought at misknits! LOVING this. I can't decide if the 2nd shot looks like Popeye or if it's her pirate arrrrrgh look. So freaking cute.

It kinda looks like a sunset.....

It kinda looks like a sunset if you squint a lot and drink a little, or if you drink a lot and squint a little. After mentioning this to my dear friend Teri, she pointed out the fact that I both drink AND squint quite often so I should be good. Only problem is that I don't spend a lot of time around OTHER PEOPLE who are drinking and/or squinting, so unless I decide to start spending a lot of time in the local bars I'd probably better find another way to use this yarn.

In real life, it's just, well, horrid. The stitch pattern at the top just really doesn't work for this yarn. But I HAVE learned something. I do love this yarn, I don't mind it in stockinette, I absolutely love it in garter stitch, and it's WARM. Taking the advice of some local spinners I got to sit & spin & EAT with on Sunday, I've decided this yarn still has a future as a wearable piece of clothing. It's going to either be a garter stitch button band/neckline/edging for a body of a cardigan or it may become a stripe in a Zimmerman EPS sweater of some sort. It just isn't living up to its potential (damn, how often have I heard those words in my youth?) and I'm going to find a way for this funky bright sunset-ish yarn to shine.


I'm also still on an orange kick, so have made some serious progress on Bonne Marie's Eyelet Cardi out of some gifted cascade 220 from another dear friend Chery. Picture is showing a bit brighter than real life, still working on the new camera's settings. It's a lovely orange and not at all needing sunglasses to knit as it may seem in the photo. I truly love ChicKnits patterns. They're well written, easy to knit, classic, stylish and FIT ME!

I'm getting closer on my wheel decision. I think I've narrowed it down to a choice between a Fricke double treadle with wooly winder or an Ashford Kiwi with jumbo flyer attachment. SUCH a hard decision!!! I'll also probably begin destashing a bit to help pay for whichever wheel gets to come home with me.

How's everyone doing in the big year of the stash? I'm totally falling in love with my yarn all over again! I didn't get to go to even one yarn shop while in Minnesota last week. Can you believe it? Probably the only way that my stash hasn't grown yet in 2009. I'm sure it will, I'm not going all cold-turkey here, just trying to shop from the stash first. I was so busy with lunch meetings and dinner meetings that I didn't even get to visit either of my MN knitter friends. I've already arranged to have a little more time on my own when I go back in April!

OH an I went skiing with the girl scouts on Saturday in the upper teens/lower 20's, wore my alpaca hat & cowl and was NOT COLD! I did have to put up the edges of my coat to help shield the ears when I was really flying down the hill, but other than that I was absolutely alpacaishly toasty! On SundayI saw this lady spinning up some of the very same alpaca that I made my hat & cowl out of. I LOVE THAT FIBER. Once I get a wheel, some more of the Don Giovani colorway of fiber WILL be shipped to my home. It may even be there waiting for the wheel to arrive. I said, "OH, you're spinning MY ALPACA! Look!" and brandished the hat and cowl in her face. She said, "Actually, this is from MY alpaca. I own the Alpacas in Wildcat Hollow Alpaca Farm and this was from my actual alpaca." HOW cool is that? I visited her amazing farm when I went to Yarn School 08. After mildly freaking her out that I knew the names of which alpacas my fiber came from, she realized I was just a fan and not a crazy stalker woman and we had a very nice time spinning and chatting.

I've got to get a shirt that says "Got Alpaca?".

Best. Knitting. Tool. EVER!

PAPERCLIPS!!! These things are unbelievable. They are now a permanent part of my knitting bag. I've also stashed some in the truck for when I'm out and about and without my knitting tools.

Need a stitch holder? Paperclip it.


Knit Picks' Options needles coming loose and you left the little key thing at home? Paperclip it.


They're also handy if you've dropped a stitch on lace or itty bitty stitches and don't have a crochet needle handy. In short, they rock. Stick some in your knitting bag. I imagine if you unbent them you could even knit from them if you had to.

In addition to 2009 being the year of knitting from the stash for me, it's also going to be the year of knitting up my handspun.
Just in time for my trip to Minneapolis, the hat is from the first alpaca I spun at yarn school and the cowl is from the 2nd batch of handspun I created in December. It's so unbelievably warm and alpacaishly soft. The fact that I look like a total dork in it doesn't even phase me.


This is a scarf using Yarn Harlot's one row handspun scarf pattern. I dyed this fiber at Yarn School last fall, spun it up in November.


Has anyone ever noticed how beginner spinner's yarn is a lot like a toddler with a runny nose and bad attitude? Only its mother could truly love it. You can see the potential there, but it's a clumsy, slightly cruddy little thing. And it sometimes gives you headaches. But I love it anyway.

Psychedelic Yarn Barf. not a good start for 2009

We all know how yarn has a life of its own, right? I'm not the only one? Yarns behave differently depending on the gauge, drape and design picked for it. You have to be a bit of a fiber-mind-reader and detective all rolled into one. What an amazing thing it is to pick exactly the project a yarn is meant for! You can almost hear the yarn singing as you knit along. The entire process is a joyful thing and the end result is your new very favorite sweater/shawl/mittens/etc. It's a special moment that just doesn't always happen around here all that often.

Unfortunately, most of us have had an experience (or twenty-three) where we tried to force a yarn to become something it was not meant to be. It doesn't matter that the fiber, gauge, drape and all that jazz is spot on. No, that yarn has decided it is Not. Going. To. Cooperate. Forcing yarn to become something it doesn't want to be can be worse than dealing with a moody pre-teen girl. Believe me, I've got experience with BOTH. I've had yarn roll its eyes at me, sigh deeply and flat out pout while tossing its fiber/hair. I swear I've even heard it laugh in triumph when I've grown too frustrated to continue and stuffed the damned doomed project back into a bag and shoved it into the corner.



Well, my current dilemma is a bit different than the usual pouty yarn. What do I do with beautiful yarn that's decided it's quite happy becoming a project that is turning out to be, well, craptastically fugly? Wow. So much is wrong with this project. It's a gorgeous pattern Shalom, designed by Meghan McFarlane. Meghan, I promise, cross my heart, to make your lovely pattern again in a nice solid yarn that will show the gorgeous lines, the romantic feel of the pattern once I'm done with this one. Please don't judge her wonderful pattern by the funkiness that I'm creating.

I love the pattern, the drape, the squoosh factor. It's just, well, horrid. It looks like the toilet cover my grandma had in her basement bathroom in the mid-70's. The one that was filled with mismatched towels and accessories considered ugly EVEN in the time of the Uglies. Seriously? All I see when I keep knitting along is yarn barf. 70's psychedelic yarn barf.



The scary thing? I can't stop knitting it. This yarn has Decided what it wants to be. I'm pretty much powerless to resist. I should do the smart thing and frog it and knit a nice scarf and matching hat. This yarn has spoken to me during its swatching. I've also been there with this yarn from the start. Ok, not on-the-sheep start, but back in the days of its being a white fluffy combed top just waiting to see what it would become. I dyed this yarn. I predrafted this yarn. I spun this yarn. I've spent a lot of freaking time with this yarn. How can I now hold it back from its dream of becoming actual clothing instead of the usual bits & pieces most handspun turns out to be?

Maybe I'll just keep knitting and wear it to the local knitting guild meeting and that will count as wearing it in public. We'll see how it goes. I will proudly say, "Yes. I made that. Yes. It was on purpose. Yes I know I look like a VERY BRIGHT toilet cover from the 70's. It's exactly the look I was aiming for." Then you may see me wearing a fabulous orange scarf and mittens set soon afterwards, we'll just see how it goes.

Oh, and what happens in our house when mom gets grumpy and bans all tv and video games for a couple of nights? Egg Man. You can't see in the picture, but he was carrying around two empty egg cartons like they were big, heavy weights. I've been singing "I am the egg man.....I am the egg man......I am the walrus.....koo koo ka choo...." ever since. Yes, my children are total dorks. Sweet, funny but truly dorks. The apple doesn't fall far from the toilet cover wearing tree.

Big Ass Yarn Sale!

Don't forget to stop by Knit Wit's in Olathe, KS on 12/26/08 to spend some of that Xmas cash!

30% off all yarn
Tons of $3/skein closeouts
20% off glass case, designer handbags, antiques and misc goodies.


9am-5pm.

Anyone remember me talking about not buying any more yarn about 3 months ago? Yeah. Me neither.
I'll be there.

Knit Wit
1815 S Ridgeview Dr
Olathe, KS 66062
913-780-5648

Done!

5:30pm Xmas eve, sewed in last of the tons of ends. I truly hate weaving in cotton yarn. Give me a good spit splice of wool any day.

5:45pm threw sweater into a box, gave it to Jeff, he loved it and put it on.

6:00pm left for Christmas Eve party at his folks' house.

6:30pm Christine ate, drank, was merry and NO LONGER KNITTING BLACK COTTON YARN. It was a good night.

Pictures soon.

Someone promise to smack me upside my head if I decide to make another Christmas sweater in less than a month, ok?

Dec 23rd 9:25pm

One sleeve and neckline done. Half a sleeve and tons of ends to weave. Still knitting and the countdown goes on...

All I want for Christmas is a pre-Christmas space/time continuum

One and a half sleeves to go. Stupid Christmas sweater. Stupid knitter. Thinking, "Oh, I'll knit my husband a sweater for Christmas and it's now DECEMBER 6th!" Cripes almighty.

Turn the square hat completed and delivered. (no pics as camera's batteries were dead.) It rocked. Black cascade 220 with the taupe colored part of a ball of noro kureyon for the brother in law. He loved it and wears it already.

Mom's THIRD and FINAL red hat. Also delivered with no pictures. I really need a new camera. That whole bouncing-on-concrete-and-puddles-of-beer isn't so good on digital cameras. This one she seems to like. Pattern was el capitan and yarn was lambs pride bulky. Gorgeous. I'll get a pic sometime and update it.

Sorry no links to patterns posted, I'm using every spare minute to knit those damn sleeves. I really want Jeff to open his sweater on Christmas Eve afternoon before our family parties, but we'll see. Stop light knitting, bathroom knitting, elevator knitting, you name it, I'm doing it.

I did absolutely NO Xmas knitting last year. I'm thinking that wasn't a bad idea. I'll spend next year doing the "Oh, here's something I knit for you just BECAUSE, not because it's Christmas." Christmas knitting can't be healthy. Seriously, I found myself trying to convince myself that Jeff would really appreciate 3/4 length sleeves to save on time. Yeah. Good thing some of those voices in my head have sense, huh?

OH, to save myself from black cotton yarn stockinette coma (rowan calmer, but STILL cotton, ugh) I made a mini project just for me. (We selfish knitters have a really hard time knitting for just others....one for you, one for me...). Chickadee cowl (free pattern on ravelry) knit out of my hand spun alpaca. LOVING it. Again, I apologize for the crappy pictures. It does stop the wind and is sooooooooo soft and snuggly. I can't wait to make a hat to match out of the other alpaca I spun up. It WILL have to wait until after the Xmas sweater is done. The close-up picture freaks me out a little, as it resembles a bee-hive full of bees all thronging around their queen and bees scare me. Ick. Seriously, it's gorgeous in real life. An action shot will come soon hopefully.




MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! Happy Hanukkah too! Happy Festivus for the rest of us. Whatever floats your boat, hope it's a happy one filled with friends, family and good, warm knits.

May all your holiday knits be completed on time and may you get to SLEEP at some point in the next four days...I'm not sure I will be.

So, after you get your spinning wheel, you won't have to buy any more yarn, right?

Me "Oh....well.....um.....in THEORY......that is.......welllllllll,........no."

Him "Oh........So, it's just your thing, then? I should just get used to it? Like I do with the knitting thing?"

Me "Yeah. It's just my thing."

Him "Ok then."

Damn I love that man.

SO, I'm on a search. A search for my wheel. My very own spinning wheel. A very long search. A search that includes using every possible form of wheel I can get my hands on. It's a hell of a fun search. This search also includes a massive amount of fiber.

Is there anything cooler than that? That's MY DAUGHTER winding yarn spun by me onto a niddy noddy. Neither of us had a clue of how to use the damn thing. I mean, I've seen it used. In THEORY I know what it's supposed to do, but in practice it's a whole other world. God bless the internets. Youtube to the rescue. We watched a little clip, she sat down, and cranked it out. I was still trying to figure out what went where and how and she had it cranking out! The girl has a gift. She's got the Fiber Gift. But she doesn't much care. Ah well. She's 12. Maybe she'll pick things up for real when she's older. She is working her way through the Harry Potter books now and is excited about each part she comes to, so there's hope.

Yes, that's the migraine scrap blanket in the background along with a big ass bag of fiber. And yes, the migraine blanket actually DOES match the babypoop green colored 60's chair in the corner. Yes, it scares me a little bit too.

So, over the last week, I've quite literally spun my ass off. I can say literally as I've lost about 3 pounds in the last week and I think it's because all my spare time has been spent either spinning or prepping fiber instead of snacking. While I can knit and still snack, I'm not coordinated enough to snack and spin. NO FIBERS OR SPINNING WHEELS WERE HURT IN THE FOLLOWING STORY!!! I actually tried to lick up a piece of air popped popcorn (no oil or butter and no touching with the fingers to slime up said wheel) and it didn't go too well. Let's just say that having both feet moving up and down and fingers pinching and gliding and drafting all at the same time work ok, but sticking the tongue out was just one body part too much to handle and the whole thing exploded into a mess. Popcorn, fiber and ME went everywhere. It wasn't pretty. I actually had to pick myself up off the floor. Again, the WHEEL WAS NOT HURT IN ANY WAY. The fiber didn't even split off. I don't have many gifts, but one is an ability to fall down a half flight of stairs and not spill one drop of beer. This must translate to falling off my chair while spinning and not breaking the fiber. See? I didn't kill all my brain cells in college! I saved the important ones.

I've not taken the time to soak and hang dry the yarn yet and am posting pictures much like a naughty knitter that posts pictures of unblocked lace, but dammit I wanted to finally POST something here! I promise to be a good spinner and take proper pictures soon.

Here's what it looked like before.....






And here's what it looks like now...


Orange and Blue hand-dyed corriedale X fibers from yarn school Fall 08. The orange was spun as singles and plied from bobbins as usual. Beautiful. The blues were actually pit plied, but that's a whole other story. I'll post about that another day. Also beautiful. Next is two more bags' worth of the heavenly alpaca from Alpacas in Wildcat Hollow that I bought from Settler's Farm and some wool from Daisy, a sheep owned by Settler's Farm's owner, shown grazing in the picture above.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'll be busy cooking, eating and knitting away! Hope you will be too!

Elvis has left the buiding...and that building...and that one...

Trick-or-Treated with Elvis, a devil girl child, a rapper and a freak, none of whom had to wear coats, so it was a great candy-fun-filled night. At each and every house Joey did his Elvis impersonation shown above along with "Thank you, thank you verah much". At each and every house I laughed my ass off. Yes, I have the sense of humor of a 3rd grader. It's sad. I've learned to live with it. Those around me have learned to ignore it. Pictures of the rest of the gang didn't make it due to tequila technical difficulties with the digital camera.

Let's see, what has happened since my last post? Wow. Here you go:

Did not get chewed on by anything while snorkeling in Mexico. Did have a few schools of fishes swim right around me and slightly freaked out, as they were EATING as they went and I figured if they were eating (there were at least 50+ fish about a foot long and 6 inches tall) something even bigger than them would be looking to eat them too and I didn't want to be in the way. At one point they were all bumping into me and I freaked out so much I picked my head out of the water and just didn't look any more. Yeah, because fish with teeth magically go away when you no longer look at them, right?


Did try to knock my husband off the kayak into the Sea of Cortez. Did not go through with it. I didn't stop because he's the love of my life and my true soulmate. I did it because when I leaned around to swing my paddle at his chest we swayed and I almost dumped my own ass into the water. You can't judge me. You weren't there. You would have tried to knock his ass off the boat as well. Ok, maybe you wouldn't have, but you sure would've thought about it. They don't call it the "divorce boat" for nothing. Later that night (after said husband kissed my ass all night for being such a jerk) this other couple was laughing about how they had "a little tiff" on the boat. Then the wife said to me, "what was that funny name you called Jeff as we paddled by?" I said, "um, well, most of my names started with fuxxing asshole....." "OH!" she said, "No, I think it was something like 'there's no wussies allowed on the sea' or something." I said "OH, yes, that was at the beginning of the adventure." (I think the word I used started with a P, but who am I to argue?)

Did not knit a damn thing on the whole trip. Did actually get a sock out on the trip home, but slept for both flights.

Did learn that digital cameras don't do well after they bounce upon concrete floors after being dropped from the height of about 15 feet in the air while dancing with company bigwigs on a bar. That's why the pictures you'll be seeing here for the next few weeks will most likely be total crap. I can take pics, but can't see anything, if it's focused, if it is centered in the frame, if it's even in the picture. Taquila Technical Difficulties. Enough said. crap.


Did complete yet another sleeveless turtleneck while on my trip to Minnesota. Because a girl this girl can never have too many sleeveless alpaca and wool creations. It keeps me warm and toasty while not making me burst into flames. Pattern is from Stephanie Japel's book Fitted Knits, my most favorite book of all next to the EZ stuff.


Did start a knitting project that has nothing to do with the gift knitting I'm planning on doing this year for Christmas. It's like my brain is in a little time warp all its own. Cassidy from Bonne Marie Burns in cascade 220. Amazing so far and I can't hardly put it down. I've finished the back and am trying really hard to not start the fronts and sleeves until I knit something for SOMEONE ELSE.

Did survive turning 40 years old. Do any of you remember that post long ago of how I treasure each and every white hair I've got because I earned them? How each wrinkle on my face was from a story in my life? Yeah. It's all bullshit. Getting old sucks. But I also did spend a wonderful evening with some dear friends whom I love even more than the amazing knitterly gifts they gave me! Knitting friends rock. They help you celebrate the good, deal with the bad and knit along through everything life throws at you. I love you guys.
I missed you people. Good to be back in blogland again.

Is there a ten step program for orange addiction?

See, I NEEDED an orange sequined cowboy hat. I have yarn to match it! Oh, and there's only a few rows of sequins along the edges. It's not total tackiness. The pictures will have to wait as I brought the camera along on the trip, but no camera cord. Just wait until the next Sunflower Knitters Guild meeting. I'm going fully corrdinated, baby.

It totally freaked me out seeing all these yarns together in one place. I had no idea I had that much orange. Orange glasses? Orange cowboy hat? Orange socks, sweaters, scarves and yarn to become even more sweaters, scarves, hats, socks, gloves and headbands? Does that scare anyone else but me?

Being an extremely anal woman, I've got to have some sense of schedule in my life. I could get used to the whole laying-on-the-beach-sipping-margaritas thing, but there's a part of me that's going nuts because I'm not living from my franklin planner system. Yes, it's sad. I realize that. I figure in order to not lose my mind or end up in too many hasta-la-wego-blue-drinks hangover again (not pretty) I should set myself a goal or two per day while here.

Goals for today:
#1 Do not fall off kayak into the ocean.
#2 Attach both sunglasses and ziplock bag of knitted socks to floaties for when rule #1 goes to hell.


Good plan. (Thank GOD Jeff got us changed to the kayaking/snorkeling/laying on beaches adventure instead of the rock climbing/ziplining MORE rock climbing thing. Me? Rock Climbing? With taquila involved? (there's a nice little drink/snack break in the middle) Nope. Not me. I fall off rocks WITHOUT taquila and that sounds like entirely too much work. I'll leave that kind of stuff to Stacey. Ah well. Sock knitting on a remote beach? Now that's my kind of adventure. (I can knit very slowly today. Hand is better but a bit touchy).

only in mexico

So, since there's not an abundance of yarn shops, it's totally understandable to buy an orange sequined cowboy hat if it matches the silk yarn you brought to work on a shawl and the Cascade 220 yarn for the February Lady Sweater waiting to be knitted, right?

Damn margaritas.