Hey Heeeeeyyyyy, Good Lookin, What'cha got cookin? How's about cooking some merino up for me?

Well, someone needs to take my kool-aid away from me so I can get something else done! It's so addicting, and REALLY hard to stop. Everything except the pale yellow sock yarn (knitpicks bare) and the superwash merino fiber was the rescued OLD OLD OLD wool from my aunt in funky colors. It had tags that said "Dexter Worsted Knitting Wool" and came from Lee Ward's. Two nights of koolaid dying produced some pretty usable stuff I'd have to say. It has also gotten softer through the soaking and dying. It's close to the texture of a cascade 220, which I just happen to LOVE, so I'm entirely too excited.

No bathroom fumes have touched the yarn & fiber this time, it was dried on the back porch for a few hours, then in the dining room. There's just something about coming home, opening the door and picking up the hints of fruity wet wool. mmm mmm good.

And there has been a bit of spinning lately.


I actually HAVE been knitting, but nothing too exciting. Worked a bit more on my koolaid teal socks and am half-way between the heel & toe on the 2nd one. Hope to have it finished soon. I need to cast on another pair for Jeff's Xmas list since I've only got ONE pair done out of the SEVEN I hope to give him this December. Also am getting ready to do the neck & sleeve edging on my orange merino tank top. I think I'll call it a "vest" so people don't give me hell about yet ANOTHER sleeveless wool sweater.



No CYG photo shoot today. I actually had all the still damp wool loaded in my arms and made it as far as the truck with the camera. There's just something about hauling a bunch of wool in your arms in 99 degree weather with 90% humidity. Not even cyg can do that. Thankfully the lighting on the back porch was just right, so I could shoot a few, run inside and stand on top of the air vent, shoot a few more, stand on the air vent.

Happy Weekend Everyone!!!

"Like taking a crap inside a box of Trix"

Husband was wandering around half-asleep this morning. I didn't pay any attention. While brushing my teeth, I heard this "WOW! COUGH COUGH COUGH GASSSSSSSPPPPPPPPP!" coming from the guest bathroom down the hall. He's rather dramatic from time to time, so I kept brushing my teeth. When he stumbled into the bedroom again he fell on the bed and said, "WOW, that was like taking a crap inside a box of Trix!" I think toothpaste may have actually come out of my nose.

NOTE TO SELF: Buy a drying rack for use in screened-in porch or dining room.

It's been a while since the last CYG sighting, so if skies are clear, I'll do a photo-shoot Friday post tomorrow. There is some serous kettle-dyed action going on in some of these yarns. I bought a TON of kool-aid, used A TON AND A HALF dying, and bought a new crockpot. At one point I had microwave humming, three casserole dishes of fiber and yarn waiting for cooking, and THREE crockpots going. Husband was a bit perturbed that with all the sounds of the wife in the kitchen there was no sign of food. I sent him up to have sole power over the remote control with a bag of chips and bowl of salsa and cooked all night long. Good times.



"Like taking a crap inside a box of Trix." *snort* You know, it really must have been. Window is now open, ceiling fan cranking and door closed. Husband and step-sons have been banned from the use of said bathroom until fiber is removed tonight.







Some of the yarn is a gift from my aunt. She is cleaning out boxes she's had since time began. OK, since before MY time began. She brought over a ton of acrylic that I've aired out on the back porch and will donate to a local senior center that I know takes donated yarn. AND buried in the boxes and bags, were these skeins of wool yarn that were OLDER THAN I AM (and I'm 40!). They feel like you'd expect, a bit rough, and the colors were less than desirable. Now, they've got a future as some felted bags and hats and slippers! Can't wait to get my hands on the rest of it.

But first, I need to buy more kool aid and a drying rack. Wonder if my kitchen could handle a few more crockpots? They're on sale at Target! 5 1/2 quart for $24.95.......

The blogger formerly known as Knitting Virgin

EVERYBODY SING ALONG! (to the Tune of the Artist Formerly known as Prince, oh wait, he's Prince again....Raspberry Beret) She dyed with Raspberry kool aid...........the kind you buy at the grocery store......Raspberry Kool Aid......and when she was done, she went and bought some more........

OK, it wasn't actually Raspberry Kool Aid, more of chery, cherry, grape, strawberry and pink lemonade. Isn't it purty? The olive green one was a masterpiece of who-knows how many lemon-limes, lemonade and some orange that was so old I actually had to pound on the packet with the salt shaker to break up the chunks of petrified rock into powder again. I DID make a mess, how did you guess?

It's part of my supplies for a spinning adventure class with Insubordiknit at the Studio here in KC. Not sure if any seats are left, but it should be really neat! If you've not got anything going on, call the Studio and see if you can still get in! I waited until the last minute to see what I had to bring, saw I needed fiber. I had some undyed goodness left over from last fall's Yarn School, I had some kool aid, and I have 2 crockpots. Many shakes of old gatorade bottles later, I have some seriously cool fiber.

I think the family is a bit tired of hearing me wander about the house making them SMELL the fiber (fruity!) and OOOh and AAAHH when I say "Can you believe I MADE THIS?" "Really." " I. MADE. This." Last night they each had a friend over and I overheard Joey telling both kids outside "OK, when mom brings you this yarn stuff, just tell her it's cool and she'll leave you alone. OK?"

Those few times that my high tech dying process (basically throw some of this there...then maybe that...what happens when I add this here? Oh!) actually WORKS is amazing. I have made some truly horrid things. I have even knit a few of them up into horrid knitted things. But once in a while I make something amazing. Something that takes my breath away. The power of creation is a wondrous thing to behold. Yeah. I was almost as proud of the fiber as I was of making a child. Yeah. I really need to get out more and get a grip on myself. But at least I have fabulous, fruity fiber (and fabulous Weasley children to boot).

And because I still can't get over my love affair of all things kool aid, I think we need to revisit the kool-aid dyed sockyarn. I've decided that it's the exact colors of the Sea of Abaco when Jeff & I went on our honeymoon. I will be ordering more undyed sockyarn and trying this experiment again. I'm so in love with these socks. I'm on the heel flap of sock #2. SO. In. Love.

THISCLOSE to merino roadkill

THANK YOU VERY MUCH OVERLAND PARK POLICE DEPARTMENT! No, really. Who else would give a ticket to someone in the midst of Friday afternoon rush-hour traffic in a spot where 2 busy highways intersect and there's about 6 exits AND construction has things down to one lane? I understand the whole charging-double-for-construction-zones and making money concept. Believe me. I paid double back before Xmas a few years back for a poorly marked construction speed trap to the city of Olathe.

As you can imagine, it was one of those bumper to bumper, traffic still flying afternoons. I had Jeff's 2nd sock with sharp metal hiya-hiya double point needles in my lap. (Before this story goes any further, let me point out that NO I was NOT knitting at the time. I only knit at stoplights unless it's a really straight long road and deserted, NEVER in rush-hour traffic.) Well, there I am, merging, looking over my shoulder, trying to fit my truck into the flying construction mess. Doing fine. When suddenly, tires are screaching, cars sliding, everyone everywhere is trying not to hit the person in front and not get hit by the person behind. IN A SINGLE LANE OF TRAFFIC. Ever so much fun. Well, apparently my super-mom-super-knitting instincts kicked in. In the 1.5 seconds of time I hit the brakes, swerved around the car in front of me onto the shoulder (did I mention we're also up in the air on one of those overhead curves of the highway so no where to go past the shoulder?) stiff-arm stopped the bag in the front seat (mommy-protecting-kid-style) and THREW MY SOCK OUT THE SUNROOF. Yes. The sunroof.

The very large UPS truck behind me missed my bumper by inches and ended up stopping just behind the car that was ahead of me. If I'd not swerved, I'd have been rear ended at a high speed for sure. I don't remember any of the things happening, just sat there panting, heart beating and noticing that there's a trail of sockyarn going from under the bag that I'd strong-arm-stopped out past my face above me through the sunroof. There was just this TINY bit of yarn left under the bag, thank goodness it had snagged or the damn thing probably would have flown through the air to the highway below and gotten run over by the multitudes on 435 West. I wound it back through and it was actually caught on my back bumper.

I've always been freaked out by stories of knitters falling and impaling themselves on knitting needles. Being a woman that both falls quite often and is usually carrying METAL pointy needles, this must have been knitter survival instincts kicking in. I don't know why I didn't think to throw it to the FLOOR of my truck or something, but hey. I'm alive and equally as important, the 2nd sock avoided becoming merino roadkill as well. One of the dpns is lost in action, but that's a small price to pay.

SO, after going outside to collect my sock, calming my heart back to a more normal pattern, I re-entered traffic and headed on home. WHAT was the cause of the whole sheBANG? Yup. The good old OP Police Department. Cripes almighty. MAN, if you didn't get thrown in jail for assaulting a police officer (where they don't let you KNIT by the way), I'd have sure enjoyed putting my foot up that cop's butt or at least poking him with a hiya-hiya a couple of times. Miraculously no one ended up in a wreck. Just a whole lot of tire screaching and squealing and swerving.

Poor little man-socks. I decided the trauma on both of us meant that they got moved up from stall-knitting and stoplight-knitting status to full completion-mode status. Pair #1 towards Jeff's Xmas present are now complete. Kitchenered the toe last night. *sigh*

And the socks I wasn't supposed to cast on until I'd finished man-socks pair #1? Well, I not only cast them on during the camping trip, but knit a whole sock. Koolaid dyed sockyarn. Fabulous.


The new stall-knitting/stoplight-knitting/baseball-game-sitting-knitting project is to complet the 2nd sock of my crazy hand-dyed sockyarn from the fall 08 Yarn School before I learned moderation in colors is a good thing.... (they're starting to grow on me now) Here's hoping they don't end up tossed out the window as well!

A sure sign of spring...the Fiber Trees are in bloom!

JwrayCo 100% wool fiber, double plied, GORGEOUS, finished plying last night.


Artclub on Etsy fiber, 100% wool, Beach colorway. 4 oz spun as fatter singles, 4 oz spun in thinner singles, all navaho plied (my first and 2nd attempts and I'm pretty darned proud of myself, thank you very much). Love, love love. The two smaller skeins in the background are chunky weight and the front is more of a heavy worsted. I'm thinking hat with matching fingerless gloves? For now I just carry it about, petting it.


More JwrayCo fiber, spun up earlier, but it didn't want to get left out of the photoshoot today. Also 100% wool and SO unbelievably soft and the depth of colors? spectacular.


OH, and there's only a few spots left for an arts yarn workshop with Insubordiknit at the The Studio in KC, MO on June 27-28th. (Scroll down on the linked page to see the KC workshop info). I just got in and it looks to be a fun weekend!

Also along for the ride today, the three-times-frogged-didn't-want-to-be-socks Socks that Rock as a scarf for my cousin, Kelly. I think I've finally found the perfect match of yarn and pattern. Yes, I'm creating yet ANOTHER Old Shale Scarf from the lovely Tiennie. I do love her patterns and her blog.


And the signs that summer's coming.....

How we like our children to appear.....


And how they REALLY are the other 99% of the time.....


I'm off to a road trip to go trying not to feed the ticks camping with these monsters. Much fiber will come along. And much, much buspray. Have a great weekend, everyone!

OH, and I found the magic phrase to not looking like a loon while hiking about in the woods near my work's complex hanging yarn in trees!!! You just say "photoshoot" in a snotty tone while wearing big sunglasses. Then people go from looking at you like "wow, you're a freak of nature!" to "wow, you must be doing something really cool!" Or while wearing big sunglasses you just THINK that's how they look at you. Works for me.

All things Sockyarn

For the husband's Xmas present this year I'm planning ahead. I know, I can't believe it either. We'll see how well I do when December rolls around. My goal is to give him 7 pair of socks. Yes, I realize it's now the end of May and I've not quite completed one pair, but at least I'm not starting a sweater on Dec 14th like last year! So far, I'm on the heel of the 2nd sock of the first pair of fingering weight socks. He loves worsted and dk weight socks, so I should still be able to crank out 2 pr per month and still make goal. Here's sock #1 modeled on my own toes...

Yarn: Rio De La Plata Needles: 1.5 Hiya-Hiya dpns (my all-time faves!) Pattern: my own 3X1 ribbing, top-down. CO 72 sts, 1 inch of 1X1 ribbing, slip stitch heel, 3X1 rib down to toes where I kitchener 28 stitches together. And yes, I still sing each and every time I do it. "Knit, Slip purl....purl, slip knit." over and over and over. I freaking love kitchenering toes. I don't get out much.

In a fit of finish-itis (it doesn't happen often, so I'm taking advantage of the feeling) I found and finished my Tess Supersocks. OH they're beautiful and such lovely yarn to knit with! Again with my 3X1 pattern but cast on 68 stitches for me.



Another finish-itis project, pulled out my crazy hand-dyed sockyarn I did up at Yarn School last fall and got one and a half done in the last couple of weeks. It's growing on me. Slipped every 5th stitch every other row. Seems to make the wild coloring look a bit less jarring.


It's so very hard to work on plain old man-socks when I've got fiber vying for my time! It's so hard to resist the call of the fabulous sockyarn......can't you hear it? This stuff is going with me this weekend. This is some of the kool-aid died yarn I did at the SSK retreat in Harveyville. FABULOUS koolaid dying instructions here. Ana's a great teacher! I'm going to try really hard to not cast on until I'm at least half-way down the foot on the last of Jeff's first pair.....


AND, the best part of knitting more socks?????? MORE SOCKYARN BLANKET KNITTING!!!!! WOO HOO! Pattern rav link above on sidebar. If you're not on ravelry, comment w/your email address and I'll send you a pdf. It makes me so happy and is such perfect tv-watching or driving down the road or stoplight knitting.




I finished my 2nd rectangle and started the 3rd. Isn't it cute? Does that yarn look familiar? Each rectangle is big enough to be a baby blanket, but I'm going for a BIG afghan for me. This is a memory quilt of all the socks I've made (and some single skeins thrown in that never quite became socks, but were lolling about in the stash.) Go on and make yourself one.

Before & After

Sure wish I could have gone to Yarn School this last weekend, but am planning to go this Fall in October again. In the Harveyville Project Theme, here's some before & after pics from the kool-aid yarn I dyed while there for our guild's SSK retreat a few weeks back. I always thought kool-aid yarn was just crayon bright boring yarn, but there's some gorgeous stuff out there! Have you seen Jo! Minor's kool-aid silk? Gorgeous. Absolutely Gorgeous. Here's my sockyarn before & afters:

What, did you think I wouldn't dye ORANGE yarn? Seriously? I actually held myself back on the coloring for a subtle orange colorway. Subtle. Me. Who'd of thunk it? I figured I had enough bright, in-your-face orange sockyarn for now. Can't wait to knit these up to see how they turn out.

Directions from our talented teacher Ana are here. Go on and dye yourself some. It was a blast!

Long stories, but with yarn pics.

Story #1...CYG without the Y. Just Crazy Girl at the office place...
OK, notice the BRIGHT orange jacket. Also notice the ONE beaded orange earring and beaded orange necklace.
FIRST, the background for this story. We all know how much fun I've had with the grand wilderness lately. Well, after my 8-tick day, where BY THE WAY I learned you should NOT pull ticks out as their heads pop off and I had two tick heads get all puffy and nasty looking. One in the crook of my elbow so I looked like a heroin user on a bad day, and one on the FRONT OF MY NECK. Lovely. Well, Jeff went to the farm another weekend and was kind enough to bring home a few ticks to share. Sweet man, huh? I got rid of the 2 I found on him. Kids were watching a dog for a neighbor that was out of town earlier in the week. Guess what I got to pull off his belly? Yup another freaking tick. UGH.

AND on an airplane while on my way out of town the Monday am after that, I felt this bump on the back of my neck. Oh. It was a bit tender when I touched it. Try thinking to yourself for an hour flight "I'm sure it's a zit. I'm sure it's a zit. I'm sure it's a zit". It's a bit more calming if you say it just like Dorothy in her "There's no place like home...." voice in your head. Well, I was about a wreck by the time I got my rental car, headed to the main office. You know, you just can't walk up to anyone and say, "Would you look at this thing on the back of my neck and tell me if it's a zit or a tick?" Especially as I only see these people about 5 times a year and they think I'm mostly normal. Turns out it was, in fact, a tick. Sweet. I've now had a week and a half with NO BUGS on my body and would like to keep things that way, thank you very much.

Back to the story. Yesterday, I was walking through the office wearing the outfit you see above. Bright Orange. As I walked past the conference room glass walls, I popped the top of my can of diet coke. It made this strange buzzing sound. At the same exact moment, one of my beaded earrings fell from my ear to the base of my neck onto the beaded necklace, causing a strange feeling plus more noise. Let's just say the bright orange jacket being flung around as I ripped it off combined with my dancing about, slapping myself in the neck, jumping up and down and cursing madly caused a bit of a strange sight for my co-workers on a conference call. Once I saw it was the EARRING and one string of the beaded necklace's BEADS I was feeling and not a swarm of insects attacking me, I felt a bit silly, picked up jewelry and diet coke, glanced into the conference room and started laughing at the looks of shock on the faces of the men sitting there with their mouths hanging open. THANK GOD they weren't on a video conference as the camera shows the surrounding areas as well. This escapade shouldn't make the gossip circles since it happened in the office and not outside the buiding as most of my CYG adventures. These people I work with already know I'm a bit different and are ok with it. Or at least have learned to deal with it. (And seriously, couldn't I have just brushed my neck in a normal fashion while wearing something neutral instead of flailing about while wearing road-construction day glow orange? Cripes almighty.)


Story #2...The earring strikes again...
Later last night I walk into the bathroom, turn my head as I shut the door and hear a splash and thunk. Damn. RIGHT into the toilet. Cripes almighty. That's the 2nd pair of kitchen tongs I had to throw out in the last 2 weeks. The last one? Beth and I used it to pull 2 dead mice from the cage that didn't make it through the cold spell a while back on the back porch. I'm now down to one pair of kitchen tongs. AND have decided that no matter how great the earrings work with the outfit, I've either got to find someway for the bugger to STAY in my ear or pitch it.



Thank goodness I can make yarn and knit. How bat-shit-crazy would I be if I didn't knit? Scary thought.

I made yarn that looks like actual YARN! WOO HOO!
Top pic is some yarn I spun from a lovely hand-dyed wool top in the Beach colorway from the talented Nikol from the Harveyville Project, aka Yarn School. Her etsy site is Art Club. I've got another 4 oz still to spin! This was my first attempt at navaho plying and it went pretty well, if I do say so myself. It turned out to be a soft heavy-worsted weight.

Bottom pic is yarn I spun from fiber purchased at the Mopaca event from JWrayCo. Also 100% wool and fabulous. I think this is the prettiest yarn I've made so far. It's thinner, probably between a fingering and a dk weight, need to do the wraps-per-inch thing to find out. It's freaking GORGEOUS in person. (I did the best I could with my makeshift lightbox of white denim jacket thrown over a laptop.)

And, finally, thanks to Jo! who sent found this picture that pretty much sums up my life. It's so, so true.



And, thanks to commenters and some of Jeff's country friends, I've decided that I will start taking B1 vitamins, eating lots of garlic, wearing good boots and tucking in tank tops under shirts with long sleeves and hats before attempting my next outing in the wilderness. Plus deet. Deet is my friend. My poisonous friend, but my friend.

Fiber, take me away!

THANK GOD it's finally here! HARVEYVILLE, here we come! The Sunflower Knitters Guild is having its every-other-year retreat there! I can't wait! Not only does Nikol have the coolest yarn school in the nation, fabulous food and fiber and artsy fartsy stuff everywhere, she's also got 3 new baby lambs! Life's sure gotten crazy around here lately, a getaway surrounded by friends, fiber and food? It doesn't get any better than that. Spring Yarn School is coming up soon! Check the Harveyville Project link for details. I'm hoping to go to the Fall 09 Yarn School again, there's so much to learn!!!

And miles to knit before I sleep, and miles to knit before I sleep.....
Knitted through a poetry reading by about 45 3rd graders the other day. (How do the non-knitters do it?) I video taped my youngest step son for Jeff since he was traveling. I think I heard the Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening at least 5 times. It got stuck in my head and each night as I worked on a dear friend's prayer shawl, it came back to me in the knit version. I used the basic foulard pattern from the book Morehouse Farm Merino Knits Farm Fresh. I used almost 2 skeins of a gorgeous denim semi-solid color of Schaefer yarn's superwash sockyarn Nichole. Didn't have enough yarn to do a nice sideways garter stitch border, so did a quick crochet slip stitch around the edges (with 3 st at each corner) and then did a single crochet with a chain 3 loopy border around and used up almost all the yarn. It blocked out gorgeous. It turned out pretty dang big and lightweight, exactly what I wanted. She can stuff it in a tote bag, shake it out, wrap around her shoulders or use as a blanket then shove it back into a bag when she's done. Breast cancer stinks.


Is it too strange that the blanket was about 90% knit while thinking only kind, healing thoughts and prayers? About 10% was knit while thinking "Dear Lord, protect these stupid children" and/or "husband of mine" during whatever crazy thing they had going on at the time. And the blanket also was along for the ride in a backpack while horseback riding. Not normal horseback riding. Have you MET my husband? We were on his friend's farm, riding through "trails" or as I called them paths to HELL, that hadn't been maintained for a few years. Jeff had Joey behind him, I had Elizabeth behind me and Jeff's friend Travis was on his own horse. We went THROUGH trees (thorny and just regular almost knock-you-off-your-saddle style), underbrush, down short cliffs to water, across water and back up other cliff to solid land, and basically just through crap you have no business trying to get through on or off a damn horse. I'm afraid that blanket had a few curses, screams and prayers sent through it as well. I expect this will enable my friend to pass through her ordeal with strength, peace, love and the ability to not fall of any DAD BLAMED FRICKING FRACKING FREAKING HORSES! It's actually quite a challenge to curse in a child-friendly manner when I feel my life is in danger. It's a skill. I gots it.

Meet the new bull. He's so friendly he occasionally thinks he's a lapdog and will try to nuzzle you right off the back of the truck if you're not careful. Glad he's a lover, not a fighter. We're hoping his loving nature will help make many more cow farm babies to grow the herd.


Here's the "Rock Shack". Built by Jeff's friend over the years on his farm. Jeff and his boys like to go sleep in it. With mice that sometimes climb up and nibble on your hair. And the ticks rain down like tick rain. Yeah. Somehow, after the ride we'd had that morning, I was not quite up to the whole idea of things. I admired it from afar and decided that the only way I'm staying overnight there is with a CRAPLOAD of bugspray and a tent with zippers and such. Damn, I miss our pop-up camper. Though there's a roof, the whole thing is open to the elements. It's more of an admire-from-afar kind of place for me.


So, I survived in the country for almost an entire day last Saturday. With my children. And nature-boy. I bugsprayed, sunscreened, water-bottled and the like. I didn't complain, whine or hardly curse. The only times I truly screamed where when we were airborne on the back of the horse. I was almost like a real, live country girl! I thought to myself, I can DO this! I will be ok when we go country in a few years. I can totally DO THIS!

Nope. No rockstar country girl. That evening at home again I pulled EIGHT FREAKING TICKS out of my body. Kids didn't have any and Nature Boy had 1. I had EIGHT. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8!!!!! I swear I would rather be facing 28 snakes than 8 fuxxing ticks. Does anyone remember the day my freckles were moving? The first big tick attack freak-out with the thousands of seed ticks? Man, I'm still trying to get over that one. After doing more research than I care to admit, it turns out that certain people have a particular scent or taste that makes them more likely to get tick bit than others. Sweet. I've heard all kinds of ways you're supposed to extract the ticks. When I'm in full freak-out mode, it's more like I'll grab a tweeers and pull it out. GET-IT-OUT-GET-IT-OUT-GET-IT-OUT! I guess that wasn't the best policy as then I had eight red itchy bumps from the tick HEADS that were still in my body. One of the guys I work with said the head often keeps burrowing. WHAT???? Why would you tell me that? Seriously? I guess the look of horror was such the one other woman in the office went running for her clear fingernail polish and I took it to the bathroom and started painting my arms, legs, belly and chest with it. (The polish is now mine). I'm sure it's an old wives tail, but still, the thought of a head of a critter chewing inside me made me feel like Frodo with the shard of the poisoned knife working its way to his heart. Except I'm sure I was a bit more upset than Frodo.

Would you do me a favor? Would you ask all the nature-boy and nature-girl types you know for any clues as to what to eat, drink or spray on me to help me make it tick-free in the country? This wasn't even tick season yet and they were chawing down on me. There's no way I'm going to handle actual spring/summer weather out there without having a total come-apart. I've heard a shot of vinegar daily helps, and smoking is supposed to help. I'm not really excited about either of those options, so would LOVE any kind of back-woods advice you hear of. I heard skin-so-soft from Avon used to work but they changed the formula so it's not as potent. I'd forgotten about this and will get some to see if it helps.

I'm gonna knit and spin and relax in a tick-free, child-free, husband-free environment all weekend long. What will I do with myself?

OH! And I'm blond now. I wanted to do something different for turning 40 and I couldn't decide on what tattoo to get, plus I'm a wimp. It's now faded from va-va-va-voom to a nice strawberry-ish thing and not quite so blatant.

CYG/CKL/TKM to the Rescue!

I think I'll stick with CYG as my Superhero Knitting Identity. (Crazy Yarn Girl--nickname given me by some of my office building workers after a few knitting-related incidents). I went to the bank the other day to cash in some change for the kids. While waiting in line I did what any knitter would do, pulled out my sock and worked away, pleasantly waiting in line. Suddenly I hear this *GASP!* "We've been looking for you!" Not words you want to hear when standing in line at your bank. My heart about stopped, I flashed back to my early 20's where I learned the lesson of just-because-you-have-checks-doesn't-mean-you-have-money. I'm sure I had a horrid look of shock upon my face as the woman said, "OH, no, it's nothing bad, we have just been looking for the Complicated Knitter Lady!" Apparently, my ability to knit a tube is an amazing thing and since there was a new accounts person stuck on her 2nd knitting project, my Complicated Knitter Lady skills were in demand.

After showing this lady (and an additional small audience) how to join stitches in the round and make sure you don't twist stitches, a big sigh of wonder was heard in the room. Man, maybe I should have stuck with the banking world. I was a teller in the early 90's. A job where you worked hard part of the time and got to KNIT the other part? How much would that rock? No, I remember the stress of the banking world. I'll stay a Complicated Knitter Lady customer, thank you very much.

Another knitting superhero task faces me tonight. A couple of the moms asked the Girl Scout leader if she knew "That Knitting Mom" and the rest is history. I'm teaching nine 12 yr olds to knit. Solo. I had my daughter lined up as my super-hero-helper, but she's got to go to a choir meeting for her tour, so can't make it. Damn. So tonight TKM is sucking it up, bringing needles and yarn and a few tween-themed knitting books for inspiration.

I'm thinking knitting a headband for the first project. Cast on 10 stitches, knit garter stitch for around 10" or until it's a little less than wrapped around their heads, bind off and sew ends together. How hard could it be? Anyone besides me worried by the following realization? (of course not, you didn't insanely volunteer to do something that terrifies you, did you?) I was in the elementary education program in college until an observation/teacher aide kind of class and I realized that not only do I not enjoy teaching, but I don't really like children all that much either. A quick college major change was in order. I love all the school stuff like cutting, pasting, coloring, reading, math, etc. Just not the TEACHING of it. Don't get me wrong. I love kids (usually). I love MY kids and I love other kids for short periods of time while SOMEONE ELSE is in charge of them. Yeah. How hard could tonight be, anyway? (Anyone else hear that music that plays as the girl is walking into the path of the serial killer holding the chain saw? Yeah. Me neither.)

AND I've been totally behaving myself at work lately. No knitting escapades to get the gossips' tongues wagging. Except for slightly stalking a woman I swear had YARN in her tote bag. While in the elevator I saw YARN TAILS in the midst of a crammed tote bag. It was just the end of a few tails of yarn, not hanging out in public or anything so I couldn't very well ask about it. Two floors up and she got out. So, I tailed her. Just a bit. I got off the floor at the last minute to see where she worked. NO IDEA of what I'd do with that info. I was just so thrilled that there may be another knitter or crocheter here to bond with! Well, she went into the bathroom. I went into the bathroom. She set down her bag by the sink and it FELL OVER. Being the good samaritan that I am, dove to help her gather her things from the spilled bag. It was a scarf. I saw the fringe. It was an ugly, store-bought acrylic scarf. *sigh* Guess it's still me, the lonely CYG in the building.

Yeah. I thought that was a bit strange, even for me. Resolved to not stalk any more potential fiber people in the building unless there's actual signs of knitting action.

On a more relaxed note, here's what I've been working on lately. Hand-dyed wool fiber from jwrayco that I got from the Alpaca Festival a few weeks back.

Wish me luck tonight. I could never teach knitting classes for a living. I get all sweaty just thinking about it. I keep telling myself, "they're just kids" "I'm bigger than they are" (only some of them, so this one doesn't really work). "I can do this" Ah well. What's the worst that could happen?