Cha cha cha changes....

Man, this blog has turned into a whining here's what-the-universe-crapped-up-on-me-today kind of blog, hasn't it? Well, it's time to get back to what this blog's always been about. Knitting, Fiber Addiction and Critters. :)

First, though, I figured I'd better let you know that I was NOT involved in any of the multiple car pile-up wrecks all over KC this past weekend. MAN they were horrid. I can't believe no one was killed in that big 40 car wreck on I-70. Amazing.

Momma DID get herself a new truck. A big arse truck. A sweet truck with amazing leather innerds. Can't you see some sweet stoplight/parking lot knitting in there? I'm thinking NO GO on the whole I-70/highway knitting in this bad boy. Sticking to parked knitting only. Heated seats, remote start, 4 wheel drive and FREAKING HUGE. The only issue is parking it in our little bitty normal sized garage. After hitting the button to make the mirrors pull in, I've got EXACTLY SIX INCHES CLEARANCE on the sides. That's SIX INCHES TOTAL, 3 freaking inches on each side. I pull forward until I'm 2 inches from the back wall and the door closes with about 2 inches there as well. I sweat like a pig every time I park the damn thing, but I do love it. (Those aren't actual pictures of MY truck, but it's the same model. Notice there's palm trees in the background instead of COLD WHITE SNOW?)

SO, more cha cha cha changes... I'm working on a major revamp of my etsy shop. There's just a bajillion really amazing yarn & fiber dyers out there that I can't compete with. I do good stuff. I love my stuff and everyone that's bought from me has been pleased (or at least that's what they said). I love it too. BUT I'm not making money at it. I'm actually quite honestly LOSING money. And the time.......sweet mother! I knew I was starting out too broad by offering hand dyed fiber, hand dyed yarn, AND handspun yarn, but I had to in order to find out A) what I was good at; B) what I enjoyed; and C) where the profit was. I'm thinking my niche is going to be changing from EVERYTHING FIBER RELATED to handspun yarn with a focus on kits/patterns/designs that feature my own little Art Yarn for the Mild at Heart theory of life. I'll still throw in the batch of hand dyed sockyarn and laceweight now & then, but am going to focus on spinning my arse off and seeing if I can create some of the images floating in my brain into actual yarny content. There's so much fabulous art yarn out there, I think there's a real need for more good patterns to be able to KNIT and WEAR that yarn too! Almost ready to go is a small arsenal of patterns & kits including....COMING SOON to an etsy shop near you.....and a Knitting in the Heartland Vendor table near you...... TreasureGoddess handspun art yarn Kits and Patterns! I just need a few more hours and a few less demands/disasters each day. No worries, right?


Critter update...still have a partially dried/tanned raccoon skin drying in the garage. Now have a pretty little pink casket (made from a tissue box) with a dead mouse in it waiting on the ground to unfreeze for burial in the garage also. Chuckette Norris is dead. (no sighing or awwwwwing allowed. You may now join me in a big WOO HOO! WOO HOO!!!) Yes, I realize a "good mother" would be a little more tactful. I'm not doing my happy dance in front of the children or anything. I was appropriately sad and dignified when told the critter was no longer with us. Or actually, she's STILL WITH US RIGHT NOW but she's no longer pooping on various parts of my house (since Jeff & the kids always took the little poop machine out to play). Now I'm trying to convince the man and the children that we really REALLY don't want to replace this final mouse (at once point we had FOUR) with a big ugly black rat. *shudder*

Happy Olympic Knitting everyone! My project is the Whisper Cardigan from Interweave Knits Spring 2009, a laceweight cardigan. I'm using the yarn I frogged from my Elizabeth Zimmermann's pie shawl disaster...remember the appendage? Hoping this project turns out a bit more wearable!

Now we've pissed off the Tooth Fairy???

Seriously? Mother Nature used to be trying to maim me (tick attacks, big spiders, tornados, floods, etc). THEN the universe had its fun (laptop hot tea incident, truck engine blowing, replacing engine and paying $7101, totaling said truck THE VERY NEXT DAY, eye issues, back issues, etc.) NOW the TOOTH FAIRY'S PISSED OFF TOO! WTF?

OK, Thanks to Chelle I have an appointment with a dentist tomorrow to take care of my broken molar and the pain coming from the side of my jaw. The first word I saw on their website was "PAINLESS" so I'm in. YAY Chelle!

Just got off the phone about 1/2 hour ago that the youngest Weasley child had "an incident" on the playground. Apparently he and another kid had a collision while running about. Half of Joey's front (PERMANENT) tooth broke off INTO THE OTHER KID'S HEAD! They couldn't find the tooth half, it's somewhere lost in the snow and muck on the playground. Both boys are ok, Joey's mouth's a bit sore, but no pain from the tooth (Thank Goodness!) but the other boy had to go to the hospital to get stitches. Poor kid! Husband went to check on Joey and to crawl around the playground looking for the other half. Not there. He said Joey's actually feeling ok and is quite the celebrity going around showing everyone his tooth. Sweet. This isn't our first Weasley-Tooth incident....True Hillbilly Holiday in the Ozarks.

Cripes Almighty. I already recycle to appease Mother Nature. I try to be extra kind and patient (I said TRY, quit laughing) to appease the Universe. I pray. I live by the 10 commandments. What the HECK do I do to get the Tooth Fairy off my back now? It's bad enough when the world is trying to fuxx with me, I can handle that. I complain and curse and carry on, but I handle it. NOW it's fuxxing with my kids. LEAVE THE WEASLEYS ALONE! I'm not sure how to go all Molly Weasley on the Universe, but I'll find a way, then WATCH OUT!


Now, on to more stress-free yarny subjects....
Knitting in the Heartland is an event held by the Sunflower Knitters Guild every two years. IT ROCKS! March 27-28 at the Ramada Inn on Shawnee Mission Pkwy in Overland Park, KS. Our featured class instructor/designer is Melissa Leapman. Click HERE or the sheep above for a link with more info, class schedules or to register. We're accepting paypal this year as well! There's a big vendor market (WOO HOO!) with tons of yarn, fiber, fibery related things, jewelry, etc.

I'll have a vendor table with (hopefully) a ton of art yarn, handspun yarn and art yarn kits. I'm also teaching a class on Knitting With Art Yarn. If you love the look of all that art yarn and handspun yarn but are not sure what the heck to actually DO with it, I'm your woman. :) Come for the classes, or just come to shop or hang out with all those fiber loving people!

You know, I love that quote from Elizabeth Zimmermann, "Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises." I've been putting that quote to the test these past few months. Knitting has helped me retain my sanity through these little fuxx-ups crises. I'm thinking EZ was talking about those major tragedies of life, not "Knit on, when your kid knocks his tooth into another kid's head and you're waiting in the dentist's office" or "Knit on, when your freaky life is making you bat shxt crazy." Somehow, I'm sure Elizabeth would think it still applies.

Closing with a few pics of goodies I'm working on for my Knitting with Art Yarn class and vendor table...




*****Comments disclaimer****** My haloscan commenting software is now dead and has been replaced by Echo. Please continue to leave comments. I love them. It lets me know people are out there. :) The main issue with Echo is I have NO INFO on email addys or links to your blogs or ANYTHING IMPORTANT to help me contact you. I've tried to email back a little "thank you" or respond to comments via email, and for the short future I'll not be able to unless I happen to know your email already. I know, I know, KNIT ON!

TreasureGoddess...NOW WITH NEEDLE JAB ATTACK MODE!

My son's been missing a lot of school lately due to a battle with a lung infection. He's got CF (cystic fibrosis), a lung & digestive disease and is usually healthy as a cow, but lately has been having a tough time. The youngest Weasley is finally on the mend and back at school. One afternoon he created me my very own KNIT ATTACK CARD. The kids are still into pokemon cards/video games, etc. My creature is called SOCK YARN and it has varied attacks, STITCHES--where it wrappes up its opposition in knots of yarn and my very favorite, the NEEDLE JAB, or as it's written, the "Neddle Jab", with 380 stars, very powerful dpns I'm guessing. How much does that rock? Quite a lot, thank you very much.

Still seeing doctors for both the eye & back. I did get to retire the neck support/cone of shame, but now I'm having adventures with the lower back. :) SO, in my pre-laptop splashing/truck engine blowing up/truck wreck/totaling days, I broke a tooth. Combining the fact that my life's been just a TITCH crazy lately with the fact that I have a deathly fear of dentists & unbelievably sensitive teeth, I've put off the appointment to get it fixed. Now, it's not happy. REALLY not happy. 3 ibuprofins-not-working-any-more not happy. I'm going to have to go dig through old emails to find the recommendations I asked for from Nov. when this happened originally. If anyone knows a very nice dentist that doesn't make people cry and is a fan of using laughing gas or any other mood enhancing/keeping me from climbing up the walls/medicine in the KC area, feel free to send me the name!


There has been knitting....
I love me some garter stitch. I think it's beautiful, it has character, it's SQUOOSHY, it rocks. The only thing I love more than garter stitch is garter stitch in thick & thin handspun yarn. This stuff is SOOOOOOO soft and SOOOOOOO Squooshy. My aunt in California, that retired to become "a knitress" taught my aunt here in KC to knit. She got her started, gave her some fabulous handspun, a set of needles, supervised a few rows of the scarf and sent her back to KC. That start's been sitting ever since patiently waiting. After deciding she's really not going to be a knitter, my aunt gave me the yarn. Instead of hoarding it for myself (which I totally would do) I completed the scarf and gave it back to Aunt Angie. :) It's been a LONG time since I've made a garter stitch scarf. My first year of knitting (after I got over the fun fur phase-of which we do not speak) I got addicted to Schafer Elaine bumpy yarn. MAN I love that stuff. I'm still a sucker for the colors, the texture, the vinegary smell..... If you don't have any handspun thick & thin yarn hanging about it's a nice option for an interesting garter stitch project!



You know, I've now got an aunt & cousin that have been taught to knit, but have resisted. Some would think that would bother me. HOW could they not want to knit obsessively every waking moment? I'm ok with it. I always know what to get them for presents (something knitted) and it means more yarn for me, right?

Last night as I was "chucking wood" aka filling our woodstove that heats the house, I had a revelation. Shotgun? check. Wood Stove? check. Old world health remedies (mustard packs, honey, vinegar, etc) used on the family? check. Fiber cooking in big pots on the stove? check. Dead varmit staked out in the shed? (garage)-check. Man, I'm a half-tooth away from being a one-eyed, crippled up version of Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies. Wonder if Granny knit?

Guess what he found by the side of the road this time...

Yes, my husband is dragging things he finds by the side of the road home again. This time I'm quite pleased. (It doesn't poop, smell or need to be gutted and stuck to a board in our garage!) It's an oak quilt rack he found with a "FREE" sign on it, sitting by the roadside in KC, MO. YAY! After minimal cleaning, it was soon put to work in its new job....fiber drying/display.

I told you I was going to bury myself in fiber, right? Well I did. I spent most of the weekend up to my elbows in wet fiber and dye. MAN there's nothing better than the smell of wet wool in the morning. I'm so envious of those uber-dyers/spinners out there that can make this their living. Waking up, rinsing & hanging out freshly dyed spinning fiber & yarn is the perfect way to start your day. *sigh* Someday....






That last pic is 16 oz of kettle dyed silk roving. mmmmmmmm It rocks. Not sure what the heck I'm going to do with a pound of hand dyed silk, but I'm thinking it needs to stay mine. Also, any guesses which of the hand dyed roving hanging on the oak roadkill rack I'm keeping for my very own? I'll give you a hint. It starts with "O" and ends with "range". It also rocks very much. TWO POUNDS of this heavenly blend of merino/alpaca/silk in my very favoritest color of all. It will have to become a sweater someday, but no ideas of what or even if I'll 2 ply, 3 ply, or whatever.

I'm finally able to spin again! YAY! My back's been giving me troubles with it, but I finally had a few sessions where something was accomplished at the wheel! WOO HOO!



OK, enough photos for today. Knit/Spin/Dye/Crochet your arse off, ok?

Momma had a hard day....

and is burying herself in fiber. Much Much fiber. It's good to be a knitter. and a spinner. :)

Feeling better but not coming out until tomorrow. What do non-knitters do?

I'll be back soon with pretty pictures of wips and fo's and spun yarn. For now, just know it's sure nice to have "the innernets" as Jeff's Grandpa used to say. I also now say "CN&N" just like m&m for him too. You know, "yup, it has to be true. I saw it on the cn and n."

Spinning & knitting & going to bed early.

The C word again....

Have you seen Hello Yarn's fabulous giant granny square noro blanket? It's fabulous. Made from 10 skeins of noro big kureyon. Well, after seeing her blanket on Friday evening, I got to thinking that I happen to have 9 skeins of regular sized noro kureyon under my bed.... Man, sometimes I wish I had a video camera around as I was totally possessed by this idea. I WOULD crochet my noro RIGHT THEN. It didn't matter that it was WAY WAY WAY in the middle of the floor under our king sized bed. It didn't matter that I'm still wearing my "cone of shame" neck support thing and still move about like the tin man. It didn't matter that there was NO FREAKING ROOM between my dresser and the bed and that I couldn't reach that far when I was feeling normal. Gonna. Knit. Me. A. Noro. Granny Square. If. it. freaking. killed. me. (which it almost did).

Let's just say that half way through trying to get on the floor and in a position that would let me whang around the broom to schwack the space zipper bag of noro my way I lost my balance and fell in a heap with much cursing. Then I got determined. My stupid broom would only schwack it so far, then it got stuck on a support board in the middle of the damn bed. cripes. crawled/dragged myself to the other side and since I couldn't reach the jammed bag from that side either, started finding things to jam one after another under the bed until it could knock the bag loose. Seriously, I spent over 45 minutes getting this damn yarn out from under my freaking bed. There was a little more cursing. ok, there was A LOT more cursing, but I got my yarn out! Woo HOO! (Jeff went to the farm for firewood and the kids were in the "way down" basement, so it was just a battle between me and the yarn.)

After a peaceful Friday evening and Sat am/afternoon I had me some crippled up hands and a new blanket for the couch! Here it is in all its unblocked glory...


Doesn't that give you the heebie jeebies to look at how off kilter the center is? It actually makes me shiver a bit. Not enough to throw the thing into a bucket to soak, then lay out and block, mind you. Just a shiver. I just have it on the back of the couch with the center over the back and mischief mended. :) I'll block it as noro's not the softest yarn on the planet and I'm guessing it'd grow a bit as well. The thing is pretty small, a bit larger than lap sized after all.

Now for the action shot...


I happen to think it rocks.


We will return to regularly knit scheduled programming soon....more FO's needing photo shoots...

Art Yarn for the Mild at Heart

Photo shoot of some of my sample art yarn hat kits.... What do you think?

Hoping to have patterns up on ravelry soon and kits for sale on the etsy shop and to get ready for KITH. Have you signed up yet? Knitting in the Heartland is our big Sunflower Knitters Guild event in KC! Classes and VENDOR MARKET can I get a WOO HOO? WOO HOO!
Click HERE for info. Melissa Leapman is the featured designer, it should be a BLAST! Also, we're looking for vendors, so if you sell something fibery related, holler and we'll get you set up. I'll have a table there HOPEFULLY full of handspun and hand dyed goodness and kits galore (as long as I can get this broke up back to spin again!)

Oh, is anyone else out there freaking out about the whole haloscan comment thing? Haloscan is shutting down Feb 11th and you have to sign up for Echo and pay $12/year? So far comments have not been positive about the transitions. AND people have to sign in to comment? urgh. What are you guys doing? I'm still on the fence. I think it's a racket. They tell you the only way to save your comments (and I've been writing this blog since 2004, baby) is to sign up with the new company. How CONVENIENT... (spoken in church lady tones of course)

OH, and apologies to the winners of the drawing.....anyone reading this blog should know by now that I'm a total slacker and last minute person.....things haven't made it to the post office yet, but they're packaged finally! Should be out tomorrow! WOO HOO!

Another wrist warmer set...

I knit these up and figgered a pattern out for these beauties. They're going to be in a kit to match funky art yarn hats made with some of the same colorway but with coils & bumps & all things arsty as well. Can't find the pics of that yarn now to save my life. I'll have my daughter do a photo shoot with me soon and will see what you guys think of the sets! I'm going to be selling kits of my art yarns & patterns on the etsy shop and at KITH (Knitting in the Heartland), our big event in KC in March! Click HERE to get details. Here's the handspun yarn used for the wrist warmers.


SO, drove my kid & another little boy to school this morning. After turning out of the school parking lot, I saw what looked like a dead hedgehog on the snow at the side of the road. You KNOW I had to do something, right? I parked the car, went over and kicked the poor dead critter back behind the snowbank so no one (MY HUSBAND) would see it and get any ideas. :) Smart, huh?

OH, and I have to tell you one more thing...my daughter was talking about the raccoon skin to a friend on the phone when Jeff stopped and said, "You know, back in the old days the Indian women would chew the skins to soften them up." *dead silence* Then I heard from the other room, "I KNOW!!!! I think I just threw up a little in my mouth TOO *teen aged screams*" I told her later to just think of our house like the Ingalls family from the Little House books. You know, Pa chopped the wood, the girls did the chores, Ma knitted the socks....

Back to my usual crazy life!

WOO HOO! I've had a sign from above that the planets are all realigned and my normal crazy life is back. No, it wasn't a shooting star, or a rainbow, or word that the insurance companies are taking our $7700.01 into account on the payout on the truck, no no no. It was a dead raccoon. Yes. Dead. Raccoon.

We were driving out to one of the boys' basketball games. Jeff noticed a rather large dead raccoon on the side of the road. Joey commented on how he could make himself a hat from that, right? I said "theoretically you could" and Jeff said "YES!" We were running late so he drove on by. I figured that was the end of things.

Later that night, as we were driving along, Jeff saw the raccoon again. He decided we NEEDED that dead raccoon. We're in my mother's borrowed car, so I said NO WAY ON THIS FROZEN EARTH are you putting that dead animal in my mom's car. He'd already screwed with the radio buttons AND the rear view mirror and my mom's a bit picky about those things. I figured the woman wouldn't appreciate having parts of dead animal left in there and since she's being kind enough to let us use her car through our truck mishaps, NO WAY HOSAY. I suggested he drive home, get a trash bag, etc. OH NO. Not Mr. TreasureGoddess...

SO, he drug the critter to the car, rolled down his window, and proceeded to drive through our neighborhood with his arm out the window holding up this MONSTER sized raccoon. (It must've weighed at least 40 lbs). Oh momma, if I could have had my camera with me......it's face was frozen on this fierce expression with its teeth barred RIGHT THERE IN THE WINDOW while Jeff's face looked pretty much the same trying to hold up this critter by a leg out the window while driving. I tell you, I almost wet myself I was laughing so hard. Joey tried to capture the moment on his phone's camera once we got it home. (above)



He tossed the dead critter into the kids' dug out igloo for a while, then got himself set up to skin the thing. UGH! Joey decided he really didn't want to work on the hat until the skin resembled more of a fur without the innerds attached, so he bailed. He also decided he was pretty much done hanging out in the igloo. I came down to check on the man once in a while and got nails & hammer & extra blades, etc then got out of the way.

My daughter (13 yrs old and highly dramatic) was out with some girlfriends at a movie. I hear this load of screams coming from the garage...turns out she'd walked up just as Jeff sliced something inside the raccoon that caused a lot of blood and gore (turns out if you're skinning something it's not supposed to have hardly any blood--strange fact) and all the girls were freaking out. The dad that was driving came up and the men discussed various manly things like knives and critters and the like. It was quite the social event in our garage/driveway.

Now I will say I had to verify that the body made it to the trash (you never know about Mr. TG, he was talking about how there was a lot of good meat there.....). I have nothing against eating game that's been hunted. I have not yet crossed the line to roadkill. Let's just all be glad that I had the reserve NOT to photograph what's now drying in our garage. I assumed you pinned out the furs/skins with the pretty side out. Nope. Apparently there's more scraping/rubbing/working it to be done first.

Our garage smells like a meat processing plant. A small price to pay for a sign that for me, at least, life is back to normal.

Now I can get back to knitting in peace.

YAY! Winners! :)

OK, I'll be digging through the comments to find emails, etc and notifying you in the next day or so to get mailing addresses. Thanks all, I'm glad my extra stuff is soon to be on its way to new homes!

Set of 4 notecards: Sarah H

Magnet set 1: Vicki

Magnet Set 2: Jennifer

Magnet Set 3: ikkinlala

Berry Knitted Wrist Warmers: Teresa

Spunky Eclectic Yarn (destash): Colleen

TreasureGoddess Pinky Tuscadero sockyarn: Nancy

1X1 Ribbed Knitted Noro Scarf: Annette

Thanks again! PS, I haven't blown anything up, gotten crashed into or spilled liquid anywhere near electronics. I'm sure the world is out of alignment, but YAY! Had a good day! Eyeballs seem to be behaving themselves...not as much flashing, but sight is still a bit blurry. Am able to move without cursing quite as much. Now I look like a 70 yr old woman instead of moving like a 85 yr old woman (my coworker pointed that out). Sweet!

Feeling better, but napping quite a bit

SO, since I'm truly a slacker at heart, the big drawing will be tomorrow (Monday). I've still got to print out a list of the comments & stuff it into a hat. I'll post the goods & who's won what after the kids do the drawing.

Thanks again! My eye is mostly behaving itself, less flashing but more fuzziness. Neck is a bit stronger, but now it's working its way down my back. cripes almighty.

Ah well, at least I can still knit! I'll have a few fo's posted for some new kits I'm thinking of working up with art yarn. I'd love some opinions.

Take care and DRIVE SAFE everyone!
Knitting on,
Christine

Is there a Yarn Whisperer in the House?

I've decided I'm never, ever, EVER AND YOU CAN'T MAKE ME, ever dying self striping yarn again. wow. I had seven FOURTEEN FOOT skeins that made for some rockin' self striping yarn. But, it was a gigantic pain in my arse. Yes, I've seen the clever tinker toy and pvc pipe contraptions you can set up to wind this way and that way and over your shoulder, etc. No, that was too much work for my experiment. I just made hugiferous skeins, dyed them and then had to ball them up by hand, then reskein. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, huh? The first 5 weren't too tough. I could do about 2 in an evening. I was getting a bit irritated with the system by then, so the last two (of the twurple colorways) didn't go quite as smooth. The next to last one, I got almost all the way done, then just couldn't take it any longer and SNIPPED the mess with a scissors and put the whole damn thing away. I figure I'll just knit it for myself. I make short socks just above my ankles anyway.

This last one? I had to break out the beers to deal with it. It's been stuffed into a ziplock bag waiting for the next time I see the Yarn Whisperer Teri. It's a good thing Mr. TreasureGoddess ran us out of firewood. I was THISCLOSE to trying to find out if the 20% bamboo in this stuff would be enough to burn. Yes, I know merino will smolder, but I figure our firebox insert is usually running hot enough to melt some forms of metal and I bet that baby'd burn. It'd probably smell like a burning sheep dipped in kool aid, but MAN it would've felt good. (Having no truck means no trips to the farm to bring back loads of firewood...*sigh*)

Heading to the doctor's office this afternoon. I never knew how freakishly heavy my head was before now. I mean, I knew I had a big head, but holy crapamoly, I can hardly keep this melon head up on top of my weak little neck muscles. If I have to wear the neck brace cone of shame, I'm totally knitting a cozy. A KNITTED CONE OF SHAME COZY! That would rock.

A gift from me to you!

Hopefully it'll be better than a cat sweater....How about a free drawing? WOOLFEST was a WOOLBLAST! Thanks to the brave souls that went out in the cold weather. There were fun free classes (thrumming, knitting with wire, spindle spinning, continental purling, cables, etc) and lots of yummy yarns & fibers. I sold a ton and came home with some new goodies for my stash as well!

SO, let's do a couple of drawings. How about posting a comment here (the ones on the last post work too) and I'll have a random weasley-powered drawing on Sunday the 17th. I'll have a few things to give away...better pictures will come throughout the week (I'm still unpacking from Wamego). For sure, there'll be some form of yarn, a set of magnets and a couple of notecards with yarn/fiber on them, AND another pair of already knitted wrist warmers too.

I appreciate all the kind words & thoughts and also the $$ for helping me destash & etsy sale to get to pay for the laptop. I also picked up my truck from the shop today too! Shiny new engine and new belts & hoses to boot. YAY!

Phat Fiber Giveaway & WOOLFEST 2010!

WOW! Just saw that the Phat Fiber blog is doing a giveaway of one of my hand dyed sockyarns! :) It's a luscious blend of 80% extra fine superwash merino and 20% bamboo, blooms into the softest, strongest sock yarn ever! Go leave a comment and get into the drawing, but hurry. I was a slacker and JUST SAW IT!> Click TreasureGoddess giveaway on Phat Fiber Blog! or the picture above to get into the drawing!

Also, hit the road for Wamego, KS (just 20 mins from Manhattan) and join us at WOOLFEST 2010. Doesn't the name just make you want to go? I'll have a vendor table there along with some other very yummy fiber people (with tons of alpaca too I hear...) Click WOOLFEST 2010 to get details. Wamego rocks. Cool yarn/fiber shop called the Wicked Stitch, great restaurants and just off I-70. Come see us. Tell me you're a blog reader and I'll give you a cool freebie too. :)

STAY WARM PEOPLE! It's a good thing we've all got houses full of wool, now isn't it?

EDITED: Aw crap, I was too late. The giveaway yarn's already been given out. How about another giveaway from right here? I'll pick out a cool sockyarn after my show in Wamego and do a giveaway next week with comments starting on Monday. Come back & see what it'll be!

Christmas Presents Delivered

My niece Harper at Christmas (or a weekend before when our family got together to celebrate). Seems like the blanket & octopus was a hit. I don't know if they were actual "hits" but the kid did like to chew on the octopus, so I'll take that as a good present. I'll put up pattern info later. It's in one of those amigurumi crochet books. Cute as heck and easy peasy. Not too many parts to sew, which is also good.

My two favorite girls!

For the 3rd disaster of Christmas, the knitting gods gave to me....

FOOD PO-OO-Oi-SO-ON-ING!!!!!! Seriously? Food poisoning. From the company party. Not the official company party that I wore the rockin' sweater at in MN and sat on Santa's lap. No, the unofficial getting-together with the locals company party. sweet. Wow. SO, spent most of Monday night in the bathroom on the floor. Jeff came in periodically and wiped my face with a washcloth, then finally put me back to bed about 5am. Tried to work the next day, but only made it till 10:30 then back to bed for about 18 hours straight. Today I'm finally feeling more normal and am back to applesauce. and gatorade. Seriously, I was so sick I couldn't even KNIT. yeah, that sick.

SO, I figured it out. I've thrown off the delicate balance of the knitting gods with the Knitter's Christmas Craziness. I was organized, competent and FINISHED ALL MY KNITTED PRESENTS in time to have SLEEP and TIME WITH MY FAMILY where my hands weren't too cramped from being wrapped around knitting needles to push the little monopoly characters..."push mommy's car to Illinois Avenue, honey" Yeah, like I ever got to be the car....you get the drift. It just wasn't right. I understand it all now. I'm meant to be finishing a sweater moments before we head out the door, throw it in a box and say "OPEN IT DAMNIT OPEN IT NOW!", then throw the sweater at the recipient and hit the road. That's true knitterly Christmas spirit for my family.

Well, disaster #1 has been managed, thanks to YOU AMAZING FIBER PEOPLE!!! Let's have a WOO HOO for us all now. WOO HOO! I'm typing on my very own new laptop. :) My business account is almost totally flat broke and there's not even a penny left in any vehicle in our family, but it's here. It's mine and I love it. :) Nothing even resembling water will come near this baby. Not ice, not gas, not liquid.

Disaster #2 is on its way to being fixed as well. The truck has been hauled off to the dealership where it's getting a brand new engine! :) WOO HOO! Turns out a recent trip to Firestone about 2 months ago to have the coolant system checked and they ended up convincing us the whole damn system needed replacing may have been a contributing factor. It's run like hell ever since I got it back, chugging horribly in the mornings until it got warmed up. The guy that looked over the engine for us said there wasn't a drop of coolant in the system and no leaks he could see. Hmmmmmm. We towed it back to Firestone where they assured us it was an oil problem and not their fault. cripes. SO, we're out big bucks, but we're lucky enough that we have enough in our emergency fund to cover it.

To placate the knitting gods, I've cast on THREE Christmas projects. A hat, finishing my husband's hat (felting and sewing a lining in--which I'm dreading, and an artyarn scarf). See? Crazy, unorganized knitter again! Let's stop at The 3 Disasters of Christmas this year, shall we?

OH, and anyone wanting to buy an apple macbook, GO TO MICROCENTER first. They're the same price as the apple store, but you get a $200 prepaid visa card by mail as a rebate. Guess when I found that out? AFTER I'd already bought mine. damn.

SO, don't forget about the Knit Wit sale in Olathe, KS on Dec 26th, 25% off everything in her shop plus $3/skein on all her sale tubs. My Etsy Shop sale is still going on through 12/31/09 as well.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! May your holidays be joyous, full of friends, family and fiber and may the knitting gods not bite you in the arse!

Next year I'm returning to the crazy and knitting colorwork stockings for all 6 of us. I'm also making these next year for the tree. (click the pic to get to the link)

You guys ROCK!

Thanks so much for all your help towards my laptop fund! :) I've found new homes for much of my oversized stash. The $$ sure helped the fund! Also, the idea that all that pretty yarn has a much better chance of being knit/crocheted up into something instead of spending eternity in a ziplock bag stuffed in a trunk, drawer, closet, attic, basement, etc. is a nice thought. THERE IS STILL MORE YARN/FIBER BEING ADDED....

My folks are actually going on a trip for a MONTH (they're cruising through the Panama Canal at one point, how cool is that?) so I get the loan of their car! WOO HOO! Now we've got some breathing room to decide what to do about that disaster. I think we'll put a new engine in, but we're looking at used engines as well as a whole different truck. We'll see where that goes.

For now, I just wanted to say thanks. Thanks for the cyber hugs, the actual hugs, the $$ donations/adoption of yarn & fiber and the good thoughts. Being a titch high strung and prone to major freakouts, this could have just made me insane. You guys rock!

Hope all your holiday knitting gets DONE! I'm almost there myself. :) If you need a cool fast present/decoration that does NOT require knitting, here's a neat idea. Click the pic for links to the how-to.

TreasureGoddess's TWO days of Christmas

For some reason, when life gets tough, my brain begins creating new lyrics to popular songs. I know, it's quite a useful skill. Let's just say that I decided NOT to go through with the TG's Version of 12 Days of Christmas as I'm thinking I couldn't actually survive 10 more big things going BOOM! Also, the words that rhyme with SUCK do not work well with a family friendly blog environment.


Instead of faking my own death twice *cough cough internet hand dyer cough* or holding illegal raffles and badmouthing others on ravelry, *cough cough famous podcaster cough* I figure I'll just keep on destashing and adding more to my etsy shop with a big arse sale. :) Please keep checking as I am finding stash that I did not even KNOW was in my stash. I pulled these fun and funky batts out of a tub of ziplocked bags I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WAS THERE below and behind the current fiber stash tubs and tubs of ziplocked bags. Seriously, I could keep a dozen spinners and hundreds of knitters busy and STILL have more than I could possibly spin or knit in my lifetime!

One positive note of serious stash diving is finding treasures I swear I've never even SEEN before! It's like my very own yarn/fiber shop everywhere I go. These babies I bought on a trip through Wichita from a local artist. They're fun, and only TEN DOLLARS EACH including shipping. Click the pics to go to the destash rav page or leave a comment if you don't have a ravelry login.



Thanks again for looking & shopping. Please don't feel obligated and I promise to return to regularly scheduled Crazy Yarn Girl Adventure Blogging soon. (Although seriously, ruining a laptop and a MOTOR VEHICLE in the same week? How CYG can that get?) Overcoming all obstacles through fiber. Or something like that.

Finished the crocheted baby blanket. Finished & delivered all wrist warmers this morning. If you forget about the BIG ASS CALAMITY that surrounds me, I'm having a pretty productive holiday season! Half a leg warmer to go and Chrismtas presents are all completed. Hope the knitting/crocheting elves are coming out at night to help your projects as well!

The Year of the Wrist Warmers DONE BABY!!!

How cool is THAT?!? Very. In fact. In this world in which I have no control over most of my life, I completed something. I rockstar completed something. Ends woven, pretty tags printed on the computer, stamped with cute stockings, tied with a simple bow. I'm very, very proud of them. Inside is a short message basically saying that these wrist/hand warmers were hand knit just for you by Joey's mom. How they're wonderful for keeping you warm while allowing you to type, grade papers, read books, etc. I included care instructions, these were all knit with leftover superwash merino wool, so they're pretty much easy maintenance. We're delivering them tomorrow morning, letting Joey's teacher choose first, then making the rounds of the nurse, secretaries (who always hug my kid when he's not feeling well) etc. Yay for me. PLUS I spent NO MONEY! Can you believe it? I was THIS CLOSE to going to the LYS for more yarn, but forced myself to get creative.

I've got about 1042 ends to weave in of slick acrylic yarn into the back of my niece's baby blanket. We're having our family's Christmas this weekend, so I'll be sewing ends all night tonight and most likely on the 3 hr car trip down there.

SO, speaking of a life out of control, GUESS WHAT? My truck is dead. Deader than my laptop. Boom. Almost a big BOOM more of a loud clank, actually ending with so much white gaseous clouds billowing from it.....now towed to a shop. Guessing it's needing a whole new engine. Apparently, everything I touch (except wrist warmers) is going to heck. Mr. TreasureGoddess was not amused when I said I'd better not touch anything important on him. Actually, Mr. TreasureGoddess isn't amused that I refer to him as "Mr. TreasureGoddess." I took a sad little picture of my cute truck being towed away, but I'll have to load that pic tomorrow. Poor little truck. Poor little laptop.

Let's finish with something happy, shall we? Those wrist warmer presents ROCK!


OH, and my sweet son spent his own money and picked out my birthday present (a while ago, but I'm a slacker blogger) and here it is. After the rest of the Christmas presents are done, I'm thinking this will have to become a scarf. How sweet is that? Funny story--Mr. TreasureGoddess pointed out that I had TOO MUCH YARN, but Joey told him, "The only thing that makes Mom happier than diet coke and beer is YARN. I don't think she could ever have too much yarn." Smart kid.


Adding YET MORE YARN and FIBER to the ravelry destash and etsy shop daily, keep an eye out, please!

My SUPER YARN SALE!

I'm on a mission to raise the final $$ I need for the new laptop. EVERYTHING MUST GO GO GO (yelled in a used car salesman commercial voice) Actually, my usual prices are lower than most etsy-ians so this sale makes the goods pretty much insane. INSANE! INSANE! INSANE! Ok, no more loud type. I promise. :)

TreasureGoddess Destash
Click above for Great Deals on Yarn & Fiber!
TreasureGoddess Etsy Shop
Click above for 10% off everything in the shop! No waiting for paypal refunds, the prices have already been discounted!



My big arse loss is your big arse gain! My laptop is dead. It's true. Corrosion and other horrid words were said. There was much cursing and a bit of stomping around the parking lot. They were supposedly able to pull the hard drive stuff onto an external drive for me, but of course I can't access it on a normal computer, has to be in mac format or some such nonsense. Hoping I can get to it once I get the new laptop.


Mention that you're a blog reader and I'll knock another $2 off the sale price of everything on both ravelry or the etsy shop (except the magnets since they're only $4 to start with. I'd sell those for $3 per pack if you're interested).

More will be added daily to both the ravelry destash and the etsy shop. I've gotta clear house and get some $$ flowing in to cover this monster end of the year purchase.

Damn, I should've brought cookies

Mentally promising all kinds of things to the gods of the macbook.... I'll bring a dozen cookies to the repair guys if they can revive my baby. Still waiting for the call. Should've brought the cookies as an incentive to fix it. damn.

Only thing I don't want to do is offer to make more wrist warmers. Still knitting them. Christmas countdown continues. There shouldn't be a cold wrist in the midwest when I'm done with Christmas 2009--the year of the wrist warmers! Somehow I'm up to 7 1/2 pair done. At least the madness will have to stop THIS FRIDAY as that's when we're bringing the holiday gifts to teachers and my family's doing their holiday celebration THIS WEEKEND as well, so mom's are on the needles RIGHT NOW. I'll have 32 ends to weave. Can finish the leg warmers for my aunt by Christmas, so that gives me a bit more time.

Remember when I thought I'd make my husband a week's worth of socks for Christmas this year? Did you laugh your ass off when I said that? You totally should have. He's got one pair done. It was a laugh even before he decided he now likes his socks to come all the way to his KNEES! cripes. He does have 1 1/2 pair done of a long ass pair of girly knee socks Hunting Socks, so I may or may not pull them out to work on when the rest of the holiday gifts are completed. It's pretty hard to motivate myself to work k3p1 ribbing forever in dull grey sockyarn.

Please work, little laptop, please please work. Pretty Please with chocolate chips and candy canes on top...

OH, and I was chosen for a lovely treasury on etsy. Please click the link and leave a comment. The more clicks, the more exposure on etsy, which would help me sell more to pay for the new laptop that I'm not wanting to have to buy.... (sorry for the outright begging. It's really a lovely Brown & Turquoise group of fabulous artsy treasures!)
Turquoise and Brown Treasury

Happy Holiday Knitting to you all! May your fingers be non-cramped and fast, may there be no frogging, and may there be a time warp continuum so you can get some SLEEP!

Please cross your fingers!

SO, dropped the dead macbook off at a repair shop that specializes in ipods, macbooks and all things apple. I should get a call within 24 hours with their verdict if it's truly dead and if not, how much it will cost to revive the poor thing. Compared to the apple store's program of ship it off, pay $750 and MAYBE they can fix it and MAYBE they can't, I'm thinking it's a good plan. So far I'm out nothing but tears. and stress. much, much stress. I figure if the laptop gods let me fix this for a reasonable sum of $$, I'll find some cats and give them treats. I would pay many cheezburgers to get my baby back to me. I happen to know a few knitters whose cats would not mind being pandered to (bribed).


Christmas sweater in action.....no, not a Christmas PRESENT for someone else. Oh no. This is selfish knitting at its worst. A list of knitted objects needed and what does this knitter do? Finishes a sweater FOR HERSELF. Because she WANTS to. Back to regularly scheduled stall knitting/stoplight knitting/late at night-who-needs-sleep Christmas knitting...1/2 more pair of wrist warmers, 1/2 pair of legwarmers, 2 hats and 1/3 of a baby blaket to go. No worries.

Better pictures promised after Christmas is over.
Details: Ingenue from Wendy Barnard in her book Custom Knits, cascade 220 (what else?), size Small. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this sweater! Also love Santa. How cool is it that my company's party had the REAL SANTA stop by? What a kind soul. I am so blessed that I told him I already had everything I could possibly want or need, so please give me the continued health and happiness of my family and friends. (then later thought DOH! Should've asked for a new freaking laptop...Can I change that to health & happiness and for my laptop to work?) *sigh* I am truly blessed. I know it. I just still really REALLY want my baby to work again.