Blogiversary, a prize and some spinning

I failed to blog on my 6-year anniversary of this blog. It was last week and it's hard to believe I've been at it for 6 years.  In light of this anniversary, I will give a prize to a commenter on this post.  The comments can be posted through June 15, 2012 ( this day is another type of anniversary for me) and I will pick a winner using the random number generator.

Saturday was the Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival in Dickson. Wonderful time as always but it was rather warm, as expected. Not as humid as in the past, but still pretty hot.  Watched a great sheep shearing, the guy was really good at it and the sheep I think was enjoying the coolness once they were done.  I came away with some coiled top from Ozark Carding Mill from Durant, OK. She really has beautiful stuff and I purchased several different colors from her for blending. (pictures later)

On the way to the Fiber Festival I stopped at a local greenhouse............holy moly do they have some beautiful stuff. I don't normally buy flowers, but I sure was tempted. I took some pictures and although I didn't buy any flowers, I purchased some beautiful tomatoes. Here are some pics of their location. Any of you who are interested in knowing where this place is, let me know.

I've also jumped on the bandwagon and started a Wingspan. As I was perusing my stash yesterday, I found some yarn I had purchased at Haus of Yarn at their half-price sale. This stuff retails for $28.50 and it's a 50/50 merino/tencel blend. It's a joy to knit with and I think it'll be a nice coloration for a wingspan. LeAnn has made several of these and I've held off on starting one because I was trying to focus on my pie-wedge shawl. I'm seeing a light at the end of that one, so thought I'd go ahead and cast one for the wingspan. Here's what I have so far. (See.....I'm trying to break away from the blue obsession)

On the spinning front, I've finished two large skeins, 8 oz each. Both ended up with a little over 625 yards at a fingering/sport weight.

Cotton Candy: the multi-color single is a merino/polwarth blend of 4 1-oz batts purchased on Etsy from FeistywomanDesigns.  (blogged about here) The batts were wonderful to spin, very light and fluffy.  The ivory color is a single of undyed polwarth purchased on Etsy from Dicentra. I love polwarth!!! 

I think I will be knitting this Baby Blanket with this Cotton Candy.

The Cream Delight is a natural mixed BFL purchased from Gale's Art. Also available on Etsy but I actually purchased these at Stitches South in 2011. Love it.  I'm thinking about this shawl Semele for this yarn.  My mother would have loved this yarn and especially its colorway. She was always knitting with a taupe color.  Carole mentioned at knit-night that she remembered my mother from knitting at Angel Hair Yarns when it was open. She remembered that Pam and Andrea would say "oh, that's for Noelle" when they would open a box of new yarn and see the taupe yarn. how funny!

That's it for now. Next weekend is a 3-night/4-day spinning retreat in Monteagle, TN. Should be a fabulous time and will be learning some cool stuff from Lynne Vogel. I'm truly looking forward to the getaway. This is what I chose to do this year instead of going to Stitches. There will be some fiber vendors there as well. :-)  I've got a few items on my to-do list to learn.....create a rolag, spin locks, use my hackle, use my mini-blenders. So much to learn and to practice. Can you tell I'm excited???

As for my post yesterday concerning the elevator conversations. I hope it didn't come across that I perceived all 20-somethings to be this clueless. I know better than that, truly I do, I was just making an observation and sharing the overheard conversation with you. As Kayleigh mentioned in the comments, I was surprised that they hadn't already used their iPhone and googled what the holiday was about.  If anyone took offense, I publicly apologize.

Elevator conversations......seriously??

I work in an office building that's 20 stories high in Nashville.  Floors 2-8 are taken up by some type of service contract group (extended service contracts I think), anyway, they are on the phone all day long.  The people that work there are mostly 20-25 and they come to work wearing flip flops, shorts, almost halter tops, etc. you get the picture. It's an odd sight when everyone else is wearing business suits or business casual.  So Friday at lunch, on the elevator with two of these young people and this is the conversation overheard:

Young man A and young man B:
A:  So, hey man, are you off on Monday?
B:  Yeah man, 3 day weekend. awesome.
A:  So why do we have Monday off?
B:  Holiday, I think it's Memorial Day.
A:  So, what is Memorial Day?
B:  I don't know for sure man, but I think it's to celebrate some war.
A:  Like, which one?
B:  I don't man, maybe all of them?? who knows.

By this time we had reached the floor where they were getting off and maye the conversation continued, I don't know.  I was shaking my head........what are they learning in school? or at home for that matter?

Happy Mother's Day

Mom, Happy Mother's Day

I know we would be spending the day together, having a blast as we always did. We would laugh, maybe go eat a bite at a cool new restauarant or maybe just our favorite place, exchange some ideas, do a little organizing, maybe go outside and do some serious photography. I miss you so much, I miss my best friend. I know you are in a better place and you're no longer in pain, but I still miss you so very much.

Happy Mother's Day to my aunts and my friends who are Mom's. Today is your day and I hope your family spends the day with you doing something special just for you.

Happy Birthday to my Man

Happy Birthday to my Man who escorted me to my Senior prom on his 20th birthday, 35 years ago tonight.

I thought I loved you then, I know I love you even more today.

Cheating and Deception

What is it with Fast-food joints and their "timers"? Why do the employees of said fast-food joints suck the public into participating in their deception? Why do we, said public, agree to participate?  Next time you are at the drive-up window of a fast-food joint and they ask you to move up...........well, think about it, question it.

Here's my latest adventure......
No one was at the order squawk box
No one was sitting at the window, all was clear.

I pull up to the squawk box and order.
Order was confirmed and I was told to pull up.  No $ total was given to me, so I couldn't prepare the funds. (although I do calculate in my head first what the amount will be so that I can double-check their amount when I get to the window, I know, biatch right?)
Anyway, I pull up to the drive-up window, dollar amount was right, so I pay.
This is what ensues:
Cashier: Pull up right over there and I'll bring it out to you.
Me: I look at my rear mirror and my side view mirror and say, Why, is someone behind me?
Cashier: uh, no, (she looks up) um....there's a timer.
Me: Am I going to blow-up if I sit here?
Cashier: huh??
Me:  Is the timer on a bomb and I'm going to blow-up if I sit here?
Cashier: uh, no, but, well, ummmm, I'm just doing what my manager told me to do.
Me: If I move, doesn't that defeat the whole purpose?
Cashier: huh? well no, it, uh, well, no can you just move up cause there is a timer.
Me: What's the purpose of the timer?
Cashier:  uh, well, it uh, well, it times, uh, well, uh
Me: So....... what's the purpose of the timer?
Cashier:  (she's flustered at this point)....I'm just doing what my manager asked me to do.
Me:  OK, if I move up before I have my food, doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of the timer?  Assuming that the timer is there to "time" how quickly you serve your drive-up customers, then if I move away from the window before I have my food, then you are lying to your boss (the owner) about how quickly you move the cars through.
By this time, daggers are shooting from her eyes, her face is getting spoltchy and sweaty and she keeps looking up at the timer.  Miraculously, the food arrives and she almost throws it out the window.
Me: I sat there a few seconds longer and put my money away in my wallet, then put my wallet in my purse, zipped it shut and put my purse on the passenger seat. It was enough to aggravate them just a little more.  AND, there was still no cars behind me whatsoever.

My whole point here is why do we allow them to corral us into their deception?  They didn't complete the transaction in under (fill in the blanks) minutes. If I move away from the window then I've agreed that the transaction is complete, I have also lied and deceived the owner. I will no longer be "moving up the corner".  My ass will stay at the window until my transaction is complete, period!

Discuss!

Stitches and Arrington Vineyards

This is the first time blogging with Google's new blogging format. Not sure if I like it yet. I'm not able to get fast-internet where I live and this new format seems to take alot more bandwidth.

Ever since Stitches South made its first appearance in Atlanta, I've been there, for all 4 days. I chose not to go this year for a couple of reasons. One, my knees just weren't cooperating enough to walk around a hard concrete floor and I've also chosen to go to a spinning retreat instead. It's in Monteagle, so it's a little closer and should be relaxing.

A small group of knitsibs went to Arrington Vineyards on Saturday the 21st. It ended up being a very cool day for Nashville and rainy. I think the high was 51-54, very cool for us in April. So, instead of being able to sit outside, we were relegated to sitting under a tent with clear plastic sides. While it made it warm enough, the din was extremely loud. People congregated in parties tend to make you want to talk and laugh, but we ended up having to yell to be able to hear one another. A little unpleasant. However, we had a good time, drank some "knitting water", had some sustenance and some good knitting time.

In honor of Stitches (which was going on the same weekend), I cast on another Baktus with yarn I purchased last year at Stitches, Ironstone Sky. I used 2 skeins and a 10.5US needle. I finished it in a 24 hr period. Great fast knit.

I also finished the Baby Sweater. I love the way it turned out. I practiced a few finishing techniques and I'm pleased with them. The sleeves are finished in 3x1 ribbing. It still looks like stockinette but it keeps it from rolling. I also bound off with the modified picot edge I learned at Stitches last year. Bind off 2, chain 2, bind off 2, chain 2 around. I didn't block the picot edges though because that wasn't the look I was going for. Just makes it looks a little ruffly. Then as to the bottom of the sweater, I had originally planned on a rolled edge. I didn't like it. I then picked up stitches from the right side to continue stockinette in order to seam it. Didn't like that either. Then I picked up the stitches from the wrong side which made a nice clean edge, I knit in the round for about 4 rows, then bound off. Seamed it then and I love it the look.

Another finished project is another Summer Flies Shawlette in a worsted weight this time. Shocker for all, it's in turquoise. I know there is a pattern going on here. I don't have a picture of it yet, but I'll get one and get it posted.

I've been working on some long-term projects too.

The Pie Wedge Shawl in Cherry Tree Hill Lace Suri Alpaca. I'm using size US7 needles. That makes it very light and airy.  I'm still amazed at how lightweight it is and when I lay it across my lap, it's so warm.  It's going to be a great shawlette.  I only cast on 82 stitches rather than the 102 that the pattern calls for. 

I'm still working on a couple of items.  One is the Tee for Two that I'm doing in a pale yellow Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. I've got the front panel done and working on the back. Once the back is done, I will be picking up stitches and then knitting very long rows from front to back. I don't know if I'm looking forward to that.  I'm also still working on the shell in that interesting stitch pattern. I need to get back to it.

That's it for now.

Audiobooks

I am an avid audiobook listener, especially since I have a long work commute. My favorite books are mysteries with murder and mayhem. I’ve been keeping track of my reads in a spreadsheet religiously now for almost 6 years. As I think of a title that I read in the past, I’ll place it in there too. I have read way too many books in my 20’s-40’s so that there is no way that I can remember them all. Before I started my spreadsheet, I’d go to the library and check out an audiobook CD only to get on the road and realize I had already read it (or listened to it). That’s why I started the spreadsheet, and yes, I can get to it from my Blackberry. With all this preamble, what I’m getting to is that I started the Sue Grafton series (A is for …, B is for...etc) with the idea that they would be mindless mysteries with not much to them. Why I had that thought, I have no idea. I was judging a book before I knew anything about it, maybe it was the simplistic titles. I really don’t know why I pre-judged them. Anyway, I can say that I found them delightful, just delightful. They were very well written. Plenty of suspense. She has great characters and develops her characters to the point where you almost know them. I found myself getting tickled many times because the main character (a female PI) is funny. She’s curious, forthright, doesn’t deal well with authority and has the nerve to say things that sometimes I wish I could say. I would truly recommend them. I just finished V is for Vengeance and believe I am now caught up with the author. Although each story has its own tale and doesn’t really require you to read them in order, I strongly recommend it.

I am now drinking the kool-aid and started The Hunger Games last night on the way home. It's a little slow to start for me but my friends tell me to hang in there and that it gets better. So tonight was a little better, although I'm almost 1/3 of the way through book 1 and not too much exciting happening yet. Time will tell I suppose.

Avery was born on Monday as scheduled and the pictures forwarded to me reflect a beautiful baby girl. Mom and baby are both healthy, and grandma is ecstatic.

Baby Surprise Jacket and more

One of my very dear knitsibs (Carole) is going to be a grandmother for the first time on Monday the 26th. Our Thursday night knit group had a little baby shower for her. As a group effort we had made a baby blanket. There were 6 of us and we each knit 6 squares. One each of four different solid colors and two of the variegated colors. Then Reyna did her magic and crocheted them all together. This pic is from my Blackberry so it's not the best, but I think the basic concept and view is there. The best part is that I think Carole loved it.
I also finished the Baby Surprise Jacket in Katia and gave that to Carole.
I didn't like the way the neck looked like it would choke a baby, so I tacked it down with little kitty buttons.

Then I made a card for us all to sign. This is paper embroidery. It's so much fun.

I went to Michaels looking for a gift bag and found this plain white ceramic piggy bank. I then went to the stickers aisle and holy cow.........there are so many stickers to pick from. Well, I finally settled on some and did this.........

and on the other side...............

We all had fun and she received some great gifts. I suppose Grandmother's don't usually get baby showers, but she is the first in our little group that has had some type of baby event, so we just had to do it.

Allotting time for interests.........

So that’s the question. How do you allot what spare time you have to your different hobbies or interests? My current time suckers are as follows:
1) Sleep – 8 hrs, sometimes less
2) Work – 10 hrs
3) Commute associated with work – 3 hrs
4) Exercise – 45 min
5) preparing dinner – 30-40 min
6) eating dinner – 30 min
7) kitchen clean up – 20 min

The above already adds up to over 23 hours. That leaves me around 30 minutes to sit and knit on a weekday evening. Now I don’t exercise every night (only 4 times per week and 2 of those are on weekends) so I do have that added time during the week. Evening time is usually allotted to knitting or crocheting a lap blanket for charity. Weekends I have a little more time and that’s when I get into a quandary……..do I knit? Or spin? Or sew? Or read? Or the dreaded words, clean house? Because obviously if I’m doing one, I’m not doing the other.

How do you allot time for each interest? When do you make time to blog or to enter information into Ravelry? For those of you who have kids, how do you do it?

I'm still around :-)

I know, it's been a long time since I've posted. I have been somewhat busy with life, but then who isn't.

The new job is going very well and I really like it. So all is well on the job front.
My DH was rear-ended in the morning commute a couple of weeks ago. Insurance totalled the car so he has been researching what he might want. Buying a new car was not in our plans until next year, so it came a little early. He is ok, no whiplash or anything, so we have to be thankful for that. So this past week was spent test driving a few and then yesterday we test drove 6 vehicles. Luckily, the dealers were close together. He has decided on the Subaru Outback. We'll pick it up next weekend and he's very excited. I think he's going to love it.

As for knitting, I cast on yesterday for this baby sweater. I'm using Indulgence for the variegated part, I'm not sure what I'm going to use for the solid part yet. I'll wait to decide until the coloring is done. I'm still working on the Pie Wedge Shawl in aqua baby alpaca and my Raggi socks. This is my 3rd pair and I think I'll slow down after this pair. The other two have gotten me through the worst part of winter and my 3rd pair will be done soon.

The beginning of January I received an HP Touchpad. Similar to an ipad but it's made by HP. I love it. I never thought I'd want a Tablet, a netbook yes, but not a tablet. Well, for what I'm using it for (surfing the net (blogs and Ravelry), Notes, recipes and knit patterns) it is perfect. It doesn't replace my desktop where I do most of my work, but it's perfect for my purposes. It's very portable and FUN!

De-Cluttering is still active for 2012

I've already made good progress in 2012, even though it's only Day 1. I saw a blog-post here and found it a very good idea. Too aggressive for me to stick to but a plan of that over 6-12 months is doable. If it's too aggressive, it causes additional un-needed stress. I know the rooms (and closets) that I need to attack and have actually made pretty good progress in 2011.

So, this year I already tackled my bedroom closet. I had already hit it pretty hard in early 2011 and told myself that if I didn't wear some of the "other" clothes, then they were the next to go. Well, as things happen, the other night when I had cleaned the area around my sewing machine, shortened and hemmed some blouses, ironed them and then headed for the closet.......yup, I had to make room. So, I re-arranged things on my side of the closet. Part of my reason for doing this is the blouses I wear on a daily basis were too high and it was hurting my arthritic shoulders to slide them around and reach for them. So, in addition to eliminating clothing, I moved the blouses I wear daily to a lower level, got rid of one big lawn trash bag of clothing, ready to donate. My clothes aren't as squashed and I can see now what I need to add. I need some more colorful blouses/tops for sure.

I also spent some time in the hobby room. As mentioned before, I cleaned around the sewing machine, catalogued some yarn and put it away in the hobby closet (more work to do there). I got out my rolling cutter blade and my 12 inch square ruler used in quilting. In our younger days, DH & I traveled alot. We would always pick up t-shirts as memories with the thought that they would be worn. Hardly even worn is more like it. In addition, you get tshirts from work, when anything happens, etc. So, with rolling cutter, mat and ruler, I proceeded to get rid of one big pile of tshirts by cutting a square where the memories lay. It's going to make a nice comfy memory-laden quilt-like cover for the couch. Sample here. There are probably enough blocks to make us each one. I've folded them at the moment and they are in a drawer, but at least the bulk is gone. Another big lawn bag of stuff eliminated from my hobby room.

More knitting from my stash is planned. I'm going through my yarn and planning projects. Some yarn I buy with a particular project in mind, but quite a bit I didn't before, I just bought it. I'm much better about that now.

That's it for now.

Goodbye 2011 and hello 2012

Hard to believe that 2011 is almost gone. It's not been a bad year, rather decent actually. Even though I was laid off a year ago November, we had thankfully saved enough and gotten our debt down to a manageable amount that I was able to stay at home and relax for a bit. I did alot of knitting, bought an e-spinner and spun a lot, spent wonderful Thursdays afternoons with my DF Christina, did quite a bit of de-cluttering and spent a lot of relaxing evenings with my DH. In July I took a contract job at a law firm and then around the first week of December I accepted a permanent position with a bank working with a start-up group financing some very exciting things. (airplanes, tractor-trailer rigs, restaurant equipment, etc) I'm extremely excited.

So, on to my list of Intentions from 2010 that I blogged about here. Let's recap how I did on those intentions. 1) good. I get on that bike 3 mornings a week, pretty religiously. 2) ok. Lost about 11 pounds, need to do better. 3) I'm hoping that the new job that starts in 2012 will be the one I love. 4) Yes, I have been. 5) yes, several lap blankets made and donated to Alive Hospice along with some preemie blankets. 6) haven't made much time for this one. 7) haven't done well on this one either 8) done well 9) doing better on this one too. 10) I did pretty good on this one until I started working at the law firm.

So, all in all, I think I did great on the important ones. It might seem lazy but I think I'll keep the same ones for 2012 and just hit them a little harder.

I welcome the new year with open arms. I think it's going to bring some good things to my family. I wish all the best to you and hope that 2012 proves to be a fruitful year.

Stash Busting

First, I hope everyone had a very happy holiday. My DH had to work all through the weekend, so I had a very quiet, but happily knitting and spinning weekend.

I have been working on some charity lap blankets and that has helped get through some of my Caron Simply Soft stash that I purchased years ago. That stuff makes really nice lap blankets. It's soft, durable and most importantly, washable. Threads of Kindness is a little group of knitters and crocheters and we make preemie blankets and hats and adult size lap blankets. Most of our donations go to Alive Hospice but we also donate to Vandy NICU. Christina is very charitable with her time and organizes all of this, even in delivering the items. We do get lots of donated yarn but it's good to stash bust yourself. I found the Simply Soft doubled and then crocheted with that huge crochet hook about the size of your thumb goes quite fast and makes a cushy blanket. The lap size blankets are about 30"x 30". I've donated a couple already but I didn't take pictures, except in my head.

Other things I've been working on......I finished knitting the Summer Flies Shawl in the Asland Trends alpaca. I still need to block it. I also knit the first of a small triangle is some purplish Koigu, modeled after something I saw on display at a LYS. I think the sample was made on a large Triangle Loom, but I think I can mimic it somewhat. I had purchased this Koigu to make a twirly scarf, it was supposed to take only one skein. Near the end of the skein, I realized the pattern was wrong and it couldn't be done in one skein, so I purchased another. Near the end of the second skein, realization hit that it wouldn't be enough, so I purchased the 3rd. After finishing the scarf, I realized I didn't like it. So I frogged the whole thing and now I had 3 skeins of purplish Koigu. So I am making use of it. Pictures to come later.

Although I've done a good job in oganizing the hobby closet, I still have way too much stash. I'm working through on what to do with it all. Lists are being made, no timelines though, that would just add unneeded stress. My LYS is having a huge 50% off sale that I'm telling myself to stay away from, mainly because I have nowhere to stash it.

I've managed to clean the area around my sewing machine, so I will be working on some tops, generally for work. They are basic tops that I can accessorize with my shawlettes.

That's it for now. I'll be posting again at the end of the year.

A new Job

As some of you may know, I was laid off in November 2010 and while I enjoyed some glorious 8 months off, I needed to get back to work. So, I took a contract job in July. While that has been great fun (aka hard work) I was still keeping my eye open for a permanent gig so that I could get benefits, 401k, paid sick days, vacation etc. I had a couple of interviews here and there, gotta keep those interview skills honed even though you may not be interested in the job. I had one in September/October that I really liked, 2nd interview happened rather quickly then I was told that they had to put the position on hold until after the first of the year. Totally understanding that, I told them that if I was still available when they were ready to hire, I would be interested.

Well they called 2 weeks ago and offered the position. I start Jan 3rd with very good benefits. So after Tuesday, I will have 2 weeks off to get some things done, relax during the holidays and get that ever desirous over-50 required colonoscopy over with. I've got some sewing to do, some knitting, spinning, etc. so I'm excited.

What have I been working on this past month........
1. Lap blankets and preemie blankets for Hospice. (no pictures)
2. Another Summer Flies Shawl, this time using Aslan Trends Alpaca Melange in an aqua blue. (gorgeous) I'm over half-way through.
3. Pie-Wedge Shawl in Lorna's Laces lace (purple) - I've made a mistake on this one but I'm forging ahead, mistake be damned.
3. Pie-Wedge Shawlette. I cast on fewer stitches for this one so it would be more of a shawlette size. This is in Suri Alpaca in aqua blue.
4. Raggi socks. I've finished 2 pair and making a 3rd.
5. Spinning. haven't had as much time to spin lately, but I'll be changing that very soon.
6. Fingerless mitts out of some leftover alpaca. I made them in 3x3 ribbing and extra long. Love them!

That's about it for now.
Happy Holidays to all of you.

An update with no photos

Seriously, I have been knitting and spinning, I just don't have any photos at the moment to prove it.
I just finished teaching the Baby Surprise Jacket at Enchanted Yarn in Clarksville. It's a lovely store with an even more lovely store owner, so if you haven't been, check it out. While teaching the class, I had to get some class samples ready so that took time away from my other knitting. But the class is over, I will get both BSJ's done and put away and get back to the regular scheduled programming. :-)
I will be binding off on sock #2 of my 2nd pair of Raggi socks tonight. Yippeeee, these are wonderful house socks and totally machine-washable. They are a little thick for my "business" shoes but great for my houseshoes. I will need to start another pair of business socks soon though.
I'm also working on a pair of fingerless gloves in ribbing with some leftover alpaca, so soft and warm. Finished one preemie blanket for Hospice and have started another. The aqua shell got put aside while I was working on the BSJ's but I'll get back to it shortly.
As for spinning, yep still going at it. I finished spinning one single in a bright multi-colorway, now I'm doing a single in a solid ecru and will ply them together.

As for movies, watched The Rum Diary this weekend with Johnny Depp. Good movie, he always does a good job. Also watched Crazy, Stupid Love on PPV. funny and cute love story.

DH and I started watching the Ken Burns Prohibition show. It just continues to amaze me that people (even still today) think that if you pass a nationwide law that everyone will obey that law and all of the country's problems will go away. Prohibition should prove to everyone that that theory just doesn't hold up. Laws ONLY keep the honest people honest. There are lawbreakers everywhere and they will break the law no matter what. Which brings me to this Anti-Gun matter that everyone is so hot about. Seriously folks, do you really think that if guns are outlawed that all the guns go away? No, because remember the statement above, laws will be broken by bad people and do you really only want the bad people to have the guns in our country? Right now, the bad people don't know who of the "honest" group has guns. They rarely attack people in their own home because they don't know that you might not have a gun to shoot them when they come in through the door. If they outlaw guns and the honest people turn in their guns (cause that's what honest people do, we follow the law) well guess what.........now the bad dishonest people who don't follow the law will have the guns and can attack anyone, anywhere. your home, a bar, a restaurant, etc. Think about it folks. Feel free to discuss and leave comments. :-)

OK, I'll get off my soapbox.

That's it for now, will post pics when I get a chance.

Sock Knitting

Hard to believe it's been a month since I last posted. Time just keeps flying away. I'm still deep in a de-cluttering mode, I've gotten donated some bags that I'll never use and a trash bag size of mostly acrylic yarn that I bought years ago. I kept the Caron Simply Soft to make some lapghans for Hospice and I still have more yarn to go through as well. I'm trying to use a bag for awhile to see if I still like it, and if I don't it goes into the donate pile. It's been very helpful. People probably look at me funny and wonder why I change bags every 2-3 weeks, but that's the only way to find out if you still like the bag, right? Bags are so often bought on impulse.

Anyway, in addition to the de-cluttering, I've gotten some sock knitting done. These are worsted weight socks, perfect for wearing in the fall and winter, with boots or houseshoes. They are toe-up short row heel socks, very easy pattern. Christina was nice enough to write up her pattern and she's posted it here. These are knit with Jarbo Raggi. typically you would probabky use a size 5 needle, but I worked these on size 6. Love them! I'm not going to bother to block them, I'm just going to start wearing them. Obviously with size 6 needles, they went very fast.
I've got another pair almost done as well in a different colorway.

Fall is here and I'm loving the weather. 70 degrees for the high, breezy and low humidity. Yesterday, 10-11 of us got together at Christina's to celebrate Jan's birthday. It was a wonderful day, we sat outside, snacked on some delicious cheese and crackers, drank some white wine, red wine, white sangria, coffee, whatever the beverage of choice was, we spun and knit and then around 6:30 we sat down to a glorious dinner of Cassoulet and salad. For dessert we had a pumpkin cheesecake and a delicious blackberry cobbler, ended with a cup of french press coffee and a small glass of Encore. It was a fabulous day and evening. Thank you Christina for being such a great cook and a fabulous hostess.

As for spinning, this is 4 oz of Falkland Fiber purchased on etsy. It's wonderfully soft and will turn itself into a gift.
Interesting the way it spun up.

The Help, thank you, spinning and knitting

First I would like to say thank you to all of you who wished me well with my bad knees. They are something I have to live with and usually do ok, but sometimes one or both get angry and inflamed and force me to slow down. (not a bad thing sometimes, right?)

Last year, one of my most favorite books that I listened to was The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It was a fabulous listen, the voices were different for each character and the accents and inflections were superb. When I love a book so much, I hesitate to see the movie because it seems I get disappointed with the results. I was told by several friends who also loved the book that the movie was great. So, I did it. I went to see it with Christina who also loved the book. The movie was fabulous. The actresses who portrayed the "help" as well as the ones who played the "southern bitches" all did a fabulous job. I see some Oscars coming.

On to some spinning and knitting updates:

This fiber was purchased at the Dickson Fiber Festival in May 2011. Yep, I actually spun something I bought this year. It is a merino/seacell fiber from Frabjous Fibers. This was not a fun spin, it was packed too tightly which made it very hard to draft. I love the end result though so I guess it was worth it. I ended up with a little over 200 yards on a 4 oz skein so I'm thinking maybe a cowl or neckerchief, I haven't decided yet. I tried to spin this one a little thicker from what I normally spin. I think I achieved the result I wanted.

This was spun on the Hansen MiniSpinner and plied as a 2 ply.

This one is a Merino/Tencel combo from Daily Fibers. I love her stuff, spins like butter. Again, a little over 200 yards.

It was Navajo plied.

As for knitting, I have 3 1/2 inches done on the Arianna shell. I just love the diagonal look that's achieved with slipping 3 stitches with yarn in front. I'm enjoying the pattern and I think it's going to look pretty cool.

This little guy (Hoodie) is done and he's blocking. I need to add buttons and it'll be good to go. This is knit with Plymouth Coffee Beenz, a good soft washable arylic, perfect for a toddler.

Inflamed

Sometimes the really bad knee flares up to the point that I can't walk. That happened this weekend, Saturday to be exact. It's a good thing I bought a walker several years back because the cane alone just wouldn't work. The knee was so inflamed I couldn't straighten it or bend it, just too painful. Today is marginally better, I can at least get around a little with the cane. It feels best when lying down and elevated. I'm not sure what caused the flare up but I'm working through it.

I did get a little knitting done on the Arianna tank, which will be worn under a blouse or cardigan. It's in a light teal which is one of my favorite colors. It's interesting the way it's knit. The slipped stitches are what makes it look diagonal, very cool. The pattern calls for Berroco Glace but I'm using Kollage Delicious. Both are tape yarns and I think will show a good stitch definition. I've had this yarn in my stash for a little while and have already frogged 2 or 3 of the projects it tried to be, so we'll see how the life expectancy is on this one. My plan at the moment is to make the back in stockinette and the front with the diagonal pattern.

I finished Nola's slippers. these are very comfy and I'm waiting for cold weather. It's still up in the high 80's, albeit cooler than it was in August, it's still hot. These were fun to knit and an easy (and free) pattern to follow. Easily modifiable to fit the size foot you need. I used some stash yarn, maybe Lion Brand Wool? Gotta find that label......

That's all for now, gotta go elevate.

Getting through the stash and some spinning

I'm such a sucker for shop models and this cute little baby hat was one quite a while back. I purchased the ball of Be Sweet Bambino Taffy (rav link) and the pattern for this little hat is on the ball band. The only mods I did was I knit it on size 7's rather than 6 and I made a short icord top rather than 2 long ones that you would then tie into a ribbon. The interesting parts to this hat is the provisional cast on picot edge, the heart motif, and the bobbles. It's cute.

The hat wasn't a stash buster but it was a ball of yarn that had been in my stash for a little while. I haven't purchased yarn since Stitches other than the 2 balls of yarn to make the yellow Shapely Shawlette. It's not a forced yarn diet, but I do have stash that I need to get through, at least some of it.

This gem is the Summer Flies Shawl (Rav link) knit with my handspun. I absolutely adore this pattern. I wore it to work on Friday over a white blouse and it looked really nice.

I've been spinning with some Polwarth. It's nice and soft, I like it! This is a hand-painted roving called Arcade that I purchased from Greenwood Fiberworks on Etsy. This was supposed to be my Tour de Fleece, but I was waylaid by the new job. The only time I really have left to spin now is on the weekend. :-( I finally finished plying it and you can see that the big Hansen wooly winder bobbin holds 8 ounces.

I am totally in love with the colorway. I'm trying to branch out from my normal blues and this colorway could be called Rainbow rather than Arcade, it's just full of colors. I ended up with 523 yards so it'll make a nice size project.

Speaking of the job. It's going great! I am kept extremely busy which makes the day just fly as you can imagine. I'm making time to knit at lunch and have even started to teach a few co-workers how to knit. Yep, I'm enabling.

More finished projects

Yesterday was a pretty good knitting day and a great day to finish little things on projects. The morning was spent getting my tires rotated, balanced and aligned so I toted some little projects that needed buttons and necklines finished.

The Patches Baby Sweater was done, it just needed buttons.


The Angel Sweater needed buttons and the neckline finished.

I dropped off the finally finished Angel Sweater to Enchanted for them to use as a shop model. It's such an adorable little sweater, it was hard to let it go.

I also brought along my Summer Flies Shawl to knit-on after the buttons were done on the other projects. After the tires were done, I had to head another 30 miles to get my oil changed. They said it was a 2 hour wait so more prime knitting time. They got it done in under an hour but that's a whole 'nother story.

On the Summer Flies Shawl, I am to the Picot Cast off. Then all it needs is blocking. I made it in a fingering/DK weight rather than the Worsted the pattern calls for, so it will be more of a neck decoration like a shawlette, the best part is it's knit in my own handspun. It has been a truly enjoyable knit, lots of activity and different stitch patterns.

The Pie Wedge will come along faster since I'm done with these. I'm almost done with 2 wedges and there are supposed to be 6 total.

Cadel Evans wins the Tour de France

I am ecstatic!!!!

The man from Australia, Cadel Evans, who I have been watching for years, has always been the bridesmaid, never the bride. This year, he did it and I am thrilled. He won the Tour and he deserved it. He worked so very hard and I am so proud of him. The below images are compliments of AP.




As for the Tour de Fleece, I didn't do well after the first week. Part of it is I'm now working again. So not only is my time more limited, my body is also getting used to getting up at 5 again and hitting that long commute. However, I have been getting some spinning done, lots of knitting and still quite a bit of reading done.

I have been enmeshed in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I have just finished the 4th book and getting ready to read the 5th and 6th. These tomes are not for the faint of heart as they are EACH about 600-800 pages. I have to tell you that I am thankful everyday for my Sony eReader. I have 2 of those tomes, in addition to other books and knitting patterns, on my eReader at one time, and it still only weighs less than 1 pound, it fits neatly in my purse and I can hold the book with one hand (you cannot do that with an 800 page book). So, if you haven't jumped on the digital reader bandwagon yet, I strongly recommend it.

The Pie Wedge shawl is coming along slowly but surely. The Summer Flies shawl with my handspun is glorious to knit and is also coming along nicely. Pictures will come later.