I have absolutely no idea what this is

I mean, it's a clock. Set to EST. But other than that....................????????????

But, it seems to fit my mood right now - so I figured why not?

Snow!

Those of you in colder spots have to understand, we get snow here once every - oh, 3 months? - during winter.

So to get even a tiny bit of snow is a true Media Event.

I saw these footprints this morning while coming in to work, and just had to take a picture.

The Wonders of Modern Medicine

First off, many many thanks to everyone who wrote and wished the Munchkin a speedy recovery. Thanks to modern medicine (lord, but whoever figured out that cough syrup with codeine would make a child SLEEP through the night and not wake up coughing every 5 minutes truly deserves sainthood!) the Little One recovered almost immediately. In fact the syrup + steroid combo that the doctor prescribed so wired him up that we almost (*almost!*) wished that he was just the wee-est bit sicker than he was - at least enough to keep him sitting on the couch nice and quiet instead of running around, sliding into the doorways, climbing up the couches, and dancing around the living room like a maniac.

In decent weather this wouldn't have been that bad - bundle the little guy up and take him outside and just let him RUN - you know? But it was snowing, damp, and just miserably ucky out there - not weather that we were willing to expose him to with dicey lungs. So brave it all out indoors we did.

Luckily for me, a little diversion showed up first thing Monday morning.

I cracked up today when the pics downloaded to my computer and I saw the sippy cup hanging in the lower left corner. Seriously - I never even noticed it in the frame when I took the original shot!

Apparently every Rose is signed by the artist who made it. Owen Poad is the co-owner of Majacraft, along with his wife Glynis. How cool is that?

I flew through this bunch of roving from Gryphon.
Spun the whole 4 ounces in one day, which for me is quite fast!

Even though this picture probably just shows what a horrid newbie spinner I am
(all that excess twist!) I just couldn't help but put it in regardless,
as I love the colours and the squiggles so much.

Hanging - straight - to dry.

I came out with approximately 150 yards of singles - my goal was to make something along the lines of an obviously-handspun, thick/thin, lose-twist Manos or Malabrigo-type yarn that I will then knit into a My So Called Scarf for myself. I don't think I quite managed it - I need about twice the yardage I've currently got to knit a pattern-sized scarf, but still - I can cast on for a slightly more narrow scarf that will still be - I think - quite lovely. I can hardly wait to see how these colours knit up!

And if it seems to small, I can always check to see if Gryphon has got a second braid in this colourway available................. :)
The Woolery did a fantastic job of getting all of my ordered wheel items to me in an incredibly timely manner - and everything came in fantastic shape, with nary a bump or scratch occurring in shipping. The wheel was also a breeze to put together - with a bit of help from Peggers I was able to have it completely assembled in under an hour and was spinning mere minutes after that with nary a hitch.

Knitting as Stress Relief

At first I figured this was going to be a 4-day weekend that just dragged on. No spinning wheel (more on that later), no 'Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook' via ILL despite the fact that it shipped 3 days ago, no super-warm running pants (a snafu on their end apparently deleted my order back in December & now the pants are sold out as the customer service rep on the other end of the line told me - "So, sorry! No more available!") - and my husband away up the road for a boys weekend out.

However last night changed all of that - as we were up with the Munchkin for hours and hours and hours as he struggled to breathe, wheezed, and coughed and coughed and coughed and coughed (around 4 AM his body apparently had enough of that malarkey & rebelled against all the coughing by vomiting square into his pajama'd lap, much to his abject misery.) This morning we called the pediatrician and got in right away - a diagnosis of a sinus infection was the lesser problem - the bronchitis with maybe a tiny touch of pneumonia was the real nasty culprit. So he's on a huge slew of antibiotics now plus a steroid-laced syrup to help his lungs relax & expand so that he can do more than pant & can actually have a shot at coughing all of that infected matter up and OUT of his lungs - - not to mention the big bottle of cough syrup + codeine that we've got now on our shelf. He missed his nap today (the steroid syrup wires him up, unfortunately - but currently a necessary evil) and so he's out COLD at the moment - we dosed him with the codeine syrup as he sat curled up in my arms at the dinner table and figure that he'll sleep most - if not all - of the night due to that particularly potent 1-2 punch. And just like that my weekend plans totally changed. Now I've got loads to do & think about this weekend (plus extra laundry to do now that I've got soiled pj's, sheets, blankets, and couch cushions - yeah, it happened again just minutes after lunch this afternoon, too, just as he had been released from the table to go and sit on the couch - to wash up.) Plus a husband to keep me company while I fret and fuss around the house.

So now I'm left awake (after waking with him around 4 AM - and having gone to bed with him around 1 AM in the first place - I fortified myself with a cup of strong coffee at 5 this evening when I seriously started to flag and now thanks to that jolt of energy I'm not sleeping anytime soon) with no little wee one to sit and cuddle with or talk to - so what's a knitter to do?

Thank god we knitters are resourceful folks, right? Resourceful folks, that is, who never quail at casting on for another project when we've already got 2 or 3 already on the needles. So other than check on my sleeping cherub every half hour or so, I'm going to finish ripping out the purple raglan that I knitted last year (was it really just last year?) made with some SWTC bamboo, and start swatching with it for a Green Gable. Kim and I stumbled across this pattern last night while browsing Ravelry - it's a godsend if you have yarn in your stash that you just do NOT know what to do with! - and as a sort of keep-myself-busy tactic this afternoon I went online and bought the pdf of the pattern while the Munch watched the public library DVD "John Deere Part 2" for the third time in a row. I'd blame his video choice on the illness, but I'd be a total liar - the kid LOVES the John Deere DVD series. LOVES. He has the narration memorized in most cases, which is actually quite frightening.

I have high hopes for the Green Gable - because it's seamless it eliminates a lot of the problems that I had with the raglan - bamboo (at least this bamboo yarn) just does not seam together well - it's too droopy and saggy. And as this is knit in a tighter gauge than the raglan was, I'm also hoping that the structure of it retains a bit more integrity than the raglan did, and doesn't migrate from my bellybutton to my knees over the course of a normal workday. Just to be on the safe side, though, I'm knitting this in my 'proper' size of a Medium when normally I tend to err on the side of baggy caution and knit things for myself in a Large.

And my spinning wheel? It currently sits a mere 2 hours drive away from me. 2 hours drive away, but with a delivery date of Monday.

2 hours but 3 days.

Ah well, there's always laundry to fold, right?

Collective Nouns

.................a sleuth of bears, a murder of crows, a flange of baboons, a smack of jellyfish, and.........

a colony, creche, huddle, parcel, &/or rookery of penguins!

(isn't English just too funky & funny?)

One finished Wonderful Wallaby sweater for the Munchkin. Complete with over-exposed shade of green wool from my camera being too close to the photography subject when the flash went off!

Taking pictures of this particular FO was neigh impossible. He just would *not* hold still that morning - no matter how I asked, threatened, or bribed. So alas, these horrid pictures are the best that I can do.

He seriously digs the 'roo pocket in the front. Not only can he fit both of his hands in there (and Look! Mommy! My hands touch!!!!) but he can also fit a small blue toy motorcycle in there along with the motorcycle's rider - a yellow plastic figure of Dr. Fate. Life Is Good.

The first sweater that I made the Munch was a intarsia rooster sweater knit with Debbie Bliss yarn that cost upwards of $70 and took me at least 8 months to knit. This one I knit with three skeins of a wool/acrylic blend that I scored on absolute clearance for $0.85 each and took me a grand total of 12 days to knit. Penguin included. Luckily I chose the right size when I knitted it - I knitted my 2 year and 10-month old son a size 6T sweater. And see how well it fits him with nary a too-baggy hood or too-long hem anywhere to be seen? Thank goodness I went the less expensive route this time - what a 6T-sized sweater - with hood - knit out of D.Bliss would cost these days isn't even worth contemplating!

p.s. I called The Woolery yesterday to see when my wheel would ship out. I was - stupidly - hoping that if I called and asked about it again that I'd somehow (magically) get a different answer. But no - the very friendly woman who answered said that typically they ship out in just a few days, but they're currently so backlogged from Christmas that they're days and days behind - so hopefully maybe they'll make it in the mail to me by the end of the week, and if not then next Monday or Tuesday. Of course as I was greedily hoping to have the wheel arrive, like, today, hearing this for a second time was just as disappointing as the first. So I am knitting my sorrows away - a snicket sock, a green tea raglan (GTR take two! This time out of alpaca instead of droopy bamboo), and a pair of plain-knit socks. Not very thrilling, but at least it keeps my hands busy while I peer out of the window waiting for the UPS man to *not* stop at my house anytime soon....................

To keep the Munchkin and myself busy this weekend while Peggers is up the road for an All Boys Weekend, I thought we'd make a batch of these. Don't they look just too yummy? Perfect for that weeny little snack when you need to either eat a nibble yourself (or in my case, satisfy someone else's desire for a weeny little nibble) without ruining your dinner!

Check.

Extra drive band? Check.


Orifice hook? Check.


Jumbo plying flyer & bobbin? Check


Majacraft Rose? Check.



Shipping from NC by the end of the week - "hopefully" - she said over the phone with a noticeable twang in her voice. Shipping from NC to MD should only take 2-3 days, once it is in UPS hands.......

And so the countdown begins!

One of my 2008 Knitting Goals

It actually has nothing to do with knitting, but more with blogging.

Just to blog more frequently. No biggie - I'm always thinking in 'blog post' terms anyway - now all I need to do is actually type it up here instead of just letting it moulder away in my head.


Wednesday Updates:

Despite this picture
of my Snicket Socks mocking me in their barest beginnings, I actually was able to finish casting-on for them a few days ago and thanks to the Munchkin's bizarre desire to be awake from 3:30-7 AM Tuesday morning (g-r-o-a-n!) I've finished almost 5" of the leg already! I love the pattern - it is beautiful and looks tough, but is really easy as hell. Seriously now - isn't that the way all knitting patterns should be? And the yarn from Sundara is just too stunningly beautiful and complex (colour-wise) for words. To say that I'm thrilled with these little suckers so far is putting it very very very mildly.

My Snickets mocked me because dinner that night totally flummoxed and threw me. Normally my time in the kitchen is fun and easy and relaxing - and in a Very Unfortunate Turn of Events (hah! get it? Snickets? Unfortunate Events? Ahhh - nevermind!) a straightforward recipe threw me for an absolute loop and I ended up with a struggle and a disappointing outcome.

My fridge looked like this after the debacle was all over
On the shelf above the eggs are two muffin tins full of meatloaf muffins. A very easy (and very tasty!) recipe from Rachel Ray that I snagged via the Food Network website. The recipe went awry because I put in about a quarter pound too much ground beef and not enough extra breadcrumbs or egg to compensate - so rather than eat meatloaf 'muffins' we ate meatloaf, ehrm.........paste. Once dinner was over and we were done scraping at our plates with our spoons (groans at the memory) I put both of the tins into the fridge in an effort to chill & firm these little puppies up. It worked - a bit - so that I could at least get them out of the tins and into some storage containers for better, proper, longer-term storage. But 'twas very frustrating - especially as how it was supposed to be such a straightforward dinner, leaving me loads of time to knit on the socks while everything baked away happily & quietly in the oven. Instead there was chaos, mania, billowing smoke from the oven vents, me beating my head aginst the wall, smoke alarms pealing all over the house........you get the picture!


And last but not least, a postcard that the Munchkin got from my inlaws while they were on a cruise to New Zealand and Australia over Christmas.

Awwwwwwwww.........

I tried to get them to bring me back a Majacraft Rose, but they said no-go - apparently it was a bit too big to fit in the overhead compartment or under the airplane seat in front of them or some such malarky like that....... :)

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Don't look Mom, or you'll see your (late) Christmas present below!

Look very very carefully at this picture, and then fast-forward 3 more hours of knitting. Do you know what that means?

A finished pair of fingerless mitts (my last Gift Knit of '07!) with only the ends to weave in before gifting means that finally (finally!!!!) I can start in with this:

Sundara sock yarn in 'Green Tea' - destined to become a pair of Snicket Socks for yours truly. Cast on, like, today. In mere minutes from the time I hit 'post' on this bad boy.......

YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spring

I know, I know, I know - it's still winter! Yet to me there is something SO promising about a New Year that I automatically start thinking 'spring' come January 1st even though there are weeks - nay, months! - of cold and dreary weather left in front of us.

It also could be that I'm currently pulling 3-5 gardening/seed catalogs out of my mailbox every day that has the whole growing/birthing concept weighing in the front of my mind.

Kim gave me a Nigella Lawson salt pig for Christmas.
It is one of the coolest things ever. Ever.

It also could be that there is a plethora of babies currently underway - has anyone else noticed that? A friend of ours delivered her second daughter just before Thanksgiving (silly me, I though her due date was in February, so I hadn't even yet plotted or planned any knitted item!), Anna from My Fashionable Life had a beautiful little boy right a few weeks before Christmas, Lola from Two Black Sheep is due to go in for a c-section to deliver her second son in just a week or so (hang in there, L!!!!!), Emily from Yarn Miracle is expecting her Mini Miracle in 8 or so weeks, and Cara from January One is due in.........March-ish, if my math is correct based on the belly pics she put up on her birthday.

Christmas loot for the Munch consisted mostly of Thomas the Train bits & pieces.
He adores them, but I have to say, they really do hurt if you step on any of those little f'ers in your bare feet!

(But, I must say here in very bold letters - there are no new babies expected here at Chez P'Sticks. Nosirree nohow! So Oma, keep knitting sweaters for Miss E and the others - no new baby knits needed this side of the Chesapeake anytime soon - not at least until I can wrangle the Munchkin into a shirt and/or pants in the morning without it sounding like I'm doing something as violent as peeling the very skin off his body - full, screaming hysterics for upwards of 20 minutes every time we try to extract this kid from his pj's - and he is potty trained. I might be head-over-heels in love with my little one, but LORDY he is a handful and I have not the strength or patience for two handfuls, much less two handfuls in diapers!)

Knitting loot! The best kind!

So between the seed catalogs and the babies springing up everywhere, it feels like spring to me. All that birth & rebirth & burgeoning life and suchlike - it just makes me happy. Plus, in all brutal honesty, I hated 2007. It was a horrid, painful, depressing year that started off with the news that an immediate family member had an extremely aggressive form of cancer and went downhill from there, if you can believe that. I'm hopeful and excited to turn away from that car wreck of the past 365 days and instead fill my noggin with hopeful, filled-with-promise, new-life-ish thoughts instead.

We had a quick family visit for a few days after Christmas, which is
always fun for the little guy. This is Munch with my dad.

Which brings me to my more pressing question:

Other than the most amazingly beautiful baby blanket that Ava knit for her soon-to-be-nephew (because not only do I refuse to knit baby blankets as they take way too long and get far too monotonous but also I'm not as insane as A - and nor do I want to be. Because after knitting a blanket of that magnitude & cable-lisciousness, I'd be totally and completely bonkers.) what is the best knitted item you can give a new mom or a soon-to-be new mom?

I personally didn't use knitted hats much when the Munchkin first came out, and I didn't do knitted booties ever. But that was just me. He is a March baby, so I did use a few knitted lightweight sweaters - especially the kind that were particularly easy to fit over his wobbly huge head (and huge cab-door-like ears!) - but mostly I didn't bust out the knitted items until he hit his first proper cold snap. So that means that this current crop of babies could receive items in the 6-9 month range of sizes (perfect! 6-9 months of procrastinating knitting!) - which I not only personally prefer but I also find more practical and useful in the long run.

So I'm asking everyone out there - what is the best thing that you could give or receive? I keep leaning towards the peapod sacque that Parikha knitted, but that's just me........... Plus that's more of a new-baby item, which violates my above preference and rules (but rules are made to be broken, right?) - but again, that's just me.

What does everyone else think?

Happy 2008 Everyone!

Dangerous Words

Here I was, sitting calmly and carefully at my desk, working away the last day of work before the holiday break like a very good little busy beaver - when I saw the most incredibly dangerous e-mail flash across my computer screen:

Webs Year End Blowout Sale!

What is it that the Harlot likes to say? That she had an accident, and slipped, and accidentally swiped her Visa card on the way down?

I have two words for you, my ducks. Well, actually four words.

Highland Tweed.


Three Pounds.

Order total: $27

When they say 'blowout' - they mean blowout.

( I feel a bit feverish.)

Thank God For Leftovers

It's just been that kind of day. You know the kind that starts off really really well - and you're enthusiastic about where and how the day is going to go - and then with a BAM! - one thing after another starts to happen and domino right the fuck downhill?

Yeah - that kind of day.

So I was late leaving the vet's office (they had an emergency cat come in that needed help ASAP - the psychotic thing had attacked its own tail and had actually split the tail in half - urgh) and so was late back to work - and came back to the office absolutely starving because I had correspondingly missed lunch. But at least there were holiday party leftovers for me to eat in the upstairs fridge. I didn't even mind that the meatballs were burned - at least, I didn't mind much. It was better than the ryekrisp cracker that was otherwise going to be my total meal. Thank God For Leftovers.

I'm still buried under order cards - even bringing them home to work on a few nights this week - but yesterday after skipping the leftover-producing holiday party I threw myself on the Dean's mercies and got permission to take these puppies home with me over the Christmas/New Years break and finish filling them out later. Phew! So given that lovely bit of holiday grace - not to mention the lap-full of work-related histrionics that was dumped my way this morning - I've been slacking shamelessly ever since.


Our 2007 Christmas Tree. This has nothing - nothing - to do with this post, but I've got sneak it in here nonetheless somehow! This will be a trend for the rest of the photos in the post - so just get used to it now.

Eating white-chocolate peppermint candies given to me by a co-worker was how all the slacking started. (Ugh - too many white-chocolate peppermint candies can make you feel SICK!) But I've taken my slacking to much higher levels than just candy-eating -- surfing Ravelry to check out the various types of yarn that domesticat's Drunken Bees socks were knitted in (that lovely pattern is way up in my personal queue!) - and then after seeing novamade's amazingly beautiful version, ordering the pattern for a Wonderful Wallaby to knit for none other than the Munchkin. I have at least ten or so skeins of that ol' workhorse, Lion Brand Wool Ease, in a medium-dark olive green (scored at $0.85 each on clearance!) that will be perfectly soft & utterly practical for such a knit. And with a wee little 'guin snuck in on the pocket, I think it will also be a major hit for my little Munch.

I've also been eyeing a new-ish sweater to knit for my Big Guy - one that would not call for 10+ skeins if Rowan tweed yarn (at a cost well over $75 for the sweater!) like the amazing knit Jarrett does - but something a bit more practical and therefore possible. But I dunno. It's just currently a glimmer of an idea.

Paperwhite bulbs, my knitting basket, and a sippy cup. I was going to move the sippy cup before taking the photo, but then I figured with a shrug - why lie? Sippy cups are everywhere in my house, currently - so hey - tell it like it is, right?

I've also spent some time today slacking by browsing Ravelry photos and online photos of Snicket Socks, as I think these will be the next pair that I knit for myself (- after I finish my design socks that I'm working on with Gryphon's yarn, that is). I purchased THE most beautiful skein of 'Green Tea' Sundara sock yarn as a birthday treat to myself - and so far during our conversations Ms. G. Tea has implied that she wouldn't mind being transformed into snicket socks. As I happen to have a deep, deep hankering for snicket socks, I was thrilled to hear her say so.

My spinning basket. This basket currently contains: some superwash/tencel that needs to be spun; a bobbin of this tencel blend that I've spun up so far; my first skein of handspun (superwash) merino dyed by Jessie; a bobbin of some extra superwash merino; and a loose tiny skein of Real Vermont merino/alpaca/& something else that I can't remember singles.

Luckily for me, my unpleasant day is almost over, and my evening promises to go much much better. We are having a lovely Cooks Illustrated dinner tonight (skillet lasagna - the best EVER lasagna that I've probably ever had - and the fact that it takes only 30 or so minutes from start to finish to make and uses only one pan is even better) and the wonderful & fabulous Kim is coming over to hang with us. We will eat, we will knit, and I will have a single, luscious glass of merlot. And all will be well.

The longer I have this Christmas ornament, the cooler & more appropriate I think it is that I own it.

Buried

I'm almost literally buried in work at the moment - I've got thousands and thousands of books to order before vacation kicks on at COB on Friday, and nary a spare second between now and then to rest (or blog). Add to that a near constant headache from squinting at order cards all day, holiday stresses, and a very very cranky toddler and you get...............................desperation knitting and late-night spinning-wheel distributor online surfing on my part!

:)

I'd post pictures of our luverly Christmas tree and my most recent yarn purchase (a birthday present to myself from Sundara!) plus my hubby's birthday gift to me, but alas our camera is currently engaged in more honorable pursuits - it's at the law office being used for Real Work Purposes and not documenting my knitting as usual.

Once the camera comes back, I'll take some quickie pictures and post what my world currently looks like.........and spill all about my exciting upcoming combination birthday/Christmas present - - a new spinning wheel! (Which I'm currently in the process of deliberating, debating, picking & choosing. But I'm leaning - this week, at least - towards a Majacraft Rose.)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.....

.........over here at Chez Sticks. Decorations are slowly but surely starting to go up.....................



Our lovely mantle. Stockings to show up soon. Not handknit, however, but handmade nonetheless.


The annual lighting of the stairs.



Some quiet time is being found here & there for stress-relieving spinning.


'Mars' colourway - superwash merino & tencel blend. Spun as thin as humanly possible - by this human, that is - as I'm going to try and navajo-ply this for socks. Purchased as retail therapy after a bad day at work from a very nice woman via Etsy.

And even better (for stress relief, that is) - finished handknit gifts are starting to pile up...

Fingerless gloves for T - the wonderful woman who serves me a robust mug of life-giving coffee every morning. (Do these look strangely avian to you too?)

'Driving' gloves for A (a One Skein pattern), who also works at the coffee shop and who is wonderfully cheerful to me every morning when I'm still trying to figure out how to properly open both eyelids at the same time, before I drink my morning cup of eye-opening joe....

Virtually 90% of all Christmas shopping has been done (I'm a firm believer in easy shopping & purchasing streamlined gifts as a general rule - so don't hate me for this - - join me!!!!), and only one handknit item remains to be knitted. Even better, it's a weeny & fast handknit item, and is intended for someone who has been extremely gracious about receiving late gifts in the past - so if it doesn't appear under the Christmas tree this year she not only will not be upset, she probably won't even be surprised.

I actually **have** been knitting!

I have, I have, I have!

And I have proof!


Two pairs of fingerless gloves (Fetchings, for those of you who wonder) made with some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran.

Yarn purchased by T, gloves knitted for T and her younger sister. I also received from T as thanks for the glove knitting a $10 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble. I quickly and greedily spent my gift cashola on this. We're eating meals from my new purchase every single night this entire week. YUM. Tonight is either N. burgers & N. fries or else her recipe for chicken breasts with bacon and white wine served alongside gnocchi. Double-yum.


This is the beginning of my new take on the Green-Tea Raglan.

(Remember what a saggy, stretchy miserable nightmare that was?) This is knitted in some greygreen alpaca that is nicely soft. I had originally bought the alpaca for a different sweater (the cable-down raglan from S. Japel) , however given alpaca's drape/weight/reluctance to work with cabled patterns, I have decided to switch it from that to this one instead. I'm going to modify the neckline considerably into a combo deep v-neck that flares into a boatneck style. Stay tuned for progress reports/shots.



This is some 'Venezuela' Traveller yarn that I bought from Gryphon when Kim and I were up several weekends ago for the spin-in.

It had been intended for a hat for a co-worker of mine, but was deemed to feminine a colourway (my husband was the single vote on that one, in case you were wondering) and that was all the encouragement I needed. Now it's on it's way to be a hat for ME ME ME ME! My co-worker will get a hat in a darker green/more unified colourway after the holidays have passed us by. In a move that I like to think of as minor genius, I'm knitting the hat as a huge version of the sock that I'm designing for Gryphon. I've been struggling with the transition between ribbing and leg pattern - made even more difficult by tiny yarn and tiny needles - so upping the entire process to nice fat needles and nicely fatter yarn has made my quandaries flash right on by - and now things are just zooming along at a perfect speed. When I'm finished with the hat I'll be adding on a knitted i-cord border for extra stability. And because I've never done that before and this seems a perfectly manageable project for trying it. As things are starting to chill down here, a nice squooshy hat couldn't come along at a better time.

In the interest of keeping my sock design a surprise a wee bit longer, I'm only showing you the inside of the hat/sock so that you can ignore the design bits while still luxuriating in the beautiful colours that Gryphon managed on this one. Sorry it's so dark - I took the pictures in the evening, which was the only time I was able to lay hand to camera. Of course these days 'evening' means anytime after 4 PM........




Last but not least, I'm leaving you with the package that our turkey arrived in this year. We decided to try a local restaurant's deep fried version - having heard such rave reviews about the deliciousness of said preparation - but not wanting to risk burning our house down by trying it ourselves. We agreed that the turkey was okay - about the same as what we could make at home ourselves - only we could roast a traditional style turkey in the oven for about $35 less. I only realized how the tin was labeled after I went to put all of the leftovers away. I love it. Love it love it love it. My little neck of the woods can sometimes be such a FUN place to live.

Examples of this - primarily through pictures of the cemetery that is across the street from me - to come soon.

p.s. for some reason when I went to adjust my primary 'frame' where my text and pictures are displayed to a wider version than what I previously had, I somehow bumped all of my side-bars that you can usually read on the right of the page to waaaaaaay down at the bottom of everything. I'm attempting - slowly but surely - to fix this. But it will probably take quite a bit of time.

Last Weekend Discussed This Weekend

Last Saturday Kim and I kicked off our pre-holiday weekend starting with a Little Gingerbread Endeavor.

(And for those of you who are wondering, the answer is yes, red wine does in fact make gingerbread-house construction that much easier & more enjoyable.)

The gingerbread house (complete with a string of mini Christmas lights stuffed in the back to make the butterscotch-candy-pane windows glow becomingly) will reside in the library for the next few weeks.

Sunday we went to Gryphon's house for a spin-in. It was - in a word - glorious. Not only did we walk away with a lovely amount of fiberish booty from Gryphon's in-house shop, but I also walked away with a borrowed wheel for the next few weeks.


Booty.

Wheel.

(An Ashford Traveller double-treadle, for anyone who is wondering.)

Using this lovely little beauty I finished spinning both the dark purple & pale purple superwash bundles that I bought from Jessie a few weeks back. I was so excited by my progress that I went ahead and plied them together last night with amateurish yet exciting results for yours truly - and the resultant lovely huge skein is currently lightly weighted and drying in the kitchen. I will show you probably far far too many pictures of it when it is dry.


Dark purple superwash singles in all their wee loveliness.

It might not sound it, but I have in fact been knitting in addition to all of this spinning and gingerbreading - - and once I get the camera back in action and pictures taken, all of my recent FO's and two newly-cast-on WIP's will be shamelessly paraded in front of everyone.

Shamelessly. :)

A little regrouping down time

I love my job. Sometimes though, I love even more the fact that I get to take vacation from my job.

Like next week.

I looked at the calendar and realized that I am already 'given ' Wednesday - Friday off as paid vacation - and that by spending a mere two of my vacation days (which I have several of saved up so far this year) I could get a whole week off of work.......two days of which would be just me, the DVD player, and my knitting/spinning.

So send in my vacation notice I did, and take the time off I will.

Even better, this vacation time will be following what promises to be a FANTASTIC weekend - tomorrow Kim and I will spend the day making a wonderfully ornate gingerbread house, and Sunday Kim and I are driving up to Gryphon's house for a 4+ hour Spin-In. (Our first.) We're not only excited by the opportunity to get in some more spinning, but also by the opportunity to get some tips and tricks from the other spinners there while also trying out some different wheels than the Ashford Traditional that we currently practice with. (Gryphon owns a grand total of 7? 8? wheels, dontcha' know. Including a great wheel that I most certainly will NOT be brave enough to test out!!!!)



And then, to think that the day after such a wonderful weekend I'll get to spend two full days home alone with only myself and the pets for company, with all sorts of knitting and swatching and spinning and plying to occupy myself...........not to mention just a wee bit of hand-carding.


Remember this bundle of grubby fleece?

Fun fun fun fun fun.

Thank goodness I gave in and did a wee bit of retail fiber therapy yesterday during the middle of a Very Very Very Bad Day At Work - as the following beautiful bundle of superwash merino/tencel is now making it's way towards my house:

FatCatKnits handpainted merino/tencel superwash - 4.3 oz. In her 'Mars' colourway.

A girl has got to keep herself properly occupied, you know.

A Loaner is Loaned

Kim came over on Sunday and we had ourselves quite the fiber-filled day amongst the other norms of your basic family weekend. (Grocery shopping, lunch w/ a 2-year old, dinner, laundry, etc.)

We knitted.

(No pictures. Use your imagination on this one. Socks & a Fetching were worked on.)

We spun.

(Kim's first handspun! Real Vermonter wool/mohair/alpaca
blend in Jessie's 'Berry Picking' colourway.)

We photographed.


Elizabeth Zimmerman's BSJ in some Paton's SWS for a good friend's new son.

I love these buttons.

They were found in a huge 'button box' that was given to me by the wife of a co-worker who was retiring & moving across the country to Oregon. Cool buttons. Cool wife & ex-co-worker!


We un-plied and then re-plied with amazing results.................

(my s-spun yarn that I accidentally s-plied) (same yarn after un- then re-plying)


We photographed again because we were just too-happy with our results.

Singles, and 2-ply. My first ever handspun. (!)


Then last - but not least - we did some more knitting (Kim - Monkeys out of some Claudia handpainted in the 'Butter Pecan' colourway) and some unraveling of a thrift sweater (Me - 100% merino wool in a pearl-ish grey shade that I'm going to turn into a cardigan along the lines of this.)



We had a very good day.

At the end of the evening (with both boys fast asleep, I might add - that time change sure tuckers out even the grownups!) I persuaded Kim to take home the loaner spinning wheel for the week so that she can keep working on the Berry Picking. It's looking LOVELY and she's really liking the spinning - as am I!

I can quickly see where we're going to need a 2nd loaner wheel sooner rather than later. Either that, or she's simply going to need to move in to the guest bedroom upstairs.

:)