Yarny Things

Lots of Yarn play this week. I finished spinning 'Captain Planet' from the PhatFiber box...here is the roving:and the yarn:Then I spun up the 'Pool of Tears' Bamboo also from the Phat box. Again the roving:On the spindle:and the yarn:I finished knitting the handspun alpaca lace scarf:Now I just need to block it...can't wait for it to be all done (so I can fold it up and put it away until I need it...scarf weather is pretty much over).

Also I have been playing on the loom some more. After some fiddling on graph paper I had my desing pretty much figured out. I decided I wanted to try warping the loom 'directly' by using the single post method. I started by setting up a post:That post aligned with the loom so I could go from the warping bar/dowel to the heddle to the post and back.The yarn on a makeshift TinkerToy 'lazy kate' of sorts so that it would unwind easier while pulling it from the cone to the loom:After the warping was all done I started weaving - here is my very first plaid, designed by me! The pattern is quite simple and easily memorized. I did warp the edges with yellow when, if following the pattern, it should have been grey but I wanted a nice defined edge so hopefully it's the right call.
Next in line for the loom: Placemats!

I'm totally Phat!

I am giddy/happy/excited that my Phat Fiber box arrived yesterday! I have been wanting one for 6 months and they sell out in minutes. This month they sold out in less than 60 seconds from what I gather.

For those who don't know Phat Fiber is a sampler box of either fiber and yarn, just fiber or just yarn. I got me a 'fluff' box (just fiber). It is packed full of yummy fiber!

The theme this month was 'The Elements' so earth, air, fire, water and aether (not tangible/transcendant/philisophical - like that moment when you see heaven through that ray of sushine in the sky or think you see a fairy fly past).

Here is my box:

And by element we have

Water:

Starting in the top left is a braid of corriedale cross in Koi colorway from Color Bug Yarns There is also an adorable turtle bead on the card that I am totally in love with. To the right of that is the long braid of superwash merino in From the Depths colorway from it's a colorful life. Under the Koi on the far left is a bat from The Critter Ranch of firestar, alpaca and llama in Sand and Sea colorwy. To the right of that in the center is a light blue braid of bamboo called Pool of Tears from Polyartgirl Designs. To the right and under that is a batt of romney/alpaca in Water colorway from Lucky Loungers. I also included the card from The Twice Sheared Sheep here because they included an 'Oil Slick' stitch marker - love it! looks like it wll not snag!

Fire:

The pattern on the right is from Katherine Vaughan Designs it is for a hair scrunchie and is totally adorable. It would also look great if I made it out of the merino next to it there on the left from Smoky Mountain Fibers in "Fire' colorway.

Air:

Top roving is kettle dyed romney in "winter storm warning" colorway from (RuLeOuT):fIBer AdDicTiOn, NOS I am not sure if a storm warning belongs with air or aether but I guess it could be both. Below to the left is 'Fog' wich is rambouilette carded fiber from Sandy's Palette . I guess fog could go in water or air but I decided it belonged in the air since it is much less tangible than water. Also not sure if this beautiful 'sunset' farm batt blend from Fleecemakers Fibers is air or aether but this is where my first instinct put it.

Aether:

On the left is 'Edge of Night' BL cross roving from Desired Haven Farm and it is a VERY generous sample in some of my favorie colors. On the right is recycled carded sari silk from WC Mercantile. I should have pulled it out of the bag for the photo but I assure you it is 10x as beautiful in person.

Earth:

Ok starting in the top left corner is one of my favorites in the whole box. It is a generous Foxyie Batt from The Fox Hop and it is a beautiful blend of wool, angelina, seacell, and rayon bamboo. It is super soft and the angelina fiber is coppery and so it looks almost as if it has embers or sparks in it when you move it. Directly below that is a bag of Gaia Green Tea from Goddess Tea. I will be drinking it today. To the right is a wool, milk, alpaca blend in "terra" colorway from The Fuzzy Bunny this is another one of my favorites because the color is so rich. On the top, far right is another from Sandy's Palette in 'Good Green Earth' colorway of gray corriedale that has been overdyed. The bottom row from left is: 'Captain Planet' blended batt from Crafty Puppy Lover - this one totally took me on a trip down memory lane. Center bottom is 'Moon Rock' Tumbleweeds Carded Batt from Desert Garden also one of my top favorites. I choose to put this in earth because it was 'rock' though it could go in aether as well since the moon makes me think of fairies. Last but not least on the bottom right is "Spring Fields" BFL from Hippie Penguin Fibers. Both the bright color and the shape of the sample remind me of a Troll (If you don't remember Trolls you probably were not a child of the 80's).

Oh and this pattern belonged with the water category but I forgot to put it in the pile, so it get's its own picture...written by Michelle over at Fickle Knitter:I was chatting with Brian and Andrew last night and just could not let that fiber just sit there. So I reached over and grabbed my spindle and plunged my hand into the box. It came up with this:That would be the Captain Planet batt. I am enjoying the color change but have been having the theme song run through my head ever since.

Ok I am off to spin...and maybe eat something...either way fiber will be involved.

Stuff I've been doing this week

So a while ago I made a hat for Jake and he really liked it but did not like wearing it. Originally it was way to big so I frogged it and cast back on with fewer stitches...making it too small. It's cute and it sorta fits but it's a stretch.

It does however fit Abby perfectly and she loves it to the point that she screamed and had a fit the last time I tried to put it on Jacob. So now it's Not Jake's Hat.I think the best part is that the ear ties are long enough they come to her knees with the tassels on them. It is really cute.

I finished up the yarn I was spinning on the Turkish and finally got started knitting the scarf I have been eyeing for a while. Here it is, almost done (keep in mind it is not blocked yet so it will look even better after that happens).While I was on Orcas with the kids I brought my spinning wheel and finallly started spinning the Faukland fiber I bought from Jeannie. It was a real challenge to spin worsted after having spun laceweight but I think I got fairly close. If anything it is a little chunkier than I planned but it will still make a fun sweater for Abby.The first fiber braid is all spun and plyed. One more to go. I think it's a total of 8oz.

I also finally got my ass in gear and ripped back the socks I made for Brandi for Christmas (they were too long). and got them sorted out. Hopefully they fit now. If not I am just starting from scratch.

Ok, so we all know I need a new hobby like I need a hole in the head but....

At the monthly spinning guild meeting one of the ladies was giving out free weaving yarn - the only catch was that she wanted to see something woven with it by I think June...Well I have had a loom in my craft closet for about 6 years now and have never taken it out of the box. I figured that if the yarn was free and the loom was free, I really didn't have anything to lose. So I checked out a book on Rigid Heddle Weaving from the guild library and brought it home. That was Tuesday night. By midmorning Wednesday I learned that I needed a way to wind my warp. Since I don't have a warping board I improvised:The only complaint I would have about the Tinker Toy method is that now they make the darned things out of plastic (great if you need to block your yarn...)and so the 'dowels' started to bend a little as I got close to the top (wouldn't have happened if I wasn't using as much tension) which caused the warp to be slightly shorter on one end - live and learn. Next time I am definitely using the single post warping method.
By Wednesday evening this is what I had after teaching myself to warp the loom and making myself some shuttles out of cardboard:

Last night I pulled this off of the loom:This morning I finished tying the warp threads. In about a week I have made a sampler. It is ugly as I am not hot on the color choice but it was free, what can I say. I tried out a few things and am glad to be over the initial learning curve. Here is a closeup of a couple of things I tried:
Now it's all about fine tuning. Next up will be a plaid scarf. We'll see how that goes.
I also learned about halfway through that the cardboard shuttles were simply not cutting it as they were snagging often enough to be so irritating I didn't want to weave. So I grabbed a balsa wood stick and got out the old Xacto knife and sandpaper and made myself some nice (smooth and lightweight) shuttles. I also remembered what a pain in the ass it was threading the heddle with a teensy tiny crochet hook that would only go into the heddle about 1 inch before it got too think not to mention the head being so small it would not work on anything thicker than laceweight yarn. So I made me a heddle hook to:
Ain't I crafty?

Blogging

I have not been blogging a lot lately not because I don't have stuff to blog about but more like I feel I need to be more 'together' about it. It is a public forum after all (even if I have no real audience). I guess I get caught up feeling like I need to be organized and have nice pic's like Alexis or witty like Stephanie or funny like Franklin.
I am not really any of those things (at least not consistantly) and I don't really want this to be random stream of consciousness crap either.
I realize I do this more for me than anyone else and that really should be enough for me to go ahead and just throw it in here as I will but another part of me wants to have followers and that I need to 'dress it up' for anyone that might happen along.
Soooo I dunno what I am gonna do about it. I guess I'll try to get my crap together more often but who knows...

Time flies

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I posted. This week (and weekend) went by really fast.

Craft stuff:
I have been spinning on my Turkish some more and last I posted I had 2 completed hanks. As of this morning I have 3 complete hanks and another cop of singles almost done. Before I go to bed tonight I hope to have finished plying and setting this yarn (hopefully it will be the last hank - I am enjoying the spinning but I am really ready to start knitting with it).
I also finished the body of one of my teddy bears and now I have to stuff it and call my friend to come and pick it up.

Food stuff: We tried a new recipe this week (on Wednesday) - Brian made butter chicken wich is an indian dish made with onions, tomato sauce, diced tomato, a bit of cream, roast chicken and some spices (those are just the basics) all together in a sauce and served over basmati rice.
On Thurday Andrew and Eldon came over and Andrew cooked - he had some left over smoked Turkey and made us enchilada's it was quite good.
On Friday Brian made hollandaise sauce and we had eggs benedict with crab instead of ham - it was fabulous. Totally worth the time to make the sauce from scratch and shell the crab. The kids did not have any crab (shellfish, young kids, yada yada) but they seemed to enjoy it also.

Family stuff:
On Friday Jacob went with Julie and Ron for his weekly Grandpa Day. Normally it's on Thursdays but Julie had Friday off and wanted to spend some time with him too. They also had Eve (Jake's cousin) so the kids got to play together. Fridays are the start of Brian's weekend as well (damn economy...4 day weeks for quite a while, but he still has a job thank god and he gets to spend more time with the kids). So we puttered around the house until after Abby woke up from her nap and headed to Red Robin for lunch (gift certificate from Christmas - it only cost us like 10 bucks out of pocket). Then we thought it would be fun to take Abby to the 'baby animal playground' at the mall. So we wandered in there and let her run around. This place is really great for the smaller toddlers out there. All soft and cushy but still firm enough to climb on. Then we wandered into Victoria Secret and I ended up buying a new bra. I am so happy I did - I forgot how comfortable VS bras are (they damn well better be for 40+ bucks a pop). Then Brian went and picked up the tabs for his truck and we met at the grocery store to pick up stuff for dinner.
On Saturday we woke up and were hanging around the bedroom with the kids and Brian asked what I wanted to do for the day. I said, "I don't know, it looks like a really nice day, let's do something with the kids, like NW Trek or something." After a few minutes in his office (at the computer I assume) he came in and said "ok, let's go. They open at 9:30, lets try to leave the house by 9" I am thinking 'awesome!!!' So I got the kids ready to go and then I made a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and cheese with some english muffins. 20 minutes later we were there. Now I had never been to NW Trek so I didn't really know what it was going to be like and I had a ton of fun. First we saw a golden eagle, and through the trees we saw the bald eagle on our way to the tram station. While waiting for the tram Jake kinda freaked out and decided he didn't want to go because "the moose has big eyes" (which I thought was weird because he has never seen a moose before). We told him that he would get to see a squirrel if he went on the 'bus-train' After we started seeing animals he started to get less afraid and more excited when he realized they couldn't hurt him. Let's see we saw: Moose, Bison, Elk, Mountain Goats, Big Horned Sheep, Deer, Swans, Geese and Duck. I may be missing some but I think that is most of it. We got really lucky - because these animals are basically free-roaming in a natural habitat they are not always close enough to the road to see...Brian said he has been on the tram and only seen 1 or 2 things. The tour lasts a full hour and by the time we were done Abby was asleep and Jake was starting to get a little cranky. We plopped them in the stroller and went to see the animals in 'exibits.' The first one we saw was the black bear - at wich point I dropped the camera, breaking it - so that is why no pics (the brand new one we got for Christmas).*
I was surprised that the animals were not behind glass, or even a fence. You stood in the covered viewing area and looked into the fenced habitats. I have only been that close to a bear once in my life, and last time it was NOT FUN - we were just getting out of the car at my Grandpa's house in Glacier National Park. Needless to stay we all got back in the car and waited until Grandpa fired the gun a few times (not at the bear - we were in a park) and it went away. Also a black bear now that I think about it. Anyway the ony thing between you and the bears is a ditch and a single line of electric fence on their side of the ditch. After the black bear was the grizzly bears. Large and impressive - reminds me of an old joke: "how do you know if you are being chased by a black bear or a grizzly bear? - The black bear will climb the tree - the grizzly bear will knock it over" (ba-dum-cha!)
After the bears we say gray wolf, red fox, and coyotes - they were RIGHT there only yards away. it was really neat. Then there were the bobcat, cougar and lynx. Holy crap those cougar were HUGE! there were two of them and for obvious reasons the viewing area was elevated much higher and the 'ditch' was actually a rather wide, deep moat (cougars can jumb 20 feet vertical). I am fairly certain there was no way they could jump that high from floating in the water.
From there we saw the smaller wetland animals - raccoon, rover otter, beaver, wolverine, porcupine, skunk, badger, and fisher (I had never heard of nor seen a fisher before - really cute little things). Then we saw the barn owls, horned owls and snowy owl and headed to lunch. The cafe had a lodge type setting - the booths were wood and it had high open rafters and a nice large fire place with a fire blazing. It was great - we picked the booth closest to the fire and had a darned good lunch before heading back to the van. Jake fell asleep before we were out of the park driveway. We got home and put the kids down for naps (I had one too - all that walkng made me tired).
So that was our weekend so far. It was a ton of fun...now I have to go do laundry and pack some bags because the kids and I are headed up to Orcas for the week tomorrow.

*camera fixed now...no worries

Some Productivity

I have been rather addicted to my little turkish drop spindle. Ron (Brian's step-dad) noticed and made me a couple more! I am impressed and I am ready to start spinning on them...For now I don't have pics but I'll take some soon.

Also I finished the singles on my second skein of the alpaca on Friday and yesterday I plyed and set the twist so this morning I have more yarn! I have also decided what I am going to do with it...I will be making a lacy scarf by Nancy Bush. The pattern is called A Stork's Nest Scarf and it can be found in the Knititing Traditions special that was recently put out by Interweave Press.

I have been really inspired by Nacy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia that I got for Christmas and will be knitting several of the patterns from there as soon as I finish the Fountain Pen Shawl that I am working on for Julie. I had set is aside for a while and getting this book has really inspired me to work on it again.

I also decided to make some socks for Abby with the yarn leftover from my Soxual Persuasion socks...I am using the same pattern with one less pattern repeat so they are 40 stitches around instead of 60. They should fit her just right.

Lots of stuff because I'm catching up.

Things I've recently learned:

1. WinCo has fabulous quality meats.

2. I can use my drop spindle while simultaneously making tea and pouring cereal.

3. When a toddler is having a tantrum and slamming her hand on her highchair tray - she can cause it to 'rain' macaroni and cheese in brief spurts.

4. Macaroni and cheese sticks like napalm and dries like concrete.

5. The beans that you and your toddler are making sprout (to see things grow) that 'don't take' ferment.

6. No matter how hard you wish for it dishes don't do themselves (wait, I think I've said that before...ok well, maybe this time I'll learn it for real).

My children have learned:

Abby: How to remove one's diaper but also how to give kisses and to wave/say bye bye

Jacob: Selfishness but also kindness and very early math skills

My husband has learned:

It really is possible to pick up a 7-10 split (go ahead, ask him how he knows) :)

Ok and now for the crafty shit that you are either 1: waiting for or 2: skipping over...

Last Thursday Abby and I attended Madrona Fiber Arts Festival. I wish I could say it was to take one of the incredible classes that were offered, but alas, I was just there to shop (gee darn).Next year I do hope to get into a couple of classes though.

I purchased some fun stuff but did not go totally insane like I did last year.

I bought:

- a set of dpn protectors so I can stop gouging myself everytime I reach into my purse.

- a diz and pull hook for pulling my combed wool into roving (yay!)

- a handy little project bag that I can't believe I payed 22 bucks for when I could have made it myself for 87 cents.(but now I can make myself a couple since I have something to refrence).

- a packet of 'exotic' fibers that include 1/4 each of cashmere/silk, baby alpaca, yak/merino, silk/rayon, baby camel/merino and cashmere. all of these I would consider to be luxury fibers and it's a great way to 'try out' a bunch of fibers without committing to a larger purchase. I can spin these and know if I would like to make the commitment to buy more yak or camel...

- 4.5 oz of alpaca in a sorta white color...it's the natural fiber (no dyes, etc.) and I am really loving how soft it is and how fine it is spinning up on my new...
- Turkish spindle. this was my most expensive purchase but well worth the 45 bucks. It is a Turkish Delight from Jenkins Woodworking and my oh my am I in love! It is lightweight (.9 oz) so I can spin nice and fine. It is made of beautiful Purple heart wood with a maple shaft. Here she is...don't have a name for her yet, but she truly is a delight.

Some in progress singlesand the 2ply center pull ball that you get when you take the spindle apart from inside the ball (neatest trick ever I tell ya!)After I finished plying the singles back on themselves to get that center pull ball I then skeined it onto my swift so I could a: get approximate yardage and b: set the twist in the yarn. However I love this little ball so much I am thinking I might just wind it back onto the spindle rather than using my ballwinder before using it.
Here is the hank drying in the window...hopefully you can see the halo the yarn has:It also has a lovely luster that is not showing up in this photo.

That is the fun I have been having with my new spindle. Just before Sock Wars started I finished plying and setting this yarn:I am currently vacillating between loving it and hating it. Here's why:
1. It was supposed to be a sock yarn and when all was said and done it came out bigger. On the wheel it was fine, but it bloomed so much during the setting process that it is too big to use for socks (or the socks I had envisioned anyway). This bums me out because it is the first bit of spinning I had a complete vision from roving to final product in my head for.
2. The colors gradate from red to orange to yellowish green to blue and back again. I like this but am not sure I love the colors overall. They are kindof cartoony. I think half of you were lying when you said you loved it. Now keep in mind when it's knit up the red won't fall next to the blue or green so forth...it will progress from one color to the next.
3. It turned out super soft and squishy. would make a lovely sweater but there is certainly not enough yarn here for that (and then there is the color issue)...
Anyway so that is that.

Beyond the spinning has been the knitting. More socks. Shocker I am sure. I am halfway through the 2nd pair for Iron Knitter. I am officially 'out' of the competition because I did not finish the whole pair on time, but I will continue to particpate in subsequent rounds for fun. So here is the first finished sock - first from the front/top with the vine/leaf pattern:
And from the side with the diamond pattern:This is the first time I worked a picot edge (the top of the sock) and I really like the way it works...I need to figure out how to turn the hem as I go though because I am really not in love with finishing the sock and then having more finishing up to do. I kinda like that once you are done grafting and weaving in the end you can wear 'em out the door.
This pattern is called Wishing for Spring and can be purchased via Ravelry. I will say though that I did find numerous mistakes in the pattern and hopefully some of them are fixed by the time the pattern is published.

What? I've been busy.

Knitting that is.

I have been in Sock Wars...knitting like mad I tell you. I have knit 3 socks (plus 2inches) in the last 15 days. For me that is quit a lot at once. Not to mention the first of those socks was a size 10 (so a big sock). It was for my 'target' in sock wars. Basically the game is like 'assassins' - You are assigned a target and try to 'kill' (in this case knit and mail a pair of socks) before your assassin kills you. I did not finish my socks before receiving my 'death socks' in the mail. So I wrapped them off and sent them to my assassin who is now knitting them for my target. Lots of fun but I picked a difficult pattern and it went much slower than I anticipated. A lot of it comes down to luck (how fast your assassin's assassin knits, how slow is the postal service, etc.) but either way I am dead.

The second part of the competition is called Iron Knitter. The game basically goes like this: at a certain time a clue sheet is released. once you solve all of the clues and email your answers back to the "Supreme Commander" she sends you the sock pattern. Then you knit that pattern as fast as you can. The first 90 % of players to finish move on to round two. Round 2 will begin tomorrow with another clue sheet to be released around 1pm EST (10am my time) and then an unknown at this point percent of players will move to round 3.

What I have learned thus far from this competition is that I am much slower knitter than I originally thought. I am going to have to knit faster if I want to stay in th e competition for much longer.

Once I finished my Iron Knitter socks (my new favorite socks ever!) I finished up some spinning.

I'll try and get some more pics up soon. No garuntee's when that will be since the competition rev's back up again soon!

Tub O Yarn

Things I've learned from this little adventure:
I have a lot of yarn
I have room for more yarn
That is not all of my yarn
In a pinch I can use one of our two tubs for yarn storage and have tons of room for more
Wool is cozy warm
My husband has a great sense of humor and I am glad he indulges me on occasion.


Yes, that is yarn in the wine glass.
Am I in my birthday suit? I'll never tell.
The scary thing is, that is only yarn, it doesn't even begin to touch my unspun fiber stash.

Computers and Socks

My computer decided to be a brat for a while there during which I could either have A)internet connectivity or B)color. After several fix attempts including trying several restore points and preparing to completely wipe the hard drive, my darling husband fixed the stupid thing by wiping only my windows profile and creating a new one. Very little was lost in the process and all pics were backed up thank goodness. But it works again!

In other news Sock Wars V is in full swing and I am on my way! This particular pattern is a bit slow going but I am loving how it looks. Here is my progress thus far:

Teaching a new knitter

On Wednesday my friend Andrew and his son Eldon came over to hang out and help me do a few things around the house (Thank you Andrew!) since I have been avoiding breaking down all of my cardboard boxes for some time (there were a lot both from the move and Christmas). Anyway Eldon in the past has expressed and intrest in both spinning and knitting. I have sat with him at the wheel before and we made him some yarn that we dyed with kool aid. He was pretty jazzed about it. I have no idea if he still has it or not, 5 year olds are kinda funny like that.

Anyway when they were over he wanted to spin and knit. I was not prepared to get out the wheel and my spindle making tools are sorta buried right now. Sooo knitting it was. After much debate on what to knit (hat, scarf, or washcloth) he decided on a washcloth. So I dug out some cotton and some size six straights.

He promised me that he would sit and listen (difficult for him to do - he is a very high energy 5 year old) and he promised me that if he got frustrated he would not just have a fit and decide he didn't want to do it anymore but ask for help (also difficult for a 5 year old to do).

We sat down and I cast on 25 stitches for him. He watched and thought that was pretty cool. Then I knit the first row for him and on Every. Single. Stitch. had him watch and listen to what I was doing. I couldn't remember exactly how the knitting rhyme goes so I improvised and taught him:

In through the front door,

Around the back,

In through the window,

Off jumps Jack.

About halfway through the stitches I had him recite the poem as I formed the stitches (and wouldn't do that part of the stitch until he told me that part of the rhyme).

After I finished the first row we knit the second row together (both of our hands on the needles, my hands over his for guidance, but not for control, just to keep stitches from falling off the needles and helping remember wich way to wrap the yarn around the needle).

That row was really tight so I knit the next row for him to save on a bit of frustration (trying to knit through too tight stitches can be a major pain even when you are familiar with how to knit).

The 4th row I knit the first stitch and he was on his own from there. He did a fabulous job and got through about 3/4 of the row before he was overtired and having some growing pains in his knees so focus was really out of the picture at that point.

I am still amazed that he sat there all by himself and only asked for help twice (putting stitches back on the needle). I have never seen Eldon so still and focused for so long with something that was not on the television.

Here is the little man in action - I don't think he even knew he had his picture taken:

What I got goin' on

Knitting:

Scarf in linen stitch from my handspun.

Lace shawl.

Simplicity socks.

and of course the new obsession.

Spinning:On the wheel some nice roving that will become some nifty color shifting socks

On the spindles I have:

some pinkish/lavenderish silk
Some merino/silk
and some more merino/silk
Toddler Stuff:Abby's newest words: Uh-oh. Thank You. (bringing her total vocabulary to about 3 words besides momma, dada, and Jacob) The other word is Down.

Jacob's newest words: Fabulous. Shit (only once. Mom's fault). Delicious. Impossible. Dork Fish (repeatedly. Dad's fault). Tool (not the hammer kind. also Dad's fault). Adorable (looking at pictures of when we brought Abby home). Startled. Privacy. Herbivore. Pteranodon. Tyrannosaurus.

Which leads me to his imagination. I had dinner with a Pteranodon, a Tyrannosaurus, a dog, a duck, a cat, a bear, an owl and a goose all in one sitting and at one point I was a Pteranadon and a bear.

Goals:

Not so much into the resolution thing but there are a few things I would like to do this year and see no reason not to.

1. I would like to finish a few quilts I have in the works

2. I would like to finish a few bears I have in the works. Maybe make a few more.

3. I would like to get to a farmers market and sell a few things.

4. I would like to get my tummy into shape. I am by no means overweight but I have a bit of a belly from having the kids and it bothers me so I am going to try to fix it.

5. I would like to train myself to keep up with the housework so that I am free to do things like spin and quilt and knit without either a: feeling guilty or b: doing 2 hours of housework first. You'd think I'd have figured out by now that wishing for it won't make the laundry and dishes done and ignoring it won't make it go away.

6. I would like to try to be more social. I need to get out and make it to knitting on Fridays and spinning once a month. Not that hard, I just need to DO it. Besides getting out more will probably improve my mental health too.

Next up: teaching a new knitter.

And We're Back

So yes, I did get my laundry mostly done, thanks for asking. Did it without starting a bunny.

Got the living room cleaned too, and I have made progress in the kitchen as well as the library/dining room...

Until. Well, until my son wouldn't nap. So I got him up and brought him downstairs to play. He then informed me 'my have a bead in my nose.' Shit. We've been down this road before. It costs about 400 bucks.

I got a flashlight to check it out and sure enough itwas way up there. Tried the 'plug and blow' that had been reccommended by our pediatrician (with your finger plug the unobstructed nostril, cover mouth with yours and blow hopefully disloging offending item). This worked great when he had the peas up his nose but if you try it be prepare for snot on your face and possibly vomiting if you get air in the stomach (if they are big enough you can have them take a full breath and hold it - that seemed to help).

After 3 blows no dice. well shit. now what, the damn thing won't decompose so it HAS to come out.

I go and grab the tweezers and the bulb syringe. Until now Jake was very cooperative but now he didn't want to have anything to do with me getting the bead out.

It was kicking and screaming all the way but after a couple of failed attempts with the bulb syringe and knowing that it was too dangerous to try the tweezers (squirmy fighting fitting toddler who has not hada nap) we just went back to the plug and blow and it came (flying) out. Thank God the darned thing was in there sideways because otherwise theis wouldn't have worked. The bead is like a donut with large hole in the center that air would have just passed right through and not pushed it from behind.

Now I have two overtired toddlers that are whining and screaming...Is it bedtime yet? Oh I guess I need to make them dinner first.
I wasn't going to start another bunny, but I need something to take the edge off...

Meet My New Obsession

Sooo here they are...the little objects of my attention.

Meet:

Bruno

Humphrey

Ginger and Mary (twins) Hey look - Mary is waving at you!

Please excuse the messy counter in the backround...mostly groceries that need to be put away, some lace knitting and, well, nevermind just forget about the mess and imagine a professional backround.
At first I though, I'll make one every day for the entire year! then I realized I wouldn't be able to knit anything else so I have settled on one a week for the year. So far I have January's lot done and this way I am ahead for now...wich is good since I will need all of my knitting time for Sock Wars very soon.
As I was making the last one up (Bruno is the new kid) I thought, Ok, I'm over it, I'm sick of them now. But this morning I am finding myself thinking, just one more...
The largest ones are 5 inches long (from tip of nose to end of fluffy tail). Bruno is the smallest at 3inches and he was a little too fussy to sew up so I think when I do more out of sock yarn I'll hole 2 strands together lest I go nuts and my eyesight craps out on me.
I am off to do laundry...mabye I'll start another bunny. I don't know yet.

Knitting for the New Year.

See when it comes to knitting and crafting things I kinda go on these obsessive binges...like I love the little keychain socks - I have made 8 or so and I am still not sick of them. Those are small and fast probably won't tire of them. There was the time that I made 4 baby sweaters in a row. I am on a sock kick too. There are my sewn teddy bears (still making them but slowed way down on those) and the snakes too. Oh and the name pillows. Love those.
Anyway I have a new obsession. I'll share it with ya'll when I get some pics taken. Maybe today, we'll see.

Recovery

So we are home from Orcas and starting to get a handle on things. I finished the Christmas socks with and hour to spare...think I have some pics somewhere...I'll post those later.
The kids made out like bandits and we probably spent 2-3x more than we needed to. I got a ton of spinning fiber and some yarn and some new spinning/knitting books.
Got the tree taken down last night and all of the needles vacuumed up. Now I just need to take down the outside lights and I can put away Christmas until next - I mean this year! Yikes Welcome to 2010. Hope it's a wonderful year.
I think I'll go and do my dishes so I can start the year off with a respectably clean house.