knitmeister

Handspun Mittens!

See that little nubbin' of yarn at the top of the picture?  That's all that was left of my navajo plied yarn these were knit from.  Just in case I might run out, I contacted Dancing Leaf Farm last night to make sure they still had some of this roving and she did, but I managed to eek by on what I had.  I must say this was really very nice wool.  The colors are so deep and rich, and there wasn't even a teency bit of bleeding when I soaked the finished mittens. 

All Choked Up

Yesterday I went to the grocery store to pick up some things for dinner.  I bought some cilantro to make some homemade salsa and when I went to tear one of those plastic bags off the reel I somehow managed to suck some of my own saliva (I know, gross!) down into my lungs and I went into a coughing fit like I've never had before in my life.  My body wouldn't let me breathe back in and the result was me standing there sucking for air and trying to clear my lungs at the same time.  Meanwhile two suburban ladies stood no more than four feet away from me talking away like nothing was going on.  Finally a nice lady came over to offer assistance and by then I was starting to recover, she made me laugh when she said "That usually happens to me when I have a cocktail in my hand."  I replied that I wish I had one right then!  It basically ruined the rest of the day because I had a headache and a stomach ache, so I went home and put on my PJ's and moped around the house.  Just now I notice I have a broken blood vessel in my right eye.  I didn't even know until my next door neighbor pointed it out to me.

Overheard at Home Depot this afternoon, from an employee of the store standing right outside the front door talking on her cell phone "I'm like, abusing laxatives and everything!".  It amazes me the things people will say on their cell phones when they're out in public and they think nobody is listening....

Quick show and tell...

Recognize the coil from last weeks post?  A couple people asked about what it might look like knitted up and so my curiosity was really tweaked.  I knew I didn't have much to work with and I briefly thought of wrist warmers but then I remembered the 3-ply I had spun up from the same singles that I made the coil from.  I may have enough for full-on mittens, but I'm going to stop this mitt at this stage and start the second one just to make sure I don't run out.  They may end up being fingerless mitts if the yarn gives out.  Anyhoo, the cuff is a strand of the coil and a strand of the 3-ply held together, knit on 10.5's in reverse stockinette.  For the hand I switched to 1's and increased to accommodate for the smaller gauge.  I am in love with them.  I can't put them down and I'm totally shirking my house duties this morning because of it.

We had a blast in Omaha this past weekend.  We visited our friends Jim and Emily, and their daughter Anna, and dogger Tucker.  We hung out, we ate, we drank, and we went shopping, my favorite pastime!  I found a couple really cute skirts on sale which are just a tad small so a good incentive for my continued weight loss.  I also got to visit String of Purls which just happened to be right around the corner from Jim and Emily's neighborhood.  They were very nice and helpful and I found some beautiful things to bring home with me.  On the way home we swung by Personal Threads and got there at about 3:15 and I was so disappointed that they were CLOSED!  WTF?  at 3:00 on a Saturday afternoon?  Too bad because I was in the mood to drop a couple hundies on yarn.

Oh well, so what that it's after 3 p.m. and I'm still in my pj's and haven't had a comb through my hair yet today.  I had the urge to spin, so that's what I did. 

This was on top of the acquisition pile, so that's what I started with this morning...

The roving came from sprouty25 on Etsy, it's hand dyed corriedale in the Neapolitan colorway.  I plied it with some variegated sewing thread for a boucle texture.

I had this single on the bobbin on my Jensen for a months, so I finished up spinning the rest of the roving and then tried my hand at the coiling technique on my Ashford Country Spinner.  It's a little rough(as in not perfect), but I like the general idea of it.  It sure uses up the singles fast!  I used sewing thread for the core.  Next time I think I'll try something a little stronger, such as crochet cotton because I had a couple breaks along the way.

The roving came from dancingleaffarm on Etsy, it's rainbow dyed Merino called Carnival.

I finished this yarn a couple days ago, but since I'm sharing yarns today I might as well include this one.  This is from Blossom's wool I got at Maggie's Farm, in Lawrence KS last year.  I've been working on spinning the singles off and on for months now and finally got it all spun up and plied this week.  There is almost 1800 yards here!  I plan on a cabled cardigan from this yarn, haven't settled on a pattern yet though.

Yay, Blossom!

Never Fly on Friday the 13th

Last Friday I set the alarm for 3:00 a.m. to arise early enough to get dressed and drive to KCI to make my 6:40 a.m. flight to Memphis and a connecting flight to  Mt. Carmel, Il. for my Aunt Jo and Uncle Ed's 50th Wedding Anniversary.  Aunt Jo is my Dad's only sibling, his half sister.  I will spare you the gory details of my commute but let's just say my brother, who refused to fly, arrived at Aunt Jo's house 20 minutes after I did at about 6:30 p.m.   My day involved cancelled flights, delayed flights, stand-by,  airline changes, destination changes, gate changes, screaming babies, and bumpy rides, all on about three and a half hours of sleep.

When I got there though, I got to sleep in my Grandma's bed....

This picture of my Grandma is on the wall in this room...Her name was Myrtle.  Her sister, my Aunt Georgie, is the one who taught me to knit.  Aunt Georgie's daughter, my Aunt Billie, was supposed to be at the party Saturday but couldn't make it.  I so had hoped to be able to tell her about how big a part of my life knitting has become.

Uncle Ed bought Aunt Jo a new toy for their anniversary...here is a video of them arriving at the party.

My Aunt and Uncle have four children, my cousins Jody, Kim, Mike, and Doug.  Between them there are ten grandchildren.  I hadn't seen some of them in over ten years and  I was meeting others for the first time.

There are some good genes in this family, every single one of them is good looking! 

I'm happy to say the trip home was much easier, no flight changes and only a few bumps on the approach to KCI thanks to a thunderstorm in Platte and Clay counties.  One plus to my delay on Friday is the fact that I almost completed an entire sock by the time I arrived in Mt. Carmel and I didn't start it until I got to KCI before my flight out.  Gotta love that six-ply yarn! It makes for some fast sock knitting...pictures to come.

Find of the Month - June

It's a Swiss music box. The wind-up mechanism plays the tune and also spins the drive wheel and bobbin. I love it even more than the spinning wheel lamp! The evil lamp shop called and left a message before I even got home that my lamp was fixed and ready to pick up. Hmmm. Have to go pick it up today and I hope that awful woman isn't there. yech.

***Update*** She was there, and she was nice as could be.  Go figure.  Guess she was just having a bad day.

Pardon me while I vent...

but I have to get this off my chest or I think I will explode.  This morning I came into my office and the new shade on my little spinning wheel lamp is askew.  When I bought the shade at the evil lamp shop they installed a harp that goes around the bulb and holds the shade up.  The harp was evidently not secure and had slid down the post.  So, I removed the shade and put the lamp in the car and cheerfully toddled off to have them fix it.  Now keep in mind that at this point I was NOT mad and did not go into the store with a bad attitude, but lemme tell you, I LEFT with one...

The guy that helped me the first time around was not there, so this brusque battleaxe waits on me.  I explain to her what has happened and she asked me if I have my original ticket and I say no.  "Do I remember who helped me?"  No, but it was a guy, a younger guy.  "That is Clinton." O.K.  So, she fiddles with it a little bit and then pulls out a service ticket and asks me my name and phone number.  My name is not common and so I always spell it and include a word because z's and c's kind of sound the same.  Things went fine until I said the third letter of my last name, which is "c", and I said "as in "cat".  She writes down a "p".   (How in the hell do you get a "p" out of what I said lady?)  Then I spelled my first name, and then pronounced it.  She wrote down K-i-r-a.  It's spelled K-y-r-a.  When I point out the errors she turns and goes into the back and gets the white-out.  Keep in mind this entire time I get the distinct feeling she is annoyed with me, like I was wasting her time..  (Because I didn't have my ticket? Because I have a weird name she can't spell? I don't know why...) She hands me the claim ticket and says to keep it because she'll need it when I come back for the lamp.  I ask if she can give me any idea how long and she says "we'll call you".  Ummm, that like doesn't answer my damn question!!! and I said ooooo-k, and then she says "a couple days".  So about that time the guy that helped me the first time walks in with his food and I say "There he is!" and "Hey, my shade fell off!" kind of kidding around...and she looks at me and says " He is at lunch right now." very gruffly...Me? I said "What, I can't talk to him when he's at lunch?" so she steps back and waves her arm in his direction and says "There he is, talk to him".  I picked up my purse and my keys and turned around and walked out.  About the time I got to my car I realized I didn't have my lamp.  Shit.  I meant to take it AND my purse and storm out.  She was so rude.  She has no business waiting on the public.

THEN I thought I'd make myself a little happier with a Fresco Bean Burrito at Taco Bell but OH NO....NO Fresco nothing for two to three weeks because the salmonella/tomato issue.  That really bites.  It's one of my only fast food fall backs that I can have on Weight Watchers.  Wah!  This day is just totally sucking so far.

The Life of Riley (or rather...Petey)

Man, what a moose! 

I'm on the fence.

When I went to the evil lamp shop the other day, I had to park a half block away and walk past a shoe store.  Of course I had to walk inside and see what was "on sale".....nothing of interest to me 'cept these wacky patchwork clogs that most decidedly were NOT on sale.  They're green, they're comfy and wacky  and I kinda like them.  Are they too "court jester" or "Huggy Bear"?  I'm a little afraid to show them to Chip.....

There is always hope...(there's no place like home).

My next door neighbor, Stacy, spent part of this past week with some of her girlfriends at the lake.  Halfway through the week her husband asked me if I had seen one of their cats, Cassidy.  No....Cassidy never ventures into my yard because of my dogs.  Cassidy has been suffering from seizures for several months now.  They get worse and worse and their family had been considering taking her to the vet to have her put to sleep, then she disappeared this week.  Stacy returned late Thursday and started searching for Cassidy around the construction equipment in our street (from the street resurfacing).  I had checked in our yard on the off chance she wandered in, but I found nothing.  Tonight Stacy came over to have a glass of wine in the evening, and our other neighbor Lori joined us for a bit, when Stacy asked Lori in passing if she had seen Cassidy, she said "Yes!" on Tuesday Cassy was lounging on her back deck under the barbecue grill.  Lori has a large deck that has a hidey hole entrance on one side that critters can get under, so we went over there and started calling for Cassy, but no sign of her.  Heartbroken and not knowing what has happened to a pet is agonizing.  Stacy and I went back to my patio and talked about when we lost our Jack Russell, Tommy a few years ago.  We had a happy ending when we made one last pass in the van where we last saw him and he appeared out of nowhere.  Not one minute later Lori's guest, Melissa came to the fence with a bedraggled little orange tabby in her arms.  It was Cassidy!!!!  She had evidently been hiding under Lori's deck ALL WEEK!  She has been missing since Monday, and today is Saturday.  They rushed her home and provided food and water and that little kitty was thirsty, poor little thing!!! 

I just called to check on her and she's doing fine, eating and drinking and getting lots of attention.  What a relief!!  I have been thinking about Cassy all week, worrying and hoping she would turn up.  whew...big whew...