Sign o' the Times and Other Stuff

So, today DH and I took Baby M for her first sit-down with Santa Claus. It happened by accident, actually; DH went to his aikido class in the morning and Baby M and I went along for the ride. She and I headed over to the bookstore in the mall while DH was in class, and that's where we saw Santa. (Don't get me started on how I think it's criminal the way we've pushed Christmas prep all the way to back before Halloween. I was just grateful that the line was short.) Anyway, once DH's class was over, he joined us over at the mall and we lined up to wait for Santa.

As it happened, Santa was just finishing up his lunch break when we got on line (hey, everybody's gotta eat, even jolly ol' St. Nick -- keeping track of every kid in the world is hungry work). As he walked back to his throne, accompanied by a chorus of ooohs and aaahs from the assembled children, he paused to give a high-five here and a handshake there, and at one point he stopped and spoke with one mother for a good couple of minutes. Now, let me just say, this was no college-kid Santa with a fake beard and a pillow under his Santa suit. This Santa was the real deal: a genuine white beard and long-ish white hair that he had clearly curled into ringlets himself, and a belly that left hardly a kid's worth of space on his lap when he sat. The man obviously had been doing this for years and relished his role as the Spirit of Christmas. He spoke with a slight Southern twang and seemed just as happy being there with the kids as they were being with him.

And it was during Santa's chat with the mom three or four spots down the line that the man behind me said, only half under his breath, "OK, Santa, what's the holdup? Let's get it moving here." Merry Christmas, indeed.

Who, you might ask, mouths off to Santa? Sadly, it seems that well-off yuppies who are clearly used to getting everything they want in their stockings is the answer. Though I do wonder, if the punishment for being naughty is a lump of coal in the stocking, what exactly happens if you really piss off the big guy? Does Santa leave you a jack-in-the-box rigged to pop out and slap you in the snoot?

No matter. Except for Scrooge McJerk we all waited our turns with, if not a brimming cupful of holiday cheer, then at least with a modicum of restraint and patience. And it's here that I'd like to publically thank little 5-year-old Juliana, one spot ahead of us on line, who decided to entertain Baby M during the wait. Juliana had a balloon -- a pink balloon -- and with a goodwill that some of the adults nearby could have learned from, she gladly shared it with Baby M. They took turns holding the balloon, tossing it to the ground (the good folks at Nordstrom's, in their wisdom, had attached a plastic weight to the end of the string to prevent an accidental fly-away), holding hands, chasing one another around...it was charming, really. And providential. I cannot imagine the lengths I would have had to go to in order to keep Baby M occupied otherwise. So thank you, Juliana. You have truly helped to make my season bright.

Of course, that just left the minor detail of actually seeing Santa up close and personal-like. Baby M was fine when Santa walked by waving and high-fiving every kid in arm's reach. She was even okay when we walked up to Santa's throne and looked the kindly old elf in the eye. But as soon as I perched her on his knee, she said in a slightly panicked little voice, "Mommy?"

And all holiday heck broke loose.

Kudos to Santa for not jettisoning us both with a swift kick of his boot-clad elfin foot. I told you the man was a pro, clearly as adept at dealing with frantic kids as with frazzled parents. And much as I didn't believe I was either frantic or frazzled at the time, looking back on it I can now see I was a teeny bit -- or more -- of both. (Ohmygod, we're holding up the line. Holding up the line! Is Yuppie Dad back there right now muttering, "Get the lead out"? How long will it take before aggrieved parents started pelting us with fake snowballs and tinsel?)

I picture good ol' Santa in his life the other 11 months of the year. I see him as a 911 dispatcher, calmly explaining to a panic-stricken caller how to tie a tourniquet or correctly pack up a severed finger so it can be reattached later. And the caller would listen and obey, because you just don't backtalk Santa.

"Now listen to me, Mom." Not unkind; firm but gentle, and with that charming twanginess. Maybe Santa's from the South Pole instead of the North...?

"You're going to put this knee up here. Put her right out on the end of your knee and turn sideways. I won't even touch her; I'll just be back here and you'll be out of the way for the photo."

This would have been a brilliant plan had I had a spatula to scrape Baby M off my neck, where she was clinging like a kudzu vine. Several tries (and worried thoughts about Yuppie Dad and his under-the-breath muttering) later and I finally said, "Just take the photo with me in it."

Santa had a plan for that, too. Of course, at this point I was far too frazzled to follow him clearly. I am a college professor -- I teach English, for chrissake -- yet it took me three tries before I figured out what he meant when he said, "I want you to hold her with her back to your front." Not my finest moment, I'll admit.

So we now are the proud possessors of 1 5x7 and 4 wallet-sized photos of me smiling apologetically as I perch gingerly on Santa's lap, an utterly miserable-looking Baby M in my arms. Ah, yes. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

*****

And now, as promised, I give you The Meathead:

Coincidence?

I hereby officially dub I *HEART* Huckabees "A Movie that Does Not Suck." And, interestingly enough, it's all about coincidence and existential philosophy and quirky performances by a bunch of actors you wouldn't necessarily think would be up for something quite this offbeat. It kind of reminded me of Being John Malkovich in that way. (Note to John Cusack, who I'm certain, by the way, is reading this right now: You were brilliant in Being John Malkovich. Simply brilliant. Now fire whoever talked you into doing The Ice Harvest and get involved with more scripts like BJM.)

Anyway, I had plenty of time today to think about coincidence and existential philosophy as I sat with DH and Baby M in traffic for THREE HOURS this evening. And I came to the conclusion that it was no coincidence that I'd blithely yammered on this morning about planning on knitting a Meathead and finishing off FIL's glitten plus casting on the second of the pair, all in this one evening. I blogged and bragged; the Knitting Goddess heard. And she has connections. Apparently with the Freeway Faeries.

So I'm going to very quietly and modestly state that while I did not manage my one-night knitting trifecta, I did manage to start -- and finish -- my Meathead. I took some photos but don't dare post them for fear of riling up the Knitting Goddess yet again (plus, I really need natural light to do the color of the hat justice, and at midnight here in upstate NY you just ain't gonna get that). I'll take a couple of more shots outside tomorrow and hopefully have one that's good enough to post both here and on the Meatheads flickr site. I doubt they would pick my hat to appear in the book (yes, this KAL is associated with an upcoming book, and the knitters who participate have the chance of getting their hats professionally photographed and included) because I didn't use the recommended yarn -- Lamb's Pride Bulky, doubled -- but I still love it. I used my sale skein of Debbie Bliss Big Wool in pale green, and it's so deliciously soft and fluffy I can hardly stand it. I especially like how I finished the hat off (but will wait till I have a photo to show instead of trying to describe it now), and even though it goes with absolutely nothing in my wardrobe, I still can't wait to wear it this winter.

And now that it's officially after midnight I think I'll get myself off to bed. Photos in the morning....

Meathead is Here!

No, that's not an All in the Family reference...it's the Meathead Hat Pattern from the KAL over at Stitch Marker. I'm really excited! First, because I've had a ball of Rowan Big Wool for months now -- purchased at 50% off at Gotta Knit! when the summer yarns had come in and they were trying to make some room -- and I've envisioned it as a hat but never known quite which pattern to use...until now. But the real fun of this pattern is the embellishment. I have an idea of what I want to do, but I'm not saying until it's finished. The pattern looks like a super-quick knit, and I have high hopes of doing it all tonight while watching a movie that does not (please, God) suck.

In other knitting news, FIL's first glitten is a finger away from being finished; if the Meathead goes as super-quick as I suspect it will, I might just finish off that glitten tonight, too, and then cast on for the next one, just to keep the dreaded SMS at bay. I finished off another felted bowl (knitted but not yet felted) this afternoon, thereby freeing up my size 15 circs for the Meathead...not like I don't have another pair or three of size 15s or anything, but I decided that no matter how quick a knit this hat is, in order for me to cast on another project, I had to first cast one off.

And in other, other news...I am totally unmotivated to do anything except knit and play with Baby M. Too bad there's another 3 weeks of school left before the end of the semester. Really too bad I also have a 12-15 page paper due on December 9 for the class I'm taking. If I weren't so far along already into this second master's, I'd chuck the whole thing, maybe do an MFA in fiber arts instead (at least I'd enjoy that).

Will close with the sentiment I feel most strongly right about now:

What Is It With Me and Crappy Movies Lately?

Tonight I watched Sideways, which was nominated for all sorts of awards and got all kinds of buzz. Is it me, or does that movie last for about nineteen hours?

I wish I'd gotten nineteen hours worth of knitting done during it, but alas, no. I did manage to finish off the 3 hat bodies pictured in yesterday's post, though. Plus I picked up the thumb stitches on FIL's Christmas glitten and knit about 10 rounds before putting it aside for the night. Still haven't started DH's hat or fingerless mitts; I figure I'll do that once FIL's gift is finished.

DH is so sweet. Tonight he came home from work and asked, "How much was that spinning wheel you wanted?"
"Which one? The five thousand dollar Golding?" I replied. "About five thousand dollars. Why?"
"Oh, nothing. Just...that's the one you'd want if we could afford it, right?"
Now I'm suspicious. "Depends what you mean by afford. Like, if we hit the lottery for a million dollars, I'd buy that wheel."
DH chuckles.
"Did you hit the lottery?" Hey, it was worth a shot.
"No, but they announced bonuses at work today. Supposed to be ten percent."
So, how sweet is that, I ask you. DH all ready to spend his bonus on a ridiculously expensive spinning wheel for me.
"No, sweetie. Not with your bonus money. But, thank you."

Yep, I did find me a good one. And now that I know he'll have some money coming in at the end of the year, I can get him the Christmas present I've been wanting to buy but delaying over since he wouldn't have the space to put it in: an anvil and, if he can pick out the one he wants and I can weasel the information out of him without his suspecting why, a forge. He'll be able to use some of his bonus money to put up a shed for his workshop, and then he'll have the main things he needs to start his smithy.

The question, of course, is where do I hide a 275 pound anvil between now and Christmas?

The Quick and the Darned
















So tonight while watching The Ice Harvest (Note to John Cusack: I love you. I really, really do. You are an inspired actor. You make me laugh; you make me teary-eyed; and I'll never, ever forget you holding up that boom box in Say Anything. But what in the world were you thinking when you made this movie?), I seamed up three more hats for Soaring Eagles. (BTW... thanks, Ren, for jumping on board!) I have three more hat bodies waiting in the wings plus a fourth already cast on the knitting machine. That will bring me to a total of twelve hats plus five bunnies for the cause. I'm actually really enjoying knitting for Soaring Eagles, though you'd think by now I'd be sick of knitting the same hat over and over again. In fact, I think I'm liking it more and more as my little pile of knitwear grows. I also simply can. not. believe. how fast these hats eat up the ol' acrylic. (That could also be due to the ginormous pompoms I insist on plopping down on top of each hat, but whatever.) And I managed to knit about half a felted bowl today while Baby M napped. Between hats and bowls I even joined a funky-cool KAL.

Of course you realize the Knitting Goddess will see this as a perfect opportunity to strike me down for having the nerve to blithely take on so many other projects in the face of holiday knitting. Cue the foreboding music; I feel a smackdown coming on.

TGIW!

One of the (many) nice things about going to work 3 days a week is that TGIF happens on Wednesday. And do I ever need it this week!

Maybe it's just a "yuck" moment for me. It can't help that today's lunch was a handful of chocolate chip cookies and a bunch of Cheetos. And just this morning I was listening to some self-help guru describe how you have to go "THREE-FOR-THREE" -- think about something, feel something, and act on something -- in order to succeed, and there he went and talked about how a client of his was trying to lose weight and had thought about it and even taken action by starting on various diets, but that she never actually lost weight until she got to the root of her "feeling" issues and decided she felt worthy of losing weight, blah, blah, blah. Where, I ask you, does going THREE-FOR-THREE fit in with forgetting your lunch and grabbing whatever's at hand when you're hungry? Maybe the "acting" part? I should have acted on making a damn lunch this morning?

Anyway. The school knitting club meets in 20 minutes -- yes, I am now heading up a school knitting club, and last week (our first meeting) we had maybe 15 students, including 2 men, attend. I have no idea how many, if any, will show this week, but I suppose I'll find out in a few.

My hands and fingers are holding up, although I will need to do something about this finger at some point. (Thanks for your concern, AP and Ren -- I will take it easy, I promise!) And I even finished most of one of FIL's mittens.

That's all the good news. The bad news really isn't "bad" per se, just more of the same "yuck": un-fun errands to take care of, papers to grade, a pain-in-the-a$$ paper to write, schedules to work out, and the disappointing news that I won't be able to teach with my fave co-teacher after all next semester. Top it all off with a grey city day and the fact that I just spent well over an hour fighting with this stupid blog template (don't ask; simply be glad you're not as anal as I am) I've got a case of the blahs.

And what did I hear about yesterday evening? The dollar store near my in-laws' house just got a bunch of "nice yarn" (according to MIL's neighbor). Not good for my Stashalong participation, but what the heck, the least I can do is check it out, right? I mean, if it really IS "nice yarn" there's no sense in letting it languish in an out-of-the-way dollar store, right? And if it's not...well, we'll just find out, now won't we?

P.S.

Oh, OK, and I totally forgot to tell you about this:

Today we saw swimming deer!

Did you folks know that deer can swim? I mean, I guess if I thought about it I'd figure they might be able to swim, but I just never think of deer as swimming creatures is all.

Yet today as DH and Uncle Godfather stood out on the deck, they excitedly called me outside to watch as not one but two deer swam all the way across the lake opposite our house, did a couple of laps parallel to the opposite shore and then hopped out, pretty as you please, and bounded off into the woods.

Was it an exercise thing? Are these deer in training, maybe for the hunting season? Was it just an especially nice day, from a deer perspective, for a dip in the ol' lake?

All I can say is it was quite a sight. I wish I'd had my videocam to catch it all on film.

Swimming deer. Now I've seen everything.

Grosse Pointe Blank

So, here it's midnight -- a minute after, actually, according to my PC -- and I'm sitting here watching Grosse Pointe Blank, groovin' on all the old 80's tunes, waiting for DH and visiting Uncle Godfather to come back from DH's nephew's confirmation party.

And what have I been doing to occupy myself all night, aside from watching cheesy movies?

Knitting, what else.















This is the first "glitten" of a pair from Homespun Handknits, intended for FIL's Christmas present. I must admit, this thing is killing my left wrist. I've been having shooting pains all day and have been reduced to wearing my wrist brace after more than a month spent blissfully brace-free.

Still, I will finish this project -- and others -- before Christmas. I felted more bowls and have decided that while the SWS felts up nicely after only one trip through the washer, the merino definitely needs a second pass. So, that's two more bowls filled with chocolate and wrapped plus two that need a second felting. Two more to knit in merino and one more in SWS and bowls will be done. I'm trying to get these glittens finished up fast so I can start on DH's hat and mitts; and of course, I still need to finish mom's silk stole.

Think I can do it?

Eighteen

That's the number of hats officially recorded as being received by the Soaring Eagles Project as of today. Eighteen hats...and the goal is 400 by December 18!

Not much time. Not much time at all.

So, today I whipped up a hat on the knitting machine. Nothing fancy -- a simple roll-brim hat in sportweight, but the colors (pink/blue/white ombre) are fun, and topped with a pom-pom I think it'll be cute. I figure I can churn out the hat bodies fairly quickly and then do the seaming and pom-pom-ing by hand afterwards.

Of course, simply getting one hat body done with Baby M around was a challenge. She was into everything from the umbrella swift to the knitting machine itself, and it didn't help when she decided to wear the garbage can on her head as a hat (covering her face completely and causing her to blunder about the room in a blind whirl) or when she then decided to put the garbage-can-hat on the dog (necessitating my immediate intervention...the poor dog puts up with a lot, and a garbage can on the head is more than I can reasonably ask her to tolerate).

Christmas knitting is coming along slowly. I finished knitting up another bowl, which only needs to be felted along with the others. One more in SWS to go, and then a couple in Paton's merino for friends and that will be that. The woven scarf for my teenage cousin is coming along and probably will be done the next time I have an hour or so to sit in front of the loom and work on it. Mom's lace stole is still where it was the last time I wrote. I just have no motivation for that project, and I don't even know why. I still have to start DH's knitted stuff (I was hoping to knit him a balaclava, a skullcap and a pair of fingerless mitts...we'll see how well that goes off) and FIL's mittens. I haven't even planned a knitted gift for Baby M yet, although I'm liking the knitted bunnies so well I may just make a big one for her and call it a day (and she'll certainly appreciate it more than clothing at this stage, anyway).

Can't think any more (this cold is really beating me down)...will post more later, when I hopefully will be more motivated....

A Quickie (Woo-Hoo!)

OK, so the title sounds far more exciting than the actual post will be, but this truly will be a quickie. I've been sick since Sunday -- slept 18+ hours Sun night through Mon afternoon and stayed home from work both yesterday and today -- and now that I'm feeling just a touch better there are a million things I need to try to catch up on, starting with school work.

However.... This morning while briefly catching up on email/blog stuff, I stumbled across the Squirl website. This is a place where you can itemize and organize all your collections -- free! NAYY and all that...I'm just passing along the info for anyone, like me, who may be looking for a way to organize the ol' stash a bit.

Anyhoo, I signed up and have started the onerous task of listing all my stash yarns. I've decided that this will be part of my Stashalong committment: to get my stash listed as a way of easily seeing what I own, thereby encouraging myself to knit/weave with that yarn and not go out and buy more. (Or, much more. Can't committ to absolutely no yarn acquisitions till all the stash is worked through...that would just be insane.)

If you want to see what I've listed so far (and it's not nearly the tip of the iceberg, you understand -- just the paltry few skeins I have lying around in the cardboard box by the front door -- and why exactly do I have a cardboard box full of yarn lying by the front door, you ask? Because DH gets testy when the box sits on the dining room table is why), go to Splindarella's Yarn Collection. Once I'm done with the yarn, I think I'll move on to categorizing the fiber. Now all I need are a few days (weeks) to devote to the task!

Burnin' Down the House

Literally.

So, ever since DH and I have lived here -- over seven years now, and where the hell did all that time go, I ask you -- there have been three abandoned hunting cabins on the 100+ acre track of woods across the road from us. Maybe two-three years ago, one of the cabins collapsed from sheer age and decrepitude. Another developed a gaping maw of a hold in its side, possibly from having an ATV run smack through it. And the third...well, this is what the third one looked like at about 7 o'clock this evening.















Here's how the conversation between DH and me went.

DH: I think there's a fire across the road.
Me: Call 911.
DH: I don't know, maybe it's just someone shooting off fireworks.
Me: Someone's shooting off flaming fireworks in the woods across the road from our house?? Call 911!
DH: Maybe someone just wanted to get warm and set a fire in the abandoned cabin....
Me: Call freakin' 911!

The trouble with living in the back end of nowhere in the exurbs is that lots of services that are public and paid for by taxes in the cities -- little things like garbage collection and fire-puttin'-out-tion -- are either private services (hence the monthly shakedown by our trash collectors) or run by volunteers. Hence the response time that had me packing up the baby and getting ready to evac just in case the increasingly worrisome conflagration jumped the road and we had to hightail it to safety.

Let it not be said that when they did arrive, our local firefighters didn't do it right. They must have sent out every engine they had within three towns of us...doubly impressive since these men and women were in all likelihood paged away from a Saturday spent comfortably at home to rush to protect the lives and property of people they don't even know. Seriously, folks, that takes both altruism and bravery to an entirely different level.

So, DH, Baby M and I sat out in the damn-I-can't-believe-winter's-almost-here freezing cold watching the flaming cabin send a plume of sparks and black smoke into the air across the road, and then we retired into the house (amazing how half an hour in the cold outdoors will make you truly appreciate central heating) to eat DH's birthday dinner of BBQ'd steaks (in DH's world, it's never too cold to BBQ) with Junior's carrot-cheesecake for dessert.

Side note: If you've never tried Junior's Cheesecake, run don't walk and get yourself some.

What are you still doing here? I'm serious. Junior's Cheesecake. Now.

For anyone still reading this, I can only assume you either a) are already a fan of Junior's Cheesecake and have a nice, big slice in the fridge ready for eatin' later on, or b) are unable to understand the English language sufficiently. Maybe for you Group B people, if I type it bigger, it'll work.... GO GET SOME JUNIOR'S CHEESECAKE. OK?

Group A folks, let me just tell you, it was a strange mix of emotions watching that little cabin across the road burn down to the ground. On the one hand, I'm relieved; after all, who wants an abandoned building nearby? Abandoned buildings attract all kinds of weirdness and I'm glad not to have that one around any more. On the other hand, that cabin was kinda cute in a falling-down, backwoods, Deliverance-esque kind of way. It was a link to a time when this area wasn't full of brand-new kit houses (like ours) and ex-city-folk (like us); a time when the farm houses really contained farm families, probably ones that built those very same houses with their very own hands. I'm going to miss looking across the road and seeing the greying wood front porch facing out onto the water. It's hard to tell in the dark, but all that seems to be left standing is the stone chimney.

And so passes another tiny piece of history.

I Knew There Was a Reason Why I Charged Up the Camera Battery This Morning

Because look what came in the mail this afternoon:















That's right, folks, it's my very first SP9 package. And I hate to tell all you other SP9ers out there, I somehow managed to get THE best partner of them all. You all may have great partners; you may even have awesome, spectacular, out-of-this-world partners. But I got THE BEST, bar none. Just sayin' is all.

So, lookee what came in my package today.
















Check out that batt! It's actually more like one gigantic, long, jelly-roll of fiber that I folded in half just so you could see how gorgeous the colorway is. It's so beautiful to look at, I don't even think I'll spin it up for awhile...I'll just keep it around to stare at and occasionally pet. Though I'm envisioning a beautiful Navajo-plied DK weight yarn in graduated shades of apricot to saffron to chocolate brown and back again, so I don't know how long the plan to keep this fiber around solely as eye candy will actually last.... :)

Next up:















Now, this is where my partner got just a little bit freaky. How in the world did s/he know that I've been wanting to try Noro for at least a year? I didn't put it on any of my questionnaires (I even went back and checked to make sure), I haven't blogged about it...aside from haunting ebay to see if any ever came up cheap (it hasn't), I don't think I've acted on my Noro urge at all. Yet, here is my partner sending me not one but two skeins of Noro Silk Garden Lite! This yarn is definitely earmarked for me to knit something for myself once the holidays are over. And did you catch the little bag of beaded stitch markers sitting pretty on top of all that Noro? I don't know if my pal made them her/himself (I have a sneaking suspicion s/he might have), but they are beautiful! I can't wait to use them.

And check these out:















How awesome are these wrist warmers?? Again, I never mentioned this anywhere I can think of, but I've been wanting a pair of wrist warmers for months now. I haven't made myself a pair because of all the finger problems I've been having and wanting to "save" my finger for holiday knitting and all. But here again my pal had some sort of psychic flash and handmade (I assume) exactly what I'd wanted -- and so soft, and in such a drop-dead gorgeous color, too! The photo doesn't do this deep, intense, ever-so-slightly orangeish red color justice. As soon as I unwrapped these, I put them on (never mind that today I was wearing a kelly-green sweater and it's still too far from Christmas to claim I'm "dressing for the holidays"), and I've only taken them off to cook dinner since. These are definitely my new, cool, wear-'em-everywhere accessory.

Can you believe there was one thing more in my package? As if all the above weren't more than enough, would you please take a look at the piece de resistance, the pressie that completely blew me out of the water and took my breath away?















A spindle! A stunning, blueish-purple wooden spindle, perfectly balanced, smooth as silk, an absolute joy to spin. Again, my photo doesn't even begin to capture the beauty of this spindle or do it justice. How can I ever thank my partner enough?

I've been doing the happy dance all day long over all my wonderful gifts. Thank you, thank you, Secret Pal. You really are The Best!!

Soaring Eagles Project















So, here's the first of what I hope will be at least a dozen knitted bunnies for the Soaring Eagles Project. If you're looking for some charity knitting, consider Soaring Eagles. Go to the blog, read the stories of these children.... Me, I just couldn't not knit for them.

But back to the bunny...she's a cutie pie, isn't she? She fits perfectly in the palm of my hand, which makes me think she'll be just the right size for a pre-K or kindergarden-aged child to hold. Can you believe this is made entirely out of a single 8"x8" square of stockinette stitch, with just the two little ears added on afterwards?

You can find the free pattern here.

I *HEART* the 80's!



OK, the question here is why? Why did we ever wear spandex leggings with slouchy legwarmers and off-the-shoulder bubble-sweaters in neon colors that made us all look like snowballs on sticks? Who could have possibly profited from the big-hair/bulky-headband look except the Aqua Net company? And who in the world went to all the effort to knit that cropped pink sweater-and-short-shorts combo on the right with the bright-white intarsia hands literally groping the wearer? Not your grandma's knitting is right!

The Week in Review

Ah, Halloween. This year, Baby M went trick-or-treating for the first time. (No, I do not have any photos to post. I am a bad mommy and forgot to bring the digital camera to Grandma and Grandpa's house, so we had to use the "old-fashioned" film camera. Lord knows when I'll see those photos, but let me tell you, Baby M was cuter than cute in her little green froggy costume.) She seemed unfazed by the parade of strange-looking creatures on the streets (the super-warm weather brought the trick-or-treaters out in droves) but didn't show much interest in what was being dropped in her little pumpkin-shaped goodie bucket until she got a little orange bag of pretzels. Those she recognized from her library story hour -- one of the other little girls had brought the pretzel bags in to share with all the kids -- and then...well, then she realized that the stuff in the pumpkin was important. She clung to that bucket all night like it was full of diamonds (and at 18 months old, a bucket full of Halloween candy is better than diamonds any day). The only thing she really recognized was the pretzel bag -- so far we've managed to keep her fairly candy-free, so she didn't have any concept of what the other brightly-colored wrappers contained -- so getting most of the candy away from her by the end of the night was fairly easy. She kept the pretzels and the little bags of Teddy Grahams (I love the parents who handed those out), and I also saved the little Kit Kat bars for her on the assumption that they're more cookie than candy, really, and if we parcel them out between now and Christmas it'll be fine. Again, at under 2 years old, Baby M is still pretty easygoing (though I do have the sneaking suspicion that after the first Kit Kat bar, there'll be no turning back). All in all, a good Halloween was had by all.

Of course, all that goodwill couldn't come for free. Today at work I had to mediate a crisis of stupid proportions -- way too stupid to get into save to mention that this is why I hate hate HATE doing admin work. As a teacher, I get one crazy student maybe once every few years; as an administrator, everyone's crazy students cross my path at one point or another, which tends to make for a lot of craziness.

I don't even have my knitting for solace. *grumble* Stupid finger. *grumble* Stupid tendonitis. But at least I've figured out something that's nearly as good.

I have one of those Ultimate Sweater Machines, bought in a fit of desire to whip up beautiful handknits at a fraction of the time that handknitting actually takes. While I don't think I would ever knit a sweater with this thing, it does do a good job of churning out large panels of stockinette stitch. Now, I've been wanting to do some charity knitting for quite awhile. I debated the merits of various charities -- the Dulaan Project, Operation Toasty Toes, Warm Up America, Afghans for Afghans -- but nothing really captured my heart...until I ran across the Soaring Eagles Project. They're looking for holiday gifts for impoverished elementary school children in Oklahoma; what had I seen on Ren's blog not two days earlier but a pattern for the cutest little bunny stuffed animal made from a single square of knitted fabric, folded origami-style, stitched, stuffed and embellished with a pair of knitted ears and a tuft for a tail.

Bingo! For the past two days, I've been churning out bunny-colored squares on my knitting machine, and once I have a nice pile I'll start sewing and stuffing. The last step will be to handknit the ears, but they're only 5 stitches wide apiece, so how much knitting will that really take? If I'm lucky I'll be able to put together a box full of these folksy little dolls and help make some kids very happy. And I'll be able to use up a bunch of my old acrylic that's been lying around for ages (they specifically asked for only acrylic or cotton items to avoid shrinking/felting problems once the kids have the gifts) AND stick to my Stashalong "diet" at the same time.

I love it when a plan comes together. :)

You Know You Have a Problem When...

...you deliberately charge your yarn purchase to the card that's in your name only so your husband won't see the bill for it.

That's right, folks. After dropping serious cash at NYS&W less than a week ago, this past Friday I dropped yet more cash at the Knittingsmith. *sigh* You gotta admit, though, these are some pretty sweet purchases:















That's the small purchase up there: a single skein of Schaeffer "Little Lola" superwash merino in an absolutely gorgeous colorway of purples, blues, teals and greens. This is actually the yarn I saw after I'd already picked out the big purchase items. Weak and willpower-less person that I am, though, I absolutely had to have it, even though...well, I don't even think I need to mention that I'd already spent enough money the past weekend, and on top of that I was planning on buying the yarn you see below. What can I say? Schaeffer's Little Lola is the yarn I'm using for my moebius scarf (more on that in another post) and I just love it. That's L-O-V-E, with a capital every letter in the word. When I saw this colorway, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead with the credit card, it was going to be mine.

As for the big purchase....















Just feast your eyes on that big ol' pile of Manos del Uruguay. I've been wanting to make an EZ fitted bog jacket for awhile now...been planning on cobbling together stash yarns for it, in fact...but what can I say? The Yarn Harlot, always an idol of mine but now even moreso since our micro-encounter at Rhinebeck, claims that the fumes in a yarn shop cause her to do things she otherwise wouldn't. I may just have to claim the same defense, since what else could induce me to see one skein of yarn (the variegated in the middle of the pile), fall head-over-heels in love with the colorway and subsequently build an entire friggin' bog jacket around it?

Let it not be said that I jumped -- er, went forward with this plan lightly, though. I prepared. I spend three hours in the Knittingsmith working out the details with the help of Penelope, shop owner, designer and knitter extraordinaire. I pored over the bog jacket pattern in Knitting Around and agonized over which striping pattern to follow as I selected colors. I weighed the pros and cons of incorporating Manos into the I-cord border and eventually decided to use a more even, less thick-and-thin wool for the border and the accent striping. By gawd, I even bought a brand-spankin'-new Addi Turbo size 10 circular needle for the occasion. Never mind that my freakin' finger has been acting up again and I've temporarily put my knitting aside in favor of spinning and weaving to give the tendon a rest. I'm committed (or perhaps I should be). I figure I'll start my fitted bog jacket after Christmas, when the holiday knitting is done, I'm blissfully on break from work/school and all I have to worry about is how to keep Baby M occupied long enough to get any knitting done while she's awake.

You don't want to know what the bill came to. Frankly, I don't want to know. It's not like I don't have yarn at home. It's not like I'm crying out for projects to work on. I honestly don't know what came over me. All I know is I ducked into the Knittingsmith to wait for my car to be inspected at the garage next door and three hours later I emerged with a bag full of yarn, a credit card receipt and a vague lightheaded feeling that may be related to those fumes Stephanie Pearl-McPhee talks about.

Oh, and the next day I stopped off at Michael's for more Paton's SWS.

"It's for a good cause," I told myself. "I really don't like the way the Paton's merino felted up, but the SWS -- with the new 'n improved garter stitch edge on my bowls, the SWS felted up like a dream. Of course I should pick up a few more skeins to make up into bowls. I'll still use up the merino, maybe add some needlefelted designs to those bowls to perk up the solid colors...but it would really be unfair to give only one person in my family an SWS bowl. I'll just get enough SWS to finish off the 'family' gifts and then use the merino for the 'friends' gifts. Everyone will be happy." Especially yarnaholic me.

You understand that when such levels of justification and deception are reached that there's a problem. Which is why I here and now announce that I've joined (drum roll, please)....

Stashalong.

In case you haven't heard, Stashalong is the Atkin's Diet of yarn. You go cold-turkey -- no yarn purchases AT ALL for the duration of your participation, though books, tools, etc are still fair game. Let's just call yarn the big, fat carbohydrate of the Stashalong program.

Once you've decided on your committment length (anything from a month on up) and joined the blog, all that's left is for you to knit from your stash and only from your stash for that length of time. Post to the blog when you're feeling weak and about to buckle over that scrumptious silk bump on ebay; post when you're overjoyed at finishing a long-outstanding UFO or finding yourself two skeins of Debbie Bliss lighter than last week.

Sounds simple, right?

Let's hope so. I start tomorrow.

Which means if I hurry, I can pop out to Michael's and grab another few skeins of SWS, just in case.

This Week's Funky Knit-Video Link

When yarn attacks!

I only wish I spoke French so I could understand what she's saying....

Sunday at Rhinebeck and My Brushes With Fame

If Saturday was the day for me to run into all my friends by chance at Rhinebeck, Sunday was the day for me to completely miss everyone I was trying to meet up with -- never mind that there were ten freakin' thousand people there on Saturday and not nearly that many there on Sunday. No worries, though; it just meant I had more freedom to wander aimlessly around all the booths with no one to remind me I'd been through the same barn ten times already (though by the end of the day I would have appreciated someone who could at least let me know where the booth with the amazing handwoven Romney rugs were -- I wanted to get some more tips from the maker before leaving!).

My first stop was at one of the few spots IV and I missed on Saturday: Little Barn Fibers. Bags and bags of spinning fiber at wildly low prices. Natch, I couldn't leave without lightening their load a bit (after all, I wouldn't want them to have to cart leftovers all the way back to their store in Alabama...that just wouldn't be right):
















Aren't they stunning? You're looking at 2 pounds of 100% baby alpaca, a pound each in a deep chocolate brown (left) and a rich, dark tumeric (center). On the right is a pound of black alpaca/merino/silk mix...yummy! I was sorely tempted to pick up some cashmere as well, but I held back. There's always their website to order from (I wouldn't want them to go into a sales slump in the middle of the year, after all...it's practically my civic duty to help keep them in business by ordering fiber from them year-round).

I also picked up some fiber tools I'd been wanting for awhile, and one I had no idea I wanted till I saw it at Rhinebeck:















Since last year's NYS&W I've been kicking myself for not picking up a pair of brand-new Ashford handcards when I saw them on sale for the rock-bottom price of $30. Sad to say, this pair cost a bit more than that, but at least now I'll be able to blend colors and fibers. The handspinning book has what Susan of the eponymous Fiber Shop claims are the best directions for handcarding out there. The clear rectangular box is a McMoran (sp?) balance so I can figure out how many yards per pound my handspun is, and from there I can figure out how many yards I have so I can stop worrying about running short during every project I undertake. The spools are rug warp in brown and black, and the wooden implement on top of the handcard box is for beating the weft of a rug into place (yes, I've decided to load up on Cotswold curls from The Sheep Shed Studio and make my own rugs; thank you again to the kind vendor whose name I didn't catch who patiently explained how to make them -- I really wish I could have found your booth again on Sunday). Finally, the small wooden tool in the very front is a lucet. This is the tool I had absolutely no idea I would want until I saw it used and saw the beautiful cord it turns out. I'm not really sure when I'll need cord of my own making, but dammit when I do need it, I'll be turning it out on my lovely wooden lucet.

And of course, no photo montage of NYS&W would be complete without this:















'Nuff said.

As for my brushes with fame, BWF #1 came as I stood in the weaving-supplies booth contemplating my lucet purchase. A woman walked up to me and asked, "Are you Amy?"

"Er, no," I replied. What was this, I wondered...someone playing Rhinebeck Bingo? A not-so secretive Secret Pal 9 pal?

"Oh...you know, you look just like Amy, the Knitty editor."

Wow -- I was seriously impressed. I mean, that anyone could mistake me for a person who edits a knitting magazine.... Was my knitted alpaca dickie that awesome that someone could actually believe I was on par with someone who does knit-stuff for a living??

Nah.

I did look up Amy Singer and except for the fact that we're both white and female she really does look nothing like me. But that didn't stop me from basking in the artificial glow of someone else's fame for just a moment. So, thank you, anonymous lady who obviously forgot her glasses at home...I'm honored that you thought I was someone as cool as the editor of Knitty.

BWF #2 was considerably more exciting than BWF #1, albeit far briefer. There I was standing outside the ladies' bathroom trying to use the public phone (which, for reasons I cannot understand, refused to accept coins for long distance calls and which, for still more reasons I cannot understand, insisted on classifying a call to my home phone "long distance" even though it was within the same area code and the same county) and just as I turned away in utter and complete frustration, who did I see breeze right past me on her way to the loo?

None other than Stephanie "Oh my freakin' gawd it's the Yarn Harlot!" Pearl-McPhee!!!!

Yup, the Yarn Harlot herself, in the flesh, glasses, green sweater and all. Thankfully, she was gone so quickly I didn't have a chance to make a total fool of myself ("I read all your books!" "I love your work!" "Can I take a picture with The Sock?"), but it was just a little bit like glimpsing knitting royalty.

Knitting royalty that uses the toilet just like you and me.

*sigh* Ain't Rhinebeck grand?

Rhinebeck, Part Deux

So, in case it wasn't obvious from my last post, IV and I spent Day 1 of NYS&W seeing as much as we possibly could of all the vendors there. Wow! But lest you think all the shopping I did was for myself, check these out:

















Here are the presents I picked out for my Secret Pal 9 pal's first package. There's 3 oz of gorgeous IMHO wine/burgundy wool from Hatchtown Farms, two hand-dyed silk caps and a big bag of Irish linen roving (yes, my partner is a spinner). I'm planning to send out her package on Friday after I add some chocolates and one of my felted bowls; I really hope she likes it!

















And how could I forget DH and Baby M? The skein of grey sportweight alpaca is for DH. He's been wanting a skullcap and a pair of fingerless mittens for awhile now, and I just fell in love with this yarn. And at $20 for over 600 yards of 100% soft, luxurious alpaca, I can't complain about the price!

The kitty was hand-crocheted by one of the vendors in Building 22, and I must say it took me more time to choose this one little stuffed animal than it took me to pick out any of my other purchases that weekend. There were so many adorable animals to choose from, and each one was a little different. I love that it's made with angora from the vendor's own bunnies and that it's stuffed with slow-felting wool as opposed to polyfill. Baby M loves it and happily calls it Mew Mew.

The other item in the photo is a small needle felting tool; I've been wanting to try needle felting designs into the rims of my felted bowls, and NYS&W was the perfect place to find the tools I needed.

And speaking of tools, I was able to help IV pick up a tool she's wanted for awhile: a rigid heddle loom. Right at closing time we stopped by a booth with boxes of Ashford RH looms stacked on a shelf. As we were looking around, I saw a sign on one side of the booth saying there was a used Beka RH (the same brand as my RH loom) for sale for $60. I checked it out and it looked to be in good working order, and the seller kindly threw in an extra heddle (for a total of 2) plus a shuttle. So, now in addition to the shawls IV makes on her tri-loom, she'll be making ruanas and rectangular shawls on the RH -- after I give her a lesson in how to use it, of course!

Like me, IV bought relatively little on Saturday; the RH loom was her biggest purchase of the day. Much as we saw, our mantra was "We can always come back for it tomorrow." Like most things in life, this was a little true and a little not. Yes, we could always come back; no, it wouldn't always be there. But, no worries -- something else equally grand always was.

If you're gonna play, you gotta pay, right?

I got to spend the whole weekend at Rhinebeck, sans husband and child, to indulge my fiber fantasies. And for the past 24 hours I've been working like mad to catch up on neglected housework/schoolwork/work-work. 'Sokay, though; NYS&W was well worth it!

NYS&W - Day One

If I learned anything from my first trip to NYS&W last year, it was GET THERE EARLY! The doors officially opened at 10am; I arrived on Saturday at 9:45. There were already so many cars that the lot closest to the entrance gate was full; naturally, the car right before me was the last one in. I was then shuttled across the way to a farther lot (but one closer to the exit, which served me well in the evening exit madness), where I parked and gathered my "survival gear" -- bottled water, empty tote bag for purchases, knitting project (of course) and, oh yeah, a wad of cash. Can't say I didn't come prepared. $15 and one two-day pass later, I was inside the gate with an estimated 10,000 other eager fiberistas (and -os, not to be sexist or anything). By the way, that number is no exaggeration; on Sunday morning the people at the gate said that's the official estimate of how many people passed through NYS&W on Saturday alone. Woo-eeee!

Iknew exactly where I wanted to stop first: Journey Wheel, though I did get sidetracked just inside the gate by the stand of NYS&W souvenir clothing. I remembered the line at that stand last year around the middle of the day, and wanting a momento that wouldn't get knitted, felted or otherwise fiber-ized, I made a quick purchase of a denim shirt with this adorable little lamb logo and (NYS&W-2006" over the left breast. Then, it was on to the Bosworths and their incomparable spindles.






























No photos in situ, sorry -- there was just no time! When I got there, my friend L was just finishing up a special order and picking out the at-hand spindles she wanted. I nudged my way between three or four other Bossie fans and picked out the beauties you see above -- no easy task as every spindle was unique and one was more beautiful than the next. I dropped a fair chunk of my cash right then and there, but it was justified (as if I need to justify this) because I got one of the spindles at half off -- half off! Buy 5 spindles in one year and you get a 6th at half price, and I'd already bought 3 this year; it would have been a shame -- no, more like a crime -- to lose the credit towards a half price Bossie. Sheila kindly held onto my spindles till the end of the day since I was far too nervous about breaking one to carry them around with me, and off I went to the Goldings, hooking up with my friend IV along the way.

May I just say that the ultimate, bar-none experience for me at Rhinebeck this year was spinning on Tom Golding's Flock of the Shepherdess spinning wheel? Here she is in all her glory, and let me tell you, the photo does not do her justice at all:





















I don't usually anthropomorphize objects -- my spinning wheels do not have names, nor do I refer to them by human-type pronouns -- but this wheel was a goddess. If I ever hit the lottery, I'm buying a Golding wheel and a new house with a raised dias under a skylight to put her in. Short of that, I'm starting to save up now and hopefully sometime before Tom carves his last wheel I'll be able to afford one. Feel free to donate to the Buy Splindarella a Golding Wheel fund any time....

After grudgingly moving aside so some other not-nearly-as-nice-as-me-but-I-realize-I-have- to-share-anyway person could try the wheel, IV and I bounced around the rest of the festival.

Actually, "bounced" isn't quite the right word; "were bounced around like ping-pong balls inside a washing machine" was more like it. Remember, we're talking 10,000 people here, folks! All crammed inside a handful of barns pawing over fiber like sheep had just been declared extinct. I swear, one line was so long I actually asked the people if the yarn they were holding was free. "Nope," said one woman, "It's Socks that Rock. We're here for the colors!" It's just that kind of madness that made me hit the Bosworths at the sound of the opening bell -- we all have our favorites, and that one happens to be mine...though one of these days I'll have to get my hands on a skein of Socks that Rock to see what the fuss is all about.

And now since DH is making let's-get-to-bed noises and I really should be somewhat awake tomorrow at work, I'll end here and pick this up later, at which time I'll show off my other cooler-than-cool purchases and recount my brushes with fame -- both of them -- at the fest.

All Hail the Moebius Scarf!
















OK, so it may be a bit early for hailing since the scarf isn't even officially finished yet. As you can see, it looks more like a wool bath puff (albeit a beautifully-colored bath puff) than an actual scarf, Moebius or not. But I do promise you, it's a genuine Moebius scarf, knitted all in one piece lengthwise along the outer edge of the Moebius curve. This means my circ is twisted into a figure-8 as I knit and made my hands cramp up for the first few rows, but otherwise this has been a real hoot to knit. It's plain ol' garter stitch, and I may finish it off with an I-cord edging, but I just can't seem to put this project down. (Maybe because I just can't wait to wear it!)

Well...on second thought, I have managed to put my scrumptious scarf down at least once this week; tonight, in fact. I stopped by Michael's today because I had a 40% off coupon just burning a hole in my pocket and much to my surprise I found both Paton's merino wool and SWS on sale for a dollar off per skein. Not dirt cheap prices, but a buck's a buck. I bought one SWS in a gorgeous blue colorway and four of the merino in four different colors (deep purple, funky green, denim blue and blue marl) to make Christmas gifts of felted bowls. Tonight I resisted the siren song of my Moebius scarf and so I could experiment with the SWS and add a slightly different twist to the One Skein pattern to keep the lip of the bowl from curling during felting. Now that it's all knitted up (boy-howdy, do I love how fast that pattern works up!) all I need to do is felt it and see if it's the final pattern I want to use for making my presents. Filled up with some nice chocolates and accompanied by a donation to Heifer International in the recipient's name, it should make a lovely holiday gift.

And if you've never heard of Heifer International, run don't walk to check it out. They help alleviate poverty by providing poor people around the world with domestic animals (cows, goats, chickens, llamas, alpacas, water buffalo, bees...you name it and they probably have it) and the training needed to make a living from them. If life has been good to you and you'd like to give a little to someone who has less, consider making a donation to Heifer International.

*climbing down off soap box*

And finally...ONLY TWO MORE DAYS TILL NYS&W!!! (But who's counting...?)

F.O.s Galore...?

OK, I freely admit that my promise to post about "F.O.s Galore!" may have been just a tad bit excessive. Perhaps "F.O.s -- Two of 'Em!" would have been more accurate. Lame, but more accurate nonetheless.

Anyway, I have two -- count 'em, TWO -- F.O.s to show off. I would have had three (would that count as "Galore" I wonder...?) except that I got so very excited to give the yellow/orange/pink baby kimono to my co-worker that I didn't even take the time to photograph it. So picture, if you will, a brightly-colored garter-stitch baby kimono with crocheted ties and an adorable little eyelet trim down the front. Got it? Good. Let's count that as Unofficial F.O. #1.

Moving on. My first Official F.O. of the post is this one:















The wrap/throw on top is Pebbles on the Beach, which I finished off last week and which I've decided to give DH for Christmas (or maybe his birthday, depending upon how far along I get on his handspun and knitted skullcap by November). You can also see Pebbles in the Sea peeking out from below, which was my first Pebbles throw/shawl and which I've decided will go to our friends the Js. These throws were so very easy and quick -- the most labor-intensive part was warping the loom -- that I really would like to make at least one more. Not just yet, though; I have to start concentrating on making more of these:















After many false starts and mishaps, I've finally found a yarn I like for the One Skein felted bowls. This is Paton's SWS (Soy Wool Stripes). One skein used doubled on size 15s is just about exactly enough for one small bowl. The colors get somewhat muddied in the felting (although the flash in this photo really shows off the colors to their best advantage), but overall I like the way the bowls come out. I'm going to fill them with some nice chocolates (Lindt? Bacci? Any other individually-wrapped favorites that people would like to suggest?) and that'll be this year's gift. The best part is they're super-simple and require relatively little knitting per item. Good for my wrists/hands, which are still somewhat dicey at best.

And now that that's settled, I can sit back and wait for the weekend, when I'll be off to enjoy the festivities up at Rhinebeck at NYS&W. Woo-hoo! Fiber arts mecca, here I come! :)

Another SP9 Survey

It seems I'm a sucker for a survey. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for the possibility of winning a prize, especially when the prize is a skein of handpaint...mmmmmmmm, handpaint........

This survey is especially difficult for me since I really, really hate to name "favorite" anythings. It always seems so limiting. But, I promise I'll do my best to answer all the questions with a genuine favorite, though I can't guarantee that in any category my answer will be my one-and-only favorite -- more like one among many favorites.

Anyway, here we go....

List your favorite:

Actor - See, right off the bat I'm stumped. Maybe that just means no particular actor really floats my boat? I'm just going to skip on down to the next question and then come back to this one.

Actress - This one's a cinch: Gong Li. She's brilliant in To Live and The Story of Qi Ju -- I think she really shines in films where she plays a peasant as opposed to her better-known roles as the haughty mistress-turned-wife in Farewell My Concubine or the evil geisha in Memoirs of a Geisha. There are lots and lots of American actresses I admire, but Gong Li is the one actress whose films I will watch simply because she is in them.

Animal - Now, I must admit that one of Shelby's answers on her poll caught my eye and I can't help but be influenced by what she said. Her favorite animal is the snow leopard, and believe it or not, I was once stalked by a snow leopard in Nepal. I went to a snow leopard breeding facility and they had a few of those majestic animals in a huge enclosed pen -- the only thing separating them from me was a single layer of cyclone fencing. I mean, no moat, no yellow "CAUTION" tape, nothing; I could have stuck my fingers right through that fence and petted that soft-looking fur if I'd been insane enough to try. While I didn't go that far, I did walk from one end of the fence to the other along one side, right beside the fence. And one of the snow leopards walked right along with me -- stalked me, really, looking at me as though I were lunch on foot, not so much as blinking an eye, just staring me down. Can I tell you I was scared? Fence or no fence, I was heart-pounding, palm-sweating scared; I had to take a few steps away from the fence just to put some more space between me and that leopard. So, I'm not sure that qualifies as my favorite animal, but it's definitely the animal I respect the most on a firsthand-experience basis.

Band - In my pre-baby days, I would have reeled off a list that included every genre of music from classic heavy metal to new age and nearly everything in between. Now, however, most of the music I listen to comes via the XM Kids channel and probably wouldn't mean much to anyone without kids. For what it's worth, I'm rockin' out pretty hard on The Imagination Movers these days. (Please don't feel the need to point out how very sad this is; I'm quite aware. Just move along, now...nothing to see here except a former hair band chick weeping quietly into her long-unworn stretch jeans.)

Book - Oooh, tough, tough choice. This is where I'm going to give myself a single "pass" on my earlier vow to give honest favorites for every answer. I simply cannot pick one favorite book, or even a favorite author. Instead, I'll say the book I'm looking most forward to reading is The Kite Runner. But I'm going to have to wait till I get it on CD so I can listen while I knit (must...not...lose...out...on...knitting...time...).

Bubble Bath - Don't use the stuff. I like bath oil beads (those big gumball-looking things filled with scented bath oils -- toss one in the bath, let it dissolve and mmmmmm...enjoy).

Candy - Dark chocolate truffles. *drool* Some days, I'd trade DH for some dark chocolate truffles. I mean, um, lots. It would take lots of dark chocolate truffles for me to trade DH away. Good quality ones, too. We're talking Godiva. The big ones. Did you know they have dark chocolate champagne-filled truffles? Mmmmmm.......dark chocolate champagne-filled Godiva truffles. Excuse me while I pull out my wedding album and remind myself why I got married instead of sinking all that money into a huge stash of chocolate truffles, all for myself.....
Color - My favorite color for a fancy dress is red. Otherwise, I'm more of a fall-colors kinda gal: oranges, rusts, golds, olives, deep purples (OK, maybe that's not strictly a fall color, but I still love it in the mix with all the others).

Drink - Whole milk is a treat since I mostly drink skim. Other than that, it's pretty much plain ol' water for me.

Flower - I love the smell of night-blooming jasmine. Heavenly.

Food - Um...didn't you catch what I said earlier about dark chocolate truffles...?

Lip Balm - I like Blistex in the little pot, the kind you have to scoop out with a pinky finger. Haven't bought any in years -- I've either been cheaping out with Chap-Stik or experimenting with various herbal/natural balms -- but I really should go back to what I know and love.

Lotion - I had a cucumber lotion from one of those bath products shops that I used all the time I was pregnant and loved. Of course, I can't remember either the name of the shop or the name of the lotion, but I'm sure I'd recognize it if I saw it.

Movie - Another easy one: To Live (see the reference to Gong Li, above).

Place - Sooooo difficult! I've traveled a lot, to some pretty remote places, and picking one favorite is very, very hard. I'd have to say, though, that one of my favorite places is China's Xishuangbanna, the tropical area in southern Yunnan province. Stunning scenery, beautiful people, simply a joy to be there.

Song - I'll narrow the playing field here and choose from my current fave kids' band, The Imagination Movers. I just love their song "Farm" and the clever little 80's reference: "The roosters -- the roosters -- the roosters are tired!" Recognize which famous 80's song line that's sung to and you know you wore neon knee-length sweaters and baggy socks over your ankle-length jeans when you were a teenager.

TV Show - Even though we no longer get TV reception, my favorite show by far is Jon Stewart's Daily Show. I watch it online I love it so much.

Yarn - My favorite yarn today is Paton's SWS (Soy Wool Stripes): beautiful colorways, soft hand, and it felts! Just what I was looking for to make the One Skein felted bowls. Ask me tomorrow, though, and I'm sure I'll have a new favorite.

Vacation Spot - One of the best vacations I've ever taken was to Boulder, CO. Having grown up on the east coast and despite all the travel I've done, I can honestly say I've never seen such endless skies as there are in Colorado. I would go out there again in a heartbeat.

And since I promised I'd get back to thinking about my favorite actor...hmmmmm..... I guess I'll have to go with Jon Stewart of the Daily Show. Seriously, I don't think I'm copping out here. The man gets me laughing hysterically at least once a show; that's gotta count for something.

And that's the end of my list. Next post: Finished Objects Galore!

Wanna Design Your Own Knits?

Well, "Knitting Heretic" Annie Modesitt just posted a great little tutorial on how to use the computer to make pattern sketches to scale -- all you need is a swatch and a dream.

Check it out at:
http://www.modeknit.com/blog/2006/10/how-i-make-my-sketches.html

An Open Letter to My Supermarket

Dear evil minions of hell concerned owners of a nationally-recognized supermarket chain:

I am writing this letter to express my frustration at not being able to strangle you to death with my bare hands with your ongoing supermarket renovation plans. I realize you may not be aware of this, but I began shopping at your supermarket because it was cheaper than dirt priced with the cost-conscious consumer in mind. Even though your employees are obnoxious in the extreme and deserve to be beyatch slapped upside all their pointy little pinheads could benefit from additional customer-service training and your international foods selection has always been execrable somewhat limited, I remained a loyal customer of your supermarket for too many years.

This latest outright assault on common decency and consumer senses change in policy cannot be ignored, however. I appreciate that you wish to destroy upgrade the store by consolidating the organic foods into their own separate fiefdom section. I am willing to put up with the inevitable chaos temporary disorganization that such a move will create. What I simply cannot fathom is why the f*ck you also felt it necessary to move every item in the entire godforsaken store to a different place. Even your obnoxious pinheaded employees have no idea where to find common staples such as toilet paper and soap. To make matters worse, your prices have risen faster than a five dollar ho's skirt at a bachelor party to the point where the average consumer wants to start lobbing $10 heads of imported raddicchio at the cashiers is being priced out of the market.

In light of such utter lunacy these facts, I rejoice regret to say that I will no longer be shopping at your miserable rathole of a supermarket. Perhaps one day I'll see you roast slowly in hell your store will win back my patronage, but at this moment I doubt it. I wish you suppurating boils good luck with your re-organization and remain

Yours in disgust truly,
Splindarella

What I've Been Up To Lately

What I haven't been up to lately is getting my Christmas presents done. Once the felted bowl idea went south I sort of put extended-family/friend Christmas gifts on the back burner. But, with a chill in the air and Halloween right around the corner there's no more putting it off; I simply need to decide what I'm doing and then set about doing it.

I have been working on other things, though. Here's Pebbles on the Beach, the second shawl/throw made from the dollar store Pebbles novelty yarn I picked up earlier in the year:















DH actually really liked the first shawl/throw, Pebbles in the Sea, so I was thinking of putting it aside for him as a Christmas gift. Then he saw this one and decided he liked it better. So, this one will be for him and the other one will go to our friends the J family in Sweden. At least it's the first one completely finished (well, except for a final wash and trimming of the fringe) -- appropriate as it needs to be mailed and not simply given on Christmas day.

I've also been spinning up a storm for DH:





























He's been asking me to knit him a skullcap so I figured I may as well go whole-hog and spin the yarn as well. This is some nice, soft grey wool from The Sheep Shed Studio's Big Bale fiber. Although Carol advertised it as ideal for felting it was so nice and soft I really wanted to spin it instead. It's spinning up really nicely, too, and with the nice sunny weather we've had for the past couple of days all I want to do is sit out on the deck and spin.

But, nice weather or no, I really need to get gift knitting going. As soon as Pebbles on the Beach is finished, my next task is to get gifts for my two cousins' families finished. Wish me luck....

I Am An Enabler

S & J, two dear, dear friends, just came by tonight for a light dinner and to tell us they're moving to freakin' Japan for the next 5 years, so what do I do? I teach them both to spindle-spin, of course.

S is a knitter already, and as soon as she saw my RH loom she started asking questions. It was only a matter of time (nanoseconds, if you want to be precise) before I started thinking of pulling out the Louets and Ashfords and getting her going on spindling. But it was J who impressed me most of all. He's an architect and a photographer and secure enough in his manhood to offer to hold my spindle for me while I took care of Baby M and then, while I was occupied, to just copy what he saw S doing and go off on his own making yarn. He was good, too -- they both were, though S, a nuclear physicist who is quite used to being uber-competent in everything she does, did fret a bit at first about her yarn not being even (read: "perfect"). She relaxed when I told her to just go with the zen of it all, and whatever she'd get, she'd get. They left the house with two spindles, a big bag of goldenrod-colored Louet Corriedale and a wine tube to hold one of the spindles (the good folk at Ashford should be aware that their spindles, while perfectly serviceable, do not fit inside your standard cardboard wine tube, making them less than ideal from a storage perspective). I can't wait to hear how their adventures in couples-spindling go!

An F.O. for ME!

I finished my Elizabeth Zimmermann "Variations on Beethoven's Dickey" this past Tuesday while I was home sick from work, but I only got around to wearing it now. It's photographed on my dining room table because I was in no fit state upon completion to model it, but I'm terribly proud of myself: it's the first project I've completed for ME with my very own handspun (glitzy alpaca from Winding Creek). Here it is in its various stages:
















Glitzy alpaca being spun on my Louet. Absolutely dreamy....






















All skeined up and drying. It spun up so nicely it didn't even need weighting....

















On the needles, about halfway finished....

















Looking oddly like a manta ray in this pose, the VOBD dickie is all finished and ready to be worn.


The glitz is a tad bit itchy so it takes me a few minutes to get used to the feel of it around my neck and shoulders, but other than that it's delightful. I'll definitely be making more of these, maybe even with my current Winding Creek score, 3 luscious ounces of alpaca in a deep purplish colorway. Next time, though, I think I'll make the turtleneck a bit higher; maybe I'll even stripe it with the leftovers of the blue.

Oh, and I think I've figured out what I want to do with the green Nature Spun I picked up from Carol Lee at The Sheep Shed Studio. What do you think of this pattern? The only problem: it calls for a slightly bulkier yarn than the Nature Spun -- not bulky enough to double the NS, but too bulky to use the NS as-is unless I do a lot of converting. One thought: I may just make the smallest pattern size at my smaller gauge and get a sweater that Baby M can wear (or at least grow into). What do you think?

The Last Knit

Watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ZjMWLqJvM

What to Do With a Pile of Zucchini

Up here in NY, we're mulching down the veggie beds and getting ready for the onset of really cold weather. Down by Ren in Florida, however, it seems that they're just getting started on picking their veggies (and they even offer vegetable gardening classes for credit in college -- how cool is that?).

Anyway, since Ren now has an abundance of summer squash and not so many ideas of what to do with it, I thought I'd share this recipe for Zucchini Brownies.

Yes, you read that right: Zucchini Brownies. Don't laugh; they are out of this world. You couldn't tell them from the "real," no-zucchini-added variety if you tried. And because they're packed full of nutritious zucchini, you can convince yourself that eating the whole pan at one sitting is actually quite healthful. Woo-hoo!

Fudgy Zucchini Squares

“single” 9 “ square pan

2 squares unsweetened Bakers chocolate

¼ cup butter or margarine

1 cup sugar

1 egg

¼ tsp. salt

¾ tsp. baking powder

2/3 cup flour

Mix salt, powder and flour together

1 cup shredded zucchini

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Melt chocolate & butter in microwave set to defrost for 3 minutes. Add sugar, mix well. Add egg, beat in. Add flour mixture, then zucchini & nuts. Bake 25 min. @ 350 degrees. Cool on rack.

So, there it is...the contents of my small, lightweight "Mystery Box," my anniversary present from DH. Kinda hard to tell from the photo, but it's an opal necklace. I've never owned an opal before -- they're pretty amazing, shot through with all the fiery colors of the rainbow. Romantic that he is, DH said he chose it because he liked all the colors and because, in his words, "Everything else they had was really ugly." Ah, men and their silver tongues.

DH actually made me laugh when he told me some more about how he came to pick out this particular present. It was his second choice, he said. First, he'd looked up which anniversary the 7th was, and he discovered that it's the "wool" anniversary. Great, he thought; he'd get me some wool for our anniversary. Trouble was, he said -- get this -- he didn't know where to find any wool.

I nearly keeled over from laughing so hard. It's not like boxes of wool don't arrive with a rather shocking regularity at our house. It's not like I don't have a list of fiber-related bookmarks on our computer a mile long. It's not like there aren't bags and boxes and skeins of wool all bearing the stamps of a variety of shops, all of which are accessible by phone or fax or internet. But he didn't know where to find me any wool. Honestly, it's amazing that man manages to dress himself without help.

Still, his second choice was terribly sweet and very, very pretty. In fact, I haven't taken my new necklace off since he gave it to me. Wool I can -- and do -- always buy for myself. But, an opal? Only from my DH.

Pebbles in the Sea, Cobwebs in My Head, and a Happy Anniversary to Me!

What nicer way to spend an anniversary than home in bed...sick?

This isn't even the good kinda sick, the kinda sick that all those 1940's movie heroines got where they looked absolutely gorgeous with their hair flowing over their sickbed pillows, the wide lapels of their satin dressing gowns contrasting every so beautifully with their pale-yet-glowing complexions. Of course, they always wind up dying -- still looking ravishing right up to the very end, and saying something marvelous and witty and romantic to the hero as their dying words, something that he will remember always and which will make him, no matter how strongly the heroine has urged him to find someone else after she's gone, remain faithful to his one and only love forevermore.

This ain't that kinda sick.

No, my kinda sick is the go-through-a-box-of-tissues-in-an-hour kinda sick, the kinda sick that has me snorting Zicam like it's going out of style and wishing I were dead but not nearly getting there. Replace our 1940's film heroine's flowing golden locks with a rat's-nest wafro, her satin dressing gown with a ripped Hard Rock Cafe sweatshirt and the handsome husband/lover at her side with a somewhat smelly German shepherd mix and you've got me today.

But I did manage to finish my weaving before all this went down.

































That's how Pebbles in the Sea looked shortly before completion. In person, the stripes are somewhat more subtle and the color deeper overall, but what the camera's flash tends to wash out in terms of color it seems to enhance in terms of contrast.

Here's a shot of the finished product:
















Pebbles in the Sea in all her glory. I've been calling this a shawl but I'm not really sure that's what it is, or what it will stay. It's pretty big...big enough to be a throw, but long enough to do the whole shawl-wrap thing. And, I must admit, I like it enough that I'm thinking of keeping it, in which case it will most certainly be a throw for the livingroom. Never mind that our living room has not a shred of navy-blue in it; I could make it work. Of course, that won't help me get my Christmas gifts made. Maybe I'll live with it for a little while, just keep it draped casually over the back of a chair and see how strongly it asks to stay where it is. As long as I keep Baby M and her peanut-buttery fingers away there's no reason I couldn't wrap it up a week or more from now and put it in the gift pile.

Am I a bad person? I mean, shouldn't I just be able to toss this into the gift pile without a second glance, secure in the knowledge that I can make another one -- another as-many-as-I-want -- for myself? And of course I do know I could, which is why this one will probably find its way to the gift pile eventually, although I don't know that I'll be making another one like this for me. First I'd try to find colors more suited to my livingroom...then I'd balk at the price, because of course I found all this yarn at the dollar store and I will never, ever find it there again, especially not in colors that match my orange-and-red livingroom...then I'll debate about buying the yarn a skein at a time or something like that...and eventually I'll back-burner the project, at which point I'll move on to creating something completely different, giving this idea of a Pebbles shawl just for me only the most cursory of thoughts. Isn't that always the way?

For now, though, as I'm feeling somewhat fortified by carrot juice, a buttered bialy and half a pound of bacon (I should not be left to my own hunting-and-gathering devices when ill), I think I'll try finishing off the Beethoven's Variations on a Dickey (something I finally, finally knit all for my very own self!) so I can wear it sometime before fall is over and the true coldness of winter is upon us.

Oh, and as for my anniversary present...the small, light box from Washington State...?

Photos and story to come. :)