Get a Clew - The Blog

Weaving with RA

2010-10-12T09:46:00.004-04:00

Back in the days before I was sick I could wind a warp and dress my floor loom and be ready to weave in just a few hours, depending of course on how big and complicated the project was. These days its quite a different story. I wound the warp on Sunday then did nothing else the rest of the day, but part of the reason for that is I work a craft fair on Saturday with my friends Sarah and Sharon and I was just tired. This morning got the warp prepped onto the loom so I'm ready to beam it. It was a good place to start because my back decided that it really needed some quality time with the heating pad. I don't feel bad that I'm having to take the project and break it down into small increments mainly because I don't have a choice. Its do it small or not at all so I'll take small. At the craft fair I spoke to a woman who is a weaver and wants to learn to spin who also happens to have RA. I told her that I would be happy to work with her and we would decide together just how much it was going to be possible for her to do. I spoke to her about the whole concept of "Do it small or not at all" (taking things down to small bites not small projects) as much as could while also trying to sell spinning fiber for my friends. My new attitude towards my illness is taking shape. I will never be happy that I'm sick but I can be accepting of it and I will find a way to do all the things I used to do one way or any other because I just can't not do those things. Small it is.

ETA: My back is still not at all happy with me and my hips are in complete agreement with my back. So for the rest of the day I'm either going to knit on a sock or read while communing with my heating pad.

A new mindset

2010-09-19T12:41:00.003-04:00

Right from the very beginning of be sick with RA my attitude has been that I needed to fight the disease. I needed to fight my way thru the pain, fatigue, and brain fogs. If I'm being very honest I never really accepted that I'd be sick for the rest of my life. I was hoping if I just did everything the Dr's wanted me to do I'd eventually go into remission and get back to who I was pre-RA. That approach, while it got me thru a lot of things in the past is not going to be the best for getting me thru the rest of my life. I'm trying a new mindset now, how do I just simply live with the disease and all that comes with it. I'm doing this because over the long term I just can't power thru the pain and fatigue and have a good quality of life. What this new mindset means for me is that I'm accepting that I'm in with this for life. I'm never going to completely pain free again. What I need to do is work with the ebbs and flow of the good days vs the bad. For example yesterday was a great day. I paced myself really well to get a lot of things done (nice long shower, walking to the market to do my food shopping, cooking enough of a meal to have plenty of left overs if don't want to or just can't cook at some point this week). By the end of the day I had enough energy and mental focus that I could knit and spin for a little while. Today I feel like crap but I'm not beating myself up about it. I need to be gentle with myself today so that I can get done the few thing that have to get done and have enough energy to get to some Dr's appointments tomorrow. So the short answer is that I have to be motivated to use the limited amount of good time wisely so that I don't feel emotionally bad when I can't just power thru the bad time.

A very important part of this new mindset is making sure I eat right. I feel that I really shouldn't eat as much processed food as I had been. One of the ways I've started to deal with this is to drag out my bread machine and bake a loaf or two of bread each week. No artificial crap and preservatives which could on some level be elevating my immune response, which is part of what RA is. With the machine its really easy. You just measure out the ingredients and press a button. No kneading. A great breakfast for me lately has been a nice piece of bread with honey drizzled on top. Very tasty and its just enough food in my tummy to help get my meds down and not give me a stomach ache. I'll be cooking a lot more simple foods in greater quantities so I can freeze the leftover for those time when I just can't stand up long enough to make something. I'm also going to the people who I know love to cook, my friends Wendy and Geoffrey for example, and asking them for ideas on simple healthy recipes that will fit my criteria. Why rack my brain when I have wonderful people in my life that are experts at cooking which really isn't my favorite thing in the world to do. This also gives me a chance to talk to my friends and that has been helping with feeling not so isolated. Basically I've been a hermit for the last 6 months and that has to stop too.

I'll be keeping y'all posted as to how well I'm doing with this new mindset.

A finished pair of socks for SOS 2010

2010-08-31T19:37:00.004-04:00

I got one pair of socks done for the Summer of Socks 2010 Knit-A-Long. Go me! Considering how awful I've been feeling for the part few weeks this really is an accomplishment. The picture isn't the greatest but my hands are shaky and this was the best of the lot that was able to take in the fading light. Perhaps I'll take a better one tomorrow.

Hey Moni! Thanks for the support!!!

An update

2010-08-27T09:10:00.003-04:00

My RA has gotten worse, again. I was doing really well there for a while, but then I took a tumble out of my bathtub over a month ago and that started a set back that I'm still dealing with. Even getting an infusion of Remicade wasn't able to calm down the pain I was in. I'm back on steroids and am limited in what I can do. I have to admit that deaing with this flare has been kind of tough but that may have something to do with the fact that I have nothing to look forward too. No plans for trips or anything of the like to help me move forward each day. To force myself to look forward in a positive way I've started to do some knitting for Christmas. I can't do much each day but I do some and that helps pass the time. I can't show you anything that I'm working on because the two projects I have on the needles are for people who might see this post. I can't even tell you the kind of knitting I'm doing because these two people are smart and know me well. It wouldn't take much for them to guess who I'm knitting for.

As for my progress on my various Spin- or Knit-alongs, not a whole lot more progress was made since I posted about them. I did finally finish plying the yarn I was working on my wheel but I didn't do that until after the Tour de Fleece was over. I'm still working slowly on the same fiber I had on the drop spindle and I'm in progress on the second sock of the pair I had on the needles for the Summer of Sock '10. Summer isn't over yet so there's still hope I'll get the pair finished but feeling the way have been I'm not going to hold my breath. I always start these things with the best of intentions but I have the attention span of a gnat and am easily side tracked.

I also fell off the wagon with my intention to only work from my stash this summer. There was some fiber and yarn that was just too "Ooooo, shiney!" for me to pass up. Oh my, this summer really isn't working out the way I had planned. Well today is another day and I am renewing my intention to only work from stash. To that end I'm NOT going to be spending time surfing Etsy when I'm board and I have enough knitting patterns to last me a life time, including a program, Sweater Wizard, that will allow me to design my own sweaters to exactly my measurements. Not to mention all the projects I have unfinished. Yes, I think I have reached my limit and need to stop with the consumerism and get to the end of something besides my wallet.

I know this update sounds pretty negative but know that I'm still fighting the good fight. The steroids are starting to bring down the inflamation. So I'll be able to do a little more each day. I've even entertained notions of planning a new weaving project. I need a bit more time on the steroids and to finish something on the needles first but its a nice thing to think about when I am stuck doing nothing in bed or on the couch.

A message to one of my Chinese followers

2010-07-11T18:53:00.003-04:00

I've been getting comments from followers in China. Considering the time I've spent in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and China this year it makes me very happy to have them. One person asked me what they should be doing with their blog. This is a very touchy subject considering the political climate in China which I have first hand knowledge of. My best advice is that as far the arts are concerned you need to show what make your heart sing. This is quite simply what I do. What you see on my blog is the work I'm currently doing, the things that are effecting my life and my work at the moment. What you see here really is about who I am as a person. I don't know any other way to be. To use an American colloquialism I have always worn my heart on my sleeve. If I feel passionate about something I post about. If you could see me in person you be able to read my feeling on my face as you were reading a book. Now being in China that might not always be the wisest thing but you need to do your best to find a way to say whats in your heart without pissing off the powers that be. I will say this, I don't run the risk of being arrested by just being myself but it hasn't always been easy to find acceptance for it in my culture. I'm very much the kind of person who just can't stand by when I see that someone needs help. I'd give them the shirt off my back and my last dime if they would be better off for it. More times than I can count I've been kicked in the teeth for it. Even then I pray that those same people who have hurt me find the peace they are looking for. So the answer is try your best to be true to your self, rejoice in the things that give you pleasure, and that's what you should be sharing on your blog.

A commitment to working down my stash

2010-07-07T20:07:00.003-04:00

One of the things I'm working on this summer, since I'm not working "a real job", is work down my yarn and fiber stash. My reasons aren't some much about money but the fact that I have have an astounding stash. If I manage to spin up all my fiber then I certinly wouldn't need any more yarn for a long time. To that end I've been working everyday on the SAL and KALs I've joined.

Tour de Fleece:
This spindle is slowly filling with what eventually be a fingering weight yarn. After I've finished this yarn I'm going to dig out my other (many) spindles to work off what I have on them.

On my wheel I've finished the first 4 ozs of this BFL. I'm not sure as of tonight if I'm going to spin the next 4 osz or switch to another batch of fiber just to have a change.

Sock Knitters Anonymous July KAL and Summer of Socks 2010
This is a fair isle sock designed by Chrissy Gardiner for Sock Knitters Anonymous on Ravlery.

This is a design by Anne Hanson of Knitspot. I've only been working on this sock for a couple of days but I'm loving how the sock is knitting up. I'm almost done with the first repeat.

I've also picked up a sock I put down last fall but I don't have any current pictures of it. I'll get a shot when I get the first sock done which Ithink will be tomorrow. There is one other sock on my needles but its a surprise for someone so you'll just have to wait until I gift the socks to see them.

Another thing I want to get going is a new weaving project but I'm not sure what I want to do yet.

Not quite a year

2010-07-03T15:57:00.003-04:00

I'm about 3 months short of not having posted in a year. Its been intresting in that "OMG we're all gonna die!" sort of way. My RA had been getting progressively worse. To the point where I had to give up spinning, knitting and weaving. In the middle of November '09 my husband asked me for a divorce. A month later my Rheumatologist added a new medication to my regimen that finally did the trick of getting rid of most of my daily pain. By shortly before Christmas I was in my own apartment with divorce proceedings underway. Some time between January and February I started to feel strong enough to start knitting again.

Since one of my dreams (being married to someone I loved) was coming to a close I didn't want I decided to pursue another dream, that of traveling. From the middle of April 2010 to the middle of May 2010 I was sight seeing and hiking in Nepal and Tibet. Other than finishing college this was the best thing I have ever done for myself. The trip was hard and satisfying. I was in a lot of pain at times but there were times when I could put the RA thing aside and truly be happy in the moment. I made new friends that will be with me for the rest of my life. I've got a lot of pictures and memories of the trip that I want to share but I'll do that in other posts. My divorce became finale the week before I left for the trip.

After I returned home I bought myself a new spinning wheel and have been back into my fiber life. The wheel is a Schact Lady Bug. For those not familiar with it this is a double treadle wheel which means you use both feet to keep the wheel in motion. From an ergonomic standpoint this is a much better wheel for me since I'm not using just one foot the way I had been with both my Ashford Wheels. Yes, I could have gotten a new double treadle for my Ashford Traveler wheel, and I still might, but the Lady Bug also has bigger bobbins and well I just wanted something really new.

I'm still not working but that's not entirely due to my having RA. Now that I'm so much healthier I've been enjoying my time. I have to be careful that I don't over due anything. I've spent to much time knitting or spinning and have felt the pain for many days afterwards. The fatigue from the disease and the side effects from the medications I take are still with me. Most days I need to nap in the afternoon or else go to bed early in the evening. Eventually I'll start looking for a job but with the economy still in the tank and the fact that with some frugality I can live one my alimony payments I'm not in a hurry.

To keep myself busy this summer I've become involved with two knit-a-longs (KALs) and a spin-a-long (SAL). For all of them I interact with my fellow a-longers on Ravelry. The first KAL is an on going one thru the Sock Knitters Anonymous group. There are several choices for knitted socks each month. For July you can either knit a pattern by Anne Hanson of Knit Spot or do a Fair Isle sock. One of the choices is a mystery design, which this month is in the fair isle theme. I'm doing an Anne Hanson design called Flaming Desire. If I get that pair done then I want to do the mystery sock. As soon as I have something started I'll post pictures.

The other KAL is also about socks. Its the Summer of Socks 2010. From June 21 to September 21 you knit as many pairs of socks as you want. Some folks are doing a "wedding" theme. Something old, new, borrowed, and blue. I'm not sure how much that has to do with the fact that the founder, Jessica (AKA Zarzuela) who I am very happy to say is a friend of mine, is getting married this year. My something old is a sock I started before the whole divorce this started. I'll post info and pictures soon.

The SAL is the Tour de Fleece which goes along with the Tour de France. The idea is they spin so we spin. There are various teams inspired like the actual TdF such as Sprinters and the Peloton. In our case the sprinters work on fast spinning and or high mileage yarn like lace weight. The Peloton is the main group and we're all in this one at some point. There are also Wildcard teams which are just groups of people who are friends or are working with a certain type of fiber. I'm on Team CrankyPants because we're cranky, Team Schact Spinners because my Lady Bug wheel and one of the drop spindles I'm using are made by Schact, and Team Spindlers because I'm doing some of my spinning on a drop spindle. We are suppose to spin every day that the TdF is riding. There are rest days on July 12 and 21. I've done my spinning for the day so here are pictures of my progress:

The fiber is Superwash Blue Faced Leicester dyed by Spincerely. The colorway is called Raina. I've got 8 ozs and I'm planning on doing my usual navajo ply. I think this might become a small knitted shawl when it grows up.

This fiber is a merino silk blend dyed by Freckle Face Fibers. Again I'm planning on navajo plying. I havea similar colorway also in a silk blend that I bought from Pigeonroof Studios that I've already spun up. I want to combine the two some sort of project because each on its own might not be enough. I'm not sure what that project will be yet.

So there you have it. My not quite a year in a nut shell. I don't think I'm going to mention my divorce or my ex-husband except in passing because I need to put all of it behind me. I'm going to be going back to Nepal and Tibet next year for a hike around Mt Kailash, more details as I get them. I'm moving forward in my life and I'll try to share all the happy details.

A long boring summer

2009-09-22T17:23:00.004-04:00

I haven't posted because there really has nothing to post about. I'm maxed out on all of the meds that are suppose to get this damn disease under control and it's not. The one med that's not a narcotic that really helped with the pain set my brain on fire. As much as I want to be pain free I rather not wind up in the in a locked ward of the local psych clinic. They don't let you spin or knit in there. I can spin on my wheel for about 30 minutes if I'm lucky before my left shoulder and right hip say stop for the day. If I'm using a light drop spindle then I can get a bit more time in but if I push it to much I regret it later.

The summer hasn't been a total dud. I've had the chance to spend some time with friends who don't mind that I have no stamina and have been wonderful at taking care of me. One friend when as far as to rearrange the furniture in house to make the air flow from the air conditioner flow better so I could come over. Her boy friend thought it was the best thing since sliced bread and wondered why they hadn't done it earlier in the summer! She's also a cook and has fed me lost of yummy food over the summer.

I've missed being with other friends, I hope you know who you are, because I haven't been able to stand for very long. So helping out with various events has been right out.

My fall is shaping up to be much better. We made the final commitment to the layout on our kitchen renovation. We went thru many layout changes to make the kitchen space more efficient. The only thing that has really changed is where the stove is going. My stove will no longer open into the side of another cabinet. They should start the demo the day I get back from Disney World.

Disney is the other thing that I am very much looking forward to. A friend wanted to go for the Food and Wine festival. Her boy wasn't interested and the majority of our group of friends are all going on a cruise later in the fall. So she said "bring your spending money and come with me!" Who am I to look a gift mouse in the mouth. I'm not letting her pay for the whole trip, that just wouldn't sit well with Hubby or myself. I'm paying for as much as I can considering we are about 10K over the initial budget for the reno. Part of where we went over budget is that we're having a half bay window put in which will bring a whole lot more light and give me more counter space. I know the investment we're making in the window will pay off in added value to the house if we do ever sell. It will also give the cats a place to sit and watch the birds in the back yard.

One of the things that's making Disney possible for me is that I can rent a scooter to get around on. My friend also has a problem with the nerves in her feet so we'll be trading off who rides and who walks or if she's really hurting to we'll just get two scooters. I've had visions of drag races down Main Street USA! We'll be leaving a week from this Thursday and I can't wait! This will be my once a decade trip to Florida.

Be still my textile geek heart!!!

2009-06-24T16:50:00.001-04:00

I have just found the most amazing podcast on traditional textiles from a wide variety of cultures. The podcast is called Voices on Cloth - Maiwa Podcasts. The episodes are from lectures given at past textile symposium sponsored by Miawa. I've only listened to a few of the podcasts so far but I've enjoyed what I've heard. The first one are excerpts from a lecture on Slow Clothing.

There is another symposium coming up this Sept-Oct. One of the lecturers is Dr. Elizabeth Wayland Barber. Dr. Barber is the author of Woman's Work - The first 20,000 Years. The book is my favorite book EVAR!!! and should be required reading for anyone who is a spinner and/or weaver. The book will be the topic of Dr Barbers lecture. That high pitched noise your heaing is me squeeing in delight!!!

There is also a series of stores in Vancouver BC. You can find the website at:
http://www.maiwa.com/index.html

TTMMH - Podcasts

2009-06-24T10:40:00.002-04:00

One of the things that makes me happy are podcasts. You can find some of my favorites if you scroll down the page. I got into listening to them because I was interested in the subject matter which is the reason why most people listen to them. But recently I have come to love them for another reason. I've spent several months of forced inactivity. Either I've been to tired or in to much pain do the things that I'm passionate about. It was making me really sad, but at some point I worked on reframing my idea of what being creative meant to me. By listening to people who are passionate about a particular subject, like knitting, Buddhism, or Creative Arts Therapy, I can participate vicariously when I can't in reality. But its more than that. I've been able to fill up my creative well with ideas that have come to me while listening. I've been able to (even thought its rather one sided) connect with folks who love the same things I do. That feeling of connection has gone a long way to help me deal some of the isolation and loneliness that comes with being sick. I've laughed and you know they say that laughter is the best medcine. So if you've never listened to one just plug a word into Google or Itunes and I just know that someone out there has a podcast that will suite you. If you haven't listened to one in while come back to them. Perhaps you'll even be ispired enough to create one of your own.

Things that make me happy

2009-06-23T18:43:00.002-04:00

I haven't talked at all about psychology since I graduated from school last year. That's been for a couple of reasons, one of which was I was rather burnt out by the time I was done. Being so burnt may have in some way contributed to my having RA. We may never know for sure but I am sure all the stress didn't help matters any. Since my diagnosis earlier this year I've been going back and re-reading some of the books on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Mindfullness, and Positive Psychology. I've been able to look with fresh eyes and a slightly different perspective on how these approaches to psychologic health can be used to help clients with chronic illnesses, well, since now I am one.

One of the simplest things to do (either on your own or with the help of a therapist) is make a list of things that make you happy. By spending just a little time refocusing your thoughts from whats wrong to whats right with you, about you, and in your life you can change how you feel emotionally as well as physically. So for the rest of this post and in future posts I'm going to share things that make me happy.

Todays happiness is: My Ipod. Yes one of things that makes me happiest in the world is my Ipod. Of course the music can help lift my mood, but its more than that. I have always had trouble turning my brain off when I'm trying to fall alseep. I find that if I have some background noise I'm better able to that. I used to fall asleep in front of the TV in the living room or have the radio on next to my bed, both of which was disturbing to my husband. When I got an Ipod and the right set of head phones I could have my back ground noise and not disturb my husband. An Ipod uses less energy than a TV and I can easily set the sleep timer feature which is something I could never figure out how to do on our TV. The memory capacity even, in some of the older models of Ipods, means that I can have a variety of media at my finger tips. I have a wide range of music, I love audio books and I even have some TV shows on my Ipod now. I love not having to choose a group of CD's (or way back in the day tapes) to take with me when I go out. When I have to sit for 2-3 hours getting my Remicade infusion I have everything I need to help pass the time. When my husband gave me this device I don't think either one of us had any idea of just how helpfull I find it. Yes, my Ipod is truly one of the things that makes me happy.

Summer of Socks '09

2009-06-22T11:57:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was the kick off party for SOS09. We all plugged in thru stickcam and cast on at 10:00am. The conversation was pretty quiet while we all counted our stitches. It was nice to see the folks who showed up all though not all of the folks had webcams so I didn't really see all of them. We chatted and knit and had a very nice time. It ended to early for me because most folks had father's day obligations. But we'll have other virtual play dates. Here's the progress on the sock I started. It's a plain toes up sock knit out of Panada Cotton. The socks are for my friend Alys. It had to be frogged once because I lost track of the increases but now I'm well into the foot. I think it looks like a big red tounge at the moment.

I tend to knit cotton very tight. In fact to get guage I'm up two needle sizes and spot on. If I wasn't on Remicade I know I wouldn't be able to knit this because I would just hurt way to much. I'm not totally out of pain while working on this but if I keep my Handeze Gloves on (think support hose for your hands) and an icepack on my left shoulder then I'm fine. Its nice to know I have some way of knowing that the drug is working.

Today was interesting

2009-06-15T19:12:00.005-04:00

This is the view out my front door as we were having a huge thunder storm that brought hail along with it. In all the time we've lived in our house (more than 10 years) we've only seen 2 or 3 hail storms. This one was a dussey!

Today was also a good mail day. I bought this book off of Ebay on the recommendation of someone on Weavolution. The concept is really cool. You can create 4 harness pattern weave by using three heddle on a riggid heddle loom. I had heard about doubling the thread count of an RHL by using 2 heddles which is something I definitely want to try. Eventually I try this three heddle stuff. Now I just have to get more heddle for my 24" RHL

I also received some fiber from Freckle Face Fibers! Their both the same colorway but the fiber on the left is a blend of Merino and silk while the fiber on the right is plain Merino. I decided that this is what I'm going to spin up for the Tour de Fleece that start on July 4th.

If you don't know what the Tour de Fleece is; its basically a bunch of crazy spinners who will be using their wheels (and spindles) while the Tour de France is going on. I'm part of Team Plurk along with a whole bunch of friends.

I've also decided to participate in the Summer of Socks '09 which is a knit-a-long that my friend Jess started a couple of years ago. This years theme is "NO STRESS" so I'm not going to set any goals. I'm just going to knit what I can. I've got my next Remicade infusion on Wednesday. I'm going to take some sock knitting with me and hopefully we find a place to put the I.V. in that A) will allow me to knit and B) not bruise me as badly as the infusion did.

I think I'm ready to go back to my wheel now

2009-06-14T17:51:00.007-04:00

I've had some fiber from Crown Mountain Farms for a couple of months that I haven't been able to spin due the pain I've been dealing with. I'm still in some pain and having bouts of overwhelming fatigue but I have seen some improvements since getting the Remicade. I did this in several short bursts yesterday. Its about half an ounce of the fiber I just got from Pigeonroof Fibers on a spindle made for me by Bruce Campbell. FYI Bruce doesn't have any spindle up on his Esty shop but just drop him a note and let him know Cheekyredhead sent you. He can make spindle in a wide variety of wood. Even though the one I'm working on may look a little plain its now one of my favorite spindles EVAR to work with.

Since I can do this I should be able to pick the CMF back up and get the spinning right. I found out with one very unfortunate pound of CMF that if I'm spinning and to much pain I just can't get the gauge of the yarn right. So it just seemed better to wait and get the yarn right rather than to just get it done.

.6 oz = 250 yards

I'm planning on weaving this at a sett of some where between 24 and 30 but I still have to figure some things out before I commit to the sett. One of the things I also need to wait on figuring out is what the weft is going to be. I've 4.5 ounce of the fiber left to spin and if I have enough yardage I'll weave it on its self. If I don't have enough yardage then I need to choose a color that will suit the warp and spin that up too.

I love dreaming in fiber!

Sometime I can be such a newb!

2009-06-13T08:54:00.005-04:00

I had taken the camera my friend Katy had passed on to me, when she got her new one, to an SCA event but I forgot to put the memory card back into it. All the pictures I took were on the internal memory and I forgotten until this morning to take them off via the cord. This is now one of my favorite pictures:

From Left to right: Me, Engracia (kneeling), Lissa, and Muffin

I taught both Engracia and Lissa how to spin and I've taught Muffin how to use hand cards. It makes me so happy to finally have a picture of all of us together.

Its was a good mail day!

2009-06-12T16:13:00.005-04:00

No bills! Look what did come! The colorway is called Circus and was dyed by Pigeonroof Fibers. I'm going to spin it for a SAL that's being host by the Spindlers group on Ravelry. The theme for the SAL is Bollywood and I really think this fits the bill. There's 5oz of merino in this lot and I know I'm not going to get it all spun. I just need to get a small skein of it finished.

I got something crafty done today!

2009-06-11T15:48:00.006-04:00

Today has been the first time in over a month that I tried to spin and weave. I didn't do it for very long because my hands and shoulders still hurt when I do it but aside from a little pain it was wonderful to have fiber in my hands again.

This is the Cloudy Day Shawl I started using Jess's (Zarzuleasfibers on Etsy) fiber. You can scroll down to see how I spun the yarn.

This is some merino I've been spinning to create fabric for some 14th century style liripipe hoods. This project will be the first time I've used handspun singles as warp.

While I was working on that Dr. Schrodinger has been at the front window looking for birds. There's a robin that I swear has been taunting him.

Farmers markets

2009-06-10T16:49:00.003-04:00

So I was surfing around the net today and came across Buy Fresh Buy Local. You just plug in your zip to see whats going on in your area (sorry this is just for PA). I found that my town has its own market that will start up July 4th weekend. Lansdale, who have thought!

You can also go check out Farm to Philly to find local eating, sustainable agriculture, and other resources in the area.

Nom nom nom!

Been waiting for this!!!

2009-06-10T11:26:00.003-04:00

www.Weavolution.com has opened for business. Its kind of like Ravelry except its for weavers.

Crafty Day and other stuff

2009-06-09T16:57:00.004-04:00

Last week Lissa had half a comp day so she came over to have a crafty day with me. She worked on a scroll that was being presented at an SCA event that weekend. I cut out and started to sew on some poofy pants for CheekyHubby. I don't normally sew clothes for him but since I'm still home and a little limited in what I can do I figured I might as well put my time to good use for him.

We were both able to work at the dinning room table. You can see two bags of Jacob fleece in the back ground of the picture. Lissa and I bought them at this past Maryland Sheep and Wool festival. I need a time when there is both sun out side and I have the energy to sit down to sort and pick the fleeces for washing. Lately when I seem to have the energy it's also raining.

Last Wednesday I had my first dose of Remicade for my RA. I had two choices when it came to how I was going to get it. A) an I.V. infusion given at the Dr's office or B) giving myself a shot. The shot was right out! I'm sure I could give myself a shot if I HAD to but since I don't I spent 2 hours getting the infusion. Actually getting it wasn't so bad as long as I didn't look while the nurse put the I.V. in my hand. What has been a royal pain is the bruise on the back of my hand. It's still a dusey after a week! I should start to see some improvement in my pain after I get the next infusion next week. I hope so! But the next time I have the I.V. I'm going to have her place it in my arm.

Dr. Schrodinger has been doing his best to easy my pain by being his funny old self. In fact he's been down right clingy for the last week or so. Its wonderful to be so loved!

DIY bath time for rheumatiod arthritis pain relief

2009-05-31T17:17:00.006-04:00

Since my diagnosis I have been looking for way to relieve the pain that don't involve taking another pill. One of the most common pieces of advice I've gotten is to take a warm bath or shower. Being a DIY Girl I looked around to find ways of making my bath (or shower) more of a relaxing experience. Here are some great tutorials that I came across:

How to make a head wrap to keep your hair out of the bath water

5 Homemade bath soaks

Homemade bath tea - in this article they call for pre-made muslin tea bags but making your own is super simple! Here is a tutorial for making two different kinds (one is no-sew) -muslin tea bags

If you have trouble getting into a tub then try using sugar scrub made with cinnamon. It will leave your skin soft and warm!

When my hands are hurting I'll rub my own mixture of almond oil (1/2 cup), cinnamon (1/2 tea spoon), and orange zest (one large orange) on to my hands then put on a pair of cotton gloves to keep the heat in.

Pressing buttons

2009-05-31T15:09:00.003-04:00

Since my hands hurt and typing will only make things worse I decided that I should update the blog with new links to blogs I've been reading and links to tutorials I love! To do this I really only had to press a few buttons. Just scroll down to see the changes on the side bar.

Another long hiatus!

2009-05-30T12:34:00.003-04:00

O.K. I'm back! I hope. I know, I know, I say that every time I go away for a while. But that is just part of who I am. I may go away, but rest assured I always come back around.

The short version of what has been happening in my life over the past few months is that I have been diagnosed and living with Rheumatoid Arthritis. It's an autoimmune disease where your body starts attacking, in this case, the sinovial joints of the body. What are sinovial joint? Shoulders, wrists, fingerg, hips, knees, ankles, etc. I've been given all sorts of medication that has helped. Unfortunately the disease, and the pain that its causes, is still progressing. The pain has been putting a big cramp (pun intended!) in my style. I've been trying to keep up with spinning, weaving, and all manner of craftyness but its been hard. In fact for the last two weeks I've been pretty much done nothing but nurse my swollen hands along hoping that the pain will decrease so I can start to do stuff again! I have been dealing with some depression, including withdrawing from people (aka, the hiatus). from all the reading I've done about RA depression is a very big part of the disease process. Pain, lack of sleep, feelings of being out of control of what's happening to one's body, yeah it's all part of the process.

On the Bright side, yes there is a bright side to all this, I've been using what I'd learned in my psychology courses, art therapy courses, and in writing my thesis to help me get thru this. I know that if I had had to deal with RA before I went back to school I would be a whole lot worse off than I am. Practicing Buddhism has also helped me get thru.

My strategy has been this: when the pain is bad, I'm feeling to fatigued to think straight, or just feel depressed and sorry for myself, I gently remind myself that I haven't always felt as bad as I do and I'm not going to feel this badly for ever. The pain and fatigue will come and go the way all things in life come and go. If I need a nap I take a nap. If I need to take pain killers I take pain killers. The time that I do feel good has been filled with sewing, spending time with a few of my close friends, spinning, weaving, doing the creative things that nurture my soul. I take some of that good time to feel grateful that the good has come around again. I also remind myself that I have a lot to be grateful for! A husband who loves and supports me in every way, two wonderful cats who help me get out of bed every day, friends who come and visit me when I'm not up to going to see them. Even if I can't get my craft-mojo on I can read and re-read my books to help pass the time and inspire me so that when I am ready to get back to it I have the mojo at hand.

I'm also very grateful that my husbands job offers such great health coverage and that even with all the crap that's going on in the financial world it hasn't been a hardship for me to not be working. My gaol right now is to get my RA under control, no matter how long that take, and then to get on with either getting a job in my field and/or going back to school to get my Masters degree.

Yes, my life has been put on hold by the disease, but I have everything that I need to get me thru it until I can get back to working on moving forward with everything. I'm planning on posting more often, since it's one of the things I can do while sitting on my 'tocks, if my hands are up to typing.

So, this is it, the short version of where I've been and where I'm going.

What I've been doing

2009-01-13T09:40:00.002-05:00

Today I go back to the Dr.'s to find out the results of all the tests they did on my blood last week. In spite of the Dr. putting me on steroids the pain has not gona away so Hubby and I are prepared for bad news.

In the mean time so as not to go completely out of my tree I have been doing my best to ignore the pain and spin some yarn. My friend Jess (AKA Zarzuela) has been hosting a spin-a-long on the Raverly board for her Etsy fiber shop. I have lots of her fiber so I decided to use the colorway called Cloudy Day that I bought as a birthday present to myself. The main point of the SAL is to navajo ply your fiber.

I needed to go slow and keep movement to a minimum so I stripped down the length of the roving into very thin sections and spun the single at about 40 WPI. This didn't hurt me to spin since there was practically no drafting. It took me about 3 days to finish up the single. This is rather slow for me both due to the pain and the weight I was spinning. I let the bobbin sit over night to let the yarn rest. This makes it so much easier to ply. Plying did hurt a lot more than the spinning did because the motions with navajo plying are much bigger but I managed by taking frequent breaks.

And here it is, the finished yarn: approx 28 WPI and approx 370 yards before I set the twist. I have the feeling that the yarn is going to spring back somewhat and become just a bit fatter and short in length over all.

Knitting my oldest UFO

2009-01-06T12:18:00.002-05:00

I decided to take out the oldest UFO in the pile. A Rogue hoody in a lush purple, silk wool blend. I screwed up the first cable row I started on but only found the mistake on the next cable row. So tink back two rows. I am now one row ahead of where I started. I had forgotten just how heavy this project is now that I'm on the hood. This is a slight problem since I've had back spasms for more than a week. I'm feeling better than I had been but I think I'd better work on a sleve so I can make progress without hurting myself. My other option is to put the project back to sleep, until after the Dr figures out how to help me deal with the pain, and just go back to knitting socks.

My favorite prayer - Happy Solstice

2008-12-21T09:55:00.001-05:00

There is nothing I can give you, which you have not; But there is much, very much, that while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant. Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within reach, is joy. There is a radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see, and to see we have only to look. I beseech you to look. Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly, or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty, believe me that angel's hand is there; the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Our joys too: be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts. And so, at this time, I greet you. Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you now and forever, the day breaks, and the shadows flee away. " (Fra Giovanni 1513 A.D.)

Turning a negative into a posititve

2008-12-18T18:08:00.002-05:00

for more than a week my friend Katy had been working on scarf to put into an office grab bag thing for Christmas (you can read the whole story here). Well the gift went under appreciated to say the least and Katy's feelings were very hurt. I got very angry on her behalf but then I thought for minute that my getting angry was not going to do her or me any good. I very much wanted to show Katy that she is talented, wonderful and very caring for going to effort to make a gift rather than just throw a token amount of money at the problem.

Here is what I've come up with: Katy is going to send me the scarf and I'm going to have my picture taken wearing it. I will also take pictures of Dr. Schrodinger and Minuette wearing it. I will then send the scarf to another of Katys friends to do the same. We all, so far 20 or so people who know about my idea and want to be a part of this, will send the pictures to Katy for her to post on the walls of her cube at work.

My hope for this is really very simple for Katy to see for herself that she is valued and that her gifts, all of them, are appreciated.

Wow! I didn 't realize it had been that long since I posted!

2008-12-17T09:17:00.003-05:00

So many things have happened since August that I'm not sure where to start. I'm not employed yet but the reasons for this are many, not the least of which are some health issue in the family. Everything is O.K. now but I needed to be home. I've also had a few bad days on the health from myself but again everything is O.K. now. I'll start the job hunt again after the new year. If that doesn't go well I'm going to start applying to grad schools. I've been studying for the GRE to help keep me busy.

As for my artistic endeavours, as always there has been fiber on the wheel, socks and other knitting on the needles and I have also done some weaving.

One of my new favorite things to knit is the Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman. You can get the pattern for this and additional instructions for doing an adult size jacket from School House Press. I originally wanted to make the adult size for myself, which I still plan to do, but the baby size goes so fast that I've completed 3 and have a 4th started to give to the local hospital.

I'm reasonably sure that my mother-in-law doesn't read my blog so I'm posting a couple of pictures of the yarn and scarf I spun and wove for her for Christmas.

The single ens of yarn is approx 40 wpi which I then Navajo plied into something approx 14-16 wpi. The fiber was dyed by Pigeonroof Studios. I got about 300 yards out of just under 4 oz. The colorway id Millefiori. The same one I bought in yarn form and knit my Nanner sock out of. I also spun up about 170 of the same weight in white merino for the weft yarn.

I love the way the scarf came out. Its very soft. The size is just right for Jackie, 8.25" x 45" which is perfect for her petite size.

I've got fiber from Zarzuela on the wheel, when I'm not spinning Sock Hop Yarn for CMF, for a weaving project. Zarzuela AKA Jess is one of my new favorite dyers! I had a blast helping her out at a fiber fest selling her wares and then brought home quite a bit myself! As for the weaving project, what exactly it will turn into all depends on if I can work up the nerve to cut into the fabric or not! I'll keep you posted.

Well, there you go I finally posted. I hope as always not to let time get away from me again.

Been a busy this week

2008-08-17T13:34:00.003-04:00

Yes, to busy to stop and blog or even to take progress pictures but progress has been made on several fronts. You just have take my word for it. Sairy's embroidered bag is coming along very nicely. All the outline stitches are done and now I'm just filling in the two areas that need it. A seemingly endless number of french knots in the ruff around the sheep's face and then the sheep's face will get some thing. I just haven't decided on the stitch yet. I have all but two of the motifs done on my quilting project and then it on to the border. I've done some embroidery that will go as panels onto some box bags but those are for gifts and you won't see them until the recipients have them in hand. More bags and stitch markers went up for sale on my Etsy Shop.

There has also been spinning going on for CMF and more fiber arrived on Friday (or was it Saturday, I forget). I've got some fibet that I want to spin for myself from Fatcatknits and Pigoenroof Studios but they are just going to have to wait for a little while longer while get the CMF fiber done.

I did take a break last night to go to a party at my friends Collin and Diane's home. They have a fire pit in their back yard so when it was dark enough we all gathered around it and talked. I was knitting on a new sock. At one point I dropped a stitch and had to have Collin build the fire up so I'd have enough light to fix it. My friends just laughed, Collin built the fire up, and all is well with my sock.

Larissa pulled a lounger chair over and was dozing near the fire. She looked so cute that I just had to try to take a picture. I blinded everyone with the flash and scared the crap out of Larissa because she thought the fire had somehow collapsed towards her. Sorry guys! But look isn't she cute!

This week I'll be working on a new bag design specifically for drop spindles. More on that as the design comes along.

Todays finished item is brought to you by the letter N and the number 2

2008-08-12T10:54:00.006-04:00

This morning I finished #2 in the pair of Nanner! Socks designed by Wendy Johnson of WendyKnits fame. The yarn I used was Millefiori dyed by Pigeonroof Studios. I loved knitting these socks. I think that's why it didn't take me 40 forevers to get them done. But I will say that the combination of the very complex colorway over powers the stitch pattern. This kind of conflict has always been something I've had a problem with.

I really want to knit this sock pattern again. I have some Nanner! yarn from Lime and Violet in Miss Violet's Just Ripe colorway that I could use for another pair of Nanners! I am also thinking the yarn may need to become a pair of Monkey Socks. Ge it, Nanner Yarn, Monkey Socks! O.K. well its funny to me. Another option for another pair of Nanners! is to find some yellow fiber and spin my own sock yarn but I can tell you that just isn't going to happen anytime soon. Business has been picking up for my Etsy shop and I have an other oportunity that has just come up in the last 24 hours that is very exciting. I can't share the details right now except to say that it's fiber related, will keep me very busy and has the potential keep me busy for a very long time. Squeee!!!

Also, on the project front there's a hat that has been partially done that really should get done for a very special person in my life. It has to get done before the weather gets cold since I've been promising it to him for 2 years!!! Not sure why I've been procrastinating on this one but then again I have a sweater for Hubby that been on the needles for much longer than that. Both projects are not all that far from completion. I know this is something about my process that I need to explore further. Why is it that I can make stuff to go to complete strangers with no problem but once I start a project for someone close to me I seem to freeze. Could it have something to do with not wanting to disappoint them? But I'm disappointing them by not finishing their projects. So where does this leave me? Well, first and formost not in a good place I can tell you that much. I will ponder this while I spin the next batch of yarn for Crown Mountain Farms since this kind of thinking is best done with fiber in my hands.

For those of you not on Plurk, why your not I just can't fathom, here is a picture of Dr. Schrodinger that I poster there yesterday and just had to share with the world. My own personal LOL cat!

I am over the moon!!

2008-08-11T18:51:00.002-04:00

The wonderful folks at the Lime and Violet Empire of Doomy Doom pick an Esty Shop Of The Day. Well today my shop was it!!!! This may not seem like a big deal to anyone but me but I'm over the moon about it.

The new work so far

2008-08-02T16:19:00.008-04:00

I've been really enjoying doing the embroidery for this bag. As I was going along I realized that I needed a few more colors of floss to make the design around the face of the sheep pop. I brought out all four of my boxes of floss which is pretty much every color DMC makes. Plus I have some metallic threads but I won't be using any on this bag. On some of the bags that I have planned will need a bit of sparkle.

These are the colors I decided to work with keeping. The color scheme needed a little something so I added just a few touches of green.

Here is the picture of the completed line work. Now I need to fill in his face and the ruff around his neck. I'm going to stick with doing french knots in the ruff but I think I'm going to use bullion stitch or some variant of it on the sheep's face to imply the fleece.

As I was going along I realized that I had put the design on the fabric oriented along the wrong axis but have decided to go ahead and finish the it because I had already put to much work into it to just scrap the whole thing and start over. I know I'm going to need a longer zipper to accommodate the new length of the bag. This is what I get for starting something at 1:30am!

And one piece of advice on working with transfer sheets like these.

Not that this is a bad thing, just be aware that the design will rub off. If you think your going to take a long time to complete the work or like me have a tendency to have parts of the work rub up against you then go over the chalk lines with a water soluble pencil. These kind of pencils come in light blue and white. This will make the marks more durable but will come out with a cold water rinse when your embroidery is completed.

Insomnia and embroidery

2008-08-01T01:55:00.010-04:00

I just couldn't sleep tonite (it's about quarter past 2 in the am as I'm typing this) so I figured that now was as good a time as any to start a new project.

I found this completely adorable embroidery pattern of sheep thru Craftzine. Carftzine, for those of you living under a rock, is a magazine and a blog that is one of the best resources on the net for all things Indy and crafty. Go and find out for yourself how ubber Craftzine is. Any who, bought the pattern for just $3! and pointed my Plurk friends to where they could get it and mentioned that I wanted to put this on a box bag for myself. FYI, the pattern is protected under Creative Commons , no selling of items using said pattern so you won't find this for sale on my Etsy Store. Sorry folks but you either have to make your own or I really have to like you to make one for you.

My friend Sairy, who I happen to like a lot, is a creative type like myself but isn't into sewing/embroidery. I am going to make a bag for her. To show her and other folks that this isn't hard to do I'm going to document my process for making the bag here. We talked about the color scheme she wanted. Think Neapolitan ice cream and you have the idea.

The box bags I make are long and narrow to accommodate DPN's or a drop spindle. My first step was to sketched out my idea for where I wanted to place the Sheep so that Sairy would have an idea of what the bag was going to look like. I didn't want to get all the way through the stitching and have her say "No, that's not what I had in mind". The embroidery will be mainly on the side opposit from the zipper and wrapping around the sides. It will look so cute hanging from her arm. Since you'll be making this for yourself you can skip this step.

Next I assembled the materials, two fat quarters of fabric, a 9-14" invisable zipper, embroidery floss, transfer paper, and Iron-on tear away stabilizer. You'll also need an embroidery hoop and masking tape (not pictured). I enlarged the embroidery design to the necessary size and cut away the extra paper.

Cut both pieces of fabric to size, for this project 14" x 16". Also cut a piece of stabilizer to the same size. Set aside the scraps left over from both fat quarters, the lining fabric (in this case the patterned fabric) and the zipper as we don't need those until we assemble the bag.

Follow the manufactures directions and iron the stabilizer to the wrong side of your fabric. Turn your fabric right side up. Your going to want to work on hard surface to transfer the design the the fabric. The transfer paper (available in most fabric stores) comes in a package with different colors so the lines will show on any color fabric. We're using a dark brown fabric so I chose white. Place the transfer paper chalky side to the right side of your fabric. Use masking tape to secure the corners of the paper. My design wasn't complicated so I didn't do this step but you should espcially if this is your first time doing this sort of thing.

Place the design right side up on top of the transfer paper and secure it in one or two places with masking tape.

Trace the lines of your design with a pen, press with some presure but not enough to tear the paper. Pick up a corner of the transfer paper, making sure not to let either paper slip, to check that you have all the lines transfered.

Position the embroidery hoop where you want to start stitching. For this design I'm going to use stem stitch and french knots. There are a lot of good resources on the interwebs already that can explain exactly how to do the stitches. Start stitching!

Coming soon on Get A Clew - The Blog: a look at how the embroidery is coming along - Progress update on the quilting - Spinning - Sewing - Knitting - Has the Cheeky Redhead found a job yet? - stay tune for these and other exciting episodes!

The next adventure of a farmgirl

2008-07-30T10:08:00.002-04:00

One of the things that being a farmgirl has inspired me to try is quilting, but I don't have a whole lot of interest in doing a lot pieced work. What I'm really interested in is a technique called called wholecloth quilting or white work. It's very simple, you draw out a design that you will follow with your stitching on the quilt top, sandwich the top batting and back the way you would any quilt, baste the layers together, and then just stitch. Just to play around I picked up a basic book on hand quilting, couple of stencils and a quilting hoop (which is different from an embroidery hoop, this kind of hoop accommodates the thickness of the quilt). I had some fabric, some poly batting left over from another project, and some quilting thread that was my mothers at home. I put together my sample last night and I've already completed two of the motifs.

A close up of the front. The blue lines are done with a fabric marker and will wash out once I have the whole thing completed with binding and all.

A close up of the back, this view gives you a better idea of what it will look like when it's completed

Doing the stitching is very much like following a pre-printed embroidery pattern using a running stitch. However it's not mindless work. The challenge comes in trying to keep your stitches as even as possible. My stitches are far from perfect but I'm happy with what I've done so far and can tell you that this is definitely another fabric aer I plan to pursue with a passion. The rhythm of the stitching is very soothing in much the same way that the rhythm of spinning is soothing for me.

I was thinking that I might make this into a pillow, but a much better idea came to me this morning. I'm going to make this, and at least two more similar panels, into wall hangings for the for the wall of the staircase. Hubby and I used to have our heraldic banners hanging on the wall as you go up to the second floor. I used my banner to mark out our home to arriving guests and it was stolen ages ago and when we renovated we just never hung his banner back up. The one thing we have noticed since we did this is that the sound from the TV carries very loudly right into our bed room now. So if one of is napping the other needs to keep the volume very low while watching TV. Don't even get me started on what Hubbies video games sound like as the noise carries up the stairs. So the quilted panels will help to deaden the sound and look very attractive. Now my only question is should I do all the panels in white and change the motifs or should I keep the motifs the same but make each panel a different color? I think I'll let Hubby decide that.

Busy busy busy

2008-07-28T07:46:00.003-04:00

For the last week or so I've been doing a lot of sewing. Mostly box bags that I have for sale on my Etsy shop (see the side bar for some of the pictures and the link to the shop). I've also taken some time to ply up the single that I had going on one of my drop spindles. This what the yarn that I was spinning way back in June has come out looking like.

I really like the way this yarn has plied up. Some areas are a solid color and some is a combination of colors that have a beautiful tweed look. I've got more fiber to finish but I also need to decide if I'm going to knit or weave with this. If I do weave it then I also need to decide if I'm going to use the yarn for both warp and weft or if I want to pair it with a neutral solid. I'm thinking that stripes or perhaps even working a check might be fun. Decisions decisions.

Project number 3 for the day - a needle case

2008-07-19T16:42:00.002-04:00

I'm tiered of keeping my embroidery needles and sharps in the packaging they come because the needles always fall out or I've put them somewhere safe then can't find them. So project number 3 to keep me entertained today was sewing a simple needle case. The pattern came from Sew Pretty Homestyle and was a little fiddly to do. I need more zippers and when I get them I'm going to make a box bag that will contain my smaller sewing supplies. If I go to all the trouble to make a nice home for the bits and bobs then perhaps I won't loose them.

Box bag #2

2008-07-19T13:55:00.001-04:00

Longer and less wonkie.

Todays sewing project - A Box Bag

2008-07-19T11:34:00.003-04:00

I was going to go to an SCA event today. I say was because last night, when Hubby and I looked at the weather forecast for today a heat index of 97degrees with high humidity, we agreed that air conditioning was just going to be the better option to make sure I keep breathing.

So I broke out the fabric for a sewing project that I had wanted to try for a long time, a lined, zippered box bag to keep a sock/small sewing project in. I followed the tutorial from Dragon{knit}fly. Since this is the first time I've made this, there are a couple of things that are a bit wonkie, like the bag could be just a bit longer to accommodate my DPN's, but over all I love the way it came out. It took just two fat quarters of fabric and a 12" zipper so this is a very inexpensive to make and I see myself making a lot more of these in my future.

Projects leading to projects

2008-07-15T19:24:00.002-04:00

On Sunday Hubby went to play D&D with friends in New Jersey. So that left me looking around for something to do on my own. I went to a couple of farmers markets and the local dairy farm, Merry Mead. I picked up some plants to start a garden (pictures of the garden later). It was very satifying to get down in the dirt. I knew by the time I was done that really needed a sun hat to keep my little brain from frying. Today I got out the fabric and Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing book. Dr. Schrodinger decided that he needed to supervise the sewing.

This was a very easy project to get accomplished. This is the way I'll wear it to keep the sun off my face while I garden.

Here's how I will wear my hat when not in the garden. I think it's very cute but with the bring up I think the hat needs a big fabric flower pinned to it.

Saturday

2008-07-06T15:01:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a really great day. Hubby and I went to our firends Marion and Thomas's house to hang out. There was lots of schmoozing and boozing. A bunch of folks fenced, I sat on the deck with some of the ladies and knit. I finished the first Nanner Sock and started the second one but the knitting was slow going for me. You might be wondering why it was slow going when I managed to crank out most of the first sock in a little over day. The answer has to do with the boozing.

See this is what can happen when you try to graft a toe while a bit tippsy. Notice the purls where no purls ought to be in my toe. I've already sunk the ends so no I'm not going to re-do the toe. Every time I look at those purls I'll remember what a nice day I had.

When I arrived home I found the yarn the Griff had ordered for me in payment for last weekends scroll. He bought me two skeins of thr STR instead of one. I should have know that since last weekend ha had asked me if I knew what it was that I had asked him to buy. He was shocked that the skeins were measured in ounces and he obviously thought 4 and some ounces just couldn't be enough. He's such a sweet guy.

This Morning I stopped in to the book store to use a credit I had nad found this:

The designs in this book are just so cute. There were 3 things that immidiately jumped out at me that I really want to sew. Slippers, fabric boxes and an adorable pin keep.

I need to get a ring of some sort to do the pin keep and some felt (unless I want to make my own) for the slipper but other wise I have all the supplies I need for these project.

My first apron

2008-07-04T13:56:00.004-04:00

The other day I finished hand sewing my first apron. The pattern is from MJ's Ideabook. I do a lot of sewing but I've just recently started to get into doing my sewing by hand and this pattern it was so easy that I wanted to make the project last for a little longer.

Last Thursday I get a phone call...

2008-07-02T18:06:00.003-04:00

From my friend Matt asking if I can do whip out a scroll, specifically a Letter of Marc for the King to sign and give to our mutual friend Griffith for a bit of shtick during Court. I'm thinking to myself that Griffs a Pirate and will be come a Privateer with this scroll so what's in it for me. For about 3 hours of work (not including the time it took to restart the scroll 3 time because I kept making mistakes) my payment will be a bottle of Chambord and a skein of STR lightweight sock yarn in a colorway call Walk On The Wild Tide. So here's the letter:

Doing this much calligraphy on such short notice was no problem but did leave me a little crispy but it's nice to know that I can still do it after having a hiatus of about 6year away from my pens. Before that I had been working on my Nanner! socks. The pattern was a gift from Wendy Johnson to all her Plurk Buddies who asked for before the end of June. This is very fast knit since I got this much done in just a day:

The scroll put that sock on hold but I have made a bit more progress since I took that picture. I'm about half down the foot and will definitely have it done and the second sock started by the weekend. Because I was feeling rather crispy from having done the letter I knew I was going to want to knit on something pretty mindless at the event, Bhakail Investiture. I started a dish cloth baby blanket. I've been working on it this week along with my sewing and am almost half way thru.

We are going to spend Friday at home but will head off Saturday to our friends Thomas and Marion's home for a day of fencing and Rock Band for him, and knitting and schmoozing for me.

My Sisterhood Badge

2008-07-01T21:24:00.017-04:00

One of the things you get when you join the farmgirl sisterhood is a cute badge that identifies you to other sisters. One can just take the badge, finish off the edges, and slap it on a denim jacket. That's just fine. Me, I had to play with mine and add a bit of my special touch to it. Here is how I did it:

Please be sure to read all my instructions before you do the project for yourself. The badge is printed on muslin and really is cute as is but if you want to add embroidery is wise to use a fabric stabilizer on the back so it will stand up to the needle and thread. I used an iron-on tear off stabiliser which you can find in most fabric stores. I then placed the fabric in a hoop to hold the fabric taunt while I worked.

Here is what it looked like from the front and the colors of floss that I used

You can find instructions for all the stitches I used in MJ's Ideabook. I used split stitch and running stitch and you'll be able to see that better in the pictures towards the end. Once you have your embroidery complete it's time to sew a backing fabric to hide the back of the work. Cut your badge out leaving a quarter inch or so of fabric beyond the black outline. Cut your backing fabric to the same size.

Lay the two pieces of fabric right sides together and use a running stitch to join the two pieces together.

Be sure to leave an opening in the stitching in order to turn the right sides out

to decrease the bulk of the fabric near the corners of the octagon trim off the excess fabric just be sure not to cut into the badge.

Here is my badge turned right sides out. I then whip stitched the small opening closed. Notice that I added a Lazy Daisy and my farmgirl member number to the badge. I just free handed the daisy but I used a water soluble tailoring pencil (available at your fabric store) to write in the number.

I wanted to add a fancy ruffle behind my badge so I took a piece of cloth 4" by 22" and folded it in half. I also folded in a .25" hem at each end. When I do these kinds of folds I iron them down to make them more secure while I work. You can also use ribbon instead of fabric. I then placed a long running stitch along the raw edge of the folded fabric. Be sure to secure one end of the running stitch securely as this is going be what you use to ruffle the fabric.

By pulling the running stitch and watch as the fabric becomes a ruffle.

I adjusted the fabric to fit around my badge and pinned the fabric in place from the front. I then basted the ruffle to the back of the badge, making sure that the basting stitches were only in the backing fabric.

I then made a circle by sewing two pieces of fabric together the same way I made the badge for the back of the badge to cover the raw edges of the ruffle and to sew a pin back onto. You don't have to do this step unless you want to make your badge into a pin like I did.

I sewed the pin back firmly onto the backing circle. Then stitched the backing circle in place.

I added some buttons to the badge, sewing thru the badge and the ruffle, which are both decorative and hold everything in place. And here it is, my farmgirl sisterhood badge. I haven't found all the buttons I want to put on it yet.

Please let me know what you think or leave any questions you might have in the comments.

The Plurkette Henhouse is up and running

2008-07-01T08:12:00.002-04:00

One of the things that marks out a farmgirl is her sense of community and to that end the first assignments for our on-line henhouse is to get to know one another. So I'd like to introduce myself to all my farmgirl sisters.

My name is Christine and I live in a small suburban town that's about an hour north and west of Philadelphia. Living with me are two cats, two spinning wheels, a couple of looms, lots and lots of fiber and yarn, lots of art supplies, my trusty sewing machine, and some where in here is my wonderful hubby.

I think the main reason why the whole farmgirl thing apeals to me is because I've always had a real love for what is considered traditionally woman's work and the value that it has played in the shaping of the the world around us. I very much enjoy all the modern conveniences of the 21c but I feel equally at home unplugging from the modern world.

Using my time wisely

2008-06-25T14:27:00.002-04:00

One of the things I've been thinking about since I've started my job search in earnest is that I won't have the kind of time that I have right now to devote to my hobbies. That being said it's not like I've been wasting time. I've been getting a lot of spinning, weaving, and knitting done. But I also need to think about preparing to get back into the work world and all that will mean. I've also been thoroughly entertained by this whole farmgirl thing. One of the ideas that Mary Jane stresses is that you should know where your food comes from and eat organic as much as possible. Since I have a black thumb (I do hope I can change this someday) I'm not going to be growing my own produce any time soon but what I can do is prepare some of my own foods instead of buying them prepackaged.

Here is a large batch spaghetti sauce that is currently simmering away in my self-stirring crockpot. I haven't made any in a really long time and hubby was very happy that I planned to make this. For the cost of premium jar sauce I'm going to have 5 or 6 meals worth of sauce forzen.

Bread is also something that I haven't made in a long time. So here is a picture of a loaf of whole wheat bread that is in process. I'd much rather eat things I've made myself but just got out of the habbit when school/work had gotten so busy in the past. I'm going to continue to use my time wisely by cooking things that I can freeze to make meal planning a little easier on both the Hubby and myself when I do go back to work.

Keeping with the farmgirl theme, one of things every farmgirl needs is an apron. Actually she needs several but I'm going to start by making one by hand. I found these wonderful rose print fabrics today. The pattern is going to come from MJ's Ideabook (see yesterdays post for the link to the book).

Tomorrow I'm going to make cheese bread and cookies.

What's a city girl like me doing.....

2008-06-24T12:47:00.006-04:00

reading books like Mary Janes Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook, For The Farmgirl In All Of Us. Have I suddenly decided that in spite of being a born and raised New York City girl that I'm going to start raising my own food or keeping chickens? Um, well, no. But what it does mean is that I can enjoy working towards living a simpler life style. I can find new outlets for my love of traditionally women's crafts like sewing and baking. I can make the commitment to buy my food from local farms when ever possible. I can wear an apron and be proud of it. I am going to join the Farmgirl Sisterhood. There are thing like merit badges that a person can earn and since I was never a girl scout I feel a distinct lack of merit badges in my life. I have Miss Violet of Lime and Violet for getting me started on this. If you's like to know more about this you can follow the links here or scroll down and click the button for the Plurkette Henhouse I'll be working with.

Drop spindling with friends

2008-06-22T16:51:00.003-04:00

I've found a lot of people that I have things in common with on Plurk. One of those things is spinning. Opal and Lori are two of the people are as into spinning as I am. Both of them are participating in a ravelry group called 10 minutes a day where the premise is pretty obvious. I do a whole more spinning than just 10 minutes a day but that spinning is mostly for Crown Mountain Farms or Liza Souza. I've decided that I'm going to try to spin along with Opal and Lori but on one of my drop spindles. I've been spinning one one of my Adam spindles using Fat Cat Knits hand dyed Merino/Tencel blend. I hope this is an -along that I can stick with.

I am a process person

2008-06-19T11:03:00.004-04:00

What this means is that I like doing stuff, getting into the details, just existing in the moment with the thing I'm doing. I believe that if the process of a thing is done right then the product will come out right, eventually. That being said I also can be easily distracted and have been afflicted with start-itis when it comes to my knitting. However, things do come to completion around here every once in a while.

Way back in January I blogged about the first sock of this pair and now here is the completed pair.

I was insipred to finally finish them because I wanted to start at least two other pairs of socks, Nanners! by WendyKnits and Monkey by Cookie A. but I have (mumble mumble) socks already started so I figured at the very least I needed to finish something to free up the needles.

All thew cool kids are doing it.

2008-06-18T18:01:00.001-04:00

Plurk it's the way!

I have no excuses

2008-06-18T17:20:00.012-04:00

No cookie for me because I'm a bad blogger. I've been home mostly and doing a whole lot of stuff. I thought that today I would take the time to share some of what I've been doing since I last promised to blog more.

On the textile front:

I've been spinning for CMF. This colorway is called Tobacco Road.

This colorway is called Layla.

Both pounds of yarn will get shipped of tomorrow so look at the CMF web site soon if you want to purchase any for yourself

One of the things that I love about spinning all this sock yarn is that the colors keep me entertained. Another things is that I don't have the "pressure" of wondering what socks this yarn will grow up to be.

I've also spun and woven a new shawl but I'm leaving that for another post.

On the home front:

We've had some interesting fungi inhabiting our tree in the back yard. Here are some of the shots I liked the best.

On the job front: while have sent out a few resumes for positions that I really was intrigued by I haven't gotten any offers yet. Not to worry. I know the idea position will come along.

On the SCA front: I've made some new garb (no pictures, forgot to take the camera out at the last event I went too), got my student going on weaving her first project and also worked with her on some painting exercises to get her ready to work on her first scroll that we are doing together. The calligraphy for it is all done. I'll post pictures of the completed scroll once it's been given to the recipient.

So there you have just some of what has been keeping me busy for the last month. Hopefully, I'll post again soon.

What's on my wheels Wednesday

2008-05-07T08:43:00.005-04:00

In order to keep myself motivated to post more regularly I've decided that I'm going to make Wednesdays "What's on my wheels Wednesday". So here is the inaugural post.

My friend Cathy (Engracia in the SCA) was looking for a special color of yarn for a project she's doing as a present. She found the color she wanted in roving so I'm spinning it up for her on my Traveler. There was 7 oz's of roving that I'm going to create a two ply fingering weight yarn from. I divided the roving in half and have about half of the first single spun up so far.

On my Joy I'm spinning up some fingering weight yarn for Lisa Souza in her Evah Glades colorway. The fiber is merino. Lisa sent me a pound of fiber and I should have this done and sent off to her by Monday.

Do I have any readers left? or Stick a fork in me!

2008-05-05T20:54:00.003-04:00

I took the last test for my undergrad degree this past Thursday! Woo Hoo! For a number of reasons I'm not going to commencement. If you know me well you know my reasons, if not and your really curious drop me a note and I tell you what the reasons are. Don't feel bad for me because I don't feel bad about missing it at all.

I spent my first day off cleaning the house because A) it looked like a bomb had hit, and B) We was having house guests.

My friends Cathy and Michele stayed over so that we and our friend Lissa could go to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival together. This was such a great trip to take for a grad. present. We had a blast. Cathy was the only one who didn't spin but she fell in love with some Jacob fiber, bought a spindle and had a lesson from me on Sunday morning. Also, I think Lissa may be coming around to the idea of knitting.

We brought back a whole of good stuff including a spindle and fiber for each of us. Lissa and I will be splitting a Jacob fleece. Cathy and I each got a copy of a knitting pattern for reliquary bags. Cathy and Michele got some yarn. Lissa got some books. Cathy got some adorable sheep prints. We all had lamb for lunch. Nom nom nom!

I'm going to be taking a couple of weeks off before I start looking for a job and starting to study for the GRE's. I've earned a bit of rest. In that time I plan on getting a lot of spinning and weaving done. Some of the spinning is commission work but most of it's for myself. I also plan on working on some garb. What this means for all of you, if your still with me, is that there should be lots of posting about fiber, cloth, and sewing. I'm so glad to be back.

I'm one of the cool kids! I was featured on Ravelry.

2008-04-04T13:00:00.004-04:00

Yes, I know, I know, I should be working on my thesis right now but I just had to share this. I was taking a break and surfing around on Ravelry when I came across this (look second Raveler from the bottom, that's me in my Ravelry form):

I was a featured Raveler on April 1st. Squeeee! I was reading Ravelry News when I came across the screen shot. Am I geek for being so happy about this? Possibly, but I don't care. I'm Ravelry Coolness!

The Countdown to Graduation...

2008-03-05T13:31:00.002-05:00

or why I haven't posted here in an age. Thesis, classes, life in general is running at full tilt!

Graduation

I am very blessed

2008-02-03T20:22:00.000-05:00

There are days when this is easy for me to remember and this was one of them. I spent time with my friend Margaret. We knit and had a really good talk. I want to hold on to this feeling so that when my life goes nuts, and my life will go nuts because everyone's life goes nuts from time to time, I can remind myself that of what calm feels like.

Socks and some kitty cuteness

2008-01-10T21:06:00.000-05:00

Today I finished a sock out of my first attempt at Fractal Spinning. If you not familiar with this technique there was an article in the Summer 07 issue of SpinOff Magazine on how to divide your space dyed roving to get this stipes within stripes look to your yarn. I'm really happy with the way the first one came out.

I've also finally gotten around to photographing the one and only pair of socks that I made for the Summer 07 of Socks. They are my Walking on Sunshine Socks. There was suppose to be a knot work design duplicated stiched onto the front of both socks but I started to put it on but decided I still don't like the way dulpicate stitch looks. This was the first time I did an afterthought heal. I like the way these socks fit.

It was up in the high 60's around here so I had the window open the other day. Schrodinger was very interested in what was going on outside.

Plans for the upcoming weekend

2008-01-10T11:11:00.000-05:00

My hubby will be going away to a fencing tournament this weekend. I am staying home becuase I have no desire to drive to Vermont in January even if the weather has been mild. So after I get done with my internship on Friday I will make a stop a Whole Foods to lay in a supply of yummies that don't require anything more than poping them into the micowave. Then it will be all fiber, all weekend. I have several socks that need to knitting, a project on my rigid heddle loom that I want to weave off and I want to get some hand towels, that I've had in mind for a while, warped into the floor loom. There is also spinning to be done. I have some fiber for Sock Hop Yarn to spin and I want to at least figure out what I'm going to spin for the February Craftlit Donation Incentive. Is this too grand a plan to get done in just the weekend? Perhaps but since I start class again on Monday I want to get as much fiberiffic stuff packed into my weekend as I can.

As for progress to my knitting goals, I made up the lost ground on the BB sweater and started a sock out of my handspun. Today I'm stuck at home because hubbies car is the shop and he has mine so I'm getting a head start on my all fiber weekend. I'll post pictures of all the progress on Monday.

So last night I sliced into my thumb with a bread knife...

2008-01-06T16:03:00.000-05:00

that I was washing. I didn't hurt myself much. It's really just like a very deep paper cut. The problem is that when I knit my thumb hurts. I knit about 75 yards of yarn into my BB and then just had to call it quits. So I decided to switch to spinning some cotton on my charka because while I do draft with that hand I don't hold the cotton very tight so I less chance of my thumb hurting.

Now, as I've been spinning I've asking myself, "Why don't I do this more offten?". I love to spin and the head space that I get into with cotton is unique and wonderful. I que up a little Ravi Shankar in iTunes and just let myself go. The thing about spinning cotton, at least for me anyway, is that once I got the hang of it if I think to hard about the spinning I mess up. I need to very much be in a non-thinking head space to spin cotton.

Spinning does count towards my yardage/mile goals but I don't know if I'm going to count it. It's just so easy to get mile and miles of yarn spun on charka. Never mind the fact that the resuting yarn is only like 45 WPI or more. FYI, I have no desire to knit that small so I'll be weaving with this yarn. Or maybe what I should do is count the yardage but realy work towards spinning enough cotton this month to weave the cotton shawl I've always wanted. Oh, no another project to get myself distracted by!

Stash busting and having negative totals

2008-01-05T21:08:00.001-05:00

So I've joined a group on Ravelry called Stash Knit Down 2008. I'm focusing not so much on knitting my stash but more on getting my UFO's done. To that end I decided that the yarn I bought with some of my Christmas money, that is becoming my Bijoux Blouse, will be my last purchase until I get a real job. In this group spinning also counts as a way of stash busting so I'm not going to buy anymore fiber either. The only exception to any of this will be the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.

The SKD08 group is trying help with us all to keep motivated by setting up challenges. For the month of January (starting today and going until February 19th) the challenge is to knit a mile of yarn. Now for some of us this has set the bar a little high so a subgroup (calling ourselves Team Tortoise) have set a more modest goal. A 200 meter dash = knit that much yardage in a simple project or the 100 meter hurdles = knit that much yardage into a complicated project like cable or lace. I've also decided to keep track of my goals here so I might actually have more fiber content to share. Wouldn't regular posting's be nice for a change?

I've been on quite the knitting jag for the last few weeks and in the last couple of days had really made progress on the BB. Today I knit my personal goal of half a ball of yarn (110 yards) and still got my chores done around the house which included cleaning out my car (which was a long over due task).

After dinner I settled down to keep knitting and that's when I ran into a snag. I started to worry that I might not really have enough yarn for the BB so I plugged the numbers into Sweater Wizard (a knitting program) too see what it would estimate for yardage. I figured out that I might just run short. Then I double checked that I was on gauge and proceeded to find not one but two mistakes that I had to rip out. One mistake was minor, I had only caught and knit into one of the plys in the yarn. This was fairly far back and if it were the only problem I just would have left it since it was on an edge stitch and would be in the seam. The other mistake was the big issue, I had missed doing a decrease row, down near where I had the other mistake. This meant I had two extra stitches going up more than half the back of the sweater. While this may not sound like a big deal, those two stitches could be the difference between having to buy another ball of yarn or not. So out came all of today's and some of yesterdays knitting. I'm trying to look at this as a positive but I'm still a little frustrated.

My new personal goal for the rest of this weekend is to regain the ground that I've lost. I figured that I want to knit 150 yards by the time I have to leave for my internship on Monday.

Yarn for a lucky Craftlit listener who makes a donation

2008-01-04T10:52:00.000-05:00

I've spun up some more yarn for Heather to give away to a lucky listener of Craftlit that makes a donation to the podcast. The fiber is 100% Merino (NOT Superwash) in a fingering weight. There are 2 skeins and each is 200+ yards. Enough for socks or some lace. The colorway is Sandlewood and trust me the pictures just can't do this colorway justice no matter how hard I tried to get photography right.

It's been way to long!!

2008-01-04T10:07:00.000-05:00

First I'd like to introduce you to the new man in my life. His name is Schrodinger and he came to live with us the week befor Christmas. He is just such a snuggler.

I've been really busy. I finished my semester up at school with an A two B's. This brought my GPA up to a 3.0. I've been continuing in my internship while on winter break. The holidays were pretty uneventful which is just the way I wanted them. I've been spinning and knitting quite a lot. Here is some of what I've been doing:

This the progress I've made so far on Thermal from Knitty. The guage is pretty small so it slow going.

This is a start to the Bijoux Blouse, a pattern from Oat Couture, on a stunning shade of red Cascade 220. I know I just shouldn't have started another project but I just love this color. The photograph really doesn't do it justice. I think I like Cascade 220 better than I like Galway for a 100% wool yarn.

Here is some yarn I've spun into a fingering weight. The fiber is from Pigeon Roof Studios. I just love her coloways. This one is Calla and is a superwash merino.

This is a quater pound of lace weight Cormo. I picked the fiber up at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival last year.

This is more sock yarn. The fiber if from Yarn Chef. I spun the coloway up useing the fractal method of spinning.

And last but not least I've been doing some charity knitting. In between what seemed like endless rows of garter stitch I do a hat just to keep me from getting board.

So as you can see I haven't had idol hands. I start my last semester as an undergrad at Arcadia on January 14 and am counting down the days until graduation, which is May 16.

I always knew this....

2007-12-02T19:06:00.000-05:00

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

My wand is made out of Birch

BETH (Birch) December 24 to January 20 - Born under this sign, you have unwavering inner strength and gladly lend support to those who rely on you. Purity of thought and a knack for realistic evaluation and quiet determination are also associated with this tree sign.

"lets see what happens..." or Beowolf makes my brain hurt.

2007-11-30T20:50:00.000-05:00

moar funny pictures

School is what has been keeping me from posting and everything else

2007-11-21T13:57:00.000-05:00

The good news is that all the effort I've been putting into school has been paying off in A's and B's on papers and tests. My last final is (I think) on December 18th and then I can fully resume my fiber life more or less full time. I do have today thru Sunday off so I should be able to get some fibery type stuff done and post about it. Most likely I will get some knitting done when we go over to Mommy-in-laws for Turkey Day and Friday I plan to spend spinning. I've got two of the new Crown Mountain Farms Sock Hop colorways to work on and a bit of merino goodness dyed by Pidgeon Roof Studios for myself.

Hubby and I have been doing O.K. since the loss of our beloved boy. The moments where I suddenly realize he's gone and just have to stop and cry have become fewer and further between. Thank you to all who expressed concern and sympathy for us.

I'm devastated

2007-11-03T19:41:00.000-04:00

I had to lay my boy, Obsidian, to rest today. The intestinal issues he has been dealing with for so long were just to much for him. I'm imagining him laying on a bed cuddling with Mitzvah.

Some fiber content always makes me feel better

2007-10-28T12:58:00.000-04:00

I've been super busy with school and hadn't really done anything fibery but then I got some bad news, got a awful cold that had me back on Prednisone, then got more bad news that a dear friend had passed away, which taken altogether had me really down. So this is how I cheered myself up:

I bought this lovely Blue Faced Leicester calle Plum Hydrangea from Pigeonroof Studios.

I then spun it up into roughtly 200 yards of a sport weight yarn. The picture of the finished yarn really doesn't do it justice. It's soft and very squooshy and I may have weave with it.

I also spent some time knitting socks on Saturday. I did all this while listening to the audiobook The Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Frankin. This was a perfect way to spend a rainy Saturday and get myself centered again.

I know what I want for my birthday!

2007-10-13T17:09:00.000-04:00

I was reading Amy's Blog and she had the link to the most uber cool knitting bag on the face of the planet. What makes it so cool? It was designed for knitters by knitty knitters. In case anyone might want to drop a hint to the hubster, I want the green/blue one with the yarn stuff sack and a medium organizer pouch.

http://www.tombihn.com/page/001/PROD/200/TB0660

A new A-Long

2007-10-13T15:04:00.000-04:00

This time it's the Square Deal Weave-A-Long. This is an a-long for folks who want to explore patterna and possibilities for Weavette Looms. Here is my first square "Windowpane Lace" woven on my 4"x 4" loom using Cestari Merino sock yarn.

Giving a little help to a friend

2007-09-27T10:11:00.000-04:00

I'm a big fan of the podcast Craftlit. Recently Heather, the host has mentioned the fact that she needs to decide how to raise some money to keep the show going and feed her family. I thought about donating money but decided that I would do something better, donate sock yarn that I've spun. How will this help? For every donation Heather will enter your name into a drawing to win the sock yarn. So if you like Craftlit or sock yarn or want this sock yarn in particular just go to the Craftlit website and make a donation.

There are two skeins that contain 200 yards each. The fiber is merino and was dyed by Sheep of a Different Color. There will also be a surprise (Heather doesn't even know about it or what it might be) included with the sock yarn.

Words that make me feel not so alone

2007-09-26T11:04:00.000-04:00

"Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle.
Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone.
Every Warrior of the Light has trodden a path that was not his.
Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons. Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light.
Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties.
Every Warrior of the Light has said 'yes' when he wanted to say 'no.'
Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved.
That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is."

~ Paulo Coelho, 21st century Brazilian writer from Warrior of The Light

I am a textile Goddess!

2007-08-21T18:06:00.001-04:00

So I thought I should create some stitch markers that would be appropriate. Here they are. I found the beads on Etsy. The vendor is Dragynsfyre. They are all the same, the two that look different are just showing us their back. I love them. So simple and elegant.

The Woman who I bought them from was so nice. She sent me two extra beads that I made into row markers.

Here's the whole set. Their hanging from a size 10 needle so that may help you to get some idea of scale.

I'm a proud Cast-On Camper

2007-08-18T15:00:00.000-04:00

Brenda Dayne (the oh so lovely host of Cast-On) has created her own version of Scouting and for those of us not able to be Brownies,Girl Scouts or Camp Fire Girls in our youth we can now lay that disapointment aside and work towards a new set of badges. Here are the ones I can lay claim to:

To find out what the badges mean and to collect your own go to the Cast-On web site.

A new place on the net to hang out

2007-08-17T16:35:00.000-04:00

I've had a profile on Ning for a while now but I just heard about this new community for artists, designers and craftspeople or folks who just love indie:

View my profile on Indiepublic

Finally an FO

2007-08-13T10:04:00.001-04:00

I've been spending most of my time spinning Sock Hop Yarn for Crown Mountain Farms. On Satureday I sent off a box with four pounds of yarn that had already been sold. Teyani wasn't kidding when she said she could keep me as busy as I wanted to be. Yesterday was just too nice to stay inside and I needed a little break from spinning. Don't get me wrong I love doing it but my hands had been hurting on Saturday and I felt the desire to knit. So I set up a lounge chair in the the shade of my lovely maple tree in the back yard and spent most of the day knitting. I worked a bit on each of the socks I currently have going. I kitchenered the toe on the first of my Walking on Sunshine socks, did a few rows on the heal of my first Jaywalker, and few rounds on the second of my simple rib sock. Then I took out the Austerman Step socks that I had been working (or rather not working) on for a year. I turned the heal of the second sock and this morning finally finshed it. Here is the proof:

I want to get all these socks done by the time school starts but I'm not sure how feasble that expectation is since I also want to get another four pounds of CMF SHY spun up by no later than the end of the first week in September. I was chatting with one of the checkout ladies when I went food shopping and she asked mentioned something about television. I tald her I couldn't remember the last time I watch TV. Her response was that I must be getting a lot done. She's right, four pounds of sock yarn spun up in a month, progress on the sock front, oh and I forgot I had been knitting again on my Thermal, a sweater design from Kitty.com, a finished pair of socks plus progress on the preliminary reading I've been doing for my Senior Thesis on top of all the regular stuff like keeping house and taking care of hubby. I have gotten a lot done. Happy progress.

July 2005 to July 27 2007

2007-07-27T15:41:00.000-04:00

I had to say good by to Mitzvah today. We spend last night just cuddling and he gave me tons of kisses. This how I want to remember the little guy.

Some times I scare myself

2007-07-20T12:46:00.000-04:00

So I've been spinning up my latest batch of yarn for Crown Mountain Farms. I've always taken pride in my ability to spin a consistent yarn. Today I've managed to scare myself with just how consistent my spinning actually is. I have spun up 2 different colorways out of the four that I received. Keep in mind that I compare my singles and the plied yarn to examples that Teyani sent me but there are always (or should be) some inconsistencies in hand spun yarn. I weighed each colorway, after I was done spinning, on my digital scale. Each colorway weighed exactly 1.1 lbs, which is what it's suppose to weight. I got 5 skeins out of each pound. Ideally I should be getting 6 skeins but 5 is O.K. since the yarn is within the gauge range it's suppose to be. Each skein is approximately 205 yards. Here is where I start to hear twilight zone music in my head, in each colorway 3 of the skeins weigh 3.4 oz, one weights 3.2 and one weights 3.6. There was also about 12 yards left on the bobbin after I had skeined off the last 205 yards. O.K. this may not freak any one else but that level of consistency blows my mind just a bit. Perhaps I should have hubby check for chip slots in the back of my head.

I <3 Ravelry

2007-07-10T15:20:00.000-04:00

Ravelry, a site who's virtues I have extolled before, has gotten even better. Casey and Jess have added a groups feature. I've joined several groups and created two groups. The first one I created is Historic Knitting which is open to anyone with an interest in doing historically accurate knitting. No time period specified but it's geared, at least in my kind, to the reenactor types. The other one is a groups for fiber artists of all kinds but specifically those who play in the Society for Creative Anachronism and is called SCA Fiber Artists.

One of things that has made me really happy about this groups thing is that I was able to connect with someone who lives down in Texas and she's friends with my friend Countess Margaret. I still wish Maggie would move back to the PA. I miss her. these little six degrees of separation things make me happy.

Back in the saddle, with a vengence

2007-07-09T15:55:00.001-04:00

I'm fully recovered from both the Asthma attack and the side effects of the steroids. If living with this disease has taught me one thing it's that I'll truly be able to understand my future clients when it comes to staying on a medication even though the side effects are almost as bad as why your on them in the first place. I did have to go back onto a long acting asthma med Advair but it's not a hard med to incorporate into my routine. If I had to rest and recover I picked a good time because I didn't have any commission spinning to do. Well Saturday I did get the next shipment of CMF Sock Hop Fiber and OMG!! is it ever soft and squishy. The colorways are Big Yellow Taxi (top left), The Beat Goes On (top right) Brown Eyed Girl (bottom left) It Takes Two (bottom right).

I started with The Beat Goes On and it's dream to spin. I've got two really full bobbins already but the picture just doesn't do it justice. At this rate I'll have the singles spun up by Tuesday night.

The Spirit in the Sky yarn is up on the CMF website and is ready for sale. Go here, scroll down.

The other thing that's going to happen on Tuesday night is I get to check in, via the county website, to see if I have to go to the court house for Jury Duty. The rules for attending this opportunity to see the wheels of justice turn state that you may not bring knitting needles into the court house. To me, that is TORTURE. I'll take a book, my laptop, but what else can I take with me so that I won't be climbing the walls on Wednesday? Cross Stitch? Crochet? Not my things. What I find amusing in a very sarcastic sort of way is that the one day I have to be out of the house is the one day I need to be home. We are expecting the delivery of a new Select Comfort Sleep Number Bed and the only day this week they could be here is Wednesday! So Hubby gets to stay home and play WOW or Overlord or Guitar Hero and I have to be stuck at the court house with no knitting. And ... and Hubby will get to nap with our kitties on the new bed before I will. Harrumph. There is always the chance that I won't have to report but I have the feeling that I'm due for a little wall climbing. So leave a comment with your suggestions on how I can keep myself entertained, but remember the rules also state that I can bring anything that could be used a weapon so this is going limit what you can suggest.

There may not be a whole lot of fiber content for a few days...

2007-06-25T14:48:00.000-04:00

I'm O.K. now but I had to go to the hospital on Sunday to get a breathing treatment. This hasn't happend in a long time but when it does I have to go on steriods for a few days to get the inflamation down. The side effects of prednisone suck big rocks, swelling in my hands and achy all over to name a few. Of course I'll deal with the side effects to keep breathing but this really cuts into my knitting. You may notice even more type-o's so please bear with me.

On the bright side I had a wonderful time at an SCA event on Saturday. Here's a picture:

Isn't my hubby a cute one? You can read all about it on my Live Jounal. There's a link in the sidebar.

Sock Progress

2007-06-22T07:32:00.000-04:00

Hi Alicia,

I wanted to show you the progress I made on the first day of the Summer of Socks. Since I'm using shades of yellow for this pair I've decided to call the pair Walking on Sunshine. I'm looking forward to see the colors you've choosen for your Walking Meditation Socks.

Summer of Socks Starts today!

2007-06-21T06:52:00.001-04:00

Happy Summer Solstice to all!

I'm just about to cast on my first sock for the SOS and wanted to share what my plans are for the summer. My friend Alicia and I have planned on doing a bit of theme for our socks, Twins of Different Mothers, so were doing the same socks for the whole KAL. We each choose two socks to get us started. I really wanted to do the Walking Meditation Socks from Compassionate Knitting, which Alicia hadn't seen yet, and the Eleanora Socks from MimKnits, which was on Alicias sock to do list. Alicia wanted to the Pembrokeshire Pathways Socks and Hedera, both of which were on my sock to do list. So we are are starting with Meditation, then doing Pembrokeshire, Eleanora, and lastly Hedera. We also want to squeeze in Straight Laced.

I picked up the pale yellow yarn from Tess at this past Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and will be the main color of the socks. The darker yellow is an odd ball from me stash and will be the heal, toe and a knot motif in the sock. Originally I was going to use red but when I looked at my yarn this morning I realized that the red I had picked out of the stash was a bit to heavy compaired to the pale yellow and the contrast between the colors was just to strong. I went stash diving and so now I'm going to to this tone on tone combination which I think works much better for the theme of this sock.

So there you have it, my start to the Summer of Socks.

A pound of fiber and sock progress (long and lots of pictures!)

2007-06-19T12:47:00.000-04:00

I have been keeping myself very busy, mostly with spinning this week. I received my first pound of fiber from Crow Mountain Farms. The colorway they sent me to spin for their Sock Hop Yarn is called Spirit in the Sky. The fiber is superwash merino and it was such a pleasure to spin.

I've also been keeping my self busy with trying to get my current socks done by Thursday which is when the Summer of Socks starts. Not that I can't work on these after Thursday but my friend Alicia and are are going to be doing the same socks at the same time. We are after all twins of different mothers, even if we haven't actually met face to face. So I want to keep pace with Alicia on our socks. So far we've chosen 4 patterns but I'll post about them on Thursday.

Before I get to the yarn pr0n I want to take a moment to clear up some confusion that may be out there if anyone is thinking they might like to spin for Crow Mountain Farms and have been put off by what you may have heard about their being overly picky about the product you produce for them and not getting paid if the yarns not quit what they wanted. Teyani and Klaus do have a standard they want their product spun to but they always pay you for the yarn you spin. Now if the yarn you spin is really not the quality they want (and according to Teyani this happened only once because the yarn really was unusable due to severe over twist. Ask her for yourself. She's very happy to talk to anyone who has questions) then they might not ask you to spin more fiber for them but if you a get pound of fiber to spin for them then they'll pay you, period. O.K. I'm off my soap box.

Now, here's the progress from fiber to yarn:

The two hanks that made up the pound.

Each hank has one end that's heavily saturated with color and one end that's much less saturated. To get a consistent range of color throughout the whole pound of finished yarn I pulled 2 foot lengths of fiber off both hanks then jumbled them up so I'd be grabbing a random length of color.

In order to keep the yarn consistent Teyani (the dyer and owner of CMF, along with her hubby Klaus who has such a great accent I could just listen to him for days) sent some sample for comparison. She sent them on a piece of plain card board but I put them on a spinning info card from Nancy's Knit Knack's. I like the contrast of the fiber against the white card stock and being able to hold my yarn between the strands of the sample.

When I was done with the singles I had 5 full bobbins and one almost full. I didn't think to take a picture but I used my Katie-a-go go from Nancy's Knit Knack's. It's a tensioned Lazy kate and while I also have a tensioned lazy kate from Ashford the Katie is smaller and has rubber feet so I can have it right on a coffee table next to me. When I'm spinning yarns that require a firm twist I like to have my kate as close to me as possible and the Katie-a-go go just make this easier. I'll try to include a picture the next time I post about spinning.

Here I'm using the sample card to make sure I'm getting the twist per inch correct and seeing that the over all width of the 2 ply is similar to the sample. If you look closely at the picture it may seem that the yarn is just slightly undertwisted but I'm holding the yarn away from the orifice. The yarn will still get more twist right up until it get to the orifice. So if you really want to be sure your getting the right amount of twist the pull the yarn off the bobbin and com pare it there.

And here is the whole pound spun up into 7 hanks of approximately 200 yards. I had a 20ish yard skein, some very small lengths of yarn and a teeny ball of single left over. All which will get sent back to CMF.

And a close up of the yarn. I very happy with the consistency of the yarn. I was a bit concerned that the yarn is definitely 18 wraps per inch and possibly a touch thinner but Teyani assured me this is just fine. I really can't speak highly enough of Teyani and Klaus. I had the pleasure of speaking with Klaus when I worked at my LYS. As I said I just could talk with him for days. They are both just so nice.

And now for some sockage. This is an overview of just where I am with three different socks. In the upper left a sock made with Austerman step that I started way to long ago. In the lower center is my Jaywalker made from yarn dyed by Alicia. There's a long story of why I still only on the first sock. I the upper right a ribbed sock made with Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock. In the lower left corner is my sock project bag from White Willow. She has the greatest fabric selection for project bags and is quite the yarn pimp. I highly recommend buying from her! I'll have a sock made out of her yarn to post about in this Summer of Socks

So here's the close up of the Step sock. I'm work on my ebony needles which I love but have to be careful that this project doesn't get squished because I've broken needles that way. Notice the ball is a bit messy. This is one of the projects that Hubbies cat decided the yarn would make good dental floss and chewed thru the yarn.

And here is the second incarnation of my first Jaywalker. I got past the gusset and tried the sock on only to find it was to tight to get over my heal so I went to the frog pond. Then I got about 6 inches on the second time round and had to frog several inches due to a mistake. So here I am about to turn the heal.

Here is the start of my ribbed socks. I started these socks at the beginning of the semester last fall when I stopped at the yarn shop near school in desperate need of a yarn fix because I had to be at school late to see guest speaker and completely forgot all my knitting at home.

So there you go what I've done for the last week in my fiber life. I'm expecting a large shipment of fiber next week sometime from CMF that should be enough to last me for a month. In the mean time these socks need knitting on and I think I'll finish the scarf I've got on my Rigid Heddle Loom. So look for some weaving content in an upcoming post.

Long and lots n lots of fiber content

2007-06-10T19:54:00.000-04:00

I've been working on my shawl for the Spun Stitches KAL. I thought that a lace shawl done in just the brightly colored merino viscose blend roving was just going to be too garish so I decdided to use one end of white along with one end of the colored yarn. I ordered some plain white merino and viscose blend from a company in Canada and it finally arrived. I had it sent to where I used to work by mistake. Opps! I could have sworn that deleted that address so I wouldn't make that mistake but I guess I only thought about doing it. It wasn't to bad to have to go in and get it. The fiber is was really inexpensive because it was mill ends. It's mostly orderly so I could spin it as is but when I tried that the yarn didn't come out as smooth as I want for lace. I decided to use my Louet mini combs to make a nice fine roving. Here is some of the 2 pounds I ordered along with my tools.
Here's a close up of the combs, ditz and threader. The combs are a single row of tines which is great for really fine fibers like this merino viscose blend. I bought the ditz and threader a few years ago at the Maryland SHeep and wool fesitval. Notice in the ditz the row of holes to draw the fiber thru, I'm using the smallest one to get the narrowest roving I can. This will cut down on the amount of drafting I'll have to do. Re-combing the fiber causes neps (bunches of short fibers that get tangled into tiny knots) to form. By drawing the fiber thru the smallest hole allows me to see and pick out the neps. This is some fiber loaded onto the comb. The second comb is empty at the moment.

And the fiber once it's been combed out. There's still some fiber left on the comb on the right and it's trash. The sibers are super short and/or reallt tangled. Combing always results in more trashed fiber but it's worth it to have really great roving to work from. This particular fiber was really inexpensive and with having 2lbs I'm not worried about waste.

Here you can see I've got the convex side of the ditz towards the comb and I've inserted the thread the get fiber thru the teany tiny hole.

Starting to draw the fiber thru the ditz.

I've now drawn all the fiber thru the ditz and now it's offcially roving.

This picture shows what's left on the comb after the fiber is drawn off thru the ditz. More short tangled fibers.

Here are some nice neat bundles of roving that are just waiting to be spun. It took me about an hour to fill the box up (sorry for got to get a picture of that) with about an ounce of roving.
This is the start of the new single of white. The sheen is decidedly flatter than the colored roving but that will just make the colored single just sparkle.

I decided to use a pattern from Victorian Lace Today. It's the first of the scarf patterns but I'm going to do a few more repeats of the end boarder to make it wider. The end boarder calls for 7 repeats for the scarf so I think I'm going to do 11 for my shawl. I wanted a simple lace pattern so the color won't fight with the stitch pattern. I also wanted it simple because I'm sure this project is still going to be in process when I go back to school so I wanted to be able to knit on it during lecture.

Here is a closer view of the start of my shawl. It's just the first repeat of the end boarder. The yarn is soft and has such a great hand. I know the whole shawl will have wonderful drape.

Next time on Get a Clew: The progress on the Jaywalker Socks after a set back and what I have planned for the Summer of Socks and or what ever else comes to mind.

The wait for Ravelry! or my friends are sad

2007-06-07T08:36:00.000-04:00

I'm very happy to say that I received my invite to join the beta testers for Ravelry (the newest and some of the best crack on the net to date for fiber folks). I might be happy but apparently there are folks on the waiting list how aren't. Casey, one of the owners and site developers posted this letter to the front page of the site to respond to a snarky person who complained about having to wait so long and to explain what the hold is on get an invite. This is a labor of love for them and they are spending as much time and a considerable amount of their own money to provide this service to the fiber world. If your on the list please try to be patient. I know it's hard when you hear people like me saying how great the whole Ravelry site is. In case your wondering who I mean when I say they, I mean Casey and his wife Jess and that's it, they are the development team. Two people who have a waiting list of 5000 anxious people! So please be nice.

Spinner for hire

2007-06-06T10:13:00.000-04:00

I just heard from Teyani at Crow Mountain Farms and she liked my sample so I'm now going to be a Sock Hop Spinner. I love spinning and I need a job with a lot of flexibility especially this coming fall so I've decided that in addition to spinning Sock Hop Yarn for Crow Mountain Farms, I'm going to start offering my spinning services again to anyone who wants custom yarn. If someone sees a roving from a dyer on Etsy (or any place else) they can buy the fiber, have it sent to me and I'll spin it up for them. This way the client can choose from the vast array of fibers and colors that's out there and get yarn that is to their specifications. I'll get to spin during the odd times of my typical day at school (like having any where from a 45 minute to 4 hour break between classes) while doing something that I love doing and I don't have to go anywhere else so I'll save on gas in a big way. One of my wheel is an Ashford Joy it will be very easy for me to take it to school.

2007-05-30T07:03:00.001-04:00

I'm sorry if I gave anyone the impression from yesterdays post that I didn't wanna play. Please just chalk it up to the fact that I've had a head ache for the past few days that is definitely the cause of any crankiness. I re-read the post from yesterday and have now decided not to post until after the drugs have taken effect from now on.

O.K. I'll play! 7 things meme

2007-05-29T16:07:00.000-04:00

I have been tagged not once, not twice, but three times. So by popular demand:

The rules: Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those who are tagged need to write on their own blog those 7 facts as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven other people and list their names on your blog. Then you leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

1. I hated playing tag in school. I was the slowest so I always wound up being "it".

2. I never liked chain letters either.

O.K. I'm done being grumpy now.

3. I'm very accident prone, some (like my hubby) would call me a klutz, but I have never had to have major surgery and have only broken bones in my toes.

4. I used to carry a picture of my Great Great Grand Uncle Isaiah who was a missionary and eaten by cannibals in Borneo. Yes its true. Seriously. Swear that it's true. When I was down I would look at the picture and know that yes my day could be worse.

5. If I had bee born on or even near my due date my parents would have named me Guinevere. I was 22 days late, born Christmas Eve so they named me Christine instead.

6. I have a (not so)secret passion for Elvis. Long Live the King!

7. I have had my drivers license exactly one week longer than I have been married and the only way I can remember how long I've been married is to look at a blanket that was a wedding present that has our date embroidered on it. Don't feel bad for Hubby he has to do the same thing.

Here are your next contestants:

Modern Gypsy

Always Knitting

Legal Needles

Crafts by Toni

Tara Knits

Julieanna

Pink Porcupine

My Audition

2007-05-29T13:18:00.000-04:00

I e-mailed Crow Mountain Farms to see if they needed any more spinners to spin their Sock Hop Yarn. Teyani, one of the owners wrote me back and said yes they do. So here is my audition yarn. I spun up some merino I wanted sample anyway. The colorway ranges from baby blue thru light green to yellow but I wanted to make it have a bit more depth so I plied a single of the space died fiber with a single of just plain white. It came out to 14 wpi and 24 sts to 4" on a size two. I was shooting for that kind of a guage but I had wanted the yarn to have a bit more delicate feel to it. Not that what I've sampled is bad but it came out like sock yarn which is what I had on my mind when I was spinning and what I need to spin for Crow Mountain. For my baby things I think I'm going to try to spin the rest of the fiber ever so slightly finer with just a bit less twist. I'll think baby yarn while I spin it too. As far as the color goes for what I wanted the original fiber for, a baby sweater, booties, and, a hat the yarn will be great. Now I only hope that what I've spun is what the folks at Crow Mountain are looking for.

How romantic!

2007-05-26T07:11:00.000-04:00

This is one of the most romantic expressions of love I've ever seen. It's a dress that's part of the Smithsonian Collection. It's made out of a fly boy's parachute that saved his life. He Used it to propose to his girl and so she made her dress from it.

Check out the story of this wedding dress here:

http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/costume/object.cfm?recordnumber=834994

A meme I stole from Mama O Knits

2007-05-21T20:43:00.000-04:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

A post about how the warp a loom for Moderngypsy

2007-05-21T07:24:00.001-04:00

A friend, Moderngypsy, picked up a rigid heddle loom recently and she posted a picture of it on her blog. I'm posting these pictures and an explanation of how I warp so she can see how her loom should be warped to get the tension even.

Here is a snip of the picture of MG's loom. Notice that the warp has formed hills and valleys as it was wound on to the warp beam. This is going to cause the tension of each thread to be uneven.

To solve this problem when you are winding the warp threads around the warp beam you need to insert something between the layers of thread to keep them even. I use paper bags from the super market. I cut the bottom off and cut a corner to make a long strip. You can get rolls of craft or banner paper from most craft stores which works well too. As you wind the warp onto the beam also pull the threads tight, away from the back beam, to pull out any slack. See how the warp threads are all lying evenly.

Here is a view of the layers of paper that lays between the layers of warp.

I also put one strip of paper onto the cloth beam to make sure the cloth is going to lay flat as well because my loom has teeth to tie the warp onto. This step may not be necessary for other types of looms but it's not going to hurt anything to do it either.

In case your wondering I'm weaving with silk hankies stretched out into a long strip but not spun. It makes a very nice soft texture.

Spinning on a drop spindle

2007-05-19T16:05:00.000-04:00

I found a new -along to join. It's called Spun Stitches. The premise of the -along is to spin the yarn for a lace shawl. I've decided to use a drop spindle that I picked up at last years Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I can't remember the makers name. The wood is pink and white ebony on cocobolo. The fiber is a hand dyed merino and viscose blend from Divine Fibers. I've got 8 oz of this blend and I just love the colors but it's a little britght for what I have in mind. I've just ordered some plain white merino viscose that I'm going to spin up to go tone down the brightness in the dyed fiber. I'm not sure if I'm going to add one or two plys of the white. I'll decide that when the white gets here and I can sample it. Here are some pictures of what I've done so far.

Sweet Dreams

2007-05-18T11:27:00.000-04:00

Ravelry the newest addiction

2007-05-18T08:13:00.000-04:00

Every morning I have a routine of blogs and other places I like to visit while I drink my first cup of coffee and now Ravelry has been added in a big way. What is Ravelry you say? It's just one of the best knitting/crochet/soon to include spinning and weaving site on the face of the planet. The premise of the site is that it's an organizational tool. You keep a list of projects, stash, needles, post pictures if you progress and finished items. You can keep a friends list to see what every one else is doing, you can look at patterns/yarns and add to a que of projects you'd like to do in the future. So far I'm one of about 650 people who have access to it. Their adding people slowly so the whole thing doesn't crash. And why are they adding folks so slowly? Because there's like 4500 (no lie) waiting to get to addicted to the newest crack in town. I don't know how I lucked into an invite but I'm so happy I did. Go sign up to be on the waiting list. Hurry, go do it now!

Podcasting Vicariously

2007-05-16T18:42:00.000-04:00

So I'm listening to this weeks Lime & Violet podcast (I only got about half way thru before hubby got home) and so far they mentioned me not once but twice. I don't know why this makes me so happy. Chalk it up to being easily amused. If this keeps up I'll have my 15 minutes of fame counted in seconds but hey I'm O.K. with that.

Some fiber content at last!

2007-05-14T11:13:00.000-04:00

So this is what I finally got around to doing and photographing for your viewing pleasure.
First I started a pair of Jaywalker socks in the yarn from Alicia.

And I've been spinning some fiber that I bought from Voilet at Lime & Violet

The color in the shot where you can see the flyer is a bit more true to what the color really looks like.

And this last picture is for my hubby who says I need more pictures of his cat on my blog.

I'm trying to make it a rule not to.....

2007-05-10T13:37:00.000-04:00

cross post between LJ and here but in this case I'll make an exception. I stole this meme from Hubby. I can definitly live with this.

You are The Empress

Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents,
beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home
decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

2007-05-09T08:35:00.000-04:00

I had such a great time at the festival. I went on Sunday with two friends Carol and Jan and we met up with Mark by mid afternoon. The weather was perfect. A bit cool in the morning but after I bought a sweatshirt with the show logo on it just right. The crowds weren't to bad to get thru. We were told by several people that it was packed on Saturday. I stuck to my budget, and even came home with money left in my pocket. So here's what I bought.

Going clockwise, the bag of white fiber is 4oz of Cormo, two skeins of sock yarn from Tess, the show sweat shirt, 2 oz of an angora, wool, silk blend, 3 issues of Wild Fiber magazine that came with some free fiber wash, and in the center all natural chocholate sugar scrub in a really cool little bag that will be perfect for carrying a sock project in.

The scrub was a gift from Jan. It was gifts all around Jan and I bought Carol a set of blocking wires and Carol and I bought Jan a set of circular glass needles in the Lime N Violet colorway from Sheila Ernst.

We met up with Mark when he arrived. He was going to be in the cook off but there was a mix up, He was told he could arrive a bit latter then 11:00 becuase he was suppose to be the last to cook but when he got there the person running the cook off (who had told him he could come later) said that the contest was closed he should have been there at 11:00. Let me tell you were all pretty pissed off but there was nothing anyone could do so we hawled Marks food and stuff back to the car and made him walk around the rest of festival with us. I must Mark is a really good sport.

I finally got to see in person some of the yarns that I've been drooling over on-line. Toasty Toes, Socks that Rock, Tofutsies and others. I decided to go with the sock yarn from Tess because I really liked the colors and feel but also for price. What I was really surprised at was the lack of people selling spinning fiber (as compared to other years I've gone) and the number of people who all seem to be selling the same things. I didn't buy one drop spindle! Which for me is quite amazing. It's not even because I wanted to stick to my budget either, there just wasn't anyone who had anything really new. All in all I felt a more than a little "been there, done than that" with the shopping. Don't get me wrong there were thing's I would have loved to have, like a drum carder, but except for the few thing I did buy nothing really said "buy me". I guess this was a good year to have a budget.

The only real drawback to the day was that while I did remember to bring my camera, I had forgotten to put the 1gb memory card back in. When I shot two pictures and ran out of memory I realized what I had done. I had to delete the two and change the settings to a lower resolution. I'm kind of bummed that I couldn't tkae more but here are a few of the best. Enjoy.

What to expect some time today

2007-05-07T06:46:00.000-04:00

I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival yesterday. I'm still exhausted even after going to bed as early as I could and sleeping like the dead. I have my final this morning but I'll do a comprehensive report on the festival including pictures, possibly video (but only if what I want to show you was captured on my camera and I can figure out how to post it) and all the specs on what came home with me (no I did not bring home live stock) this afternoon.

Wish me luck.

Today I should have been studying for my final but....

2007-05-06T00:03:00.000-04:00

instead I created a net ring for the fans of Lime N Violet., which is my favorite podcast. The home page adddress for the ring is http://stalkinglnv.blogspot.com/ scroll down to find the link in the ring code and click on join. I was also playing with creating buttons. So what do you think?