One Crazy Fiber Lady

There were no shiny pebbles to distract me fully last night from what I really wanted to accomplish.  I did multitask to my limit though and was converting mp4′s to cd to mp3′s for Zen, trying to burn a dvd, washing the skirt and sewing the shoulders to Mondo at the same time.  Scary huh?  While Mondo is done (yay), the skirt is in the dryer and I don’t know the full results of the washing trial.  The fabric was far more flexible when i checked it as I put it into the dryer so the project might not be a complete failure after all.  I forgot to peek in the dryer this morning.  Got up a little late and had to run around like a nut.

Since the little people are not to be trusted with my camera yet and there are no other photo takers in my house, you get one of those headless shots in the mirror.  Tough to take they are.  Color might be a bit washed out as there is bad lighting in my bedroom and I disabled the flash to prevent that from killing the shot all together.  You can see Duchess of A’Rat sitting on the bed checking out what the crazy lady was doing.

The armholes still need a little blocking, but otherwise, this baby is done.  Its nice and light and very comfy.  I hope to get the blocking done tonight so I can wear this tomorrow.  See the flowered pants I’m wearing?  Those are actually linen capris that I made the last time I had a sewing spurt a couple or three years ago. So I really can sew.

Online tracking shows my package from Joanns.com is on the way.  That has yarn for a project that I can’t talk about as it is a gift.  Mum’s the word.  Nothing else from me.  Ain’t even going to photograph it.  Well I will photograph the project as it goes, but won’t be posting it until it is complete and given to the recipient, who is a reader. 

Hopefully my new fix of Rowan will arrive shortly.  Resistence is futile and I can’t withstand the call of Birch any longer.  I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve done a little shopping and well, the pattern magazine, Rowan #34 is one of those purchases.  I’ve been eyeing birch since I started reading blogs and there is only so long I can hold out.  I’m weak.  I admit it.  Since the pattern was on the way, it was only natural that I had to have the yarn to go with it.  I found some lovely Kidsilk Haze at my favorite UK Rowan pusher’s eBay store.  With the free shipping, it was a deal I just couldn’t pass up.  I’m standing somewhat firm and not ordering the packs of Rowan Wool Cotton in one of the discontinued colors from Jannette, though I am very very very tempted to do so.  I saw a cabled top pattern on the ‘net that I’d love to make.  I did order some closeout Rowan Calmer along with the #34, but checking my bank transactions the charge from the vendor seems like the Calmer isn’t being included.  Damn.  I wanted it too.  I had ordered color 469 to do NBaT, not to mention I’m curious to see what its like to work with stretchy cotton.  That just blows my mind so I need to play with it.  I sent an email to the vendor to see if their website was a bit out of date when I placed the order and won’t be getting the Calmer.  I want calmer.  I want calmer.  I WANT IT.  I really shouldn’t be so eager to order more yarn, its not like I have none or something.  Its a sickness man.  More yarn.  More yarn.  MORE YARN.

Well I’m off to knit more on the left front of Trellis and have some lunch before my 2pm conference call.

Craft on.

Thanks to everyone for their kind comments on the butterscotch yarn.  It is wonderful stuff that I’m enjoying very much.  The color spoke to me at Cummington and I went for it.  It was either that or get into a three-way battle with Kristen and Rosemary.  I checked the pattern and the yardage I got from the 4 oz will more than make the middle sized flower basket shawl in a fingering weight when I finish spinning up the second half.  As for consistency, this is where I spout my new found appreciation and reliance on pre-drafting in getting an even result.  Thanks Stephanie to your post, I’m now a pre-draft convert, having never really done it in the past.

Has anyone figured out yet that I have these lofty ideals of what my night will entail after getting the twins down and what I can accomplish?  I’m pretty sure I post often, considering I am posting somewhere around lunch time, about things I did yesterday and what I’m going to do for the rest of the day.  On a weekend, I can usually get done what I project I’m going to get done provided no unforeseen event happens, like the twins come down simultaneously with a mysterious 36 hour fever.  Yeah, like that.  Weekdays are just sheer speculation and yesterday’s blog post?  More of the same. 

There was the claim that I’d sew the shoulders on Mondo. Did that happen?  Um nope. 

There was also the specious claim that I’d get the icky skirt out of the closet and into the washing machine. Also a big fat not.

Is there a photograph of the sock?  Nope.  Not yet.

I did manage to finish off the first front piece of the Trellis cardi and did the three needle bind off to connect it to the back. 

So what was it that distracted me from my being able to say today:  DID IT?….

Two things.  First, back to the hideous storage closet from hell that houses the water meter and master shut off valve.  After the fun of the weekend, my landlord told me Sunday when I turned the water back on that they were going to install a valve in his unit so they wouldn’t have to pester me.  Now since I’d already been troubled on Sunday, they didn’t want to trouble me any further and were going to do the work yesterday.  Cool by me, if I’m out I don’t mind the lack of water and/or the strange dude hanging in my storage closet.  The cats might get a little perturbed but they could hide in the bedroom and just avoid the whole situation.  I liked it. 

I didn’t like it so much when I got home and found a good bit of what had been IN the closet piled on my couch.  Okay so it was a huge bag of fleece and the cormo roving from Wooly Knob (no I haven’t touched it – to spin – since um December?) and I can understand his not being sure where the hell to put it.  Fine the couch it was.  What really got me was that he took the bins of toys, kid toys and not my electronic "toys" and shoved them far into the back of the storage area, deep in the heart of what I call "spider heaven" (for good reason as that is what lives there in much abundance, spinning copious webs and eating the ants that come seasonally).  Into this area three buckets of toys, including stacking cups, mega blocks, stuffed animals, are stashed.  He’d seen the kids the day before so there was no question that little people lived there and these were more than likely their toys.  Now the only reason I found these toys there was that I got curious as to their solution of making the shut off valve accessible to the other unit and peeked.  I had to climb over a mountain of stuff that he did pile into the closet portion and discovered the toys behind the trap door.  Stupid.  It was shortly after that I noticed the lack of toy bins on the living room floor.  Okay that should have been my first clue, but I ain’t always the most observant.  The huge bags of fleece on the couch had me distracted.  Sometime around then I noticed the trail of crud across the carpet.  I nearly had a conniption.  It was 8:45 (we stayed late at my folks house enjoying the pool and eating on the patio) and I had to clean the living room and rearrange the closet.  Not to mention pulling out the bins of toys and making sure they were clean!  I visited my landlord and vented a bit of frustration, to which he apologized pretty profusely. I’ll leave out the long stream of invectives I yelled as I smashed my head getting the toys out of the storage space.  Twice. 

Okay so that fun took me to about 9:30 at which time I turned me attention to this:

My nifty new Creative Zen Micro mp3 player with FM Tuner.  Coooool.  This geek loves new geek toys.  Since I tend to use the kids’ table in the livingroom for pictures, you get the toys as an added bonus (not to mention the crayon scribblings on the table itself).  I added in the skein of Louet Gems yarn for size.  If you look closely at the box, right above the corner of the Zen itself, there’s a little label proclaiming this to be a bonus package where they added an EXTRA BATTERY.  WOOOOOOO.  That’s a $40 bonus, give or take your devotedness to finding stuff cheap, and if the battery has the life they claim, 24 hours of playtime.  Sweet.  I had to spend time playing with this bad boy, getting it charged, downloading music to it, and installing the firmware upgrade.

Tonight will be the night for more crafty bits.

I did manage to finally finish turning the heel on the sock this morning on the train.  This is where it should fly again as I did that AND an inch of the foot in the stretch of about 45 min (when I wasn’t playing with Zen that is   I think I’m going to modify the pattern and use my standard decrease for the toe.  I ain’t thrilled with the short row heel and I don’t like the idea of sewing the toe to the foot underneath.  I hate sewing remember. 

Craft on!

As a warning, this posting will probably be pretty photo heavy.  Makes up for the photo-lite posts of last week.  Actually, I was a little camera happy and thinking like a good blogger as I busily made my way through a crafty type of weekend.  As a change of pace, I think I’ll organize as a project history rather than a day-by-day blow as I did mix up the projects through the weekend.  There was spinning, knitting and sewing.  Lets hit the new kid on the block first: 

Sewing

Saturday morning, after picking up the groceries, which as an aside the resident toddlers HELPED PUT AWAY?!?!?!?, we all piled back into the car for a trip to the fabric store.  Okay, I weaseled out and didn’t go to the fabric store, I needed a few other things that I didn’t get at Shop-Rite so I opted for the fabric department at Wal-Mart.  I picked out some nice fabrics, all pretty colorful and realized that I really had no shirts to wear with them.  So I figured I’d get a couple of coordinating summer tees to go with them.   The pile on the left is the shirts with the matching fabric to the right.  I probably didn’t need to buy a red shirt to go with a blue with flowers fabric, but I was on a roll. Saturday evening I was distracted from doing more than laying out and cutting for two skirts by the necessity of having to clean my living room closet/storage room out.  Unfortunately the water meter and main shut off valve is only accessible through the back of that closet and my landlords were having some work done. Oh well.  I found things I had completely forgotten about and finally trashed some of my ex-husbands old clothes.  Incidentally, he moved out in July of 1996 so it was indeed a long time in coming.  Once the work is complete and I can put things back in the closet, I can store all this year’s fleece acquisition, but I digress. 

After the twins went down for an early nap yesterday (Baron woke the household by breaking into the twins room and climbing into Kat’s crib thereby causing her to scream at 5:30 AM), I got busy with the sewing machine.  I opted to start with both the orange/red/yellow multiprint and the deep peach fabric and sewed the two of them piecemeal.  I finished the multi first, doing the waist casing, threading the elastic and then excitedly trying it on.  That was a mistake.  It felt horrid.  I didn’t like the drape of the fabric, it was too bulky at the waistband and just icky.  Sorry no pictures.  As a result, I piled up all the fabric, shoved it in the bag and buried it in the closet.  I might throw the thing in the wash to see how it feels then and if I still don’t like it… tote bag.  Incidentally, the shirt was a smidge too snug either so I have to return that.  The second skirt is just missing the casing and the hem and living in the closet as well.  I have to check the stash for patterns, but I think this fabric is more suited for a straight skirt (or it has way too much sizing in it ergo the fervent hope the wash will help).  Ugh.  Strike One.

Knitting

I’ve been working pretty diligently on my Mondo Cable sweater.  Friday afternoon on the way home, I ran out of yarn supply while on the train and had to work on the Path Train socks.  Good thing I had another project with me as my train was held in the middle of the Meadowlands for about 40 minutes due to "police activity".  It turned out that this police activity was because someone had been hit by a train.  According to the article, a 28 year old was on the tracks in an area off-limits to pedestrians.  This was one stop from mine and unfortunately, curiosity got the best of me and I was looking out the window as we came upon the sheet covered body.  This is the second time in the last year that I’ve seen a body out the train window.  For some reason, the hands are never under the sheet.  Why is that?  {Shudder}  Seems this line is known for fatalities and there’s a stretch of it that is known as suicide alley.  While loss of life is sad, my heart really goes out to the engineers who are operating these trains who have no chance to avoid it.  There was an interesting article that I found while looking for this accident, here. 

In between other things this weekend, and after the miserable failure of the skirt sewing, I still had time during the nap to go to something I usually had far more luck with:  knitting.  I pulled out Mondo and parked myself in front of the TV.  There was a dirth of anything good on yesterday afternoon so I picked the mindless Bridezillas on WE, unsure of when the twins would be getting up and not wanting to kill something good in the middle.  I guess I could have gone with an episode from the newly acquired box set of the first season of 24, but I forgot all about it.  As it turns out, they napped for 3 hours and I could have watched something far more interesting than psycho brides.  I was able to completely finish Mondo.  Though I did have a problem with it, pretty much the reverse of Stephanie’s.  Instead of the armhole being too short, mine were HUGE.  A 9" arm opening is far too large for this little person.  I thought it looked a little odd when I was assembling it, okay to be honest, while I was knitting it, but in one of those self-delusions that us knitters are famous for, I thought I was just seeing things, or in the alternative, a good blocking would fix it.  Nevermind that it is All Seasons Cotton and that I really wanted to SHRINK it rather than stretch it, that’s just besides the point.  I will have you know that I did the right thing last night, undid the shoulder seams and ripped down each shoulder piece to a much more reasonable length and redid the shoulder bind off.  It was 11:30 by the time I finished that so I didn’t re-sew the shoulders and will do that tonight.  It does need a light blocking/pressing as the pieces are curling a smidge to the inside so I’ll do that before sewing tonight and mondo will finally be done.  It wasn’t looking good for me yesterday afternoon. 

Spinning

I turned to my Lincoln crossX batts and my Hitchhiker on and off over the course of the weekend.  Friday night I finished spinning the rest of the second batt. I then had two pretty well matched bobbins of pretty fine singles. 

As there wasn’t much to finish off and I still had plenty of time before the sandman called me, I popped a disk into the player (Love Actually) and went about plying.  Not a bad movie later and I had this:

Plying for two hours is pretty darn tiring, especially when it is pretty tightly twisted singles and you have a single treadle wheel with a 7.5:1 ratio.  For those who don’t know, the ratio is measured between the number of times the flyer rotates for each turn of the drive wheel.  Higher twist + lower ratio = lots of treadling + tired leg. I pulled out the little wpi tester and came away with 16 wraps per inch, or a nice fingering weight.  I like to let my newly plied yarn age a little on the bobbin before I skein it up.  That’s actually a fancy way of saying I was too damn tired of the stuff to skein it after plying for some two hours and let it sit.  Yesterday after my lack of success with other items, I went back to something that wasn’t turning to sh*t.  As I said earlier, I was a bit camera happy, not to mention a trifle pleased with my 364yds/4oz of newly spun yarn.  I still have two more 2oz batts to spin up.  I think this should be good for a lightweight, smaller FBS.

That’s pretty much it for crafting this weekend.  One out of three ain’t too bad and since one of those is actually improving, I feel much better.  The sock, while giving me some fits on the short row heel, which I do have experience with, is progressing.  I’ll finish the heel this afternoon.  I’ve also pulled Trellis back out of the hold pile and it too is in my bag so that will be my main train knitting again.  Didn’t do it this morning because it was far too crowded, sock was better for that. 

I did some other shopping this weekend and I’ll post that tomorrow.  Don’t want all the goodness today do ya?  If you’ve sent me an email or a comment, I’m a bit behind in answering and I beg your indulgence.  With all my crafting this weekend, I opted for a break from the pile of silicon circuits in the corner of my living room.

Craft on!

I’d like to thank everyone for their very thoughtful comments to my last posting.  I’ll be individually responding to your comment but if I haven’t I just wanted you to know I have read it and I thank you.  I tend to agree that the blog is for whatever I want to use it for.  Like most of you, I do prefer to keep it more of a surface level record of my projects, my family and what’s on my mind.  I am careful when I do post something that it isn’t of too personal and is something that I don’t mind the world knowing.  As a footnote, I’m still amazed that anyone reads and that this would be a problem.  So thank you all!  My dilemma was that I did have something on my mind and if I had posted it in the language I was starting to use I would have hurt people.  Not faceless blog readers who if they disagree with what I write could not read anymore.  That wouldn’t bother me.  This would have involved people that I see FTF (thanks Laurie for that!) almost every day and I didn’t want to do that.  Do I know that it involved regular reader(s)?  No.  But I can take a guess.  While I’m discontent feeling disconnected, I don’t want to inflict it on others.  Sorry for those who got a bit more in response to their comments than they bargained.

Returning to the regularly scheduled light hearted blog that this is…

I’m getting to be a pretty good judge of how much I can get done during my commute.  On Wednesday I predicted that I was going to finish the back during my trip home.  I did just that.  (Thank goodness for timestamps from digital cameras to keep us honest.)  Here’s the back reclining on the middle seat of the three-seater train car on the way home.  I saved casting on for the front until my commute in yesterday.  Nearly forgot to change to the smaller needles, but remembered it at the very last minute.  Read that as being RIGHT before I would have had to tink.  As of this mornings arrival in Hoboken, I had four rows past the initial cable twist done.  I’ve been knitting Mondo on the train and saving the sock for the PATH train rides.  I’m a smidge short of starting the heel on the sock.  Normally this sock would probably be done, but it really has been limited to PATH knitting.

For clarification, the PATH train is akin to the subway, but more limited.  Port Authority Trans-Hudson is a quasi-government agency headed by the Governors of New York and New Jersey.  They operate this little subway like thing between New Jersey and New York.  The Port also operates Newark Airport and were the owners of the World Trade Center.  If you’re curious, here’s a link to their website.

Now that we’ve had a minor mass transit diversion, I honestly haven’t been spinning.  Either I’ve come home too late from my parents house because we opted for swimming:

These were taken on Wednesday before dinner.  Kat is sitting her on the side of the pool with her very favorite person in the whole world.  Pop-pop.  They are loving the water and we haven’t felt the need to torture the monkeys and shove them into bathing suits.  The only problem with this pool, as you can see from the shot of me standing in the shallow end is that it isn’t shallow when you are only 31" tall.  And there are no steps, just that ladder.  Thanks for all the feedback on the municipal pool!  We’ll be joining that this summer and hopefully the kids will enjoy it.  I’ve also arranged with their daycare teacher for her daughter to be a mother’s helper, so I’ll pick up a pool membership for her.  So strange to be arranging for a mother’s helper.  I remember when I spent the summer as a mother’s helper.  That included a three week stint at a rental beach house on Long Beach Island.  That was the summer I turned 17 and I got my driver’s license the day before we left on the trip.  How to torture a teenager right?  It was for a family with one boy, who now that I think about it was about the twins age.  Stephanie, I would have loved to take one of your girls as a mother’s helper!  Maybe next year.

I’ve been music-less, or just about music-less during my commutes recently.  I have an iPod.  The 10gb size that I bought in December of 2003.  It’s worked pretty well though I have noticed that its battery life had been seriously decreasing.  I don’t listen to it all the time and it has been in my bag for a while, unused.  But then I’ll go through a period where I want to listen to it, everywhere.  Now that I’m sitting in a different car on the train and not getting off when all my old traveling buds where, I wanted it again.  I charged it up, dropped it in my bag and then after a day of not using it (yes I put it on hold) the damn thing turned itself off immediately yesterday, bevitzing about its battery.  I hadn’t used it!  I vaguely remembered the news bit that I heard last week about Apple settling an iPod lawsuit so I did some searching.  I turned up this website and actually found the claim form in the mail.  I does pay to register ones purchases.  I even managed to turn up the original sales receipt from my time of purchase.  Thank you Judge Judy for recommending keeping a drawer and just tucking receipts into it.  No I haven’t found the receipt for Purl yet and I’ve given up looking.  I charged the iPod last night so it was fully charged when I left this morning.  When I got to the office, I turned it on, noted the time and waited for it to run down the battery.  Beast only got 1 hour and 37 minutes of playtime before it shut off.  I’m well within the definition of battery failure for the purposes of the lawsuit settlement.  I’ve filled out the claim form and opted for a new iPod or battery replacement.  Their option.  Don’t really care.  I ordered one of these in silver yesterday.  It shipped last night.  Checking the FedEx tracking, while the package arrived in Newark, NJ this morning at 9:37 (which is less than 1/2 hour from my home), delivery is estimated for Monday before 4:30.  Geez.   

Since I haven’t been able to find any good summer skirts in the local stores and 1) fit and 2) aren’t made of some cardboard-like fabric, I think I’m going to sew myself some.  I spent a little time surfing patterns online and came on this one.  (Simplicity 7655).  I made a post-it note and stuffed that in my bag in preparation of hitting a fabric store sometime today.  Somehow this pattern looked very familiar though.  After the twins were asleep last night, I pulled out my box of patterns and lo and behold.  There was 7655 looking at me.  Nice to see my tastes haven’t changed.  Classic is classic.  I had gone through another period of sewing some three years ago and must have picked it up then.  I’m going to make the skirt in the shorter length in something summery.  Probably two.  Maybe event three.  I purged my closet a few months ago and really don’t have much.  Not to mention now that I found my seasonal color scheme I honestly can say I’ve been buying the wrong colors.  I had on a black top yesterday and really looked at myself in the mirror.  Ugh.  Its the wrong color for me to wear by my face.  It brought out those very lovely yellow undertones that squarely put in me Autumn colors.  I think a few new skirts in my new found colors are called for.  Maybe I’ll make myself a nice totebag too, though I have recently been using a backpack as my tote/purse/knitting bag.  Julie’s venture into sewing has me seriously tempted to make one of these as well.  Would matching skirt/totebag be a bit much?  Honestly, I don’t do a helluva lot of sewing though I’ve been sewing for even longer than I’ve been knitting.  My Home EC Sewing teacher didn’t particular like me because by the time I got to take that class, I had already been sewing for years and wore a jumper to class that I had made.  She pretty much ignored me and left me to my own fun while teaching others the basics.  While they were busy making pillows (which I did with my leftover fabric), I made this off the shoulder, long sleeve blousy top. 

This weekend I hope to finish off the rest of the second batt of butterscotch wool and get the two bobbins plied up.  I love that little wheel and I found that with the right diversions, I can actually spin when the monkeys are out of their cages cribs.  I’m going to head to the bookstore this weekend as well, as my employee discount gets an extra boost for the next 3 days and pick up a couple of books.  I think my Secret Pal might be getting herself a book as well. 

To answer Lynne’s question:  who are your two favourite captains?- Kirk and Janeway   Though I can appreciate Picard and Sisko.  Though with Sisko I didn’t really like his mopey brooding demeanor in the early seasons. I found fault in Picard in that he actually relied on Troi.  Useless empath.  "Captain, I sense hostility."  So instead of saying something like "Oh yeah, what gave it away sister, was it the fact that they are FIRING ON US" he would act as if he couldn’t tell this himself.  She certainly didn’t belong the bridge of all places, wearing a cheerleader outfit.  Nothing against cheerleaders…. 

..Sorry rabid trekker took over the keyboard there for a moment.  The crazy fiber person is now back in control.  Before the trekker comes back, I think I’ll close this longish post.  Maybe pictures of spinning/stash this weekend. 

Knit, Live Long and Prosper, Knit on!  (Down trekker)

I started writing something that would probably be best put in my diary, had I kept one and deleted it.  I deleted it because some potential readers might be upset by the content.  So now I’ve changed the whole posting because of a maybe reader.  Have any other bloggers done this?  That also begs the question of what a blog really is.  Is it an online diary with pictures and links where the writer can bare their soul or at least write out their thoughts?  Or is it some new variation on the old bulletin boards or moderated mailing lists where there are rules and themes and different expectations.  Should the writer edit the blogs to appeal to their readers?  Should I be examining and explaining for any reader who cares to read why I feel I’m disconnected from my day to day in person contacts and would rather spend time with my new found blogging friends?  Should I explain that it is the passion for the fiber arts that I find missing in those around me?  Why I would rather spend time with people who don’t look on a sheep and wool festival in the same category as a Star Trek Convention*.  They both garner the same looks from those without the passion.  In the end, I feel a certain disconnect from my daily contacts and disatisfaction at that fact.  And if I don’t bare such thoughts here, where do I?

Enough with the serious, knitting progresses on Mondo Cable.  I’m about an inch short of starting the shoulder shaping for the back.  I should have that finished tonight, provided of course that the train ride home actually involves some air conditioning unlike the ride in this morning.  Whew the train was a smidge toasty.  I’m a summer girl through and through.  I frolic in the warmth and the sun.  But there is even too hot for me and a 90F day on a train without air is over that line.  On the positive side, I didn’t have to regret not bringing along my train sweater this morning.  At least the PATH train was cool so I got a couple of rows in on my sock.

The new yarn for Rogue arrived on Monday.  That’s super fast shipping.  I finally opened the bag last night and the color is just gorgeous.  I notice that KnitPicks has changed how the skein is made up.  I ordered from them a while ago and the put up for the Wool of the Andes was this tightly wound thing that was faintly reminiscent of Luster Sheen.  The skeins that came out of the bag last night are just about identical to the Peruvian Highland of Elann.  Its now a light squishy yarn that no longer resembles Wildfoote sock yarn skeins.  I also picked a couple skeins of sock yarn to round out the order.  In the yarn ordering department, I finally settled on a baby gift to make and ordered the yarn yesterday.  I’m getting it from Joann.com as I’m a member of their free shipping club.  Neat.  I also tacked on the order a couple of the Balene II circular needles as I’ve been eager to try them out.  I hope this order arrives quickly as I need to get a start.

I’m struggling to come up with a gift from my Secret Pal.  This is the first time I’ve participated in the whole secret pal thing.  From her blog, it seems that we’re pretty well matched and that I should be able to get stuff for her pretty easily.  So why am I not?  I did have the idea to send a skein of hand spun suitable for sock yarn but am waffling on that this morning.  I’m a wuss.

My folks and I took the twins swimming last night for the first time this season.  After a cautious start, the two of them turned into serious water rats.  They loved it!  Even as I was shivering my butt off, they were pouring cups of water on their big toddler tummies.  If it is still hot tonight we’ll take them swimming again.  I’m probably going to be joining the town pool (not my town, my folks town).  It’s a big thing with a sand bottom and fenced in baby pool area.  Like the beach, its all sand surrounding the pool too and since they’ve discovered the sandbox they should enjoy this.  As my parents pool starts at some 3 feet deep and there are no steps, just a ladder in the shallow end, it isn’t an option for me alone with them.  I think the town pool would be workable on my own.  I’m tempted to see if I can find a mother’s helper for the summer weekends though.  An extra set of hands is always nice and it would give me some relief.  I should look into that quickly before they’re all busy.

While there are no pictures of this, I’m just about finished with the second 2oz batt of the butterscotch colored lincoln cross wool that I picked up in Cummington from I think Foxfire Fiber though it could be Barneswallow Farms.  Consulting Rosemary’s blog, it was Barneswallow Farms.  Another hour tonight and it will be ready for plying. 

I’m pretty well talked out now.  I think I’ve at least admitted to all recent yarn purchases, though I do think there are a couple of eBay dealings that I’ve forgotten.  I’m a yarn ho.

Knit Spin Craft on.

*Nothing against Star Trek Conventions, I’ve been to several of those myself.  Even scheduled a business meeting out of town to coincide with a big convention occurring in Minneapolis so that I could see my two favorite captains appear.

While I’m not going to complain about the hazy, hot and humid weather we’ve had for the last couple of days, I will mention it.  I spent far too much time complaining about the winter and doubting that it would ever get warm to be allowed to complain about the heat now.  In my book, you really can only kvetch about one of them.  I choose the cold.  I actually don’t mind the heat, if we work our way up to it.  Damn it though it never seems to work like that around here.  Two weeks ago I was wearing a coat to work and debating if I should take scarf and mittens with me.  Last week I could get away with a light sweater and well Ribby spent most mornings being worn and then schlepped home.  So did we get a slow ramp up to sweltering?  Nope.  One week.  Saturday morning’s overnight storm cleared up to be humid.  Summer humid.  Yesterday?  Forget it.  Here’s the forecast for this afternoon.

This Afternoon…Partly cloudy…Hot and humid. A chance of showers and thunderstorms late. Some thunderstorms May produce damaging winds…Hail and heavy rainfall. Highs around 90. South winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.

Tomorrow reads much the same.  Glad I’m knitting with cotton these days.  Or at least having found a cotton that I can happily knit with.

It was the perfect time to start another project.  Anyone who doubted that I would do it after my last post, just doesn’t know me very well.   The biggest question really was which color was I going to use.  Would I stick with my venture into COLOR or fall back on one of my defaults.  I couldn’t decide which of the two yellow family colors I (Orkney or Citron) so I opted for the Slick.  I should look oh so sophisticated with the white capris I bought during lunch at Old Navy.  Stylin’ I am.  Its a very fast knit and I have to say, I do love the All Seasons Cotton.  The seasonal temperatures only emphasized my need for a good summer top.  Now if I could only find a good summer top for the Habu Bamboo yarn that I have sufficient yardage for, I’d be a very happy camper.

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes on the sick monkeys.  After some 24 hours of the fevers, they both awoke Sunday "cool as cucumbers" as my grandma used to say. I wasn’t going to push their activity levels yesterday and we stuck inside.  I managed to do my food shopping online after breakfast as they tore apart the living room behind me.  It wasn’t until we went out at 3 to pick up the groceries that I had any clue how damn warm it was.  My apartment is on the ground floor (concrete slab for the foundation is my subfloor) mostly on the north side of the building so it remains comfortable inside except on the most humid of days, or if you’re moving around a bit.  It was after getting the twins in for naps, the groceries all in from the car and put away that I really noticed that I was sweating glistening.  I gave in and turned on the central air.  Yup.  One of the selling features of my smaller than I desire apartments.  I have central air AND a washer/dryer in my apartment.  Makes up for the noise made by the HORDE of people who live upstairs from me and don’t seem to believe in carpets.  Nor do they believe in leaving the furniture in one spot for more than 15 minutes.  I could swear they have a bowling tournament every night with part of the festivities to see who can lob the heaviest ball the furthest.  Okay, I might exaggerate a smidge, but it is noisy living under 6 adults, 2 children and a guard-dog.  I’d move but I couldn’t come anywhere near the amenities for what I’m paying (noise amenity aside).  At least we’re cool with clean clothes!

I know a Saturday posting is unusual for me.  I didn’t post yesterday as I had to pick up two sick kids from daycare.  They woke up early on Friday, both running low grade fevers, but by the time it was time to get moving, they were both cool.  I debated and wound up taking them to school.  Some voice inside of me figured they wouldn’t stay so I stayed home and worked from there.  Was a good thing too, I got the call at 11:30.  Alex had just woken from his nap and was feverish.  Kat was still asleep, but she too was awake and feverish by the time I made the 1 mile drive to the center.  I was able to catch mom at the store so she could pick up a few things.  Long story short, its now 8pm on Sat and the twins are sleeping, their fevers having been very low or non-existent all day.  They took an almost 4 hour nap from 10 to 2 which allowed me to tie up some loose ends. 

My first trick was to finally sew some buttons on Alexander’s hoodie, which has been sitting around waiting for them since May 2 when I finished knitting and assembling it.  Pathetic eh?  Couldn’t sew on 5 buttons in a little more than a month.  In my defense, I didn’t have buttons for it for the WHOLE time.  I did get that selection of buttons off eBay and tossed them in the bin next to my computer for later.  I was at WalMart recently, well looking for the Baylene 2 circular needles if you must know, when I found little bags of oodles of buttons in different color schemes.  I grabbed bunches of them and found a good use for all those dopey empty baby food jars I had been stashing (they’re good for beads too).  After the twins got up from their nap, I had the boy try on his sweater.  Okay so there’s a goofy look on his face but at least I got the pacifier out of his mouth for a change.  Toddlers are tough to photograph.  You pull out the camera and they head straight for you!  This was the best of the bunch.  Notice the sleeve is rolled up on him.  He should be able to get some good wear out of it.  This might be a pipe dream but I’m hoping that he can wear it next spring.  Yeah, I’m new in this growing baby game thing.

Anyway… while the feather and fan socks might have made their debut at Cummington, they were never memorialized for here.  That’s partly due to the fact that I finished them on the train home last Friday (PATH train actually) and upon arrival I commenced packing for the weekend.  I took them outside to pose in the surprise sunshine as it was supposed to be pretty cruddy today.  I still have plenty of yarn left so I might just make another pair, or more than likely pairs for the twins.  Maybe time to pull out that issue of IK with the baby socks and scale up.

Lastly, I finished off my obligation to the Knit Club group project.  While the first two where done within some 72 hours of getting the yarn, I stuffed the project in a bag for a bit and ignored it.  After the less than enjoyable knit club gathering this week I decided to get it in gear and finish them.  It is nothing more than a 42 stitch, 72 row garter stitch square in that Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.  After glowing about it in an earlier review, yes it is far softer than some cottons and I couldn’t complain about the way my hands felt using it, I will have to say that it splits something fierce!  I picked up the third square last night having completed some 10 ridges (20 rows for newbies and finished it in about an hour.  I cast on for the fourth one, got 16 ridges into it and put it down to really concentrate on the program that I had been watching on ReplayTV  (Facts behind the Da Vinci Code that had aired earlier this week on History, IIR).  In short order I fell asleep on the couch, waking up at midnight.  I went to bed then.  I didn’t feel like schlepping the squares outside to pose on the shrubbery (Ni!) like the socks and the hoodie so I’m subjecting you to an arty shadow/light on the back of the sofa shot. 

I’m happy that I can remove a couple of things from my WIP section.  YAY!  I need to get moving on Trellis so that I can make the other baby gift.  The intended recipient of that has been determined and I ain’t saying more.  Blogs have readers (which I still find amazing to be truthful).  I got the shipping notification that my Rogue yarn is on its way.  I hope I get gauge with it, but I might just take the happy fabric gauge and switch sizes in the pattern to get the desired results.  Same trick I did for the hoodie but reverse as that was a heavier yarn than the largest pattern size.  I suspect that I’ll be working a worsted on an aran and will have to move up one pattern size to get my size.  I’m going to take Cassie’s advice and steek a swatch before trying on something far larger.  If I’m not a basket case by the end of that, I’ll take an existing sweater and convert it to a cardigan.  I have the perfect one in mind too.  It is the lamb’s pride top down raglan pullover in white that I made just before I started blogging.  I only really wore it once last winter and would definitely get more wear out of it as a cardigan.  I have plenty more yarn for it (was an eBay bahgain dahling) so I can play.  Kat is still wearing her Debbie Bliss cardigan so I’m not in a terrible rush to make her a new one, though there is plenty of yarn here in pinks to do one. 

I’m oh so tempted to skip working on one of my existing WIP’s and cast on for something entirely new:  ChicKnits Mondo Cable.  I bought the pattern a while ago and I have the Rowan All Seasons Cotton in several colors thanks to the binging two weeks ago.  Not to mention that it is starting to look alot like summer around here.  It would probably be a super fast project and I could get back to the baby things before they even notice I’m gone.  Hmm.  I think I just talked myself into it.  I’m off to add another WIP.  At least I got rid of 3 before adding one.  No?  Works for me.  Now the hard part, which color.

Knit on!

Remember the pretty picture I posted yesterday of a lovely red sock in the Gull Wing pattern from Socks3 reclining on my leg on the train?  Forget it.  That sock wannabe no longer exists.  The needles were pulled from its fragile existence on the way home last night and the yarn reclaimed.  I spent the trip starting another sock, this time with a picot edge and when I got off the train I was planning on adding a diamond pattern on the cuff from my pi shawl. Worked until I sat down with said sock last night to relax a bit and knitted the cast on edge together with the live stitches to make that nifty cuff.  It was 3 rows past this point that the needles were yanked again.  I then performed an exhaustive search of my sock pattern queue and came up with a bunch of socks I would love to make, except they all wanted a sport weight yarn.  Yeah yeah, I remember the nice Louet Gems that I bought when out with Cassie at Purl except I was too lazy to get out the swift and wind it into a ball, not to mention I now had this started skein of Kroy and I better do something with it.  I cast on this morning for Priscilla’s Dream Socks from IK and after my commute in, I have 1.5" of 2×2 rib.  Excellent commuting knitting project.

Okay, so I still don’t have pictures of my MA haul because I was distracted by the sock thing last night.  There must be some block that I’m fighting regarding photographing the stuff.  Part of me wants to be super creative, take the stroller picture and do an image map to link to individual pictures of the stuff.  Yeah, in my vast amount of free time.  Its not like the haul is neatly put away and I have to pull it all out to photograph it.  Yeah.  Not likely.  Its in the corner of the living room at a 3+ ft height to keep the short people out of the fiber.  I saw Kat fiddling with the Sheep Shed peach colored merino from its hanging place on the stroller.  I do have this picture though.  My mother took it on Monday while I spun on the back of her boat as Kat napped.  I love the little wheel.  It is a great addition to the collection.  BTW, the monkeys slept very nicely on the boat Sunday night and other than fishing a pacifier out of the Hudson River, the time was uneventful.  My father deemed this little wheel:  cute.

Having answered the questionnaire yesterday regarding favorite colors/palette and all that and not really knowing an answer, I frittered away some of my ME time last night googling a way to find my colors.  Based on my hair/skein/eye color, I’m an autumn.  I was really (to borrow a phrase) gobsmacked by this.  Me?  Who used to own only two colors?  Black & White.  Autumn?  Could explain the recent pull by the oranges, not to mention the initial color venture away from the BW, brown.  He-he.  Earth tones.  I can dig it.

There was chatter yesterday on the EZasPi list about doing Rogue.  This has been on my ToDo list for a while now and I can swear I had earmarked the blue Shetland Aran from eBay for it.  My new found color palette told me the blue wasn’t really my color.  I did what any crazy would do. I ordered more yarn. In this case, 14 skeins of Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks in Cranberry.  I nearly got the Briggs & Little Heritage that I see is being kitted up for Rogue, but I’m really unfamiliar with that yarn.  The price is certainly attractive, but I didn’t want to commit to a sweater out of an unknown.  If anyone has worked with it, please let me know what you think of it.  While was ordering, I seem to remember adding a few skeins of sock yarn to round it up to the free shipping level.  Only sane right?  I’d like to make the cardigan, but would love to knit it in the round.  I’m seriously considering {gulp} steeks.  I might just try that on a swatch first though.  I’m not completely nuts you know.

Craft on.

We interrupt the regularly scheduled blogging to post answers to the Secret Pal 5 questionnaire.  This is my first time participating in one of these things.  While I might have issues with dealing with the pressure of picking stuff for others, I’ve been jealously reading about the packages folk have been receiving from their secret pals.  I wanna play too!  I love surprises!  This is also to disguise the fact that I have yet to take pictures of the SEX from Mass.  The twins went to bed later than normal to begin with and then Kat had a bad dream or something and was up with me until 10pm.  Needless to say, nothing got done last night.

I did start the heel flap on my gull wing sock this morning on the train.  Haven’t I blogged the start of that sock?  I might not have.  Oh well.  Started it Friday on the train home and am using Paton’s Kroy in Retro Red.  While I was slightly embarrassed at taking a picture of my knitting resting on my leg on the train, I sucked it up for all of you.  I wasn’t about to hold it to the window where the big old power station and its mountain of coal dust was visible outside.  It does look nice with jeans, my primary wardrobe.

Hopefully I’ll have more to show tomorrow.  At the very least, here is the one picture I took all weekend.  Some blogger I am.  I should hang up my keyboard in shame.  That’s Rosemary, Claudia and Laurie as they stood opposite the Merlin Tree as I was trying out my Hitchhiker.

*****

Now my answers to the multitude of questions:

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?

–Yup.  I am a yarn snob.  Not so much a brand snob, but more of a natural fiber, classic yarn kind of snob.  I prefer a nice wool, or wool blend in a classic composition.  If Red Heart or Lion Brand makes such a thing then bring them on.  Right now I’m drawn to things like Rowan’s Wool Cotton though I was perfectly happy with the Elann Peruvian Highland, so I don’t only use the expensive brands.

2. Do you spin? Crochet?

Yup.  Both.  I don’t do much crochet, other than half that poor little thread bear a couple of months ago, I haven’t even held a crochet hook in as long as I can remember.  Now spinning is another story.  If I love anything more than knitting (besides my kids) it is spinning.

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)

Perfumes and scents.  They can trigger a migraine before I even can even realize what is going on.  I have to hold my breath walking through the cosmetics area of Macy*s.  Shame the purse area is right next to it, but I digress.

4. How long have you been knitting?

Far longer than I care to admit.  My mother taught me when I was 8.  While I don’t think I knitted constantly from that day forward, it was an on and off hobby of mine.  It became more of serious thing in probably college.  Ain’t nothing compared to how crazy I’ve become about it since I discovered blogging, but that is another story.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

No.  Sorry.

6. What’s your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)

As I’m generally not allergic to them, vanilla.  Classic scent too that generally doesn’t over power. 

7. Do you have a sweet tooth?

I’m a woman aren’t I?   Of course.  Prefer coffee to chocolate though.  Actually, prefer coffee to most everything!

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?

I sew, quilt, cross-stitch, embroider, tat.  I have a lucet and would love to try naalbinding.  Someday I’ll get around to using the scrap booking stuff.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I love classic rock and classical.  I’ll listen to top 40 and the oldies.  I have a trusty little iPod and my computer can more than handle some MP3′s.

10. What’s your favorite color? Or–do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can’t stand?

My favorite colors tend to be red, black, white and I’m trying to expand them out.  I’m not entirely sure what my seasonal colors are, someday I’ll figure that out, but my sallow skin tone, brown hair and hazel eyes dislike most greens, lilacs.  I’d guess pastels are definitely a no-no for me.  I’m being drawn to the fall colors though I suspect I’m more of a winter.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I’m a single mother of 19 month old twins.  I have 3 cats and one angora rabbit.
12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)

To be happy, healthy with friends and family around me and the means to make most things possible.  Oh wait.  I have that now.  I’d always dreamed of having a car and kids.  Got em.  The rest of life has been like icing on the cake.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?

This is a tough one as it tends to vary a smidge.  I’m very much enjoying the Rowan All Seasons Cotton that I’m using for Trellis.  I really liked the Jaeger Shetland Aran.  I definitely liked the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino and the Elann Peruvian Highland.  I love a good sock yarn and did enjoy using the Cascade 220 when I made Hatmione this past winter. 

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

100% cotton.  Ack-rylic (*without being blended with something else, aka Rowan ASC).

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?

Cables and lace.  Oh and socks.  Always sock.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

Shawls and socks.

17. What are you knitting right now?

A shawl (stonington), socks (Gull Wing – Socks x3), cabled sweater (trellis), and a ribby out of cotton-ease

18. What do you think about ponchos?

That they should die a horrible death… at least for adults.  They are cute on little girls.  I still have bad memories of the crocheted ones from the 70′s with the huge pompoms hanging from them.  Shudder.  I won’t miss the poncho craze when it goes away again.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?

Circular.  Hands down.  Can’t remember the last time I used straight needles.  Did that stop me from splurging on a set of lantern moon needles? Uh nope. 

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

All of the above.  They have their uses.  Little pointy metal ones for socks, bamboo works nicely there as well.  Plastic worked nicely for the cotton that I hated knitting.  I do love my casein dpns that I bought a few years ago, but they taste terrible.  Addi Turbos for FAST knitting where super points aren’t necessary. 

21. Are you a sock knitter?

Am I a sock knitter?  Oh yeah.  Always have one pair on the needles at any time.

22. How did you learn to knit?

My mom taught me when I was 8.

23. How old is your oldest UFO?

Two years ago I would have answered this question differently.  When I was pregnant and cleaning out the craft room to make it a nursery, I killed all UFO’s, reclaiming yarn, needles and trashing the rest so I would have nothing older than that.  Before then, heaven only knows.  I get distracted by shiny pebbles and found plenty of half finished sweaters, the oldest of which was probably started in 1986 and only needed half of one sleeve to go.  I’m not entirely sure what my pregnancy induced pitching craze had me do with that one.  The oldest UFO now is Big Sack Sweater.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?

Speedy Gonzales.

25. What is your favorite holiday?

July 4th.  I’m a summer baby!

26. Is there anything that you collect?

Loyal readers will snicker and wonder if there is anything I don’t collect   Umm yarn.  Spinning wheels.  Drop Spindles. Knitting Needles.  Patterns (lace especially).  Cat figurines.

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

IK, though I think my subscription expired with the summer ’05 issue.

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on?

Dying?  Not really.  I get a pretty good employee discount on books and usually pick up what I’d like before long, especially during those weeks where they up our discount.  I would like Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, Knitting on the Edge and Knitters Workshop.