One Crazy Fiber Lady

I enjoy my early Friday during the summer.  While it means that I eat lunch at my desk all week, it does give me a couple of hours to play before having to pick up the monkeys at daycare.  Thanks to the new train schedule, I can actually begin playing earlier!  Last year, the first train home was at 2:30, while I was getting out of work at 1.  Not too much of a hardship as NYC is a place you can easily amuse yourself in.  But still, it is much nicer to have that 1:30 train that gives me an extra hour to play at home.  Not entirely sure what I would do with myself, I popped home for a quick bite and a bathroom break. 

I decided to hit Ikea.  I live within five minutes of the Paramus store and have been ecstatic since it opened.  I have company coming and well she needed a place to sleep.  My apartment is on the small and cluttered side (aren’t all fiber enthusiast’s abodes a little cluttered?) and previous overnight guests have had the disadvantage of an air mattress in the middle of the living room floor, and the fun of watching me fetch every hair dryer in the place to blow it up.  I’m embarrassed by that and well, a little tired of it all.  Not to mention I have an ailing glider/rocker taking up space that the kids have turned into a jungle gym and if it weren’t for the yarn stash behind it, would have knocked the thing over. I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone, get something that converted into a decent occasional sleeping spot and serve as sitting space.  I went to Ikea after checking their website.  I spent an hour wandering around, even picked out a new corner computer desk but passed on adding that just now.  While I had two different chair/beds, I really wanted to get their futon.  I headed down to their self-serve and went about getting all the parts.  Wouldn’t you know it, they had two of the three: the bed, the cover but no damn mattress.  What good is that?  I never can seem to get out of there with all the parts of my first choice.  I’m getting mildly frustrated by that experience.  Faced it last when I bought the cubby bookshelves for the yarn storage last December. Bastards.  Anyway, I went with the second choice.  The Lycksele chair-bed with a very neutral off white cover.  After the monkeys went to bed, I assembled it and put the old glider/rocker out on the curb for some freecycling (it was gone by lunch on Saturday).  I’m very pleased with it and probably more-so than I would have been with the futon.  It is a good height and matches the seat level of my couch.  It is pretty comfy and large enough for a pair of monkeys to sit on it without touching.

Speaking of monkeys, Saturday the monkeys as I went to the zoo!  The Turtleback Zoo in West Orange.  Amazing, tucked behind the South Mountain Arena (where the NJ Devils practice) is this little piece of nature.  I haven’t been to that particular zoo since I was in elementary school and had honestly forgotten about it.  Thanks to Lisa (blogless), I was reminded about it and we met there with our kids.  (I’m still trying to come to terms with the fact that I have a reader.. let alone readers!  That’s as much a surprise to me as enjoying writing this thing.  Until blogging, I’d rather write in code than in English.  Makes my current career choice look like a far better fit than my education, eh?.. I digress again).  I had a very lovely time meeting Lisa and spending a few hours with her and her darling daughter Rebecca, who will be starting kindergarten!  The zoo is pretty neat with some big cats (cougars and bobcats), an American alligator and some new black bear cubs, amongst the exhibits.  The grounds are paved, but VERY hilly and a bit of a workout with my huge double stroller.  The twins enjoyed it as I hoped they would.  They do love animals and where better to see them.  While totally not necessary but very much appreciated, Lisa gave me wonderful knitting pattern note cards.  (I forgot to take a picture of them.)  Thank you Lisa!  She also brought along her Eris WIP in the gorgeous orange Jaeger Shetland Aran from our favorite dealer of English Yarns.  I’m going to have to pick up some of that.  Lisa told me that Jannette is hinting that she’s getting more of the yarn in additional colors, like my new found favorites, burgundy and hunter green.  Just what I need, more yarn.  Part of my weekend decluttering for company involved cleaning up the yarn purchases that had not made it to storage yet.  Oy is all I can say.  I got alot of yarn.. and more tomorrow (no details today).  I need me some more knitting time!

While I had a weekend, I didn’t touch any knitting (other than to pull Birchington out of my bad to show Lisa) between Friday’s commute home and this morning’s commute in.  If I wasn’t cleaning, decluttering and generally doing some neglected domestic duties, I just couldn’t knit.  I actually sat on the couch Saturday night and just watched a movie.  I can’t remember the last time I just sat and watched.  I do stop everything I’m doing for one hour on Friday nights to watch Battlestar Galactica on Sci-Fi, but everything is really just listened to (okay House and 24 are also watchers but in reruns or just not on now).  I seriously watched Terminal on cable.  It was cute, missed the first 10 minutes as I was getting the twins in bed.  Nice light hearted movie that was the right thing at the right time.  Last night I had more of the knitting entropy and while what I really wanted to do was to start a new project, I didn’t really feel like working on any of the WIPS.  I decided to spin a bit.  Again there was mental turmoil here.  From the couch, I have a nice clear view of the Tina II sitting next to the TV.  There’s nothing on the Tina’s bobbins right now, nor has there really been anything since I finished that moorit corrie X a while ago.  I have a couple of spinning projects underway and like the knitting was fighting the urge to start something new before finishing something else.  Whatever.  I pulled out the drop spindle with the bunny crack/merino on it and spun for a bit.  I finally have some pictures of it for you….

I put a dime on the desk next to the spindle for some scale.  Since I don’t have the real cooperative spokesmodels that some folk have, I went with the ever cooperative action(-less) figure. I toted this thing with me on Friday and gave spinning on the train another try.  I had done it last years ago when I first took up spinning with some disastrous results.  But then again, my spindle spinning was pretty disastrous overall back then.  I figured it was time to give it another try.  I got in 30 minutes of spinning before I packed it in. 

[Edited to add----]

My last post I made mention to trying to find a stash of TaB, thinking that it met its demise when aspartame took over the world.  While I fondly remembered TaB, I too switched to Diet Coke before the nutrasweet badly affected my stomach and I gave up diet soda outright.   For giggles, I google TaB maybe hoping that there was an ancient stash somewhere that I could buy a can or two from.  Much to my surprise, I found out it is still being made, albeit with a minor alteration of adding a smidge of nutrasweet to it.  While I can’t find the numbers at the moment, the level of nutrasweet is miniscule in TaB as compared to Diet Coke.  While I got the impression that TaB was going to be a bear to find, the corner deli a block away from my office has loads of it.  ShopRite also has it as well.  So I’m in a trial with TaB and so far, so good!

[P.S. – found this comparison of aspartame levels in sodas:

The tiny bit in the TaB is not enough to trigger as long as I guess I don’t have to many.  My one can a day habit should be okay then.  You’ll be surprised to note that fountain Diet Code has significantly less aspartame and actually contains saccharin.  I’m done now and going back to work

Craft on!