One Crazy Fiber Lady

Re-entry was tough.  There’s no getting around that.  Didn’t help that it snowed within the first week back and we won’t even talk about what happened this week!  All I can say is thank goodness for being able to work remotely.  Ugh.  The kids might be relieved to go back to school tomorrow as they get out of the trash the room/clean it cycle.   They are currently cleaning their rooms under threat of garbage pail currently.

I had a couple of inquiries into the status of the foot.  It is much better.  I think partially because it had time to heal, but also because I’ve chosen to ignore it.  Didn’t have much of an option on the cruise as our cabin was way in the bow of the boat and everything else was way in the stern.  There was a 1000ft walk to get just about anything. I wore sneakers and just took it easy.  The hardest walking was on the beach, but it was a worthy suffering We’re back to the point where the old right ankle is the more painful, so yes, life is back to normal now.

Yesterday, while the kids did this:

I played with this:

This is my new-to-me Baby Wolf!  I sold my LeClerc and used the proceeds to buy it from a friend (who was selling it to finance a brandy new 8H BW).  I got it last weekend and was finally able to play with it yesterday.  She’d left it warped so I could play immediately. How awesome is that???  I love it.  It has the Wolf Trap and the Stroller, so I’m  a happy camper.  I can keep busy for a long time with 4 harnesses.  I might pick up a small 8H table loom for those times when I want to do something more complex, but that can wait a bit.

When I was finished weaving, no I didn’t warp it for more.  I’m waiting for the warping reel I ordered to arrive, as well as a couple other doodads, I went back to spinning.  I’m in two spin-a-longs right now, so I have to get busy.  First up on the Schacht is fiber from Zarzuela Fibers that will be knit into a shawlette.  This is some superwash in “Purple People Eater” colorway:

I have one bobbin done and the second well underway.

In another project, for the Into the Whirled SAL, I’m working this yummy merino into a true three ply on the CPW.  Here’s bobbin 1:

Having only one bobbin is a bit challenging.  Now I’m really glad I bought that electric bobbin winder (which I used earlier in the day to wind my paper bobbins for weaving)!  I have a surplus of Kromski bobbins with 5 regular and a bunch of WW version.  I unwound this CPW bobbin onto a Kromski in no time with the electric winder.  It was awesome.  I finished up the second of three and am halfway through the third.  The CPW likes to spin FINE.

Work has been INSANE for me since getting back.  Shortly before the cruise, we had a little team re-alignment in the development group.  The five developers were split into two teams. Three were put on the User Story team which meant they worked on tasks towards adding new features to the software.  The remaining two were put on a Maintenance Team, to support customer service and fixing defects.  Lets just say I’m not writing new stuff.  I’m hunting and killing defects.  The split should be for the next 6 months to a year.  Could be worse.  It’s a less glamorous spot, but I’ve done worse.

My greatest frustration was that the other person on the team with me was terribly unhappy.  He was a software architect type person and miserable in the less glam role.  In many ways, he made my job harder.   On Tuesday, we had a company re-org. Several people were let go.  My Maintenance Team partner was one of them.  That leaves me as the only developer doing maintenance work.  To say I’ve been busy is a bit of an understatement!  My boss, when he sat me down right after my partner was let go, explained to me what was happening before I heard it on the street, so to speak.  Then he outlined what he saw coming down the maintenance pike.  It won’t be all defect work, but some smaller development projects geared towards empowering client services and customer support to do more things on their own and freeing me up from tasks that don’t really require a developer to do.  I’m content with that.

Off to play some Wii with the boy.

Craft on!

Where to begin?  It feels almost surreal to be sitting in my room again, computer with internet access near at hand, after 9 nights at sea.  Wow.  I figure I’ll give you a day by day run down of the trip.

Day 1 – Friday Feb 5th:  Departure day.  We left from Port Liberty, also known as Bayonne, NJ, on Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas.  We had a family cabin in the bow of the ship, right below the bridge.  While this was a great spot for the view, it did have its dark side.  Here’s the view as we left NY harbor.

Day 2 – Sat Feb 6th:  At sea.   I don’t remember much of Saturday.  Unfortunately we sailed through the storm that pounded the east coast with snow.  This translated to 20ft seas and winds of up to 100mph.  I awoke in the middle of the night with the boat pitching rather violently in my mind.  There is where being in the bow totally sucked.  In the middle you get rocking and rolling, but not the up/down.  Blech.  I got sick.  Quite a few times.  Alex joined me for some joint sessions in the bathroom.  We skipped breakfast and headed for the Medical Bay where i got a shot for the nausea and Alex was given some benadryl.  The two of us slept off the rest of the day.  Kat spent the day with the folks who took her off for her first onboard show, which she loved!

Day 3 – Sun Feb 7th:  At sea.  The combination of lots of sleep and calmer seas made for a much better day for all of us.  The kids spent some time during the morning at the Adventure Ocean day camp until my father picked them up early as he was missing them.  He then took them in the kids pool in the aft section of the ship.  Kat was too short for the slide, so he went with her.  Poor little monkey.  Mom and I deemed it too cold yet to so we watched  In general, it was a quiet, relaxing day on board.

Day 4 – Mon Feb 8th:  4pm arrival – San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Monday was the first really warm day of the trip.  After breakfast, we joined the 0ther 3000 or so passengers on the pool deck.  I went with the kids on the slide and spent some time relishing the warmth.   We had lunch at the onboard Johnny Rockets.

I also did a little shopping on the boat and bought myself a new camera.  The poor little Elph had been showing some signs of age and I’d been considering replacing her.  I picked up an Olympus FE-5020 in the lovely purple color.  Being on the trip gave me a good chance to use it as at 4pm, we pulled into our first port of call, San Juan.  This was the view of the port area from our cabin.

We hired a cab for a trip out to el Morro, where I got to play with the new toy

And a rare shot of me…

I’ve been to San Juan before, but only very briefly to board the ship for my honeymoon cruise.  We never saw any of the island and certainly not el Morro.  It really is beautiful.  We did a little shopping, making stops at Radio Shack to replace the forgotten charger for the DS, and Del Sol for some color changing t-shirts.  This was a brief stop and the ship pulled out at 11 that night.  We were back long before that at 8 for a late dinner in the Windjammer cafe.

Day 5 – Tues, Feb 9th:  St. Thomas.  We arrived in port early on Tues, at around 8am.  Mom and I got up early, dressed, ate quickly and were out shopping in the Havensight Mall right next to the docks.  Mom bought herself the same Olympus that I bought on the ship (for a touch better price), while I treated my Rebel to a nice 75-300mm telephoto lens.  I also picked up a beaded/shark tooth necklace for Alex, and a set of hoop earrings for Kat.  Another visit to a Del Sol added a color changing t-shirt for myself.

Having shopped ourselves out, we headed back to the boat to meet back up with the family for a ride off to Magen’s Bay for the afternoon at the beach.

I was able to take this picture of the twins using my new lens  On the way back to the ship, the driver pulled into a lookout over the harbor area for photo opportunities.  Here’s our ship along the pier.

The beach was nice, but very crowded.  There were two other cruise ships in port with us, which made for a lot of tourists soaking up the sun.  Still, better than wearing a winter coat!

Day 6 – Wed, Feb 10th:  Dominican Republic.  Another day, another port of call!  We anchored off the coast of Samana in the Dominican Republic.   On the advice of our waiter, we opted for one of the ship sponsored excursions.  At 10am, we boarded a small speedboat and headed for the island of Cayo Levantado.  It was a 15 min or so ride from the boat to the island, and what a fabulous island it was.  The beach was magnificent.  The water was warm and calm.  Drinks were plentiful and served  Kat had a few braids added:

She totally surprised me and still has the braids in.  I figured they’d be out by dinner that night.  She wants to wear them to school tomorrow.  Good girl.

More pictures from our day trip:

We didn’t return to the ship until 4pm.  While I protected the kids pretty well, I was haphazard in my own use of sunscreen and managed to fry a good bit of myself.  Ouch.  Worth it though.  I love that little island.

Day 7 – Thurs, Feb 11th:  Labadee, Haiti.  This is the one stop that had me concerned.  I felt guilty about a stop that would have us frolic in the sun at a location where there was such misery not so very far away.  Labadee is RCI’s private beach area on the north side of Haiti.  The cruise line was invited by the Haitian government to continue to make this port call as it provides jobs and income for an area that desperately needs it.  So the stop is made and over 100 pallets of aid are offloaded from the ship.

There is a local artisan market on Labadee and I did my part for the local economy.  I came away with too large bags of maracas, carved bowls, necklaces and bracelets, as well as some metal work that I’ll be giving coworkers. (There’s a tradition of bringing souvenirs amongst the development group at work.)  We spent the remainder of the day snorkling and enjoying our last port of call.

Before too long, it was time to return to the ship..

Day 8- Fri, Feb 12th:  At sea.  As we spent the day heading north, the sea was getting rocky and the temperature was dropping.  The water was too rough and the pool was closed.  We spent most of the day sitting on the pool deck stubbornly hanging on to the last bit of non-coat wearing weather.  I started the day feeling a bit seasick again as we’d passed through a small storm during the night.  I found the back of the ship far more conducive to peaceful enjoyment.  It was mom’s birthday and she treated herself to some nice time at the salon for a massage.  Nice.  Sadly, the nausea prevented me from enjoying the broiled lobster dinner though in hindsight, it was have been enjoyable at least going down

Day 9 – Sat, Feb 13th:  At sea.  Our second full day at sea heading north.  We hit another huge storm during the wee hours of the morning.  I beat a hasty retreat from the cabin first thing in the morning before I could get queasy.  The family joined me in short order where Alex got sick again.  Poor kid really takes after me.  We commandeered a table in the Windjammer cafe where the majority of us felt good with a view of the horizon and the most reduced motion.  The kids did some of their homework while I read.  And because there was close proximity of food, we all sort of nibbled our way through the day.  A farewell dinner had the kids hugging our waiter and assistant waiter goodbye.

Day 10 – Sun, Feb 14th:  Port Liberty, NJ.  It was over far too quickly, especially with the seasickness a memory.

A short car ride from the terminal and we were home.  Sigh.

Lessons learned:

1. Alex and I get motion sickness.  Will need patches next time ( bonine and those motion bands don’t do quite enough)
2. Never get a cabin right in the bow.  Midship is the best place that is the area with the slightest range of motion.
3. Never get a cabin and either end of the ship as the stuff you want is always the other end!  There was a 1000ft walk between our stateroom and the dining room!

I can’t believe its over already!  I’m glad I had today off for the holiday.  Tomorrow is going to be tough!

We (the folks, the monkeys and yours truly) are off for a ten day cruise to the Caribbean. See you in 10 days! Ahoy!

No real progress to report on the foot.  I’m able to put a bit of weight on it.  And as usual, I push it too far and hurt like hell by bed time.    I’ve been working at home which means a longer day.  I get to my computer some mornings almost an hour before I’d hit my desk at the office.  Lunch time has been a much shorter break as many days Mom brings me lunch and I eat at the computer.  And then it doesn’t end until well after I would have left the office to commute home.  Not really complaining here as I’m fortunate to have this option, but just stating a fact.

Here is a shot of my festive footwear…

It is a good solid supportive boot.  I remove it to go to sleep.  The rubber sole gives me a good foundation to step on.

And another fact?  The touchpad on my Acer laptop (no not the netbook – mom has that now – I bought a new full sized windows laptop last fall) is making me nuts.  It does this weird thing that makes me curse at it.  I think I’ll take a break from it and use the MacBook tomorrow  Options are always nice!

Anyway, enough griping.  Sitting around has brought more knitting and Sims time.  I’ve hit the 10″ mark on Redhook.

It makes for some awesome Sims knitting.  Or TV watching knitting.  I’m going to go back to it as soon as this post is done.  I’m enjoying the best part of American Idol.  These auditions are entertaining!

Finally, I haven’t posted a shot of everyone’s favorite monkeys in a while…

The Sunday of Christmas weekend, dad had the brilliant idea to bring the kids into the city to see the tree at Rock Center.  I think everyone else in the tri-state area had the same idea.  The city was PACKED.  There was no getting near the tree.  Heck we had trouble getting to the Lincoln Tunnel to get into the city.  We wound up driving to Hoboken, taking the PATH train to 33rd street and walking up town.  The above shot was taken right in front of the NY Public Library.  The monkeys kept asking if they could climb on the lions.  Sigh.

Time to go back to knitting.

Craft on!

Since my last post, we had halloween!

I started and finished a sweater for the little miss:

Project details are over here.

I started a sweater for me:

Project details are over here.

I started a sweater for the little mister:

Project details for this one are here.

Yesterday, I saw this pattern and just had to make it for my littlest niece.

All this knitting, with the exception of a purchase of a single skein of red yarn for the Monster Butt has been out of stash. ¬†The youngins went shopping in my stash to pick out the colors for the Drive-Thrus. ¬†That sweater remains my absolute favorite pattern for kids. ¬†The yarn I’m using for Eyelet Cardi was added to stash in February to knit another ChicKnits pattern but was redirected to this one.

This morning we got up rather early for a Sunday, got dressed quickly and had some breakfast before heading out to stand in line. ¬†The pediatrician’s office received their requested H1N1 vaccines and scheduled today from 9 to 1 to give the vaccines. ¬†We got there about 9:30 and after an hour wait, wrestled two reluctant kids into holding still and baring their arms, they were inoculated. ¬† This was followed by a trip to the dollar store for a reward for being good. ¬†Ha. ¬†Anyway, the rest of the afternoon has been spent outdoors, enjoying the surprise 66F day.

While the twins did this:

I played with this:

The fiber is BFL from SeeKay in Sunshine Day. ¬†I bought this fiber at the NJ festival in Sept. ¬†As you can see, I’m spinning it on the Kromski Sonata. ¬†She makes a lovely outdoor wheel

When I finished the second bobbin (the first 2oz were spun at Jessica’s house yesterday), I pulled out another project.

Oh yeah, that project was on another wheel  This would be the second half of the 4oz of BFL, also from SeeKay at NJ, but in Rubies.

When that was done, I pulled out yet another spinning project in progress:

Bet you thought it was going to be another wheel ¬†This is the Pumpernickel n Jam batt that I got from Into the Whirled at Rhinebeck on the midi Bosworth spindle also from Rhinebeck. ¬†I’m tired now

Outside the hobbies, I’ve been downright exhausted. ¬†We’ve changed development methodologies at work moving to an Agile system. ¬†Instead of only working on one particular area of the application, I’m now working on things across the entire system regardless of expertise. ¬†It has been like starting a brand new job. ¬†My brain is overloading with all this knowledge! ¬†I come home, have dinner, get the kids in bed and then by 9, I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open. ¬†I’m hoping that as I get experience in the other areas of the app, I’ll be able to stay up like a big girl again. ¬†On top of this, there’s been drama that I just didn’t need. ¬†Oh well.

I’m off to ply the SeeKay singles into some yarn. ¬†The kids picked those rovings for their winter hats for this year. ¬†While it might be 66F today, that will not last much longer!

Craft on!

This was one seriously busy weekend. Yesterday was my day at Rhinebeck for the beloved Sheep and Wool Festival. I have to admit, I wish the fiber hobbies hadn’t gotten quite so popular. The festival gets more and more crowded each year. I blame Ravelry At least it didn’t rain yesterday, but it was pretty wicked cold for the middle of October. Brrrr.

Anyway, it was the year of the spindle for me. I bought no fewer than 3 of them. The first one was actually on my shopping list, the other two sort of followed me home. In an effort to document these things so I don’t lose their details to fuzzy memories like the rest of the spindles around here, I present them now:

• Golding Ring Spindle
• 3″ Cherry Celtic Ring
• Walnut 9 3/4″ shaft
• 1.9 oz

• Bosworth Midi Spindle
• Silverwattle Whorl
• Bloodwood Shaft
• 28g/1oz

• Hatchtown Kaari
• Purpleheart and Walnut
• @1oz (she lost her tag before I bought her)

I did mention it was the spindle festival for me, didn’t I? ¬†As you can tell I have started spinning on the Kaari. ¬†She’s a wonderful little spinner.

The fibery purchases include two lbs of a BL-Romney in grey to spin for another sweater.

Sara had to check out the wool, and well, invade the one spot of natural light in my room.  Shortly after I took this picture, I had to get her slobbery nose out of the wool.  She has a thing for fiber.

After picking up 3 spindles, I had to buy some nice fiber for each of them.  I returned to one of my favorite nice fiber vendors, ITW.  I had picked up an Etsy order from her earlier in the day, but had to add to it.   Other than the grey BL-Romney, my only other fiber purchases were from Cris.

Front Row

• 56′s Falkland in Moody Neopolitan
• 60/40 Merino/Bamboo in Jonathan
• 80/20 Merino/Silk in Sangria

Back Row

• 56′s Falkland in Pumpernickel n Jam (x2)

Its safe to say that I’m a bit of a ITW groupie. ¬†I have more than a few braids and batts from her. ¬†The fiber that I started spinning on the Kaari is the Merino/Silk Sangria.

Other than a Knit Kit and a glass shawl pin, that’s my purchases for this year. ¬†I think I was pretty restrained. ¬† ¬†Oh wait, there was a bit more. ¬†I bought 10 skeins of yarn from Wild Apple Farm, 5 in a denim-y blue and 5 in a dark green. ¬†Still, pretty restrained. ¬†Its not like I’m lacking for hobby materials

Today was the twins’ birthday party. ¬†Yes, I know I scheduled their party for Rhinebeck Sunday. ¬†Yes I was supposed to stay overnight upstate and hit the festival both days. ¬†But thanks to a brain fart and a desire to not move too many weekends from their actual birthday, I jumped on the first Sunday noon party available. ¬†Alas, it coincided with Rhinebeck. ¬†I hope to not make the same mistake next year

We had 12 kids at The Little Gym for an hour of organized activity with the energetic and enthusiastic party directors, followed by 1/2 hour for pizza and cake.

The staff took care of entertaining, setting up, cleaning up and even packing all the gifts into big bags for us.  These types of places are well worth the cost.  We returned with a 1/3 of one cake, a pizza and lots of presents to open.

Now ¬†I think I’ll take a nap. ¬†I’m exhausted!

Craft on!

Any surprise that I totally blew that Sunday / Wednesday posting thing one week in? ¬†No? ¬†Good. ¬†You shouldn’t be. ¬†Any surprise that I totally missed my blogiversary, 5th at that!, yesterday? ¬†I’m not either. ¬†Oh well.

On Friday, the twins turned six. ¬†I can’t believe it has been six years since these:

became these:

I blinked and they became six year old kindergartners. I’m loving the little people that they’ve grown into (though I could skip the whole “I hate you” when I tell them to do something they’d rather not).

Happy birthday my babies.  I love you.

Today, with everyone off, we made the annual trip to an orchard to pick apples. ¬† Found a new place this year in Morris county that had young trees with fruit low enough for the monkeys to get by themselves. ¬†If my math is right, we came home with 15lbs of apples, mixed between baking and eating kinds ¬†I love apples. ¬†Couldn’t nibble my way through the orchard for a change as the digestive system is still somewhat on the fritz.

Yesterday morning I finished knitting Rhinebeck. ¬†After the awful game was over, I set it to soak in the washing machine and then set it out to dry once it had a good spin. ¬†On the way home from the orchard, we stopped by JoAnn’s and I picked up a couple of button candidates. ¬†I ordered a couple of others online. ¬†Hopefully they’ll all be here before the drop dead button sewing on day, Friday. ¬†Here’s the first two candidates:

and on the sweater…

I’m leaning towards the 4 hole button. ¬†If nothing else arrives before friday that is better, these are the buttons you’ll see on saturday, on this sweater!!!!!

This meant I needed another project.  I broke out the box of lace yarns I bought from Knit Picks in January and cast on for Bohus Inspired Pullover from Knit So Fine.

At 7 st/in on US4 needles, this isn’t going to be the quick project that Rhinebeck was!

Craft on

This is going to be one of those “little bit of this, little bit of that” posts.

Here are the monkeys heading off for their first day of kindergarten..

Aren’t they cute? ¬†Okay, so this picture is almost a month old at this point. ¬†They’ve been doing very well, getting homework every night except Friday and are generally enjoying it. ¬†Last week they had a class field trip to the Museum of Natural History in NYC. ¬†Mom went as a¬†chaperon/helper type.

They are still at the center where they spent the last two years in Pre-K. ¬†My town does not have full day KG so this offered the best option for us. ¬†The program is fully accredited and children usually come out of it way ahead of their public school future classmates. ¬†It also offered the advantage of being able to transition into the KG class for summer camp. ¬†They joined this group right after graduation in June so they were more than ready for a day without a nap. ¬†Sort of. ¬† Once school started, Kat was wiped out and on more than a few nights, she’s punked out way early. ¬†Its all good though.

I took the monkeys to the Garden State Sheep Breeders show a couple of weeks back. ¬†The car is amazing still covered in mud from the field. ¬†The recent rain hasn’t cleaned it. ¬†I’m going to have to suck it up and wash it ¬†Anyway, we had a good time at the festival. ¬†Its the perfect size for bringing the monkeys to before their heads explode. ¬†I forgot to take pictures. ¬†Again. ¬†Yes. ¬†But I did get this one:

Again, how cute are they?  There was some stash enhancement, but needless to say no pictures of it.

In other news, I need to update the herd status.  There have been some transactions with regards to the spinning wheels.

This wheel?

SOLD.

This wheel?

SOLD.

This wheel?

BOUGHT

It was requested that I provide a closer up view of Fair Isle.  You asked for it:

Taken this morning in the car (duh) while waiting for the train

Finally, with 17 days left until Rhinebeck, here is how Rhinebeck started off this morning:

It is approx 6.5″ at this point. ¬†The plain knitting starts at the 13″ mark. ¬†I’m getting there. ¬†I’ve found it is perfect knitting for playing Sims to while watching the ballgame. ¬†Yes I am a multitasker

Craft on!

We hit another milestone this week.  Kat, who had had one of her baby teeth die, managed to break the thing Monday evening.  There was very little of it above the gumline.

Naturally our dentist is on vacation in Bermuda. ¬†So I let my fingers do the walking and hit upon a pediatric dental practice in the next town over. ¬† They were able to squeeze us in yesterday afternoon for emergency treatment. ¬†X-Ray’s showed just the roots and a tiny bit of tooth above the gumline. ¬†The dentist recommended removing it and have a space maintainer made. ¬†She did say I could wait until my regular doc was back, but I opted to have her do the removal. ¬†Timing works out fine as my doc is back next week which would be when they start the maintainer process. ¬†All good.

Kat was a serious trooper. ¬†Not a peep or even a cringe as she got a novocaine shot and the tooth bits were extracted. ¬†As a note, pediatric dentists are the way to go. ¬†They hid that nasty looking novocaine needle from Kat’s view. ¬†She never saw it so never had a chance to get freaked by it. ¬†Bravo to them! ¬†Anyway, she was quite the trooper and the tooth (a pre-molar – second one in from the 6yr molar which she is yet to cut btw) is gone.

Unfortunately, the removal resulted in many tooth pieces so there was nothing to stick under her pillow.  I suggested she write a note.  (click for bigger)

I dictated the letters as she wrote. ¬†I’m definitely saving this one.

Craft on!

Well another week has begun.  My birthday last week was very nice.  I thank you all for your birthday wishes.  I had a lovely lunch with Kim and Deborah at a nearby Thai place.  Thank you ladies!  Mom made my favorite meal for dinner.  The kids made birthday cards for me at school.  Awwww.  The folks took advantage of my Amazon Wishlist and bought me a new lens for my big girl camera.  All in all, an excellent birthday.  Much better than the ones with a bad ankle or coxsackie virus

I even made some knitting progress:

I started the center of the sleeve stripes this morning on the train.  I would have been further along, but I spent the weekend without touching the needles once.  Or a wheel.  Or even spindles.  I know, totally amazing.  What did I do?  Well..

I took the twins to a dude ranch in Northeast PA to spend the weekend with the SMC (Single Mothers by Choice)¬†Multiple-Mom’s second annual get together. ¬†There were 10 of us mommies, each with twins or better. ¬†Two of the 10 have an additional singleton and one mommy has triplets. ¬†Doing the math, that was 10 mommies, 2 helpers, 9 sets of twins, 1 set of triplets and 2 siblings = 12 adults, 23 children.

Wow. ¬†It was fun! ¬†The bulk of the kids were about the same age, within a year of my kids, give or take. ¬†They travelled in little packs, enjoying the freedom the contained grounds offered. ¬†There was always at least one mommy with the particular pack so they weren’t totally free. And the mommies enjoyed the time together, being with others who totally get it.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

It was awesome.

Craft on!