One Crazy Fiber Lady

Well today was an interesting one.  Since there’s still pain in my foot, especially at the base of the big toe, Dr. S sent me for x-rays prior to an office visit today.   He left a Rx at the imaging center down the block from his office.  I called them first thing this morning that I needed an x-ray and they directed me to come in anytime.

So mom and I dropped the twins at school at headed to the imaging center.  We got there right around 9AM.  After filling out the paper work, I was directed to take a seat.  I started doing a little sock knitting (utter failure but that’s another story) and watched Hoarders on the TV in the waiting room.  At 10AM, mom notices that everyone who was there before us had gone, as well as lots of people who’d come after.  She went to ask the receptionist how much longer it might be.

“We don’t know.”  Was the answer.  Why you ask?  They didn’t have an x-ray tech and didn’t know when one would show up.  Could be an hour, two, three, or not at all today.  Joy.

I pulled out the trusty iPhone and surfed through the provider list for United Healthcare for another radiology center in the area.  I made a phone call and was told to come on over.  I got my Rx and headed out.  At 11AM, I was having both feet x-rayed at the radiology department at Mountainview Hospital.  Took half and hour to get copies of the films.

I finally get to see Dr. S and there’s no fracture in my foot at all.  He had shots of both feet for comparison.  Soft tissue damage.  Big toe is weak and the focus of the pain at present.  He put on a compression bandage that reminds me of casting material, though it doesn’t harden.  I then put my fancy boot back on.  If its not better in a week, I get to go for a MRI.  Oh yay!

I’ll be working remotely again this week.  I might work a longer day remotely, but there are upsides.

1. I get to sleep later.  Alarm is at 7:15 rather than 6
2. Don’t have to buy lunch!  (big money saver)
3. Shorter commuter

I did get some spinning this weekend.  Was tough using the foot that has been avoiding spinning as the primary treadler.  But I was able to do it.  YAY!  Filled up another bobbin on the Vermont wheel while watching UP with the boy.  Someday the CVM roving bag will be empty and I can start plying.  I’m up to 11 bobbin’s worth of singles and the bag barely looks touched.  Sigh.  Magic fleece bag it is.

I have fought the lace bug (and single project bug) for as long as I could.  I’ve been hearing the siren’s call of lace for a while now.  The WRS has been especially loud as I see new and exciting lace patterns appear.  I remember that sweetie sitting and waiting for me.  I could withstand it no longer.  I pulled WRS out of her slumber and got back to work on her yesterday.  I’m now through the first repeat.  Woot.  I think there are 13 more to go.

I hadn’t quite finished the first repeat when I took this picture but have since.

I also realized that I don’t have a purse project.  I grabbed some yarn and needles to take with me this morning.  But it was handspun, right off the bobbin.  It was overtwisted.  Maybe.  Whatever it was, it needed a good soaking and was producing a biased sock.   I pulled the needle out and spent from 10AM this morning onwards with no knitting project.  I KNOW.  It was hard.  I did have my iPhone with the Kindle app so I didn’t need to chew my foot off.

So as to avoid this happening again, time for a real sock project.  I picked the yarn and the pattern.  Getting there

I’ll be using this brightly colored Noro Kureyon Sock and US1 to knit So Simple Silk Gardens. (Rav link) by Glenna.

Time to get the monkeys ready for bed.

Craft on!

In a couple of comments yesterday, y’all seemed seemed as confused by the whole kindergarten in June transition. ¬†In email discussions with you, as well as talking to the ladies at school this morning, it all makes sense. ¬†They transition into the KG for the summer so that the effects of change are over before they really need to buckle down again for the school year.

The school/daycare center they attend is also their summer camp. ¬†So we’ll deal with the no more nap now (2 hour Pre-K nap vs. 45 min rest period) and its after effects for camp rather than interfering with the true learning portion of the year. ¬† It makes sense but wrecks that whole “first day of kindergarten” photograph. ¬†I suppose I’ll take that picture after Labor Day when camp is over.

Speaking of pictures, here are my Red Sox Socks:

Okay I lied yesterday when I said the next viewing would be the final shot.  Sue me.

What am I working on now? ¬†I’ve been itching to do lace. ¬†But not super-complicated-need-reading-glasses lace. ¬†I have one or two of those kind of lace projects laying about. ¬†That’s when I remembered the latest Pi shawl and dug it out from behind my knitting chair.

I’ve tinkered with it every now and again, but it is by no means much further along than the last picture I showed of it on Rav. ¬†I’m in the 640st per round section so I have a little ways to go yet.

Finally, I wanted to hit on the commute thing again. ¬†I’m parking at the less frustrating drive “lot” (well actually next to a friend’s house about two blocks away from the station) with the human frogger crossing. ¬†I had to stand there for the full length of the light last night and decided to take a shot of what I have to cross:

That bridge is the railroad trestle. ¬†I’m on the ’station’ side while the car is on the other. ¬†Complicating things here is the fact that there are two townships involved, one on each side of this divided highway. ¬†These cars ignore the crosswalk that I’m standing in and whoosh past you. ¬†35mph speed limit? ¬†HA HA HA HA. ¬†That’s a good one.

Craft on!

Fortunately the creeping ick that passed through the house didn’t last through the weekend. ¬†Alex’s fever ended on Friday, figures because I took him to the pediatrician then. ¬†Saturday he was a little low key, which was all right be me. ¬†We took a pajama day and watched movies while I knit. ¬†After the monkeys went to bed, I watched The Other Boleyn Girl and finished Adamas which I blocked this morning:

I had my blocking supervisors to make sure all went well.

For some reason, I expected this shall to be smaller. No idea why, but I did.  I love it!  The pattern was easy to memorize and just looks very nice.  It reawakened my lace love and reminded me I have another lace project.  I pulled this one out again:

 

Wedding Ring Shawl

I managed to work 6 rows today and hope to do a few every day. ¬†This is a LONG TERM project, but it doesn’t have to be a forever one. ¬†

It was also time to return to Mr. Greenjeans, or in my case, Mr. Not-So-Greenjeans. ¬†I picked it up again late this afternoon while watching a hockey game. ¬†My Ex introduced me to the NHL when we were first dating and we regularly watched games throughout our relationship. ¬†Unfortunately our team is out of market. ¬†While I will root for the Devils as they are the local team, my heart belongs to the Boston Bruins. ¬†Guess this doesn’t come as a surprise with my avowed devotion to the Red Sox (3 days to the first spring training game!!!). ¬†G and I even went so far as to put up a satellite dish so we could watch our team play. ¬†When we split, he got the dish and I haven’t really kept up with the boys… or the rest of the NHL ¬†(with the exception of watching my fav player of all time win his first Stanley Cup after being traded to Colorado). ¬†

Now though, you don’t need a satellite dish to watch out of market games…

You just need a computer! ¬†I got an email last week from MLB.tv regarding the season subscription that was about to renew. ¬†They’ve packaged the remainder of the NHL season with it for an extra $25. ¬†SOLD. ¬†I have a lot of catching up! (Like when did Tampa Bay change their home uniforms to those dopey ones that say “BOLT” on them??)

Anyway, I made some serious progress on Mr. Not-so-Greenjeans:

Yup. ¬†I’m up to the cable rib portion at the bottom. ¬†Lurve the Malabrigo in the Buscando Azul. ¬†

I’ve stayed up way too last the last couple of nights so I think I’ll call it an early night,

Craft on!

Any reader of mine will know it is either feast or famine when it comes to my blogging. I can’t seem to actually stick to a posting routine and either go every day or have huge gaps between posts. ¬†One week or so isn’t huge but still, bigger than I would actually like. ¬†Odd thing too is that I uploaded photos on Monday and just now have the time and energy to write something.

While I do love 3 day weekends, and both the kids and I had Monday off for Presidents Day, they usually make me confused when the work week starts back up again. ¬†I’ve been completely lost as to what day it is. ¬†Compounding the problem is that I picked up a cold that has been making its way around and just about lost Wednesday with a fog on Thursday thanks to taking Nyquil. ¬†Last Saturday the girl had the fever and I stayed home with her as my father took the boy to a birthday party. ¬†She was better by the end of the weekend. ¬†The boy decided his turn was during the week. ¬†He’s been down for the past two days with a decent fever and congestion. ¬†I took him to the pediatrician this morning as strep has been making its way through their class just for precaution. ¬†The quick test was negative and go figure, he’s feeling better. ¬†

I’ve been knitting on the train, when not playing the Sims 2 on my MacBook (using Windows under Bootcamp). It might have the same crappy video card as the netbook (Intel GMA950), but it has a much better cpu and way more RAM so it runs better. ¬†The only down side is that when I created packages of the two locales (university dorm kid in one and her family in the other) the familial relationship, not to mention the kid’s engagement sort of got lost in the translation when I imported it to the Mac. ¬†I’ve been following Redshirt Knitting’s lead of trying for a generational thing. ¬†My college kid is only the B generation but since she isn’t technically part of the family now, and her father has the hots for her as a result of the technicality, I set the parents off to have another baby. ¬†I just hope they live long enough for second daughter to get old enough to avoid the Social Worker showing up when they croak ¬†¬†

But I digress, my train knitting has been Adamas.  I decided I wanted it finished before BSG comes to an end.  I want to wear it for the {sniff} finale.  I started the final repeat of chart 2 last night while watching a movie with the sickie.

That’s pretty much it for the knitting, except for the next installment on the travelling scarf. ¬†I sent one off on Tuesday and have the next one sitting next to me waiting for its turn. ¬†It has to go sometime next week. ¬†I should be able to get it done this weekend.

Last weekend I spent some quality time with my Womack Butterfly. ¬†It is the only way I ply these days. ¬†I’d amassed quite a few finished singles that needed to be plied. ¬†I in no way plied everything as I just remembered some stuff in the closet that is awaiting its turn. ¬†Oh well. ¬†Anyway here’s what I did:

358 yards BFL from Spunky Eclectic – 4oz in Winnipeg. ¬†I started this last weekend at Jessica’s spin-in and finished it Saturday.

Next up was some fiber that has been sitting around probably since the summer.  It is that blue-green merino that I bought at MDSW in May and paired up with some blue ashland bay merino.  I hope to make a cardi for my little man out of it.

680 yds Р8oz РMerino from Clover Leaf Farms in Jungle Fever plied with blue Ashland Bay merino.  Its not quite as yellow as this photo is reading.  The lighting in my room just sucks for pictures.  Both the Winnipeg and this were spun on the Ladybug.

Finally, I plied my second skein of yarn from the Van Eaton.  This is the Crown Mountain Farms stuff in Black Sun that I started a while back.  

8oz Black Sun – Handpainted BFL – 846 yds

No idea what I’m going to do with that, but I should be able to find something ¬†I still have the toasted banana Zarzuela Fibers lace weight going on the Reeves that I put some effort into this weekend as well. ¬†Someday I’ll have that ready to be plied. ¬†Can’t even begin to imagine the quality time I get with the Womack then! ¬†The Black Sun took about 2 hours to ply. ¬†That’s when I’m really glad I have the electric and the Woolee Winder on it!

That’s really about it. ¬†I’m juggling quite a few things at work: ¬†production problems, quick fixes, as well as some long term major development. ¬†It all serves to make the day interesting.

Have a great weekend.

Craft on!

With all the sweater and other knitting recently, I’ve been seriously jones-ing for some lace. ¬†I’ve managed to fight the urge for a while now, but after finishing the mittens yesterday, I couldn’t fight the fight any longer. ¬†I spent some time perusing my lace queue at Ravelry but nothing jumped out at me. ¬†I then moved to the large pattern collection on the whole and found what I wanted to do. ¬†Adamas. ¬†Last night fortunately was SnB night and MY has a nice selection of laceweight yarn. ¬†I found me a yummy skein of Misti Alpaca Handpaint Laceweight in shades of green. ¬†Reminds me of the ranges of greens in summer foliage. ¬†Naturally I cast on immediately

 

Adamas is born

Not the greatest of pictures, but the best I could do this morning on the train.  I likes it.  And it is like coming home again for this lace knitter!

Kat discovered her newly finished mittens on the kitchen table this morning and immediately put them on.  A happy kitten in her new mittens (and hat)!

 

Happy in Mittens

And yes, she is wearing a nightgown. ¬†They have pajama day one Friday a month at school. ¬†I like those Fridays as we don’t have a fight over what to wear.

Lastly, I haven’t neglected my teacher gift knitting duties. ¬†I worked on the second bag on the ferry this morning…
 

Teacher Bag 08

The color isn’t quite right in this picture. ¬†The yarn is a darker purple in reality.

Have a good weekend!  We have a birthday party at Build-A-Bear tomorrow.  Yay

Craft on!

How about a show of hands as to who thought I would actually stay monogamous to Kauni until she was complete? 

Should be no-one, especially if you’ve been reading around here for any length of time ¬† As Harriet put it yesterday, project monogamy is for wussies.¬† It should come as no surprise that I cast on for something else last night.¬† Using this:

Two forms of crack

That’s a skein of Rowan Kidsilk Haze that has been in stash for a bit.¬† Not sure how long and what I was going to do with it, but there it is.¬† I dug in the bead stash and turned up this tube that I think goes divinely with that yarn.

I started one project, Ice Queen, from Knitty.¬† Even went for the modified beaded picot cast on instead of provisional (blah blah) that I saw discussed on Ravelry.¬† Except I realized, KSH is a bit itchy near my face.¬† A cowl of that stuff just wasn’t going to work.¬† But I had gotten hooked on the idea of using these two forms of crack together.¬† I let the power of the interweb and ravelry work for me.¬† I turned up this pattern, the Angel Pearls Beaded Scarf from Sivia Harding.¬† I love her patterns.¬† How could you not?

Crack in use

Kauni is still my commuting knitting though along with a pair of plain socks for those stolen moments.

…is the charm right?

The project I’ve been hinting at for the last two posts is.. ta da… Wedding Ring Shawl:¬† Take 3

What’s different this time?¬† Well both the color AND the yarn.¬† I’m using White yarn for one.¬† It is the Gossamer Merino from Heirloom Knitting.¬† I got an excellent deal on it through a stash sale on Ravelry.¬† A deal I just couldn’t pass up and now I’m glad.¬† It really is a joy to work with.¬† Finer than the Yarn Place Angel that I’d been using.¬† It also has another advance over the Angel, it isn’t superwash.¬† I’ll be able to spit join.¬† Love me that join.

I spotted my ginger colored fuzzball curled up in my bedroom easy chair while I was working yesterday.¬† Her fur is almost all growed back.¬† She’s still missing a great deal of underfluff along her back.¬† Slowest damn coat growth I’ve ever seen in my life.¬† Silly thing hates when I pet her, but the twins can pet her anytime they please.¬† Cats is weird.

Finally, I think this picture sums up W.O.O.L.’08 perfectly:

The photo is courtesy of the fabulous organizer of the event, Tina.¬† The purple stuff on the left is the Ultraviolet I spun.¬† The brown is some lovely navajo plied yarn of Tina’s and the remainder is JessaLu’s gorgeous work.

Craft on!

It has been ages since I posted regularly.¬† I’ve mentioned this is the past that the longer I go without posting, the more I want to write, the more time is necessary to write it and as a result, the less likely that an actual post is going to happen.¬† This morning on the train I decided it was time to break my radio silence and just move on.¬† Declare tabula rasa and start fresh.¬† That was my approach to blogging in the first place as well as how I’ve handled Ravelry.¬† So no more waiting for me to organize and upload the gajillion pictures I took from the boat over vacation.¬† I might eventually get around to it, but don’t hold your breath.

So…..

I’ve been plurking.¬† Go figure, I’m crazyfiberlady there.¬† Seriously fun timesuck.¬† Good for slow days in the office for sure.

What else?¬† Oh yes.¬† There’s the spinning.¬† I’ve been trying to do the 10 minute a day thing.¬† While it didn’t work while on vacation (no didn’t bring a wheel on the boat) and took me a long while to get back into it after returning home, I’m back to it now.¬† First, I finished the merino that I’m hoping will be a sweater for Alexander.¬† I just need to break out the Fricke eSpinner and ply.¬† I have to admit, I honestly didn’t enjoy spinning this.¬† The dyed merino was slightly felted and made for uneven spinning.¬† The solid stuff had clumps and shorter bits in it that also made for uneven spinning.¬† Bleh.¬† I still have 8oz of each left and hoping that plied, this is enough for A-man’s sweater.

Once done with those singles, I pulled out some fiber that hasn’t been marinating for very long.¬† It is kettle dyed BFL from Wool Peddler in Neapolitan that I blame credit Jess with making me buy.¬† It is so very worth it.¬† First, most of ya know my tendency towards the Neapolitan colorway.¬† I’ve gone through a bit of it over the years in both yarn and fiber form.

I’ve got 8oz of this heaven.¬† I tore the roving in half and have been taking arm length sections of one half, splitting that into finger width sections or so and then spinning those in the same orientation.¬† This stuff is spinning itself!¬† The fiber is perfect.¬† No clumps.¬† No felting.¬† No fuzzballs.¬† Nuthing.¬† I nearly bought myself a birthday present yesterday of enough in the Moulin Rouge colorway to spin myself a cardigan.¬† Hmm.. might have to do a little destashing sale to support that idea.¬† Check back soon on that all right????¬† Anyway…I’m making slow but seriously enjoyable progress on this and might take it slower than normal to savor the experience!

I’ve also been knitting.¬† Here’s my progress on WRS.¬† No you aren’t seeing things and I’m not trying to trick ya with some photoshop color change magic.¬† I did restart it, this time using a light heathered grey.¬† Same yarn though.¬† I’d been looking at the Dark Rose and as the knitting progressed, I just wasn’t loving the color.¬† It isn’t me.¬† Its also a huge project and to not love love love love the yarn was the kiss of death for it.¬† I liked the yarn itself, so I ordered more in this more traditional color.¬† I cast on for it on 7/15, this time using red perle cotton as my waste yarn.¬†¬† I really like the light grey and the heathering has some lovely effects that my camera couldn’t catch this morning on the ferry.¬† At some point, I might be able to relay those.

We’ve got a new lunch spot near the office.¬† Well, it isn’t exactly around the corner, but it is a free ferry ride away!¬† NY Watertaxi runs free shuttles from Pier 11 (4 blocks from my office and where I pick up my commuter ferry) over to this spot behind Ikea in Brooklyn.¬† Ride takes about 15 minutes.¬† A couple of us took the trip last week, or was it the week before.¬† Excellent lunch.¬† Had a pair of Ikea newbies with us so lunch took longer than normal as we walked them through the store

Finally, I spotted this bus on the way to the office one day parked near the South Street Seaport.¬† We speculated that the back section is a sleeper area.¬† Anyone know for sure what’s up with this thing?

That’s it for now.¬† More sooner than later this time.¬† I promised.

Craft on!

Well I’m now officially back from vacation. I have a ton up pictures to upload and I need to organize the 10 days out of the office into some coherent post. But I haven’t blogged in a while and didn’t want to wait any longer. I suspected I might get a few “are you okay” emails and I didn’t want to worry anyone.

So here’s just a quick post, I’m back. I boated. I knit. I did both together.

Yes, that is the WRS I am working on.¬† I finished the second repeat and started the third.¬† I also knit a pair of socks, shopped, guitar hero’ed and a few other things.¬† Hopefully I’ll have a real post later in the week.¬† Now its back to the daily routine.

Craft on!

Borrowing a much used theme for a Wednesday, I have a bunch of random unrelated stuff to relate, though I’m not entirely sure how that differs from any of my other posts

1.  Knittin stuff:

How I’ve been spending my commute. ¬†I’ve completed the first 62 row repeat for the center square, only 300 more rows to go before the insane border stitch pickup

My new glasses arrived and I can now actually see my knitting without blinding myself either from no glasses or overpowered glasses.  Life is good.

For a change, I think the color representation of WRS is actually pretty close to real life.  Last week when I had lunch with  Nancy and she commented upon seeing it in person that it was much pinker.  

Hand blocking, one handed at that, is awfully difficult.  Add in that I was on the ferry and trying to snap this shot really made it fun.  But you can get a sense of where I am in the thing and how big (or small) it is after 62 or so rows.

Work on the Nutkins socks is also progressing, pretty slowly too as WRS is the primary commuting knitting. ¬†I get to put a few rounds on the sock each day while I stand and wait for either the train or the ferry. ¬†I’m tempted to start another sock, a very plain on for the totally mindless, no eyes on the fingers necessary, knit. ¬†I have plenty of opportunity for that over the course of the day, and neither Nutkin nor especially WRS is particularly suited to that. ¬†Nutkin is a great pattern and easy to remember, but each there’s a bit to pay attention to especially using handspun. ¬†I think I’ll take some measurements and start knitting socks for the monkeys.

2.  Spinnin stuff: 

Two bits here. ¬†First, I blame this on JessaLu. ¬†After seeing her goodies from Cummington, I spotted my favorite colorway and just had to have some myself. ¬†I know. ¬†I’m pretty darn week. ¬†But there it is. ¬†At least I only bought 8 oz…

…and thanks to Carole’s 10 Minutes a Day, I’m actually spinning a bit every day. ¬†I started doing this late last week and really, it is amazing how much you can accomplish when you actually spin somewhat frequently. ¬†I’ve taken to spinning during that half hour that the kids and I watch Spongebob prior to bedtime. Some nights I do a bit more time, so less. ¬†Its all good.¬†

¬†With all the time at the wheel, I finished the 8oz of the blue/green merino. ¬†I’ve started on the blue merino that will be plied with it. ¬†While you can’t see it quite so well in the bobbin as it worked out, but the solid blue matches a shade in the blue/green mix. ¬†I’m looking forward to plying it all up and seeing the resulting yarn. ¬†Should be gorgeous on the little boy.

3.  Toy Stuff:

I mentioned this last week in passing, but I picked up a new toy after reading about one on Woot. ¬†It has come in amazingly handy for this Red Sox fan who lives out of local range. ¬†In years past the only games I get are the playoffs and when they play the Yankees. ¬†I really wanted more than that and found that XM carries ALL games. ¬†While I still can’t watch, I can definitely listen. ¬†Have I mentioned how much I love this thing? Last night I sat and listened to the game while spinning. ¬†It was awesome. ¬†Baseball is a great knitting sport as you can look away and not miss much. ¬†Its even better on the radio ¬†The display is cool as it gives you the score and the inning. ¬†This is a portable and I’ve discovered that there are terrestrial repeaters near my office as I was able to listen to today’s day game from the comfort of my desk while I coded. ¬†Oh yeah, the music choices are pretty darn good too ¬†I’d highly recommend it! ¬†

4.  Family stuff:

I also mentioned this in passing last week, but last weekend was the kids’ graduation ceremony. ¬†The school had a ceremony for the two preschool classes, about 50 kids in total. ¬†Some, ¬†like mine, will be in the same class (or the other preschool class) next year so it was more of a dress rehearsal. ¬†It was very well done. ¬†The kids were all up on a stage, sang a bunch of songs and there was a slideshow of pictures of the kids to the tear inducing tunes. ¬†As homework each kid put together a poster with their favorite thing. ¬†Not surprisingly, there were a great number of posters containing Power Rangers, Super Heroes and Disney Princesses. ¬†One by one, at the teacher held up the poster, the kid came to the microphone and announce “my favorite thing is:…” and generally announce what the poster indicated. Kat stuck to the script and declared her love of Disney Princesses. ¬†Alex was the row behind her and I saw his poster come up when he totally surprised me by saying: ¬†”My favorite thing is my mom”. ¬†Whoa. ¬†That’s my boy ¬†Don’t they look cute in the caps & gowns! ¬†I had to wait for High School graduation before I marched to Pomp & Circumstance and got a tassel.

I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting in the days to come. ¬†I was handed a pretty big project today at work that is high on the Pres’ radar list. ¬†It should be nice and challenging as it will involve front end web page work and not the usual plumbing/behind the scenes kind of coding that I’m used to. ¬†I also have to do my self-eval for review season. ¬†Seriously, I hate those things. ¬†I rank em with root canal and earaches… oh and tired/hungry toddlers ¬†Anyway…

Craft on!