One Crazy Fiber Lady

At 8:09am this is not a good sign…

Stay cool!

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I think I’m going to start a new semi regular feature around here. Photos of things that make me smile. Today is a good day to start as I don’t have much knitting progress to show. I didn’t knit much during the commute but read. Last night I did work on the socks while watching the Sox and playing the Sims

For those that don’t know, NYC is a city of jaywalking. Very few cross in crosswalks or even wait for the light. So color me surprised when I went back to taking the PATH train a few weeks ago to the WTC and walking to my office near the Seaport.

There is no jaywalking near ground zero. These pedestrian safety officers block access with chains!

Craft on!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Happy New Year everyone!

Thank you all for your warm wishes regarding my injured ankle.    I guess I need to explain how it happened.  I was working at my desk, moving my blog from one host to another well into the evening on Tuesday.  By 12:45 AM Wednesday, I decided it was time for bed.  Unfortunately, I’d been sitting on my foot and it was well asleep when I stood up.  I figured if I was careful, I’d be okay.  I slowly made my way across my bedroom when about 2 steps from my goal, I apparently caught my big toe on the area carpet.  I then stepped down on the dead foot, folding it.  I heard an audible crunch and even though the foot was asleep, felt it sharply.   Ouch.

So that’s the story.  I did a stoopid thing and now I know better.  The ER doctor directed me to follow up with a podiatrist within 3 days.  Fortunately, a friend of mine’s husband is just that.  The stars aligned on Wednesday as it was holiday SnB at Panera, Tami was going and since she sprained her ankle a few weeks ago, her podiatrist husband was bringing her again this week.  I had called her as a fellow left ankle sprain buddy as I left the ER.  She contacted her hubby and he said he’d see me that night if I could make it there.   Not one to miss a SnB for something minor like a sprained ankle, I made it there with much help from mom.

A thorough exam in the corner of Panera (the weirdest location I’ve even been in and I’m now sporting a serious boot and have a script for an NSAID.  We’re in the stay off it and let it rest phase now.  Might need an MRI in a week or so to see how bad the muscle damage is.  I have seriously reduced strength in my foot and can barely move my toes up or down.  There’s also some ligament damage and IIRC an entrapped nerve.  Hey, if you’re going to do it, you do it right

This has given me some bonus knitting time though!  Recently all my knitting time has been on the train.  Home time was spinning time.  Not so much right now, though it is a good thing I have all those single treadle spinning wheels!  So I’ve been knitting.  I’m working on a top down raglan using Rowan Felted Tweed.  I started it a week ago.  I put the sleeve stitches on waste yarn while sitting in the ER waiting for the Doctor to read my X-rays.  At last measure, during the first period of the Winter Classic, I was 2.5″ from starting the ribbing at the hem.

Sorry for the craptastic picture but the real camera is across the room.  The iPhone was far closer  I dearly love this yarn.  It is my favorite shade and I’m really enjoying working with it.

I have other projects, knitting and weaving to show, all finished, but the shots haven’t been downloaded out of the big camera yet, so they’ll have to wait as well.  Suffice it to say that while I haven’t been blogging, I have still been busy.  I split teacher gifts between knitted and woven this year.   I finally got my floor loom out of storage, replaced the metal heddles with texsolv ones and even warped it.  I’ve used my Schacht Flip Rigid Heddle a couple of times.  So yes, I keep myself occupied.

OK, the family is off at Kohl’s doing a little shopping.  I’m going to return to this sweater and the remainder of the Winter Classic.

Craft on!

I know I owe a real post. You’ll get one. Eventually. In the meantime, there’s this.

I did it again. Not the bad ankle, but the “good” one. Xrays this morning say no break. Just a sprain.

Word to the wise, never walk around on a very asleep foot. OUCH!

Why yes, I did knit in the ER

Happy New Year!

I mentioned in my last post that my parents got me a new lens for my birthday. ¬† ¬†They got me the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS SLR Lens replace the kit lens that came with my Canon Digital Rebel XT . ¬†It was delivered while I was at the dude ranch so I couldn’t play with it until Sunday.

Play I did.

(As always, click for bigger.)  I like!  What say you?

Craft on!

…resistance is futile. I could withstand it no longer. All the futzing around with different phones was because I really wanted one of these:

I could fight it no longer. I just got back to the office after waiting in line here. I picked up the 16g black sweet heart. Anyone who remembers the fight I had a while ago porting my number from T-Mobile to Sprint (and yes there will be hell to pay at Sprint for breaking my contract early) will be happy to know that while it took over a week then, it was done in no more than 5 minutes this time. Totally amazing.

No real pictures to show of knitting or spinning. Last night I didn’t touch the wheel but played two games of spring training baseball in MLB the show while listening to the Sox beat up on the Royals. I spent a good bit of the ride home yesterday trying to web browse on my tiny little screen on the Katana phone (eBay bound) to get more than a row done. I didn’t fare too much better this morning though I did manage to complete 3 ridges of the solid blue on Ballerina. I’ll be knitting more tonight. Promise. It is SnB night afterall

Live long and prosper \\//_

edited to add:¬† I had a pretty decent experience waiting on the line.¬† When I jumped on, was given my choice of which one I wanted, they told me it was @2.5 hour wait from there.¬† Turned out to be only 1.5 or so but it went fast and was pretty darn enjoyable.¬† I made friends with the guys ahead of me.¬† It was sunny and hot as we turned the corner.¬† The store folks were passing out these big umbrellas so that we could shade ourselves and well, not pass out on their property.¬† One of the two guys volunteered to hold an umbrella for me.¬† Very nice.¬† The feller in front of him picked up the tab for a couple of bottles of water from the hot dog cart guy and the three of us had an enjoyable wait.¬† Who said New Yorkers aren’t nice?!?

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!

sorry for the dreaded second post in a single day but I wanted to try out a moblogging solution beyond flickr. I am not keen with how flickr puts the text in both places. soooo a little googling turned up a .NET app for win mobile devices that reminds of the app that I had for typepad on my treo. fingers crossed.

craft on!

Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile

Oh geez it has been a while since my last post.¬† So much for the frequent updates eh?¬† Alot has happened since my last update that we’ll just hit on the bullet points.

What I thought was allergies bringing me down wasn’t really.¬† Felt like them but Wednesday morning (um 2 weeks ago now) I woke up with a fever and body aches that kept me down for the remainder of the work week.¬† Looked more like the flu then.¬† I started with my spring allergy meds of once daily claritin and flonase/nasonex so I’m better now.

I’ve been knitting.¬† I even made it to the sleeve on the Boatneck BlueOrangebell.¬† I took this picture on the ferry yesterday.

Sadly, the fate of Orangebell is a sad one.¬† I tried it on last night to check sleeve length and my fears were confirmed.¬† The peeps at MY SnB can corroborate, but I suspected that the decorative elements around the waist would not be so friendly with my post twin pregnancy body.¬† This fear became a reality when I tried this sucker on.¬† Ew.¬† It is a gorgeous sweater and a great knit, but just not for me.¬† I know if I have to wear a girdle or kin below a sweater, it just ain’t going to be worn.¬†¬†¬†I started frogging it immediately.¬† I liked the yarn too much.

This morning on the train it was officially re-purposed into a sweater I’ve been dying to knit since I first saw Kim’s.¬† It is a Knitting Pure & Simple top down v-neck cardigan.¬† I’ll definitely get some serious usage out of this sucker.

Monday was one of those EXCELLENT mail days.¬† My first fleece of the year arrived.¬† Let’s backtrack a tad.¬† For a few years now, I’ve been buying CVM¬†fleece from White Barn Farm.¬† Well last year, a lamb was named for me.¬† Here’s her picture…

Aint’ she a cutie?!¬† Anyway, it is spring and beyond new lambs, it means shearing season!¬† ‘Natch I had her lamb fleece reserved since early fall ¬† It arrived Monday.¬†

My favorite, a black variegated fleece!¬† I might be feeling a little over ambitious, but I’d really love to use this particular fleece to make my first adult sized sweater from handspun.

The other arrival on Monday was this…

Yay.  A box full of bubble wrap and styrofoam!!!  My favorites   Unwrapped and assembled, it became this..

Anyone who didn’t see this coming doesn’t know me very well ¬† And no, I don’t have three of these suckers.¬† I shipped the no-name eBay purchse off to New Zealand as a trade-in credit towards the NZAK.¬† Also, the Canadian AK is up for sale (email or comment for details).¬† It needs a new home.¬† Soon.

Deborah served as a key supporter on this purchase.¬† We had an excellent email discussion after my post regarding Jessica’s NZAK wherein she gave me the same advice I would have given someone else.¬†

If you REALLY want that one then you should definitely sell the two you have and
get that baby.  Everyone should be totally happy with what they got and if that one is what will do it for ya, then why not?

Amen Deborah and thank you! 

One last thing, Deborah is fundraising for a worthy cause. 

 Craft on!

While I have plenty to blog, I feel like crud (stupid trees are budding already) and highly incensed that my spring allergies have kicked in even though it is still COLD out there.¬†¬† My sister just sent me this super email that I just had to post and I hope it will distract you all from the fact I owe you a real post…

EVE : “I’ve got a problem.”

GOD: “What’s the problem, Eve?”

EVE : “I know that you created me and provided this
beautiful garden and all of these wonderful animals as
well as that hilarious comedic snake, but I’m just not
happy.”

GOD: “And why is that Eve?”

EVE : “I am lonely, and I’m sick to death of apples.”

GOD: “Well, Eve, in that case, I have a solution. I
shall create a man for you.”

EVE : “Man? What is that?”

GOD: “A flawed creature, with many bad traits. He’ll
lie, cheat and be vain; all in all, he’ll give you a
hard time. But he’ll be bigger, faster and will like
to hunt and kill things. I’ll create him in such a way
that he will satisfy your physical needs. He will be
witless and will revel in childish things like
fighting and kicking a ball about. He won’t be as
smart as you, so he will also need your advice to
think properly.”

EVE : “Sounds great,” but what’s the catch?”

GOD: “Well. .. you can have him on one condition.”

EVE : “And what’s that, dear God?”

GOD: “As I said, he’ll be proud, arrogant and
self-admiring… so you’ll have to let him believe
that I made him first. And it will have to be our
little secret… you know, woman to woman.”

Craft on!