One Crazy Fiber Lady

The verdict is in. Torn ligament in the ankle. I re-sprained it in the pothole. I’m back wearing a brace holding a prescription for 3x week physical therapy and an MRI with a follow up appointment in 3 weeks. Woo hoo. I’ll be one one with the silly walk next weekend at MDSW. Now I really need a single treadle wheel.

I’m kicking back for the rest of the afternoon, doing a little code, foot up, DVR remote near at hand.

Thanks for all the well wishes!

Craft on!

I expect that most of you are now used to my rather sporadic posting.  I have to admit, I’m not.  I liked posting more often and well, miss it.  But then there’s the whole time crunch thing.  There’s a secondary problem that if I don’t post for a while, I want to write about so much that I expect it will take forever to get that one out of me that I don’t actually do it, compounding the short absence to a longer and longer one.  Someday I’ll have it all figured out.   

This week has been rather crappy at work, but at least going rather well outside the office.  Which is good.  The kids finally went back to school yesterday.  The daycare center director apologized profusely for the length of the "spring break" and thanked us for our patience.  She’s have a "parent appreciation dinner" next week and has changed the remaining vacation schedule to make up for the additional 6 days that they took now.  Nice lady.  Excellent center.   Miss Kat went wearing big girl panties yesterday for the first time.  She did rather well, with only a small accident.  Naturally I sent extra clothes for such emergencies.  She was so excited this morning that she announced she would hold it until she got to school.  Mom and I convinced her otherwise.   She’s an odd duck

This weekend another one of the wheels went off to a new home.  The cute little hitchhiker is now living with new spinner, Dorre.  I have to come clean now and announce publicly (beyond the comments dropped around blogosphere over the last day or two and in emails) that I ordered its replacement.  I ordered a Schacht Matchless ST from WoollyManor.  I’ve been looking at this wheel for a while and know that is quite popular around the blogosphere.  It just seemed the right time, what with tax refunds on their way.  Sadly, it won’t arrive in time for the trip to MD$W (I booked my hotel on Monday – woot! – staying in the same place as 2 years ago.  Kim and Dorre are staying there too!)  According to the email I got yesterday, it is expected to ship from the factory around May 7. 

In preparation, I’ve been doing a little spinning recently.  I sat down at the Lendrum Saxony Sunday night and was finally motivated to see if I could figure out why the hell the thing squeaked so badly.  I knew it was coming from the front edge of the treadles where a metal bar went through and fit into the front legs.  After oiling and otherwise lubricating the heck out of it, mom sat and watched as I spun (and cringed listening to the squeak).  Result?  The metal bar flexes as I treadle.  It flexes enough that it rubs against one side of the treadle because while the metal is bending, the wood is not.  Little I can do to lubricate for that.  No wonder I oiled the hell out of it for naught.  I had a bit of a brainstorm and pulled a pole out of the closet that I use to get hangers up to the upper rod.  I put the pole against the block between the treadles, out back under the wheel with the other end jammed against a table leg to prevent the bar from flexing.  It worked!  I was able to spin without any squeaking!  Now I have to come up with some kind of permanent rigging, like a piece of wood from the bar to the back leg.  But at least I can use this wheel without the frustrating noise.

I finished knitting the body for Setesdal.  Sunday morning the sewing machine came out and I seamed and the cut the steeks.  Instead of knitting the neck area flat as the pattern suggested, I steeked there too.  I’d much rather do that than knit two color flat.  Bleh.  Unfortunately, while I was picking up the stitches for the first button band, some of the white ends slipped out of the machine sewing.  I grabbed them before they could unravel too far and hand sewed them into place.  I think I’m going to reinforce with some iron-on interfacing.  I have until next weekend (4/21) to finish and might just make it.

Because I’m really lacking in projects, I started a new one at the SnB last week.  It is the Susan’s new pattern, Spring Things.  I’m using crack Kidsilk Haze in a color number I don’t quite remember and can’t check as it is at home.  The Vesper Neapolitan socks are the current commuter project.  I purchased silver lined crystal beads from EarthFaire, which arrived yesterday.  I’m up to a little over 100 stitches per row at this point, but it has taken a back seat to the socks, Setesdal and the Mitered Squares.

I found another sock yarn accidentally last week that I just had to order.  Pretty colors and I love the idea that it is packaged with a coordinating heel/toe color.  I went a little nutsy though and have 6 different skeins.  Two arrived after this picture was taken.  It is Duet Sock and I look forward to trying it out.  I’ll probably hit one of these after the Vesper socks are done of which I’m well into the second sock now.  Unlike my standard, this yarn is DK weight so it should make for some fast socks. 

That’s about it for now, hopefully another post sooner than later.

Craft on!

I know I posted already today, but I stumbled on this quiz and had to do it.  Is this really me?

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you loveable – even if you don’t love them! You are usually feeling: Logical – you rarely let your emotions rule you You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil How you live your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

To make life easier for all, I’ve set up a paypal donation button for anyone who would like to make a donation to the MDA for the kids’ hop-a-thon.  I’ve added the button to the left side column of the blog, and am adding it to this post for convenience.

I very much appreciate the offers of support after my last post.  While I shouldn’t be, I still am constantly surprised by how very wonderful a community we have. 

As a thank you, there will be yarn prezzies.

Sorry to have essentially disappeared.

Work has been draining in oh-so-many ways. Just as I thought a project was wrapping up, I met with the ultimate user of the thing, only for him to declare that there were big bits missing through gaps in the initial project requirements. So a deadline is not going to be met. The fellow who was supposed to put together the project specs was a big-arsed-slacker and left it for far too late. No reflection on me, thankfully, but still. I also have a director who looks only at dates. If we miss ‘em, it is our fault. Great. I’m meeting with him tomorrow to discuss my project calendar.

There’s also lots of other drama going on at the office that is just leaving me exhausted by the end of the day. On the up side, I still have 4 more vacation days to use before February 1 and will be taking them starting Friday. Woot!

There’s been progress on alot of fronts to report.

1. Construction is, for all intents and purposes, over. Last Friday, the GC packed up his stuff to come back for a day or two to put on door knobs and the like. The painter started on Monday and is finished in the addition and has started working in the rest of the house. Carpet guy is next and then the folks move into their new digs. Definitely a light at the end of this tunnel! Downside is that the smell of paint is making me dizzy.

2. I finished the right front for Ribby while watching 24 last week. Progress.

3. Turned the first heel on the plain-jane Blue Jeans sock. Still only knitting this one while serving Sleep Nazi duty, but that’s okay. I can always use plain knitting.

4. Halfway through the first sleeve on CD. Still loving it, but I am ready to finish that sweater.

5. Halfway through the first heel flap on the other socks.

I haven’t been doing a massive amount of knitting. Being all twisted up from work has led to a bit more spinning. There are times when I can’t relax without transfering that twist to something else. I have hopes that I might actually finish the second bobbin of this pink/white stuff that I seemingly have been spinning FOREVER on the Lendrum.

I’ve also been spending a decent amount of time playing with the new computer. Okay, I’m seriously sold on the whole mac thing now. Pretty sweet. Oh and I decided to learn a new programming language, well, because it was there and I’ve always been partial to its name: JAVA. I picked up a book, have eclipse on a few of the active computers and try to do a chapter from the book each night.

I’m still trying to get over a cold that knocked me down on Friday. I spent a good part of the weekend in bed, sniffling. It sucked. I felt badly enough that I knit not a stitch on Saturday. Amazing.

Figured it was time to post the Knit from the Stash progress – only purchased 2 skeins of sock yarn! WOOT. I have to admit, while I’ve seen nice stuff come up on the Destash blog and elsewhere, I’m not even tempted. While I still have quite a ways to go to succeed, I’m seriously beginning to think that I can do this!

Time for some fiber therapy.

Craft on.

I’ve done almost no knitting since the new computer arrived on the scene so I hope to distract you all from that fact with this little meme I found over at Deb’s.

The Page 123 Meme
1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, look down to the 5th sentence.
3. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog.
4. Include the title and the author’s name.

Well understandably so, as I am at work, this is from the closest book:

"2  CURSOR occupancy_cur IS
3     SELECT pet_id, room_number
4        FROM occupancy WHERE occupied_dt = TRUNC (SYSDATE;) "

From "Oracle PL/SQL Programming" by Steven Feuerstein with Bill Pribyl.

Interesting eh?  Not so much.  Sad thing is I understand it.

Tonight is knitting night so I should hope that I actually get some knitting done.  What have I accomplished?  Well I did get Windows XP running on my iMac   That’s enough geekiness for today.

Craft on!

I decided to quit fighting the geek in me and gave into temptation.  After much debate and browser closing, I finally bought my own domain:  www.crazyfiberlady.com and have managed get the domain mapped to the good old blog.  Okay, I seriously debated hosting my own blog, but really, I don’t need that type of geek satisfaction.  I get to write a website at work.  I’m leaving that door open for the future.

I’m not entirely sure what the domain change is going to do to bloglines and other such subscription services (whether the old will work until I do decide to move it off typepad ) you should update to the new home.

Hopefully a real post later tonight with updates on the house, knitting and all things crazy!

Craft on!

ps.  Not my dogs of course but an image borrowed from the wiki.

I’ve made progress on a number of fronts.  Alas, even with the camera collection, I don’t have any recent shots.

Last night I started the collar for Ariann.  By bedtime, I had done about an inch and a half of the four that the pattern calls for.  I did try the sweater on though and I really can’t wait to finish the thing.  Hopefully tonight after scarf blocking I’ll be able to finish the collar.

I have to admit, I found a copy of my Pi Shawl completion spreadsheet that was relatively up to date.  I modified it for my current status and now find that I’m 81% complete.  I have 34 out of 114 border repeats done.  Not too shabby.  I managed to whip out 4 this morning on the train and should get a few more done at lunch.  I’m really dedicated to finishing this damn thing before moving onto another lace project.  I have yarn lined up for two smaller shawls (not to mention a huge stash for lots of other large shawls) that I want to work on but won’t until STS is done. 

The second of the Handspun on the Web socks is now past the toe.  I know I told my SnB buddies that I was tossing this aside, but I sat looking at the poor toe hanging on the needles and that I had already finished one stinking sock.  It fit so well that I could tough out the second one.  Really, it shouldn’t take too terribly long and then I can move onto more pleasurable yarns.

I’ve decided to join Wendy’s Knit from Stash 2007.  Okay Deb, you can stop laughing now.  I know I failed miserably at the Summer of Stash, falling right off that boat in the first week.  But really, it is a laudable goal.  Here are the guidelines with my modified exceptions highlighted:

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start
January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 — a period of nine months.

2. We will not buy any yarn during that period,
with the following exceptions:

    2.a. Sock yarn does not
count. What? You think we are made of stone?

    2.b. If someone asks for a
specific knitted gift or the kids need something that we really and truly do not have the yarn for, we may
buy yarn to knit that gift.

    2.c. If we are knitting
something and run out of yarn, we may purchase enough to complete the project.

    2.d. We each get one "Get
Out of Jail Free" card — we are each allowed to fall off the wagon one
time.

3. We are allowed to receive gifts of yarn.

4. Spinning fiber of any sort is exempt.

I hope this works for me as my stash has gotten somewhat obscene.  I’ve made one more purchase of yarn so as to have everything I could need this year (snicker) in stash:  3 cones of Frangipani for the Gansey Workshop over at EZasPi.  The colors I picked are 2 are in the claret colorway for the final sweater and a cone in the aran for the early projects.

And now a house update.  Its been a while since I showed a new picture of the house progress.  There’s definitely been a lot of work going on at the old homestead.  Siding should happen this week along with the heat and drywall.  Oh my.  The front door was being changed as I left this morning.  I’m hoping that the concrete walk that was poured yesterday dries quickly so we can quit using the garage to enter and exit.  Getting there..  I’m actually hoping to snag a sheet of the rigid insulation that they are applying to the exterior of the house (that greenish stuff) to use as a blocking boards!

Craft on!

Well that Quiz just pegged me right.  Unless of course I happen to be talking with someone with a different regional accent.  I pick ‘em right up.  Always have.  Worries me that others might be thinking I’m making fun of their accent, but honestly, I can’t help it.  Makes it hard that the feller in the cubicle next to me is from the south!

Hopefully a real update post tonight.  I have finished objects to report on, progress to show, and "before" shots of the house as construction begins this week.  {shudder}

Craft on!