One Crazy Fiber Lady

Today is day two of my “vacation” between jobs. Yesterday was spent very quietly. I took the kids off to school and spent the day relaxing. I plied the Falkland on the Schacht, watched TV and took a nap. It was pretty awesome. After dinner, while Alex and I watched The Day After Tomorrow, I pulled out the Vermont Wheel and started on the Cupcake Fiber that I’ve been amassing. Its pretty darn nice to spin. I’ll post more on that stuff in another post.

Today is girl primp / relax day. Serendipity is at the groomers getting washed (and probably tummy shaved). She should be ready for pickup shortly. She’ll then spend the rest of the afternoon hissing and growling at the other cats. I took advantage of being available on a weekday for the package deal at the nail salon.

Had a mani/pedi! Kat, Mom and I all had mani/pedis! I wish I had known before last february that pedi’s involved more than just getting my toes polished! I had the most awesome foot/leg massage. And then, as a bonus, as I sat at the dryer for my nails, I got a neck/head massage! Pure heaven!

Tonight is SnB where I’ll probably finish up Alex’s sweater and start on Kat’s. Or maybe not. I might work on the socks. Or maybe not. I could spin too. I like having all these possibilities! For now, while I wait for the groomer’s phone call, I’m going to sit and read a programming iOS book. Or not

Craft on!

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And here I was thinking, I should post pictures from Logan’s Run, my hand clock blinking red, carousel, all in honor of my last day at work.  I even went so far as to google for images from the movie.  Except, I did this exact same thing on my last day at J.Crew back in Aug. 07.  At least I’m consistent

So, I shall spare you another picture of a red crystal.

Instead, I’ll show you a picture of a spindle I picked up last month judging from the timestamp on the picture.

This is a Ledbetter modular spindle.  It is pretty nifty.  It comes with three shafts that screw into the whorl so when you finish the cop, you just swap out for another shaft.  It spins very nicely and is just beautiful.

Craft on!

Today is my next to last day at the current gig. im on the bus stuck in traffic on the way to the lincoln tunnel. since the boy’s sweater is no longer bus friendly i started something else. introducing the Last Bus Socks.

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Location:Secaucus,United States

I’m late in giving details and finished photos of projects that I’ve been working on recently.  Its time to rectify that little oversight.  First up:

Mommy Socks

• Yarn:  Forbidden Woolery Quattro – Poisoned Apple
• Needles:  US0
• Pattern:  Hedera on the cuff
• Started: 9.16.11
• Finished: 10.8.11

These socks were primarily knit on the bus.

Alex’s Hat

• Yarn:  Forbidden Woolery Footloose – Eastwick
• Needles: US1
• Pattern:  Sabeanie
• Started: 10.8.11
• Finished: 10.16.11

Kat’s Hat

• Yarn:  Forbidden Woolery fiber – Jack n Jill
• Needles: US5
• Pattern: the knitter’s handy book of patterns
• Started: 10.16.11
• Finished: 10.17.11

And now so as to avoid having the next project make its blog debut as a finished item, here’s this year’s first DriveThru sweater for boy.

The yarn is Valley Yarns Colrain.  I bought the blue off someone on Ravelry and the rest from Webs.  I knit both the body and one sleeve twice.  I had that brain fart where I was intending to make one size due to the gauge I was getting and totally muffed the cast on count.  Sweater would have been huge on the boy.  Then for the sleeve I followed the directions as written but that makes for a really tight sleeve.  Boy wanted something loser so after the cuff, I increased half the finished width stitches on the first plain row and then followed the pattern to the full width.  I finished the bulk during a Star Trek movie marathon today on MAX.

I found these wood buttons in stash and I think they go great with the sweater.  I’ll probably do the bands tomorrow, work in ends and sew these bad boys on shortly.  I’ll probably start Kat’s sweater tomorrow on the bus.  This is no longer travel friendly.

Speaking of which:  TWO MORE DAYS!!!

Craft on!

Sitting at the office working on some last minute projects before I leave here for good in FIVE more business days! I’ve got a project that has been making me nuts for over a week now. Unfortunately it isn’t something that I can debug/test run in a development environment, or even easily deploy to an accessible QA. Noooo. Not this. I code it blind, compile, deploy to a share and then have to have the release engineers deploy it to our staging environment. Which, btw, they only do two times a day. Only to add a delete button to an archived forum thread on a platform that is going away in the coming months. Big fat annoying waste of time. Almost done. Almost done.

So last night I get home to find that while the power was still on, FIOS was out. That means No Phone, No TV and no Internet. Bummer. Was planning on streaming stuff or catching up on what I missed last week using On Demand. How did I spend my night then?

I spun to the DVD. I’d seen this movie years ago and bought it not too terribly long when I spotted it on DVD. After Jobs passed away, I dug it out and put it on the top of the DVD pile to watch. And watch it I did last night while I finished up the remaining bobbin of Forbidden Woolery falkland that has been languishing on the Matchless for far too long. I realized after digging through my own blog archives (does anyone else periodically read their own old stuff?) that I used to spend Tuesday evenings spinning. I’m going to have to reinstate that habit! I don’t nearly spin enough, especially to justify the wheel hoard and massive fiber stash!

Oh well, back to work.

Craft on!

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My family finally emerged from the dark ages. The power is back on. The last to return was FIOS. So now we’re back on the grid with tv, telephone and most importantly internet!! Though I must admit, it was kind of nice without it for a change. The family spent a lot of time together. School is closed due to no power. Half the town is down. Can’t believe we had a snow day on Halloween! More later.

Is it really still October? We’ve been sitting without power since 2:30 yesterday afternoon. Hope the power comes back on soon. Getting chilly in the house.

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Well the sooper-seekrit project has now been finalized and I can reveal it… (click to embiggen)

Yes, I know I only started my position in June, but this one sought me out.  I got a call from a recruiter that I dealt with briefly in May enticing me with something that would take advantage of my experience in both online education and eCommerce.  Naturally I was intrigued, and with the help of my SnB gals, decided to go for it.

Last Wednesday, I had a first round telephone interview testing my tech.  Shortly thereafter I got the call that they wanted to see me.  Immediately.  Thursday I went in for 2 hours of interviews with various senior IT staff members.  Friday morning I had a verbal offer (which after my recruiter negotiated for a better compensation package) I accepted.  I was extremely happy to find out that benefits start DAY ONE!  OMG.  The formal offer arrived last night.  I gave notice this morning, much to my boss’ chagrin.  My last date is 11/8.  I’ll have a couple of days off before the next gig starts.  I’m very much looking forward to this new challenge!

Now since this is purportedly the blog of a fiber artist, here’s the current bus project!

This is that yummy chocolate alpaca that I bought at Rhinebeck.  No marinating in stash for this yarn!  Anyway, it is a cowl/hood based on the one Tami made that I’ve been ogling forever.  I’m alternating bands of plain knitting with classic 1×1 seed stitch.  I’m getting 6 st/in and cast on 148 st.  Can I just say that I want to roll around nakid with this yarn!  YUM  Hopefully I’ll have enough left over to knit some pulse warmers in a matching similar pattern.  I should, there was 8oz in the skein.  If not, I might just have to send an email to the address on the ball band.

On that note, I’m going to curl up with my knitting and the latest DVR’ed episode of Dexter.

Craft on!

I was posting at a pretty decent clip there, so I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I fell off the wagon again and went dark.  All things are cyclical with me I guess.  I’ve had a sooper seekrit project in the works that started life as an out of the blue telephone call.  I can’t divulge what it is quite yet, but hopefully very soon.  It’s sooper seekrit you know.

I might be working on this other project, but that hasn’t stopped the knitting thing, just the blogging thing.  Go figure.  Apparently, if I can’t talk about EVERYTHING, I choose to chat about NOTHING.  Not to mention there’s the whole falling behind, amassing lots of stuff to mention and then having sooooo much that I don’t know what to include v. what to exclude.  Someday I’ll get this right.

The most important event in October is the twin’s birthday.  My babies turned 8.  EIGHT!  I could swear that they were tiny babies just yesterday.  This year we had a bowling party at the local alley.  15 kids on 3 lanes is like herding cats.  Everyone had a good time, which is the important thing.

Yup, each kid got to pick their own cake.  Alex went for the ice cream cake and Kat, surprise surprise, picked a Hello Kitty pink masterpiece.  Happy birthday babies!

October is also the annual pilgrimage to Rhinebeck for the gorging of the wool   This year I had the kids with me and we spent the day with Leann and baby.  It looks like turnout was down this year, which from a fairgoer perspective is good as it is less crowded.  I just hope the sellers had a good year.  Would be nice if what was good for us was also good for them.  My haul was remarkably restrained this year.

From left to right:

• Forbidden Woolery Lush in “Charmed” colorway – 3 skeins to knit Featherweight Cardi
• Shawl pattern and lace weight cashmere from Just Our Yarn
• 8oz chocolate alpaca in a sport weight for a cowl like Tami’s
• 2 skeins of sock yarn from Into the Whirled
• 1 alpaca blend from Brooks Farm – originally plucked for a cowl but displaced by the later purchase of the choc stuff – might still be a cowl

No spinning fiber at all this year.  Yeah, can’t remember the last time (if ever) that happened!  There was one year, probably 2005 – which was the last time that the twins went, that the only thing I bought was like a pound of shetland fiber.    Also for a change, everything was purchased with a purpose in mind.

There’s another event in October that I totally missed.  My blogiversary.  My first ever post was on blogger on way way back.  I can’t believe I’ve been at this since 2004.  The twins had just turned 1.  My how things have changed!

That brings us almost up to date.  I have other stuff to show, like a nifty spindle I picked up, as well as some finished objects, but I’ll leave that for another day.

Craft on!

http://www.forbiddenwoolery.com/

Besides all the geek stuff and knitting bits, there’s been spinning.  Kat picked this fiber at the GSSB festival for this year’s hat.  Ain’t getting any warmer so I figured I’d get to work and start with the makin’ o the hats.

 

Details:

• Fiber:  Forbidden Woolery BFL
• Colorway:  Jack and Jill
• Purchased:  GSSB 9/11/11
• Weight/Yards:  4.05 oz / 192 yards
• Spun & Navajo plied on Van Eaton wheel