Been Awhile

I know, I know, I've really been neglecting my blog. But now that winter will be settling in, days are shorter and I should be on my treadmill, I will be knitting and spinning up a storm. I bought three new skeins of STR lightweight at Rhinebeck and I am on the foot of sock number one. I'm knitting bluebell rib from Charlene Schurch out of "Goody Goody" on size 2 needles for DD whose feet grow daily. I picked an easy rib pattern because of this as well as it'll have alot of stretch. Before long, she'll be up to grown up sizes. This is a 54 st sock! I couldn't resist having her pose on a blocker amongst the fall things being it's November 1.

I have been spinning away and I have completed a grab bag skein for my spinning guild holiday grab bag. (can't show you that one but it came out loverly!) I also got tons of fiber to spin so I'll be busy. I'm spinning some powder blue merino and white bamboo now and it's beautiful. That came from Creatively Dyed.

On the knitting front, I finally finished two UFOs. The pinkaboo blanket and the infamous remind-me-never-to-knit-in-black socks! No pinkaboo picture yet because it has to be blocked for a few weeks now...but, here's the black socks in my pumpkin studio.

I still have hubby's sweater to finish up though, the one that was supposed to be his Rhinebeck sweater for last year. It's oversized and he lost a bit of weight so I'm going to have to make larger than expected seams whenst I do finish this. I didn't like the way the pattern was written. I never seem to get row gauge. The back of the pattern had me knit a certain number of inches and the front referenced rows after the armhole decreases. My pieces didn't line up and now I have to redo the front to make it match the back. Frustrating....

My Knitpicks Harmony needles are the bestest provided that they don't come in anything smaller than a 2. I've consistently had the problem of the join breaking. On one of my 1.5's, the join came off the second time I used the needle and it came off on BOTH ends. I have to call them again. This is also frustrating to me. I'm being converted over to wood and can't have this happen all the time.

I'm still in Rhinebeck glee and can't wait until next year. Only 49 more weeks! I would love to go to MD S&W but that's not going to happen this year. DS is making his Communion that very day so we'll be home. Looks like I'm not going to get to another festival until Rhinebeck 2010. How dreadful.....

Well, time to get things in order for tomorrow and watch the World Series.

Rhinebeck!

After much ado about nothing regarding yesterday's weather, we set out on our trip to Rhinebeck. This year, we left later in the morning and arrived at 1:30. It would've been 1:30; however, DS got carsick. He has such horrible motion sickness and as soon as we got off the exit and went on 9 and 9G, the elevation changed and that did him in. Poor kid. I didn't want to miss Rhinebeck and I didn't want him to be sick but it stinks that it happened less than 3 miles from the fairgrounds. We didn't use Dramamine this time because I didn't want him to be a zombie all day. Now, we know better. Some Dramamine is better than none, I guess. I'll use a tiny dose next car trip and see what happens.

We saw pumpkins in their native habitat.

Anyway, it wasn't as crowded as last year and everyone seemed to be overdressed in coats as opposed to knitted sweaters. The weather was supposed to be rainy, raw and terrible which may've held down the crowds but instead it was about 48-50 all day. Cute sheep, nice leaves.

A Shepard in period attire. I asked him if I could take his picture because he was 'so cute'. He said, "couldn't you say handsome instead?" LOL!

Here's the kids at the end of a long day. Below, the one remaining roving hand dyed by Elizzabetty of Moose Manor Handpaints. You can't tell from the picture but it's called "Chameleon" because it changes color depending on the lighting. It reminds me of the inside of a dark red jellybean, not quite clear but highlights of red.

I saw this big basked of giant bobbins so I took an out of focus picture of it. It was the end of the day and the lighting was bad, sorry. Aren't they interesting? I also tried a Canadian Production Wheel at the The Merlin Tree and the double drive spoiled me. I'd love to have one of them.... Of course, hubby said, "When I spin and we start fighting over your wheel, you can buy that one". Sigh......maybe next year I will put it on my Christmas list and Santa can bring it. We'll see. They're expensive (although not as much as a Lendrum Saxony) and I have a wheel so....

As for the haul, I bought three STR Lightweight, one for each member of my immediate family. Meet Joe Brown, Goody Goody and Raven something. Interesting how even the names suit the person... I'm thinking of making DD Leyburn but I have so many UFOs strewn about. All I do is spin now and I haven't been knitting all that much!

I picked up some gorgeous merino/bamboo from Creatively Dyed, some solid merino (purple and a peachy pink) from a small booth that I forgot the name of. I remember she was in the Catskills though and only had solid roving...and I also got some merino/yak from her which made me very excited. The woman had her mom helping her who didn't really know all that much about this stuff but she was very adorable and helpful. She wrote "Moreno" on my receipt. As in Rita. Gotta love it. I got a bag of yarn from the yarn fairy from Holiday Yarns, too! It's gorgeous sock yarn that I haven't tried yet but has been on my list for quite sometime. (Still, nothing beats Cherry Tree Hill supersock, the ultimate favorite...)

Guess I'll be making socks this winter. When I'm going full tilt, I can knit a pair a week so we'll see how it goes. (On 1.5's or 2's, not on zeros). Half the problem is picking out the pattern and I have yet to make a toe up sock!!!

I did finish the baby blanket (no photo yet and no photo of the haul from Rhinebeck but they're coming) I was working on and I'm going to try and block it tonight or during the week. I also spun 8 oz and made a two ply yarn out of some truly beautiful fiber I got from Copper Moose.

I'm attempting my first shawl out of this stuff so we'll see what happens. I spun it very thinly. Maybe too thinly. (Oh yeah, can never be too thin or too rich applies to people and fiber, right?) It was the most beautiful stuff ever to spin...ahhhhh...Then, I switched to BFL and it felt like ...Brillo.

I'm now spinning my naturally dyed fiber from Dye Day. I finished the black walnut BFL and I'm moving onto the marigold merino. See how I'm all over the place? I think it's because I've been working on some harder patterns and spinning more. I spin when I'm tired because it can be mindless whereas working from a chart and knitting a shawl requires me to use the gray matter.

I have been working on a simple pair of black ribbed socks for DH for like .. months. I'm up to the gussett and I'm going to finish the gusset today because I'm making time for it. Then, I can spin or knit the feet tonight.

Life has just been crazy!

Hope you like my pictures and I will try and post again soon!

Eye Candy Friday - Night Photography Edition

Sunset at the Wantagh Park Gazebo, Wantagh, NY.

Dye Day, Smithtown Heritage Fair

Helloooooooo!!

Gee, it's been awhile. The end of the summer went by so quickly and I was all caught up in the mayhem that goes along with getting the kids back to school and setting the new schedule. My treadmill misses me.

I have done only a minimal amount of knitting on the Secret Sock. Shh!! So much for that.

I have been working on the dreaded black sock alot and I'm about ready to start the heel. I'd best hurry it up because with the daylight getting shorter, it's harder and harder to knit in black. Next thing I knit will most certainly be a LIGHT COLOR. Like this...

Isn't it beautiful? That's a skinny single spun out of that luscious 50% camel down 50% merino we got from Copper Moose. Ah, it's beautiful. Not that easy to spin, it's like spinning dust. The fiber is short and the merino does little to hold it together. I hope I'm putting in enough twist. I only had that with me today and I started a second bobbin. I may put this down and ply this to see how it holds up. I would cry if it fell apart.

Last weekend, we had a dyeing workshop at my Spinning Guild. We dyed yarn the pioneer girl way! Open firepits, dyepots, natural dye. It was a blast. I was imagining witch's cauldrons but it wasn't quite like that. The Guild dyed a ton (ok, a few pounds) of Romney and I brought some of my own fiber to throw in the pots. Here's my BFL black walnut.

It felted a teeny tiny bit but I think that that will be fine when I spin it. I may be spinning this next. We used pokeberries, onionskins, marigolds, black walnuts, tansy, St. John's Wort, goldenrod and some cranberries. It was fun!

Here's our Romney drying on the racks.

A pot of black walnuts about to be cooked up.Onion skins (L) and , if my memory serves me correctly, Hibiscus (R).

I stuck my 4oz of combed top merino in the marigold pot and I'm almost regretting not using the black walnut for that. The black walnut was fabulous! However, I'm happy with the yellow.

Today, we had another event, the Smithtown Heritage Society Fair where we spinners demonstrated and had a great time! I was getting a bit hungry and will bring or make snacks there next year. It was nice to spend a beautiful day under the old trees on the grounds and I was happy to see many children very interested in spinning!

Here's my best boy testing out a drop spindle. Ah, the drum carding demonstration, just lovely. That's a fake sheep, guys!

We all had a great time and discussed our shopping and travel strategy for Rhinebeck. Only 27 more days, you know!

Eye Candy Friday - Hurricane Bill

This was taken at Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY. The waves washed up past the boardwalk, flooding the golf course. Made for no beach and good surfing!

Eye Candy Friday

Hosta
Nice flowers. We're not going to have too many more opportunities to photograph flowers!

Next purchase: Tripod because I can't find mine!

During the Week Update

Well, alot has been happening. I'm off from work today, Friday as well as Monday and Tuesday. I was able to head down to the beach today with the kids but I didn't bring my camera. I will over the weekend because we're supposed to have some large swells here on Long Island due to the effects of Hurricane Bill. Today, we were there at low tide. The beach and the parking lot REEKED. The little baby clams were exposed and there were some little baby jellyfish and there were some crabs. There were even some pieces of crabs that were unfortunate enough to have gotten dropped by a seagull. Stinky. In the water, it didn't stink. Waves were breaking far off the shore and we had to walk way out to get to them. Kids loved it. I remember being that age and thinking how cool I was to go in the water with my dad. OK, I was 10 or so before I swam as well as they do now. They're out there IN the waves. Scares me a bit but I am fortunate that they're both becoming good swimmers.

Last night was Spinning Guild meeting. We just spun....and spun. My bobbin broke. :( The little washer came out of the end of it causing it to rattle around and not work correctly. I looked all over for it at home but I think I must've lost it there. Drat. I also was able to pick up some nice lightly smokey gray llama as well as some chocolate llama. Undyed and scrumptious.

Today, Elizzabetty came by with my camel merino. It's BEAUTIFUL and the pictures on the website do not do it justice. As soon as I can stop fondling it, I will photograph it. In the meantime, here are some other pictures to tide you over.

Elizzabetty has been yarn dyeing so I was able to get another 400 and something yards of nice sock yarn. I am nearly decided on the pattern...but it's a secret. We'll refer to it as the pattern Whose-Name-Must-Not-Be-Mentioned so she has no idea what it is. Remember when that Kennedy kid was accused of raping that girl and America watched the Blue Dot on TV? Tee hee hee. This will be fun. She has to be surprised.

Here's the yarn.

Comon, you knew it was green, right? Lovely and subtle color changes.

Have a holly jolly Christmas! A spruce tree and some Christmas crochet potholders!

Some of the several that I have made so far. These are kinda a pain to crochet. They are double thick and the scalloped border is worked through two thicknesses. It takes awhile to get used to and I can't go fast. Putting that border on takes nearly as long as it does to crochet the two sides! It takes a matter of minutes, I crochet fast. I can make these in about 35-40 minutes if I'm on task and going at cruising speed. Most of it is the border. Cute pattern though. I love the peach one.

That's about it. Time for me to head out in my front yard, grab some coffee and watch the sunset.

Eye Candy Friday

These Tiffen filters STINK. See the flare in the center under the sun? I guess it's worth it to spit for better filters and better lenses.

Gotta play with my camera more.

Gotta knit and crochet more. Today: Angel Dishcloth and Placemats.

Getting to Know You, Beloved Crochet Hooks.

Let's face it, my crochet needles have missed me. They've been lying in the basket, at the bottom, screaming for attention. I looked at them the other day. I saw my "Hero" brand size F hook. It was the first one that I got. I remember I was with my mom and my father's stepmother and I was really young, say 5 or so. I learned to crochet with that hook from my mother's mother. Odd that I would start with something so small. I moved up from chain stitch to a doll hat, then a potholder or two. I finished my first couch sized afghan before I turned 10.

Today, I turn a bigger number than that and I'm a pro at crocheting.

So, being I have the Etsy store going in full swing, I've decided to crochet some things for it. I fooled with a few purse patterns and then some Tawashi. These things are so darn cute that I see what the addiction is. You can see them in the Etsy shop window. I'm going to see if I can make up my own patterns for more of them. I've also been making some Christmas ornaments, hot pads and place mats. This leaves very little time for knitting and spinning which I'm starting to miss. Why oh why do I have to work a real job? :( I spun the other night but it's still on the bobbin. More coming!

I've also been playing with my new macro lens and I'm loving it. I'm able to take gorgeous pictures up close and I'm able to do nice portraits. I haven't tried it out on landscapes yet but that's coming this week. I'm just tickled pink!

It's a long story but Amazon pulled through and gave me a nice credit after they messed up my order for this lens so I bought two bead books. Eventually, they'll get here. The shipping from Amazon has been very, very slow lately. They used to use UPS and now they use USPS, which is slow. I don't know why this is..... So, we'll see what I can do with beads. Probably nothing, I'll just look at the pictures.

Well, off to work, let me leave you with a picture from my new lens. My new prep bowls from the pampered chef used to make a pot of sauce.

The end result!

Eye Candy Friday - Macro Lens Edition

Tiny White Flower I Forgot the Name Of....

I finally got a macro lens and I'm learning how to use it. More on this when I give massive Weekend Update.

Sunday Night...

I spent nearly the entire weekend straightening up my house and working on my Etsy shop. You wouldn't know it by looking at either of them. I picked up my crocheting needles and worked on cosmetic bags to put in the shop. They seem to be attracting some attention. They're actually very nice and I'm making some more as well as some other bags.

I have also been working on a crocheted teddy bear. He's big, about 24", and has jointed arms and legs. The joints aren't here and neither are the eyes so I have mutilated parts strewn about for now. Pictures coming of the parts as well as of the finished product.

I have been spinning up a storm as well and I'm quite pleased with the results. My spinning has taken new leaps lately. Practice does make perfect. I have been spinning more than I can use so I put some homespun in the shop as well.

We're also ripping up the bathroom, a project that we started Christmas Eve 2007. Today, the walls got painted and the floor is going down. Hmmn....husband is toiling away at this. I'm going to have to photograph him and put it on Facebook.

For now, no pictures! I'm holding out for my new lens. It should be here this week, finally. I ordered it on July 19th!

Eye Candy Friday

Beach Clouds

Tobay Beach, Massapequa, NY

Playing Catch Up

Well hello there, remember me?


Sorry that I've been away so long but I've been watching the kids and spinning and spinning and spinning as well as working on my fledgling Etsy shop. Below are two new listings. Both are spun from Colonial Wool which I enjoyed spinning very much. I was not expecting it to be as soft as it was and I will definitely buy some again. It's lovely and the colors were scrumptious! These are all Navajo plied, my latest craze. I love round yarn. I am finally so pleased with my spinning that I can barely contain myself. Looks like the kind you buy in the store, doesn't it?


This week, I'm on vacation and have been doing things with the kids. The weather has been so-so here but we did get a nice stretch to hit the beach. Here's some cool clouds.

Awesome clouds, hah?

I have a nice ocean shot but my computer seems to have misplaced it....:( I'll find it and make it eye candy some Friday. Oh wait, tomorrow is Friday already! Sheesh! Time flies. One more day off and it's back to the rockpile!

They also built a spray park, a great idea. See that 'brick' wall? It's plastic. Patterned, molded to look like brick. Amazing what they can do with soda bottles these days. The spray park is a great idea because the kids can go there after the beach and get rid of all the sand. It's private so it's generally not overly crowded. I love Tobay Beach.

My babies are growing up. Missy is going to lose her second bottom tooth any day and my son has his four front ones in. He's entered the beaver stage but doesn't really look as bad as some kids do.

We also went to the see the movie Ice Age 3 in 3D. It was my first time seeing a 'real 3d' movie and it was AWESOME. The glasses weren't those stupid funky colored ones that you cut out off of the back of a cereal box. They were like cheap plastic sunglasses. I didn't get a headache and they fit over my regular glasses. Stuff popped right off the screen at us. It was so cool! I really only liked the effects, lame storyline. Like, beating a dead horse. It's the issue I have with most sequels, hard to top the original. My son was in heaven and leaned over and said to me, 'Mom, how do you like it so far? This is awesome!'. I was happy mostly because he was concerned about me, that's a good thing. If I ever let him get married, I'm sure he'll make a good husband.

On the knitting front, I decided I didn't like my toe up socks and ripped them out. I also have been working on a black pair for hubby for like, eons... I have been turning the bulk of my attention to spinning and haven't been knitting! I must've spun 30 miles of yarn this month.

I've also been playing with photoshop and I'm running low on disk space on my computer. This is not good considering that I just (FINALLY) bought a macro lens. I am very excited over the lens and can't wait to receive it. I bought it online, natch. It should be here in about a week. Hasn't shipped yet. Pooh.

Stay tuned for macro lens pictures. The bugs, raindrops and other things are waiting!

Skeptical....no pix Sunday.

It's been awhile. I've been de-cluttering my office and have made good headway. With the kids home for the summer and only in camp for the first 3 weeks, I need a place to comfortably telecommute. The place is normally the sun room but they'll be in there with the babysitter. Sigh...

I've opened an Etsy shop in the hopes of further decluttering. It gives me something to do with all the things that I make. It's just fledgling and I have decided that I simply must buy a macro lens. I want one anyway but now I simply must buy one. Another game show toy?

The Tour de Fleece. I haven't officially enrolled yet I have been spinning. I spun about 6 oz of llama and now I've moved onto the most beautiful steel gray bamboo. I have 8 oz and if this comes out nice and soft it'll be a scarf for hubby should he behave himself and become deserving of such a present. It's the first time that I have spun bamboo and I'm liking it although I think that I like the tencel better. Merino/Tencel is very slippery and produces a very nice yarn. Merino/Bamboo feels 'starchy'. It's slightly sticky which makes it easier to spin. I like it very much though. I have knit with merino/bamboo only once and made a very nice pair of socks. Hmmn...

OK, now, onto something that I've been reluctant to blog about. The other day, while cruising the web, I came across Sensa - the Sprinkle Diet. Maybe you have seen this on TV. I read all that I could find and have seen mostly good reviews. For the price of shipping and handling, ($4.95) you get a two month supply of Sensa, a DVD and a brochure. What, you haven't heard of this stuff? It was around years ago (version I) with a different name, Sprinkle Skinny or something like that. If you don't want to read everything, here's the skinny (pun intended). Sensa is powdery crystal formula, it kinda looks like sugar or salt but is a little lighter in weight. You need not change your eating habits, you need no exercise, you need not go on a restrictive diet. You need to use common sense; however, and not, "well, I'm using this stuff, I can eat whatever I want". Just do whatever it is your doing that is keeping you the same weight when you're trying to lose some. You just sprinkle Sensa on everything you eat, completely covering the food, not overly densely, just sprinkle, like you're using a lot of salt. (the DVD show this) It comes in two types, "SALT" and "SWEET". You sprinkle salt on just about everything you eat and sweet is for goodies. It works by smell. You sprinkle it on your food, take a whiff, eat and your brain thinks your full WAY sooner than before. That's it. I can't smell anything with the salt one and the sweet smells like berries, faintly. It's made of food products, no msg or salt or anything like that. After 30 days, you switch off to "Month 2" because your brain and your nose get smart and need new smells to be tricked. You sprinkle on food, it doesn't work on liquids.

Bull bunky, how could this work? This is yet another scam. I am skeptical!

I figured, for $4.95, it's worth it being I spend thousands of dollars to be skinny.

Well, today is day 4. I am 6 lbs lighter. I am the lightest I have been in over TWO YEARS. I have not been trying at all. I just ate what I normally eat and I feel full. I do put less on my plate and then take more if I want it because I don't want to waste my sprinkles on food if I'm not going to eat it. I am still skeptical....but when you read about it, there seems to be some scientific basis behind this.

I had ice cream everyday....with chocolate sauce. I had bananas, nectarines, ham and egg on English muffin, steak and cheese sandwiches, salmon, corn on the cob. Last night, I had skirt steak (all that fat, usually makes me heavier the next day for sure.) with melted cheese on a hamburger roll. I even had extra steak. I had green beans and couldn't eat any more. No corn on the cob, couldn't squeeze it in. I did squeeze in a scoop of ice cream though. I have not eaten after dinner because it feels like I have consumed MASSIVE quantities of food. Every night is Thanksgiving.

No gas, no bloating, no ill effects. The only thing that I've noticed is that I'm a little bit thirsty and have been drinking more water which is probably a good thing.

You can read about Sensa on http://www.trysensa.com/ and then buy some if you want. They do sign you up for autoship if you don't cancel after 30 days. Enter code ROCKETXL if you order more and you'll get a discount.

Remember, it's not a magic pill. You can't pig out. Just eat what you normall eat and see what happens....?

Eye Candy Friday

Sunset at the Marjorie Post Park, Massapequa, NY.

Busy....Catch You Up Soon...

Been busy, setting up Etsy shop, spinning and making believe I'm doing the Tour de Fleece, Family visiting, and...camping.

Happy Belated Fourth of July.

Smell the campfire?

Eye Candy Friday - Caladium

ONE of my Caladiums finally sprouted...wear are the other 17 plants that I planted?

Natural BFL

I spun this last night, plied this morning, washed and whacked, hung to dry. It's perfect.

Eye Candy Friday - Handspun!

We interupt this post to let you know that we have been unable to photograph nature in its finest due to the massive drenching downpours we have been having. It has rained and rained and rained pretty much every single day since Memorial Day weekend. Therefore, today's eye candy will be handspun fiber.

I am becoming the spin master and ready to tackle new obstacles, to boldy go where no fiber has gone before! To spin and spin and spin things that have yet to be spun! What's on the frontier? Dog hair, dryer lint, paper from my shredder...

Ahem...

I spun my Candied Hearts, a bit over 6 oz, washed, whacked and nearly dry now.

I attempted to preserve most of the colors and have only a limited amount of barbershop pole which, it appears, I did to a degree. The skein isn't perfect but it's really nice. It is perfectly balanced and hangs in a nice relaxed loop. I had a little trouble with this fiber. There were a few places where there was some matting. I need one of those thimble sized flickers that could just comb out those spots. I was tugging and tugging and couldn't draft at times. Part of it was the matting and part of it was me. I'm getting very spoiled spinning commercially prepared merino / tencel top which is like spinning pure silky hair. It's icy slippery but gorgeous. I have spun about 4 oz so far so I have 8 to go.

Speaking of 8 oz. I bought some alpaca/llama/some wool at the Guild meeting the other night. It is lovely and stripey and burning a hole, calling to me from it's plastic bag, "spin me, please spin me". If I send the kids to school and do nothing except spin....it could be on the bobbins tonight. The issue is that I have only 6 bobbins and I have other stuff on some of them now. Hmmn...I'm spinning the unloved Rose Quartz, the Deep Sea merino / tencel and a I want to start a third project? What about cleaning and organizing my fiber, stash, library, needles and office? Plus, I have an ark to build.

Best get the kids up and off to school. Stay tuned for an update!

Toe-Up?

A few weeks back, maybe longer, I bought Socks From the Toe Up so I could, you know, look at the pictures. I haven't knit a sock toe up yet. I actually tried to do two at a time, Magic Loop, toe up but the dog attacked it and I haven't gone back. :(

I am really enjoying the pictures in this book! I decided to tackle my nemesis, a toe up sock. While I was tackling, I tackled Judy's Magic Cast On. I must admit, dealing with the magic cast on is much nicer than dealing with waste yarn and unzipping. It wasn't overly difficult to figure out, I think once I got the hang of it I thought it was ingenious. It's also alot easier than casting on two socks at once, 70 sts each, all those strings hanging, one circular. This was cake compared to starting a top down sock.

So, first, I picked a "wild" handpaint, STR Minestone.

The colors are pretty. I don't really like the name for this colorway. It reminds me of snow covered evergreens with pine cones not a mine. Winter Pines or something like that would be nicer than MINESTONE. But alas, I don't get to name yarn.

ANYWAY...

Then, I attempted the cast on. This took awhile. I practiced it a few times so I would feel confident.

Here's the top view.

And here's the back or the bottom view.

It looked like it was right and like it would work. After you do this, you just flip it over and start magic looping.

Here's the tip of the toe after a few rows of increases. I do have a small hole where the tail is. Hmmn... Nothing that I can't snug up when I weave in the yarn. I also have small ones where the M1's are but I didn't know if twisting them would be uncomfortable or ugly so I did them the normal way.

See, you can't see any holes from the side.

Then, I stuck it on my foot to see how it would look....

Of course, this is as far as I'll get. I don't know how to knit toe up socks! I'll just make one long foot - clown feet!

Stay tuned to see what transpires...pattern details and progress coming soon to a blog near you.....

Eye Candy Friday - One Night Stand Edition

It has not been a good week. I haven't been to my office in days. I am off today yet again and will return on Monday. In fact, I actually miss my desk and my work computer a little...

DS came down sick on Sunday afternoon and tested positive for strep, one of several illnesses currently taking out the elementary school. Fortunately, the Boobette is still looking healthy. He was home, with a 104.5 at times, three consecutive days which were exhausting for me. I sent him to school on Thursday and he went back up to 102 so he's home again today.


After a few days of feeling 'weird' and hearing things that weren't there (no, not the voices, I heard the phone ringing, my blackberry dinging plus crackling, crunchy sounds) I got an earache. Wednesday night, it really started to hurt so I saw the doctor on Thursday morning and she confirmed that it's an ear infection. This was done ever so professionally, she looked in my ear, jumped back and said, "EW!!!" Oh, yeah, she gave me antibiotics, too.


Being home, I called up my pal, Elizzabetty, who is also home. She came over so I could swipe her handpainted yarn. You can read all about it on her blog. I liked the colors very much and suggested that it be turned into 'One Day Beret' which I was sure that I could knit in one day...or one night. So, we had tea, played show and tell which took like an hour because I haven't seen her in six weeks, and knitted. She has this house in Vermont that she tends to every now and again and then she returns back to civilization. Any way, she's been up there playing, taking pictures, floating about town, looking for a job, mowing the back 40 and handpainting yarn.

She made this one and I stole it, thinking it would look superb in a hat.






I told her that I would knit the hat, quickly, but first I had to finish my Blueberry Scarf. You remember the scarf from the other day? The one that I had to rip back 36"? Well, I reknit it and I was up to the point of where I was before discovering The Mistake exactly when she arrived. It was the homestretch on the scarf that I had the pleasure of knitting...twice!


I took the yarn anyway and put it on my To Do list, just behind this scarf.


I knit another foot last night, wove in the ends and voila, another FO. It's about 65" long.


Ah, my first handspun FO. I'm very proud of this scarf.

Anyway, I got back to playing with Blue Iris.....

Then, I wound the yarn into a ball.


Then, around 9:45 last night, I casted on and knit for a bit. I got all the way to the brim and decided it was time for bed. That was just after David Letterman's monologue.

This morning, I got up and finished the hat. It was great! No pooling!

(I know, I hardly ever show you a picture of myself , I'm like Wilson.)


The hat took me just about four hours to knit so it was certainly a One Day Beret. However, being we crossed over midnight, It was really a one night stand. I knit it last night, we woke up together and I still loved it so I finished the ribbing and I'm done with it. I know nothing about blocking hats except people do it on balloons. I hate balloons so I'll give this to Elizzabetty and let her do that.

Maybe next time, I'll tell you about balloons. I have some good stories about them.

I must get back to tending to sonny boy and spinning something else.