Monday Musings…
March 8, 2010 By 2 Comments
It was the busiest of times, it was the laziest of times. It was a time of great accomplishment, it was a time of great loafing. I got up at the crack of dawn on a non school day to take the boys to the dentist. (+1) I made a hot lunch for me and the little men. (+1) I washed the dog and all his bedding. (+2 – the dog is wiley!) I sat on the couch with my friends and watched a million episodes of various reality tv shows (-17).
I did make some progress on my new shawl pattern. Here’s a good representation of the color.
And here is what the lace edging looks like so far. I’ve thrown in a lifeline and I’m trying the body pattern that I think will look good. I’ve got my fingers crossed.
In the stores (if not in the outdoors) my favorite flowers are in bloom. I love any form of daffodil. Yellow, white, any mix in between. There’s a picture in my mind’s eye of the hills of the Cincinnati Nature Center covered in daffodils at Easter time. Makes me homesick. So I bought myself a little bit of sunshine that I’ll share with you.
Lovely people.
January 7, 2010 By 2 Comments
I really have some of the loveliest people in my life. Today I went over to SugarbeeStudios’ house so that she could help me take pictures of the shawl. She happens to have a breathtakingly gorgeous daughter who was happy to model. (I paid her in chicken wings!) I really couldn’t be more pleased with the pictures.
Barring a “snow day” tomorrow, I plan on publishing the pattern tomorrow afternoon. If they cancel school it will be monkey wrangling and that could put a wrench in the works. I don’t think we’ll actually see snow – the temps seem to be rising, but wouldn’t that be something?
Slacker.
December 26, 2009 By 7 Comments
Well my dear friends would say something else. Something that has to do with donkeys. But I try not to curse (even mildly) on my happy little space on the internet. I would say I’ve been oh so very busy, but so has everyone else. And I seem to be able to find more time to plurk and twitter than I can to blog. The sad thing, I find blogging way more rewarding. Again with the things I should do.
Christmas was nothing less than fabulous. We went to a Christmas Eve party and had an amazing time. Good friends, Santa came for the little ones, and a fun gift exchange (complete with lots of fancy bottles of hooch!) for the big ones. Christmas morning we woke up and had presents with the family. The boys are old enough that they don’t wake us at the buttcrack of dawn, which is just fine and dandy by me. We settled in, opened stockings, and I spiffed up a simple breakfast with cinnamon rolls, sausage, and hash browns. Then we opened presents. My husband totally spoiled me and the boys.
I got the camera I’ve been wanting, some new casual pearl jewelry from the boys, some new Fiesta Ware and some beautiful mixing bowls for the kitchen. Plus I got the HP6 DVD. The boys’ big presents were Rock Band (and the lego version of it) and cell phones. We were trying to wait until they were 12, but the man wanted a fancy phone for his b-day, so we went in a whole family plan. I’ve never seen those boys so excited in my life.
Later in the day we headed over to SugarbeeStudios house and had Christmas dinner with the families of three other of my dearest friends. The boys got more gifts and then the ladies exchanged their gifts. I will just tell you right now I do not deserve my friends. They spoiled me rotten as well. All kinds of fabulousness and thoughtful stuff that I really adore. You should be so lucky as to have friends like this. Oh and yeah. My best friend. Made me do the ugly cry, because her present was that great. Which was totally her goal. And if I didn’t love her so much, I would be very upset that she chose a present for me that she knew would make me weep.
We have a small group, a Fiber Mafia if you will, of amazingly talented and artsy ladies. All of us knit. And then we all have other things we do – artsy/fibery business ventures. All of us spin. Well the rest of the ladies spin on their wheels. I spin on my drop spindle. A wheel was not in the anywhere near future budget for me. You see where I’m going with this, yes? Last night I learned to spin on a wheel. My wheel.
Yeah. You would have cried too. Thank you Chris.
Green with envy
November 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment
So I have been doing some stash enhancing lately. Working at a yarn store always helps with that. I basically have my pick of all the beautiful yarns there. So nice. And yes, I am spoiled, why do you ask?
But I have to space out the stash acquisitions, I need them as back-up for when I run out of blog fodder. Although I do have a plan for that. I’m gonna make myself do more swatching and show y’all more pictures of upcoming design work. I have goals y’all. Real goals. But onto the yarn!
First up, acquired through one of the swap boards. My good friends have been enabling me in that regard. “You have good stash”, they say. And I think, yes, yes I do. And then I offer up my stash and it’s gone! But I’ve gotten some awesome stuff in return.
This is Dream In Color Starry in the colorway In Vino Veritas. In Wine Truth. Don’t I know it. It’s a gorgeously twisted fingering weight with real silver flecks in it. It would be perfect for a Gaenor or an Argante. But I don’t knit things twice, so it will be for something new I design. Because it’s just that beautiful.
This was the very last skein of Plymouth Ecco Cashmere in the shop. Such a beautiful undyed color. And I already have another skein of it. I’m thinking it might be fingerless mitts and a matching cowl. It’s so soft and lovely, and it just screams lace to me.
And finally the piece de resistance – Wollmeise. There’s a reason this is as crazy popular as it is. My dear friend ContinentalKim has made a career of obtaining Wollmeise – and has decided that sleep is unnecessary. Her crazy lack of sleep is my Wollmeise gain. Let’s just say this Barist O is not the only Wollmeise colorway I’ve obtained from her.
And while we are speaking of dear friends… it’s been one of those days. My boys are sick with some mystery ailment that is not the flu. They are on antibiotics and an obscene amount of ibuprofen & acetaminophen to control their fevers. I’ve been so stressed lately that my jaw is in a constant state of clench. But my friends are my saving graces. Always there to talk to me, to listen to me ramble, to have discussions with me when I’m losing my mind. To send me flickr pool links of the White House because they know my boys will love them, even though they themselves don’t love the Prez in rez. It’s the little things and the big things. And every single one of my dearest friends was brought to me through knitting. Every single one.
(Wow. The sappy introspective nonsense is starting early this NaBloPoMo. Sorry about that!)
Doh!
October 25, 2009 By 7 Comments
We had interesting ideas for Halloween this year. A whole theme with ninjas, and a geisha, and a samurai. But the man’s work got in the way, so the grand plans we had were never executed. So we went a different direction. The ninjas (a normal one and a deadpool one) were already ready to go. But we had a Halloween party at 6pm and it was 11am. Go time!
The man’s costume was easy. But mine required a lot of spray paint…
And some beads and some yarn (which naturally I have a ton of)…
And some cotton and a glue gun and some more spray paint…
And et voila!
I love the way you can see how the boys are smiling in their eyes. And Marge would not be complete without her Homer…
I love the beer can he made up. Actually the man did 90% of our costumes. All I did was sew the tube dress for myself and do our makeup. And if you kids want to do this at home, it’s really easy. The shoes were just old ballet flats. The necklace was 25mm wooden beads (19 of them) strung on yarn and spray painted red. The dress just green t-shirt fabric (from the clearance at Jo-Ann’s) sewn into an A-line tube dress and held up with clear elastic around my neck. I made it tight around the chest so it would stretch and stay on. The hair is a small Halloween bucket that fit my head. The man added a tube of cardboard, which he secured with duct tape. He spray painted the headform blue and then hot glued on a million cotton balls. (Seriously, we used 2.5 bags of triple size cotton balls). Then he spray painted the cotton balls blue. The makeup was hard. We didn’t want to spend a fortune on yellow makeup. So we dusted ourselves with yellow eyeshadow. I added the lines to his head in black eyeliner, and colored his normally grey goatee (which he trimmed short) with brown eyeshadow.
Add some mixed drinks and you have a happy Halloween!
Hey you guys!
October 10, 2009 By 3 Comments
It’s a local yokel sort of day. We’ll be meeting at the Riverside Arts Market around 11am for lunch, knitting, spinning, goofing, shopping, and whatever else you want to do. If you’ve not been to the RAM, you’re missing out. They have arts, crafts, produce, fresh baked bread, fresh pastas, all manner of delicious lunch food and interesting products from tons of indie proprietors. It’s a can’t miss!
So come and meet-up with your fellow fiber fiends and have a good day. I know it’s gonna be hot, but it’s cooler under the bridge and we will be down by the river where it’s the coolest. Cool river breezes and plenty of good company and good food. The storms won’t be coming in until tonight, so we’ll be safe! Also we might be field-tripping over to A Stitch In Time afterwards to see what kind of new stuff is out on the shelves!
Jealousy
September 3, 2009 By 5 Comments
I’m jealous of prolific and popular designers. I want to know how they crank things out so fast. I want a dedicated team of test knitters (actually I already have that!), I want to be cranking things out, I want to sell stuff, I want…
Mostly I want to know where my mojo keeps hiding. I just can’t seem to get on the ball. The awesome idea that I’ve had for months for this issue of Knitty? I waited too long and was unable to get it finished. I sketch, I daydream, I write down notes. But I don’t follow through. I’ve always been that way, and I’m not sure how to change it.
I headed out to Hanks today with 3 knitting friends. It was a fabulous little road-trip, complete with a trip to Starbucks and delicious garlic rolls from Leonardo’s. I get the best belly laughs with my knitting friends. But I’m trying to be frugal and nothing screamed “Buy Me!” so I didn’t. We went over to lunch and stopped back by the shop to pick up my friends’ knitting bags. And there it was. Something I didn’t even know I needed.
“Is this for sale?” I reverently whispered. It was. And now it’s mine. All mine. And seriously, the amount of design inspiration in that one book – well that’s a whole lotta mojo for the bargain price of $24.95 plus tax.
Stop. Rewind.
August 27, 2009 By 2 Comments
I adore my boys. Truth be told, I don’t think I’m cut out for girls. But that’s why I’m glad some of my friends have girls – it gives me some girly time, and a chance to buy girly presents.
A young friend who calls me Aunt Corrina (which I love!!!!) turned eight. And this is someone who has a highly developed sense of style. Someone who is in her first year of private school, and now has to wear uniforms. Talk about squashing the spirit. But the one thing they can choose is their hair ribbons and barrettes. So I set out today for some sort of art kit so she could make her own.
There aren’t any. Not that I could find anyway.
So we kicked it old school. Old, old school. Like back in my day. When I was eight. And I got her all the supplies to make my favorite barrettes when I was her age. Oh I wish I had gotten some pictures of the kit. But we had the dentist today and too much running around. But I got her a little bin to hold the ribbons, the bar-style barrettes, and the beads. Now if you’re anywhere near my age you know where I’m going here. Fortunately I did get a picture of the finished product.
Makes you wish you were eight again, doesn’t it?
Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down
August 7, 2009 By 3 Comments
My life is always interesting. When I’m with my peoples (my knitting friends) I always have a good true Corrina life story to tell. But in general, my life runs pretty smoothly. I probably shouldn’t say that at this point – I’m just asking for trouble. But let’s review just a sprinkling of what has happened to me this past week…
Thursday we visited the new contender for worst pediatric dentist’s office ever.
Saturday I was referred to as Hitler and Mussolini.
I spent Sunday in the throes of some of the worst PMS ever.
Monday I fought with the dentist’s office about sedation for my son and was lied to – repeatedly.
Tuesday by the grace of God I was able to arrange care with our regular dentist, but not after more fighting with the evil dentist.
Wednesday was nice. I worked at the yarnstore all day and then made 3 new knitters in my beginning knitting class!
Thursday I find out that very important paperwork I filed 3 months ago was lost in the ether. Which means my case has not even been started. So I had to re-file said paperwork. So then I made the most of the rest of the day and hid from the world at my best friend’s house.
Friday. Today. Ugh.
It started off kinda ok. I got up – I had gumption. I made phone calls. I tried to get a refund from the evil dentist because they had overcharged us and it was supposed to go towards our next visit. And of course there will be no next visit.
And then I tackled the boys’ room. It has gotten so bad again. Clothes everywhere – toy bins overflowing. It was ugly. And I was doing really, really well. So I sorted some laundry with some very helpful boys. I felt good. I looked bad – but I was being productive dammit.
But the dog was being weird. He kept following me around and tripping me. It was getting annoying – really annoying. So I headed to the livingroom to take the laundry out to the garage and I smelled it. I smelled it before I saw it. The dog had crapped all over the livingroom.
I mean really. After the week I’ve had this was not good. So I stood in the livingroom, took a deep stinky breath, and then I screamed. At the top of my lungs. But my 10 year old loves me. So he took the dog out and helped me clean up all the poo.
Finally with a laundry basket on my hip I head out the back door. Rufus is freaking out – scratching at the lattice that borders the deck. This time it was my sense of hearing that clued me in that all was not right. Mewing. Tiny little meows.
Kittens. Kittens of doom and death. Well I say that because I am deathly allergic to all felines. And we had a nest of them, right under the deck. So I did what I do best – I complained on the internet. Fortunately I complained to the right people, because Miss Andy saw my plurk. And she has experience with this sort of issue. So she came on over, crawled under my deck (she’s tiny) and rescued the kittens. The mama cat ran away, but we’re gonna try to live trap her so that they can re-home her as well.
All’s well that ends well? I don’t know. All I know is that I’m calling a Mulligan and starting over tomorrow. At least the boys’ room got cleaned.
