I have no time for long-winded heartfelt goodbyes. I’m going on vacation. I will be gone for a long time. Well no longer than some of my unplanned absences. I’ll be back on the 20th. I think. Maybe. We venture into the wild north. See ya soon!
Archive for the “Uncategorized” CategoryThe universe apparently did not notice that I pressed the reset button on this week, this month, this year. Today was not fun. And to top it all off the TV died. Tomorrow I intend to be way more specific with my intentions. I shall be hatching up a plan for this while I trot to an embarrassingly early Friday night bedtime. Good night all. Tomorrow will be better. I’m that mom. I try real hard not to curse around my kids. I’m very picky about what they watch and what video games they play. I still hold their hands in parking lots, because I don’t trust people. So obviously, not all of Monty Python and the Holy Grail is quite appropriate yet. But some of it is. So we watch it in bits and pieces on youtube. Because no one appreciates a good fart joke like my boys. And they laugh even harder when they realize that a lot of the things we say come from that movie. Like asking 3 questions before they are allowed to leave the dinner table. Today was a grumpy day again. So I did laundry, baked lemon bars, and dyed.
The results will be up in the next day or so. I tried to do four things:
Numbers one and three went well I think. We’ll see when I reskein them. Number two just came out a very dark semi-variegated teal. Number four – well the pink and the yellow got *real* friendly with each other. Real, real friendly. No yellow remains, but there are many lovely shades of pinky orange. Not sure what I’m gonna do with that one. I flipped through a few channels of election coverage and it is amazing the differences. The differences in numbers, attitudes, slants. I’m thinking my grump factor is due to the time change. I’m hoping a good night’s sleep will cure it, but I want to stay up and watch things. I keep having to remind myself that I did what I was supposed to do, and things will happen whether I’m watching the TV or getting some much needed rest. So sleep is what I’m aiming for. Hopefully tomorrow will be bright and interesting. My boys and I have really interesting discussions. And they truly do say the darndest things. Today they were fighting with foam swords…. Big Dude: “Prepare for a beating so severe your great great grandchildren will be sore!” Little Dude: “As will your slap happy grandpappy!” Honestly. Where do they come up with this stuff? This morning on the way to school we were discussing the election. Again. A couple of years ago little dude got quite upset when he realized he couldn’t vote until he was 18. “I am an American citizen!” This morning we decided that a Scooby-Shaggy presidential ticket would be the bomb.
Stay with me here. Scooby and Shaggy don’t like scary things. So they would ban scary things. Like war, the boys suggested. Ok, I’m all for that. Scooby and Shaggy *really* like to eat. So no one would ever be hungry. I’m totally for that. Now maybe Shaggy might have some other liberal ideas I’m not so sure about, but overall, the boys made a very sound argument for the Scooby & Shaggy ticket in 08. My spinning is coming along. Seen on the back of the Scooby Mobile are my first four hanks of handspun. Along with some project bag prototypes I’ve been working on. It always takes me a while to get back into the sewing groove.
Just for comparison, let’s look at my first attempt vs. my fourth attempt.
Fourth
My fourth attempt has some very thin overspun places, but there are also good long stretches of very even stuff that actually looks like yarn. Next I’m onto the good stuff. I almost forgot to tell you my very exciting news! Sugarbee Studios is running a sock club! A fabulous sock club with her own wonderful take on color and her crazy sense of humor. Anyhow, the exciting part (for me) is that I will be writing the patterns for her club. I have all sorts of ideas and I’m very excited. How many times can one girl say excited in one little paragraph? Anyhow, check ‘er out. You won’t be disappointed! Rufus needs a bath. Badly. According to my 10 year old he smells like corn chips. I think that’s a rather polite description. He stinks. He gets a bath once a week, but with this hot and humid weather he gets stinky so fast! So in a few minutes I will be throwing all his blankets and his bed in the wash to get ready for dog wash day.
Other things have been bathing around here as well. I finally finished the five ounces of corriedale that I bought to learn to spin on my drop spindle. It’s been super fun. My singles are getting smaller quite quickly though. I still need to play around with the plying. Some of my yarn is very twisty. I gave it a good whack on the tile after squeezing the water out, and now it’s all out on the porch drying.
And woo-hoo! Liesl is finished! Right now she is spread out on a towel after taking her soak. I’m hoping she gains a good bit of length. I basically worked the yoke, then the sleeves, and then the body until I ran out of yarn. This is how she looked pre-blocking.
I’m off to moosh around and do some housecleaning. I’ve decided that all of the nastiness of August is over and that September will be a month full of fabulous, wonderful things. Only good stuff. I’ve been doing some blog tinkering. I have this amazing new logo, and I need to figure out some banners and avatars for here and for my etsy store. But for some reason, it’s not coming so easily to me. Which is frustrating the bejeebers out of me! I honestly want to stomp my feet and holler a bit about it all. Speaking of hollering, the Liesl sweater is pretty much done except for the final bind-off. The holler-about-it part is that I ran out of yarn. I did well at using every last yard of yarn. So well that I ran out before I could bind off. So now I need to tink a row or two and then bind off again. It is cute though. So the other day, I looked in the mirror, with my hair in its standard messy updo and this is what I saw.
Talk about hollering. To be fair my friends and I had a discussion about a week ago that we needed to have a hair dyeing party. But not one of them said, “Hey, Corrina, even if we don’t do this together, you NEED to dye your hair. Immediately. Like yesterday even.” Nope, no one told me. Not even my husband. The man who will tell me that my favorite Oscar the Grouch t-shirt is now for wearing around the house ONLY. So I have concluded that no one loves me. Fortunately, the mirror is honest and I remedied this situation Friday night while the lemon bars were cooling.
Much better, yes? Now if I could just fix my danged blog, all would be good.
There is something soothing and comforting about chocolate. There is a reason so many people love it so. So today, I’m knitting chocolate. Claudia Handpaints finger in the chocolate colorway to be exact. I cast on this morning in the financial aid office, and was going to make a game of seeing how far I could get on this sock before they helped me. Miraculously they called me in quickly. Whether or not things are actually fixed, I don’t know. I hope so. In other news I have a free pattern for download on Ravelry. The snappy hat. Uses one skein of bulky yarn (108+ yards) and size 10.5 needles. Works up quick and looks great. In sizes small (child), medium (adult), and large adult. Click here to download the free pdf. It’s also on my free patterns page of course. Enjoy!
Well the stash is starting to sell. If you wanna make an offer on something, please let me know. I’m also seeking happy money vibes that some checks I’m expecting come in the mail today. That would talk me off the ledge. But today is not about money. Today is about the greatness of eight. Eh, not really. I’m trying to think of foods that relate to eight. The boys are having a sleepover guest tonight, and we try to do fun food. But eight is hard. I could give them eight of something, but that’s kind of boring. Any suggestions? Today is the start of the Ravelympics. I have chosen four projects for the WIPs Wrestling event and I’m competing for Team Copper Boom!
I’m a bit of a Gilmore Girls fanatic. With the exception of season 7, I’ve seen every episode multiple times. I know when I’m gonna cry, I know when I’m gonna laugh. It’s one of my favorite shows ever. If you’re not a fan, the “Copper Boom” phrase is kind of Gilmore-speak for hurry up, or get going. So it’s perfect for the Ravelympics. Here are my Ravelympic Gold contenders…. The Modern Quilt Wrap
The Black Bonny Cardigan
Deaton Sock #2
Wormy Sock #2
If you really think I’ll get half of this finished, I love you. I have a long history of joining Knit-A-Longs and turning into a flake, a Cornflake Girl. I wonder where that CD is. Hmmm…. If you ever meet me in person, you’ll understand my lack of segue. Or the seques that no one understands. But I digress. Go Team Copper Boom!This morning I stood in line for 2 hours and dripped sweat in the heat of the morning. It’s Florida – the heat of the morning is a real, tangible, make you all sweaty kind of thing. After standing in line for those 2 hours, I paid for that privilege by bleeding money. Did you know that private school textbooks cost more in general than college textbooks? I did not. I was supremely unprepared for the vast amount of money that I forked over today in pursuit of a better education for my kids. But my loss (of money) is your gain (of yarn). Help a sister out. This is all yarn that I don’t really want to part with, but I will. Unless otherwise specified all of the yarn is new and untouched. All of the prices include priority shipping to the US. Almost all of the prices get you lower than MSRP even with shipping. My house is smoke-free and cat-free. I have a dog, but he’s not supposed to touch the yarn. If you live locally and want to meet up with me to get said yarn, I will knock $5 off the price – basically take off the cost of shipping. Paypal is preferred. Here’s the swag: Starting in the top row, moving from left to right and so on. 1. Lamb’s Pride Worsted – Spice – 4 skeins – $20 for all includes shipping You can leave a comment here or you can e-mail me at my paypal e-mail address, which is rincaro at yahoo dot com – you know the deal. Oh and thanks for looking! So today I went to the home of Sugarbee Studios. For the Jax Ravelers gathering. I was excited. I’ve been to her house before and it is just one of those places that you instantly feel at home. And her mom tries to feed you every time you turn around (really good food). And there were friends I hadn’t seen in a while. Yes, it was gonna be a good day. And then, well I’m not sure what happened. I saw some gorgeous red/orange/pink yarn – fresh from the dyepot that I had to have. No problem. I brought cash. And then a nice lady on my left was mentioning getting the stuff to start spinning. I’ve resisted any form of spinning for a long time. I had been considering it again, if sugarbee was my teacher. But I hadn’t taken any steps in that direction. So someone please tell me how I ended up with a gorgeous hand-made drop-spindle, 5 oz. of corriedale, and 2 beautiful batts. Please. I recall leaning over to Tricia at one point and telling her to convince me not to start up with the spinning. I also distinctly remember that she just snickered at me. It’s ok, she got her comeuppance for that. Mamaknitter kindly sat down with me and showed me how to use the drop spindle. Even though she’s a wheel spinner, she uses her drop spindle all the time. She’s a genius with it. And a born teacher apparently – because it instantly clicked. It made sense. And it wasn’t hard.
I made that. Yes, it’s a tiny skein, but I have more roving. And I’m utterly fascinated with this whole business. And I’m just so danged proud of myself. Pictures of the yarn I bought, a finished sock, and the gorgeous spindle & batts tomorrow when I actually have some good light. I just couldn’t resist posting the yarn I made. Yarn I made. That has such a nice ring to it. |
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