Lovin' the weekend

Oh yeah, this was a great weekend, and I have lots of photos of warm for Joan. I think I will figure out one of those mosaic thingies so you all don't die of the boredom. Note the wearing of shorts in these photos. In February.



Click to embiggen and see the individual stuff.

Here's the most telling image of our warm weekend, though. Most of it was spent like this:



Some other few random photos, since I have them now.



Year of the Hat, FO #1 (I call this my glamour shot.)
(Coronet, from Knitty, in Cascade 220 Paints, unknown colorway, 143 yds, 5mm needle)



The camel that followed me home.



Also, a small knitterly PSA: A few weeks ago the Bug broke one of the cables in my options set. I emailed and asked what I should do, and customer service asked for the cable length that had broken and promptly sent me a replacement SET (TWO cables, the way they normally sell them, and four end caps) free of charge. Based on that, I'll still be recommending the Options sets to anyone who asks (or who gives me the opportunity to proselytize on the needles' virtues).

Still milking the birthday

Here are the fibery gifts I received (in some cases, from myself HA) for my birthday...



(Click to embiggen - you can't truly see the lovely colors on that tiny little picture.) From left to right, Merlot Vine sock kit from Yarn4Socks, October Sock Club, Cabin Cove sock yarn in a colorway that's escaping me right now, and Cherry Tree Hill in Green Mountain Madness (I think). All purchased throughout the last months with my birthday in mind. I actually left the box from Cabin Cove on my dining room table until Saturday when I allowed myself to open it. I'm glad I did - I'd ordered it early enough that I'd forgotten the colorway and got a great surprise!



5 oz of superfine merino roving from Blue Moon in Rocktober, from the incomparable BigAlice. She actually sent this as a "just because she though I'd like it" giftie, but it was close enough to my birthday that I'm calling it a birthday surprise. I do love my bloggy friends!



A bump (4 oz? I can't remember now, I'm high from the wool fumes) of the softest, most beautiful alpaca/corriedale mix to ever enter my house. (Bonus: from a new spinning shop in town I had no idea existed!) From Blogless Lynn, enabler and conspirator extraordinaire. Mother of Queen A of the Bubbles (from last post) and a fine knitter, spinner, beader, potter, sew-person, and... I know I'm missing a few crafts in there. Y'all are seriously missing out because *I* get to see all the beautiful things she makes and you don't. Urge this woman to blog - you won't be sorry.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to have to go roll around nekkid in my fiber have a little lie-down.

If it's Tuesday, this must be

coming to you from the office.
Sigh.
The work continues apace. I am learning new tools in a crash course, brushing up my HTML skill (which, until this week, were limited to this blog. Oy.) and trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing. Part of the problem was the state of things left by MDfC, part of the problem is that this is a new product with a maverick developer and no one person controlling the outcome. And no one person to tell me what exactly it is they want. I have 14 items that may or may not apply, and since I don't know the product, I'm not intimately familiar with the content, and can't answer those questions myself either. Sigh.
DH has found his dream job. He applied over the weekend, and in his head has already been offered the job, accepted it, bought woodland property and moved in. The reality of course isn't quite there (see: he applied over the weekend), but please keep your fingers crossed for us. It would be a better job in a better town with a lower cost of living. That would be neat.
In fibery news, I have been knitting. It's the only thing keeping me sane, actually. I have yet to cast on the front of the cardigan, but tonight is SnB and I will do it there. I have been knitting a bit on the Cheshire Cat stole, but holy cow. Laceweight on size 2 needles does not a speedy FO make. I need to measure my gauge and the stated gauge of BigAlice's prototype and see if I wouldn't be better served to go up a size or two in the needles. It is making a lovely, soft, flowy fabric that MIL will love, though. Mmmmm, cashmere.
I also dyed some fiber this weekend. Dave of Cabin Cove did a post recently on predrafting his rovings, and I learned much. (Actually, I learned that what *I* thought was predrafting wasn't much, and that I might be happier if I took more time with the fiber prep.) I dyed up some roving with the big ol' box of Wilton's that I bought to make Bug's birthday cake. I think it came out pretty neat. (The colors in this photo are pretty close to true, though they don't really glow like that.)

I dyed four ounces and will try to spin close to fingering weight.
And now, off to work again. Sigh.

The heat is on

Geh.
The weekend was not as it was intended to be - we missed a dinner and the cleaning lady we hired for my dad's house had vehicle problems, so Dad's place is still The Place Where Dust Goes To Retire. I believe that house hasn't had a complete and thorough cleaning since my mom died in 1995. It will be cleaned someday, but we will have to deal with the filth for a while longer.
That being said, I have FOs. These are the only pictures I have, and they were taken quickly whilst The Bug slept in the car (with the AC on, I'm not nuts, but still) so I make no guarantees about their quality.
As always, click to embiggen.

Swallowtail:


Apparently I suck at the Harlot's Knitwear In Foliage photography.


The funky dark blob is the comforter underneath. I think it's a lion.

One Hogwarts sock. If this picture sucks, we can blame my photography skills, because I had plenty of time with this one.



The second sock has been cast on, and I hope to churn this puppy out THIS WEEK. I am running out of time since they should be in the mail this weekend, and I have to knit the Sockapalooza socks to be sent shortly thereafter. I do believe I will opt out of future knitting swaps. I should have had plenty of time with the Hogwarts socks (and by extension, the palooza socks) but I stressed out so deeply about the perfect pattern and yarn that I piddled all my time away, and now I'm feeling the pressure. Sigh. Spinning and all projects for me are on hold until these lovelies are finished and mailed. Alas, because here is some temptation.


Luxury Sock Batts from Franquemont Fibers. I call this colorway Intimidation. (She calls it Heartbreaker.)

This weekend, after his bath, the Bug found a way to keep cool.


The coating of soap and the last bit of water soaked into the diaper necessitated another showering off, which I think was his plan all along.

Fiberific

That's me, today.

In the last little while I won two blog contests - one from Pretending to Farm, and one from Trailing Yarn.


Desert Sunset roving from Carmela the Shetland Sheep


Snap roving from Yarn Witch

Then I spun my first ever yarn! Yippee!


Bad bad 2-ply

And now here's an artsy shot.

Up close and personal.

I started to catalog all my yarn and fiber for my eventual Ravelry invite. Oh boy I can't wait!
The Bug is overwhelmed by all the fiber.

Good fiber, bad fiber

YAY! My Rabbitch special yarn came in the mail yesterday! Squooshy, squishy, and PINK! It's love. (It's not just any yarn that gets posed in the flowers.)


Jazzberry Toe Jam.

Go now, to her store. Buy some, then come back.

Mondays are for spinning in pacaland, and so I did. I finished up the little bit of easter egg roving I was working on, but only had one spare bobbin, and hadn't dyed up the roving that I want to ply the easter egg with. So I did that after. I just used the little food coloring droppers, 3:1 green to blue, and got creative with the vinegar. (Pouring it on the fiber directly is what caused the light spots, which was what I was going for.)


It's really that bright. Mebbe brighter.


I think it will match pretty nicely with the easter egg, but not be too boring. Hurry, roving, DRY already!

And now for the bad. Juno posted yesterday about how she started thinking of her hair as fiber, and how it was important to get it cut regularly so the fiber would stay in good condition. Along the lines of Hair As Fiber, I present:


Bad to the Bone.


Mommy loves me.

Now where's that photographer with the kiddie-sized Harley?

All beat up

This weekend was one of work and toddler wrangling. DH spent most of the day Sunday building the railing around the deck to keep The Bug from flinging himself headlong into the pool. I spent the day doing laundry, endless dishes, and entertaining The Bug. He got his very first crayons on Sunday. Did you know that putting crayons in the box and taking them out again is infinitely more exciting than drawing with them?
I also got a case of Startitis. Even though my Hogwarts yarn is due any day, and I have Faina on the needles, I couldn't help starting the eyelet cardigan from Classic Elite and the round 4 sock from Sock Madness. (Mad Weave, I think) I also played with my wheel and practiced treadling. It helped me to get a slow rhythm going before I tried to spin anything, and I felt like things were much more even once I got warmed up. I spun all the koolaid roving I had, so I attacked the egg dye kit.


Purple, blue, green, yellow.


Red and orange, with some extra food coloring drops added.

They look even neater dry - very bright and happy and summery. Just what you want from your wool.

Yesterday I went to the chiropractor for a long-overdue adjustment. He beat the crap out of me. Last night I was freezing, achy, tired, and sore. I felt like either the onset of a cold or the end of one, where you're all wiped out from the effort of blowing your nose or walking to the toilet. All I could think was, "Wow, I had some bad stuff pent up in my shoulders." I don't think I'm getting sick again, I just think my body is using all its energy to get used to being aligned again. Here at work, the coldness has returned and I'm a little achy, but less so than yesterday. I think maybe tomorrow's chair massage will be more beneficial than usual, and maybe I won't wait so long to see the chiropractor next time.


I do love me some kibble.

Feetsies and fiber

We took the Bug to the zoo for the first time ever today. He was deeply impressed:



Sssssnnnnnooooorrrrreeeeee.



Look at all that fiber!



Click the picture for a closeup of the feeties

This is how I felt about the day in general:


Love this kid!

Chaotic Rants Of A Card Carrying Dreamer

I have the barfing flu today, so I am home trying to not think about barfing. Bug made it extra hard this morning while he ate his banana slices. Bananas make me gag on a good day, but when I'm already feeling gross AND the bananas are in the hands of a toddler... oy.
I am feeling a tad better, though (woohoo, drank a whole glass of water without barfing) so at some point I imagine I will have time for fiberly pursuits.
This last weekend, we went to a little wool festival in Tucson. It was on one woman's farm, and there were all of about ten vendors. It was fun, though, and Bug liked the animals. DH even got him to pet a freshly shorn lamb, but sadly, no pictures were had.
I only bought this:

Scratchy fluffy Shetland.

The spindle is an Ashford that Bug got me for my birthday a while ago. (Such a big boy - his 13 month old self got online and ordered it all the way from Montana.)
Anyway, I have yet to spin anything on it, since the only fiber I had before this weekend was silk, and I'd been warned that I should probably know what I'm doing before I tried to spin it.

Oh yeah, and Deb is doing that November calendar thing. I apologize for the glare on this picture - there was no way to position it that didn't cause some, and this is the best.


I do love me some moosies.

The picture was from a calendar of all moose. A Year of Moose or some such. Given to me by the friend who gave me the moosey sweater for Bug. Mooses. Rock.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go recline on the couch with the back of one hand on my forehead. That water doesn't seem to want to stay where it is.