AAARRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!

Okay, pretty soon this is going to be more frustrating than...potty training!!

I still do not have my camera. I wish they would just send the camera and leave everything else there. Honestly! I cannot blog properly!!

I need to photograph: S2K yarn, new felted slippers, new Fetching mitts, new lace mitts, progress on experiment socks, children, animals, Girl Scouts, it's driving me MAD!!!

OTOH, I have produced some FO's, made progress on the experiment socks, and everyone is healthy (touch wood). Complain, complain.

Our heat has been off for four days. Yeah, yeah, yeah, SoCal. But it's cold! Anytime, landlords! Oh, and how about the plumber we asked for...a month ago?

In happier news, today is the last day I conduct a rehearsal for our children's choir at church. It's been lots of fun, really, but I directed them singing in church last weekend and that was TERRIFYING. I may take a couple of Wednesdays off (I usually am there as a volunteer). It's been great and the kids are great and it will be nice to have Angie back! Now to make my kids practice piano and guitar in anticipation of her starting music lessons again.

Tomorrow starts the new Project Spectrum, yay! And my project will be out of my wonderful S2K yarn, socks! Maybe Pomatamus...I don't know. Not enough for Bayerische (and too variegated). This yarn will be great for jeans and it is lovely and squishy. Progress photos someday...

Have a lovely!

S2K yarn has left the building

I mailed off my (sadly unphotographed) S2K yarn yesterday afternoon and it should arrive in Syracuse on Monday, yay!

It was 94 yards of Superwash Merino in bulky weight 2-ply, spun from the end of the roving, Crown Mountain Farms American Pie colorway. I meant to make yarn for a pair of Fetching Mitts and I think I managed it. I would have liked them, anyway!

It does not compare, however, to the yarn I received (see yesterday's entry) so I will have to work harder next month. My pal likes alpaca so I plan to dye and spin some baby alpace that I've had in the stash for a year or so. It's very soft and a sample I spun was just luscious. The only hard part is blocking out time to dye!

I meant to spin this week, but it didn't happen. I feel like I'm still recovering from trip/birthday party/houseguest. I guess I am, though, since I'm still unpacking suitcases!! This weel I will be trying to appreciate down time (and make more), rather than just sitting down and vegging out.

A lot of this week has been eaten up by reading the liveblogging of the Libby trial, however, which is FASCINATING, if you're into that kind of thing. Fitz gets closer and closer to Cheney, Ari Fleisher is testifying on Monday, Tim Russert was outed as a tool for the administration, Libby can't use the "memory defense" unless he testifies himself, and best of all, Jane Hamsher is recovering very nicely from her cancer surgery.

Progress on silk/alpaca mitts for church, progress on Twisted Knitters socks, I will spin up some of the Merino/Tencel this week for socks (while the alpaca is drying?).

Sorry still no photos. Blech! Thanks again, Secret Pal!

I love this!!!!

Just received my S2K yarn from woolfriend and she has gone totally ABOVE AND BEYOND!!

If only I had my camera...I am in a decline...

She has sent me 2 (2!) beautiful skeins of sock yarn in blues and purples, just gorgeous!!

My yarn will go out this afternoon to my pal and it is nice but not beyond all possible expectations. Thank you so much!!! I shall cast on today!!!

Sadly still photo (and Mailman) free

OT: One of my very favorite bloggers, Jane Hamsher, is having breast cancer surgery today at 7:30 a.m. PT. Please give her a thought, a prayer, whatever you've got. She's a terrific person and is really trying to change the world. My thoughts are with you, Jane!

I am still obsessed with making some more mitts. But I haven't been able to buy yarn or make yarn for myself yet. Luckily, the weather seems to have abated.

I did get some work done on my Harlequin felted slippers that I have one of finished yesterday in this great bright colorway of Kureyon. Soon I will have warmer feet (and not feel compelled to wear my handspun socks walking around the house without shoes).

Busy, busy with Girl Scout stuff, working, getting a cold, working other temporary job, preparing for other job, blah, blah, blah. Hoping to get some spinning in today but not very likely.

However I did finish (it's drying now) the yarn for my Spin 2 Knit pal so that will go out on time, yay!!

Have a lovely day!

Startitis comes with the Cold (UPDATED)

UPDATE: Mailman brought nothing, ho hum. And I was so lazy this morning, I didn't link to anyone, so here they are:

Man, it is so cold here (for here)! I am pretty much cold all the time. And wanting some handknit warmth. I'm also a bit between projects, although Rogue should be calling out to me...

My Fetching mitts are making me want more, more, more. The lacy ones from Interweave's winter issue, but I would have to spin or buy some yarn. Hmmm... I do so love the alpaca, but before I spin for myself, I MUST spin for my Spin-to-Knit pal or it won't get done.

Speaking of S2K, my upstream pal bailed. Oh, I mentioned that before. But they have found me an angel and so all is well. My pal's pal is spinning for me. Thanks!!!

My downstream pal likes blues/reds/purples. I was going to dye some alpaca but the time is getting short for a January mailing and she can have some in the February batch. I do, however, have two beautiful choices for her colors. Crown Mountain Farms Superwash Merino in American Pie and Spunky Eclectic's Fiber Club December ("Good Morning") offering are both in her color scheme. I'm going to try to spin up some CMF in a two-ply Aran weight (like my mitts yarn). Should be fast, colorful and soft. The Spunky roving could be spun into sport for lacy mitts for me afterward, as they would go with my choir robe. But I am sort of considering some black alpaca, if that exists in the right weight over at Unwind. We shall see...Of course, I'm broke, so that will have to wait a bit. And waiting is not in the cards today!

So I shall spin for my pal and then for myself and get knitting. It's only a few ounces. I will have mitts by the weekend, I hope.

Thinking about Sally Melville's Gauntlets, too, though. Hope Margene doesn't mind me using her picture! Since they're stockinette they would survive the variegated nature of my normal yarn more successfully than lace. I have a feeling I need 350 yards for those, however, so that's a bit of a challenge this quickly.

Can you tell it's odd for me to be product oriented this week? It's usually all about the process for me. But it's so d**n cold, I want to wear something warm!

Have a lovely day and pray with me that the mailman brings the camera very soon...

Stalking the Mailman

For a couple of reasons. Still no pictures.

However, today we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the changes he brought to our culture and our world. A true American hero.

I wish we would remember more vividly the amazing things achieved by nonviolent protest and go out and have some more. Our government today has left no civil right unassailed (except gun ownership), no person safe from inquisitive bureaucrats with political agendas, no American ideal unsullied. From "all men are created equal" all the way through the Constitution.

Let us think on what one person can do, must do, to save our country. Let us teach our children what America truly stands for, not what it is now. Let us all think of the path we are headed down and say...

Not now. Not ever. Not ever again.

In other news, I finished a pair of Fetching mitts in Blue Sky Alpaca last night and they are just perfect. Fuzzy, happy color, not too big (I did them on 40 stitches instead of 45). I will be wearing them pretty much all the time till the temperatures come back up. Did you know it's cold enough to snow here?

Have a lovely day!

I took pictures, really I did!

But I left the camera in Pennsylvania. Don't quite know what I will do at DD's birthday party, but I do have a point and shoot, an SLR and access to disposables. What did we do before digital cameras??

The Twisted Knitters experiment is progressing nicely, however, even though I have no photos. The two socks are quite different, especially in the lengths of certain colors for some reason. I spun them with the same amount of fiber but the colors going into the heel are completely different. Also I decided to use the yarn at the other end of the ball for the heels (Hang on Sloopy plied on itself). One ball I have some left over, the other ball ate it all in half a heel. Oh, well. I said fraternal and I meant fraternal!

Moving on to my Spin-to-Knit secret pal project as soon as the birthday party is over. But I did separate out the fiber and put it in a labeled ziploc. Does that count? My upstream pal has apparently gone AWOL so they are trying to set me up with an angel. I never do these things so of course it goes wrong!

I've been rather down since returning from my trip so I cast on my Fetching Mitts out of baby alpaca in yellow/orange (my happy color) and they are cheering me up. If only I could read the directions! I keep knitting and then I think, hey, I wonder if this is really what I'm supposed to be doing. Rip, rip, rip. Luckily, they're small. I'm doing them on 40 stitches instead of 45 since the model in my LYS was out of this yarn and a bit too loose for my hand. I want them a bit snug. I hope that they will be wearable when I'm typing (my work at home job) and will both keep me warm and cheer my line of sight.

I'm going to try to only knit/spin what I want to for a while. There was a long stretch there with a deadline at the end right after another long stretch with a deadline at the end last year (fair socks). I will probably knit socks again for the fair even though I planned to do a sweater. I would rather finish Rogue and a Wallaby for the DS and my mom might want a hoodie but it might take a while. I just don't want to add pressure to my knitting life again for a bit. The socks will come out of my own imagination this time, probably a Turkish stranded pattern with two long color repeating yarns that will happen when they happen. I don't think I need to rely on another designer this time out. Although obviously Anna Zilboorg will have some input...

Have I blathered on long enough without pictures? Here's to hoping the box from PA arrives quickly!

Have a wonderful day! Peace.

Everybody's Doing It

No, I'm not making any resolutions this year. But I do have some goals. And some achievements of last year, I think.

Achievements:

FIL sweater finished and gifted
Very ambitious project for County Fair finished, entered, ribboned!
Won Intermediate Class of Spinning Contest at said Fair (very difficult)
Became much more comfortable knitting in two colors

Still to achieve (from last year):

Knit something for DH out of Father's Day yarn (was that REALLY a present for him? Only if I make something!)

Goals for 2007:

Spin 1 hour per day as many days as possible
Yoga
Worry less
Work more
Keep projects of all sorts separate in my mind so I don't get so overwhelmed that I drop the ball on EVERYTHING!
Be a better friend and a better wife and a better mother and a better daughter
Go back to doing Flylady cleaning

Those are NOT in order of importance! And some of these are things I managed before but had not kept on top of (see #5).

All of these would make my life more peaceful, more fulfilling, even working more as it leads to less worry. And many thanks to all the people in my life who support me in everything. I couldn't do anything without you!

Happy New Year!