Monday, April 28, 2008
Bad Puppy Mom!
I forgot to mention that Nessa turned 6 on Saturday. Happy Birthday Nessa girl! She enjoyed hanging with me when I was home and visiting everyone out in the living room game playing. Okay, really she was scoping them out for dropped food. She's definitely feeling better!
Faire in the Grove
Brandon's D&D group (Will, Luke, Nick & Jesse) all stayed the night Friday. Okay, Will doesn't count for 'staying the night' cause he lives here. They stopped gaming just before midnight and the four of the 'younger' group headed over to Beaverton to do some Cosmic Bowling. They apparently got back around 2:30am and then stayed up until 4:30am playing Munchkin. They all obviously forgot that Brandon had told him we were getting up and out of the house before 10am.
So by 8am the showers were going with people being woke up along the way for their turn. By 9:45am we were headed off to iHop for breakfast. I didn't want to cook for the group and also do the dishes. Much easier to do it elsewhere. From there with Will driving to iHop and on to Pacific University in Forest Grove to go see this year's Faire in the Grove.
We arrived and quickly ended up splitting into two groups. Brandon and I wandering in one direction the rest in another. I found a nice beaded bell anklet that fit, after finding that the amethyst one needed another half an inch to fit. We looked through all of the tents at the wares offered. The person selling the mustard last year appeared to be absent this year. I went back to the tent with the woven baskets. I think they were made by them, rather than those that can be found much more expensively at the Saturday Market. Brandon helped pick out one that now contains many skeins of yarn. I could use another basket or two still.
I pointed out a dragon ring to Brandon that I had spotted earlier through our lap around the tents and he found one that fit his pinky finger. I thought that if I was pointing it out to him, I must like it too, and found one that fit me. Brandon liked the idea of matching rings, so we both walked out with new rings.
I'm still on the hook to get the patterns and with Brandon's help, pick out the fabric, and he did say he would help cut out, for some 'authentic' faire type garb. I'm not really interested in sewing like that though. Maybe later this summer?
We sat and watched the sword fighting. Nick spotted an old co-worker that he'd been trying to find a contact for, so was very happy. After three hours of walking and watching and some purchasing, we headed back home. You can view the photos that Brandon took here.
Everyone else to continue gaming, me I ended up napping. A combination of restless sleep the night before and walking/sun was starting to cause a migraine. So I thought a nap would help. It did some but I ended up walking up on Sunday with the same migraine.
I did take out my sock and worked on it. I've done the heel flap, picked up stitches for the gusset and currently working it. I think I may be able to get one pair of these socks from one skein of yarn.
I made a pot of chili and baked some cornbread for dinner last night. Plenty leftover for lunches and the like. I do enjoy chili though it often doesn't enjoy me later. I think its the cause of my restless sleep last night with a stomach that wasn't quite settled. No acid reflux so it was a good night. Still woke up this morning with a migraine and no job calls that weren't in an elementary school.
Before heading to bed last night though I pulled off the camera, took some more pictures, and then processed all the photos that had been waiting to be posted. I think through the previous posts, you've had opportunity to click to those photos.
There! That catches me up on things going on around here. I'm going to try to check out Kathy's Knit Korner to see if she has some of the Paton's Kroy sock yarn in stock and take advantage of her 50% off moving sale. There may or not be a trip tonight to the Men's Warehouse to get Will's tux rented for the Spring Prom. Apparently they might try to have another practice for the Talent Show, since it is on the 1st. They are going to try to do their own version of the Ohio State Wrestling Team's Talent Show act. Will is the guy in the yellow polo. Luke will be one of the other 'dance' team members. I'll be a good mom and record them at the Talent Show for future sharing. ;^)
So by 8am the showers were going with people being woke up along the way for their turn. By 9:45am we were headed off to iHop for breakfast. I didn't want to cook for the group and also do the dishes. Much easier to do it elsewhere. From there with Will driving to iHop and on to Pacific University in Forest Grove to go see this year's Faire in the Grove.
We arrived and quickly ended up splitting into two groups. Brandon and I wandering in one direction the rest in another. I found a nice beaded bell anklet that fit, after finding that the amethyst one needed another half an inch to fit. We looked through all of the tents at the wares offered. The person selling the mustard last year appeared to be absent this year. I went back to the tent with the woven baskets. I think they were made by them, rather than those that can be found much more expensively at the Saturday Market. Brandon helped pick out one that now contains many skeins of yarn. I could use another basket or two still.
I pointed out a dragon ring to Brandon that I had spotted earlier through our lap around the tents and he found one that fit his pinky finger. I thought that if I was pointing it out to him, I must like it too, and found one that fit me. Brandon liked the idea of matching rings, so we both walked out with new rings.
I'm still on the hook to get the patterns and with Brandon's help, pick out the fabric, and he did say he would help cut out, for some 'authentic' faire type garb. I'm not really interested in sewing like that though. Maybe later this summer?
We sat and watched the sword fighting. Nick spotted an old co-worker that he'd been trying to find a contact for, so was very happy. After three hours of walking and watching and some purchasing, we headed back home. You can view the photos that Brandon took here.
Everyone else to continue gaming, me I ended up napping. A combination of restless sleep the night before and walking/sun was starting to cause a migraine. So I thought a nap would help. It did some but I ended up walking up on Sunday with the same migraine.
I did take out my sock and worked on it. I've done the heel flap, picked up stitches for the gusset and currently working it. I think I may be able to get one pair of these socks from one skein of yarn.
I made a pot of chili and baked some cornbread for dinner last night. Plenty leftover for lunches and the like. I do enjoy chili though it often doesn't enjoy me later. I think its the cause of my restless sleep last night with a stomach that wasn't quite settled. No acid reflux so it was a good night. Still woke up this morning with a migraine and no job calls that weren't in an elementary school.
Before heading to bed last night though I pulled off the camera, took some more pictures, and then processed all the photos that had been waiting to be posted. I think through the previous posts, you've had opportunity to click to those photos.
There! That catches me up on things going on around here. I'm going to try to check out Kathy's Knit Korner to see if she has some of the Paton's Kroy sock yarn in stock and take advantage of her 50% off moving sale. There may or not be a trip tonight to the Men's Warehouse to get Will's tux rented for the Spring Prom. Apparently they might try to have another practice for the Talent Show, since it is on the 1st. They are going to try to do their own version of the Ohio State Wrestling Team's Talent Show act. Will is the guy in the yellow polo. Luke will be one of the other 'dance' team members. I'll be a good mom and record them at the Talent Show for future sharing. ;^)
Spinning class
Friday I worked at Hilhi, which was nice since I hadn't worked the rest of the week. Too many playground duty subs sent my way last week. I did let Will drive to Fred Meyers to pick up a prescription he'd been wanting to get, so he had some driving time.
I then rushed to a Drop Spindle class at The Knitting Bee. Some of you may be scratching your heads over that one since you know I've already taken such a class. Different instructor and since it's been a year, I was hoping to learn something new. Anita was great and it was a totally different class than I took from Trish. I learned so much and actually walked out with a lot more spun yarn from the class too. Awesome class and I highly recommend if you have a chance to learn from Anita.
Fun talking with Kelsey, who sat in on most of the class too. She was going through multiple rovings she had on hand during the class, beautiful colors too. I shared info on Knitting Daily and showed my stuff on Ravelry to her. This helped me find some Berroco Cotton Twist to use on a couple more Scalloped Edge Bead Necklaces and a choker.
I still want to make some of my own drop spindles. Brandon thinks I may be able to try on his big lathe before making the investment in a smaller one.
I still have some corriedale roving to spin up and then ply on the drop spindle. I hope to get that spun, then plied today. I want to make one of those shoebox lazy kates too. Not that I need it for the corriedale, but I will for the roving from Knit/Purl, the Blue Face Leicester Sliver.
I think it would also be cool to make some WPI wooden tools that I saw someone had made. I think I could do nicer ones though.
Arriving back home from class to find that the D&D game was going well.
I then rushed to a Drop Spindle class at The Knitting Bee. Some of you may be scratching your heads over that one since you know I've already taken such a class. Different instructor and since it's been a year, I was hoping to learn something new. Anita was great and it was a totally different class than I took from Trish. I learned so much and actually walked out with a lot more spun yarn from the class too. Awesome class and I highly recommend if you have a chance to learn from Anita.
Fun talking with Kelsey, who sat in on most of the class too. She was going through multiple rovings she had on hand during the class, beautiful colors too. I shared info on Knitting Daily and showed my stuff on Ravelry to her. This helped me find some Berroco Cotton Twist to use on a couple more Scalloped Edge Bead Necklaces and a choker.
I still want to make some of my own drop spindles. Brandon thinks I may be able to try on his big lathe before making the investment in a smaller one.
I still have some corriedale roving to spin up and then ply on the drop spindle. I hope to get that spun, then plied today. I want to make one of those shoebox lazy kates too. Not that I need it for the corriedale, but I will for the roving from Knit/Purl, the Blue Face Leicester Sliver.
I think it would also be cool to make some WPI wooden tools that I saw someone had made. I think I could do nicer ones though.
Arriving back home from class to find that the D&D game was going well.
an author (long so split into smaller ones)
Last Tuesday for the Yarn Harlot's visit, I managed to acquire 64 points for the Portland Inexplicable Knitting Behavior Scavenger Hunt. I spent waaaaay too much time on making a Google map of my endeavors, putting photos on easily viewable printed pages to discover that Blue Moon Fiber Arts people did a simple - Those of you who earned 5 points please stand (we received a nice pin for this), continue standing if you have 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60 (there were five of us standing at this point), 65 (I had to sit down - put Wait! They noticed this and asked how many I had "64", so they had me come up and get a skein of yarn from the overflowing tote they had up front - I scored a beautiful Silkie Socks That Rock skein, valued at $24). They continued on until there was one person standing, Susan with 88 points. She had maps, many maps and had planned it all out.
But I forget, before this was the acquisition of more photos, you can see them at the web albums linked previously. Picking up something to eat and heading to the MAX station. The car I was sitting in did not appear to have any other knitters on board. Getting off at the Zoo there were four others just before 5pm. We walked through the pouring rain to get to Miller Hall at the Forestry Center where luckily they were opening the doors to let people inside. This is where someone didn't put a lot of thought into the layout. You had to go by the yarn, special one for the event with $3 going to Doctors Without Borders, the colorway called 'Knitters Without Borders' and you were limited to one skein per person and picking up your copy of the current book, and any other past ones you wanted to add to your library. (I forgot one of mine at home, darn it!) Then the long line came if you were doing a credit purchase. I could have made money charging to let people go through the line to get into the seating area. Lots of money.
Then there was the two hour wait before Stephanie came out to talk. That's where I was the abnormal person. Everyone else is pulling out their knitting and getting started. Me, I'm people watching and checking out what people are knitting, and really some of the interesting people that showed up. There were even, men, who came to see her talk. Okay, there were a couple that came with their significant others, I'm not sure if they came willingly or not, I didn't ask. I did talk to Bob, you can see him in the pictures I took wearing a blue and green cardigan that he designed himself, in line. Very amusing and fun to talk with as he knitted from his 'emergency knitting' he'd brought in from the car just as Stephanie was talking about just such a thing. It was a hat that hadn't fit the way he wanted so he was redoing.
I saved a seat for Camille who was coming from grad classes at PSU. By the time she arrived, it would have been challenging finding a seat. It was fun chatting with her and by then I was ready to pull out my knitting. I brought my 'sock in progress' but I wasn't going to start on that there, so I had also brought my 'Odessa' hat. I worked on it during most of the talk and then put it away towards the end. The long wait came during the signing portion. They were going to do it by rows but that quickly went bye bye. So I jumped in line behind Sarah and crew from Knit/Purl which also had Bob with them and chatted with them through the line. I have photos of their simulation of a 'Charlie's Angel's' type knitting pose in the Yarn Harlot photo album. Along with a couple photos of Camille and her first sock with Stephanie. I gave Stephanie some stitch markers, she quickly recognized would be good for socks (my intention) and had my book signed. I didn't ask to have my photo taken with her, I really hate having my picture taken, but I kind of regret it now.
But I forget, before this was the acquisition of more photos, you can see them at the web albums linked previously. Picking up something to eat and heading to the MAX station. The car I was sitting in did not appear to have any other knitters on board. Getting off at the Zoo there were four others just before 5pm. We walked through the pouring rain to get to Miller Hall at the Forestry Center where luckily they were opening the doors to let people inside. This is where someone didn't put a lot of thought into the layout. You had to go by the yarn, special one for the event with $3 going to Doctors Without Borders, the colorway called 'Knitters Without Borders' and you were limited to one skein per person and picking up your copy of the current book, and any other past ones you wanted to add to your library. (I forgot one of mine at home, darn it!) Then the long line came if you were doing a credit purchase. I could have made money charging to let people go through the line to get into the seating area. Lots of money.
Then there was the two hour wait before Stephanie came out to talk. That's where I was the abnormal person. Everyone else is pulling out their knitting and getting started. Me, I'm people watching and checking out what people are knitting, and really some of the interesting people that showed up. There were even, men, who came to see her talk. Okay, there were a couple that came with their significant others, I'm not sure if they came willingly or not, I didn't ask. I did talk to Bob, you can see him in the pictures I took wearing a blue and green cardigan that he designed himself, in line. Very amusing and fun to talk with as he knitted from his 'emergency knitting' he'd brought in from the car just as Stephanie was talking about just such a thing. It was a hat that hadn't fit the way he wanted so he was redoing.
I saved a seat for Camille who was coming from grad classes at PSU. By the time she arrived, it would have been challenging finding a seat. It was fun chatting with her and by then I was ready to pull out my knitting. I brought my 'sock in progress' but I wasn't going to start on that there, so I had also brought my 'Odessa' hat. I worked on it during most of the talk and then put it away towards the end. The long wait came during the signing portion. They were going to do it by rows but that quickly went bye bye. So I jumped in line behind Sarah and crew from Knit/Purl which also had Bob with them and chatted with them through the line. I have photos of their simulation of a 'Charlie's Angel's' type knitting pose in the Yarn Harlot photo album. Along with a couple photos of Camille and her first sock with Stephanie. I gave Stephanie some stitch markers, she quickly recognized would be good for socks (my intention) and had my book signed. I didn't ask to have my photo taken with her, I really hate having my picture taken, but I kind of regret it now.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Until the real post comes along later.....
You are The Lovers
Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse.
The Lovers represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made.
Originally, this card was called just LOVE. And that's actually more apt than "Lovers." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that the you have or will come across a person, career, challenge or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.
What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Because I'm being lazy
Livejournal post
What I didn't add over there was the amount of time I spent today putting the locations on my own Google map of the photos taken, then adding those locations to the Picasa photo album. Lost time there in a big way....no time for sock knitting.
My Odessa may have a small problem. I have the sinking feeling I may not have enough of the Rowan Wool-Cotton lavender to finish the hat. I do have some blue in the same yarn, would it look too weird to have it as the top color? I did see a hat that was half and half, I could try for that. It would mean that I'd have to move the beads over to the new yarn.....
The Blue Moon Socks That Rock Lightweight they are supposed to be selling at the book signing is supposed to be awesome. Tammy (lavendersheep) saw it at Sock Camp and says so. I'm leaning towards possibly getting 2-3 skeins and doing a shawl rather than socks out of one skein. I'll have to decide though when I see it, and when I find out how much it costs. Guesstimates based on others of their at that weight says 1 skein will be $19. I may only get 1.
What I didn't add over there was the amount of time I spent today putting the locations on my own Google map of the photos taken, then adding those locations to the Picasa photo album. Lost time there in a big way....no time for sock knitting.
My Odessa may have a small problem. I have the sinking feeling I may not have enough of the Rowan Wool-Cotton lavender to finish the hat. I do have some blue in the same yarn, would it look too weird to have it as the top color? I did see a hat that was half and half, I could try for that. It would mean that I'd have to move the beads over to the new yarn.....
The Blue Moon Socks That Rock Lightweight they are supposed to be selling at the book signing is supposed to be awesome. Tammy (lavendersheep) saw it at Sock Camp and says so. I'm leaning towards possibly getting 2-3 skeins and doing a shawl rather than socks out of one skein. I'll have to decide though when I see it, and when I find out how much it costs. Guesstimates based on others of their at that weight says 1 skein will be $19. I may only get 1.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Inexplicable Knitting Behavior
Brandon and I spent Earth Day in downtown Portland in the snow and rain getting photos of my "Sock in Progress" at various locations. We managed to get over 30 photos of my sock in places listed to garner points.
There is discussion of only Earth Day events on the 19th and all other locations on the 22nd. Not really fair for those people who have to work on the 22nd though. As it is, we started about 1pm and wrapped up around 7:30pm. We walked a lot!
We had thought to try to park up near PGE Park and find street parking and then use MAX. We ended up at the parking structure at 10th & Yamhill and parking on the roof, as our 1st photo opportunity since it was on the list of places. From there until we went to the Earth Day event we were on foot.
While on foot there was snow a couple of times and rain several times. It was pretty cold during the day.
The Stumptown Coffee location I found that was downtown did not have one of their roosters in front. The Rich's Tobacco on 21st that was supposed to have a horse in front did not. Speaking of horses, we bought a toy horse while at Finnegan's Toy Store to take to a Horse Project ring, but hadn't gotten the 'instructions' for attaching said horse, so it may not be there for long. Luckily it was only $2.49.
We walked the many sites covered over a period of 6 hours. We did stop and get dinner at the Ram's Head Pub, a McMenamin's in the Purl District that helped restore energy before trying to find the Rich's and the horse ring. I also thought there was a yarn store in the area, but I didn't have a location so didn't know where to look. It was also after 6pm and I figured many of the yarn stores close by that time, as many other stores in the area seemed to be closed then too.
I'm not sure if I'm working on Tuesday, I certainly couldn't have gotten all these pictures done on Tuesday, plus go to the signing. Good luck to those that are more successful in that! I have a few pictures that I'll take on Tuesday, photocopier, with Will if I don't, Freddie's recycle center, on the MAX on the way to the signing, possibly introduce my sock to someone I don't know. My pictures are here.
Oh, our Earth Day event was going to be the one at Overlook Park since it was scheduled to go until 10pm. We were there at 7:30pm and you can see by the pictures that there were a lot of empty tents.
There is discussion of only Earth Day events on the 19th and all other locations on the 22nd. Not really fair for those people who have to work on the 22nd though. As it is, we started about 1pm and wrapped up around 7:30pm. We walked a lot!
We had thought to try to park up near PGE Park and find street parking and then use MAX. We ended up at the parking structure at 10th & Yamhill and parking on the roof, as our 1st photo opportunity since it was on the list of places. From there until we went to the Earth Day event we were on foot.
While on foot there was snow a couple of times and rain several times. It was pretty cold during the day.
The Stumptown Coffee location I found that was downtown did not have one of their roosters in front. The Rich's Tobacco on 21st that was supposed to have a horse in front did not. Speaking of horses, we bought a toy horse while at Finnegan's Toy Store to take to a Horse Project ring, but hadn't gotten the 'instructions' for attaching said horse, so it may not be there for long. Luckily it was only $2.49.
We walked the many sites covered over a period of 6 hours. We did stop and get dinner at the Ram's Head Pub, a McMenamin's in the Purl District that helped restore energy before trying to find the Rich's and the horse ring. I also thought there was a yarn store in the area, but I didn't have a location so didn't know where to look. It was also after 6pm and I figured many of the yarn stores close by that time, as many other stores in the area seemed to be closed then too.
I'm not sure if I'm working on Tuesday, I certainly couldn't have gotten all these pictures done on Tuesday, plus go to the signing. Good luck to those that are more successful in that! I have a few pictures that I'll take on Tuesday, photocopier, with Will if I don't, Freddie's recycle center, on the MAX on the way to the signing, possibly introduce my sock to someone I don't know. My pictures are here.
Oh, our Earth Day event was going to be the one at Overlook Park since it was scheduled to go until 10pm. We were there at 7:30pm and you can see by the pictures that there were a lot of empty tents.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Nessa, knitting, nothing much else
Okay, there was a little "n" thing going on in the title.
Nessa has been under the weather since last Tuesday. She stopped eating. This is the little girl who hasn't met a food she doesn't like, so this was a HUGE indicator that something was wrong with her. Noticed she was running a fever, found some homeopathic sulfur in the med cabinet and tried that with her. Thought I would give her a day or so to see if she would bounce back. Well Thursday she still wasn't eating and still running a fever. Brandon wanted me to see Dr. Ulbrich at Holistic Pet Vet Clinic over going to the local allopathic doctor. Since he is the main breadwinner, I went with his option. They unfortunately weren't able to get us in until Friday afternoon. She was running a temp of 104.7. No vomiting, was drinking water, and some diarrhea. Dr. U wanted to take blood and also took a fecal sample (tiny as it was). No parasites showed up in the sample, but her blood was dark and thick, showing that she was a little dehydrated.
While waiting for Will to finish his written test for his permit (finally), Dr. U called back saying that she had over 31,000 white blood cells running around (high average is 15) and that she is clearly fighting off some type of infection. Her thyroid and kidneys were also showing low so he wanted to get her an antibiotic and support for both of those. So after Will gets his permit we swing by HPVC to pick up the new supply of meds and head home. Do you know how much fun it is trying to get 12 different meds down a dog that doesn't want you to? Thankfully they had also given me a couple of syringes so that I could get the pedialyte and beef broth into and so they helped ease the way of the capsules and pills and powdered stuff.
Saturday I did get out of the house while the D&D game was going on. I met Camille at the Fairgrounds MAX stopped and we talked our way to Knit Purl for another night of inventory work. Another $20 on my gift card and I'm back up to $24. Camille splurged and bought some gorgeous (not just because I helped) Shibuiknits Silk Cloud - silk and mohair. She plans to make them into a shawl. I'm saving mine. I think though I have found what I'd like to get with the addition of another $20 - some Habu Textiles Bamboo lace weight. Two skeins of it and I'd be set for the Cleopatra shawl in my queue, plus some leftover for another project...
Just spent some time doing an added benefit for me in my queue - making sure that my notes all have the type of yarn and yardage needed. That way its an easy scan, not a 'must look up first'. Okay, it was a distraction because of looking for yarns and projects that could be supplemented with the Gemini birthday gift swap. But it's how I found the bamboo lace weight. I will hopefully work another shift of inventory at Knit-Purl to help buy it too. I can also then pick up what I've outlined for my giftee in Denmark.
I need to get started on a sock. That way I can participate in Blue Moon's Inexplicable Knitting Behavior contest. They call it a Scavenger Hunt, but it's not like we'll actually find items at the locations, we have to take photos of our sock at those locations.
My recent photos are here. Yarn and finished projects are in the April 2008 albums.
Nessa has been under the weather since last Tuesday. She stopped eating. This is the little girl who hasn't met a food she doesn't like, so this was a HUGE indicator that something was wrong with her. Noticed she was running a fever, found some homeopathic sulfur in the med cabinet and tried that with her. Thought I would give her a day or so to see if she would bounce back. Well Thursday she still wasn't eating and still running a fever. Brandon wanted me to see Dr. Ulbrich at Holistic Pet Vet Clinic over going to the local allopathic doctor. Since he is the main breadwinner, I went with his option. They unfortunately weren't able to get us in until Friday afternoon. She was running a temp of 104.7. No vomiting, was drinking water, and some diarrhea. Dr. U wanted to take blood and also took a fecal sample (tiny as it was). No parasites showed up in the sample, but her blood was dark and thick, showing that she was a little dehydrated.
While waiting for Will to finish his written test for his permit (finally), Dr. U called back saying that she had over 31,000 white blood cells running around (high average is 15) and that she is clearly fighting off some type of infection. Her thyroid and kidneys were also showing low so he wanted to get her an antibiotic and support for both of those. So after Will gets his permit we swing by HPVC to pick up the new supply of meds and head home. Do you know how much fun it is trying to get 12 different meds down a dog that doesn't want you to? Thankfully they had also given me a couple of syringes so that I could get the pedialyte and beef broth into and so they helped ease the way of the capsules and pills and powdered stuff.
Saturday I did get out of the house while the D&D game was going on. I met Camille at the Fairgrounds MAX stopped and we talked our way to Knit Purl for another night of inventory work. Another $20 on my gift card and I'm back up to $24. Camille splurged and bought some gorgeous (not just because I helped) Shibuiknits Silk Cloud - silk and mohair. She plans to make them into a shawl. I'm saving mine. I think though I have found what I'd like to get with the addition of another $20 - some Habu Textiles Bamboo lace weight. Two skeins of it and I'd be set for the Cleopatra shawl in my queue, plus some leftover for another project...
Just spent some time doing an added benefit for me in my queue - making sure that my notes all have the type of yarn and yardage needed. That way its an easy scan, not a 'must look up first'. Okay, it was a distraction because of looking for yarns and projects that could be supplemented with the Gemini birthday gift swap. But it's how I found the bamboo lace weight. I will hopefully work another shift of inventory at Knit-Purl to help buy it too. I can also then pick up what I've outlined for my giftee in Denmark.
I need to get started on a sock. That way I can participate in Blue Moon's Inexplicable Knitting Behavior contest. They call it a Scavenger Hunt, but it's not like we'll actually find items at the locations, we have to take photos of our sock at those locations.
My recent photos are here. Yarn and finished projects are in the April 2008 albums.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Organization and projects
I spent a surprising amount of time (really though? It is Ravelry after all...) organizing my queue against what I have in my stash. In an effort to make sure that all stash is optimally planned for an intended project. So my queue has matches against all things stored in the stash. I still have many projects in the queue that don't have yarns yet, so that helps with future shopping.
I cast on this afternoon my Muench Touch Me for the Velvet Oblivion eye mask. I really, really love my eye masks for sleeping. Sure I have the light blocking curtains but just that little bit of light that can come shining in can cause a loss of a few hours more of sleep. ;^) Because it was going to deal with a stitch holder I didn't want to mess with bringing it on MAX.
For the ride down to Knit/Purl I brought Tudora. 112 stitches to cast on, while Brandon's talking to me and asking me to look at things outside the windows. It took a couple of attempts. ;^) I did get one row done and started half way through a second by the time we got to our stop. We arrived just a couple of minutes late, but in time to get started to work immediately.
I got to see Camille and put a real face on Carissa. Camille and I had taken a hemp market bag class together last summer at The Knitting Bee. Carissa I met online through Ravelry. We were soon busy fondling yarn balls as we pulled them out and put them back away after they were inventoried. It was a quick two hours of work with twelve people. We had five us working together as a team, Pat made up our fifth. We did the Jamieson Shetland line, their Cascades, and their Collinettes. I had thought it was for a $10 gift certificate each. Turns out it was $20 per hour. So ended up with $40 in store credit. I scored a couple of rovings and two skeins of Shibui sock yarn in a gorgeous purple color that Brandon picked out. There was also the pizza afterwards too. Then Camille walked with us to the MAX and we had fun chatting about various things on the ride to our stops.
If help is needed next Saturday, I'll definitely be going. I still have $4 in store credit and could get enough to buy another two skeins of sock yarn, though I might buy it for making a 'clap-jean', combination of clapotis and jeannie. Off to work on my Velvet....but first, find out what Harry Potter character I am.
I cast on this afternoon my Muench Touch Me for the Velvet Oblivion eye mask. I really, really love my eye masks for sleeping. Sure I have the light blocking curtains but just that little bit of light that can come shining in can cause a loss of a few hours more of sleep. ;^) Because it was going to deal with a stitch holder I didn't want to mess with bringing it on MAX.
For the ride down to Knit/Purl I brought Tudora. 112 stitches to cast on, while Brandon's talking to me and asking me to look at things outside the windows. It took a couple of attempts. ;^) I did get one row done and started half way through a second by the time we got to our stop. We arrived just a couple of minutes late, but in time to get started to work immediately.
I got to see Camille and put a real face on Carissa. Camille and I had taken a hemp market bag class together last summer at The Knitting Bee. Carissa I met online through Ravelry. We were soon busy fondling yarn balls as we pulled them out and put them back away after they were inventoried. It was a quick two hours of work with twelve people. We had five us working together as a team, Pat made up our fifth. We did the Jamieson Shetland line, their Cascades, and their Collinettes. I had thought it was for a $10 gift certificate each. Turns out it was $20 per hour. So ended up with $40 in store credit. I scored a couple of rovings and two skeins of Shibui sock yarn in a gorgeous purple color that Brandon picked out. There was also the pizza afterwards too. Then Camille walked with us to the MAX and we had fun chatting about various things on the ride to our stops.
If help is needed next Saturday, I'll definitely be going. I still have $4 in store credit and could get enough to buy another two skeins of sock yarn, though I might buy it for making a 'clap-jean', combination of clapotis and jeannie. Off to work on my Velvet....but first, find out what Harry Potter character I am.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Spinning
I feel a little accomplished. I finally spun up all the roving I had gotten from my drop spindle class last June. Yes, it had languished in a Knitting Bee bag on the project table, bypassed in favor of some other project that seemed to be 'better'.
No longer is it that way. I still need to work on getting the 'V' going but I suspect with a little better roving than what I was working with, I can accomplish that. We'll see. So it's all spun up and no longer roving. The next step? I need to ply it. I have the hand out on how to do Andean plying, I'll give that a whirl once I have Brandon's help with coordinating everything and making sure that what I'm reading is what I'm doing.
I also remember that I'm going to have to let it get wet and then dry so that it will set the spin. That may be interesting with the big white section and then the multicolor in the middle. They're all spun together I think so not much choice unless I cut the connections.
I was briefly tempted to use some of Nickel or Cedi's hair that they seem to be shedding all over the place as spinning material but I'm remembering that I'm slightly allergic to Nickel, so probably not a good idea.
No longer is it that way. I still need to work on getting the 'V' going but I suspect with a little better roving than what I was working with, I can accomplish that. We'll see. So it's all spun up and no longer roving. The next step? I need to ply it. I have the hand out on how to do Andean plying, I'll give that a whirl once I have Brandon's help with coordinating everything and making sure that what I'm reading is what I'm doing.
I also remember that I'm going to have to let it get wet and then dry so that it will set the spin. That may be interesting with the big white section and then the multicolor in the middle. They're all spun together I think so not much choice unless I cut the connections.
I was briefly tempted to use some of Nickel or Cedi's hair that they seem to be shedding all over the place as spinning material but I'm remembering that I'm slightly allergic to Nickel, so probably not a good idea.
Really?
You scored a total of 43
The Lively Center of Attention
Others see you as fresh, lively, charming, amusing, practical, and always interesting; someone who's constantly in the center of attention, but sufficiently well-balanced not to let it go to their head. They also see you as kind, considerate, and understanding; someone who'll always cheer them up and help them out.
Have fun:
alt="The Lively Center of Attention" width="200"More on yarn and authors
It's amazing how you can get tongue tied when talking to someone in person that you admire. One of the things I meant to tell Lili when I gave her the herringbone cuff is that she kind of inspired me to explore the world of knitting. I think she had mentioned it a few times on her blog, she's had the cool yarn avatar on her blog too. So I tried out knitting again and it stuck. Brandon's happy about that too because he'd been wanting me to get into it for a while now.
So when I gave Lili the cuff she was noticing how it was created and we talked a bit about yarn. I told her about Yarnia, and she said that we'd have to try it out together sometime. Both our budgets allowing of course. ;^) The funny thing is there had been a conversation just before this about 'Narnia' so it was a little confusing to get wrapped around Yarnia.
Wonder if Lili has thought about getting signed up with Ravelry yet?
A bunch of local area Ravelry members will be headed to Knit-Purl Saturday evening to help with stocking. Their normal staff consist of a large number of college students who are going through finals and paper writing. They still need to add/shift stock around so decided to try this out as a method to get it done. Those who help out get reimbursed with a $10 gift certificate that can be used that night as well as pizza.
I'm either going to get some Jamieson of Shetland skeins (only $5 each on sale) or a combination of some rovings - they have a Blue Face Silver for $8.25 and some Habu Textiles Corriedale in purple and green tea that are $4.25. If I can swing it I'll get all three.
So when I gave Lili the cuff she was noticing how it was created and we talked a bit about yarn. I told her about Yarnia, and she said that we'd have to try it out together sometime. Both our budgets allowing of course. ;^) The funny thing is there had been a conversation just before this about 'Narnia' so it was a little confusing to get wrapped around Yarnia.
Wonder if Lili has thought about getting signed up with Ravelry yet?
A bunch of local area Ravelry members will be headed to Knit-Purl Saturday evening to help with stocking. Their normal staff consist of a large number of college students who are going through finals and paper writing. They still need to add/shift stock around so decided to try this out as a method to get it done. Those who help out get reimbursed with a $10 gift certificate that can be used that night as well as pizza.
I'm either going to get some Jamieson of Shetland skeins (only $5 each on sale) or a combination of some rovings - they have a Blue Face Silver for $8.25 and some Habu Textiles Corriedale in purple and green tea that are $4.25. If I can swing it I'll get all three.
Books & Knitting & Dogs
It's been a busy few days.
Books: Wednesday was all about an author visit, Jim Butcher to be exact. He came to the Beaverton Powell's for a book signing of his latest book, Small Favors. Picked up our copy and gobbled up the book money on my Powell's card and still had to come up with $10. ;^)
Scifi Book Club had the book on their site, but wasn't planning on shipping until May (WTF?!), so since I wanted book in hand for him to sign while here, paid full price. I hated not having my copy when Kim Harrison was in town. It was the second year in a row that SBC was slow on getting copy in hand to me.
I'll include the link below where you can check out the photos and movies of Jim's signing. Yup, movies. Brandon was trying to get photos with Jim being an animated speaker and audience members heads moving around inconveniently, I suggested he just do movies. It seemed to work.
While at Jim's signing, I finally got a chance to get Lili Saintcrow to sign the last three books in her Dante Valentine series. I've been carting them to the last two or three signings, so it will be nice not to have to do that. ;^) It was really great seeing her there with the teen too. Loved the blue tint in her hair and her new 'Monroe' piercing is cool. I wish that I could be so brave to do something like that.
Knitting: I've been frustrated with using Flickr for Ravelry. They have a 200 photo limit for their free area. I'm not about to pay for the use of their services when I'm already paying hosting fees for the family/book web site. The frugality of it abounds. Ravelry is going to allow us to use something other than Flickr, but not until May. I'm not going to pay $3 for a month to be able to jump start that process either.
So until we find another piece of software that will work within Dreamweaver CS3, I'm going to use Picasa Web Albums. Though I'm rapidly gobbling up the space there too. Hopefully it will last me the month until the changes go through. Don't bookmark anything there because it will not be the permanent location of photos.
I had made a hemp herringbone cuff, one because it looked cool, and two because I wanted to use up the hemp. Once done though it didn't really feel like it fit me, but Lili immediately came to mind as someone that it would fit. I was able to also give that to her and she did seem to enjoy it and it was confirmed in her blog though she was having a bad night. I hate those nights where my brain won't let me sleep. Sometimes I'll get cleaning done, or lots of reading, when that happens.
Dogs: Greta asked if I could watch Cedi and Nickel for her because she was taking Mellie to a Flyball Tournament in Langley, BC. After receiving Brandon's "OK" on it, I agreed to have them. Their Australian Shepards and bigger than both of mine. So things like counters and garbage cans and doors have whole new meanings. Can't leave anything out that is consumable and have to watch for charging behaviors at doors. Nickel has stayed with us before so he's more comfortable with the situation. Cedi though has only visited and is slightly anxious about Greta being gone. Hopefully though, her puppy Prozac will help alleviate some of that. Until next Tuesday when Greta is back home, we're a four dog household. Thank the gods for dog doors!
Finally, here's the link to Jim Butcher and to the knits. View one or all of the albums there, and do feel free to leave comments.
Books: Wednesday was all about an author visit, Jim Butcher to be exact. He came to the Beaverton Powell's for a book signing of his latest book, Small Favors. Picked up our copy and gobbled up the book money on my Powell's card and still had to come up with $10. ;^)
Scifi Book Club had the book on their site, but wasn't planning on shipping until May (WTF?!), so since I wanted book in hand for him to sign while here, paid full price. I hated not having my copy when Kim Harrison was in town. It was the second year in a row that SBC was slow on getting copy in hand to me.
I'll include the link below where you can check out the photos and movies of Jim's signing. Yup, movies. Brandon was trying to get photos with Jim being an animated speaker and audience members heads moving around inconveniently, I suggested he just do movies. It seemed to work.
While at Jim's signing, I finally got a chance to get Lili Saintcrow to sign the last three books in her Dante Valentine series. I've been carting them to the last two or three signings, so it will be nice not to have to do that. ;^) It was really great seeing her there with the teen too. Loved the blue tint in her hair and her new 'Monroe' piercing is cool. I wish that I could be so brave to do something like that.
Knitting: I've been frustrated with using Flickr for Ravelry. They have a 200 photo limit for their free area. I'm not about to pay for the use of their services when I'm already paying hosting fees for the family/book web site. The frugality of it abounds. Ravelry is going to allow us to use something other than Flickr, but not until May. I'm not going to pay $3 for a month to be able to jump start that process either.
So until we find another piece of software that will work within Dreamweaver CS3, I'm going to use Picasa Web Albums. Though I'm rapidly gobbling up the space there too. Hopefully it will last me the month until the changes go through. Don't bookmark anything there because it will not be the permanent location of photos.
I had made a hemp herringbone cuff, one because it looked cool, and two because I wanted to use up the hemp. Once done though it didn't really feel like it fit me, but Lili immediately came to mind as someone that it would fit. I was able to also give that to her and she did seem to enjoy it and it was confirmed in her blog though she was having a bad night. I hate those nights where my brain won't let me sleep. Sometimes I'll get cleaning done, or lots of reading, when that happens.
Dogs: Greta asked if I could watch Cedi and Nickel for her because she was taking Mellie to a Flyball Tournament in Langley, BC. After receiving Brandon's "OK" on it, I agreed to have them. Their Australian Shepards and bigger than both of mine. So things like counters and garbage cans and doors have whole new meanings. Can't leave anything out that is consumable and have to watch for charging behaviors at doors. Nickel has stayed with us before so he's more comfortable with the situation. Cedi though has only visited and is slightly anxious about Greta being gone. Hopefully though, her puppy Prozac will help alleviate some of that. Until next Tuesday when Greta is back home, we're a four dog household. Thank the gods for dog doors!
Finally, here's the link to Jim Butcher and to the knits. View one or all of the albums there, and do feel free to leave comments.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Beading and Knitting
Today I played with both beads and knitting. I was going to use up the last of my Tahki Cotton that I've made two different styles of head bands out of by doing up a new style. So as I was reaching for one of my "One Skein Wonder" books compiled by Judith Durrant, the other one drew my attention. It had a beaded necklace on the cover. I vaguely remembered it when I looked through the book.
Brandon has put in a request for a choker style necklace for me. So I thought this might be a nice start towards that. Opened up my bead box and found some pretty purple glass beads that I thought would go well with the yarn and the beading needle. After putting 178 beads on and getting started on the pattern, half way through the second row I discover that there had to be a mistake in the instructions for row one. Great, tinking back a whole 3/4 of a row and figuring out if I had made the mistake or the author. Turns out it was the author/editor. Left out a simple CO2 at the end of the first row which was really the cast on row, but since you were also adding on the beads this row I mentally counted it as row one.
It came out looking great! I was so enthusiastic about it that I immediately jumped in and grabbed another bottle of beads, pretty sapphire blue ones and strung those 178. Two hours later I was done with the second necklace, even with putting the findings on. I got a few pictures with the setting sun shining on them on the table. I'll have to see how those come out. I'll have Brandon take a few with them on also.
Brandon has put in a request for a choker style necklace for me. So I thought this might be a nice start towards that. Opened up my bead box and found some pretty purple glass beads that I thought would go well with the yarn and the beading needle. After putting 178 beads on and getting started on the pattern, half way through the second row I discover that there had to be a mistake in the instructions for row one. Great, tinking back a whole 3/4 of a row and figuring out if I had made the mistake or the author. Turns out it was the author/editor. Left out a simple CO2 at the end of the first row which was really the cast on row, but since you were also adding on the beads this row I mentally counted it as row one.
It came out looking great! I was so enthusiastic about it that I immediately jumped in and grabbed another bottle of beads, pretty sapphire blue ones and strung those 178. Two hours later I was done with the second necklace, even with putting the findings on. I got a few pictures with the setting sun shining on them on the table. I'll have to see how those come out. I'll have Brandon take a few with them on also.
April Goals
1) To get all the little 'small' bits and pieces of yarn used up in projects (decorative or useful, just used up!).
2) Make another pair of socks. I have a lot of patterns I'd like to try. I also have two different sock yarns that could be used in this second pair of socks. One is a self-striping yarn, the other is just a different colorway (red) to the blue that I made my first pair out of.
3) Find new web photo albuming software so that I can post photo there to be used at Ravelry. I need something that will give me an absolute ID for an individual photo in an album. Ideally, I'd also like to be able to have a menu so that users will go back to the main web site with a button click. I'm maxing out my free Flickr account of 200 photos, I also don't want to delete any of them.
I'm sure there may be more but those are the ones that came immediately to mind.
2) Make another pair of socks. I have a lot of patterns I'd like to try. I also have two different sock yarns that could be used in this second pair of socks. One is a self-striping yarn, the other is just a different colorway (red) to the blue that I made my first pair out of.
3) Find new web photo albuming software so that I can post photo there to be used at Ravelry. I need something that will give me an absolute ID for an individual photo in an album. Ideally, I'd also like to be able to have a menu so that users will go back to the main web site with a button click. I'm maxing out my free Flickr account of 200 photos, I also don't want to delete any of them.
I'm sure there may be more but those are the ones that came immediately to mind.
My March Madness
I didn't have a goal, but somehow I managed to start & complete 15 projects in March. I have a couple that were started in February and finished at the beginning of March. I also have a couple that are still works in progress (WIP).
The wips though are more my state of mind. For example, one of them I planned to do up a whole bunch of coffee sleeves. I have 2 done. I'd like to do more, therefore, its still considered a WIP. The second one, is something similar. I did one, but didn't think I did that great of a job on it. Since its a dishcloth, and still usable, it wasn't frogged. I want to do another one correctly, so I still also have it listed as a WIP.
Part of the reason I was able to get so many projects done, was because I was doing some smaller projects. I have partial skeins of yarn that I'm trying to use up or clean out of my stash of yarn. Kind of a strange twist on 'spring cleaning'. So I'll have to see how April goes in the stash busting project finishing goal.
The wips though are more my state of mind. For example, one of them I planned to do up a whole bunch of coffee sleeves. I have 2 done. I'd like to do more, therefore, its still considered a WIP. The second one, is something similar. I did one, but didn't think I did that great of a job on it. Since its a dishcloth, and still usable, it wasn't frogged. I want to do another one correctly, so I still also have it listed as a WIP.
Part of the reason I was able to get so many projects done, was because I was doing some smaller projects. I have partial skeins of yarn that I'm trying to use up or clean out of my stash of yarn. Kind of a strange twist on 'spring cleaning'. So I'll have to see how April goes in the stash busting project finishing goal.
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