Roving Reporter

Just a quick one, Ryan and I are in North Carolina for a few days for Spring Break. THe weather is only about 10 or 15 degrees warmer here than Michigan, but it's enough. Plus, we've seen the sun every day so far.

Here are some pictures I uploaded before we left and never had time to write about and post. First is the finished Olive calendar contest piece. I'll take pics and send them out when we return to michigan in a couple days.



This is my Olympic knitting as of Thursday I think. Unfortunately I only managed to get to about 14 inches before the closing ceremonies. I am a little bummed, but, I got pretty close, and now it's pretty close to done and I still have more than two months before her Birthday.


Here is a picture of the stuff I got at the Fiber Festival two weekends ago. Not sure now what any of it is, but it's all handspun and pretty and soft. No plans for any of it. The roving is silk. I don't know how to spin yet, but some day I will, and I will spin silk.


Yesterday we drove to Pisgah National Forest and walked around and looked at the waterfalls and rocks. I have pictures on my camera, I'll save those for another post. Today we are on our own because Shannon has school until 4:00. We aren't sure what we're doing today, maybe walking around downtown. There's also a motorcycle museum about 30 minutes away that he wants to go to.

I am using my sister's laptop right now. It's a PC, at home I have a Mac. She has all kinds of options for fonts and colors and stuff... why don't I have any of that?!

ahhhh... so nice to only sit in front of a computer for 20 minutes instead of 8 hours. It's going to be a great week!

Full of Smartness

First, here is a better picture of the X's quilt, hanging under the gallery lights at school.



Apparently, a deadline is a great motivator for me. Unfortunately, it gets me motivated to work on OTHER things. So, right now there are 8 days, 22 hours and 13 minutes left of the knitting olympics. I have 5 inches of the skirt done... on my way to 17. One would think that I would be using any extra time to knit... the skirt. Yeah.

This is what I did Wednesday after work, along with load another 10 or 15 albums onto my iPod. The pink will be on there too, but less of it. it will be sortof like a sunburst coming from a point at the lower left, not in the corner. I don't know how else to describe it, so stay tuned.

And here is the skirt, shown here with it's competition, the almost finished second sock, two skeins of noro that somehow showed up at my door while the "no yarn in february" law was in effect (shut up... two words for you: Close-out sale). And two balls of yarn that may or may not be the next pair of socks.


Wondering what any of that has to do with today's title? This news deserves a fanfare, a drum roll, cheerleaders, man-servants feeding me chocolate, a bottomless glass of wine, and a basket of puppies just for me.... Are you ready? Are you just on the edge of your seat? bwa ha ha ha......

I got a B on my physics test.

Hell yeah!

scarf story

Boss guy: I like your scarf, did you make it?
Me: yep
Boss guy: I figured, I don't know where anyone would buy one like that
Me: What? a skinny useless scarf?
Boss guy: Haha, yep
Me: This was the first thing I ever knitted
Boss guy: Oh yeah, How old were you?
Me: .... 25

All in one piece

It took most of the day Saturday, but all my X's are now attached to the background.


I started to lay it out over the weekend and I didn't like it. First, I eliminated all of the turquoise, blue and bright red X's. That helped a lot. Then I decided to complicate it further, because that is the way I am. I am always the one in class cutting out tiny pieces or using a squeeze bottle to dye 1/2-inch yellow circles and then going back to put a purple dot in the center of each circle.

All of the X's were cut with mitered points. Since my grid background is not 100% perfect, the mitered points of course didn't line up right, so I had a brilliant idea to cut all of the points off. Although this made the process of fusing the X's a little more difficult and time consuming, I think it turned out great! The tiny squares of negative space that are created where the X points meet are much more interesting than a mitered corner. See for yourself...



In order to get everything lined up, I used my little tacking iron to fuse just the center of an X to the background, then once I had four points that met each other, I trimmed each X and fused them down.

Sunday I did some more test dying for Chris and she is looking everything over this week and is going to let me know what she wants and how much. Which means I have to figure out how much to charge... I hate that part.

The olympic knitting is coming along well... I have about 3.5 inches of the skirt done and the i-cord drawstring started and it's about 6 inches long. The timing is actually working out pretty well. I was telling my mom over the weekend that I must be crazy for picking such a big project to knit when I have so many other things going on. I'm feeling the need to write out my school/work/homework/dying for Chris schedule and hand it to people when they think I'm over-reacting or exaggerating about how busy I am. But, I just had a physics test on Monday, which means no homework until Wednesday and I am just finishing up the time consuming part of the X's quilt, so I actually do have a little free time to knit. And as long as I knit about an inch or two per day, I'll have it done with time to spare.

Next project for school is going to be a Whole-cloth quilt... deconstructed. The plan, which really is not a plan, just an idea in my head is to use Remazol dyes along with reactive dyes just like that black yellow and purple quilt I linked to above. I am going to use a big, maybe 40" or so piece of fabric, and paint it with the dyes in some sort of traditional quilting pattern like a whole cloth quilt. The combination of the two dye chemicals work against each other and have sortof a bleach and over dye action. As in the black yellow and purple fabric I did before, I painted the whole piece with black Remazol, then after it dried, I went back with a squeeze bottle of yellow reactive dye and drew the circles all over, then went back with a squeeze bottle of purple reactive dye and put a dot in the center of each cirlce. The result is black with yellow and purple targets all over. So that will be the Whole Cloth part, then the plan is to cut it along the diagonal in strips and swip swap the order and sew it back together. That's the deconstructed part.

Trouble with the law

It is only six days into February and I'm already having a hard time with the "no new yarn in February, in Michigan, excluding the fiber festival" law. and I am thinking of adding another exception to the law. How about, "no new yarn in February, in Michigan, excluding the fiber festival and excluding things that will be knit as a gift." I found this great **** yarn on ebay that I think will be perfect for something for ****. And her birthday is after my semester ends, so I'll for sure have time to knit them when I'm done with all this physics crap. That's it... hang on... I'll be right back.

Last Thursday and Friday evenings, I ironed and fused all my fabric, all 15 half yards of the green gradations, plus about 15 quarter yards of the accent colors for the "stitches". I discovered it's amazing what you can do when you follow the instructions. I always have my iron set to cotton and with a medium amount of steam. I hardly EVER change it. So I was wunder-undering all my fabric, and my iron ran out of water. For some reason I didn't add more water and then later noticed how much better and easier it was for the WU to stick to the fabric all of a sudden. Whatayaknow... someone already knew that and wrote it RIGHT ON THE PACKAGE!!!!

Saturday morning I cut out 200 4-inch squares of all the background fabrics, and then last night my mom helped me start cutting out all the X's. I still have about 50 or 60 to do, I stayed up until 1am tracing all the X's and we got a good chunk of them done. They are all ready to be cut now, and I'll be doing that tonight as soon as I get home at 6. Then I will stay up until the whole quilt is assembled onto the batting so I can take it all in one piece to the critique tomorrow night. Since I have to be at work from 8:30 until 5 every single ^(#^%)*@#$@ weekday, tonight is the only chance I'll have to do it. Then hopefully she'll understand if maybe the whole quilt doesn't get completely quilted until the end of the semester. It's going to be about 60 inches square when finished, so that will take me a while to quilt, and hopefully being able to do a little bit at a time throughout the next month and a half, I'll be able to bring it in again to show at the final critique.

So the plan of attack as of right now is to get my physics homework done today while I'm at work, so that I can have the whole evening tonight at home to assemble the quilt.

Pictures to come... And here they are!

My swatches and paint chips. My color matching abilities impressed me. This is the first time I've tried to match something like that. Some matches were more successful than others.

The quilt all laid out on the batting and fused.

Shown here with a few X's laid out.


I overdyed this commercial fabric... Any opinions on the pink for a border?

Happy Birthday, the Money and the Math

I got a call this morning, and Ryan's new neice was born a little before 6am. Happy Birthday Madison! Now the little booties I made will finally have some feet to keep warm! I am not going with Ryan tonight to see her though, I have been sick for a week and a half with this sore throat and cough, so I don't want to chance getting the new babe sick on her first day out of the womb! Instead, I am going to my parents house to dye fabric, make a mess in my mom's kitchen and maybe get THEM sick.

So last week, I was reading Crazy Aunt Purl and she had an excel file set up for a budget. I downloaded it, and because I am a nerd sometimes (get that, a nerd that doesn't get physics or math) and thought it would be fun to track my money. I didn't really do anything with it, just saved it without adding any of my own information to the budget plan. And then Monday, when I realized the first of the month was coming and I need to get my rent figured out, I signed onto do my online banking to find my checking account had $4.53 in it. And my savings had just enough to still have money in it after I transfered enough to cover my rent check. Great. Wonderful. Superb even. That brought to my attention that I need to start being a little more careful with my money. I REALLY wish I had thought of that oh, you know, 3 years ago when I had over $3,000 in my savings account.

So I started with January, and filled in as many of the fields in the excel budget as I could. By my calculations, I spent around $500 more than I made this month. YIKES!!!! Ok, let me explain myself... I spent about $160 on (hopefully) a year's worth of contacts, about $85 on Rx's for three months, $117 on school books and my graduation fee (yes, you have to pay $90 to graduate, and that is not to pay for the diploma, I still have to buy that) and from there my explanations get a little fuzzy, not so legitimate and necessary for sustaining life as I know it. Ok, so... Mervynn's was going out of business, so I had to go. And I had to cash in on all the deals and steals, like, a new pair of tennies for $30 (they were half off!) and a couple new bras that were also 40% off. And then Ryan had a gift certificate to use at Old Navy, so I went with him and spent about $60 on a new coat, a sweater and a dressy sortof sport coat/blazer (that sounds bad, but it's very feminine and cute and I don't know when or where I'll ever wear it, but it only cost $6.97).

And that is not even counting the YARN... OH THE YARN!!!!!!!!!! Let's see, that trip I bribed myself with a couple weeks ago cost me about $45, I've been yarn stalking on Ebay a lot lately too, so in January I wracked up another $55 worth of stash items from Ebay alone. Yes, I spent almost $100 on yarn in January. I didn't include in there the $35 I spent at Elann.com to buy the yarn for the Knitting Olympics which is also my sister's birthday present. That I see as legitimate because I have a plan, it's a gift, and I resisted the temptation to keep adding items to my cart, "I'm ordering the yarn for Shannon's skirt, I might as well take a peek at their sock yarn and, ooh, this looks pretty, and oooh silk..." and so on.

So now I am officially on a budget. I will not be buying yarn in February, I will not buy shoes, I will not buy clothing. There is just one (ok, two) exceptions. February 18th is the Fiber Festival in Chelsea. There will be yarn and I have to go and I'm not promising I'll leave empty handed. In fact, I promise I will NOT leave empty handed. So that is it! No buying yarn in February, in Michigan. So that means, when Ryan and I are on vacation in North Carolina at the end of February, my yarn diet is rescinded.

Physics is still kicking my nether regions. I am really wishing I hadn't taken this class, but I have to keep movin' on it. I was pretty proud of myself last night. Usually I try to get all the way thru my homework before I call Shannon, so I can ask her all the questions at once, instead of calling her umpteen million times in the span of two hours or whatever it takes. So I got through my Lab assignment in about 2 hours, all on my own. Then moved on to my homework from the lecture portion of the class. Got that done in less than one hour and only had ONE question for Shannon! That's right, I understand Kinetic AND Potential Energy. Take that PHYSICS!!!!!!!!!! HA!!!!

This Sunday is the PuppyBowl, I know you all are as excited as I am. Mom and I will be knitting and watching the puppies chase each other around the football field (and giggling, but that's a given).

olympics

Ok. I'm in. I have a feeling I'll regret it, but I've already sent the email. I am officially an Olympic Knitter.

I'm knitting Skating Queen from Knitty out of this Rayon/Cotton yarn.
I just ordered it today from Elann. I will do a swatch and wind all my skeins into center pull balls before the opening ceremony. It officially starts at 2pm EST on that Friday, so I will probably bring something to work with me that day, maybe I can start on the i-cord for the drawstring and leave it here for the two weeks during the olympics and work on it whenever I get a chance.

As for school... I am renaming "physics"... from now on I will refer to it as "The Class That Makes Me Cry". I skipped my textiles class last night, partly because I've been sick this week but mostly because I had a bunch of homework due this morning. I started it at 7:20, after dinner and dishes. but of course, I sat on my living room floor and tried to do a lab and homework questions while watching Good Eats, Unwrapped, and two hours of American Idol. at 10:00 I turned it back to the food channel, thinking it would just be background noise, since I didn't care about the show... at 10:30 when only one more question got answered, I turned the tv off and moved to the couch because my butt was numb from sitting on the floor. After getting through almost all the questions on my own, at about 11:30 or so I called Shannon for help on one question that I didn't understand, but ended up going over about half of my homework with her and changing my answers. These are one of the many many times I wish she wasn't 10+ hours away. At least she's still in the same time zone. Shannon, could you tell I was holding back from crying on the phone? I know you wouldn't have judged me for crying, but if I had started, it would have been ugly.

All I can do is just struggle through this class and get at least a C- to pass it so I can graduate. But there is one little brain cell that keeps telling me, "find out when the last day to drop this class is, you can just give up, there's still time" But I WILL NOT GIVE UP, if I give up, I'll just have to take something else in it's place, but then I won't graduate until next FALL!!! that is UNACCEPTABLE! or as Super Nanny would say, "unasseptible". So Shannon, you can look forward to many more calls, and possibly tears. Thank you in advance! You're the best!

And some sad news... I haven't touched my sock or any yarn at all in 3 days. There will be knitting tonight, oh yes there will... and if not... ya'll better watch OUT!

I just finished my first ever sock!!!

As you can see, the left sock doesn't quite keep the toes warm... yet, I will cast on tonight. Promise. No second sock syndrome for me, cuz I have more yarn to cast on another pair after this one is done.

I got home Wednesday to a package at my front door. It's my ebay yarn from The Natural Dye Studio!!!
I love to order yarn on line. When I get yarn in the mail, it feels like it's free, like a present! I love to get things in the mail!

That's my sock yarn on the left, then two different colorways of wool slub (about 90 yards each) and the two on the right are cotton chenille. I am not ashamed to say that I do not have a plan for anything but the sock yarn. It's pretty and it's soft and I need no excuse to just keep it by my chair and pet it. Afterall, I am the only knitter on the planet without a cat, or four.

Speaking of cats, I had a dream last night that my mom bought me a cat. In the dream I picked up the strange plastic and metal mesh container that held the kitten and thought, "My own mother doesn't remember that I am allergic to cats". Then she told me that the woman who sold her the kitten told her that I could train the cat so I would not be allergic to it. I remember saying something next about training it to not sleep on my face all night. I played with the kitten until it scratched my cheek and then I woke up. Strange. I'm a dog person anyway.

If you have a tv that won't have football on it on SuperBowl Sunday, turn it to Animal Planet and watch the PuppyBowl. It's about the cutest thing you'll ever see, next to being there in person of course.

As for my cross stitch quilt, I have 3 sets of 5-value gradations for the background. They are perfect and I am very excited.


Next step will be to take them all to a store that sells paint and pick out some colors that look good and then I'll try to match them with dye. Shouldn't be too difficult, since I'm not extremely picky when it comes to my dye results, and also considering my timeline for this project.

Hump Day

Happy Hump Day everyone!
I haven't thought of that phrase since high school. It reminds me of all the stupid shit that goes on in high school. Things like, "don't you know if you wear green on a Wednesday it means you are gay?!" (of course you know they did not mean 'happy') and the whole "what lunch hour do you have? I have B, do you have B? oh my god, who am I going to SIT WITH!?" Being called on when you don't know the answer, teachers ALWAYS call on the one that looks down at the book real quick to avoid being called on. And of course, waking up when your forehead hits your desk with a loud thud. Unfortunately, I can say that has happened to me, at least twice, well, maybe I am fortunate it only happened twice in all my years of school. All these things are coming back to me this semester. I am taking a physics class, which they covertly call "Physical Science 1" I thought I was taking a science class, you know, chemistry, periodic table, maybe the anatomy of a cell thrown in for fun, but no, it's physics. I haven't taken a math class since 2002 and I got a C in it. (in my defense, I would have gotten a B or better if I had studied for the final) So this morning, I was sitting in my physics lecture, listening to Mr. Physics explain some formulas for calculating acceleration and velocity and some other letters that will some day stand for numbers and then I could see him pointing at numbers and writing letters on the board and demonstrating things at the front of the class, but I was hearing, "this guy's wife must let him dress himself in the morning, his beard reminds me of Ryan, I miss Ryan, I wonder what we'll have to do in lab today, I don't remember putting deoderant on today, when am I going to have time to do my homework?, how many times will I have to call Shannon while I'm doing my homework to have her explain this to me, oh, he's writing something else on the board, maybe I should pay attention, pay attention!!!" That's usually how it goes, at least once per hour of lecture, I drift off to never never land and think about weird things. Another week of physics is over, only 13 more to go.

My textiles class on the other hand, has started off with a bang! wait, does that mean it's good or bad? I am confused about this metaphor. I meant that it is going well so far. My first project is going to be a large wall quilt based on cross stitch. Last night I dyed 10 half-yards of fabric, 5 different values of 2 different greens. and tomorrow night I will dye another 5-value gradation of another shade of green, (or is it a hue of green?) and rinse/wash the first 10 pieces. I am using instructions (modified instructions) from Elin Noble's book Dyes & Paints. These three greens will be the "aida cloth" background, which I will cut into 3 or 4 inch squares and arrange artfully on a piece of batting and fuse them to it. I will also dye lots of other colors to make the stitches. So each 3 or 4 inch square will have an X in it of a different color. The colors of the X's will also be chosen carefully and arranged artfully on the green background. This project will be a test of my ability to let things be planned and random at the same time and a way to give a quilt using the same base block (square with X in it) an interesting composition by manipulating color and value. So, pictures to come as the project gets further along and more picture worthy, all I have right now is wet fabric in buckets.

Yarn Harlot has proposed a knitting olympics, and I am extremely tempted to participate, against my better judgement of course. I don't know when I'll have time to knit, or you know, sleep, eat, breathe. I want to knit the skating queen skirt from Knitty for my sister's birthday. I haven't officially joined yet, because I am afraid to commit to something and then come February, not have time to knit it and then feel obligated to knit instead of do physics homework, or instead of working on textiles or something else important. And, the most exciting use of my time is... drum roll... Chris Roberts Antieau has commissioned me to dye fabric for her work! That is the most exciting thing ever!!! I still have to make up some samples for her and give her a price quote. So if all goes well, that is what I'll probably be spending my weekends doing.

As for my sock, I am past the heel, working on the knit around section until I get to start decreasing for the toe.

The bribery works

Apparently, just the mention of yarn can motivate me. My plan yesterday was to get my errands done and then go to Knit A Round. I returned my stuff to TJMaxx, then headed to the Salvation Army, dropped off all four bags of stuff without a second glance even though one bag was full of shoes and another half full of purses. So I was driving away from Salvation Army, through the back of the one way parking lot when I realized where this little lot was leading me. The Salvation Army drop off lead me right to the front door of Ann Arbor's other knitting shop, Flying Sheep. Well, that must have been fate, so I had to go in. I got a ball of Sockotta and a skein of Classic Elite Silk Mohair in lavendar. I already had two skeins of sage green at home that I thought the lavender would look neat with.

Saturday I started my first sock and I am ready to turn the heel on it.


I just got that sock book from Borders today. I am not thrilled that it is shaped like a sock. I wish it weren't and I almost bought a different one becuase of it, but this one had the most patterns in it that I thought I would be most likely to actually use. I think the sock shape book is pretty cheesy and makes me feel like I am reading a childrens book. Like, maybe it should say "one sock two sock red sock blue sock" in it.



So after I made the requisite purchase at Flying Sheep I headed to the North side of Ann Arbor to Knit A Round. I probably made three or four loops around the store, touching everything and kept going back to the same couple things that were pretty and soft and I had equally no clue what I would make with any of them. So, the logical thing to do, find the really soft lace weight acrylic/nylon that only costs $3.50 for a 350 yard skein, and buy 6 of them. That makes sense right?

Bribery

After a long and busy first week of school, it is finally Saturday. All I want to do is be lazy today, but I have stuff to get done before another hectic week starts. I have 4 garbage bags full of stuff to drop off at the Salvation Army, mostly clothing, shoes and purses that don't fit or are way out of style (I have such a hard time throwing things away that I still have stuff I wore my freshman year of high school... 1994/95). I have returns to handle at Kohl's and TJMaxx. So in order to get that stuff done, I think I will bribe myself with a trip to the yarn shop. This is one that I don't make it to very often because it is not convenient to where I live or anywhere I have to go... which I guess is a good thing in a way.

Last night I had a nice relaxing evening at home. I watched Bye Bye Birdie on tv and knit this:

a tiny mitten, on tiny needles with tiny yarn. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha

proof

Just a quick post to prove that I am not lazy.

I have started this Branching Out at least three times and finally got all the bugs worked out and I am about 4 or 5 pattern repeats into it. It is so much fun to knit!!! I can't do it while anything else is going on around me though, because there is so little repetition in the pattern, but that is what makes it fun! I'm using Decadence (100% Baby Alpaca) from Knit Picks. Which is much thicker than laceweight, but I want this to be a warm and useful scarf when it's done, not just a pretty one.


I also finished all the baby things I was working on. Here is the roll brim hat (Yarn Harlot pattern), for Kahner and the pink pixie hat and baby booties for the new baby in the family.

Also, I am uber-paranoid that my new iPod is going to get all scratched up from being in my pocket, or in my purse or in my car all the time, so I had to knit a little iPod Cozy. I made the pattern up as I went along and I am quite pleased with the way it turned out. So much in fact, that I've cast on one for my sister's mp3 player and am planning one for a digital camera too. It's a good way to use leftover yarn.



Today was the first day of school. I got up at 7 so I could leave here at 8:15 for my physical science class that starts at 9. Class goes until 10:50 and from there I went straight to work, worked through my lunch break and stayed at the office until 6:00. Tomorrow I get to go to work from 8:30 till 5:00 and then right to school for my textiles class that goes from 5:30 till 8:20. I am anticipating a very stressful and hectic four months. But, it will all be worth it, becuase these are the last two classes I need for my bachelor's degree. Does "bachelors" get an apostrophe or no? Which expensive class should I have learned that in?

Accolades

Have you ever received a hand made present from someone and had to feign excitement, love and appreciation? I have, and it made me think, what if I am making all this stuff that makes me happy, but giving it to people and they have to say, "oh... uh... great Candice, thaaaaaanks."

This thought was quickly washed away by my favorite person to make things for, Leah.

Shown here, wearing her Christmas present.

She sent me this picture along with these words:

"yesterday night I got out the other gifts from you and just threw the new weaved scarf on.
Just for a place to put it till I got to where it goes, well I was wearing black and it just looked soooooooo beautiful.
You see I thought I would only wear it for super fancy but no, I realize now I love it just so much that I wore it to lunch with my aunties and Grandma. Well boy if they did not have a fit about it! and then to learn that you made this TOOOOOO........on top of all that you can do, boy they are floored. Then the cash out lady had to love it up too!
So now I came home and thought I would send you pics of me wearing it. Photographs photographed by Jon Wheeler Jr.
LOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEE you and your amazing care and creativity. It is so fun that I am getting such a huge Gigi collection, really fun when people come over and observe something and then I get to go on the tangent showing them everything that you have ever made!
Now I have one more thing to add to the list!
you amazing girl you!"

Leah knows by now that not a single holiday can go by without her receiving something hand made from me. She has said a couple times that her gifts to me don't compare to the ones I make for her. What she doesn't know though, is that I would make a hundred more quilts and weave a thousand more scarves for her, even if I never received another gift from her ever, hand-made or not. I love her that much.

Thing

I have a thing.

I think we all know that I have a "yarn thing".

"yarn thing"

"yarn thing"

I don't understand how anyone can NOT have a "yarn thing".

I also have a "fabric thing" but that has slightly subsided since I began knitting over the summer. I could post 3 or 4 more pictures of my fabric stash, but I'll leave it to the imagination.
But I have an excuse... I'm a quilter, I'm a knitter, I'm a weaver. I do NEED this yarn and this fabric. and I will always need more and want more. That's just the way it is. I can't and WON'T feel bad about it.

The one that I don't quite understand though, is this need I have for pens. I have this need to buy pens. Pretty on the outside pens, pens that write really smooth gel ink, pens that are shaped different, pens that write but also do other things. I always have a pen or two in my car, I have two pens in my purse right now, and I even went out and spent $13 on a set of colored pens yesterday, even though I already have a set that is so similar to it, it scares me. I don't really write on paper, except maybe to plan out a quilt pattern or some other art work. I don't write letters to send in the mail. I haven't been taking academic classes in school for the past couple years, so I haven't had to take notes in class. I have no explanation for this "pen thing".
This is just one drawer full as an example. Yeah, that's right, I even have pens that are shaped like frogs wearing boxing gloves that REALLY BOX, and you know what? I don't just have one, but THREE of them.

So I think this is just an example of overabundance and obsessiveness in my life. When I like something, I REALLY like it, to the point of obsession. This goes for yarn, fabric and pens, but also with food and of course, shoes and purses. I think I need to work on that this year. Less shopping, more working in the sewing room. I predict now through mid-April will not be too hard to accomplish this though, I will be too busy with work, school and homework to shop.

And I am afraid to actually say this out loud, becuase then I'll feel the responsibility of actually doing it, but I need 25 pounds to be off my body. That is the weight I've gained in the past three years since I've been living on my own and working at a "sit at the computer all day" job. Now I've done it, I said it, let the work begin. It is, afterall, 4 days into the New Year. Let the betterment begin!

What I gave and what I got

I had a great Christmas, it was spread out over 3 days, Christmas eve with my dad's family early in the day, then Ryan's family in the evening, then Christmas day with my immediate family, then the day after Christmas is Ryan's birthday, so the whole weekend was a big party, with presents for everyone! the best kind!

First, here is some of the stuff I made for people that I couldn't show pictures of before Christmas.
This is Shannon's "potato chip scarf" from Knit Picks, made from the rayon/silk varigated yarn from Forma Loom.
And this is a scarf I wove for Leah with Tencel from Heritage Yarns.

I also made my mom a roll-up dpn holder, because she has been keeping hers in ziplock bags. I didn't get a picture of it, but I made myself one yesterday, so here's a pic of it.



I also made some little stitch markers for my Grandma, my mom and for Leah, we're a knitting family. And for Ryan's dad, I made him a scarf, because he shaved his long beard this summer, for the first time in probably 25 years. So I figured he'd need something to keep his neck/chin warm this winter. I made it from grey Lion brand Wool, hopefully it is soft enough for him Ryan approved it's manliness, or at least it's un-girliness.

I am so excited about all the stuff I got!!! From my parents I got an iPod!!! ahhhhh!!! I've wanted one for so long! It's a black 30GB color screen photo iPod! ahhhh!!! I haven't really played with it yet though, because I need to get small earbuds for it, the ones that come with it don't fit in my tiny ears.

I got books from Ryan's family and some other small things. I also got some beads and... drum roll... a 20 yard bolt of PFD fabric!!!

One of my bosses gave me these great glass knitting needles. I was so excited that I cast on this scarf IMMEDIATELY and started making another Christmas present! although, it didn't get finished in time.


Shannon made me this great hat that I LOVE, and also got me some neat dressy earrings.
it's not the greatest pic of the hat, or me, actually. The hat has a pattern with two snowflakes, a diamond shape and two tassels on each side like pig-tails.

And from my best friend Leah, I got two skeins of yarn, both are hand painted, and she gave me her mom's pearl earrings inside a little leather pouch of hers. That is very special. I'm a little nervous about wearing them and losing them, so I want to take them and have screw backs put on.


So tonight is new years eve, I am heading out to Ryan's house in a couple hours where we'll count down to the new year, drink some wine for me, gin for him, probably some beer for both of us. I am considering running to the store to buy ingredients for Spinach Artichoke dip... yum! so cheeesy, so garlicky... yum!!!! funny how you can't really taste the spinach or the artichokes, but that is the name of the dip.

Back to work on Monday and back to school on the 9th, so there will be quilting and fiber related content soon. Promise. I got a B in Textiles this past semester. I am not too pleased. I don't think I deserve a B. maybe I'll have a talk with her when I go back in two weeks. oh man... two weeks, that will come so soon!

I know, I know... it's been a week, more than a week. Sorry! I will make it up to you after Christmas with lots of pictures.

Last weekend, Shannon came "home" from North Carolina for Christmas. I say "home" because I think it depends on your definition of the word. If home is where you keep your things, it is in North Carolina. If home is where your family is; Michigan is home.

We spent the whole day baking and eating cookies on Sunday, I think we made at least 5 or 6 different kinds of cookies. ooooh yum. Even our dog Dakota got a treat! That would be Shannon feeding the dog yogurt. She's still in her pj's, I won't say what time it was when I took that picture. ;)

The days since Sunday have been somewhat of a blur. Those of you that have been reading my blog already know that my best friend Leah's mom Michele was diagnosed with uterine cancer in June. Her battle with that cancer ended on Sunday. We knew it was coming, but it doesn't make it any easier to accept or understand. Monday at work was hard, I had to email all 12 of my coworkers to let them know, because I knew if I went in and tried to repeat it that many times, I would make a blubbering idiot of myself. Most everyone was understanding and respected my request not to talk about it. All it took was one person to say, "I'm very sorry for your loss" to make me lose it. Just opening my mouth to say thank you, I could feel my face start to quiver and my eyes well up with tears.

The memorial service was yesterday, it was beautiful, as beautiful as a funeral can be. It started with a relative of Michele's and then a former coworker of hers speaking about her, and sharing stories. Then the coworker introduced Leah, you could hear everyone in the room quietly gasp, sniffle or otherwise share their disbelief that she can get up there and talk. But she did and it was beautiful. The love that mother and daughter share, even in death is just amazing. I've said it since the beginning of this six month battle, Leah is so strong and so amazing. I am so proud of you Leah! The service ended with a slide show of pictures of Michele and her family. It was so great to see so many pictures of her beautiful smiling face.

After the service, we all went back to Leah's house and stayed for a few hours, mingling with friends from high school, relatives and other friends and acquaintences of Leah and Michele. Leah handed me an envelope with a few pictures she had found while creating the slide show that she wanted me to have.
Here is Leah and I, we are six years old and getting ready to ride our decorated bikes in the Children's Fair Parade.
This is me and Michele, I don't specifically remember this day, but it looks like we had built some kind of fort in their back yard and were hanging out in it. This looks like it was about 6th or 7th grade. I'm not sure about the cat's name, but the dog is Lou Lou. (yes, I was allergic to cats back then too, but I just didn't care).

Michele's friends and family have been leaving stories and messages on the blog, I hope it continues for a long time. My mom wrote a wonderful story about her here (as well as some not so flattering pictures of Leah and I as kids). I also posted a story here.

My very very first memory of Michele: I was probably 5 or 6, Leah and Michele lived in an apartment above a storefront downtown in Chelsea. I have the most clear memory of Leah and I sitting at the kitchen table, waiting for lunch. Michele is at the counter, about to pour two glasses of milk, until I tell her, "I only like the milk with the BLUE cap." And even after that, and probably many other "picky-eater" moments that I don't recall, she still welcomed me with open arms, as if a second daughter.

a pair, or two

After about three tries, I finally have a pair of booties! This is a different pattern than the first bootie I knitted. The first one was knit on two needles, so it had a weird seam and was just a little funky looking anyway, so I found a different pattern. I made one bootie with the new pattern and it was a tad loose and had some strange holes in it where I switched between needles (knit in the round). So I considered that one my practice bootie, and made two more with that pattern, and even took notes on the things I changed, so I could make a matching one. and here we have it... a matching pair!
It might be a little hard to see, but there is one row of frilly fringey yarn just above the sole. oooh, uh... did I say they were DONE? I still have to do some i-cord for a tie around the ankle, but THEN they'll really be done. But for now, I'm moving on to Christmas knitting, because the baby isn't due until late January/early February.

Here is a picture of the finished mittens that I never showed off. I still need to wash them and block them. The one I finished first is bigger than the second because everyone I showed it to, wanted to put it on, including men with big hands. So it is stretched out a bit, but I think I can fix that by washing and a VERY quick bounce around in the dryer.

They were really fun. I have this terrible urge to find the tiniest yarn and the tiniest needles and knit tiny mittens. I have no idea where that came from, but I really want to do it.

And here is what I've been working on at school. It's not too exciting, they are just practice pieces, I've been learning doubleweave.

The shorter piece on the right is what I started first. It is an 8/2 Rayon and Rayon Boucle warp and same for weft. It was a nightmare. It wasn't until I started to pull all the ends thru the heddles that I realized my mistake. the little bumps on the yarn were catching on each other and tangling, getting wrapped around heddles and snapping. I snapped 3 warp ends before I even had the thing tied onto the back beam. I managed to get it straightened out, tied on and tensioned, and when I started to weave, I was still getting the bumpy threads tangled on each other, so I could only tolerate weaving that much, which is probably about 6 inches. I decided to get some new yarn and tie it on to the existing warp and pull it thru the reed and heddles. It worked really well, it only took about an hour to tie each new end onto an old end and pull it thru and tie them all on the back. Once my new warp was on, I wove like the wind! That rayon is so soft and slippery and smooth, it's just great to weave with. Especially with doubleweave, because you have twice as many threads shoved into places where only half as many should be. Maybe that is confusing... if your yarn is 24 ends per inch (wraps around a ruler 24 times to equal one inch), you need 24 of each color (because in doubleweave, you are weaving two layers simultaneously), so there are 48 ends in one inch, where really only 24 are supposed to be. So I've come to the conclusion, even after using this great slippery yarn, I don't care for doubleweave. I can see it's usefulness, and possibilities, but I don't really enjoy doing it.

I don't mean to rub it in, but... MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING IS DONE! I've never been so prepared, so early. This is the first year I've made a budget and stuck to it. I decided how much I could spend on each person I had to buy for, and I only spent that much and stopped shopping. In years passed I've started early and just kept shopping until Christmas eve. But this is the first year I can actually see the bottom of my savings account, so it made it that much easier to budget. I am waiting for one more thing to come in the mail. Something I bought on Ebay, I paid for it on the 23rd of November, I should have it by now. It better come, or someone's in big doooo doooooo.

Oh, the scarves, I never reported how much was made for Habitat for Humanity. We are still selling scarves randomly to people who stop by the studio, but last I heard, we sold about 30 scarves out of the 45 we dyed. So we probably donated close to $300. I didn't end up selling any of the bags I brought in. I think my prices were too high. The average college student, walking through the union at lunch time probably doesn't have $35 in cash. But I would rather not sell them than get less for them. I have to turn a profit, don't I?

I have 6 more days of work before I'm off for 10 days. I can hardly wait. I am already compiling a mental list of everything I want to work on while I have the time. I need to finish the calendar contest piece. I have a quilt I started last December that needs to be quilted, I'd like to re-vamp my website a bit and of course knit knit knit. I might also dress my loom for the alpaca shawl. But at the top of the list is to get a contribution to The Sampler sent out. I think I'll dye some fabric and cut it into fat eighths and maybe dye some silk noil yarn to go with it.

But now, it's back to work for me.

the cold... oh the cold

I can't get away from it, everywhere I go, I am freezing! I am sitting at work right now, on the verge of shivering, I am wearing two shirts plus a fleece pullover thing and I am still cold. It feels like the heat in my car doesn't work anymore. My apartment was built in the 60's and I think "insulation" was a concept unheard of at that time, not to mention the windows are as old as the rest of the place and are drafty as hell, which can be fixed with those plastic sheets that you stick to the window with a hair dryer, but the stuff doesn't stick. So I am cold. The only place that isn't cold is in my bed with my electric blanket on. It is an exercise in will power and strength to get out of bed in the morning. Believe me though, it doesn't happen quietly, it's a bad sign when the first words you utter every morning are "sonofabi***".

Despite the cold, I have been having some fun lately. Last weekend, the EMU Textile Design Guild had a dye day. We learned to dye silk in the microwave, it was unbelievably easy and quick. We bought 45 silk scarves from Dharma Trading Company and dyed them.


Then on Wednesday we had a table in the student union where we sold the scarves. We bought the scarves for between $1.50 to $3.00 each and sold them for $10 to $12 each. All profits went to Habitat for Humanity. I haven't heard any figures yet as to how much we raised, update will follow, possibly tomorrow. We were also invited to bring in things of our own to sell at the table as well, I brought in three of my bags and haven't heard yet if any of them were sold.

Also last weekend, Ryan and I went to see Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash movie. Holy crap... I haven't seen such a good movie in a long time. Joaquin Phoenix is amazing as Johnny Cash, he does all the singing and was just incredible, not to mention sexy. My knowledge of Johnny Cash and his music before the movie was pretty close to nuthin', I knew he sang "I fell into a burning ring of fire and it burned burned burned..." and that was about it. So I do not have a biased opinion of the movie being good just because I'm a fan, which I am now, but wasn't before. The movie was over two hours long and we didn't fidget in our seats for a minute of it. Ryan is a tall guy and usually gets uncomfortable in theater seats, but he didn't even move throughout the entire movie, we were just enthralled. I highly recommend it.

In knitting news... I finished another baby bootie, I used a different pattern, this one is knit in the round so it turned out much better. I will do one or two more to get a pair, but probably after Christmas. Since all of a sudden I decided to knit Christmas presents for two more people. I'll have a pic of the bootie soon.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon. There is an exhibit of his artwork here in Ann Arbor this weekend. I don't know which day, but Ryan and I will be going. I have never seen any of his artwork in person before, only posters and commercial copies. The entry fee is $2 and will be donated to Dawn Farm, I think it's a local charity, not sure. I'm just glad my money won't be going to Yoko, though, I'm sure she already has some of it anyway.

How to Knit at Work

Knitting at work is a tricky thing. I have a job that lets me sit and do nothing and wait for the phone to ring, or wait for someone to come along and give me something to do. If you don't have a job like this, it may be a little more tricky. But for all you knitting secretaries out there... this is how I knit at work.

We are in the process of digitizing 30 years worth of files. Part of my job is to digitize these files by scanning them through our copy machine, which sends the digitized file to my computer. Since it takes a while to do this, a lot of my time is spent staring at the wall, waiting for one stack to finish scanning so I can put another stack into the scanner. This is a HUGE reason why less of this gets done than I have time for... it is extremely boring. A stack doesn't take long enough to go through so that I can go do something else, and it doesn't go through quick enough to stand there and wait... what to do? grab your knitting of course!

So yesterday, I brought with me my second mitten to work on, I was getting close to the decreases at the fingertips, so I worked on that while I digitized files. I was just about to do the first decrease, I checked my bag for a stitch marker... didn't have one. Crap! my plan had been ruined! I looked around, hmmm... paperclips... YES!!! a large paper clip fits perfectly on a size 8 dpn. bwa ha ha <> Nothing can stop me!!

Of course, when you are decreasing and trying to keep track of k2, k2tog, on this round, k around the next, etc. the phone will ring. The phone always rings when you are telling a co-worker a funny story that happened over the weekend, it always rings when your friend on the Instant Messenger is asking you a question about something very important, and it ALWAYS rings when you are counting stitches. How to remedy this? Post-it notes. Find a post-it note (you may need more than one, depending on what you are working on) fold it in half so the sticky part sticks to itself. Since I was switching between k rounds and k2/k2tog rounds, I wrote "k2, k2tog" on one side, and "k around" on the other side. When I passed the marker, I just flipped over my little post-it note, so if the phone rang, I wouldn't have to listen to what the caller wanted AND keep repeating to myself "knit two, knit two together" in my head, I could just read my little post-it note reminder.

I actually got to the point of casting off the fingertips yesterday. The pattern I am using has you decrease until there are 11 stitches on the needles, break yarn, thread yarn thru last 11 stitches and pull tight and weave in the end on the inside. Ok, piece of cake... I'll just grab my darning needle... uh... no darning needle. Ok, I don't have a darning needle, but I do have paperclips... lots of paperclips. For this I used a small, smooth paperclip (not the kind that has the lines scratched into it and not the plastic covered kind). If you have played with paperclips as much as I have (I am fidgety) you know that if you bend a paperclip in the same place about 5 times, it will break at that spot. I opened up a small paperclip, bent it until it broke in half and kept the half with the smaller loop on it. I stuck the yarn inside the loop and squeezed the paperclip until the loop closed, trapping my yarn inside. I then could use this to thread the yarn through my last 11 stitches. I didn't attempt to weave in the end with it though, I think that is asking too much of a paperclip. The make-shift darning needle has a little point that sticks out on the side (unless you work in an office that has needle-nose pliers, which I don't), so that catches on the yarn and snags it, save your end-weaving for when you get home.

I hope some of these office knitting tips will help you, whether you knit at work, on the bus, at the gym, at school or you just have not invested in all those "extra" knitting notions.

Knat

Why isn't the past tense of "knit"... "knat"? Sit - Sat... knit - knat... right?
anyway... I have one finished object, one nearly finished, one started, and supplies purchased for two more projects... it's been a full day!

First, I finished a Christmas present this morning, here's a picture.



Of course you don't see anything, I said it's a CHRISTMAS PRESENT. The person it is for reads this... wouldn't want to ruin any surprises. Sorry... there will be a picture after the gift is given. I promise.

Second, the nearly finished is my mitten! I want to run around screaming I KNIT A MITTEN!!! while wearing it. does that make me wierd?



Going to mom's tonight for dinner with the family and then she can help me finish the tip of the thumb and the fingertips. I LOVE this mitten, the colors are great, it fits perfect and feels great, that Manos del Uruguay is just amazing, and it was so much fun to knit.

When I got done weaving and realized I couldn't finish my mitten, or start the second, I had to knit something. So I cast on this hat that I found on Yarn Harlot's blog. (it's not in a recent post, I have started from the beginning and am reading the whole thing. That's what I do when I'm bored at work. I think I have a knitting crush on Stephanie) I just got the last stitch cast on and joined to knit in the round when mom called and said she was there to pick me up.


See that pink curled up thing there next to my needle guage, that's a swatch, I even made a swatch to count my stitches per inch! woohoo!

Mom was picking me up so we could go out to Forma loom. It is a weaving/knitting shop WAY out in the country of Whitmore Lake (just about 10 minutes outside of Ann Arbor). I need some yarn for my double weave project for school, so this is the only place around here to buy weaving yarn and supplies. Here's a pic of everything I bought.

The two cones on the left are what I'll be weaving. They are about a pound each of sapphire blue and lilac, 100% rayon, and so smooth and shiny. After what I've been using at school, this will be a dream to weave with. I would like to take that rayon boucle off the loom at school and burn it and dance around it naked, it is such a pain in my arse.

That pink cone in the middle is some neat 2ply cotton and something else that is really cool, that I can either knit or weave with... what a dilemma. and the cone of white is a cotton rayon blend (only 14% rayon) that I plan to dye, what I do with it after I dye it is not yet determined.

I see you are admiring those two skeins in front of the cones. As well you should... that is a silk/rayon 2ply, space dyed in all my favorite colors. That will also be used for a Christmas present, so there will be no more pictures of the yarn, until after Christmas. It is amazingly soft and will be perfect. There is 300 yards per skein and can you beleive it was only $8.95!! I had to get two, even though one should be plenty for the gift.

What's with all the rayon today?

Thanksgiving part two is tomorrow. Yesterday I went with Ryan for his family's thanksgiving. It was SO much fun, their family is about 30 people at this point and they are all close and get along (as much as a family should anyway). It is the complete polar opposite of anything I have experienced. My family is very small and not close at all, with the exception of a few extended family members. So I feel very lucky to have found this other family that has accepted me as their own and lets me share holidays with them. Thank you Ryan!

So part two is my family: mom, dad, Shannon, Ryan and me. The plan is to spend the day watching old beta tapes of home movies and also The Monkees tv show. Shannon and I and our two best friends growing up, Tia and Leah (respectively) grew up watching two beta tapes full of Monkees episodes that were taped off MTV in 1986, when there was some sort of Monkees anniversary and a full day marathon. My parents had just gotten their brand new beta recorder and were taping anything and everything. Lucky for us, our beta still works and we can still watch old monkees episodes. We used to watch these tapes after school and we'd all call out which one was our boyfriend, "I get Micky!" was always what I would say, but now that I am older, I think I like Mike better. He was always the rational, level headed guy (and with the most "real" musical talent).

I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and that no one got trampled in any stores today.