Yup, UP

Just back from 3 blissful days in Gulliver, Michigan (in the UP), vacationing with friends at their family cabin. Friends, music, food, no tv, phone or computers, a lake outside the door & kids that get along.

I did spectacular mindless knitting, socks and homework swatches for Stitches. I even read a book, well it's a kid book but it was 400 pages. Thank you Kate for the high rec of Fly By Night.


We got home yesterday just in time for me to scoot down to see the Harlot speak at our Library. Just as everyone says, she's a hoot. Her unbounded love for knitting is really infectious & I need a shot of that!

Today, I'm taking an extra day away from book and Knitty/Spin duties to clean the house. I'll be having a Frau day. We're all messy & prone to piles in this house, but now piles are starting to run 2 deep. It's time to employ The Black Trashbag. Maybe even gather some toys for giveaway : )

Shape of a Mother

Check out this site to see what women's bodies look like durring and after pregnancy.




In Lost news the man pictured below is the lates member of the Island.

Mercury Retrograde, or why my printer blew up

This is the last week of Mercury Retrograde - a time when communication and all things mechcanical go screwy.
Yesterday my printer died & so did my sewing machine - in the middle a coolio fairy project for the Boo. Andy's laptop just died. It's taken me 3 hours to get this to post.
It has been a brain muddled time these past few weeks I can't seem to get from A to B (much less Z) without taking a detour to WTF-ville.
To counter the ills of the universe, yesterday I sent the household away & bleached the bathtub grout with a toothbrush, amazingly satisfying and right-putting.

Also the entire family is enjoying:
theme song here
web site here , where you can download a "hey you guys!" ringtone.

"We're going to turn it on, we're going to give you the power........."
The Electric Compan-eeeeeee - eee- eee

When the going gets tough, the tough go

Bowling!

Our bowling alley has disco lights.
It's that point in the summer where the kids fight & the parents start counting down for the first day of school.





A special rack to help guide the wee-ist of bowlers



















Note the neon shoes




Everyone laughed, no one fought & mama rocked the only
strike in the bunch!










Never forget to cross your fingers


















My deadline project - done. It's for a new Lion Brand book out of a new Lion Brand yarn - Romance, a mohair blend.
Isobel says "it's fairy yarn"

We have an injured rabbit also

Not only am I subjecting my kids to stuff I remember & love from my youth, I'm revisitng my 20's through film.
I have miles of picot edging to do in a mohair blend yarn for a deadline (tomorrow).
I settled in this morning with my tea & Local Hero, a movie by Bill Forsyth. It's a really sweet movie about innocence (re)discovered. There's gorgeous Scottish scenery too.

Cindilou pointed out that the pattern for the side to side Opal sock is here.

Anyone going to Stitches Midwest?

Side to Side socks????

Check out these side to side Opal socks in their upcoming Fall colors from PT Yarn.
How do you do side to side socks? Brilliant!!
Opal also has DK weight sock yarn now (so, I'm a little behind in the sock world), it makes this 000 knitter happy, happy, happy!
A2 folks - Opal in town at Flying Sheep .............


Pee Wee's secret word of the day: Time
Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Who's your friend when things get rough?

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!
We found HR Pufnstuf at the library
Henry is obsessed.

Here's the theme song to complete the flash back.

Did you remember how loooong it is?







I loved Witchy-poo when I was a kid.

But I have to leave the room now when Henry watches it. Do you remember that the show has a laugh track? A really bad laugh track that's not even kids laughing , for a kids' Saturday morning show.

The song, the song, it won't get out of my head!





Now some fibery goodness
Carla & I did some blending on Friday too.
Remember out Gotland fleece from NZ?
I wanted to blend it with a bit of alpaca,so maybe it won't be so instant felty, but mostly because it's what the designers who made the elven cloaks for Lord of the Rings did.

Here's my alpaca drying with the help of Alpacaboy - note the electrical cord on his foot.


Here's Carla's very happy cat cuddling the gotland. The blended fiber is on the right in a bowl. The alpaca gave it great depth & some silkiness. We used the grey alpaca to blend, the brown alpaca looked like doo-doo with the gotland.

Of course now I want a drum carder, really want a drum carder. One thing is stopping me (besides money)





Have you met my son?

Dyed we did

The carnage
We actually made not too big of a mess.
Our fingernails are still black.













The Holy object.
No way we would have made it through dyeing 2 lbs of fiber & a carding session without this little $5 at a garage sale beauty.















Fiber. Dyeing is exhausting. Whatever you pay for dyed fiber is a deal. We made a bunch of rookie mistakes:
burning the crap out of ourselves on pot lids & steam
using waay too many colors at once - one of mine had 7-8 to start & came out , Surprise!, muddy

felting roving due to rinsing in haste, yes - it was me! Carla saved hers by carding it again. Did I mention the woman is a genius?




Fiber basking on bamboo floor.

So you pros out there, we bow down to you.
How do you rinse your dyed fiber? I'm envisioning the thing I called a Bather - sort of like a photography print washer (think long, shallow, stainless sink with contantly running water).
How the hell is your roving still fluffy after dyeing? Do you re-card (re-rove?)

Tomorrow - who's your friend when things get rough? And carding.

I wish I could spend the day dyeing w/ Carla

Mekka Lekka Hi-Mekka Hiney Ho

Your wish has been granted.........

Pictures tomorrow

I love this!

Sweet Meats plush meat.
For your inner carnivore........

I know you are ,but what am I?

Pee Wee is back.
I've been *forcing* the kiddos to watch shows I loved when I was a kid, or wished I had as a kid - like Pee Wee.

It give me no end of pleasure to hear from the next room:
"Wonder Twin powers, activate"
or
"Watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat, Rocky"
or
screams for the secret word.

We also watched The Princess Bride when Isobel was sick.
It's been a most excellent tv summer for us




Working on socks out of yummy Hello Yarn! sport weight merino (6.5 sts on 000). Top-down with a provisional cast-on. Don't know what I want the top to be, probably picot.

Ah, no wonder.....

Mercury is in retrograde

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Difficulties and minor obstacles still exist with respect to shopping, earning money, spending money or doing financial transactions. It's just what's happening. These are minor glitches, but they exist. Mercury is retrograde right now. If you know your name -- great!

Everybody say woo-hoo!

I just paid off our car! Early.
Somehow I have it in my head to buy a new car, pay it off and drive it into the ground - usually they last 12 years. It's what I do & I convinced the Honey to ride along.

I'm having the 'want to get a handle on money' feeling. Not Buying It fanned the flame of something already sparking. Also, I must stand in solidarity to Amy's new self employed (& spending less) status (say Amen!) and Carla's spending less thinking.

So I paid off the car, and cut back our cable today.
Look here for a yarn, book (& maybe fiber) sale soon.

The true test will be when Carla & I go to Stitches next month. Maybe just sock yarn?

The week that flew by

Everyone is back to healthy at our house.
I've been spinning. Though this is a better picture of Honey's grill that my yarn.


















I ordered tiiiny needles for sock knitting. I am the loosest knitter.
I'm currently swatching Fleece Artist merino (fingering wt I think) on
00000 to get 8 sts to the inch.











Honey made space in the basement on an interior wall for yarn storage.












Used concrete forms, cut to size.














Must control this mess

House of the Summer Cold

Most of the fam is down & out today - fever & coughing. We're all sort of wandering around the house, drowsing on couches, arguing about what to watch on the box. Not yucky enough to actually sleep all day but, feeling too crappy to do anything much.

I'm tearing through this book:















It's really, really interesting, as someone is both a serious shopper and hates what it all means at the same instant. And I'm also facinated by the psychology behind advertising, marketing and shopping.

I repurposed this toy storage thing from Ikea. It's fab for cramming in all kinds of yarn & spinning fiber.



















Finished some plain ol' Koigu socks for a birthday present, and currently have the mental capability to work only on my sock yarn gauge tube. Woo-hoo!