Twist and Shout

My books came in, at the Yarn Haven, so I swung by there last Thursday on my way home from work and picked them up and set aside some more roving and a skein of Noro's Yaiyo blend #20.  The books were Thinking Outside the Sox and Elements of Style.  Avery's latest, Knitting 24/7, is on back order so it was a no-go. 

The roving was something different from the BFL I've been doing; this time I got some of Mountain Colors' Targhee Top.  Their Sandstone colorway is what really drew me, but I also picked out the Northern Lights and the Indian Corn. 

Friday, I was in early to work and stayed late, and our coding there is still behind, but we did put a big dent in it that night.  Saturday, I got the groceries done before the grooming appointment, got the dog dropped off, then went back out to the Yarn Haven to pick up the goodies they were holding for me.  You know me, I added to it with the book Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece and something else that I've been eyeballing for months.  I got that Culinary Dyes kit from Knit One Crochet Too.  As much as I was just twitching to play with it and start preparing the Sandstone targhee fiber, I still had some stuff to do.
It was raid time!  Our WoW guild's 10-man ICC team seems to be stalling a bit, as is our 25-man one.  And not because we're stuck on a boss fight, but because of time.  One night a week for each ain't gonna get it, would seem.  Tonight, I'm gonna propose we extend our raid resets so we can progress a bit more.

After the raid and some supper, I got some of that first bit of Romney that I still had left over from my beginnings with the drop spindle soaking.  While it soaked, I got the targhee wool fluffed and prepared for spinning.  Then it was time for some culinary dyeing!  I went with the purple, light blue, and brown, and am proud to report that I didn't stain me or the kitchen, nor did I felt the roving!  It's currently hanging up to dry on our shower rod, and I'll post pics when it's dry enough to braid.

That put me late going to sleep last night, and I was up early this morning.  I got up early to squeeze in watching Drafting: the Long and Short of It before hubby started in on his DVR'd Nascar races. 

Then it was time to get that Sandstone started on the wheel and pack it into the car to go to my knitting group.  Um, there is where the first snag of my weekend occurred, literally and figuratively.

I was trying several different things from those first two skeins I had done, so a lot of variables could've been the culprit.  I tried the smallest setting on that medium whorl; I tried spinning the single with the wheel going to the left instead of the right; and I tried this backwards slide thing I saw on that video for worsted short-forward draws.  It started out great with an amazingly thin strand.  But . . . when that first break happened, as is likely for a beginner spinner going thin, I had sooooo much trouble rejoing it to the fiber!  Before, joins were easy-peasy.  But that morning, it somehow unspun as I pulled it back through the orafice, so that I ended up with fifty breaks in trying to fix the one!

Um, the wirty dords flew.  
*sigh*
So I used the bigger groove on that whorl, lightened up on the bobbin's uptake, and it started to behave much better.  Though I did still have some hiccups with it during our knitting group, later this morning.  I apologize to all who were within earshot of me.  I started out mostly self-controlled, with those little cursing substitutes we all use.  You know, "Sssshhhhhhugar!"  and, "Son-of-a-biscuit-eater!"  But upon eleventy-hundred more breakes in the single, those little curse-word-wannabes just didn't last long.  Stronger words were then muttered.  Then shouted.  Well, maybe not shouted, but I did see the need to hush after I realized that there were children present in the book store. 

But ya know, with all that fibery stuff in my head that morning, as I headed out of the house, I totally forgot to bring my camera and notebook to the group (blush).  Reckon I was just a bad Moon that day.

So along came Monday, and somehow the same bit of spinning went very smoothly.  Go figure.  The joins are still a bit fussy, as it really wants to untwist up into the bobbin.  Hard to believe I'm not getting enough twist in it, as I worry it may have too much.  But a bit extra does make the joins behave, so I reckon that was it.  Weird, this spinning thing.

Speaking of things Wyrd, I scratched my eye again last Tuesday, so that it swelled plum shut by Wednesday.  Yup.  The same eye.  Again.  I'm beginning to think there's something wild going on (chuckle).  My contact lense got dry and stuck on the old scar, so that I had to pick and peel it off my eye, to get the hateful thing out.  I'm officially swearing off contacts for a long time.  That eye apparently still ain't right.  Today, it's much better, thank you, and I no longer look like Popeye nor sound like Yosemite Sam.

It's Thursday now, and our boss at work declared mandatory overtime for this upcoming weekend, so please pardon me, whilst I log on here and there to humbly bow out of some things I was going to do.

(This time, the overtime is going towards my upcoming trip to Aiken, S.C.!) 

cue the music

Regardless of what the calendar says, I know summer’s been here for a week already. Last week, my local grocery stores had Grainger County tomatoes and Vidalia onions for sale! And if that ain’t proof enough for ya, I got eat up by a hateful skeeter this morning.

Ironic that today was also Wax Day at the dermatology clinic where I work, in which we employees enjoy the perk of having our eyebrows done for free by one of our aestheticians. So I now have welts over my eyes to match the skeeter bite bumps on my elbow, wrist, and knee. Yeah, this was the state in which I returned home from the skin clinic. Ya just gotta laugh.

Speaking of work, I’m still digging the coding and my coworkers there, and the recent overtime for us two coders still continues. That proverbial light at the end of the tunnel is getting nearer, in that I predict we’ll be all caught up really soon.

But the extra work has already put my spinning wheel savings over the goal, and it’s time to finally get my wheel and bring her home! But alas, the Loopy Ewe, where I was going to order from , won’t have any more in stock for a long time. And the Coppermoose, which I’m delighted to have found, would have some in by today, according to the phone call a few days ago. But they can’t mail it to me before this weekend, which is when I’m determined to have it. This is a three-day-weekend coming up, and what better way to do this? You know I’m gonna want several days to indulge in my new toy, and having it arrive in the mail on a busy week day would just be a cruel turn of fate.

So no. I want it in time to spin with it during this long weekend! And I’ve found one close enough to drive to it on Saturday morning. R&M Yarns, a little over an hour’s drive south of here, carries my coveted Ladybug wheels. I spoke to Phyllis on the phone, and she said her UPS tracking has them arriving in her store Friday. I shall be there early Saturday morning waiting for her to unlock the store and sell one to me! She’s getting two, with one already spoken for. I got the official dibs on the other one.

By my reckonings, I shall be spinning my brains out by 12:30pm that day.

In the meantime, my fellow Fertile Turtle yarnies, my favorite LYS, my spinning books, my drop spindle with the alpaca, and my actual knitting have kept me occupied enough so that my head hasn’t yet exploded from anticipation. Check out Sandy’s blog for a recap of the Pajama Party – I’m the one in braids.

Speaking of the Yarn Haven, their latest charity drive is knitting prosthetics for those who’ve had a mastectomy. It’s called the Knoxville Knockers Club – for real! The pattern is actually what Mary Beth adapted to make my blue-footed booby.






That and a couple of raids with my WoW guild, The Legends of Azeroth. Festergut still hasn’t fallen yet, but we’ve got Saurfang’s butt thoroughly whooped. This weekend, we’re buddy-ing up with a similar guild to form a 25-man team for Ice Crown Citadel. I can’t think of much else that would tear me away from my wheel, and it probably wouldn’t if I hadn’t already had a day with it by then. That is, if all goes according to plan (cue the ominous music right about here).

I gotta confess to a bit of mixed feelings about our ultimate goal of killing Arthas the Lich King. Yeah, by all lore accounts, he’s got to be killed. But, he’s kinda hot – I’m just sayin’ . . .





I’ve spent the past couple of weeks culling my knitting magazines and doing some more de-stashing, both in the spirit of spring cleaning and in preparation for our Yarn Swap. That ended up being a two-weekend event, just to be sure everyone got a chance to de-stash and pick up some goodies. What’s in this photo is only a fraction of what all was up for grabs.

Our beloved Oliver picked up some freebie needles and yarn, and found some how-to videos online, and has at least learned to cast on. We’ve yet to see him do it, so I dunno . . . That was two weeks ago, when the espresso machine was out of order, ‘causing me to whine just a little.

The leftovers, you know, the stuff that nobody took, is going to the charity, Knit & Crochet for TN Flood Victims, courtesy of Luna who made those arrangements.

This photo shows what all I brought home with me from the swap. No worries; I definitely de-stashed more than I picked up. My trunk was full of yarn and magazines, and I drive an old Cadillac Deville!






I nearly brought these Moon Beams skeins home too, just because of their name!











We did manage to get some knitting done, and on the second swap weekend, the espresso machine was in full swing too. Check out Pam’s latest pair of Rainbow Ripples, poised on her finished baby Sail Boat blanket. Ssshh! She had a birthday last week!

And if ya missed it, ya missed hearing Barb serenade us with her rendition of Pants on the Ground.

You also missed seeing Raeus' alpaca and silk jacket all finished up! But I’m sure when cooler weather returns, we’ll see her in it plenty.

I recently finished knitting the little scarflett on the cover of Knitscene Easy 2010. Need to block it still, before snapping a photo. And ear candy for my home knitting has been the audio book version of Charlaine Harris’ latest Dead in the Family.

On my way home from work today, I stopped and picked up a copy of The Yarn Lover’s Guide to Hand Dyeing and the blu-ray of Beowulf & Grendel. This weekend I shall not only spin, but I’ll do so with high def Viking men in my den. Don’t bother peeking; I’ll have the blinds closed.

She shot the binky?!?

Ravelry is gobbling up my life. While at work, I confess my thoughts often turn to yarn, colors, and stitches, and this especially happens during my, ahem, smoke breaks. Sitting alone, my inner eye goes to my stash, or to patterns I’ve recently seen, or to colorways, or to those ‘what if?’ ideas. You know the ones.

Like these two wafted through my head at different times this week. If hand painted yarns are just stretched out skeins that are literally painted upon with sponge brushes . . . couldn’t we knit up a sweater first, put it on a sweater blocker that’s been wrapped in plastic wrap, and paint directly on it? You know, like paint the cables one color and the rest another?

Or, and this one’s just crazy, I know. I half-jokingly thought about a line of knitting patterns called Hillbilly Knitting. You know, thermal stitched long-john looking-henleys, something with gingham check on it, bonnets, Nascar logos, etc. That got me to wondering what I might find if I just googled those two words: hillbilly knitting. Um, apparently some bloggers have taken to referring to crochet as ‘hillbilly knitting.’ Not sure how I feel about that, seeing as how I’m all three: a hillbilly, a knitter, and a crocheter. Trying to have a sporting sense of humor about it, but it’s still irking me.

Anyhoo. Ravelry. So I get home every day from work, wanting to look up one or two things I’d thought about. Or something I’d heard on a podcast while on that drive in. And after that, I plan to get on with the other things on my to-do list, but next I notice, it’s been hours since I’ve pulled my head out of my computer monitor. Sigh. This has got to stop. My housework is suffering, my WoW gaming is stalling even more, and it’s putting a huge dent in the actual knitting of anything.

But I’ve recently had another idea, that was shortly followed by the discovery of yet another little database feature on that site, and well, you know. I’ve been in Ravelry Land a lot this past week.

While browsing the patterns there, I felt guilty about the huge stash of books, magazines, and other printed patterns I already own. Legally. In hard print. So I started thumbing through them, and realized I could find my favorite printed ones on the site, and tag ‘em to my favorites list there, so I don’t have to plow through a ton of books anymore looking for the one I want.

In doing just that, I realized that by inputting my library onto Ravelry, I have a quick way to browse them already – just go to my library page, click on the book, click on the ‘see all patterns from this book,’ and there they all are. My entire pattern collection in one neat little place on my screen!

So yeah, ‘tween doing that, finding more things that can be done with sock yarn, and looking for ideas for the Noro stash, I’ve been swallowed up by the Ravelry monster. Hence this late blog entry (blush). And guys, the Unholey Monkey may very well be my next sock.

When not on Ravelry, I’ve been drooling over Miss Babs’ website – how did I not buy some of her stuff while I was at SAFF??? Is it October yet? How ‘bout now?

Speaking of Monkey socks, my Grape Apes are mostly getting knitted with morning coffee just before work. This morning I reached the point of the foot, where the toe shaping can begin. After I get this blog entry posted, and a shower underway, and some clothes folded, I just might do that tonight.

Remember me telling you about my new job as a coder for the Dermatology Associates of Knoxville? One of the benefits is some discounted cosmetic/spa services, and facial waxings are free for us. So last week I had my upper and lower lips waxed. Shush, I’m telling this because it was hilarious – lemme finish.

I’d never had it done before, but as I age, well, it was just time, okay? I braced for two bits of fabric to rip my hairs out, because I didn’t know that each lip is done in halves! Four times was what it took!

So anyone who might’ve stood just right outside the door would’ve heard the following:
“Okay, you ready?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
Rrrrrrrrrip! “Eeeep!”

Then a few moments later, “You ready?”
Rrrrrrrrrip! “Eeeep!”
Rrrrrrrrrip! “Eeeep!”
Rrrrrrrrrip! “Eeeep!”
“There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
Followed by a very meek, “Thank you.”

Okay, maybe ya just had to be there.
Today, I got my eyebrows done, with some shaping by somebody who knows what she’s doing, and I love them, and have been joking about getting new eyebrows for my birthday! I understand that the swollen Klingonese bumps will go away quickly.

This past Sunday was another Fertile Turtles knitting group at our local bookstore's coffee shop. Babies are in the air, lemme tell ya. Well not literally. It's not like raining babies or anything, though it is storming outside at the moment in an unseasonably spring like way. And we have babies on the way: two amongst us Turtles and one of my long-time friends is expecting her first grandbaby soon. So yeah, baby things are on lots of needles these days. So, um, I browsed Ravelry for baby patterns too. I may need an intervention . . .

Us older moms got to talking about when our kids were still babies, and you know how them memories put us all in a right baby mood!

We remembered how we each got our babies to finally give up their pacifiers, and Son, if you're reading this, don't worry. Mary Beth's cousin's story has yours beat by a long shot (pun intended).

That cousin kept her pacifier until she was around 3 or 4 years old, at which time she was allowed to shoot it with a shot gun - I'm not making this up! The grown ups balanced it on a rail or some such, helped her aim, and she shot the thing! I hear tell she bagged her first deer at the tender age of six - her age, not the deer's. These days, she's a young woman attending college and changing majors on a weekly basis.

This is Mary Beth's dog sweater being knit up, once the gauge issues were cleared up enough to proceed. That pattern had some really wonky numbers, as written, but Mary Beth is a clever knitter and is making this thing happen anyway - love her.

And this is another pair of felted booties by MB, and Nicole's baby cocoon in the works. Nicole finished the baby bunny hat! Wow, is there a spring thing happening lately, or what?

Here, I tried to capture the colors of Brooke's yarn in her shawl. They're very subtle, and I was shocked to realize that this shawl we've watched grow isn't gray or beige at all. It's a multi-pastel! I want a shot of this in some full spectrum sunlight. C'mon spring, hurry up!




This is that sugar yarn that Kim's been using for some baby booties. It even looks like sugar - I just wanna toast it or swirl it in some coffee or something, everytime I see it.

And for the love of all that makes us knitters melt, would you look at this not-knitted thing! This is those squares I told ya about, that Raeus is making on her Weave-it! loom. I did get off the Ravelry site enough to prowl around eBay looking for one of these. Pert near won an auction for one too, but not. Sigh.




She's sewn them into this cardigan, and this is soooooo being used as my 'puter wallpaper at the moment!









(I am sooooo digging this thunderstorm we're getting in the middle of January - I've missed them this winter. But I am thinking about postponing the shower until in the morning, having been zapped through the hand-held shower head once before.)

Barbara has started yet another baby cardigan, this one in a mint green. Angelika is trying her hand at the Calorimetry pattern I love so much. And Kristine brought more finished objects that shall remain undescribed until she's ready to publish. With them, though, she's discovered the magic of the test-knitters' forums on Ravelry.

Oh yeah, remember that craft room, that hubby has been fixing up for me? With the butter yellow walls and white trim? It’s ready to move in to! That’s gonna be our upcoming weekend, right there. And I just got two more new books to add to the mountain that will be neatly sorted on shelves in there. These arrived from Amazon the other day, and as I opened the packages to see them, I saw a theme. I got Toe-Up! By Gardiner and Knitting from the Top by Walker. No, standing on my head to change the direction of my knitting was not an option.

Beanie-Weenie Flavor

First off, check these out! David L. brought these to us during his visit, and all I wanna know is how I've lived this long without ever having one of these canolis before now? In trying to convey just how heavenly these were, words fail me. I say 'were,' because they didn't last long.

Now that I have my first week of full-time employment in my new field under my belt, let's reflect on that. Slipping into my old work routines was blessedly easy to do. It's my family and friends that can't get used to my being elsewhere all day everyday, which has been kinda comical to tell the truth. Sheesh guys, I wasn't the SAHM forever, remember? We've been like this before (chuckle).

I absolutely love every aspect of this new job! The people are the greatest, the work itself is interesting, and the daily rhythm suits me very well. I'm just afraid that I"ll somehow blow it. Yeah, it's that good a thing. I should've done this sooner. Shush you.

The first two days though, I couldn't understand why I was so tense and sore when I got home. I felt fine during the day, and it's a sit-down-computer kind of job. Then I realized I was so emotionally hyped about it all and so engrossed in the tasks, that both days I only sat on the front two inches of the chair! I looked all calm, I'm pretty sure. But ya know, the excitement has to come out somewhere, just like stress does, and with me it was how I perched like a bird all day instead of leaning on back in that comfy chair. So the next day, I consciously paid attention to my posture and how I sat. Amazing what it can do for ya to put your entire hiney in the entire chair.

A drug rep had provided lunch one day for the entire staff, and a nice one too. From it were some left over baked beans that some of the ladies decided couldn't go to waste. I share an office with another coder, and our office is right off from the break room kitchen. So as those ladies were devising what all could be done with a big mess of baked beans, the following phrase wafted into my ears: "beanie-weenie flavor." Dunno why, but it made me giggle for days.

Since my knitting is best done in the mornings, it's been reduced to just 15-30 minutes with the coffee and local news show. It was during one of those weekday mornings that I finished my November Now! fingerless gloves.

So it was with even greater enthusiasm that I really looked forward to this week's Fertile Turtles knitting group. And did they ever blow me away -- at just a little after 11:30am, I was the 13th knitter to arrive. We had three more come in after me, for a total of 16 very rowdy knitters who totally took over the coffee shop! It was joked that we should charge for admittance, because our knit-togethers are just so therapeutic. And that made me think, ya know, we pay each other with all the good company and knitterly inspiration. It's what brings me back every week!

Here we have Pam, Raeus, Barb, Kristine, Carol, Caitlynn, Angelika, Sharon, Jane, Debra, Brooke, and Anastasia.

Right up front, lemme tell ya that the yarn swap was a fun success, with half of it finding a local home. The other half, I'm guessing about seven pounds worth, will be donated to charity via The Yarn Haven's connection with a lady who takes it to Zimbabwe.

And by the way, Zimbabwe is one of those words you read or hear in the news sometimes, but never have any reason to say your ownself. I mean, it just doesn't come up in casual hillbilly conversation, ya know? Now I can't stop saying it, 'cause it's just one of those fun words to say. Zimbabwe.

Caitlynn has her February Lady Sweater done, and it fits, and it's beautiful! She got me all fired up to finish them sleeves on my own FLS.

And Carol's sweater in the Noro Silk Lite we've been following? It's all grown up now into a stunning blouse. It's just too pretty to call it a Tshirt.

Kristine is all moved into Knoxville now, and joined us today, bringing her lavender baby blanket with which to KiP (Knit in Public).

Pam finished those socks from last week, and is now onto a pair of Jaywalkers. I had a photo of her new socks-in-progress, but I reckon my camera ate it. That happened last week too, with a different photo. Hmmm . . . sorry (blush).

Sharon also came back to us, from Berea, and brought this tweedy brown cowl neck sweater that's nearly done by the looks of it.

And would you just look at Anastasia's sock-to-be, you know, the project she's learning to knit with! It even has lace, for crying out loud. That young lady is going to take over the world one day.

I settled in with my November Now! scarf, affecting my own weekly fiber therapy.

Nicole made it in shortly after me, with Ginger only minutes after that. Check out Ginger's Cascade Nikki yarn - gasp! She brought in a nifty chart for the Clapotis scarf, that she found here. It's actually a spreadsheet - who'da thunk?

Mary Beth stopped by briefly, as she had things at home holding her attention today. She's looking into using something she's heard of before, for a current project, called a Russian Join. None of us had heard of it, but I found this about it (clicky).

Something else that wafted into my left ear today has me wondering if enough of us would be interested (read, "willing to buy one") in Fertile Turtles gear to warrant a Cafe Press sort of thing. I also had the brief notion to chart out an image of naughty turtles, so they could be fair isled onto something (snicker).

And Carol put me onto the scent leading me to ways of making homemade buttons, and I discovered dorset buttons, which have my attention at the moment.

Ya know, one of our long time regulars discovered she was pregnant right after we named our group the Fertile Turtles. And today we learned that one of our newcomers is also expecting. Meanwhile, over on the Ravelry message boards, one who wants to come meet us soon has just had a baby. Ya think we might have done something when we named ourselves that? Naaaahhhh . . .

that God wink I mentioned?

About a week and a half ago, Jami & I went out to pick up her car, and she treated me to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. My fortune cookie said, "A pleasant surprise is in store for you soon."

Now I normally don't think much of those things. They get their due giggles, and that's about it. But I kept that one. Stuck it in my purse and have been totin' it around with me ever since.

Any of you reading this regularly know how I've drug my feet in the job search, while simultaneously trying to get up the gumption to start it. The first and only interview came to me via a phone call while I was at home in my pajamas playing a video game (chuckle).

I went to it scared to death, but then came out of it excited and hopeful and really touched by what good people I met. I was told that they had some more to interview, and the ones they like would be called back to talk with the administrator.

She just called me a few minutes ago. She caught me doing housework with the iPod screwed into my ears (the WoW Insider podcast). I was sweaty and panting and smelling like vinegar and lavendar, and pert near didn't hear the phone ring! But I did, and it was her offering me the job!

So I got the job and I start Monday morning! A God wink indeed! This feels good and right on sooooo many levels!