11.23.06
Posted in Shop Updates at 9:28 pm by wendy
All the things I’m thankful for–do you have a couple days to listen to my list? (Do I have a couple days to write it all down?)
Nick, the dogs, this life we have, this comfortable messy life in our comfortable messy home, my schedule which sometimes seems so full but is still so flexible, so much freedom.
My healthy Mom and her silly Crivvie, my grandmother is healthy and happy, my Dad is healthy and Daddish, and maybe my brother will read this and comment and let us know that he and Doog are happy and healthy too. 
I love how much these goofy foster dogs make me laugh, but I will be thankful when they have gone to their forever homes. 
I hope everyone had a safe and happy day, whether or not it’s an official day of giving thanks in your country.
(I love dealing with Canadian companies, because not only do they answer the phone on our holidays, but they sound darn adorable doin’ it, eh?)
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11.21.06
Posted in books, knitting, travel at 12:26 am by wendy
(assortment post)
See, the title has a little to do with what is probably my most exciting piece of news (to us). I’ll get back to it in a moment.
Meanwhile, this is going to be random.
Look familiar? Maybe not, it was a long time ago.
Amy sent me
a wonderful feel-better package with this Fleece Artist 2 ply fingering weight BFL and I immediately started a top down raglan and relatively
jammed through it, got halfway through the last sleeve and…stopped. Picked up something else to knit. What? I don’t know what.In my year end panic I’m in a frenzy of resurrecting UFOs, and this is one that’s pretty close to done, so it’s back in the mix. I’ve completely forgotten how many sleeve decreases to do, and I may even read my knitting to match it as I go, maybe. The little froggy stitch marker is part of a set of six I bought off etsy.com–the same seller has
these cute sheepie stitch markers too. Instead of jump rings she uses a continuous wire so there’s nothing to snag. The frog being practically my scot, me gustan mucho, almost as much as the ones
Mary-Kay made me (those are my good luck charms for troublesome knitting).
Holy cow!
The New Testament read by Johnny Cash! You can listen to a sample on audible.com of him reading from Matthew. He did a great job. But hey, I loved his version of “Hurt” too, so no surprise there.
I should have mentioned in my last post:That multi-color green & brown self-striping Noro lookalike that Snuggle found so appealing? That’s Boku, by Plymouth Yarns which I bought at our local Two Sisters and Ewe. It’s 95% wool, 5% silk, 99 yards/50g, a similar gauge to Noro’s Kureyon or Silk Garden. It’s tweedy, so I think the silk is probably tussah noils, but I don’t care. It feels very much the same, maybe less dense feeling, oddly. Not much vm and no sericin, but I did find a knot. It’s $2 cheaper per ball than Kureyon, and feels about the same, although I admit that my disdain for the Noro probably means I’m not the best judge of comparisons. Anyway, it takes ripping well. I ripped it back to the ball and restarted, doing a baby gansey based on
Knitting Ganseys. Sort of tradition with a twist, if I want to sound all pretentious about it.
I am so excited. I love Mexico. It’s a great country, with an incredible climate range–nearly any kind of environment you might desire, it is within Mexico’s bounds, forested highlands, jungle lowlands, desert and wetland… It’s an understatement to say that it is “too bad” that it is a country that was/is subject to some amazingly effective systematic oppressive regimes and cultural indoctrination, but we love it. Nick and I are going on this
tour. I know that tours probably have the same reps as cruises, but, as veterans of
this tour, we can definitely vouch that if you choose well, you’ll get access to activities and people that you (probably) couldn’t get just traveling alone (or “alone” in a couple). As with our last Mexico vacation, we’ll probably go down a week before and stay more time after to do more exploring in Mexico, since much of our tour is in Guatemala and Belize, although it starts and ends in Cancun. We’ll probably fly in and out of DF, and take buses or internal flights back and forth. We want to check out Guanajuato (ever read “Next in Line”? I used to be a huge Ray Bradbury fan), San Miguel de Allende, Puebla, Mérida again, and whatever else seems to be along the way. We’d really like to go to Oaxaca City again, but Nick’s not comfortable with the whole plainclothes policemen shooting into crowds thang. Fuddy-duddy. Anyway, we’re reading and thinking, planning and talking, a bit of the best parts of a trip– and hoping fares drop a bit soon. I don’t want to wait too long, but the fares seem a little high right now. I’m really enjoying
The People’s Guide to Mexico. I’m not sure if we can really pull off the
mochilero schtick, but we’re dang well going to try. We’re going to be down there about a month, so we’ll have to pack light. We schlepped way too much stuff around last time.
Wheee!
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11.16.06
Posted in dogs, knitting, socks, spinning at 8:34 pm by wendy
I mean, I must be, since it seems like forever since I’ve posted. I must have a ton of cool things to post, and no dog pictures at all, yeah?
These eyes say, “yeah, right.”
I have been knitting:
Does this look delicious to you? Because apparently Snuggle thinks so. I found him chomping up the stitch marker end of one of the Denise cords on this after taking it onto his favorite sofa. His chewing broke off the connector and rendered the cord useless, which is a bummer, but I am glad it wasn’t the needle tips he chose to chew on.This is Snuggle’s favorite sofa, in case you’re curious:
He matches it well, if you can spot him in the back. After I took this picture, he rolled and wedged himsef in between the bottom cushions and the back of the sofa and started to freak out a little. I held him still and moved the cushions away so I could roll him gently over onto his side and he could get off the couch.He did and gave the couch quite an aggrieved look.And he’s one of the smarter ones.
The stains on the sofa are from the day he bit his tongue and ended up getting blood everywhere, in the oddest places. I didn’t knit anything or wear favorite clothes for two days because there’s really nothing you can do with those little cuts than soak the food and wait for the cut to heal, and he still such a puppy he says “hi” constantly with his face into everything.
And I’ve been spinning:
This is some of the
50/50 80s merino/tencel fiber, handpainted and spun to a fingering weight single, destined to be plied with its other half.And last Thursday evening I started the first sock I’ve ever designed myself (whee!).
I tried a couple different versions of a short row toe, first the one from
Jessica’s Falling Leaves sock, then the short row toe from
Lucy’s Wendy’s tutorial on Knitty. I ripped, reknit and ripped and reknit and… but by Friday evening, before leaving
Mary-Kay’s goodbye San Diego knitters gathering, I finished a version I felt I could live with, and once I got past overthinking the short row toe, the rest of the sock zoomed along. It’s been done all week and I’d like to show you the back but it’s hard to get a good pic of the back of your own foot and leg, and Nick and I don’t seem to have much shared conscious daylight time lately for taking pictures of knitwear.
I wanted to make a fairly simple, fairly pretty sock to test my handpainted sportweight sock yarn. I waffle about put up amounts–I think people like big skeins, but at the same time, I know I don’t like paying for yarn I won’t use, I like to buy in smaller put ups if that’s the amount I need. But I wanted to make sure it was actually possible to knit a sock from 125 yards of sportweight.I knit loosely, so I used US3 Inox dpns (which I really, really like: kind of cold when you first pick them up, but they warm quickly and the tips, friction, and lack of flex really worked for me) and that produced a fabric I liked.My feet are around size 6 US, although of course it depends on the shoe manufacturer because apparently when it comes to making garments for women, the watchword is “inconsistent sizing.” I started with 57 grams and ended with 20 grams left over, so I feel confident that 125 yards is a good put up amount, enough for a pair of gloves or a good size sock. Please let me know if folks out there feel strongly otherwise.
I’ll be testing the pattern for accuracy with the second sock and including it as a free pattern, either on the site or with purchase of the yarn. Whee!
On another note, is anybody else just blown away by how fast this year has gone by?
I cannot believe it’s nearly over. I went through my various “my goal for this year” posts and I am frankly embarrassed. I suck. I have a month and a half to spin and knit a cabled sweater for Nick and comb out the Karakul lamb fleece I bought from Robin Snyder (Flying Colors Ranch, no website but you can contact her at sheeples[at]worldatt[dot]net), dye it with natural dyes and build a loom and weave a little bag using Working With the Wool as my guide.
And I had other goals, really good goals, goals it should have been no big deal to maintain/meet, goals that would have…well, it doesn’t bear thinkin’ on. In fine family tradition, I am going to pretend my failings don’t exist. I am perfect. I never make mistakes. I love me. Yes indeedy. Sigh.
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11.09.06
Posted in Shop Updates at 12:20 am by wendy
Our street was completely missed by trick or treaters this year, which was fine with all of our four legged fiends, but odd. The streets on either side went all out, with strobe lights and haunted houses, but down our street it was all dark. We didn’t even hang up the usual basket of candy from the tree.
And check this out, ladies:
Yep, toilet paper on a roll on the holder, and placed there by the husband. I nearly fell off the toilet when I realised it.
(When Nick saw this post-to-be he said, “Wha? I put the toilet paper on all the time!”
“No you don’t! “
“Well, I do it at as often as you do.”
Which while still not true is at least a little less false…we buy that toilet paper that seems like 8 sheets to the roll, so we go through rolls so fast I now really only put it on the holder for special company. So if you’re ever at our house, and the toilet paper’s on the holder, feel special. ‘Cuz you’re special company. And we cared enough ’bout what you think about us to pretend we weren’t savages who just set the roll on top of the holder. )
I have no interesting spinning or knitting content. Next time. Tomorrow, I promise I’ll have something more interesting.
I missed the Wednesday midday spinning group because we brought home another foster dog, Kilt. He’s a good boy, a bit shy and still figuring out the stairs and the house rules. Belu is now walking around with a big ol’ chip on her shoulder.
***************I wrote the above
last week. I just kept waiting to have something more interesting to share than another dang dog picture and A ROLL OF TOILET PAPER, fercryin’outloud. Um, and I do, really, I swear. Tomorrow, tomorrow, mañana, mañana, siempre digo mañana…No really. De verás.Until tomorrow then, more pictures of dogs. Meet Kilt, our newest foster dog.
We still have Snuggle, silly bugger, but there were dogs that really needed to get out of Caliente (the cesspit that profits from them) but we didn’t have room for them at the kennel. We had to make room, some dogs went to foster, some dogs went to boarding. I guess it takes two big dogs to even try to fill the hole in our home left by Pomona’s defection. :p
He looks like a knobbly ratty-eared alien in these piccies, but believe me, he’s a very cute, very sweet, slightly shy, very mellow four and a half year old. He sticks to Snuggle pretty closely and watches him for cues on how to behave. It’s pretty funny since Snuggle is Goofus to Kilt’s Gallant.
We are definitely at max capacity, in fact, Belu is at Grandma’s, getting a long walk in the morning, nap, dog beach in the evening, getting a full measure of lovies. It’s like Fat Camp, but with more snuggling.
(Belu, cleaning out the dregs of the foodbin before I refill it with fresh stuff.)
I have been doing some crafty things…I’m trying my hand at stamp carving:
Let me know what you think of the design please–is it too blah? It seems familar, but maybe that’s because I’ve been thinking about it for a while. It’s very tricky to carve out the little curvy bits, I may end up taking the design to some professionals. But I reserve the right to mess it up first on my own.
I’ve been doing some dyeing:
Some sock yarns and cobweb cashmere/silk (at 45 wpi, a total PITA to skein up, I am looking longingly at Fricke’s electric skeinwinder/counter)
that I put up in 600 yard skeins, and I should have them all reskeined up for sale pretty soon, the shop’s pretty bare and needs fresh blood. I’ve been waiting to do an update, to have a new shopping cart system, but just haven’t got ’round to it. I’m afraid of totally messing everything up.
I’ve got a fair amount of new fibers in, and the naturally colored fibers page has been updated, with smaller amounts available for purchase, good for sampling and spinning for small projects.
I’ve really got to gather up all my UFOs and make a list and power through them…I’ve started a sock though, to avoid that painful reality.
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11.02.06
Posted in books at 12:29 pm by wendy
I get a digest from a list called Sheep Thrills on yahoo.com. It’s a heavy traffic, no topic list full of mostly blather, the type of stuff you usually see on blogs, shared personal stories type of thing. Without the context of a blog, and given how many posts there are a day, I have a hard time keeping track of who’s who, and although there are regular posters and names from the fiber business world I recognise, mostly I end up skimming. There are interesting tidbits that pop out of the wash of type that flows over my screen, and I stay subscribed because even though I don’t feel like I have much to throw into the conversation, those interesting bits make it worthwhile, and maybe someday I’ll have something interesting to say that the group might want to hear. Thank heavens for digests though, whew.
Anyway, my point is, that amidst the many circular topics on lists, the podcast recommendation topic came up again, and this time, these two sites popped out at me:
Librivox and Podiobooker which have audiobooks, poetry, and serials available for free download. Some stuff you know (classics like Pride and Prejudice and Ragged Dick) and some stuff that I haven’t seen before but looks worth a shot.
I spend a lot of time plugged into the iPod trying to do my “work” quietly while Nick sleeps during the days now that he’s back on nights, and while I’m always game for relistening to what I’ve got, it’s nice to have fresh stuff too. Just thought I’d share the linky love.
Updated:
Amy has a new cool hat pattern up at Magknits!
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