05.23.08

Speaking of Pootin’

Posted in entertainment at 7:55 pm by wendy

Eeek!

see more politics and fun!

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05.22.08

confessional sunday [on a whenever day]

Posted in entertainment at 9:18 pm by wendy

[I wrote this long ago, when we lived in the upper story of a La Mesa Duplex. Now that we are well out of the area I feel safe enough to confess that I Dealt It.]

Somewhere I once read that the average person “farts” an average of 13 times a day.

What this means to me is that there are about half a million people out there who toot perhaps 3 times a day and I pick up the slack.

Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration there.

Anyway, one time, while going through my morning routine at a quarter to six in the A.M., I farted so loud and long that I earned a “Woooo-hooo!” from the downstairs neighbor.

They may have thought I was Nick, the Big Man of the House Who Cannot Hold a Candle to Me in the Realm of Fartasticness (well, he’s afraid to, I’d burn his dang eyebrows off), but I woooooo-hooooed back anyway.

Because, heck yeah, it was an anal eructation worthy of a woo-hoo.

There was no further response.

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05.21.08

Dear Etsy

Posted in entertainment at 1:28 pm by wendy

I love you.
Now stop torturing me with your goodness.
I’m going to block your site if you don’t stop it.
Really I will.
It’ll hurt me more than it’ll hurt you, but I don’t want to have to tell Nick I blew our economic stimulus check buying custom made swimsuits, dresses, pottery, jewelry, art, fiber, and other random kitschy obets d’art/d’tritus supplied by independent artists.

It’s probably not what Bush wanted us to do with the money, so I’m not gonna.

(I think we’re supposed to buy a big flatscreen made in China from WalNart, pretty sure that’s the stimulation expected.)

So just freakin’ stop it already.

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07.07.07

The Tour is On!

Posted in entertainment, spinning at 11:07 am by wendy

Yes, the one in France, but also the Tour de Fleece. Yay!

I have to admit, I thought it would be sort of like a 22 day sheep to shawl: obtain a fleece, process the fleece yourself, spin the fleece, etc. Wabi-sabi’s idea is much more inclusive, much better.Part of it is setting yourself a goal. I’m arrogant enough to think that if I set myself one single project-type goal, I’ll finish too soon, so I’m going to set a couple.

• Finish spinning and plying up all the merino-possum Mom gave me for a sweater for Nick.
• Finish spinning and plying up the 8.5oz of superwash Sheep 2 Shoe kit from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in Lapis colorway.
• Wash & comb out & spin my part of the Dorset fleece (bought from Laura Noll before she moved to VA) to recreate my favorite thrift shop bought cable sweater.

Given I also need to knit a pair of US size 11 socks on US1s in a stitch pattern I am always messing up on, that’s pretty good for my crafting goals for the month.

One of the rules of the Tour is no spinning before the start, but having just returned from BSG with all that gorgeous loot it was impossible to pull myself away, so I’ve probably already been DQ’d.

5.2 oz of 80% Merino 20% Tussah Silk in Anarion colorway from Dicentra Designs, purchased directly from the Dicentra Designs booth at Black Sheep, 2.3 oz turkish spindle with King Wood from Jenkins, purchased from Crown Mountain Farms.(links are both to Crown Mountain Farms product appropriate pages–I’d never heard of them before, but wow. Yummy stuff and nice people.)

Since I bought so much stuff that I really like from great producers, I’m going to be spacing out posting about it.

Anyway, this fiber was lovely and bright–the whole Dicentra Designs booth was awash with bright colors and contrasts and really stuck out. It seemed like a lot of muted muddy tones, or rovings with a fair amount of voids and naturally colored wools were everywhere (which I love too) but this booth really stood out, like a flock of colorful fiber parrots you could squish as hard as you wanted and none of them would take your fingers off.
It spins up beautifully. I’ve never used a Turkish spindle before but browsed the booklet at Crown Mountain and could manage to remember “under one, over two” for wrapping it (although it looks like I messed it up at times, we’ll see what horrible mess it comes to) and since I’d been spinning cashmere-silk laceweight on the teeny little 17 gram spindle from Spindlewoods, this spindle felt very heavy indeed.
But it spins like a dervish, Nick loves it. It just feels good in your hands.
By the time I post next, I’ll probably be done with the Sheep 2 Shoe kit, I can’t wait to talk about that, actually. (How lame am I? I am very lame. ;))

Oh, speaking of lame, my ankle’s fine. I waited a little over a week and then got around to getting an x-ray. Our doc looked at it and said everything was fine, no worries. Weirdly, it’s been stiffer lately than it was before, I may alternate running in the pool with running on the treadmill when I go back to the gym this week. It is still a little swollen and cankley looking, I really hope that goes away. ‘Cuz I’m vain and lame. But I thank everyone who commented with their concern, I’m sorry I’m so lame I didn’t get around to e-mailing back in person, I was caught up in pre-trip kerfluffling.

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06.09.07

“Today we continue part four of the agonizing pain that is my life…”

Posted in books, dogs, entertainment, knitting, spinning at 10:35 pm by wendy

A week ago, I stepped off the curb while unloading the car and managed to put my left foot wrong. It did a crazy 90° angle to the leg thing and went CRACK! Fast trip to Nausea City and later, Cankle Town. Whee.

Check out the blood pooling/swelling and bruising –

   The flash kind of flattens out the bruising colors but looking at my ankle made me feel really squicked out. Here’s what it usually looks like:    I did cancel what I had to do that afternoon, and iced it, but the next day there was too much stuff to cancel so I put it in a hiking boot.   It’s stiff in the morning, but otherwise fine.

Anyway, that’s my big news.

Whee.

If I was a better blogger I would have shaved my ankles before Nick took those pics. It’s definitely time for the waxer; it’s getting on bikini season and when I look down there I see this.
I’m pretty sure that’s not sexy. Nick is a real trooper.

Snuggly symmetry.

It’s The Big Bunny’s birthday today and we’re just taking it easy and having a mellow day. He had to work last night and has to work tonight, but today is a day for snoozly love.

Knitting and spinning

I’ve been in a bit of a knitting/spinning funk. I zoomed through pieces of Sophie’s Kai Cabled Sweater, but stalled out because of a Realisation.     Yes, the yarn shortage epiphany.     I’ve been making it longer, since she’s a baby Amazon, and I think that barring a miracle, I don’t have enough yarn to finish the other sleeve and collar.

I won’t be short by much, but I’m pretty darn sure I’ll be short…so I’ve stalled out, as if delaying it will deny it entirely.

So I’ve been knitting on a sock for my Sockapalooza pal. A bit. I’ve had a really good run of one-day books (you know, the ones you end up reading all in one day, sometimes even at stoplights) lately though, and strangely, my reading has been almost themed.

The Book Thief (the story itself is riveting, but the “Death” narrator kind of brings a big disconnect, breaks up the flow, and is kind of a cheezy melodramatic hook the story could have done well without). A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian–funny, charming, frustrating, sad, and utterly enjoyable, you can see everything. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress–gripping with beautiful imagery. And in here as well, various pickups and putdowns of Everything is Illuminated and The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, which are certainly fun, but just haven’t managed to grab me like the others, haven’t been one dayers. In all of these, totalitarian regimes are nearly a character themselves.

I finally read I Married Adventure. Wow. What a charming book, and a bit of a time capsule. You know that part in King Kong with the scary natives? They lived that. (link is to Amazon and a version with a different cover. Mine is the cooler 1940 version. ;))
I picked up Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns from the library and cried my way through it on Thursday. It’s brutal and oppressive and frustrating like The Kite Runner, but there’s more hope, more love. And no anal rape. Yay.
Yesterday I read Water for Elephants, and that’s a great summer read, really fun, really sweet, but some heartbreaking parts, especially if you dwell on them.

I’ve spun a bit.

I took the Polwarth locks I bought over a year ago and carded them into rolags and spun them up.

There were a lot of pale colors, so I carded the pale like colors together for one bobbin, and the stronger colors for another bobbin. I’ve never carded more than one or two rolags at a time, never really enjoyed it before, but this was fun.

Maybe it was blending the colors, just letting it go as an experiment, so I didn’t care when my clumsy carding prep made for neps, and I spun thick and thin and let them stick out willy nilly to be tacked down later by the ply, but it was really enjoyable. I don’t think I have the discipline in prep to create consistent color blends in large amounts with handcards though, for that, I’m going to need a carder.

I spun and plied with a lot of twist (well, a lot of twist for me) but it doesn’t look like that much of an angle on the bobbin, because it is wound on under tension. (I spun the singles on my Victoria and plied with Heidi’s Joy, since my third bobbin is still with Elton the woodworker and I didn’t feel like winding off into balls.)

When released and wound onto a niddy-noddy, it looked like this:

Usually, to finish my yarns I just give them a quick wash and rinse and hang them up to dry.   Sometimes I’ll full them a little bit if I want a more durable yarn, but it’s been more along the line of reasoning of “beat the cr@p out of them now so they can take a lot of cr@p later” not any consistent logic based on staple length and crimps per inch.      But I read Judith MacKenzie McCuin’s article in the Summer 2007 issue of Spin-off magazine and thought I’d try out her theory (she specifically mentions Polwarth as being a weird exception to the staple length rule, so I thought it must be kismet).

So I beat the bejeezus out of this skein. Superhot water, lots of soap, cold rinses. I ended up reskeining it, because I think there was some shrinkage and some bits stuck together. Some dye came out in the water, but not much especially considering how hot the water was.

3.3 oz, 216 yards

There was considerable plumping up and fuzziness, all told.    Parts that had more twist and were spun finer didn’t full in the same manner.    I don’t think this is a necessary way to finish a yarn spun, but is definitely another option to finish for a certain effect.

BTW, if you haven’t seen the new Spin-off, you should definitely check it out.

The Type As of the spinning world will find the Fractal Stripe spinning article appealing, plus I liked the Yucca fiber article(s), and of course, the aforementioned finishing yarns article.

But…the first thing I turn to is always the “Your Yarns” feature, and that’s missing.

Plus, no Spinning Basics article, which is probably the second thing I look for, despite being a relatively new feature. I know they recently did a poll, so maybe I’m in the minority, but I hope these changes aren’t permanent.

Speaking of a series, here is part one in Dogs Using Toys as Pillows:

Crivens with wheels behind her, Love Monkey beneath her.

Belu appeals to the power of the Internets. “Please don’t let them wash my dirty fluffy ball!”

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04.14.07

Don’t Mess with Pearl

Posted in Shop Updates, entertainment at 9:57 am by wendy

Meanest Landlord Ever

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04.09.07

Things to do in San Diego in April

Posted in entertainment at 6:32 pm by wendy

Burn things and drink are favorite…

Anyone want to celebrate the taxes being over and done with thing? Howsabout a bonfire at Coronado’s North Beach fire rings on Wednesday, April 18th?
It’s a hump day, Nick has the night off, we’ll have s’mores makings & a wagonload of sensitive papers to burn. Bring tax returns more than seven years old and anything else you’ve been meaning to shred or get rid of that won’t make toxic flamage, and maybe some real wood to help hold down the papers and keep the fire going solid. We’ll bring real wood too. Heh, heh. Anyway, here’s the evite, if you want to come and let us know to expect you.

April 27th–taking care of a new year’s goal: Drinks at the Top of the Hyatt, hopefully arriving before sunset to watch the lights change along the skyline. Here’s the evite link if you’d like to come–I’ve never done an evite thingy, let me know if it doesn’t work like that, but I imagine I’ll need to let the bar know how much space we’ll want in advance.

And that should do for our social impulses for the year.

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04.01.07

Random

Posted in books, entertainment, knitting, random at 8:36 pm by wendy

IMPORTANT

Did you know I’m a rumor monger? Stop eating anything with wheat gluten in it.

Contaminated pet food ingredient sold as “food grade” may be in human food supply.

And now for something completely different.

Google’s offering free broadband! And an awesome new option for Gmail!

And, at least Lion Brand admits their yarn is lame.

The things you find on flickr.  You know those Biore pore strips?  That pull stuff out of your pores?  Someone took a picture of theirs.  I can’t look away.

Mourning Update

I had a dream the night before last about Mom.

This is the fourth one that I remember, and while I had the “yay, you’re alive! but this is probably a dream and not the other way around, but yay! I don’t want to wake up!” feeling I still got to hug her and smell her again and it felt so real, so it’s all good.

The Road

One of my favorite books from this last year is now Oprah’s book pick. The Road is such an amazing book and has really stayed with me and Nick, one of the rare books this year I read in a single sitting. Believe me, I wanted to put it down.

It’s incredible and encapsulation would do nothing but mislead you, but it’s fantastic— but it definitely contains his bleak awareness of darkness, of evil, of selfish cruelty.

And the helplessness of guardianship of another life in a world full of this selfishness and cruelty.

Also joy and love and pride and fear and hope. So don’t let the sticker on the new releases of this book scare you, don’t be shallow like me.

The joy of trying to be a natural dyer in the disputed meth capitol of the world.

Despite every resource I read on natural dyeing assuring me that pool supply companies stock these chemicals, I get nothing but attitude and “NO! We don’t sell that here!”

I am using these chemicals in natural dye processes. I am careful & moderate in the use and disposal, no need for the hostile freakouts I’ve been receiving.

I’ve said what they are, I’ve said what I need them for…I mean seriously, if you don’t know what the hell sodium hydroxide or copper sulfate are, all you need to say is “I’m not sure we have that but I’ll look.” I guess pool supply and customer service are mutually exclusive. No need for the reaction I got the last time, her anger was so out of nowhere it was surreal, but it was consistent with the weird defensiveness of other pool supply store employees.

I think asking for the actual chemicals (even by the common names of lye or blue vitriol) instead of brand names makes them feel stupid. Maybe it’s all those chemicals that make them stupid. Hello? Who sells chemicals but doesn’t know what the hell they are? Only as brand names? Jeebus, these are things that children are swimming in!
But at least I fuckin’ know what their molecular structure looks like.

Yeah, like THAT means anything.
“I was eloquent! Shit!”

I guess I should start compiling lists of the brand names these chemicals are sold under. Or just tell the “help” to go away and let me look through everything myself. Boy, I read this and it seems so melodramatic and witchy–really, buying something from a shop shouldn’t be a big deal at all. I don’t know what’s up with this, it’s really odd.
Looking Forward

The Golden Compass movie! I pictured Lyra as grubbier, but okay. And I have to admit, the armored bears are my favorite part of the series. The very graphic part where Iorek rips Iofur’s jaw off made me go, “whoah? This is a kid’s book? Awesome.”

Link to preview on youtube

Also Captain Tightpants is Lord Asriel. Rawr.
I didn’t finish the sweater or the bicolor cardi.

I suck. I’m a knitting lame-o. I picked up Sherwood again too. So I can inch along on various projects and not finish anything indefinitely. I’m a genious.

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