Just a quickie post to add a photo of some yarn I’ve been working on. Though I like most of them a lot, it’s not exciting stuff from a really creative standpoint, except the chocolatey brown one that is a scrap yarn. I have to admit that I just love the scrap yarns–anybody’s scrap yarns, not just my own–I love running across them when browsing all my spinning sisters’ sites! Back to the chocolate yarn–I was thinking of calling it “life is like a box of chocolates” because it’s true that when you card up that pile of scraps, “…you never know what you’re gonna get”, when you spin it up! It ended up being chocolate surprise, in my shop…you get the idea.

Anyhow, here is a small benchload of yarn, some for an order to a shop, plus a few that are already for sale on my site. I am working on ’shiny, soft, very usable, long yardage’ yarns, mostly with beads for the yarn store order because that’s what they want, but I’m really aching to do some more outrageous yarn for my own shop and to get the creative juices flowing again before the baby comes in a month and my life is 100% kid-focused for a while.

Hopefully I’ll be back soon and post some garden pics, wip (I’m actually KNITTING a shawl out of silk sari yarn, whoa!), and spinning a whole pound of a gorgeous wool blend to make something for myself–maybe a shrug?–not sure. Also pics from our trip to Rhinebeck as well as our new fibery friend, Andora the Angora (jersey wooly rabbit) who my husband fell in love with and brought home to add to our fuzzy menagerie–we now have 3 matching pets!

OK, it’s a lame excuse for a post, but it’s what I’ve got for now. Too difficult to think and write my own commentary lately because it requires thinking clearly. Since I’m not at the top of my game right now, it’s easier to comment on these questions in the interest of letting friends know I’m still here! So here goes:

1. Grab the nearest book. Open the book to page 123. Find the fifth sentence.Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog:

“The maneuver to be performed was of the simplest–point to point in space in a region which sould be treated as free of gravity strain since the two ships were practically the same distance from the Sun and Mars was too far away to matter. There were four simple steps: cancellation of the slight vector difference between the two ships (the relative speed with which the War God was pulling away), accelleration toward the War God, transit of the space between them, deceleration to match orbits and lie dead in space relative to each other on arrival.
Steps one and two would be combined by vector addition; step three was simply waiting time. The operation would be two maneuvers, two blasts on the jet. But step three, the time it would take to reach the War God, could be enormously cut down by lavish use of reactive mass.”

From Robert Heinlein’s “The Rolling Stones”, a 1952 sci-fi book intended for teens (really, I think the publisher felt that Heinlein’s young adult writings were intended for boys, since many girls at that time were not generally thought to be interested in science fiction. Honestly, though, I doubt Heinlein himself could agree with that attitude. His writings about women were very liberal for their time–one of the reasons I love his books. In this book for example, the mother is an M.D. and the Grandmother is an engineer.)

2.stretch your left arm out as far as you can…what do you touch first?
a stirring stick in a ziplock bag, saved for color matching–from our latest painting adventure

3. what was the last thing you watched on tv?
the Yankee game

4. without looking, what time is it?
9:30am

5. what is the actual time?
10:06am

6. with the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
little A stomping around the back room that she’s not supposed to be in, cicadas buzzing outside in the trees, the sound of hammering and a nail gun, putting a new roof on a house a half block away.

7. when did you last step outside?
last night on our way home from the ‘good’ ice cream shop, yum!

8. what are you wearing?
an old white T-shirt from a wholesale nursery in the Chicagoland area, and big ugly stretchy gray knit maternity shorts.

9. when did you last laugh?
this morning when A studied the calendar on the fridge and proclaimed “…we’re going to go boating soon” as if she was planning our family social events for the next week.

10. seen something weird lately?
two stunningly beautiful goth lesbians kissing tenderly at the airport yesterday…you don’t see a sight like that too often around here.

11. what did you dream last night?
i have no idea

12. what’s on the walls of the room you’re in?
salvaged “temporary” (3 years old?) paneling that is in place to cover the bare studs until we remodel the back room someday. It is covered with little A’s art work, crusty old white plaster on one wall, a very large portrait of my parents with some of the packing materials still on the frame until I can find a proper home for the photo. A gold charger (large plate) with oak leaves from a beautiful 150+ year old tree our neighbors removed for no good reason, a watercolor painting of maple leaves that I did a long time ago.

13. what do you think of this survey?
interesting–thanks for posting it Natasha.

14. what was the last film you saw?
in the movies, like the real theatre? I have no idea–yeah it’s been that long.

15. if you became a multi-millionaire overnight what would you buy first?
Pay off our two mortgages, buy some land in upstate NY or PA or both, and hire a property manager, construction crew, and cleaning service to be available at a moment’s notice. Buy a biodiesel or new fuel efficient car. Help family and friends with their finances…who knows really…

16.tell me something about you that i don’t know.
I can’t stand ground beef. Give me a good steak, no problem, but ground beef disgusts me…it’s a texture thing, I guess, blech.

17. what would you change about the world?
I would stop the takeover of the world by huge profit-taking corporations who trample on the rights of everyone. If huge corporate profits didn’t control government, I believe that the world would be a cleaner, safer, more peaceful place where individuals would be able to maintain our privacy and freedom.

18.do you like to dance?
no, not really, though someday I’d love to learn to swing dance

19. imagine your first child is a girl, what do you name her?
already came true…it starts with A

20.boy?
according to our very recent ultrasound, the 2nd child on the way is a boy. My husband thinks he should be named Zeus, and I think not. Still working on this one.

21. would you ever consider living abroad?
probably, though it might depend a lot on #15. Craig lived in Hong Kong as a teen, and that fascinates me, as does the idea of living in a villa in Italy, but honestly, I’d have to try it out. I really do love the Northeast of the USA–NY and PA in particular. I think it would be hard to tear myself away from this area, friends and family too. It would be nice to live somewhere truly safe, where we could walk or bike to everything we need. Somewhere that has a weekend market with fresh farm products and handmade goods would be my preference as well, and it would have to have definite seasons–nothing tropical or frozen solid!

Sorry for the long silence, folks. Just writing now to flash my new stash, and I’ll play catch-up later on the subjects of life and all the stuff that’s kept me from blogging for months.

So yesterday, on a ridiculously hot day, our little family made a trip into NYC and headed to the Central Park Zoo. It’s really my favorite zoo–quite small–with some fun animals and a nice petting zoo, as well as some really nice plantings–which, quite frankly, I enjoy more than the animals, but that’s my horticulturist self speaking  Of course, little girls are generally more enamored with sea lions at feeding time than gorgeous Oak Leaf Hydrangea in blushing bloom, but she’ll learn to love both in time.

So anyhow, after torturing this large 23 weeks preggo woman in the sweltering heat as we watched polar bears sweat and ice cream melt faster than we could eat it, my wonderful Husband ‘enabled’ me to venture onto the 8th floor of a building in Midtown Manhattan, to a non-descript brushed stainless steel door, behind which lurked the tempting showroom of habu textiles, a Japanese specialty yarn shop I’ve been aching to see in person. Dear Craig patiently assisted while little A sorted through some sale yarns neatly stacked in baskets on the floor in the main room, and I oohed and aahed in the tiny room that held the tempting display of sample skeins. After not too long and nearly $200 later, I ended up with a gorgeous stash of yarn and threads to fondle and use for many months ahead:

I admit that the photo doesn’t look huge for the money spent, but as plying thread for my handspun (which was my goal), it should last me quite a while. The yardage here is just massive…probably several thousands of yards in total. The stash includes gorgeous white India Silk, ‘fique’ yarn (pineapple fiber), paper/nlyon moire, assorted cotton and linen tapes and yarns, several cones of tsumugi silk in assorted colors (my favorite textured plying thread so far), a fantastic thin white-ish silk with fiddlehead fern ‘cotton’ stuck in it, rough and rustic Kenaf fiber, a natural dark brown thin silk called Taira, and a bunch of small miscellaneous yarn remnants. I also bought a few oddities that I hope to be able to work with–some hemp bark, a bag of Curicura silk cocoons in a golden honey color, and a very cool vintage wooden spool with Chinese characters on it, that Hubby wanted (how could I refuse after he indulged me like this?). The spool is a nice curiosity and will also make a good niddy noddy for tiny skeins now and then…

After spending nearly $200 , I can honestly breathe a sigh of relief that I’m not much of a knitter or weaver yet, or the possibilities here would have been endless, I’m sure. I tend to lean toward very rustic materials, so I barely scratched the surface of what’s available there, despite the small size of their showroom…aahhhhhh, habu. If you ever get a chance to go there, don’t pass it up! I can’t wait to use some of this stunning fiber. Keep an eye on my web site as it’ll start appearing in my handspun over the next few weeks!

We’re going to the fair…Renegade Craft Fair. What a thrill! Quite some time ago, I was looking at Renegade’s info and thinking I should sign up…but then my mind started churning the usual ‘craft fair’ thoughts: Will I have time to make enough stock? Can I really get Craig to watch the girl for two days in a row while I man a booth at a large event like this alone? With my regular felting partner-in-crime pregnant and not feeling great, who would do it with me? Then my mind really started working, and I decided that a group effort would draw a crowd, make the booth really exciting and give all of my spinning friends and I a place to make a great show of our work, and handspun collective was born:

So 10 wonderful handspinners who specialize in art/freestyle/novelty/fun yarn are banding together for this event, in Brooklyn on June 17th and 18th:

Unfortunately, I won’t be there for most of the weekend as I have a most important event that I wouldn’t miss for the world…(my Niece’s wedding is that weekend!). But two great spinning friends have come to the rescue–the marvelous Reenie of Material Whirled and the magnificent Julie-Ann (and their fabulous, supportive spouses) will be staffing the booth until I get back sometime Sunday. Come say hi and buy some yarn or handspun goodies!

We’re back from the weekend of travel to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and a wonderful weekend with spinning friends!

First, I’ll report on the fair, I suppose. It was a bit of a disappointment to hubby and I. The fairgrounds were unbearably crowded on Saturday, the food was not great and was overpriced–2 lamb gyros, a sandwich, tiny chili and a lemonade was $36–and I’m a carnivore, but would it kill vendors to offer a salad or some fruit, really? They had lamb served 56 ways–I felt like Bubba from Forrest Gump “….lamb stew, lamb gyro, lamb kabob, lamb chili, roast lamb, bbq lamb…” you get the picture. The food, drink and bathroom lines were long, there was nowhere to sit out of the hot sun, and little A and I nearly got trampled to death trying to buy a T-shirt, a sport I abandoned quickly when a woman in front of us got pushed to the ground and nobody came to help her. This fair has most definitely outgrown it’s property and needs to either move on to a larger venue, charge admission to weed out people who are just trying to kill a day, or maybe make the vendors park off the fair grounds to free up some space. It was really unreasonable and uncomfortable and not at all family/kid friendly, imo. I plan to write a letter to the organizers about all this to let them know our impressions of the whole thing. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention hubby’s disappointment that the local traffic control police were deliberately making up some bs story of a horrible car accident “blocking the road in that direction” to make people go the way they wanted to (can you tell he didn’t follow their ‘orders’ to turn left out of the parking lot?)

On the other hand, the animal barns were great, vendors had beautiful things and were friendly and helpful, the spin-in on Saturday night was great fun! I did manage to add a pile of goodies to my spinning stash, and didn’t bring home any sheep, heh. When I get my tech hubby to figure out how I screwed up my ftp editor, I’ll add a photo of the goodies that I just had to bring home–yay–I finally got things fixed, here’s my photo:

I got two new Jumbo bobbins for my wheel, two ounces of mixed bright colors of Silk Noil for blending, rosy tussah silk roving, a bump of cormo roving in fall colors, a gorgeous mixed batt that I split with the enabler Angela, and a whole bunch of mohair and cotswold locks that were so gorgeous, brightly colored and ultra clean that I couldn’t resist, plus some silk hankies in orange and burgundy.

The best part of the trip was the excellent company of old spinning friends who I haven’t seen since October, and meeting new friends from my blog and internet travels, (though I’m sad to say that I missed some of you, unfortunately.) It was great to shop together, share spinning techniques and info., swap fiber at the spin-in, and stay up late chatting at the hotel. I made out like a bandit with extra fibers and goodies from Julie-Ann, Natasha, and Elizabeth, and will have to do some digging through my stash to make up some fun goodie packages to mail out soon!

We arrived home late Sunday after stopping several times with a sick kiddo in the car who ended up with a fever and nasty head cold on arrival home. Then there was the usual unbearable NY traffic; we sat on Staten Island for over an hour in traffic, only to find that 3 construction barrels were blocking off a lane for no reason–not even a pothole, aargh. I love NY, I swear it! All in all, we had a nice time, and I miss all of my spinning pals already and wish we lived closer. And so another weekend passes into history…

New Easter yarn…not much to write, but just a few quick photos of my latest addition to my web store, Handmade. This was fun yarn to spin. Simple single ply with many stripes spun from bits of commercially dyed merino wool, with tufts of plastic lavender Easter grass spun in, and a whole lot of glass egg beads slipped onto the roving as I spun. It would make an amazing Easter basket or purse or hat band for a straw hat, or something cool like that!

Just more evidence that we need to get out of suburban hell one of these days, soon. This is from a sad, true, but nonetheless beautiful article by Perry Mann, on theHuntingtonNews.net. I strongly encourage you to click the link and go read it in it’s entirety:

“Man’s first error was leaving the land, where no man was unemployed, where every child had a place from birth, where men, women and children and ox and horse and all the other domesticated animals comprised a unity of survival, in which they worked together, played together, rejoiced together and sorrowed together; and where they lived under sky and sun, labored in fields and meadows, watched the seasons come and go, stored up in summer against winter, sowed in spring to harvest in fall, honored mother and father and sat at the feet of aged, on and on from generation to generation, knowing in their hearts that even if heaven were a fiction they had known the fullness of living.”

I recently got the most wonderful email from a friend stating she had some big needles to send me, acquired on her recent trip to New Zealand (can you say jealous?), and would I like them? So, of course, I replied that I had recently bought large needles and didn’t know if I needed more. Well, I recently bought US 15’s, and as you can see, this fantastic bunch is WAAAAAAY beyond that…it’s a group that equate to US 19, 35 and 50–whoa! There’s a penny in the photo to show the scale. These will take on even my bulkiest bulk. I could knit fire hose with those 50’s (I think). Truth is that I don’t know what to do with them yet, but I will make it my mission to use them soon. And, in this lovely package with the gigundo needles, was a sample of the softest soft Kiwi merino wool I’ve ever felt! I think I’m saving the merino to spin up on my drop spindle, really fine. Thanks Chocolatte, you are the BEST enabler! Smooch!

Second note–new project. As per my new rules (complete something prior to starting new projects), I recently (almost) completed a project that’s been on my triangle loom for a year or more, so I could start using this gorgeous rayon-cotton Ironstone yarn that I purchased on vacation in Florida. I think I’m going to do 3 or 4 panels (if yardage allows) and join them along the short edges to make a long wrap. Haven’t decided on fringe or not yet, but I used every other nail for this one and already have one panel made, in an evening, hooray! Here’s a sneak peek at the corner of the tri-loom:

For those of you who haven’t ever seen or used one, a triangle loom allows you to weave the warp and weft at the same time, using one continuous yarn. No cutting, warp measuring or waste. It’s really a wonderful tool, a little limited as far as finished projects, but you can put the triangles together to make any number of gorgeous things, from blankets to shawls. There are also adjustable size triangles out there, as well as square looms that run on the same single yarn principle, and for what it’s worth, it’s easy to make your own using a frame and nails. There is a fantastic tutorial by Wayne. The tutorial was life-saving when I purchased the loom, got home and found out it had no instructions in the box. He also has great info on how to build your own loom, and tons of other interesting topics ranging from growing cocoa, to magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters to how to keep cats out of your garden…very cool!

Off to get ready to attend a local quilt show that a friend entered two of her quilts in…gotta support those other fiber fanatics, you know!

Aah…finally updating the blog. I’ve been busy, out of town on vacation in FL (which allowed me to knit and crochet a few little projects I’ll post another day, as soon as I weave in ends, add a button and take pics). Anyhow, I wanted to put this photo up, of a recently finished birthday gift, and my second knit scarf ever!!. Originally, it was not intended as a gift, but as often happens while I make something, as I worked on it, the fiber spoke to me and about halfway through knitting, the scarf decided it would be a lovely birthday gift for Niki. I don’t know if she would choose this color for herself, but I think it’ll look great on her!

The yarn is Lorna’s Laces “Glory” in the color Black Pearl–it’s a hand dyed Mohair/Wool Blend that I got from Christine at Now and Zen. I knit it on US11’s, 10 rows of knit stitch, alternating with a row of dropped (elongated stitches with 3 wraps). I carried along a thin strand of Rowan’s kidsilk ‘Haze’ for some very subtle stripes in areas. Originally I intended it to be a long scarf, but I ran out of yarn, so I decided to make it into a loop scarf/wrap instead, joining the edge with a 3 needle bind off, and adding in some randomly angled fringe of both yarns at the seam, with purply glass beads for sparkle. I think it looks best loosely around the neck, or wrapped twice for cold weather, though it can be stretched out a bit to pull as a wrap around the top of the shoulders too…

Aside from frogging issues (very hard to unravel this hairy yarn), I’m really happy with the yarn and the finished object. Add dropped stitches to my resume and I’m off to knit something else…I’m thinking a simple wrap or poncho on big needles, to teach myself how to increase at each end. I’d love simple free pattern suggestions! I saw a pattern and yarn while in FL, but the yarn was $47 a skein and I chickened out, plus the colors just didn’t jump out at me…oh well.

And a HANDSPUN SALE–just adding a quick note that I put all my handspun on theweb site on sale–$5 off each skein originally priced at $25 or more. Just for a few days until the 28th. I also put some of the felt scarves on sale to clear out and get ready for some nice summery silk nuno felt scarves I hope to work on over the next few days. So go check out Handmade–thanks!

It’s been years since we bought this house, and we are in a constant state of renovation (or non-renovation, depending on how long ago you looked at any particular project and saw how little progress has been made). We have multiple projects in a state of semi-completion, and an arm’s length list of projects that need doing, some desperately.

So, what do you do when you already have half a dozen old projects lingering on, getting smelly and old, like a block of limberger under the living room couch? Start a NEW PROJECT, of course! After much discussion, debate and procrastination, we finally aborted the idea of gutting little A’s bedroom (and my fears of dispersing a cloud of lead dust into the house from old plaster with old paint). Instead, we finally just broke down and painted it. Who needs insulation, right? After 3+ years of having a primer-white bedroom, the girl finally gets a girly room, complete with fluorescent green and bright purple walls. I primed the baseboard trim and window frames two weeks ago, we bought some brighty-bright, low VOC paint, and this past weekend, we painted the room…with amazing results:

Then, last night, Craig installed brand spankin’ new baseboard covers over the heaters–the old ones were just nasty. Next is the wall border that I hope to do from a roll of wrapping paper I’ve been saving–if I can figure out how to adhere it without trashing the paper. I already bought the girl some sheets in matching purple and green, and need to figure out some other accessories like a bedspread, new curtains vs. some rit dye (orange, of course) on the old cream ones? A new light fixture and bedside lamp, another area rug. And I’ve also started browsing the catalogs, and am thinking about buying a ,Fairy Bower–the green or purple one–and maybe getting a small comfy reading chair, and bookcase, or putting her play kitchen stuff in it, or something like that…just thinking out loud here…ideas anyone? All she has is a very nice antique bed–dark wood, a $5 yard sale cabinet with clothes and some books in it, and a hand-me-down dresser my Mom got at a Church sale., so we’re looking to step things up a bit, though I have no real wish to stray far from the ‘eclectic-yard sale-chic’ style I’ve come to love, heh.

Anyhow, it’s a step in the right direction. It puts the other projects on hold for longer, but I feel good that my little girl has a decent room to sleep and play in, instead of whitey-white oblivion. It was so depressingly dreary, and now you need your sunglasses to go in there! Sweet colors…sweet progress.

A quote I saw today on a discussion forum, in somebody’s signature:

“In the 60’s, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal”

As relatively new parents, daily life with this growing, exploring little person continues to amaze us. Little A is wonderful and intense–sometimes her intensity drives us batty, but that’s her job as a kid, right? At 3 years old, she constantly says things that amaze us, as well as some things that are cute and crack us up…it’s just an incredible gift to watch her explore and learn about her world every day. She was a very late talker, and I knew that once she figured it out there would be no stopping her (there’s no silence, either–as I type she is carrying on a huge conversation with her soft dough, and tools…singing, chatting away to herself. Just amazing!)

So I feel the need to write these funny ’supergirl’ quotes down for posterity…while they are fresh in my mind–I’ll be adding to the list over time:

Around 2.5 yo–little A was crying about something (that was really not worth it, in our opinion), and Craig told her she didn’t need to cry. Her response to him was “I have to cry, it’s one of the things I do best!”

We frequently read an old Madeline book before bed time. One of the lines is “..they smiled at the good, and frowned at the bad”. When A ‘reads’ it, she says “…they smiled at the good, and grumped at the bad”

“Daddy, your face is fuzzy, you need to scrabe.” (shave).

Grandma and Papa go to Florida for the winter, so at Christmas my Mom was telling A that she would send her a letter from FL. her response: ” ‘A’ would be a good letter to send, Grandma.” Of course, my dad cut an ‘A’ out of wood, Mom painted it, and they mailed her an A. Silly kid…sillier grandparents!

We say “yes you are ___”…she says “no I amn’t!”

I’ll add more later…gotta run. We’re meeting friends at the movies this afternoon, to see Curious George.

Later…

Just a quick post to show off a big pile of skeins that I finally got wrapped up and labeled last night. It feels good to have so much done and in my hands at once–most of it is on the web site for sale, and some is set aside for a friend to sell elsewhere. It’s funny that when I look at commercial yarn and other people’s handspun, I see projects and think about how I can use it/what I can make with it. When I look at my own yarn, I think of it as already being a finished object, so it’s much more difficult to make plans to use it up. The idea of actually planning a project and specifically spinning yardage for the project is still far off in the distance for me–honestly, I don’t know if I will ever get there or not. Too much fun in the creating part to be much of a planner. Ask our family how hard it is for us to actually plan a visit or make airplane reservations to go see them or do something…like pulling teeth. I’m just creating out of chaos here…anyhow, that’s a long story for another day, so here goes my show off photo:

Quote of the day, courtesy of my darling husband, who just walked through the kitchen while I was dyeing some wool on the stovetop:

“It smells like freaking wet sheep in here”

If you read this dear…next time I complain about the smell of cigar smoke, remember this, OK?

;)

I had to share this quote from the Anticraft web site, in their ‘Antifesto’ under philosophy. I just ran across this through sweet Natasha’s blog. It sums it all up, really:

“Creation from chaos is natural. We’ve come to a place where we’ve realized that we have this actual, physical need to create things. We’ve discovered that we hate people en masse, we’re sick of homogenized culture, and these realizations have left holes in our hearts. We create to fill those holes, to be able to sleep at night knowing we’ve done something, even a small something, to confront the manufactured culture that is currently being churned out.”