Seriously Yummy yarns

MMMMMMM...I unpacked some seriously yummy yarns from New Zealand today. This naturally colored oatmeal wool is asking to be an Aran or Gansey, I just will have to listen to hear exactly what! And I got some soft Possum and Merino blend yarn that will tell me what it needs and wants to be later on, I have 8 colors and they're so very soft. But my big question is: What do these two beauties want to be? If they were reskeined in a smaller skein size, they'd come out looking like Koigu...those sneeky Canadians make their yarn look random just by using a different skein size than the one that they used when they dyed the yarn. But that's ok, I still love it! This is really beautiful and I want to make something special from it so I'll even take suggestions! My first thought was a lacy stole or shawl, but I just don't know. I have enough to do pretty much anything. Any thoughts?

A FI / FO

I just love doing Fair Isle Knitting, and with the hat I finished, I finally feel a bit more confident about knitting two-handed. I really enjoyed working on this, although it ended up a bit too big for me (I did knit to gauge, too) so after I block it, if it's too large still, I might carefully give it a dryer ride to tighten it up just a bit. This pattern is the St. George Street Hat from "The Art of Fair Isle Knitting" from the Kendig Cottage store. I'm still working on the Aran sweater, I'm less than 2 inches from starting armhole decreases on the back and plan to start the sleeves on the same needle to work on at home (I've been taking the back with me when I fly to work on).

Lots of work, not enough knitting

The last week, I've been working an awful lot, 4 long days! I've been to Denver quite a number of times, Eagle (Colorado-where the pictures of the tower and airplane on the ramp were taken), Oklahoma City, and then back to Baltimore. Tomorrow I do it again, the 2nd day of this 2 day trip ends up being 17 hours start to finish with 4 legs and I'm just too tired to function the day after. These pictures don't do anything for the natural beauty of the region, when I took them there had been no snow for quite awhile, but this week they've had nearly 2 feet. I have gotten a bit of knitting done, I have about 12 inches done of hubby's sweater's back, and the Fair-Isle hat is nearing completion, but it's all been done in a blur of sleep deprivation. I'll try to get more pictures up next week as I only fly 2 days.

Ok, it's pretty, but I'd rather be warm

Or, for that matter, I'd rather be on a beach somewhere, or even in Fresno pruning roses and cleaning out gutters (lol). These pictures are what we awoke to this morning, I'd guess that there's nearly 2 feet of snow on our table out there on the deck. The other picture is leading out to the woods behind our house, very snowy and beautiful, but nonetheless, it's snow.
I've quite enjoyed the mild winter we've had so far this year and wasn't really ready for the rain to turn solid. Still, since our dance classes were cancelled for today there's nowhere we have to go until work tomorrow so it's a day to relax and not have to drive in this mess. Our street hasn't been plowed out yet anyway. It would be a perfect day to put on a pot of soup and have a cup of tea and sit watching the coldness outside while knitting, however I probably should get working on the taxes instead. Maybe I'll give myself rewards as I slog through the paperwork of getting to knit a couple of rows every so often. Knit on!

An Overdue Update

My apologies to everyone for being a bad blogger as of late...my schedule of work and business and other items that are going on in my life (dancing lessons and reenactment season starting which necessitates some wardrobe additions and adjustments since I'm not the same size as I was last fall) have pushed blogging to the background, I'm afraid. I've still been knitting, in fact, I have recently made my bedroom more knitting-friendly with the addition of a brighter lamp next to the bed. Now I can work on larger projects that aren't good for traveling in the evenings when I'm home.
I have managed to get a couple of small, traveling projects completed, this scarf is the hand spun corriedale that I showed as it was in progress earlier this past fall. The socks are made of Blue Face Leceister wool and are so very soft! I'm still allergic to wool on my skin so I have liners ready to go with them.

The latest projects to go on the needles are this Aran sweater for my dear husband. He picked out the yarn (yes, it's true, it isn't handspun..I didn't have the time to spin all the wool for this sweater which I wanted to start for him while it was still cold out.
This is my first attempt at cables and I have to tell you that I'm really enjoying it! It's slow going compared to some other kinds of knitting, but watching the pattern emerge row by row makes it all worthwhile. This is the back pictured, I'm maybe 1/4 done with the back section, so as you can see, I just started.This next project is a fair Isle hat that I'm doing as an experiment in color. I'm teaching myself to knit two-handed...and I'll tell you already that before I got the new lamp, I made a couple of chart-reading mistakes on the colors which are shaded very subtly on the chart. Now that I have sufficient light to be able to see, I'll get the hat going with the right color combinations. Of course, I'm doing it in my own colorways, they're a bit bright for my taste, but we'll have to see what it looks like when I'm done. I know that my DS likes funky hats, so I can always "gift" it to him if I don't like it.

FO Report

I know these fingerless mitts weren't on the works in progress list on the last post, but I found this great bulky yarn (70% Merino, 30% Baby Alpaca) and a free pattern on the internet (ok, it was a good starting point, but I'm finding that many times you "get what you pay for" with free patterns) that I had to adjust like crazy to make it doable. I wanted a pair of wrist warmers to wear when I really didn't want to wear full gloves or mittens, so I made these up over the period of a couple of days. I'd bought 2 skeins of the yarn thinking it would be one per mitten, but I got both out of the same ball of yarn with some left over! Mark loved them and they fit so I gave them to him. I'm going to do a little pattern redesign and make another pair for myself. But hey, it's another Finished Object!
I managed to get the Koigu Neck Cosy blocked on the floor in DD's room the other day and it's now so soft and wonderful, almost like it's made from different yarn! I really like it and I think I'll be able to get lots of wear from it. It's even got enough dark blue in it to go with my Uniform overcoat...not that it's legal for the uniform or anything, but I think my having a neck cosy that's these colors is the least of management's issues these days! It'll fit in a pocket of my coat to keep it safe, and I can't wait to use it.
This is my Noro hat and scarf that I finished at the end of last week. The scarf is feather and fan, and the hat was made on a hat loom so it's very loosely knit. I've worn it a couple of times. I liked this yarn a lot while it was in a skein at the yarn shop, but it hasn't really grown on me. Perhaps it would have been more attractive knit into another stitch pattern, I don't know. In any case, someone in the family (perhaps occasionally me) will wear it.
I also got some stash organization done over the past couple of days while hubby was home recuperating from a medical procedure (he's fine! :))...I put most of my yarns that were in the upstairs relm away in drawers by size or type, and even got my sock yarn stash into a drawer in the spinning area on the main level. I've begun doing more knitting than spinning these days, lets not even talk about my spinning fiber stash! I had to buy another plastic bin so I could try to squish some more of my fiber into it! But it's all good, all fun, and all fiber! :)

There are two kinds of knitters...

Koigu one skein neck warmer. The two end tabs lock in place for a nice cozy collar like warmer. I'll be done with this tonight, and I would imagine that it'll block up more open looking and softer.
Corriedale scarf out of handspun with multi-colored roving plied with lavender NZ Corriedale solid color roving. I like the gentle variegations of the colors.

Alpaca scarf just begun. I had spun this yarn at Liz's house the end of December. I'm not enjoying knitting it because the processor added some kind of oil to the fiber to make the roving, and I didn't rewash the yarn. It feels gross. I do, however, like the brindle colored yarn. It's from some blended roving I bought at an Alpaca Farm in August

This is my Koigu Scarf, diagional lattucework pattern from Vogue Knitting book. I found this pattern easier to understand than most of the ones in the Koigu scarf book.

Herb Garden Socks from yarn from Kendig Cottage ebay Store. Notice I'm on the second sock, I hate doing second socks, so this one will probably take longer than the first!

Those that have to finish one project before beginning another, and those that have many works in progress. I am one of the latter. Although I'm excited about a coworker and friend of mine that is on her way to New Zealand as I write bringing me home 5 skeins of Perendale knitting yarn that is made by a wonderful rural company near her home town that I'm wanting to make an aran or gansy style sweater from, I'm usually one that has a lot of little projects going at once. That way, depending on my level of mental alertness or the mood I'm in, I always have something to work on, even switching off during the day.

The Gypsy Shawl moves to the Finished Object list

Yesterday afternoon DH and I went to a meeting of our reenactment unit and I got to sit in the back of the room (with another knitter) and knit while they were doing the business end of the meeing. I finished the crochet edging on the shawl and put the fringe on last night. I'm normally not a finge lover but it really adds something to this shawl and looks really good when the shawl is being worn. So my first Koigu project is finished, and I have quite a few things I can wear it with! I have one skein of this color left over so I'm going to try the "neck warmer" pattern that I got free with some of the yarn I bought, it takes only one skein.

A tale of surprise and excitement!

This week, my DS (Jon) started his first "real job" which he loves and is very good at. Thursday night he called me to ask if he could come over after work, and of course, I always love spending time with him so it was an automatic yes! Well, look what he brought me...this is a 12-string guitar. There's a story to why he thought to bring this for me. When I was in high schoo, my dad bought me a 12-string. I'd played quite a bit back then and used to take it or my 6 string camping with the Scouts all the time. Then I moved a couple of times, ending up in Denver where my kids were born. My DD's dad for some reason "lent" my guitar to a neighbor when we separated and he had most of my things in storage until I was able to get set up. (sigh. A long time ago but it still makes me sad and angry.) Of course, the neighbor never gave it back, (DUH) so I lost it forever. Every time I'd see someone using one (John Denver used to play the 12 string a lot) on TV I'd mourn for my lost guitar, even though I don't play much anymore. So here comes Jon with this beautiful and brand new 12-string guitar for me. I'm tearing up as I write this...it was so incredibly considerate of him to remember the story and know that it would be a perfect gift, and I'm so touched that I can't even express it in words. So THANK YOU!!!!! Jon...in more ways that you know. :) I love you.

Thank you Secret Pal (s)!!!

A Gigantic Thank YOU! to my spindler's secret pal as well as Linda Diak for this wonderful and equisite fiber you see here. Linda wrote me that my wonderful secret pal called her and asked her to send me something purple, so she chose these beautiful fibers for me and added some as a gift from herself as well. They are Merino and Cultivated Silk, Merino and Angora from her own Angora Bunny, and the multi colored is Merino. It's all combed and soft and I just can't wait to get started spinning it all. Where to start? That's going to be tough to decide. Thank you both so very much, I love it all!

Finishing, starting, and good things in purples

I know, I haven't been really good about finishing anything lately. But I do have the Koigu Gypsy shawl blocking on the floor in dd's room before the crocheted edging is applied. And thanks to Liz who loaned me one of her crochet books so I can try to decipher the instructions on the edging and fringe. I haven't crocheted since I was a little girl so there's no telling whether it'll come back to me or not. Hey, it's all about the adventure, right? In any case, my dd's room smells like a wet sheep but I was good and waited until she left after her last visit rather than asking her if I could use the floor in her room while she was here! :) And, BTW, she's learned to knit and is making a striking lime green scarf from an Icelandic single as we speak!
In other news, I just added a couple of other projects to my knitting UFO page and took off a couple of projects that have been perpetually in "ignore" status. I had bought some Noru when I took DD to the LYS to get yarn to learn on but was doing a lenghtwise stripe scarf from it. I decided that that stitch pattern didn't do the yarn justice so I frogged it and started a feather and fan pattern last night. I really like it and I also have enough yarn to make a hat or mittens as well as the scarf. I thought that it was going to be more "blue" but as you can see, there's a bit of teal/turquoise but not much blue. Well, I'd say that merits another trip to the LYS, don't you? I needed to get more blocking pins anyhow, and I managed to find some wonderful yarn in blues that would go great with my Navy Blue uniform coat. I don't know at the moment how I'm going to do this blue scarf, but I think it'll be pretty. And you didn't expect me to walk by the wall of yummy Noro yarns without fondling them, did you? I found these three skeins that were actually all the same dye lot even though when wound they look very different. I just love the purples and blues, and I am thinking mittens, scarf, and hat from these beauties. The Noro is Merino, Angora, and Nylon for strength. (You KNOW how I feel about acrylic, no way, but nylon adds strength for things that are going to get a lot of use like my scarves and mittens.) I can't wait to finish some things so that I can start on this great yarn.

Happy Birthday, Jenn!

21 years ago on a snowy New Year's Eve about 11pm or so, it was finally time to go to the hospital to welcome my very long awaited and special daughter, Jennifer, into the world. I'd been in labor since the early evening before (27 hours before it was over), and she didn't decide to appear until 6:32 am on New Year's day. I guess I should have known then that she wasn't going to make things easy for me! But like anything that's worth the effort, and she certainly was and is worth it, she was worth every moment in labor, and even the challenging moments afterward, and even the moments that made me cry. She's grown into a beautiful young woman that I'm proud to be the mom of. Happy Birthday, sweetheart! I love you!

A moment taken out to relax and spin

Last night, my dh and I visited with LizzyB and her dh. We went out for dinner but spent lots of time spinning and chatting, watching a good movie, and generally just relaxing. I spun some brindle alpaca roving which Liz then plied from a center pull ball, and while she was plying some of her gorgeous Marigold heathered yarn, I finished one bobbin and did another of this shiny and soft Merino/Silk in multi-colored green. I plied it today. All day. There was a lot of yarn on those bobbins, and I plied it into one monster skein! I did a little bit of plying, then walked away and did something else that was on my "to-do" list, then came back and did a little bit more. Finally it was done! Now I'm spinning some Apricot Merino/Angora that I've been wanting to play with. It's very wonderful...of course, that's on one wheel, I have things going on multiple bobbins already. Call it startitis...but the green was a finished skein so I'm so excited! Now to decide what to knit of it.

I'm going to be a bit quiet for the next week

I hope you'll forgive me if I don't get much posting done in the next week. I have to study for my annual requalification for my "real" job...it's all about the things that we hopefully will never have to use but need to know word for word as well as practical examinations. There's lots of pre-work to be done online and the usual making new flashcards and drilling myself on the written items that we could be tested on. It's next Friday and Saturday in Chicago. Hubby is going to fly there and meet me and take me to dinner at the "Shnitzel Hauss" before we come home (forgive me if I've spelled it wrong) which is such fun and with great food too.

In addition, I got this lovely bunch of spindles just today. They all need to be weighed, listed, and photographed so that they can start to be adopted out to good homes. That's going to keep me busy!

And in knitting news, I bound off the Gypsy shawl today. I'm hoping to get it blocked onto the carpet in my guest room sometime over the weekend. I'll wait to photograph it until then. The crocheted fringe will be added after it's blocked. I began to gather up some of the UFO's today to work on, and they are numerous. Ah, the startitis always gets me, I wish I had finishitis too!

A little knitting, a little catching up, a little Holiday frenzy

This is the Koigu gypsy shawl at it's present state of knittingness. The lace pattern that I'm doing now seems to have my brain tied up in knots and I think it's just that I'm so busy and frazzled. I knit at Weight Watcher meetings and a little bit when waiting for planes at work, but I don't really have any time to just sit down and knit so it'll get done when it gets done. I'm actually about 12 rows from binding off, then it'll be blocked and the fringe edging will be added after blocking. I really like larger shawls, so I'm waiting to see if this is large enough for my liking before I bind off the edges. I purchased an extra skein of yarn so I could make it a little bit larger if I thought it needed it.

I'm valliantly trying to catch up with the business issues while getting Holiday cards out and keeping up with the travels and activities of the various children! Mark went to see Matt and Nick this morning and to bring Meg back from Michigan, we had dinner with Jon last night (he picked US up in his new car!) and Jenni is supposed to come tomorrow. I love having a full house! Of course, flying is very busy this time of year too, so that takes a little bit of time out of my schedule. I do hope you and your family aren't getting as frenzied as we are here, and I send my warmest wishes for a delightful holiday with family and friends near and far.

My "to do list" isn't even beginning to have progress made, as I have a dye run to produce for a dear and wonderful customer's request as well as keeping up with orders and trying to get to a point where I can even imagine closing out the year's books here in a week or so. I'vealso got a secret for all you fiber folks out there...plenty of customers are ordering things for themselves that they're not getting or not asking for as Holiday gifts which makes me smile with fibery warmth. There's nothing like enjoying a nice relaxing spinning session to de-stress from this busy period.

Myself, I'm looking forward to sitting down and spinning some more of the merino and NZ possum blend that I sent to be processed this fall. It's really exquisitely soft and wonderful, as I was able to spin some of it at a guild meeting/party last Sunday. I'm also looking forward to sharing some with my dear (local) fiber friends. Thank you so much for your friendship, laughs, sharing, and fiber togetherness this year! I feel very blessed to have such wonderful friends in my life.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.....that's a cleansing scream from all the activity. Gee, I feel so much better now...time to get back to work!

Tagged by LizB

Well, I got tagged by Liz for a meme so here it is:

Make a List of all the Different types of items you’ve knitted and completed:
Hats of many varieties, scarves, sweaters, shawls, headbands, socks and mittens. I'm more of a spinner than knitter, but I seem to make the same things. That's going to have to change. I'm ready to step outside of my comfort level!

Of all the things you’ve knitted what was your favorite type and why?
I enjoy doing color work, and really enjoyed doing stranded fair-isle patterns. I did a beautiful sweater that was color stranded leaves on a cream cardigan. It was horribly stranded and it didn't fit, but I've wanted to do more color work. I'm playing with the idea of doing a fair isle sweater from handspun, but I don't know in which lifetime I'm going to have the time.

List the types of items you haven’t finished yet, but intend to either finish or knit at some point.
That fair isle sweater, another Koigu shawl, a whole set of mittens, scarf, and hat in a fair isle style. I'd love to say that I'm going to finish all my unfinished projects, but I know myself and that's not realistic. I'd like to learn to do cables, and aran knits too. Too many aspirations, not enough lifetime left to do them all!

Have you ever knitted anything that at one point you had sworn you would never take the time to knit?
Not really. I knit so slowly that I plan each project and start it (yes, I do have startitis!) as something I'm planning to allocate the time to finish. My problem is more that I don't finish what I start. I also tend to start small projects so they are portable like socks so that I can take them when I fly.

Thanks Liz, you made me think! :)

A very emotional day

Today is my son Jonathan's 18th birthday, and his graduation with a Maryland High School Diploma from the National Guard Challenge program. He's posing here with his mentor, Scoutmaster and all around Fantastic Person, Mr. Charlie. Mr. Charlie really helped him through this tough program of personal and academic change in which Jonathan turned himself around completely. He was awarded both a Savings Bond and a $500 scholarship for his great work in the program, and we're so very proud of him! The second picture is of him giving a Keynote speech that brought everyone (especially me!) to tears in the audience. It was a beautiful and sunny day for this event, cold but clear. Here's one of the family (Jennifer, Jon, me and Mark) enjoying another hug before departing for home. Unfortunately not everyone could come to the graduation while all us parents and "additional parents" as well as Aunt Wendy were there, Jon's Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles and cousins in Illinois and Iowa, brothers and sister in Michigan, and Brother-in-Law deployed in Iraq also are very proud of his accomplishments although they were unable to attend. BUT, I know I've been ignoring my knitting, and I will get back on it now that some of the excitement of the season is over. In fact, I'll have a pattern and some info if you'd like to help me in a project that will be posted on the blog this week.

Playing Catch up

My absolute apologies for not posting for awhile. We were away for Thanksgiving (pictures are: of me with DSD Meghann at my Mom-in-Law's on Thanksgiving, of my DS Jon with a friend at parent's visit day the weekend before Thanksgiving, and of my DD Jennifer with my DSL Michael in Texas a day before he had to board an airplane bound eventually for Iraq) and it's just been crazy here since then. I'm back to flying, and you know how the holidays bring out the most frazzledness in people! Actually Jenn is home for a little while now in preparation for moving down to Ft. Bliss to await Michael's return.

And on the fiber front, I've gotten a few more rows knitted on my Koigu Gypsy shawl, I think I'm to about row 135 on that. I'll get a picture up soon, I promise. I'm really enjoying working on it, I love the yarn, but I have so many handspun projects percolating in my head (and some already cast on and on the needles) that I want to get moving! Could anyone send me some time that they're not using? On the spinning wheel: I'm doing some grey yak, but I don't expect to get much spinning done in the conceivable future.

Also, you might have noticed the sidebar has an addition, Mark and I joined Weight Watchers together and we're charting our progress. So far I've done ok but not what I'd hoped for, but then again with Thanksgiving (and left overs!) I didn't gain and that's the important thing. I'll keep updating the figures on a weekly basis, my goal for the holiday season is to not gain, and perhaps lose. Mark is doing much better than I am in terms of amount lost, but he's my helpmate and it's so much easier to do the program when he's on it too.

Fun with Google

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and managed to survive without getting too full!

I was reading Elaine's blog and came upon this fun little game: Type "(your name) NEEDS" and hit enter on google. Then post the top 10. Here are mine (truncated by google):
1. Vicki needs to pay the rent, and without community approval she might as well...
~Hehe...always a concern...that darn rent. Especially with my job.
2. Vicki needs to realize that dogs are not little people in furry costumes ...
~Actually I thought dogs were people in furry suits. At least my dogs have always been.
3. "Vicki needs more yarn like she needs a hole in the head," ...
~~This one was my personal favorite, and true for ME at that! In fact this one came up numerous times.
4. Vicki needs all the help she can get and your prayers can assist in that regard. Also the CBC program ...
~Not sure about the CBC programme, but I can always use assistance from the "upstairs"!
5. Vicki Needs to Go by JeeHoon Lee and Artie Romero,
~No idea what that was, and I didn't feel like googling any further with my laptop battery on it's"die at the most inopportune time possible" setting.
6. Vicki needs help when transferring to and from the car.
~Probably need to file this one for many years from now.
7. Vicki needs to learnabout “she bang” magic. As in “she bang” her head against the wall with
~No, that's not (to my knowledge) about having too much wine with dinner...
8. Vicki needs me in Tuscaloosa
~Actually I've never been there. I've been to a lot of small towns, but not that one.
9. Vicki needs treats! Vote for Vicki. You can vote once a day per IP, and any votesthat violate that rule get canceled out at the end. ...
~Hey, feel free to send treats at any time. Well, actually, unless they're Weight Watcher's one point mini bars, please don't...sometimes I need to be saved from myself. And since you asked, I'm glad I have a week after Thanksgiving until I weigh in again, but I didn't go as crazy as I usually do so that in itself is a small personal victory. Now to navigate my mom-in-law's fantastic leftovers!
10. Vicki needs to forget about him and find someone ...
~Naaaahhhhhhh, I've got the absolutely most fantasticist guy in the world. I wouldn't trade him for anything.

A Happy and Safe Thanksgiving Holiday to all

We're getting ready to go to my husband's parents for our Thanksgiving Holiday and I wanted to tell everyone that I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving! Of course, we're totally swamped trying to get everything done at the last moment, that's how most of us work best!

If you don't want to hear some venting, feel free to not read the rest of the post. I was happy to spend Saturday with my son, and have some opions of my own to make known as a result of also spending the day with my former husband: (As well as my son's mentor who is the finest person I have ever met): "If you give a person everything in the world that he wants, he loses the motivation to do anything for himself. He will lose the drive to excel, and if you then do everything for him under the guise of "helping", he will have no reason to be proud of his own accomplishments. He does not value the things that are not earned himself, nor does he appreciate what goes into obtaining them, and does not respect the work that others must do in order to own their own rewards. He becomes negative and entitled and will continue to desire to be spoiled and have everything handed to him as time goes on unless he himself breaks this cycle since it's much easy to take with open hand than to work for rewards. The parent who indulges in this way is creating a dependant adult for the parent's own misguided gain, not an independent and well adjusted adult." Those are my opinions on childrearing, which force me to sometimes make unpopular decisions based on the difference between easy and fun to having rules, boundaries, and responsibilities for my child. Being the one that was "a parent" was always more difficult than being the one that was trying to always be "a friend". It's so much more than what a parent buys for their child.

Pending his graduation in 3 weeks, my son has been given: a resume written my my ex, a job through a relative that DS hasn't even yet interviewed for, a car (test driven by my ex, and will be purchased by him although my son will supposedly pay him back), a driver's license ( appointment for the test was made for him), insurance for that car, contact lenses that I always said he should earn by his behavior, and is being actively solicited for what he wants for graduation gifts which will no doubt add to his already large collection of DVDs and electronics. Things like this have robbed this young adult of much needed life skills and lessons in doing things for himself and reinforced how easy it is to be entitled, and I've not but listed a few.

This program DS is enrolled in was a fallback position because he did not do his work in High School despite mounting groundings and restrictions for his defiant behavior. It's obvious that the negative teaching of entitlement and growing up hearing how horrible "rules" were was deeply rooted, and the "cause and effect", "earn your rewards", and "action and consequences" based teaching that I have tried to counter the negative done all these years was lost to the easier path from my marriage and move from Colorado when my son was 4 years old. I am very proud of my son's progress, his academic honors, his fantastic grades and test scores, his volunteer work and his rising to the top in this program, but since it's a residential program since July, I can only surmise that he is successful since he was left to his own "sink or swim" motivations without the "easier path" being there for him. He excelled and blossomed in an environment of structure and rules without having the negativity of "those rules are stupid" whispered in his ears. He's done it on his own, and he deserves to be very proud of himself, as I am very, very proud of him. I knew he could do anything he wanted as long as he was able to do it for himself and that the environment of structure as I always fought for would be beneficial. I do hope that he can get away from the influence of entititlement and laziness so he will continue to thrive and What a shame, my heart cries out for this wonderful kid that I love more than words can express, and I sincerely hope that my son realizes what has happened. I hope that none of the single (or remarried) parents out there has to deal with anything negative happening to their child.

Happy Holidays, everyone.

A + B = C

These three pictures show the two singles of different but contrasting and related color that I spun, and the resulting two plied yarn that came out of them. I am really pleased with the effect on the yarn. I can't wait to knit it up and see what it looks like...I love the heathered look. I'm not sure what I'm going to make from it (just what I need - another Unfinished project!) but I'm looking forward to using it. It's so soft and wonderful. Both fibers were Corriedale, the solid lavender is NZ Carded corriedale, and the multicolored is just Corriedale roving which was then hand dyed. I'll put pictures of any finished project I make up, but somehow, I don't think that's going to happen until after the holidays!

The new Joy is here! :)

And it's definitely more of a Joy than the old one with the wobble in the wheel. I spun up 2 ounces of NZ corriedale in Lavender to ply with some hand dyed corriedale that I have going on my Louet (which, by the way, I've decided to name "Louey Louet"). I love the color, and the Joy is sure to grow on me as I use it more. I'm looking forward to taking "Chava" (Joy in Hebrew, and one of my Hebrew names from my Mother) with us for Thanksgiving in Illinois.

Big Thank Yous to my Secret Pals!

I'm in two secret pal groups, and I very much enjoy sending things to my secret pals and getting to know new fiber people. It's always a surprise and a pleasure to get packages from the ladies that have me as a secret pal. This first package came on Saturday from my Spindlers Secret Pal, in Canada. Isn't the fiber beautiful! Now I just have to decide which spindle is worthy of that gorgeous Merino Silk, and how finely to spin it and what to make of it too. Decisions, decisions, decisions. The CD you see on top of the fiber is in my machine and playing now, It's called Tapestry IV-Gentlemen, and is so wonderful for spinning, knitting, and just relaxing. It's music from the 17th and 18th century in Britian as well as some new compositions, and I can't even describe how beautiful the music is. Perfect! Thank you so VERY much, my spindler sister from Canada, my Spindler's Secret pal!
The next picture is the package that came last last evening from my Secret Pal 6 pal, and what a perfect combination of such nice things! Thank you so very much! I know the picture is kind of hard to see, but my secret pal sent Chocolate because she knows I love it so much! In the background is a set of Clover circulars to do the beautiful Lorna's Laces yarn socks that I'm planning out of the yarn she sent me last month. It'll be a project to take with me for Thanksgiving travel! Isn't the yarn fabulous and beautiful! It's called Whispers, and is made of 50% Mohair and 50% Acryllic. I've never seen this kind of yarn before, and trust me when I tell you that touching it is pure heaven, it's so very soft and the color and luster are gorgeous. And if that wasn't perfect enough, in the foreground are some knitmarkers that my talented secret pal made for me. I'll treasure them and use them with pride. Once again, to my secret pal knitter sister from Belarus (and now Florida), Thank YOU!

After knitting between doing everything else yesterday and this morning, I finally got enough of the Koigu Gypsy Shawl finished to take a picture of, I'm now on row 53 so it's expanding enough to be seen. I went to the LYS and broke down and bought a Addy Turbo Circular to knit this on, I love the bamboos usually but the one I was knitting on made it so slow and sticky to slide the stitches on, perhaps it wasn't sanded well, I don't know. But now I'm moving right along! I love this yarn, and I thank Liz for showing me her stash and getting me started on my very own addiction to it! I have just the outfit to wear this shawl with too!

Today's Chuckle

I was reading the digest of Yahoo group's Sheep Thrills and came upon this: so perfect for me, and for others that I know...

SELE: Stash Exceeds Life Expectancy! Isn't that the truth!

And on that note: Im working on the Koigu Gypsy Shawl, I'm on row 35 but it's still too small to photograph without laughing. Maybe when I get to row 100. Of course, I'm blaming my friend Liz for introducing me to this lovely yarn...her Charlotte's web shawl is exquisite!

Hubby found this great German Beer hall called Blob's Park that had decent German food, but what's more fun is that they had a live Polka band and we danced until we couldn't dance any more. We've now signed up for Lessons since Hubby's Polish Polka Gene somehow didn't transfer from his parents. I learned as a child, standing on top of my dad's feet at Slovak family weddings and such. We still had fun, and are planning on going back whenever we can.

A new addition to the fold

Just look at this beauty, it's the latest spindle to be added to my collection, and I just love it! This beautiful Loki spindle made of Box Elder Burl was in the box as a gift for me from Elizabeth Daily, the creator of the gorgeous line of Greensleeves Spindles. I proudly carry her spindles in my store and ebay store as they are some of the most artistic and most beautiful spindles I've ever seen. Elizabeth has a real way of bringing out the potential in wood, as you can see from this spindle. I had a scrap of Merino/Yak roving (50/50 blend) sitting on my desk, so I've been spinning it on the spindle, which is not only beautiful, but spins really well! I've been doing a lot of my samples lately on the wheels, but I think this fiber is going to be spun on this beautiful spindle. And did I mention that I unpacked 20 other drop dead gorgeous spindles from the same box, but alas, they're not for me...

Sex while hubby was away!

Now before all you search engine folks get disappointed, SEX to a fiber and yarn person is a "stash enhancement excursion". I have the great pleasure (sometimes it's not a good thing) of having a LYS right near one of the local post offices. So when I do my shipping, I'm often tempted to wander in and see what they have to offer, since I don't sell each and every type of yarns through the Kendig Cottage business. They carry some really strange and "You knit what?" worthy yarns, but I was looking for something to make a couple of funky scarves to wear with some mostly black and/or white clothing that I'd recently gotten. You know, to add some color to the outfit. I started this scarf from the ribbon yarn, and let me just tell you, the color might be very striking, but I hate this stuff. It's stretchy, it twists terribly while you're working with it, it loves for your needle to get caught in it and poke holes, and it just is generally disagreeable. I will finish the project because I spent waaaaayyyyy too much money on the yarn not to, but I'll never recommend this to anyone that I like.
Upon seeing the beautiful Charlotte's Web shawl that Liz has made (I got to see it in person on Saturday!...ooooooooooo, ahhhhhhhhhh.....it's beautiful!) I ordered some Koigu online and it was delivered the same day as I went to the LYS. Now, I've pretty much been able to keep my stash of yarns in check because I generally prefer to spin my own, but this stuff just makes me want MORE! This little beauty came for me this week too.... I had wanted a very portable wheel to take with me when I travel with hubby. I put it together and spun on it, but the drive wheel was a bit warped. Liz came over Saturday and showed me how warped it was, so there's already another one on it's way from the distributor, I'll be sending back the one with "issues"...no problem! I still have wheels to spin on. *grin*. Back to having sex, I took a Spindling class with Tom at the Mannings on Friday, yes, I know how to spindle but I wanted to see if there was anything else I could learn (a few things, indeed). Well, the Koigu called to me there too, and I came home with a bunch. Now it's back to work, but I WILL find time to knit in between Flying, doing the business work, washing fleece, housework, well you know...