When It's Taking too Long...

When the bobbin never seems to fill, and the roving never seems to stop, it might be a sign.

A sign you're spinning the darn stuff too fine!!

I'm going to hang that quote up somewhere.

For some reason I thought it'd be a good idea to increase the tension and spin a bunch of Merino/Silk roving that has been tripping me. A week later and I was ready tear my hair out because it was NEVER ending!

When I finally decreed the bobbin filled and plied it, I realized why. My first plied bobbin had 350 yards of lace weight 3 ply. And I still have half the original bobbin to ply. I can't even call it fingering weight, it's lighter than the sock weight yarn I have hanging around. I'm guessing I'll have close to 800 yards off of the first bobbin. Now I'm not sure whether or not to spin the remaining the same way, or up it. I guess I'll decide.

Right now I've decided procrastination is the best course of action, and I was dying to knit with Bryn. So I started a Multnomah shawl tonight. Much faster progress than that darn tangly windy lace weight which is laughing at me from across the room.

Craigslist Crazies

The last 2 weeks I've been listing things on Craigslist for sale. It's a version of Spring cleaning, and decluttering. The fact is, we have too many things, and it's time to minimize. Of course minimizing doesn't include yarn stashes or spinning wheels. That's a different thing altogether.

The beauty of Craigslist is it's an online community of people who will happily trade, barter, and otherwise take your castoffs and put them to use. Of course like any other community it's eclectic, and some are downright weird.

Take for example the people who made arrangements to buy the car we were selling, only to call right before we were taking it to meet them with the title to say they decided they needed a seat that adjusted in height.

Or the person who e-mailed me and chewed me out for pricing an aquarium at too high of a price.

The person who asked for the stove we were giving away and then requested we put it outside for them at 4:00AM.

Or the lady with the pet rescue who went to the wrong home improvement store, to meet us.

The guy who made arrangements to meet us to buy a dresser and then arrived to the pickup location in a car filled with other items and nowhere to put the dresser in the car.

The person who e-mailed 14 questions over a free fish tank. 

My hints for selling on Craigslist:

• 
  
• Price your item low, but 30% more than what you want to sell it for. If you want 50.00, price it at 80.00, and then negotiate. 
• Don't waste your time with tire kickers. Answer 2 emails and that's it. NEVER take your listing down until they've picked up the item.
• Keep it public. Unless it's way too big of an item meet in a public area. Take someone with you if possible.
• A sense of humor is necessary, people are crazy, it's fun.
• Make sure to fit them into your schedule, don't move things around. Someone who can only pick up something RIGHT NOW probably isn't going to show anyway.
• If someone emails with stupid questions just delete. Someone who asks how wide a dresser is when you put it in the ad, or how many gallons your 30 gallon tank is, is a waste of time. You can't cure stupid.

I love Craigslist, it's like the great American Garage sale.. Fascinating funny,  and my garage is getting empty!

I Have a Little Project...

That I can't tell anyone about. So here I am, I could write blog post after blog post after blog post about that project. But I can't. So I can talk about yarn. Except I need to take pictures. So instead here's a random thought post.

1. I'm up to 585 N-plied yards of the cormo/silk noil. I still have some left to ply and another 4 oz or so to spin. Any guesses as to how much I'll end up with? 
2. Tofurky Pepperoni Vegan pizza is surprisingly delicious and makes me feel like I'm eating junk food. It is best when eaten with Double Stuf oreos for dessert, which does make it junk food.
3. I visited Detta's Spindle last week. I need to go over there a lot more. Except then I'd be even broker. I went there because I had managed to fill all my bobbins. That, takes talent. And ignore the fact that I have 5 other wheels that had free bobbins. That would have been too much work.
4. It is still brown, dreary and cold here. But warmer than it could be and no snow. Still, brown, dreary and cold, with no flowers in sight.
5. I am going to make vegan truffles tonight. Yummy.
6. Ramses is entering his puppy teenage years. He is especially attracted to yarn attached to knitting needles. The cats find his ability to steal and spread the yarn randomly fascinating. I do not.
7. Did I mention that it's brown dreary and cold?
8. And I am bouncing up and down inside. Sometimes to Zumba, which is quite fun, but generally just about the Project.

Ribbon Recital

It was Devin's ribbon recital today. He did a great job on his song. In just a couple weeks he'll be playing this in the MMTA piano competition.

In other news, there is no snow on the ground. It's January. This is a good thing. But I'd still rather be at the ocean. And I am still working on plans to knit sweaters.

Christmas Casualty

Due to circumstances out of my control, I found myself shopping at Walmart at 11:30 at night two days ago. I had spent the day wrapping presents, retrieving Silent Auction winnings, dropping people off to run to other events, cleaning fishtanks, bathing and grooming poodles, and so on and so forth. So between that and the X Factor finale, we didn't get to Walmart till 11:30. At which time I grabbed a bag of accumulated trash from the van and tossed it in the trash can there.

It wasn't till I had tucked myself (and the dogs) in bed at 2:00 that I sat up with a start. O. M. G. I hadn't thrown away trash. I had thrown away a knitting project. I laid there pondering my choices. I could: A- get up and go back to Walmart and dig through the trash in hopes of finding it. Or B- Make myself up a story to feel better.

In reality I wasn't THAT fond of the yarn, I was more upset over the loss of my Addi lace turbos, cause I love those needles and they're expensive. But there was nothing I could do at this point. This is a small town, I was a bit worried digging through the trash would end in me being arrested and I think bail would be more expensive than the Addi turbos. Had it been Three Irish Girls Yarn, or handspun yarn, I may have risked it.

Instead though, I made up the following story:

Once upon a time there was a knitter who had come into hard times. She had lost her house, her car, her job, and worst of all, her yarn stash. It had been a terrible year. A couple night before Christmas, she wandered into Walmart to buy herself some day old bread, and to escape the cold. Her hands were freezing in the bitter tundra air. When she was leaving, she paused to throw away her wrapper, and a glint caught her eye. A practically new pair of Addi Turbo lace, size 4, laid on top carefully sealed in a plastic bag. On the needles was half of a mitten knitted out of beautiful teal cabled yarn. There was enough yarn left of the skein to easily finish the pair, and have some left for another small project. Here eyes filled with tears, here was the answer to her Christmas wish. Some beautiful yarn to knit with and a project to keep her freezing hands warm in the Tundra winds.

A month later, with her warm hands and stylish mittens finished, she was spotted by a yarn shop owner, who admired her incredible skill, and offered a job on the spot. Her fortunes changed from that moment forward and a few years later she ended up a famous knitting designer. All because some harried hurried person accidentally threw away the wrong bag in a Walmart parking lot...

Silent Auctions

Every time I go to a silent auction I feel a need to up the bid. Typically I choose something that is handmade and bump it up a little. Not necessarily to win, but typically to get the artisan a little more credit for their work.

The other week was no different. We had finally made it to the Stork House. This little house we drive by practically every day but somehow during the special events we had always missed the time, forgot or had something completely conflicting in the time. Finally, we made it through for a tour and Christmas party. While there, (by the way, they have 2 spinning wheels in residence, a walking wheel and a flax or CPW, have to go back for a closer look.) I stopped by the silent auction table where I bid up a few items and then wandered away.

Last night I got a call, I had won, not one, not two, but all three items I had bid on! Alrighty then! What did I win? I won 2 crocheted dish towels, a basket of raspberry and strawberry jam, and.... Wait for it....

A pair of felted mittens. And......

A handspun scarf. Yes. Because there is a shortage of scarves in this house.

Not a bad haul for one bid on each. And it went to charity.

Bella says that clearly they are all presents for her. Any questions?

I'm not sure what the destiny of this little scarf will be. It's actually quite lovely but I do already own 35. I'm not sure I need another scarf. But I'm sure it will get a good home no matter where it's destiny lies.

Tannenbaum

We did it, we decided to attempt a Christmas tree again.

Our past Christmases have been laden with Christmas tree disasters. For every year of a successful Christmas tree, there is one where it was more interesting.

Do you see what I see?

There was the Christmas when I was 5 or 6, and we didn't have money for a tree. It resulted in my brother and I (he was much older and a legal driver) circling the town looking for someone who'd sell us a tree for 5.00. We did find one.

Or the tree we purchased that was a little wider than we anticipated. Despite the fact that it took up half the room it was pretty. Except it was too tall and the star wouldn't fit on top. We cut the top off and it ended up looking like a round piney ball. Duct tape worked great though to reattach the tip.

The year we lost half the branches to our artificial tree. Presumably they were left in the basement of the house we had moved out of. Leaving things during moves is a tradition. When we moved to the frozen tundra, we managed to leave all our pot and pan lids. That, takes talent.

My personal favorite tree story though, is when we had a tree delivered by my sibling's grandfather (too complicated of a story there). He owned a tree farm and dropped off a netted tree on our porch as a present. It was a beautiful tree, but at least 8 feet tall. My friend and I started to saw the bottom off with a very dull, very old saw. An hour later we had the tree cut to size, and 35 minutes later it was in the stand. By this time my mom was home and we decorated it carefully. It was truly a gorgeous tree, huge, full, and we had perfectly hung all the decorations. We took a step back to admire our handiwork and watched in awe as the tree swayed and fell to the floor, decorations flying everywhere. My friend looked on stunned as my mom and I laughed hysterically. Come to think of it, our friendship kind of faded away after that. Evidently there are 2 types of people in the world. Those who laugh at tragedy, and those who don't.

And of course there was the last tree we had. In 2009 we decorated a little artificial tree I had purchased the year before (this one's branches were firmly permanently attached) only to watch helplessly as the cats denuded the ornaments, knocked the tree over, scattered and shattered ornaments and finally broke all the branches of the poor little tree. It was a Christmas carnage and truly painful. Last year we forsook a tree but this year we decided the cats were old enough and fat enough to try again. We have been conditioning them to spend part of the night in the bathroom as a safety measure just to be safe, and stocked up on their favorite food just in case they need to be satiated with food to leave the twinkle lights alone. We will see how this goes..

Braving the wilds of the tree lot

Just the right fluffy tree

They picked the same tree. Miracles to exist in the Christmas season!

 

Lance checks it out for safety

Neptune takes off the netting

Mercury pretends he's living in the wilds

Ramses checks out where the kitties are

 

Picture of innocence

Bella sits in wait (She will be the problem I predict)

Cory found a yarn ornament he made

Covering all angles

Two stars for 2 kids

Decorated!

Holiday Knitting

I am not a gift knitter. For one thing, I knit function, not prettiness. For another thing I get bonded to my knitted items and would rather have them sitting here in a collection than unused and unappreciated. But this year my knitting has improved. I knitted a wedding gift, and found I gave it away easily. Now granted, maybe I didn't like the yarn very well, but I still managed to give the blanket away.

This year however, I am poor, (but rich in spirit). I also really like handmade presents. I've made a lot of handmade things in the past, just not knitted things. So, as of today, I have a list. A list of things to knit for people. Small accessories that hopefully they'll use. Have I really waited till 16 days before Christmas to commence my knitting? Of course! Why not? Really the list is easy:

1 - pair of mittens

3 - Fingerless mitts

4- Scarves (that might be tricky)

1 - Shawl

Oh, and I'm assembling soup jars for people too. But that'll just take an afternoon, well, and I need to put up the Christmas tree. Which means I need to clean the yarn strewn house (ask the cats about THAT one). But really, it's easy. Did I mention making fudge for gifts, and gift baskets for the neighbors. Well, again, cooking for Christmas is really just a 1 day deal. And I can knit during part of it thereby multitasking.

Of course I have a plan, a master plan if you will. My plan:

Tomorrow: Shopping. Including visiting 2 yarn stores on the other side of town, the ones I love and never get to. We need a few other things from over there, and frankly you can't expect me to use stash yarn on people. Stash yarn I have bonded to after all. No I need impersonal store yarn. Store yarn that I haven't petted, and cuddled, and lovingly stowed in a cubby. You may of course be saying to yourself that yarn is expensive, and how is that saving money? I am really not sure, and would prefer not to talk about the actual dollars and cents to this decision. Can you put a price on love?

Anyway, knitting and pattern matching will start the next day, along with decorating (and a tree if we really are crazy enough to attempt it) I am of course ranking items by order of dates: friends far away are highest priority, those who we won't see till after Christmas, low priority. Easy. And I mean, that seriously extends the date to New Years. That's an entire extra week!

Finally, cooking and such needs to be completed for handing out by the 21st. I plan to do the soup jars that day too. Again, no major rush, I have quite awhile to gather ingredients.

I believe procrastination leads to intensity in work thereby improving the creative process. That's my story anyway.

Processing Information

I am a bargain shopper, whether out of necessity (right now) or because it's fun. For the past 6 months I've been hunting for a Cuisinart Food Processor. My last one was an old model that I picked up for 5.00, at a Goodwill. It lasted for years, and would still be working had I not lost the lid in a move sometime.

So I was thrilled when I found a brand new Cuisinart on Craigslist for 60.00. But after waiting a couple weeks, and then email bargaining I got it down to 45.00. YES! All the cool slicing blades and everything.
Since bringing it home, it's been humming regularly.

The first thing I made? A green smoothie, dark leafy greens, banana, blackberries and a little soy milk. So good! I'm trying to drink 1-2 of these a day for all of December to see how I feel. They make a great breakfast for me since I don't love breakfast anyway, and drinking it is easier than eating it. So far the biggest pro I have found is they fill you up to an insane level. You're ready to go for hours after that with no hunger.

Vegan of course!

Tonight, after I made chocolate green smoothies (the kids even ate them!) I made hummus for lunch, and after that, split pea soup. So good! I am in processor heaven! The nice thing is it cuts down on my chopping time, which allows me more time to do other things - like untangle this skein of yarn. Ramses was so kind as to tangle it all up for me. I'd much rather do this than knit with the yarn - or spin.

Let the Christmas Season BEGIN!

In reality I've been listening to Christmas carols for a month. But it's December first, it just seems like Christmas is starting today. First:

We have Advent Calendars. Or rather the kids do. That means they get to eat 1 piece of chocolate a day. I remember as a kid, trying so hard to not eat more than 1 piece. I think generally my calendar lasted till around December 10th. Then somehow they'd all disappear. Actually I blame other family members. I think they discovered my stash. Anyway, I had gotten them one time for the kids, and they more or less were apathetic. So I was surprised when they asked for them this year. Which led us to the problem of finding them. I'm not sure whether it's a regional thing or whether it's just popularity, but they were really difficult. We finally found fair trade organic chocolate ones at Whole Foods. Which were half the price of the ones at Hallmark. Double score there, responsible, better product and cheaper!

Tonight is the Holidazzle Parade. I am not going. Not that I wouldn't love to go downtown to stand in the slush on the frozen street corner, watching lights go by. In the cold. Wearing handknits. In really cold weather. With my feet freezing. No, I am sacrificing the cold to instead go to the band concert. It's heated. It's actually really a shame they happened to both be on the same night as the kids wanted to march. But on the other hand, then I would have had to go. Follow the link above if you want to see pictures, I'm assuming the parade will look pretty much the same.

Another sign Christmas is coming is the CMA Christmas concert is on tonight. Hopefully Taylor won't be on there and we can watch it in peace. If not I can fast forward through her. Thank goodness for DVR.

I am making my short list of Christmas candy, really I just want to make fudge. However I'm not sure I can make fudge Vegan. This could mean I will make it but feel guilty. On the bright side that could lower my consumption of it. Really I just need to make enough to give to the neighbors. Most of the family members who are still speaking to me aren't eating things like fudge.

We also need to decide on a tree. Whether we're even attempting one after the failed tree fiasco of 2009. The cats though, are older (and fatter) now, and maybe it'll be safe. Of course we do have the teething Ramses-puppy racing around. He the other day decided to chew on my Majacraft Rose. Silly puppy. Oh well, it just adds a patina to the wood anyway. (I say this through gritted teeth, but really, it was my fault for having the wheel out). So I'm not sure how a tree will fare. And if we get one, should it be big and sturdier, smaller and less likely to do damage if knocked over? So many decisions.

What Does a Plant Based Person Eat?

I have actual knitting (and spinning!) content coming along with a recap from the weekend. But right now the car is halfway unpacked, the living room is halfway packed, I have a dog with an upset tummy, 2 other clean happy ones, 2 cats who are being their normal obnoxious selves, and 1 cat who is upset that he didn't come on vacation with me. So pardon the fact I haven't found the yarn spun (and plied!!!) or taken pictures yet. There's still tonight.

Instead, I'm going to talk about dinner. Dinner is always lovely. In the midst of chaos, we will not be eating out, nor will we be eating frozen pizza, burgers, or other sundry foods. Dinner tonight? 1 large can of black beans, 1 can of kidney beans, 1 can of stewed tomatoes, 1 cup of salsa and a quart of vegetable stock. I added some nutritional yeast, a little paprika and let it cook. Once it's heated through and the flavors have merged I'll add 1 cup of frozen corn and a package of raw spinach then heat again. Delicious, fast, protein packed, nutritious and fat and animal product free.

Insert picture. You know. If I knew whether the camera was still in the car or if it's in the living room. Most likely it's where the bag of spices are that we meant to take with us on the trip.. You know the ones I use every day. Which wasn't on the trip with us, and appears to not be here either. Can a bag vaporize?

Follies

I am so behind here, between my tooth (now gone, I hope the Tooth Fairy comes soon though, I think I deserve a big present - maybe a pony - or a Reeves spinning wheel. Either one.) Ramses who is in the midst of teenage puppy adorableness, and just general life type activities. No apologies just a fact. So here is a synopsis of the past 9 days.

We had a lovely dinner party, in which I practiced my new cooking skills with lowfat/plant based cooking on 2 willing friends. It was a great time ending in a knitting lesson, hopefully we have a new convert.

The next day Neptune took out his rage on being locked away for the night by knocking over a lamp and breaking a window. Seriously? That cat and his magic claw wreaking destruction everywhere. Luckily it didn't break the entire way through, just the inside pane. Of course that is still 300.00 to replace.

Window? What window? I merely used my magic claw to remove the vent
which knocked over the lamp and tapped the window. I couldn't have
planned that out..

Then that night, the same cat escaped causing a heart attack on my part when he wasn't in the house when we came home. Luckily he was also panicked over the situation and was just as happy to see me as I was to see him. No, no one threw him out, he'd kill the chipmunks then and cause us much trauma, He just slipped out.

That leads us to Halloween. It was a success with trick or treating and happy kids dressed up as Sora and Roxas from Kingdom Hearts (a video game). It was another successful costume done by my mom who has some sort of magic ability to throw together a costume for anything out of nothing. The grown up holiday consisted of handing out candy and eating Vegetarian Chinese food made by the lovely restaurant down the road.

Sora

Roxas

Then we get into the tooth debacle, which kind of made a bunch of days a blur.

But I did go to a small fiber festival on Saturday, which was fun but I didn't buy ANYTHNG! I did want to buy a drop spindle. But I resisted. At least for now. As for the rest of it, I have so much here I just didn't see anything I needed. I know, weird right, but I don't have a fever..

And yesterday, we actually left Ramses the most spoiled puppy in the history of the world home, and went to see Puss and Boots. Which was funny, but is banned from our home forever. I have no idea what Neptune would do if he saw that movie for inspiration. Terror and chaos would ensue I'm sure.

Our version of Puss and Kitty Softpaw

PS - Neptune has a new trick to show you.. Stay tuned.

Streak Ended

It has been at least 15 years since I went to the dentist. Yes I just admitted that.

I have a phobia about them. Caused by large needles that never really numbed my mouth anyway where they were supposed to, sadistic hygenists that made it a game to see how painful teeth cleaning could be, and a few cavities filled incorrectly made me avoid the office like the plague.

Mention teeth around me and I panic, the sound of a drill makes my teeth ache, and going into the dentists office makes me sick.

Luckily I have been blessed with pretty good teeth. I don't get cavities easily, I didn't need braces, and I don't suffer pain easily.

But on Saturday I was woken up by someone apparently hammering my tooth on the inside trying to crack it's way out. This tooth was one incorrectly filled a long time ago that has always caused me problems. The past 2 days I've lived in pain, from mild to severe depending on the moment. So today I did it. I went in. Mainly because the thought of an infection made cringe, what would be worse than the dentist? A dentist appt morphing into a doctor's appt.

To make a long panic attack filled visit short, I once again kind of anyway lucked out. There is a crack and a cavity beneath the filling that needs to be fixed. But the pain is being caused more by the broken tooth behind it that is pressuring it. So I need to have that one extracted, and then the filling taken care of. I realize this means 2 more appointments, but really, I am happy there was no infection, no root canal needed and it seems like a quick fix. There are also no more cavities lurking and the dentist didn't give me a hard time over not coming in.

There is a major stigma really over dental phobia. I wonder why? It's a realistically horrific experience, the lack of control, the pain, the stress and the fact that the sounds and smells are easily identifiable. Why do we look down on people who have a phobia of this, but don't say anything about people who fear bridges or won't eat their peas? Weird on a lot of levels. I admit I have a phobia, and I admit that it's not a healthy one. But it's no less real than other phobias. I can talk in front of 250 people, go on TV, confront someone in public. I can not go to the dentist without mentally talking myself through each step and thinking it's the lesser of 2 evils. It may be wierd, but it's reality.

Now to get up the courage to call the oral surgeon. Ugh.
 

A List

I am not really sure where the last 10 days have gone. Somewhere between today, yesterday and tomorrow is my best guess.

So let me explain, no there is too much, let me sum up... Which reminds me, I must find my copy of The Princess Bride..

10 - Ramses is 17 weeks old. 17 week old puppies are charming. He's housetrained mostly, is big enough to go on longer walks, loves car rides, ice cream cones, sleeps through the night, and basically never sleeps during the day (which explains where I have been).

9 - Kids are in school. Homework sucks, especially when they dislike doing it. They have 2 days off this week, which means so do I. YAY!

8 - I've still been eating mostly vegan. Really liking it. Still miss Gruyere cheese, but I don't miss the actual taste, more the idea of it if that makes any sense.

7 - Cats are much happier now that they have us trained to buy them the most expensive cat food, potentially in the world. Obviously I was being a bad cat caretaker by feeding them the 2nd most expensive, cause evidently free range chicken is much better tasting. Who knew. But the house is more peaceful now.

6 - I love that it's cold enough for soup. Soup makes me happy.

5 - I do not love the fact that the temperature is dropping 10 degrees a week. I am not sure why it simply can't stay in the 50s for awhile but evidently mother nature and I disagree on this.

4 - I am still making fresh bread every day. Love it, it makes me happy, and goes wonderfully well with the aforementioned soup.

3 - I broke down and read a book on the Kindle. That's all I'm saying about that.

2 - I have managed to exercise every day this month except for 2. That makes me happy. Tennis is fun afterall, so is walking a puppy through fall leaves.

1 - I love fall. I just don't understand why it has to be followed by winter - or at least winter with snow, ice, cold, freezing hands... Now I am depressed.

Wild Ride on the Crazy Mouse

When we were at the fair a few weeks ago, the kids wanted to ride the Wild Mouse. They made it around once, jumped back into line, when the mouse stalled. What follows is a photo story of what happens when a roller coaster gets stuck. No one was injured - at least to my knowledge.

There were 2 cars stuck in total. First red shirt dude came up and wandered around for awhile.

He seemed fascinated by the pink car, and I'm assuming the brakes.

I don't think the passengers were amused.

He pushed the entire thing down to a flat area.

Where he was joined by red shirt #2

Trying to fix the brakes or whatever. I think this appears dangerous.

Finally they led the purple car people away.

Then pushed pink car back up.

And led them down.

Then 3 guys pushed the purple car free, and took them both for repairs.

Believe it or not, they fixed it, and the kids managed to ride it that evening.

Weekend Whirlwind

As I sit here typing I have mock Benihana Onion soup simmering on the stove (I'll post the recipe if it's any good - not vegetarian though, it's for the Benihana loving kid), and the dogs are chewing new beef bones enthusiastically. In other words, it's a lovely, lovely afternoon.

The weekend was a lot of fun, but it sure went fast. Kevin's sister Richelle got married in a lovely ceremony in his hometown, so Saturday was spent up there. Actually my Saturday was spent first at the annual St Helena's Days Parade where Cory was playing the drums, and then in the car. When I stopped at a gas station to change into wedding appropriate clothes (very different from parade appropriate clothes), I got caught by another guest there "Oh you're going to that wedding too?" It could only happen to me.

And then at the reception, I was knitting a shawl before the start, and had a nun compliment me on how industrious I was. That, could only happen to me too. (and probably only happen at a Minnesota wedding. I don't recall nuns at the coast weddings I have been to).

It also laid to rest the fact that they really, seriously do polka at weddings here. This made me wish that I had brought my camera to record the event, just to prove to everyone that people still polka. Unfortunately I'd left it in the car that had dropped me off at the door 10 minutes before the ceremony. It was however, much better to leave that in the car than the present.

And what was the present? I. Knitted. A. Throw. By hand! By myself! YES! I DID IT! This monumental task now lays behind me as an achievement of my knitting career. A real throw, big enough to use. In a lovely feather and fan pattern with purling in it even. And I mean real purling not the 'I think I'm purling' purling that I tended to do in the past while really not purling. Nope. Not a stitch when unpurled, not a feather went unfanned. It was a glorious thing. And I have no proof, since I forgot to take a picture of it, preblocking, after blocking, or artistically strewn over something like the piano. Oops. But take my word for it, it was quite lovely. This was also the first thing that I've knitted and given away. Typically by the time I am done with something, I've put so much work into it that I get overly attached and worry that they won't like it and it will live unloved. But this one I managed to push aside the thoughts they'd hate it and packaged it up anyway. Hopefully they loved it, and understood the work and thought that went into it all.

So that's the weekend at a glance, Parade. Driving. Wedding. Reception. Dancing. Driving. Sleeping. Oh, and there was a considerable amount of knitting in there too, in hopes to get a shawl done in time for the wedding. Which didn't happen. But the shawl is actually progressing pretty well, I'm developing fairly good speed knitting skills.

Mouseketeers

It all started when I was 10, and for some reason for my 11th birthday desperately wanted baby mice. They had some adorable ones at the pet store, white with brown spots, and I so needed those mice. Of course other family members weren't so keen, so somehow I convinced my best friend to purchase them for me on the sly as a birthday present. It worked, the mice stayed, I mean, how could someone resist a little tiny baby mouse? I'm actually very sure my mom could have resisted forever, but over the next couple years she got so she loved Mickey within reason (Minnie died within 48 hours).

Mickey lived in my garage in a palatial mouse house that my cousin built. She however did take frequent trips upstairs to visit her inside quarters. This is where the cat found her. Rocky was a huge black and white cat, as mellow as it came, but he quickly figured out how to open the cage. I came into the room to find Rocky laying on the floor, the cage open, and Mickey sitting between Rocky's paws happy as can be and very much alive. This became a routine, Rocky would open the cage, let Mickey out, and then they'd play together, the cat happily watching the mouse run all over him. When I found them, Mickey would come running up to be picked up.

Mickey's other claim to fame was accompanying me to school. She would ride in my shirt pocket and no one was ever the wiser. Until the last day of 5th grade where I exacted revenge on my horrific 5th grade teacher by letting her come out of my pocket on my way out the door. That was an awesome moment. My 6th grade teacher loved her, and she came with me to school quite a bit that year.

Eventually Mickey died at the grand old age of 2, and I swore off mice, as they just don't live long enough.

But then, we moved to Missouri. In Missouri, we were simply overrun by mice in the garage. This was ok, until our current cat Jolson, decided to take matters into his own paws. Jolson was the anti-Rocky, and frankly strongly believed mice should be dead. But, he enjoyed killing them so much he decided to set up his own mouse farm (it's hard to be an indoor cat, without access to a field of mice). So he caught the mice in the garage, and brought them into turn them loose to colonize the house (seriously, I am not joking here). This left us with a major connundrum. The mice had to go, but we don't kill mice. The thought of using glue, or traps, or poison wasn't possible for us, so we bought live traps that I baited with peanut butter.

Over the next few months we trapped and released in a field sometihng like 35 mice. Where we would leave them with food, and well wishes. We trapped baby mice, pregnant mice, fat mice, skinny mice, brown mice, black mice. We finally got down to just one mouse in the garage, who I named Harry, after Houdini since he could get into the trap, eat the food, flip it, and leave again. When we left the house Harry was still living there.

Fast forward several years to the Frozen Tundra. We never had a mouse problem due to another cat who didn't just hunt for sport, but clearly coming from barn stock, he lined em up for the kill. Until one little baby mouse hid out in the room the cats were banned from. This guy was so brave he would come up and take crackers from my hand. Eventually I cupped him up in a box and transported him to our cat free garage where I left him with a supply of crackers and wished him well. I still rather regret not keeping him as a pet.

In any case, all of this came to mind this week when I was cleaning the garage. My personal mouse rule has stayed that if they come into the house, the cats (in theory) take care of them, if they stay in the garage it's cool. I don't keep anything out there they can't have. And yes, I know mice spread disease, I don't encourage them, I just kind of have the attitude that everyone needs to live. It's not their fault they were born a mouse. So, as I was cleaning the garage I upset a suitcase, and out popped a little brown head with bright eyes. She looked at me in shock, like 'WHO ARE YOU!?' but no fear - presumably because it's been approximately 2 mouse lifetimes since I've cleaned the garage. I looked closer and realized she had a bunch of almost weaned babies in there with her. So what did I do? I carefully, while talking to her all the time, sealed up the suitcase, and carefully transported it to a nice wooded mouselike area, where I placed it down, unzipped it and left them in peace (with a little food). I went back today and checked, there's no sign of the mouse family and so I reclaimed the suitcase for the garbage.

I may be weird, but I prefer to think of it as a good life lesson, let others live, why cause a needless death, afterall, we're all on this planet together for some reason. Of course someday remind me to tell you all about the great Rat Relay..

10 years

10 years later, my heart and prayers goes out to all of those affected by the terror attacks in New York, and the aftermath of war caused. As this song says, Faith, hope and love are some good things he gave us, and the greatest is love.

I hope the next 10 years can be spent looking forward, with faith in the good people have, hope for the future, and love for all, regardless of race, religion, and personal beliefs.

Serendipitous Knitting and Scenery

This past vacation to Seattle I spent an insane amount of time hanging out with the dogs, and the kids, in scenic areas. The first day, I forgot my knitting bag in the hotel room, so I made a quick stop at a LYS in which I purchased 2 skeins of Noro Silk Garden, and a size 8 circ Addi needle. A longer perusal of Ravelry on my Droid (I love smartphones!), I found a pattern that looked intriguingly hard, but used all the skills I'd been working on, and making great strides in. This has been a challenge. It took me an insanely long time to memorize the pattern, but all through the trip I slogged away.

I've been meaning to photograph it, but it's been living in the car while I work on a considerably larger project in the house. Finally today, I just slung it over the steering wheel and took a picture. I still have a little ways to go, but I love it!

I am assuming like all lace patterns when I block it, it'll open.
I'm just so pleased that I'm purling and doing a moderately complex
(ok, minorly complex - hush) pattern.

In another serendipitous event, the other night I was driving home
took a different route, and passed this lake at just this perfect moment.

Beautiful.

The Great Frozen Tundra End of Summer Celebration

AKA the State Fair.

I love fairs, we would of course growing up we would never miss the Puyallup fair, we went to the Missouri State Fair (Hotter than Hades, but still fun - lots of ice water, air conditioned buildings and mules), and we have made it a ritual to go to the state fair here. The fact it takes place right as the weather is cooling down, yet right before it starts to freeze, was excellent planning on the fair makers part.

This year was a short visit - and most likely the last(!!!) That made it all the better as we enjoyed the favorites, ate the things it's known for, and enjoyed a beautiful Seattle-like day. I will even not mention the fact it will probably snow in a month. No, let us just enjoy September sunshine for awhile..

First stop - Elephant ear!

I still think this is weird, but I've never had one, so I can't really fairly pass judgement

Love the hair!

2nd stop - footlong hot dog!

I love this poncho. I'm wondering if I could make it.. minus the fringe plus a border?

Dipping Dots.

More candy bars in batter and fried. Hm.

You can barely see it, but this is the Lake Wobegon headquarters.

There was a sea of people everywhere. Seriously it was like this then entire fair

Making a rope with cowboys

At the horse corrals

Isn't this the prettiest cow?

Love these sheep!

Going through the barns was a lot more enjoyable as a vegetarian.
Evidently I've always harbored guilt over eating a cow.

But who couldn't? Look how cute he is!

Awww

"Let's get together, Say hey Alligator!" I have no idea what he was doing here

Grilled corn, I think they thought it was worth the 30 minute wait

Mini donuts for our donut lover

It was a 45 minute wait for cookies

Their parents were on the zipper. I think Cory was worried.

Trying to win a huge cow.

Machinery hill

Another shot with a country type couple in it for interest..

Taffy stand, nowhere near as good as the Puyallup fair taffy.

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