Summer of Socks 2013

It seems that for the past 6 or more months that most everything I've knitted has been shop samples for Fiber Charmer, or I've been too tired to knit.

I've spent plenty of time in April and May sitting in waiting rooms and lobbies of hospitals and doctor's offices, and I pulled out a pair of socks that I'd started in May 2009.  Yes, 2009.  Four years ago.  I knit toe up because I love it, and all I'd done was the toe and a wee bit of the pattern.

 

 

 

At the time I was still learning how to knit and read lace, and I lost my place, put the socks down, and went on to the next project.  Now, four years later, I looked at them and could tell immediately where I was in the pattern.  Not only that, but the pattern is super easy, and I memorized it and got both socks finished up.  I think I picked them up around May 5 and finished the second one up last night, May 26.

 

(The picture is only of one, but they both look alike.  I counted rounds to make sure they actually matched in length this time.)

 

 

While I was refreshing the pattern in my mind, I leafed through the book, Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson, and thought that there wasn't a pair of socks in there that I didn't want to make.

 

Long before I started dyeing my own yarns, I bought yarn.  I still buy yarns, mostly from other indie dyers because unlike the commercial yarns, hand dyed yarns have variations that will never be exactly alike from skein to skein.  When I see one I love, I buy it.  I have lots of stash, and knitting my way through Socks from the Toe Up will reduce my stash, give me a bunch of new socks to wear and slake my desire to knit on teeny tiny needles items just for me.

 

Next in the book is Lacy Ribs Socks.  I'm knitting that in Fiber Charmer's May 2013 TriDye installment, Go Ahead, Make Me Sing.  The colorway is based on a photo of a giant clam, and being a fan of Alf, The Animated Series, the name is an homage to Clams Never Sang for My Father.  Here's the yarn.

 

 

So far all I have is a few rows on the toe, and I'm officially on my Summer of Socks 2013 journey.

 

This year SOS13 is going to be a more relaxed affair.  No contests, no prizes, just a go at your own pace knitalong.  My goal is to knit the next three patterns in Wendy's book, Lacy Rib Socks, Diagonal Lace Socks in Dream in Color's Strange Harvest (it's what she used in the book, and I actually have a skein), and Butterfly Socks, probably in Fannie's Fingering Weight Plums & Pinks - a mostly solid pink with splashes of purple.

 

Stay tuned for pictures!  Have a wonderful Memorial Day.  Stay safe and take a few minutes to think about the real reason for this holiday.  It's not the cookouts and beer, but the men and women who have served for our country.



Waiting for better weather

I've got lots of knitting to show off, but I'm stuck waiting for the weather to clear up enough to take some nice photos.

I'd been knitting one of the Swirl Jackets from Knit, Swirl, but after frogging it for the second time (first for being way off gauge, and this was after knitting a gauge swatch in the round!  The second for discovering I'd twisted the join - augh!!!) it's gone into hibernation.  I'm knitting socks again finally, and that's makes me happy.  New socks for me!!

So, look for pictures soon, if the weather cooperates.  Heck, all it has to do is get dry enough that I can use my stone bench.  I don't mind if it stays overcast, which it looks like it will be doing for the near future.

I'm back!

I seriously had no idea it had been so long since I'd blogged.  Life got crazier, and blogging seemed to slip my mind.

Rather than go back through ancient history, let's just pick back up where I am now and see how it goes.

I'm still dyeing yarn and fibers with Fiber Charmer.  Last year was both great and bad for my business.  I did 4 shows that I thoroughly enjoyed, but I also had some challenges, mostly family related, as both of my grandmother's died at the age of 92+.  I attended yet a third funeral out of love and respect for someone.  Funerals and grief have a way of making thinking difficult.

I've been president of the Atlanta Knitting Guild.  One day I was working away on guild items, and Keith asked just how much time I was spending on the guild.  It seemed like a lot, and his response to me was that they called it volunteer work for a reason.  No one called it volunteer fun.  That's very true, but for the most part I've enjoyed my time on the board, both as president and as vice president of programs before that.

I've been struggling with going gluten free, and it is a struggle.  I think in order to be successful, I'll have to give up most grains.  I tend to overeat rice bread when I don't have wheat bread, and right now I've got all sorts of gluteny goodness in the house.  In other words, I'm failing miserably at staying gluten free, and I have to remind myself that each day, each meal I can make the choice to be healthy or be stupid.  Right now healthy wins more often than stupid, but the fact that stupid is still making choices is what I have to work on eliminating.

So, for now let's look at some knitting projects instead!

First up we have the Roller Coaster Cowl designed by Barbara Benson, a.k.a. Tumped Duck.  It's knit in Fiber Charmer's Shangri-La yarn in the Diwali Rangoli colorway.  This is actually a skein I'd not been as happy with the dye job, so I'd set it aside for me to use.  Roller Coaster is a fun knit, and it works well on even the wildest handpainted yarns.

Next is Boundless by More Than Knotz.  She designed it using 4 colors of Fiber Charmer Valhalla yarn.  It's a large square shawl that is amazingly cozy.   I love the way all the colors work together in this shawl.  Susan designs using lots of different textures, and she loves working with color, but I also think many of her designs would be stunning in a single color as well.

 Finally is Saroyan, a free pattern that you can find online.  When you look at Saroyan on Ravelry, you'll find it knit in just about every yarn weight.  It's knit from end to end, and the lace edging is knit as you go, so there's no picking up stitches later.  It's worked by proportions in that about 25% of your yarn is for the increases side, nearly 50% is used for the middle, and 25% for the decreases side.  This allows you to knit it in laceweight up to bulky and still have a terrific scarf.

This one is knit in Fiber Charmer Galadriel in the color Emerald.  I still need to block it, but I was more concerned with having a sample ready for the spring shows.  Now that it's warming up, I'll have time to properly block it before the fall shows.

 

 

 

I hope you have a lovely, lazy Sunday afternoon.  I wish I could, but I have to update the shop and catch up the laundry.

More navelgazing

The other day, while getting dressed for work - dress shirt, dress pants, tie, etc, Keith mentioned that he wished his uniform was a pair of shorts, polo shirt and tennis shoes. Who wouldn't wish for that with the high heat and humidity we've been having?

I laughed and said I got to wear my pajamas all day to work.

He said that some people had pride in their appearance.

Touche.

Of course, it doesn't really apply here, does it? I dye yarn and fiber in my kitchen. Why in the world would I get dressed, even in blue jeans, to do that? It's hot and messy, and my ancient, threadbare flannel pajama bottoms and a tank top work just fine.

But his joke got me to thinking. There are more mornings than I care to think about when I do roll out of bed, slap on a pair of jeans, and head out. Do I need to really worry about my appearance if I'm going to Wal-Mart at 8 am to buy more birdseed? The grocery store or post office? Maybe it does.

I do have my excuses. It's been so hot and humid that makeup will slide right off my face. The interior of the car when parked in a lot reaches temperatures that would melt a T-1000 Terminator into a puddle from which it couldn't regenerate, and what will that do to my mascara?

Ok, so I don't want to wear makeup during July in the Deep South. Am I that confident in my own appearance, or am I just lazy?

Lazy. For one thing, a whole face takes some time to apply, and when you're trying to beat the heat, each minute counts.

But what about at other times? Times when I can't beat the heat because it's later in the day?

I think what has happened is that working alone in my dye lair has changed my perspective. When I used to have a "real" job, working outside the home and seeing clients all day long, I did have to put forward a neat appearance, which included makeup.

Now I may go days without seeing anyone other than Keith in real life, and the pets don't mind my old flannel pjs. Why should they? I can stop working for a minute if someone needs laptime, and I don't have to worry about cat or dog hairs all over my legs.

What it has made me realize is that I do need to be more mindful when I'm going out to meet friends. Is my outfit adding unneeded pounds to my butt? A little concealer wouldn't hurt as between the constant lack of sleep and probable allergies I have permanent dark circles. (Actually, they eased up while I was out of town. I'm starting to realize the bad air in Atlanta affects me more that I ever thought.)

And most importantly:

I'll have to start looking into mirrors again. :)

Navelgazing about aging

I recently had a birthday, which I may have mentioned before now, and while it didn't end in a 5 or 0, it's getting awfully close to one of those milestone zeroes. While it's just a number, and it's better than the alternative and whole bunch of other platitudes, it's getting awfully close to one of those big ones that ends with a zero. I'd be lying if I said I'd not been thinking about it and some of the implications.

With that as backstory, we were visiting with a friend, and Keith took lots and lots of pictures, as this friend has beehives, and I've loved bees since I was young. Having my own beehives is one of those fantasies I have, along with the organic farm where everything is perfect and I don't have to ever sweat.

I loaded the pictures onto the computer and found I couldn't look at them. It wasn't me in those pictures! It was my mother!

I've avoided cameras for much of my life. When I was young and thin, I tended to look goofy and gawky. There was a while in college and my young adult life when it seemed I took decent pictures and actually looked good in them, but in my 30's my weight started creeping up, peaking at another number I'd rather never mention, and I started some major camera avoidance. Yes, I later learned some of the weight was due to the hypothyroidism, but knowing that doesn't make me look any better.


Thus, I avoid cameras much as one would avoid the plague. I submitted, most unwillingly, to family photos when there was no way I could possibly escape them. Other than that, few pictures of me exist at this age.

Until now. There they were, a whole helluva lot of them, of me looking at bees. Well, it was supposed to be me, and it sort of looked like me, but the woman really looked like my mom! It was unsettling, to say the least. That's not the worst of it. Keith took so many of them with my back to the camera, which would be unflattering even to Kim Kardashian. Trust me on this.

This is a vanity that I'm pretty sure many other women have faced. We've all heard that saying about telling young men to check out how their future mother in law looks as that's how their wife will look one day. When we're young, we don't think that will ever happen. We know everything we'll ever need to know when we're young, and we know for sure that we'll never look like that. Middle aged and a little too well padded.


I'll never look like my 25 year old self again. I know that. That doesn't stop me from fooling myself by avoiding mirrors that I look younger than I am or wondering about plastic surgery in Brazil. I'd probably even bare my neck to a vampire if a bite could stop aging. (Yeah, there is that whole drinking human blood to survive, but I'll worry about that if I get bitten.)


What can I do about it? I can keep avoiding having my picture taken. That's an easy form of self delusion, and I've got some experience. I can get back to the gym, lifting weights, doing cardio and going to yoga. Exercise is a sort of fountain of youth. Not a very fun or easy one, but it does work.

And those pictures of my ass? One of them is going on the fridge so I have to look at it every time I reach in there at mealtime or for a snack.

Moonbeams!

Towards the end of 2009 I received word that I would be the recipient of a prize of 1 round of Moonbeams, a wonderful fiber club from Moonwood Farm.

Moonbeams are amazingly beautiful. They are batts made from alpacas raised in Alabama and other fibers that usually include silk, Angelina, Firestar, rayon of bamboo and milk protein fiber.

They are labor intensive gems for the dyer, but delightful for spinners.

I oohed and ahhed over them every month, but didn't spin them because I just figured I'd really mess them up. After all, I'm a sporadic spinner.

As I've decided to spin along with all the Tour de Fleece spinning without officially taking part of any of the groups on Ravelry, I decided to start spinning my Moonbeams.



This gorgeous purple fiber is the Dark Crystal Moonbeams from August 2010. Each package of Moonbeams comes as 6 mini batts, so I spun 3 on one bobbin and 3 on another so that I could easily ply them together. What you see in these pictures is my two ply yarn that I plied together last night.

I'm afraid my photos don't really do justice to the Mermaid Moonbeams from April 2010.

They look a little grey in the photos, but they have brown, turquoise, blue, and pink in them.

Once again I spun them so that I could make a 2 ply yarn with them. I confess that I spun the second bobbin much too late in the evening last night (spinning it between 9:30 and 11:15, taking a break for a very late dinner about 10), and I discovered that I was alarmingly overtwisting the single. I ended up with some tight little coils in the yarn.
Plying the two together today helped some, but not enough. The yarn itself is overtwisted, but as I keep telling Keith over and over, it's all about practice. I need to keep spinning, and I'll keep improving.

Sure, my Mermaid yarn isn't as nice as the Dark Crystal, but I also understand why it isn't and what I'll need to do next time.

After all, mistakes are an opportunity to learn.

Have a great Sunday (or try to). Here we have 90%+ humidity with temperatures that will be above 90F. I expect some rain this afternoon. Going outside is like stepping into a steambath.

Is it too early to start counting down the days until September 1? I realize that the days will still be hot then, but at least the nights will start to cool down a little. I don't 75F is much of a low, but it makes a great high temperature!

These are the unspun Mermaid batts. Aren't they gorgeous?

More pictures about pooled knitting

I'm thinking that pooled knitting is a lot like turning the heels on socks. You look at the directions and think WTF? However, when you get started they start to make sense.

Of course, that may only be me, but I don't think so.

Anyway, for those of you who need another illustration of this, I started another one as an example to take the guild last night, and I took lots of pictures this time.

The very first picture shows the yarn stretched out and making sure that it will pool the way I need it to.

The second picture shows that after I wound it into a ball, I pulled out several paint repeats and put knitter's safety pins where the rows end/start. You may ask, how did you make them stay? Easy, I put them through the plies of the yarn.

Gladys, who inspired all this, uses a backwards e-loop cast on to get started. I rarely use this cast on, but I did for my samples. I discovered something very interesting when I started swatching, but I didn't take pictures of it at the time.

What I will do is do another cast on and show you my discovery. It's so simple you'll smack yourself on the forehead and say, "Why didn't I think of that?"

In all honesty, I'm sure I'm not the first knitter to notice it either, I just haven't searched around to see where else it might be on the interwebs.

Picture number 4, the blurry one, shows my first attempt at matching up colors and getting gauge. As you can very easily see, gauge was off that time.

I tinked that first row and reknit it, using my cunning discovery, and as you can see in the final picture, I got it right that time.

Full disclosure time. I got it right in two tries on this one because the first one was so (and still is) very fiddly. I think this one will work without needing two different sized needles for gauge.

For the record, this colorway is one I dyed, but this was a test or seconds skein. As you can see in the first picture, the yarn didn't dye very evenly with those dye concentrations. I put it aside, thinking I'd probably overdye it at some point. However, with the vivid colors, I thought it'd make a great, easy to see, example of pooled knitting. I'm pretty sure I'm just going to knit it up to have as a show sample for when someone asks what does "pooling" on the label mean?

It's Friday! Have a great weekend! I'll be back with spinning pictures.

On Klingons and spinning

Yes, reading that you would think I've been drinking or have totally lost my mind.

What actually occurred is we went to dinner with a neighbor, and somehow the conversation veered into religion. Our neighbor said their congregation invited other faiths to come in and talk about their beliefs.

I think that sort of thing is wonderful, because communication is key in any good relationship, and that includes groups as well as individuals.

Yes, I'm getting to it. He mentioned that jihad as we see it in the news isn't really what jihad is. Me, and I'll admit to knowing very little about Islam, said, "That reminds me of a Klingon saying. The greatest battle is the battle within."

Our neighbor said yes, and Keith rolled his eyes because his wife is linking things to Star Trek again.

Anyway, it's the whole battle within that leads to spinning.

I don't spin nearly enough to be really good at it. I'm a sporadic spinner at best as it interferes with knitting time.

However, I've signed up for some spinning classes in August, and I need to improve my skills before I take them. I also need to be able to spend long hours in front of the wheel without my legs falling off.

Thus, I decided to unofficially join Tour de Fleece.

While I don't have mountains of fibers, what I have is more than molehills. I joined a fiber club awhile back, and anytime I've spent some time spinning, I inevitably buy more fiber. It doesn't help that I've got friends who dye incredible stuff.

I kicked off TDF with that black yarn you see with the red, grey, yellow and green flecks. It's name - Resistance Is Futile. Nothing like a Borg inspired yarn for a Star Trek KAL to kick things off!

They were spun and Navajo plied for a self striping yarn.

The two pastel bobbins were actually some fiber I purchased from Three Rivers Farm at the last SAFF. It's a blend of 75% BFL and 25% silk. I'd spun 3 of the 4 ounces, so I spun the last ounce and Navajo plied them to keep the colors separated.

Last night I started on some Moonbeams from Moonwood Farm. Moonbeams are batts from her own alpacas mixed with other fibers such as bamboo, milk protein and the sparkly stuff.

The colorway is Dark Crystal, and as you can see it's an amazing deep purple. (Did the opening for Smoke on the Water pop into your head? I can never say the words "Deep Purple" without hearing that riff playing.)

I'm still spinning too fast and overtwisting my yarn, but even if I only do a little each day, I'll improve.

The best part is it takes less brainpower than knitting does, and after I've been on my feel all day dyeing yarn, I find that I can spin. I can't always knit, but spinning is very meditative.

Pooling knits

Last summer, one of the members of the Atlanta Knitting Guild brought in a scarf she had knitted in which the colors pooled into vertical columns. Can I say amazing and beautiful?

She had read about pooled knitting on Ravelry and found Gladys We, one of the yarn floozies. Gladys has explored using handpainted yarns to their full pooling potential and sharing that knowledge with masochistic knitters everywhere.

Masochistic, you ask? Yes.

I've been working with one of the skeins I dyed. I love the colorway, Mood Ring. I had dyed a skein of Knit Picks Bare, the silk and merino blend, which I had purchased before I had started Fiber Charmer and could get yarn from wholesalers. Besides, I figured I'd keep this for myself as I didn't think that Knit Picks would really be a good source for undyed fiber.

So, some of the knitty gritty about why I think this is good for masochists.

1. There's swatching. Lots and lots of swatching. When I'm working at the LYS, I advise people to swatch. You can learn a lot from swatching. That said, I rarely swatch. I knit a lot of toe up, plain stockinette socks, and I never swatch for those. I know there are times when I should swatch, and I have done it, but I've also discovered, as Yarn Harlot herself has mentioned, that swatches lie.

With pooled knitting, you have to swatch. There is no way around it. Swatch and rip, swatch and rip, swatch and rip, eye the bourbon and switch to spinning.

Actually, that's the only reason I think it's good for masochists. Once you get past that, get your gauge and your needles, it's smooth sailing.

Well, I assume it is once you get all that. What I've discovered is that this skein, wound by Knit Picks mill, is shorter than the skeins I wind. I'm talking about a smaller circumference and not the yardage of the skein. I've been getting 37 -38 stitches as my magic number, but when I start knitting, my colors travel. I can correct that by examining every single row and then determining if I need to switch needle sizes yet again.

Honestly, that's way too much work for me. This one is getting frogged, and this yarn that I bought and dyed for myself is going back into the bin. I'll see what I've got in inventory and start again.

I hope that you have a happy 4th! I won't be working on pooled knits today, so I plan to enjoy mine!

Hah! You've heard this before

But I'm really going to make an effort to blog regularly again. I used to blog at least every Sunday morning. Remember those days?

Now I've been using Sunday mornings to update Fiber Charmer's etsy shop. I don't always succeed, as I think I updated sometime Sunday afternoon.

While I know running your own business takes a lot of time, I didn't realize just how much time it does consume. Add to that a kitty with idiopathic cystitis and multiple trips to the vet, and the time zips by before you know it.

I think earlier this year I mentioned my going gluten-free because gluten aggravates Hashimoto's. All went pretty well until Maryland Sheep and Wool. I started eating bread again. Yummy, delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I'm not being facetious. Try giving them up and see just how wonderful they taste when you start eating them again. A few weeks later, I was at the Carolina Fiber Fest, eating sandwiches again. I was thinking, hmm, I don't feel any different.

It was too early. I've been feeling so tired all the time, and I know it's the gluten. I've got to start all over again to clear it all out of my system. That sucks, because I feel tired all the time now. However, I also know that I can do it (again), and that I'll feel energetic, like a "normal" person.

Anyway, I'll end here. I might get too whiny, and really, who wants to read that? Look for me next Sunday, if not before, and I'll get back on track with Sunday pictures again.

Wow, time goes by so quickly!

I'm sorry for the lack of blogging. I knew it had been awhile, but I didn't realize it had been so long.

I've been busy, and I foresee getting busier in the near future.

I'm on the board of the Atlanta Knitting Guild, and I didn't realize just how much work there is in volunteering. I said that to Keith, and he said that's why it's called volunteer work, not volunteer fun.

Hmm.

One of the things that has bothered me most about being an adult is why do work and fun seem to be so mutually exclusive? Isn't there a way to meld them together?

And despite the work, I've actually been enjoying what I've been doing for the AKG. In fact, this upcoming Friday night, there will be a Stitch and Bitch at the American Craft Council show, and I've put in a fair amount of work with the local stores to get sponsors for it. We'll be teaching brand spanking new knitters some of the basics. It's from 5-8, March 11. Admission to the show is only $5 after 5. If you bring your knitting, you can get in for free.

Yvonne Monet of Dave-FM will be joining us too. I think that it's going to be a lot of fun.

I've also been working on Fiber Charmer. Just a day or two ago I realized just how little time I have before Stitches South. I think I'm about to panic! I've got so much yarn to skein and dye, and so little time! I foresee not doing much of anything that isn't fiber related for the next little bit. First Stitches, then Maryland Sheep and Wool where I'm working for Gale, then Carolina Fiber Fest. I need to turn into a dyeing machine and get some more product stockpiled. I had considered being lazy today, but I see that's not possible.

In other parts of my life, I've been thinking that I/we need to grow more of our own food. Gas prices are only going to make grocery shopping even more painful, so I thought about what do we really eat. Yes, last year's cucumber canning experiment led to way too many cucumbers going into the compost pile. I sat down with some seed catalogs and spent some time mentally reviewing what I buy week after week. This year lettuce is on the top of the list. Tomatoes, carrots, celery, these are veggies we eat all the time.

I just had Arborguard come out and trim an oak tree that was shading about the only part of the yard that's suitable for gardening. Limbs were also growing onto our power lines, so now the lights won't flicker when it's windy. I've got to figure out when I can schedule double digging new garden beds into all the dye time I need to do in the next few weeks. I don't want to wait too late to get the garden going. Gas prices here are anywhere from $3.32 - $3.69 for regular! $5 for a head of California grown organic lettuce can't be too far behind. It's a much better plan to grow my own lettuce, right?

I think I've hit the highlights. If you're a knitter who is reading this, think about joining the Atlanta Knitting Guild. When I originally joined the guild, I did so in order to increase my knowledge of knitting. Now that I'm in charge of the programs, I certainly see the challenge of booking interesting people, but I also see an opportunity to bring my desire for more knitting knowledge into a reality. I think the past couple of years have had more of the programming that I enjoy, and I'm hoping that I can continue to keep the programs entertaining as well as educational. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that while the Internet and YouTube can provide all sorts of supplementary knitting help, there is nothing like taking a class in real life. The little tidbits of information that you pick up from the accumulated knowledge of the teacher and the other students will give you aha moments that you can't get from watch videos. I'm excited about some of the program ideas that have come my way, as well as some great workshop suggestions too.

We'll have Karin Skacel joining us in June, and we've got an exciting teacher planned for this fall. (No spoilers, but I will mention that she has a pattern in the winter issue of Knitters Magazine, which unfortunately is not on their website yet.)

Hopefully I'll be able to update again soon!

Shopping for a cause

A new thrift store has opened in Avondale Estates! If you're local, and you've been to Avondale Estates, you know it has several thrift and consignment stores already. As I love shopping at thrift stores, I was quite happy to have a new one open there, especially since it has a totally awesome goal.

Second Life benefits animals shelters. Local animal shelters, including my absolute favorite, Lifeline Animal Project. I've sung the praises of Lifeline more than one time here on my blog, so I won't bore you with that again. What I will say is that if you need some gently worn brand name clothing, you may want to check out Second Life. If you have some items to donate, they are a not-for-profit, so you can get a receipt for tax deductions.

Stepping off soapbox now.

Yesterday was the first day I'd left the house since last Sunday. I'm not sure, only because who really pays attention, but I may not have left the house since the Friday before that Sunday. I got prepared for being snowed in, truly thinking that we'd be able to get out sometime on Wednesday. Ha! I was very foolish. The snow persisted as did the cold temperatures, and while the DOT cleared the highways (finally), many of the surface streets in our area got some sanding or nothing at all. The major one got sanded (some), while those on residential streets that lead nowhere were SOL.

It really got me to thinking about how dependent on government people are to take care of them. I got outside and cleared the road in front of my house. One of my neighbors came outside and helped. Honestly, I didn't want people sliding in the ice and into our mailbox or cars. I even cleared out part of an area for a neighbor to park. It wasn't that heinous a job, and I got to thinking that if everyone went outside and did a little bit how quickly things could have returned to normal. Apparently, with the exception of the one neighbor, I'm the only one who thinks like that.

Anyway, I got out and ran a couple of errands yesterday. None of them involved going to a grocery store until last night's beer run, but I did drive by a few. Earlier in the day you couldn't pay me enough to join in that madness! The Farmer's Market had a line of cars waiting to get into the parking lot. I think I can wait another day or two to restock!

The one thing I can't wait to get is a new dryer. Ours died several weeks ago, and last Sunday I spent some quality time sitting at a laundromat drying wet clothes. Tomorrow we'll go buy one, and then I'll spend way too much time getting the laundry caught back up. Something about saying all that makes me feel like a 1950's housewife! Heck, it's been way too cold to even think about a clothesline! The clothes would freeze out there.

Snowpocalypse 2011

Yes, that's what our clever newspeople have dubbed this snow and ice event. (Too bad sarcasm doesn't translate well to the written word.)

So, for your amusement at our discomfort, here are some pictures.

The street is on the morning of Day 4 of being iced in.








A close-up of the ice on my butterfly bush.


















The doghouses showing how deep the snow is. Sassy was and has been inside the house with us the whole time. The snow and ice has freaked her out. I had to shovel a path to a mulched area so she could do her business.







The ruler shows the snow depth to be almost 5".












This is a picture from Sunday night when it all started.



We haven't had mail delivery or trash pick up all week. I hear the grocery stores are running low on supplies. This has been a good trial run in preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse!

eta: I keep editting this dang post, and blogger keeps moving my stuff around so the captions don't match the pictures. After 4 attempts to line them up, I'm quitting!

Hello 2011!

This past month zipped by so quickly. Part of that was because I got my annual cold/flu thing and spent part of the month napping, coughing or thinking about napping while the virus worked its magic. As for the other part, I quite honestly don't know where it went. We don't do much for the holidays, so that's not what ate up the time.

Anyway, 2010 was a year full of firsts for me. I started Fiber Charmer. I became a board member of the Atlanta Knitting Guild. I volunteered for both SAFF and SEFAA and had a good time volunteering. I learned how to can and canned a lot of relish from the cucumbers that we great. I learned that I had too many cucumber and tomato plants.

I'm not one for making New Year's Resolutions. It's so easy to think of all those things I want to change and then not do a one of them. I had a bit of madness, perhaps it was last year, and posted some resolutions.

So, these aren't really resolutions. They're tweaks to plans I already have.

I'm going to be a better vegetable gardener. With gas prices predicted to rise to $4 a gallon this year, grocery costs will be rising too. I've been making an effort to buy more locally grown produce, and in conjunction with this effort, I'm planning to be more effective with the foodstuffs that I grow here. Last year our beans died on the vine. The bean plants both mildewed and dried to a crisp with the extreme heat and humidity we had. While I still have some of that packet of seeds, I'll plant them earlier this year and see if I can beat some of those problems. The carrots never did much of anything, nor did the radishes. The cucumbers and tomatoes went totally crazy, growing over anything in their way and producing massive amounts of veggies.

Very soon, after the freak snows and the remaining remnants of the cold go away, I'll double dig another garden bed and get started earlier this year. I've been thinking about what I buy, and if I only grow lettuce, tomatoes, and some squashes, I'll be able to take a decent slice out of our grocery bill. Heck, if the county would let me have 3 chickens I wouldn't have to buy organic eggs anymore either. However, I know that's not going to happen.

Also in 2011 I'm going to learn how to pill a cat by myself. Right now it takes two of us to pill a cat, and I've been thinking that I should be able to handle 10-15 pounds of biting, hissing, angry kitty myself. I guess my plan of attack here is to learn how to quickly roll kitty burritos using groggy snoozy cats, a large towels and massive amounts of cat treats until they decide it's not so bad, at which point I can substitute whatever Rx they need for the treats. I figure I'm already scarred enough that what's one or two more scars, and as long as I don't need stitches, I'll be ok.

I'm sure there are others I need to be thinking about. The usual lose weight, exercise more one. The not letting my roots get so bad that I look like a redheaded skunk with the grey streak. That's one of the many things I'd love to get stem cells for. I want the hair I had as a child back. Thick, wavy and red instead of not as thick and mouse brown/grey with memories of red. OK, yes, I want stem cells to rejuvenate my skin, burn fat, and give me more energy that I could possibly need, but I guess my chances of that happening are about as good as winning one of the $300M+ lotteries!

I see I digress. The first seed catalogs have arrived in today's mail, so I'll be dreaming of fresh baby lettuce while watching the snow this weekend.

Belated Happy New Years!

Let's try this again

The pictures. Will blogger cooperate and let me prove that I'd been knitting my tuchus off?

Why yes, it did. Right now on the screen where I'm typing this post, it looks like I'll be able to comment beside each picture. We all know that once it gets published, who knows how it will turn out.

The blue dress and wrap are what I made for the Atlanta Knitting
Guild's annual bear presentation to the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy. The dress is made from Caron's Simply Soft with some Fun Fur added in to the hemline. The wrap is Fun Fur. I had them both in my stash, and it gave me a way to use them.

Next, we have some items I made for a swap amongst knitters who knit items for cats in shelters. I'll confess that I haven't knitted any cat blankets for donation yet. As I've mentioned
before, there are so many worthy charities out there, and I just
don't have time to knit for every single one of them. I do make an effort to knit for the local ones.

That said, the swap was to include a handknitted gift for the knitter and her cats. As you can see, the ones I knitted did pass Grey's seal of approval. Once again I was able to use stash yarn. The gal for whom I was knitting mentioned that purple was one of her favorite colors, and I had several skeins, whole and partial, of Plymouth Galway in my stash.

Thank you, Ravelry. I perused my target's favorites and found a hat that I would enjoy knitting. It is the Lotus hat, and the details can be found on my Ravelry projects page.

The mouse pattern was a free one that I found. I bought a mega sized container of fresh catnip to stuff the mousie after I felted it.

I had to take several pictures of the mouse since I thought it was

so cute. The one for my swap partner does have eyes that I embroidered.

Next you'll see a hat I knitted from more of the Simply Soft that was in my stash. This was for admission to a knit party I was attending. All the hats were donated to local charities, either Chemoflage or to the Atlanta Knitting Guild for distribution.

The Atlanta Knitting Guild also supports the Atlanta Women's Day

Shelter, so any hats that may not be soft enough for chemo patients will find good use.




Next, you will see 5 blind mice. My sister in law has started fostering kittens. I'm afraid that I encouraged her onto the slippery slope of cat rescue, and now they have 3 cats and

currently 2 fosters. I thought the least I could do was take her some cat toys. (Honestly, if she were more of a drinker, I'd take her bottle of her favorite beverage, because rescuing animals can be as challenging as it can be rewarding.)

Here is a hat that I have since finished. I can't remember if I've taken pictures yet as the battery died on the camera, and I need to recharge it. More stash yarn.

This final picture is a sock sample I knitted from my very own Chris Sock Yarn in the colorway Butterfly Bush. This is one of the yarns painted to pool if knitted in the proper way.

Have a great Sunday! We're having our high temperature right now. High winds and falling temperatures are on our agenda today. Possibly some snow flurries too. Thank goodness we have food, so let's just hope the power doesn't go out.

Falling off the face of the earth

No, that's not what happened to me.

I've been knitting like a fiend, but blogger is being difficult this morning and acting like it's loading pictures, but it's taking sooooooo looooong. (I'm probably blaming blogger for something that is actually AT&T's fault. We pay for fast DSL, but since my neighborhood isn't one the ritzy zip codes, we get crappy DSL. I'm thinking of switching to cable for the faster internet, and because I just plain hate AT&T. Damn you, Bellsouth, for merging with AT&T!)

Rant over, but I miss real customer service.

Since I have no pictoral proof of my knitting, I'll just mention that I've been quite busy.

I decided to start researching Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and see if I can get some real answers. Don't get me wrong. I think my doctor is wonderful. However, modern medicine has a tendency to treat symptoms, and when one has an autoimmune disorder, you start wondering about what causes it. After all, treating symptoms leads to a cascade effect of adding new medicines for each new symptom, and frankly, that's not something I want to do. Why not see if I can get a handle on what caused the Hashimoto's in the first place and treat it?

Thus, I've been reading Why do I still have Thyroid Symptoms when my Lab Tests are Normal. One of the very first and biggest things is that Hashimoto's patients are gluten intolerant. This is not negotiable. I've got to give up gluten. Hmm, I live on wheat. Breakfast toast for those days when I'm in a hurry. Wraps with tuna or turkey and veg for lunch. Brownies for dessert.

Starting the day after Thanksgiving, I've given up gluten. Ok, I've cheated a time or two. After all, I could not resist the chocolate cake with the gooey chocolate frosting at knitting guild last week. I did finish a few leftovers of squash casserole.

I feel better. I feel lighter in my midsection. I immediately lost several pounds. I mean I lost 3 pounds in 3 days.

I did gluten free, dairy free and sugar free about 15 years ago. I felt great, but it's very difficult to eat that way. I slowly caved and started eating normally again, and the weight crept up. I went in search of the books I'd used back then and started also following the guidelines in Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type. I know some people don't think this makes a lick of sense or even works, but I know it made a difference for me. However, it says for my blood type, no grains at all.

Let's face it. That just plain sucks. This is the time of year when a bowl of warm porridge is awfully nice in the morning. On the flip side, I'm prone to migraines if I don't eat enough protein (meat), and it's wonderful to have a book that says go eat that lean beef. Don't mind if I do.

Needless to say, I've been spending so much time in the kitchen doing food prep. I've purchased foods I've never tried before, and I've cooked couple of them so far this week. Buffalo is actually pretty good. I've got Jerusalem artichokes waiting to be cleaned, boiled and mashed later this week. I try to eat cultured vegetables with every meal. I discovered that dinosaur kale is a little bitter, but it improves.

However, all this food focus eats up (no pun intended) a lot of time. Cooking fresh meals 3 times a day, well, let's say I was so happy to get Chinese food last night. No more egg rolls or fried egg roll wrapper chips for me, but there are items on the menu I can enjoy. I just won't eat very much rice.

I will attempt to get the pictures of all the knitting posted too. I've done a bunch of small projects. I'll give it another try later today.

Catch up time

I apologize for my long absence. As you know, I went to SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair) last weekend.

Much earlier this year, way back in the spring, I decided that if I went to SAFF this year that I would take a class. I've been to SAFF two times previously, but as I only knitted at the time, I actually found it kind of boring. Yes, I said it. Boring. As in I finished seeing what I wanted to see in about 3 hours, and I was done. When Keith and I went back in 2007, we had just put Pixel to sleep several days earlier, and Brownie had died the previous month, so we checked out a day early and headed back home.

Fast forward back to the present. During the past 3 years I've increased my fibery knowledge, and much of that is due to hanging around with Gale. She does things like buy a fleece and process it herself. This means she takes the wool fresh from shearing, cleans it, dyes it, cards or combs it and then spins it. A gal's bound to learn a thing or two hanging around someone who does all that.

I've also started dyeing yarns. This has changed the way I look at other people's yarns and rovings. Part of this is also due to Gale. While she can sometimes exasperate me with all the follow up questions as to why I like a certain handpainted roving (sorry, Gale), her relentless questioning and search has caused me to look at yarns and ask myself the same question. Do I like the color, and is that all I like about it? Is the technique different? Is it something that I might want to try myself? Or is it so labor intensive that I will buy from the master? (There is a woman on etsy who does the most incredible handpainted self-striping yarns. My mind staggers at the work that goes into them. As I've taken classes and dyed yarns myself, I know that if she's asking $47 for her yarn, that she's put way more work than that into it. I want to give the Chicken Goddess a shout out for pointing her out to me.)

Sorry for the long digression. Back to the point is that I looked for a class and found one that I wanted to take. It was with Lynne Vogel, one of the Twisted Sisters. Hmm, famous author and teacher meant the class would fill quite quickly. I decided to become a member of SAFF and get the early sign-up.

SAFF is run by volunteers, so I soon thought that since I'd paid for both Keith and I to be members that we should work a volunteer shift. We'd done it once before, years ago, when I joined the Georgia Mineral Society. We'd had fun working the desk, and I knew we could have some fun at SAFF.

I'm going to admit that SAFF was a blast. I had a great time. Lynne is a fantastic teacher, and I encourage you to take a class from her if you have the opportunity. I consider myself at best an intermediate beginner spinner, and this class taught me some very interesting techniques to try.

As for manning the workshops desk, I have to say that Crystal and Nancie were a delight. They stayed cheerful, which is mostly easy to do as many fiber people are good natured, and when faced with a challenge, did so with ease. I would certainly volunteer again. However, I paid for a booth for SAFF 2011, so I won't be able to volunteer. Crystal has asked if she can still have Keith for a few hours, and I said that we'd give him a say. :)

Near the end of our time working, Nancie said the volunteer for the "How to pick a fleece class" was unable to work. Needless to say, I jumped on that. Robin, the teacher, ended up not using me much at all. I had to bounce a few people who wanted to sit in and hadn't paid, and I got to put my hands on some lovely fleeces. Yes, there was one that I didn't buy, and now I wish I had.

Some friends fared better than I did and purchased blue ribbon winning fleeces before the judging had occurred. I was with Steve when he saw his fleece had won. I can only imagine the rush you would feel when your choice is justified so fully by the judges. Gale had also purchased a fleece, and it too had won a blue ribbon.

That's probably enough about SAFF for one day. I do have some pictures, but my hands are slightly frozen. It got down to 60F in the house last night. I was just running the a/c two or three days ago, and I'm not ready to turn on the heat. Let's not forget that I live in The South, and by this afternoon temps will be back in the upper 70's. In the meantime, I suffer from cold fingers, so I'll end here and go sit in the sun for a few minutes.

I haven't disappeared

I've been busy!

I'll update in the next day or two with tales of SAFF and some pictures of spinning and knitting.

The further misadventures of Lily

(or why I was cleaning pooped on linens late last night)

I know I've mentioned before that it's rare for both of us to be gone from the house during the day at the same time. It's even more rare for us to be gone for long periods of time at the same time. I'm usually at home or popping in and out when I run errands. Keith gets to do a lot of telecommuting, so our pets have gotten really used to someone being around.

Yesterday was one of those rare days when events conspire against our kitties. My schedule was rearranged (I had an appointment thrust upon me because Keith couldn't go), and my dye day turned into a run here and there with maybe a quick trip home to check the mail.

It's a little after noontime, and Keith is ironing his clothes for work. The linen closet door is standing open a cat's width, but no one had seemed too interested in it. It's stuffed pretty full, and quite honestly, there's not much space for a cat in it. Keith put the iron and ironing board up, shut the closet door and left. It was about 1:20 p.m.

I had to leave also, and I left about 1:30. I did run back home and was there for about 45 minutes before I left again to get some catfood and meet up with some friends for knitting. I didn't see Lily or Monster at the time, but I wasn't worried about either one of them. After all, cats like to find their hiding places and snooze, and I knew they were inside, which was my concern.

So, Keith left around 1:20, and I left about 3:30. Everything seemed calm and normal.

I didn't get back home until about 7:50. I came in and fed the critters. After all, my dinner can wait, but theirs can't. No sign of Lily, but that can be normal. She eats elevated from the others, and her plate had food when I left. I figured she just wasn't hungry.

About 8:15 when I'm walking down the hallway, I hear thumping from inside the linen closet. I open the door, and Lily is out like a shot! Then I notice the smell. Ugh! There's poop somewhere in there.

First things first. Lily needs dinner, and she needs it now. I'm still eating my dinner, so I just leave the closet door open. While I'm chasing Lily off the kitchen table time and time again, I notice she's got cling-ons. One thing about Lily. She is single-minded and determined. She will wear you down. I must have chased her off the kitchen table and countertops more times than I want to think about before she and I reached a compromise. OK, I caved and let her finally sit on a table that she wanted to be on.

Finally I'm ready to tackle the linen closet. I figured that poop wasn't going anywhere, and I could take the time to eat my dinner and digest it. I find that she had a kitty cave on a shelf, and she must have panic-pooped when she realized she couldn't get out of the closet. We've accidentally shut her in the closet before, but we've been home and could rescue her more quickly. I'll admit to always checking the closet, and Keith usually does too, but this time...

I washed one load last night, and I've got a few things that don't look like they have poop on them, but they were in the vicinity.

Did Lily learn her lesson after all this? Hell no! I was in my yarn closet looking for something, and I turn around when I hear rustling. There is Lily trying to get on top of all my yarn bins and behind the winter coats for a new hiding place! Needless to say, I pulled her out with a hearty "Lily Dammit!", put her into the hallway and shut the door to the room. After all, sheets can be washed with hot water and bleach, but wool yarns can't.

Sunday pictures are running late this week

This is a side view, followed by a top view, of a hat I just finished. Next is the wrap sweater that I also just finished this week.

I've had a case of finishitis, so I also finished a stoma cover that was waiting for one strap and a fun fur scarf I was knitting to list on etsy.

I do have a couple of more photos, but blogger doesn't like them for some reason. I'll see if I can upload them later.