A slight panic, followed by realization

Whaddaya mean I'm not helping?

Yesterday and again this morning I found myself somewhat worried. You see, I had some tingling and numbness in my left hand early in the morning. Many of us know the warning signs for heart attack, and that's one of them.

Other than that, I felt fine, so yesterday I decided just to be aware of how my body was feeling. Then, it happened again this morning. Is it time to panic yet?

That's when common sense prevailed. For months now, when I sleep on my back, I fling my left arm over my head. I'm not sure why, but I do. My left hand ends up dangling off the pillow behind me. Do you think that's why it's been a little numb and tingly in the morning? Time to figure out a better way to sleep.

As for the quilting yesterday, I got most of the long quilting lines completed. I've been thinking I need to outline each log in every square, but I find that I don't enjoy the actual quilting nearly as much as the piecing it together. In fact, quilting itself is tedious. I noticed that my quilting wasn't as neat as I would have liked, but that happens when you are racing through something that you're not enjoying. I'd love to have someone who actually likes the quilting part to do it for me, but it's very expensive, and I see why. I'm not sure now how I want to finish quilting it. I do have another one that has some long quilting lines, and I may get those done while I think about them both.

Yes, quilting is in my future

I pulled down the quilt to take a look, and yes, I have to work on it today.
Since it's a log cabin, I think I'll be lazy and "stitch in the ditch". This means I'll quilt where the different colors are pieced together. It will look quite nice. Once I've done that, I'll think about what I'll do in the large triangles on the side. I'm not a good enough machine quilter to do the fancy stitching, so I'll have to hand quilt anything fancy in the triangles.

Wow, I really do need to work on my photography. Apologies for this less than stellar shot, but since one of my work supervisors was helping me hold down the quilt, I had to post it.

The baby quilt is finally 100% complete, just days after Claire's 5th birthday. It's still a good size for a child, and as she grows, it can be a great lap quilt.

And now for something completely different. The other night at knitting guild Ellen came to me and said she was enjoying my blog. I said off the top of my head, "that's slightly terrifying". I'm really not sure when I became someone who just said whatever popped into her head. I used to actually have some sense, but I've lost it somewhere along the way.

Ellen, I must clarify my strange comment. I find it slightly terrifying when I find out someone I know is actually reading my blog. There's such a wonderful anonymity about blogging. I let the thoughts pour from my head. And while I personally know most of my commentors IRL, it still freaks me out a little when I discover people are actually reading my blog. I don't know why. It just does.

I do want to take this opportunity then to thank those of you who do read my blog and enjoy it. I do appreciate it. This all started out as a way for me to tell my family and friends what was going on without boring them to tears about knitting and pets since I can entertain them with pictures, and they can skip any details if they choose. The real irony is that I've found out that most of my family doesn't read my blog. They may look at it occasionally, but not very often. However, I enjoy it. I can wax poetic about knitting or Jason O'Mara as much as I want, and not have Keith rag me about it. (Actually, he says things like "your man is on tv now", which is only fair since sometimes I yell to him "OMG! You've got to come see this woman's boobs!" Hey, it's TV, and you'll never know what freaks you'll see.)

Well, I must get moving. Coffee is waiting, as is Sassy. Her medicated shampoo arrived in yesterday's mail. You must be very quiet. After all, "bath" is one of the most frightening words you can say to a dog. Swimming in an algae and frog filled pond is one thing, but getting sprayed with soap and water is quite another. Luckily for Sassy, bath comes sometime after breakfast, and breakfast is the word she's thinking about now.

eta: grrr! Blogger keeps messing with my formatting! Sorry for all the run together paragraphs.

March 2009 Phat Fiber Sample Box

I know, I've been remiss and not shared the contents of my Phat Fiber Sample box. Let me first state that I can't express the delight I felt as I opened the box. The closest I can think of is birthdays when I was a child, and I didn't know what I was getting, and almost every present was wonderful.

I will state I have mixed feelings about sharing this. Part of me says, what are you waiting for? Go sign up with Phat Fiber immediately. The more greedy part of me thinks, don't do that! Then it will be more difficult to buy the next one. (Which, truth be told, I won't be buying one again anytime soon, but only because I'm not earning much money right now. Not because I don't want to. Believe me, I do want to. Very much so.)

Bear with me, there are pictures and a lot of links in this post.

In the first photo, you see how it was packed. The second is my haphazard repacking to get it all back in so you can somewhat share what I was when the tissue paper was removed.



Since I knit and don't spin too much, I ordered the yarn box.

It was chock full of yummy yarn samples. Starting from the top in the first yarn photo are:

Northern Bay Handspun in an amazingly soft camel and silk blend,

Abstract Fiber's very generous sample of merino and tencel fingering weight, Desired Haven Farm's mohair and wool blend, Dragonmaille's angora and wool blend, and Liberty Fibers yarn and fiber.

The orange and gold yarn at the top is from Bohemian Knitter Chic, and is a worsted weight wool. The second is Hedgehog Fibres silk and merino blend in a color called Burned. It is gorgeous, but I love a great brown. The green is Oriri Draco Designs Koi, a 100% bamboo yarn. I love the way bamboo looks. I think she needs a wishlist on her site. I'd drooled over there a few times before the sample arrived. The handspun at the bottom is from Cool Climates. It's a mixed fiber yarn of wool, mohair, angora and merino.

Phew! Linking all this is hard work. I can't let myself go look at yarn right now! Must be strong.

Ok, weak moment over. Thinking of sewing I want to do instead.

Third picture, from the top, Fire Lizard Studios Joy, an 80% merino and 20% nylon sock yarn. (I'm biased - I love sock yarn, and this one is good'n'squishy.) The bright lime and yellow is from Danido, and it's 100% superwash merino, dyed with organic dyes. Third down is a handspun from Melissa's Kre8tions in shades that remind me of Black Watch Tartan. Ok, I must admit some love for the cottons that came with the Irish Breakfast Tea. (I love that tea!) At some point, in that time when my stashes have been knitted and sewn down, I'm buying some of Sheeps of Egytian Cotton's Isis. I don't know what it is about that yarn, but I've got to get some. It may the colors, for all her yarn samples delight me. (Am I being too poetic for yarn? I don't think so.) Last, but not least, is a tantilizing handspun yarn from Wilde Thyme. It has sparkles and beads and fun colors that don't show well in that photo at all. (Today is a dim, grey day, and the halogen light in my kitchen always seems to make things look funny. I'm well aware it is human error since I've not figured out all the setting on my camera, but let's not talk about that right now. I'm still working on my first cup of coffee since we overslept in the grey dimness.)

Onto the mostly non-yarny surprises that I found in my box. In accessory photo number 1, some stitch markers from winemakerssister. Once again, I'm biased, because while I would love an incredible necklace of emeralds and diamonds, I'm a sucker for emerald green glass and beads too. Maybe I was a magpie in a past life. You know, collecting things, especially shiny ones.

There is also a shawl pin from Dawning Dreams. Dare I tell you that I'm also a sucker for curling, organic shapes?

In the upper left of this picture is a shamrock stitchmarker from Wooly Hands. In the upper right is a row counter from In Stitches. I've only recently started seeing this style of row counter, and I'm wondering how it will work for me. On the bottom row is stitchmarker from Black Tie Fiber Arts with pink jasper.

This next picture all came from the same crafting family! Mom, Dad and Son all work together for their store. How cool is that? The swag they sent includes a pair of earring, a Scrabble tile pendant (I recently purchased some from another etsy seller), stitch markers, handdyed yarn and a pattern of which I didn't take a picture. The store is Calizona Designs.

There are other yarnies who didn't send samples, but sent business cards and discounts to Phat Fiber Sample Box purchasers, so I'll include them for you to peruse their shops too. Natchwoolie, Woolie Bullie, Knitting Note Cards, My Fair Bag Lady, Mad Angel Creations, and Ballee.

All in all, that was the best $33 I've spent in a long time. So much fun and surprises.

Next, just a couple of shots of sewn binding. Just a few appliques, and I'll be finished with the hard work. So exciting to see a nearly finished project. Even more exciting when it's all finished.

PSA update

After inspiring my PSA of the other day, the girls took it to heart, and helped me as much as possible today.



Lily watches the thread as it spins while the machine is going. As I was attaching binding without using any pins - something that quilters do - I was able to make sure no paws got near the needle. When things aren't pinned, I only sew a few inches at a time, stopping frequently.





Here, Princess follows me relentlessly for petting. How dare I take pictures when I should be doing nothing but petting her until it's time to bite the hand that pets, then go take a nap?







At least that's what I think she was saying. She kept getting into shots, making it nearly impossible to get one of the sock in progress without her blocking it.


Here is a shot (taken quickly with no time to fuss with settings as I had to work before deluged with assistants) of the quilt with the binding attached to the front. For those of you who don't quilt, now I get to fold it over and sew it down by hand onto the back of the quilt, hiding the seamline from the front. I hope/plan to get started on that sometime today.



As for Mr. Chubbikins, he thought the sun and the catnip were just great, so he got stoned and took a nap.