It's a beautiful morning!

Beautiful!  The air is clear, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and between the houses I can see the ocean sparkling a couple of blocks away. . .






And I have an ear infection.  I may or may not have CAUSED IT MYSELF by pulling on my itchy ear last night like a foolish fussy baby.  Since then I have been mainly deaf (it sounds like I'm underwater in an aluminum can), and in a stupid amount of pain.

And I just burned my only full-hand oven mitt to A CRISP by turning on the wrong burner.  What am I, a hundred?  Do I need to be put in a home?  How do people USE these ovens that don't have flame?  How am I supposed to KNOW which burner is on when nothing burns?!

On the plus side, my inability to function like a normal human no matter how much I really, really, really want to (CAN I GO FOR A WALK YET?) has been beneficial to the craft department. 

• I have been spinning some, when I get too antsy for bed (thanks, Sudafed) but can't actually exercise.  It's like a low impact, low effort stationary bicycle.  I also may or may not have had a tax-return related Fiber Ordering Accident, based on the beautiful colors at Crown Mountain Farms.  Plus, you can get a pound of undyed wool there for less than $30.  That's like. . . half a sweater.  Purrfect.

• I also cast on a scarlet Ice Queen with bronze beads for my darling friend who should have something lacy and beautiful in her life - she's been having a rough time the last couple months, although she is very brave and strong <3

• I cast on the Juneberry Triangle out of Cascade's gorgeously shiny Ultra Pima cotton.  The yarn was going to be a tank top originally, but I can get tank tops at Target (unless they continue to, as it seems, have anti-gay political leanings.  SERIOUSLY, TARGET?  GROW THE EFF UP.  And do you hear me, rest of the country who hasn't caught on yet?  What do you think, this is the dark ages and this kind of bullsh*t discrimination is even vaguely socially/morally/ethically acceptable?).   Anyway, I need a prayer shawl much more urgently.  Deep breaths.  Cultivate my Zen mind and all that.

• I made a wee tiny ribbed arm cuff for my mum, whose medication makes her skin quite sensitive to scratches and things.  I used a tiny bit of the lovely dove gray extra Baby Cashmerino that I used for Karen's Mitts lo, those weeks ago.  I've only made one so far because I need her to try it on!

• I cast off the Emily capelet and am bereft without it.  It came out beautifully, and I should block it today while the air is clear and dry.  The buttons are perfect, and I'm SO excited about it.  Also, Madelinetosh DK yarn?  Not a single complaint.  Except that it would be excessive of me to swear of knitting with nothing else forever and ever amen.  As soon as the credit from my Eat.Sleep.Knit lotto tickets registers, I shall have to order more Madelinetosh and begin the Great Sweatering.  Which will probably be the Vine Yoke cardigan by Ysolda Teague (who I love).

• I cast off (did I post this already?) Chris' Beer Gloves, which are now drying.  The fingers are uneven - so sue me, I can't count consecutive purl rows, ok?  But it's Malabrigo, so it blocks however I darn well tell it to block. The fingers look even now, and that's what counts.

And now, I am getting back in bed where things are not quite as flammable as they appear to be in the kitchen.  Louie, it turns out, goes all rabbit-loaf big-eyes when the house is full of smoke.  Who knew?  She's fine now.  Just a regular rabbit loaf, sans the terror.

Knitting is my anti-drug.

Knitting may be my anti-drug, but I took a break from knitting earlier to take my cough syrup with codeine.  Then I slept for five hours.  Good morning!  You know, sometimes you get sick.  And then you get better.  And then you get worse.  And then the doctor tells you you have a sinus infection and you get a bunch worse after you start taking the medicine (how is that fair?) and then you miss more work and you feel a bit like an idiot . . . especially if you spent the whole first half of the day wearing bunny ears. 

I know antibiotics say you might get dizzy on them, but hot damn.  I'm pretty accustomed to being dizzy, but I just feel totally disoriented.

But that's besides the point.  The point is. . . I love knitting.  Also, spinning.  I just watched this fantastic video about Navajo Plying, and now I finally understand what all the fuss is about!  I could never figure out from descriptions what Navajo Plying actually was, and now I do.  And now I'm obsessed, but I don't have any singles spun up, so I can't try it.  Ho hum.

In other news, my projects are coming along quite well!  Ready for a wee photo dump? :>

Handspun natural (Corriedale, I think?) from Sheryl at Spin A Bit!

Chris' Beer Gloves from Son of Stitch and Bitch, out of Malabrigo in the Pearl Ten colorway

My second Discovery Sock using Cat Bordhi's latest crazy sock method (no heel turning! Hooray!) Also, Knit Picks stroll sock yarn?  Love the long repeats, and the yarn turns so soft and nice after washing!

Sweet, sweet Emily.  I'm putting off finishing this because the pattern and the yarn (Madelinetosh DK in Malachite) is just too wonderful - I don't want the project to be over!

Handspun from Spunky Eclectic  . . I can't find the label but I'm sure it's here somewhere!

Latest (possibly unwise) purchase.  The most beautiful crochet hook (but I don't really know how to crochet)

The Hemlock Ring Blanket, out of Madelinetosh Merino Light in Amber Trinket.

Well, that's all for me.  I suspect I'll be watching another episode of Doc Martin (my new favorite show!) and then partaking of the sweet nectar of the poppy, and sleeping a whole lot. 

On Having the Flu: Part 2

10.  Spend Friday dosed with ibuprofen and benadryl, sleep hazily.  Text your sister back non-nonsensical things.  Watch everything some more.  Do not want to eat, but do it anyway.  Eat the Tamiflu, sleep.

11. Saturday - Happy Weekend!  This day will be like every other.  Perhaps lose hope and cry hysterically while on the phone with your mother.  Mothers are very brave about this.

12. Sunday - yet a (nother) day of rest.  Keep resting.  Knit some, because your hands don't hurt as much as they did.  Become ambitious and try to sit in a chair while watching a show with your spouse.  End up watching from kitchen floor, because chairs are too something and you feel dizzy.  A half hour show is better in this case than a full hour.

13. Monday you should call out sick from work again.  I know you think you should go, but honey - you can't sit in a chair.  Monday you shower standing up without a hint of fainting, and feel triumphant.

14. Tuesday you go back to work.  Everyone yells welcome back.  You feel hung over, and wonder how you spent the last week sleeping but feel quite un-rested.  If you are lucky, your workplace is a loud one, because you are still coughing up a lot of goo.  Get rid of it.

I forgot to mention this step, from the early days of being sick.  Don't forget it, because it is important.  Decide you are sad and lonely and need a hug.  Hug your dog.  Or, if you are dumb, take your rabbit out of her crate for a good old fashioned snuggle-fest and then flop her feebly back into her cage when she bites your armpit and breaks the skin.  Rabbits are not fully domesticated. . . do not forget this.  On pain of painful armpit puncture.

In other news, have made new discovery.  Yarn store is between office of therapist and home.  I did need buttons.  I may not have needed all this new yarn, but here it is. 

In other other news, super secret very late birthday present is complete.  I. . . may have overreached.  It seems to me a bit in the way of a macaroni valentine, but. . . I will report on my findings.

A Tutorial: On Having the Flu

The set-up:  Be completely unprepared.  Get both flu vaccines when they are kindly offered by your town.  Be aware that flu season is over.  Be in good health and reasonably good cheer, and try hard to get enough sleep.

The steps:

1.  On a Tuesday evening, say, begin to feel a little scratchy in your throat and chest.  Fear a cold!  Retreat to bed early and take a lot of Vitamin C.
2. Repeat in the morning.  Everyone else goes to work with colds, so get to work!  Mope around all day feeling shitty and making zombie noises.  Ask to leave a little early, retreat to bed with a runny nose, a cough, chest congestion, and a fever.  Eat way more Vitamin C.  Whine a little.  Watch most of the first season of Weeds.
3.  Have alarming fever-dreams about trying to keep your suburban marijuana business thriving, while ensuring all of your dealers are behaving.  Toss, turn, sweat.  Wake up and drink all the water.  Toss, turn, sweat some more.  Take a shower in the middle of the night.*

*In fact, until all symptoms disappear, take all the showers.  Four a day should do it.  In your weakened state lying in the bottom of the shower like a fetal shrimp while being pelted with hot water is your happy place.  This is the only time the weird sinus pains will cease, and you will lack the willpower to get out of the shower before the hot water has run out.  Don't even think about showering standing up - it's not a good idea.

3a. In the morning, call out from work.  A plus: You won't even feel guilty about it this time! A minus: That is because you can barely get out of bed, your everything hurts, and you are miserable and pathetic and too tired even to whine about it.  Your hands hurt too much to knit.  They hurt too much to knit.  Your hands. . . . . they hurt too much to knit.


4.  Thank the people who bring you food and leave it on your doorstep, without actually approaching within five feet of them.  Wave through the screen door, with your hair all crazy like that girl from The Ring.  This cannot be avoided - you are taking all the showers, yet have no energy to brush your hair.  It's a look, go with it.

5. Watch all the things Netflix has to offer, and sometimes things on hulu.  Try to read, but you may be too dumb.  Watch puppy videos on youtube. 

6. Cancel any immediate appointments.  Hope that Boyfriend will be home soon with Benadryl and tissues, because you have been through TWO rolls of toilet-paper-as-tissues in ONE day.  Stick tissues up nose if you must.

7.  Optimistically reserve a place at the writing workshop you want to go to on Sunday.  It's only Thursday, right?  You'll be all better by Sunday. . . right?!

8.  After watching four hours of a documentary about the Circus, have scary circus fever dreams.  Freak out a little bit when you realize your fever is rising a degree every two hours.  Deliriously try to call and make an appointment at your doctor's office at 2:30 in the morning.

9.  It is now Friday.  Go to the doctor after they call you back during their foolish business hours (9 am? why so late?).  Get nose swabbed.  Find out you have the flu.  Shake fist at sky and go sit outside so no one else will catch your plague while you wait for your ride. 

To be continued.  Too tired to keep typing.

Photo Bucket

Tent tags at work, all in a row.

Chris' knives (gorgeous <3) on display at the big craft show.

What I did all week - taped cables with electrical tape and seized blocks on!

I uh. . .I mean.  Look at this.  How could I not share batritos with you? Disclaimer: I don't know this girl, or these bat babies.

I haven't done much home crafting this week, mainly because my hands have been hurting after hand-sewing all day every day at work.  So I don't have much to say on that front, except that:

Karen got her gloves!  And boy, does she take a fab theme photo ;D  Steampunk ftw!

I can't talk right now. . .

I'm knitting with Madelinetosh.

And I'm in love.  The Emily Capelet is a wonderful project - not quite a sweater, but also not something tiny and fiddly like most of the projects I've been working on in recent months.

What's new around here, you ask?  Well, Spring tricked us into getting our hopes up - what else is new, New England.  Friday it was beautiful and sunny with a high of 67 degrees.  Today it snowed.  It's a good thing I have my yarn to console me.  And the gorgeous veggie and turkey bacon frittatta I just took out of the oven.  I did grab a couple of fabulous Bullmastiff moments for you, though.

Basking.

Not super sure about horses.  I guess she's used to being the biggest dog around, or something?

My love.

Now I really do have to go - I have a date to snuggle with some stunning green Merino.

This is how I felt, yesterday.  Part of the reason for this terrible stress was that my beautiful sister gave me a $50 gift card to Eat Sleep Knit, and I knew what project I was buying for.  I bravely narrowed down the brands, judging by skein length and composition, and then I. . . had to choose a Madelinetosh colorway.  I don't know if you've ever tried to do that but it is very difficult.  Like... I want to eat those colors with my mind.  Especially because - do you see how they're photographed?  True colors, good lighting, and bundled up like toffees?  In the end, I chose the Malachite colorway, for use on the Emily Capelet by Ysolda Teague.  I was torn, originally, between getting a neutral (my heart pitter-pats for Fawn and Alabaster), and a brighter color.  But most of my clothes are neutral because I am a chicken, so that green is necessary to keep me from looking like some kind of a Sepia cartoon character.

Partway through the stress of decision-making, I pulled out the shoe-box from under my bed, took out my Malabrigos, and clutched them to me, palpating and sniffing.  Fondling and wriggling.  Sometimes I make them scoot like inchwarms - end to end, stretch out again!  end to end, stretch out again!
Such is the life of someone who has recently discovered that wool is not all the worst-feeling, hive-inducing thing on the face of the earth.  I put the yarns on my face.

Christopher decided to join the fun, and then threw yarns onto me from my living-room stash (I'm like a squirrel - they're everywhere!)  His aim was true, thank goodness, and none of them hit me in the face.  That would have made me even grumpier.  I told him if he was going to decorate me, he had to get my phone, because Hipstamatic needed to bear witness to the ennui of the yarn intelligentsia.  He obeyed, and now the event is chronicled.  He asked what was wrong, and I said, "Can't you see?  I have all these yarns, and I can't knit them all at once!"

Eventually, I placed my order.  I was worried the yarn shop might think I was racially profiling (not really, this is just a totally contrived excuse), so I also ordered a skein of Malabrigo Silky Merino in Teal Feather.  I already have one skein, and plan on making a cropped Leisl sweater (also by Ysolda Teague) with the pair of them. 

This is a weird thing about my Malabrigo skeins.  I have single skeins.  What I really want is to live out the rest of my days in a sweater made from it.  But I am not brave enough to make that kind of financial commitment, so I have skeins of worsted in Verde Esperanza, Purple Mystery, and Pearl Ten.  I have Silky Merino in Pollen, and Teal Feather.  And I have Sock, in Solis.  And there they lie in wait, for me to think of the perfect (small) projects.  The Handmaiden SeaSilk (gotta love yarn store sales) lives in that box with them, and I have no idea what to do with that either. 

Well, that's all for now.  Gotta go fetch Karen's Cashmerino Mitts out of the wool wash and set them gently to block.  They came out so sweet, and that pattern uses exactly one ball of Cashmerino DK at my gauge!

Projects and Productivity

Karen's Mitts are coming along nicely! 

Somehow, I feel like alternating projects keeps me more productive overall.  I'm still working on my super-secret project, but I can tell you that if I try to do a large amount of colorwork in a small amount of time, my standards become a little lax.  The longer I wiggle all those little strands around, the more I get distracted and - yes - impatient.  I haven't got a good system yet, is part of the problem.

So right now, I am working on:
Karen's Mitts!
My secret belated project
My Bamboo Snood (we've been fighting)
Spinning my undyed BFL/Corriedale
My Laminaria lace shawl.  It's not that I don't want to work on it, it's just that I'm intimidated.

I just finished:
My Discovery Sock!  It's fantastic, and I love the method of sock construction.  If you're curious or want to try out an alternative sock method, the book is called Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi.  I plan on casting on the second sock soon, and I don't feel any twinges about that!  Somehow, knowing that I won't have to turn a heel or pick up gusset stitches seems to have cleared up my SSS (Second Sock Syndrome).

Yesterday, Christopher and I went on a grand adventure!  Well, we went on an adventure.  He drove, because I was intimidated by driving my car around the rotary.  We picked up the spare key for my car at the dealership, and then went on our first trip to BJs together!  Don't take that the wrong way, you dirty birds.  You know what I mean.  The store, where you buy freakish amounts of food.  We invested in many meal-staples, and while (the bill) was a bit overwhelming, I think we'll be set for a while.  We have a freezer full of stuff now, and I won't have to cry and go to the store every single time I want to make dinner - hooray!

He lets me ride in the cart. It's true love. I got out when it started to get too heavy, because I love him too.

It's FRIDAY

And I am lying in bed, melting, at 8:45.  I would be embarrassed, if I wasn't so sleepy and well-fed.

One of the sewing machines at work.

The awesome chain-link pattern that wouldn't fit over my heel and had to be frogged.

The cutest booties ever, made by my aunt Becky.

In the mail today I got yarn for a new project - Mitts for Miss Karen, my college roommate.  It feels so weird to say "college roommate" in the past tense.  Her previous set of mitts have gone walkabout, so I am going to make her a new set.  Finally - a chance to knit with Baby Cashmerino! :D

Now, I will leave you wondering - did I really sign off to go to bed at 9:03 PM?  I'll never tell. . .

Driving Around

I've been driving around all week - in both senses.  I've been driving my car, and it's been going pretty well! And I've also been driving my spinning wheel around and around.  I've got a full 4 oz. of merino ready to ply, and I'm crossing my fingers that it will be enough for a pair of socks or mitts! The whole weight of fiber thing confuzzles me, although I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.

Newly plied and snuggled into an Ugg.

 Continued the next morning: I plied it!  My pre-plying left me a little uneven lengthwise and I had to scoot some single-strands from bobbin to bobbin, but it came out wonderfully.  By wonderfully, I mean I love it.  I don't mean that it's perfect or particularly even, or even completely plied in all the fuzziest places.  But that's how I like it!










The colorway is called Mud Season - it's 100% Merino, from Spunky Eclectic's fiber of the month club.  My mum (or Santa by way of my mum?) got me a membership a couple of years ago, and I could never keep up with just my one tiny (lace-sized, I now know) drop spindle.  So I have all these beautiful little 4 oz. bags of hand-dyed fiber, and I keep picking them up and squeezing them.  What to spin next?!





In knitting news, my super-secret project which is SO belated for my mom's birthday is going well.  I'm not going to tell details now, but it should be done soon and then I will post pictures!

My Discovery Sock from Cat Bordhi's Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters is aliiiive! I read comments on ravelry and heard in podcasts that many people had trouble getting the toe-to-heel relationship right, and the socks just didn't come out well.  And there is a scary part, where you knit up the foot of the sock and close it right up with no ankle opening, and cannot try it on.  But I opened up the ankle and started knitting up - and voila!  A well-fitted, perfectly functional sock.  I'm going to make a few rows of the Chainmail pattern on the cuff, because it's beautiful.  And then onward to the next sock!  When I got the book and realized the construction of the sock (key words: no gusset, no picking up stitches, no heel turning) I had a feeling that we were sole mates.  Sole mates: see what I did there?

In non-crafting news, Christopher has decided that he is going to train Louie to be better about being picked up.  I told him that if he is going to clean up her anger-poops that she leaves on the floor after these events, he can go right ahead.  But in all seriousness, it's going pretty well.  He has a firm grip, and she seems pretty calm when she's actually in his arms (to which I can relate).  It's the picking up and putting down that freak her out.  But she's been relaxing faster afterward, and I would love to be able to maneuver her when needed - taking her to the vet is not a pretty thing.  And the vet is my dad, so I feel bad when he has to wrestle a wee, delicate, ferociously kicking beasty.

If you're wondering about my awesome (obnoxious?) photos this time, I found the iPhone App Hipstamatic, and can't stop taking weirdly filtered photos.  There are other lense and film options, but I like this spooky vintage look, and I'm going to use it for now.  How do you feel about it?

The laundry calls.

Morning Matters

Welp, I burned my barley.  I'm still making tea out of it though, and it's tasty - though burned.

I forgot that there is a big hill on the way to my parents house and now I only have my car which makes me verreh nervous.  Pray for me.

Also, I'm posting this, but don't be scared;  I have no plans to do these things.  My car is blue, not sponsored, and I'm sure that one has something extra under the hood. But - much more reassuring than the crash test video!