There Has Been Much Spinning and Knitting

As usual it's been awhile since I last posted. One thing I've realized about popular blogs is that they post regularly and frequently. So much for aspirations of popularity, that's if I had any.

There has been much spinning and knitting going on this summer. I've been babysitting my granddaughter, whom I've nicknamed Duck, for ten hours a day in June and July. Plus, I broke down and joined Ravelry.

There was a trend amongst the females in my family to have their last child late in life. I'm glad I ended that. My great-grandmother was in her forties when she had her last, my grandmother was 39 when she had my uncle, my mother was 42 when she had my sister and still trying for another at 45. Right now, I'm the same age as my mom was when she was three months pregnant for my sister. I can't imagine that, nightmares.

To all those late in life mothers, that might come by and flame me, first off, bless you, I just don't have the energy for it. Duck leaves me collapsed in my chair every evening.

This is BFL in Devas and East of Eden, I bought from Crown Mountain Farms.




I took long pieces of Devas, separated in three strips lengthwise and spun up three spindles, which produced a nice light fingering 3 ply, 430 yards, 22 wpi.



Duck kept coming up to me while I was spinning to tell me how much she really loves pink. So, I used the yarn to knit her this raglan sweater. The pattern is from an old baby book, that I greatly reworked. I really like how the coloring striped out and went from medium to light then gradated to dark for the body. For the sleeves, I took about a yard strip from the remaining fiber, stripped it in half lengthwise, spun on two bobbins, then Navojo plied each. I was trying to replicate the color progression of the body, of course, since I was trying to control the outcome, it didn't work out quite as well as I had hoped for.



As you can see, I still have to bind off the sleeves, sew on buttons and finally block it. Duck is at her fathers for the month of August, so I'll finish when she comes back after Labor Day. Will post a final picture at that time with the intended victim modeling.

There was two ounces of fiber leftover which I spun into a two ply laceweight, 440 yards. I didn't check the wpi, but the photo shows it in comparison to commercial spun merino laceweight that was 880 to 4 oz. I will be putting this up for sale. I think it would make a lovely lace scarf, maybe in a feather and fan pattern.



There has been much more spinning and knitting than this, but I'll save it for future posts. Will try for regularity in posting. Popularity, not so much. I keep this blog mostly for myself and anyone who happens by wanting to look at pictures of needlework, bunnies, and cats or opinions about patterns, or chronic pain issues.

Finally, I re-opened my etsy store, Kreative Kitties. It's been open since middle June, I just haven't listed much yet. My new camera has a wider learning curve than my previous Sony Cybershot. I just figured how to use the close up setting. So, I will be listing a few new items every day, as I have a ton of stuff to upload. Stop by if you're interested. Right now there is spinning fiber. I have a bunch of yarn and crochet cotton in various sizes still to photograph and list.

I'll leave you with a couple pictures of BFL and alpaca fiber.

Is It Really A Savings If .......

If you never receive your purchase. I have never publicly complained about a business online. Not many understand better than I, that at the most inconvenient moment, life will jump up and bite me in the ass. Best laid plans of mice and men and all that.

On April 20 I ordered from Little Barn, they were cheapest for what I wanted. I had hopes it might come in around my birthday, ten days later. I would still be waiting. Actually, I waited til May 8th, left a message on their answering machine. Waited longer until May 15th, a lady answered the phone and said she had no clue about my order as all she did was run this here machine. She took my information and said the boss man would contact me by the next morning.

Hadn't heard anything by the next afternoon, so I called again. Same lady answered and asked me to give her a few days. Monday, May 19, she calls back in the morning, tells me there were two tracking numbers listed for my order, and they tried to track it down. The same thing happened to another lady. Hmmmm, then tells me the 32/2 silk yarn I ordered had been sold out for awhile. They hadn't gotten any from India for awhile due to all the bad weather, hurricanes??? It's listed for sale on their website as of today.

She explained that their postal workers weren't government workers, but contract employees, very unreliable. They would reship my order on Wednesday by Priority Mail. If the first order should happen to show, keep it, but do the honest thing and pay for it, or send it back. I asked if credit card will be credited for the missing yarn. Yes, yes, we will.

Still haven't received my order, nor has the credit card been credited. I have plenty of patience, but this ridiculous, so it's now in dispute with credit card company. There is a thread on Ravelry in the spinning knitters group, I've counted eight other customers with similar problems. Of course, there are also those loyal customers who come by to defend their favorite fiber supplier. If you are reading this, and have had good luck with them, yay for you. I however have $90.00 and 1 1/2 lbs of fiber floating around in cyberspace.

Last week, I ordered from WEBS and Paradise Fibers. WEBS yarn showed up yesterday, and UPS tracking says my fiber should be here tomorrow. I had to order more fiber and yarn than originally to get discounts, and spent more money, but I'm going to have my stuff.

Last week I started babysitting the granddaughter two days a week. She's much bigger now.

That would be more peaceful looking if it weren't my stitching spot.

On the knitting front, I'm knitting with porcupines. Stor Rund Dug with hand dyed 30/2 silk on seven #0000 needles. The picture shown looks harder than the pattern actually is to knit. A small portion of the hank took up more dye than the rest of skein, and therefore a bit darker. I was a bit concerned at first, but I'm kinda liking the various striated effect. It's kinda like the striations in a tree trunk. Very hexagonal....



It's been so hot this past week in Western NY. I took these pictures the few times I woke from my heat induced coma.

It's The Small Things

This time of year always has me a bit down. Besides, high humidity causing major stiffness, I miss having a patio or deck garden. I have to live vicariously through others blog pictures. Which isn't really the same as being able to step outside to watch your own plants grow and bloom. Besides you can't smell picture, sometimes that can a be good, being the internet. Finding that new blossom that wasn't there the day before is somewhat of a thrill for me.

Today, my mom and I went shopping for plants her garden. Pulling into the parking lot, two rose bushes deep in the display stood out and called to me. Really, wishing I had a patio now, as I used to grow Tea Roses in big pots. They were on sale, so I bought them for her, begging can I come I visit with them occasionally.



There are two rose bushes here. The bottom left is more of a peach/apricot color, I didn't get a chance to look at the card for the name.



Broadway Rose. It was hard to get a decent photo of with one that had lots of yellow as the sun was shining directly over my shoulder.

Obligatory needlework err knitting picture. I made this doily a year or so ago, give or take a few months. Just now, finally getting around to blocking it. It's from Marriane Kinzel's books, 2/30 silk on 0000 knitting needles. I gave this to my mother for Mother's Day. She was quite surprised that it was knitted, more astonished when she saw the steel toothpicks I used.

It is the family joke, that while I was hanging out in the womb, I happened on the creative domestic gene not in use, and snatched up the whole thing for myself. When my mother feels creative she buys fabric with intention of making quilts. I think she likes to pick fabrics, and the finished product, it's the process in the middle, she doesn't have much patience for. While I enjoy the process, the longer the trip the better.




Obligatory Dammit picture.



It's always nice to have a best bun to lean on and hang out with.

Can I Dazzle You With Needlework Pics?

It's been so very long since I've even thought about this blog, much less considered posting. I feel I've busy accomplishing very little. So much has happened this past year. For starters, my mother had a heart attack on January 9, 2007, the day before the 8 year anniversary of my grandmother's death. Pretty scary. They took her down to surgery daily to wait for a quadruple bypass, only to have it canceled and rescheduled the next day. It was four days of going down in the morning and waiting then at 5pm cancel, reschedule. Finally, at 7pm that Friday night they did the surgery.

She had many complications after she came home. Incisions becoming infected, then opening, very slow healing. My daughter left for the army the day Mom had her heart attack. A few weeks into basic training and she injured her feet and had to wait months for discharge. Apparently, the boots she was fitted with caused tarsal tunnel. She had surgery on the worst foot this past March and will have the second one in August.

Much stress didn't help me with my sciatic nerve pain. Much has happened with that, and I might write about it at another time. That's just a brief synopses of while I was missing.

On to the needlework pictures I promised. I did finish Venetian Mask in the beginning of December, 2007. For a Christmas present to myself, I framed it and Duane hung it on the wall just above the TV. Every time I look up from my chair, I can see it. (click on picture for a bigger size)




My youngest son was supposed graduate high school this year. Then beginning of last month, he said it wouldn't be until next year. I wanted to do something special for him. So, I started HAED's Wolf Mistress. It's 186,200 stitches!!! I calculated how many stitches I would have to stitch, daily, weekly and monthly to have it finished in a year. Now, I find out he's graduating next month. Sigh, no way I'll have it finished that quick.

Here's where I was as of 5/5/08 and as of 5/15/08.


My weekend project since the beginning of April this year has been Silver Lining's Broadway Rose. Here is where I am before I get started with this weekends progress.



Sadly, there hasn't been much knitting recently. I did quite a bit of lace knitting over last summer, but haven't taken pictures yet. Something to look forward to.

As I said, the stress of the past year has my sciatica really bad. Unfortunately, in the throes of pain and frustration I threw my spinning wheel in a corner. Bad mistake, I lost so much strength and muscle tissue in my legs. I really should have spun even for a few minutes every couple days. Sunday, I dragged it out and oiled it up. My hands knew what to do right away, even my legs knew what to do, however they didn't last long. After ten minutes, I felt like I had been on very long hike up hill. I am persisting and make sure to spin every day, even for a few minutes.

Finally, we have a new addition to the family. Last August, we stopped in the pet store, and I fell in love with this cute little bunny. He was rocking and rolling, running from side to side of his cage and kicking his heels up. It was anniversary of Elvis death, so we named him Elvis. Lexie has been pining for a companion for quite a long while, so we thought, why not? Wily bugger was really Dammit just doing an Elvis impersonation. Here is little Dammit and Lexie.



The pet store said he was a Havana, but after some research I found out he's really an English Spot. Which goes a long way to explain some things. First of all, he's a loyal Led Zeppelin fan. There aren't words expressive enough to express his devotion for Zeppelin. Only Lexie and green leaf lettuce rate a tad higher. Now, I bet you're wondering how we figured this out.

The first week, we kept him in his cage to get accustomed to the place and other residents. Lexie was beside herself, when she first noticed what was in the cage. She sat beside it constantly peering in. Then came the day we let him out for a short time. At first, he didn't seem to like her very much. But, once the choice became clear, it was either her or five cats, his devotion to Lexie was set.

He became Dammit when his fetish or appetite for carpet couldn't be discouraged. It only took a couple days of squirting Lexie with the water bottle to discourage her from plucking at the carpet. Dammit became Dammit when he went through several gallons of squirtings. The carpet here was trash when we moved in five years ago. They would need to replace it at any rate. However, when we do move, yeah, I guess I will have laminate any carpets with plastic. This is how we found out he is a fan of Zeppelin.

On Saturdays at noon, the local radio station plays an hour of Zeppelin, which I had started to listen to. The second week, I noticed the bunnies would come out and sit near the speaker. Only during the commercials did Dammit chomp. After the show, I went through Duane massive cd collection and found his Zeppelin cds. Most peaceful afternoon I had with Dammit. Little bugger sat happily by the speaker with no interruptions other waiting for me to change cds. I have other Dammit loves Zeppelin stories but will save them for other postings.

Here's Dammit and Lexie today.


Notice, I have some plastic down and he only made new spots. Zeppelin 24 x 7 and the neighbors would cut my electric line.

BTW, we have other Zeppelin fans in the house. I'll leave you with pictures of Bootsie and Tennessee watching the TSRTS dvd of Jimmy Page's solo.

If It Weren't For Bad Luck

Somehow, I think no luck is better than bad luck. Sad how many links come up on a Google search with most them bloggers using that as a title. Don't know if it's sad that many have bad luck or that many watched Hee Haw growing up. Frankly, I'm used it by now. There's just those years, in my life, when so many strange things go wrong, I have a constant raised eyebrow watching for just what strange set of occurrences will happen next.

I blew any chances at NaBloPoMo last week I posted. Duane had four straight days off and two of them he totally hogged the computer. That Friday, I had lots planned, he he, yeah right. That Thursday, DD comes in with her DD and says we have her until Sunday. Well, that blew all my plans. DD (one not standing for dear) doesn't watch DGD at all. It's all left up to me. When I tried to lye down and rest on Friday, asking DD to please keep an eye on her DD. Nope. I had DGD in bed with me. I told the little one she had to lay down if she was going to stay with me. She then took the tv remote and smacked me right in the eye.

The kids (her father as well) just don't understand that when they constantly smack her every time she does something they don't like, it teaches her to hit as well. I wasn't able to see out of my left eye for a couple days, with a pounding ache in it as well. Cleared up by Monday, or I would have went to the Dr.

Wednesday, I was finally somewhat better and cleaned the kitchen, dining and living room for company the next day. That would have normally taken several days to do, so saying I way over did it is an understatement. Joint and sciatic pain to the extreme.

When I was in my twenties, I had a pastor that just turned 40 and just started jogging. I asked him later if he was stiff and sore the next day. He told me it was a funny thing once you turn 40, it doesn't hit til the second day and wowee when it did. Takes a couple extra days to recoup as well. Now, that I turned 40 this year, I know exactly what he was talking about, only I'm not nearly as good health as he was.

Besides the sciatica from a displaced sacral illiac joint, I have joint disease where my immune system attacks my joints, left over from an infection that wasn't diagnosed properly for months. Bursitis in my left shoulder, an old nursing school injury that flares up with an extended use. I popped it in an out of place a couple weeks ago, trying to reposition myself on the bed. Pressed down with my left hand to push myself over and instead my shoulder popped so loud Duane heard it. The cute thing is, when I yelped in pain, all five cats came running onto the bed. They stayed for quite awhile to make sure I was ok, and seemed like they wanted to do something to help, with the looks of concern on their little faces. That really aggravated my bursitis, and pinched a nerve as well. I have pain shooting down my arm to my hand on occasion, and drop anything I might be holding. It will heal in time, if I can manage to rest it for awhile. I guess I'm just a mess.

DGD was back again for Thanksgiving. Her father dumped her off two hours earlier than pre-arranged. We love having her here. Just wish DD would watch her better. DD finally signed her enlistment papers and gets shipped off on January 10th. It's a shame a child could actually make a parent look forward to their enlistment date. Well, not looking forward to going into to the Army, just the leaving part.

Of course, there are other small strange occurances that happen on a frequent basis as well. Like the mailman not coming by at all one random day a week, besides the usual Sunday and holidays. Or getting some elses mail, or their getting ours and keeping it for several weeks, you know time sensitive stuff. Like please pay up by such and such a day or we'll shut you off, and you get it the next or several days later. Would have paid it the first time, but never got the original bill. Also, there is the never ending travels of objects and papers growing legs and wandering about, never where you last put them. It's just a never ending barrel of entertainment.

We won't talk about my friend bringing by my six year old grandson for a visit. I hadn't seen him for 2 and half years. Let's just leave it at that I'm still trying to untangle my spinning wheel. Makes the 2 year old DGD a total angel.

Not much knitting to report, of course. I have been knitting a little on this and that on days I'm trying to recuperate. Actually, thinking about pulling out some old cross stitch projects. That way I can keep my left hand still and rest my shoulder. I did get some auctions listed on ebay this past Friday. Well, I still have some dishes leftover from Thanksgiving, that I should be getting to. Duane would help, but they've working him like a dog at the restaurant since Friday. I guess DD is trying to help me rest by osmosis, with sitting around knitting the past couple days.

It's been an interesting couple weeks, I'm looking forward to a little boredom soon, or maybe some positive entertainment will be nice change of pace. Will be back soon, with your reguraly scheduled needlework picture intensive post.

Help Me, I'm In Finishing Mode

So far, in the past few months I've finished two shawls, a pair of socks, a pair footies, a hat and now Granddaughter's sweater is finished in time for her second birthday this weekend.

Duane agrees that is quite an accomplishment for me and that I deserve some new yarn. Of course, he would say that when finances aren't quite up to a purchase. There are about four maybe six more projects that are half to three quarters done, that I could probably get finished up in a few days to a week each. I've been trying to straighten up around here slowly, looking for a ton of missing paperwork and what not from those six weeks I was less than conscious.

This was my first sweater pattern I ever knit, a basic top down raglan pattern, made for my daughter while I was pregnant for her. Was only fitting that would be the first sweater I knit for her daughter. The first one was knit in Jamie Baby yarn, the only yarn I could afford at the time.

It seemed to grow with her, knit at six month size, she was still wearing it at age three.

This is knit with two skeins Mandarin Petite, I bought from a lady on ebay. I finished the sleeves first, the finished the body until I ran out of yarn. I'm hoping it will be long enough. It's cotton, so the length should stretch a bit with blocking.

Rainy Days and Mondays

How many immediately thought of the song when reading that title? If so, I'm guessing you're 36 or older. The weather has been dreary yucky here for days, and doesn't look like the sun is going to find it's way to Rochester, any time soon. It's enough to drive a girl crazy, resisting the urge to hide under the covers for a long winters nap.

I've been in quite a finishing mode as of lately. Which is so not the norm for me. On Friday on finished my footies.

Then yesterday, my best friend called, her mother has lung cancer and is going through chemo. I found I had an extra ball of the Knit Picks Ambrosia, so I whipped up this hat for her. It's the Lace Edged Woman's Hat from Headhuggers, size US 6 needles in the medium size and that's how much I had left over from the 110 yard skein.

Tomorrow, I'll have pictures of my granddaughter's sweater that almost finished. Her birthday is Sunday, so there is quite an incentive to get it finished.