Happy Halloween

Very strange day, I'm up early and not in the extreme pain from the weekend. The day is still very early and I have a tendency to over do on these rare days. So much down time to catch up with.

This guy has been in a very bad mood this weekend. Keeps mumbling something about going outside and coming back with a mouthful of red feathers.


Sunday, was Duane's birthday. We spent a quiet day together. DD was away for the weekend. However, I'm not pleased at how she left the couch. I took pictures and am debating whether to post them.

I started this at 6am and it's now 3pm. Day started off pretty well, but it hard to sit and put pressure on my spine. Sooooo, how many socks can sock knitter knit if a sock knitter cannot sit?

I'm always too late with my good intentions. It was Wednesday when I tried to knit as many pairs of socks as possible by Sunday. Normally, I've been able to knit a basic top down German sock in an evening or two. Not as easily done when a majority of ones time is spent lying on one's right side, plus trying to catch up on myriad of other things. This is where I'm at as of 3:30 pm today. (click for bigger)



This is last years sock birthday sock yarn. Actually, I did knit almost a pair once, but one sock was too long and I ran out of yarn on the second. Shouldn't be the case this time. It was just one cuff at the start on Wednesday.



This years sock yarn which I dyed on Thursday. Those are my favorite sock needles, Inox steel lace needles size 0.



A sock yarn that I dyed over the winter that he showed a real interest in. Be damned if I can remember the name of it.



The start of footies for me. Started early Wednesday, when my feet were so cold, then I remembered his birthday was coming quick.

Next post is about lace. Here's another hint in picture form.

Any guesses?

It's A Too Long, Hard Summer

That was a long Blog vacation, six months, I wonder if that's a record. I don't think the ones that have yet to return count towards that, a record, if there is one.

It's been a very long, and hard summer that decided to add an extra six weeks past Labor Day for me. My DD (23 yrs old) decided to start speaking to me again, after not speaking since last October. She did the one thing I find totally unacceptable and I let her know how I angry I was. Thus, she stopped talking to me personally and sent messages through her soon-to-be ex-H.

The beginning of last April, I said enough is enough and told him if she has something to say to to me, my phone number hasn't changed. I think I made a mistake. So, she called, then she came over, then she started visiting daily. By the end of May, she told me she was going to have to move out of where she was staying and no place to go. Thus, was the start to very long summer.

This apartment is way too small for Duane (DSO), myself, 5 cats, a rabbit and all our stuff (mostly it's the stuff) as it is. DD told us she was ready to get her life back together, she just needed some help. The problem starts with she can see how little space we have, and we didn't know how much stuff she had, but she did. Dumped it all in the middle of my living room on Memorial Day. I had to quickly consolidate and find spaces for her stuff, some of them were temporary spaces. She doesn't understand that word and her stuff is still in some of those spots.

We do have a second bedroom, Duane and I share it, for his music equipment, my dyeing and winding station plus storage. We had planned on moving the computer in there from the dining room, just not that soon or as fast. Here starts living Hell on wheels for me.

She asks where she can put her computer. (It hasn't moved in yet.) We say we'll move ours and she can use that space. Well, how soon can you do that? she asked. This is when my computer coughs up a hairball and dies. To make a long story shorter, we ended up using the money on the credit card to marry both our dead computers into one living, working computer. This was the cc I was going to use to buy lace wt. silk to dye and sell.

During the time the two computers were being assimilated, my mother brought us a computer they had sitting out in the warehouse that hadn't been used for months. This one is a bit older than the other two, but at least running. As far as working, the previous operator didn't know a thing about computers and set wonky security options and goodness knows what else.

When Duane set Outlook to receive our e-mails a couple days later the computer decided Outlook was evil and won't let us use it. The printer and the hard drive must have arguments at night because there are some days they just won't recognize each other. They're both HP so I don't know what they're problem is.

Anyway, the actions, decisions, etc. that put my DD in her position, is still the same and seemingly awakening some very nasty bad karma from past lives or something, around here. It's always something screwing up, right down to dyes suddenly not bonding with thread. You know little stuff that shouldn't go wonky. I feel like I'm living in some double episode, movie version of the Twilight Zone.

She hasn't kept any of her agreement when she first moved in. Her actions are of someone her wants the responsibilities of a 13 yr old and with privileges of a 20-something. The only place we have for her is our couch. Who would want to live like that? I thought she would only be here for a very short time and want to get her own apartment. She only helps out with stuff when she wants something from me.

Duane wants our old life back, as do I. As, forty-somethings we're no longer into the fast paced lifestyle of some twenty-somethings. But, how to quick your daughter to the curb, even if she deserves it? Even if she turned her back on her child/children.

My health is getting worse. I did find a medicine that helped with the nerve pain, finally. But, it came with nasty side effects of increased anxiety and agitation. Like I needed to be chemically increased with the above going on.

I didn't list any new items to ebay all summer, I wanted sort everything out before I did. The end of August I thought I was set to go. Except I hadn't planned on the next glitch on the horizon. My Dr. decided to change my meds a few days after I listed. Said it would be ok, that the new meds had very mild temporary side effects, and there shouldn't be any effects of discontinuing the old as I was on the lowest dose.

Ha, ha, ha, not when you factor in strange karma. I've been so sick since Labor Day weekend. The first few weeks were drowsiness, severe fatigue, and ad nausea um added with major sciatic nerve pain. I had to increase the dosage every two weeks until I was therapeutic levels. Well, by the sixth week, I finally had pain relief but I was virtually comatose. I would sleep for exactly one hour, then my dream would end and I would wake up like leaving a movie a theatre. I would then sit up for an hour but be like a narcoleptic.

I would try to fill orders and get others things done at the few periods I could concentrate, but by then it was like a house on fire, how do you prioritize when everything needs to be done weeks ago. Well, I gave up on that treatment, it took two weeks for it leave system enough to concentrate. That was two weeks ago from now. The pain is horrendous levels, so now, I'm alert enough to be aware of not accomplishing crap.

I researched St. John's Wort and found that it was used for nerve pain back before pharmaceutical companies. So, I'm trying that while waiting for the paper trail to be complete so I can get acupuncture treatments. If that doesn't work, then it's either a spinal block or a long letter to the Mayo Clinic.

I did do much spinning and knitting over the summer. It was great meditation for increased tension when the karma would get just too weird to acknowledge. Next posts I will have many pictures and projects to show. Hint: One is a shawl from A Gathering of Lace done in gossamer weight cashmere silk.

A Sweater for My Mother

As usual, it seems I let time get away from me. I've been very busy getting the latest batch of crochet thread sent out. Also, have been having fun with some new dye colors I ordered and dyed tons of yarn as well. I still have a bunch of sock, worsted and lace weight to get swatched and skeined for listing.

It takes extra time, but I really like to knit swatches for the yarns, that way people can get an idea of what it really looks like. (click for bigger)



This is one of the latest colorways, as well as one of my favorites. I'm really loving the vivid colors I'm getting.

The Babe arrived on Friday. It didn't take DBF long to have it all assembled and ready for me to start the learning process yet again. It felt like being used to driving about 35 mph and then suddenly thrown on the highway to go 65 mph with no previous experience. I was quite older when my then husband taught me how to drive at age 28. Those memories are still quite vivid.



There she is in all her glory, or clutter. Tiny apartment, two packrats with multiple hobbies, plus a fiber business equals a whole shitload of clutter. They sent about 2 ounces of wool to practice with. It looked and felt quite similar to the Corriedale Cross I bought last month. Actually, I find the merino easier to spin for some weird reason.









What I spun the first half hour that first day wasn't fit for human viewing. I had to make it disappear hid it in the garbage can. Instead, here is the small skein from Saturday evening's practice. Wee, tiny little skein, shown next to a twelve inch spindle for perspective. This took me I believe four hours to make. I was moving way sloooow, a snail could have spun faster.

Since then I have spun these two spools. Spinning natural the natural wool they sent was getting boring. I had to switch to some merino. This was from my second dye experiment and just a little bit felted, but not so much that it isn't still easy to draft into fine single. I also didn't care for the pastel colors that it came out. I've had it held aside to spin then sell on ebay or etsy.











Last post, I showed the merino/tussah I dyed for my mother's sweater. I dyed a little over a pound. So I could knit the Milinda Pullover from White Lies Designs. I also ordered the Nicole camisole. I was disappointed in how much they charged for shipping and the patterns are a bit vague in places. I'm not one that needs my hand held to follow a pattern, but I do think these could be a bit more descript. Good thing there is a yahoo group I may have to join and hopefully someone else is working on these as well. Shipping was very quick, I do have to say that. I ordered them on Monday and had them in my hands on Friday. Yes, Friday was a wonderful mailday indeed.

It's going to take about 1100 yards to make the sweater in my mother's size. I do believe that with the singles I've been spinning, I will be able to get more than that in a 3 ply with the pound I dyed. Here's the small skein, plus two cones that I have spindle spun waiting to be plied. After I'm finished with merino I'm currently spinning on the wheel, I think I should be proficient enough to ply all the singles I've spindled so far. I do hate spindle plying.










Other knitting news, just in time to get packed away for the warmer weather, I started a mobious scarf in Knit Picks, Ambrosia, alpaca/cashmere in Night Sky colorway. It's more of a greyish blue and a little lighter than the swatch in both the catalog and website show. I ordered swatches of a few of their other yarns, but they don't have a swatch list for this yarn as of yet. I would like to make a sweater out of this, but I would like to see what the other colors look like in real life first. Being this is Western, New York, I might just get a chance to finish and wear it before it's packed away yet. I know, bite your tongue, my grandmother would tell me.


I'm really nervous about things slowing down with the store, just as I'm trying to get things going. Spring came so fast this year. I know it's going to take time for word of mouth to get out. Oh well, I guess it will give me more time to blog about what I'm working on.

Happy Needlecrafting

How To Make More Time

That's an age old question, one which I bet 95% of the population would like an answer to. There are tons of time management books written on the subject. Plus, all the inventions that have been created to give us more time. But, we seem to have less of it.

Think back to just a hundred years ago, how long it would take women to do the weekly laundry. *shudders* Um, maybe not. That's why too much work. There is a reason why there is an age old saying, "The greatest thing since sliced bread." I'd hate to think of have to bake the daily bread back when I had three teenagers in the house.

So many gadgets to save time, tons of books meant to help organize it, yet we still want more hours in the day. Atleast, I do. What I really want is more productive hours in my day, that are less painful.

The ebay store has finally hit my weekly goal in sales for the past two weeks. We have recently opened a second store on etsy, for those that don't care for ebay. It's basically come down to maintaining and increasing production.

I'm purchasing my spinning wheel the 20th of this month. Actually, I want the pedal pusher model to help exercise my legs, as it's hard to go for walks in bad weather. I really need a wheel just to ply all my spindle spun singles. Plying, even on my large 36" cd spindle is just a pain, similar to chronic severe pain episodes and in the same body region.

I dyed a little over a pound of this merino/tussah to make my mother a sweater. I figured out how to greatly limit handling the wool during the rinsing process, thus limiting some of the slight felting that happens, so it's spins up like the natural undyed product.

I also finally finished my mom's sock. I'm knitting it with my Desert Sunset and Robin's Egg for the heels and toes. Yes, I did cast on right away for the second sock. Butterscotch is inspecting the progress.

I do have a few other things in the works, but I'll save those pictures for another time. If you could do me a small favor and let me know in the comments what colors/yarn type/fiber you would like to see made. It will be helpful to find out what people are looking for.

Happy needlecrafting.