Monday, October 27, 2008

Killer Mini-Dog ON THE LOOSE!

A second before this was taken, The Chief and the Polester were looking at eachother almost nose to nose and it was sooooooo cute. I tried to get it, but apparently Poley had excess Carbon Dioxide to get rid of.

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Makes me laugh

Anywho, I didn't spin all weekend, but I did pick my next spin. (I might slip in one alpaca batt first as I really am dying to try a little bit of the blonde that's processed, but that won't take much time at all). Here's The Chief's next sweater:
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This is the corner of the family room. Ignore my postal scale and the blankie.

I'm on the gusset of the second Froot Loop! yay me
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And on top of that! I finished the fronts and the button band on my handspun sweater! I had a heck of a time trying to unroll it enough for a photo. You know how roley they can be until you get the sleeves on, but I'm very satisfied with how it's coming out and I like it a lot. I really do look forward to dyeing it though. I think i've settled on a dark aquaish, peacock color. I've never dyed a finished garment before, so I'm a little bit nervous.
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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

And They Said it Would Never Last . .

Yesterday, the Chief and I marked out two year anniversary. It has just flown by. It doesn't even feel like six months; isn't that weird?

So here's the story. The Chief and I were dating, and I decided it was time for me to sell my starter house and move to a better school district. Long story short; we ended up picking out a house and buying it together in the same district his two youngest kids live in. I guess he figured we'd be gettin' married huh? We weren't engaged, and I moved in with no. 5. We just didn't feel like moving in together without being married was the example we wanted to give the kids, but i digress! About three months after I moved in, he proposed. (of course I answered with a romantic "Are you sure?") LOL duh of course he was.

When we decided to plan our wedding, we just thought we would get married in our house. My mom is a minister so she would perform the ceremony, but we didn't want people to get all dressed up and bring presents and stuff. We just invited our friends and family over for an open house, and when they got there: SURPRISE! It's a wedding. It was fun. We had a lot of champagne and fun and tons of food.

As long as I was married to the Chief at the end of the day, I wouldn't have cared if anything went wrong.

Here we are with our officiant (my mom) two years ago on our wedding day. (and no i'm not wearing red, although maybe I should have)

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I'd do it all over again in a second! Love you, babe!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Hey!

I finished the back of my first handspun sweater. Can you believe it? It looks totally boring.

I'm going to dye it when it's done, or possibly in pieces before I sew it up (of course with some yarn for seaming. I thought it might be easier to dye in pieces, but maybe no? Don't you just love how I "wing it"?

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About 1/4 of the way up, you can see where I changed skeins, but it's not a color change (like it sort of looks in the photo) but one skein was a bit thicker on the end that connected to the last skein, so the fabric is a bit different (run on sentence yeah whatever). I think once it's dyed and blocked out, it won't be noticeable. Fingers crossed and all that.

I also finished one Froot Loop sock. I'll take a pic of that tomorrow ;)

Saturday, October 18, 2008

The True Axis of Evil

Lives in my house. It's our dogs. Forget North Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan, it's here. We have three dogs:

Abby - aka Hoover (as she sucks up her food the moment it drops out of the measuring cup) nearly 13, chocolate lab, deaf, incontinent, gettin' crochety, near chronic ear infections. (belonged to the Chief before we combined households)
Napoleon aka Poley - approx 5 yr old blonde pomeranian that I adopted. He was aggressive and completely unsocialized. Oh yeah, and he loved to pee on everything he could. Now epileptic, but otherwise after a lot of training, he has become a pretty good dog. (belonged to me prior to combining households)
Princey - aka Prince Evil - Approx 5 also, wee little white pomeranian. He has sired 11 litters and was retired from breeding a few years ago by a good friend of the Chief and subsequently adopted by said Chief. Prince pees anytime someone he perceives as "alpha" touches him. (Or if the Chief who he sees as Alpha AND Omega even talks to him). Prince wears diapers I've made from hand towels to keep him from weeing all over the house. Poor guy can't help it, but ick.

I don't have a pic of Ab right now, but here's the boys. Please excuse Poley's tocks in your face.

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Oh and I took a pic of Beaudalaires
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Purdy right?

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Some Spinning and an Overdue Tagging

I finished one bobbin of the Shetland I've been working on (to be followed up by alpaca as soon as it's finished, of course). It was dyed blue, green, and yellow. I decided to Navajo ply it as I was hoping to achieve a worsted weight yarn. Dividing the 8 ounces I have into three equal amounts, I have the singles spun up. The first bobbin has been plied and has had a day or two to rest. Here it is!
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I don't have a plan for it, Maybe somebody has a good suggestion for what to do with approx 330 yrds of worsted weight yarn?

I also carded up a batt the other day. I used to have this red, silk, chinese style dress (which doesn't fit anymore, and even though I hope I will be that size again, I will just get a new one ;). The Chief helped me unravel some of the silk and I added it to a black corriedale bat. More than anything, it was really just an experiment. I'll show you when it's spun up!

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Busy busy!

Also, I was tagged awhile ago by DK (the designer of The Secret of the Stole III which incidentally is turning out absolutely gorgeous!) I am supposed to state 7 odd or strange facts about myself. There's just so many, how to narrow it down?

1. When I was a kid, I loved to drink straight dill pickle juice. I don't do it anymore, but maybe I was some weirdo kind of vitamin deficient or something?

2. I love Vincent Price movies. The cheesier and worse the special effects are, the better. If you add Peter Lorrie, it's a shoe-in.

3. I have loved the movie Gone With the Wind since I was about 4, and was horrified to find out that we WERE the Yankees when I was in first grade. "Yankees in Georgia! How did they ever get in?!"

4. I didn't finish my Bachelor's Degree, nor do I have any desire to, although I may someday. I absolutely HATE to write papers because I tend to be too succinct. The person reading it is the professor. It just doesn't make sense that I have to explain EVERYTHING to the person leading the class!

5. In middle school band, I was in the percussion section, so I've played all types of drums and xylophone, bell instruments as well as piano.

6. I went to State Honors Choir in Ninth grade with a ladies trio. Dang that was a lot of work and getting up early on Saturdays

7. Besides yarncrafts, I also have a huge craft stash in my laundry room that contains stuff for scrapbooking, rubber stamping, embossing, sewing, embroidering, papercrafts, oil painting, water color painting, acrylics and probably more stuff I can't think of right now. I was once told by my Stepdaughter that I had enough "stuff to start a station" which we assume is a school thing where you stop at different locations in the room and make a craft. It's true too.

I finally did it! Sorry it took me so long, DK!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Well it's not the first time I've Heard it.


You are The Devil


Materiality. Material Force. Material temptation; sometimes obsession


The Devil is often a great card for business success; hard work and ambition.


Perhaps the most misunderstood of all the major arcana, the Devil is not really "Satan" at all, but Pan the half-goat nature god and/or Dionysius. These are gods of pleasure and abandon, of wild behavior and unbridled desires. This is a card about ambitions; it is also synonymous with temptation and addiction. On the flip side, however, the card can be a warning to someone who is too restrained, someone who never allows themselves to get passionate or messy or wild - or ambitious. This, too, is a form of enslavement. As a person, the Devil can stand for a man of money or erotic power, aggressive, controlling, or just persuasive. This is not to say a bad man, but certainly a powerful man who is hard to resist. The important thing is to remember that any chain is freely worn. In most cases, you are enslaved only because you allow it.


What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Yarncon!

Ok, I don't know what my deal is, but finally I have a few photos of Yarncon.
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Here is my sister with the handspun yarn I bought her. It's her hostess gift for having me for the weekend. Believe me, she deserves it. She cooked and drove me all over and we had fun.
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Colin from the blogroll over there -----------> mentioned in a comment that she looks like Shirley Maclaine. I haven't really thought of it before, but she does, let me stress, look like a YOUNG Shirley. She sings better though. Here's the weirdness that is my life: My mom looks like Shirley Jones. so I'm surrounded by Shirley lookalikes.
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Here she is knitting a scarf. that's right, I've turned her to the dark side.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Barbarella was here

I have tons to tell you, but I'm going to spread it out over a few days.

First, when i got back from Yarncon, I found out I was SOLD OUT of blue Hawaiian on Etsy. here's the truth of it all, I've been feeling like I must not be cut out to dye yarn for sale. The main reason is that I have three options as I see it, sell in shops (but I can't make enough profit for it to be worth it if I sell it wholesale), sell at fiber festivals (which isn't really feasible with the family and gas prices and the operating capital I have at the moment, or sell online (and frankly I wasn't selling much). I don't have the personality to sell myself in person anyway. I wish I did, but alas, newp.

If I hadn't sold that order, I think I would have given up quite soon. Maybe I still will. Who knows huh? Anywho, since I did sell out, and I had a great big jug of that blue base mixed up, I dyed up a few more skeins to put on as well as some more Angler's Cocktail (which I've totally been meaning to do). I tell ya what, it gave me a boost.

I've been carding up the alpaca that has been washed and dried. Tell me that doesn't look like Barbarella dropped by and lost some of her grody 60's hairpiece.
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Kinda creepy huh? and way to go if you knew who Barbarella was without having to look it up. You're cool.

Last for today, My sister got a bunny. I promised the Chief I would not fuss for one of my own. To be quite honest. I have more on my hands to take care of than I really need anyway. One of these dogs has to wear a diaper because he has a nervous peepee problem. Here's a photo of the bunny and my sister too.
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Isn't that just a cute bunny face?

More stuff soon, photos of Yarncon, turning my sister to the darkside and likely much more! yay!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Where I reveal the true nature of my insanity

Dude, when I'm tired, I am just an unstable, crazy bitch! My weekend trip to Chicago was lovely, Yarncon was lovely. I met Franklin Habit people and he was SO NICE!! My sister's new Holland Lop bunny is lovely, and I am tired!

I'm getting awfully tired of the election. I'm not going to go on about my own political agenda here, because, hey this is a KNITTING BLOG. I don't want to go to a knitting blog and read about people's political agendas. I want to read about (hey here's an idea) KNITTING, YOU JACKASSES. I am fine with the odd funny story about work, family, whatever.

American politics is really a big study in hypocrisy anyway isn't it? Food for thought. I have an opinion, I know who I'm voting for and more importantly, I know WHY because I have paid attention, done research and watched the debates attentively.

I hope you vote. Whether you agree with my own pick or not, you should be heard.

Visit back, I'll have photos and more info on yarncon! Oh and if you listen to the podcast, we won't be uploading until Thursday and it's my fault. I'm wiped out and don't really feel up to recording today. I was going to just do it anyway, but Coggie graciously let me beg off until Wednesday.