2007

I know, everyone's doing year end recaps so here's mine:

2007 wasn't all bad but it certainly wasn't all good either. Quite truthfully, I'm glad in few hours it'll be gone.  I learned to spin and how to make lucet cords (which I need to do some more of since it's so fun). I hope to keep increasing my spinning knowledge too. There's so much out there to learn, to try... 

I knit a lot. A LOT, I mean look at that list on the sidebar. Wow. I learned how to do new knitting techniques. I'd like to keep learning those too. 

On a personal level, I made some great friends and plan on keeping on meeting new people and spending time with my friends and family. I lost my uncle and have a cousin that's in pretty bad shape. I have friends who lost loved ones and with my remaining grandparents as old as they are and in the shape that they're in, I know it won't be but so much longer before I lose them. I know, it may not be this year but I certainly won't have them another... (hmm... almost told you how old I am ;)) so many years... 

But on a lighter note, my nephew was born and he's so beautiful and I can't wait to see what kind of person he becomes. 

My goals for 2008 - besides what I've already said?. Well, I do have some I'm not really planning on sharing but I'm going to cut back on my consumption of goods. Yes, this means yarn and fiber too. I'm not going all out I'm still in my fiber club and will still buy yarn and all but for at least a few months I'm going to spin what I've got and knit what's in the stash. I bought that yarn for a purpose and it wasn't to sit all closed up in a box. 

Oh, and since she's showing an interest, I thought I'd teach Pepper to spin: 

Which is good, I'll need more yarn because apparently Bartholamew has finally seen the light and is all about enjoying fine hand knits:

You'll have to look under his head and feet to that is my Noro scarf there keeping his Highness warm and providing a soft place for him to take a nap. 

Be safe, y'all. Have a good 2008 filled with joy, love, and enough fibery goodness to get you through the rough spots!

thanks for reading...

Thankful Thursday

Yup. I'm a follower. Plus I'm trying to post more and well, I am thankful! (A WHOLE week early at that!)

I'm thankful for my knitting groups. One is really an offset of the other but I'm thankful for both of them. I love the large group of people I don't always know working on everything under the sun and sitting beside someone new.

I'm thankful for our little offset group because I'm getting to know these girls much better and making good friends. And I get to drink tea and eat snacks from the B&N cafe. And browse books (which I'm thankful to my family that I love them) and knitting magazines. What's NOT to be thankful for here?

I'm thankful for my two fuzzy beasts. They keep me amused and as the weather turns, warm. Someone almost always wants to snuggle and not much is warmer than a cat in your lap.


(an old picture but it is one of my favs)

I'm thankful that it's getting colder. I know, that sounds crazy but I like having four seasons and damn it it was way past time for fall.

I'm thankful for knitting. For more reasons that I could list here.

And of course, I'm thankful for my friend and family, but that's a whole 'nother post...

A funny story

I was at work today and at lunch was sitting there quietly knitting on Dad's sock. One of the managers came up and sat down with me. After she got her lunch all ready and was eating she looked at me and said, "you're really knitting socks!" In that tone that maybe she heard I'd knit them but thought they were being silly.

me: Yup

Bosslady: Are they slippers or like sock socks?

me: sock socks

Bosslady: huh...

me: Next time I wear a pair I'll try to remember to show them to you.

Bosslady: OK (in a more enthusiastic tone than I'm really able to convey here)

It was really just kind of funny.

And just so you don't think I'm completely evil bringing home a pink litter box, I did bring Bartholamew home his favorite toy: a cat nip pillow!



We lurves the 'nip...

ooo, pink...

Well, it's been an exciting week around here.

Bartholamew finally got out voted and a PINK litter box was brought into His Home (hey, it's our home, too, B!)



Don't worry too much, there's still the big gray box for him but he doesn't seem to mind the pink (he was the first one in there...)

They've got a bigger one that involves a little ramp for them to get in and out of the box and supposedly cleans the litter out of their toes but it's HUGE and we don't have the kind of room around here. Plus I'm not sure his Highness would use it. Pepper I'm not so worried about.

I've been plugging away at Dad's socks:



I'm an inch away from the ribbing and then I'll cast on for sock #2.

I started my own socks:



I know, there's not much there but I just started them. They're going to be Marigold Socks. I'm looking forward to working on them some more.

My sweater went out this morning on it's "inagural" wearing and I do think I'm going to have to rip out the bind off and add a couple more rows to the bottom. It's just not quite long enough. It's not bad but it's not perfect and why knit sweaters if they're not going to be perfect, ya know?

Hopefully, I'll have more to say than just another update next Sunday.

Fiber-licious Saturday!

Today was a fiber-licious!! It started out my friend Laura and I braved the traffic and went to Blacksburg to hit Mosaic's sale. I mean all the good stuff goes early right? Never mind that it's Virginia Tech's first home game of the season and that ESPN's Game Day is going to be there and they're playing ECU so those folks are driving up too... (and really, we went early enough that for all but the last 2 miles of the journey it wasn't bad at all and even those 2 miles were a rolling stop not a dead stop).



Then I came home and found the mailman had left me some delightful presents in my mailbox. Some of these are for presents so you're just going to have to look and enjoy, not ask too many questions. I'll tell you the STR is in colorways Metamorphic and In The Navy. And I'll tell you that the roving consists of one of each of these fibers: Blue Faced Lancaster, Alpaca and Silk. yummmmm





Y'all know where Socks that Rock comes from (if you don't, just leave a comment I'll be happy to point you in their direction), and the roving came from Sakina Needles. Catie ordered from her before and recommended her so I ordered from her, too. The first order admittedly had some snafu's but they were resolved and there was a legitimate issue not something horrible and the roving and resulting yarn was so wonderful, I ordered from her again and am here recommending her to you.



Pepper thought today was fiber-licious, too!

Another Weekend Update

Well, thankfully the heat broke (some. It's down to "normal hot" instead of "OMG are you KIDDING me!?!? hot").

Today I thought I'd spin the second half of the Briar Rose roving I had. It's been a couple weeks since I've spun. I think it showed in the singles but when plied they looked just fine. I'll take pictures in a few days for you. It's near dark out now and I'd like to try to capture good color for you.

But it was very slow going when I was trying to spin. Seems I'm not the only one here who's infatuated with the wheel.



Pepper, in true cat fashion, rolled right before I snapped the picture. She had moments before been laying there with her legs intertwined with the treadle and other moving parts.

Bartholamew doesn't care so much about the wheel but loves to sit in my lap while I spin.



I had another picture of his cute little face but he looked surly and you've seen him surly looking before. I thought I'd show you his sweet snuggly side. And for the record, no, I can't spin with him in my lap.

After many cat breaks I finally got it all spun. I had intended it to be a swap present but the swap came and went and I still have the yarn so it's mine now.

I've been knitting on my clapotis when I knit:



I'm to the 3rd section called "straight rows" but I like to think of it as the "dropped stitch" section since that's what you do:



I ran into a couple knit/spin group friends over the weekend. They invited me to go to SAFF with them and after glancing at the website I gleefully said yes! Tomorrow I'm mailing off my class registration for a knitting and a dyeing class. I don't think either of these will fill up but just in case I'm going to keep you in suspense as to what they're for.

Tomorrow's a bit of a special day for me so please to stop back by for a special post.

Stalled

Well, I really have nothing to say. No new pictures, no exciting news, no desire to work on my sweater.

Really, I'm feeling uninspired. I'm half done with the side shaping. I've finished the decreases. After I knit for 3 inches then I can do the increases. Then I get to just do stockinette for a while. A long while I believe...

So... let's talk future projects. I have one in mind (ok so I have like 853 in mind but one directly in mind). However, I've been thinking and reading a few blogs here and there. Anyone know of any shawls/wraps/stoles free or for sale that are knit out of fingering/sock weight yarn? Preferably not triangular?

I have however dug up a few cute cat pictures:

Can you find 4 paws in this picture?



And now for a slightly more dignified picture:



Hope y'alls knitting is going better than mine!

Mew Hew!

(that's Kitty for "woo hoo!")

From Pepper:

We got our package today from our Secret Paws. Our new friends Fiona and Ali sent us great presents!



yeah! a box AND a bag!



"Pepper, there's more than just a bag in the box!"



I want THIS!



Fine. I like feathers...



Momma... I think there's 'nip in here...

We got a big bag of different balls and mousies. Not one or two but FOUR different catnip mousies (oh. Sorry. Mom said we got 3 mousies and one elephant. I'm gonna have to investigate this whole "elephant" thing later...). Two feather balls (mmmmm, feathers....) oh um, we got, a big bag of Temptations treats. Yummy! Momma hadn't bought me.. us (why's she gotta read over my shoulder?) any of them yet.

Thank you Fiona and Ali! We love our presents and are so glad you got us! (Momma said tell your Momma not to worry about the box. it made it just fine...)

Love and headbutts,

Pepper and Bartholamew

I'd like to add, don't let them fool you, they were in kahoots about who got what from the get go:

Meow?

The following post is brought to you by Pepper. She asked if she could post so I told her sure as long as I got to do the final editing.

Hi. This is Pepper. I had to tell you about what my momma let me and 'tolamews do. She let us sign up for Secret Paws. We signed up as a family meaning we're only sending out one package and only getting one package. Which is OK by me cuz I do most of the playin' in this family and when he does want to play I let 'tolamews play with any toy he wants. However, he doesn't like it so much when I try to play with him. Only when he wants to play. Grumpy ol' man...

Anyways... I sent Momma to the store today to buy presents for our Paw. He's a cat like us so I told her to buy things I'd like. I think she did OK:



She did buy a little something for our Paws Mom though. I'm not sure that's part of the rules but she told me to hush. She did bring me a new toy home so I let it slide.




She told me if I put up a picture of me I gotta include 'tolamews too. Something about bein' fair or something. Why do mom's get that way? And why is she always chasing us around with that camera thing?



Anyways, I'm out. Y'all go love on a cat or something...

Pepper



Dana- I told Pepper she had to include a picture of Bartholamew for you to see his whole orangeness. I had to include this shot of his tail. I just love it. It's all stripey and has the only white on his body.

Marianne - I hadn't forgot about those questions. I just haven't had a chance to get them answered yet.

This weekend our new yarn store is opening in town and I'm most excited.

Thank you!

I'm fairly sure there aren't a lot of military men and women who read my blog but I feel compelled to say this anyway:

To all of the men and women who have served our country, protecting our freedom and to all of their families that have shared their loved ones with us: Thank you!!!

There's a fair amount of people in my family (both birth and extended family) that have served our country. Most thankfully, we've been blessed not to lose anyone since WWII.

That all being said, I'd like to now take a turn to the silly, and thank Bartholamew for, once again, having me up and out of bed before 7:15 this morning. Seems he just doesn't understand "long weekend". I still love the fat bugger though.


"Anything I can do to help, Momma!"

Pepper 'tocks

See, there's these blogs out there where they've showed their kitties 'tocks. It sort of started here. Well, Mayhem and Lucy made me think of Pepper and her Jaguar impression.



So I left a comment and told Mayhem's mom I'd get a picture for her. Well, it was too cute not to share some of them.



And my favorite of all of them:



"Why are you takin' so many pictures of my bum, Momma?"

Happy Mother's Day!

First I'd like to say to all the Mom's out there, I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Since my Mom was traveling, I didn't get to see her. I did call her and we do have plans for a baseball game in addition to the yarn I spun for her. I talked to my stepmom Pat for a while today. She got her socks and loved them. They even practically fit! Which I'm glad of since I just followed the pattern only customizing them slightly.

Today, I went and got everyone who lives here food. How is it cats Know when the bag is practically empty? The bowl can be full but they know. And they chose to remind me of this at 7am. Seems they dont know that the store doesn't open until 10am or else I could've slept a little later this morning. To show you how trained I am, I was at the store at 10am. This wasn't all bad though because I ran into a fellow knitter and got to hear all about her trip to Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I SO wanna go next year.

Then I came home and finished knitting the hat for my cousin. She's going to Carson Newman in the fall. I thought a hat and some fingerless gloves would probably be the most useful and thoughtful things I could get her.

Here's the hat:



and folded up like you'd really wear it (so the big blue and orange color blocks make a little more sense):



I'm in the middle of knitting her fingerless gloves too. I'd be working on that except my knitting spot got commandeered.



If you look closely behind Pepper, you'll see a blue mitt and pink needles all sticking up. That's the first one. I think I'll make the second one orange.

I found TONS of fingerless glove patterns. Most even made with your hand specifics in mind. Well, being as how it's been a good long time since I've held my cousin's hand or even gotten a good look at it, I kept looking. This one is great! I found it here. Look at the sidebar and there's the link for Everyone's Squooshy mitts. I think she'll like them and thanks to such a great pattern, I'm not worried that they'll fit!

I'm especially glad I found this pattern because I wanted to knit a hat and fingerless gloves for my Hokie Knitting, too.

Gotta love that ribbing!!!