“You shall NOT pass!”

It’s nice to know the security systems working. *

I’ve been thinking lately of things that give me relief.

Yes, relief.

Often times I don’t realize I need “relief” until something small happens and a deep sigh of relief flows out of me. There are so many little things in my life that bring this very small feeling to me and I’ve only just recently discovered that it’s that small feeling of relief that brings the warmth of happiness to me.

Sometimes it’s the sight of the house right after I’ve finished cleaning it and no one’s had a chance to leave a paw print or a piece of dirt anywhere. Sometimes it’s the first bite of a meal that I’ve made, hoping against hope that it’s come out alright, and it does. (I’m a dismal cook. Not looking for pity, just being honest.) Sometimes it’s a hug or a kiss or a touch from a loved one. Sometimes it’s the completion of a long worked on project.  Any way it happens, it’s always welcome and always a pleasant suprise.

Lately it’s quality time spent with good friends. Two weeks ago I was able to spend an afternoon with my mom. For the first time in ages we were able to just have lunch and visit all afternoon. We’d planned on watching a movie on the DVD player, but spent the whole time just catching up and talking about knitting. Today I spent a wonderful time with my friend Barb. She made wonderful chicken Ceasar salads for lunch and afterwards I set up my Cricut to show her how it works. lol That’s a laugh. I am definately no salesperson for the Cricut. I love mine, don’t get me wrong, and I get great usage out of it. I just haven’t used it in a while and had to use the manual to show her how to use it. lol She ended up deciding it wasn’t something she “needed” and I assured her that I would trust her to borrow mine if she needed one. She’s the type of person you could loan your kids to and they’d come back better. She’s that great! We spent a great afternoon gabbing and talking about our interests and just relaxing. At the end of it she proposed we get together once a month to scrap book and I hesitated, saying I would think about it.

Looking back on it, I’m just not ready to commit to anything. lol I’ve already decided that I’m going to start making time to catch up with and keep in contact with my girl friends. I’ve got so many interesting and fun “friends” that I’ve lost contact with over the years because I’ve gotten too busy. That’s silly of me. It doesn’t really take that much time to have lunch or meet for coffee or go for a walk with an old friend and catch up. I’ve always been leery of the “girls night out” once a month and really enjoy heading home at the end of my day. I’m one of those lucky ones that has a calm, peaceful home with a spouse I enjoy and I look forward to coming home at the end of the day . I’m not bragging, but just saying, there’s reasons why I don’t feel the need to go  away from  home for entertainment and a social life. Unfortunatley and because of this , I’ve neglected my social life in the realm of having female friends and I plan on rectifying that. I really believe that these ladies enrich my life and my creativity increases every time I’m around them. They all bring me relief.

One of the major things that brings me relief is finishing a project. This lovely beaded egg is a gift that I made for Barb and was finally able to present today. It really takes such a small amount of time to make one of these, but I do put things off an unreasonable amount of time. lol She doesn’t work with seed beads but was much appreciative  of it.

 

*Edited to add: No Pa’s were hurt in this demonstration of guard-dogadly skill. In actuality, this was part of a play session a week ago. Looked pretty viscious though. lol

Well happy days! I finally have a FO to share! It felt good to complete these socks as this sock yarn has been knit several (thousand) times and I’m just happy to be done with it. You may remember this yarn as the one that starred in my Jaywalker sock saga. I will say, it has held up frogged ank reknit an abnormal number of times. The pattern I used this time is the basic “Your Putting Me On” Socks by Judy Gibson. (It’s the same pattern I used for the last pair I knit and I love it!) This time I think the pattern fits the yarn and they will stay socks.

 

While I was outside taking advantage of the beautiful day by getting pictures of the socks I was forced to take some of the pooch. He was trying very hard to get me to put the camera down and play with him! I had taken him for a car ride earlier in the day and he was feeling pretty relaxed. Hard to tell, isn’t it?

 He heard something and had to check it out. Anatolians like to get as high up as they can so they can see farther. This is a very common pose for him as he likes to guard the whole neighborhood.

And finally….I won’t tell you how many pictures I had to take to get this one! I just love that face!

With that I must bid you all a good night. I hope all is well with you all!

This time of year is always tough for me. It’s a busy time and while I love the Autumn change of temperatures, colors and seasons, it’s just always a highly charged emotional time. This post has been on my mind for at least a month, but I’ve just not been able to bring myself to write it. I’m still not sure why. Maybe because I’m just so emotional right now. (Not good for public consumption. )Anyway. I planned, thought out and wanted to post so much more today and just today realized I hadn’t drafted it out and now that the time has come can not put anything into words that is not just a rambling mess of blubbering memories. lol (That’s me in a nutshell on most days, so I’m not surprised, and not disturbed by it all . heheh)

Oh well. It’s still  hard to believe it’s been a whole 20 years since Dad died. Some times it doesn’t seem that long ago. Other times it seems like forever. Only others who have “been there” understand and I’m not really looking for sympathy. At this point in the game it’s a bit moot. I’m just marking a major “life point” in my life and will move on.  This is more for me than anything else. I’m just sayin’, this year I’m surprised that it’s been 20 years! So, this is not blogging out as eloquently as I’d hoped so I’m going to wrap it up.

On the promising good news front…I’ve finished a pair of socks and plan on taking pics tomorrow to post (hopefully on Monday!).  While I’m elated that the socks are finished, you are probably going to be disappointed as you’ve already seen this yarn in sock form…just in another pattern form. (OH! That just gave me an awesome idea for posting on the socks!)

Anyhoo…..new post forthcoming!
I wish you all a wonderful weekend. I’ll try to be back on Monday.

And to my sisters….. I’m thinking of you all today. Oh, and Happy Halloween. Love you. A

I know I promised I’d be more regular with postings.

I know I promised I’d post about stuff done during the good weather and share all the fun stuff.

I will. 

Really.

I’m serious now.

Honest.

Not that this is in any way a good excuse, but really, I’m getting old. (Just ask my family, they’ll honestly tell you I’m getting old. My older sisters seem to delight in pointing out how old I am. I don’t think they realize it just makes them older. They’ll always be older! {insert evil laugh here.}) Time is passing in such a quick manner for me that I’m certain the next time I try to apply eyeliner that I’ll be locating it about chin level. I just don’t know where the time is going, but gone it is. I’m completely floored that it’s almost November. Wow!

Ok, on to other topics.

I find myself of late wishing I had a blog that I could post to that no one I personally knew would be able to access. (Don’t be offended. You wouldn’t want to read it anyway.) I was thinking how therapeutic it would be to vent my inner feelings, wishes, desires, goals…ect….and not have anyone I’m related to, work with or know in any way be able to access it. Then I had an epiphany. Isn’t that what pen and paper is for now? We write down our inner most secrets, things we would never speak aloud and would never share with any one, and then hold a flaming match to one end and watch them go up in smoke, our pent-up emotion spent and no one the wiser. Hmmmmm. I do believe I have some college ruled paper around here somewhere.

So…………now for some good news. Background first. I work in a retail environment where I am lucky enough to be allowed to place orders for the store.  One of our vendors only comes in roughly every three months. About 6 months ago she and I were discussing various products and started talking about the animals in our lives. Somehow we ended up discussing the fact that I spin…..and knit….and that she had been saving the fiber from beloved dogs for a while and would love to have a “something” made from it. I had told her at that time to bring along what she wanted spun up and we’d work something out.  Now, to be fair to me, I’ve done this type of offering before and had people NEVER bring in their fiber, nor contact me again about pricing  or anything. I completely understand that. We’ve all done it. We’re talking with someone else enthusiastic about something we love and discussing how wonderful it would be to be able to do “fill in the blank with something expensive, frivolous and completely unnecessary” , “just to have a keepsake”.

Yep.

Been there, done that.

Usually for me it ends when my car door shuts and I think, “What the _____ was I thinking?!!! Of course it would be wonderful to have a ______ handmade from ______’s hair/picture, ect. It would be a “forever hug” from ________! Any time I was missing _______ I could cuddle it and feel better!!!!! BUT!!!!! Thats’ gonna be freaking expensive!!!”. And that end’s that.  No sale, no call back. Bupkisss in fact.      

Color me surprised when she showed up with almost a full pound of wonderful pooch fiber. It was meant to be from the start. It’s all black and looks suspiciously like alpaca fiber that I already own so if I need to blend it to make it go to full project I can without her even noticing a difference in fibers (and not only is she aware of it, she’s O.K. with it!)  Also, it’s very clean so I can spin by the handful without having to card or comb.

And…drum roll please…….

She

wants

to

PAY!!!

Seriously. I tried to tell her I’d do it as a “favor” and she was not having any of that! So that forced me to do some internet research on pricing for custom spinning and custom knitting. It made me look at what was the “going” rate for these services and all the process that led up to the end product. I finally came up with a pricing sheet (in case anyone else takes leave of their senses and asks for this service, lol) for combing/carding, spinning by the oz and  knitting. I will continue to research what other crafts people are charging and will adjust my asking price accordingly. I am by no means a “master” fiber prepper, spinner or knitter and have made sure I bid under the true professionals to accomodate for that. When I emailed her my pricing breakdown I certainly expected to be told, “Never mind, ” or “I’ve changed my mind,” or the more prevalent, “My spouse said  NO!”  Wasn’t I surprised to receive an email this morning telling me to move forward with the project! Not only that, she telephoned me today at work to make sure I got the message! WOW! I feel special…..I think. lol I’m not quite sure what to think at this point to be honest. I do know that I’ve just committed to a project that will have to take priority on the spinning front (so  goodbye Optim on the wheel!) and thankfully I am in the cuff stage of the latest pair of socks. I should be able to finish them easily before I am at the knitting stage of this project. Also I was able to locate at least two knitted patterns for this customer to choose between today during lunch. So far all is going well and good. So why am I waiting for the other shoe to drop? lol I guess I’m just astounded that someone is willing to pay for my services and actually has the disposable funds at this time. Yeah, maybe that’s it. I’ll keep you posted. I do know I need to finally come up with a band to put around my skeined yarn so that he logo matches the tags on the finished (knitted) project. This will be a major decision and I guess it’s good I’m finally pushed to make it. It’s something I’ve put off for a long time because once I make this decision, I’ll be stuck with it for a long time. Ah, the fear of the “what if, ” raises it’s ugly head. lol

So all that being reported, it should be fairly obvious that I should have pictures of a finished pair of socks to post soon. I’m so excited to finish these as they have been on the needles more than any other project I’ve ever done! I’ve been craving a project that requires knitting with larger than sock yarn knitting…so that means no socks or shawls. I’ve been flirting with the idea of another sweater, but really it feels like a commitment vs. cheating issue. Maybe felted slippers?  Who knows. Looks like I’ll be spinning a  lot in the future though, doesn’t it?

On another note, the weather here has definitely changed to fall. It’s been fun to watch the green leaves change almost over night to brown then red then gold then yellow. Now most are on the ground and winter weather is headed our way. forecasts for this winter call for a “mild” winter, but I’m not sure. I think there will probably be more hail, wind and sleet than we’re used to. That’s more aggressive type weather, but because the temps don’t dip down low drastically the weather gurus tend to refer to it as “mild”lol.  Heck, it snowed an inch just up the hill the other day, so we’ll see. If Tucker is any indication we’re in for a bad winter. Many people feel that animals instinctualy know what the on-coming season is going to do and they will physically prepare for it. Tucker didn’t thin down like he has in the past summers (even with the outstandingly beautiful and hot summer we had that he hated), but that could just be because of his age. He’s a full on adult now. He is going to have to be weighed soon though, because visually he seems as large now as he did at the height of Winter last year. I’m not saying he’s fat….but dang!, that’s one big dog! If I can get a pic of him from the backside to show you the width of his back I will! He’s huge! lol Sadly, he’s still MANY pounds lighter than me. lol.

That brings me to other Tucker news.  He certainly has changed over the last year! I’ve been watching him closer than normal to see what he’s up to and have made some discoveries. He’s definitely Don’s dog. While he recognizes that I am Mom (ie. bring home the food, am good for drying off at night and for cuddles and belly rubs) DAD is the MAN. And really, in his life, the capital letters are for real. In fact, in his world, Dad is the Man is in bold face. lol. He is defiantly Don’s dog…..no disputes. Period. I now know what it felt like for Don to be ignored by Bandit. I still love Tucker to distraction, but enough said. He’s Don’s dog. lol I’ll post some pics soon.

The only pics on my camera right now are close up’s of  Abbie, ie feet, face, belly ect. and of  my thumb after I sliced a chunk out of it. I really didn’t think you all would want to  see either, so I didn’t share. Abbie is still as adorable as ever and the thumb is healing up nicely. I have thrown out the (evil) mandolin slicer and have acquired a salad shooter instead. Life moves on. I’ll try to take pics this weekend of more blog worth stuff and maybe get a retro post done!

I want you all to know that while I may not post comments on your blogs, I’m trying to stay up to date reading them!

I love you all for hanging in there with me!

 

 

 

I’ve been wanting to get a set of combs for a while now so that I could try that type of prep out. I finally got the money together and after being unable to purchase the initial ones I had my heart set on, I luckily found Paradise Fibers. The reviews of the combs they sell were wonderful and the price was right. I was even happier when they showed up two days after purchase with no extra shipping. Granted we’re in the same state, but I’ve had orders from closer to me take a week. I am new to combing, so I’m sure I have lots to learn, but their start up video was very helpful and I was able to produce spinnable combed fiber in no time at all.

What you see above is a clump of Cheviot that I recent had washed at Gretchens Wool Mill (local). I have lots of this now as there were two fleece that I paid little to nothing for and Gretchens rates are so reasonable I’m not sure I’ll ever wash another sheep fleece again. lol The alpaca and llama, maybe….we’ll see. Anyway, while this is yummy to me….it’s in no way ready to spin.

So here we are with step one. I’ve lashed on the fiber and filled the tines about half way up. The combs have two rows of tines. One comb is clamped to the table top (for my convenience) and the other is used to comb out the fiber, transferring clean straight fiber to the one in my hand. When the stationary comb is unable to release any more fiber, I remove the “junk” from it and unclamp it. I then place the full comb in its place and comb the fiber again. I repeat the process of removing the “junk” fiber and switching out the combs. If at this point I think I need to comb again I do, but for this particular fiber I’ve been able to diz it off the combs into the lovely pile you see below.

Dizzing is pulling the fibers through a smaller opening and making a continuous piece to spin from. (It reminds me of pulling taffy.lol) As I haven’t picked out a decorative diz to buy yet, I’ve just been using the plastic shaker top from an old spice jar. I was so excited to be able to produce such nice clean fiber that I had to do a quick spin up sample to see how it came out.

 This is just a small sample of chain plied Cheviot from the above combing. I think it came out pretty good and will have to spend more time playing with this fiber.

Thankfully I was able to spend some time packaging up and putting away the Cheviot though, as those two fleece were taking up a huge amount of room in my craft area. There’s a lot there! Now I can get back at some spinning and maybe work with some of the other fibers I have, creating custom blends. It’ll be fun to see what comes of it all!

 

 

 

 

 

Just poppin in to say hello. I’ve got a few posts in the “draft” phase and am working on them when I get a few minutes. Not that this will make them scintillating or anything, it’s just easier and quicker in the long run to use the dsl at work during lunch to add pictures to posts then it is to wait for our dial-up-with-personality-issues to decide to let me put a picture where I want to put a picture. However I do want to try to get at least one post done a week and so here is this weeks installment of blah, blah, blah.

Alls well here. The pooch is grand (aka spoiled), the kitties are grand (spoiled), and the husband and I are, well…spoiled as well truth be told. Wouldn’t have it any other way though! We spent last Sunday working around the place and getting it somewhat ready for winter. I’ve been making a mental list for awhile of things I wanted done or that needed to be done before the snow flys and we started chipping away at it. In reality we accomplished a great deal and it felt pretty good. The amusement of the day was Tucker (as usual). He feels that when Don is outside it must be to spend time with Tucker, therefore he was a bit put out to discover we could spend the whole day working in the back yard where he is not allowed. There was much whining and talking from him, as well as posturing and laying in cute positions, trying to draw us out to the front yard. He really had a fit when Salem made an appearance though. He’d love nothing more than to get ahold of Salem and Salem wisely keeps his distance. It was funny to listen to Tucker whine and moan and talk. He really didn’t get his way at all that day and he’s so used to having his way.

Monday I spent catching up on more chores. I harvested all of our carrots and got the majority of them into the freezer. I had sorted out the smaller ones to keep in the fridge and use now, but there’s really so many of them I’ll have to take a bunch more and put them in the freezer too. It was a full and busy weekend, but not much time was left over to post to the blog.

I’m still working on two socks at once (on different needles) and have almost completed turning the heel on the second one. I can’t believe I’m only getting one or two rows a night in! Oh well. At least it’s progress of some sort. Pictures soon!

The Optim I bought in Portland is on the wheel but there hasn’t been much progress in that as I’ve had a bunch of fleece to take care of (done now!) and I’ve been working on another fleece project (soon to be posted).

So as you can see, all is truly well and busy! It’s still hard to believe that it’s mid-October and the holidays are right around the corner. Wow, did this year go fast! Hope all is well with you and yours!

I’ve been trying to avoid learning to weave for a few years now in the interest of sanity and economy. Weaving is something I’m very interested in to be honest, but I have so many crafts that I enjoy, and really so little space. I’m a bit OCD (stop laughing) when it comes to stuff like this that I know if I get involved I’ll just go crazy with it.  I have even gone to such lengths as to miss a guild meeting in which they were going to be teaching (bare bones) weaving and letting people try different styles of looms. However, when one of our guild members spoke up about the great time she had learning bow weaving and how simple the tools were and how inexpensive the class could be if we had it at our guild….well, I caved and signed right up. It was a two hour class that was fun and it went really quick. Bow weaving produces flat bands that can be used for a number of things; from jewelry to embellishments or if wide enough straps for a bag.

The “bow” itself consists of a piece of green bamboo and a couple of paper clips unbent into the shape of a “C”. We reinforced the ends of our bamboo pieces with black duct tape but that’s not always necessary. For our projects we measured out 5 lengths of yarn by stretching our arms out to the side as far as they would go. ( I know! Extremely precise, huh?)  We then tied a knot in one end and started stringing beads. We were given 140 beads to divide and string on two separate strings. These became the outside warp strings. (This part of the set up is the most time consuming.)

After the beads were strung we tied a loose knot in the free end of the strings to prevent beads from sliding off, which wasn’t much of a problem as the warp strings were large enough that the beads stayed where we put them. We then  hooked the 1st knot over one edge of a paper clip and slipped that paper clip into the top of the bamboo. Then we bent the bamboo just enough to provide tension and determined where our bottom knot (that was tied to keep the beads on) truely needed to be. The idea is to bend the bow enough to provide the tension on the warp threads but to be comfortable for your weaving and its very adjustable. After the knot was moved (if necessary) we then slipped an unbent paper clip through it and then fastened it to the bottom just like the top.

The only other tools we used were a piece of foam cut out to look like a bridge on a violin with slots cut to hold the yarn string separate, a tapestry needle and a tooth floss thingy that we used to string beads. At this point we were ready to weave. We took another length of yarn and tied it on around all of the warp strings and then started weaving over and under, through the warp strings. This starter piece forms a triangle and when we reached what we were happy with as the base we then slid a single bead down each side warp and secured it by weaving around it. Then we would plain weave until another bead would fit and continued until all the beads were incorporated. Finishing it off was just the reverse of starting it. I’m pretty pleased with my finished results, however I’m not sure what I’ll use it for at this point.

Seeing the simplicity of this project spurred me on to attempt another project that’s been kicking around the empty places in the back of my brain for a long while now. Ages ago I picked up this little loom and thought I could probably use it to weave myself a little bag for my spinning wheel stuff. So Saturday night I dug it out, grabbed the embroidery floss I’d chosen for the project and started to “warp it.” As it was not meant to be used like this there are issues and work-arounds for maintaining tension on the warp threads and I’m not quite sure how it’s going to work when I need to roll down more warp threads but we’ll see when we get there.

Yes that’s a bone card folder being used to open the shed and yes I’m using tatting shuttles for the weaving shuttles. (That was hubsters idea and it works a treat!) I’ll keep you posted on this one as it progresses.

 

 

 

Wow…it’s been two whole months since I’ve posted anything substantial. It’s amazing how fast time flies and I still can not believe it’s October. While I was waiting for WordPress to load up, I did a quick calculation and by my count I have at least 14 posts to complete to get caught up. That doesn’t include the stuff I’ve been putting off posting about all summer because we’ve been so busy. I’ve no complaints really as it’s been a great summer and I’ve had a bunch of fun. There’s even been some crafting snuck in here and there so there will be some fiber related posts to sprinkle in around the other stuff too.  For now, I’ll give you an animal update!

When I brought home a tennis ball to use for some foot and ankle exercises we discovered that Abbie has a “thing” for tennis balls. If I’m using it, she lies on the floor and trys to take it from me, other times you can find her curled up asleep with the ball. It’s just one of her quirks.

One of our pet supply vendors at work dropped by a treat for Tucker to try out. These biscuits are made by Darford. They are about 1/2 a pound each and are quite impressive to look at. They have several flavors and I believe this one was a ”breath” biscuit.  When I gave it to him he was quite impressed as he’s used to getting small biscuits for a treat.

Looks like he approves. This would have to be a once in a blue moon type of treat as I don’t often give him 1/2 a pound of cookies to eat. lol

 

And last, but not least, is Salem. He seems to enjoy the new ball track I bought them. It can be re-arranged into different shapes to keep it interesting. He loves stuff like this.

Ok, I’m off to fold mountains of laundry. I’ll be back soon. Promise.

Just checking in for a minute with a quickie post from work….during my lunch of course! I’m having internet issues at home and issues loading pictures as well. Fear not! We’ll get this sorted in some way so I can get some posts up and going soon. Theres some fun stuff to share and some great pictures too!

Every one here is doing fine. We just can’t believe it’s nearly the end of August already!

Over breakfast the hubster and I discussed what we wanted to do today. I had a hugely impossible and eclectic list of to-do’s and told him basically to make the decision. Whatever he wanted, that’s what we’d do. It seemed fair as it’s a weekend where he only has one day off to my two. He, of course, decided to ride.

His choice was to visit the fair city of Galena, WA.  Turns out that’s nearly impossible unless on foot and definitely impossible on our motorcycles. The day was  a dandy anyway. Truth be told, he was just trying to get enough miles on my cycle to warrant an oil change as we have  a longish ride planned for next Sunday and he wants to do the change before then.   The planned ride was  a beautiful trip through some of the areas I’m familiar with and into others I’ve never seen. I love that! He always pulls these mystery rides out of his hat that are part “trip that we’ve taken 1000 times” and part “places we didn’t know existed and how did we miss this before?!” I had a great time and this post will be a bit pic heavy because of it.

We left Hwy 2 in Gold Bar, just like the Wallace Falls ride/hike and yet passed right by the state park. We rode down to Reiter Rd and hopped on there and followed that along. I’ve never been to Reiter Pit. I’ve heard about the riding trials there but have never seen them. Let me tell you…..I saw all those trails today and really really wanted a duel sport or at least a quad! That looks like SO much fun! Anyway, we rode along Reiter Rd. through the trails and kept going. I had no idea where we were going to be honest, but I follow well. lol  We rode over some wonderfully curvy and sun dappled roads. I love roads like this!

 

  

 

 

 

 

We ended up in Index, which was a complete surprise to me. I never realized there was more to the town than what just touched Hwy 2. Anyway I was enchanted with the old wooden street signs. Just like something out of a movie!  We headed out of Index towards Galena, noticing the signs stating the road was closed up ahead. 

Wooden street signs in Index

Then we hit the “end of the road”. It was fascinating to me to see the road taken over by the river. I spent quite a bit of time trying to get these pics.

 

 

I’m curious about Galena and will have to entice the hubster into a “hike” up there to see if it’s possible.

On the way back we stopped to take pics at this waterfall.

After this we headed back out to the hwy to get a bite to eat at the cafe on hwy 2 and then went back through Index the way we came. We stopped a few times for pics.

 

Master of all he sees? Um, no. But the vista was a great one to photograph. Unfortunately we’ve had little to no rain and our distance viewing is really muted. Usually this view would be much clearer. It’s still a nice shot though.
 
And here’s our bikes parked, waiting for us.

On the way home we went up Lake Kellog Rd and then headed up to Spada Lake. Don said that in years past, you could get to Granite Falls from there, but now the road is gated off. I’ve never been up there and it’s been years since he’s been there so it was an interesting ride for both of us. We stopped at the end of paved road and I snapped this pic of the trees.

Then it was off for home! I’m pretty sure the bikes due up for an oil change now. With the ride he has planned for next Sunday, it’ll have to be done this week sometime as will the detailing of the bike. Yep, time for a bike wash. lol