Category Archives: yarn diet

Wednesday’s child is full of woe

Poor Wednesday, right?  What a burden to drag around.  I have to admit though, this week?  Wednesday is feeling a bit woey.  Probably not a word but that’s okay.  It is now.  :)

I’ve been feeling a little sporadic and in need of some pretty intensive nesting.  In the name of sporadic I give you the following:

Yarnpiggy, the Mr. and I had a little post new year’s cheesefest.

There were no fewer than 5 kinds of cheese at this soirée.   And faux champagne.  Very tasty stuff.

I also would appear to have a full fledged Wollmeise addiction problem as evidenced by this rather disgusting display:

Good thing I’m on a yarn diet for 2010.  Oy vey.

Last but not least, when I was unrolling toilet paper this morning I heard a sort of ‘ting’ kind of noise.  There on the floor was a perfect little clear plastic button.

It was trapped in the roll.  You could see the impression of it on the sheets.  Weird, right?  I wonder what else is inside that roll?  Will I end up with a whole set of buttons?  Maybe a buckle or two?

Finally, I read 42 books last year.  Definitely getting back to normal on the reading front.  I’m hoping to hit 45 this year.

 

I have a stalker…

and I kind of like it! My sock pal, sorry, Sockimus Palimus, has been sending me little missives through the mail. First there was this one:


Then there was this one:



This was the most wonderful thing to come home to after a 12 hour shift. I laughed so hard that snorting was heard. It was brilliant! I love my Sockimus Palimus.

The other thing I came how to was this:

A puffy from the Sweet Sheep. So nicely packaged and there is this awesome little pin with the sheepy logo. Very cute! So yeah, yarn diet, that was sooooo yesterday. :)


Here you see some Fleece Artist Sea Wool (squishability factor of 13), Shelridge Farms Handpaint (squishability factor of 12), and Mama C*EYE*BER Fiber (colour factor 1,000,000 – it’s called blood orange, swoon).

Okay, shower and back to work. Thanks for coming out kids!

Still alive, by the skin of my teeth

Here’s some advice, it’s free and I’m most definitely not using it. Once you reach the age of 38 (or so) you have no business going out to a stagette and drinking with the 19 – 26 crowd. Just so you know.

Before we get to that though, ‘Nessa and I went to the production centre tour of Bard on the Beach on Saturday afternoon. It was great. Got to see the teeny tiny little mockups of what the stages will look like, checked out the costuming department (beyond cool!), and then…wait for it…we got to sit in on part of the rehearsal for Taming of the Shrew. FABULOUS! My three favourite actors were all there, Haig Sutherland, Rob Frazer, and Kyle Rideout. It was wonderful. They are doing it in the concept of spaghetti western and it really worked. It’s going to be hilarious.

From there, I’m afraid things went downhill. A bunch of us were going to celebrate a friends impending (hmmm, that sounds sort of ominous) marriage and away we went. To the strippers. I’m proud to say, I had never been to the strippers before. I can no longer say that. Sigh. Before we went Vanessa and I were having a few drinks at home. Which led to a few shooters. Which led to this:


This one has some Stella in it. The dogs were having a gas with us running around like idiots.

Why yes, we are cool! It’s like Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings threw up. You can tell how this is going to end, can’t you? Off to the bar, more drinks, falling, having to leave the bar. Yep, I am way too old for these sorts of activities. Anyway…needless to say ‘Nessa and I were just a scoach hung over on Sunday. So hung over in fact that I did not make it to my mom’s house and take her for dinner. I might actually be the worst daughter in the world. I’m sorry mom! I’ll totally make it up to you this weekend. :)

Also, because of the production centre tour I didn’t make it to the Fibre Festival. Lavender says it was lovely. Go see the linen she’s spinning, very cool!

After my interview with the RCMP yesterday (which went okay I think,) I popped over to a yarn store in the area that I had never been to, Three Bags Full. Nice, lots of stuff I hadn’t seen in person before, Blue Sky Alpaca, Kidsilk Haze, Louet Gems, etc. I did pick up a few things, you know to make me feel better about missing the fibre festival. Okay that’s what I’m telling myself. Some Lorna’s Laces shepherd sport in purple and orange, a couple skeins of Malabrigo, and I think what might be the last two skeins of Sweet Georgia sock yarn in Vancouver. Oh, and a Noro book.

On the Sockapalooza front, I’ve started my pal’s socks. I did end up changing my mind about the pattern about 76 times. I’m just getting to the patterning so I’ll take a pici tomorrow when it looks like more. Version 76.a.1 are the Tidal Wave socks. I think the greens will look nice. Okay, that’s it, I’m outta here. I got a tonne o’ stuff to get done before work tonight. This working afternoons is starting to grind a bit. Have a good day everyone, I’m going to go sit in my yard in the sunshine and knit a bit before I go to work. :)

Soooooo, wanna play golf?

My beloved Canucks lost 2 – 1 in second overtime last night. If we could all have a moment of quiet…..right, that’s enough of that.

Okay, here it comes. Are you ready for it? There’s always next season! Man, I am some kind of tired of saying that!

Anyway, nothing I can do about that. Look at this neato thingy I found in a thrift store for $1.00.

How cool is that? Just built for multicolour projects. What was that bleak future movie that kept showing tv commercials and one had the guy who just kept saying “I’d buy that for a dollar!” Robocop? Running Man? Anyway, I would and and I did buy that for a dollar!

Then, just now, when I went and opened the front door for a bit o’ natural light to take the above pici I found my Scout’s Swag club package on my front porch! Sweet.


Mmmmmmmmmmm, lavender and mint. Love it. There is gorgeous sock yarn, lip balm, Heal My Hands for hands and sample for heals, and a facial scrub. Yummers.

Don’t tell hubby, I sort of joined the club in a moment of weakness. I never thought I’d be picked in the lottery. ‘Course I was picked and ‘course I was secretly delighted! Duh, who wouldn’t be. But, shhhh, he doesn’t need to know. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t stop by here. Vanessa, don’t you say a word!

I’m so weak…

But, I don’t think it’s all my fault. I went to Birkeland Brothers today. Oh my. I was just going to get a bit of fibre for spinning for when my Spindolyn arrives. Um yeah, let’s just say that my yarn diet was seriously if not mortally wounded. First there was the Pima Cotton/silk blend, and the Drops Alpaca, and then the Mellenweit sock yarn. I’m so weak. But I did get a lovely little back of fibre for spinning. 100 grams worth, in addition to the 800 grams of lovely lovely yarn I bought.

Worthless and weak I tell you! Worthless and weak. Phe, whatever. Live hard, buy yarn.

Next month Rabbitch is going to be doing up one of the display windows at Birkeland Bros in style. Make sure you stop by and have a look at her goodies. She loves it when folks do that. Snort.

Tomorrow is the Vancouver Sun Run. Think of me out there forcing my rather largesh frame along the 10km course. The weather is supposed to be very good though, which is nice. I’ll try to get some good picis for y’all. Vancouver is a beautiful city so the scenery along the course is good for distracting you from thinking about your aching feet & calves. :)

Tomorrow is also the last day to send me in your entries for the Dulaan contest. Cutoff is midnight tomorrow night. So far, not as many entries as in last fall’s contest so those of you already in there, much better odds of winning! Those of you who have been waiting until the last minute, time is almost up.

My beloved Canucks lost last night too. I was most sad. They just didn’t seem to have it together, I think that super long game on Wednesday must have ground them up a bit. Plus, they were missing three players due to injury. Not good, not good at all. Have to make sure I’m wearing my lucking underwear tomorrow night. Whatever works baby, whatever works.

I’m what?

38 you say? Wow, that’s flipping amazing. I never thought I’d be that old, not ever! It’s okay though, I usually act like I’m 12.

The rain has finally stopped here in the wettest place on earth! We broke all kinds of weather records. Most consecutive days of rain, most rain in the month of March, most muddy dog footprints I’ve EVER had to clean up in a month, etc, etc.

On Saturday my mom and I met up with Linda and hit the Sewing and Needlework show in Abbotsford. I was virtuous and bought no yarn. Virtuous might be overstating it, nothing really sang out to me. Which is good. However, I should be flogged for forgetting that Saturday was Linda’s birthday! Can you imagine? I was her secret pal last year, there is positively no excuse for forgetting something that important. Ridunkulous. I’m so sorry Linda, I hope spending part of your special day with mom and me was at least a little bit fun for you!

There was a book vendor at the show, Copperfield’s Books, and they had a tonne of knitting books. Three in particular that I’ve been wanting.
So they came home with me. The mitten book is a great resource book. I’ve wanted Charlene Schurch’s book forever, but unless they reprint, that isn’t going to happen. Her “Hat’s On” book is amazing too, but not available at amazon.ca only at amazon.com. I should send a note and see if they will stock it. We are the great white north, we need hat books!

And, while I was at the momma’s I finished up two more Dulaan hats. Only 20 more days to enter the Dulaan contest. Let me hear from you!

The Patons SWS is really nice stuff. I also started working on my Noro blanket again, finally. After I farted around with the sewing/quilting you see in the last post. Mom and I got inspired at the show on Saturday and we’re both blowing the dust off of our machines. I also picked up enough cotton chenille for a baby blanket for a friend at work so I might just play around with that this afternoon. I’m pretty sure I can sew a baby blanket much faster than I can knit one so I think with all these gals at work having so many babies, that might be the way of the future for me! I’ll keep the knitting time for Dulaan and me!

Okay, I’m out. I’m going to go make another cup of coffee and head to the basement for some more sewing.

What a week

Whew, am I ever glad it’s Sunday. I’m hitting the couch with the knitting so hard today you may be able to see the rising dust cloud from where ever you happen to be!

Had the sedond interview on Friday and met the big mucky muck of the operation. It went well. I should hear about that early next week. There are some tremendously big rumblings at work though so we will have to see how all this shakes out over the next week. I need to make some lists and have some meetings. What is expected of me? What is my role? What can I expect from others? Blah blah blah. I’m too old for work drama. I think I might have like it when I was younger but not now. Home & family provide enough drama, work should not be competing for an Oscar on the drama front.

And poor hubby had a tooth extracted on Friday so he is just miserable and swollen and unhappy. I think he might be sick of Chef Boyardee Mini Ravioli too! Bahahaha.

Cats were taken to vets for blood tests and urine tests. They too were very unhappy and very vocal about it.

Tammys were also taken to human vets for yearly checkups and medications fart arounds. I was equally unhappy but much less vocal.

I’m telling you, it’s going to be a pretty quiet day at the old homestead. A little rest and recharge before we charge back into the fray tomorrow.

On the knitting front, I’m working on one of my big UFO’s. A top down sweater from Knitting Pure and Simple. #241 to be exact. Love their designs. The first sweater I ever knit was from Knitting Pure & Simple. I ran into a little problem though. I was almost finished the first sleeve and tried it on to check the length. Ummm, yeah, the sleeve top was built for Popeye and the forearm was more for Kate Moss. Strangely, I’m somewhere in the middle on that one. So a ripping I did go. Had to frog the whole forearm and go up above the elbow and remove 3 sets of the decreases. Now I’m just going to knit it straight, more like a kimono sleeve.

Then the problem occurs. I don’t have enough of this yarn to complete the project because of the wider sleeves. It was a “Oh I have just enough of this yarn in the stash that I bought at Elann 3 years ago!” moment. You know the ones, you’ve all had them too.

So, stuck between the rock that is the stash diet and the hard place that is the need to get more yarn to finish a year old UFO I hit ebay. Thankfully someone had 3 balls of the exact same dyelot. It was meant to be and I’m not counting it as a slip.

I’m still working on writing up the wee hat pattern. Man, that’s work. It is so hard to try to make sure you cover all the questions/issues people will have.

The sock toes have been put on hold. I was really unhappy with the joins on the needles I was using and decided to bite the bullet and order some of the classic circulars from Knitpicks. I’m told the joins are smooth as silk. The website tells me they have been shipped so I should have them next week.

I think that’s about all there is to tell from here at Chez Yarn & Dustbunny. Man, I hope that’s all I’ve got. I’m a simple woman and this much stuff in a week is wearing me down. :) Y’all have a good Sunday. If I get the hat pattern done I’ll post it up later today.

Oh, and just because it’s more fun to have a post with a pici, here’s a shot from a couple of summers ago. Stella used to be quite the yarn thief. If the basement door was open she was in there and stealing anything not in a rubbermaid tote. This is me trying to salvage a skeif of sock yarn from Lotusblossom. I eventually just gave up and replaced it, (thankfully she had dyed another lot in the same colour!) there were way too many breaks once Stell was done with it. Up to the left on the fence you can see another skein she got the same day. It too was a writeoff. Aren’t dogs great?

fe fi FO fum

Yeah baby! The pirate hat is done and hubby seems very please with it. Here’s a couple of picis of him in it. Sorry for the blurry but we were both laughing too hard to get them in proper focus.
I made him hold the dog in this one.
This is the little scabby dog who adopted us last spring. Seriously, she just showed up and our big dog Jane called her down the driveway. She weighed about 5 pounds, was missing so much fur, hence we called her Wee Scabby Dog for weeks. Once we finally realized we were going to be keeping her we changed her name to Abbie. She was starting to respond to Scabbie and that seemed just too cruel. We got her spayed, she now weighs about 13 pounds, and last weekend we got her groomed to fix all the weird lengths of fur that were growing in and matting up and being nasty. She turned out really cute afterall. We’re pretty sure she’s Jack Russell/Poodle. A Jackapoo if you will. She’s utterly spastic very terrier like. I can’t believe how much she has changed since she came to us.

And No-Blog-Rachel had an excellent thought. Trading yarn = not buying yarn! Yes! You cunning little minx. I would totally love to trade yarn with you. Send me a pici of the sock yarn and tell me some of your favourite colours and I will shop the stash for you. I’ll zip off an email to you right away and we can begin the yarn extravaganza. Thank you so much for offering this. By the way, what will we call No Blog Rachel when (not I didn’t say if) she gets a blog? The blogger formerly known as No Blog Rachel? Bit of a mouthful that!

Okay, back to the UFO’s. Next is the mock cable sock. I only have 1/2 a sock to go so that should be no problem. Must not knit tonight during Rome. That didn’t work out so good last Sunday. Tension issues and just plain stupid errors abounded.

Oh murphy,

I have an unquenchable urge to knit knee socks for myself. This is a bad thing. I see three problems:

  1. I am tall, ergo I have longish legs, ergo more stitches
  2. I have pretty fair sized calves, read “meaty”
  3. I don’t have enough of any one sock yarn to make knee socks for me.

Must not buy yarn, it’s been 30 days since my last purchase, doing so well, maybe I could knit them in DK weight? Would that be too bulky on my longish meatyish calves? Oh crap, I’m losing my mind.

I must honestly confess, I had no idea just how much of a role my personal life played in my purchasing yarn. It would seem that when life is difficult (ie work blows goats, or, home is difficult, or, family are giving you the gears, etc.), I add to the stash. Doesn’t even matter what I add, I just do it to feel better. It’s a knee jerk reaction.

Hey, question, are all of us knitters just a touch OCD about things? Nevermind, stupid question. Of course we are. Okay, I think I’ve talked my way through another craving. Why isn’t there a patch for this! Yarnoderm, now in clear for sensitive skin!

Grumble, mutter, belly ache, whatever. I’m going to go knit now. That’s why I bought all that yarn, right?