MooKittyKnitting

We are moving...

2008-07-20T14:25:00.001-07:00

I am currently working on moving the blog to a new site and revamping the blog. It will become more "fiber" oriented and less personal stuff. I will post the new blog address once I have set it up and have it running...

Arts and Crafts Day

2008-07-02T09:45:00.012-07:00

And we have a new drink recipe too!

This is the loom I have set up for tablet weaving. After much searching, I was able to find the book "The Techniques of Tablet Weaving" by Peter Collingwood. It was supposed to be the "Bible" of tablet weaving, and they were right. Man, this book goes into some great detail about all sorts of things you can do with tablet weaving. I know, I needed another string hobby like I need a freaking hole in my head. But, here we are! This is the loom all tied up with string and working on a new pattern. We were given the looms in our Beginners Tablet Weaving class at the SCA Collegium a few weeks ago down in Tucson. WOW!!!

Here was my second weaving pattern. My DH, Mike, wanted a strap that he could use in orange and black so I made this for him. It was a lot of fun to make and didn't take all that long once I got the loom working. My mother in law is really going to give me an "I told you so" when she comes down to visit in August. She has been trying to get me into weaving for a while but I didn't think I would be interested. Then, I took this class and the rest is history. She will be so happy to have another weaving buddy! We can spin yarn together and now we can weave together. The loom is portable so I can take it up to Santa Fe when we go over and visit later this year.

Here is the newest pair of socks! I decided to cave into peer pressure and try some Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn in color 185. This yarn is OK. Now, don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE the colors. These colors are so awesome. When I got finished with the heel, the sock begged me not to do 2x2 ribbing and ruin the gorgeous color but to do stockinette all the way up the leg and do 1x1 ribbing on the top 1.5 inches. Such pretty socks. I did find one knot in this skein but it spit-spliced nicely so there were no problems. I have 4 more skeins of it in my craft room (it was buy 4 get one free) so I am looking forward to a few more pairs of socks like this. When I first started using the yarn I really hated the feel of it. After trying on the socks a few times (to make sure they fit well), I think that the yarn is really great and pretty soft. I will see how the colors make it through a wash before passing final judgement on this sock yarn.

New drink recipe!!! I found this Sangria recipe that really kicks some serious butt! It is really good and pretty rich...

1 Bottle Red Wine (use a good table wine, not wine in a box or cheap red wine. I found some Menage a trois at Sam's Club for $7.99 a bottle that worked really well)
1/4 cup Apricot Brandy
3/4 cup Brandy (use at least a VSOP for this recipe)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed is best for this recipe)
1 red plum
1 peach or nectarine

Mix the apricot brandy and regular brandy in a pitcher. Stir in sugar and dissolve. Add lemon juice and bottle of red wine. Mix well. Chop up the plum and nectarine and add to the mix. Refridgerate for 6 hours (preferably overnight) to let flavors mix well then serve over ice.

This recipe is WONDERFUL for hot summer days. (Ask me how I know this...) The big thing to remember with this recipe is the better and fresher your ingredients are, the better this sangria turns out (aka get ripe fruit and don't get too cheap with the brandy and wine). You don't need to get top of the line red wine (it would be wasted on this recipe) but DO NOT use wine in a box for it, either.

We still have mead brewing in the bathroom with no additional "mead-canos". I am hoping that my JAO recipe will be clear in a couple of weeks in time for Highlands War in August. I love SCA events!!!

It looks like I am headed back to work next week. I will edit this post with more details as I get them.

Last week, we went to the True Colors tour and saw Cindi Lauper, the B-52's, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Wanda Sykes and this new group called the Puppini Sisters. If you get a chance to see the Puppini Sisters, go see them. They are a retro 40's musical harmony Jazz kind of group (think The Andrews Sisters for vocal style) and they were a load of fun! Their cover of "Walk Like an Egyptian" was a hoot! I picked up their CD and it is awesome!

More fun projects to work on

2008-06-20T11:17:00.020-07:00

Oh Boy! OH BOY! What is cooking in the cauldron today? Some Eye of Newt? A little bit of Frog Hair? Let's throw some honey in there, some oranges, some cinnamon and call it mead! This stuff brewing on the stove is my first official batch of mead. We were at an SCA Collegium a couple of weeks ago and they had a Beginner's Mead Making class. This is the recipe that they handed out so I thought I would try it... I got it all loaded up into the 3 gallon carboy then I found a really great website for mead makers called GotMead and found out I didn't have to cook it. This batch will hopefully be ready for the holidays when the entire family comes down to Arizona. Attention family, this should be some pretty yummy stuff...

They have a bunch of really good recipes on the site so I thought I would try mead batch number 2, also known as Joe's Ancient Orange Mead. This is a VERY simple mead that anyone can make with common household ingredients. We made 3 gallons of it with Desert Blossom honey and 2 gallons of it with Orange Blossom honey. I am hoping that this batch will be cleared and ready to drink in August! Yummy! Chris came down from San Diego last weekend so he helped me make this batch! This stuff is fermenting like gangbusters! I am looking forward to trying some of it when it clears and is ready to bottle.

In the shower in the guest bathroom, we have batch #1 (the small bottle) and last night's newest batch. It is a cherry cyser (mead) that I am also hoping will be ready in time for the family coming down for Yule. We learned some valuable lessons from batch number 3. We used cherries, apple juice, yeasties and Orange Blossom and Mesquite honey. We mixed it all up in our sanitized food grade bucket then transferred it to the carboy. We did not leave nearly enough head space in the carboy. When we got up this morning, we discovered what happens when you don't leave nearly enough head space in the carboy...

Holy Crap! It's Engineers Gone Wild!!! This is the ceiling of the shower in the guest bathroom. What is that weird red stuff on the ceiling? Cherry puree from the latest batch of mead. I did not take a picture of the whole shower since it was pretty gross. I was able to get it cleaned up in about an hour. So, when anyone asks me "Why do you ferment mead in your guest bathroom shower?" this is the reason. When your mead turns into a "Mead Volcano", clean-up is a breeze! If this would have been in our mud room or the laundry room, I would still be cleaning this mess up 4 hours later! Yes, the picture above is the shower AFTER I got done cleaning cherry puree off of the walls, carboys and tub. The big bottle is the new batch. I am working with the fruit cap every couple of hours at this point until fermentation settles down a bit. I just found out the limit on fermentation for personal use is 100 gallons per year... Hmmm, what to make with the other 86 gallons???

Yes, there were other great classes offered at the collegium. The first one I took during the weekend was Beginner's Tablet Weaving. OK, I already spin wool, knit and crochet. Did I REALLY need another string hobby? It looked like a fun class so I thought I would sign up for it. It was SO GREAT! I have already made a few belts and I am currently working on something that will become trim on my tunic.

Which was another great class that they offered, Newcomer's Garb Basics! They went through patterns for tunics and basic undergarments for SCA garb. I have some nice, lightweight cotton that I want to try to use and make a couple of tunics for myself and my hubby so we have something to wear under the "nice" clothes. There was also an awesome herbology class I was able to take that taught me a lot about using herbs for more than just incense! Way too cool! We learned so much over that weekend that we are still working on processing all of it.

We got our plane tickets for my High School Class Reunion up in Minnesota in August. I almost died when we got the prices for the trip. We paid $300 round trip per person flying from Phoenix to Minneapolis. I thought we would have to pay at least twice that amount with the cost of fuel going nuts like it is... I just started driving my car again last week (stick shift) and in the 8 weeks that I did not drive it, gas went from $35 to fill the tank up to $50 to fill the tank. WTF??? I have also discovered that I can drive a stick shift without having to bend my knee. It is all in the ankle and keeping the seat back as far as I can put it back. By using my foot and ankle to work the clutch rather than the whole leg, I am keeping the pressure off of my knee and it doesn't hurt to drive. It is SOOOOO nice to be able to drive again! I feel like I got my independence back!

The knee is still healing. I have been doing PT 3x weekly. It is slow, but it is getting better. Can I stand on my feet for a 12 hour shift yet? Not even close. I can do about an hour before I am in some serious pain. It may be a few more weeks until I am back at work. So, until then, I will be making some mead, weaving some trim and belts, sewing up some tunics, getting into some new meditation techniques and celebrating Litha! More adventures as they happen!

Oh Boy!!! Trader Joe's!!!!

2008-06-05T18:24:00.007-07:00

Better late than never, I have been meaning to post the Ren Fest garb pic for a while, here it is :-) My mom was asking me what it looked like since we are planning to wear it when we head up to Minnesota for the Ren Fest up there (and my 25 year class reunion). The only thing missing from the outfit is the mouse... I will probably throw a pic up here in my SCA garb soon too...

We FINALLY found Trader Joe's! It is down in Ahwatukee on Chandler Blvd right across the street from my PT clinic! Man, I have missed their Mac and Cheese and the chocolate covered cranberries! I loaded up on some of the fizzy lemonade and limeade along with some of their fabulous hummus!!! Next, need to get some "Two Buck Chuck" for cooking!

Right now, I am working on moving all of my stuff from both my old computer and my work laptop onto my new computer and external hard drive. It is nice because now I know where all of my music and pictures are. The bear of it is trying to get rid of the duplicates. Some songs in my library have 1 copy, some have 2 copies and about 80% have 3 copies. I have gotten rid of duplicates up to the letter "D". This is going to be a long night... Next, I need to copy my address book from my work laptop into my home laptop... Then I can let most of my friends know that I am not answering email in that account since I am at home on medical leave...

I have discovered a new comic online. For any cat fans, this one is really funny, it is called Two Lumps and details the adventures of the feline brothers Ebenezer and Snooch. We have a kitty named Ashley who looks and acts just like these two, so the thing is a hoot...

Mr Sting is really HOT!

2008-06-03T20:42:00.002-07:00

Fromage is taking it easy!

Wow! Over Memorial Day Weekend, we went out to see Elvis Costello and The Police in concert. What an excellent show! First, imagine Memorial Day Weekend in Phoenix... The temp during the concert was an unusual low 60's during the show! NO KIDDING! We were wearing jeans and sweatshirts to an outdoor concert at the end of May! (Gotta love cold fronts!) Elvis Costello did a great job. The special surprise during the concert was a duet with Mr Sting and Elvis doing "Allison" together. They did a great job, their voices blended so well together! What an excellent duet! The Police were also great! They did most of their hits and 2 encores. Mr Sting was SO HOT! I didn't think he was "all that and a bag of chips" when I was younger but DAMN, he has aged so well! I have been joking with some friends that if Mr Sting had been my English teacher, I never would have become an engineer, LOL!!! Next up is Crosby, Stills and Nash then Cindi Lauper and the B52's...

Speaking of the B52's, did anyone else see The Daily Show on Monday? Fred Schneider of the B52's was putting part of Scott McClellen's new book to music, it was absolutely drop dead funny!

This weekend, we are headed down to Tucson to the local SCA get together. They are going to do a "collegium" with lots of classes going on with stuff from archery to rapier to brewing to crafts. I am hoping to learn to brew mead and learn to tailor some more authentic period clothing. We are also having some of my "spiritual sisters" come down from north Phoenix come down to stay at the house with us for the weekend...

The knee is still out of commission. I started doing PT last week and have another appt with the ortho doc on the 25th of June. The MRI did show a small tear in the meniscus and we are hoping that PT will help heal it up.

My roses are still in bloom. I have 6 of them in the living room in a bowl of water right now, it smells so nice in here! The blooms are beautiful!

The weirdest thing is going on outside

2008-05-22T18:27:00.007-07:00

The End of the World is upon us! Prepare for the End of Days!!!! First, the temperature didn't reach over 100F today. The skies got dark during the daytime... Then the heavens got angry. First, they started flashing bright lights at the humans below, then they started arguing in loud tones. During this display of light and sound, the heavens then let out this strange substance that fell to the ground. It was colorless and very wet to the touch. This has been going on all day. I am not sure what is happening. This is Arizona, it is always hot and sunny here. I couldn't figure out what was happening so I took a picture of the heavens and posted it here so someone tell me what are the strange happenings that are occurring here???

Cute? THEY ARE EATING MY ROSES!!! GRRRRR! Last night, Mewstradamas caught a kangaroo rat and brought it in the house... While it was still alive... Nice to know that the kitties still catch those mousies...

Saturday night is the Elvis Costello and The Police concert. I am getting really excited!

We just came in from town and the temp is 50F. Yesterday, it was in the upper 90's, day before that it was 110F. I kinda like this rain stuff...

We are back to the wool dyeing again. I wound another 6 pairs of socks into the striping pattern, I just need to dye the wool and set it then it will go onto the Etsy site...

Time to snuggle up with a good book under a nice, warm blanky and listen to the rain on the windows. It is a treat we don't get enough of here in the desert...

Playing catch-up again

2008-05-19T22:12:00.005-07:00

OK, I have officially gone stir-crazy...

I hurt my knee at work (not because of work, just overwork or something) about a month ago. What is the injury? That seems to be the $64,000 question. I have been to the workmans comp Dr (just to have them tell me I didn't have a work related injury) then to Urgent Care so I could get a note to be off of my feet for a week until I could see my primary care Dr. I got in to see him, he told me I had injured my knee and (tried) to set me up for an MRI. Gotta love HMO's... A week later, I got the MRI appt made for the following week (at6:45 am...) I got the MRI done and followed up with my primary care Dr. He said that the place I got the MRI at gave him a diagnosis that was "clear as mud" and then referred me to a orthopedist. Guess how long it takes to even GET an appt with an orthopedist? 3 freaking weeks!!! So, a month later, I am still at home, having a LOT of pain in my left knee and still have another 2 weeks until maybe someone can tell me what is going on.

Now, for folks that know me well, you already know that I have ADD and can't sit still to save my life. This has been a wonderful opportunity to sit for the last 4 weeks! I AM GOING FREAKING BAT-SH*T!!!! There are a few HUGE changes going on in life on top of the fact that I am not able to walk so on top of being restless and not being able to do a thing about it, I am also getting really depressed. I don't deal well with change, either...

A couple of neat things have come about from my forced rest. First, I have been able to work with yarn again. I am still wrapping yarn and I have posed some stuff on my etsy.com site. I can't wait to get the dye bench cleaned off (when I get the ability to stand for any length of time without pain) and start dyeing wool again!!!

Second, my wonderful hubby and I found a really cool group to hang out with and start doing activities with. OK, so it was only a matter of time on this one... We went up to Prescott, AZ over the weekend for an SCA event and had a BLAST. Well, hobbling around a primitive campground is not the easiest thing to accomplish in middle ages garb but it can be done! I found another kindred "fiber spirit" at the event who was spinning on this gorgeous Reeves spinning wheel (not a Schadt-Reeves, a real Reeves wheel signed by the craftsman)... OMG! I was in heaven! We talked about spinning, about fiber, about the SCA and had a blast. We watched the fighters and I also learned some basic Medieval needlepoint stitches and had a great time at feast and around the campfire that evening. Mike and I were not sure we wanted to camp out (since this was our first SCA event) but we had SO MUCH FUN that we wish we had brought our gear and camped out (yes, crutches and all...). There is a Collegium going on June 7-8 down in Tucson that we are going to attend that has some classes on how to make an SCA persona, all sorts of newbie stuff and some other cool classes like making beer and mead! No spinning or fiber classes are going to be taught, but I will bring my wheel to the classes for the weekend...

SCA is the Society of Creative Anachronism. It is a middle ages re-enactment group. WOW! The folks at this group were so nice! I am going to be working on fiber arts related stuff and working on period-correct outfits for myself and Mike. Mike will be checking out archery and other activities that work well for him. We had the King and Queen at the Championship last weekend. I am really looking forward to participating in this activity! I have crocheted 3 snoods so far (yup, I am going nuts not being able to walk... I haven't crocheted in over 10 years) and found out that wool socks are a great thing to have in the mountains in May. I am looking forward to the Highlands War in August and the Estrella War in Feb. I hear that the Estrella War has around 8,000 people show up for it each year... YIKES!

Now that I am sitting on my glutes, I will TRY to be better at posting on the old blog...

30 some years later, Rush still kicks *ss!!! My rant to get me sent to Gitmo...

2008-05-10T23:31:00.010-07:00

OK, we went to the Rush concert here in Phoenix on Beltane (May 1st). They actually played one of my favorite songs from back when I was in high school. The scary thing? I think it is more applicable today than it was back in 1981. Scroll down to the end of this post for the lyrics and the song I am talking about... (No, it's not Tom Sawyer, but the same album) I guess that means I am out of the "proverbial broom closet", LOL!!!

Have we mentioned we have some new "fur kids"??? In this picture you see Grants (in Black), Pan (in Brown), Ishtar( the white mommy in the foreground), My Mommy (in pink, HAPPY MOMMY'S DAY!!!), Loki (in white in the background) and Sappho (in gray). We got Pan and Loki back last year and the other three came home from New Mexico a couple of months ago. Ishtar is due in mid-July and we will have our first cria then... My mom is feeding them some yummy treats... Anyone interested in their fiber, please check my site at lauriegator.etsy.com.

My mom and dad came down to Phoenix to visit us for the NASCAR race in April. My Aunt Susie came down for the race also! It was so much fun...

Chris has FINALLY gotten his orders and is now stationed in San Diego... We went out to visit him a couple of weeks ago. WOW! San Diego is so beautiful!!! I am used to Florida where all of the coastline is FLAT! What a difference! We will be out there a lot more while he is stationed there...

Chris brought up a valid point... Did you know our service men and women are paid about $2.15 an hour when they are in their first year of enlistment (E2/E3)? Oh boy, that is sure the wage I want the folks paid when they are fighting and dying for our country in the Middle East! I think I made more as a bartender when I was in college... Oops, I can't talk against our country or I may be "made to disappear"...

More in a bit... I am on crutches off of work with a knee injury and going NUTS! I was not meant to sit still...

Now, to that Rush song:

The night is black, without a moon.
The air is thick and still.
The vigilantes gather on
The lonely torchlit hill.

Features distorted in the flickering light,
Faces are twisted and grotesque.
Silent and stern in the sweltering night,
The mob moves like demons possesed.
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right,
Confident their ways are best.

The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will.
Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat and burn and kill.

They say there are strangers who threaten us,
Our immigrants and infidels.
They say there is strangeness to danger us
In our theaters and bookstore shelves,
That those who know what's best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves.

Quick to judge,
Quick to anger,
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear walk hand in hand.
Rush - "Witch Hunt "- Moving Pictures Album, 1981
(Go Barack Obama!!!)

Proud Mom Moment

2008-02-10T00:34:00.000-07:00

OK, at least my son let me take this pic last weekend... I am SOOOOOO proud! Last weekend, my mom and I went up to Chicago to watch my kiddo, Chris, graduate from Navy Boot camp!!! Here is the really serious picture of the two of us in the hotel room we were able to get at Great Lakes...

Let's start from the beginning. I took off from Phoenix (a couple of days before the Stupor Bowl) for a nice vacation up in Chicago. I got to the airport a couple of hours before take-off... We were told an hour before take off that we were going to be able to get out of Phoenix, but they were not going to guarantee that we were going to land in Chicago... I called my mom to let her know that we were going to get out but we may be landing in parts unknown....

4 hours later, we were in Chicago... We got there and I figured out why I had moved from Minnesota to parts much warmer... We got in and it was SNOWING... Awww, pretty... I got off of the plane and found my mom... We got to the counter, got the rental car and started our drive one hour north to the hotel about 4 miles from the Navy Base. We passed downtown Chicago and saw the Sears Tower, going about 5 MPH... No problem, this is Thursday Rush Hour traffic and we are supposedly making good time... Well, the snow starts getting a LOT heavier and we have made it about 6 miles in an hour and we decided that this hour long drive up to the hotel may take an hour or two longer... Since I flew Southwest, I had kept the snack-pack that they gave us on the plane. My mom was a bit hungry so I gave her the snack-pack and had her call my DH and Dad to let them know that we had landed but we were driving in some snow...

The trip was fun, we did make it to the hotel about 4 hours after we landed. We found out later that we were some of the last planes to make it into Chicago that evening... Here is my mom with her proud grandson...

We made it to Navy Graduation and we were looking for some seats close to where Chris would be marching when we heard "Would you like some help?" Mom replied "No, we know where we are going" and we turned around and saw Chris all decked out in his Dress Blues... Mind you, Dress Blues are actually black but that story is for another time... I was so happy to see him... It is amazing how much he had grown into a full-fledged adult since December...

Well, the weekend was a blast. The day of graduation, I am driving Chris back to his Base...There is this empty parking lot, full of snow, just ripe for some donuts in a rental car.. My "ever-so-responsible son" says "Mom! Don't you DARE start to whip donuts in the Navy Base Parking Lot"... Oh Goddess, since when has my son become RESPONSIBLE??? The kid was reading my mind... I didn't whip donuts in the parking lot and dropped him off in time for his watch... (Come on.... I hadn't driven in this much snow since I left Minnesota about 19 years ago...It was SOOOO tempting...) We all had such a wonderful weekend...

I flew back the night before the Stupor Bowl... The plane was FILLED with NY Giants fans... Did I mention they were a bit intoxicated? And they had tickets for the game the next day? I had 5 offers to be an "official chauffeur" for different parties to drive them to and from the game. I passed, I preferred to watch the game from home and have some fun watching the game... Go whomever!!!

Remember Super Tuesday??? We got our voting notice to go vote in the "Improvement District Office"... We thought this was in a big building but we "google-mapped" this and found the location was in the middle of a field... Where did we vote??? In a barn... Yuppers... We voted in a barn... We were in the minority (voting Democrat) but we had fun voting in a barn...

Here was the view across the street from the voting area...

My cat eats Milk Bones

2008-01-26T03:27:00.000-07:00

Hi! My name is Mewstodamas and I eat Milk Bones! My mommy gave some snack size Milk Bones to my doggie pals Roxy and Puma the other day and she gave me one to see what I would do. Since I LOVE to play fetch and sleep with my doggie pal Roxy and since Roxy LOVES Milk Bones, I thought I would try it. You know, they are REALLY YUMMY! Don't tell my mommy but my brother, Fromage, likes to eat them too. He doesn't like them as much as I do since he lets Roxy steal them from him while he is eating them. I don't let Roxy have my Milk Bones! OOPS, my mommy is coming! I'd better let her type on the computer now since this is her blog!

OK, how long has it been since I have blogged? YIKES!!! Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated and I am alive and well. To say that we have been busy would be an understatement!

So, what have I been doing on my fall/winter vacation? Hmmm... My son came home for a while, more about that in the next paragraph. I took a WONDERFUL spinning class in Davis OK in October, been working one heck of schedule, went to NM and picked out a couple of Alpacas, went to FL for the final NASCAR race of the season, picked out a couple more alpacas from a farm outside of Tuscon, went to FL for the holidays, flip-flopped from nights to days to nights to days to nights, helped a girlfriend from New Mexico get moved and settled here in AZ, worked an 11 day in a row stretch, had the sinus infection crap over Christmas (while on vacation), got a new spinning wheel and I am about to embark on a trip to Chicago on Thursday. There is a bunch more, and as I think of it I will post about it...

Chris came home in Sept and left for Basic Training in Great Lakes, IL on Dec 6th. He is graduating from basic training this week and I will be headed up to Chicago for his graduation ceremony and the couple of days of Liberty he has coming up. I am excited to see him and see what he looks like with short hair! OK, with no hair! I have been sending him really bad jokes that I pluck out of my email inbox for entertainment while he was in training. I am excited to head up there but I am NOT looking forward to that cold stuff up there. The bummer is that I fly back home the day before the Stupor Bowl. Guess where the Stupor Bowl is being held this year??? Yuppers, you got it, Phoenix. I am HOPING that the fans will already be here when I am flying back. I am NOT looking forward to getting to the airport 3 hours early because of the Tourons... (a combination of Tourist and Moron...)

I have also taken out the knitting needles again and I have been on some kind of lace and sock knitting kick recently. I am about 1/3 of the way through my newest stole and I knit up 2 pairs of socks in 1 week last week. I love hand knit socks when I am on my feet for long periods of time.

Work has been rough, to say the least! We are very short staffed due to circumstances beyond our control so anytime anyone misses one day, it is a killer and we are working our butts off. So, since people get sick, take vacation, and have things happen to them, this occurs on a regular basis. Most days, I am lucky to get an hour break in a 12 hour shift! I hear rumor that they will be working to fix this situation, but I will believe it when I see it...

Remind me to post pix of our newest fur-kids, the alpacas. My dear hubby, Michael, has worked his butt off getting the new fencing put in, building the shelter and getting the halters and other necessary supplies together to bring our babies home. We will be picking up the ones in Tuscon first then we will pick up the ones in NM.

I will put more news on here over the weekend. Time to head back to work!

Chris is coming home today!!!

2007-09-16T04:14:00.001-07:00

It is a long week this week (this is night #4 of a 4 night work week) and I am so happy! My kiddo, Chris, is coming home this morning. He left a couple of days after his high school graduation in May to spend some time with his dad in Florida. His plane gets in at 10:45 this morning and he will be hanging out here until December when he goes to Naval Boot Camp... (Great Lakes in December, sounds a wee bit nippy to me...) So, once I get off of work at 6:20am, I need to go home and take ALL of the wool that is currently occupying every available inch of floor space in his bedroom and TRY to find some place to move it to... And WHERE am I going to find room for this? I have no clue. The garage is out because of the buggies and moths that tend to be out there. The bedroom is out because I still have boxes in there that I haven't unpacked from our move last November. I could stash it in Chris's room, but then he wouldn't have anywhere to move or sleep. The bedroom closet has the same problem as the bedroom, still need to unpack boxes. The cubby/pantry area is filled with yarn and other knitting stuff and is piled about shoulder high so that is also not an option. It is going to have to go in the living room until I can make room for it on one of my days off this week...

The sunsets here in AZ are not as spectacular as the ones I remember in NM, but this was a nice one. One minute before, it looked even more awesome!

I have swatched for my next KAL. I am going to be doing it in really nice wool/silk blend and it has matching beads. I will get around to getting a picture of it and getting it posted sometime in the next week... (yeahrightsurewhatever...)

Brunch sounds nice while we are waiting for Chris to come in. I think Mimi's Cafe would be a wonderful place for an omelette and a mimosa (or two). Why do people look at you funny when you want a glass of wine at 7am? Heck, I have been working for 13 hours, a glass of wine tastes pretty good when it's the end of a hellish week.

My newest lace project

2007-09-06T20:29:00.000-07:00

Here is a close-up of my current lace knitting project. This is the border of the Magickal Earth Shawl from the book "A Gathering of Lace". I have the lace next to a 15 inch ruler for a comparison. I have about 3 repeats of the pattern pictured in the close up. The pattern calls for 48 total repeats, then the two ends of the border will be joined together and I will pick up loops from the end closest to the ruler and knit from outside to the middle of the shawl. I think I will be picking up something over 1500 stitches when I start on the body of the shawl. I think I have lost my mind yet again.

Here is a view of the 11 repeats that I have currently finished (a little less than 1/4 of the total length of the border). This is a 48 row repeat, but there are only about 35 stitches per row so it does seem to go pretty quickly.

I am also a member of the Secret of the Stole KAL. If you are interested in another mystery stole type of knit-a-long, this one closes membership on October 4th, so join up quickly! I ordered some Plum Zephyr wool/silk lace yarn for this and got my beads in the mail yesterday. I am hoping to swatch it up this weekend!

A quickie question to the Albuquerque SnBers out there... Are you all still meeting at the Flying Star restaurant off of Rio Grande on Tuesdays at 7pm? It looks like DH and I will be headed back to ABQ for a little break sometime in October and I would love to have a chance to see some friendly faces while I am down there. We will be coming in sometime on a Saturday and will be going back to Phoenix on Wednesday so I can get back to work on Wednesday night... Let me know if y'all are still getting together, I would love to see everyone! Yes, I will be stopping by Village Wools to see what kinds of wonderful treasures that they have (and bring a few skiens home with me!!!) SHHHHH! Don't tell my DH about the yarn store! He doesn't think I need any more wool, LOL!!!!

I am hanging at home tonight, battling another round of "The Gift that Keeps On Giving" that someone at work decided they needed to share with the rest of us... BLEH! Low grade fever, stuffy nose and feeling like I got hit by a freaking Mack Truck... I hope to be back to work tomorrow evening...

It's football season again!!!

2007-09-01T23:37:00.001-07:00

Ashley (aka Boo aka Boo-Boo Kitty (from Laverne and Shirley) aka NummyMuffinBooBooButter (from MST3K))thinks she is a spinning wheel and took up residence in the box that my Louet Victoria was packed in... Isn't she just the cutest little kitty cat?

Life is good, work is going well and people are great!

College football season (for my Beloved Gators) started today. Guess who didn't watch the game. Unfortunately, this is my long week at work. That means I work Wed, Thurs, Fri and Sat from 6pm to 6am this week. Since the game started at 9:30 am (my time) on Saturday, there was no way I was going to be able to catch the game. So, I have a TON of stuff on the DVR to watch before 4pm Sunday. First up is the Gators vs Western Kentucky, then I will catch the Cal vs Tenn game, then I will watch the Busch race from California. Hopefully, I can get all of that done and catch a small nap before the Cup race starts! Thank Goddess I have the mixings for some mean mimosas to enjoy when I get home from work at 6am on Sunday morning! DH did make sure I watched the last 6 minutes of the football game between Michigan and Appalachian State. WOW! I am glad he made me late for work to watch THAT game...

(SOAPBOX)
This is why I really don't agree with the rankings system for college football. Yes, the Michigan game is the perfect example of the phrase "that's why they play the game". Michigan was ranked #5 nationally for college football. Appalachian State is not even a Division 1 college football team. (Can you say OVERRATED???) Michigan was beat by a better team. THEY WERE RANKED #5??? USC is ranked #1 because of their bowl victory over this same Michigan team last January. I think it is high time that the NCAA starts seriously thinking about a PLAYOFF system for Division 1 schools. Use the current Bowl system that is in place as the sites for the playoff games. Start the playoffs in late November with the National Champion crowned in January. Take the top 16 teams as determined by the current (flawed) rankings system and start the games the Saturday after Turkey Day. Play a game every other Saturday (to allow the teams some rest and allow the players to take final exams) and the National Championship would still happpen at about the same time of the year that it is currently scheduled for... That would be my solution for this problem.
(/SOAPBOX)

Puma-Dog...

The next project on the needles is the Magickal Earth Shawl from the book "A Gathering of Lace". I would have put a picture into ye olde blogge but I haven't had the camera out in a bit and haven't snapped a picture of it... I am making this one out of a pinkish colored cashmere yarn. It fulls out nicely when washed and feels so nice and soft... mmmmm...

I am also trying to make my reservations to go to Oklahoma City in October for my Master Spinner 2 class. I log into the SW airlines site to cash in my free round trip, get to the dates that I want to take the class (they are both open for the free round trip) then when I go to select my travel times the site tells me that my frequent flyer number and/or password are incorrect. Now, I couldn't have gotten that far in the process if the number and/or password were incorrect. So, I will have to call SW airlines sometime this week to speak with a real human being and find out what is going on... GRRRRR...

August set a record here in AZ for the most days in a month above 110F. Oh joy and rapture...

Sometimes, it is fun to do something totally out of the norm... Last night at work, we got to learn how to leave in case of emergency. This exercise meant we got to walk around in the outdoors and into our cafe in our bunny suits. It's always fun to check out the reaction of my fellow co-workers when we walk into an area where people dress in street clothes while dressed in bunny suits. They wonder what is up...

My recipe for a mean mimosa:
1/4 - 1/2 oz orange liquour (I usually use Cointreau)
Orange Juice
Cheap dry champagne (I usually use Cook's)

In a champagne flute, pour about 1/2 to 3/4 inches of orange liquour. Add champagne until glass is about half full of champagne (after the foam has gone down) add orange juice until glass is full and garnish with an orange slice if desired. Another good substitute is to use Chambourd instead of orange liquour. I add the orange liquour to add a more rich orange taste to the drink.

Time for me to fly... more updates later...

Finally finished!

2007-08-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

I have finally finished the "Swan Lake Stole" or the stole formerly known as Mystery Stole 3. It was my first attempt at blocking and I blocked the stole a little bit too tight, so there are points in the stole that aren't supposed to be there. I am really happy with how it turned out. It is very warm, I am looking forward to a nice, formal event to take it out and use it. I figured a stole that is this nice deserved me getting into a dress to take the picture :-)

I just got home from Florida a few days ago. My grandma passed away and I flew down for the funeral. That is one reason that things have been quiet around the old blog. It's kind of funny how someone's death will make you question so many things that you once seemed so sure about. Things like religion, the afterlife, what you believe... One of the things that it does make you think about is how important the people in your life really are... Your spouse, family, friends, you realize how important they are and how much they truly mean to you. It brings back memories of friends that I have lost touch with from moving... It's a good thing. There are so many people that mean so much to me that I have not told that they are so important...

I'll add more details on what has been going on this last month in the next couple of days :-)

Whatever gets you through the night

2007-07-26T04:50:00.000-07:00

Another good use for strainers from IKEA, they make wonderful kitty beds... Boris is doing the test drive! He was NOT impressed that I woke him up to take this picture of him.

Carole, my thoughts and prayers are with you. This is a tough time for you but please remember to take care of yourself and remember that you are loved!

My first night back on shift is coming to a close and I have stayed awake for the entire shift! Yippee! I really am enjoying being back on nights again! I didn't touch my knitting tonight but I did have lots of fun in the factory.

Last night (in my world, 2 nights ago for normal folks) my hubby and I went out to OzzFest and saw Ozzy in concert. Wow! Talk about bringing back some memories from when I was in high school. The concert was pretty good but the people watching was great! It was a blast! We are headed out to see Rush on Friday at the same venue.

I was knitting on MS3 and wasn't paying enough attention to the knitting until I realized that I had knit 20 rows WRONG! 20 right side rows on the wrong side... Grrr... I am still tinking this mistake. Maybe that is one of the reasons that I did not touch my knitting this evening. What a mess! That will learn me not to pay attention to my knitting.

DH got all of the ceiling fans in the house on Monday. The one in the bedroom is a GODSEND! I am looking forward to getting home in an hour, putting that puppy on high and getting a good days sleep! The first night switching over to night shift is always a bear!

I love cloudy days in the desert

2007-07-23T09:45:00.001-07:00

Here is my progress on Mystery Stole 3 after clue #3. So far, it is progressing very nicely! I don't know what happened but (knock on wood) this pattern is going quite smoothly since the really rough start. I still count stitches after the right side rows (with all the K2Tog and yarn overs) but we have come out evenly after each one so far... I am still debating whether to do the extra extension on the stole and at this point I think I will add the extra length even if it means getting a little behind the rest of the group.

I am such a geek! On Friday, Mike and I decided to go to the Harry Potter movie then go to B&N at midnight to get the new Harry Potter book. I spent all day on Saturday reading the book from cover to cover. I will NOT give any spoilers from the book in case you haven't picked the book up yet or in case you haven't finished reading the book. I am now on my second read through of the book. My son got me hooked on this series and it has been an interesting series to read through.

I have a cat that climbs ladders. Remember the pic I posted about the cat on the ladder and not knowing how she got there? The other day, I watched her climb the ladder, step by step. She's quite the little acrobat!

It is now official, I AM ON SHIFT! YIPPEE! That means I am actually writing this from home at 10am on a Monday morning and on my personal laptop! I don't start my shift until Wednesday night at 6pm so I have a 4 day weekend this weekend and next weekend! What a relief! I made it through all of my preliminary certifications last week so I can be on shift with the other guys who are already there!

When they call this "The Monsoons" they are not joking. Since the beginning of July, we have had The Monsoons. A couple of them have been real frog chokers! The rain has been so heavy that it has washed out our dirt road 3 times now. Today is a cloudy day so I am expecting a real frog choker to come tonight. The lightning has been incredible and we have gotten a TON of rain. It feels like living in Florida in the mornings, the humidity is quite high!

Since I am back on nights, I am also back to ice skating! I got them sharpened last week and got back onto the ice. I am still trying to get my balance back after not being on the ice for 6 months but it is slowly coming back. Maybe by the end of this week I will be back to spinning and jumping again! Now, I just need to find a coach down here in Phoenix!

Back to knitting my shawl. Mike is getting the ceiling fan hooked up in the bedroom and I am sticking around the house to help him out today. That means a bit of knitting time while I wait!

Progress on Mystery Stole 3 and other musings

2007-07-05T16:40:00.002-07:00

Here is the progress on my Mystery Stole 3 KAL that I am doing. I finished clue #1 just in time for clue #2 to be released tomorrow am. WHEE! I love working on this stole, it is a lot of fun! I have frogged this puppy a bunch of times (an additional 3 times since my last entry, usually around row 50 something) until I discovered that Lifelines are not a sign of weakness. Now, I have my lifeline in at row 100 so I am ready for the next clue! My lifeline is mint flavored dental floss so my stole won't get a case of gingivitis while I am knitting on it, LOL!!! Someday, I will be able to spin frog hair to knit up into another stole! I'll post my list of "things I have learned from my first lace knitting experience" over the weekend.

Yesterday was July 4th and the temperature got to a balmy 116F. So, being the geeks that we are, we made sun tea and decided to see if we could fry an egg on our front patio. We dehydrated the egg and cooked it a bit. I think the next time we try this lovely experiment we will set a pan out first thing in the am and fry the egg in that to see if it works. What does 116F feel like? Go in your bathroom, turn your blow dryer on the high heat and high fan setting and run the blow dryer up and down your body. This is a pretty close approximation. One word of caution, riding a motorcycle in 116F heat is not a really brilliant idea and the seat on the bike gets REALLY REALLY toasty! We were going to go to the fireworks in Chandler last night. We got up there, paid our 5 bucks for parking, walked around a bit, decided we didn't want to wait until 9:30 for the fireworks to start (it gets dark at 8pm in these parts since we don't observe Daylight Savings Time) and decided to drive back towards where we live and watch the local fireworks. The town and the local casino both put on a fireworks display. Since they started while we were on our way back, we just pulled over to the side of the road and watched them both. The ones that the town put on were quite impressive for their first try at fireworks. The casino fireworks must have hit a glitch because there was no finale. NO FINALE? No Happy Ending? Nope. Nada... But all in all, they were pretty awesome.

Today, the tape player gave out in my car. Since I got my XM radio way way back when the cassette tape option was the only option to get a signal, this killed off my XM radio. I stopped out at Best Buy and got one with one of them radios with that newfangled FM modulator and now we have tunes again. Once you go to music without commercials, it's hard to go back to listening to the local wacky DJ commercial filled stuff that goes over most of the commercial airwaves. With a 1 hour commute each way to work, I don't want to listen to 45 minutes worth of commercials... BLEH!

The temp is currently a nice 112F. The weather people in their infinite wisdom have predicted that it might just rain this weekend. Our highs are only supposed to get up to 109F or so. WHEE! It's a cold front! I might have to wear jeans to work since it will be cooling down so much!

Since the stole is caught up, I have time for spinning tonight. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night because of the fireworks so I may not get too much done...

I have lost my everloving mind

2007-06-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

My life apparently isn't busy enough. I am working 5 days per week, anywhere from 8 to 12 hours per day, I am spinning like a mad woman, I have about 15 rovings and 4 handspun yarns to list on Etsy, so what am I up to now? The Mystery Stole 3 KAL!

See that teeny-tiny crochet hook there towards the bottom (the size 13 crochet hook)? That is used to get the yarn through the size 8 beads used on the stole. See the glasses over on the right? They are used so I can see the teeny-tiny hook on the crochet needle and so I can get the teeny-tiny hook through the center of the beads. Man, it really bites to get old... +1.25 correction (as in reading glasses, ewwwwww). I color coded the chart to make life easer for my ADD brain. I have also learned to count my stitches at the end of every odd row to keep from either tinking or heading to the frog pond.

Here is my progress so far, after about 37 rows. This is my first time doing any real lace knitting on lace weight yarn. So far, so good. I did the test swatch last night. I am using a really nice baby alpaca/silk blend on size 4 needles. The yarn overs show up very nicely so the needles were the right size. How many times have I frogged this puppy so far? Only 3. I am pretty proud of that. This pattern uses beads (another first) and I am hoping to keep up with the KAL during the summer. If it turns out well, I will probably take it with me up to Minnesota next June for my (ahem) 25th high school class reunion. We will be on a riverboat cruise (last I heard) going down the St. Croix River in the evening, so it will get a little nippy during the night.

Why am I the only person who GAINS weight when I get sick? I spent 2.5 days this week with the stomach virus that has been going around work. Oh Joy and Rapture! When I am too sick to want to spin up any wool, I am not doing well... I am plying up the last of some BFL I dyed and will list it on my Etsy site. I started spinning up the Superwash BFL and it spins up like a dream! I am looking forward to finishing that and knitting up some lacy socks with it.

The spinning is going well. I am still knitting on some socks and this stole. The dyeing is a blast! I am finally getting off of my butt and getting samples into my own dyeing notebook so I know what I have dyed up. It's fun to experiment with colors and textures.

The weight loss is going pretty well. I got off of the diet for a while and now I am back on it. I started back in March and I have gone from a size 16 (at about 185 lbs) down to a size 10 (at about 160 lbs). I would still love to get down to a size 6 by next year. Once I get back on nights, I can start skating again. Until then, it's the weights and my usual run around the factory like a crazy woman.

This is Natasha. Somehow, she got herself on top of a 10 foot ladder and is trying to figure out a way to dine on canary for dinner. Godzilla (the canary) does not like the idea.

July looks to be a busy month. My dear hubby got us tickets to Oz-fest later this month, we have tickets to the Rush concert and then we are taking the motorcycle to San Diego for a comic book/sci-fi con. It should be a lot of fun. Until then, I get to wait for the last Harry Potter book to come out in print (yup, this geek has a copy on advance order like 10 million other kids in this country) and knit some more on the stole. Tomorrow, DH and I will have a grand adventure putting up our new ceiling fan in the bedroom. We got the fan on Memorial Day weekend but we haven't gotten around to installing it until now. Well, we sort of needed the 10 foot ladder that Natasha was standing on to be able to install the thing. It will be nice to have since the temps are still in the 110+ F range. The floor fan just isn't doing the job any longer.

Enough stalling, time to get back to working on the stole and get some yarn plyed up. I have until next Friday (until clue 2 comes out) to finish 100 rows...

It's only going to get into the Teens today

2007-06-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

Teens, not as in 15F or 18F but 115F.... Bleh! What is a person to do when it gets this freaking hot? Road Trip!

I found out last Thursday that I had Friday off. We had 2 choices: the Dine "Sheep is Life" festival up in Window Rock, AZ or the Estes Park Wool Festival in Estes Park, CO. Mike and I priced tix to go there and between airfare and hotel it would have been $1000 for the weekend in Colorado. YIKES! So, we thought about driving. 14 HOURS? No thanks. So, we called up Mike's folks and we all met in Window Rock, AZ. We had a great time, learned all that we wanted to know about Navajo Churro sheepies, learned about washing and natural wool dyes and met up with some friends on the Res! (Hi Ida and Virgil and kids!) The weather was beautiful, only in the mid 80's F. I came home with 10 lbs of Navajo Churro sheep hair and washed it up. Man, this stuff turned out beautiful. I still need to card it and it will go into my rug that I am making up right now. (No, not weaving).

Here is a great method I found to wash most all fleeces:

1. Clean the fleece. This involves shaking out the crud, seperating out the really dirty bits and taking out the second cuts.
2. Turn your water heater up to 140F (or use cold water in the heat of the day at my place)
3. Fill up washer with hot water and turn off washer (no agitation, the fleece gets angry when you agitate it and it felts)
4. Add 2 cups Arm & Hammer laundry detergent and 1 cup of ammonia
5. Add Dirty Fleece
6. Close cover on washer and let soak for 40 minutes
7. Turn washer to final spin cycle (the spin cycle without water) and spin fleece. It may be a good idea to turn off the water to the washer to make sure that no water gets onto the fleece while spinning.
8. Remove fleece from washer and clean out the dirt in the washer with a wet cloth.
9. Turn water back on and fill washer again with hot water
10. Add 1 cup of Arm and Hammer laundry detergent, add no ammonia
11. Add damp fleece back into the water and soak for 40 minutes
12. Spin the fleece again on final spin cycle.
13. Remove fleece from washer and clean out the dirt in the washer with a wet cloth.
14. Turn water back on and fill washer again with hot water
15. Add damp fleece back into the water and soak for 40 minutes. Add no detergent or ammonia
16. Spin the fleece again on final spin cycle.
17. Dry fleece with your favorite method of drying.
18. After fleece is dry, card and spin to your liking!

I found these really cool screened laundry baskets at IKEA that I put my fleece into and put it out on the front porch for a couple of hours to dry the fleece. With temps in the hundred and teen range, it doesn't take long to dry. I have found this method cleans some of the dirtiest, greasiest fleeces I have done. I have cleaned Churro, Shetland, BFL and Ramboullet using this method and it has worked for all of them! (Fine to course wools) I got these instructions from a wonderful helpful person in one of my Yahoo spinning groups!

I am REALLY behind in my etsy store. All of this roving and yarn still needs to be put up in my store, YIKES! I have found a good use for my son's old bedroom, it has now become my wool room. Here is where I put my wool up to dry, braid it, package it and store it for sale in my site. I am going to get a new site (my own store) up late summer/early fall once I get back onto nights and have my 3 & 4 day weekends to get the site up and running. I am also hoping to do 1 -2 wool shows this fall and sell some of my rovings and hand-spun yarns. I am not sure if this will work out since I am in the middle of a plant start-up at work, but I think I may be able to do this.

OK, the spinning bug has bit me really hard! I signed up for the SOAR retreat (the annual Spin-Off retreat) and signed up for a workshop called Spinning 201. Of course, I did this late and I am now number 2 on the waiting list for this class... Bummer... So, I decided to sign up for a Master Spinner Class at Olds College. Yup, I am going to Oklahoma in October to go to the Level 2 class to learn to ply better, learn to spin exotic fibers and learn more about sheep fur! I am REALLY excited! I have no clue if anyone I know will be there, but the idea of 5 days of spinning classes (full days) really makes me happy! I hope to be a teacher one day and this will help me learn all sorts of new stuff! They have 6 levels of Master Spinner classes and I covered all of the Level one stuff in my 4 week class I took at The Fiber Factory here in Mesa. I am finally feeling really confident in my spinning abilities. My yarn looks really great and I am having a blast doing it.

Today's fiber to spin up: Superwash BFL. I order 3 lbs of Superwash Blue Faced Leicester roving from Sheila over at Wool2Dye4 and got really prompt delivery. (Sheila has been great to work with for both yarns and rovings. No Affiliation, I just love getting stuff from her.) I dyed it up in a Royal Blue color and I am going to start spinning it today on Lenny (my current name for my Lendrum spinning wheel). I have some Shetland lamb fleece on Vicki (the Louet Victoria wheel) but I need to re-card some of the batts since I am finding them difficult to spin with. (Difficult meaning I didn't card them enough and I still have some clumps in it.) So far, the only thing I didn't like was that it got "yucky" in the dye pot when I dyed it a solid color. I am sure this is because the wool is superwash and slides easily. I will let you know how it spins up. This roving is SO SOFT!!! It is yummy! I just want to cuddle with this stuff. If the spinning goes well, I will probably paint some up and sell it on my etsy site or at my store when it gets going.

Today, I am taking the wheel and headed up to New River to celebrate the Summer Solstice with some great folks! Whee! There will be spinning, swimming, food and great company. On Wednesday, I have a meeting with the bosses to find out when I can move to shift. I sure hope it will be soon, this working 10 - 12 hour days 5 days per week is not fun. I would love to have my 12 hour shifts back working 3 - 4 days per week! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Proud Mom moments

2007-06-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

My baby just graduated from High School. This is a picture of Chris and I after his graduation ceremony. I am SO PROUD of him! Yes, I am wearing a Hawaiian shirt to a graduation ceremony. What do you expect? It's rural Arizona, it was close to 100 degrees when we got to the school and it was Memorial Day weekend. Besides, isn't it my job as a parent to embarrass my offspring whenever I can? LOL!

This is a few days before graduation. Does the kiddo look totally petrified or what? This was his swearing in ceremony for the Navy. Yup, not only did he graduate from High School, he also enlisted in the Navy that week. So, I am now a Proud Parent of a Sailor! He departs for Basic Training on Dec 5th. Right now, he is down staying with his dad in Florida for a bit. He will be helping his dad move and will be working with him over the summer.

This was an example of 2 of the weeks that I have had since I last blogged. It has been absolutely wonderful!

This is my mom and I at the Grand Canyon. My parents came to visit for 2 weeks in April. It was AWESOME. We took our first trip to the Grand Canyon, we watched the NA$CAR race in Phoenix and had a great time visiting. We learned a lesson that day... When the wind gusts are 50+ MPH, it is a BAD time to go out on the scenic overlooks at the Grand Canyon. The weather was a bit cold (hence the jackets) but the scenery was breathtaking. WOW! We had a lovely dinner after we did the bus ride for the day.

This is the Grand Canyon at night. Yes, this is a real picture of the Grand Canyon, not just a black square.

After my folks left, my hubby's folks came for a visit. It was lots of fun. We only had the weekend together, but it was a lot of fun. They live up in Santa Fe, so we can visit them more often.

We have had lots of visitors to our place. My bestest friend from way back in Elementary school, Julie, and her hubby Loren came out to see the new house. We grilled some steaks, had lots of wine and a tequila tasting and played cards. Great times! Julie, the Orchid looks wonderful! All of the flowers have bloomed and it is very happy getting southern exposure!

This is what my Dear Sweet Hubby and my Wonderful Kiddo did for me for Mom's Day. Isn't it purdy? They put in a fountain in our front patio. It is so nice to have the water feature in the desert! We are using our waste water from our reverse osmosis system to run the fountain and water the plants! We wanted to do something with the waste RO water rather than wasting it by letting it run down the drain.

This is my new baby, the Louet Victoria. What do you think? I wanted a wheel that was a little more portable than my other baby, the Lendrum. This wheel has been great. Right now, I am spinning some of my hand carded Shetland fleece that I washed. I have discovered a lot of great things about this wheel. Even though it is a double treadle, you can use one foot to do all of the treadling! This is a GOOD thing when you have a broken toe and can only use one foot to treadle. (My hubby's shower bit me the other morning.) It is a very smooth treadle and it is a great wheel! Yes, I still use my Lendrum for the majority of my home spinning but this is nice to take with me to SnB and I can carry it onto the plane! I am hoping to order a Woolee Winder for it in the next couple of weeks!

Being on day shift bites! I have NO TIME to do anything anymore. My dyeing has taken a back seat and I don't get nearly enough time to spin! I was supposed to go back to nights in May, but it looks like that will be pushed out to October at this point. I am learning A LOT by working on days and I am very happy to have the opportunity to learn, but I really miss my 3 and 4 day work weeks.

Should I go to the Estes Park Wool Festival?

Lori H, can you send me your email addy? I have lost it!

Ziggy Kitty went to the Rainbow Bridge on March 8th. We miss him terribly.

SEX and the married spinner

2007-03-07T17:27:00.000-07:00

Warning: the following entry will contain references to sex. Leave now if you are uncomfortable with the subject matter...

OK, for those who have stuck around, here is my haul from my SEX (Stash Enhancement eXpedition) at Stitches West in Santa Clara a couple of weekends ago. Notice that one thing that is sorely missing is YARN... Well, not really, this is all yarn, it's just yarn in the raw form. There was some really YUMMY rovings out there that I picked up from Blue Moon, Carolina Homespun, Lisa Souza Dyeworks and Judy's Novelty Wool! Yes, there is even some raw Corriedale wool in here that is begging to be dyed and spun! Nope, I didn't win one of the Grand Prizes they had there, or there would have been the need for a second suitcase for all of the roving I would have brought home! Stitches West was a real treat! It was HUGE! I have never seen so much sheep, alpaca, cashmere and other natural fibers in one place before. I was tempted to pick up a couple of balls of Tofutsies, but I decided to pick it up here at my LYS instead. The rovings are Corriedale, Blue Faced Leichester, Angora/Rambouillet and Merino wool. Yummy! I also picked up a nifty "Crafty Kate" (we don't call them lazy Kate's any longer) and another niddy noddy to take with me on the road. I am currently spinning up some Merino and hope to get it plied later this week.

The conference was really awesome. I got to see some old friends, get too little sleep, learn a hell of a lot about the new technologies coming in my job and had a chance to do a little bit of wine tasting in Napa Valley. We discovered the best way to go about wine tasting. First, you find a little no-name winery on the side of the road and stop in for a tasting. If the wine is really good (and this one was), you ask the wine server for a recommendation on somewhere else that THEY would visit. This lead us to 3 great wineries that had some of the most unbelievable wines I have had in a while. I was able to pack all of the wine in the suitcase and all are ready to drink now, yippee! I am hoping to break open one of the white wines this weekend.

I have made up another alcoholic concoction. I had so much fun with the Ultimate Grape Martini that I tried for another version in cherry flavor. The first recipe is something I am calling a Virgini-tini. This one has so much cherry flavor to it that it will feel like you got your virginity back :-)

Virgini-tini:
1.5 oz Cherry Vodka (I used 3 Olives brand)
0.5 oz Creme de Griotte (or any cherry liqueur. This is the one they had at BevMo)
Mix in a martini shaker and pour into a chilled martini glass

The next one is the first attempt, the Cherry Martini:
1.5 oz Cherry Vodka (I used 3 Olives brand)
0.5 oz Triple Sec
1.5 oz 7-Up
Mix in a martini shaker and pour into a chilled martini glass

The second recipe has a nice cherry flavor too it, but doesn't go wild with cherry flavor like the Virgini-tini does.

I started on days this week and started working with the Install/Qual team at the new factory. I am learning so much from this new job. I also found out that they aren't moving me for another month. I will have a "new" cube (as in a totally re-designed cube) in the same area as the rest of my counterparts. I am still having problems with this waking up in the morning and driving in rush hour traffic both ways, but I am getting used to it...

Time to get back to my spinning. I hope to have a day this weekend to dye some wool and put it up for sale on Etsy! My yarn is still there, which means that the right home just hasn't seen it yet! :-)

Ruh-Roh, there are BOXES in my cube!

2007-02-24T03:10:00.000-07:00

I am on my way to see these guys again!

About 6 weeks ago, I had one of those last minute midnight cube moves from the building I used to work in over to my new building. I came into work this evening and there are boxes in my cube and every other cube in my row. I think I am being moved again but no one has told me. I am starting to wonder if I will ever be able to stay in one cube longer than 3 months? Since I am on my way to San Jose and Santa Clara, I guess the move will have to wait for another week since I have not been told when my move date actually is... GRRRR...

I am about to leave work, head to IHOP for a yummy pancake breakfast then head over to the airport to go on my trip! (it's 4am, I think the drunks are gone now) I am SO EXCITED! Someone on one of my lists had this brilliant idea that for each pound that we lose, we get to buy a pound of yarn (and roving, if we are spinners). I think this is a GREAT idea and will keep us motivated to keep eating healthy and exercising. This means I am coming home with a LOAD of fiber and yarn :-) I am officially down to a size 14 and they are even a bit loose on me now. (I didn't want to get size 12's for the conference since I wanted to be comfy and have clothes that fit a bit loose). I am still working out at least 2 days per week (up to 10 miles each time on the bike) and the fat is slowly coming off. The "junk in my trunk" is starting to look much better also!

Forecast for the trip: rain every day and highs in the 50's. I am glad we are supposed to be indoors all week! I have lots of my sweaters and cold weather clothes packed for this trip. I am really looking forward to seeing my old co-workers from my old site. I miss them a lot! I like my new home and my new workplace but I miss the friends that I made back in New Mexico! I am homesick for NM and don't think I will be able to make it out there for a while... :P

The Woolee Winder is so great! I spent a couple of hours on it this morning after work while watching Batman and Robin. I got so much more spinning done in the time and my singles are MUCH more consistent! So my initial reaction was right on the money. DH complained that my last blog entry made it sound like he didn't know how it worked. He knew how it worked right away, he was just having fun with the ingenuity of its design and we discussed other mechanical things during that time also! (I'm gonna miss you while I am gone, honey...) Ziggy is so cute, he hangs out on my shoulder while I am spinning on the couch and watches me spin wool. He just lays there and purrs. I stop every so often and pet him and tell him what a good kitty he is. When he was a kitten, he used to love to climb on my shoulder while I was making dinner and would just ride around the kitchen on my shoulder when I would go from task to task. If he doesn't make it until I get back, I was able to spend some good quality time with him and tell him "goodbye". I told him that he needed to keep going until I get back, but as we all know, cats never listen to a damn thing we say to them. But we have had a lot of good talks and a lot of good purrs between the two of us!

The Woolee Winder is here

2007-02-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

My new Woolee Winder came in the mail today! So, instead of waking up and getting ready for work, I decided to be a few minutes late for work and try out the new toy. It has to be impressive if my hubby (who doesn't spin) is enamoured with it when I try it out! He had a blast figuring out how it worked and we chatted about it while I started figuring out how to use it. This first picture is my new Woolee Winder, along with Natasha lying in the sun (solar charging her little kitty batteries for a mad midnight romp through the house).

Here is a close up of the wool I am currently spinning and how it looks on the winder. I am currently working on a white/light lavender 100% merino wool roving with the winder. OK, so this was not the brightest choice on the planet for someone who has only been spinning for a few months. Next time, I'll remember that.

So, how is it working out so far? I only have about 45 minutes worth of experience on the Woolee Winder but so far it has surpassed all of my expectations. I was able to pick it up pretty quickly. Getting used to the differences between this winder and the one that came with my Lendrum was pretty easy. There is the "clicking" sound that comes up when I let the yarn go to wind around the spindle but it became a very soothing sound after I got used to it (about 15 minutes). It was REALLY hard to suppress the urge to stop the wheel and change the position of the guide that I used to use on the spindle. I LOVE the fact that once I got started and got my rhythm going with it, I was able to go A LOT faster than I had been able to go with my old winder. All in all, I give it 2 thumbs up for ease of use and what a difference it has made in my spinning. I do feel like I can be more consistent with my spinning than I was able to before with all of the starting and stopping. Nathan was GREAT to work with and I would highly recommend getting one. It is worth the cost!

OK, we had a BLAST at the Ren Fest on Monday. DH joked about how we paid $20 each just to go shopping, but it was in fun! My girlfriend Julie and her daughter Alyssa came out there with DH and I. The weather was a bit chilly (in the upper 50's) and the forecast called for 30% chance of rain. No problem. We got there and looked around for a bit. Then I found this beautiful cloak. It is made from black velvet on the outside and lavender satin lining the inside. It also has a nice hood (that you can't see from the picture) to cover your head. Well, I bought it because despite wearing a long sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt, I was still really cold. I wore it around all day and it kept me nice and warm. It was REALLY nice to have once the rain started. Alyssa bought herself a Didgeridoo and was learning to play it. It was really cool! (A didgeridoo is an instrument played by Australian Aboriginals, it kind of looks like a hollowed out log and makes a really cool sound). We had some sprinkles, which was no problem, until the thunder and lightning started and the heavens cut loose with rain and wind. BLECH! We found shelter and waited for the storm to pass. We caught one show, the singing nuns, before we left for the day. We all decided that we would head out there one more time before April 1st so we could see some of the shows this time! And so we could shop some more. I found a place that served warm Mead, yummy! It hit the spot on a chilly day. We wandered around, Julie picked up a neat beaded rose for her mom and some other goodies, Mike and Alyssa had a couple of Bloody Marys while we were there, we munched on Turkey Legs (of course), we didn't pick up any leather mugs, Mike loved hanging out at the fossil merchant, we found a cute shelf cat and a neat wooden cat for the living room. I had such a great time! We will go see The Ded Bob Show next time we are out there!

I have discovered the recipe for the ultimate Grape Martini. DH thinks it tastes like grape kool-aid with a hell of a kick. I think it tastes like the Grape Martini I had at the restaurant. Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 oz Grape Vodka (I used 3 Olives brand vodka)
1/2 oz Triple Sec
1 1/2 oz 7-Up or lemon lime soda

Mix the ingredients in a martini shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass. I haven't figured out which garnish would be good with this (no, grapes would not work), maybe a lemon twist? The new martini glasses came via UPS yesterday and I was able to try them out. The work great for keeping a martini nice and cold. The glasses will probably also work for white wine and other drinks you want to keep cold but don't want to put ice into.

My guy crashed out of the Daytona 500 last weekend... DH's guy won the race (although the finish was somewhat controversial). Great race. This weekend (while I am shopping at the Stitches West Marketplace), I will be missing the CA race. I will have to record it on the DVR so I can see it when I get home next week.

I need to pack and get the needles and a "no-brainer" sock pattern in the backpack for the trip. The spinning wheel is coming with me to San Jose so I can play around with the roving I find at Stitches West. I am so excited! I can't wait to get the suitcase packed and go!!!

Searching for the Ultimate Grape Martini

2007-02-17T01:29:00.000-07:00

Mike and I were out at this really cool fusion restaurant (a Japanese Fondue place) in Chandler in November. When we were there, we both ordered Martinis. Mike likes a perfect gin martini, stirred not shaken and don't leave it in the shaker so the ice melts! I decided to try their Grape Martini. YUMMY! This is the Martini glasses that they served the drinks in. Aren't they the coolest thing? You put ice in the round bowl portion of the glass and your martini in the triangular glass. Your martini stays nice and chilled while you drink it without the martini getting watered down with ice. Mike and I have been searching for these glasses with no luck. Today, I found them and ordered them! They should be here in about a week. I picked up some Grey Goose Grape Vodka at BevMo this evening and I am working on duplicating the Grape Martini that I had at the Fondue place. I have found 3 different recipes to try, so I am going to try one when I get off of work in the morning. Let the tastings begin! After working a 12 hour shift, having a martini at 6am really isn't all that strange! Now, I need to find a 24 hour pizza place and life will be perfect!

This jewel is currently up for sale on my Etsy.com site. It is my first hand-spun yarn that I am selling. I have one ply in black and the other ply is a lime green and violet color. (see the post below to see the roving it was spun from) It looks really cool, the picture has subdued the colors a bit. I am very proud of this yarn! I've had a few folks look at it but no takers yet...

One week from today (Feb 24th) I will be on my way to San Jose, CA for a Microlithography Conference for a week. I get to learn all about the latest and greatest in my field and I am taking a class in photoresists to learn about the problems they can have. It just so happens that on the 24th and 25th of Feb there is a knitting thing called Stitches West going on in Santa Clara which is about 3 miles from the hotel I am staying at. Guess what I will be doing on Saturday and Sunday? I am SO excited! Last year, I missed Stitches West by 1 day so I feel really lucky to be there at the same time as Stitches West this year. Some of my online friends will have booths or be working out there, so it will be fun to put a name with a face. If St. Joan sees this, I am buying you a drink either Sat or Sun! I didn't sign up for any classes because by the time I found out that I would be able to go, all of the good classes were full up. I will sign up for the brochure and take a few vacation days next year if it's really a cool thing to go to. I am looking forward to seeing the West Coast Knitting "Mecca" as I have heard it called!

Monday, Mike and I are going to be headed out to the Ren Fest here in Phoenix with Julie and Loren. (Julie and I have been friends since elementary school and we both live here in the Phoenix area). It will be so fun to see them again! I have not been to a Ren Fest down here, but it looks like it will be a big one. I haven't been to a good Ren Fest since I left Minnesota. Damn, I really miss seeing Puke and Snot!

Once I get some sleep under my belt, I will be back to dyeing the rest of the roving and watching cars go around in circles on Sunday. Yes, NA$CAR officially starts back up this weekend with the Daytona 500. There have been enough alleged and real cheating scandals in this one race than I have ever seen. My guy starts in the 2nd row and my other guy starts in the back. I need to find a Columbian flag before the April race here in Phoenix!

Dyeing part 2: THE LARCH

2007-02-11T07:03:00.000-07:00

The larch.

Lots of stuff happening, let's start with our first attempt at painted roving. This is how it started. I mixed up some lime green and purple dyes, painted on the roving in 2" stripes for the lime green and 3" stripes for the purple. I left an inch between the colors because I wanted to have some natural color peeking through.

THE Larch.

Here are the rovings after wrapping them up in saran wrap and placing them into the pot to be steamed. Pretty...

The Larch...

After steaming, cooling off, rinsing and one last spin cycle in the washer. Here is the final result. I learned a lot from my first hand-painted roving experiment.

First: 1 inch is a good amount to leave between colors to get the colors to go into each other without blending. I only had 2 small spots of "brown" where the green and purple dyes mixed together on the roving.

Second: Painting the roving does prevent the "grabby" roving result that I had from the immersion dyeing.

Third: I really CAN do this!

I am going to be helping out Lisa over at One Planet Yarn and Fiber with some roving dyeing. What a truly nice gal! We grabbed a cup of coffee yesterday and chatted for a while about everything from spinning to sheep to SnB's to sheep breeds to online businesses. It was a blast! Now that I have more comfort with the roving painting, I can get down to business and get her projects done over the next few days.

Last night was the official start of "cars going around in circles" season. Hubby and I watched the Bud Shootout in High Def for the first time. It was like being at the race! Way too cool. Some things should NOT be seen in High Def. On the other hand, pit crew butts should ALWAYS be seen in High Def... LOL!