marching on

Time marches on. I find that when a person takes an extended leave of absence from work, one is left without a sense of urgency to preform a task.

Apparently I need to have the pressure of limited time off to motivate myself to get things done.

 Time tends to pass in a blur and before you know it, the week is over and you haven't accomplished squat!

OK I haven't exactly been idle but I haven't been getting my yarn stock produced like I should either.  or those niddy noddys. And some days I just plain don't do diddle. Of course now that work is looming over me I am panicked about my mental to do list.

I feel a bit like I am cramming for finals. Tuesday I went to the clerks office and got my local business license for RaineyDay Fibers, Friday I took care of the state paperwork so now I am all legal like in the state of Tennessee. Of course so far not a sale in this state.

I did also get the poncho off in the mail ( they don't seem to have an 24 hour Post Offices here, just sayin')  and Nikki's Rikki Hat also off in the mail to Chicago Burbs.

Ever since I posted all the Christmas hats I have been hat bound (orders). So here is the one for Jesse (who is in Maryland) in progress. and I should get this one done this week end. With one more hat order after that to do...this next one for Nadine in Arizona. She wants some of my hand spun done up.

I'm not complaining but I am getting tired of the hat scene.

 Lots other happening since last Sunday...did I mention I got some new furkids? No??? Well that is what my other project is. Getting the over grown pen ready at my cousin/brothers place for the new residents.


I planned on starting out early but then it snowed first thing. And my son vetoed that for today.

 

Late in the afternoon I was feeling a bit panicked again so I went over to my cousins and started work myself.

No one has lived in it for some time and it took me a good 15 minutes to hack my way through those creepy "I'm taking over the world" kind of vines.

Then I hacked my way through some um, pig weed, milk weed or what ever  kind of weed thing my cousin called it.

 

I got a goodly bit finished before I was too pooped to go on. And I discovered a ginormous old satellite dish in the pen. I reckon the previous occupants  (goats) were good with it being there but I said it needs to go. Can you recycle those I wonder?

Now I won't post pictures yet of my new residents, but if you stop by my Facebook Page RaineyDay Fibers  ( that I very recently worked so hard to set up, and yes this is a blatant bid for page likes) you will get the sneak preveiw.

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I even managed to get my first single for my Golden Fleece Module 7 spun and my rolags made today for the wild side of 7.

 

Did I say I hadn't done diddly? I must have been mistaken because I am even more tired after reading this entry!


This girl is ready to crash so happy fiber-ing

xoxo

over the holidays

For me the holiday madness is over! Yay!! And I am over it! No more mad dash to knit gifts. I am still working on the same weaving project, that could take me a bit of time to finish. But that was not on the 'it must be done before Christmas' agenda.

So for the first Christmas in the mountains it was great!! My son and I went to my elderly cousins home on Christmas Eve. It was good to spend time with family. Christmas day was low key. I dvr all episodes of Doctor Who and thankfully they (BBCA) had a week long Doctor Who marathon to add to my dvr! I got to stay in my jammies, eat junk food all day and watch about 20 hours of Doctor Who!!

What could be better? Playing with fiber and 20 hours of Doctor Who!

I did start on another Rikke hat, for myself, which is almost done as of today. This one I made a bit smaller.

This is the first one.

I also painted with fiber, making rolags has become a favorite pastime. I find the process very soothing and exciting at the same time.  I like the creative process and the seeming randomness of design. Very appealing to the nonconformist in me. These happen to be rolags for art yarn.
If you have never seen one before, this is a blending board. It is my artists color pallet. And like paint, the fibers cannot be un-blended once they have been blended.
I'll share that story with you sometime.

I started out with a few lashings of a merino blend roving (the aqua). Then added some SoftSilk which is some shredded up sari silk. Some purple stuff ( stuff because I don't remember what animal it came from) that I dyed myself, and them some random hand dyed green and yellow curly locks for some added texture and contrast.

Then I take my two dowel rods, and starting at the bottom I place the fiber layer between the rods, gently draft and roll until I have rolled half of the fiber off of the giant doggy brush as my son calls it.  Then I repeat the process for the next half. Two for one :)

I have been participating in the Journey to the Golden Fleece  since February, if you are not familiar it is a fiber spinning creativity course, and really a journey of self discovery.  (More information can be found at Fiberygoodness). I have learned a lot of different techniques, fiber preparations, and in general have reached out more to my creative side.

These I made for my Module Six yarn. I am afraid with the moving of across several states, I got a little bit behind ( Suzy and Arlene just sent out Module Eight-yikes!).  I have some journaling for 6 to do ( and frankly that is not my strong suit) And of course I would rather have spun them on my Aura wheel...but sadly I am still waiting. :-/

Now that the Christmas knitting madness is over I can get caught up on my modules. I so don't want to miss my graduation.  

Oh and I thought I would share with you this, only one out of four of my mother's Christmas Catus' bloomed. It happens to be the one next to the salt lamp. Who knew.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, or what ever holiday you celebrate.

happy fibering xxoo

weaving on

It's been a busy week. Christmas is closing in and, yes I did make one more hat! OMG I am so over it now...everyone has a flippin' new one now!

And somehow it got wrapped and shipped without a picture of it...what-ever.

I have also been weaving. I have been commissioned to weave a poncho. Specific colors. Brown and black.

I have the first piece woven, or more specifically I have the practice piece woven. She wants it more black than brown so I will have to re-think it abit.

The thing about commission pieces is that it puts a lot of undue pressure on me, so I generally don't do them. Usually I make what I like, and hopefully someone else likes it too. Otherwise, it becomes too much like work. This is a special case however. It will be my first woven sale! 

This will also be my first garment.

eek!

I have been working on the Westknits KAL 2014 which I started while I was in Sarasota. I have 

been stuck on clue 2 for some time now. Brioche has been kicking my butt! I practiced, thought I got it...then I had to rip it out, like 3 times now I think. 

This time I think I have it. Of course most people are already done with theirs so the cat is out of the bag and it is no longer a mystery.

But as long as I don't lose my place I should be golden! 

A woman I went to school with recently contacted me on FB. She made a comment to me about how she loved how I stayed true to myself.

I have been mulling that over now for a week or so. Did I?? I not really sure.  I think she remembers me much differently from high school than I remember myself, I always thought of myself as a introverted dippy little artsy hippie back then. Ok so maybe I am a little bit artsy hippie dippy now too.

I'm not sure if I really stayed true to myself, or if I just found my way back :) either way, it made me feel pretty good.

as my son would say - don't knit yourself into a circle. ;)

just one more

Before I took up blogging again, I gave careful consideration on picking up where I left off here, albeit two years ago, or starting from scratch. 

You see my choice. It seemed like a waste since I already had my stuff here. It is hard work doing all those little side bars and links and what nots. So I here I am, I hope you enjoy it. 


I have spent the better part of the weekend trying to get the rest of my "Emergency Christmas Knitting" finished. So it comes down to this. If make for one, I have to make for all or somebody will get their feelers hurt. Well pooh, my little fingers hurt!

Since all of the hats are easy stockinette, I decided today it was a good time to practice continental knitting. Even though it is awkward for me I think eventually it will make it faster. If I can stick with it.

So far today I have practiced on two hats. Hopefully it will become more natural to me. It has been on my learn-to-do list for many years.

But right now...my left hand aches as much as my right!

I don't know about you guys, but I really like the yarn from Hobby Lobby. Not that I have a huge choice here in the sticks, but Yarn Bee Effortless is so soft and mushy and makes two hats from 1 skein most of time. It as 20% alpaca so it makes it nice and warm.
My girls really enjoy that lemme tell ya, especially as they live in Wisconsin. The other plus is that I know they won't wash them with care so my efforts won't be wasted.

and here is one more.

And every time I think, yay this is the last one...I think of one more boy in the family that needs one.
It always seems to be just one more.


I managed to squeeze in a cheater loaf of bread today too!

And little Brodie did this all day!

happy knitting xo

Recapturing my youth?

You know how that goes.  Talking to your girlfriends you start playing the Remember When game, you know ' Remember when we used to wear  this and we wore that... and we made some of  what we wore. Kinda like now right?

Yeah...not so much.

That's kinda what started me on this latest project. First it was because I needed a new belt, and true to form, I can't find one I like. Then it was, ' oh-  remember when we used to wear those cool macrame belts, and have you seen how much one of those costs now??? Remember when we used to make them??'

Well you know me... I can make that!!! 

Well here is the one I started, nice little 2 inch wide macrame belt on D-rings made from hemp.

Yeah right.

You know what I don't remember about all the cool macrame plant hangers and bags and what-knots I used to make??? I don't remember it ever being tedious!

Well guess what! I find it tedious now!!! All those butterfly strings hanging down and trying to get your knots to lay flat and not tangle up ( and naturally I am doing this with out a pattern) and trying to remember which way the knot went,  and the hemp is just as unforgiving on your hands as jute! Even with bees wax.

Screw that...I'll just crochet one!

Crochet cotton...much much easier on the hands!

See??? Much quicker too!! Of course not as intricate looking, simple half double crochet. Easy stuff, done in no time!

Practice, it is a practice one, yeah that's it.

The next one I'd better practice not making it so damn long! Oh yeah, and don't forget about the extra yardage added from actually wearing it. It stretched ...alot. 

That's ok... 3rd time's a charm!

This one has a little sompin sompin going on. Well, some texture anyway. D-ring again, I crocheted it right to the rings for better stability, and gave it some texture and density with front and back post stitches. And a smaller hook helps too. THIS one did turn out to be a keeper! 

It still has a little stretch to it but I paid closer attention to what I was doing this time. You need that stretch...for those big holiday meals!! The brown belt, well, I could use it as a sash, or I can take out some of the stitches... or a lot of the stitches. 

And because my hands are in hooking mode... I threw together these Mary Janes for a quick gift.

Well so much for recapturing my youth! I still have the hemp belt hanging from the curtain rod in my room to keep my butterfly strings from getting tangled but I don't see it getting finished anytime soon. 

Hey.. do you remember when we used to lay on the bed and zip our painted on jeans with a fork...???

Just sayin'

Instant Gratification Week

I have had somewhat of a busy week. To start with, our new Computer Aided Dispatch system is going swimmingly. I am very happy about that. Work just got a hell of alot easier for me! Everyone is pretty much getting the hang of things and the majority of us are all about discovering new things to make life/work easier on our own. The company gave us the overview, how it works, what it can do for you and basic training. I had the benefit of some seventy hours of training, but everyone else got two days- the officers got 1. That makes me the go to girl. But after the first month, everyone has it pretty much down pat. It gives me a kind of free feeling and gives me time to concentrate on other duties. 

The only downside was that I have had so much data entry in preparation that my arm has revolted, and become so painful it forced me to go to the doctor again  (blast and damn)... But you know me, I won't let a little physical pain stop me- No Way Jose! I just keep plugging along (making it worse of course) and had myself a little knitting marathon.

I have also begun packing- which lead me to finding some yarn in my stash that needed knitting. I have had this ball of Noro Silk that has been laying around since I finished my Tilted Blocks scarf. I have been meaning to make a matching Calorimetry to match it. My first one ended up a little bit too big. It has a lot of stretch in it, so I adjusted the pattern, went from 120 cast on stitches to 100. This also makes it more narrow that in the original but it still covers my ears and it doesn't slide off. 

Not a very good picture I know but here it is. (all my model heads are packed already), and since my apartment is kind of small, I really don't have a lot of surfaces for photo shoots so I know my pictures are on the tad boring side, but it is what it is. And of course, my co-workers (the male ones) had been teasing me about how I am going to need this because it is sooo cold in the summer time. 

Men...whadda they know!

Doesn't this picture make it look like some weird scifi wormy thing?

Project Scoop:

Pattern: Calorimetry

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden

Needles: 7

More stash finds! I have had these next two balls of yarn since-who the hell knows when! 

I love working with Peaches & Creme yarn. It is so uber soft it makes knitting with it a dream. 

I spent some of my freed up work time surfing Ravelry for dishcloth patterns to compliment the yarn. I know St. Paddys day is past but since I am mostly Irish I can do Shamrocks any ole' time of the year. 

I spent one whole day off watching movies and knitting! 

Project Scoop

Pattern: Shamrock Cloth
Yarn: Peaches & Creme - Baby Green

Needles: Size 8

I love this pattern! Super easy and very cool to look at, I think it really shows off the variegated pattern in the yarn in a unique manner. I feel like running right out to Hobby Lobby to buy some more Peaches & Creme in variegated colors. The other thing I like about this pattern is the texture. I just love a good scrubby for my face. This one is earmarked for my new kitchen but I am needing some new face cloths too so I think I will be making more of this particular pattern. 

I do have a couple more instant gratification projects on the needles but I will save that for another day. (I seriously don't know how CA Dawn posts so much and gets so much knitting in)

Project Scoop

Pattern: Darrell Waltrip Dishcloth

Yarn: Peaches & Creme 

Needles: Size 8

Not wanting to jinx myself or tempt fate- I haven't said much about the whole housing thingy, but I think it is now safe to say - I found my new digs! I am going today to sign the addendum's to the contract. It is a townhouse of course, no outside maintenance for me. I neither have the time nor the energy to worry about things like that, plus I am just plain getting to damn old/broken for all that hard labor. 

But- there will be no more living below ignorant people who throw furniture- or what ever it is they do up there. No more kids playing by my bedroom window when I am trying to sleep. No more car dings from people who don't know how to park, and no more being nervous about walking my dog through the neighborhood. 

I have done  a lot of drive by's at different times of the day and night in the new neighborhood so I think I have a pretty good idea about the peacefulness, and how well they maintain the exterior of the properties and that sort of thing. Snow removal was a big one for me, so I also drove through after a good snow fall. I probably do things a little different than most people, it is all part of the inherent quirk, I think. Location was more important to me than finding the dream house. I picked the neighborhoods first, then checked out the affordable housing available. This poor housing market has really been a boon for me, since there has been so much to choose from in my price-range. 

But I won't really feel like it is happening for real until I actually have those keys in my hand, but there it is. I am prepared to move at the end of June regardless, hence the packing- I don't like to leave things for the last minute. 

I also didn't want to tempt karma so I have put aside any practical joking business until the deal was sealed. 

I'd rather be Knitting!

Vegas was a pretty good time, and it was pretty good to me. Four days and four nights only cost me $300 in gambling...not too shabby. That means they gave me way more than I gave back since I came away with almost as much as I took with me.

(shopping not included-that is an entirely separate fund of course).

We stayed and played at the Big Apple (NY NY)

Then played at the MGM Grand and watched the men play with the big kitties.
(not on your life would I ever get inside there!!)

POWER WALKED our fat butts all the way to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch one day (and more shopping of course). Then we found out there was a shuttle that could take us the three flippin' miles back to the strip!
The lunch and shopping was well worth the long walk tho, (at least us girls thought it was).
My crazy brother-in-law-type-person (A fellow hillbilly) decided he wanted to ride the XScream at the top of the Stratosphere (insane). So we all dutifully watched him take his ride from the very windy observation deck at the top, with our hearts in our throats. I don't think these pictures do the height of the building and the rides justice.

We were waaaaaaay up there!

Here is Tuck (third one from the front with his hands in the air- crazy fool) Mind you this patricular ride throws you over the edge of the building and suspends you there. Towards the end of the ride we all heard Tuck yell out that he could not feel a certain part of his anatomy that is better left unmentioned. Altho it did generate a hearty chuckle out of the onlookers on the deck. ;)Our last full day we went about in an nice easy stroll. (That power walking spousal-type apparently decided he had enough and spent the entire day in bed- so much the better for the rest of us).

We stopped at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. The figures were so real looking it was totally creepy. Creepy but very cool. There was also a surprise in the museum, which I won't spoil for anyone who might go there. I highly recommend taking a camera to the museum and making sure you make a pit stop prior to the surprise show!!

(Note the Caution sign above)

Tuck and Twig with the Blue Man Group

Tuck bumping it up with erm- somebody or other.

I'll just bet you never saw a Twig pole dance before...LOL
We were worried that he might throw a branch or something.
( I think this was Britney Ho - I mean Spears)

Tuck and Stevie singing Ebony and Ivory... ok -so Tuck was singing, Stevie just sat there.



And here is the result of my airplane knitting. Fingerless glove #1 for that boy who probably won't even wear them if he runs true to form. I slept the entire way home so I really only knit on the way there.

Quite frankly, I was so exhausted after the trip that I could not wait to get back to work and the two 12 hour shifts waiting for me this week!! I think I truly would have rather have stayed home and knit on my vacation.