spinning out of control

My last post certainly garnered some interesting comments.

"Ha Ha another one who has joined the slippery slope of spinning. Watch out spinning wheels and fibre can breed. Jan 2010 no wheel. Feb 2010 one wheel and under 500 gms of fibre. Fast forward to April 2011 - 4 raw fleeces to process, large tub of fibre tops and silvers + another box. 2 wheels, 5 spindles and I am heading to wonderwool in wales next weekend... Once you get fibre in the blood watch out....." - Kataatok

Is he/she trying to tell me that in 13 months I'll either be divorced or hubby will be sleeping in the garage?

"You'll be buying fleeces next!! Remember, she who has the most fibre when she dies, wins! Hehehehehehe" - Sharon in Surrey

I already win in the yarn/fabric/shoe stash category. I don't need another win.

This one scares me the most:

"I am awaiting the arrival of wheel #4, which should hopefully be here today. Just letting you know what you're in for :)" - Loren T

So the gist is that I'm doomed? Well then, let's get started!



This is 3 ply, 283 yds (116g) of sportweight spun from some lovely organic Romney/silk that I picked up from Penelope's booth last month (before I bought the wheel ::cough::).


All washed & whacked and ready for the sock needles.

While I was out yesterday, I fell into a yarn store and came home with more roving to spin. Today, I'm falling into another yarn store because 4 bobbins just isn't enough.

When we were in Hawaii, I found a Williams Sonoma store. Never been in one before and it certainly was an eye opener (and a wallet drainer). I want one of everything! But luggage space was tight so I limited myself to a very special set of cookie cutters.


It's an invasion of Storm Troopers! Break out the light sabers!!!!

To be even geekier, I made hubby pose with the Vader cookies wearing a very special t-shirt.

still here

I am not my usual self these days. I am battling a mysterious pain in my mouth/jaw. I've been to the dentist 3 times in the last 2 weeks. Two dentists can't figure out what's wrong. I've been xray'd and poked and prodded. And those salt water rinses are gross. I have one more appointment scheduled for this week where they will check to make sure my nightguard fits properly. If it's fine, I need to make an appointment with a specialist.

In a fit of knitting last week, I got the birthday present finished and in the mail. I hope it gets there in time. I'll post pictures when it arrives.

This weekend, I snagged hubby into taking some decent pictures of me in the Helleborus Yoke Cardi. Compare these pictures to the pre-block ones:


It lengthened a lot and I think that explains why it got smaller in the bust.


Stitches tend to stretch more widthwise and since this garment is constructed in the opposite direction than a traditionally seamed sweater, the horizontal stretch that you expect is now in the vertical direction.


I've worn it a few times and I'm ok with the fit. Too bad Sis! Phhhhhbbbbt!!! If she wants one, she'll have to knit it herself.


These pictures make me cringe when I think about how badly that boxwood needs pruning.

On Fri, I stopped at Costco to pick up a bag of potatoes and I also came home with 6 pounds of mussels which forced me to make a side trip for bouillabaisse supplies.


One of my better impulse buys. LOL! The crusty bread dipped in the broth was the best part.

starter-itis

What do you do when someone gives you a starter and you don't want to bake every 10 days or drive your friends insane by handing out starter dough? You use it all up.


That's 8 dozen muffins (cranberry/walnut, cranberry, raisin, and apricot) plus 2 cranberry/walnut loaves. My KitchenAid mixer worked really hard today.


Ricky sez: "Do you have to sing along with the Christmas music?"

my weekend in pictures

Too tired to type so you get pictures.

Deep fried oreos (look Nikki, I found some!) - bad for you, blah blah blah but oh so yummy!


I wasn't too much of a glutton - I shared with hubby.

Remember the band Glass Tiger? Apparently, I remember them and most of the lyrics to their songs (much to hubby's embarrassment).


And yes, I was KIPing and singing at the same time. Who knew I was that talented?

Yarn acquired in Whistler (in the pouring rain):


Impulse of Delight col. Mountain Mists.

all fun, all the time

We're having a peachy time over here.


We made jam - one batch of apricot and one batch of peach. We haven't eaten any of it yet so I don't know how it tastes. It's all in the freezer as we work our way through the rest of the cherries.


Yesterday, I got up at the crack of dawn so that I could crawl all over someone's garden and hang quilts for our little quilt show. I made the "Welcome" quilt in the above picture. The show was great. It seemed to be raining everywhere else (i.e. on hubby during his bicycle ride) except on our quilt show. My washcloths sold well and so did everyone else's boutique items. We raised a lot of money for our selected charity. I've posted pictures here. Enjoy.

Since I've been so busy, there hasn't been much knitting. The shrug is still lying there waiting to be grafted together. I started a baby sweater. I need to make 2 for a set of upcoming twins. I also warped the table loom with some black cotton. I'm going to make a scarf with some of my sock yarn. My top choices for yarn are: Jojoland Melody or Jojoland Quartette. The Melody has long runs of colour but the Quartette is incredibly soft because it's got cashmere in it. Hmmm... a tough decision.

knitting gods - 1; Dotty - 0

Well, the hemp shrug has temporarily stalled.


The top one is the first sleeve that I knit. The bottom is the one that I just stopped knitting. See how much yarn is left? There isn't enough to knit the last #%^@* row. Ugh! Why me? There's tons of yarn leftover from the first sleeve! The pattern says to bind off and seam the two pieces together. But I don't have enough to bind off. I'd have to rip back a whole repeat which would probably make the shrug too narrow across the back. So my plan is to knit an extra row on the other sleeve and then graft the two together and hope no one knows that the graft is one row off. That better work or I'm wearing something else to the wedding!

I'm going to make jam! For the very first time. I went to the store and bought stuff (jars and pectin packets) to make freezer jam. On our way home last week, we drove through the Okanagan which is fruit country. So we stopped at a fruit stand and went a little overboard buying local peaches, apricots, and cherries - 40lbs in total. We've given a bunch away but we can't possibly eat the rest before it goes bad so I'm going to make a batch of peach jam and a batch of apricot jam. I'm so excited!

mmmmm... bbq

Well, that was quite the adventure. I got stuck in rush hour traffic and by the time I got to Memphis Blues, hubby was already seated at our table. The Commerical Dr. one is dinky. It's an order/pick up kinda place. You go to the back and place your order and pay. When your order is ready, they yell your name out and you go get it and take it back to your table. Because we'd ordered the 3 course Valentine's special, they brought our meal to our table and took our empty plates away. Of course, the table service was bad but it's not something they do on a regular basis so I can forgive them.

There are no plates. The food is arranged on a grease paper covered wicker "tray" and you eat directly off it. We got forks because our meal included a salad. None of the other tables are set with cutlery.

You know it's a real BBQ place when there's a roll of paper towels on the table instead of napkins. There weren't any plastic bibs tho. I could've used one. I managed to get a grease stain on my shoulder and bbq sauce on my chest. That's ok because I wore a shirt with a chocolate milk stain near the hem. Yeah - I really "dressed up". LOL!

The food was awesome although, hubby wasn't impressed by the cornish game hen. The southern strawberry shortcake was neat. They used cornbread for the "cake" part. I didn't each much of it because I was really full and I'd already reached my cornbread quota of the evening by eating the piece that came with my salad (can you tell that I don't like cornbread?). Hubby likes their cornbread so he was quite happy to eat most of the dessert.

I definitely want to eat at Memphis Blues again but I don't know that I'd eat at that location. We probably had the worst table in the place - our view for most of the evening was the line of bums sitting on the stools by the eating bar. And I was cold because of the draft from the front door. They have 2 other locations that I think have a nicer setup because they have a larger space (large enough that they have live bands on the weekend).

And I can't post without a picture...


Ricky comes in just before we step into the shower and lies on the rug (cuz the tile floor is cold) by the floor register (that's blowing hot air). We call him "sauna boy". He's such a heat seeker.

definitely a snow day

The weather folks have been predicting snow for this weekend but not a lot of snow. When we got up this morning, there was just a light dusting on the ground so we headed out to do our regular food shopping. Imagine our surprise when we got home - 2-3" of snow had fallen in the hour we were gone.



Don't my beauty berries look cold? I called my sister to whine about the snow and she just laughed at me. Apparently, they're getting a severe cold front. Lows will hover around -27C/-17F (-41C/-42F with windchill; cold enough for frostbite) tonite. She told me that their new car doesn't have a block heater so they have to park it in the garage to prevent it from freezing solid. And their low tonite is their high for tomorrow so it's only going to get worse. I don't know how she can stand living there. Since she's stuck indoors, she is consoling herself by shopping for jewellry on eBay. At last count, she bought 2 rings and spent $400.

My fabric shopping trip was semi-successful - I did buy fabric but the construction took a bit more thought that I had anticipated. I found a quilt panel that I liked but it was a little too narrow so I bought some co-ordinating stripes for a border. I chose a backing fabric but there wasn't enough on the bolt for the panel plus borders (there was enough for just the panel). I bought it anyways. I'm good at fudging improvising. When I got it all home, I chopped off the top of the panel to make it a little shorter so that the overall dimensions would fit the size of the backing fabric. I machine quilted it and I just have to sew the opening shut and do a little hand quilting and it'll be ready for the baby. My friend is in labour and we're predicting that she'll deliver today. All of us are joking that since their first child was born during one of the worst snow storms in Boston, their second child will be born during today's snowstorm.


And as Turtle mentioned in yesterday's comments, fabric has a tendency to jump into your shopping cart. A little of this came home with me. I bought it cuz it's pretty (and purple).

Speaking of babies... A fellow knitter is pregnant and we're knitting a baby blanket for her. On Wed, I was given some yellowy yarn and some instructions. I rummaged around Ravelry and found a duckie dishcloth pattern and adapted it for the baby blanket. I whipped this up while watching some ST Enterprise yesterday night.


Too cute! I might make a few of these for wash cloths and give them to the nieces.

And what do you do when it's cold and snowy outside? You make some yummy congee (Chinese version of chicken soup) for lunch.


I cheated a little (don't tell Mom that I used store-bought stock) but I don't care. If you're wondering - the stuff on top of the soup is a combo of seasoned dried pork fluff, sesame seeds, and seaweed. Yum!

Looks like the snow has stopped. Guess I should help hubby shovel.

the aftermath

I feel like I've been sucked into a tornado and spit out the other end. Christmas started out quietly. The cat alarm rang just before 8am so we got up to feed them and proceeded to have a leisurely breakfast. Over brekkie, we opened up some presents that we weren't taking to my parents' house. My sil got my name in the Christmas draw and she gave me a gc to Three Bags Full (can't wait for their belated Boxing Day sale) and a pair of shoes to wear with my hand knitted socks.


For those of you who are thinking about buying a pair, they fit exactly the same as the Sloggers premium clogs. These are soooo awesome. I can't wait to wear them to the next knit nite.

The excitement level cranked up a notch or 2 when we got to my parents' just before lunch. It took us about 3 hours to get all the presents opened. My Dad tried to watch all the festivities but gave up and found a quiet corner of the house to have his daily afternoon nap. Smart man.

The nieces got spoiled. My parents got spoiled (Mom got a colour laser printer!) and so did everyone else. My sister got some spectacular jewellery from her husband. I got lots of great stuff - mostly books, mugs (one of them has a nudie gardener on it :), and a lot of knitting stuff: a knitting pattern-a-day calendar, Knit Picks Harmony dpns, Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Sock Book, and a kacha counter.

While we were opening presents, it started snowing! We rarely ever have a white Christmas so it was an extra special treat. Some of us (like the ones who live in the land of the many-foot snowdrifts) were less excited about the snow.

Hubby and I woke up early on Boxing Day and hit the sales. Hubby bought himself several games for his Xbox 360 (and he bought more today when I sent him out to run an errand) and we bought a few things for the computer/digital camera. But I spent more money than he did - I got myself a new pair of glasses. I didn't get the red one in the picture. I decided to play it safe and I got the navy blue ones.

We went to a big Boxing Day party yesterday night. My co-blogger gave me some yummy Apple Laine Apple Pie sock yarn in the colour 'purple haze'. Thanks, Gladys. It's sooo soft.


There was a ton of food. Our hosts made a turducken:


I got to carve this beast. It was pretty tasty.

Today, I slept in as much as I could and I've spent a good portion of the day playing with all my prezzies. I also knit a little on my Juno Regina stole.


There's a pretty big boo boo at the top of the lacy diamond but I'm not ripping back to fix it. It bugs me but not enough. I don't think many people will notice it. My sis just dropped off my bil so he and hubby are upstairs shooting things on the Xbox. Sigh... He's staying the night so I expect the gaming to go on until the wee hours in the morning. Sigh...

bbq and the white stuff

Phew! What a weekend! I finally finished the charted knitting on Anna's Christmas present. Talk about crazy. I can see that I will never knit one for myself because it would kill me to have that many stitches on the needle at one time. It should be smooth sailing from now on. I have hopes that I will finish in time even if it did take me over 2 days to knit 18 rows.

I finally yanked a bunch of pictures from my camera. Here's one of myself and Angela with the double maple leaf quilt that we made for her. She seems pretty pleased with it. And it's the first picture of me and my new 'do'. It's a lot shorter than before and I keep forgetting to use less shampoo in the shower.


Hubby worked late all week per his manager's request. And when the team works late, the company brings in food. Well... They brought in food from Mephis Blues BBQ House. I am a big fan of BBQ - in fact, many times we've eaten at Dem Bones on Valentine's Day because that's what I wanted. But over the years, Dem Bones has declined so I've been looking for a new bbq place. A few years ago, I heard about Memphis Blues. It's not very close to us so we've never managed to eat there. But all that changed when hubby ate it at work and didn't bother to bring me even a little scrap of pulled pork (he's brought me double chocolate chip cookies from previous work dinners). He knew I was disappointed so he ordered the Memphis feast to-go and brought it home for supper on Fri night. It was awesome!!!!!


This picture shows what's left - after we'd both eaten. See the drumstick at the bottom of the picture - that's an average chicken drumstick so that you can understand the size of that platter. When hubby walked in the door, he handed me the take-out bag and I nearly dropped it because it was so heavy. I weighed it - 7lbs 12ozs!!! In addition to the meat, there was a container of slaw, potato salad, beans, bbq sauce, and a packet of fries and corn bread. All the food was wrapped up in huge packets of tin foil (because they don't make take-out containers big enough?). We finally finished eating it all tonite. So the Memphis feast supplied us with enough food for Fri supper, Sat lunch, Sat supper (hubby only), and Sun supper.

So my party girl self went over to Angela's (same one as above) on Fri night for a Pampered Chef party. I bought a BBQ bottle brush, some bamboo cooking spoons, and a jar of the cinnamon sugar sprinkles. Yum!

I continued to party on Sat night when I went out to supper with the Quilters' Haven gang. Driving home was tricky because it snowed a lot while I was there. I took the flatest route home and still ended up kissing a curb coming down a hill. There was a pretty serious accident at one of the intersections. And today, we saw another accident where the trees won and the car lost.

Our snow covered house:


Hubby even measured the snow with his measuring tape.


Hubby and I were outside decorating the house while it was snowing - a first. Today, we put up the tree and decorated the living room while watching the snow fall. But it's started raining and the snow's turning to slush. Ick! Snow never really lasts out here which is fine by me because I have to head out tomorrow and do some shopping!