One Crazy Fiber Lady

Monday mornings are just tough!  It was such a great weekend.  Saturday was downright fabulous.  The weather was gorgeous.  Unfortunately I was only able to spend about two hours at Jessica’s house for her gathering.   I finished off the first sleeve for the Shaped V-Neck (sorry no pictures of it today)  and that was the last of the knitting until the train this morning when I started the second sleeve.

Saturday even was the first seder and beginning of the Passover holiday.  While my sisters and their families did not make it, my uncle (mother’s brother) and aunt, and my aunt’s friend did.  We had a lovely, if irreverent and short seder.  The twins were getting hungry and were entering the danger zone.  So we hit on the highlights (plagues, four questions, etc.) and when questions arose, like the yearly “What is murrain?”, I pulled out my trusty Macbook and googled it.  (Murrain is a disease of cattle and sheep.)

Sunday I lazed about, as did the kids mostly.  The folks took them shopping for a bit in the afternoon as they had earned enough good behavoir stars on their chart to get a present.  I sat first with my friend the xBox working on Jewel Quest and then my Macbook on a super secret geek project.  I must say, I love my Macbook.  It is one of the few toys that gets regular usage (xbox too as when I’m not playing it, mom is) and I’ve never had even a moment of buyer’s remorse with it.

I’ve decided that it is time to finally do something about my diet.  Back a few years ago when I quit smoking, I gained a few pounds as people normally do.  Once the cigs were kicked, it was time to tackle the weight.  I tried lo-carbing and it worked beautifully for me.  I lost the weight and felt better than I had ever felt.  My energy level was at an all time high.  This period was then followed by several years of fertility drugs and finally a twin pregnancy, during which I tried to right-carb, but still I’ve several pounds over where I’d like to be and at my heaviest even including the post-smoking high.  Yeah, well below the 36wk mark with twins, but high enough.  To that end, I’ve decided to go back to lo-carbing and what better time than Passover when most of the bad things are verbotten anyway!  I want to loose about 15 lbs.  Thanks to everyone who will now mention that I don’t need to loose weight, but really, I do.  So far so good.

Craft on!

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While on the train this morning, I kept building a post in my head while I knitted away on Shaped V-Neck.  I’m feeling like I’m pulled in a hundred different directions, trying to do so many things at the same time and doing none of them well.

My day is a long one.  The alarm clock starts at 6AM.  I get up and dressed early so I can then get the kids up/dressed/fed and out the door by 7:45.   Race across town to drop them at the daycare center.  Race across another town to the commuter lot all in time to catch the 8:24 train to Hoboken.  I get to the office (after a ferry ride from Hoboken and a 4 minute walk) where I worked until 5:25.  Reverse the commute, minus the trip to the school and I walk in the door just shy of 7pm.   Dinner.   Change monkeys for bed starting at 7:30, get them into bed at 8.  Yell at them to get back into bed and go to sleep already at 8:15, against at 8:30.  Relax {ha!}.  Into bed ideally by 10:30, though recently that’s been more like midnight.  Rinse.  Repeat.  I feel like the little guy in that picture.

I don’t know.  There’s got to be more than this.  Maybe I’m just tired and need a vacation.  

Last night I had a Parent-Teacher conference with the kids’ preschool teachers.  The monkeys were again deemed very sweet kids, very caring, and all around normal.  Whew.  They seem pretty odd to me ;)  Since they miss the kindergarden cutoff by 9 days, they won’t be going into KG in the fall, but will be staying in preschool for another year.  Discussing whether to keep them in the same preschool class, or move them to the other 4/5 year old group, we decided (teachers, director and me) to keep them in the same class. 

Yesterday was also the town’s school board elections.  Tacked on as a question as a budget referendum to move to full day kindergarden starting this fall.  Currently, the town only has half day with an after/before school program at one of the town elementary schools that they bus the little ones to/fro.  Most of the area towns have been moving to full day KG and my town has seen a huge jump in head count in first grade rather than KG as most parents need the full day coverage.  The measure passed by ONE vote.  Glad I raced across town after the P-T conference and before having to relieve the folks so they could get out in time to teach the boating safety course. 

I think I’m just rambling now and need some sun and yarn time!  Pst, there’s a nifty new counter I scripted up yesterday that is counting down the days to MDSW (and when its done with that will switch to NYSW).  I can’t wait.

I leave you with this interesting link that was forwarded through one of my mailing lists.  For each word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.  For my part, I managed to donate 1020 grains this morning :)  Those two years of latin in high school continue to pay off! 

Craft on!

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milestones

Originally uploaded by CrazyFiberLady

We’ve hit another milestone somewhat later than some and earlier than others. Kat had her ears pierced today. She was very brave and gave the merest of and “ouch” during the two at once piercing. Very smart that is just in case they freak, both ears are done. My little girl isn’t so little.

Craft on!

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For the non-code peeps,  that roughly translates to “Quiet is not Good”. 

I don’t know why, but I’ve been seriously slow in learning that lesson.  Especially when applied to children being quiet.    Thanks to the weather, I worked from home yesterday.  And since I was such a chicken about driving, I didn’t really want to take the youngin’s out either.  So they stayed home too and played.

Late morning they had disappeared into Alex’s room and mom reported they were watching tv in there.  They weren’t killing each other and were blessedly quiet.  I know.  My first tip off.  A while later I walked by and saw Alex giving a toy duster a trim.  Messy but not really a problem.  I told him to quit it.  Quick motion by the girl child who spun around and sat on the floor.    When queried as to what she was doing, she replied with “Nothing” and the innocent but not innocent smile. 

A little prodding produced a small pile of hair on the floor tucked under her and her tush length hair somewhat more ragged looking than normal.    This was the day that I’d been dreading and hoping wouldn’t happen.  You see, she’s never had a haircut other than my trimming her bangs.    Can’t say that anymore…

 
This was Kat’s handiwork.  Note the small section that still reaches the chair and beyond.  We called that stuff her baby hair.  The waves are from the braids I put this stuff into every night as it knotted terribly.  The baby hair didn’t help there.   I’ve been meaning to give her a trim, but seriously, not this much!  Anyway, after lunch, I evened her out a bit…

That’s 8″ long.  I now have it in a rubberband and tucked away.  One bath and hairwashing later, I trimmed better as the braid waves were gone.  Here’s my little girl now.

It looks cute and yes, took less time to do, but I miss the long hair.  As she told me yesterday amidst her tears “It will grow back”. 

Do I need to mention that today is picture day at school?

Craft on!

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Well, its more like a weekly update at this point.   I know it is either feast or famine when it comes to my posting.  I do apologize for that.   I write a lot of posts.  In my head at least.   I snap lots of photos and eventually connect the camera to one of the many computers in my life.  Actually there’s a new one of those for me to support as I finally rebuilt one of my OLD desktops (a 500mhz celeron) so that Alex could play on one and get off my dell laptop.  Kat has one of my mother’s old hand-me-downs in her room and plays Reader Rabbit and Calliou on it.  Fair is fair, right?  Anyway, I had started futzing with Alex’s machine about a month ago only to find that the hard drive in there had died leaving the machine without its primary operating system.  It is fixed now and running and oldie but goodie, Windows 98

I saw this gorgeous sunset last week, I think it was Thursday as I made my way home.

It was a warm night for February and I rode outside on the top deck of the ferry.  You can just see the Statue of Liberty in the distance there.  As always, click to make big.  Surely isn’t that nice today!  We had blizzard conditions that left us with a dusting of snow.  It was a brisk 27F when we came home from a dinner out at Bennigans.  Brrrrr.  Nice to have warm indoor hobbies.

I apparently have my sock mojo back after losing it for far too long.  I cast on one  Monday morning on the train, in KnitPicks something or other in the Firefighter colorway.   This is how I commute, knitting and iPod on knee.  I’m currently re-watching old Battlestar Galacticas in preparation for the upcoming new season.   I can’t wait for that!

I have my first finished socks for the year.  The mojo is back in spades.  These are stockinette socks with short row heel, short row toe over 54 stitches.  The yarn is Sweet Georgia in some colorway or other, I’ve sort of lost the tag.

The truly amazing thing with these socks?  I knit the first one yesterday in about 40 minutes and the other this afternoon (after finishing Alex’s computer).  How did I do that?  With one of these!!!!

After almost a decade of looking, reading and coveting, I finally bought one.  This is a Canadian Auto Knitter that I bought from a local NJ fiber buddy who is upgrading to a NZAK.  It has 72/36  cylinders, electronic counter and a plethora of other accessories.  She even gave me a lesson in how to use it when I stopped on by yesterday.  I’m digging it.  I do think that that lesson combined with my experience with flat bed knitting machines has made the steep learning curve pretty flat.  I haven’t tried ribbed sock yet, but woohoo, the first pair is done.  AND better yet, I made a nice pair with yarn I didn’t really enjoy hand knitting with.  Maybe that mountain of sock yarn will become a mole hill

Finally, Deb, Jessica and Eva have awarded me with the “Make my day award”.  I’m terribly honored.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  You all make my day.

Craft on!

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..it pours. 

I blame it on the game fumes… or the guy behind me on line.

I got the shipping notice from Sears that the Wii was shipping.  Swell right?  Yes.  Pretty much.  I figured I’d pop on over to the locally convenient Gamestop and see if they had the doodads I wanted for it, if not I’d order those too ([amtap amazon:asin=B000KRXAGE] and [amtap amazon:asin=B000ME252U]).

It was as I was standing on line as the nice feller behind the counter piled up my stuff that I mentioned that my Wii was on the way.  He jokingly chastised me for not buying one from him.  Ha!  Tried that for weeks.  Guess what they had in stock?  Yeah.

They two dudes suggested I buy it NOW instead of waiting.  Heck, I could always return the other to the local Sears, right?  And I’d be saving shipping too!  Better yet, I can take my second one and stick it on eBay….

Look what’s under my desk:

I sure hope the monkeys like it.

Craft on!

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I got a few comments/questions about the new lace project out of handspun. The singles haven’t been prepared in any special way. I’ve done nothing more with it than let is sit first on the bobbin and then in the center pull ball since I finished spinning it a few months back. I had a discussion with Cheryl at Mass this year about knitting lace with singles and I’ve been meaning to try it since. Blocking will take care of any biasing that will occur because the yarn isn’t balanced. I’m very happy with the results so far! This isn’t a great picture by a long shot, but you get the idea of where it is going.

I did a little spinning today. I managed to finish off two oz of a merino/tencel blend that I bought from Sheep Shed at NYSW’07. I’ve actually finished spinning the solid pumpkin colored merino but do need to ply it. The two yarns are earmarked for Eunny’s Argyle Vest.

I had a reminder of my past as a prolific sock knitter. You see, I’d run out of clean hand knit socks and well, it was time to wash. Yeah, I hate laundry. Very much. So today, in order to avoid cold foot syndrome during the chilly commute, I decided it was finally time for the ritual washing of the socks. I didn’t realize I had so many until I laid them all out to dry. That’s 6 feet of mat that they are drying on.

I think I have my issues with the editor worked out. I did a little googling yesterday and tripped on the whole shift+enter for paragraph breaks. There’s also an acknowledged problem with using the TinyMCE with Safari on a Mac. Any surprise that I’d been using Safari on my macbook? Yeah, now I’m using Firefox to write this. The proof is in the actual post though.

Last night I had a great deal of fun taking advantage of XBox Live and the ability to chat long distance for naught by my membership fee. Liz and I played games together online. It was way cool! Until I had a brain fart and shut down the xbox before saying goodbye. I was busy chatting with her, finished up a game I was playing and then we decided it was time to call it a night. It wasn’t until the thing had powered down and the headset was now silent that my brain kicked back into gear and I realized my mistake. Chalk it up to being a noob in the online gaming arena. Other than a couple of ass-kickings that I took a bunch of years back playing Quake 3 over dialup with a bunch of college guys (who’d frag me as soon as I’d respawn) most of my years of gaming have been solitary and/or local. The ex-h and I used to play NHL on the Genesis. Yes, I’m dating myself a bit now

Okay, time to get the crazy monkeys into bed. Tomorrow is a school/work day.

Craft on!

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I hate when other days of the week try to disguise themselves as Monday.  Having yesterday off means that today, Tuesday, filled that thankless role.  And boy did it fill it with a pretty suckish day.Somewhere between getting on the ferry in Hoboken and getting to my office building I discovered that I lost my ticket holder.  In said holder was my train monthly pass, my ferry monthly pass, 2 extra one-way ferry tickets, metro card and building id card.  Sigh.  I’m pretty sure it fell out of my pocket when I pulled out my iPod on the boat to turn it on.  It hasn’t turned up in the L&F at either end of the ferry trip.  I’m hoping that it turns up tomorrow.  Damn.  In the meantime, I have to buy more stinkin’ tickets.  I won’t replace the monthly tickets as that is silly at this point in the month, but I have 7 days left in this month.  Wouldn’t it figure that my mail today delivered my February pass?!  

The monkeys are more like mutants this evening.  Neither wants to listen and they are just running around like short crazy people.  I can’t even begin to fathom how Alex got toothpaste on his foot and the tank of the toilet in my bathroom.  I don’t even want to try.  I’d stick them on eBay but I doubt they’d sell.  No one in their right mind will buy a used preschooler

I did do a little knitting on the train, made it into the third color section, solid plum on Dacapo.  Sadly, it is crap to try and take pictures of.  I’m using a 24″ Addi lace in US2 and the cable is far too short to allow said pictures.  I need to get a longer one.

I think I’m going to spend some serious time this evening unwinding at the wheel, transferring all this twistiness someplace else!

On the new blog note, just like Deb let me know that she had trouble writing a comment because of a demand by the blog for both cookies and javascript, if someone else has any problems, suggestions, etc please let me know:  crazyfiberlady AT gmail DOT com.  (risa AT crazyfiberlady DOT com also works.)  I’d very much appreciate it.  I’m trying various plugins with WordPress to find what works and what doesn’t.  Spamfree sounded promising but like the capcha at Typepad that captures more humans than bots, nothing is perfect.  I’m trying something else now.

 Craft on! 

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Do I need to mention that I’ve been busy since the last post?  Nah, didn’t think so.  I’ve been slowly moving/editing to get photos from older posts in place.  I’m good up through Oct. 2006.  I think.  I also started working on the finished items gallery.  You’ll notice in the sidebar, a link to a single page, the gallery.  I took a lead from Wendy and opted for the single page containing links off to the actual FO’s.  I’m slowly slogging my way through the FO gallery on typepad and building those pages here.  You’ll see only a few as I work my way backwards.   Time.

What else has been going on?  Well, Thursday I succumbed to the stomach virus that has been making its rounds through the family.  Alex started it.  It wasn’t pleasant.  I worked from home that day.  More surprising, I was able to get a great deal accomplished. 

Friday, the tummy was better, but I was home anyway.  I had a leftover vacation day from 2007 that I had arranged to pair with MLK and take an extended weekend.  It was no day of rest.  Nope.  I spent the day arranging and cleaning my bedroom closet, which I’d been meaning to do since I moved into this bedroom.  I had an amazing amount of yarn jammed in there, as well as spinning supplies and forgotten projects, and the normal closet things of clothes and shoes.  Lots of shoes.  An amazing supply of shoes when you consider the difficulty I have in buying shoes with my ridiculously sized feet.   But I digress.  I spent the day organizing, rounding up needles and the like.  Closet is now workable and I have a better grip on what is in there.  I also have no business buying yarn.  Ever again.  Maybe this year will be the year of the successful yarn diet.

The rest of the weekend, today included, has been a mix of children, knitting, XBox and spinning. Oh and yes, I have a new neighbor!  Sunday, Kat and I helped (Alex showed up with Pop later) our new neighbor unload some of her stuff in her new abode.  Click on over and wish her the best in her new place!  I’m looking forward to the upcoming dye workshops in her super fabulous extra kitchen, not to mention a SnB buddy on the train.  Welcome Jessica.

Sorry, no pictures of the spinning.  I’ve been slowly, and regularly spinning having silently joined the SpinMoreJanuaryAlongThing.  I’ve been trying to get in a half hour every day at least.  Been pretty successful on the whole.  I’m making my way through the pounds of black corriedale roving that I had processed from the 2006 Rhinebeck fleece.  I’m working up all the singles, winding off bobbins into cakes and numbering in order and then will ply them together when there is no more raw fiber.  I’ve lost count, but at some point, I figured out I get some 4 bobbins out of one cake of roving.  I’m into the second cake and have 3 more to do. 

Active knitting this week has been more work on the vest that I’m knitting for Alex.  I’m using an old Ann Norling basic pattern and some Rowan Tapestry that I got on eBay.  Good stuff that is!  I have the back done and have, after a week, finally cast on for the front.

I finally put in some more time on Kauni’s first sleeve.  I haven’t been schlepping her on the train (that’s Dacapo’s position right now) as trying to balance the chart holder is a pain, and well interferes with watching video on the iPod Touch (just put Live Free or Die Hard on it for this week’s commuting pleasure, along with the final disk of Black Donnelly’s).  That’s made Kauni home knitting for when I have most brain cells intact.  I’m about a 1/3 of the way through this sleeve now and honestly, I’m very glad that I got my brain in gear and decided that the pattern wasn’t too big for the sleeve.  I’m loving how it looks.

Well, time to go knit a bit before bed.  Tomorrow is a work day and I’m tired.  Mom and I stayed up too late playing on the Xbox last night.   Should I mention that Alex has been playing Call of Duty 2?  He’s actually pretty good when he can manage both sticks.  Poor guy.  He’s a future gamer all right!  These apples didn’t fall very far from this tree

Craft on!

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Finally a real post, eh? Yup. I figure this might hold y’all over while I get this new home unpacked and set up as we all like it. Please ignore the boxes piled up all over. I’m dealing with them slowly as I decide where to put things. I have some ideas, now I just need the time

I have definitely still been knitting though, even finished an object! This is the first FO of the year. Amazing. I finished it Tuesday of last week, I think. I need to check my ravelry info to get the real dates, but tuesday feels right. It was a super quick project.

And now that the weather has gotten cold again, I will get to wear it. Tomorrow even.

As I had a dirth of sweater projects in thin yarn on tiny needles

I started another one this weekend.  One that has been marinating in stash now for just over a year!  One that has lived just outside my bathroom door for months now and has taunted me daily from there.    Meet Dacapo!  My first Hanne Falkenberg kit.  Loves it.

This is the kit #8, black/plum/blueberry.  I took this picture this morning on the way to the office.  You probably figured that out by the presence of sunlight!

I then took this picture so as to not appear to weird, though there’s little danger of that in NYC!

How’s that for a view?!  And I get to see it twice a day, more if I go thataway for lunch.

Anyway, I’m tired, been hacking too late too many nights in a row now (was futzing with the iPod Touch this evening - Apple’s charging $20 for the phone apps to install on existing Touchs that will be free for new ones - really pissed me off.  One word.  Jailbreak.  ) so I’ll leave you with this last picture.  Poor Serendipity had to go to the groomer again.  Like the long haired females in this house, Kat and myself included, she has a knotting problem.  While I am able with some bribery get Kat’s knots out, sadly, Sara got too bad, too fast for me to tackle.  Mea culpa.

There was no alternative.  The sad thing is that her coat took forever to grow back after last year’s shaving (like  I have a clue where to find that link now?!) somewhere in December.  She barely had an undercoat until about October.  Poor thing.  Which reminds me, I have a bit of a knot in my hair too.  Time to start wearing braids like my daughter.

Craft on!

PS - I did a little hacking around with my feeds.  Getting auto updates from here probably will be determined by when/what feed address you used to subscribe before.  Check the feed setting in your reader.  If it has typepad, you’ll unfortunately need to update it.  If it is for my own domain, you should be cool.  Another option, not that I think I’ll be moving again {snicker - this is the third home in just over 3 years}, you could use the feedburner link as that can be changed without any pain to you dear readers.

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