General Ramblings

Fibrey stuff first.
Because I am sometimes a brain-dead moron, I joined another thing that forces me to make stuff on a deadline. Lucky for me, this time it's just socks.


These are my August socks for SAM4. My usual plain 56 stitch sock with a lark's eye heel just to keep me from slipping into a coma. They're Sweet Georgia in a yarn and colourway I can't remember and the label has long since disappeared into that strange void where all the stolen dryer socks reside.
There's also new spindley goodness.


It's a KCL made out of maple with the whorl and finial dyed a greenish colour. Customs had it so long that I thought they were gonna keep it. Almost a month and they opened it. I'd love to know what they thought it was for. Maybe that's why they kept it so long.
You may have noticed the poll in the sidebar. If it seems a little pointed this time, that's 'cause it hits pretty close to home. One of our next door neighbors is a complete and utter idiot. He works shift-work and, I suppose, that makes it hard for him to sleep some nights. At least once a week, on a weeknight, he's out in his backyard chopping wood at about 1 am.
He does this on a concrete block patio in a (mostly) quiet residential neighborhood. We don't live in the back and beyond here, it's not quite city, but it's definitely not wilderness.
The noise is loud. Very loud. It is sometimes accompanied by drunken hoots and laughter. As he enjoys weekday wee hours of the morning partying. I lie in bed some nights waiting for him to chop of a toe, or something more necessary, and try to decide if I would help him or not. I know I'd feel guilty if I didn't help him, but maybe it would fade quickly with the quality sleep I would be getting in his absense.
Tough call.
Despite a distinct lack of sleep, things are going reasonably well around here on almost all fronts.
The designing thing is really revving up. Things are happening at a pretty break-neck speed. To say I wasn't prepared for this would be a gross understatement. But this seems to be the way my life has always gone along. I haven't ever really had a career as such. I went to university for a couple of years taking Kinesiology, went to college for a few years learning to build instruments and now the courses in knitting and spinning I've been taking seem to be leading me in another direction.
This road has never been dull. I've met athletes, musicians and creative geniuses. I've always been in the background, but it's still been pretty bloody cool. I wouldn't trade it for a stable desk job that paid me buckets. No way. I do wonder though, how these things always seem to just "happen" to me. I never go looking for it, it just lands on my plate and I have to decide whether to go for it or let it go by.
I'm not a "let it go by" kinda gal. I usually give it a good kick at the very least.
Right now, designing is getting a good kick. I've been getting great feedback and amazing support. Who would have thought there'd almost be more test-knitters than patterns?! WTF? And the ideas just keep coming.
Very cool.
I never would have guessed this was the next phase.

Buses, Trains and Automobiles

*Note: this post has been edited to allow me to protect just about everyone.*
So, last thursday I got on a bus at a completely ungodly hour to go to Seattle and get on a train to Portland. I took the early bus 'cause it had the best train connection, only half an hour. Sounds good, right?
Hah!
I wound up standing in the Seattle train station long enough to watch people walk straight onto the 10:30 train (mine was supposed to be the 9:45 one) and then watched as that train pulled out. I was still standing in the station waiting for my train to show up.
A bit of a piss off, but finally we pulled out at about 10:50. Things were looking good until the train came to a dead stop in the middle of nowhere, for no reason that I could see. The conductor came on the PA to tell everyone that a track was out of commission and we'd have to stop every so often to let trains go the other way. Greeeeeaaat. 'Cause it's not like we're already really late or anything. So I call Blank and let her know that my train is sucking the hind tit in a rather major way and I will be pretty damned late.
The train got to Portland only an hour late (I don't even want to know how they made up the time. Really. I don't want to know). Blank picks me up and we're off to blank.
Blank is really pretty. I loved it. Very quiet, and full of wildlife. I saw rabbits, deer, ground squirrels, a ton of colourful birds and a bunch of chipmunks on crack. Very twitchy those chipmunks.
It was great to see blank and meet her family. They were nice enough to put me up for a couple of days. Really lovely people. Thursday, Blank and I played with yarn and compared notes on the blank. There was a lot of brain-storming, but it never got overwhelming. Lots of fun!
Cat arrived on Friday and we went to Portland to get the hall set up for her talk and signing. Traffic was awful, making a lot of people late, but it worked out great in the end. And I think everyone had a good time. Cat's new book is pretty inspiring and I loved seeing her again. I think it had been a couple of years since I'd last seen her. She encouraged me to get on with the designs and the book sooner than later. She also said a lot of really nice things about the blank.
Blank introduced me to some fabulous (but sadly, blogless) people from around blank and Seattle. I'm hoping we'll keep in touch and take a trip to the Daiso sometime soon.
Saturday, we all left and let Blank have her house back. I went to stay in Blank with Doug and Angela in a little cottage at an Inn. We just relaxed and knit for the rest of the day.
This is the only picture fit to print:


The Inn had fresh eggs thanks to the chickens running around the grounds. Of course, I was thinking how good this guy would be kentucky fried when he woke me at 4:30 am on Sunday morning.
The drive back was long, but pretty entertaining. I have a great pic of Angela dozing the back seat, but I was mildly threatened into not posting it. She's small, but feisty.

Another great weekend

Holly and Orion and Denise came up from the states this past weekend to eat salmon and dim sum, go to Daiso and laugh at the folly that is the Stash room.
Angela and Doug joined us for salmon bbq and took everyone out to dim sum the next day. It was great. We drank rather a lot and I have pictures to prove it. A couple of them, I don't remember taking. One is down right incriminating.
I may be very wealthy if Angela ever wants to run for office. Mwahahahaha
I should have even better pics after this weekend. I'm off to Oregon for some work and play with more crazy creative people. I get to go to Cat's book signing too. I'm really looking forward to it.
Hopefully there'll be some pictures fit to post!

Makeup fibre heavy post

I've been a little neglectful lately of the fibrey aspects of the blog. A lot of the work going on around here in the last little while has been of the stealth variety, which makes crappy blog fodder. I have managed to get some regular stuff done though, including getting my spinning book back with a passing grade.
I tried to get this Ruby hoodie by Bee's Knees done in time for the big birthday bash, but it just didn't quite make it. I'll send it in a couple of weeks when all the other birthday stuff is put away. I was worried about it fitting, but it seems pretty roomy, so Aurora should get a a lot of wear out of it. We call it Kermit around here.


This crossover tee also got done somehow. It was too cool to wear it when I finished it and now it's too warm. Go figure.


I've done very little beadwork in the past year, and even though there's supposed to be bead content here, there's been next to none.
So, tada!
A peyote beaded bracelet that's not quite done.
Peyote beading is so cool. You can make a beaded fabric without a loom. It feels like snakeskin.
Hope the intended recipient likes it.


I did buy a little fibre for myself in Olds. This is some of the mill ends that I'm supposed to share with Irene. I have to admit, I was tempted to keep it all. It's so incredibly gorgeous! All natural shades and all very, very soft. I have no idea what's in there (that's half the fun of millends), but it feels wonderful and I can't wait to work with it.
I have to get more design work and spinning homework done first, but then I'm going to use it as a reward.
I really want to spin this stuff!
Thinking a three ply (for the tweedy effect) in a DK weight for a sweater.


Stop poking at your monitor. Touch-o-vision still doesn't exist.

A 22lb Spring with Cake

As you can see, the monkey was allowed to come home. He only caught one fish, but it's a doozy. 22lbs of wild BC salmon. He smoked half of it yesterday and we'll BBQ the rest with friends this weekend.
I love smoked salmon. I could probably scarf down the entire fish if it was smoked. I'd feel really sick, but I could do it. I'll be making pasta with ginger sauce and smoked salmon tonight. Mmmmmmm
The monkey only had a 28 hour layover at home and he was off to Philadelphia on business. He had cheesesteak, I got a fridge magnet of the Liberty Bell. Pretty sure I got the short end on that one. Although, I bet customs frowns on people bringing greasey bags of sandwich stuff into the country. National security and all.
This past weekend was the niece's first birthday. It went down as you would expect:


Lots of presents.
Birthday girl who had no idea what was going on.
Covered in icing before the inevitable...


Sugar rush and crash.