I Guess I'm "It"

I don't like Meme's and I don't believe I have ever did one. I do like the blogger, Girl Meets Needle, who tagged me, so what the hell, here I go.

Here's how it works:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about Knitting Kitties.

1. I never wanted to be a nurse. I registered for nursing school because of a dare from a friend. The good thing was I ended up loving it. Bad thing I hurt my back at work nine years ago and haven't been able to work since.

2. My two middle toes are double jointed. As a child I could put my foot flat on the floor and wiggle my toes back and forth to gross out my mother. She said it looks like worms popping out of their holes.

3. We once had 18 pets all at the same time. 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 bunnies, 2 parakeets, 2 hamsters, 3 hermit crabs, 1 guinea pig, 1 turtle, 1 anole lizard and 1 gold fish. My youngest was in kindergarten at the time, his teacher loved us because we brought the caged animals in for show and tell. Yes, I ended being the cage cleaner so when they died they weren't replaced. "Mom, I'll take care of it, really, I will."

4. I drove from NY to Tucson, AZ through an ice storm, one small blizard, and a huge blizzard in Missouri and Oklahoma in 60 hrs. We missed being in the middle of a 100 car pile up on the Oklahoma Turnpike by mere minutes because I had to use the restroom.

5. I've wanted to write a novel since I was 7 or 8, doesn't matter if gets published. Little House and Judy Blume's books held me captive back then.

6. I told my second grade teacher, "God made fast people and slow people. He made me a slow person. If you want me to move faster then you have to talk to God." When she told to speed it up and move faster. My mom got called in over that one.

That was harder than just writing a regular post. I'm going to break rules 4 and 5 and not tag anyone. If you want to do this go ahead.

We've been hit with storms from the west. My joints are hollering. I've been dying SW Merino, BFL fiber and merino/silk fingering wt yarn for a big shop update after Christmas.

The sock yarn God's ignore my prayers from the big for me order I placed before Rhinebeck. It's taking me awhile to get it all dyed up. So far, I've only sold one skein. I'm seriously considering just sticking to selling fiber. We'll see how it goes after the holidays.

I have ten sock blanks and dyed five for the shop. Fiddling about my stash, I found some winter camouflage fabric I bought long ago to make DS#1 pants. It reminded of the green camouflage yarn my exMIL bought and made DS#2 a hat. We were disappointed how stripey and not really like camo at all. So, I dyed up a couple blanks with a camouflage in winter and princess (for girls). I think I should dye one for myself and knit it to see how it really turns out.

Fiber Friday

After yesterdays mass cleaning and festivities, I'm barely able to move today. Between the severe sciatica, muscle fatigue and arachnoiditis (nerve pain caused by the dye in a mylogram) that has been acting up the past couple weeks, I've spent most of the day napping.

I lay down for a bit after dinner, not planning to fall asleep, but I did. Usually, in the winter, when I lay down after dark I turn the bedroom light on, so if I fall asleep when I wake up, I'll know it's the same day. Tonight I forgot to do that. So, after I had slept for about a half an hour I woke up and thought it was 8:00 am Saturday. I argued with Duane for several minutes before he convinced me it was still Friday.

For this weeks Fiber Friday, there really isn't anything new to show. I've been working on spinning a custom order and in between spinning the other 8 oz of Avalon to finish my sweater.

So, I'm announcing a sale at my Kreative Kitties store this weekend. I was going to make it until Sunday night but since Monday is Cyber Monday I decided to extend it an extra day. It's 10% off everything. Free shipping for US residents for $75.00 purchases after any discounts.

International customers receive $5.00 off shipping for $75.00 after any discounts. $7.50 off shipping for $100.00 after any discounts, it goes up $2.50 for every $25.00 from there.

I'll be adding more stuff over the weekend. Crossing fingers for some sunshine for picture taking, as the sun has been in hiding the past couple days here.

This pretty alpaca still has not yet sold, so it will be there until Sunday, unless someone snaps it up.

I Can Haz Spinning

Not the post I wanted to write tonight, but I'm feeling really achey and very fatigued. Fatigue has been kicking my butt for awhile now. I did get some dying accomplished this weekend, though not all I wanted to do.



Superwash BFL in the oven. Pink and blue stuff on the left merino/angora/silk. Two on the right SW BFL. All will be listed on etsy in the next few days. I'm in the process of dying BFL and SW merino.

A couple weeks ago, after I had weighed out some SW BFL for dying, the cats grabbed one 4oz. ball and attacked it. In their defense, it did smell quite sheepy. The usual suspects were rounded up and thoroughly interrogated. No one would fess up. A small sample with cat spit evidence has been sent to the crime lab for analysis.

Meantime, what to do with the wool, as I won't sell absolutely prefect product. It looks as though the Cubs will make it the playoffs this year. So, I dyed it mostly royal blue (superwash fiber sucks dye like crazy.) To fix the lighter spots, I'll kettle over dye the finished yarn, with more royal blue. So, tattered wool will become lucky Cubs play off socks.

I'll leave you with pictures of Bootsie, one of the suspects. Is she guarding, or waiting for lessons?



Looks like she might have given up.



Really given up.

In The Pink

It's pink day. Yesterday was pink, I know. Duck's favorite color is pink, I think she sends me telepathic messages when I dye. Here she is in her sweater. I still need to sew on the buttons. Ack! I don't know why, but I dread button sewing.



I cropped out some of the clutter.

It's been an FO for awhile and posted in Ravelry three times, I present you my Maude.
Specs:
yarn: 3 ply 22wpi handspun merino/angora/silk, dyed in splotches of pink, coral and peach. After it was dried, I was excited to spin and totally forgot to get pictures of the fiber. I split the top lengthwise in 3 sections and weighed each. Broke off a piece here and there so all weighed the same. My scale must have burped or maybe it was my spinning, but I had enough singles left on one bobbin to Navajo ply 56 yards. (small skein next to the ball) Out of 8oz, 945 yards, I had 2.2 oz about 220 yards (I'm estimating with the yardage) leftover.

needles: size 2, 5 and 3 US I used the 2's for the neck ribbing, 5's for the lace and 3's for the body ribbing.

Pattern: Maude

It was a simple enough pattern. The charts for the beginning of the lace were a bit confusing, but I figured it easy enough. I'm a 34 bust and I used the size for 32-34, it has a bit of ease, I need to grow a third boob in the center to fill it out.

(click for bigger)



I have more of this fiber, I'm going to dye in shades of violet, blue and turquoise. If I decide to make this again, I think I'll make the neckline smaller. It keeps drooping off my shoulders. I'm thinking of just using the basic shape as a baseline and create something different.

In the theme of this title, I update Kreative Kitties with a few things today.



Finally, Dammit wants to know why is the child laying on the floor, is she awake?