Knit... Spin... Dye... Code... Repeat

Garden Status as of Today

2008-07-19T09:54:00.001-05:00

I planted a garden earlier in the year with lots of different veggies. I thought I would share the progress of my attempts at a green thumb.

Here are some hungarian hot wax peppers, first of the season. I also planted jalapenos, bellpeppers, 5 varieties of tomatoes, broccoli, cucumber, acorn squash, lettuce and beans.

I also have some yarn to share! Here is 2 oz merino in dark green heathered fingerweight. I got 104 yds.

Well I know this is short, however lots of pictures and now I must get on with my weekend.

woot maybe I don't have the dumb.

2008-07-18T11:03:00.002-05:00

Your result for The Commonly Confused Words Test...

English Genius

You scored 93% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 87% Advanced, and 87% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!

For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

Take The Commonly Confused Words Test at HelloQuizzy

Unofficially doing the Tour de Fleece

2008-07-16T12:03:00.001-05:00

So, about a week ago I decided to take a late start and unofficially do the tour de Fleece.

1. I have finished spinning my fingering weight merino silk which is still drying 405 yds!!.
2. I finished 2 oz of 100% merino top in forest green heather spun to 104yds.
3. I finished 4 oz of chunky thick and thin merino in a dark green (not sure the yardage.)
4. Started 8 oz of seawool that will probably be my first lace project.

5. Spun a couple small 1 oz alpaca/sparkly/shiny batts that I drum carded myself.

At the same time I have been letting my knitting suffer, but I am almost done with the toe of my Noro afterthought heal socks.

One final note. I am using scriptfire plugin for Firefox to post this and it saves A LOT of time!

The best type of sick leave..

2008-06-23T08:50:00.002-05:00

.. is the kind that doesn't interfere with knitting or spinning.

This weekend was interesting. It all started Thursday evening when Matt and I went to see "The Happening" at the theater (don't see it, it was bad really bad, but that is another story). We came home and I had horrible stomach pains that wouldn't quit. I took some gas relief meds, and some Aleve, but everything that went in me came right back out, even water. Finally about 4am the pain was too much and I couldn't get comfortable in any position so I told Matt to take me to the hospital.
It was 4 am so there was no wait at the emergency room. They got me right in, took some blood did a couple exams and my white blood cell count was 23 (normal is 10). I didn't run a fever but I never do so luckily the blood test showed an infection. By 900 I had a cat scan on my abdomen and was on Morphine. By 1030 am the doctor diagnosed me with acute appendicitis. I had an appendectomy by 1230 and was in recovery and in my hospital room by 330 pm. I was really please with my hospital stay. I stayed one night and left Saturday at 330 pm. I am on doctor's orders not to drive, go to work, or lift anything above 15 lbs. They put me on Hydrocodone and feel pretty good. I can still knit and spin and type on the computer so I will probably keep up with my blog a lot more this week. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am OK and that Lake County Hospital East is a great hospital and I would recommend it to people for emergency care.

Silly Manager

2008-06-19T15:41:00.002-05:00

So one of the managers that I work with walks by the lab that I am in and sees me through the window. He walks in and asks, "What kind of drugs do you use to stay so calm?" ...

work

2008-06-19T08:38:00.003-05:00

Just got back from training for a new project that I am on at work. Crash course project that has to be validated by the end of the year. Sounds like a long time but it isn't when projects usually last 1-2 years. There is a post coming with nice pictures of all the things I have been up to. Crazy busy.. of course thats why I haven't posted.

Memorial Day Weekend!

2008-05-28T09:50:00.004-05:00

What a weekend!! Summer has arrived and was in full swing this weekend. It was gorgeous outside we didn't have a spot of rain and it was jammed packed with family and fiber fun!

Saturday
Great Lakes Fiber Festival in Wooster OH
Saturday I traveled to the middle of OH with my knitting friend Annie and got lots of fibery goodness. I also purchased a couple more bobbins for my spinning wheel and a cherry drop spindle. It has a very large whirl but it is still only 1.7 oz. I think I might get 1 more drop spindle of a lighter weight for bamboo.

Lots of fun animals ... sheep sheep and more sheep. There were also alpacas, goats and angora bunnies.
Hear is a great picture of a lady giving her bunny a hair cut. He wasn't very happy. As you can see she is putting the fiber in an old tissue box (very resourceful).

At 2pm there was a ravelry meetup at the food stand. It was really exciting to see the amount of people that showed up from around the area that also are on Ravelry.

Fairmount Center Art Show
My friend Meagan got one of her art pieces in to the Fairmount Show. Her piece is called fresh flowers and it is an interpretation of a photo posted in the Ravelry Picto Create group. It was displayed in a great location in the main room. We didn't stay very long but went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner with Meagan her husband and her mom and had great conversation.

Sunday
Allegheny Canoe trip!!!
Matt and I took a 2 1/2 hr trip down the Allegheny River.

Here is a great picture of the dam up at the starting place.

Matt and I stopped at an island and took a few minute break. There was a red wing black bird there with a nest. This bird was MAD AT ME!! I thought I was going to get pecked but she just yelled at me.

Later we went to the French Creek Tavern in French Creek, NY. They had some great wings, and I got to drink a Yuengling, which I miss greatly because they don't sell them in OH.

Monday
We stayed the night in Panama, NY at Matt's parent's house and went skeet shooting out on the property that day. I got to try a 28 gauge, 20 gauge, and 12 gauge shotgun and now I have a bruise on my shoulder from them. It was totally worth it though. I did get some really good shots in and I like the 20 gauge the best at this point.

I figured it was time for a new look

2008-05-07T14:11:00.002-05:00

I changed the title of my site and the template. I should probably make my own some day...

Its been a while ...

2008-04-28T09:21:00.004-05:00

As you can tell I haven't been around... mostly because it has been nice outside. We are planting a garden this year. We have a section of our yard that is not shady so we are going to grow lots of fun stuff. Carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, squash, peas, water melons, and cucumbers. I have all the herbs on the deck in boxes so they don't spread rapidly.

I have also been baking bread for my husband and I and purchasing our food at the west side market because it is like 3/4 the price than a grocery store. It is totally worth the drive currently.

This past weekend we finished ripping up one section of ground ivy in the front yard. This is very exciting but we still have half the yard left. We will be replacing it with hostas, ferns and other shady plants.

I will post some pictures of my recently finished projects as well as my current sweater. I am working on the flutter sleeve cardigan and I am about 3/4th up the back. I do plan on wearing it this summer/spring so I have been pretty monogamous with it.

Bitty Kitty Fibers is Opened for Business

2008-03-21T22:29:00.003-05:00

Please patron my store. there is a lot of great yarn there and more to come.

oh and look at what I have spun

I am currently making the cat ear hat from kitty knits

Bitty Kitty Fibers is on its way

2008-03-17T11:21:00.002-05:00

I am currently working on 7-10 different hand dyed color ways in many different yarns.
I currently have 5 developed and am working on more visually appealing yarns.

I will be offering wool blends to start and will eventually have hand dyed spinning batts and non wool yarns.

Stay tuned for more updates and previews and go to Bitty Kitty Fibers @ etsy

Blizzard of 2008

2008-03-13T21:45:00.004-05:00

Last weekend we got a lot of snow and it is still melting away. 18 inches all together. Here is an action shot of my husband snow blowing. We had to do the drive way 3 times to keep up. Go Matt go! The cats were super bored and kept blaming us for the weather. The would look at us and look outside and then look back up at us like, "Well, make it stop" I wish I was that all powerful but I have yet to figure out weather manipulation.

The cool thing about having a snow blower is it cuts a nice even edge of snow so you can measure the depth. This is the snow about half way through the storm.

winding down on the clapotis

2008-02-25T15:04:00.000-05:00

It feels like the Clapotis just won't end but as of right now I am on repeat 5 of the decreasing section. The middle straight section that is has been my arch nemesis for a few months now but that is over. I only recently have decided that it must be finished so when I want to knit that is what I work on. It is becoming done and I feel I am making progress. It is a beautiful creation, all in bamboo, bright red, orange and yellow. I feel very confident in this project. I will never make a "normal sized" clapotis again because of the pure monotony. However the bamboo works so well with the pattern it warrants another go maybe in blue and maybe in a skinny scarf. My MIL loves the yarn so much that this is what will be giving for Christmas. Time to plan ahead. My only problem now is that I ran out of yarn so I need one more ball in order to finish. I am getting it tomorrow so for now I get to spend energy on my sweaters that need attention... hmm maybe my purple alpaca lacy v sweater that is 75% away.

Presents from the postlady

2008-02-18T15:59:00.000-05:00

This weekend I went down to Pittsburgh, PA with 4 other ladies from the SnB of NE Ohio for the 4th annual Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival held indoors at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The whole conference area was taken up by about 35 different vendors, and lot of lots of yarn, fiber, and accessories. I forgot my camera so there will be no pictures of the actual trip BUT I will take pictures of the great items that I purchased. Believe it or not I didn't purchase any yarn, but I did buy some spinning and dyeing material.
2 oz of silk top
8 oz of Louet hand dyed pencil roving in Piccasso
1 jar of turquoise acid dye
1 felted kitty toy
1 circular knitting needle case (my needles were all shoved in a drawer)

Over all the trip was very successful. I had a lot of fun but need to save up my money for the next excursion that I go on now that I know what prices will be like.

In other news... Online purchases. Lets see...
Loop on Etsy package came over the weekend I bought 2 3oz 100% bamboo drum carded batts
colors ways include "Sweet Nothings" and "Chocolate Liqueur". So soft and gorgeous.

CrazyYarnLady on Ebay had a great price on a birch wood yarn swift. So I finally got one and man does that help with the yarn wrapping for dyeing.

I have been purchasing a lot of fiber on Ebay because of the prices there. I got a whole pound of soysilk and 8 oz of tencel top. These will be used for blending with the alpaca to give it more of a sheen. The same with the 2 oz of silk. (These 2 items have not arrived yet)

Knitpicks finally arrived today. I purchased a 11 different skeins for dyeing all fingering weight so we will see how they look. I will wrap them this week and plan a dyeing time this coming weekend. I also got some 40" circulars in size 1, 2, and 3 to learn the 2-at-a-time socks, a wpi tool for hand spun estimating and a color card for Palette for picking colors for an Alice Starmore sweater that I will eventually make.

I have been spinning a lot so here is a great alpaca hank that I made and finally plied and washed.

sick

2008-02-14T09:27:00.001-05:00

Ive been sick the past couple days so I will post soon. Stand by....

I hate early.... but that's not what this is about!

2008-02-05T16:57:00.000-05:00

"You're the time of day right around sunrise, when the sky is still a pale bluish gray. The streets are empty, and the grass and leaves are a little bit sparkly with dew. You are the sound of a few chirpy birds outside the window. You are quiet, peaceful, and contemplative. If you move slowly, it's not because you're lazy – it's because you know there's no reason to rush. You move like a relaxed cat, pausing for deep stretches that make your muscles feel alive. You are long sips of tea or coffee (out of a mug that's held with both hands) that slowly warm your insides just as the sun is brightening the sky."

Super Fat Tuesday!

2008-02-05T16:38:00.000-05:00

It doesn't matter to me because I am in Ohio and my primary is a month away. Anyway...

Tonight is the SnB of Lake county at Border's in Mentor come and join us.

The inlaws came over this weekend to celebrate my birthday that happened about a month ago. I now know what I am making for my MIL for Christmas. I am going to make her a Clapotis in the Royal bamboo. I am currently making one for me and showed it to her and she was like " OMG can you make me something in this yarn, I will pay you" :) I don't think she would like my rates so this would make both of us feel good.

I think I have about 40 loops left on the super-size bath poofer that I am dying to finish.

Last Day in January!

2008-01-31T16:02:00.000-05:00

Where did January go! wow! Here is a great comic a coworker gave me today and it is so funny because I work in the software industry and have a bunch of cats so this is perfect.
So Tuesday I bought a new book called "Knitting Stitches 300 contemporary and traditional patterns." I love this book because of its explanation for continental knitting and I didn't learn continental when I learned because I was told I was holding the yarn wrong. I was a crocheter first so it made sense to me. Now I want to go back to continental knitting because it is so much faster and so having this book as a reference is great.
I picked up my Clapotis again and dropped another stitch again! This pattern is so mundane, it is like 12 rows and then you get the 1o seconds of enjoyment to see the stitch fall on purpose. I was thinking since on this pattern I really don't have to worry about gauge I am going to switch to continental method in the middle of this project. If required I could move down a needle size because Continental is looser than American knitting.

Oh I almost forgot, I have been working with my crochet hooks again! I have been making a big bath poof for the shower. I am on the final round but because I use my hands so much for EVERYTHING my hand has been cramping so I can only make about 15 -20 repeats before I stop. I was trying to figure out why this started and It is because now that I am learning the Violin I am holding the violin the same way as I need to hold the bath poof to keep it stationary. I have been trying different ways to hold it so if anyone has a suggestion besides giving up crochet please let me know.

Brief Interlude

2008-01-18T10:43:00.000-05:00

Hurray for Friday!! Ok now that that is out of the way.
my list
1. I am feeling much better from yesterday and switched my coffee mug helped. Those stupid lids on travel mugs get all gunky and its really hard to clean them.
2. I finally went back to violin lessons this week. I haven't practiced since before Christmas so my fingers have soften. I got a new classical music song book for violin because I don't feel like playing Christmas music anymore.
3. A new kitty came to snack at our porch last night but it looks owned and only had a few bites.
4. New menu item on the kitchenette cafe here at work. Peppermint Coffee. This could probably could be used to make Peppermint mocha looking back at the Office Mocha.
1 cup of coffee
1 peppermint tea bag.
hot chocolate packet (optional)

Just something to try.

head hurts now...

2008-01-17T13:56:00.000-05:00

So the past couple days I have had a throbbing head ache, I hate taking pain meds because I like to find the cause of the pain and not just remedy the effect. Anyway.. so I noticed that this morning I was feeling great until I drank my tea from my usual travel mug that keep at work. I started having the same dull achy pain that I have had all week. So I am not a doctor but I am a thinker. Is it the tea? Probably not because I drank tea last night and felt great. So what else could it be? My mug! Well I think at least. So at lunch I went home like I usually do and exchanged my mug with a different mug and see if my head ache returns this afternoon. I am drinking tea now so only time will tell.

Fair isle pillow pictures

2008-01-15T23:49:00.000-05:00

It is amazing what a little pillow form and some whipstitch can do to turn a hollow shell of knitting into a beautiful pattern that I heart so very much. Just imagine candles on either side and you have "the pillow shrine" as my husband calls it.

This week will make the second week in a row that I forgot to bring my camera to the Lake County SnB. Who know there were so many knitters that lived so close by. I met so many nice people that are really open and sharing. We all have Ravelry.com in common which is great!

Here is a picture of my pomatomus socks that I have been working on. I decided in order not to get SSS (second sock syndrome I would buy another set of dpns and cast on the other sock so they can be worked at the same time. They are turning out quite nicely.

The mold clean up when marvelous! It turned out that we had all the leftovers from a chipmunk family in our walls. Lots of acorns and feces and gross stuff that was rotting and molding. This is good that it wasn't from water damage.

Before After

We would definitely recommend these guys for mold clean up. Worth every penny. So this weekend we are drywalling the closet and luckily I met a nice lady from the meetup tonight who's husband knows how to do drywall so he is going to come help! This weekend is going to be great! I am going to get to knit and get my closet back and we get to learn to drywall (which is always a good skill)

BTW take my poll on the sidebar so I know what matters to my readers.

Have a good night!

Last Night!

2008-01-09T11:30:00.000-05:00

... was sooo much fun! A new SnB now meets every Tuesday at the Borders in Mentor. There were 9 ladies there last night and it was really nice to meet everyone because I knew quite a few of them already from ravelry.com. All of them seem as fiber obsessed as I am and that is great because we can all swoon over the same patterns and show each other patterns that aren't ugly or fun fur-ish.

As for my pomatomus socks I have had to rip back twice but it was for the best because I now understand where I am going and understand the pattern more. Now I am going full steam ahead and it looks great and I will post my sock as soon as I get a little farther down the leg.

I have yet to find a pillow form to finally finish the fair isle pillow.

Well back to work!

Happy birthday to me (yesterday)

2008-01-04T10:20:00.000-05:00

Ok so my birthday rocked yesterday! I did work but that is because I had just come back from a vacation. This year Matt asked what I wanted to do for my birthday so I thought about it and after not getting older was out of the question we decided to try the local fondue restaurant Potpourri. That was lots of fun because bought a dinner for 2 called the "the tour of fondue". This was a 4 course meal that started with cheese and ended with an en flambe chocolate fondue that we roasted a marshmallow on and then dipped it in the sauce. The middle 2 courses were a salad and a soybean oil to cook all types of meats and veggies. So much fun! Matt said my ACTUAL present will come in a few days but I don't know what that is. Happy birthday to my friend Brandi!
When we finally got home I spent a couple hours on the phone with people that called me like my friend Chana and my Mom and MIL.

All in all yesterday was one birthday to remember!

Happy New Year

2008-01-02T09:39:00.000-05:00

So I took a few weeks off and now it is already 2008. It is amazing how time has been passing me by seemingly faster every year.
I completed the knitting portion of my fair isle pillow last night. I promised myself I would finish this item before I would start any new patterns, now that this is technically finished because what is left cannot be completed until I buy a pillow form.
When I was down at my parents home for a couple days after Christmas I stopped by a LYS in a couple towns over. The Yarn Basket is AMAZING I wish that I was closer to this store because of the floor to ceiling cubbies filled with yarn. The first floor of an old civil war aged home was completely filled with yarn and each room was a different weight of yarn. They had quite a selection of sock yarn as well so I purchased 2 balls of Noro sock yarn in colors I couldn't find online. So now I really need to create a couple pairs of socks.
Once I wrap one of the Cherry Tree Hill yarn hanks into a ball I am casting on the Pomatomus for Sockdown January on Ravelry in the Sock Knitters Anonymous group. It was in my queue anyway and I finished my pillow so I can cast on.

sock yarn

2007-12-21T15:26:00.000-05:00

Today at lunch I went thought my stash a little bit and wanted to count the amount of skeins of sock yarn I have accumulated in the past year.

This is what I found organized in pairs of socks:
1. 2 skeins of Brown Sheep Wildfoote in Ragtime (one is being used for the chevron scarf)
2. 2 skeins of Brown Sheep Wildfoote in Rock n' Roll
3. 2 skeins of Claudia Handpainted Originals in Eat your veggies
4. 2 skeins of Claudia Handpainted Originals in Butter Pecan
5. 2 skeins of Interlacement's Tiny Toes in Fireplace Embers
6. 2 skeins of Regia Bamboo in 1062
7. 2 skeins of Regia Bamboo in 1068
8. 2 Sirdar Snuggly Magic DK in 180 (blue)
9. 2 Sirdar Snuggly Magic DK in 182 (pinkish salmon)
10. 2 Lorna's Lace Shepherd Sock Multi in Envy
11. 2 Lorna's Lace Shepherd Sock Multi in Pioneer
12. 1 Lorna's Lace Shepherd Sock Multi in Argyle -- the other is being used for a sock yey!
13. 1 skein of Urban Gypz DK weight Autumn Leaf Study
14. 1 skein of Lisa Souza Sock! in Emerald City (one is being used for the chevron scarf)
15. 1 skein of Southwest Trading Company TOFUtsies in 728 (reds and oranges)
16. 1 Aussie Sock yarn in Blue and Green
17. 1 Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Stretch 100 in gray and black
18. 1 Meilenweit Colortweed in a rusty orange and brown
19. 1 Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino Special in Cherry Cobbler
20. 1 Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino Special in Raspberry Smoothie

now I think I got them all but that is a pretty good stash for just starting to pick them up. hmm 20 pairs of socks, I better start knitting.