Leaning over the rabbit hole...

Punkin's been after me for a long time now to learn how to spin on a wheel. Kept telling me that both of us were going to learn how to spin and both of us were going to buy wheels. I resisted, preferring to stick with my spindles (once I started getting the hang of it). She joined our local spinning group, rented a wheel at her first meeting, and about a week later bought herself a Lendrum.

Yesterday I went over her house for the first time since the Lendrum arrived. She made me take my shoes off and sit down at the wheel. She brought out a ball of green roving, got it started for me (after I repeatedly botched it up), and then let me have at it...

A little lumpy here...

...well, that's a little less lumpy...

Gee, look at what I got...

Not sure how many ounces that was, but it kinda doesn't suck.

And... once I finally realized that you don't necessarily have to draft and twist at the same time (which is what I thought you had to do), this was actually pretty enjoyable.

Now, this does not mean that I'm gonna run out right now, at least and buy myself a wheel. Not anytime soon. But... things may be different come festival season--after I get my Moosie...

Knittin' update

Even with the crazy schedule, we do have a little bit of knittin' going on...



Jim's socks have heel flaps, and those heel flaps are halfway done. Yay!

And some Christmas knitting is now underway.



Fetchings for both my mother and youngest sister. Done two-at-a-time (i.e., both left ones will be done first, then both right ones), method from Melissa Morgan-Oakes sock book.

Yes, I realize that Christmas is over. The recipients of these fully realized that they would not be done in time for Christmas, and they are OK with that.

I also realize that I am voluntarily knitting with black yarn. Dark, inky black yarn. And under low light conditions. Black.yarn.low.light. Good times...

And there's been a little spinning too, but no pictures to show. Soon.

Over the next few days I'm going to be putting my ducks in a row so that I can head up to Vermont for some extended time in the house with my beau. Unfortunately, it looks like he'll be working the whole time I'm up there. But on the plus side, at least I'll be up there. :-)

Now I'm off to arrange some ducks...

From my home to yours...

...Merry Christmas!

Another FO

Yesterday there was lots of progress in the knitting department. First off, I finally finished weaving the billion loose ends on my Big Sack Sweater. Almost as big a project as the sweater itself! (Truly finished pictures to come.)

Then, I proceeded to finish Jim's Dashing mitt!



And to think that this one little mitt took me exactly one year... uh, it wound up getting put aside for an eternity a few months.

I think Jim's going to be surprised that I finally finished it, and maybe not so thrilled that he's going to have to model it. Oh well, that's the price you pay for receiving a hand knit from a blogger.

I got lots of cheers from my Sunday Ravelry knitting group at my local Panera for finishing two things in one sitting. Thank you, ladies!!! :-)

Saturday Sky

Sunset in Colrain, Massachusetts

10 Favorite Holiday Songs

E.T.A. another one after Punkin's reminder.

OK, so I'm a week late with this one, but here goes...

1. All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey
2. Handel's Messiah
3. Rudolph the Broken Down Claimer -- a racetrack parody of the traditional Rudolph song (Rudolph the broken down claimer, Had 4 very wobbly legs, And it you ever saw him, You'd think they were wooden pegs... just ask Punkin about the rest of it...)
4. Walking in a Winter Wonderland (as well as the racetrack parody Wagering in a Winter Wonderland (back in my racetrack days I clearing had a lot of time on my hands))
5. Please Come Home for Christmas by the Eagles
6. White Christmas
7. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting...)
8. Santa Claus is Coming to Town (Bruuuuuuuuce!)
9. Santa Baby
10. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus by John Mellencamp

Ice Storm in Jacksonville

Here are some pictures from my front porch. Keep in mind that these were taken three days after the storm.

We interupt a crazy work schedule and midterms to present...

...an FO!!!

I hadn't been able to work on the second sock steadily--just a couple of rows here and there--but they sure did add up! I kitchenered the toe and wove in the ends at the Panera knitting group today.

Details on Ravelry here.

Next up I'll be continuing on Jim's Trekking socks.

Now back my take home midterm...

Eye Candy Friday

Caitlin from Springdelle Farm

What fabulous lashes she has, don't you think?

Less knitting, more spinning

What's more mindless than a stockinette sock? Why, a little spindle spinning...

My new Grafton Fibers FiberShip, purchased at Foxfire Fiber's Open Studio/Barn event on Saturday. (The fiber I'm spinning on it is some of the Jacob that I had left from Rhinebeck.)

This weekend I finished spinning up the BFL that I bought at Rhinebeck. Slowly but surely my spinning is getting more even. See...

That's 3.3 ounces of singles there. Spun with my Golding Tsunami, which I have renamed The Big Kahuna (all 1.9 ounces). I'll have to see what the yardage is, but I'm pretty sure it's around 70-80 or so.

What am I going to knit with it? I have no idea. Right now it just really pretty to look at and touch.

Oh well, time to catch some sleep. More on my visit to Foxfire Fibers later...

Thankgiving wishes...

As I do every year, I'm sitting here watching my favorite parade of all time--the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade (the Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums just went by-COOL!). This year, though, I keep going back and forth between the parade and CNN coverage of horrific events in Mumbai, and it drives home just how fortunate we all are to be safe and sound in our homes and communities, and just how fragile that safety can be.

So I wish you and your loved ones a happy and--most important of all--safe Thanksgiving Day.

Yes, I'm still alive...

I know, I haven't blogged in a really long time, which makes me a very bad blogger. And there's all sorts of stuff that I've been wanting to blog about but haven't, which makes me a really suckie blogger. Especially since it's NaBloPoMo, which I was going to do again, but since I've missed the first nine days of the month I've blown that too. Sigh...

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I've got a lot going on at work right now. Like two huge projects that are full time jobs by themselves. And then there's my paralegal classes, and I'm already behind on work there because of problems getting the textbooks and, of course, the work stuff.

Don't even ask about the knitting. It's been replaced with studying (or dozing) on the train.

So, for the next few weeks there won't be much posting. I'll do what I can--maybe a picture or two--but it may be a while.

I'll leave you with a picture of the one thing that I've been able to do in really tiny doses--spinning!


This is some BFL roving I got at Rhinebeck. I'm using the Bosworth mini (Walnut) I got at the Franklin Fiber Twist last year. Little by little I'm getting the hang of it. And I'm really liking it...

But Ma, all the bloggers are doing it...

A Rhinebeck update, that is!

Actually, I think it's more like "all the blogger have done it," 'cause I'm pretty late here with my Rhinebeck report. But I guess better late than never, so here's my official update, complete with some pictures (although not as many as I should have taken because I was stricken with camnesia). It's a whole week later and I'm still on a bit of a woolly high from the whole experience...

I left Long Island at the crack of dawn and met Punkin and her family at about 9:30ish at The Fold's booth. I wasn't going to buy anything from them because I didn't want to deal with the lines, but Punkin was already on line and I saw all those STR mill ends.

And thus began my trip down the rabbit hole.

After she made our purchases, we wandered around that first building. I decided that I needed some rules and a plan of attack, so here were my guidelines for the rest of the day:

• Make notes of things that I'm interested in buying (vendors, yarns, prices, and locations) and then review my notes before my actual purchases begin, and
• Don't buy anything at can generally be found at most yarn shops.

Punkin trying out a gorgeous Golding spinning wheel

So once we covered Building A and had an early lunch, I took off on my own to explore the fairgrounds...

The cutest miniature sheep!

...and start identifying purchases.

Merino/Bamboo/Nylon and Merino/Tencel sock yarns from Ellen's Half Pint Farm

FlockSock Yarn from Holiday Yarns

Alpaca Blend sock yarn from Snowshoe Farm

Shelridge Farm Soft Touch Ultra Fingering weight yarn

Hebrides scarf kit from Autumn House Farm

Supersock from Creatively Dyed Yarn (Dianne was such a sweetheart!)

At the end of the day then I wound up revisiting The Fold and just had to have this...

Luscious Single Silk in Typhoon Tina from Blue Moon Fiber Arts

And then there were a few non-fiberous purchases...

DPN/Circular needle case from CrippenWorks

An irresistible sheep mug.

And finally, my biggest purchase--a Golding "Learn to Spin" kit!

Ooooooo...

There were several roving purchases, but those pictures didn't come out so great. I'll retake and show you those in a future post.

So how did I do sticking to my plan? Not bad really. Since I didn't hotel it as I had originally planned, I added that money to my budgeted amount and, ultimately, I only went about $35 over what I had planned to spend.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. The one big regret I did have was not seeing more people. I missed seeing a ton of people. I got wrapped up exploring the whole place and totally lost track of time--including the afternoon Ravelry meet up. Next year (if I get to go next year, that is) I'm gonna focus more on the people.

Eye Candy Friday -- Rhinebeck Foliage Edition

I think this was probably the most photographed maple tree at Rhinebeck last weekend...

Simply beautiful!

Coming soon--my Rhinebeck stash report...

Look what I'm making...

...from a couple of my Rhinebeck toys.

It's pretty lumpy, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

And I keep picking it up to play with it. Looks like the beginnings of a new obsession hobby, yes?

Rhinebeck afterglow

Wow! What can I say? My first Rhinebeck was an amazing experience! I was there pretty much for the entire day on Saturday and I'm still processing everything I saw and did there. The animals, the vendors, the people--it was all wonderful. (Well, maybe not some of the crowding, but it was still pretty good.) I got to meet some fellow Ravelers as well as friends from home. I also missed a whole bunch of people that I thought I would see. (Carole? Jess? Lars? Where were you guys???)

I came up to Vermont after Rhinebeck to do some work on the house and now I'm getting ready to head back to reality Long Island. (I start two paralegal classes tonight.) I'll upload some pictures once I have a high speed internet connection instead of this here dial-up thing.


By the way--DSL service will be activated here at Moose Manor by November 1. Woo-hoo!!!

Eye Candy Friday -- Foliage Edition

Pictures from last weekend in southern Vermont...

Wow!

Rhinebeck bound!

After having my plans cancelled at the last minute for what feels like an eternity the last 3 years, I am finally going to to Rhinebeck! Of course, this year's plans were not without a certain element of drama. I was supposed to be spending the whole weekend there with one of my paralegal classmates, but our wires got crossed and now I'm just going to be day tripping it on Saturday. But that's OK, because...

I'M STILL GOING TO RHINEBECK!!!

I will definitely be wearing my hand paint socks and maybe my 4-year-old green sweater if I can finish the turtleneck before Saturday morning. Sadly, there won't be enough time to block it, which would have brought out the true loveliness of the yarn. But that's OK, because...

I'M STILL GOING TO RHINEBECK!!!

I'm not sure what my plan of attack will be for the vendors. I'm planning to curtail my fiber spending this year due to that heating oil pre-buy, two vinyl replacement windows for the attic, and tuition for 2 classes that start Monday night but I've yet to register for (but tomorrow is payday). Can a get a group ka-ching?. But that's OK, because...

I'M STILL GOING TO RHINEBECK!!!

So leave me a comment if you're going to be at Rhinebeck on Saturday. I'll be hangin' with Punkin and my Sunday West Babylon Panera knitting/spinning group, and hopefully I'll see lots of my blog friends--and even meet some new ones. It's gonna be a great weekend, because...

WE'RE GOING TO RHINEBECK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not much knitting...

... but there was some home decorating over the weekend.

Presenting the bathroom insulated roman shade (a.k.a. the Test Shade)....

...and the gigunda big ass insulated body sack staircase shade.

The staircase one still requires a bit of repositioning, but that's nothing compared to the construction of this giant shade (86").

Now I just have to get started on the shades for the other windows on the second floor--all 9 of them. YIKES!!!

Just one at a time...

Matchy, Matchy!

I'm soooooooooooo happy!!! It matches! It matches!

Lookie there!!!

I was really concerned about getting these stripes to match. Before I started the first sock, I measured out nine arm's lengths of pink yarn to the first white stripe (so scientific, yes?) and just hoped that I'd come somewhat close to matching it on the second sock. Well, I got it on the first try!!!

Boy, I'm so looking forward to wearing these!