My sincere apologies

Wow. I cannot believe it is already the 16th of January.

And wow. I cannot believe that my last blog posting was LAST year.

I haven't forgotten you. Really, I've just been... busy yet not.

I finished one super sekret knit project. But I can't talk to you about it yet.

I gave up on one project, as it was kicking my ass and I've sent it to it's room. That was my Ishbel project. First Lace project. It could be that the yarn just didn't want to be that project. We'll see when I come back to it.

I started my Doomsday Cardigan. No photos as of yet, as I'm only like 8 rows into 117. (Link goes to Ravelry)

I am theoretically starting my first aqua aerobics at the gym on Monday. Which of course means I'll be having a gym membership for the first time in my life.

I have been writing every day. Which is a very good thing. And I have noticed it has helped. Only one day in the last week or so did I not write much, but instead did brain storming. I do not feel guilty for this, as brainstorming is a much needed piece of the machine. Especially since I was quite unsure where the story was going.

I have to admit it is odd working on two pieces at the same time.
But, the Blitz novella is almost done! I'm in the home stretch of the 1st rough draft.
Small aside on that. Today I started reading M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman. In it is an introduction explaining things a bit. On the subject of short stories: "In the beginning they were a great way to begin to learn my craft as a writer. The hardest thing to do as a young writer is to finish something, and that was what I was learning how to do."- Neil Gaiman.
This made me exceedingly happy to read. I often forget that the things I am going through, are things that the greats themselves have gone through.
When I had to stop writing a few months ago due to work, and I realized that I was giving up finishing the novella in time for the contest, I was quite... put out. Truth be told I was down right depressed. It had been a deadline that quite literally went wooshing past. Then the last few months, with no deadline... no work stopping me, I found excuses. "I've got company coming!" "It's the holidays!" Before I knew it, it was the end of the year.
Well, the time for excuses is over. I don't have a deadline. But I do have a commitment to writing every day. I've been finding myself writing more and more each day. Mind you, this is written long hand in a spiral bound at about 10:30 at night when I'm in bed.. But I'm getting more use out of the time I am writing.
(Generally I try to shut off my light by 11:30)

Last night I found myself in a very short span, writing 2 pages. This made me exceedingly happy. I could have written more, but I had reached a point that I needed to ponder on, and as it was the end of my writing time, I decided instead to call it a night.

Yes, I realize I'm rambling. Deal with it.



Today I did some dyeing.
I dyed 3 different colorways.
Nothing that I had planned, as I was simply working on technique.

I will photograph them hopefully tomorrow, and post photos.
2 of the skeins are already spoken for, but I'll have one skein up for grabs.

I received a wonderful gift from a friend of mine in Nova Scotia. You've heard me speak of her before, but Crystal is just absolutely fab.

The little bag of Cheshire Cat fabric was made by Pheelya.
The shawl is "Traveling Woman" based off of the character Angela Montenegro from Bones.

The yarn is amazingly soft, and I absolutely cannot stop petting it. I love it and I want more of it.



Other than that, there is not much new. The library is doing it's 8 books in 8 weeks program like it did last year. Not as many sponsors which is a bummer. But oh well.

My life right now gets divided up between "Write, Knit, or Read?"

I don't know if this should worry me or not lol.

I promise photos of new yarn soon!

Edit: Details of the shawl project can now be found on Halifax Mommy's blog: Knitted Things for Knitting Friends

Gretel Lost in the Poppies

Been meaning to post this for a long while now but it got lost in the limbo of drafts for the last month.
And Drat. I just wrote an entire post and it got eaten by the wireless connection. Sigh. Frakking internet. Lets try this again. It won't be nearly as witty or insightful as the previous one.

Project: Gretel Lost in the Poppies
Yarn: Fresh From the Cauldron "Field of Poppies"
Pattern: Gretel by Ysolda Teaque

I absolutely love Ysolda. She is a 20something student who manages to make a living off of her designs.
Ysolda will make it into the Hall of Great Knitters.
Elizabeth Zimmerman, the GrandMamma of Modern Knitting is in that Hall.
Stephanie Pearl McPhee will make it. Not necessarily because of her designs (I'll be honest, I'm not familiar with her designs) but because of her voice in the knitting community. Stephanie leads Knitters Without Borders (which donates to Doctors Without Borders), she has been on a late night talk show because of the fact that she started the term "Kinnearing" (or Kinneared) (Greg Kinnear and the host called her to talk about it) - which if you are not familiar is the act of inconspicuously taking the photo of someone. Generally a celebrity. Which I myself Kinneared Howie Mandel in Vegas during my last trip. I didn't even know about the term at the time.

I digress.


I have learned a lot thanks to Ysolda.

I learned to "Trust Ysolda." If she says do something.. Don't over think it. Just do it. (Actually I learned this on another project from Ysolda.. but it worked on this one as well)

I learned how to do a Tubular Provisional Caston. (Come on.. you know you wanna say it like a surfer. Tubular dude!)

I learned that no matter how many times I do the Tubular Provisional Caston (which I have done a lot now), I still need to watch a video of it each time as I don't trust myself enough to do it from memory yet.

I learned how to do Twisted Cables. Which are not easy. But also not entirely hard. But they can be.

I learned not to do Twisted Cables when I'm tired.

Oh... and did I mention that this was my first project with cables??? Yeah. It was. Awesome huh?

I learned that I will be making many of these hats as I love them.

I guess thats all for now. Hopefully this will post and not get eaten. (I'm also going to be smart and copy it into a word doc first) (And thank goodness I did that.. as yes.. it got eaten since it still thought firefox was offline.)

Antiquated Regality

I'm a horrible blogger. I realize this. I used to be so good about it. But I've gotten lazy about it.

I've been really meaning to post a blog the past couple of days, but then things just come up.

Well, now I've got a major headcold.

So this shall be quick.

Guy's Christmas Pressie (which he now has, which is why I can talk about it)

The scarf is called "Antiquated Regality"
The reason for that, is the yarn is called "The Antiquated"
And the stitch pattern I used was "Snapes Stockings" and well, to me the combo just seemed a bit regal.

I wanted to knit Guy a masculine scarf that could be worn with both jeans, or when doing more special outings such as political functions.

So there you have it.

More updates hopefully soon, as well as the discussion about Guy's trip out here.

Flirt and Flounce!

I'm such a spaz.. I totally forgot to post photos of new yarnie goodness!

This shall be a quickie..

Flirt and Flounce

This is on 20 Silk, 20 Bamboo, and 60 wool






It was a custom order that I decided to cleverly name and add to one of my colorsets as it was just perfect for it.

I'm quite happy, and it's soft..

Being Human, Repo the Gentic Yarn, and many other things

So my previous post was a little well... for lack of a better word... emo.
But hey, I'm a writer... it tends to be what we do at times.

After writing my blog, I went and scrubbed 2/3rds of my bathroom. This makes me happy.
I had a dust bunny, that honestly I thought he was the Prince of the Dust Bunnies, and was going to start plotting war against me.



For those who don't know, this wood burning is from Catharsis Comic, which for the most part is on permanent hiatus, but it is still fun to go back and read through.

I kid you not about the dust bunnies in my bathroom. Colorado Springs is a dust bowl, and to be honest the dust drives me absolutely bonkers. By tomorrow my counter will once again have a coating of dust on it, but at the very least it will be a while before the grandeur of the Dust Bunny Prince decides to show his bunny self again.

So, I've been catching up on a lot of telly... but I'm not going to go into most of the things, cause I can't remember most of them right now. This proves once again I need to take the time to blog more often to do my reviews.

But here is one that I am sooo ready to pimp out cause it's like AWESOME.

Once again, a BBC production.

Being Human.

Blogger hides most of my photos no matter what I do to it in the upload, so to see Annie the Ghost, just click on the image and it will get larger. I'm annoyed at blogger for this. -.-



A Ghost, a Vampire and a Werewolf trying to live a "normal" life in Bristol.

What can I say, other than Freaking Awesome. The writing was witty, and refreshing, and well... human!
There were nice twists at appropriate places, and the episode 5 and 6 (meaning, second to last and last) had me literally going "Ohmigawd!" and squeeing and being quite creeped out at times.

I like their take on the Vampires, which it is amusing as it mimics a few of the "rules" my own vampires in "A Hard Day's Bite" had. Ranging from sunlight to religion and the symbols of power. I liked it!

I'm never fond of the "Wolfman" style of werewolves, but I think that they pulled it off very well.

The Ghost, also had some great rules.

Mostly I liked how the stories intertwined, flowed and how you actually connected with each character. I actually cared about the characters which recently I haven't been doing so much in regards to telly.

Oh, and it was great seeing in the first 2 episodes not 1, but 3 Doctor Who people.

Annie, played by Lenora Crichlow was in Season 3 of Doctor Who in "Gridlock"

George, played by Russell Tovey was in Season 4 Christmas Special: Voyage of the Damned (and actually it looks like he'll be reprising his role of Midshipman Alonso Frame for at least 2 more episodes of Who, so.. WOOT!)

A character who's name I cannot recall, was played by the actor who played Shakespeare in season 3 episode "Shakespeare Code"


I very much am looking forward to Series 2 of Being Human, I hope that it lasts for a good long while as it is a very good show. If you haven't gone out and seen it yet.. Go do it now!

I'm actually getting inspired for some colorways from this show.
Sigh, I wish I had time and money enough to dye up all the yarn I want to dye right now!

Speaking of yarn...

I am currently knitting up a pair of socks called "Legal Assassin" which is a pattern completely designed by me! Don't have photos at the moment since I'm still in the "working out the kinks" phase.

This sock pattern is to match the yarn "Nathan Wallace / Repo Man"


I'm quite proud of this yarn, it was my first time working with wool.
And it will be for sale. I've got only 1 skein left for sale at this time.

Which reminds me, I've been officially made into a Yarnie on Ravelry. Woot. I'm official.


What am I currently reading?

Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs

I can already say that I'm going to be pretty opinionated when I finish this book. Not necessarily about the story, but more about the over all books in general. I will be spoiling a bit for those who have not read, so when I do post that post.. don't read if you don't want a bit of a spoiler. Don't worry, I'll give warning.

I guess I'm done yammering for now.

Beth and Mick wanna go home with you...

Oh yes... I went there.

Just a quick note to say that yes, my yarns for Beth Turner and Mick St. John are up for sale in my shop:

Asylum for Wayward Yarn

For reference images:

Mick in the Sunlight

and
Beth Turner, the morning after

The wanna go home with you. They want to party. They want to be petted and loved, and they want to do wrap themselves allll over you.

How can you resist this pair? They know how to play. Watch out for Mick though, he's a biter.

And for those who get to take these lovers home... I'm gonna be pervy here and say.. I want photos.

(Also, there will be a 10% off coupon waiting for you when a FO is completed and shown to me.)

Mick in the Sunlight...

Alright, sorry I'm delayed in posting pictures of Mick St. John in the sunlight.
What can I say? He doesnt' like to go out in the sun. It's bad for him. Makes him sick. He likes to stay inside where it's safe... preferably being petted.







My scale has arrived, and I will be posting both Mick and Beth up for sale in my Etsy store shortly...
Sorry for the delay.. Work has been interesting due to my minion whom is the only other person in this place that does as much work as I do.. well.. he broke his leg. He's gonna have to have surgery, which means I'm doing pretty much everything. That doesn't leave much functioning brain power when I get home.

Bugs and Hisses people.

Mick in the shower.. and Happy 4th of July

Alright.. that title sounds a bit.. well.. heh. But it's true.

Today, 4th of July.. I dyed some more yarn.
Friday, I went to my Local Yarn Shop.. spoke with Shop Mom, and she is willing to work with me when it comes to ordering some of the Panda Cotton from Crystal Palace Yarns.
While I was there, I picked up about 6 balls of yarn.
I dislike working in balls, because they are so small. Generally about 100 yards each. This is frustrating when I prefer my yarn to be.. SKEINS and about 450 yards.

But now I've gotten to play with some Panda Cotton, Classic Elite Bam Boo, Classic Elite Silk, and Plymouth Earth Oceanside Organic (cotton)

They all took the dye slightly differently, but all took the dye really well. The silk is the most muted of all of them. But that is the nature of silk.



He will also be for sale once I pick up my scale.. (should arrive at Evilmart any day now)

Knit Picks was having a sale, and I picked up some books. (At 40% off can ya blame me?!) Specifically I picked up:

which means I can in fact start working on my Avalanche Hockey Sweater once I get all the yarn.

lots of good patterns, and I am so far liking Toe Up socks.

which already has given me several great tips. Woot.

Right now X-Files season 1 is on the telly, some NY Strip Steaks are being cooked, and the rain just stopped. So Happy 4th of July everyone. Hope your having a good one.

Oh, I haven't forgotten the blog about JC in Denver.. and also I have another blog about not so fun drama that happened yesterday.. But don't want to blur that ickiness with todays awesomeness.

Beth Turner, the morning after..

Heh. Sounds a bit kinky.. Morning after what?

Well.. It's pretty mundane.

She's dry. She's cozy..

And here she is.. I'll post the photo of the "One of a Kind" Cake soon. I thought I wasn't going to like it. But it actually turned out neat.



Right now it is raining. I just finished watching disc one of Burn Notice season 2.. And now I'm watching Equilibrium. A Christian Bale/Sean Bean futuristic movie. Too early to tell if it'll be any good.. but so far they just burned the original Mona Lisa... (oh, and apparently the guy who played Robert the Bruce from Braveheart is in the movie as well)

Today was brutally hot, and muggy in the morning. I'm loving the downpour right now.
I went over to Jes's house and hung out with "The Girls" for a little while. Mostly just to prove that I am still alive.

I realized I should not take the pride and joy of my new work (Beth Turner) with me to show off to people whom.. well.. they don't knit, and thus do not care.
As there was a 2 year old running around, I was not able to work on my stitch markers like I had planned.. I had forgotten that Kasha is growing and growing quickly. So I did some knitting, which I now have to go count a few rows to make sure I'm where I'm supposed to be, as I didn't have a pen to mark my place, and if I don't I'll forget what row I'm on. Luckily, I know at least one spot I've done, so it's just a matter of counting from there.

After that I stopped of at EvilMart to get some groceries as I was passing right bye it. Got myself a real pair of gloves for dyeing. I discovered I didn't like using latex disposable ones, as of course your hands get sweaty and gross on the inside, and also my hands smell of powder for hours afterwards.. no matter how many times I wash them. And also, if you get dye on them, they don't wash very well, and can transfer. So.. real gloves it is, and will also give me a bit more protection from the heat that the disposable ones didn't. Some day I'll upgrade to a pair of Bluettes (like.. THE gloves) And a new bucket for when I'm doing the yarn prepping and rinses.

I really need to buy myself a digital scale so that I can start knowing the shipping cost of something without having to actually go to the post office and have them weigh it for me. Ugh. Evilmart has one for 16.99$ online that I'll prolly get. If I remember correctly it does grams as well, so I should be fine using it for the UK.

Now, I am going to go. Have some stitch markers to make. I will get to the Denver adventures to Jacqueline Carey soon, I promise!

I think I'm going to make some pizza for dinner.. mmmmm Yummy.


Bugs and Hisses!

Oh and on a random note: My Lucien from Fresh from the Cauldron arrived yesterday. Woohoo. More of the yummy werewolf. And a pattern I was hoping to get called Vindication.

Beth Turner.. Welcome to the World.

Alright... Just a quickie as it is well past my bedtime, and I am also running on less than 4 hours of sleep (don't worry, you'll get to hear all about the adventures in Denver and the Jacqueline Carey book signing) And forgive me any of you who have already seen this announcement in other various places.. I'm excited.. and I'm also trying to get my work out there.

This is my very very first yarn dyeing attempt.

Yarn: DK weight 100% Bamboo, chain style
Dyes: Cushing Direct Dyes

Colorway name: Beth Turner - Moonlight



In the photo's she's really dark, but thats because she was still quite wet. As she's drying I've already noticed the color softening. Which I'm fine with because I originally envisioned this colorway to be 'softer'.

I have to admit that the perfectionist in me is slightly disappointed in a few spots of it, but for a first attempt it's certainly not too shabby, there were only a few spots where the purple and the yellow mixed in a not so pretty way or that the color got on a section it wasn't supposed to.
I was very much flying by the seat of my pants doing this, and I learned a lot with each color dipping I did. So I'm keeping my head up and really I'll wait to see what the morning light brings. If nothing else, I'm learning that I can actually get things to translate from the image I see in my head, to the yarn I hold in my hands. (just a matter of perfecting it now)

I'll decide in the morning when she's dry if I'll be selling her or if I'll just be keeping her for personal use.. either way.. I had fun.. I just very much wish I had a larger kitchen! (Thankfully, the Hunny of Mine knows that I will require a large kitchen for when we are house hunting.)

I have realized my problem now though...

I am now completely out of undyed yarn. :-(

I shall have to order some...

100th post, and huge news!

How very lucky am I that I have huge news, and it also happens to be my 100th post on this particular blog. (Meaning, since I jumped over from Myspace... I don't miss it. I haven't even logged into Myspace in most likely, 2 months)

Yesterday started something major for me.
You've seen it coming.

The Asylum for Wayward Yarn is now up and running. It's a little bare at the moment. I'm working on logos and such like that.

I posted my first set of stitch markers.
A set of 4 Doctor Who "Pinstripe 10" themed gems. I already knew there was interest in them prior to posting them for sale. And guess what, they sold immediately. (didn't get the confirmation until after I came into work, simply because I had to go to bed at my normal time, and I don't have time to check my email before I come into work)
I had already had the package ready to go, it just needed the address, the postage, and the envelope to be sealed.
Mother of Mine has kindly added those last few pieces so that it will go out in the post today instead of tomorrow.

I am excited.

Here are the envelopes ready to go:


I had stopped off at Hobby Lobby on the way home and picked up some more fixings, also so as to pick up some envelope blanks, so that I could decorate them and of course get things shipped out.

Here are the fronts of the notecards:



New set of markers I made last night: and you can also see the inside of the notecards




Beth Turner, and some more Pinstripe 10


Tonight I must work on more of the skeins. If I get time, I will make more stitch markers, but first comes the skeins.
I still haven't gotten my dye pot. I hope it arrives today.
The knitting is going slowly, as the past few nights I've been focusing on *ahem* other things.

The next set of stitch markers, shall be Mick St. John. I look forward to him.
I also plan on having in my shop a "Mix and Match" option, so that, say if people want some of Beth and some of Mick, they can have it.

Alright. Time for me to get cracking at work.

I'm just very excited.

Oh. Quicky book review:
Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris
Finished last night. I can see why some people are starting to feel that CH is kind of loosing the steam when it comes to the Sookie verse.
I don't quite know how to explain it. But whenever something major was happening, it reminded me of my first notes. It didn't actually show much of the violence (thinking of a big scene towards the end). It was written in the "I didn't think they would cut me. They did." type style. That style was how I would do my quick shorthand notes. Not the finished product. I don't know. I really don't know how to describe it. I don't know if I'm happy about what happened to a certain Vamp. Actually wait.. that really bugged me. This certain person had silver capped teeth. This person bit a vampire. That vampire was supposedly then poisoned. WTF? how would being bitten by silver be any different than having a silver chain cut into their flesh? Why then did they not get silver poisoning then? Totally a cop-out methinks. And also, CH forgot her own rules. Bill entered a house without permission (or no permission that we were aware of).

Alright I'm done for now as I really must get back to work.

Bugs and Hisses people.

Ramblings and Poor Customer service: Part 2

Alright. I've been meaning to post this for a few days now. But at this point, I couldn't care really, as I still stand by my first impression of the company.

I did finally get my answer.

It took 2 more emails after the ones you have already seen in the previous post.

Apparently he completely didn't realize (in the 4 emails, where I mentioned it) that I was in the US. What a freaking moron.

So I finally got the prices, and the answer.
No, I do not need to have a wholesale license, only a wholesale amount to be purchased on the first purchase.
As the wholesale amount is a tad high for my budget while living in the US, I will not venture down that avenue at this time.

Now, as far as the British company whom the Idiot over at Crystal Palace Yarns kept foisting me to...
Well, their response was short and basically said "yes you need a license but we will not talk to you about anything until you are here in the UK and are official." (paraphrasing, but that captured the tone and the gist of the email.)

Mother of Mine is being helpful in speaking with the LYS (Local Yarn Shop for those who aren't in the know) about getting the yarn from them as they do business with the main company in question and "understand completely what I'm trying to accomplish."
This could be quite beneficial actually, because if I do get my non wool yarn from them, and they like my colorways.. we might be able to come to some arrangement about them having them in their shop. - Ha no pressure on me to make some freaking awesome colors. It will of course make me have to change some of the names a bit more, as I don't think I could get away with some of the Pop Culture TV references... *shrugs* Who knows. As long as I don't get sued, I don't much care. (Already have started coming up with Alternate names for the Disney inspired colorways- eeep! did I give away a little secret there? *shifty eyes* No.. never... *whistles innocently* )

But all of this is dependent on talking with "Mom" over at the shop. (Mother of Mine had discussed it with the Daughter of the shop.)

I admit that I'm starting to get rather nervous about my ability to create what I see in my head. It's a very artistic process, and does very much have the potential to just turn out horribly. There are also so many different methods that my head is spinning. I think I have decided as of right now, I'm gonna go with the first way I had decided I was going to dye the yarn.

Meaning, my method will be mostly "immersion" dyeing, and not the sprinkle kettle method.

And for further clarification, that means I'll be making a dye bath of the color, and then putting my yarn in. Not putting my yarn in and sprinkling the color on the yarn. I'm not adventurous yet enough to do that method, also I want to see how this dye is going to work. not to many dyers have used this dye (at least not that I have found), so it is a bit of foreign territory for me.

One of the reason I'm getting nervous, is that my new pot and next set of dye shall be arriving either today or tomorrow.
I will most likely wait until the weekend to dye though, as I will have the house to myself (well, I would have done it on the weekend no matter if Mother of Mine was home or not) and because I have a feeling I'll just be exhausted this week.

I still need to cake off the last bit of yarn.
I still need to cut my niddy noddy down - i'm not happy with how "long" my skeins were, so I need to shorten the length of the center bar. (they wouldn't fit on my swift... which means that will be inconvient for anyone else, and might result in tangled mess- like mine did.)
I still need to then skein my cakes (using the niddy noddy)

Also, Thursday I'll be driving to Denver to 1) Drop Mother of Mine off in Boulder, and 2) Go see Jacqueline Carey for a book signing. Woohoo. So yeah.. not able to dye that night.

Then I'll be able to start dyeing.

Time for me get back to work.

Bugs and Hisses

A busy weekend

So today I was productive. I was also productive yesterday, but that is a different story.

Today I made some stitch markers.

These, were made for two girls on Ravelry whom did me a huge favor. Of course, since I had all the pieces parts, I decided to make a couple of more. (The girls will get 1 each)
I haven't decided if I'll save them for when I'm doing yarnie stuff, or if I should perhaps put them up for sale on Etsy... The are made from Swarovski crystal.
Of course, these are of Doctor Who, and specifically my loverly Pinstripe wearing Ten.




This little penguin was made for myself, but I have decided to gift him to my swap victim, as I had mostly buttons for her and not many stitch markers. But, I can get another of him, so I'll be making another for myself.



And lastly..
Mother of Mine found these "emeralds" for me, they are absolutely gorgeous, and are very OZ like. When I was getting my other materials for the other stitch markers, I found these pins.. They also reminded me of OZ.
So these, which are only for myself (as the pins were a bitch to work with and fought me every step of the way, which is why one of them is a little more bent then it should) and I am calling them Kiamo Ko.




Oh, and the random Button one in there, was actually a set of earrings that Dot made me. I was of course highly allergic to the earrings, so I never wore them and so I decided to make them into stitch markers and send them off in the Button and Stitch Marker swap. Very appropriate if I do say so myself.

Now, my victim for the swap.. I have to say is getting damned spoiled. As all buttons were 50% off, so she is getting a freaking lot. I most likely will not be as lucky, as well.. thats how it goes.

I said yesterday was productive as well. We completely rearranged the house. Okay, it wasn't that drastic, but it involved shuffling things around the entire house because our house isn't that big.
The main thing, was the couch. But moving a couch is so much more involved then most people would think. It meant moving 2 other chairs, and also cleaning cleaning cleaning, making room in the room that the couch was going up into and so on and so forth.
Both our backs are sore, and we ended the day exhausted, and cranky, and broken. My leg was hurt during the process, but it's doing better. The cat is slowly accepting the new arrangement, but he was quite freaked out by the entire thing.

After the move, we also decided to go through the leather trunk of mine that is full of fabric. Quite seriously, it is a huge steamer type trunk that was chock full of fabric. We put it all in one of those space saver bags, and it now is only taking up about a fourth of the entire trunk. I gotta say, I am entirely impressed with it, and will definitely be using those bags on ALLLLLLL my stuff for the big move.

Alright. I'm done babbling. I need a brownie.

Next post, or at least one in the near future, shall be talking about my Playful Bites sock. There shall be pictures even. I'm kicking ass on this sock.

Oh, and PS:
Just came up with a few more colorways. But I want to get permission first. Then I'll talk about it.

Sneaky Sneaking Sneakers

Isn't it funny how little things can sneak up on you?
I mean, it's the same as buying a Starbucks drink every day, you don't think about it. It's just a few dollars.
It's only when you see the large amount of how much those drinks cost you for the year, that your heart starts skipping a beat.

I'm sure some of you are thinking "What the heck is she talking about? She doesn't drink coffee, and I know she dislikes Starbucks"
Well, it was an analogy.

Since January.. no make that February of this year... I have been slowly buying things for my future business. Though, I did not know that is what I was doing.
My first yarn purchase was for a different project, and when that fell through I decided "I can dye this myself... but I'll wait till after I move."
And then the idea got started that... "Hmmm maybe I could start a yarn dyeing business someday.."
I was not planning on using the Bamboo yarn I had bought, as that was still for me..
But now, it's caked up, ready to be skein'd.. and then ready to be dyed.

Today I feel official, as I did a spreadsheet of my costs etc of all this.
Now, most of the items I have spent money on, are not things I would have to replace anytime soon, so this cost analysis is pretty much all start up base cost.

But I must admit that my heart did a pitter patter when I realized I have now spent $207.00 (And a skosh of change)

Really? WOW.

Okay, also in my defense, 60$ of that was today buying the perfect pot, and another set of dyes so that when my pot gets here, I'll be ready to go dye crazy.

I feel official, because I know exactly what I have to do to recover my costs, and it's not that insane a situation. Actually, my prices will be quite modest compared to what I've seen out there for 100% Hand Dyed Bamboo.

Unfortunately, I have determined I do not have enough yarn in this go round to fully recoup my costs... But.. I have a plan.
Actually, I have Mother Of Mine to thank for the plan.
And no, I'm not just jacking up the price.

No, Mother of Mine is working on learning how to hand spin yarn (she used to know how, but it's been a long time)
I, a few years ago gave our friend (And ex house mate and Renscot) Darla a HUGE amount of raw wool.
It was given to me, because I was learning how to spin.
When I was going through all my highschool to post highschool transition and homelessness, I gave the wool to Darla to be used for demonstrations in during the Renscot events. I mean, Darla and Mark gave me a roof over my head.. a huge box of wool was the least I could give them..
Well, Mother of Mine will be re-learning to spin with this wool. She has offered to give me the result, as she doesn't know what she would do with it.
So, I shall be dyeing that up as well, to cover the "amount I need" to recoup my cost of this little adventure.
Heck, after the next batch of yarn gets dyed and sold.. I might even have some profit. I look forward to that, but mostly I look forward to just breaking even. That way, if I decide I can't do this.. I won't be out any money.. Just my time.
I highly doubt that I will walk away from this, because I just have far too many ideas. tee hee.

Alright, enough talk about my budding business, because if I don't stop now, I'll just keep babbling. I'm excited. When I'm excited, I babble. I really want my new pot to arrive so that I can dye!

Today I had to pick up a bunch of things at the craft store.
A bunch of buttons to send to my swap partner...
I am totally spoiling my swap partner.. Jo-Ann's had all buttons 50% off, so my 20-25$ limit ... heh.. well you can see where that was going.
Though, she's not really getting many Stitch markers, she's getting a few, but I totally went out on the buttons, so it's all good.

Also picked up another 2 skeins of yarn for Marissa's project. Which I will be working on once I finish the stitch markers I need to make this weekend.

Also I will be working on The Great Batsby, which my project name for him is "On the Wings of Steam"
I picked up the copper wire I wanted. Yes, I am using Copper not Brass.. oh what a bad Steampunker am I!
Well, they didn't have the size wire I needed in the Brass, and to be frank.. I'm a Copper girl, not a Brass girl. And the Copper will stand out better amongst the other yarn.

Speaking of things sneaking up..
Today is the 19th.
The 19th of June!!!!
It is also the monthly Anniversary of meself and Guy. One month closer on the full count.
Just a week left on the official count for the month to be over. - it's complicated.

Oh... Did I mention that my first batch of yarn... shall be Vampire related? Oh yes.
And no... I shall not be posting the name of it yet.
But there shall be photos, and an official vote. (I'll be dyeing the colorway 5 different ways, and ya'll will get to vote on which one gets the official tag for all subsequent dyeing.- This is how it will be for pretty much all my colorways, unless I decide during dyeing that my first one is the one I want to go with.. but I doubt it.)- alright.. seriously.. I'm done talking about it.

Currently reading:
Club Dead - Charlaine Harris (Book 3)
Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris (Book 9) And yes, it is odd reading both book 3 and book 9 at the same time, but the library decided to send me book 9 before I finished rereading the whole series.

Currently on the TV:
MacGyver season 2


Tomorrow, other than making stitch markers, and knitting.. and dreaming of other colorways.. we shall be making a drastic change to the house.
The couch, that has been afflicted with the "curse of the painfully sleeping 'tocks*" shall be shuffled upstairs into the loft. To be used when we have company. (okay.. thats the plan.. but seriously.. we really haven't had company in this house.. ever.. )
And in it's place shall be a chair that Mother of Mine found for me, and a chair that she finds most comfortable for herself.
Pan, the ever vocal shall protest the change, but will succumb when he realizes that the couch shall soon become his entirely. Yes, this shall happen. He is always distraught when we make him get off the couch so that we can sit on it. Heaven forbid!

*in case you are not aware of what "tocks" are, and lack the imagination.. here is a good definition.
Personally, I would recommend scrolling through all the Archives, and specifically looking at entries for "Tocktober"


Methinks I am done for now. Bugs and Hisses peeps.

So proud of myself.

I completely forgot!

I am quite proud of myself. Much more beyond my amazing zen like patience on that tangled mess of yarn.. But for the fact that I taught myself how to do Magic Loop!

Now, for those of you who have done Magic Loop before, this is no big deal, and you scoff in amusement at my country bumpkin ways..

But to be honest, Magic Loop scared me. Why? Because i hadn't actually seen any photos of how it was done.

So I pulled out my "How to Knit Socks: 3 methods made easy" and flipped over to the Magic Loop section.

Now I was not working on socks, I was instead working on The Great Batsby. Whom I might say, is mostly finished. I just need to do his wings.






Batsby before I shaped his ears.


My yardage meter. One of the rubber band bracelets is Cancer Awareness, and the other is Katrina Relief. Both of the bracelets are thanks to mother of mine, as mine are hidden away somewhere upstairs.

But isn't it pretty? I made it meself.

Best laid plans..

Alright, so Mother of Mine and I had a plan. Friday was supposed to be a double header of our local AAA baseball team. Saturday was supposed to be opening day of Faire.

Well turns out there was a snafu with the tickets for baseball (basically someone got the wrong info. Not only was the game on Saturday, not Friday, but the tickets were also completely sold out, but there was the possibility of two tickets for us.)

We had decided that we could miss opening day of Faire.. as frankly.. it's no big deal to me anymore. I don't know about Mother of Mine, but I'm not rushing out to faire.

So Friday, we spent chilling at home waiting to find out if we'd have tickets for the game on Saturday.
Late that evening we found out that there were not any tickets.

No biggie.

Friday (I think... I can't recall.. the weekend has blurred) I spent the day washing and rewinding my tragic Bamboo. Yes, this is that bamboo yarn from months ago that arrived damaged. Figured I should get it washed since I was going to have dye arriving soon.

Oh, Friday I also stopped at Home Depot and picked up the final supplies for my Yardage Meter, and a PVC Niddy Noddy.

Got it washed. Got it skeined into two very large skeins.

Saturday, I decided I was going to deskein it into mini skeins. And when I say mini.. I mean 450 yards as opposed to 2 skeins consisting of 1800 yards.

Well, everything is an experience, and one learns from those experiences.. Lets just say, I have learned a lot.

I made the mistake of thinking I corral the yarn, having it draped on my wooden staff, while I slowly pull the yarn, run it through the meter, and put it onto my swift.

Simple plan right?

BIG mistake.

Thankfully, it was the smaller skein of the two that I had been working with..
But yes, the half entire mess slid off the staff at one point and now is a pool of tangled bamboo yarn.
I spent all of Saturday night, including staying up past midnight working on untangling bits.

I also spent most of Sunday doing the same.

What do I have to show for over 10 hours of untangling? Oh.. about 300yards. Thats about it. And that poor skein has so many joins in it. Thank goodness I wasn't planning on selling it.

Finally after giving up about 3:30 in the afternoon (seriously, after having worked on it since 8 am) I felt like I could fall asleep right then and there. I was so exhausted. I forgot to mention my back, neck and knees throughout this entire process were on fire. After dinner (about 4:30) I finally decided that I couldnt' just give up for the night entirely. I had put away the tangled mess so that we weren't tripping on it, but I took down the much larger skein. The one that I was originally afraid of tangling lol.
I put it on my swift.
I then slowly ran off 450 yards worth through my meter and onto my ball winder.

Took me about 15 minutes. And the reason it took that long, was because the skein was so big on the swift, I couldn't just pull the yarn and make it move. I had to pull a section off slowly, and then run it through and cake it (put it on the winder). Then repeat the process.

I'm just going to cake up the entire amount, and then after that I'll use my niddy noddy to skein it for dyeing.

And then.. then and only then will I go back to working on the other skein of tangled mess.

I have to admit.. Other than my back hurting to the point of tears... I am quite proud of myself when it comes to this fiasco.. I didn't get frustrated, I didn't scream and yell.. I just sat there with a zen like concentration untangling the mess and watching movies.
By the by.. on to movies.

The Unit season 3- very good season.. Sad that it was cut short due to the writers strike. But loved it.

Battlestar Galactica season 3- also a good season. I admit I was very confused by the first episode. But then everything started making sense.

Doom- Yup. Finally watched it. I needed a Karl Urban fix. It was a fun movie. Brought back memories, as I remember playing Doom when I was kid. It was the only video game that was at our friend Grace and David's house.. so guess what I played? yup. I sucked at the game. But the movie was amusing.

Mulberry- a British show from.. well I have no idea when it was done. The music for the opening credits and the closing credits are HORRIBLE. But otherwise the show was amusing. It was about a mysterious man who was sent to deal wtih a horrible cranky old lady. turns out, he's a grim reaper sent by death. The show was cute.

Primeval - I really liked this show. Not much to say about it other than I'd really love to have my own little Rex.

Umm.. I think thats it for now...

I'm flipping exhausted by the by.

Oh and I'm reading Dead and Gone the newest Sookie Stackhouse book. I am once again slightly sad that I do not have HBO as the new season of True Blood is starting. Well.. haven't seen season 1 yet fully so it's not a big deal but everyone loves to chat about it online. Sigh.

Okay, I guess it's back to work for me. I'm less freaked out now by work than I was on Friday.

Bugs and Hisses

Excited again, and The Great Batsby

So I've been meaning to blog for a little while now.
I've even had things to blog about. But, I just never seemed to have the chance or the brain power to do so.

I am excited.

Oh, lets get through the other stuff first. ;-)
Work = dull right now. Thats alright though.

Saw Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. It was quite fun. When I was younger I loved the Air and Space museum, so seeing it in a different light was quite enjoyable. Ben Stiller didn't even annoy me that much. No, the only person in the movie that annoyed me was the "I'm only famous because I'm fat and am slightly a comedian" actor Jonah Hill. I'm sorry, John Candy used up all the "I'm fat and stupid, so that makes me funny" quota. No one has ever come close to being him. Oh, and sadly the Jonas Brothers were in the movie as flying Cherubs. They were annoying.
And yes, it rained on us, so we really did see the movie.

Now on to some more exciting stuff.
Sunday I had a bit of a break through in the writing.
No, I did not add to the chapter I was working on, but I actively got a Chapter Outline started, and it actually helped me get past the place I was stuck. So I am quite excited about that. I allayed my concerns that I had about certain pre-existing correlations, but in the end.. Hey.. those authors had the same process on human friendship as I did. So I'm not going to fret.
Guy was quite helpful in figuring out some of the military stuff, and yes, I have a lot of play in what I actually end up working with, but now I at least have a base to start from.

On to other exciting stuff..
Tomorrow, I am going to purchase my first set of dyes. Yes, yes I will.
I can't recall if I've mentioned it before, but I have just found a supplier of non acid dyes, that work just like Acid dyes.
What does that mean?
Well, all the readily avail dyes out there for the non animal based yarns... suck. The process is "Cold" and so takes FOREVER. And you don't get good vibrant colors either.
Well, the dyes I just found are "Hot" like the regular animal based dyes. The process is the same, the only thing I won't have to worry about is the pH level of the bath. WOOHOO.
I already know exactly which colorway I'm gonna do first. I can't wait. I'm excited. It's odd, because the colors are not something I would normally do for myself. But, this is an experiment, and also it was the only colorway I could do in only 3-4 dyes.

Also, any day now I should have a Rolotape meter arriving, so that I can accurately count off my yardage. Hey, I'm for real on wanting to start a business.. I need to know exactly how many yards are in my skeins.

Also, any day I should be getting Santa Olivia from Amazon.com (i was buying the rolotape, so I figured I could justify the cost of finally getting Santa Olivia)

The reason I am buying Santa Olivia is because June 25th, Jacqueline Carey will be IN Denver for a book signing. Woohoo!
Her new book Naamah's Kiss comes out the DAY before her visit, so I will pick that one up in person instead of running the risk of it not arriving on time for her to sign it.


Saturday mom and I are going to a baseball game.
It is opening day of faire, but mom got the tickets thinking the game was on Friday. No worries. I'm alright with not going to Faire opening day.
I might go closing day.. but who knows.. I'll go if and when I feel like it.

An awesome person on Ravelry gave me a free copy of one of her new patterns, as it was something I had slightly requested her to make. (I asked her to make a gargoyle pattern, and this she made first.. so it's close) The condition of getting the pattern free is that I have to make a SteamPunked Bat. Woohoo I think I can do that.

So I cannot wait to start playing with The Great Batsby




He actually clips on things. Tee hee.

Alright, I guess I'm just trying to kill time.

oh, and I'm bummed because Since JC is coming to town, it means I cannot go to REPO the Genetic Opera in Denver the night after. I just can't justify driving to Denver two nights in a row for no other reasont than to just see a movie and get a book signed. lol

The love of Terminator. And cuddly werewolves.

Alright. So, yesterday I was cranky. So very cranky that I couldn't wait to get out of work. I think what started the crankiness (Other than dealing with crappy internet services in the UK.. don't ask) was when the person who is my backup strolls in (late mind you) and immediately tells me how to do my job. I'm sorry, I was on break, I hadn't even logged back into my computer before he asked me to work a certain case. Which by the freaking way, I would have seen as soon as I logged in. But it was the fact that he told me to take care of it, just urked me. And he has done this with others, I frankly wanted to tell him to frak off and do his own job. (Which by the way, there was no reason he couldn't have taken care of the ticket himself. It took a total of 30 seconds to type 2 sentences and send it back to where it came from.)
That was about 9 am, and it put me into a foul mood till I got out of work at 12:30, which was 30 minutes later than my normal Fridays thanks to Monday having been a holiday.
I decided that it was going to be a day where if I stayed in the house, it would be a bad thing. Grabbed Mother of Mine and headed over to the mall to see a movie. Now, we normally do not go to the mall for movies, but I technically had errands on that side of town. (mostly, gas had been cheaper over there for the last few weeks. Of course because I was finally going to that station, it was now the same price as everwhere else.)
Mother of Mine and I puttered around the mall, and got ourselves some pretzels. Dealt with noisy kids, and a pain in my neck from walking around the mall. I was reminded why I don't like to go to that theater. (Granted, I hadn't been to that particular theater in quite possibly.. 10 years, but it hasn't changed)

Then we saw it.
Yes, we saw Terminator Salvation.


Now, those who don't know me, won't know my feelings when it comes to all that is The Terminator.
I love the movies. I grew up watching them. I personally feel that the first one is a romance chick flick. Yes, yes I did just say that.
Why do I think this?
Mostly, I can give you 1 reason.
Kyle Reese.
"I came across time for you Sarah."
Makes me melt every time.

Hmmm between Jareth from The Labyrinth, Kyle Reese from Terminator, James Bond, and James Fraser (Outlander books) it might explain why I have such a high standard for men lol.

Being a youngin' that I was, I remember actively making the decision to watch T1 and T2 on the special Judgment day. Which, for those who don't know, was August 1997.
Skynet came online August 4th, and Judgment day was actually August 29th.

I dislike the 3rd Terminator movie, because.. well it just didn't feel right.
I have grouped it into the batch of movies I pretend don't exist. Though, this one I will actually own, as I will have to have all the T movies.. most likely on Blue Ray someday. (Yes, technically my copies of T1 and T2 are still on VHS, and I'm not going to upgrade till after the move. - Hunny.. hint hint but wait till all 4 come out in whatever spiffy boxed set they're going to do.. as you know they will. )

Now, moving on to Salvation.
Once again, I love Kyle Reese. This time he was not played by Michael Biehn, but instead is played by Anton Yelchin. (You'll know him from many things, but most notably the new Star Trek Enterprise movie) Who I have recently gotten an extreme crush on. He is so adorable.
Marcus, played by Sam Worthington is a hot Aussie, and I kept catching his accent, when I'm sure not too many other people would. But yeah.. He's hot. He did a good job in the role he had. I won't go into details as that will spoil things.
Christian Bale played John Connor all grown up. Though he was limited by the existing lore of the character, and the actors who have played him previously.. I think he did an excellent job.

One thing that annoyed me in the movie, was the tapes that Sarah Connor made for John. I was sitting there in the theater thinking "how could they get someone else to do the tapes? Why didn't they just use the recording of the original tapes from the first movie?? They got the freaking photo of her, why couldn't they get the tapes?"
Well, my annoyance was that it didn't sound like Linda Hamilton.
To my chagrin, it was Linda doing the tapes. She went uncredited in the part, but yes, it was in fact her. In my defense, it really sounds nothing like her. And Mother of Mine also did not think it was her. Linda has a very distinct voice to me, as I grew up listening to her in Terminator, Beauty and the Beast, and everything else she's done. I always know it's her. So I was completely shocked when her voice sounded so different.
Mayhaps I'll just mentally chock it up to the tapes having been distorted in the 30 years since they had been made and thats why it didn't sound like her. - That might be plausible enough lol.

There were many little homages in the movie that made me squee in geekdom. (For those who haven't seen it... keep an eye out for a scene later in the movie involving John, a metal walk way, and a Terminator... it is very.. reminiscent of a very good scene from T2)
Arnie was in the movie, not as an actor, but just his likeness. And I think they did an AMAZING job.

On a different note, there was a scene that amused me. I couldn't help but think of a scene from The Princess Bride, and the entire time I watched this scene I had Vizzini's voice in my head saying "Those are the shrieking eels". Again, for those who have not seen it, you'll know which scene I'm talking about.

The movie made me jump many times. Which is slightly hard for a movie to do to me anymore, so this was quite fun.

All in all, GO SEE IT. It is very worth seeing on the big screen. I laughed, I cried, I jumped out of my seat.

Now moving along.

Yesterday I also received my 2nd package from the Vampire Club.
Whoohoo more Lucien yarn.

This month also included a cute little stitch marker.
I love the pattern by Gherkin, that is called Fangtasm. Unfortunately, it is 1) a sock, and 2) a toe up sock. Which until I get over my aversion to socks, this one is going to not get touched. And also I do not yet know how to do toe up socks- which is not nearly as simple as doing a regular sock. I did wish to learn how to do a toe up sock, but then my aversion happened.

Here are photos, and I apologize for the lack of photos previously (I can't recall if I had posted them or not) as I didn't get good photos last time.
Today, the light outside was gorgeous.





And now for an action shot with my lovely new swift. Ignore the chaos behind it, we are rearranging the house-mostly the front room, so it's a mess.

I absolutely LOVE the swift. It took me 10 minutes to cake up a skein of yarn with it instead of the hour it had taken previously, and that was if I was lucky enough to not have it tangle into a horrible mess like Lucien did previously. (Seriously 8 hours minimum spent untangling it)




Oh, and on a completely random note... I just watched a cute movie. "The Student Prince" It was enjoyable. It had Rupert Penry-Jones (Known from Spooks, and Casanova) when he was verra young.

Okay, I guess I'm done rambling.

Bugs and Hisses.

The Lunatics have taken over the Aslyum

Alright, I splurged yesterday.

Collide is a band that I enjoy, but have never been able to justify spending the money to 1)buy a physical cd, and 2) I haven't been able to justify spending money on any of their cool merchandise.
When I say merchandise, I mean the shop Saints and Sinners, which is run by KaRin who is a member of Collide, so thus, the merchandise in the shop helps support the band.

I got an email, my usual monthly email from Collide. And in that email, they announced a sale that was happening till the end of May. If you order from Saints and Sinners before the end of May, you'll get a free Collide cd of your choice.

Hells yeah.

So, I decided to get meself one of the belt buckles I was wanting, and opted for the Vortex CD, which I realized after I placed the order, that Vortex is a 2 disc set. Woohoo. They didn't say that Vortex wasn't an option for the free cd, and it is the only cd that has my favorite song.

The song in question... "The lunatics have taken over the Asylum" (I think it might be on the live cd, but i'm not fond of live cds)

So for 34$ (after shipping) I got a spiffy belt buckle, and a 2 disc cd. Woot.




Saints And Sinners

I also splurged when I got home, as I mentioned that Knit Picks has a wooden Swift on sale for 50$ (normally like 89$)

So mom and I decided to split the cost, as I really don't want to spend another 8 hours untangling a skein of yarn.

I know when the move happens, we'll have to decide who gets to keep it... But perhaps, I'll be able to have bought a new one by then. If it stays the same price, in a few months, we'll both pitch in for another one and that way we'll both have one and it didn't dent our bank accounts too much.


Knit Picks Yarn Swift

I also bought a new set of needle tips, in size 6, slowly I'll have all the ones I need.
I also got myself one ball of the Knit Picks Comfy so that I can start doing some gauge and figure out how much I'll need for my Av's sweater.

Yummy Non Woolly Stuff.

So I am totally BLOWN away. Today after spending too much money at the Evilmart, I came home and had a little package waiting for me.



Faux Cashmere, Milk Protein, Tussah Silk, Carbonized Bamboo
(Photo is not mine, it is stolen from Gherkin)

Gherkin over at Gherkin's Bucket did an amazing thing for me.

What did she do?
She not only battled with the evil mail delivery service not once, but twice.

The first package of non woolly fiber got stolen when they "delivered" it.

So, she finally got a new delivery of non woolly goodness, and spun some up.

Some of it, was a bitch apparently. I believe it was the Milk Protein that was the bitch.

I don't know what I'll knit these up into yet, as I need to test how my body reacts to them.

I have to say, at first impression, I am loving the Carbonized Bamboo.
The Milk yarn is just gorgeous looking.
The Tussah Silk is... oh my god.. .as beautiful as I imagined it. It really makes me want to buy some hanks of it when I start my whole dyeing thing.

The Faux Cashmere is cute... and quite... i don't know how to describe it. Very soft to say the least.

Now, you can find her over at her ETSY shop, and I hope that you all talk with her. (She can also be found on Ravelry for those of you who are on there)
Pretty much she is the most awesomest person ever right now in my book.

Gherkin's Bucket