Moving Right Along

This picture is from the morning of News Year's Eve 2006. We went to church as usual but Maggie was looking especially fabulous. This is her before hair-do's but you can see she's well on her way to fantastic here.

The shoes were her Christmas present from Dana (Nora's Lulu in the comments).

She was so excited to wear them today. Especially since they are slip ons. She told us this morning that she thought she would never in her life have her own pair of slip on shoes. The fact that they are sparkly is just icing on the cake I guess.
There has been knitting!!!! Inspired by Nora needing a winter hat - she's 2 and a half months old now and it's time for her to consider her style. Since she can't talk, I just kind of went for it and decided what I thought would be good with her wardrobe. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. The pattern came from the Rowan Babies book. I love that book. I used two strands held together so that I could get gauge.

This is the pattern if anyone wants to make it. It was pretty fast because its really just a basic hat. I knit it in the round even though the pattern suggested flat knitting. I wanted to avoid a back seam. Nora spends a lot of time laying around. She's very much a lady of leisure and I didn't want to cause any sort of discomfort. The flower construction is actually quite clever and I may use it again in the future on a hat or bag for myself.

These socks were for Nora too. Now I want you all to be impressed with me. Both of these gift items came from my stash! O.K. before you get overly excited...

I purchased these tow skeins of yarn this past Thursday. Two skeins in, two skeins out. It's all even. Not even even since I still have leftovers of the cashmerino. This stuff is yummy. Debbie Bliss Pure Silk. i haven't seen it before. I think it will be a scarf since I only have 2. They each have 123 meters - I'm too lazy at this point to figure out the yardage.

The skeins came from the Knitty Hipster. It is a very cute store with a selection of yarns for many budgets and tastes.

Also on the knitting front, I've started the other sock to match my mom's first Christmas sock that she talked herself out of. I'm going to get these finished soon so I can be wearing them.

It is getting late in the day and I know I have some new goals for the year but I haven't finalized them yet. Except for one. My attainable goal for 2007 is to stay up past midnight and see the ball drop tonight. I know it may seem like no biggie for many of you but I have woken up at 1:00 AM every new year for the last 5 years at least. When I do wake up I am always disappointed that I missed it. I'm not missing it this year. Especially since I am at Dana and Jerome's tonight and they have told me that if I do fall asleep there will be embarrassing internet photos.

I'll be back with you soon about the more serious goals. It may help me to write them down in a public way. We'll find out.

Ketchup, catsup, catch up

This is a random post. I need to catch up with how neglectful I've been over the last week. I feel a lot of jumping around coming up so everybody take your Dramamine.

So, Hesira got little prize from my contest and so she sent me a tin of her own homemade Biscotti. I ate them all. I did not share them. I ate them all. Homemade bisotti is da bomb.

Here is Brittney at the airport. Her eyes aren't actually that red. We picked her up on Friday night. She was 4 hours late due to some delays out of Salt Lake and then more delays out of Chicago. I'm not complaining though because if she'd been routed through Denver she would have been a lot later than 4 hours.

Here's the crew ready for church on the morning if Christmas eve. I made that dress for Maggie 2 years ago. It was to the floor the first year. She finally fits into it. I like to get a lot of wear from my hand made stuff.

I have no pictures of Christmas day. Lots of Video though. What was the greatest was Ryan going downstairs and seeing the presents under the tree and screaming "I can't believe it! Santa did come! He did come!" Nothing more fun than a three year old's enthusiasm.

This is the letter I put into Chelsea's present. You remember the pink ribbed sweater? Not done. I'm very close to the arm hole decreases on the sleeves. Problem is I haven't touched it since Christmas Day. I have a good excuse though. Inventory.

Here is Brittney helping her old mom out with the inventory. Good news is that I finished counting and weighing it all tonight. Now I just have to enter it all into quickbooks and everyone will be happy!

And finally, today I bought my store (and me) a little prezzy today. Sometimes it gets a little quiet in there and I could use some music. My sister said it also would help a lot with store ambiance and I am working toward a very homey feeling. If any of you have XM, are there any stations you would recommend for the shop? I also am going to try and download some podcasts for me to listen to when no one is visiting me. There's definitely a learning curve to this thing but it's cute as heck.

Avoidance

Psst. It's me. I'm hiding from Christmas. Don't give me away.

Let's talk about something else. Last Saturday I went to a wedding. I haven't been to a lovely wedding in some time.

Here are the bride and groom and little Ky. He's darling and so very 3.

This was the dinner - of which I ate too much.

This beautiful candy table was done by Dana. There were beautiful cellophane bags and curly sparkly pipe cleaners to close them with. Chocolate covered pistachios, jordan almonds, kisses, ribbon candy...

And then, Holy Crap what is that! A chocolate fountain complete with oreos and Rice Krispies treats. I think I was back there at least three times.

Dana and Jerome. Mother and father of the groom. Dana is looking quite fabulous in the skirt I haphazardly made and the beaded bag which was my first knitting project ever. And just look at those fabulously sexy shoes.

Here's me and my darlin'. I got a new outfit for the shindig.

And on a less happy note, the progress on the ribbed sweater. The front and back are still done. The sleeves are not. I am currently avoiding the whole thing by writing this.

Honestly, I don't like knitting this. That is why I hadn't touched it on over a year. I started it over two years ago and finally finished the front just after Thanksgiving. I know it will be appreciated when it is finished so I'm plugging along. Think I can finish by Monday? If not, think I could finish it by the 1st and give an IOU in the box? Sleeve Island my butt. More like sleeve rock. Sleeve Alcatraz. I hate this sweater. Boring. Boring and Boring.

And something else. There's a problem with privacy in my house. I will not be having any pictures to illustrate this portion of the post and you'll see why - I hope.

Tonight, I picked up the kids from Kirstynn / Dana's house (they stay there on Wednesdays while I'm at the shop). When we got home it was after 6PM. I fed the dog and gave the kids each some milk and a cookie. I asked them to stay downstairs and finish their snacks and I was going to get my jammies on.

5 minutes later I am undressed and doing the quick wash in the sink thing in MY bathroom. The kids are in the hallway.

"Can we come in?"

"No, go downstairs."

"Please?"

NO, go downstairs!"

I hear a sound and turn around to Ryan opening my bathroom door.

"GET OUT!!!"

Finish what I'm doing and, crap, I forgot my fresh undies in my room along with the pajamas.

I open the door from my bathroom into my bedroom. Out pops Maggie from behind my bed.

"I SAID GET OUT!!!!!!!!!"

Maggie runs out into the hallway to join Ryan and I hear, "Mom's no fun." Ryan says,"yeah."

Would you be fun if the last time you went into the bathroom without someone looking at you was 2001?

I'd better go knit. Times like this I wish I could drink coffee.

Hanging In The Balance

In case you didn't know, I got my own store. I like it. I like the spinning and learning to weave. I like teaching other people to spin. I like fooling around with the people that come into the store. I even like organizing the place.

I DON'T LIKE ACCOUNTING. I am not an accountant. There's a reason for that. I don't want to do it. I'm not interested in it. I'm not good at it. Frankly, who cares if I sold 2 ounces of roving or 2.2 ounces of roving.

I'll admit it. I am probably on the generous side when people buy fiber. I don't want to short them so most people leave with more than they paid for. I'm good with that. they seem happy with that too.

My accountant wants me to have an inventory. I am a little - well, a lot - freaked out about it. I sell some stuff from Ashland Bay, Ashford, Louet, Interlacements, Alpaca With a Twist and some other places I can't think of right now. I also have wool that I'll never have again. Why can't I just look at the shelf and say "Ooh, I'm getting a little low on that. I'd better order some."

Tomorrow I have an appointment with my accountant. We need to pound out an agreement concerning exactly how much accounting I have to do. I guess I should call it a compromise. It will probably end with me figuring out how much I'm willing to do. For example, I will track my Ashland Bay sales as a whole. I will not track my Ashland Bay sales by color. Louet has 50 colors for crying out loud.

I have kids. My house is trashed. I really need to find a balance here. Of course I've been saying that for the last 10 years. Where is the balance?

Knitting? and Giving

More pictures to distract you from the fact that Christmas is 9 days away and I haven't made very much progress at all on the pink sweater.

Look who I saw at Walmart today. He's ringing the bell for the Salvation Army. Buddy the Elf alive and well in Howell, Michigan. I was happy to see him although he was wearing sneakers and Maggie made a point of telling me his shoes weren't right.


I got my ornaments from the handmade ornament swap today. They are beautiful and hand painted. If I were comparing myself to A Crazy Knitter I would feel pretty lame with the ornament I sent out. I'm not going to think about it.

Now on to a more serious note. I was reading Stephanie's post from today and it's right down the lines of what I've been thinking about lately. I have spent a lot less on Christmas this year than I have in previous years due to feeling a need to scale back. I have felt the need to give my kids a more reasonable expectation of Getting for Christmas and help them think more of Giving.

On the giving side I have been digging money out every time I see a bell ringing guy. I'm not talking change either. I hand each kid a bill and let them put it into the red pot. I've given a little more for the welfare and missionary funds at church this year but I feel like I need to branch out. I did knit some things for Afghans for Afghans earlier this year - but I never mailed them. I think this time of year gets me thinking EVERY year but I need to find a way to keep it up past February. If you have any ideas let me know.

In the meantime I'm heading back over to see Stephanie and make my pledge to Doctors Without Borders. I hope to see you there.

I'd better get knitting.

It All Comes Back to the Whipped Cream

I have a huge amount to talk about tonight. I'm feeling a little gabby and since it's almost 11Pm and I don't think anyone would appreciate a phone call at this hour to talk about nonsense I'll just tell anyone who is willing to read my gobbledy gook.
The picture above is what I brought up to bed with me tonight. Under that pile of whipped cream is Hot Chocolate from Williams-Sonoma. It;s a little pricey for a tin of it but if you don't share it, it can last for a long time. (You know what I mean Kate?)
Also, I was checking out Betheany and she had a link to here. I put in my blog address. Go there and check it out. Hilarious way to waste a lot of time.

I bought this Kid Mohair when I was in Rhinebeck. I've been a little afraid to wash it because I didn't want to mess up the locks and so I just put it in the shop. Nobody is even looking at it. I guess they don't want to wash it either. So I took a pretty big handful and put it in a bucket of the hottest water I could get along with Meadows Heavy Duty Wool Wash. I let it soak for a long time - at least a half hour. I dumped the filthy water and washed it again with the wool wash and then I rinsed in hot water.

This is what I got. It is beautiful and fabulously soft. There is still some VM in it - as you can see - and I have to figure out how to get more of that out. I may just try flicking it a little. I washed more today. I weighed out 8 ounces before washing because I curious about how much weight you lose due to dirt. it will be dry by tomorrow so I'll weigh it and see.

I probably won't weigh it tomorrow though since tomorrow is shopping day. I need a dress for a wedding on Saturday. I have to get my kids a couple more Christmas presents and I need a wedding gift for the soon to be happy couple. The only real plan I have is to go to J. Jill and Chicos. If they don't pan out I'm lost. I guess the mall will be the next choice. Today is Penny's birthday. She is 1 year old. This picture is from yesterday. She seems like a short dog...until she stands on her back legs. She can reach stuff off of the counters and the table. I'm sick of it.

Yesterday I took little pieces of bread and soaked them in Tabasco sauce. I placed the pieces of bread all along the counter. She ate 2 of them. In the photo she is rubbing her nose on the floor. She also did a lot of licking, she drank a huge amount of water and then laid in the hallway by herself for a while. I may have to do this again in a couple of days and we'll see what happens. Maybe she'll decide that people food is too risky.

Today I was in the shop for my regular hours. I had only one phone call. So I spun some shetland and started plying. The singles were spun on the Schacht Matchless double treadle and I am plying on the Louet because I'm too lazy to set up the Schacht with the scotch tension option. The double drive just doesn't give enough take up tension for plying. The Louet is a dream to ply on though.

Here is my new friend. Schacht Baby Wolf 8 heddle loom. On Mondays from 2:30 to 4:30 there is a weaving class in the shop. I decided that I should take advantage of it. It's my shop and shouldn't I know about this stuff? So anyway, Betty showed me how to warp the thing on Monday and today she came and helped me get started. I warped with the Louet Merino in black. I am weaving with Mango Moon Recycled Silk. I have about 8 skeins of it and I have tried knitting with it but we didn't bond. So, on Monday morning while I was considering what to weave I came across these skeins and decided to put them to use.

I got almost 12 inches done today. I'm doing a twill pattern. I am only using 4 of the 8 heddles. This is great fun. Remember when I taught myself a little weaving on the Ashford Knitter's Loom? O.K. maybe not. I seem not to have told you about it here.
I thought it was kind of boring. I didn't love it. Now I want to be clear here. I have only done a small portion of a scarf on the rigid heddle loom. I also have only done a small portion of a scarf on the Schacht loom. I prefer the one with the peddles. My feet are busy, my hands are busy, nothing is trying to fall off of the table...4 hours into the whole process and I'm ready to go for the Golding. The loom I'm weaving on now sells for a little less than $1800. It's still not cheap but the Golding is FAB! I could get one to match the Golding wheel I own in my dreams.
Anyway, the scarf is going to be very soft and I'm glad I put on enough to make two scarves so if I finish before Christmas somebody will get a lovely scarf too. (I get the first one though)

And now for the Santa portion of our show. This Santa was sponsored by "Happy Feet" the movie. Remember the good old days when Santa's appearance was sponsored by the mall or the department store where he was appearing. This was a huge advertisement for the movie. The kids loved it of course and I just was mostly amused by the change... There was even a huge snow globe with snow falling down from the top. There was a sign outside the globe that explained that the snow was made from rice...for our enjoyment. I wondered whether that meant they wanted us to snack on it.
Then I looked at the prices. I decided we wouldn't buy any pictures. We would just stop and talk to Santa and I would just take a picture with my own camera.

Then we got up to Santa and right outside the gateway was this sign. I don't remember this policy any other year. I was not happy. We got the cheapest pictures and I took a picture with my own camera any way. I guess since we were paying they didn't care about my one picture.
I may write a letter to the mall about my disappointment with this new policy.

But how could we wait in line so long and then miss this picture?

Ryan was playing with Santa's beard and asking where was his sleigh and where were the reindeer. He was touching Santa's hat and getting very comfortable there on Santa's lap.

On the way out of the mall I caught a glimpse of Williams-Sonoma. Which brings me back to my first point. Whipped cream on Hot Chocolate. Yum, YUM!

Blah, Blah, Blah

I really haven't forgotten this blog. It's been a crazy week and lots of stuff has been going on and I just wrote a great post about all of it with plenty of pictures and blogger crashed when I clicked publish.
There has been spinning and not as much knitting as I need to do and I'm working on learning Quickbooks. I also couldn't get any sound out of this computer for 2 weeks. I did all of the trouble shooting stuff. I looked online for hints. Finally I took her in to Circuit City. Told the guy my problem. he said, "I know what's wrong." He turned a little knob on the front and turned it on and ... sound, loud and clear. There's a volume knob on the front of my computer. Crazy.
Then there was the whole visiting Santa thing. I'll talk about that later.
And the weather man is making me crazy. Monday it may or may not snow, Tuesday it may or may not snow. The rest of the week it may or may not snow. I want it to snow and I want him to be a little more sure about it.

Does this picture look like it may even have a chance of flurries in it?

By the way. I'm moving my store website. My sister who is working on my web page for me said I needed to tell you. It's now at www.thespinningloft.com

Loose Ends

Is it tying, tiing, tieing...none of them look right to me.

My secret pal sent me a box before Thanksgiving. she hoped that it would get to me before I left for my trip to PA. It arrived on Wednesday afternoon. I left on Wednesday morning. My friend Dana saved it from the rainy weather and took it home. She also opened it and described it to me on the phone. All I have to say is F-A-B! Some lovely sock yarn - actually one of my favorites. Some Patons SWS. How can you resist? Stitch markers out the giggy as my mother would say. A bubble bar. Lip balm. Chewy for Penny. Delicious candy. And some of her own handspun. She spins cotton. Something I haven't tried yet. Such a nice gift and pleasant surprise that I just got yesterday.

Something else I neglected to do was thank that secret girl for helping me out of my holiday jam. She actually owned the book I needed to continue my project while I was gone and sent me the instructions. I can't wait to find out who she is. It kind of makes me crazy.

This is my darling friend Dana. I promised that I would put a more flattering picture of her. Remember the cookie baking? She was so helpful on Friday night. I couldn't have been ready for the grand opening without her.

This is John. I promised to put his picture here. He is holding Nora.

Nora had her blessing at church on Sunday. We went to Dana's afterwards for brunch. Dana is the grandmother who will from this time forward be called Lulu by those who love her in the very special way of grandchildren.

And now to finish up some business. I had 6 guesses at what the mystery object was. Well 7 if you count Kate's husband - but she can only have one gift. Each of those who guessed will get a gift. Tracey has already been notified because she won the in-store prize of a $25.00 gift certificate.

Additionally there was my friend Jessie, Hesira , Deb, and DJ.

Here are the prizes for these girls. I'm not sure about who's a spinner and who's not. Look them over girls and email me or comment as to which you would like and I will ship it to you.

8 ounces of Handspinner's Dream Alpaca to spin in a lovely camel color. Taken By Jesse

One skein of Cherry Tree Hill Sock Yarn. This is a pretty good representation of the color. Taken By Kate A.

Some beautiful merino that I want to spin. There are 6 ounces of this stuff. I'm seeing a lacey shawl - but that's just me.

Two skeins of Fortissima sock yarn. I love this stuff.

And finally four skeins of Koigu KPPM. I was going to make orange socks with yellow heels and toes out of this. Taken By Hesira - Unless she changes her mind to the Fortissima. I need more guidance.

All of these things are difficult for me to part with but you girls are worth it. After much discussion and deliberation with myself we did finally narrow it down. Let me know. I'll be waiting.

Fanfare Please

This post has A LOT of pictures. Thanks to Kate and her genius that I am finally taking advantage of.
So the Grand Opening Party was yesterday and it was quite a party. I worked my butt off - though it still seems to be following me around - in order to get ready for this thing. The shop looked great. My good friend Dana came on Friday night and helped me for hours with the final preparations and her anality (please everyone add that word to you dictionaries) really paid off.
The Friday weather was crap. I was very nervous but Saturday was sunny and beautiful and I must say that I think God loves me.

This is the half of the spinning wheel and equipment room that we didn't get to but look at that really nice 8 heddle loom.

I know this one's kind of dark - but clean looking.

Anyway, Jillian and Carla came up the stairs at 3 minutes past 10. Jillian wasn't kidding about hurry to get there. They were both lovely and fun as usual. Tracey came soon after that. And then came Kelle.

Then the floodgates were opened and it definitely was a party.

This is one of the paintings I have in the shop by local artist Carolyn Kinnison. I want to take it home myself.

Here is another clean shot of the newly organized choas.

Did I mention we had snacks? They were enjoyed by many. That wheel I was telling you about on Friday? Gone. A new spinner took it home with her. It will be perfect traveling companion. I was happy to have the enlisted help f ALL of the spinners in the shop to help that lady make her choice. Ashford Kiwi? Taken home by a 13 year old girl who has spun one other time and she just sat down and she was a natural. Fantastic! Fiber? Out the door by the pound.

Shelly Lampshire showed up after 1 and stayed for hours talking to people coming in about her needle felting and the exciting class we have coming up. She's going to teach us her method of needle felting in the end of February or early March. We're going to pin down a date this week. It'll be a Saturday for most of the day.

(Yes that's a Kromski Harp behind her. It's an 18 inch one and I do ship.)

This cute little doll has a molded face from clay and painted by Shelley. Many of them have magnets on their feet so they can stand on these little bases.
This one is all sculpted by needle felting. The eyes are glass but all of the rest of him is wool!

Finally at the end of the day and things were quieting down in came these two lovely ladies who wanted to learn everything. I think they art going to start with spinning. They already knit.
Tuesday night is Fiber Free For All so I invited them back to try all of the wheels left in the shop, make a decision and rent one to take home.

Now, let's talk about contests. We have already made our choices for the drawings and the in-store contest. I will post those names later after I get my changes to the Website together. That is the link to my new website. Over the next few months I'll be moving. I like the new clean design better and although it is still in the process of being built I can see a huge improvement already. Check it out and tell me what you think.

I want to talk about you guys. The guesses I'm getting here are all hilarious. I need another plan. Contest guessing will close today and I will make my decision and tell you about the new plan tomorrow. I'm cooking it up in my noggin as we speak - o.k. really not we since you are all probably still getting your rest or working on your Christmas knitting - so, as I speak. It will be good and I think more than one of you will be happy.

Thank you for sticking with me through this. I know it hasn't been the most organized post but now you can see that my brain is all over the place lately and I'm writing how I'm thinking. Only with a lot less swirls and dips - the writing I mean.