I still haven’t looked up what week we’re on. And I haven’t done much of anything healthy. But I’m planning and making dinners better. I hope to start exercising soon. I feel ready, but distracted. There are so many other things I want to do with my time right now. I have books I want to read. I’m dyeing, spinning, and knitting stuff. I have packaging to think about, and a website to get built. A house to keep up and a family to keep fed and clothed. I have guitar scales to practice.

My guitar teacher is still kicking my butt. I feel like I get more and more behind every lesson. He gives me SO MUCH, and I can’t possibly master it in one week. And he doesn’t expect me to, but I do. When I get frustrated, I need to look back on how far I’ve come and it gets better. Roger never gives me time to revel in accomplishment. It’s always “on to the next step” so I always feel like I’m floundering. But really, I’ve learned so much. I have to keep telling myself that. For example, I can now do the Major scale, which spans 5 frets!!! I’ve been working on it for about a month. It was literally painful. And I was clumsy. But I can make the reach now with very little discomfort. Woohoo!

Then last week he gave me some wretched Diminished Arpeggio thing that has me feeling all thumbs again. Go figure.

So, Health Group…. I’m going to try to exercise twice this week, and eat respectably. That’s my goal.

I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about The Sweater here before. It’s a sweater that my mom some how came in possession of, and passed off to me at least 20 years ago. I loved The Sweater, despite the fact that in addition to one sleeve being significantly longer than the other, the stripes not matching up at the button band (it was a cardigan), and being kind of itchy… it looked horrible on me. I kept trying to wear it. I kept it for many, many years. I’d take it out of the back of the closet every 6 months or so, try it on, look in the mirror, and stick it back in the closet. I now know that the reason it looked so horrible on me is because its main color was entirely wrong for me. It was light, heathery gray. I can’t think of a color that makes me look more frumpy than light, heathery gray. Dark gray is fantastic. Light gray must be avoided, at least by me, at all possible costs.

At some point, I got rid of The Sweater. It was a sad day. There was something so romantic about that sweater. It had a homemade look to it. Not handmade, homemade. But it was charming. Delightful. The kind of thing you’d want to wear around the house on a weekend. You’d want to curl up in a chair and read in it. You’d have your hair up in one of those messy topknots with stragglers falling out here and there. You’d be drinking something warm. You’d feel pretty and cozy and I dare say even sexy despite being, essentially, in the knitting equivalent of sweats.

I want another The Sweater. One that actually looks good on me. When I swatched the wolf spun mohair some months ago, I thought that it would make a fantastic replacement for The Sweater. Not that it would make a sweater at all similar to the original, but I thought it could fill the void well.

The original Sweater was, as I mentioned, light heather gray. It had some stripes of metallic pink ribbon-y something or other in it, as well as a large stripe of dark wine colored yarn in yet another texture. That’s about all I remember.

I’m finished spinning the pound of mohair I bought at Black Sheep.

I have about 600 yards of yarn, and I need 900 +. I have plenty of the coincidentally coordinating roving I used to ply with the mohair to make some sort of yarn that will go with it, but I think it’s too similar in color without being the same texture. I think it’d look off. After talking with Shiori last night and having her examine my swatches, we both concluded that the best thing would be to dye more mohair in harmonious colors and make more wolf yarn.

So, I dug out the lovely first clip kid mohair fleece I bought a year + ago from a delightful lady in Monroe. This fleece is so special, I haven’t dared to use it for anything. I’m nervous. But I’m taking the plunge, and I’m going to dye about 12 ounces of it, to be sure I have enough. 8 ounces are soaking right now in preparation to be dyed.

The Sweater was, as I mentioned, multi textured. That was my initial plan for this new sweater, but I can’t picture it in any way going well. I think all mohair is the way to go, but I’m having trouble picturing how I’ll incorporate the two different colors. And should I spin some of the mohair smooth? And what design?

I really have no idea what to do. I’d hoped that by the time I finished spinning the Black Sheep mohair, that I would have come up with something.

Did something turn out the EXACT color it was supposed to?

YES!!!

This one looks pretty good, too.

I’m dyeing stuff for Veronica’s mitts. The green is wool and alpaca. The salmon color is silk. I have some silk top soaking right now that I’m going to dye mahogany to go both in the green mitts, and to use with my remaining blue fiber to be carded.

Other things making me happy today… my teacups.

As I was emptying and reloading the dishwasher this morning, I noticed the massive movement of teacups. The ones from the hot drinks last night replaced in the cupboard the ones we used for herbal tea this morning. I love it when the weather turns colder. We haven’t turned on the heat yet, so we’re wearing more layers and drinking warm things. It’s very fun. I could continue on like this for some time, but Nate won’t. He’ll be cleaning out the filter in the furnace this weekend, I’m sure, then the heater will come on. He hates being cold.

Last year, I think it was fog that got me waxing poetic and all cozy feeling, excited for winter. This year, it’s the emerging of teacups.

It was chilly enough at the cross country meet last night to put Clark in a hat. I have one cold weather hat that fits him well.

I made it in my early knitting days, when I was ambitious to design my own patterns. This one was for Abigail, and has a fun, swirly decrease pattern in dark blue on the top. It’s cute, but I need to make him his own hat. One without purple in it.

Real quick, because Clark is watching a movie on the computer, and is very upset that I paused it to post….

Here are Abby’s mitts on her paws

and here is the first 30 rounds of Liv’s first mitt. I think the it would look good with dark brown flecks of silk in it for a little more contrast, in addition to the mahogany. I don’t know about the lighter, yellow-tan color.

I’ll start off with the knitting. This was General Conference weekend for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which is a two day satellite broadcast that happens every 6 months. The twelve apostles and the prophet and other general authorities give talks over 5, 2 hour sessions. It’s fantastic and I love it. So uplifting and inspiring. Additionally, I get a LOT of knitting done.

On Saturday, I got up to the armholes on the front of Clark’s sweater but had to stop because I’m about to start the V neck.

That would require too much counting to pay attention to Conference, so on Sunday, I knit one and a half of Abby’s fingerless mitts. (Rotten picture).

It really does look nice on her hand, when it’s not all shriveled up with the ribbing. I’ll finish up the second one quick and then knit the brown ones so you all can tell me which amount of silk you like.

Now, on to fish.

Remember back in February of ’07, when I bought my ryukin?

Well, Cecily died recently. I’m not upset. She was kind of boring. I didn’t really like her, and the reason I bought the two of them anyway was to establish my nitrogen cycle with cheap pet store fish so I could eventually buy some really nice ones online. Well, not surprisingly, I’m too sentimental to get rid of my fish. Plus, I really like Zuko. So I’m looking online, and was trying to remember how long I’ve had Zuko when I looked back on the blog and found the post.

He’s grown a LOT, and he’s beautiful.

He’s 4 1/2 inches now. He should be bigger, but there have been long periods of time when I wasn’t taking as good care of them as I should. Not cleaning the tank out often enough, and when I ran out of the good fish food I buy online quite awhile ago, I bought some pet store food to get me through ’til I ordered more and… never quite got around to it. I think that was Cecily’s problem. She wasn’t getting the nourishment she needed. I feel bad.

BUT, I just bought some new plants and food, moved the rocks around a bit, bought an enormous contraption that sterilizes the water like an ozonator which means that I can have the light on as much as I want and the water will still be clear. I’m so excited! And I’m looking online at fish.

What I REALLY want is a nice, big, fat orange ranchu to call Calcifer*. But there’s this ryukin that I think is stunning. Wouldn’t he look GREAT with Zuko?

Aaaand, there’s a really expensive black ranchu that is so stinking cute, I can’t stand it.

I want to pinch his cheeks!

Aside from the fact that I can’t go dropping several hundred dollars on Goldfish right now, or potentially ever, I think the maximum amount of fish I can keep in my tank is 3. I already have Zuko, mixing ryukin and ranchu isn’t the best idea, tho’ depending on the personalities you end up with, it could be fine. I think Zuko is gentle enough to be with a Ranchu. He’s so sweet. I don’t know about that other ryukin though. They can be scrappers. I could just get the ryukin, which is the cheapest, and be done. But I’ve ALWAYS wanted a big ol’ ranchu. They’re so cool. And I think the big orange one would look nice with the two ryukin, if they all get along.

What to do, what to do.

I realize it’s completely trivial to be fretting about fish, but Zuko is all alone now. And honestly, I love my fish. They make me happy. It’s therapeutic, you know, to watch fish. That’s why they’re in hospitals. And tropical fish bore me to death. I like these big, individual water animals with character and personality. Except for the jerky ones, like Frank from my old post, or that blue lionhead I had to get rid of a few years ago. Stinkers.

* Then I’d have both a fire bender and a fire demon in my tank. Of water. Can’t hardly resist that. :-).

Wow, it’s been awhile. September kicked my butt, what with being sick and all. I’ll need to go back and see what week we’re actually on, but I don’t have time today. So, I thought I’d check in at least. I think I might be able to start exercising again. I’ve been so weak from being sick. With the weather changing, I’m not sure how I’m going to get that exercise, but pretty soon here, I’ll start up with the calorie counting and exercise again. My pants are snug.

How has it been going for you all?

YetAnotherAmy suggested yesterday that I could use less silk in my batts to save $$$. That spurred a discussion/disagreement between Nate and I. We really don’t disagree much, so it was amusing. I had said that although I am an artist, and are therefore not interested in saving $$$, I was interested to see what less silk would do to the batt.

Nate argued that I’m a commercial artist, and therefore should be VERY interested in saving $$$.

I don’t think I’m a commercial artist, and I’m sure that Cassandra Barney, who sells her art for a living, doesn’t scrimp on paint to save a little $$$.

He said he figures she doesn’t scrimp on paint, but if she could buy her favorite boards somewhere cheaper, she would.

I said that was a completely different matter, because in the end, she’s still working with the same product.

He got frustrated and said he wasn’t trying to pick a fight.

I laughed at (I mean with) him.

So anyway, I made up a tan batt with half the silk of the blue batt. And I really like it.

In the skein at least, it’s much tidier. And extremely beautiful. Additionally, I’m quite proud of the spinning. It’s so even and smooth…

(There’s twice as much yarn in the tan skein than there is in the blue one).

I’m interested to see how they compare knit up. I think I have enough of each color, once the second blue batt is spun, to knit a pair of fingerless mitts from each.

Thanks YetAnotherAmy for the suggestion. It was a nudge that I think I needed, saving $$$ or not :-).

Also, to answer Anna’s question yesterday, my elbows are still very slowly getting better. They hurt when I play guitar, so I have to limit my practice sessions to about 30 minutes. They hurt occasionally when I pick up something that’s both small and heavy. And I need to be cognizant of my arm position when I knit. However, I can tell that they’re getting better. Thanks for asking.

Yesterday was full of laundry (shudder. It was taking over the house), the usual, never ending clean up, a long phone conversation with my sister, spinning the tan batt, and at about 10:30 last night, I started another book.

I got to sleep at around 2 am and am over 2/3 through House of Many Ways. I’m not enjoying it as much as the first two, but now that Howl, Calcifer and Sophie have shown up, it’s getting pretty good.

I finished the back to Clark’s sweater this morning.

My understanding was that if you knit two together on the last bind off instead of just binding it off, it helps to reduce the “stair stepping” effect. Well, I still see stairs. Maybe I’m doing it wrong? Anyone know? I don’t usually care, because the stairs seam up just fine, but since this is a saddle shoulder sweater, that seam is going to be on the front (well, in this case the back) of the shoulder and quite visible, so a smoother edge to seam seemed like a good idea.

Yesterday, I went to my LYS to buy the new Debbie Bliss magazine. It’s the first issue, and I love Debbie Bliss. Her designs and color choices are so elegant. She seems to balance interesting with “wearable” very well, as in her designs manage to be both not boring and not weird. Talent indeed. I also bought her Tweed book in which, as it turns out, most of the patterns are also in the magazine. Oh well.

I’m very annoyed her magazine doesn’t offer subscriptions. How insane is that? When I first heard of the magazine, before even seeing it, I immediately went online to try to subscribe. No luck. So I went to the LYS and bought the issue (actually, I called on Saturday, had them put one of the last 3 issues they had on HOLD for me, and bought it yesterday by which time it was sold out). When I came home, I fanned the pages to look for those pesky subscription cards that are usually supplied in abundance with every magazine I’ve ever bought.

I found what I thought was one, solitary card. I cheered.

It was a postcard.

No subscriptions.

In the future, I’ll have to keep an eye out for release dates, and make sure I get into the store before they sell out.

Lame.

Seriously lame.

Yesterday was also a Cross Country meet for the girls. I took a bunch of pictures. The first few amuse me. Our PE teacher is fantastically fun. Everyone loves him. He’s extremely energetic and charismatic and has a very positive and fun personality. This exact description also applies to our half day kindergarten teacher. These two men head up the various after school sports programs sponsored by the school district throughout the year, as well as a very involved dance held yearly in late fall. It was clear to me the effect this has on the kids when I saw the teams lined up on the bank waiting for the meet to start.

Our school-

Their schools-

The school with the purple shirts weren’t assembled yet, but they were about the same size.

I’m so glad we have those teachers to inspire and encourage our kids. They’re very lucky. And hearing Mr. H screaming and cheering as he sees each of the kids run by, calling them by name… it makes me tear up a little.

Maybe I should knit him something.

So, while waiting for the running to start, I took some cutie pictures of Clark on the playground.

And then, of course, they ran. Abby’s in the pink shorts.

It was a good day.

I think it might be a good one! Though, this an entirely impossible time of day to get a picture with accurate color, natural light or no.

It’s still not perfect. I want to have strands of mulberry silk top in there, but we’re off to a good start. I’ve spun it, I’ll wash it, I have one more to spin, and then I’ll knit them into fingerless mitts for Liv to see how it looks worked up.

I’m thinking that despite what the sample on the dyecard looks like, I’m not going to be able to use mahogany silk in Nate’s sweater. It’s entirely too pinkish as opposed to the dark, burgundy red it’s supposed to be. However, it’s beautiful.

Aside from carding and spinning a quick batt, I didn’t get much done with fiber yesterday. Didn’t knit a stitch on Clark’s sweater. I got sucked into a book. On Saturday, I read Howl’s Moving Castle and yesterday, I read Castle in the Air. They’re both children’s literature by Diana Wynne Jones. She’s very softly funny. Intelligently funny. They’re enjoyable to read.

Nate is a huge reader, and much of the female side of his family (mom, sisters, sisters-in-law) are also. I’m not much of a reader, but I think I could become one. (This is both exciting and distressing to me. There’s only so much time… and reading, while tremendous fun, doesn’t feel productive).

Anyway, when I said I wanted to read Howl’s Moving Castle after seeing the movie and wanting more information on the characters, Nate took me out and we bought it. I read it in a day, and showed interest in the follow up and it’s sequel. Yesterday, he came home with four books, one for him by Neil Gaiman, and three for me. He’s also brought up a book from his extensive library downstairs that he’s sure I’ll like called Mad Kestrel by Misty Massey.

I’m not lacking for encouragement, that much is certain.

And I’m still intrigued by the Outlander series Carrie recommended to me, that I’ve heard referenced several times since in various conversations.

Bah! There are far too many interesting things to spend time on.