Yup, I picked up Veronica’s Kimono yesterday, and completed one side of it! The pattern gets all weird once you divide for the armholes, so I had a big tangle of yarn for awhile, but one side is done, the shoulder stitches are bound off….. and it feels good.

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of my wacky, supposed-to-be-sock yarn.

(Notice my incredibly cool lime-sherbet green linen pants? I bought them for the ocean, and love Love LOVE them)! I twisted the snot out of the singles, because my tendency is to under-twist, then it falls apart when I ply. Not horribly, but enough to annoy me. So I really twisted it. Then, I really twisted the ply. So, it’s probably nearly indestructible now. I don’t know about the functionality.

Since I’m sure you are all dying to see my new wheel again, here’s another shot.

Oh, and it looks like I may have a computer at the cabin after all! Maybe. Nate wants to leave on Thursday, so you should know by the end of the week.

Thanks for the cheers and well wishes yesterday. I have spun a partial bobbin and navajo plied it. I used four different colors of roving to attempt self striping sock yarn, but it isn’t thin or consistent enough for socks, so I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. I’ve set the twist, and it’s drying right now. I’ll hopefully get a picture today, and will show you tomorrow. I made a new hook though!

I have an abundance of them already, but now I have a wheel, so I needed a new hook. Right? Well, it’s pretty anyway, and it works good.

Yesterday was a good day. I got a lot of chores done, stuff cleaned, and I played with the wheel. I cleaned and oiled it, too. So now it’s even prettier, and it smells good.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that there hasn’t been a lot of knitting around here recently. That will change. I miss it. When I’m at the cabin next week, I plan to finish as many of my WIP’s as possible so I can start something new. I’m thinking about lace. Maybe I’ll finally start I Do with that luscious, pale blue Angora by Elsebeth Lavold that’s been getting it’s beauty sleep in my stash.

And finally, in response to the comments yesterday… Yes, I got a haircut! Gayle (FYRKRKR in the comments, and she just got a blog) cut it for me a while ago. I liked the length I had, but it was getting stringy, and because nothing about me is subtle, I had to whack it all off. It grows way fast, and I’m already looking forward to some more length, but it’s cute. I’m glad you all like it.

YES IT DID!!!! And it came with loads of stuff, which is good, because aside from the ball winder, I didn’t have anything.

There’s a niddy noddy, a homemade lazy kate, Clemes & Clemes curved-back hand carders, 7 bobbins, a ball winder, a spool of “drive band”, and a gorgeous jumbo mother-of-all, which is a nice set up for spinning that core-spun mohair I want to try. Oh, and there’s a basket full of 10-20 year old Spin Off magazines and fiber periodicals.

There was a spool with a little bit of silk spun onto it, so I used that to practice navajo plying. (That’s the white stuff you see on the wheel). I’d never done it before, and it is WAY fun! I couldn’t have done it without this video, linked by Stephanie awhile back. Thanks, Steph!

I can’t believe I have a spinning wheel! It’s been such a long wait. I really like this one. It’s a Clemes & Clemes, and it has a ton of personality. Plus, being out of production, it’s rather unique. And it’s stained dark, which is what I wanted. I’m giddy. The only thing I want to investigate is the possibility of either making (having made) or buying additional whorls. I have one only. If anyone happens to know anything about that, I’d love to hear it.

I’m going to go and play with my wheel now. Am I happy?

Hey everyone! We’ve been gone ALL day, but are back now. Nate BBQ’d, and we’re about to eat, so I’ll make this quick.

My back is feeling better. Thank goodness.

Monday we were at the ocean, and there was no time whatsoever for exercise BUT, I ate really well. We packed healthy food.
Tuesday was spent recovering from the ocean. I was wiped.
Wednesday I did upper and lower body weights, and physical therapy exercises.
Thursday was Yarn Harlot day, and I didn’t get anything done.
Friday I went to look at a spinning wheel (you’ll hear about that on Monday), and spend the rest of the day watching 10 kids at my friend’s house so she and her visiting sisters could go out.
Today we were gone the whole day doing major Back to School shopping. We scored. It was good.

So, this week wasn’t as productive as I’d hoped in the exercise arena. I seem to lack balance. I either spend my whole life trying to keep up with the house and my health, or I throw it all out the window and play with my kids. Hmmmmm, gotta figure this one out.

I have made a decision though. I am finally coming to grips with the fact that, at least right now, doing 50 minutes of treadmill a day, as well as 30 minutes of weights and however long physical therapy takes, every single day, is impractical. I cannot do it. I try, and fail, and feel like a loser. SO, I’m changing my approach. I’m going to try to do something for my body every day. I will alternate treadmill (aerobic) and full body weights. Treadmill one day, weights the next. That’s my goal. And I’m going to try to do it early in the morning before the kids are awake, so I don’t get distracted.

That’s my new goal. And I need to eat more vegetables. And I need to drink more water again. As usual, I’m optimistic.

How was YOUR week? I know Gayle has a few things to say! I wanna hear it!

As if there’s any question. My apologies to those of you who are blog readers. Particularly those of you who are blog readers that don’t happen to live in a city lucky enough to be on Stephanie’s book tour.

I met her. I have pictures. And they’re going to look an awful lot like all the other giddy blogger’s pictures that have been posted over the past few months.

Oh well. My blog. My fun.

That’s right. Front row, baby. I braved arriving 20 minutes early, with three young, uninterested children (bribed with the promise of popcicles), and we got to sit in the front row! It was a nice, intimate gathering. There weren’t a ton of people there. I think most everyone was holding out for the Weaving Works bash later in the evening. (I have a sad, sad tale about that. I went, parked, got a phone call, and had to leave before even getting out of my car. Fortunately, I hadn’t paid the meter yet. But still, it’s a dangit).

She’s very good. I was about halfway back in line, and I watched her get out of her chair, smile, and pose for about a dozen pictures, and she looked sincerely happy each time. What a trooper. She’s literally smiled for hundreds of pictures with hundreds of knitters over the past four months, and is still gracious.

Anyway, Steph is lovely and funny, of course. But you all knew that. She recognized me before I had a chance to introduce myself. That was the highlight of my day. She said she was all “blog excited”, and she’s the one on tour! Figure that? But I was flattered. I gave her stitch markers and told her that if she’d already been given 500 stitch markers, she can add them to the pot of gifts for Knitters Without Borders.

Now that you’re all either annoyed and jealous, or confused, we’ll move on to Cable-Eights. What’ve you got? I am DONE with both the front and back! I have crocheted the edging on three of the four selvedges, and my dear friend Gayle suggested slip-stitching them together as opposed to single crochet. I’ll try that first before giving Diana’s method a try (see sidebar. I took her advice though and only crocheted into every other selvedge stitch as opposed to every stitch). I don’t have any pictures, but I’m sure you can tell that I’ve been very busy the past week, and having loads of fun. That would be why.

That reminds me, our laptop died, and I’m going to the cabin for a week or so, so I think I may actually miss blogging for that period of time. Will you miss me? :-). I don’t know exactly when I’m leaving yet, or exactly how many days I’ll be gone. Stay tuned.

And finally, I am beyond giddy about this morning. In a few hours, I head off to look at a spinning wheel that may or may not be coming home with me. I certainly hope it is. I’ve waited SO long, but I will not buy it unless I enjoy spinning on it, and that will be determined in a few hours. Wish me luck. I have about 4 pounds of dyed rovings crammed between my couch and the end table that are very restless.

You’ll find out Monday. See you tomorrow at Health Group!

We went to the Seattle Center last night for a picnic dinner and some water fun.

These pictures are dark. I didn’t realize until the end that my camera was on a different setting than I normally use. Anyway, in the Seattle Center, at the base of the Space Needle seen above, there is a huge, international fountain. It is sunk into the ground, surrounded by a large, concrete bowl that you can walk down into, and the fountain itself is a 10 foot tall, silver dome. Water spouts out randomly, and shoots many feet into the air, all the while playing international music. It is very much cool.

So after we ate, the girls headed down to the water.

I don’t know why I bothered telling them not to get soaked. My girls are total cowards.

When we go to the Seattle Center, I like to buy a little fudge from the Center House. As usual, I got sick. It doesn’t take a lot of fudge to get a girl sick. Bleh.

So, a good time was had by all.

Today, Stephanie is coming to town. She’ll be pretty close to me at 3 this afternoon, and then she’ll be in Seattle itself this evening. I’m not completely sure when I’ll see her, but I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been reading her blog since it was a couple months old. Back in the days when she had under 10 comments. In fact, I remember when she got over 10, I think it was 14 or something and she actually said, “DANG, that’s a lot of comments!” Haha. If she only knew. So, we’ll be seeing Steph today. Can’t wait.

And finally, (and this is the most exciting for me), I’m going to look at a spinning wheel tomorrow morning! It’s a Clemes & Clemes, which aren’t being made anymore. I’ve never seen one in person, but Katie received an email through her fiber guild that someone had a wheel to sell, and the price is doable. So I’m going to check it out. I SO hope it is in good shape, and that I like how it spins. It comes with a lot of stuff, so it would be a great deal.

Oh! Oh! And I almost forgot! Katie has finished her alpaca, (let it sink in, the whole thing is bulky alpaca. Mmmmmm), LAURALUND!!! Congrats! It looks lovely! The pictures are really little on her site, but if you click them, they get bigger.

Golly. I guess I’ve been having a summer vacation! My last few posts are very brief, and I have stuff to show.

First of all, the Mariner’s game. Like I said on Friday, it was fun. The big screen that showed the Mariner up to bat had his name and number cross-stitched on the screen. I was going to take a picture, but waited too long, and after a few innings, it went back to the normal “sporty” graphics.

It was fun meeting and talking to other local bloggers that I mostly know online. I was recognized by people I didn’t know, mainly because they saw and recognized Cable-Eight. I saw The Mysterious K. (I know you’re jealous). I was hoping to get to see Susan, and fortunately, she sat right behind me. So we had a good chat. I’ve met her once, back in December, and I instantly liked her. She’s easy to talk to, and she blogs about her fish! (So there’s another thing we have in common. I really enjoy fish keeping and talking about it. I think Nate zoned out when I got going about Ilsa’s constipation issues and how I’m treating it).

Anyway, one of the coolest parts of the evening was when the Mariner Moose came to visit and started throwing balls of yarn at us.

This was what I saw moments before being beaned in the face with something black & silver, shiny, and eyelashy.

Not being a fan of eyelash in any form, I passed that one on. We did keep something pink and sparkly from Muench. I swear I took a picture of Nate holding it, but it isn’t in my camera. Don’t ask me where it went, and no, I wasn’t drinking. In fact, there were NO obnoxious drunk fans in the “knitter’s box”. That was nice. The other two games we’ve attended this year contained many of them, so I’ve experienced my fair share this season.

Finally, to top off the excitement of the evening, we took the bus home. I haven’t had much opportunity to experience public transportation since junior high school. It was fun.

I think that’s enough for today. I’ll spread things out a bit and make you think I’m doing more than sitting on my butt and ignoring the housework this week.

Very, very tired. We drove 4 hours to get to the beach. Spent about 2 hours getting my friend’s car unstuck, taking kids to the bathroom, visiting the killer kite shop in town, trying to figure out where my friend could park without getting ticketed and towed so I could then drive her onto the beach, 4 hours playing there, and then drove 3 hours back. It was lovely. It was cold.

Not too cold, but I was glad I had my Shoalwater Shawl with me.

The wind was strong and constant. And a bit cold. That didn’t keep us from playing in the water, however.

As you can probably tell in the last photo, my camera lens got some sort of grime on it. The last group of pictures are all hazy. My glasses did, too. I had to wipe them off so I could see, but I didn’t think about the camera lens ’til I got home and looked at the hazy pictures. Dangit.

But it really was a great time!

I didn’t have time to compose much of a post. We’re headed to the ocean! I have some knitting news, but you’ll hear about it later.