Donuts

Today we had the girls over and we made donuts for breakfast. We got this fun easy recipe here. It was fun making them and letting the kids pour, yes pour, cinnamon and sugar over them and then I could not believe how good they tasted! We definitely need to do this again!




After breakfast we set up the pool in the back yard and the 2 kids from next door came over. Everyone had a good time playing in the pool, then we all had lunch together. If the girls didn't pass out after they left, something must be wrong. I did. For whatever reason, Patrick is still out there riding his bike and going like the Energizer bunny!

I really want to do some spinning. I don't know where to start, though, and I need to finish (one of) the sweater(s) I started. I have so much to spin and I was thinking about things to do with my Phat Fiber samples. Urr. I need more days off so I can spin and knit.

It's been a good day.

Oh crap. I heard Tom say we were going to the drive-in tonight. I forgot all about that! Good thing I took a nap after everyone left!

Birthdays

My niece and my sister both had birthdays a couple weeks ago and of course I had to knit them gifts.

Isabel had a fun girly party with a treasure chest pinata with lots of goodies for the kids. It was a really good time. I made her a twirly skirt.

Birthday girl

Adeline

Pinata

Twirly Skirt

Becky and Adeline

For Nicky's birthday I made her some dishcloths. I do have to say they turned out very cute!

it's a frog

a bleeding heart

More later...

Spinning

I've been spinning on a drop spindle for a couple months now. When I got the drop spindle it came with a generous amount of fiber and my friend Laura help me start spinning right away. In May I ordered a Phat Fiber box and recently spun up a couple samples from that. Today I finished the large roving that came with my drop spindle. Since I got the spindle I have also made my own drop spindles from wooden toy wheels and dowels and CD's and dowels.

This is my first completed yarn. It's from a sample from the May Phat Fiber box from Moonlight and Laughter.

After I spun it I plied it with some bamboo crochet thread.


My second finished yarn is also from a sample from the May Phat Fiber box. It's from Woolyhands.

This was my first Navajo ply. It was such fun and I like how it turned out!

This is what I first started spinning and I just finished it. It's my first "full size" yarn. It ended up being ~ 47 yards of bulky-super bulky.

On two spindles, finished being spun, before plying

After plying together on a CD spindle

And, my ball of yarn


Now to decide what to make. I think I might make a hat and use some other handspun and some other samples I got from the Phat Fiber box. I'll have to think on it for a while. This has become so much fun for me. I got more fibers at the Estes Park Wool Market, but more on that later.

Phat Fiber Box

I'm a little late posting this, but better late than never.

I got a great (and my first) box from Phat Fiber last month! You can find out more about Phat Fiber here. Here are some pictures and descriptions of the wonderful goodies I got!

opening the Phat Fiber box

all of the goodies

needle and notions holder with coupons, stitch markers and great ceramic buttons

ceramic buttons by heartstone ceramics www.heartstone.etsy.com

stitch markers (left to right) miss becca designs rebeccamhill.etsy.com, odd-ish creations kataish.etsy.com and vbarton24.etsy.com

yarn samples, from the top down: copperpot.etsy.com, from ewe to you merino and silk, bunkybobos.etsy.com bunky toes sock yarn 100% superwash merino, snicklefritzyarns.com 100% blue-faced leicester, mystari.etsy.com 100% baby alpaca, wooliebullie.etsy.com beaded yarn, wittyknittin.etsy.com hand painted sock yarn merino wool and nylon, bohoknitterchic.etsy.com hand dyed yarn, the fox hop foxyie.etsy.com handspun 100% ramouillet wool.
Also a hat pattern from kirakdesigns.com and a knitting bag from goodnessgraciouswv.etsy.com

fiber samples from (clockwise from upper left) copperpot woolies, moonwood farm 75% alpaca 25% milk fiber, woolyhands merino, greenwood fiberworks merino, corgi hill farm, moonlight and laughter, desert garden farms, and calizonia

LOTS of wonderful stuff! I've already purchased some new roving! I'll post pictures of that next time. I also spun up the Moonlight and Laughter sample right away.
I'm going to ply this with some white that I'm spinning up right now. I'm planning on using it for the cuff of a pair of socks that I'm going to knit with some hand-dyed purple wool.

I need to update on my niece's birthday party and the great roving I bought from greenwood fiberworks!

from the mouth of babes

Last night Patrick and I were making cake in coffee mugs. He is on a Star Wars kick lately. He asked Tom how they could make "Star Wars" with Darth Vader when the kid who plays Anakin Skywalker hadn't even been born yet. Tom explained to him that James Earl Jones played the voice of Darth Vader. Then Patrick said to me, "I think I know what people do after they die in a movie." I said ,"What?" He said, "They go to lunch."

panty lines

By now we've all heard about the teenager in Florida who was caught in her yearbook picture with her pants down. Her rationale: she was wearing a dress and she didn't want panty lines. Here's one solution: wear a thong. What's worse?

Now for a little knitting update. I am 3/4 done with my niece's twirly skirt and of course I'm getting bored with the stockinette stitch. I'd love to get it done so it's done. It is so cute, though.


I have finished a couple things for another birthday present. I'm excited to start my Liesl for the Knit Girls KAL. I have so many unfinished projects I need to take care of. Is that normal?

handmade drop spindles

I am getting into spinning my own yarn. I have one drop spindle that I bought from etsy. I have since bought more roving and my spindle is getting full. I've been looking online for ways to make drop spindles since money is tight and I don't want to but 5 more. Also, I'm and instant gratification person. There are all kinds of tutorials for making CD spindles, but where the hell do I find a rubber grommet? Even if I did go to a hardware store I wouldn't know where to begin to look. So I looked at my spindle from etsy and thought that there had to be a cheap way to mimic that. I looked around craft stores and had some ideas in my head when I did see the perfect solution! I think it ended up costing me close to $5 to make 4 drop spindles and I would just need to buy another $3 bag of wheel to make another 4. So, here is what I did. (I got the wooden supplies at Hobby Lobby - and they were on sale!!!! The cup hooks I got at WalMart)



I found a bag of wooden toy wheels in many sizes and I picked the largest size.




The hole size was 3/8 inch so I bought a bag of 12 inch long dowels 3/8 inch diameter.



I bought a package of the smallest cuphooks I could find.



I decided to make top whorl spindles. My husband drilled a small hole at one end of the dowel and screwed the cup hook in.




I slid the wheel up the dowel towards the top. Since it slid pretty easily I wrapped some scotch taped around the dowel a few times where I wanted the wheel to stay. It works great. I haven't used a top whorl before, so I sometimes have a little trouble with the yarn not wanting to twist around the hook after I wind it around the shaft and start spinning again. But it was cheap, easy and fast!

depressing

I just woke up (well, an hour ago). I woke up and noticed that Tom wasn't in bed; he was downstairs flipping through channels because he had woken up earlier. I told him he could come upstairs and do that. So, now I'm awake and can't get back to sleep and he's getting back to sleep. Guess I should have taken one of my sleeping pills, but I was feeling tired. I should know better.....

My point. I'm making my usual rounds on the computer/internet and I'm reading a thread on a message board I sometimes read. I'm shocked, saddened, helpless, I don't know what else. I guess part of it is I want to help and I can't and another part is I know how she feels. A girl is depressed and has her first appointment with a counselor. She's taking her best friend with her because she's scared. Sadly, she already "knows" they can't do anything to help her. I've been there before and I know it's not true. She's made a suicide plan. She has a date in mind and everything. I've felt like that, but never made plans. She even knows how to work the system - don't tell the doctor and you won't get admitted. If you do get admitted, play good girl so you get dismissed soon.

I wish I knew what to say to her, but having been in a similar place I know that most of what people say will just piss her off. When someone is depressed and planning suicide you can't say "I know how you feel" because you don't. Maybe you think you do, but you don't. You can't tell them what to do. Nothing pisses anyone off more than being told what to do. "You'd feel better if you got out." You may have good intentions, but it may just be going in one ear and out the other. I remember one time I was depressed getting advice from people and just wanting to tell them to shut the hell up because they had no idea. None. People think they are helping, but most of the time they are not. That's the sad truth. What helps is going to the person, physically, and spending time, doing nothing if that's what it takes. Offer to go out. Don't push. Stay in, rent a movie, whatever, but show your support without being pushy or bossy. Someone who is depressed needs to know that they are loved. One thing that helps me the most, because I retreat to the bedroom, is for my husband to just lay down in bed with me; hug me. Don't ask what's wrong because a lot of times, someone who is depressed doesn't know what's wrong. I just wish there was something I could say to her. Some of the moderators of the group have taken care of her, if you will. I hope she'll be OK.

knitting update

I've been working on a few things lately. A February Lady Sweater. I love it, but I'm getting a little bored with the lace pattern. I guess this is the perfect example of why I can't knit just one thing at a time. If I could, I'd have it done soon.


To take a break from the sweater, I started knitting Adeline a pair of ruffle socks with the leftover sock yarn from socks I made Izzy last year.


I'm also getting ready to make a twirly skirt for Isabel for her birthday. Since I'm using smaller yarn than what the pattern calls for and I'll be using smaller needles, I may need to knit an even larger size than I was planning. As it was, I thought it was going to be big for her. Oh well, it has a drawstring waist, so it will last her a long time!

My friend, Laura, taught me how to use my drop spindle and I've started spinning with that. Here is a picture from the first day I used it (the green stuff is what I spun). I've spun more since then and it's getting easier!


A little off topic, I went to fat fighters today -- not my usual meeting -- and one of my knitting friends was there. I'm so glad because she helped me get a little more motivated. Up till last week I missed 4 weeks. In the 4 weeks I didn't go, I gained 1.8 pounds. Last week I gained 0.2. Erg. So, we talked about a lot of things and I felt a lot better. It's been hard for me to find a good meeting time since I started my new job and have a new schedule. I think I'll go to these meetings now since my friend goes and it won't interfere with daytime sleep time. I have also signed up for a 5K in July and I want to do another on with my sister in May; I just need to find someone to work for me!

wicked step-mother

That's all I have to say. Oh...and I don't think they make mother's day cards that say that.

facebook

Is Facebook a popularity contest? It seems to me that it is. I thought it was great, at first, finding old friends. Then I started to realize that all of these friends weren't necessarily interested in getting, keeping or staying in touch with me. So why the friend request? Is it a contest to see who dies with the most friends? It frustrates me to have more than 100 friends and 10 of them actually send me meaningful notes, messages or whatever. I'm considering deleting people from my "friends" list. Keep family members, people I'm fans of, people in my group (you know who you are), people who truly are friends. And what's with the high school games? "I'm not going to answer your friend request." "I'm going to completely block you from my profile or even asking to be my friend." Come on. High school was 20 years ago. Get over it.

In other news, I bought one of those Smooth Away kits that you see on TV. It's like a little hand held buffer that is supposed to rub the hair off your legs (or wherever). I bought it when I was at Walgreens today because I was curious to find out if it worked or not. The little buffing pad that is supposed to rub the hair off is so not rough that I thought "yeah, right". Well, it does work for short hair (as it says in the instructions). An added bonus is that it exfoliates while it removes those hairs. And no nicks! Totally impressed and surprised. But do I need to buy a whole new kit when the pads run out?

random thoughts

I don't know why but I seem to be ultra-sensitive, overly emotional lately. Maybe it's hormones. Maybe it's stress from the accident setting in. I have no idea. Little things (maybe they are little) are getting to me. I think a lot about things that probably aren't a big deal.

Last night was a sad night at work. What could be considered a "typical" night, but a little on the more sad than usual side. I cried on the way home. Then I thought, for the first time, "can I really hack it?" I love my job. I'm good at my job. But I can't get emotional every night.

I am worried about my knitting projects. Crazy, right? I usually have a few going at once because I get bored. Let's just pretend that each project would take a week to get done. If I have 4 projects going at once, it would take about 4 weeks to get each one done, right? If I did them one at a time it would take one week to get each one done. Much faster. Why can't I do that? And of course not all projects are going to take a week to finish. Eh. I'm working on a sweater that I need to get done - or mostly done - for class by Monday. I already screwed up the lace pattern, so I'm taking out the first row of it. Not helping any. And I have 2 pairs of socks going and another one I want to start. What else? Oh, another sweater I started a year ago. I have yarn for two other - no, 3 other - sweaters. See, if I just finished them, I'd get them done faster than messing with one for a while, then the other for a while, then one for a while. Can I change my ways?

Is it normal to be pretty much a loner? Probably not. I'm not very good at keeping friends, or they aren't very good at keeping me. However that goes. I've gotten to the point where I don't care very much anymore. If you aren't going to try to keep in touch with me, I'm not going to spend my time trying and trying to stay in touch with you. Why? If you don't value our relationship enough to put as much into it as I am, then it must not be that important.

The dogs barking all the freaking time is driving me up the freaking wall! I love them to death, but do they have to bark at every little noise! When someone breaks in, then bark!

Tom bought me a drop spindle for our anniversary. It came with 2 small chunks of roving and a lot of this beautiful emerald green roving. I'm too afraid to touch it because I'm just sure I'll screw it up.

OK, this concludes my negative blog for the day. Thanks for reading all the way through, if you could handle it!

sick of the snow

I am officially done with snow. I've had enough. I drove my husband's truck to work the night of April 3rd because it was snowing. Driving home the morning of April 4th was fine until I started getting closer to home and the highway started getting worse. I started to slow down because the truck started to slip a little bit off and on. People still drive like assholes and fly right past you though; you can never go fast enough. Oh, that makes me so crazy! That's what I hate most about driving in the snow! I had just passed a state trooper who was walking into the median to flag a car that a driven off into it. Probably a quarter of a mile later a small truck, like a delivery truck or rental truck flew past me and my truck was sliding on the ice and just started spinning. It spun across the lanes of northbound I-25 and then went into the median, slammed into the median, which is like a ditch, so it slammed into the bottom, the kept going and slid back down where it stopped at the bottom. Those couple of seconds I thought all kinds of things. Like: am I going to die? Am I going to get hurt? Where am I? I remember saying "Oh my god!" When the truck finally stopped I just sat there shaking. I wasn't sure what to do. I couldn't find the hazard lights, which I thought would help someone find me. I remembered the state trooper was just down the road and thought he would probably be by any minute. I couldn't find my cell phone. I didn't know if I should call 911 or not. I finally found the cell phone and called my husband. He thought I was joking at first but then after I sounded serious enough and told him again, he believed me. He was going to come out and get me, then the State Patrol showed up and told him not to. He said there was minor body damage and we could get the truck out of there. (Are you kidding me?) He picked up part of the bumper that broke off and threw it in the back of the truck, told me to put it into 4 wheel drive and he'd tell me when the traffic was clear and to gun it. After several tries and about 10 minutes it actually worked. Once I got the truck back on the highway, though, I was no longer facing home and I realized the alignment was completely off and did not want to get off at the next exit, get back on the highway, go another 8 miles home, when I could get off the exit and drive the broken truck less than a mile to Tom's parent's house. So I called Tom and he met me there. The truck and I suffered minor damages (hopefully). The bumper is broken and hopefully it's only the alignment and it can be fixed. I am sore all over. Good thing I was wearing a seat belt! Smart girls wear seat belts! Now, if I could get a bumper sticker that says "get off my ass, go around me" or something like that and if other people would quit driving like assholes in the snow, that might help a little!

Now I need to file my accident report online.....

the blizzard

Well, we are under a blizzard alert until tomorrow morning. It started snowing in the middle of the night. It stopped/slowed down for a while and now it's really picked up again. It's nothing like the blizzard we had a couple years ago, but it sure is nice to have some moisture!

The people I work with are really great. They were worried that I might not make it to work tonight because

1. I feel like total crap and felt like total crap when I left this morning
2. It's been snowing since some time in the middle of the night, the blizzard warning and I live about 25 miles away from work

They were considerate enough to plan ahead and get someone to work for me. I'm glad they did, because I don't think I'd be able to make it in tonight. It's miserable feeling miserable. The roads were so bad and I felt so bad on my way home that I stopped at my mom's house and took a nap for a couple hours before I went the rest of the way home. Oh, and no matter what the weather, people still drive like idiots. They must have a death wish. OK, enough whining.

The dogs LOVE playing in the snow!

and by the way....

I don't think I ever posted anything about the Saint Patrick's Day parade last week. Time just seems to slip by. Patrick and Isabel were both in it, in separate floats. Isabel didn't last too long. She did a great job and looked so adorable. It was nice that she didn't walk the whole parade, then she got to come back and hang out with us and get some candy.

I didn't get to see Patrick when his float came by because he was on the other side of it, so I guess it's a good thing I saw him before the parade started. He's getting so freaking huge!

I don't know how it is that Nicky & I always get stuck next to the rudest or most greedy people whenever we are at parades, but that is how it happens. Oh well, we still had fun.

something, something, something

I'm sitting here trying to thing of something to update you all on. Well....I finished the mittens I was working on. Learned how to duplicate stitch to close holes and I am very pleased with that!

I'm working on a felted bag, getting closer to the "22 inches completed height before felting" every day. I also picked up a pair of socks I started a year ago. Oops. I think now I knit a little less tight than I did then, so my gauge is a little different. I'm not in the mood to take the whole sock apart just because now part of it may be a little looser. I'm knitting them toe up and the first one is done to the heel, so now I'm on the second. I remember how hard I worked to make those toes last year, making them over and over about 4 times. I'm just going to keep going to get these socks done. Once I finish the foot, which is just plain stockinette stitch, I'll switch to a ribbed stitch, so, if they are a little loose, there will be some stretchiness to the leg.

I have so much sock yarn and have so many great ideas for socks. Yep. Not really. Well, I just thought that I could share it with my nieces and make a little pair of socks for my nieces or one of them whenever I make myself a pair since I'll probably have leftovers. Maybe start with a pair of socks for Isabel and knit myself a pair of anklets with what is left (or knit as high as I can go). I just thought it would be fun to get more than one pair of socks out of my yarn at a time instead of having the scraps sitting around.

I'm going to go to a February Lady Sweater class starting Monday. There has been this yarn, the colorway is "rose garden", at the LYS that I have lusted over for about the past year and I never knew what to make with it. Well, I bought the last 4 skeins a couple weeks ago and I'm going to use it for my sweater. Can't wait!

I plan to get plenty of sleep today. I work tonight and did not work last night. I didn't get much sleep at all yesterday after I got off work. Maybe it's time to admit defeat and accept the fact (?) that kids don't care if I need to sleep and aren't going to be quiet and head for the ear plugs.

living and dying

Did I seriously have myself marked as a male? I just changed my profile picture and my gender said "male". Eh, whatever.

My new job is absolutely wonderful and I am so happy to be there. Everyone I work with has been so welcoming and so great. I guess that goes along with the line of work. One thing I learned in my small amount of time with Hospice is the way that you lived your life is the way you die. I wonder if the same is true with the people around you. What I mean is, if you are very work oriented or if you are very family oriented, are you going to be that way when your close family member is dying? I have seen both responses to the impending death of a family member and I have yet to come to the conclusion of whether or not it is the way that person chooses to live his or her life or if it is grief. I suppose it could be either, but who am I to know?

I was asked to work an extra shift this weekend - right in the middle of my orientation - which does seem kind of strange. I do feel very honored though because when the woman called me from work she told me that my supervisor said I was doing a great job and was very confident I could do it. They would rather have me work the shift than someone from a temp agency. I'm flattered.

I'm working on some mittens that I started in October or November. Hopefully I'll have them done this weekend so I can use them next winter. ;) So many other things had to be knit so they got put off. I still have to finish my mom's fingerless mitts that were a Christmas present. They are so detailed, that's why they are taking me so long. I get so far and I have to stop. I have some plans for Easter presents and have started on one. I have promised myself to at least finish the mittens before continuing the first Easter present. The other two I think will go rather quickly. Then a couple more. I think my list of things I'd like to knit will be never ending. I started my first pair of socks 10 months ago and have yet to finish them because I keep starting new projects. Errr. When is Easter anyway? 5 weeks. After that, a blanket for Isabel. I'm never going to stop!

Cash for Gold

Today I took my wedding rings from my first marriage to the pawn shop (again with the pawn shop). I have been hanging on to them for years -- just over 8 years to be a little more exact -- because I didn't know what to do with them. I've heard all of those cash for gold commercials and thought maybe I'd send them in. Then I did a little bit of looking around on the internet. I know you can't believe everything you read on the internet but I read about some people getting just a couple dollars for their jewelry or being told their package never made it to the cash for gold people. So I thought I'd take my wedding jewelry and the other couple things he gave me to the pawn shop. At least I'd get rid of them. Lucky me! I got $100! I used it to buy a little brown refrigerator I saw there last week. It looks just like the refrigerator my parents got for a wedding gift 40 years ago that they still have.


My dad uses it for beer, and now that is what my husband has in his.


I also used the money to get my hair re-colored:


Good day.

I am starting a new job in 2 weeks! I'm very excited about it since I haven't been very happy at my current job and I've been wanting a job where I feel like I'm actually being a nurse. I will be working for Hospice. I am very excited about this! My last day of work will be on my birthday!

I finished my last square for the afghan swap yesterday and it is blocking. I'm wanting to make more squares for my afghan to make it a bit larger. Hopefully with my new job I will have more spare time to knit and I can make more squares and put together some blankets for Project Linus. I also started on a sweater for Annette's dog. I'm hoping to finish it this weekend.

Here's a cute picture to end the blog with: