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!