midgeling: life in a shoe.

I finally made it to Web*sters here in Ashland. I bought some vacation fiber Heathery gray-blue and some heathery brighter blue), and two skeins of KPPPM in the perfect banana colorway so that I can make some Nanners Socks. I wanted to shop more, but Mr Midgeling made me hold back. So I didn't buy the hand cards I wanted. He promised he would make me some as soon as we finish moving completely out of the old house and into the new.

Later tonight we will be dining at Chateaulin with Grandma A. I am really looking forward to the French onion soup. Aunt Kelly says it is super delicious!

Tomorrow we leave for Vancouver, WA to spend the holiday weekend with my parents, sister and brothers. It will be fun! I really don't want to go back home and have my vacation be over. I am having way too much fun.

Posted by midgeling at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, so I wasn't fast enough to make the second round in Sock Madness 2008. I knit and finished my first sock late Friday night. I was so tired that I forgot where I put it, so a photo will have to come later.

I was so knit out by then that I decided to finish up some spinning and free up my favorite spindle.

It's from a Spritely Goods merino/firestar handblended batt in the Larkspur colorway. It's about 135 yards of roughly sport weight yarn. It will likely end up as a lace scarf of some sort. I tried to get it all in one hank, but my spindle refused to take any more than the 135 yards. The yarn kept breaking under the weight of the full spindle. So I Andean plied the remainder of the 2 chunks of singles into a couple of mini skeins. I'll probably end up weaving those into some coasters or something.

Lace week was sort of stressful. There were good parts and bad. Friday evening I felt like a totally crappy, horrible mother. I couldn't Make it to Marti's house Friday because Chace had his orchestra concert at 7:00. Guess what we found out? It was on Thursday. We missed it. He started to cry really quietly in the car. Then I started to cry and apologize all over the place. It was a big concert with 4 schools combined into one giant orchestra. I used to play violin, so I remember how big of a deal these things are. And HK didn't go to her boyfriend's karate competition because of the concert. And Mr Midgeling came home from work early, too.

Yeah, I suck.

Um, but on the bright side, the house we wanted is 95% ours. We sent in the paperwork accepting the seller's counter offer. Now we just wait on the inspection and by the end of the month, we will be the proud owners of a new (to us) 5 bedroom home down the street from the #1 rated high school in the state. According to Newsweek (I think it's them) it is ranked #37 in the country.

So it's not all bad. Losing at Sock Madness and orchestra. Getting the house we wanted. It's been a bit bumpy, but I'd say things are looking up.

Posted by midgeling at 06:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Kassie: "Hey Mom! Doesn't this look like a giant ball of cat vomit?"

And just in case you were wondering, Lexa isn't holding a giant ball of cat vomit. She is holding an 8 oz ball of Natural Black roving that I got from Beaverslide for $15.00. Fifteen dollars. It is soft and smells nice and is very pettable. Kassie is holding my 4 skeins of Mallard colored 90% Wool, 10% Kid Mohair yarn that I bought for Wicked. It is about 960 yards and I really need like 1000 yards to knit Wicked. But I figured that I would knit what I could and then decide between 3/4 sleeves or the pocket. Or if I am off by that much, I just may end up with a 3/4 sleeve sweater with no pocket, lol. Hopefully, since I have unnaturally short arms, I will have enough for the long sleeve sweater with a pocket.

Why Beaverslide? I have never heard anything but good feedback on Beaverslide yarn. I have been wanting to order from them for a year or so now, and I finally got the good excuse to order some. I got a raise, so this was the perfect reason to celebrate! I also ordered a full set of color cards. They are gorgeous. The yarn is soft, without feeling like it has had all the character and personality processed out of it. And the colors are real and natural, and not like something mass produced by Willy Wonka. I am happy.

Posted by midgeling at 08:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I am in love with Brown Sheep's new variegated colors. They are tonal and subtle. I don't know why, but I really like tone on tone colorways these days. The red is called "Cranberry Swirl" and the green is "Forest Shadows". I am wortking on a Mohican Hat in the Cranberry Swirl right now - that's the bit of ribbing you see there. I must knit myself a sweater in one of those colors very soon.

One more of the Critter Scarves is finished. We have a chocolate covered Lexa as a model. I am done with the knitting for my BIL's family now. I am hoping that my first newly started project of 2008 will be something that I knit for myself.

Oh, and here's a simple square done on my 6x6 Weavette. It's done with Kureyon. I wouldn't recommend it for Weavettes unless you don't object to fussing with it a lot - the single ply breaks too easily. I found that if you keep most of the working yarn doubled as much as possible, that helps. But then you are adjusting the yarn after pretty much every row.

I spent much of the day helping Chace clean his room. It was so bad that it was spilling into the hallway. I even got rid of old books that he has outgrown. I have about 4 bags ready for Goodwilll. Chace discovered that he probably has a couple thousand dollars worth of Legos all over his room. I discovered that I will never buy the kids feather pillows or Moon Sand ever again.

I'm still not ready for Christmas. Not by a longshot. Oh yeah. And one of the darling kitties pooped on a blanket in the basement. Neither of those buggers is owning up to it.

Posted by midgeling at 11:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

See? I have actually been somewhat productive in a fibery way these days. I actually finished spinning my Vacation Fiber! They were supposed to be 2 oz each. I bought what were said to be 1 oz balls of roving, 2 of each color. After it was spun up, I got 2.1 oz of the lighter color and 0.7 oz of the darker. Something tells me they need to get better at eyeballing fiber amounts.. And you even get to see bits of my newly installed kitchen floor as a backdrop.

Okay, so I actually finished spinning these like a month ago. But so much has been going on in my life. A trusted person turned out to be a dirtbag who likes to hit on women that aren't his wife. One friend who claims to be impartial is now trying to screw another friend via a court affadavit, or some such nonsense. But then this is the person who dismissed me a while back by saying "I'm apologizing in advance for ignoring you..." because she got a new friend "sent by God". I had to make a tough decision about switching churches. All the kids cried over it. Work is screwing me out of $660, and my boss lied about making sure I would be paid for all the hours I worked. So really, I was screwed out of much more than $660.00. My mom's birthday socks are ruined. I made the middle of the night drunken sock yarn purchase that I forgot about until it arrived on my doorstep (okay, this one is really sort of a LOL). Oh, yeah. I have been fighting an allergy-induced sinus infection for a couple of weeks now. So this morning, Kassie and I woke up with colds. Of course.

So I have been knitting, spinning and making Weavette squares. Like mad. Enough to make my fingers and hands hurt. But it soothes the soul. And my soul has been tested these last few weeks. I am disappointed greatly in one of my friends plus an acquaintance. Hurt by another, though I understand why she hid things - trying to protect me. Infuriated by my place of employment. Disappointed and hurt by my church. Things have been coming at me from all sides these days. But I know it will get better.

I can't believe that after all that I have been going through, I am still okay. I have a few great friends that I know love me. (Yeah, that's you Marti, Joy, Magy and Wonderful.) And also thank you to immediate and extended family that helps me deal with the freakishness that is my life. Nathan has been pretty damn supportive through it all. He could be saying "I told you so." but he hasn't.

Thanks to everything left in the universe that isn't trying to kill or maim me. I really do appreciate it.

ETA: The trusted friend that hit on women? No - he didn't hit on me. I'd have hit him back.

Oh, how I love Linkin Park. You're never too old for a little LP.

Linkin Park Lyrics

Posted by midgeling at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today was a good Mail Day!!! My Zen String Sock Club shipment for July Came today. (Angelina was a little behind because of family illness last month.) It is Harmony Fingering (50/50 Merino/Tencel) in the Dragonfly colorway. It is just beautiful! The color does relaly look shimmery like a dragonfly.

And I realized that I never posted June's club shipment in my chaos of getting ready to leave for vacation. That was Lotus Toes (Superwash BFL) in the Lily colorway. *sigh* It's all so pretty...

And my Interweave Knits came also. Time for me to get myself some iced tea and start looking through my new magazine!

Posted by midgeling at 03:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This came in a box on my front porch today:

It was from Woolgirl, and inside was this:

It's Happy Fuzzy Yarns and the Zen String Lotus Toes that I have been coveting for a very long time! Lexa decided that Jennifer meant the chocolate for her, but she was feeling generous, so she shared with me. But she gave me the broken up piece. It still tasted good.

And here is how I spent my Saturday:

I took a spindle spinning class at Reniassance Yarns. It was a lot of fun, and I splurged on some fiber and the starter spindle from Cascade Spindle Company. It's the "Little Si" at a very reasonable $20. Since I took the class, I got $5 off. So the lump on the upper left is thinner stuff that I Navajo plied, and on the right is some 2 ply that ended up being about bulky weight. Weebug says that for stuff I spun on my first day, it looks good!

I had been resisting taking up spinning for a couple of years now because I knew since it was fiber related, I would get hooked. And that assumption was absolutely correct. Last night as I was spinning some thinner stuff I hope to make into socks, Nathan said "Um, when will that turn from a compulsion back into a hobby? We kind of have a lot of stuff around here we need to get done."

So Weebug and her kidlets came over last night for a hang out session. Being the absolutely wonderful and enabling friend that she is, she brought me some mystery fiber to play with.

Harley had to make dinner for a class project that she was doing. She made Asian orange chicken. It came out quite good, but I would have tweaked the marinade to be a little saltier. But she followed the recipe as given and did a great job of cooking it, once she and Fiona made it back from the skate park. Dinner, knitting, spinning and hanging out? It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday evening.

Posted by midgeling at 06:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I forgot to post a pic of the cute sheepy stitch marker that Jennifer included in my order. She is standing on a dime in this photo. I just love it!

Posted by midgeling at 09:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Um, yeah. So the last couple of weeks - I have been very bad. I am weak. But isn't Baby cute posing with all the yarn? (Really, it was that he wouldn't get up off the couch while I took photos.) I bought it from Woolgirl. OMG, Jennifer is just the nicest woman! I got a personal email from her after I placed my order. My packeage arrived in 2 days, and all my yarn came wrapped in pretty colored tissue paper and tied up in bows. Jennifer even stuck in the cutest little sheepy stitch marker! She has all kinds of awesome indie dyers in stock. (Go buy some now!) A ton to choose from. So mine shown here are:

Liisu Leili in Impassioned.

Mama Llama DK Sock in Jenn.

Spunky Eclectic's Speedster in Burning Embers.

Yarn Pirate in Isobel.

I so totally don't know what to knit up first. Harley keeps hinting to me that she wants whatever socks I make in the the Liisu yarn. I don't think so.

Posted by midgeling at 07:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you don't want to see the new Rockin Sock Club shipment, don't keep reading the rest of the post. If you do want to see it, Click on "continue reading...".

I am SO happy it's here, I actually squealed when I opened my package, lol. What a dork.

Continue reading "It's Here!!!" »

Posted by midgeling at 02:23 PM | Permalink

Here's my order from Loopy Ewe! I got Fleece Artist Seasilk in Cosmic Dawn (bottom) and Flece Artist in Paris (top). If you haven't ordered from Sheri, so right over there and spend some money. You won't be disappointed. She is the nicest person and the package arrived in like 2 days!

*sigh* I have just been petting it and wondering what on earth is going on the needles next...

Posted by midgeling at 03:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is beautful. It is from overseas. Only one is for me. And I can't decide which color to keep and which color to part with. Decisions....

Posted by midgeling at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)