One Crazy Fiber Lady

Winner

We have a winner in the name the yarn contest:  Laurie.  I am indeed using Bamboo, the nice while bamboo yarn from Habu Textiles that I bought at Purl in April.  The stitch markers will be winging their way off to her.  Thanks for playing everyone.

Anyone who doubted the fate of the PGR Dream Sock after yesterday's first post doesn't know me too well.  It is now a nicely wound center pull ball all ready to be cast on.  Hopefully the third fourth time's the charm.  Pathetic.  I don't have hopes for this yarn and its ever meeting its destiny in becoming a finished sock.  I did a little pattern surfing yesterday and found the Aran Braid Socks.  I'll give them a shot.  I found them through a wonderful directory of free sock patterns on the net (if you back up a level there, they have other patterns as well! I tend to dislike dealing with About.com and its library as I hate that floating nag bar and all the advertising). If this doesn't work, the Retro Red Kroy is going back into stash and something else will be coming out.  I've been futzing with it Memorial Day Weekend! 

My poor monkey girl is all stuffy, with gunky eyes and a cough.  She's just rubbing at her face and eyes.  I gave her a stiff shot of Benadryl last night and she was able to sleep through.  Eyes were terribly gunky this morning and it took some cotton balls and warm water to clean her up.  Poor monkey girl.

Here's one of those quizes.  I haven't posted one in a while and I liked this one.  I think it pegged me pretty well.

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What Kind of Needles Are You?

You are "turbo" charged. Fast moving and classy, you get things done with
power and grace.  Your expensive tastes can be
deceiving, since what you really value is
quality and efficiency.  As you're careening
around those corners in life, finishing a dozen
knitted objects each month, stop and smell the
roses.  Don't miss the beauty of process!

What kind of knitting needles are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

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Craft on!

Yarn Needle in a Haystack

Apologies.  Sorry, no better picture of Soleil's yarn is possible.  The damn stuff just doesn't want to photograph well.  Maybe its the camera as it does have issues with extreme closeups.  I must find out what Cate is using for her wool porn as mine just isn't cutting it.   Maybe its the color.  White is tough to photograph, especially at night as the flash just kills it and no flash leaves it pretty yellow.  Sorry, cruddy lighting in my house.  I could probably use an Ott light like Cassie, but that isn't high on the list (yeah, rather have a new camera.  I'd love one like Nancy's but that's really not in the budget for a while, especially if I keep buying yarn ;)

Anyway, no good new pictures.  Without giving away the ship, I can tell you that while it isn't cotton, it is a natural fiber.  No, I'm not crazy enough of a fiber lady to be making a summer tank out of angora so don't go digging in my archives back to a posted photo of white angora/silk I got at Rhinebeck.  I did notice that the yarn I am using wasn't entirely well documented and the post never classified as SEX.  That must have been during a period when I was sorta trying to stay on a yarn diet and not succeeding very well.  It hasn't sat in stash for too terribly long and no, I didn't spin it.

Here's a crappy picture of the yarn, along with an equally crappy picture of the stitch markers.  I quit.

Summertime

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend.  It was hot and humid here all weekend, temps well into the 90's both days.  The monkeys and I spent a goodly amount of time here:

While not a picture I took (as I couldn't remember to put my camera in the bag either day) it does give you a vague impression of the pool.  My googling skills are being challenged today as I can't seem to find any specifications on this pool.  It is a rather large, sand bottom pool located near one of the town's middle schools and borders on the Passaic River.  The baby area is a small slice that is fenced in and came to just about my knees at the very deepest part of it.  It was a perfect depth for the twins.  I could even sit with the level below my shoulders and one of the monkeys could sit in my lap.  I brought sand toys and they alternated between sitting on the curb of the pool and playing in the sand and wading around in the water.  We all got some good fresh air, plenty of sunshine and a little bit of color.  It was a beautiful weekend. 

Best part of the weekend?  MOTHER'S HELPER!  What a fabulous concept that is.  J is a great girl.  She just graduated 8th grade last week and has spent the last year or so working at their daycare center after school so the twins know her pretty well.  J's mom is their 8-3 teacher at the center and has been since they started at 12 weeks of age.  They live pretty much around the corner from me and mom will drop off J when I ask.  I'm having J babysit on Friday (the daycare center is closed this week for vacation) to cover a half day for me rather than take a full vacation day.  Which reminds me, I need to check if my sister is going to be around so that I can leave her number as an emergency.  Having J with me at the pool was just invaluable.  Kat got a bit upset yesterday and being able to sit with her on the blanket in the shade while J was in the pool with Alex was just priceless.  Love the idea. 

Now for the knitting content.  First up?  BIRCH.  I was into the second repeat of the pattern and while I could read the lace, I just couldn't see it.  I know with lace there is that leap of faith thing where it looks like nothing more than a glob of yarn.  I've just seen so many pictures of Birch in progress on other blogs that actually looked like something that I was sure that I was doing something wrong.  I had been using the 7US Addi turbos and really knitting loosely.  A necessity when knitting lace with those things as the tips just suck for lace.  As a result, the lace was very very loose.  I pulled out my Lantern Moon US6 straights that I bought at the yarn store closing last month and tried those.  The tips were far pointier and now two rows short of a pattern repeat it is really starting to look like I would expect it to.  Only problem is, straights stink for commuting knitting.  I just ordered a set of Addi Naturas online and hope to have them SOON.  I'm sure I can suffer through the straights until the circs arrive. 

Speaking of ordering, thanks to Denise and her link to the Kid Seta, I have some of that on order.  I ordered enough to knit another Birch.  The Kid Seta looks like it would be a good alternative to the Kidsilk Haze.  I ordered a very unusual color for me.  See, I'm embracing my Autumn Colors palette.  Green was never a color I'd select, but with the hazel eyes and the red highlights to my hair, this should be good.  Right?  Regardless, it should make a pretty Birch in a good leafy color. 

Fessing up to one last yarn purchase before a new era of austerity (and using up something in stash) is Shine from Knitpicks, in Apricot.  I'm going to use this for the Eyelet Cardi.  I realized this morning that I need a nice light cardi in a non-dark color and this just fits the bill.  I love that color and when it arrives, this moves to the top of the queue.  I ordered a little extra as I plan on full length sleeves.  I'm not a huge fan of the 3/4 length jobbies. 

Well my last new project doesn't seem to have confused many of you as to what the pattern is.  Just about everyone guessed Soleil.  Katy was the first so she's the winner of the angora fuzz.  We don't have a winner for the yarn yet as it isn't All Seasons Cotton.  I'll leave the yarn piece of this "contest" open until Noon on Wednesday when I'll announce what it is.  I did make a collection of stitch markers just in case someone does get it. :)  I also made myself a row counter bead bracelet.  Not one of the nicest beaded things I've ever seen, but should be handy for the shaping instructions I skimmed in Soleil.  I did finish the lace piece of Soleil on the train home Friday night and she's sat untouched since then.  I was distracted by both Birch and my secret project, which I would rather finish sooner rather than later. 

One last piece of knitting business is that goofy sock, the PGR Dream Sock in Retro Red Kroy.  I'm halfway through the foot of the first sock.  Still.  I just can't seem to get up the energy to work on it.  Its a perfectly functional sock.  I tried it on this morning on the train (got a odd look from my seatmate) and it fits fine.  I'm just not moved by it.  I'm further concerned that if I'm this less than enthusiastic about the first of the pair, how sad will the second be, not to mention how darn long is it going to take me to make that one!  I could rip it, but then that would be the second ripping of this damn sock.  I do like the Cable & Rib socks in the new IK, but don't have the pattern with me.  I didn't take my big bag with me this morning as I had a nasty headache and went with the lightest load possible.  I had Birch (on the straight needles) and the sock.  When I got stuck on the inside of a 3 seater on the train and straight needles became untenable, I unhappily switched to The Sock.  I tried to read my ebook on the Path train rather than continue on The Sock but found that Alexander futzed up my Palm Pilot when he got into my bag yesterday.  It wouldn't turn on and I had to reset it just now.  I'm going to rip the sock.  I just hope the now splitty Kroy holds out for one more go 'round.  I think I'm just going to do my standard, vanilla plain sock with the good old heel flap and be done with it already.. unless of course I can find a pattern hiding on my desktop.

Craft on!

Nearly Done

As predicted, I finished the second sleeve for Trellis last night. I just did it earlier than I expected.  I managed to finish it within 5 minutes of my train leaving Hoboken.  Its for trips like that that I carry multiple things to keep me busy.  I confused my commuting buddy who didn't exactly pay attention as I put away one project and pulled out another.  He just noticed that all of a sudden I wasn't knitting with blue yarn anymore.  There is a striking visual difference between Birch and Trellis so he only gets half points for noticing.  I wanted to block the pieces before I completed assembly on Trellis and knitting the shawl collar.  I'll hopefully do that this weekend.

This meant though that I needed a new train project.  Like Birch and the socks, not to mention the poor languishing summer Ribby and Stonington, couldn't be train projects in their own rights, something made me start this.  I'm not going to tell what it is, nor what yarn I'm using.  I'm hoping someone could guess.  I didn't go out and buy any yarn recently that I haven't blogged about, but it was a blogged SEX.  Bonus points for correct project and yarn.  Hmm.. should make this interesting and offer up prizes.  How's this, one ounce of prime angora fiber from my own dear Yeti for first correct project and 5 handmade by me stitch markers for the correct yarn.  Here's Baron showing the new project last night and a slightly blurry picture from the train ride in this morning.  Leave your guesses in the comments to this post or send me an email to crazyfiberladyATgmailDOTcom.

Notice Baron's dark face mask has gotten darker and larger than the last shot.  I did take the picture last night without the flash so you could see his eye color rather than the spooky cat eyes.  He's a goofy guy.

When does yarn get to be considered "stash"?  How long does it have to sit around unknit to be labeled this rather than just an advance purchase for a project?  Any thoughts?

This weekend is supposed to be H-O-T with temps in the 90's again so the monkeys and I will be taking advantage of the community pool with hopefully the mother's helper to keep us company and sane.  Which reminds me, I better call her and see if she's available this weekend.  Have a great weekend all,

Craft on.

Now for something completely different

In order to dress up my Birkenstock Arizonas yesterday, now that wool sock season is temporarily over, I did this:

Polishing nails is something I don't do all that often.  Last time I remember polishing my fingernails was the day I went into labor with the twins.  I had this compulsion that day that my nails just HAD to be polished and I just fixated on that.  I'm pretty sure I had mom polish my toenails that day too, no way in heck I could get to them.  Memory is a bit fuzzy as to some details of that day ;)  If not, I can't remember the last time I did my toenails.  Anyway, it was a great suggestion by a coworker to take five minutes and do it.  Gave me a great excuse to park on the couch and knit.

As you can see, I'm well past the halfway point on the second sleeve for Trellis as a result of my forced "idleness".  As of this morning's commute, I am in the home stretch.  I'll finish the second sleeve today.  I want this sweater done ASAP as there was a nice package in the mailbox last night when I got home.  My Coffee Bean Calmer arrived!  I have to say, I do like the brown very much.  It matches nicely one of the skirts I bought last weekend.  Brown would also be one of those colors that I could wear season after season after season without worry.  I like the classics.  Now I just need to find a nice pair of brown shoes.

I overslept this morning.  I just couldn't get up.  I had some of the weirdest dreams too.  Guess the fumes from the nailpolish got to me.  I dreamt that my ex-husband came over, we were chatting, and then while I was in the shower, he destroyed my bed.  A while later I discovered this as I tried to call it a night.  I got pissed, naturally, and he showed up with an Uzi.  He shot a bunch of people, including my boyfriend (of which I have none) and I "woke up".  Cut to his now threatening me and bashing my car against the retaining wall on my parents driveway, about to pull out his Uzi again.  I took advantage of the car abuse to call 911 and they took him away before the bloodshed.  Again, I "woke up".  Cut to my explaining the double dream to someone and we then went to the holodeck on Voyager for a party.  It was then that I really woke up as the alarm clock got a little insistent.  A little weirded out I might add.  Why after being divorced for 5 years am I dreaming about the dude.  I've had no contact with him since March of 2000.  I did remove his old clothes from the hall closet during the closet fiasco and dumped them in one of those bins last weekend.  That shouldn't be enough to see him as a nut with a gun now though.  Just odd.  Not to mention the various repeats with variations that the theme went through and the layering in of Star Trek.  I'm surprised there was no knitting at all!  Though now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I was knitting during the chatting in the first layer.

I love those dreams in a dream in a dream.  During the early days of my being back at the office after maternity leave, I spent a lot of time during the wee hours rocking Alexander in the nursery.  He wasn't very good at going to sleep on his own, a problem I didn't rectify until he was 9 months old, so I rocked him.  One night I must have been really tired and dreamed that I had fallen asleep in the rocking chair and was there dreaming about sleeping in my bed.  Which is where I really was.  I was surprised when I did wake up in my bed. Nuts. 

Now that I've completely digressed, I think I'll close here.

Craft on.

Balance

So as to not turn this into the All Birch All The Time channel, as well as having to get some of the other projects done, I did work on other things, while finishing the first repeat of Birchy goodness.  I'm pretty sure I blew something in one of the patterning rows early on but refuse to tink it.  I can now read the lace pattern, even if it isn't looking like some others at present.  Cassie did help greatly in supplying a link to a chart.  Woo!  Thanks Cassie!  I know there are others who would love to knit Birch but are put off by the cost of the pattern book and/or the yarn.  I'm still hoping to find something in the Rowan issue other than Birch that I can knit because Rowan #34 isn't cheap.  There is available a pattern on the internet, Kiri, put together by another blogger based on Birch but worked from the tip up rather than the long edge down.  It is far less daunting to cast on 3 stitches rather than 299.  While the Kidsilk Haze is just dreamy, it is a tad expensive.  I know that Jannette is selling a cheaper alternative to the Rowan:  Plassard PICHENETTE Kid Mohair but I wouldn't be surprised if there were more.

Yes yes, it still is reading like a Birch lovefest, I promise, I'm moving on right now.  To this:

I finished the first sleeve for Trellis last night.  Here it is reclining on the lovely train seat this morning.  A bit overcast today so no benefit of sunshine.  Add sunshine and this blue yarn looks lilac.  Freaky.  You can see the two finished front pieces nicely attached at the shoulders to the back.  Nice.  The stitch holders are hanging onto the front band stitches for working the shawl collar.  I read ahead and on the good side, I get to knit a strip 11 or so stitches wide.  Yay.  Then I can graft them together in the back.  Not so bad.  Then I can sew the whole works to the body.  Ick.  Oh well.  The light at the end of the tunnel is indeed visible.  I should have this little beastie done shortly.  Oh no.  Buttons.  Sigh.  Good thing the baby isn't due until September.  We all know how long it took to sew on Alex's buttons ;)

Need more caffeine, oh and to make a mental note to pick up coffee.  I used the last of my beans this morning.  I can't begin to imagine how horrible tomorrow morning would be without coffee.

I stopped in the hardware store this morning on my way to the office and picked up some tiny black rubber O-rings.  The nice man gave me a funny look as he pulled out his box of O-rings.  I found a bunch that fit my size 7 needles with room to spare and took 20 (well actually 21 and he threw one in as a bonus in case I counted badly).  For $.10 a piece I have some fab new stitch markers. 

Craft on.

To Birch or Not To Birch...

There is no question.  To Birch!  After dinner I went home fully planning to do some work around the house.  When I got to the mailbox and pulled out the small grey airmail bag from the UK all thoughts of laundry, vacuuming and addressing my flylady hot spot went right out of my head.  I got the twins down and went about Birching.  Resistance if futile you know.  I quickly pulled out the pattern book that arrived last week and photocopied the pattern page.  A needle hunt was then commenced.  I saw Stephanie's post yesterday on her beautifully completed Birch and noted that she used the 4.5 mm needles.  The pattern was specifying 5mm or a US8.  Having spent Sunday fighting with my only free set of 8's and disliking intensely the new Balene II's, I figured if it was good for Stephanie, it was pretty darn okay for me.  I had two free sets of Addi Turbos in the 4.5mm and thought that a good omen.  I stayed up far later than I should have and made it through the first 4 rows of Birchy goodness.

Here's Birch reclining on my desk chair a few moments ago.  I won't be going anywhere without Birch for the foreseeable future and even changed purses so I could carry it safely with me.  Always.  I don't think I can truly express my pure joy at the yarn. OH. MY. GOD.  I. LOVE. IT.  There is something almost orgasmic to working with the Kidsilk Haze.  It is purely divine.  The color?!  Gorgeous.  I can see glints of the silk peering out between the fuzzy delight of the mohair.  I could just plotz.

Other projects?  I have other projects?  Oh yeah, I do.  I'm an inch short of finishing the first sleeve for Trellis.  Yay.  It seems my gauge is off a tad but heck, its a baby sweater, big is good, right?  Fits longer that way.  Longer sleeves are just excellent right?  I vaguely remember the sleeves getting too short before the body got too small as the twins outgrew clothes.  I'm not that far off, just a smidge.  No one will notice.

I'm still chugging along on the silly sock.  I added a couple of rows this morning on the train as it was a bit crowded to pull out anything larger.  I find knitting socks to be ideal for knitting while crammed into a four-seater at the end of the car.  The PATH train was a tad more spacious and while I wanted to dive into the sweet pool of birch, I knew I'd miss my stop if I did.  I worked on Trellis instead.  I'm proud of me too. 

Birch.  Birch.  Birch....

Craft on.

Stash Acknowledgement

First I would like to thank everyone for their warm thoughts regarding my headache on Friday.  Yes it was pretty bad, but thankfully it didn't last all weekend.  While I have the periodic migraine, I also get sinus, tension, atmospheric, hormonal headaches, blah blah. This time it was a sinus jobbie as even my teeth hurt from the pressure.  I struck on the right balance of drugs and the afternoon started looking up.  That was until I started making dinner for the short people.  I opened the freezer door and the box of frozen pops disgorged its contents all over the floor.  After retrieving these darn things, I stood up full force into the bottom of the freezer door, slamming the top of my head.  I saw stars and compounded the headache problem.  Percocet and a weekend had me feeling much better by yesterday, though Saturday wasn't very pretty.  I did take a vacation from the computer so please bear with me as I catch up on email and blog posts. 

I got my first Secret Pal gift.  It arrived on Friday.  I have an awesomely cool SP buddy.  Two skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Barn Red, a Fiber Trends pattern:  Baby Brights.  A nifty pendant yarn cutter which will come in very very handy with my secret project, which I am indeed documenting for future postings. (Though I am considering posting using the extended post feature and issuing a warning to the recipient to not look if she wants to be surprised.  Any thoughts on this?)  Some very yummy milk, white and dark chocolate covered espresso beans!!!  How cool is that?!  I can't think of anything better than yarn, chocolate and coffee combined :)  Thanks so much Secret Pal!!!!

While the kids slept and I had the camera out, not to mention that I was rearranging the closet fiasco disorganized stash, it was time to take pictures of the remaining Cummington haul.  Ya'll have seen the Hitchhiker and the very yummy Barneswallow Farm butterscotch lincoln cross batts, which I did spend an hour or so spinning more of on Saturday, so I didn't photograph them again.

Kristen can attest to how excited I was when I saw the Sheep Shed booth.  I made a bee-line for them and fondled lots of fiber, not to mention added more while I waited in line to pay.  (Hmm that seems like a theme I repeated that day- first Sheep Shed, then Barneswallow Farm.)  I came away with these.  Well, actually that's one third of my haul from them.  The larger sausage is 1/2# of 100% merino.  The colorful bit is 2oz of Merino/Tensel blend.  As I said, I have 3 of each.  While knitting last night, I decided that I'm going to ply these two together and use that resulting yarn for Clapotis.  I think I'm going to use my Jensen Tina to spin this.  I don't think that wheel is presently busy with anything at the moment, plus it does have the Woolee Winder.  The peach Merino is what Kat was fondling from her position in the stroller.  Can't say as I blame her.

My first purchase of the day was this, 2.5# of beautiful grey Polwarth fleece.  My resolution to buy no new fleece was definitely weakened when faced with Polwarth.  Now tell me, who could turn down something as gorgeous as that.  I am proud of myself in that I didn't buy the whole darn fleece, just half of it.  Its fine and various shades of gray that I will love spinning.  No idea of a yarn weight or final project for this yet, but that is not new.

This is a 5.5lb Mary Pratt romney fleece.  I couldn't leave it and had to have it.  Again, a variegated gray fleece.  I just can't pass up the colored fleeces.  I spindle spun a lock of this fleece with my Hatchtown spindle right there outside Mary's booth.  Not surprisingly, I don't have any idea of what I'm going to do with this either.  I might have to join the Romney combing wave and give this fleece the same treatment.  It would be stunning that way.

Two photos that just didn't come out decent enough to show documents the remaining haul.  One was a shot of 3 patterns that I bought, all cabled - go figure.  The other was 4oz of a wool/alpaca/silk roving from Barneswallow Farms in a color similar to the batts.

I do have a picture of a finished object.  Surprisingly, it is a FO that I never posted the in progress photo of.  There's a good reason.  I started and finished it yesterday.  I'd seen these little shoulder shrug things on a host of blogs recently.  I figured it might be good for the summer on the train, what with the exceptional air conditioning that the things have most of the time.  I went digging in the stash and found some handspun yarn in around the right weight.  Its been in stash for so long that I can't even begin to remember when I got it nor really where.  I'm pretty sure it is 100% merino and I know that I didn't dye it. I probably got it off eBay.  Anyway, I had purchased the pattern about a week or so from Glampyre.  As I can knit when the twins are out and about, I managed to go this whole thing done before going to bed last night.

I'm not entirely sure if/where/when I'm going to wear this thing.  It is cute and a very quick knit.  I love how the colors worked themselves into stripes.  I know it looks lovely with my orange headband.  I had matched until this point.  I actually changed my shirt, an orangey type thing, to this blue for a better idea of what I could wear with it.  I'm sorta feeling a bit old to wear this.

Well, time to get some work done..

Craft on.

Half Full

.. or half empty.  Which first.  Colourway ships very quickly.  That's good right?  Yes it is.  They're also several hours ahead of me.  Complicates matters a bit.  Well, my package of Coffee Bean Calmer had already been posted prior to my email request to change colors.  I can send the color back if I'm not happy with it in the end.  Which is good.  I'm going to take it as a sign that the Coffee Bean should be mine.  I did spend a half hour staring at the colors and consulting my Autumn Colors chart before placing the order, so while the bright Coral is what is calling louder, louder isn't necessarily better. 

As Sara noted, there was little doubt that I'd find skeins of Amour somewhere. I did.   While not quite as cheap as the Knitting Garden's price, I ordered it right before heading out for lunch.  I found it also on the other side of the pond at EnglishYarns.co.uk.  Looking at their checkout process and confirmation emails, the underlying e-commerce piece seems to be the same.  Hopefully they post as quickly as Colourway, and yes, I upgraded my service to airmail.  My order from Knitting Garden arrived yesterday so now I have Rowan #34 and am just waiting for my Kidsilk Haze to arrive from Jannette's so I can Birch along with a couple of others.

I got some decent sleep last night but still had a dawdling problem in getting my arse out of bed.  The twins seem to have had the same problem and I had to wake them as well.  Needless to say I missed my train this morning.  I opted for the bus, again.  I found though that I could knit on the bus without getting super carsick as long as it is something I can do without looking at the needles.  I worked on a new project that is garter stitch based and just perfect for the bus.  Can't say more.  Secret project and all that.  It might also help that I managed to grab the front row seat and could look out the window during the trip too.  I didn't knit the whole 50 minute trip as the dull headache that I started the day with had grown to full blown roar.  It's gone blinding now and I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be able to withstand it before heading home.  I've battled headaches for much of my life, starting with a car accident concussion at age 8 to full blown migraines that started during Law School. I'm going to put my head on my desk and hope no one notices.

Craft on.

Ode to Joy

Joy to me can be defined by many things.  Primarily that joy is a result of the twins.  The squeal of happiness I hear from them when they first see me after a long day of work.  That can revive me no matter how tired I was when I got off the train.  I enjoy my job, for all its faults, I do indeed like it.  I get joy from my friends.  Thanks to Cassie and her Woolcentricity, I got to examine my joy of wool all in the name of entering her contest.  That sock yarn is awfully purty and we all know you can never have too much sock yarn!  Anyway, this is the entry I posted:

Wool. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:
-For being warm even when wet
-For being soft against my skin
-For having that wonderful conditioning lanolin
-For being a renewal product
-For coming in whole ranges of colors so that dyes are not necessary
-For being appropriate for a whole range of projects from carpeting to the finest lace with everything between
-For being elastic and cushy and not inflexible like cotton
-For being a part of the crafts close to my heart; knitting and spinning
-For the sheer joy of being able to transform fleece to yarn
-For the way the yarn feels when it flows through my hands as my needles click
-For having enraptured me so that I could discover a whole community of people that have the same passion.

Granted this isn't the same caliber entry as Cate's woolporn or Kristen's wondrous entry.  But it is the short list and for the less creative, it was the best I could do on relatively short notice.  That's not to say that a longer deadline would have produced anything else because if I stay true to myself, I would have waited until a few hours before the deadline to start anyway.

Sad news.  The Calmer in that shade I posted yesterday,color #469 Armour was sold out before I got to it.  Sniff.  Sniff.  It is a discontinued colorway and I'll be hard pressed to find it in too many places.  I really really really like that color find it far more appealing than most of the current colors of Calmer.  Thanks to Deb's recommendation, I did place an order last night at Colourway.co.uk for some calmer in 'Coffee Bean' though I changed my mind and sent an email seeing if I could change that for 'Coral' instead.  While I love all things coffee, I just couldn't see myself wearing a deep brown sweater.  I have one similar to the NBaT and I just don't wear it.  Could be the itchy remainders of the former shoulder pads that I indelicately removed in a fit of pique one day.  Aside from that, I think I would prefer the coral.

Ya'll know that I'm going to spend a fair amount of time cruising around the net looking for 7 skeins in Amour don't you? Have to get it while the getting is good. 

I pulled the skirt out of the dryer last night and was far happier with it so that project is not the complete failure that I proclaimed it to be on Sunday.  I still have to hem it (and yes, still have to block the armholes in Mondo) and will probably do that this weekend.  I finished the second front piece of Trellis and did the three needle bind off with the back.  I like Wendy's assembly as you finish each piece approach.  It makes the end work less onerous.  As I finish the sleeves, the first of which I started on the bus to work this morning, I'll sew them on as I go.

Yes, you read correctly, I took the bus this morning instead of the normal train.  I slept in a bit this morning, as did the twins.  Not surprising considering Kat woke everyone up at around 1 this morning.  I thought I had zipped in there and grabbed her before Alex got up.  Nope.  Not that lucky.  While I had Kat nice and cuddled, Alex was screaming.  I eventually tucked her back in her bed and scooped him out.  I had to rock him for a while and even though he fell asleep on me, the moment I put him down he was crazed again.  I just had to leave him and hope for the best.  He cried for five minutes and then shut off like a switch.  That's really not like him as we generally get a wind down.  Not blood curdling screaming followed by silence.  Just doesn't work that way.  My tired brain took about 15 minutes to process that and listen for further noise.  When there was none, I got back out of bed and peeked in on him fearing the worse.  Damn it, wouldn't you know the kid was fine, lying on his back.  He saw me and it started all over again.  Ugh.  I didn't get back to sleep until almost 2:30.  I'm tired.  So anyway, the train was missed.  I had the option of waiting for the next train in 55 minutes or taking the bus in 10 minutes.  I opted for the longer ride that would get me to the office some 45 minutes earlier.  One down side.  Ugh.  Can't knit so well on the bus.  Made me queasy.  While I knit on the boat, on the train, on the subway, the stop and go of the bus.  {gulp}  I honestly haven't tried knitting in the car as I'm generally the driver and they don't recommend knitting then.

I'm obviously tired and rambling now so I'm going to commence my Calmer search and leave this now.  I'm heading out shortly for a lunch of delicious dumplings in Chinatown with Kevin.

Craft on.