KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

Jeezopete, as Ms. Janice likes to say... I guess I finally noticed that my last post (besides the short and non-knitting related one from yesterday) was two weeks ago. SHAME ON ME… But, hey, I have an excuse that I am using these days pretty frequently - no time and no energy. (I guess that is two excuses.) I don’t know – maybe this is a 2007 thing… I am recovering from a few stressful weeks with lots of activities, work related as well as knitting and spinning related. At some point I had a New Year's Resolution for 2007 - "Keep up with the blog and post more frequently!" But guess what - it's not going to happen at the moment. And again, you have to read a little novel instead of a short and snazzy entry. I will try to do better. There are just too many things I want mention but never get around to.

Mainly, why I don't have much time for online activities anymore is because… they actually have me work at work, can you believe that? Not that I wish the old job back when I had literally zero to do, but a little balance between the current one (zero time for anything else - ha-ha-ha) and the previous job would be nice. But I have to say I like the new job very much. It's interesting and all the different tasks (a lot of them have to be finished the day before you get them - like I can do magic, right) make the days fly by super lightning fast. Which is nice - because I sit here and it's already Thursday and I am off tomorrow – so it’s kinda Friday...

Yesterday was already Valentines Day – I hope you had a good one and got some flowers or other goodies. And spring is around the corner. At least that is what I thought, after living in Georgia for 6 years. Not so this year – the weather is all weird. Freezing cold one day and then in the high 60s the next day… This morning it was 21 degrees and today’s high is supposed to be in the 40s. And since Pixie and I will spend this weekend in the mountains – to be exact in Highlands, NC - I thought I’d check the weather. And here is what I found – boy-oh-boy…

This is going to be fun – the forecast suggests flurries of snow on Friday, snow showers on Saturday and a few more snow showers on Sunday. Pixie, better bring warm sweaters, a quilt and blankets!!!

We are going to the annual retreat of the Atlanta Knitting Guild at The Mountain. Each year, around 50 knitters gather there for a long weekend to knit and socialize. I'm sure there will be drinking and tinking, too. I heard from other guild members who have gone before that what happens at The Mountain stays at The Mountain. But I will take my camera – maybe I can at least share some gorgeous nature pictures. Like from the snow flurries. I am actually excited about the possibility of snow. I sometimes miss the winters in my German hometown with 8 feet of snow during the months of October through March.

OK – didn’t I title this entry THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY...? Now, if I can remember what it was that I wanted to post about. Ha-ha-ha… I'm telling you the big 40 is approaching rapidly… Only 5 more months… I actually started to draft this entry about a week and a half ago. And at some point I also made a stupid mistake and somehow couldn’t save what I wrote and it was all gone and I had to start over. Very stupid user… So, what was I talking about?

THE GOOD
To relax from the recent stressful times and events I canceled all my weekend dates a couple of weekends ago. And OMG, that even included the Saturday SNB-NEGA meeting and the Superbowl of Spinning at Sandy's house. I truly missed knitting and spinning with my friends, but I have to say a weekend in PJs can be very relaxing. Hubby let me sleep in, took care of the dogs, made coffee and answered the phone. YAY – I really did not leave the house once. And I got a bunch of knitting done. Watching eight episodes of Desperate Housewifes and two movies was great entertainment for loads of knitting.

Here is my dream project for 2007 – I am giving myself a birthday gift this year – I think 40 is a good reason. Remember this fabulous coat from VogueKnitting (Holiday 2006 issue)?

I want to make this coat. And since this is a big free-form project and I have never done one before, I thought I'd give it a try on a smaller scale. It’s a big commitment and if I really knit the coat, I want to make sure I understand the pattern and that I also LIKE the pattern. Not everything that looks pretty in the magazine is easy to assemble. I had to learn that the hard way with a sweater last year… 4 hours of extra seaming for the collar band – not again, no thank you… Not going to happen again, these unexpected pattern dramas. Well, OK, granted it was my fault for not reading through the complete pattern first.

I have 4 balls of Noro Silk Garden in my stash (see – knitting from my stash as well!) And here are the first four hexagons close up:

As you can see, a lot of ends need to be weaved in… Well, that is a commitment I have to think about since I am not really fond of the finishing process…

I think I will make a vest from the hexagons with a black border in between. The goal is to have that finished before July and then I can buy myself some wonderful yarn for the coat. We’ll see if I still want to knit the coat after I finish the vest. I also want to change the yarn from Koigu to possibly Artyarns.

In addition to this fun experiment, I also finished a couple of projects. Here is no. 1 – a pair of socks. Voila – the Snaky Chevrons:

Yarn: The Great Adironduck Sock Yarn (100% Merino Superwash - 360 yds)
Color: Watermelon Wanda
Needles: US 1 and 0

Yes, you read correctly – I knitted the first sock with size 1 needles and the second one with size 0 needles. The second one is a little tighter but still fits. I don’t know what I was thinking… I'm hoping that after the first wash this will even out.

And here is project no. 2 - a big felted tote, before felting:

It was huge – as you can see Noah was able to use it as a sleeping bag – almost :-)

And here is the bag after it went through the felting process - still huge tho':

Yarn: Lionbrand Landscapes (12 balls)
Color: Campfire
Needles: US #13

Now isn’t that the cutest face you have ever seen? Beware – this dog is dangerous. Which brings me to the BAD part.

THE BAD
One night I came home and I found this. Notice anything?

Yup – the dog ate one of the labels. I have to say he did a pretty good job with just eating the label. The yarn is not very harmed and the dog is still alive. I don’t have any evidence but I am pretty sure that it was Noah and not Hermione. She never touches anything that doesn’t belong to her. But Noah has in the past. And I think – because my craft room is still extremely messy – he just thought that he needed to tell me that I need to clean. Yeah, well Noah, I know that. But now you are screwed because I have the door to the crafts room closed when I am not in there. Bummer, huh? Because Noah likes to sleep on the futon in the crafts room… Until Mommy cleans up, no more naps there for you! And finally...

THE UGLY
I bought a jumbo plying head for my Lendrum wheel at SAFF, back in October 2006. And I just got around to using it for the first time. And guess what, it doesn’t work. S#!+balls… Somehow it seems that the flyer has not enough room to rotate. I wonder if I am using the correct terminology here, but that's the best I can think of to describe the problem. Sometimes it catches and then it turns for a couple of times. And sometimes it won’t catch at all. Janice had several suggestions that I still need to try out – when I have a quiet moment. She told me to double check that the band has enough tension, that the plying head is put on the wheel at the right height, to make sure all the parts are oiled, to take the scotch tension brake completely off and give it a try. Another suggestion from the Yahoo Lendrumspinners message board was to sand inside surface of the plastic insert in the front maiden where you insert the orifice end of the flyer. Janice also offered to look at the wheel if I bring it to one of the next outings and I might just take her up on that. She is my spinning Obi Wan Kenobi!

Darnit – I was so excited about the fact that I could ply BIG TIME now… I guess I have to wait a little longer.

That’s it for now. I am trying to leave work early today, so I have enough time to pack all my knitting projects for this weekend and some warm clothes, etc., so I won’t freeze to death. Pixie and I will meet early early early tomorrow - at 9am. I AM SO EXCITED!

Stay warm!