KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

OK - I am trying to catch you up on four days of heavenly blissful vacation. The subtitle was "All about Claudia". Very selfish and very needed. I can offer several categories:

1. What did the woman do?

I went shopping for new slippers for the fast and furious sports car - those things are darn expensive (a lot of yarn went down the drain for that purchase…) and I had to get these wonderful slippers for myself.

New Clarks - they feel like you walk on butter and they are perfect for hand knitted socks. I also bought a geek gadget - a Bluetooth headset for my cell phone. I spend too much time in my car and talking on phone in my hand pressed to the ear is not a very good idea - especially when I drive the sports car. It is a stick shift and has six gears…

I also found this cool mug at Starbucks - how fitting is that saying?

Since I spend so much time at Knitch, I might as well leave a mug at the store.

2. What did the widow do?

I met with my new financial advisor and now I feel better about all the numbers I had no idea about. IRAs, deferred, non-deferred, blablabla… Plus, this is all different in Germany. I am really glad I can pay someone to take care of this for me. Irwin was very smart and had all the time in the world to work with his money. I don't and I don't want to make any mistakes and lose what he left me.

I also worked around the house, cleaned up some of the backyard, changed light bulbs, cleaned drains - bleh… You don't realize how many little things are getting taken care of without you really noticing.

And I finally called Social Security. When your spouse dies, you get the incredible amount of US$ 255.00 right away and later his/her retirement when you retire. That amount was regulated a gazillion years ago and has not changed since. I wonder what it should pay for… But I have to say - if you ever have to call that agency (and hopefully you'll never have to do that), I hope you end up talking to Mr. Smith in Birmingham, Alabama. His name was really Mr. Smith - I am not kidding. He was extremely funny and quite entertaining while he filled out the form for me over the phone to get the money. We talked about Germany, he lived in Munich and Berlin. He gave me some really helpful tips and was a very sweet person with regards to my incredibly horrible loss. At the end I thanked him for being such a delight on the phone and he said that he was there to help people and not make them more miserable. That was very unexpected - what a great attitude.

And I had to call some former employers of Irwin's to send me forms for his pension plans with them. It is unbelievable what an incredibly long list of paperwork you have to deal with. I am also trying to organize the home office while I am at it.

And I started to go to therapy. I reconnected with Irwin's therapist. He loved her and I love her, too. I met her once when he was her patient. She is great and she does also grief counseling - perfect. She was quite shocked about his death. He hadn't seen her in 3 years and then I come back with these news.

3. And now, what did the fiber person do?

Lots of fun stuff. I went to three knitting meetings - all at Knitch, what a surprise.

On Thursday, Brett gave me my birthday gift. By the way - Brett - you need to update your blog - the last entry is from May 22… Anyways, he sewed me a totally cool rock-star Amy Butler bag:

He takes orders, people!!! He is so talented! Leave me a comment here and I'll forward it to Brett or go to his blog to order your own.

On Friday I had visitors at the house, Pixie and her lovely baby girl Sydney. I had the crazy idea that I could organize my stash into the new shelves and update my Ravelry stash list while they were visiting. Guess, how much yarn I listed… 3 balls in 4 hours… It was much more fun chasing little Sydney around and playing with her and my soft toy stash.

Somehow she did not really think it was a good idea to set up the play pen and put her in it.

I WANT YARN!!! NOW!!!

But after the girls left and in the quiet solitude of Saturday morning, I got my library moved and some of the stash moved into the boxes. It is still not listed on Ravelry, but at least it's in the new spot. This is probably half of my stash. Just shut up right now. ;-)

And Esmeralda, my spinning wheel, found her new spot. Looking good, my fiber cave. :-)))

On Saturday I dyed yarn with Ms. Abalama who also spent the night. And we had the boys over for dinner. Nancy made some fabulous gnocchi and I threw a salad together. Very delicious with a couple of bottles of white wine. The fiber dogs were delighted about the petting company. Hermione loves people - especially when they throw the ball for her. ;-)

How about some colorful pictures now?

First Nancy used Kool Aid and hand-painted two hanks of Knitpicks Bare lace yarn.

Very Jerry - Named after Jerry Garcia

Irwin would have loved that. He was a big Jerry Garcia fan. He even had some Jerry Garcia ties. Irwin always used to name my dyes and patterns. I sometimes wonder what he was not involved and interested in with regards to my hobbies. He also bought all the dye equipment (we used this weekend) for me last summer after I took my first dye class and was totally fascinated by coloring my own yarn.

I tried to convince Nancy that this is "Squeeze Cheese meets Blueberries" but she just made a disgusted face about the name choice…

After the hand-painting, we dyed solids with Jacquard acid dyes and used Knitpicks Bare Bulky Wool for felting projects. We had lots of colorful spaghetti for dinner. ;-)

Violet

Aztec Gold

Presented by Famous Steve and the lovelt Ms. Abalama - I felt like we did a TV cooking show. ;-)

And this was the complete Saturday production:

And then Nancy and I dyed some more Sunday morning at sunrise. Well, almost… Nancy and I were up early and we thought we might as well heat up some water and play some more with colors while having out first cup of coffee. We had more colorful spaghetti for breakfast and this time we used Knitpicks Bare superwash sock yarn. The two dyes of the day were:

Pink and Crimson

The colors came out beautifully. I have two hanks of the crimson, one pink and one violet.

The rest went home with Nancy.

I had so many things I wanted to talk about. But I didn't make a list and now I don't remember. Oh well… Plus I am tired. I think I am going to bed soon with a good movie and some knitting. All in all the weekend was very relaxing. I got a lot of stuff accomplished and hung out with a bunch of great friends. Can one ask for more??? NO!!!

Well, I know one thing but that would be scary if it came true…

PS: H&M is not my favorite yarn store - as I said in a previous post. It is my favorite clothing store. I think I inhaled too many fiber fumes…