90% Knitting...has moved!

I've officially moved the 90% Knitting videocast over to the new Fibernymph Dye Works blog. So, each week's episode will now appear over there along with the show notes. Though I will not be updating this blog with the videocast any longer, I am going to leave it up and active, as I haven't yet decided if I will try to continue to use it for it's original purpose or not. Time will tell! :)

If you're looking for this week's 90% Knitting episode, though, here's the direct link for it. I'm having some issues with the sidebar stuff on the main page of the new blog (issues as in...it's no longer there...no idea why...it's on all the other pages, just not the main one, which is kind of a problem), but I'm hoping to get them worked out soon!

Spring is offically here...

First wash of the season out on the clothesline today! Can't wait to hang the sheets out later this week. :)

Shop Announcement

I'm happy to announce that the Fibernymph Dye Works Etsy shop will be open for business as of this coming Friday, March 25, 2011. It will go live sometime between noon and 2:00 eastern (need to give myself some wiggle room in case there are any glitches!). Please stop by and check out all of the yarn, fiber and bags we've been working on for your enjoyment!

And just a reminder, my blog will soon be moving to it's new home, The Fibernymph Dye Works Blog. Until I post a final announcement about that, I'll still be updating this blog as well. But the new one, in addition to having a focus on the shop, will also be home to the 90% Knitting videocast as well as my regular (albeit scarce lately...sorry!) knitterly posts.

This is an exciting time for me. I can't remember the last time in life I've ever been this incredibly busy. Maybe back when I had newborns in the house? Setting up this business has very much been like having a newborn around! It's fairly all I think about when I'm awake. Well, that and laundry. But mostly the shop. ;)

Dress and dressed up...

So, I finally finished the Lolita dress (well, jumper) that I was making for my daughter. She wore it to her meet-up last Saturday, and I have to say, she looked so freakin' cute! Front view...

Back view...

And check out her cute shoes, too! Kitties! And you can see the kitty tails on the backs of the shoes. Love them!

Same day as the Lolita meet up was a semi-formal dance my son was invited to...the boy cleans up well, doesn't he? LOL

And his girl friend (I have such a hard time saying that...my wittle boy had a girl friend?? LOL Yeah, ok, he's 16 and not so little, but still! :}) looked lovely too! Ah...kids...they grow up so fast!

Oh yeah...the shawl...

I forgot to mention what shawl I was wearing in yesterday's videocast! It's the Shetland Triangle, pattern by Evelyn Clark, knitting in Wollmeise 100%, the special "Femme Fatale" colorway that we got in our goodie bags last year at Spring Fling. (I knit it up last May, so this picture will seem familiar to some of you.)

And by the way, if anyone is downloading the videocast on iTunes and then trying to watch it on a portable device, can you please let me know if you run into any problems or errors? I'm trying to stay on top of all this technamological stuff. Thanks!

Yes!!!

PITTSBURGH'S GOING TO
THE SUPERBOWL!!!

HERE WE GO!!!

Hiccup...

I had good intentions of posting a couple more freebie patterns well in time for Christmas knitting. However, I've run into a couple hiccups in them, mainly in sizing, that will require some extra test-knitting time on my part so I can make sure things are accurate. Unfortunately, due to the Christmas knitting that still remains for me, I can't do that just now. So! I do apologize. I will get the patterns out as soon as I can, if not in time for Christmas knitting, then in time for some relaxing, post-holiday, curl-up-with-cocoa-under-an-afghan-and-watch-the-snow-coming-down-outside knitting. I don't know about you, but that's some of my favorite kind of knitting. :)

Here's a little tease, though...a swatch I'm working up in Malabrigo Rios, Sunset colorway...

Have you knit with Rios yet? Oh! My! Goodness! It is sooooo soft and squishy! It is my new favorite superwash worsted weight yarn. Actually, I'm being redundant in saying that, because I already shared one picture of a Christmas gift in progress that I made out of the Playa colorway, and I said the same thing in that post. But honestly? It bears repeating! It's just that good! And in a package from The Loopy Ewe today, I got a third colorway, Lettuce, that I can't wait to knit with. I hope they come out with more colorways for Rios, because I am totally smitten, and at $13.60 per 210 yard skein, I think it's an affordable option for gift knitting when you want to give something that doesn't need to be hand washed but you want it to have a nicer feel than, say, Cascade 220 Superwash (not that I'm bashing C220S...it's often my go-to, non-hand-wash, gift knitting yarn, mainly due to the multitude of colors available).

So, even though I don't have time to polish these last couple patterns right now, they will hopefully be the first of several I plan to publish in 2011. Interestingly, the more I work on writing up these patterns, the more pattern ideas I seem to get. I think that is the way of creativity. I remember that was always the case back when I was working as a freelancer. The more I wrote, the more ideas for writing I'd get, which is a far better problem to have than writer's block or - in this case - designer's block!

In the mean time, I've done a little housekeeping and rearranging here on the blog, including adding icons over there in the right sidebar that link to each of my available patterns. All but the Call Before Digging pattern are free (F), so please enjoy them. Maybe one or two will make the perfect gifts for folks on your list this year!

On another note, remember my nice, neat, new yarn room? Yeah...not so neat right now! Ack!

I put the card table up last weekend, brought all of my Christmas wrapping supplies up from the basement and set up camp for gift wrapping. I must admit, it's really nice to have the option of using this space in here for this task instead of having it spread throughout the whole dining room the entire month of December. Of course, when you supply the universe with a horizontal surface, it will attract matter, as you can see! In addition to my projects that keep landing there, my daughter has been making use of the space as she's worked on some of her own Christmas gift crafts (which I LOVE that she's making gifts, and they're turning out really well, too!). What you can't see is the ironing board she also had up, effectively making it an obstacle course to get to my desk. I tidied up a bit right after I took the picture. ;)

How's your holiday crafting coming along? What all are you making this year?

(ETA: I've needed to turn comment moderation on. If you comment & don't see it post right away, that's why! Sorry for the inconvenience.)

Little things make me laugh...

...like looking at my the search history in the drop down menu of my Google tool bar. Today's contained such an amusing assortment of searches...

1. In order to blog this with the above image, I had to Google how to do a screen capture on my Mac because I do them so infrequently that I never remember how.

2. I think I'd like to take a family trip to Philly sometime next year. We live in the same state, but we've never been there. And I know there's at least one good yarn shop to be visited, as well as all that historical stuff.

3. I had a momentary vision of whisking my family up to Cook Forest for a short little getaway over Thanksgiving, since most of the rest of our family is abandoning us this year. But considering current budget issues thanks to the recent floor project, the unexpected new fridge, and -- as of today -- the unexpected new desktop (don't get me started), I think we'll just have a low-key, stay-at-home Thanksgiving as usual.

4. I was recommending a recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits to someone today on Facebook, and I couldn't remember where I'd seen the recipe originally. It was here.

5. and 6. I love doing different things with my hair. Most recently, I went darker and got deep purple highlights. The other night, though, as I was watching a fourth season episode of Psych (love streaming from Netflix!), there was a character named Willow Gimbley who was very, very goth, and she had the most WONDERFUL hair! It was shortish and very dark, with what looked like deep red swaths painted on segments down the one side. I LOVE that hair! I WANT that hair. Or something like it. I was trying to find a picture of the character online, to no avail. Perhaps a screen capture from the streaming video? Hm.

7. I have a bag fetish. My roomie at Spring Fling last year and a Tom Bihn bag that I thought was awesome, but pricey. Still, every so often, I go to the site and lust after it.

8. I wanted to see what day of the week January 1 falls on next year. I was hoping for a Monday. Alas, it's a Saturday.

9. I've often wondered at the purpose of dyers reskeining yarn after they've dyed it, as I've seen several of them mention it in blog entries. Honestly, after reading several of the pages Google returned to me on that search, I'm still not entirely sure. It seems to have something to do with providing a better representation of what the colors will look like, particularly in hand-painted yarns. Anyone know another reason?

10. Emma and I are both doing NaNoWriMo, which we usually refer to as "NaNo," as in, "How many more words do you need to write on your NaNo today?" The kids are doing chemistry this year, so Emma started referring to NaNo as "sodium nitrogen oxide" but she wasn't sure if that was really what "No" stood for. So I Googled it. Turns out that "NO" would be nitric oxide (or nitrogen monoxide), but "No" is actually the chemical symbol for Nobelium (atomic number 102 on the Periodic Table of Elements). So now we can more correctly ask things like, "How's your sodium nobelium going?" Um...yeah. ;)

And as a bonus, I'll share with you that -- had my screen capture search not kicked it off the bottom of the list -- the last item would have said, "Dell enter power save mode," because that is the message my desktop monitor has been giving me regularly lately. The monitor is new, so I knew it wasn't likely the source of the problem. After testing several theories that the Google search offered, I finally came to the conclusion that my video card is on it's way to being toast. I checked that theory with Kevin, and he agreed. My desktop is going on five years old, so it's not completely a surprise that it was going to need replaced sometime, but seriously? Now?

Granted, we could just replace the video card, but since there are other things that don't work well, or at all anymore on the old desktop (i.e. the media slots for the camera cards, the one CD drive, as well as several software compatibility issues), it seemed more prudent to spend the money on a new machine. So that's what I did today. I've got a brand new HP tower sitting in my office. Still in it's box. I'm trying to build up my motivation and stamina for the dreaded task of backing up the old machine before it dies all together, and then setting up the new one. I hate doing this with a bloody passion, but I'll be darned if I'm going to pay the Geek Squad a couple hundred to do it for me.

Tomorrow...

...we start our new school year. Our 11th year of homeschooling. I think I'm ready. It's been really interesting, figuring out how to do high school. After a lot of my own learning and researching and talking to more experienced homeschoolers this summer, I've made some big adjustments to my way of thinking about the kids' learning at this level, and I think it will serve us all well. I feel good about things, and that's always a nice way to start off the year.

In general, I finally feel like I'm able to breathe a bit lately. It's been such a relief to be done with the house stuff. I'm still arranging and organizing things, but that will be an ongoing project, not one to stress over. We enjoyed a really nice weekend these past couple of days, friend time, family time, outings, down time, all in balance. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was a great way to end the summer. I feel so thankful. :)

Random things I've learned this week...

...ordering four bags of Hershey's Cinnamon Chips from eBay in mid-August, which will be delivered via USPS and sit in one's mail box in 80 degree weather: not such a good idea. You end up with four bags of cinnamon chip goo.

...if you freeze the aforementioned bags of cinnamon chip goo, it will solidify and can then (hopefully) be rebroken into some chip-like form that will render them once again usable.

...13- and 14-year-old girls are not the best at coordinating plans, thus resulting in parents needing to drive to multiple locations before ending up at the correct place. Grr.

...the remaining rooms in my house that need to be painted will not paint themselves, no matter how hard I hope for that to happen.

...likewise, no matter how much I envision the exact fabric I want to use to make my bedroom valances, I will not be able to find it or anything remotely similar, and I will be very, very frustrated.

...Joel Osteen may be a great guy, but something about him kinda skeeves me out.

...Vampires Suck was a hilarious movie, if not a little weird.

...laundry works so much better when you remember to put the detergent in. Trust me.

...because my desktop is completely disconnected due to house projects, editing photos is, of course, what I want to work on the most right now...because I can't. Sigh.

...no matter how old I get, I continue to have to make the conscious choice to not make really bad decisions sometimes.

Late night random, and some knits...

...I have lost my groove, and I can't seem to find it. I should change my name to either Little Bo Peep or Stella.

...June is over half gone. This should not be. It is wrong. WRONG.

...Navajo plying results in beautiful yarn, preserving wonderful, long stretches of color, which is why I like it. It also takes FOREVER, which is why I currently want to beat myself over the head with my wheel. This spinning project just does NOT want to end, and it was only 4 oz. of fiber, for Pete's sake!

...Ever since vacation, I've been eating like crap. I've fallen back into a bad habit of late-night snacking. This week, however, I decided that would STOP. So, after the gym tonight, I completely abstained from the butter pecan ice cream, chips and dip. Instead I had a bowl of yogurt with blueberries. And a beer. Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

...I am driving myself absolutely CRAZY over one particular issue in life right now. It's not even something I can adequately put into words to be able to talk it out or process it through journaling. I just have to work it out in my mind. I'm hoping I still have a mind left by the time I'm through.

...We went to my cousin's daughter's graduation party yesterday. I remember when that girl was born. Seems like yesterday. Hell, I remember my cousin's graduation party, where all the teenagers were drinking the whiskey slush. That seems like yesterday, too. There was no teen drinking evident at yesterday's festivities. Times have indeed changed.

...My female cousins are all starting to look like their mothers. Their mothers are all starting to look like THEIR mothers. I was told I look just like my mother, who looks just like her mother. I'm not sure what to think about that.

...I bought a mountain bike a couple of weeks ago. My goal is to ride on several of the rail trails around here this summer, as well as to challenge myself on some shorter, more hilly rides. My hope is that adding this activity to my usual gym routine might help bump my metabolism into gear and get the weight loss going again. :::crossing fingers:::

...Continuing to omit butter pecan ice cream, chips and dip from my diet might also help with that.

...There are only 128 calories in a 12 oz. Yuengling, and it has 1.4 g of protein. That's practically a health food. So hush.

...I know, I know...I'm only kidding myself...WHATever...

Ok...enough rambling. You deserve the knit pictures now. (Links go to my Ravelry project pages.)

First up, a record! I have finished a Christmas gift already and it isn't even the last week of November! Cha!

Basic Cabled Mittens, pattern by Amy O'Dell. Knit in Ella Rae Amity for my mother-in-law.

And I test knit another cute baby sweater for Cosy...

Baby Beau, pattern by Cosette Cornelius-Bates. Knit in Ella Rae Classic.

Lastly, I finally knit a Shetland Triangle Shawl. I used the Wollmeise we got in our goodie bags at Spring Fling...special Fling colorway, Femme Fatale.

Shetland Triangle Lace Shawl, pattern by Evelyn Clark.

There you have it. A blog post in bullet points. Or ellipsis points. Whatever. It's late. I'm tired. Going to bed now. Carry on! ;)

So, so far behind...

I don't think I'll ever catch up. 

That's my general feeling in life right now. I just can't seem to get caught up on anything! 

Let's see...we finished our school year back at the end of May, before we left for Florida. But since I went immediately from school mode to packing mode, I never got to finish up our end-of-year paperwork. Thus, I have a pile of school stuff sitting on my dining room table waiting to be organized, documented and stashed for posterity. If nothing else, it would be nice for the kids to know what their final grades were at some point. (LOL Can you tell we're homeschoolers?)

Spending ten days in Florida was a nice start to our summer in some ways, but in other ways it totally messed with my usual transition from school to summer. I usually take a week or so to just relax, not worry about getting things done, etc. That didn't get to happen. At least not at home. And frankly? Vacation was nice, but it was not what I'd call relaxing. I got home needing a vacation from my vacation. 

And, as it happened, I got one! Got home from FL on a Thursday (our travel -- both there and back -- was also not relaxing...it was kind of stressful, thankyouverymuchContinentalAirlines, the final straw being our luggage taking its own little getaway on the way home...argh) and had one day during which to do laundry so that I could turn around and leave bright and early Saturday morning for a fight trip with the gym crew. I love fight weekends. They're just plain fun. This was my friend Steve's first fight, he did great -- TKO in the 2nd round -- which made it even more fun. 

So, it wasn't until I got home from the fight trip that summer mode finally got to kick in for me last week! And I'm tellin' ya, I've felt discombobulated ever since. Really hoping to get in my summer groove soon, before the whole thing goes by and I have nothing to show for it.

I have big plans for this summer. There are several house painting projects in my queue. There is a room switch to work out. I want to teach myself to dye fiber, if only to use up the insane amount of fiber I bought for this purpose thinking it was a good idea. I bought a mountain bike last week, and I really want to take the kids on some rail trail rides. And I WILL get our next school year well organized before the week before we start. I WILL. Just so not an option this year!!

That said...I've got knitting to share with you at some point, and pictures from vacation once I get them processed. But for now I'm counting it an accomplishment that I actually got a blog post written. Some days, you take what you can get! ;)

Eagerly awaiting...

...the arrival of my NEW MONITOR! Yes! Should be here on Thursday! Can! Not! Wait!

That is all! Carry on!

(This may be the only post I've ever made where my only end punctuation has been exclamation points! Hahaha!)

Um, hi...

...yes, I remembered that I have a blog. And I apologize now because this is not going to be a "real" blog post. It's just me popping in to acknowledge my blog posting lameness of late. In my defense? It's been a busy season. Much like last spring, I've been traveling a lot and still have a couple more trips to come between now and early June. There were fights out near Harrisburg a few weekends ago, then there was Spring Fling in St. Louis two weekends ago. No travel this weekend, but I did have a lot going on here at home, so I feel like I wasn't here much. This week will be another trip out to Harrisburg -- this time for the annual homeschool convention. And then the kids and I will be heading south to visit my mom in Florida for 9 days over Memorial Day.

My house is a sty. I feel like I'm behind on everything from laundry to paper work. And my desktop's flat screen monitor died a couple weeks ago and I haven't had time to shop for a new one. Thus, I haven't been able to do any photo-editing because that's where I do it. One day I will get caught up. And I'll have pictures, too! I have finished objects to share, honest! Just be patient with me, ok? :}

Random thoughts on a Monday night...

...I declared this week to be our Easter/spring break from school. My plan is to relax and do as little of importance as possible.

...The oldest child called today telling me he was surprising us by coming home this week. I'll be glad to see him, but I'm selfishly hoping this does not infringe too much upon my aforementioned plans for relaxation and slothdom.

...Beating up boys at the gym and making them say "Ouch!" is a surprisingly good stress-reliever!

...I am having random pain in the bottom of my right foot and I'm not sure whether or not to be concerned about it.

...I asked the kids -- 13 & 15 -- if we could ditch the whole hiding-the-Easter-baskets thing this year. They were fine with that, though the boy-child asked, "Do we still get the candy?"

...Yes, most definitely yes!

...My efforts at destashing have reminded me of how many fabulous yarns I own and it is making me want to cast on many, many new things and knit them all at once.

...I am being steadfast in my refusal to cast on anything else until I finish the two shawls I am working on...Caricia, which I started last May, is now about 75% finished; my Autumn Shawl -- and entrelac pattern -- is about 50% done.

...It indeed appears to be the Year of the Shawl here in Lisaland.

...Spinning a batt of fiber that contains sparkly firestar in it results in everything around becoming sparkly...the couch, the floor, the dog...

...hard-boiling the last of the eggs the night before does not bode well when the kids request omelets for lunch the next day, and makes for an especially odd meal if you've already cooked the bacon and the hash brown patties.

...I planted onions and spinach in my little salad garden two weekends ago because it was so nice out and I couldn't resist. Still waiting to see if they'll do anything this early.

...What IS growing are my alfalfa seeds! My first effort at sprouting my own sprouts is an unmitigated success, which makes me so happy that I will never again have to spend $4.00 on a a container of sprouts that will end up rotting before I get them all used up.

MSF Donation...

As promised, I have donated 100% of the income from the January and February sales of my Call Before Digging hat pattern. I sold six patterns at $3 a piece. Doesn't seem like much, but every little bit helps the cause! I rounded up and sent a $20 donation to MSF/DWB.

If you supported this fundraising effort, either by purchasing my pattern or one of the hundreds of others on Ravelry, I thank you!

I do have some other knitting news to share with you, but it'll have to wait until next week. I'm heading out tomorrow to Columbus to spend the weekend at the Arnold Sports Festival. A couple friends are competing in various events, and then Saturday night friend Angela and I will be attending the WEC fights! My first live MMA event. Cannot wait! :) I have a quick turnaround and will then be going to Chattanooga for a couple of days to attend a disaster response training that our church's denomination is sponsoring. By this time next week, my introverted self is going to be screaming for mercy, but it's all good stuff! ;)

Pretties...

Hubby and I went to dinner last night for Valentine's Day. He told me he'd ordered me something but that FedEx seemed to be holding it hostage. He said it was perishable. I thought, great! Come Monday I'll have a lovely basket of rotted fruit to look forward to! LOL But no! FedEx came through today with a Saturday delivery.

Behold, two dozen pretty roses in the loveliest shades of pink, coral and cream...

Actually, it was 23 roses in those colors, and one yellow rose, which didn't really fit into the color scheme, so I tucked him into his own little vase to look pretty all on his own!

And also in the box...chocolate! Mmm!

Yeah...one was missing pretty quick. Tonight, there are only three left. I think that shows incredible restraint, frankly. ;)

I have to say, in our 16 1/2 years of marriage, I think I've probably gotten the better end of the deal. I'm married to a man who is a terrific father and good provider. He willingly gets up and goes to work every single day, whereas if it was left up to me, we'd likely be living under a bridge in a cardboard box within a month. And he takes care of things around the house pretty well, too, even if his priority list and mine don't always jive. More than anything, he puts up with me. My moods, my craziness, my (ahem) bitchiness...and, without many questions, he willingly funds my obsessions...yarn, tattoos, travel. Sometimes I wish he'd be more romantic or be interested in more of the same things as I am, or try and "get" me better than he does, but when it comes down to it, I know he loves me. I know we're in this marriage together for the long haul, and I feel pretty darned blessed by that fact. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Big blue blob...

Yep. It's a big, blue blob of snow.

Mega-snow.

Snowzilla.

Snowmageddon.

And we're right smack in the middle of it right now. In the past ten hours, we've already gotten twelve very heavy, wet inches. Poor Muffin gets buried every time we take her out to do her potty thing. Sounds like we could get at least six inches more before it ends sometime tomorrow. I'd be far more excited about the prospect of being snowed in if it weren't for the fact that I have PLANS for tomorrow night, people. Plans I've been looking forward to for weeks! Really hoping I don't have to miss.

I'd post actual pictures of this snow event, but all of the ones I took tonight mainly show up as big shiny white dots in front of everything because it's coming down so heavily. I'll try again tomorrow once it stops. If it stops. Please stop.

On the up side, the boy child is away at the high school church retreat -- snow camp. At least the weather cooperated for them!

ETA: Snowfall as measured on our picnic table at 1:30 a.m....about 11 1/2 hours after it started...

Crappy camera phone picture of yard stick...a yard stick, people! Sheesh!

I want to...

...knit. Just knit. As necessary as housework, school work, working out and other work might be, I really, really, really just want to knit. Is that so wrong?

...plant. My garden. My little salad garden that produced lettuce and spinach and onions and radishes and all other forms off veggie goodness last year. Even those yummy little Sun Golds, until that darned blight hit them. And fresh herbs. I want my dill and chives and cilantro. I want my fresh veggies, and I want them now. Now! Do you hear me winter??

...read. I wish I could read at the same time I did other things, but I'm not that talented. I can't read and knit. Some can, I can't. And don't talk to me about audiobooks. That isn't reading. I enjoy reading, with my eyes, holding a book...a real, paper book or magazine. Having been to Barnes & Noble yesterday, first time in a while, I was reminded of just how many interesting books there are that I would love to read. So many books, so little time. It's not fair. No. It really isn't.

Christmas snow!

We enjoyed a most wonderful early winter snow storm this weekend. While we got a modest 6" here, compared to what those in other areas received, I'll take it! It's beautiful!

It came down overnight Friday into Saturday and continued until Saturday night before finally coming to an end. What made it more beautiful for me was that I had nowhere to go on Saturday, so I could just enjoy being snowed in and watching it fall. I spent a good part of the day in the dining room where I had a wonderful view of this winter wonderland while I was wrapping gifts. Then I sat and spent time knitting by the light of the Christmas tree. What a perfect day it was!

This was, as far as we know, Muffin's first chance to ever be out in a big snow. Well, big for her, anyway...

It was hard to get a good picture of her because she just wanted to leap and bound around in it! Leaping was essential to her, as those six inches came up to her furry little belly. She was so cute! She kept sticking her muzzle all the way into the deep snow, then she'd snuffle and sneeze after inhaling it. Then she decided it tasted great and spent a lot of time eating it. What's funny is that Kevin actually plowed a path to the side yard where she has her potty spot, but when she walks over there and meets the wall of snow at the end of the path -- which separates her from her favorite potty tree -- she won't go unless she traverses the high snow and gets to the tree! She is not interested in going at the end of the plowed path. Too funny.

I've gotten some knitted gifts finished, but I'll wait until they get to their intended recipients before posting photos. And aside from a few minor items, I am happy to say that I am ready for Christmas! I only had one day last week where I totally went into freak-out mode, but ever since, I've been fine. Baking is done, cards are (mostly) out, gifts are all bought and (mostly) wrapped. Today will be our last day of school before taking two weeks off. And I can't quit thinking about just how blessed I feel right now. Life is good, thank you God! :)