Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Fence, storms, and finally some knitting



Hi Cindy!

Our fence mess seems to have resolved itself. No word from the neighbor in a week. Here is a picture of the fence before (remember the rain?).

Here is a picture of roughly the same angle although it is a little earlier in the evening. A storm is blowing into the north valley and we're waiting for it to come our way.




The new fence comes up several inches higher. It is a full six feet high instead of 5.3 or so. We were talking earlier about which storm would have knocked the old one down because it was bound to happen one of these nights if we hadn't gotten the new one put in.

We had a huge storm yesterday on our way home from work. It started raining about a third of the way home and kept it up for a couple of hours. We had quite a bit of street flooding in several places, even at the end of our street. The most impressive was driving through the Papago Buttes/Phoenix Zoo/Desert Botanical Garden area and seeing washes running and flooding out onto the road way. At ASU Maricopa County Flood Control measured almost 1.5 inches and we probably had about that much too. I don't know if we'll actually get a storm tonight. It looked like we were going to get blow-out a couple of hours ago from the south but that just dissipated. There was another one to the east that fizzled. Maybe the one from the north will bring us something.

So after finishing Harry a second time I've finally gotten back to knitting. Am I knitting my sock that is 3/4's finished? No, time to start a new project.

On a lark I started a log cabin blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I am using some nice, clearance yarns I bought last year. Even at clearance it is still going to be a pricey piece. I'd love to get it big enough for the bed but I don't know if I can knit a queen-sized blanket. Here it is this morning. I've almost finished the current ball (Silk Garden-bottom left) I'm working on. Since it has color changes in it I'm just knitting straight and will change yarn when I finish a ball. I am thinking about using the heather yarn I spun in it too. I think the color would mesh nicely.

I'm going to finish this up with a picture of the Spinnin' Kitten in a more contemplative mood. She has decided she really likes laying on the desk while you're at the computer. This is fine while reading Knitty but makes it hard to do work when I'm telecommuting. She also likes to block your view when your playing a game (Cubis Gold is my fave).

Tomorrow, look for an upcoming project and interesting things I've found recently.

Take Care, A

Monday, July 30, 2007

On silk, the Tour, and learning to spin


Hi Alene, here's some of the silk hankies I spun on vacation, shown in my FIL's garden. My Tour started off well. I was spinning regularly and using the time to re-commit to exercising regularly. Somewhere mid-vacation I got off that plan and struggled to get back to it, even after we got home. For the Tour, I'm determined to give it a go again next year. The silk spinning has been a challenge: I found it was hard to draft evenly and hard to give it the "right" amount of twist, whatever that is, even with this nice spindle. Guess I'll reread those Knitty articles . . .

I took a spindle workshop in 2000 and a beginning wheel spinning class in maybe 2002? I haven't had any other classroom spinning so your classes sound great. I'd love to hear about them in more detail when you have time. I will be taking a spinning class this Sept. at the WI Sheep & Wool Festival. I haven't spun as many hours as most people think when I tell them when I got my wheel. Still I'm happy with my progress, and with wool at least, I can do pretty well. It helps that I like a little texture in my yarns. My spindle yarns tend to be more consistent than my wheel yarns cuz af the different amounts of practice time.

My wheel is a Louet S15DT. They don't make the S15 in a double-treadle any more but it is just like an S10DT without the hole in the wheel. I like it very much. It holds a lot of yarn on a big bobbin, is very low maintenance, and spins the kinds of yarns I like well. If I keep up with the silk I might want to get the high-speed flyer and bobbin for it. It has a strong take-up compared to some wheels and so would not be as good for cotton as a wheel with Scotch tension and high ratios. I wanted a wheel that would have me use my body symmetrically to reduce any strain and it has been super for that. I really like the upright double treadle models and don't mind a contemporary look (lots of of people love a more traditional style so that's another thing to think about). I also only had ~$300 to spend at the time, so it was a perfect fit. It doesn't fold up but it isn't too heavy; I usually choose a spindle for travel spinning but I have taken my wheel in the car in the past (it fit in my old Golf).

I have heard good things about the Joy and think it would be fun to try some other Ashford wheels. My colleague H loves her Kromski wheel. Schacht is coming out with a new wheel in the fall that looks like it will be great. Majacraft is another New Zealand wheel that I've heard is good. If I was looking now? Gosh, I'd have to try Schacht's new one and some others.

Hope the fence saga continues without further drama and that things are quiet and peaceful in lovely AZ. :) Cindy

Friday, July 27, 2007

Horrid Afternoon

Hi Cindy,

I don't know if you saw the news out of Phoenix tonight but we had two news helicopters crash here in town. As bad as that sounds it is even worse. They crashed in the park just across the street from where DH works and he looked down on the devastation from an office just across the hall from his cube.

I should explain a little further. DH and I work in high rises less than a quarter mile apart so we have lunch together most days. Today we went to Macayo's with my friend L and the new guy in her section A. A just started Monday, he grew up in Baraboo and got his degree at UW-SP. L and A both work in the groundwater modeling section. We got back to the office at 12:30 and I finished up the previous entry.

I had just posted it when DH called saying they'd just heard gun shots in the parking lot by Macayo's and that I should go take a look out the north window. While I was talking to him I could see a medical helicopter circling outside my south facing window (not uncommon because there's a hospital less than a half a mile south). I also heard a loud boom but didn't think much of that since Central Ave in front of us is in the midst of light rail construction. I called L to quickly tell her the news and then went to look out the north window. When I got there I saw black smoke billowing up from behind DH's building but it didn't look like it was coming from there. I started to walk back to my desk when he called on the cell phone saying that a helicopter had crashed and that he was watching it burn. It was especially hard for his office since they deal with emergency situations and wanted to help but obviously couldn't. I went off to find out more info.

Within about 5 minutes we found out it was 2 helicopters for local news channels that had collided in mid air and crashed into Steele Indian School Park. We spent hours today listening to the news and being glad it didn't hit one of the office buildings, apartment complexes or the VA Hospital right there. DH thinks that a fragment may have landed in the courtyard on the north side of their building. Several people he knows actually witnessed the collision and saw the explosion and crash. There were counselors available to them before he left. I could hear the shock in his voice as he was describing the scene and the flames.

From the picture you can see how close we were. The high-rise in the background is my building and the parking ramp at the right is the one at DH's building. It was a snarled mess getting out of the area, even 3 hours later. They had several streets closed even though the main part was in the park.

Oh, and the reason they collided and crashed... Some fool stole a truck and was being followed by the police. They'd blown out his tires and he'd hit a couple of cop cars. Then he car-jacked another work truck just south of DH's building. We're not sure if the sounds of gun fire that DH and his co-workers heard were something with that carjacking or the actual collision. I think it was the carjacking and that the boom that I heard while on the phone was the collision. The car-jacker fled the area and ended up barricaded in a house about 6-8 miles away. Not even his own house, he just burst in on people. He didn't even know that there had been a collision behind him.

The two stations that lost their reporters have had news coverage the entire time. A third station that was also filming the chase got some footage of the copters falling but not the actual collision. The one station actually had the pilot on live when it occurred and had to cut away when they realized something was wrong.

On that sad note I'll close this. Hopefully I can write about something better tomorrow. A

What a week


Hi Cindy,

Wish I had some interesting project to write about but I haven't knit a stitch in the last week and the only spinning I've done was last night in class. It was the last class of the series so not I don't have any wheel time until I either buy one or take another class. I also don't have any knitting pictures so here's an interesting one of DH from the mine days. This is an old haul truck located at a very abandoned mine northwest of the Grand Canyon.

What wheel do you you have and how do you like it? I think I've narrowed my choice down to 2 or 3. I like the Ashford Joy a lot except that the orifice is a bit low for me and I feel like I lean to far forward. I've used it 2 or 3 times in class.

Last night I used the Ashford Traveler and it is probably at the top of my list right now. This is the second time I've tried it out. Of the two DH likes the look of the Traveler more, I think he wants to have something that looks nice setting out. The orifice height is good although I feel like I twist some due to the treadles being offset from the bobbin. It's not too bad so I don't think it would hurt my back in the long run.

The third one at the top of my list is the Kromski Minstral. It has the decorative turnings like the Traveler but is more in line like the Joy. The one in class tends to creek a bit if the support between the treadles is not set properly. It is less portable than the other two and for some reason I'd really like my wheel to be easily packed in the car.

Warning: Mild Ranting ahead

The new block fence in our backyard is almost complete. Well, the fence is complete but we are waiting on the gates which were supposed to be installed yesterday. Our neighbor, J, was being a little bit of a jerk about the fence. For years he's said we should do ours and theirs together. The wall between us is common and the old fence fell right on the property line. The guys demo-ing the old fence ran a laser down the center of it when they started taking out the old one. They then dug footings for the new one which were allowed to cure for a day before they began with the wall. That night J came banging on the door to "discuss" a problem. He thought that the footings were too far on his property and didn't think it was fair. Now granted the footings were 10" wide but most of the fence is only 4" with the support piers at 8". At most in a few places it would be 2" onto his side. J ranted about this for 10 minutes. The real reason we think he is upset is that we brought the new fence to the front edge of our house, about 15' out from the old one. For as long as we've been in the house he's parked extra cars and a trailer in that area of his yard, often getting into ours by several inches or even a foot. Now he won't be able to get that far over so close to the houses. He still has 30' or more from the street to park stuff. Well, when they came to build the wall on Wednesday I had them put the support blocks as far east towards our house as they could, more on our side than his. It is far enough over that he has a gap of 2"+ between his still standing gates and the new fence. Oh well, that's what he wanted. I can just let it go but it has been bugging DH since the rant and he's worried that J might sue us. We haven't heard more from him in nearly 3 days so I think it will be okay. (End rant)

The rest of the fence looks great although they haven't installed the gates yet and they were supposed to be there yesterday. Hopefully they'll be in when we get home. The block does make the yard seem a little smaller, probably because it is a full 6' high, not 5'+ pretending to be higher, and because it is solid now, not full of holes. It is just gray block now but we are planning on painting it this fall. I'm thinking mural and tile mosaics for a lot of it.

Update, 9:23 pm. The gates were in when we got home and they look great. Maybe a picture or two tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

FO

Dear Alene,
Here's the toe-up sock in progress, hanging in DFIL's Gravenstein apple tree (yum, pie). And here it is finished with Farli for scale ;) Since it is a sample for the shop, I made it a child's small from the toe-up chart in the summer issue of Interweave Knits. I did it on two sz. 2 circs. I'm happy with how it turned out, and I like the yarn. I was not however filled with a burning desire to knit more socks. I guess they'll remain only an occasional thing for me, as we previously discussed. I think the rest of the yarn would make a lovely scarf!


Next post: spinning and my Tour. Things have been nutty here since vacation, mostly cuz of kid sleep issues (trying not to whine, many families have those worse than us). HP was a bright spot in it all.
Cheers, Cindy

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Finished!

WOW !!!!!!! Ahem, I now return to my regularly scheduled programming . . . er, life . . . although my Hedwig project will sort of be part of a new HP-inspired project and I'll soon be reading Books 1-7 in order (usually I just read the newest one over).

Sunday, July 22, 2007

4:36 am

All is answered.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

HP


Our copy arrived on the doorstep, not by owl, at 10:10 this morning. We'd been faked out just 15 minutes earlier by Witnesses but fortunately DH checked the eye hole first. I got through about 3-1/2 chapters before I had to leave for J's jewelry party. I've gotten a little farther since being home. I'll probably stay up for another 5 or 6 hours tonight reading it. Don't know if I'll finish tomorrow or not. So far, pretty good, although Margi's not so sure.

Things are looking up

Whew, kind of a tough reentry to the non-vacation. But I've had a good peek at Book 7, read the first 2 chapters, and finished spinning the Wensleydale singles while watching Doctor Who. My Tour has been mixed; I didn't got as much spinning done on vacation as I hoped. I did get a lot done on Not-Hedwig. Pictures and more soon, I hope.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Fiber Fiend

Hi Cindy!

I gather that you are home from the Northwest. Good weather I hope?

As you can see I finished spinning and plying the roving I've been working on the last 2 weeks. I really like it. They have 4 more of the same color so I may have to pick up another one so that I can make something from them, maybe a scarf for my mom. I also bought a hand painted silk roving that I may have to work on next week.

Last night I used the Ashford Joy again. I like it quite a bit and am leaning towards it. I also like the Ashford Traveler and Kromski Minstral. The Joy does have the advantage of being easy to pack up to put away or take along. Tempe Yarn and Fiber has a spinning group the first Thursday of each month and it would be fun to go spin with them. DH actually said last weekend that he might like to try it out once I get one. Should be interesting to see how that works out.

We have a new nickname for the Spinnin' Kitten. She is now the Fiber Fiend (note the glazed eyeball). I think I wrote earlier about her nabbing a bit of raw fleece last week. When we got home from work yesterday we found that she'd figured out how to get into 2 of my lock down places for yarn and knitting. She had opened the magnetic latch on the entertainment center where I sometimes put the sock for short periods. She had also moved and got the lid off the plastic storage bin where the living room projects reside. She had my sock strewn into the back bedroom, DH's prayer shawl (all 1 inch of it) pulled out and another ball of sock yarn pulled from it's bag and the ball band shredded. At least we got home before she chewed any of the yarn to bits. DH jokes that I could lock it away in a closet and she'd be on eBay to buy a lock picking set just to get at it.

We are patiently awaiting a certain arrival tomorrow. According to the UPS website it is in town and has been scanned for delivery. We betting when it will actually arrive. I'm going to a jewelry party my friend J is hosting so it will probably come while I'm gone. DH is likely to snap it up and read it first. I'll have to sneak it when he's not looking and get a few pages in. No clues about what happens until we both finish.

I talked to my friend L yesterday. Although they think she's only a month along she says she's already showing. She thinks she could be farther along. Or she's got A's problem and will have twins on the way. She's not thrilled about that idea. I'll see her tomorrow at J's party.

Guess I'd better get going. I don't think we're getting a storm tonight although last night it didn't hit until about 10 pm. We about lost the fence and the power did go out for a minute or two. The rain would be nice but we don't need the wind and dust.

More later, A

Monday, July 16, 2007

Rain!


Hi Cindy!

Although the monsoon hasn't officially arrived (need 3 consecutive days with average dew points of 55 or above), we had our first dust storm and rain of the season. It is still raining after well over an hour. The dust arrived first, shortly after 8 pm, and then the lightening, thunder and rain rolled in about half an hour later. The picture makes it look a little more dramatic than it really is but it is still pretty cool. Actually the picture looks more like snow than rain but that's just the flash reflecting off all the drops, either that or we're being invaded by thousands of ghost-spheres. Take note of the fence. Hopefully in the next week or two it will be gone and replaced with lots of grey block.

Spinning class last week was interesting. Barb, the instructor, brought us little goody sacks of other things to spin. The first was a little bit of silk that she dyed with kool-aid. It turned out quite pretty. I got it pretty consistent. She insisted we try spinning it from the fold and it worked pretty well. I'm looking forward to buying some of the bombyx top to spin but probably not until the last class next week. Of course I'll be the only one there that week since the other two are on vacation then so maybe this week will be the last class.

Also in the sack was a sample of wool she also kool-aid dyed, some undyed silk cut for blending and a bit of flax. I'll probably try the flax this week to see how it goes. She also gave us a small bag of unwashed brown fleece that had come from a sheep she used to have. I cleaned it last night and it is drying. I need to buy or borrow cards from the store and get it into a useful form. Margi found it drying overnight and attacked a bit of it. Kelly found it in the middle of the kitchen floor. I think she might have tried to eat some and then puked it up too. I heard some one yakking in the middle of the night and found a pile that looked suspiciously fleece colored.

Two classes ago a bought some heather colored rambouilette. I think I mentioned it in my quick post before vacation. I have worked on spinning it the last two classes. Here are my two weeks worth plus what's left of the roving. The upper right is the first night's spinning (whole class) wound on the niddy noddy. The bottom center is the bit from last class done after the silk. I'm not sure why I wound it into a ball instead of digging out the niddy noddy. I've wound both into center pull balls although I didn't take a picture here. I'd like to get it all spun before class ends as well as get it plied.

I meant to write this entry on Saturday, or even yesterday, but I spent all weekend recovering from food poisoning. I was actually coming down with it Friday night when I wrote the last entry. All I'll say is beware of frozen pizzas with spinach on top. There was no meat so it had to be tainted spinach.

I got word Friday morning from my friend L that she is going to have a baby. As I mentioned the other day her daughter is about the same age as your DS so there will be quite an age difference. I've found patterns for a really cute bunny hat and a pair bunny booties. If she just found out it means I've got several months to get stuff done. And hopefully it will only be 1 baby, not the multiples like last year.

Are you ready for Harry Potter? I finished HBP Saturday and I'm now anxious for the next one. We had talked about going to a release party Friday night but DH is doing a retreat Saturday and he starts at 5:30 am. I guess I'll just have to wait for Amazon to deliver it.

Off to knit on my sock before bed. Looking forward to hearing about your trip! A

Friday, July 13, 2007

Hollywood, pt 2

Hi Cindy!

Hope the vacation is going well. This week has flown by although some of the minutes were actually quite slow. Not much knitting this week. I've been trying to re-read HP:HBP in prep of the new one coming out next week. I also watched Goblet of Fire the other night, it's been a while since I've seen it.

Here are a couple of pictures your DS will like. They are located at Cabazon, CA, about 15 minutes west of the Palm Springs exit. They are in a narrow pass that, as you can see in the pictures, is quite windy. Just east of these guys is where the giant wind farms start.




Let's see, I think I said I'd write about yarn stores in LA. I actually only got to visit one in West Hollywood on Melrose. It is the Knit Cafe. It was a nice little place, rather high-end. I probably would have bought something there but I had DH trailing along. Nothing like a spouse to dampen your yarn buying excursion. They had a nice little selection of yarns. They even had the brightly colored cotton yarn I bought in your store for GMIL's hat. Afterwards we walked down the street to the Bodhi Tree Bookstore. DH wanted to look at the zen books.

On Sunday afternoon we also walked around in Hollywood looking for Black Sheep Knittery on Yucca near Vine but couldn't find it. It looks like they're not open on Sunday anyways so it was no problem.

Sunday morning while DH was at the zendo I went to the Farmers' Market to drink coffee and knit. While there I noticed the pinkie on my right hand was bruised. It is hard to see in the picture but it was definitely bruised. It made knitting a little sore. I'm not quite sure how I did this but I think it was yarn induced. I don't do the thing with lacing the yarn back and forth over the fingers of my right hand. I just look it around the pointer and then hold the tails with the pinkie. I think I must have been holding too tight and almost strangled the little finger. It hurt on the way home too but has healed by now.

While heading to the Farmer's Market after dropping DH off, I notice a rather scuzy pond next to the road behind an iron fence. It took me until I was almost past it to realize it was the La Brea Tar Pits, not just an algae covered puddle. I would have liked to visit but we didn't go back by there. Something for the next trip, one of many.

I guess I should close this up and head to bed. DH has been asleep for at least 2 hours. Tomorrow or sometime this weekend I'll post about spinning class. And I've got to dig out baby patterns again, my friend L called this morning to say she's expecting. Her DD is about a month older than you DS so it's been a while for her.

Take care, A

Monday, July 9, 2007

Hollywood, pt 1

Hi Cindy!

Hope you get a chance to read this before you head off to the wild west. I mailed you a post card but it won't get there for a few days, it didn't get picked up until noon today.

We had a great time in Hollywood over the weekend and the concert was incredible. Here is a link to an archive where you can stream the entire concert.

Guess what else was going on while we were there. Here's a clue. We did not see it nor did we wait around for all the hoopla. It was too hot and we ended up walking around. We ate lunch (and most of our other meals) at the Hollywood and Highland Mall right next door and anytime a tour bus would pull up the crowd would cheer like it was actually some star showing up. They'd had the street blocked off since early morning. We went by at 8:30 on the way to the LA zendo for DH and they were already laying out red carpet and setting up the blockade. I guess they did a foot and wand imprint too. We took this picture about an hour or two after all festivities were over and the movie was under way. There were still tons of people milling around. Here's what it looked like at around 1 pm, about 3 hours to go. The stands were all filled as was the sidewalk.













So the Decemberists' concert at the Hollywood Bowl was incredible. The opening bands were Band of Horses (good) and Andrew Bird (incredible). We had awesome box seats, about 6 box sets back from the pool seats and pretty near the middle of the stage. We shared the box with 2 other couples, one from LA and the other from AZ too. They'd been to the same shows we'd been to: Marquee Theater in Tempe and Rialto in Tucson. We got there about 2 hours before the show with our cooler of wine, cheese and sushi and had a picnic in the box before the others showed up. I even knit for quite a while.

The highlight of the evening had to be between the opening acts when we spotted first Chris Funk (guitarist) and then Jenny Conlee (keyboards & accordianista) visiting a nearby box (friends, family?). DH was able to get out of the box and get both of them to sign the show poster I had bought shortly before. He said they were both very gracious about signing and a little surprised we'd drive from Phoenix for the concert.

Well, that's about all for now. I'm sure I could run on more about the fun we had but I'll save that for another time. Have a good time on your trip and I look forward to hearing all about it. I think tomorrow I'll talk about my knitting injury and the yarn store I got to visit (briefly, thanks to DH-never take a husband into a yarn store). Have a good flight! A

Sunday, July 8, 2007

What a fiber-loving family packs for vacation

In carry-on: Interweave Felts and knitscene magazine, a mini-loom from Schacht to work on with DS

In checked bag: not Hedwig (still same size as in pic from previous post), Schacht 1.1 oz. spindle, undyed silk caps

I thought about bringing the 2 silk spinning articles (here's one, and the other) from the Winter 05 Knitty but I usually bring too much stuff . . .

Cindy

Le Tour begins!


Hi Alene! My Tour had a good beginning. I spun some more of the cream and light brown wools. While I was working on my wheel, I kept looking at the bobbin of multi-color experimental singles I spun earlier and decided to ply it with sewing thread. It varies a lot in thickness and is a lot greener than the picture shows. I'm really happy with it even though some off the sections are so thin (oops) that I'll have to cut them out and double them for knitting. It's from a fiber grab bag I got online and also some Rainbow Fleece Farm dyed locks I carded myself. Cindy

p.s. it's been beastly hot here also and humid of course.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Good Morning!

I thought I'd sneak in a quick post before we finish packing and head west. Maybe a sock (or pair) will have to have it's picture taken in interesting places. (Hollywood Sign, Griffith Park Observatory, Walk of Fame-any name suggestions?).

Class last night went pretty well. I used and Ashford Traveller. It is pretty nice. I think I still like the Joy the best. The Kromski Minstral was pretty nice too. Next week I want to try the Rose and maybe the Joy again to confirm how I like it. The only one I haven't really liked is the Louet Victoria. In class we're having problems with the plastic guides staying in place. They're not sure if it is the plastic that is bad or if the wood has dried out in the Arizona heat.

There are only 3 of us in class this time and it runs for another 4 weeks. I'm going to finish off the Dyed Rhammboulette (sp? I'm too lazy to go check) and the ply it. I got about half of the chunk done last night. It was going pretty good.

DH is done so I'd best get going. More when I get a chance to post, A

I swear, it jumped into my bag

What's this???!? Has Hedwig turned into a tropical bird?? Alas, sometimes my one project at a time plan (more on that one of these days) doesn't always happen. Ms. H, Fearless Yarn Leader at LYS, suggested I make one small sock as a store sample of this new yarn (Farmhouse Yarns Bo Peep sock yarn) and keep the rest of the yarn. Natch, the deal was sealed immediately. I'm doing a toe-up sock from a chart pattern in the Summer issue of IK. Notice the 2 circs waiting in the wings; I borrowed dpns from the misc. needle cup at work to start there and switched this morn to circs.

I'm not much of a sock knitter, I have to confess. I'm hard on my socks, I'm a loose knitter, I'm not wild about dpns, and I like bigger needles for a variety of reasons. I've only made a few in all my years of knitting. I didn't understand the craze until I found The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook by Lynne Vogel. Wow, what creativity! Will Cindy now be photographing socks everywhere out in the world . . . stay tuned, I haven't a clue.

Thursday, July 5, 2007




Hi Cindy!

Hope your Fourth was a good one. We had a guy out to give us an estimate on the new fence. Something about 30 years of sun, hot and termites causes a wood fence to give up the ghost. Fortunately my grandmother had an insurance policy that she left to the 12 grandchildren. My portion won't quite cover the fence but it mostly does. Pool Party as soon as the fence is complete! Everyone is invited! Ted's bringing the drinks! (And yes, he likes the taste of the dark stuff; it's called Moose Drool.)

So, what is hotter than 115 and no humidity (4%)? Try 117 with 15% humidity. Yay. Yesterday there was not a cloud in the sky. Today little wispy ones were around early and the tell-tale signs of monsoon storms forming in the eastern skies. Of course we won't get any of those for a few days yet.

Let's see, I promise some fibery goodness the other night didn't I? Tuesday night I dropped DH off at the zendo and then went to check out my 2 favorite fiber stores, Tempe Yarn and Fiber and Fiber Factory. Both have move locations in the last 2 months. Neither one very far but they are in new digs.

I went to Tempe Yarn first. There I got another skein of the tofootsie that I made MIL's socks from, same color. I figure I have enough left from her socks that I can make myself a pair of socks, just a little longer. I also got a bat of fiber in a green and brown mix. It reminds me of the desert. Margi had to check it out right away. It got 2 paws up.

Afterwards I went by Fiber Factory to pay for my new class. Beginning Spinning 1.5 starts tonight, in about an hour and a quarter so I can't dawdle on this too much. I didn't buy any fiber or yarn there although I did get the Spring 2007 Spin-Off. Something to read on the way to LA. I will probably buy something tonight since I have the class discount and need a project to start on. Mmmmm, wonder what it will be? Might have to wait till next week to find out.

In May I bought a sweater at Goodwill with the plans of ripping it out and dyeing it. For a dollar or so I figured I could torture it and experiment. Margi had other ideas. I did start ripping it out last night but it is pretty difficult. I think (hope?) it's mohair and everything sticks to itself. If I ever get it frogged I'm going to kool-aid dye it. Then we'll see. Maybe just a cat bed.

Well, we're off to LA in the morning. I'll take plenty of pictures to share. And I'm planning on checking out at least 1 yarn shop, probably the one on Melrose. Have a good trip next week if I don't talk to you first! A

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Happy Birthday Abigail


Hi Cindy!

Happy Fourth of July (an hour and a half early here)!

Because we never know exactly when the cat's birthdays are we designate a day. Teddy's is March first, same as DH's Grandma, Margi is on DH's birthday (01/23) and July 4 is Abigail's.

She isn't a big fan of having her picture taken. Usually she acts like the camera is stealing her soul. This year she is 10, just 4 months younger than her brother Teddy. We know they have the same mom but we're pretty sure they have the same dad too. Their mom was a skinny, short-haired torty and they both have longer hair. They even look quite a bit alike and have the same longish hair and furry feet. Of course Abby is about half Teddy's size. She is pretty needy and we joke that she has "abandonment issues". We were not planning on bringing her when we moved (she wasn't our cat) but no one else was feeding her so we felt responsible for her. Seven years later she's still hanging around. She's the only one of the three that still has her front claws and she goes out freely although she sticks pretty close to the patio. She's not the character that Teddy and Margi are but she's got her own charm.

Tomorrow, more fiber related news (hint: beginning spinning 1.5 is a go)

Happy 4th! Hope you have good fireworks!
A

Sunday, July 1, 2007

At Late Night Knitting last Friday . . .

Me: Wow, it's 9:05!

Ms. L : Is that past your bedtime?

Me: I'm usually in my pajamas now.

Knowing that Ms. L's pajamas are far more likely to see 9:05 a.m. than p.m., we had a good laugh about it and then bought some yarn.