When Good Projects Go Bad

Hi Alene, and Happy New Year to you and yours. We had a nice Christmas with most of my family coming over on the 21st. DH's dad visited earlier this month so the gift extravaganza was spread out. As for me, I received yarny things from the family: the new Mason Dixon book, 2 skeins of wool yarn from a favorite farmer's market vendor, and the 2009 Spindlicity calendar! Thank you for my gift certificate; I look forward to spending it as soon as possible :D

I've recently had 2 projects go bad. First was a pair of mittens that I was improvising but they came out way too wide with a too narrow thumb and a too short cuff. Methinks I'll frog them and try again with a little less improvising. The 2nd one is the bedsocks I've been making for the Shawl Ministry. Here's a lesson to pass on: don't try turning the heel on a new sock architecture while watching Wall-E with the pattern book on your lap, no notes, a cuppa coffee on one side, and a 4-year-old asking "Why?" repeatedly on the other. Also it is not easy to make socks to fit an unknown pair of feet from a previously untried pattern. Well, duh.

Am contemplating my New Year's resolutions; post on that soon. Bye for now, love, Cindy

Year End, and a Beginning

Hi Cindy,

Hope you had a Merry Christmas! We went up to DH's parents in Cottonwood. I got off at 12:30 last Wednesday and then headed to Scottsdale to pickup BIL. After trying to set up his new printer we headed back down to our house to pack the truck. DH didn't get off work until the regular time, 4:30. His bosses are scrooges. Traffic on the drive was pretty light. We got up there in less than 2 hours.

Christmas day was cold and rainy and we didn't hardly even go out of the house. DH's parents aren't in to the whole gift thing so we didn't really have gifts to open. We did get his brother an IPod Shuffle. He's really excited about it but his computer is so old and slow that he's coming down tomorrow to set it up. We had snow flurries on Friday which was a lot of fun. Actually it was more snow clumps, kinda like hail but out of snow. We went over to see DH's grandmother on Friday. She is 95 and still hanging on. She is very frail and doesn't get out of her room much but is still pretty with it mentally.

On Saturday was the big grand opening of the light rail in the valley. We've had to deal with the construction for the last 3 years. I've tracked down these pictures since I don't have any of my own. This first one is right outside my office.

The crowds for the grand opening were pretty ridiculous. They're giving free rides through today and it has been jam packed. They estimate 100,000 people rode on Saturday, 50K on Sunday and the last 2 days have been just as packed after the morning commute.

DH and I took the train into work yesterday. We have a bus that runs just down the street from us so we take that to downtown Tempe. From there we catch the train to Phoenix. DH has to transfer in downtown Phoenix but it goes right past my building with a stop less than a block away. Morning wasn't too bad but going home was jammed.

DH met me downtown and by the time he got on we were basically sardines. We did stop in on Mill in Tempe to have dinner before catching the bus back home. It takes slightly longer but once the tourists clear out it should be pretty nice. The train runs on street level and goes with traffic so they don't stop the cross-traffic when the train comes through.

Since it's been free the last several days everyone around the valley, plus all the visitors in for the holidays and the two bowl games, are trying it out. There were whole families riding it from one end to the other. The line is 20 miles long, the longest in the country to open at once. The ride is smooth and quicker than the bus line that previously paralleled it.

There were celebrations all along the route on Saturday and Tempe's ended with fireworks over the lake just after sunset. I'll keep you posted how it goes for commuting after all the tourists are gone.

Happy New Year!

A

The Day After

Hi Cindy,

Hope your family had a fun and warm Christmas. We had a great hike with our friends and their dog. I did about 5 miles total, in and back out on the Lost Dutchman Trail. The others did the 9.1 mile loop over Black Mesa and through Garden Valley. It was really beautiful. There was even water running in most of the streams. I felt it quite a bit yesterday when we got back but I'm mostly over it today, just a little stiff. DH is feeling it more and has blisters from his ill-fitting boots. We're already talking about doing something on New Year's Day, either a short hike or a bike ride to a local coffee shop.

On Monday I plied the purple yarn I spun over the summer, mostly spun on the drop spindle you sent me. I think I have about 100 yards total. Unfortunatley I don't have a picture right now. I'll try to take one and post it later.

Take Care, A

Happy Christmas!

Hope all is well there. Without further ado, a FO! The modified Cactus Blossom as a cardigan made top down, by hand & machine, with 3/4 sleeves . . . er, make that 5/8 sleeves (they came out a bit shorter than planned but work well for at home as you can see). Photo by DS.

We went to my family's party yesterday at my younger sister's. Her baby is 10 mos. old now and adorable! We had a good time and came home in yet another storm , this time blowing snow being most of the difficulty. It's been quite a month for storms with more ice than we've had for a long time. While at the party I cut my finger slicing rolls; not serious but very annoying and will put me off spinning for a few days.

We finally got to see the HP OoTP movie! I really liked it although several sets were quite different than I imagined. I'm looking forward to seeing the special features on the DVD soon.

I had been trying to spin some Finnsheep wool but was having difficulty. I believe it was in excellent shape when I got it in 2002 (!) but seemed a bit dry or matted or something now. I wasn't sure. I decided to use it for a dyeing experiment and use up the last of my tie-dye stuff from this summer. I was careful not to let the dyepot boil (I've only tried dyeing roving once before and I felted part of it). I must have used too much dye because the pot never exhausted. Alll that leftover dye meant lots of rinsing and somewhere along the way the inevitable happened . . . I have a gorgeous blue-green soft thick rope of felt. Hmm. Methinks I'll leave the dyeing of roving to the professionals and stick to dyeing yarn (I've had good luck with that so far). I thought I had a picture of it but I can't find it.

More soon on my crafty plans for 2008 and on how I became a low stasher. Oh, and did I mention I'm on Ravelry now? Love, Cindy

Happy 100th!

Hi Cindy!

According to the list on the sidebar this is post 100! Hard to believe that we've babbled on for 100 posts over the last 6+ months.

Our agency had a decorating contest between the different groups. It started off slow but as Judgement Day got closer the competition heated up. Here are a few pictures. The first is my window. I'm lucky enough to have a south-facing window right next to my cube. I covered most of it with transparent snowflake paper and a gel snowman with snow flakes.

Our portion (4th Floor-Water Resources Section) of Hydrology went crazy with decorating. Well actually it was Carrie, LuDean and I. In addition to covering all five drawers of 30 filing cabinets with wrapping paper we hung lighted garland and Carrie made stockings for everyone in our section with names and snowflakes melting into water drops. We won for Best Santa's Helpers.

Our biggest competition seemed to be the 2nd floor Technical Services portion of Hydrology. They have a fireplace (lighted) with stockings, a naughty-nice board and wish lists. They have

also all decorated their cubes with plenty of ornaments etc. hanging from the ceiling. They won Best Traditional Fireplace, Best Individual Cube Decoration and Best Holiday Screen Saver.

Grinchville won Best Overall Adherence to a Theme. They had Grinch playing on a projection on the wall and had a giant lump of coal too. They even went around and Grinched (stole) things from other displays.

They went on for about 15 minutes giving out all kinds of awards. I think everyone that did any kind of decoration won some type of award. It was a great team-building exercise and the competition was a lot of fun too. I've already heard rumblings about next year's decorations and the judging was at 9:30 this morning. Just 365 days (or less) to plan.

Happy Winter (tomorrow)! A