The Beach in Progress

Sorry for the lousy pic, but on the wheel you see the yarn I've been working on this week which has little elements of things from the beach in it: scraps of blue silk, shells, little pieces of rope, irridescent beads and nice big fat fake pearls from an old necklace. Spinning the base yarn was not a big deal but stringing all the add ins is taking a lot longer than I expected. I can't wait to see the finished product!!!

Spinning Under the Influence

I was dreading it. For a couple of months, I have known I had to have some dental work done -- Ok, I call it "oral surgery" and SO laughs at me -- but after, a horrible experience with getting my upper wisdom teeth out by a woman I call, "The Butcher", I've avoided anything other than routine cleanings like the plague.

So, Friday was the big day to get fitted for the crown I needed for a very painful cracked tooth and three other fillings scattered around my mouth. I dutifully took the pre-procedure medication Thursday night and it wasn't calming me down so on Friday morning when I was supposed to take some more...I took more than instructed just in case. I had had too many visualizations of getting in the middle of the whole thing and deciding I wanted things to stop and throwing the dentist and the assistant off of me before I ran out of the room.

With the additional help of laughing gas and my iPod to drown out the sound of the drill, the morning passed by while I laid in the dentist chair. Later in the day, all the lovely numbing medications wore off and the pain started and that necesitated some painkillers.

I'm not a fan of taking stuff like that. I don't like that wooziness.

But, I fought off the urge to fall asleep so that I could make some more art yarn:












Because I was spinning under the influence of Vicodan, this little batch took all night. Actually there were times, when I sort of dozed off while putting together the add-ins (beads and fabric). But, so worth it!!!

100th Post Anniversary!!!

Geez, in less than one year, I've posted 100 posts to this blog!!!

You know how it is when you hit a milestone. It makes you scan your memory bank for earlier times. I looked back to a blog I had a few years ago that was rather short-lived. I snagged this post from January 30, 2007 to repost here in honor of this blog's big birthday.

The title was "Belly Flops" and reading it now, I can only imagine how much time all of this took with very little to show in the end:

Not just little flops...major flops in the kitchen on Sunday.

(1) Broccoli, Cauliflower and White Bean Soup. The concept is that you cook the veggies in broth with white beans such as cannellini beans and then puree. Ate half a serving. Threw out the rest.

(2) Algerian Fish Soup. Seemed like a good use for some fish I had in the freezer that I wanted to get rid of. Called for potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, celery, broth, and saffron. It was marginal at best. Ate one bowl. The rest goes out tonight.

(3) Cheese Grits. In endeavoring to make life more interesting on the WW Core Program, I ventured into the territory of garlicky, fat free cheese grits. Might have been ok without the garlic. Ate one tablespoon full. It was not true that the leftovers were better. Threw out the whole pan.

(4) Roasted Cabbage. Compliments of Mollie Katzen's "Vegetable Heaven" cookbook. Seemed like a good way to use up a head of cabbage that was getting ready to head south. It was not. Next time, I will just make coleslaw and forget about creative ways to use cabbage. Two bites and into the trash.

(5) Fried Bananas. Finally, a winner!!!! And, it was a big winner, at that. Yummy.

So, there you have it. All the food I planned on eating this week, down the tubes. Ended up making a big batch of hummus last night to tide myself over.


Wow...what was I thinking back then...this was before knitting captured me.

Hot Ghetto Mess "Art" Yarn

Somehow this year, I've been fitting in learning how to spin yarn. I've taken some classes and bought all the stuff. I don't care to learn how to spin yarn to knit a sweater -- I'm only in this to spin visually interesting and electic but not highly useful art yarn.

Finally, things have settled down enough that I was able to spend some time last night to further this new passion.

I first organized a bunch of beads that I've accumulated along the way. I couldn't just spin without having all my supplies organized first...otherwise, known as a delay tactic.

Then, I looked at the pile of little bits and clumps of free fleece that I had -- none of it combed so not easy to spin and decided I had to run all of it through the drum carder first to smooth it out. Drum carding is fun anyway and my little drum carder is very light and easy to set up.

So, the fleece was ready, the beads were organized and without anymore reason to delay, I got going.

To my most delightful surprise, I was able to spin a continous strand without much trouble even though I haven't spun anything for about a month and a half and it was iffy then.

After I spun all I had of some muddy grey/brown fleece I'd carded, I went back and plyed it with some bright orange beads I threaded onto some yellow cotton thread. You have to know I was not going for beauty or any visual appeal -- just practicing with junk I had on hand.

This was the result:


















So, there's maybe a 1% chance you are thinking, "Wow!!!! What are you going to make with that unique, one of a kind, designer yarn? A hat, a scarf, a hat and a scarf, mittens, a bag?? The possibilities must be endless!"

All good questions, however, in the interest in full disclosure, I have to show you this picture taken at SO's suggestion:




Yes, after a night of devoting myself to doing this, I end up with a very small ball of yarn. I offered it to SO who wasn't quite sure what to do with it and suggested that I might regret gifting away my first successful solo attempt. I asked if he said that to his kids when they brought home their art projects from school. We then agreed that the first art yarn would look good in one of his jars of little odds and ends that he collects.



So, mark this post and let's see how my work looks a year from now.

There they sit.

Staring at me.

Peel me.

Dehydrate me.

Make me into applesauce, apple pie, apple dumplings, apple pandowdy (what is that anyway?), etc.



Now, in the aftermath of the Teepee Quest, it's time to get back to regular business. The apples, for example, were acquired at the Apple Festival a couple of weeks ago and though we did manage to get through peeling and dehydrating a half a bushel, the other bushel and a half are sitting in my den waiting for attention. I managed to get most of the den under control otherwise and back on track with getting some knitting done (wait till you see the next project that is coming off the needles!), but I'm still in a pretty big hole -- the produce coming in from the farm shares is still eating me alive...but not that many weeks left for that and in fact, yesterday I had two bags instead of three to sort through.

Oh, and let's not forget work -- the place where I go five days a week and can be a little demanding. The fall, in particular, is my busy time as I'm getting everything ready for next year (budgets, review process, technology projects).

And, yet, at the same time, my mind keeps wandering off to the land of trying to decide which next large item needs to be covered in crochet -- I think it must be some form of sickness.

At Last...Mission Accomplished!

The weekend of THE BIG Project has come and gone...

Many months ago, we conceived the idea of combining our two favorite hobbies -- for me, something involving yarn and for SO something related to Native American artifacts. The resulting idea was to create a teepee covered in crochet to take with us to an arts festival (Playa Del Fuego) last weekend.

I'm very proud to say that we pulled it off and it was a success, but getting there was quite the journey.

At the outset, because of our yarnbombing experiences, we knew that buying pieces from yard sales would be much better than me trying to manufacture the knitted/crocheted outer layer. So, we went on a three plus month tear buying things at yard sales. We learned a lot along the way -- for starters, don't pay more than $3 for large afghans! They are to be had for $3 or less.

We had no idea how much would be needed so I kept buying and buying and buying and I think by the time we entered the construction phase, I had accumulated something like 70 pieces or so -- afghans, baby blankets, some hats and scarves and some other odds and ends. In the end, we needed about half of what we had. Yes, there is enough leftover to make another one.

Then, it was time to deal with the poles. SO figured out that bamboo would be a good material to use and we knew where some was, but that involved going up to some one's house and asking to cut it down and I couldn't imagine trying to explain this to a stranger. Luckily, the universe intervened and someone I was taking a class from back in September mentioned their backyard was overgrown with bamboo. I blogged about the adventure of getting the bamboo last month as you may recall.

With the bamboo under control, we were onto making the base skin. We had decided to sew together sheets and then attach the afghans. This was quite a bit of work also. Rather haphazardly we'd gathered sheets from yard sales too (they cost about $1 each). But, when we went to work with them, we discovered that there are good, sturdy old unfitted cotton sheets and then there are flimsy, stretchy polyester/cotton sheets. Luckily, the worst sheet ended up being only a small section of the skin.

From there, SO scaled up a small pattern from a book and built a paper model to test the design. After some modification, we marked up the sewn sheets, cut off the excess and then I hemmed the base skin for miles and miles.

Finally, it was time to attach the afghans! We started with the largest one and positioned it in the center of the back. This ended up being helpful later when we wanted to match the erecting pole to the center back. From there, we continued to apply and attach the afghans from largest to smallest. This was fairly time-consuming work and we worked on that step alone on and off for over three weeks. Poor SO had no dining room table during all that time! We attached the afghans like a tied quilt, using heavy, thick cotton thread which we tied in knots. Originally, we were taking the time to tuck the ends inside, but let that go in the interest of time.

We wanted the whole skin covered, but the bottom edge is round and the afghans are not -- what to do? Originally, I was going to piece in small things like hats, scarves, etc. However, one night, pretty late when we were toiling away, we discovered that the granny square style of afghan made in blocks could be taken apart and fitted pretty easily without compromising the integrity of the crochet.

Then, it was onto the raising of the teepee. The first time it went up so easily!!! But, the next day we had to rush and rip out down because of rain. A week before the event, we put it up again, but this time it took TWO HOURS and that discouraged us a little.

But, luckily, after getting to the festival, we had a relatively easy time of raising it and even slept inside of it two nights!
















The teepee was a hit. We received many compliments with my favorite being, "there's just so much grandmotherly love in it!" How true!! We were so gratified that our project was well-received.











Besides the magnificent teepee experience, the highlight of the festival was Saturday night which included amazing fire performances including burning hula-hoops and bull-whips






















and then, the burning of a wooden winged horse. The pictures cannot do this justice, but we offer up a few shots:


































So, if you read this blog often, you know I have a bit of a crazy streak which leads me to think that we should now tackle a Circus Tent! We'll see.

First Project of October

Ta-Da!

Finished this last night. It is a large cowl/scarf thing that extends down over the shoulders and made from 50% wool and 50% alpaca...soffffftttt. This was super easy and would be a great beginner project -- or a break from sock knitting and other somewhat complicated delights. I'm not keeping it but halfway through I was loving it so much I ordered more yarn!

Starting out the October knitting pile in grand style!!!

Love Letter...

Warning: This post is gushy and schmaltzy, you may want to skip this one.

I've been blogging at this and other blogs for some time now and have to resist the urge say to a lot about my dear SO. Early on in blogging, he indicated that he didn't want me to pour it on too thick about how great I think he is.

But, after all this time, I thought maybe I could slip in a little post about the one and only.

OK, so for starters, he gave me these boots:




How great is it that our feet are almost the same size and I can wear a pair of his cowboy boots that were a little tight for him? AND, he even took them to the fancy boot-repair guy in Texas and had them spiffed up for me on one of his biz trips last year!




Second, he'll wear a costume on occasion:


SO is on the left in case you were wondering.
















Third, he tolerates me taking over large portions of his house for my crazy projects:
















Fourth, he once helped me get home a green coconut we found in the streets of Miami. This involved negotiating with the TSA officer at the airport to let me take it on the plane and then hack-hack-hacking away at the thing to open it -- only to find there wasn't really much inside.









And, despite the fact that my cat is so jealous of him, she's often grouchy towards him, he's nice to her because he knows how important she is to me:














And, he makes amazing pizza!














I hope he will always be beside me...