Oh, that's just swell...

I have been buried in crap for the past little while. Both figuratively and literally, unfortunately. Long story short - on Tuesday, we had the plumbers truck parked outside our house. In the afternoon, we had the "Disaster Enviro-Kleen" truck. I won't go into details, but let's just say that we're considering sueing the previous owners for serious lack of maintenance...and that the plumbers RAN when they were done with our pipes. The upside is that after telling this story to some friends, we've had some guests cancel their impending summertime visits out of sheer terror of what possible calamity might overcome them here. So, the basement smells like thyme atm (the professionals use a cleaner derived from thyme, who woulda thunk it). And I've been playing catch with Mr. Munchkin's stomach contents since Sunday, so forgive the lack of chipper uppityness in the post.

Add to that the crushing news that Sweet Georgia is going on hiatus and will not be dyeing anymore sock yarn, and you have one seriously pissed Ninja. So, I'm going to be taking part in an upcoming co-op for Henry's Attic yarns, and will be dying my own sock yarn in the future. Self-reliant knitters of the world, unite!

Beware the Stair...

So, last night - spun with a vengeance to get this baby off the bobbins. I tell you, anyone who handspins sock yarn is a special kind of crazy...it takes forever to ply.

As you can see - despite halving the roving (weighed and everything!), it still made for some whacked-outtedly different halves. Different amount of roving, different colours...I was hoping originally to have the two halves match so that the yarn would do this lovely gradual gradiated thing. But t'was not to be, apparently.

There are colours that plied together that make my inner interior decorator freak out (olive green and pink, for example - that particular combination reminds me of things that my girly-girl militantly lesbian ex-roomate would have screeched at me for even thinking of putting together - remind me to tell you about her sometime. She's the one who would spout ridiculous things like 'no white after labor day' and 'blue and green ought not be seen [together]' - but I'm slowly trying to eradicate such idiocy from the crevaces of my brain.) But there are other colour combinations in this yarn that just seem serendipitious and are just lovely. I'm not sure what the hell the socks that I knit out of this are going to look like, but what the hell...the wool's pretty as heck - how ugly could it be? (Famous last words)

Had a lovely morning coffee and cake with Ms. Frozen Extremities - and we had a nice long talk about spinning wheels and the vagaries of spinning silk and other such oddities. And it's a good thing that I seem to have gotten all that spinning out of my system...as I fell down the stairs today, banging and bruising a good portion of my back. No more spinning for me until I can actually reach for the cookie jar without wincing. *sigh*

Ready for a mid-winter nap...

So, made myself another needle case - this one is for my DPNs.

Pretty - but I messed up on the sewing of the case - it's actually a mess when you look at it too closely. Will have to adjust the design to have a larger seam allowance, but it's all part of the learning process, eh?

Remember this roving?

It's spinning up like a dream.

I figure that I'll be able to get sockweight out of what I have here already and another ply of the same roving. Although wool+silk = uncertainty about sock usage...think they'd be too itchy as socks?

Finally, Mr. Ninja actually asked for a sweater. Seeing as we've been together for a decade, I'd say that I'm fairly safe from the sweater curse. Am going to borrow one of the cables from Viking Patterns for Knitting (Thanks Ms. FE for the lowdown on the book!) and will post a pic of the general design soon.

Biggest knitblog list?

So, I was checking out who was hitting my blog...and it turns out that somewhere deep in the heart of Sweden, someone took a lot of time and catalogued a massive number of knitting blogs. Check it out at:

www.stickamera.se

There are blogs upon blogs there....let me know if you find anything good.

Seeking Light Therapy.

So, it seems like there are babies popping out EVERYWHERE these days - my cousin is having one, and I'm on the hook for at least 3 more baby showers/gifts. So I started whipping up some booties. (pattern from Knitting For Baby)

After taking this pic, I started frowning when I realized exactly how much my messy house shows up in my photos. So, I decided to make myself a lightbox for photos. Instructions here.)

Of course, goofy me forgot to take the flash off initially, resulting in photos like this.

Blah.

But once I got the hang of it...I think that it will work nicely. Even took a photo of the Monkey socks.

I just have to figure out how to get the damn thing lit on the days that we don't have sunbeams throughout the house...

Enraged.

Am currently concentrating on not letting my head spontaneously explode.

...

Y'all know how I just bought a new computer? Say...oh, 13 days ago? Last night I got to use a new addition to my vocabulary thanks to the Yarn Harlot - my new computer bricked on me. Stuck looping infintitely between the lovely soothing blue screen of death and a message that kindly informed me that "windows had failed to load properly."

*sigh*

So, for the second time in two weeks, I'm sitting here and installing and installing and installing and installing. Oh well. At least I have Justin and the lovely ladies of Victoria's Secret to accompany me during this time of tribulations....



(Don't ask me why, but this actually is soothing while I'm grinding my teeth and waiting for yet another application to install. Maybe it's my inner slut clawing her way out. Who knows. Don't think that Mr. Ninja's going to complain about this one, though.)

Oh and hey, before I forget - the MSC Napoli is beached about a mile off the coast of Devon, England...Looters have been "finding" treasure like BMW motorbikes, kegs of wine and have been leaving behind these. What is wrong with these people?

Knitter down...

Scene 1

Fade in:

A pristine white room with several control panels on the walls and several more desks/chairs with white jumpsuited workers at them. Camera zooms in on one of the workers sporting a nametag of "Higher Brain Functions", clearly occupied with some paperwork and with an underling hovering at her shoulder.

Higher Brain Functions: Report.

Underling: Mr. Munchkin is currently occupied with his grandmother and is staying at her apartment for the day.

HBF: Excellent. (sighs) So what chores are left to be done today then?

Underling: Well.... (flips through some papers on a clipboard). Nothing. It seems that the Ninja decided to get everything done yesterday. Dishes, laundry, you name it...it's clean.

HBF: (pushes chair back in amazement) What? Everything?

Underling: Yup.

HBF: Well well well. Seems like we're ... on holiday!

White room erupts in spontaneous joy. Much backslapping ensues.

HBF: All right - everyone take the day off! Immune system (nods at another worker who has bags under her eyes and several cups of coffee littering her desk) - you've been working overtime since Mr. Munchkin was born. Get outta here and get some fresh air!

Underling: (in an under the breath muttering) Ma'am, are you sure that's a good idea?

HBF: (shrugs) What could go wrong?

Fade out.

Scene 2

Fade in.

HBF has her head down on the desk, moaning beside a massive pile of used tissues on her desk, sniffling and hacking away. Underling passes her a bottle of cold medicine and a thermos of hot tea.

Underling: Told you so.

Fade out.

All this to say that I'm sicker than I have been in a long time. I even missed Happy Feet at the Imax with my parents, Mr. Ninja and Mr. Munchkin. BLARGH. Did get some knitting done though. Pictures soon when I unearth my camera from under the tissues.