Time to move on up...

It's been awhile, eh?

I've found that I'm a very seasonal crafter - probably has something to do with the fact that my sewing room is in the basement, and that wool is stinkin' hot to work with in the middle of summer.

Since I've been quite unfaithful to ye olde knitting lately, (seriously, my knitting output has been close to zilch for the past few months) I've decided that I can no longer limit myself to just a knitting blog. That, in addition to the identity crisis that I am starting to enter as of late...I need a new headspace.

thebuffaloherdtheory.blogspot.com is where you'll find me in the future. I'll be posting more varied ruminations there: snippets of my writing, book reviews, gaming stuff, crafty items, and lots of soul searching, I'm afraid. I'll try to keep the melancholy to a minimum but will still have lots of the snark lurking around.

Hope to see you there!

Hi.

I'm still here.

Really.

I've just been sick. Really sick. "I should go get meds" kinda sick. Turns out the nasty flu that I picked up a few weeks ago was actually pneumonia. Yeah. I'm finally almost over it apart from the occasional involuntary coughing spasm. And now that my family is finally gone home (nothing to pick you up like hosting Easter guests while hacking up a lung), I'm recuperating on many levels.

I have a few of the dresses to show you, but not all of them as some are in the wash already. I admit to dillydallying with getting these all finished, as I have a hatred for gathering fabric that is comparable to that of a Trekkie for Star Wars fans. (Google it people...it's an epic hate-on.) Excuse the crap photos...I'm waiting to upgrade to a DSLR until the new Canon Rebel comes out. HD movie capability, baby.

This one is the Peasant Dress pattern included as part of the Portobello Pixie Claire pattern:

These next few are mods of the Portobello Pixie "Claire" - took the bodice and extended it to an A-line dress. Tried different methods of cinching the waistline.



These are from the halter dress tutorial from Just Tutes:


These last two are for a friend of mine and her daughter who are looking forward to a new summer baby. See? Same material, different results...it's just like genetics! The little one with the ties at the shoulder is an Itty Bitty Dress from Made By Rae.


And finally, a pirate princess outfitted and ready to set sail...

As for knits - I have one measly pair of mittens done. These are for Mr. Ninja, and he's happy to see them. Now that the snow's all gone, of course.



Starting a pair of Rainy Day Socks in Fleece Artist, as much to my knitterly shame...I have exactly two pairs of hand knit socks that survived the winter. All the others bit the dust. Ungh.

Dibble Dabble...

And away ya go. So far this week, I've been sewing a lot, spinning a bit and knitting a bit. Here:


Autumn Walk in BFL dyed by Funky Carolina. Love this one. It's navajo plied, albeit poorly done. About a fingering weight, maybe? I've figured out why I don't like navajo ply, it's because I have to do it sloooowly and concentrate on it the entire time. Totally not my style, 'cause I like to ply fast. Yeah. I was the girl that your momma warned you about.

No knitting to show you - it's all UFOs at the moment. But lots of mitten action.

I've gone on a real sewing binge as of late, mostly gifts. I know of at least four babies that I'm sewing for (either REALLY recently arrived or expected this summer), including my VERY FIRST NIECE/NEPHEW! I'm super excited about this...namely because it takes the pressure off of us to propagate the family Christmas albums. The AT-AT only takes up so much room...


So lots of diaper sewing, one baby boy quilt, some wee dresses and some sewing for my munchkin:


Pattern is Claire from Portobello Pixie. LOVE this pattern, although it's a lot more fiddly than I'm used to. I'm setting myself a goal of sewing Miss E two weeks worth of summer dresses, as I am hoping to outfit her for the summer in just those. To that end, I managed to cut out 12 dresses today...now for the sewing up. To the batcave!

A mess of excess...

So why'd I post the pics of my stash? It has to do with public accountability, rather than a lame ass attempt to brag about yarn. If you know me irl, you might have guessed that I don't really care about stuff - I have a tendency to give away yarn at the drop of a hat. I'm just mostly hoping that posting this pic will give people the freedom to berate me if they catch me sniffing yarn at the LYS...Couple of reasons that I have it all gathered in one spot:

1) I'm planning on selling a fair bit of it. But before I can do that, I have to know how much there really is.

2) Christmas gifts. (Yeah, I know.) I'm thinking that this is the year that I knit mittens for everyone. So we're looking at a minimum of 15 pairs of mitts of varying sizes. That's going to take some work, as I'm also planning on spinning the yarn for most of them.

3) It's a great baby amuser.

The Return of the Light...

And not a minute too soon! I find that the winter really saps me of the desire to do anything but hunker down on my couch and eat my own weight in chocolate. But with Spring finally arriving, my energy is slowly returning. Honestly, if you think that my blogging's been delinquent...you should see my FO pile. I think that I've got about 4 projects in total to show for the entire freakin' winter.

A pair of "lobster" mittens, requested by Mr. Munchkin. (Use your inner 5 year old's imagination, people.) Peenchy peenchy.


A scarf out of some sparkly rainbow handspun.



A very pink baby sweater out of more handspun.


And a pair of plain vanilla ribbed socks for my MIL's Christmas gift. No pics, as I was too brain dead to remember to take pics.

In other news, I have officially reached SABLE. Really. No kidding around. Here, look.



Once it was all amassed, I was initially horrified that I owned yarn that I had totally forgotten about. Then I remembered my Mum's stash and felt slightly better. But still. I'm not allowed to buy any more yarn for quite a while. I'm going to have to start bigger projects, me thinks. Yoiks.

Making Lemonade...

So, what's a knitter to do with a sweater that the recipient grows out of during the knitting process? A hat, of course.



It's a little big for her, but I think she'll get used to it eventually.

Seems that I had a more productive summer than I thought - I was looking at my flickr the other day and noticed that I had spun a bit this summer, and knit a little more. Check it:

Novalis colourway in BFL from Crown Mountain Farms roving. Crappily plied using the Navajo technique.

Man socks, in handspun - superwash merino in the Henry colourway.

The Hungry Caterpillar yarn - Corriedale and sari silk remnants.

Candied Rainbow - bamboo/merino blend from The Good Sheep. Triple ply, and a major PITA to ply in just such a way that the colours run together.

Twilight - Superwash merino.

There, I feel better about my slacking now. Nothing more to see here people, move along.

East, West...

Home's best.

Well, that was a good summer. There's really too much to write about in detail, so I'll sum up.

Visitors: 5
Little boys who started school: 1
Little girls who started crawling: 1
Computers that bricked: 1
New computers: 1
Old ladies that got a year older: 1
Little boys that got a year older: 1
Husbands that stopped smoking: 1
Husbands that bought a big screen plasma & a PS3 to reward themselves: 1
Trips to Toronto for Dad's 65th birthday: 1
Trips to New York City for a surprise wedding: 1
Buckets of ice cream devoured during the summer: at least 5, but who's counting
Days at the beach: 20 or so
FOs: 2

As for the wedding - my big brother called two weeks ago and announced that he was getting married to his fiancee, pronto. So, last Friday, our little family got up at 4 am and got on a place to NYC (which was the smallest airplane that I've ever flown in, apart from a Cessna that I toured the Grand Canyon in) - it was a beautiful day. Civil ceremony at City Hall, and then pictures in Central Park. Dinner was at the swankiest hotel in town, and we were lucky enough to stay there as well (freebie!). The next day was spent shopping at Toys R Us at Times Square (three separate Star Wars sections, people), and eating lunch at White Castle (the food is quite possibly an abomination inflicted on the American people by terrorists...it's AWFUL.) Back home on early Sunday morning. Phew!

And the knitting? Dismal output. Two FOs - a pair of Uzume socks in Colinette Jitterbug (Fire colourway), and a Cupcake Hat for a sweet little girl that I know (not mine). I don't have permission to post the pic of the behatted wee one, so no go on that one, and I've been too lazy to take pics of the socks - it'll get done eventually.

I've also been sucked back into World of Warcraft, which probably directly correlates to the suck-ass knitting productivity. With the expansion coming out in a month, I kinda doubt that it'll get better, but who knows? Maybe I'll find a Time Warp and be able to knit all sorts of wintery things like mittens, scarves, etc. But one thing's for sure - no Christmas knitting this year. After the lukewarm reception of handknit socks for everyone last year, I have avowed to only knit for those who appreciate the effort, or who are too small to protest being clad in knitwear.

I'm hoping for a Time Warp like this one, personally.

The hills are alive...

with the sound of a delighted geeky heart. Yeah, yeah. I know. Bad blogger. Anyway, really quickly, here are some of the things lately that have made my geekdom explode all over the place.

1) Took Miss E in for her shots - and she had one needle. And one FREAKING AWESOME GIGANTIC HYPOSPRAY. Dude, I kid you not...it was the size of my arm. But it was still a FREAKING HYPOSPRAY. I think that the Dr. was saying that it's a CO2 fuelled injector, but I was too busy nodding and totally geeking out (in my head).

2) Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog. Go watch. Now.

3) Bento! Yeah, I'm late to the party. As usual. But since Mr. Munchkin is starting school in the fall, I'm going to have to start making him lunch. And if I must make lunches...damnit, they will be awesome.


If you're not familiar with the concept of Bento, it's basically the Japanese way of making wonderful lunches. You take a box, stuff it full of healthy, delicious food and make it attractive at the same time. Check out this site for a more informative perspective on the topic. Anyhoos - here we have (from left to right): egg shapers, sauce cups with lids, a fork, holding cups, salt/pepper holders, soy sauce mini bottles, and picks.

4) My garden. :D


That's the mountain of dirt, contained by a homegrown wall of rocks. Every single one of those rocks were found in the backyard and moved. Also, note the tri-wheel wheelbarrow. We wussed out and bought one that had much less chance of someone trying to ride in it and tipping it over. The wall's about 8 inches deep, and there is tomato, kohlrabi, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, carrots, and more lettuce growing there. We'll have to see if anything actually comes up this year.

5) Paint! Oh, those crazy-makin' paint fumes. The other day, Miss E was lying on her tummy, looking up at us with big eyes. She then flipped herself onto her back. She then giggled and then flipped herself over onto her tummy again. We took one look at each other and decided to start babyproofing. But instead of babyproofing the entire house (*cough* mission impossible *cough*), we've given up our TV room and have made it into a playroom which will be gated off. So, the vile orange (which the previous owners painted) is gone gone gone. And the room is now a serene white with a hit of rasberry.

6) Oh, and a gratuitious yarn shot. These are the skeins of yarn from the last post, wound into a CPB.


Also, I've finished spinning up the Twilight fiber, just need to get some pics (my camera battery is dead).

7) They Might Be Giants' children's albums. I Am Not Your Broom, indeed.

Lazy summer days...

are a myth if you ask me.

Craft-wise, it's been all about the dyepot recently.


Mr. Munchkin in action, dyeing up another skein of yarn. We went all out and used acid dyes this time. (Don't worry, no children were in the room when I was prepping.)


From left to right: Carmen (red, violet, purple), Muddy Rainbow, and Mr. Munchkin's Special.

I had another skein of a rainbow yarn that I dyed, but Mr. Munchkin ran off with it and gave it to our lovely neighbor (who knits, fortunately) in lieu of handpicked daisies. He loves our neighbor and always runs off to pick flowers for her when she is outside. Today, he decided to bring her yarn. Will have to put the stash under lock and key. >_<

Lessons learned from this dye session - let the boy have no more than 3 colours at a time. Inevitably, one of those colours will be black. (His fave colour) Also, for the love of Pete...dye outside.


Superwash merino roving, in the Twilight colourway. (Sky Blue, Violet and Black) Twilight is my favourite time of day. Always has been, always will be. When I was dyeing this, I was so disappointed - the blue was so watery and pale before it went into the oven. But it turned out perfectly. Makes me happy just to look at it.

And the last reason that my blogging will be sporadic at best for the next while:


This is five yards of dirt...waiting to be transported to the waiting raised bed in the backyard. We're not really going to be able to get anything planted this year, but the plan is to put the structure in place in time for next years growing season. The plan is to build a square potager with paths from each corner, meeting at a circle in the centre. Inside the circle will be a bean teepee. Now I just have to move the dirt, build the paths and find a local ironmonger to build the teepee. Phew.

Well, crap on toast.

A favourite saying of one of my university roommates. It's appropriate, trust me.

I've had a lousy week.

1) No sleep. Lil' Miss E seems to be a night owl, as she likes seeing the sunrise.
2) Fought with my Mum 3 hours before she got on a plane to go home. We're better now...but still.
3) Got into a fender bender backing out of my freakin' driveway, as there was a car parked illegally on the wrong side of the street - and I wasn't really paying attention 'cause I was still wound up from the fight. Guh. Everyone's ok, but it was my first car accident ever, and I'm still pissed off about it. My car is NOT happy looking - going to have to get a side panel and the bumper replaced. Grrrr.

Fiber stuff:


Wonderwool is pretty...but it's curse worthy stuff. This is the baby shrug from Debbie Bliss. Nice pattern, a little confusing, but the end product is very pretty.


Mr. Munchkin's kool-aid socks. Dyed by the young gentleman himself, and knitted with a standard top down short row heel and toe. I really liked how the yarn did a self striping thing...which gives me another excuse to let the munchkin loose on more fibre now that the weather is marginally warmer. (17 degrees in June? Madness.)


And finally...Julia. I love this spinning wheel. Love love love love love love love it. The take up is so freakin' light that spinning cobweb lace suddenly seems like something that I could/should/want to do. However, the bobbins are teensy compared to the ones for the S10. I finally understand how people can spin up a bobbin and a half in a day (the thought used to gobsmack the hell out of me before). At the moment, I'm working away on the Novalis BFL.

Also, you may have noticed a new widget on the side bar - the mixwit tape thingy. It's SO cool. As an angsty teen, I used to spend hours making the perfect mix tape for my beloved boy of the month. The mixwit mixes are limited to what you can find online, but it provides enough variety to keep me very happy. I forsee this becoming a popular little toy for bloggers everywhere.

Drive by blogging.

Okay, don't have a lot of time to blog. (I do have a rather respectable level 31 Bear Shaman in AoC, by the way. And best not to ask what my Wii Fit age is if you want to keep all of your body parts.)

1) Lesley, I forgot to tell you - I found the project bag! Mr. Munchkin was evidently trying to help, and he put it into one of the stash baskets. I'm still amazed that it turned up in the same calendar year as when it was lost.

2) I hate Wonderwool.

3) I have almost 4 balls of splitty, clingy, obnoxious pink Wonderwool left. Anyone want it? (Why yes, I've never worked in retail. Why do you ask?)

4) My spinning wheel is gone. But I'm glad that she's gone to a good home. Thanks again Lesley!

5) I'm getting a new wheel for my (early) birthday present: a Julia! She's in the mail, and I can't wait to meet her.

6) According to my Ravelry project page, I clearly have a bad case of startitis. Five projects on the needles.

7) Yes, I have knitting in my bathroom. It's the only room in the house with a lock. (For me to be able to step away from the chaos for a minute or two. It's not like the knitting is at risk of getting out. Unless it's pink Wonderwool. Then all bets are off and I suggest that you read up on zombie apocalypse reference material.)

8) In a fit of apoplectic rage (is there any other kind, really) after finding the cat sleeping on all of the diapers that I had cut but neglected to sew... I went on a minor sewing bonanza, thanks to the fact that my lovely Mum is in town and is being the BEST grandmother ever. I now have 20 diapers in size medium to fit little Miss E's tush, which is enough. No more disposables for us! Pics may present themselves eventually.

9) Three month old humans are pretty much the epitome of cuteness. It's all downhill from here. Don't believe me? Check this out.


See, she's not always the screaming crying mess that she turns into the minute that we step into the Wired Monk. *sigh* It looks like it'll be a few more months until I'll be back at KOL, unfortunately. Until then, it's just me and the Wonderwool, and only one of us is getting out of here alive.

ZOMGZOMGZOMGZOMGZOMG

Hi, short post.

Got Age of Conan installed last night. On the Damballah server, fyi.

Got a Wii Fit today.

Will promise to keep kids fed, clean and housed. Anything else is gravy for the next week.

Well, I'll be...

Overheard earlier today:

Mr. Ninja: "Why's this clone trooper hiding behind the desk? With his head turned backwards?"
Mr. Munchkin, with a huge eyeroll: "Jedi Mind Trick. Duh."

Anyway. Mr. Munchkin and I were amusing ourselves yesterday with kool-aid and fiber. I set him up with some undyed sock yarn and let him loose. I'll show you the results later, the skeins are still drying. At the end, there was still some dye kicking around, so I shrugged and dumped it all into a pot with a bunch of superwash merino roving. I wasn't expecting much as it was orange, red and purple - definitely not my first choice of colours. This is what I got:

I sighed a little when I was waiting for it to dry and figured that since it wasn't really hitting a sweet spot for me, I would use it to practice my long draw technique with. Well, lo and behold:

I lurrrrve it. Can't wait to see what it becomes. Meanwhile, I've also been spinning some of the BFL that I got from Crown Mountain Farms - the Novalis colourway has been calling my name.

And yet somehow, I'm not nearly as entranced with the actual singles.

I'm not sure that I'm going to like the barberpole effect with these colours. I find it weird how different the two yarns are from what I was expecting, but it just goes to show that it does pay to push yourself out of a rut every once in awhile.

I'm a little bummed at the moment - I lost one of my WIPs and the lovely project bag that Lesley made for me while I was pregnant. So if you're walking around Fisherman's Cove and see a lonely bag of knitting, drop me a note eh?

Baby pic of the day:

Fear the Stormpooper.

Nebula revealed.

I finished spinning Nebula last night. This yarn was SO much fun to spin. I would be going along, drafting and then all of a sudden, a gigantic slub of blue silk would appear. Or, I'd be just about to spin a bunch of silk, and it would be consumed by some black merino. It was like watching the birth and the death of galaxies. So cool.

Today, I tried a test ply...and didn't like it at all.


The two plies seemed to be cancelling out the prettiness, and making the whole yarn kinda greenish. So I'm setting the twist and calling it done as a single ply, lace weight. I'm already planning to use this for a spectacular shawl. Just need a pattern. The skein has about 880 yards, so it's enough for something really cool, I hope.


I just can't seem to get a good photo of this yarn - it's so pretty IRL. And it's a good thing that I finished Nebula last night, 'cause my Crown Mountain Farms order arrived today! One of the co-ops I'm in does an annual order from CMF, and every time I order some...I wish I'd ordered more. Check these out.


BFL and superwash merino. Hooray for sunshine! Hooray for pretty yarn! Hooray for sheep!

Arachne ain't got nuthin' on me...

So, just about the only crafty thing that I can do with Miss E attached to me has been spinning. She has been having a rough week - first shots, poor wee thing - and refuses to let me put her down. Thank goodness for my mei buckle tai. I've been trying to knit with her in the carrier, but I have to hold my arms at an odd angle and it hurts. And forget sewing...the noise of the machine wakes her up everytime. But I can spin standing up, and the whirring of the wheel seems to soothe her.

I had some yarn that had been sitting on the bobbin for the longest time, and I wanted to finish it up. So I decided to give Navajo plying another shot. Let's just say that it wasn't pretty the first time that I tried the Navajo method, and that there was lots of alcohol and cursing involved. Sort of like a really good Colonel Tigh imitation. It went better this time, but not by much. (The lack of alcohol may have been a factor this go around.)

Superwash merino. Navajo ply, albeit crappily done. I think that it's Pansies colourway from Abby's Yarns.

And the next fun thing that I have on the crafty horizon is a spinning challenge. On DSD, they've started a spin-a-long. We all have this photo for inspiration:

And we're supposed to spin some yarn inspired by the photo. So far, I've made up some rolags on my hand cards.

It's black, blue and brown merino with liberal splashes of sparkly Angelica and blue/turquoise tussah silk. In retrospect, probably shouldn't have used so much brown. But it'll be interesting to see how it spins up. I have a sneaking suspicion that the brown will make the black just look dirty, but we'll see.

Thunder thighs.

So. Miss E has the most gargantuan thunder thighs. Don't get me wrong, it's adorable to see baby thighs so chubby that it looks like there's three thighs where one should be. But it's making things painful in terms of figuring out how the hell I'm going to keep this child clothed and diapered. Needless to say, I've been amusing myself with testing various patterns.


More diapers in size medium. Being the lazy sod that I am, I made all-in-one diapers. Slap 'em on the kid, and she's good to go. Pattern: Very Baby AIO.


This is from the Hippy Hippy Snap pattern. I'm a little sad about this one, as I like the pattern, but I think that the elastic I used may not be working as well as I'd want it to...thereby rendering the diaper pretty much useless. Sigh.

And even in Atlantic Canada, summer is coming. Which means sundresses! I made this one for Miss E using this tutorial, and it was very quick and easy. From selecting the fabric to the final ironing, it look less than an hour to make it.


In knitting...no pics for you as I'm working on gifts. But I must say that once again Terra's ski beanie is saving my ass.

And I leave you with the baby picture of the day:


"Yay! I'm wearing knitted pants!"