Ok, bad blogger again. I'll post about the holidays once I recover from them, so in about 2010. But had to post a picture of my SP11's daughter, Samantha Ann, in the sweater I made for her. Doesn't she look SOOOOOOO cute???!?!?

You may now resume you regular holiday induced coma from all the calories. :)

Holiday Humor

To All Employees
From Management
Subject Office conduct during the Christmas season

Effective immediately, employees should keep in mind the following guidelines in compliance with FROLIC (the Federal Revelry Office and Leisure Industry Council).

Running aluminum foil through the paper shredder to make tinsel is discouraged.

Playing Jingle Bells on the push-button phone is forbidden (it runs up an incredible long distance bill)

Work requests are not to be filed under "Bah humbug."

Company cars are not to be used to go over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house.

All fruitcake is to be eaten BEFORE July 25.

Egg nog will NOT be dispensed in vending machines.
In spite of all this, the staff is encouraged to have a Happy Holiday.

Lol, what a day

My poor dear hubby has a really bad case of hives and is trying to scratch himself in his sleep. I mean really bad here people. All over his ENTIRE body, front and back. It's so funny, though I'm sure not to him.

I'm waiting for my soaps to cool so I can turn them out of the mold and cut and get them curing. They're melt and pour cause I'm lazy right now, but they are for Christmas presents. I scented them with Vanilla and Sandalwood and put apricot seeds (ground) as well, to exfoliate the skin. And they'll moisturize because they are Shea butter soaps. i figure give them with the wash cloths and I'm covered.

While I wait I'm knitting a purse that I'll be felting to give to my Cousin-in-law's daughter. Yeah, weird huh? But the cousins will be at Grandma's house and while the parents may get a bar of soap and a washcloth the kids will get something special. I was always raised to give a gift to the kids in a family I was visiting for the holidays, even if I brought nothing for the parents. Plus, I can honestly say that between both of the kids I only spent $25. Though I never had any idea it was so hard to get toys for a 5 year old boy. I finally went with the typical thing, and got him toy cars, from Cars too. My in-laws are big Disney fans, the whole family, cause one of the uncles actually works for Disney Studios out in CA. And yes, we take shameful advantage of it, and get in free to the parks. So nice. The daughter is getting a little purse/makeup bag and a few things of tasteful makeup. I say tasteful because yes, while she's 8 and using it for play, I'd rather give real makeup to play with (cheaper and cleans up easier, not to mention lasts a hell of a lot longer) and I don't believe that even in play those icky colors should be used, and they should be something that she might one day wear in public. It's just how I was raised. So there's 2 nail polishes, a set of mini nail files, a manicure block (for smoothing the nails and such), a lipstick, a quad of eyeshadow, and a little bottle of lotion. I know when I was her age the nail polish would have sent me over the moon. I used to take the stuff and paint EVERYTHING with it. Works really well on foil and metal, in case you were wondering. But I figured that she needed a bag to hold it in, so I'm knitting a little purse and I'll be felting it. Its in shades of pinks and browns, which I think is nice, cause all the makeup is pinks and roses. I'm thinking of going and getting some of the nail polish for myself actually, it was a really nice color. And they are all real makeup, so it may help her feel like a grownup.

Scott gives Eskimo kisses now. He started doing it when I was kissing him goodnight. It was so cute. I think he was saving it until I tried to put him down, to distract me from bedtime for another few minutes.

I'm gonna go check my soap and see if I can get some sleep soon. Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

Felting with Acrylic

Ok, I admit I stole this from another blog. I got it here, but just had to share.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How to Felt With Acrylic.
I know that there is a huge demand for information on how to felt with acrylic yarn. After exhaustive research, I've written up the following guide. I hope it is helpful!

How To Felt with Acrylic Yarn
by Gail

List of Materials Needed:

1. Some acrylic yarn. Make sure it doesn't have any natural fiber content in it whatsoever. That would be bad.
2. An oversized stock pot. The one you attempted to use to Brine your turkey before you accidentally killed all your relatives will serve you well here. Plus, it'll hide the evidence.
3. A blow torch.
4. An oven. Preferrably one that you don't plan on using much in the future.
5. A welding sheild.
6. Some tongs.
7. Some leather gloves. Not the nice ones - the heat shielding kind.

Step 1:

Knit something out of that acrylic. Make it bigger than you want the final results to be.

Step 2:

Drinking some alcohol is probably a good idea here.

Step 3:

Turn on the oven as high as it will go. Throw your knitted acrylic garment into the oversized stock pot, and stick that in the oven. It is a matter of great debate on whether or not you should add water - water will probably slow the felting process, but may keep the yarn from melting to the bottom of the pot. Maybe you should add some canola oil or something.

Step 4:

Open a window. Take the batteries out of the fire alarm.

Step 5:

Check on your garment. If all is going well, it will become soft and melty. With the gloves and tongs, coax it into the shape you want. You may also want to stir it around to make sure that it isn't sticking.

Step 6:

Once your garment has shrunk down and appears to be the correct shape, remove the stockpot from the oven. Throw a bunch of water into it. You might want to put on the welders shield now. Then, with the tongs, remove the item from the pot, and arrange it charmingly. You should no longer be able to see individual stitches. You may find that your garment is a bit inflexible - that is to be expected.

Step 7:

Once your garment has cooled, you can use the blow torch and tongs to make any last minute adjustments, such as creating holes in your slippers for the feet.

Step 8:

Enjoy your fabulous felted acrylic garment! Tune in next week where Gail explains how to use flexible rods to keep your stockinette from curling!

Oof

I never realized how hard it is to spin to a certain size of yarn. I have NO problem spinning lace weight or fingering weight yarns, but I'm having a hell of a time spinning my alpaca roving to something heaver than fingering, and that's when it's 3 plied. I figure I'll just have to cable the yarn into a 6 ply, or even more to make sure that it's the same thickness as the black wool I'm spinning up for the blanket. I have no problem making a 3plyd worsted weight yarn out of that, but than it's a big fluffy batt, and not roving.

Besides spinning I'm still crocheting up washcloths like a little sweatshop. I'm planning on making some goats milk soap or maybe olive oil soap and give those as gifts with the washcloths to people. And give them a cute art picture I did of Scott. I'm getting it printed up as a 11X14 poster for the In-laws, and I'll frame it. J and I are using the excuse of the car needs brakes and we'd rather spend what money we have for presents on Scott, than spend a lot on everyone else and have nothing to give Scott. We'll be getting the brakes fixed on Monday, and we pick up the brother-in-law on the Sat before X-mas. We told the MIL that we'd be coming up on Sunday afternoon, but we're gonna surprise her and come up on Saturday.

Scott's still having über poops and farts so he's being a clingy little boy. So cute though. He's getting to learn about time outs because he's been throwing things lately, and I don't want him to get used to being able to do that. Still trying to figure out what I can get him for his X-mas. For that matte,r trying to figure out what to get J too. Oh well, Scott has his presents to give to us. I picked them up when we were visiting my mom.

I hope to be able to get stock up in my store after the holidays and than get my site running again. *crosses fingers*

Holidaze

The holidays have finally made me snap. I agreed to going and spending them with my in-laws, mainly because I don't want them to miss out on Scott doing cute things. Scott's now 18 months and trying to get at every display of lights we've seen in the stores. We're not decorating this year though, because I'm too lazy and the place is still a mess. Boxes everywhere and I need to go and get bookcases or something to get them all taken care of. But back to taking that trip around the bend, finally.

I have decided, and started as well, to spin up that great big bag'o'fleace that I got in the great fiber score of '07. It's lovely, soft, and a dark gray/black/brown. I already have a full bobbin (about 100 yards) spun and plied into this beautiful light and lofty worsted weight yarn. I plan on making a blanket out of it when it's all done. I think that's where the crazy comes in. A blanket to be used by all of us at once, and I'm allergic to wool.I shouldn't say that really, because since I've started spinning more I've not had many problems. I think I just have problems to the crummy wool used in most commercially produced clothes, and the chemicals they use to make it. I'm thinking spin up other colors of wool, and maybe a few stripes in the blanket to show the pattern it will take. It's going to be a ripple star blanket, worked in the round. I made one years ago for my aunt and uncle and somehow messed up in counting in the very first row, and wound up with 7 points instead of the 8 I needed. I'll do better this time, I promise. If I can ever find the apalca I got in the same '07 score I think that is what I'll use. It's a lovely dark gray that drafts like a DREAM!!!!!!! Yeah, spun up a little sample on my spindle. Or i could use the black/multi colored roving I got than too. No idea yet, but I don't want to start making it until I have more yarn made, because with that big a hook and gauge (I'm used to lace or fingering, and never bigger than a size F hook) it'll go fast, at least I'll be thinking so.

I've also been making more of my cotton yarn, and I'm gonna attempt dying it. I have finally decided that Scott sleeps at night, and since we put him down to bed around 8 every night (cause much after that and I want to flush him, how the HELL did I get a morning person for my kid) I can just prep the yarns when he's up and dye them after he goes down. They need to set 8 hours really anyway. Stupid cotton, can't use my food dyes like I can with the wool. Speaking of wool and cotton and such, I actually have some of my yarns being sole right now, in a craft exhibit. Makes me happy.

Off to eat muffins that the kid didn't want. He's been on a yogurt kick lately. It's cleared up the diaper rash of doom, I'm good with it. Yogurt and granola bars. Maybe I should find him his tie-dyed shirt I got him and have him wear that. My darling little hippy boy. Oh, he's potty training himself. Cool huh?

Home again

Yea, I'm home again. Don't get me wrong, I love my family a lot, but I can only take so much lately. They all have to talk loud because my step-dad is almost deaf, and so I had a headache most the time I was there.

Scott has the worst case of diaper rash I've ever seen, his balls look like a bright red prune. We actually had to take him to the ER last night just after midnight, because he woke up screaming in pain. He's doing better now, because they gave us some cream with nystanitn in it, which will halp kill bacteria. It's a medicine used to fix yeast infections, which can cause the diaper rash to stick around and get really bad. I've had to use it before.

Gonna go rest and look at my chocolate cake. We've got over a foot of snow on the ground and supposed to get more tomorrow, so I wanted to have something around that was sweet to eat.