I haven't died, honest

I've just been quietly sitting here and playing with Scott is all. Yes, playing with my little lad since St. Pat's day back in March. 7 weeks and 5 days of wonderful wonderful fun time. He's visiting his other grandparents up in MN for a few weeks, since his Papa Carl is having to undergo 2 operations to fix a disc in his neck. Scott will be here for his birthday, and pretty much until further notice. J and I worked out a 50/50 custody split, but the reason Scott's here is because J still doesn't have a job, or a place to stay. He's crashing at HIS grandparents place in CA, and that's gonna have to end soon. Then he'll most likely be out here in MI too.

In the craft world, I've been spinning. LOTS. Right now it's a blend of Ashland Bay's Merino top in a beautiful green color with stripes of browns and such, all carded together (cause I'm odd like that) with about an ounce of Pomeranian fur for my great-gran's dog Teddy. I plan on knitting something out of the yarn for her.

I'm also working on samples for the Phat Fiber Box again, for the month of July. July is the non wool month, so I'm doing a blend of natural colored cottons, mohair, angora, and soy silk. All in natural colors. The longer fibers spin up so nicely, and the cotton gives it an almost wooly feel, by core-spinning around the other fibers. Those as well as samples of my Isis yarn in an organic naturally brown cotton will be there in July.

Also for Jessie at Phat Fiber I'm working on shawl kits for her to have in her shop. A custom design by me, paired with the Twilight Dawn colorway of Isis. Approx 1200 yards of yarn are there, more than enough for the shawl.

I'm knitting socks again. I never did get past the first little armor one I made for Scott. But the main hostess for the Secret Pal swaps was a sweetheart and got me an angel package for SP12 (since my partner vanished off the face of the Earth) and sent me some amazing things. 4 oz of alpaca roving in a colorway called Crocus Crochet. Blues and purples. Reminds me a lot of my Twilight Dawn colors, and I LOVE it! Also, a skein of Mmmmmmmalabrigo Sock in Botticelli Red, which is this brick/tomato red kettle dyed color. I have been petting it like made lately. And some Addi's to knit socks on (right now they have mitts on them, couldn't get gauge with them for socks) and a nifty little keyring that had a small crochet hook on it, to help pick up stitches. That's come in handy already, trust me. There's also a beautiful pattern for bamboo patterned socks, that I may convert to toe up. I have odd feet (really high arches) so I like toe up construction.

My first socks WILL be done for whenever Harry Potter 6 comes to the big screen. I'm calling them my Griffenclaw socks. They couldn't sort me into just one house at work, when book 6 came out, but instead said I should be in both Griffendor and Ravenclaw. So I will be having socks with gray toes, heels, and cuffs (Knitpicks Bare I dyed myself) and a semisolid red body from a yarn I totally forgot what it is. I remember it was $18 a skein though, does that count?

Off to rest and make more samples. I've been having a fibro flare lately, which is why I haven't posted in a while. That and adjusting to a new psych med. Which causes cluster headaches whenever they up the dosage. I foresee a new medication soon. I don't like going to the ER to get an injection to make it stop.

Great Acheivment and Great Loss

The last few days have been good to me. I've spun up 230 yards of 3 ply sport/worsted weight yarn. A beautiful heathered gray color, made of a blend of white and gray merino, gray alpaca, and black Border Collie fluff. Yes, that's a dog. I'd say a 75/15/10 blend of the 3 fibers.

Than I did a first for me. I made a sock. For Scott, so it's not big. It's worked in sport weight on size 2's so it'll wear very well as a sipper too. The mate will soon follow, once I recover from losing a few friends of mine.

Yes, today a few friends of mine were resting on the couch, and suddenly a big foot came and stepped on them. Ok, I admit, it was my foot. 4 size 2 vintage rosewood DPN's have passed on to the great woodpile in the sky. The lone survivor was off on the table, cause he's not the shrpest needle in the bunch. Thankfully I have circs in size 2, and can make the other sock.
The lone survior over there, laughing at them. Little does he know that now he's a shawl pin.

On plurk and other things

Ya know, sometimes I forget that just because I'm on Plurk doesn't mean the rest of y'all are. See, I talk about my days and what I'm working on over there, and forget about this here.

I've been spinning a lot lately. I can do this because as a b-day present Mommy got me an electric motor attachment for my Wheel (Wheel needs a name, I'm sensing a contest soon). Yesterday I spun and plyed 4 oz of Merino/silk top into a 3 ply heavy worsted yarn. This is to go with the 2 oz of this top already spun up. It's destined to become something for Scott. Not sure what yet, maybe a scarf.

Today I'm spinning a Merino/alpaca/Border Collie blend. I know it's somewhere around here in my archives. Look for early August, I saw it there. The Merino/alpaca blend is a lovely slate gray, and there is also white merino blended in with the black Border Collie. It's making for this beautiful heathered gray that I'm loving. I'm spinning it fine and hope to make it a 3-ply heavy lace. I'd love for enough to knit a cowl or scarf for me.

I've been bitten by the cowl bug. Right now I'm working on one inspired by a hat a friend in knit group was knitting. It's a mobius cowl worked with an applied cable edging. The cable it's self is reversible (turned on both sides, and worked in a 1-1 ribbing) so it flows with the who mobius idea. Yes, the mobius is worked from the center out, using Cat's method.

I'm also going to knit Scott a sweater, and promised Sally one too. Both are in the planning process. I"m also going to finally attempt socks. Someday. Maybe start with Scott sized ones. Makes me wonder what size he wears anyway.

I'm trying to prep yarns for work, and on the topic of work, the name has been changed. It seems there was a Tangled Web Fibers out there on the interwebs so the name was changed. Besides, not it's Punny. Sheeps of Egyptian Cotton. When I was growing up my half sister Kathy (ask some day, maybe I"ll tell you fun stories about her) told me the clouds being relfected on the ocean were sheep. And me, being the smart wee child, asked how they didn't felt. So she said they were sheeps of Cotton, and that's where Cotton came from. A few years later I got proof she was being silly, but than it wasn't too late to tell her. So, in homage of Kathy and my sillyness, Sheeps of Egyptian Cotton has been born. Shop blog and Etsy Storefront are at those links. Store is empty, but only for now.

County Fair

Today I went to the Kalamazoo County Fair, with free tickets from Portage Public Library's summer reading program. It was fun, and I would up eating too much Hawaiian Shaved Ice. Strawberry Colada flavor, so can you blame me?

I came away with something odder than the usual fair things. A mega double handful of Border Collie hair. Now you may be scratching your head and wondering what I'd want that for. Spinning, that's what. This hair has almost no guard hairs in it, the dog was freshly washed, and the ladies thought I was a little strange, but let me have it anyway. They admitted that while they spun they had never thought of spinning puppy fluff. Almost pure black BCH is being blended with whit BFL (hehe, letters are fun things). I'm wishing I had some actual hand carders now though, cause dog slicker brushes will take me a while to blend this up.

Dog hair is often called Chiengora, and is a beautiful fiber. It's warmer than wools, up to 8 times warmer. Yes, that's as warm as it's bunny "cousin" angora. It's best when blended with wool, to minimize shedding. It halos once washed, and no, it doesn't get that wet dog smell every time it's washed. Once it's been washed and cleaned the first time it will no longer smell like a wet dog. It's slightly heavier than wools, and has almost no elasticity. Another great reason to blend it with wool.

I'll post pictures prob this weekend, of the blended fiber. Tomorrow I get to get on a bus and see my baby boy! It's been almost 2 months, and it actually has been 7 weeks and 4 days. No, I'm not counting. :) This divorce is so stupid, and I don't feel bad in the least that now there's a bill to be paid to the lawyer. Ok, a little bad, because that's money that should be used for Scott, but I suggested he go to We The People and have it done there. Not my choice to go to a lawyer, so I refuse to feel uber guilty about it.

I get to see my boy! Happy day. 2 weeks isn't enough, but I'll take what I can get.