October II

Picture post! Lots of eye candy! 

Before it gets too late and I end up having wasted my time taking all these photos. :)

Hartford Convention Center

Oooo, Stitches East 2014 show was fun. Last year I didn't see much that excited me but this year I wanted EVERYTHING.  A whole convention center of everything you want. It's so sweet and so cruel.

Did indeed start some knitting up before we left for the show. Can't go to a fiber festival without some fiber involved.

(Yarn is Trekking XXL, pattern is Fruit Stripe Gum.)

I don't think I did too badly with my purchases considering I wanted everything. Right?

A couple skeins of rainbow striping yarn from White Birch Fiber Arts.

Navy/blue australian merino from Windy Valley Muskox Co.

Regia. (Great for socks. Wears like IRON.)

And a sparkly turquoise yarn from The Periwinkle Sheep.

Also a lobster hat kit. BECAUSE why not? (This was the hubby's pick.)

Those rainbow striping yarns are like a Lisa Frank/unicorn/glitter bomb happy making thing. Rainbow. Stripes. 

I regretted only getting two colorways........so I *may* purchased have another two the week after the show from her Etsy shop. Maybe. Nobody saw. (Feel free to judge.)

The hubby did his own purchasing: a big ole hank and a cone of alpaca for weaving. 

Soooooo soft. *pets*

There were A LOT of weaving samples up at the show. I dutifully took pictures of all the rigid heddle ones I want him to make for me. *ahem*

Snaps from the top of the cliffs down the road from my house. Is there any better season than fall? I THINK NOT.

 

That is all for now. Super super super busy with bead orders this month. Tis the season and all. :)

Ta!

An update of sorts.

I haven't much felt like updating this spring (obviously, since it's been so long), for reasons I'll save until the end of this to delay the depressing part, but things aren't all bad.

I'm quite happy that *my* hawks are back this year and in the nest above my bedroom window that they built last year. This picture is a couple weeks old now (probably from my deck around Memorial Day weekend) but you can see momma up there doing her thing. Exciting!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Last year we didn't get chicks. (The parents had a big fight with a pack of crows one afternoon while still brooding and then they never came back to the nest after that.) I was obsessed with watching them come and go at such close quarters and took it quite badly when it came to an end so quickly. So this year I've tried not to get too attached. *ahem* 

My patience has been rewarded though because this year we have two chicks! At first you could only see the occasional fuzzy wing flapping up but, as of a week or so ago, they are now regularly waddling around the edges of the nest and staring down at the house, trying to make sense of things. 

The leaves have filled in on the trees now (FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!) so picture taking is difficult but they look a lot like this picture from the internet. (I can still see them from different parts of the deck.) A little less fuzzy each day and a few more feathers and awareness. Should be no time at until they are starting to fly around.  I will truly miss them when they are gone but there is always the chance the parents will be back next year. FINGERS CROSSED. (Fact: There is no point at which I would be bored, blase, or not over the moon at hawks nesting in my yard. Ever. It's cool to infinity.)

(Also a fact: the husband and I are too dumb to figure out what kind of hawks these are. We thought sharp shinned last year but they are MUCH too big in size for that I've now decided. They are like full sized turkeys roosting in a tree. So possibly red-shouldered hawks? WHY IS THIS SO HARD FOR US??????????)

The husband continues on with his weaving. We are AWASH in scarves here. What the bloody hell am I supposed to do with it all? They just keep coming and coming. (He's finished TWO more since this picture as well.) I should set up an Etsy shop for him but I'm exhausted at the thought of it and can't quite manage it yet. (It's not as easy as all that as I have no choice but it roll it into my own online business, which changes everything I currently do for resale taxes, property taxes, income taxes, etc. UGH. They do NOT make things easy for people who WANT to do the right re: small businesses. /end rant)

What the scarf god gives, he also takes away.

 I finally came to terms that my Vail scarf is unwearable in it's current form. The yarn is too light and airy to be a scarf. It has no structure and a scarf that lies like a dead thing is a useless scarf to me, considering how cold the winters are here. After two years of using it not even ONCE, I bit the bullet and...

...unraveled it. Bye bye hours and hours of knitting. Painful, but no less painful then it's useless scarf-like state. /shrug. That's the thing about knitting with natural-based yarns - you can generally just unravel them and start over again. (If you have the balls to do it, that is. :)) Oh, it looks like a bunch of crazy hair doll there but a long soak in the sink and hanging to dry on a plastic hanger for a few days....

..and it's right back to being normal and ready for something else. I'm not quite clear what the something else is at the moment but I am glad not to have that beautiful LOOKING (but useless) scarf making me feel bad any longer.

As far as the badness.....well. My sweet, gentle, baby Meisha is dying. That sounds overly dramatic written out but I honestly don't know how to pretty it up. 

There has been a lot of testing over the last few months, with both good and bad results. A bit of confusion. (The vet has never actually had a case of idiopathic hypercalcemia in his practice so we're figuring things out about how to proceed together.) Her soft tissue is being mineralized as calcium builds up throughout her body. There is no cure but there are things that can help some cats. We're doing injections of B12 at home for a few months to see what happens with that. So far, I am not optimistic but there are many months and many more injections in The Currrent Treatment Plan. There is no way of knowing how long she has. (Months? A year?) Her kidneys could give out and give us no options or they could hang in there and leave it to us to decide when the pain is too much, or the anorexia is too much, etc. She seems on this side of 'ok' and more thin than 'sickly' for the moment but things are changing from week to week. This week we are adding in an ulcer medicine, for reasons I don't want to get into because it's depressing. It's all depressing (I AM depressed...or my soul is depressed) but what can you do? You do a bit of face down crying, get over it, get on with things, and get used to the new normal. (The new normal sucks though. Just to be clear. I want my old normal back. Sigh)

FA LA LA LAaaaAAaaaa!

 It's official. I am done with work until the New Year. 

*happy sigh*

Not a moment too soon, either! Just no idea where the last four weeks have gone. :(

Bless anyone who doesn't get a small break for the holidays. It's all so overwhelming.

For my first day of workless bliss (today) I had to deal with some Serious Business straight away before I got arrested........by the BEAUTY POLICE, that is. The mani/pedi situation was a tragedy. Let us not speak of it again. *ahem* I feel so much better now that that is taken care of*.  (It's crazy but true! lol)

 Tomorrow I have to beat back the dust balls in the house and, umm, decorate a little for Christmas? UGH. So late this year. 

Hanging out in the hoodie. If you look closely you can see his tongue sticking out. Silly goose.

 

We went back and forth - and forth and back - on the tree. We love having a tree. 

Do not love: cats knocking over trees. Or climbing trees. Eating trees? Pretty much anything cat + tree = BAD. 

I'm already tired of playing Mean Mommy to Fitz's daytime antics (get down from there! don't scratch that! get out of there! don't go in there!, etc.). I don't think my nerves could handle him AND a tree this year. He's still too, ummmm, rambunctious? He *is* the very definition of 'boy' at the moment. (But cute!) Hopefully next year, when he is older, it will be better. So........we'll miss the tree this year but I think it's best we don't put it up. I can still put some garland up on the stairway and hang a few things from that. (Can't do lights in that area though, which is a bummer.) I feel bad for waiting so long to get to it but we are traveling out to people for Christmas this year so I don't need to go crazy if I'm not entertaining here either, I guess.

THANKFULLY, I am golden on the gift buying. (THANK YOU INTERNETS.) Just need a few details in the gift wrapping department to finish that up. WHEW. 

Okay so after all THAT, *then* I can do something naughty like...........sit for a long stretch of time and read a book? Actually get some knitting done? Or stitching?  Hell, I'll take blankly staring at the wall like a zombie at this point. It's enough that I have TIME to do it without the stress of any work hanging over me everyday.  :)

 I didn't get any knitting done for the holidays this year (yikes) but.........the husband has been going like gangbusters through my yarn stash, weaving scarves for gifts. (There is one more to photo as well.)
I like each one better than the last and it's so great to see more of my yarn come out of retirement the stash boxes and be used up. 

 The brown one? This one is mine because it matches my winter jacket. YUM.

The weft (goes 'weft to right) is in done in Alchemy Yarns which I *think* I got from a sock club package? Anyhoo, the colors on this are divine. I *love* this kind of 'fall inspired' color combo.

The warp (length) is a tan Opal yarn and worked very nicely as the hardly-seen-but-still-important-background.

I rooted around my phone/ipad pics to see what *I* have finished lately and all I came up with is a Halloween finish from a couple weeks ago. :(

It's quite a nice one though! 

Silver Creek Samplers, JCS 2013 Halloween book. 

On.......40 ct maybe? Something small like that, at any rate. 

I messed up at the very very end. Literally. Annoying. Last thing to do on it was the crow and didn't notice until I was done that he was supposed to be perched on the bottom of the 'L', not the top. GRRrrrrr! I chose to EMBRACE my take on it (read: just get 'er done) and did an extra leaf where he was *supposed* to go. I love the little leaves on this so one more is just fine by me. :)

I feel bad for never posting pics of Livvy too but I swear to god she's IMPOSSIBLE to photograph. She LOSES HER MIND everytime I grab my phone to snap a pic and all I end up with is blurry blurry blurry gray messes or something like this:

Because that's a ladylike pose. Hello, crazy eyes!

Wait, wait, I dug around some more. Finally. One good one. It's a Christmas miracle. 

 

Well, hopefully I get a chance to post more often now so I don't run on and on like this anymore. It's exhausting to read, I'm sure. If I don't though, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to everyone!  :)

*(Also, I lasered the crap out of myself with my laser gun but y'all probably aren't interested in that unless you want to hear about how fricking_painful_it_is to have a good laugh at my expense because I PAID $$$ to do this to myself. I literally scream out approximately 3,815 obscenities per leg. At LEAST.  It's like electrocuting yourself. Over and over and over again.)

New Hobby.

But not for me! For the hubby. :)

Last week we made the (2hr) trip up to Northhampton, Masschusetts to the much-loved and always-awesome WEBS yarn store so he could take a 2 day class in......

WEAVING. Specifically weaving on a Rigid Heddle loom. 

He's always wanted to try it out and the basic class they offer is a good way to figure out if you like it or not. They provide the loom and most materials to take the class and a Rigid Heddle isn't too expensive an investment, as far as looms go, if you decide you want to continue on with it. (Very easy to store as well because it folds in half!)

Northampton is a college-y New England town and we were blessed with the most glorious fall weather while we were up there so I got to spend a lot of time walking around town, enjoying the fall weather and colors while he is in class. The Yarn Harlot was teaching classes all day there at the same time so I even got to bump into her - in the doorway of the restroom at WEBS. Because OF COURSE that is where I would literally bump into her. No nice conversation over yarn for me, just HEY LOOK........bathroom?

I didn't spend too much time in WEBS myself  but the time I did spend there was pretty neat - as far as customer watching. I never get tired of seeing what projects/yarn people are hunting for. :) They had 3-4 registers going, almost the entire time I was there, which is pretty nuts for a YARN STORE, you know? SUCH a busy place! I love it. The Freia yarn above is the only yarn I bought while I was there so I WAS REALLY GOOD, too, as far as that goes!! :)

Anyhoo. I hope he sticks with it...........I have dreams of woven cotton dishcloths and plaid scarves..and lots of stuff for ME *fingers crossed* Wait. No, no, no, I mean I hope he's happy and has fun with it. That's what I meant. *ahem*

This brown scarf is the first thing he worked on at home, made out of, I have to say, TRULY TERRIBLE yarn. Yarn I should have thrown out long ago but the colors are pretty so I never got around to it. (I did a pair of socks in another colorway in this stuff and had to THROW THEM OUT after *one* wearing because the yarn was THAT felty and awful to wear.) It looks great but I'm still throwing major shade and side eye at it because I just know that sucker is going to felt if worn out in wet or snowy weather. :(

Oh well. If it felts, it felts. He needs to do a bunch of basic scarves to work on his tension and stuff anyway. I'm always happy to share my yarn stash, too. Maybe not ALL of my yarn because I have a few favs that are too near-and-dear - but MOST of my yarn is up for grabs at any rate. It is an interesting thing, weaving. I could see me doing it but you can only have so many hobbies so I'll leave this one all to him. :)

I've been busy busy with bead orders lately but I've been TRYING to squeeze out a little time here and there to do a few new things as well. To that end, I've uploaded some new stuff over the last few days:

Fingers are totally frozen now putting this post together. Whew. Need to go do dishes or something to warm them up!! :) :)