Wednesday, December 26, 2007

That let down feeling

Christmas is over.
Yea!
No matter what, Christmas is stressful.
And today I am kicking back and knitting and spinning on my New Wheel! and trying to stay awake.
I am so tired.
Maybe I should take a vitamin.

I made out like a bandit for Christmas.
DH got us a new printer/copier/scanner machine and a new Saute pan.
I received new PJ's. Which are in the wash. I HAVE to wash stuff before I wear it.
Just one of my quirks.
My Brother. Bless his heart is fantastic with a list!
I received blocking wires, Selbuvotter by Terri Shea, and a subscription to Sommerset Magazine from him. This year I made it easy and gave him a catalog and a subscription card.
DD Jordan even bought me a gift(down vest). In fact she bought everyone a gift with her hard earned money. DD Mariah also bought everyone a gift, but mostly with DH's money.
The girls received a few small gifts like the PJ's and their big gift was a Nano. Each engraved with their names. No mix ups. Although all you'd have to do is scan the contents. Jordan's would be music and Mariah's mostly books.

I'm almost to the toe of the first sock for Jordan's birthday.(she already knows) and I am almost to the thumb on the 2nd Komi mitten. I must finish this mitten before I start another. Hopefully I'll have enough purple to complete it!

Off to spin.
Maybe I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Viki

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Happy Solstice!

It is a beautiful day here in Sunny Kentucky. It is almost 60 degrees outside!
We should have a weather change by this evening though. Windy and rainy.
What I really would like is some snow.

I need to go out and finish the Christmas shopping and buy a bit of food for Tuesday at
Costco. All I want to do is stay inside and listen to music and spin on my new wheel.

So far I've spun some creme Blue Face Leicester and Ramboulet in a medium moorit color.
Beautiful.

Here are some recommendations from my friend Sheila:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8

and a radio program that is really quite good called Carols for Dancing:
http://www.wgbh.org/article?item_id=3172655

Go to the site and click on the icon and listen as you spin or knit or make paper art, or even cook the evening meal.

I finished the first Komi mitten I've cast on for the second, but the wheel came and well, the mitten was put on the back burner again, as was the sweater, the market bag and any lace or socks sitting around waiting to be finished too. I don't know if I have my priorities straight, but I am having fun.

Viki

Friday, December 21, 2007

It's Here! It's Here!

And I'm not talking about Christmas!
About 5 years ago, give or take a few months, I ordered a reverse enabled (right handed) Canadian Saxony spinning wheel from A. A. Every 6 months or so I would write or call for an update. It took almost forever but today when I got home there was a HUGE package on my front doorstep.
This picture is of me looking happy. No I am not drunk. Dave got on the floor to take the next picture and I was laughing because our Goldendoodle Bailey wanted to play with him.
So Dave took Bailey's picture over his shoulder without even looking.
This is the wheel right after we got it put together. Ignore the messy living room.
And here it is in pieces after we unpacked the huge box and got rid of the multitude of packing peanuts.
It was relatively easy to put together. I have been spinning on it and have about 1/3 of a bobbin of fine white yarn. I have it set up for Double drive. I can also set it up for scotch tension. I haven't spun in ages! I forgot how fun it can be. The wheel works great and I only stopped spinning to post this so everyone can see my new AA wheel and my happy face. Oh and the dog. Lets not forget about the dog. If you go to my Flickr acct http://www.flickr.com/photos/16932110@N04/
you can see the dog with his head in my lap while I spin. I think he is a bit jealous of time spent away from petting him.

Back to spinning before bedtime!

Viki

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Start-itis

I have a problem.
I don't want to finish things I have started.

These mittens are easy to work on in dribs and drabs of time.

This French Market bag is taking FOREVER.
Then there is the sweater I've been knitting for about 2 years. The FLAK sweater.
It is beautiful. The sleeves are done. It should be smooth sailing. Except for my stress levels.



What I really want to do is start New things. Ravelry is my downfall. You join these groups and you see what other people are doing and it is all so exciting. What a place to be enabled.
This is what I want to start next.
It is beautiful.
Light as a feather.
It makes me want to justify starting it.
I've been saying things like: "I could make this for my sister-in-law. It would look wonderful on her in an off white with little icy beads."
Lets face it, I'd never finish it in time to give it to her for Christmas.
Of course that didn't stop me from looking for the yarn in my stash. I have a ball of kidsilk haze hidden in the depths of my stash. I bought it LAST December after I finished the scarf for the Ballet auction.
So even my stash is working against me starting this...I'll thank it later I'm sure.
So I'll go knit on one of the other MANY projects I have started. I'll knit as I listen to the wind blowing the siding off the eves. (grrr, roofers messed it up) and the trash cans blowing around the back yard. I'll sip some tea and maybe even put a shawl around my shoulders.
Viki
If it were to actually snow today, we'd have blizzard conditions



Monday, December 10, 2007

Friday, December 07, 2007

Mystery

A few years ago I picked up a ball of Artful Yarns Mystery.
On the label there is a 1 ball scarf pattern. Very easy.
Three short rows.
K wrapping yarn twice
K drop extra loop
K
repeat until the ball of yarn is nearly gone and bind off.
Done.

So simple that I keep messing it up. If I don't finish the 3 row pattern in a sitting
I lose track. Such is the state of my stressed mind.

I have not even begun to stress over the holiday season yet. I do need to decorate though.

Ballet I stress over. Latest there is DD2 thinks she wants to quit. I don't blame her. I worry though, going from 5 days to no exercise scares me. (It would give her plenty of time to study though) She thinks maybe she'll try archery.

School, I stress over. DD2's grades have dropped because of the stress from Ballet. Only one 3 week grade is really low, the rest are A's and B's. She evidently did really really well on the Scholarship test at the private school we are thinking about for high school.
DD1 dropped her English class and is thinking about doing an on line course for something or other medical related.

Me, I think it would be wonderful to have more time not running around the city to ballet classes. Less stress might mean I could knit on that FLAK that is still not finished. No it will not be done for any of the Christmas parties.

Off to fix dinner. We haven't had anything but fast food on Friday's for most of the school year.
We skipped ballet today so I'm actually cooking! Yum-o!

Viki

Monday, December 03, 2007

one down

Lots to go.

I Started Calorimetry from Knitty Winter 2006.
http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTcalorimetry.html

I finished on Saturday. A very easy knit, although the holes from the short row knitting really bug me. Also, the yarn it called for wasn't available so I used LLH Magica which actually has 5 more meters than the yarn it called for. I still ran a bit short, but I am a thinking knitter and I salvaged the project.

Still it looks cute and I have a button to sew on and that is one hand knit Christmas gift done.

Picture will be posted at some point.

BTW
Today is my Anniversary. Dave and I have been married for 24 years today. Pretty cool isn't it.

Also, Everyone think positive thoughts and wave pointy objects for my wheel may be finished soon. Now Wouldn't that be a Christmas gift.

Viki

Saturday, November 17, 2007

The Sock lady.

I knit socks.

Lots of socks.

I knit them in public. At the ballet school, at the ballet, at the park, at the cafe in the bookstore...you get the idea. Some people call me the socklady, until I introduce them to my friend Anita. http://thefiberartist.blogspot.com/


Today, I uploaded a lot of sock pictures to my flickr site.



Some of these pictures actually made it to my Ravelry projects page, before suddenly it just wouldn't let me do it anymore. Bummer, I was on a roll.


Back to Anita, go visit her blog. She has 32 pairs of socks that she has knit just for herself.

This isn't counting the socks she knits for the rest of her family. She knits way more socks than I do, so she is the sock lady to me.


Her post the other day on Socks vs. Mittens took me Moth Heaven's blog



Yes, mittens are showy. Esp. if you knit highly patterned mittens.

I myself love mittens. I knit mittens. I have a hard time finishing highly patterned mittens.

It is the need for carrying around a pattern and following a chart. It just isn't as easy to knit a highly patterned mitten as it is to knit a highly colorful sock, where the yarn does the job for me.
It may be a little hard for the muggles to see the socks I'm wearing, but they always see the ones I'm knitting and are impressed.
So for me it is Socks over mittens. Unfortunately, because Mariah and I could use new mittens.
I want another mitten book for Christmas. Yes, I want Fancy mittens, but I'll settle for socks.
I guess I could wear them on my hands.
Now where did I put that half finished Fancy mitten?
Viki

Thursday, November 01, 2007

FLAK

This is my FLAK sweater. You can't see the sleeves, but they are done. I haven't bound them off just in case I want the sleeves to be longer.
I need to attack this sweater. Afterall there are Christmas parties about a month away. IT would be nice to wear it to at least one of them.

I have to take more pictures of Lots of stuff, socks, yarn, more yarn to upload to Ravelry.
It is a nice site and I can see spending tons of time on there.
Question: If you spend tons of time on Ravelry, when do you knit?

Viki

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Trying to post a picture!

This is the sock I started after I finished the $3. socks. I love the colors.
This is the pair of $3. socks I finished last evening for Mariah.
Still not too sure about posting photos. This was really just luck.
Viki



Socks at the ballet school

Last night while at the ballet school I finished the $3. socks. ( The yarn was in a $3. bin at the lys because of a lost label.) They fit Mariah so she was pleased.

Anyway I finished that pair and started another fall color pair(Trekking xxl color 161). The Artistic director stopped to chat, he liked the colors. He also reminisced about being a child in Scotland holding the skeins of yarn for his mother. He held his hands out and did the little rocking motion. After all those years he still had the rhythm down pat.

Every once in a while he stops to talk and lets loose with a little bit of his childhood in Scotland

Also a bamboo needle tip split on me last night. Bummer.
They are brand name ChiaGoo. I can't even remember which yarn shop I bought them at, but I do know they are at most a year old.

For those who are following the continuing saga of Mariah and the ballet teacher...things were better last night. Said teacher actually gave her corrections and said something positive. Such communication has been sorely lacking for the last 2 months. Keep your fingers crossed and wave a few pointy objects that attitudes on both sides continue to be more positive. Thanks!

In other news...frecklegirl sent me an invite to Ravelry.
I'm busy trying to figure out stuff. No I don't have tons of pictures taken. How do you all do that without the proper lighting and a tripod? I have written some stuff about me so far and that is it.
How do you "friend someone?"

Viki

Monday, October 29, 2007

323

That is how many people are ahead of me to get on Ravelry!

At the beginning of the weekend it was over 2000.
I'm starting to get more excited!
It is kind of like standing in line for a really popular rollercoster.

Finished a sock yesterday. Hopefully the mate to it today.

Yahooo! only 323 to go!

Viki

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Lunchtime at the preschool/MDO

This year when I did my meet & greet to go over the handbook and introduce myself I talked about Lunch. Everyone was very receptive. Lucky for me there had been an article in the local paper 2 days earlier about lunch and nutrition for school.

Almost all of my little ones(think 3 yr old) bring great lunches. I only have a few picky eaters in my class this year.

One little boy brings a round sectioned dish with a fish shaped lid every day. His lunches make me drool. His first lunch was Shrimp and fruit. He rarely has a sandwich. One of my favorites of his was noodles with beef and shrimp, homemade fruit salad(kiwi,pear and nectarine) and cherry tomatoes with steamed asparagus. Never tons of food, but just enough for him. His mother is Korean and says he is a picky eater!

Another little boy brings leftovers usually too. He calls tortellini, noodles. Usually packed plain with cut up chicken breast. Always has almonds and usually cheese chunks. His mom does use plastic baggies, but interestingly his mother labels everything in marker. He'll say, "does this say cheese?" Also if you can dip it in Ketchup this child will eat it. He loves to dip.

I have another child who lives on bottled yogurt smoothie drinks. One who will only eat apples(but not the skin) and applesauce. One who eats the inside of the peanut butter sandwich before eating the bread and also likes hard boiled eggs and raw cut up vegetables.

When I did my spiel I talked about small portions of what their child would eat. Not to pack an apple that was so big the child couldn't take a bite out of it. I told them about a mother I know that used to take an ice cube tray and fill each section with good food. When her child wanted to snack Mom would take the tray out of the fridge and the kid could eat Anything in the tray. By the end of the day she would have eaten lots of good growing food.

The regulations say that each lunch should have a protein, fruit and veg and milk and bread. It doesn't take in to account that some kids are allergic to milk. I told them this was a guideline, that I doubted that the lunch police were going to come knocking so to think outside the box.
Crackers and noodles instead of bread. Cheese or yogurt instead of milk. I asked them to cut up the fruit so their children would actually eat it.

The mom's have come through spectacularly! Makes me proud.

I of course do my part and bring a good lunch in one of my bento boxes. We have conversations at the lunch table about growing food and what we like to eat. If I have carrots everyone with carrots tells me they have carrots too. Lunch is fun in my class and that's the way I like it.

Viki

Friday, October 26, 2007

The suspense is killing me

Have you heard about Ravelry?
I was leery at first, as I am just not very techno.
I have friends who insist they will help me and say that I should start taking pictures of
my knitting projects and put them on a flicker account so that when my number is up and the folks from Ravelry send me my invitation I'll be ready to jump in with both feet.

If you are puzzled about Ravelry just as I am/was here is a link to check it out.
https://www.ravelry.com/account/login

There are now 2042 people ahead of me and I am mere days away from an invite.

I think I am excited.

The suspense is also killing me over ballet.
Yes we are having teacher trouble again. My dancer, after talking with her favorite teacher/mentor is trying to change her attitude. Unfortunately, she has to take the high
road because no one believes that the troublesome teacher will meet her half way or even part way. It is a shame that the 13 year old in this situation has to be the adult.

No matter what happens, I'm sure this will be a big growing experience for Mariah.
Topics in this house lately have been positive attitudes, trying to see a situation from both sides, positive affirmations, trying your hardest even if you feel like you are going to fail.

These are deep subjects.

Mixed in with all this is the search for high school. I swear it is worse than applying for college.
The schools that are head hunting my 13 yr old are mostly not schools I want her to go to. Too far away or have bad reputations. They want her smart little head in their schools to up their test scores. What does the 13 yr old want...to be home schooled of course. Less pressure she thinks. I am almost inclined to agree. This is stressful to say the least.

The past few weeks have been so stressful that I have put down the FLAK sweater again!
http://www.bigskyknitting.com/FLAK/knitalong.html
Stress really messes with my knitting gauge. I have finished a pair of socks...the HP horcrux socks and almost finished the $3. socks. (I found sock yarn in a $3. bin at a yarn store because the label had come off and they tossed it in there...their loss my gain...this yarn is over $15. a ball. ) Although we'll see if they are too tight for anyone to wear. I have another ball of Autumn colors to knit up as soon as these are finished.

I think I'll go to the bookstore this morning. Crazy Aunt Purl's book is now in stores.
http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/ and looks to be really funny. Just what I need to relieve some stress. Perhaps Mariah can read it out loud to me while I knit on the FLAK this weekend.
What a plan!

Viki

Thursday, September 27, 2007

ATC's & Knitting

I've been hosting the monthly swaps on ATC_Connection on Yahoo, and while hosting does have it's ups and downs, the ups are outweighing the downs at this point. The first positive thing is that being host means I feel that I have to participate. Motivation! I have made more little art cards in the last month than I had in the previous 6. The next positive thing is that sometimes people send you goodies. The downside is of course people dropping out or not mailing things on time, which sets me back.

My dear friend Anita has sent me instructions on posting photographs on Blogger.
So perhaps when I have a bit of time to sit and figure things out I can post a few cards.

Speaking of Anita...It was so good to see her at Odd Tuesday! I feel like I never get to see Anita and she is such a fun person and has taught me a whole lot and she doesn't laugh at me...much.

Today while on break at work I finished the baby socks for my friend Amy's baby. She is due any time. This is Amy's 8Th child. She home schools all of them and her oldest girl dances with my youngest.

Knitting: Between Yarn Harlot and Anita I am itching for a Kauni sweater. Color work at it's easiest. 2 yarns, 2 colorways instant fair isle. You can check out one persons version at:http://www.purlwise.com/kauni_cardigan/index.html

However, I'd like to do this sweater instead:
http://astridsdutchobsessions.com/Scripts/infoview.asp?documentid=12
Beautiful!

Of course, I should pick up the FLAK sweater I started AGES ago and finish it up.
What is it about sleeves? The second one is just murder. The weather is getting a little cooler
maybe I'll pick it up this weekend while dreaming of the Ssssweater.

Viki

Thursday, August 23, 2007

New School Year & Life is busy

Whew, where did the year go. I haven't posted in forever.
Spring flew by and Summer did too.

Mariah did a Summer Dance intensive with the Louisville Ballet.
Her feet changed to 2 different sizes. Pointe shoes are expensive.
Grandaddy W. got to see her dance for the first time!

Now School has started for both girls.
This morning was a real B%#ch fest at the breakfast table.

Mariah is pushing to be home schooled.
Jordan will see that as proof that we love Mariah more if
I give in the home school idea. Several girls at the ballet are home schooled. I only know of two that
are not being home schooled for religious reasons. I'm not going into that on this blog!
What a can of worms.

Ballet started up again. New teachers this year.
Ms. Colleen Pratt, who is strict and old school but seems nice and so far
well liked, and Christy Corbet-Miller, who has a smile on her face, ALWAYS!
She is funny too! The engaging your stomach speech was great!(If you are engaged you
don't want to become unengaged.)

My first meetings of the school year start next Monday and MDO and Preschool the
following week. Then DH leaves for Korea on the 6th. Yuck.

I've been doing more Artist Trading Card's and I now am a co. mod. on the ATC_Connection group.
I've been enjoying it and if I can figure out how to put pictures on the blog I'll post a few pictures.
Anita wrote me directions, but I find it so hard to follow directions.

I still haven't finished my FLAK sweater. BUT I WILL. I swear I will. Lots of socks have been made.
DH signed me up for the sock of the month kits from: http://www.chameleoncolorworks.com/
Check them out. $17. a month for hand dyed yarn and a pattern.

Mariah has once again decided to try to be a Vegetarian. She caught an episode of "Man Vs. Wild"
that did her in. She hasn't eaten meat in a month.
She has been taking a salad and multi-grain crackers to school for lunch. With a few walnuts and dried
cherries thrown in, and of course water.

Speaking of Lunch!
Today, I was in the Dollar Tree up the street and they have one tier Hello Kitty Bento boxes! Several colors.
I only bought one, because I didn't know if it had a divider inside or not...it Does! I will go back tomorrow and buy a few more. They have little thermos bottles with Hello Kitty on them too. Don't know if I'll get one of those though. Now if they would get some little bottles for condiments, I'd be even happier.

Off to study those directions.

Viki

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Long time no blog & Fiber Fest

It's been awhile. I lost my way on blogger and can finally find the breadcrumbs to find
my way back to this blog. Google had me running in circles.
Note to self...write down all your usernames!

April means The Fiber Event at Greencastle.

Friday(3/13/07) Cindy her daughter Andrea, Me and my daughter Mariah went to the Fiber event
at Greencastle IN. Cindy's husband Ted was nice enough to drive us there and back.
He drove, we knit and talked. Perfect.

Andrea was on a wheel hunt and actually did find what she wanted and bought it and brought it back home.
She was plying yarn before she went to bed Saturday morning!

The first place I went was to my favorite dyed silk fiber place. I think it is the Cripes of Greyside Farm.
She does a wonderful job with silk, tencel blends and merino. Yum.
After that everything was icing.

I played with spindles at Handspun by Stefania. So I visited with several of my favorite woods from the Bosworths. I realize I should have bought some sea silk from another vendor. Out in one of the barns
I spun on a few Jenson wheels! Be still my heart! Almost made me want to cancel my long overdue order from that other older wheel maker. (History: I ordered a wheel from the famous Alden Almos 5 years ago and
finished paying for it 3 yrs ago and I still don't have the wheel)

I Looked interestingly at an electric spinner at an Alpaca place too. Very simple and I have everything to build it myself sitting in my basement.

I really didn't end up with a lot. I held back. Mariah bought silk hankies and dye. She is excited!

I bought something special for her from Hooked on Felt (www.hookedonfelt.com). Suzanne was sitting outside knitting(really) and she had this whole huge display of felted hats. There was one Wizard looking hat, meaning it was tall, with dreads coming out the top, which weighted it down and made it not pointy looking. It was Fab. Suzanne asked her if she loved it, really loved it and then sold it to me for $20. A deal!
Great advertising for her, as everywhere we went everyone asked Mariah about the hat and she sent them to Suzanne!
I later went back and bought a hat form and a needle felting tool. I wish I'd bought the flower kit too, maybe I'll order it from her.
Anyway.
She felts with a needle on the form, rolls the hat off the form, puts it back on inside out and needles it some more and finishes it with a wet felting session. Beautiful.

I started and finished a felted hat in south sea island blue and a few fibers here and there from the "tropical skittles" roving I bought. It is cute. Not as thick as Mariah's hat but acceptable for a first hat. Jabbing those needles in to the wool and foam is cathartic in an interesting way.

Tonight was Odd Tuesday and it was a most pleasant evening. I really appreciate my friends!

Work starts up again tomorrow.

Viki

Monday, February 05, 2007

"You say it's your Birthday...."

Happy Birthday to me!

I'd love to be able to tell you how much I've accomplished on this Birthday of mine, but
I'd be lying. I have had a nice relaxing day so far, I've only gone out to get a birthday lunch for
myself from pannara bread co. Yum. Even if the lettuce and tomato tried to freeze on the short
jaunt home!

Why have I not gone out exploring the yarn shops, craft stores and bookstores?
Because it is Freezing out there. The sun is shining brightly and it is 10 degrees F. not
factoring in the wind chill, and the wind is blowing a bit.

Just a bit North of Louisville, they closed
some schools because they didn't want the kids standing out in the cold getting frostbite.
I feel like I'm living in Alaska again. Of course, they never canceled school in AK because it was only
10 degrees outside. In Alaska, everyone had the clothing and outerwear to keep themselves from
freezing. Everyone wore a warm hat. I even had a face mask, bright red that I wore if I was going to be out
in the ice fog. Here in KY we are a little lax in the outerwear area. I had to talk my 13 yr old into wearing
socks with her clogs this morning!

Me, I'm layering with Wool. My socks are handknit almost felted to fit mohair and wool, my shoes leather.

Yesterday it was a bit warmer and Mariah and I went shopping. My brother gave me a gift card to the bookstore and I went and spent part of it on a really inspiring book called: "Kaleidoscope ideas + projects to Spark your Creativity" by Suzanne Simanaitis. She prints a Zine called the Artitude Zine.

http://www.artitudezine.com/

I also have ordered some back issues. A little present for myself.

A Zine is short for Magazine. They are small independent publications. There are all kinds of Zines on all kinds of topics.
They are interesting. Refreshing. Some are all black and white, put together out of office printer pages.
Others are full color with inserts and even ads. All of them are passionate about the topic they cover.
I have a few zines on the shelf here and some are almost professionally done, meaning they go to a printer to be copied and bound. I have one that was done
by hand with inserts and is focused on one famous artist. It is wonderful.
I admire their creators greatly for their creativity and focus.

So I've been surfing the web looking at sites for Zines.
Reading, Knitting, and thinking about those words for those S cards that are due in 3 weeks.
Sensual, sibilant, silky, spiral, snake, serpent, sunset, silent, shhhh.
I'm warm and I'm pretty content, and that's pretty much wonderful.

Viki

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Time for comfort

What a busy January we have had.
Finally the Lord of the Rings concert is over and Mariah doesn't have practice until 10 p.m. Just ballet 5 days a week. She has new point shoes and they hurt her feet, mostly because they are new.

We finally had a few flurries of snow and some cold temps. The wool socks are nice and comfy. I may have to bite the bullet and knit DH another pair.

Everyone sent their sick kids into the preschool last week, so I had a cold all weekend.
Jordan, my oldest, was sick with a UTI and Last night Mariah came down with strep throat.
She goes to the doctor today.

My DH is on call all week and he probably would like to stay at work, there may be fewer germs at the
hospital than at the house this week. Nah, not really. Hospitals are really germy.

In Art news, I finally finished my "I" cards and sent them to the hostess. I really had a hard time
getting into the groove for this project. I ended up with "ink blots" and they did turn out fine, if a bit
stark. They get the job done. Now I have 1 month to stress over the letter "S".

When I have time to look into techniques I get really excited about mixed media and collage, but I'm not impressed with my efforts. Everything is a learning experience though, so at least I'm growing and learning.

I actually spun some yarn on the old Louet last night. I am really hankering for a new wheel.
Keep your fingers crossed that Alden Almos gets my wheel done this Spring. I really can't afford another and
the one he is building is paid for, and has been for a few years. ( I ordered it almost 5 years ago)

I knit on the FLAK last week and finished an arm! I've picked up the stitches for the other arm but I've been so fuzzy in the head that I haven't knit on it yet. Cold meds will do that to you. My friend Anita, http://thefiberartist.blogspot.com/ has knit 3 FLAK sweaters in the last year. As well as many other sweaters, shawls and socks. The woman is amazing, she also knows how to put pictures on her blog.
I still have to figure that out!

Food: In the last week we have had a lot of easy or comfort type food. Chicken stew, Chicken soup, roast chicken, pasta, potatos cabbage and smoked salmon was the most unusual. The children wouldn't eat it of course.
Everytime I start cutting back on the meat some of us get sick and I go back to relying on old favorites that are heavy on the chicken. I don't believe that the lack of meat is what causes the illness, in fact, I Know it isn't the reason. I do know that most of my comfort foods are short on Veg and heavy on meat of some sort, usually chicken. I need to find some new comfort foods. If you have any ideas please let me know.

Viki

Saturday, January 06, 2007

The Letter "I"

The letter "I" is brought to you today, by me.

Last post I talked about ATC's and the Alphabet swap in which I'm participating.
I went to the group files and read about people's likes and dislikes and
realized that using a religious stamp to make a modern day Russian Icon, wasn't going to
cut it. I might offend someone, and I really don't want to do that! Seriously.
I consider myself spiritual and not really religious. Some of those paintings of Mary and the
baby are beautiful.

I thought about Icons in the news and ads of today. Every thing from Angelina J to coca-cola.

So I started searching for a modern day Icon on the web. A person that I could create a great bit of art around.
I almost settled on Einstein. I love that man. He was so out there, he used to get lost on his way home
from the college. The campus police routinely took him home when they found him wandering.
I may suggest an Einstein swap later.

Then I started to simplify. I found some great pictures of Ice on a medical symposium ad to my husband.
So I started googling Ice. I found myself searching for pictures of glaciers hidden in a box in my basement from our 3 years in Alaska. I just didn't feel the cards were good enough to send out.

I went even simpler. so "I" is for INK or INK Blot. I made ink blot cards today. Easy peasy.
Now to add letters and the word Ink or Ink blot. These just might make it into the swap mistress.

I've already picked my letter for the second half of the Alphabet swap. I have 2 months to come up with
something for the letter "S" All ideas are welcome.

Knitting Update:
One of the women I taught to knit in November finished a scarf for a family member in time for Christmas.
How cool is that?!

I haven't picked up my sweater that I put down in July, but I will soon. I have still been knitting socks like crazy. I also have been spinning some Merino wool that I have no idea what it will become, I don't often spin with a project in mind. I'm trying to perfect my point of contact spinning, but is hard with the old Louet S10.

Viki