Sunday, May 30, 2010

I worked today. I work again tomorrow, three days in a row. Doesn' t sound like much to most people, but three 12 hour days back to back adds up. Especially when a little boy doesn't sleep through the night.

BigJ has been working a lot on his race car. It seems like such a time-suck to me, but I know he LOVES it. I just have trouble understanding how he can spend so much time on something when every week it just fails again and again. Last night the belt blew. Tonight, rained out. I wish he would put that much time and effort into our house & family.

I'm almost done with J's sweater! I'm going to wait to weave it in until June 1st so it counts for my 52 in 52. Do you think that's cheating? I don't, I need all the help I can get :) Next up: coffee cozy then Luke & Lindsay's baby sweater. Tiny size and adorable pale pink yarn! I hope it knits up quickly so I don't get annoyed with it! This vest knit up so quickly I want to do EVERYTHING on bulky! Unfortunately only two other things in my queue are bulky: Hoodwink and Bella's Mittens. The rest is mostly worsted, which isn't as bad as fingering!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

I have been doing some thinking, (no that's not the point) and I think I really need to limit my screen time. I realize this may seem contradictory to starting a new blog and maybe it is. However, I think that I need to spend more quality time online instead of just "surfing" around and looking at material things to spend money on.

We haven't had TV programming in our house for over two years and most the time we are satisfied with that choice. I find myself wondering what is the difference if I'm surfing on HyenaCart, Ravelry, ebay, craigslist, and Facebook all day long? So, my goal is to only be online while I wake up (drinking coffee in my PJ's until about 9) and after lil'J goes to bed until I go to bed at 9. This way I can keep up with the "goings-on" of the knitting, spinning, wool, cloth diapering, and facebook scene, but not waste my entire day on mindless internet drither.

Onto less exciting matters... Aunt Sally said she would GIVE me her spinning wheel which is awesome since she knows how to use it and that it works, etc. I'll be down at her house for the MREA Energy Fair in June so I can pick up the spinning wheel then! Then my friend Sara HH connected me with a fine lady up near Ashland who is willing to show me how to spin and wants to see my unique wheel! Hot diggity!

I made a comment on my facebook recently:

to all of you who are "so excited for the long weekend" please don't get sick or hurt or allow that in your family if you are in my "jurisdiction" so I can have a great long weekend too-- at work.


And someone wrote back about "but I bet you like a regular paycheck". Well, duh! But not at the expense of people being sick... Here was my response:
I'll be honest, I like a regular paycheck, but I also like my job. I do NOT like that people have to be sick for these to be possible, I'd rather everyone and their loved ones stay well... who can disagree with that?

Friday, May 28, 2010

Crisis Averted! Thanks to my faithful scouting team (Lauralei) I've found a spinning wheel! I'm not sure its functioning, but I'll do my best to get it there! Its a Handmade wheel, made by Martin Stahl in Grass Range, MT 2/12/82 No. 50 I think it'll work.


Thursday, May 27, 2010

So, my dreams of quickly owning a relatively cheap Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel are dashed. *cry* the listing on Craigslist sold. So, I guess I will have to be patient and do like everyone (who spins) says and try out multiple models before I pick, "the one". Sounds like finding a husband! I'll keep checking Craigslist and maybe can find a good steal. Ha...There is a store in Roberts that does a two-day spinning workshop, so I'd love to do that, although as my mom says, Sally could just do her own two-day workshop with me. I would really like to try out other wheels... we'll see. I had a few leads to check out on my facebook post re: spinning connections.

On an upnote, I stopped at a garage sale on my 3 block walk home from work and found lil'J a trainset! They are bigger than the little wooden ones, but I think it will be nice in the basement when that gets put back together.

Will and BigJ put the Egress windows in last night so finally a little progress. J needs to paint another coat of DryLock Extreme and then we'll call Rob, the floor guy. We've decided to only finish the "finished" portion of the basement's flooring, about 2/3. That way, I won't be concerned about wrecking the new floor when we're throwing wood in or there is laundry or washing water flooding! We're also not going to texturize the walls so we don't have to worry about ruining that either. we'll just paint and hang stuff on the walls to camouflage it :)

Knitting: a few more rows done on the back of lil'J's bulky vest, I can't wait for it to be done, so far its adorable. I'm just too tired after work to work on it.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

So, is their Blogiquette? Like etiquette? Like I'm pretty sure 3 posts in a day (so far) is a little excessive... don't worry I'm sure I'll get sick of it.

So, lil'J is such a boy, definitely his father's. His new toy? My Honda Accord, he's been playing in it for like an hour today, its parked in the shade, the door is open, but I see he's turned on the hazards-nice!

Mom and Dad are at the greenhouse so they are picking me up some Marigolds and Pansies to supplement my baby-perennial garden. AND a tomato plant since Mom got me the topsy-turvey Tomato grower thing for my Birthday.

I stopped at the LYS while in Spooner, no spinning classes, but possible lead of another local newbie. Big news, they are going to have a monthly Knit and W(h)ine in the evenings! I've been wanting wanting wanting this. I'll have to tell Mimi as soon as she gets back from Scotland.

What's for Dinner? Grilled chicken with Fetuccini Alfredo and Cesear Salad

Thank you mac for spellchecking me everywhere I type!
I've been eyeing up some more handspun yarn on Spots' and I can't get over how expensive it is, I mean, I realize you have to buy the roving which is handdyed and then send it to a spinning and then have them send it back. But, really couldn't I learn to do that? That is the question of the day: Can I learn to spin? Then I would only have to buy the roving or tops and a spinning wheel, of course... and ta da... my own handspun!

Action plan:
1. Send email to Aunt Sally to see about her spinning wheel/if she can show me how its done. (DONE)
2. Check Craigslist in the area/Twin Cities to see about used Wheels (DONE)
3. Order books on spinning on Merlin from the Library so I can see what the H@ll I'm getting myself into (DONE)
4. Forgo buying the beautiful MM Dragon's Lair handspun for now, adding that perpetual money to my "spinning" money for potential spinning wheel purchase. (DONE)
5. Start a blog to discuss this with myself instead of knitting or napping during naptime (DONE)

Finally planted the Valerian, Lavender, and Snowball Hydrangea I got at the Ojibwa Rd. Perrenial sale. I had wanted to put them somewhere new, but ended up just putting them in the flowerbed. Someday it will be beautiful. In addition to those three I also added BeeBalm and hostas this year. They need LOTS of water with this heat.
So, I like to journal and tell others, who probably aren't listening about my thoughts, ideas, and day-to-day life. I saw an article today in Knit Scene about starting a blog and decided, well, I could do that... I mean, its not like anyone has to read this nonsense, right?