Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Send tea..and chocolate

I'm sick.
Like, really sick.
It hurts to type (so why am I typing?)
It hurts to sit, to sleep, to stand. Hurts to eat.
Sigh.
I have some sort of weird cold that developed yesterday.
I felt weird in the morning and started sneezing which is "the sign" that I'm getting a cold.
Usually when that happens I start taking Vitamin C and echinacea and drink lots of water and I'm fine. Not this time.
By the early afternoon I knew I was in trouble--every joint started to hurt, my stomach was weird and my head felt like it was splitting off my skull. (I'm a migraine sufferer as well, so I've had that feeling before).
Luckily hubby was home working on computer stuff and I just told him--You're in charge.
I had to run off to sleep. I don't even remember closing my eyes the first time but awoke about 2 hours later feeling worse.
I came down to get some supplies--Advil, Vit C, echinacea and water and apparently looked like something the dog threw up--hubby was scared.
I slept all evening until Princess B woke me up to put her to bed.
"Are you okay Mommy? Would you like me to sing you a song? You'll be okay, you just sleep".
She was pretending to sleep, so after a 1/2 hour of her wiggling, kicking and turning lights on i left to go downstairs.
I vegged for a few hours and woke up sometime this morning.
Hubby asked if I was okay and could he go to work--I think i just stared at him as I trudged off to bed.
I slept all day--don't even remember going to sleep.
I have been trying to listen to some podcasts
Knitting Psychos, Unwound, Knitty D and the city because I can't even knit.

Too sick to knit.
That is sad.

I tried some soup--it didn't like me. So far tea is going okay.
I really just want to watch a silly movie and couch some more.
It's almost bed time for the kids--and apparently Princess B has been sleeping for a couple of hours--which means that she is sick too.
She NEVER naps (not even as a baby, but that's another story).
I hope I feel better soon and that no-one else in the family gets this.

Per my title, I'd love to have some chocolate, but apparently my taste buds have left me.
The lovely lavender tea that hubby made tastes a bit like...water.

Make it stop.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Thanks...

to those who visited my store and for those who bought something.
I've sold 4.. which by comparison to some that sell out in 9 minutes, isn't much--but I"m proud.

The orders have been shipped and I need more yarn! I have dyed all the blanks that I got and if I want to do more (and I do want to do more) then I need more yarn.
One of the dye-jobs is staying with me, as it was an "oops". I tried a new technique that I read about in the Twisted Sisters Sock Book--it didn't work for me.

Here's a cute picture for today.

This is baby M--isn't she yummy?
Here's the little had I made for her and her Mommy with the crochet hat.
I still think the Mommy hat is a bit short--but her Mommy is so polite I don't' think she's going to let me fix it.
What do you think?

I've been podcasted!!!
Yep, I was following the trail to see the blog of someone who bought my yarn and found this.

She did a podcast about dyeing and mentioned my little shop. (not sure if it's in the podcast but I'm mentioned in the show notes)
Wow. I'm amazed.
I have to wait until tonight when the kiddos are sleeping, to listen to the pod-cast. But I can't wait.

Now, I'm off to order some more yarn.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Whew.




I've done it.
I've updated
the shop .

I' ve had fun dyeing these colours.

Maybe you'll see something you like.

Enjoy!

I have errands to run and my Dad is coming today. It's a family day all around.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

I've joined the dark side

others have done it here and here.
I've learned to crochet.

A while back a friend asked me if I could
make a hat for her. I told her that the pattern was crochet and I didn't' know how.
Since that time, I've been trying to teach myself to gift this to her for Christmas or for whatever.
It didn't happen for Christmas and try as I might, I could not get the hang of this--my hat would have made a great can cozy, but did not resemble a hat.
This friend just had a baby and so I figured that now would be a good time for her to get a little something as well.
This past Thursday a friend was over, telling me about how on her week off she crocheted 3 hats. I immediately found the pattern, handed her the yarn and said "show me".
She helped me figure out what I've been doing wrong and then I was all set.
I started it Thursday night, worked on it about an hour on Friday, some more yesterday and finished it last night!!
I gifted it today and true to my-style forgot to take a picture.
So, when the baby hat and Mom hat picture arrives maybe I'll post it here.

...but. Oh.My.Word. Crochet is fast!!!
Now, I have not slipped far enough to make stuff like
this:
But it's nice to know that I can learn something new.

I have been learning more about dyeing yarn as well.
There will be a big update in
the shop tomorrow. (Hubby is as we speak? type? fixing my swift so I can re-skein the yarn).
SO excited...I'm loving the process of dyeing the yarn and did 8 skeins on Friday/Saturday.
That's the end of the yarn blanks that I have.
So, IF they sell then I will do more, if they don't...well I guess it wasn't meant to be.
...and I'll have a lot more sock yarn at my house.

Here's a preview:


I'm off to wind.
See you tomorrow.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Pictures, pictures galore

Okay,

So the last few posts have been many words, not many pictures.

Let's change all that.

First of all:
Little shop update over
here. (or click the link on the sidebar)

I'm calling this one "Barbie Dreamhouse"


Totally reminds me of the Barbie house that my sister had when we were kids.
Those bright pinks and oranges....yummy.
I had fun with this one, and it turned out exactly as I wanted.

Fun!


There has been baby knitting:

This picture is a bit deceiving. My hat is the purple one in the top left corner.


Now, I should have known that there would be a pattern error, since the book is FULL of them, but I had only seen others blog about the larger versions of the hats.


Sure enough, I finished the hat and went to put the i-cord through and there is one extra hole (or one fewer, depending on how you look at it)--which means that the hat can't be threaded and tied properly.


I decided to see if I could just fudge it and put the extra hole at the back, but I think it might make the tie funny.


I did gift the hat and then asked the Mom if I could have it back to fix it--and I'll give it to her in a few days.


I googled and googled and found where others had blamed their own knitting for getting the extra hole, but still no pattern errata on the book's site. GRRRR.


Anyways, should be a quick fix.



I had dyed some other yarn in a colourway I was loving until--I went to wind it into a larger skein.


Knots knots and knots.
I spent hours trying to pick out the knots and realized it was making the yarn fuzzier and so I stopped and (gulp) cut.


I posted these as "free to a good home" on a message board I belong to, but no one has claimed them yet.


If you are interested--first one to comment or send an
e-mail can have them for free.

UPDATE: taken!!!!

This colourway is called "Goth Punk Princess" (my friend named it)



The 3 skeins are about 50 yards, 110 yards and 210 yards respectively (funny how the yardage just worked out like that).

and in "just blogging" and kid news...ever think you're kids are weird?? maybe funny is the better word.


last night while making dinner Princess B was playing with a word-whammer that we got as a Christmas gift...this is the best toy ever!


She was spelling words and asked me few times what she had spelled. Are you ready?
FDA


OCD


OK, so maybe not so weird, but of course in my head I'm saying "That drug is not FDA approved" (I watch too many medical shows) and then thought about changing the letters, again and again and again, then washing my hands (little OCD humour....)


A few minutes ago she was eating an early lunch (typical PB sandwich cut into a shape)


and she says, "Mommy, I love you with all my heart" and holds up her heart shaped sandwich.


Okay, so that's not weird, just cute.


My brain is all in a ramble today. Too much sleep. Yes, I actually got too much sleep last night.
I went to bed at 8pm with Princess B. I thought I'd just doze with her and then get up later, but I didn't' waken until 4:30am when Little man got up wanting to watch "Cars". (I love that movie, but not at 4:30am). I feel good today though..I think I needed that sleep.


So, some pictures, some kid stories, some ramblings.


That's all for me folks.



Go check out the store.

p.s. anyone know why since blogger changed to beta the spacing is all weird. i keep getting HUGE spaced in between sentences and paragraphs. anyone know how to fix this? I've edited this post about 4 times, but as soon as I hit publish it will mess up again.


Edited to add: Oh I forgot one more picture.


This is the mail haul from yesterday.


All for me!

My Spring IK arrived (it took 3 tries and 1 month for the Winter issue, so this was a surprise)

Some spring previews from Random House

2 CD's (one from a blog contest, and the other as a late Christmas Gift from my Dad)

and my Spin to Knit book.

OOOOOH fun stuff.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Lost and Found

Ever wonder how people find you?
When I started blogging I wondered how on earth these knit bloggers could have thousands of people who read them every day.
I know that some have been around for a few years, some have written amazing patterns and/or books. Some host KAL's.
I wondered who on earth would ever read my little blog.

I started joining KAL's (the Sockapaloooza's, Christmas KAL's etc etc) and got some readers.
I was part of the Knitting Olympics, joined team Canada and got some readers (even found someone I knew in high school!!).
I made a pattern and got some readers.
it goes on.

I have a stat counter that lets me see how many hits I get each day on the blog. It also lets me see how people found me and what searches are being done that land people on my site.

Because I have the name "chicks" in my site, there are some...um...intersting searches.
To whomever typed "chicks striping" and found me...I'm pretty sure this is not the site you are looking for. You should learn to spell. Actually don't learn to spell since you shouldn't be looking at that stuff anyways!

There are more that don't make any sense

I apparently have a following in Turkey. Yes, that's right, Turkey. I get about 5-20 hits a day from Turkey, all because of a Christmas gift KAL that I've participated in
here.
Why do people from Turkey like this site? It's not the same person either, many different people from different cities. Strange.

I get hits from the pattern that I wrote up. Sometimes it's because people have seen the picture on
Flickr. It was a featured picture on Flickr so there's some traffic from that.
And I'm finding the pattern posted in free sock pattern message boards...this little pattern gets around.

And then I find
this.
I
translated the page and it means "blog of job to mesh".
Yes that's exactly why I started this blog. Thanks!
What does that even mean?

Sigh.

I was also trying to figure out how I found knit blogs. I think I saw a pattern on Knitty.com and went to the designers blog (don't' remember who, don't remember when).
Then that blog linked to other blogs and so on and so on.
Now I have 107 feeds in my Bloglines. Not all are knitting blogs, but most of them are.
I obviously don't read them all every day. Some I need to get rid of because they aren't as interesting to me anymore.
I have some regular readers who are now probably sorry that they are subscribed to me.
Lots of words lately, not many pictures.

But there will be pictures today or tomorrow. Because..
I dyed more yarn. I did about 5 hanks yesterday.
1 was hand painted, not so good. How on earth people get good results with this is beyond me.
I am in love with the kettle dyeing and the dip dyeing.

Okay, so my quiet afternoon has begun. Just got back from a play-date.
Baby sleeping: check
Princess B watching a quiet movie: check
Yarn to wind: check X 5.
Later.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Just a quick note.
there has been spinning, there has been knitting (baby stuff and socks) just haven't been taking pictures or feeling like blogging.

This caught my attention today when blog-surfing.
A teacher has been charged and is facing 40 years in prison b/c her classroom computer popped up pornographic ads. Not because she was doing anything wrong, but because some students were using her computer (without permission) and had visited a site that contained inappropriate content. Also because of the archaic security features on her computer--courtesy of the school board. (Apparently they let the anti-virus lapse and her computer was on an old operating system that opened it to be vulnerable to virus' and pop-up ads).
She was also under orders not to turn the computer off--so ads kept popping up and she kept trying to shut them down.
The Police charged her due to the outrage of the parents whose kids accidentally saw some inappropriate images. The Police admittedly did not check the security features on the computer, did not check to see if there was spy-ware on the computer and charged her thinking she was intentionally surfing the Internet during class time.
To think that this woman could spend years in prison for something that was first of all not her fault and secondly out of her control is ridiculous.

Anyways.
You can do some more searching if this story is of interest to you.
And if you have it in your hear to help the family out, give here.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Eye candy friday

Not really anything of mine, but look what arrived in the mail today:

It's a beautiful pair of hand spun alpaca mitts from Knitspot.

I won these from her blogversary contest.
Look at the yummy stitch detail:



She also included this:


Now I have a knitting tote!

I have a knitting bag that my parents gave me years ago, but it's actually fully of my needle roll, loose DPN's scrap yarn, notions etc--so no actual room for a project. Every time I grab a project to knit while in the car or for craft-night it ends up coming with me in a plastic bag. Yuck.

Thanks Anne!!!

My other Friday pretty is the home-made stuffed crust pizza I made for dinner:



and closer:

Yummy. It's all about food for me these days.
The kids go to bed and I plan my snacks.
I'm currently obsessed with Artichoke and Asiago cheese dip with Rosemary Crackers.
I had a thing for deep fried chicken wings and zucchini sticks for a while (borrowed a friends' deep fryer).
Sigh...
well, it's a work night for hubby which means I can do whatever--spin, dye, knit or all three.
I'm going to go put those mitts on (it's cold in here) and snuggle up with some knitting and some whatever is on TV.
and some snacks....definately some snacks.....
Happy weekend!!


Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Happy Heart Day

We are snowed in....yep...lots of snow. drifts higher than the kids and it's sill snowing.

I was remembering last year and my valentines gift that I blogged about here:

So hubby was up late last night in the work shop and I came downstairs to this:

my own little Lazy-Kate
my little hand-made card pales in comparison.

Again, he just looked at a picture of an Ashford one and made up a design...

I can't wait to try it out--which means I need to get spinning.
I haven't done any since Saturday night--my hands have been really sore the past few days so I"m trying to be careful.

Hope you all have a happy day with your sweeties, or no sweeties--just do something today that makes you happy!!
Me, it's more socks and some spinning!!!
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

and more pink.....

Posted by Picasa
My socks are done. The picture is blurry but the camera battery died mid-shot so this is as good as it gets today.
I love these socks.
One has been done for a couple of weeks so I have been wearing it, as a mismatched pair.
I actually have 2 pairs of home-made pink socks on right now...strange.
Anyways.
Now it's on to other knitting.
Princess B has been begging for a pair of socks from this pink and from the Tahiti spun stuff (it's not done but she seems to think that the roving plus 10 minutes of spinning will make socks that can be completed "right now".).
She will get some socks--and since she LOVES pink, she's all set!!
Pattern:again, just a gauge swatch and loosely built on Wendy's generic toe up socks.
2X2 ribbing for 1 inch on the cuff
Yarn: Margie gifted to me from Shadkitty and originally purchased from e-bay.
Needles: Knitpicks circulars, US 2's (big fat yarn needs a bigger needle)
Instant gratification socks--These took me about 3 nights worth of knitting.


dreaming of the sun..

look at this:



this is my Spunky Eclectic Corriedale roving named "Tahiti". Isn't it beautiful--not because of my spinning but because the colours are gorgeous.

I'm not a pink person--but for some reason I have been drawn to colourways that have pink in them.

This is one example, and the others:


the Monkey sock in "Strange Little Mama" colourway and this sock which was the gift yarn from Shadkitty:

I will have that pair of pink socks done for me this afternoon, but I have another FO that finally got its' photo shoot:

Hubby's socks.

Pattern: basically a "non-pattern" as it's just done with measurements, a gauge swatch, a sturdy heel and basic decreases--hobbled together from the Yarn Harlots "Knitting Rules" book.
2X2 ribbing on the top
Yarn: Opal Rainforest Zebra Stripes
Needles: Knitpicks Circular US 1's.

These socks took forever to knit. Small fingering weight on US 1's makes for boring knitting.
SO I played a game with myself. I finished one of his socks then did one of the pink ones for me.
Finished his other sock and cast on for the other pink one for me--Thursday night. I've only knit on it 2 nights and it will be finished within 2 hours.
Big fat yarn on a bigger needle...love it.
Now back to our regularly scheduled sock knitting.
Oh, and shadkitty made my Africa Socks, you should see them!!!

Friday, February 09, 2007

My Valentinr - thechickswithsticks
Get your own valentinr

Thursday, February 08, 2007

I did it

Put up a little shop.....over here.

You spin me right round....

I'm still so excited about spinning yesterday.
It was so much fun, but no pictures.

It went from 10am-2pm with not that much spinning going on. They chatted and caught up, there was lunch and a dyeing demonstration!!! They were dyeing different wools with ammonia and ammonia/cooper. It was interested to learn a bit about natural dyeing.

I got there and everyone was so friendly and welcoming. They gushed over the wheel and said that I should have brough hubby for show and tell!
One lady was very friendly (and owns an alpaca farm--there's going to be field trip in the spring).
One lady showed me some things and got me started.
Then they had the "business" side of things--and since I still felt nervous spinning around them I knit on hubby's sock.
We broke for lunch and I ate quickly and got back to spinning.
Then, the "spinning guru" sat next to me and showed me some stuff. She taught me about tension and that the band could go on different spots on the bobbin, talked about twist etc.
Showed me a bit more about drafting and attaching more fibre.
I filled about 1/2 a bobbin and spun longer than I ever have before.
She is the lady that owns a LYS--she ordered me a niddy-noddy last week and it had arrived just before she came to the meeting.
So I came home with these pretties:


what's the bag??
about a pound of fleece!!

One of the older members of the guild is moving and brought boxes of yarn, books etc and this bag. She came over to welcome me and told me I could have the bag....
I almost hugged her, but managed to contain myself.

It needs combing and apparently i can use a dog brush for that....

Yeah.
I then went to the mail and finally got my package from Knitpicks. Now i have more yarn blanks to dye and a yardage measure so i can split my larger hanks in two....
So excited.
The kids had a good day with Daddy and were all cuddly when I got home.



A good day all around!!!

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Wheeeee

I'm off for my first spinning guild. I'm so excited to learn some stuff about my wheel and how to spin.

Maybe there will be pictures later....

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

all fibre all the time

it's all about fibre here at my house right now.


a few months ago the word wool made my skin itch and now, look at my pretties:



Some roving from Spunky Eclectic it's called Tahiti

some Wool/Silk from Mystical Creations (not roving but it was dirt cheap silk)


and some roving from Dudley Spinner in ARAKEENE colourway

I'm sort of getting the hang of the wheel. The tension thing is making me nuts but it takes practice.

I'm one of those people who wants to do everything and do it well on the first shot. I'm not a perfectionist, I just want to be able to do it. I get bored sometimes and don't want to spend time learning to do something....I'm a weirdo.

But tomorrow is SPINNING DAY!!! I am going to go spinning for a few hours with the local guild.
Yeah!!!

and i realized i didn't post pictures of my fuzzy mud roving. I have been spinning with it but it still looks like mud:

and closer:

it is spinning though...so i guess that's the point. maybe i will dye it again later.

oh well...it's a learning process

all these sunny roving pictures are in sharp contrast to the weather last night:



i think i'd much rather stare at my roving..... :)

Sunday, February 04, 2007

i'm baaaaack

Did you miss me?
Did I knit? Yes I did

On the way I realized that Princess B does not have any mittens. She has managed to lose one of each pair and does not actually own any proper mittens for skiing in.

So, being the shamed knitterly-Mother I am, I grabbed a bag of yarn and my Knitting Without Tears Book as we were flying out the door.

I swatched, I did not measure, I fudged the adult pattern and after 2.5 hours of driving, I had one mitten.

That night I had another mitten.

Princess B went skiing in brand new, warm, woolen, PINK mittens.

I present, the Pink Fudge Mittens (Fudge because I fudged the pattern--get it?)

(TV Remote to signify this was done while vegging on vacation..not that it was really a vacation...but still, it's away)
How I love EZ. Her pattern--cast on: do this, blah blah, do that, blah blah, add thumb and done!!
So, Princess B went skiing and I stayed behind and would like to say that I did a lot of knitting by the fireside, but since little man only slept 1 hour during the day (one hour...wwaaaaah).
I did little during the day, except play with this:


She is an antique wheel that my FIL's Mother bought at an antique store. It's never been used by this family--so (shhhh don't tell anyone ) I took it out for a test drive.
It actually spun nicely, except when the cord came off the wheel and the tension messed up and I couldn't get it back again and my yarn started to unply itself.

Oh, and when we were leaving today FIL said "when I find a place for it" I can have the wheel!!
WHHHEEEEEE!!!


So, this is what Princess B did all day:


Yes that would be her four-year-old-self Skiing !!! There is only about 15 seconds of video, but there is this picture and I love it (and it scares me)

This is how I spent my evenings:


Sock Knitting and Satellite (we only have basic cable, so to be able to watch the same Episode of Grey's Anatomy or Law and Order over and over for 3 hours is very exciting to me...I didn't, but I could have!!!!).
I was a little progress machine. The Zebra socks for hubby--I feel like I've been knitting them for weeks. Oh yeah, that's because I have....I feel like I knit and I never get anywhere.

So, I've developed a game for myself. When I pick it up, I put a little marker and I show myself my progress.

Here's this week so far:

I've now done the flap but not the heel as I didn't bring this book with me. Silly me--I thought I wouldn't get through 2 mittens and a whole sock in 2 days....

And I did a little bit of drop spindle spinning today while waiting for hubby to pack the car.

I picked up some more roving and talked with the shop owner about dyeing....I'm still not sure what I did with that Romney, but I got some yummy Corriedale cross and it's soft.

I think I will just leave it, and dye it afterwards.

I want to spin tomorrow to get ready for my first spinning day! I'm going on Wednesday to the monthly meeting of the spinning guild. I'm so excited.

I told the spinning/LYS owner about my wheel and she said to bring it along and she'd show me how to figure out my tension and take a look at the wheel.....Sooooooo excited.

So, there was knitting, skiing, food, spinning, knitting and some frolicking in the hot-tub. Princess B got in before the heater was turned on and had a swim.
She had fun.

And that was my weekend. How was yours?

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Get this monkey off my back..

as everyone is saying, this is an addicting pattern.

I started the
Monkey sock from Knitty. It's by Cookie A., writer of fabulous patterns.
The pattern right now is an 11 row repeat which is easy to remember while on each row.
I've also set it down a few times and have not been lost coming back to it (unlike
Pomotomus which gave me grey hair!!)

This is an arm shot and i rotated it around a few times, but this gives the best view of the pattern.
I'm going to call this the "Strange Little Monkey" sock, as it's done in
Vesper's "Strange Little Mama" colourway.

I wasn't' too sure about this yarn since it split a lot just winding it into a ball-but it feels like butter to knit with. Every time i touch it I'm amazed at how squishy it feels.
There's just something about it.

It's striping really nicely too.

I <3 this sock
That's it for me...I'm going skiing for the weekend..
Well, okay hubby and Princess B are going skiing. I'll be sitting by the fire with my knitting and chasing little man through the non-baby-proof chalet....