It’s happy crazy funtime around here lately, kids.

First, I’ve been spinning and knitting like a bat out of hell lately. I dyed this with Paas egg dye tablets and it’s spinning up really pretty. Pastels, which are so not my thing, but I’ll probably ply and knit socks out of it anyhow.

I’m also working on socks for Mom. It’s her Mother’s Day present. I let her pick the yarn and the pattern and they’re coming along nicely. I have about twice as much done as the photo shows. I need to get a new photo.

The yarn is Plymouth Happy Feet and the pattern is from Charlene Schurch’s More Sensational Socks. The stitch pattern is the Stansfield 14 from that book. I’m knitting them on 2’s.

I’ve also got a surprisingly hopping little business going on Etsy. I started making and selling snag-free stitch markers for knitters, but most specifically for sock knitters. We need us some tiny st markers, so I made a bunch and they’re selling well as is my sock yarn, surprisingly. I’m selling there to earn money for SAFF. I have a room booked through Knitch for the whole weekend. I’m sending in my registration to take Schurch’s Sock Options class. How awesome to meet the woman herself. I will be all fangrrl and ask her to sign my book, yes I will. Kelly is going with me, so that’ll be fun. We’ve asked to room together. Knitch rented out the entire Inn for the weekend, so it’ll be nothing but fiber folks running around high on wool fumes all weekend.

Since SAFF is still months away I’ve taken this month’s profit and sunk it back in for more supplies so I can have more stock and make more money. I plan on having a hellafun time at SAFF and spending recklessly without guilt.

We also had some nature visits lately. First I caught a huge garter snake in the backyard. I took him in so he could stink all over Jat. Then we let him go. We also had a pair of cardinals build a nest right next to the front porch. I got pictures of the baby right after he hatched.

I cut a small hole in my porch screen so I could stick my camera lens through it and get some decent photos. Lot of fucking good it did. Turns out it doesn’t matter. I went out there to check on him yesterday and he was gone

I ended up picking up my nephews at the bus stop on their last day of school Friday. Poor Ben, he was sobbing like his little heart was breaking. I asked him what was wrong and he said, through sobs, “I’m going to miss my teacher and my friends and I don’t want school to end!” We made it a little better with lemonade on the way home, though. I’m still shocked at how small he is. When I see him from a distance I always wonder, “Who is that 5 year old with no supervision??” It takes me a few seconds to realize it’s my 7 year old nephew. How sad.

In my studio class we’re doing digital ink and paint.  It’s a lot of fun, I’m using the hell out of my graphics tablet (about time) and having fun.  It’s probably fun because I have good equipment on a good computer and I’ve been fucking around with digital art for over a decade now so I already know a ton of tricks.  We’re developing a character.  I kind of like my little guy.  We’ve only just started adding color, so that part looks like shit.

In other news, we may be moving to Virginia. Jat is interviewing for a cushy fucking job up there in a couple of weeks. We’d have to buy a house, who the fuck would rent to us with all these animals other than my own mom? No one! We’d have to MOVE ALL OUR SHIT! That is an overwhelming proposition to consider. I’d be moving all 12 animals up there myself. That is also a daunting thought. I’m a ‘go with the flow see where life leads you’ kind of person, so I’m open to the possibility, but I don’t want to go. Everything I know is here. I’ve lived here practically my entire life, all my friends are here. Friends I’ve had since high school for fuck’s sake! My knitting/spinning groups are here, I have a happy knitting home not 5 minutes from my house. I’d have to start over with everything. I’d have to find a new internist who understands PCOS. A new stylist! Ack! Oh fuck, I’m going to have to ask my colorist to come with me though. It took me a while to find her and I don’t want to lose her. Shit, the same could be said for my stylist. Goddamnit.

But, stepping out of one’s comfort zone is how one grows as a person, or some shit. I know it’s good for me to expand my horizons, but that doesn’t mean I have to sing and dance through the process.

My cup runneth over.  Seriously, in many ways, all good, mind you.

I got my wheel, so I’ve been doing that and taking breaks for things like peeing, eating and homework.  The housework, well, we all know I’m not much of a housekeeper as it is.  Dishes are getting done.  Mostly.  Dinners are spotty, we’ve been doing a lot of takeout.

I’ve got a ton of handspun to show off, but I only have pics of my most recent.  This is a wool/mohair lock blend that I carded and spun as one continuous single.  I managed 6 oz of singles and then Navajo plied the whole lot into about 400 yds give or take.

My husband is an amazing man.  He bought me a Dell Vostro, a 17″ with 4g of RAM and a dual core 2.0ghz processor.  Have I mentioned how much he fucking rocks?  Have I?  Because he so does.  It should be delivered either today or Monday.  Probably Monday, but I’m hoping for today.

I had my middle nephew over on Wednesday.  He’s 7 and all about learning to knit.  He was fascinated by the spinning wheel and I asked him if he wanted to try it and he did, of course.  So I let him treadle while I drafted.  He was too cute, “I’m doing it!  I’m really doing it!  I’m making yarn!”  After he used up the fiber I had in my hand we took his yarn off the bobbin and I wet it and gave it to him and told him to go whack it around on walls and whatever.  He went outside and whacked it on the side of a tree and against the house and loved every second of it.  He couldn’t believe we were smacking around something we’d just made.  Too cute.  They’re all cute and fun, but god, I am always so glad when it’s time to take them home.

I have lots of spinning projects in the works.  I have a shitton of fiber, pounds and pounds of it.  I have purchased very little of it, however.  It was mostly gifted/bonuses.  So I’ve been blending and dying and trying all sorts of experiments and having a great time doing it too.

My dyed batts.  Let me show you them.

That is a blend of BFL and tussah, about a 60/40 blend.  Dyed with Wilton’s.  I have some acid dyes now, the primaries and black.  I’ll be playing with those later.

And yes, that is a shredded batt, or rather a combination of shredded batts.  When I dyed them I did something incredibly retarded that ended up felting them in several spots.  I actually lost very little of the batts themselves, but I did have to tear them into pieces in order to recard them.

Sorry, but everything’s probably going to be about spinning for a while yet.  Jat says I’m just working my way further and further back in the process so I don’t actually have to knit him the socks I keep promising him.  I’m pretty sure he’s wrong.  He’ll get socks.  Eventually.

Life has been pretty good to me lately.  The Paypal fiasco finally got cleared up, but I’m still not using them.  They missed out on the 800.00 I just spent.  I made the merchants use their credit card merchant account instead of Paypal.  I hate to be *that* bitch, but I hate Paypal more.

Then, while I’m still all giddy about my new wheel and drum carder, my husband tells me he wants to buy me a new laptop, something more suitable for all the graphics work I do.    Well.  Ok then.  Like I’m going to turn down a new laptop.  Really though, he just wants mine so he has a laptop at the house to fuck off on since he doesn’t like to do that sort of thing on his work laptop.  That’s fine.  I can live with his ulterior motives.  He’s marvelous, of course!

I also scored some roving, about 5 lbs worth, from a woman on Craig’s List.  It’s really nice stuff, good for practice, but it did have some moth larvae in it.  Ugh.  not too many, maybe a dozen or so in the entire batch, but I’m not taking any chances.  It’s in sealed bins right now with moth balls.  I’ll just gas the little fuckers.

Speaking of moths…I got half a pound of tussah silk as a bonus for buying my drum carder.  It is HEAVEN to spin.  I’ve always liked silk, but spinning it is its own bliss.  I feel mild guilt over killing the larvae.  Not enough to make me want to stop using it though.  Silk is pure lusciousness.   I can’t wait to start blending it with other fibers and dyeing it.  Jat says this new obsession of mine is just because I need more excuses for not finishing socks.  Haha.

I have a lot of  new yarns I need to add to my Ravelry stash.  I wish that damn site would go public already.  I really want to be able to link to my stash.  Plus then I could share the hilarity that is the LSG group.  Imagine a whole group of people with my exact sense of humor and gift for crossing the line.  It’s like that.

I have pictures that I’ve actually uploaded to flickr, but I’m too lazy to link to them.