So....I Lied :P

Okay, so no swatch last Sunday. It's the whole camera thing-I have always been a lousy photographer. I use my digital cameras so seldom that I have to get the manual out to figure out how to use it every time.

Okay, so I missed my PlurkBuds and signed back up again. Mine is a big lonely world and I need my cyber buddies to help keep me sane. Oh, and I restored my Twitter account too-mostly I just read, not post.

So here's the deal-sometime today I'm gonna dig out the digital camera and take a picture of the swatch I'm doing for the Ravelry Symbol Crochet Mystery CAL and maybe the Cold Mountain Shawl KAL (I love Kieran Foley's designs-this one is really lovely).

And if I get real ambitious I'll do a shot of the SAL of the Quaker sampler by Mary Wigham from Needleprint.com. I'm not very far on the sampler so it'll just be a shot of the floss and the fabric and the fifty or so stitches I've managed to do. It's been a long time since I did any cross stitch and geez are my eyes getting old-gonna have to find some young person to thread my needles for me LOL.

I think the deep blue funk has finally lifted. Ever since April I've been spiralling downward-delayed reaction to all the chaos in December I guess. But thankfully, the blues seem to have passed (good riddance to bad rubbish, I say).

Well, it's too beautiful a day here to sit and blog all day. TTYL.

Swatchkeeper Sundays

Swatch is not a dirty word...swatch is not a dirty word...swatch is not a dirty word.

Intellectually, I know that swatching is crucial to the success of any knitted or crocheted article that must FIT something as opposed to scarves, afghans, and various other projects that will forgive the lack of swatching. I tend to stick to the non-swatch requiring sort of item myself. But I also know that swatching is a great way to create a stitch library as well.

As an exercise in discipline and in an effort to create my own swatch encyclopedia, I'm establishing Swatchkeeper Sundays on my blog (not that it really matters-there's no one reading my blog at present). Every Sunday, I will select a yarn from my stash and a stitch pattern that intrigues me and I will swatch. Do you hear me? I WILL swatch.

The procrastinator in me must tell you that Swatchkeeper Sunday entries will begin next week (or possibly later today, depending on whether my lazy a** gets a swatch done and whether the sun comes out so I can take a decent picture).

Off Topic Blathering: If you happen to go to Target(pronounced Tar-zhay of course) anytime soon you must check out the Soap and Glory Clean on Me Shower stuff and the Mist You Madly body spray-they smell absolutely gorgeous!!!

Returning to the Real World

I've made a decision with regard to the concept of "re-inventing" myself. I need to reduce my internet presence and my total reliance on the internet (i.e. Plurk and Twitter) for social interaction. I've closed both my Twitter and my Plurk accounts so I won't be tempted to return to them. I'll still hang out on Ravelry, Intatters and GoodReads. I've kept my Facebook account to keep in touch my family and old high school friends...and of course I'll keep my blog-it's not as if I spend much time blogging anyway, right?

I've come to realize that I spend so much time sitting at the computer that I'm not moving forward with my life. The last year's events have left me traumatized and have sucked any self-confidence I ever had right out of me. It's time to move on and be part of the world around me instead of just the world within me.

I'm behind in everything, yet the only thing I "have" to do each week is work eight hours a day Monday through Friday. Go figure!

To this point I've lived my life as if it were a daily dress rehearsal...just waiting for opening night...Well, today is opening night! So, to the one or two people who might actually read my blog, wish me luck (or "break a leg" if you want to keep with the theater simile).

Thanks for your kind attention.

Where's My ZZZZZ's???

One AM...and I can't sleep!!! So, I'll blog about some random stuff:
First-my yarn from the March CJKopeccreations Spinalong:

Check out that boat anchor masquerading as a bottom whorl spindle-five ounces...feels more like five pounds!


Then, there's my vintage spinning wheel I've had for three years and still haven't gotten the damaged leather bits replaced-maybe this year.






And while I'm at it, I'll include one picture of the freshly groomed doggeh from last summer-he's pitifully shaggy right now (note the large plastic bag chock full of tatted bits and bobs-see, I really do tat).





I'm currently participating in a Ravelry hansigurumi swap (I have 2 partners-what was I thinking?), the CJKopec April spinalong, beginning April 13 a Todos scarf Plurkalong, and I'll get my swapbot dotee doll swap partner on April 15...overcommitted much? Oh...and today I got my Martha Ess Tea is for Tatting book and I want to tat everything in it. And then of course, my copy of Hansi Singh's new book full of her amazing hansigurumi creatures is slated to arrive from Amazon on my doorstep on Tuesday (my birthday-perfect timing). All of that on top of a minimum of 20 UFO's. So if it's a long time before I blog again you'll know exactly why.

My Three Gaiters

Woohoo! Finally a blog entry with picture...lousy picture, but picture nonetheless. These are three gaiters (they don't drape so I hesitate to call them cowls) that I made from some fiber I spun-some of the first spinning I ever did. The one on the bottom was a batt I bought from The Sanguine Gryphon called Wild Mountain Thyme, the one in the middle is called Western Jewel and was purchased from SpinningMoonWool etsy shop, and the third was one of the Plurktest fibers Coby of cjkopeccreations etsy shop sent me. The pattern is just 2 rows of garter stitch at the beginning and the end and a diagonal rib stitch from Vogue Stitchionary 1 in between...I think I cast on something like 88. I made them a few months ago so memory fails me. The little hanks of fiber you see in the back are the other fiber sent for me to Plurktest by Coby.

Sorry there are no links :(...I can make an Excel spreadsheet sing, but the whole html thing...not so much.

I am so sad today. My husband and I have been living separately for almost 2 months and today I had to tell him that while I could be his friend, I couldn't go on as his wife. It was so, so hard. I feel like the lowest lifeform on the planet.

Re-inventions

Alas, I deleted my old blog during a drama llama moment and must begin anew. I'm beginning anew in other aspects of my life as well. We lost our home and my OH and I are living separately, both by necessity and design. I have moved in with my son, back to the city I lived in for 30+ years-feels like home. I'm busy re-connecting with old friends and making a life for myself. I'm thankful to be released from the worry of how on earth to come up with the next mortgage payment. I'll be spending the next 6 months or so clearing up our other debts.

On the knitting front, I quite purposedly only brought my UFO's with me hoping to finish up...yeah...you can imagine how well that worked. I've since started the Amused Sweater from knitty.com and a pair of Charade socks...so much for all the UFO's. If those talented designers would just take a 5 year hiatus on new designs, I might get something finished.