Well, the sick spree seems to be finally ending. We are starting to get our strength back finally. It really hit us all very hard. It took me 3 weeks to recover, and I still am quite tired if I do much of anything. Even Beau (Who btw never gets sick) is still dragging around some. The kids seem to have bounced back ok though so that’s good.

We also bought two dairy goats for Dominic’s 4H project.  I know, I know angora would have been my preference too, but they don’t really show so well at 4H, and the boy like to win if he can.  Sooo dairy goats it is, as we could really use the milk.  It can have an off flavor, but usually this is because of poor management, not the goats.  The milk I had was sweet, ultra creamy and yummy.  It was close to what you would get from a Jersey or Guernsey cow.  So milk and cheese for us in 3 - 4 weeks or so… You can read more on my other blog.   Back to fiber stuff…

I STILL haven’t quite finished the blankity blank gloves lol. For those of you who don’t know, I am making them for my paramedic friend, Christlyn, for when she has to work wrecks, because she can wear them under the latex gloves and keep her hands warm. She has to have the tips out, so she can feel for pulses and stuff. She has been out of work all winter, because of an injury, and so hasn’t needed them. She won’t have recovered from her surgery until it is quite warm. So I got off the rush rush train and have been dawdling with these. Why?

I really do not like kniting fingers. Well, more specifically I do not like knitting fingers on tiny yarn with size 0 needles that are nickel plated. Oh and the yarn is alpaca. I can just bet you all know where my head was lodged when I did that…..it was dark…so very very dark…

Anyhow, I only have one finger left, or rather about a half a finger. Here is a picture of the middle finger, quite ironic really since I felt like I wanted to show my own middle finger…to myself for doing this on nickel plate needles lol.

Really, I am not usually prone to flipping middle fingers at people, but the thought was there, to my shame lol.

Anyway, I have completed that finger, and half of the pointer finger, but this glove had to be knitted at a much finer guage. The first one was too thick, so we decided to just use it for the left hand. Since Christlyn only needs her right hand to be very free for inserting IVs and such. Poor girl, so happens I made the hand too big, and ended up with a few extra stitiches for the pointer finger, so I just decreased. That and the fact that I jump down to just one yarn instead of two made it pucker in a little. Still it looks ok when it’s on, and will fit well. I am not doing the &%)@#7 fingers again. IF she has a problem, I will be happy to show her how to tear them out and re do them, however since she doesn’t like to do things like that much, I think I’m safe. Next winter when her hands aren’t freezing to death, I highly doubt she will take of the latex gloves and think, “Dang, that sure does look funny at the base of that pointer finger.”

Anyhow, my point is, there is a time to worry over a look of something, and a time to JUST NOT CARE. I don’t have to look at it, and she won’t care so I don’t either. sniff. I am not submitting it to the “wonderfully crafted objects award” so it should be just fine.

So, working on the next issue, let me know if you find any really cool blog posts or have something like tutorials and patterns on your own site! I will also be choosing a new contest winner soon.

I usually like winter, and I am usually an upbeat happy person.  Today, as I reflect on the last week and a half, I contemplate the fact that there should only be a few more weeks of winter.  THANK GOD!!!

It seems this winter someone has been sick for the entire time.  Usually me lol.  But, with the trees starting to show their buds, and the plump sheep waddling around, it has turned my mind to the idea that it is almost over.  Flu season has hit hard here in our area.  I have tried to go to the Dr twice, once for me and once for William, and couldn’t get in because they are swamped with flu cases.  Luckily my Dr was kind enough to call a prescription in for my ear infection, and so all is well.  Today William seems better so I decided to not bother with a Dr office visit.  Come on Spring!  I am ready.  Once the doors open and the air warms, it seems that all this goes away.  I hope the rest of you have faired better than us.  This last bout, we all got sick, and Beau missed a whole weeks work.  I don’t remember ever having flu this bad, and he doesn’t either.  I feel even worse for people who had flu and then experienced power outages from the ice storm we had.  That would really stink.  So, I am very thankful that Beau had time to be off work, and that everything is coming out ok.  It just seems like I am a broken record.  Lucky for us, when he was at his worse, I was better and so forth.

On another note I have composed a small list of things to not do when you call people who are very sick.  Kind of funny looking back, but annoying at the time lol.

1. Do not mention that the person wouldn’t be sick if they had had a flu shot.  It’s just mean.  They know that, and besides, this flu strain was not included on this years shot and so we would have gotten it anyway.
2. Do not go on and on about how sick you were when you had the same thing.  Especially, don’t go on and on about how your flu experience was obviously much worse than the sick person’s you are calling.  I mean come on people!  Let that poor sick person feel  sorry for themselves in peace, because DANG, it stinks.  So don’t be trying to get sympathy from someone running 104 temperature who has 4 kids with high temperatures, and a bunch of other stuff going on too.  How about offering to bring some soup and homemade rolls?
3. Do not call during obvious napping times.  This is a good rule of thumb for anyone with napping age children.  The hours from noon to three are nap hours for most young children, so don’t call and wake them up everyday checking on the family, and telling them how they should have had a flu shot, and besides you were 10 times sicker than them anyway.  (heh heh I really am rubbing that one in lol)
4. If you call during nap hours and someone is cross with you, don’t take it personally and bring it up again a week later.  If they were that sick, they probably won’t even remember it.  Besides nobody likes being woke up at a nap, much less when they are so sick.  Somebody that sick isn’t in their right minds, so don’t hold it over their heads later, be a grown up.

Just a few hints, I had never thought of anything like this before ha ha.  It’s annoying, and I never realized it before.  I hope I have never done these things lol.  I have just not had a marathon of flu like this before…

On the plus side, I finished some projects here and there.  I have one finger of the gloves left to do, and I’m done with the pair.  All I have in my bag is half a sock and a ball of lace weight yarn for a shawl/veil that I have an idea for but have ripped out and changed at least a million times :).

So, I am shopping for a new project, what are you guys working on?

I also think I have finally procured a supplier for some specialty fibers that are priced reasonably enough for me to resell.  I could buy them through the ordinary places, then charge like $8 - $15 per ounce for hand dyed silk and such, but really I just don’t think it’s worth that much.  People pay it, but it seems like a rip off to me.  After about a million emails, and lots of googling, I have found two places that might work out very well.  I have to thank my dear friend Heidi for helping me, she has been so supportave and helpful.

So, I was thinking about offering some tussah and mulberry silk, as well as some blends and optim which I LOVE.  They would be dyed in a variety of colors, and I was also asked by several people to consider doing a fiber/batt of the month club.  And maybe a sock of the month club that includes a pairs worth of hand dyed sock yarn each month.  These clubs are fun, and they fill up very fast because most retailers can only handle so many sign ups.  I think I could only manage about 10 - 20, depending on if it was fiber or batts.  The batts of course cost more, because you dye the fibers, then blend them together, so there is more labor.  The fibers are easier, but less exciting as they will not be blends of fun stuff.  The fiber club would be 4 ounces, and probably in the $10 - $20 range including shipping.  The would be fibers such as mulberry silk, tussah silk, noils, blends, optim, 16 micron merino and other really fun stuff.  The batts would be similar, but be in the $15 - $20 range for 4 ounces.  Would you think batts and fibers or just one or the other would be more desirable?

The sock club depends on me finding a reasonable sock yarn to resell.  Does anyone know where to buy quality sock yarn to dye and resell for a reasonable price, I have one place to buy, but who knows?  I would want to be able to sell the dyed skein for less than $10 US I think.  I can get good nylon/superwash yarn, but would that be good enough or would people want more exotic blends?  I really am not wanting to try and sell things for a super high price.  I like to feel like I offer a fair price, and that people can afford to spin and knit.  Some of the products are just out of range for many.  So what do you guys think?  This is also going to allow me to be able to write about these things, and of course offer more tutorials, so it benefits me too.  I have trouble because there are so many fibers I would love to write about, but it gets hard to choose, and hard to pay for the materials.  Some of them are so very high in price, not that I am blaming people for over charging, but I would rather make the products available to everyone.  Most people can afford $20 per month, but it can be hard to spend $40 for enough fiber to make a small project.  I would really like to make these things available for almost every budget, and the best thing is, that I won’t be sacrificing quality.  OOHHH and just think, that stuff will show up in the prizes instead of the normal stuff lol.

It looks like I am going to publish March 15, and perhaps we will just forgo the Jan issue in the future.  This seems to be the best way to deal with it.  I have a good line up and a good start on those articles, I just keep getting interrupted!  Thanks so much for all your input and support.  I have a wonderful product and book review for the next issue, and also plan on doing some specialty fibers.  I am still looking for something to do for the something fun article, any ideas???

I was thinking of shaking things up and going off into another fiber arts area that many people haven’t ever seen or done.   I have contemplated doing some embroidery, and needlework articles for something fun, wouldn’t it be great to do some of the lovely needle work crafts, with hand spun threads and yarns?  And what about felting?  That would be fun too.  I’m tossing it all around, let me know what you think.

OH I FORGOT!!!  We found out that our little baby who has caused me so much grief with morning sickness is a little girl and we have chosen the name Julianna Rose for her.  So little Julianna will be coming along in June to make life more interesting.  It will be fun to see how I manage to deal with that and the magazine.  I think I can do it, but I need to organize my time better, and focus on articles everyday.  I did publish an article outside of S&W on spinning.  You can view it here.   I am always pleased to write to a group of people, who ordinarily wouldn’t consider spinning or knitting.  I will be republishing the article on S&W in next issue.  Mostly I plan on breaking it up in to smaller articles, and fleshing it out some.  As they wanted it, all in one shot, it gets too long imho.  BUT maybe I can rope a few more innocent bystanders into the club eh?

So, that’s the news here, I hope all of you are fairing well, and keeping healthy!

Well so, still no regular blog posts.  Part of this is because I don’t have much to say that is relevant or interesting to this audience.  I haven’t had any knitting or spinning or dreaming time.  I have three sick kids, and one is a baby who has to be on me all day, and all night too.

He’s getting better, and now he has to have a couple of shots and has a new tooth coming in.  So not much time for knitting or spinning right now.

I am working on the next issue though, and I expect to be able to publish from the 15 to the  end of the month.  I hope to get on schedule and still publish again in March but I don’t know if I can manage that or not.  At this point it’s hard to establish the difference between legitimate concerns and black sliding.   One thought I had was to do two slightly smaller issues.  Usually I write about 12 - 15 articles, plus any submissions or interesting things I come across.  So maybe I’ll shoot for about 8 each issue, and the additional submissions.  I think I could manage that better.  Do any of you have feature article preferences?  I like fiber spot light, somthing fun, life’s fun, and product/book reviews the best.  Which are your favorites?

So for now, so long, sorry about the bad blogger situation, and I hope all of you are having a good Feb so far…

It all goes together, really. This is from the new Knitty, and I have made one, so now I am making my own pattern, as of course I found a few ways to improve upon this one. I also want to try one with a repeat of 12, I think that would be really cool. The tam, much to my middle girls annoyance, it was too big for her.

She was very unhappy when I told her it was for one of our friend’s girls. All the girls in that family are extremely excited about learning to knit now, because they all fell in love with that hat! So I have gifted them with some nice white yarn, a few spare needles, and a bunch of kool-aid, so they are going to town. Which brings me to ask, if any of you have way to much surplus leftovers, or small skeins, would anyone consider donating it to these four little girls? Money is tight for them, and I shudder to think they will have to use cheap, crappy, acrylic. So I thought, well I can ask and see if anyone would help out and sponser one with a small yarn gift. It can be anything, but worsted weight wool would be easiest for them to work with right now, any color is also fine. Let me know if you might have anything you want rid of. As you know a new knitter can find it difficult to get everything they need all at once, and to top it off, these are just kids, aged 7 - 12. So if you can help us out, let me know. I have given them lots of roving, and they are learning to spin, but they are more interested in knitting at this point, and they are quickly running out. Besides, if you donate some yarn to some of these girls, then you will deserve a reward trip to the yarn store. Just a thought

I have been dyeing up roving. I MEANT to put it all in the shop, while I was getting a little extra traffic from Knitty, but oh well. I got so discusted, I needed a fix, so I took one peice for myself and spun this up, and it is just lovely. I really like the colorway, but I think I will make the color changes a little more obvious, and also a little darker for just a little more contrast, but it is just beautiful as it is. I know it’s pink and purple, but I do have a 3 and 5 year old daughter I would like to point out, both of which are slobbering over this… Really it is lovely. I’m thinking of making a seamless yoke sweater by EZ. This will be for the yoke design, and the body will be light gray. Gray is wonderful for children.

I have also been experimenting with the drum carder and blended batts. I am finally getting the hang of it. I have this pretty little batt for the shop, it has the sparkle stuff added in. I don’t know what brand this sparkle is, but its like Christmas tree tinsel only very tiny. I have white, and green right now, to experiment with. I am contemplating maybe doing a batt of the month club, as those are so popular and fun to do. I need to get some more specialty fibers so that I can make up something really fun for them and then we’ll see what happens.

I also blended some of the sparklie stuff with some turquise roving I had. It is quite lovely. Very shiny and bright. I haven’t spun any yet, I need to try some, but the batts are so pretty that I don’t want to muss them to spin a sample.

Finally God willing, I have finally taken a picture of the learn to spin kits we sell at fiber fairs. We sell these for $7 with 2 ounces of fiber, so it’s a pretty darn good deal if you ask me. We sell them with a variety of colors, and if a customer chooses one, I can usually accommodate their desires. I sell tons of these at festivals, mostly to little kids, who want to try. I give them to kids for less, $5, which covers my cost. So if you order one of these for a child under 14, let me know and I will discount them. I have taught children as young as 4 with great success, and the kids learn it so fast.

Lastly, we went to the local 5 and dime, and low and behold they had knitting needles! for 70% off!!!!!!!! I bought all the double points for myself (I love Susan Bates double points) and Dominic bought himself his own set of straight needles. Nothing fancy, just colorful aluminum needles, but he likes them, and hey, they were like 80 cents each…. I still don’t know why he wants to use straights (I’m a total circular fan) but hey, to each his own right?

But now, about Internet Idiocy. Supposedly, our internet doesn’t work because of excessive cold. (It’s 13 degrees right now) so that doesn’t really explain why it didn’t work in 26 degrees last week. The support policies of the company we use are so stupid as to border on imbecilic. What happened was we had a little trouble with connectivity (remember) and we got that fixed, they told us that if we upgraded to a new modem, that it would improve. So we upgraded (remember that the old modem was working perfectly) and then it wouldn’t work at all. The would NOT downgrade us back to the old modem under any circumstances. So we were basically told that we had to do without internet until a technician gets around to coming out and looking it over. They even tried to charge us for it, but didn’t have a leg to stand on, so we finally pried the fee out of them under the warranty. GRRRR. They have been fortunate enough that Beau has dealt with them thus far, and he is so patient. They better do something, less I unleash fiery red-headed death down upon them. I am getting close to the point of really needing to bite someone’s head off, and really let them know exactly how I feel about their company policies. I’m trying to remain calm.

You may have noticed this

I don’t have much to say about it, except that this is the caliber that all my stuff should be.  I have a lot to do.

Now that I am famous and important however, I need to really address where I am going with this site, and my “career” (snort).  Ahem, really I started this with the idea that I would really like a place to put all my blog posts in one place.  Then it evolved into the possibility of making a small amount of money on the side, while staying home.  Now I seem to be contemplating the notion of professional author.

So I have that article published, and another from a smaller magazine accepted, (I’ll let y’all know when it publishes).  I am considering submitting to Spin Off and some other places.  So anyhow, you might be seeing my name pop up in the near future.

I also started a Tam from the pattern in the new Knitty.  I love these, and wanted to make one for each of the girls for Christmas.  So I am making Tam C for a test tam, and then of course I’ll veer off on my own and do it entirely different lol.  I got poor grades for “following instructions” in Kindergarten, and nothing much has changed since then.  I am forcing myself to do it just like the pattern says for this first hat, because for one thing, I need to learn how to do it first, and 2 I am kind of enjoying just following along and not thinking about it too much.

I also have another scarf stitch pattern I have been tinkering with.  It is a combination of chevron with the dropped stitch to make a really interesting effect.  I got the idea from looking at a seafoam pattern.  Anyhow this is what it looks like, and it knits pretty fast, so i can post that chart for you soon, if anyone is interested in trying it out.

It looks much better blocked, obviously.  I ripped this all out, because I was doing a space dye experiment on it, to make the dropped stitches very light blue, with dark blue for the other areas.  It didn’t work for me, but I used that yarn for something else anyway.  Still, the patten is quite pretty, or so I think.

So I am taking a break from the gloves to knit this hat (which is going to a local family) and then I will be spinning some beautiful merino that I have literally been sitting on for over a year to find just the right project for….I love the colors so much (it is what I used for the beaded yarn tutorial) that I want to try and make a similar colorway before I use it up.  So I will spin that up for the color section of the girls hats.  YEAH!  I also dyed some dark mulberry roving, and a batch of St Bernadette, because I got some orders.  I am trying darker colors, and looking for some new colorways.  You guys got any color combos you really like?

As always, remember that each month, a comment is chosen for a nice prize.  I am not posting this last packets contents, until she gets it, but it was some really fun stuff.  So COMMENT for crying out loud!!!

Sorry about that guys, I’m not feeling very well lately, as morning sickness worsens.  Hopefully it will be slacking off soon, and I can get back to the computer.

Thanksgiving was nice here, we went to my parents house.  We have Christmas open so we are weighing our options, and maybe we’ll go off somewhere for Christmas, that would be fun huh?

I am still getting the blog gift together, and I’m really sorry guys that I have posted so few times, so you have fewer chances to enter.  I will try to put something up more regular, even if  it’s just more videos or something.  I’m sure I will feel better soon.

On the other hand, (pun intended lol) I have been making gloves.  I have a friend who is a super hero.  She goes out everyday, saves lives and selflessly sacrifices her own comfort for the well being of others.  She’s a paramedic.

Here in Missouri, it gets really cold, well below zero much of January, and with the wind chill 20 below or even colder is not unusual, especially at night.  I always feel really bad, because she goes out in it to work wrecks, and all she has on her hands is latex gloves.  So I came up with the idea of knitting very fine gauge fingerless gloves that she could wear under her latex gloves.  That way she could still work, and start IVs and things, and yet keep her hands a little warmer.

I decided to knit them up in 100% alpaca for extra warmth.  Alpaca is 5 times warmer than wool, I am also working on some angora yarn, which is 8 times warmer than wool, and too bad that quivet is just out of the question for price reasons.  So I may end up doing an angora, alpaca and wool mix which would be ideal for light gloves that could go under latex gloves.  I have also made her a nice head band to keep her ears warm and a pair of socks.  The socks don’t really count though, because I made them for me, but they were too big and they fit her, so problem solved.

Anyway what I wanted to say was that gloves are not hard to do.  But the instructions don’t make much sense until you have the work in your hands.  Then it all goes rather smoothly, and the gloves knit up pretty fast, useing worsted weight, I cast on 36 stitches, and finsihed within about 5 hours with the first glove.  I think the second will go faster.

This is probably most of my knitted gifts this year, I want to make hats and scarves for the kids, but that’s all.  My family is all getting handmade candy and caramel corn for presents.  Cheap, not to hard, and so well loved by all who get them.

Merry Christmas!!!

Well, so Issue four is shaping up, but my camera is dead as a doornail.  So I’m going to do the best I can, and hope for the best.

I got my thank You packet sent FINALLY and I also got Nikki’s prize sent, sorry Nikki!  I put in some extras to make up for it.

So I’ve caught up a little, at least on mailing.

So issue 4 is coming along, but day before yesterday my camera broke.  I have a “Protection Plan” which basicly means, “We will fix or replace it, but only in a couple three weeks or so.”  Of course when you BUY the plan it sounds a lot more like “Oh if it breaks we will fix or replace it immediately.”  I don’t think I will be buying a camera from anywhere but a small shop in the future.  Anyway the pictures are just what I had around, and are relevant or not, but fun to look at.

So I have two scarves done, don’t need to explain the lack of pictures do I?  I am working on the design for a Fair Isle Beret, toasty toes, knitted puppets (Dominic’s design, cool huh) and a bunch of 0ther stuff I probably won’t be able to finish on time.  Dominic finished his hat, and it is adorable, but again, you know why there isn’t a picture, stupid camera people.

I STILL haven’t heard from Knitty, I had been warned, but you would think they would know three months later if they wanted it or not.  It only bugs me, because it is a REALLY good article, and I would LOVE to publish it.  ARRRG!

ok, this post is getting boring, here;s a doily pattern from Issue 4.

This was knit in fingering weight and came out quite large, about 24 inches in diameter.  It is very lovely.  I still have to figure out the chart, it is based off an old public domain pattern.

  This is Francis.

On a personal note, (going to be a long and probably boring story about colic and breast feeding)  I am pregnant with baby #5, so right now we are trudging through morning sickness and moodiness.  Here’s the deal.  Once the baby is born, I go on a VERY restricted diet.  No eggs, no milk, no soy, and no peanuts.  Milk AND eggs AND soy is rough, however, with Baby one, and two they screamed for hours a day, The Boy screamed only for about 4 hours.  The Girl screamed for over 10 hours a day and ended up on medication for irritable bowel.  So Baby 3 came and I learned that eggs and peanuts could trigger colic in breastfed babies.  (I knew about milk and tried that with baby2)  That baby was happy, with hardly any colic, as long as I didn’t eat any of that stuff.  OH look, a chicken…

Ok, so then William came along, and again, very little stomach problems or screaming on the diet.  SO where am I going with this?  It stinks on ice to live on that diet, and I hate it.  First of all the only condiment you can have is fake butter, ketchup, mustard and bbq.  Not so great with some things, like uh tuna.  No dessert pretty much, as practically all baked goods have milk or eggs in them.  (I can make a pie, but it’s not as good as usual)  In my previous pregnancies I was always on this diet for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Anyway, enough of me being whiny about it, I think I “may” have a solution out there in the yard.  I’ve been reading about sheep’s milk.  Sheep’s milk is a premeir milk used for cheeses, but it is also good for drinking and cooking.  Most importantly the type of protein in sheep milk is very easy to digest.  It is much less likely to cause upset stomach or gas, because the protien chains are very short and simple.  So maybe I could use sheep milk???  We’re going to find out it would seem.  This is my little “Flour Girl”.

This piece is called, Le Grande Menage, flour on hardwood and throw rug, by Teresa Jackson

Beau also got into Ravelry, his username is WBJ and I have been on there for some time as SpindleAndWheel I didn’t think about it, or I could have been spindle, and he could have been wheel.  Aint that cute?  hee hee.  ah well.

So that’s whats going on, heres the short version:  busted camera, puking editor, Beau on ravelry, want to milk the sheep, knitty won’t email me, got two scarves done and my packages mailed.  Oh yeah and the sheep seem to be starting to get down to business.  One had quite the tail end hairdo the other morning.  So, 4 down, 5 to go.  Excuse me, oh wait you didn’t hear that, oh well, I’m pregnant, and I can’t help it.

Off I go to enjoy my nausea.

So as I’ve written in “The men’s room” articles, I’ve been learning to spin yarn and knit. And since we’re going to dedicate the next issue to last minute gift ideas for knitters, I thought I’d give you a little progress report.

The yarn spinning is coming along - I don’t spin as often as I should (’cause hey, I’m going to write articles about this stuff and I really need to get better at it) but every time I do sit down and work on it, the skill improves. Which is very gratifying and encouraging.

The knitting on the other hand…not so good. I’ve started two or three different projects that didn’t work out, and I was able to rationalize my failure. One project was with charcoal colored yarn, which is frikkin’ impossible quite difficult to see unless you’re knitting in broad daylight. One project was with a three-ply yarn that had a funky ply - two tight plies and one loose ply, and I kept getting the needle between the plies. Then I tried to start on a sock using multiple double pointed needles. Imagine trying to knit with a porcupine…that’s kind of what it’s like. A live porcupine. An angry live porcupine. With hemorrhoids. And a hangover. Perhaps a sock was a little bit ambitious, no?

So, I back peddled a bit, and decided I’d just do another dish cloth. Boring, yes…but good practice. Lots of knitting, lots of purling, but nothing complicated. It’s what might be referred to as “low hanging fruit”. I needed a success to boost my ego and keep me motivated. I’ve started it twice now, and ripped it all out both times. My ego is bruised. The first time was due to a stupid user trick…I accidentally let a couple of loops come off the needle and it unraveled and I couldn’t figure out how to put it back together. Not a big deal - it could happen to anyone (it’s not just me that does this, right? Dang.). The second time however was not just your everyday, run of the mill stupidity. This was stupidity on a grand scale! After knitting several rows, I noticed that one side of the knitting has more rows than the other side of the knitting. Neat trick eh? All I can figure is that I put it down in the middle of a row, and then picked it back up upside-down. Twice. One end had six rows, the other end had two rows.

Sigh. Maybe the third time will be the charm.

There’s no doubt about it, I need to get cracking.

So I like to throw out to the blog readers any requests, or ideas they might have.  I think I have Eye on The Industry, but I need a Fiber Spotlight topic.  I’ve done Shetland, Alpaca, and soysilk.  SO I guess maybe it’s time to do a synthetic?  Or maybe a cellulose, like flax or cotton.  What would you guys like to read about?

I am still pondering what products I would like to review, and I need to get some knitting done, really bad!  I’ve been playing wood shop so much that I haven’t gotten Sheep To Chic or the entrelac shawl done.  I need to work on those, perhaps tommorrow I will put a few hours aside for it.

Now is a great time to think about submitting an article.  I have taken several that were just blog posts!  The writer fleashed them out just a bit, and voila!  So think about what you’ve got, and let me know if you have something fibery that you might be willing to share.

On other news, I am STILL waiting to hear from Knitty, which isn’t surprising really, but still killing me.  I hate waiting.  I am in my goodness refraining from emailing to bug them about it.  I guess if they hated it they would have known right off.  I have issues with rejection, and besides I would be really happy to post it to S&W so I have a double whammy of the waiting game.  I hate waiting.

Tomorrow, I should have enough information to post a picture of Nikki’s prize.  I wanted to find out what colors she likes and that sort of thing.  I do have several things already picked out to send though, and well, lets just say, that saying goodbye won’t be easy, but I will survive it.

I must be getting old.  I have a few reasons for thinking so, and Issue three has pointed a few of the signs out to me.

4 hours of sleep is not enough, but it seems to be all I get lately, even if I go to bed early.

I remember when I got 4 hours, and I was normal.  Now I’m normal, but a little crabby.

I’ve gotten lazy, and deadlines, stress and all that, kind of weird me out.  I get all panicy feeling just thinking about what I have to get done.  Tonight I feel that way thinking about what I just finished.  LOL  That’s a first.

My bed is suddenly too soft.  I wake up achy all over the last few weeks.  I slept over at my Mom and Dad’s, who have a bed to share, and also personal beds, because they both have horrid back troubles.  We got to sleep in Dad’s spare bed lol.  It’s a rock with pillows on it.  BUT I woke up non achy at 4 am (after 4 hours of sleep) and drove 4 hours to Bethal Missouri to a fiber fair, and felt pretty normal.  Hmmmm

I find myself thinking things like “these kids today, why when I was..”  it’s sickening.

The moral of the story is, just wait, you will turn into your parents if you wait long enough.  sigh.

It might be easier if they were like multi-millionaires with a jet plane and a private island with a massage therapist, but no, I have to have parents who are crabby because they only get 4 hours of sleep, and have bad backs.  hrumpf!