Armed with Pointy Sticks

The Gypsy Moves Again

Warning, until I have the time to update this at home (I'm on lunch right now at work) this is going to be a grown up post.  No pictures.  If you have a short attention span, move along.  Maybe if you check back later I'll have a picture.  I could always post pictures of roving that I want.  Yeah I've been shopping on line.  I don't have a short attention span, I just

I would like to tell you about all the nifty things that have happened to me as of late.  First, let's cheer lead for Gina.  Rah!  Last week she bestowed upon me a Lamb's Tail.  If you are a spinner you really need one of these.  It holds your strand while you're spinning so you don't come back to a curly mess, all you tension gone.  My wheel finally has bling! 

And last night, the spinners in our group (I'm pretending there are  hordes of us) learned that she is destashing her fiber.  I'm actually starting to acquire quite a little fiber stash myself, but I'm just a baby, and help is always appreciated.  I got some red/pink/mauvey what woulja call it mojair, I'm going to say about 6 oz, and 4 oz of a fiber (the type of which escapes me at the moment) in a vibrant red.  Now, I purchased some yarn from Gina about a year ago that was made from this roving, plyed with a glittery ribbon.  I do believe that I'll make striped arm warmers, alternating ribbon and no ribbon.  The bag also had a ripple cutter from the Pampered Chef (who doesn't love the PC?) that Gina has had for some time but hasn't used a whole lot.  She thought it would live a great life cutting soap.  How can you not love her?

And...  remember the silk/merino I gave her a ways back, and then she gave me some back, as yarn?  I got back the rest of the roving last night, and now I feel up to it.  The first skein was done in a Navajo ply, so I'm going to practice on some singles I have spun up now.  Rah rah Gina!

As if that isn't enough kindness from awesome people, Lora stitched me up a sock bag out of an old Scooby Doo scrub top I used to wear when working at the VA.  I gave it to her and asked her to make me a sock bag and keep the left overs, because I'm a busty gal, and I wear big scrub tops.  I'd be disappointed if it only yielded on bag.  So now I have my favorite scrub top, which I couldn't bring myself to throw away, forever.  Lora is so awesome.  I beseech you: check out her etsy shop.

And... the other day I went home from work early (AC was down, does not make for happy MS) so I was home when the post man rang my door bell.  I wasn't quite sure what he had, it might have been for my sister, I don't remember ordering anything... and then I saw the return address!!  Spunky Eclectic!  My very first Spunky Fiber Club installment!  Hoo rah!  Add that postman to the "Shit, isn't this Ericka chick nuts" club.  I'm going to make them tshirts.  The colorway is strawberry fields, and it's great.  red to pink to white with green.  It reminds me of the old cartoon (THE OLD ONE!!) of Strawberry Shortcake.

And... I think that's it.  I'm going home and packing.  The internet will be disconnected probably on Friday (oh jaybird, that's tomorrow).  I don't know when it will be back up.   We should be spending the night at our new place (almost exactly 1 mile away from our old place) on Saturday.  I get the key tomorrow, and I'll move my wheel first.  I will not trust it to 3 men and a uhaul. ;)

Pictures?  Someday.

Blogging on Budgeted Time

I'm happiest when I'm in bed before 11, this doesn't happen as much as I'd like it to, but I'm a dedicated creature tonight.  It's 10:18.  I've got pictures.  I've already thrown some Matcha at my Etsy shop.  Readysetgo.

Saturday, the dying class at Yarn and Fiber with Cheryl Potter of Cherry Tree Hill, was fantastic.  Let me just say that I have no desire to spread out a big to-do in my kitchen and dye my own yarn in the future.

 

But I might do it at Heathers.  Just sayin' is all.

Ms. Potter was fantastic.  She exuded creativity and fostered it in those of us lucky to spend the afternoon with her.  We were a big group, but Cyndi seemed to know exactly what the space could handle, and I don't think a single one of us felt left out.

This is my take home for that day.  Let me stop here and share the single most interesting thing that I learned.  (Mind you, this was my first dying experience)  When you have left over dye, exhast, with that mucky look?  Did you know, that when you toss a skein of fingering weight yarn in there that the yarn will grab at the dye so fast that it will actually pull primary and secondary colors out of the mix?  This is what Cherry Tree Hill calls pot luck, and I was lucky enough to grab two of those skeins.

The two on the outside?  Professional work.  Professionals throwing yarn into muck looks like that.  They don't mess around, do they?  The other two?  Mine.  Lots of fun to make.  The pink and blue is Yokosuka Spring (something I will probably be homesick for this time of year for the rest of my life)  Didn't get it quite as I wanted.  It was supposed to look more like this or   this, But with an even darker blue.  This was the picture that I used to get outside of my barracks in March, with the sakura against the incredibly cobalt Pacific.  The other skein is Ericka Playing Messies, and wasn't named until after the creation.  I think I like it better that way.

The other two skeins are both earmarked for my wonderful grandmother.  Lighter colors that are right up her alley.

And in other news, I'm babysitting a freakin hamster.  No clue how this happened, so I refuse to stop Moose from doing anything resembling this.

Thank you and good night.

Relax.  The rat's fine.  That top is made to keep pythons in that aquarium.   I don't Bowling-Ball-Butt is falling through any time soon.

(10:54.  I rule!)

Past, Present, Future, Friday

I am a tired little girl.  I have so much to blog, and I was about to crawl into bed and blog it tomorrow, but tomorrow there will be even more to blog!  For you see, tomorrow I will be attending a yarn dyeing class taught by one of the Cherry Tree Hill color geniuses, hosted by Yarn and Fiber.  Exciting, no?

Yes!  Yes it is.  Tomorrow kicks off a good solid month and a half of fiber weekend, with the exception of one weekend which I'll have to content myself with knitting furtively at a wedding.  (Think I can get away with it?)  My cousin Jessie is getting married, and I love her dearly, compounded by the fact that her wedding doesn't intersect either the Harlot coming to Webs or the NH Sheep and Wool Festival.

Next weekend we have a workshop at Barnes and Nobles for National Library Week.  We'll be sitting, knitting, waiting for questions (shocker) and (this is the departure)  sitting with materials on hand to teach people to knit!!  Ok, so it's not much of a departure...  We've trapped a few like that. 

The weekend after that... I know it must be something.  Gina's house on Sunday... something on Saturday.  Brain hurts. 

After that, I'll be moving, but I'm up for anything.

After that, SHEEP AND WOOL!!  I'm going to get to meet Claudia of Heal my Hands, a hero of mine as a small business person.  That just puts a great little shine on the whole thing.

Wedding.

And then comes Harlot week!  Yeah, I took the whole damn week off.  You can call it Memorial Day week, I will call it Harlot week.

Don't try to match up to a calendar.  I'm not looking at one.

And after that comes the Maine Fiber Frolic.  Mmmmmmm.

But, I logged on to talk about the recent past, didn't I?  I can't promise chronological order, but I'll try not to mix stuff.  Read it all.  I've got some good scuttlebutt going in here.

First, let me start with my Secret Pal Swag.  Life is good.  I come into work on Tuesday and there's an email from our secretary upstairs.  "Ericka," she starts, "I just got a package for you from the department of corrections."

Oh, if only all of my emails could start out like that!  I cracked up, because I knew what it was right away!  My secret pal is a parole officer :)  Did they match us up great, or what?

So I got to start off my day with the following wonderfuls:

Candy.  A little
fudge brownie that never made it to its photoshoot, yummy gummis that... well, at least I got a shot of the package, and these cute little sheep... uh oh, it looks like there was a casualty.

 

Does anyone else have problem losing weight around Easter?  I swear, between peeps and cadbury, I don't know why I try.

There was this little cutie.  I knew it was only a matter of time before fiber animals started taking over my cube.    There was a wonderful smelling candle, blackberry ivy (and here I was, a soaper, not aware that ivy even had a scent!)  And a great journal, which I am going to keep in my purse and use to prep blog.  You know, for the moments when you go "I've got to blog this!" but you're in an underground tunnel with only a titanium spork and the entire third season of Cheers to keep you entertained?  And no tv?  Right now I'm writing my manifesto, which was promted by a comment from Britt (who's getting married real soon!  Go congratulate her!)

Butbutbutbut, the absolute coolest thing in the whole box from the Department of Corrections?

This.  A skein of lovely, beckoning sock yarn from Hello Yarn.  This yarn, in the colorway Turf, will be knit for my little, barely worthy feet.  Secret pal, thank you so much!

So its going to be another summer of socks for me.  Not only did I promise myself five pair before the end of the year, I have to knit socks for my gram.  Want to know why?  When I tell you you'll want to knit socks for my gram too!  (blogless Amanda does). 

I called Gram yesterday to talk about the things we talk about when I've fallen off the face of the earth for a few months (see, don't feel hurt.  I do this to everyone.  I just tune out.  I'll be back)  "I love those socks you made me for Christmas!  I wear them 90% of the time!"  (have you worn a whole through them yet?) "No, not yet, but I will soon enough.  They were the best present I got this year!" (pause) "...besides Hubey's diamond he got me."  (Hubert's in the room.  I tell her it's ok, she can tell me the truth.)

I love someone who's not afraid to wear socks out.  I told her I'd have to knit her another pair and she asked for lighter colors, for spring.  I can accommodate that.  I think I'll be doing Pomatomous for her this time around.  The last pair were Hedera.  Keeping my Gram's feet stylish with Cookie.  So yes,  I'll be finishing my socks, ok, maybe just the first sock.  Knitting an 8 inch square for Julie, and then casting on my gram's socks.

So yes, I'm still knitting.  Here's proof.  I've got maybe another inch to go on this, I slow down when I hit the 3x1 rib. And then it's a sewn cast off.  This is the toe up sock formula from Knitty (and everyone who knits socks should seriuosly add at least one toe up sock to their arsenal.) and the color is Sherbet from Socks that Rock. 

And I've been spinning.  Look.  All that's me.  If you really look you can see some plied yarn in there.  Yeah.  Need to make more of that.  Want a better picture?   Wait for a spinning post.  It's bound to happen.  Since I've started with the Island Pond Spinners, and I've joined Spunky's Fiber Club, well, I really have to start moving, don't I?

Speaking of Spunky (I'm just loving the segways tonight) guess who's having a great birthday?

Two people, actually.  Last Wednesday we celebrated the birthdays of Mike and Jackie.  Two wonderful ManchVegas knitters!  There was yarn and cake for all!  And, for Jackie, a little (little) something extra.  Meet Little Jackie!

Yep, that's Little Jackie, all right.  If you like yourself (and I hope you do.  I want all of my blog readers to like themselves, because you're all good people!  Self confidence is a must!) head over to Jackie's blog and check out this little girl's fabulous outfits, all knit by different people in the group.

Happy Birthday Jackie and Mike!

Annnd, I guess there's only one things left.  Soap.

The green is a new scent, it's Matcha, green tea.  It's a very light scent, but I like how the dye came out.  And then there's more brownie batter.  Mmmm. 

And here's a random pile of soap.  Between you, me, and everyone in blog land, those sheep are a pain in my ass.  I need to figure out a better way to separate them from that mold.  They take three times as long as a bar to set up and behave in a respectable sense so they don't get mangled coming out (and that still isn't saying much) and I just don't have time or patience to wait a week for each sheep.  Yes, they're cute.  And I thought a flex mold would be fine for CP soap.  Well, it is better, but I wouldn't say "fine".  I think they'll be come a special edition item.  I like the finished product, but I believe that my time is too precious.  I'm working on a different technique now, and if it works then the sheep lives.

Speaking of which, I have to make labels for these two batches. :D  The fun never stops!  I've got to scoop up some lye (which I can only get 4 pounds at a time, and I go on this list where they keep track of how much I buy.  Stupid methheads)  and then I may soap after class tomorrow.   I really do love making soap, I just had to put my two frustrations (labels and decorative molds) in one conversation.  Silly me.

But frustration is just a part of life.  I will figure out what I can control and what I can't.  Life is pretty good right now for me.  I mean look at it. I look ahead, I look behind, it's all coming up fiber.  ;)

Goap Says Hello

Goap says "The Etsy site is up and running!"

Baby steps to start with.  I've just poured some lav euc and some matcha (that's green tea ice cream for all the gaigin in the house), and I've got other stuff to post, but I just really wanted a presence to start.

I'll be shrinking Goap into a 150 sq pixel for a button, and I'm going to make a banner for the shop.  Might as well do it now.  I'm out of castor oil, so I won't be doing any more soaping til that order comes in.  Don't worry.  I use a company that I adore, and I'm having them ship it to where I work.  I'll be soaping again on Thursday (because I knit on Wednesday)

The Island Pond Spinners are a fantastic group and I will be going back as often as I can manage.  Chris feels the same way, and he doesn't even spin!

Gotta go.  Labels to print.  There has to be a better way to do this, because this is my least favorite part of the process.

The Evolution of Soap (Molds)

Howdy all, Chris here. Ericka's been meaning to take and catalog the progress that we have made in regards to soap molds, but seeing as how today is such a nice day, and we're "determined" to clean the house, I figured I'd beat her to the punch. So I grabbed the trusty blogger cam, and snapped some Vogue-tastic shots.

First to the runway is...the first set of molds.

These molds I put together out of the wood from a failed bookshelf that I had kicking around the house. There are a total of three in this series, with the two smaller ones now being used as saw horses for new molds...and the last taller one being a perfect storage unit for the bottles of scents and fragrances that Ericka uses in her soaps.

Alas, the three of these molds were never used to make soap.

Gears were changed, and we I made another series of three molds, this time instead of being a "loaf" orientation, we went with a "sheet" orientation. To facilitate getting the soap out of the mold, I had the great idea of including a side that pops off.

The downside to these molds was the fact that no matter what happened, you would have to scrape soap ash off the entire side that was exposed to air. The pop-off side did make a difference, and each mold has been marked with cutting lines. But from a bang-to-buck ratio, we're still in the minor leagues.

This is where the latest version of the soap mold comes into play.

You might notice a little piece of brass along the center, that's the key to this mold. It uses a long piano hinge to let the long side of the mold flip down, which gives the soaper access to most of the surfaces she needs to work with to remove the soap from the mold. In addition, it is wide enough for just one bar, but when cut at 1.25" increments, you now have 12 perfectly formed bars. It is also tall enough to accomodate enough material for a double batch, giving you a total of 24 bars.

After making the first batch, I felt things could be improved even more. It took me 30 minutes to get all the soap out, and I didn't like how much work it ended up being. So I went back to the drawing board (really just a piece of cardboard), and came up with this:

Something was still missing, however. And that was "How can we best CUT the soap out of the mold?" Up until now, we've been using a flat, thin drywall knife, but it didn't have quite enough depth to get all the way through a double batch. So I was thinking about another method, and felt that fishing line might do the trick. Unfortunately, the apartment doesn't have any fishing line growing on trees, so we had to run out and get some. When the first place we went to didn't carry fishing supplies (and it was getting late), we called it a night. On the way to knitting the next day, we stopped at AC Moore, and I ran straight for the clay section. For much less than fishing line would cost, I brought home a wire cutter for clay use. With the double-flip mold, we now have access to every surface of the soap, and the clay cutter should do the trick.

I'm still trying to find a better latching solution for the double-flip mold. Right now its all hook-and-eye, and I'd like something more secure, such as the flip-latches you see on tool boxes, or maybe even the rotating latches used for house windows.

Well, I guess it just proves that things keep evolving...

This is Ericka putting in a tiny edit as a note to Heather.  Know how we said the bars were all a healthy 4 oz?  We lied.  With the way things are going (and staying) they are a healthy six ounces.  That's just how we roll.

Tonight... We Spin!

And I'm so squeeful!

Tonight I'll attend my first Island Pond Spinners get together, and I really can't wait.  Since buying my baby in February I have done a lot of spinning, but not with anyone to guide me.  I think I've done pretty good, but I am still excited about being with other spinners.  Tonight I will learn and be inspired.  I can't wait.

Well, I'm going to pack up and head home.  It's been a long week.  I'm out of training so I spent the whole week actually doing my job!  Crazy, huh?

This weekend will be for restoration.  Restoration of health.  Restoration of peace.  Restoration of order.  And soap.  When I have time with my camera I'll have to show you the evolution of the soap mold.  Every time Chris goes to the hardware store my soaping gets a little easier. :D

OK, I'll Play

This morning Mother Nature reminded me that yes, it was spring, but I'm in New England. 

Yep.  We get a green Christmas and a white Easter.  And do you know what?  I love it.  Give me that winter wonderland when I'm damn good and ready to take it.  And do you know when I'm ready?  When I know it'll melt in less than a week.

I love New England.