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.  ;)

Comments

[Sonya]

Methheads screw it up for everyone.

[Sonya]

Methheads screw it up for everyone.

[Sonya]

Sorry about the double comment. I don't know what the hell happened??

[Lora]

Sonya repeats herself often.
Sonya repeats herself often.
Yeah it's a Southern Thang!!

OMG SP10 is a corrections officer! OH DEAR Did they forever peg you my dear!! Someone has met you and knows your little evil (but FUN) streak! I like that yarn she sent you...oh yum.

Soap...soap.. soap... lye lye lye... meth meth meth... grass grass grass...illegal all of it! BTW I need more grass. :0) Mow the Lawn for me will ya? ;)

Everything's coming up fiber, not roses. I guess that's good because Fiber can keep up warm. Where he #*$(*@ is spring...don't tell me this is spring. I just can't believe it.

AW Socks for your gram! how sweet!! I may send a pair to my gram just because your's sounds as sweet as mine (Note: call mamaw today and see if she got b-day present)

This was a great post! Can't wait to see what you dyed at class. BTW I also have something scoobylicious for you. Oh yeah baby.. I said Scoobylicious!!

[Heather]

hey cutie -- great post! Check out your soaps at www.sereknity.com
YAY!

[shh...I'm a secret]

I had to put my work address - a demand from the USPS for insurance?! The jig is up! I'm so glad you are enjoying your package, I was pretty excited about the Hello Yarn myself - I'm going to stalk her shop now. I love that one of those sheep didn't make the picture, it was all I could do to make sure there were no casualties before I sent them off:) I think I might like to eat your soap - sounds fabulous! Take care!