Well, my new job at work is like drinking from a fire hose for what I need to do and the amount of money I'm responsible for makes me cringe. But it will be fine. I just need to get things settled in my head which after a meeting with my finance person has made me feel better. Though I was super overwhelmed yesterday and evening and had a bit too much to drink and then the weather shifted and we had a huge wind storm that had all of my windchimes making it hard to sleep. I was up at 2am for quite a while. Mel was up at midnight and 2am and finally went to the couch. He had nerfed his back the previous week and its better but not perfect. He's a stress ball due to a work thing that he's presenting on right now. Hopefully he is less stressed tonight. Our POS fence has fallen down and we really need to fix it tonight (stoopid wind) and we just need to call the wall people get started on getting the block wall. I'm so sick of that crappy wall.

Last week I reconfigured my studio and purged paperwork and then got moving furniture. I got a new filing cabinet and its so much more floor space. I still need to work on the files inside with hanging folders but I threw out a lot of stuff I didn't need. I'm awaiting 3 more drawers to finish up some moving of things. One issue was that the Moth Away natural moth thingies makes moths want to eat my handspun. Its all in the freezer. Sighs. Mel has been nice enough to start balling things up. But man it sucks. Sighs.

Stoopid eat anything moths. But it will be fine.

We have an SCA event this weekend where I'm speaking for a Laurel candidate. Should be fun. I got to paint a bit on her scroll cause Ari is nice and left me a landscape to finish. It was tough though since I'm out of practice and its tiny. But I did art!

The gym has been much easier this week than the previous week so that is good. I've done more reps and done more sections thus far. Plus my pushups are up off my knees for a good chunk of each variant. Which is a major change and something I need to work on even on off days including core work. But little steps.

Still reading Necromancing the Stone hope to finish it tonight.

Well, after the icky work week I requested that mel take me out to sushi when I got home from the gym. I didn't make it out of work until 4pm...my afternoon of knitting fun was dumped upon by paperwork that was still not complete by 4pm. Though not without me trying my damndest. I was tired and still kinda grumpy when I got home but a shower, smiles from the Benton and a good protein rich dinner made up for it.

Got home and got the boy ready for bed and Mingo and Tati stopped by. It was really, really good to see them and we talked house plans and chit chat. Benton was in bed pretty quickly and then we all gabbed for a few hours. I knit on my second felt bag and then it was time for bed.

Benton was up early on Saturday for food and then we all went back to sleep. I got up and worked on the felt bag and finished it up and got it felting. The one thing I learned was that single spun yarn shrinks way more than plied yarn and I'm really glad I made this bag bigger since it felted down to smaller than the previous bag. I then did some more reading and realized that I needed to over night soak my yarn. Oops oh well. So, I made plans to do that sunday. I spun up the pewter colored silk merino and then spun up the alpaca. Alpaca is so soft and it spun nicely. I had a lot less thick and thin on it. We realized that we probably need at least on more niddy-noddy since we filled them up and mel used his warping board to put the icelandic (or was it gotlandic) on since he had plied up the entire thing. Its funny though I guess we do need a few more fiber tools. I will probably pick up the larger kromski niddy-noddy for myself since I'll be doing larger quantities now and need the space.

Mel also spent part of saturday working on the main cooler. It really needed new pads. He got that taken care of and we now need to figure out where to put a water reclamation downspout so we can dump the cooler every 8 hours to prevent buildup. It was a nice day of spinning though. SyFy was playing the Indiana Jones movies and we watched most of them.

While mel and I were playing with fiber Benton was figuring out how to turn over and army crawl. He'd been almost doing it last week but he kept getting his arm stuck under him so he would roll back the way he came. Now he's figured out how to roll over, untuck his arm and then move in an army crawl across the floor. He had lots of fun crawling around and chewing on things. He nommed on my little cthulu and the puppy blankie toy that spartanmom got him. He also managed to not freak out when the puppy was over his head and he couldn't get it off. We had some issues with that on friday and he got scared that it was covering his face. He had to be rescued from the attack puppy and comforted but he wasn't scared too long and recovered really well to go back to playing with the puppy.

Sunday we got up and had breakfast with american_knight and the HD at Joe's. Had a really nice family breakfast and that was good. After that we headed home and I headed to Target to get essentials for the week. Managed that errand in an hour and then was home to work on dyeing things.

I did the dyeing in two different ways. One piece of roving and 2 yarn skeins were jar dyed and 4 other rovings were crock dyed. Jar dyeing just entails stuffing stuff in jars and letting it sit. The crock dyeing involved pouring the color over the yarn and letting it cook. Both had advantages and disadvantages. The issue with crock dyeing is that if you mix colors incorrectly you get muddy colors and I had that happen on one roving but all in all it was fun. I managed to dye stuff, work on laundry, fold boy clothes, pick up the kitchen and work on another alien throughout the day before setting down to spin. I plied up all of the yarn I had spun on Saturday and then started spinning on a batt I had gotten from Blue Mountain Handcrafts. Its a wonderful corriedale in a pretty colorway of autumn colors. Mel's comment when I was spinning it was that it looked like I finally know what I'm doing. YAY! It seriously wanted to spin itself and if it hadn't been benton's bed time I so would have spun until my bed time. Its lucious and I have a total of 8 ounces to spin. Not sure what I'm gonna make but its gonna be fun.

So, I had a really nice weekend and got things preset for myself so I didn't feel rushed before bedtime or in the morning. Unfortunately, I didn't remember that I give blood today so no gym time for me but that will be good for me to maybe get some bike maintenance going or at least drop it off for maintenance.

So, the pictures of the weekend projects:( fiberygoodness! )

Well, the family is tired and excited about crafting after a wonderful trip to California for the annual Fiber and Dye Retreat hosted by Griffin Dyeworks at the Camp Verdugo Oaks Scout Camp.

Our MO is to drive after work on Thursday, hotel it at the local Holiday Inn Express and then set up our tent at the camp on Friday and enjoy the weekend. Well with Benton we modified things a bit. We left in the morning and were able to get to our hotel by 7pm and would be staying in a cabin at site the next day. The holiday Inn Express in Santa Clarita is awesome. They had upgraded us to a suite and it was nice to have space and two nice big beds.

After traveling all day Benton was pretty amped up to be squirmy. We fed him at our lunch stop and then in the car while we were driving down the road from a bottle. I managed to pump more milk while we were going down the road. The car adapter for my breast pump was an awesome purchase. He did well during the drive but slept alot thus he was happy to be flopping around on the bed. We did lots of tummy time but eventually mel and I just went to bed and he wiggled until he fell asleep. I had placed him in a pillow fort and he was happy to sleep that way. We got up about 7am and he had a good feeding and then we got packed up for the retreat and hit the awesome breakfast. I again reiterate that I'm sure holiday inn puts crack in their cinnamon rolls.

We arrived on site and things were pretty much setup. We got out of the car and Katrina, The head Kitchen Goddess, stole Benton (carseat and all). We got checked in and then shown our cabin which was nice and we got our cots setup and Benton's bed set up and we were ready to enjoy the day. I had a class at 2pm involving making a glass pebble bowl, mel hit the dye areas and we had a good time. Folks kept asking to watch the boy so he hung out in his rocking chair and enjoyed people time in between feedings. He did not want to nap much but he did okay. He was snuggly though so that was also nice for folks who watched him. I sat in the afternoon working on the copper edging of all of my glass pebbles and chatting with everyone sitting and spinning or working on other projects. After dinner we got to see archeological textiles from gotland (slideshow) and then it was more time out with folks spinning and working on the copper foil. Mel was spinning and dyeing stuff and had managed to tie-dye two of Benton's onesies with indigo. Benton was tired and he kept trying to stay awake. He was so cute and giggling and babbling at us while fighting sleep. He was so adorable but I finally got him rocked to sleep in the chair and we all went to bed. I slept okay that night but not great. I was worried that Ben wasn't sleeping well and kept checking on him. He did fine but had managed to scoot himself into the corner of the pack n play. Got up the next morning and hit breakfast a little late but all good.

Benton took a nap in the rocker during my sprang class and mel got to play with cochineal dye. I got my bowl soldered together and after dinner we managed to put benton to bed when he was awake which is a good feat in parenting I think. He crashed out within about 15 mins of being left to himself and was snoring when we came to bed. So, cute! I then spent the evening spinning. I had won a spindle in the raffle and I used it. It was made by one of the other men at the retreat (we had a few this year besides Woody and Mel) and its does pretty well. Oh, and when we came to the retreat we brought a spinning wheel back that mel had taken last year to be refurbished. He did a really nice job on a wheel that he is pretty sure was just a show piece and not made to be a working machine. Well, it went to Melly (a girl Mel) and she was delighted. She didn't have a wheel of her own and for her $10 in raffle tickets she won. Now another wheel was in the raffle too and it needed work. Mel was being obnoxious and teased me by putting in one ticket. Yeah, guess who brought home another spinning wheel! My dear darling (I'm gonna kill him) husband. Now I was annoyed but with the help of Twitter I had a Tucson owner of the spinning wheel in an hour. msaimeesue will get it once mel finishes with it.

So on the mel's addicted to spinning wheels front: He has a 19th Century production wheel, His mother's old Ashford and a wheel he bought for weavedancer to all fix and repair. The thing that has been holding him back is making a wheel jig to hold the wheel flat while he reworks Perin's and his mom's. The whole plan was for him to have all of the extra wheels (he's keeping the 19th Century one) away and then we'd bee down to 3 wheels. Plus in the eventuality that I want to get a wheel I want space for mine as well. So, its funny and annoying at the same time.

Anyhoo, I had a good time spinning and then headed to bed. We did have a coon try to get in the cabin but it just scrambled around outside. I would have slept a bit better if not thinking of animals. Next year we will have our tent and I know what animals trying to get in sounds like.

Sunday morning we got up and the boy was tuckered. He fed and got snuggled during breakfast and when mel and I were packing up stuff in the cabin before mel's class on spinning flax he crashed out. I let him sleep and got the rest of the cabin packed and loaded into the car and got our stuff out in the common area packed up. We participated in the show and tell for the weekend and then had lunch and headed out. We managed to get on the road just before 1pm and pulled in at home at 920pm. We had stopped to get gas once, switch drivers once and have dinner so that wasn't too bad. Benton did well and slept the entire way minus getting a bottle for feeding. I worked on mel's cowl and he worked on my socks when we weren't driving and it was a good but tiring trip. I fell asleep somewhere before we turned onto I10 from I8 and was half asleep the drive to tucson. We got in and Benton got fed and put to bed. He was awake and wiggly for quite a while but then he was crashed out. We relaxed, put a few things away, had a beer and then headed to bed ourselves. All in all it was a great weekend. The pictures should our adventure. I'll be putting links up to other pictures as well.

My Photos of the retreat
Bridget's Pictures
Ercil's Pictures

So enjoy the pictures and go forward and make stuff!

I was really inspired this weekend and that is good. Lots of things brewing in my mind and I bought more fiber so I need to plan out my Tour de Fleece Spinning. Lots to do....

Well, I got tasked with some brain storming on a design and that will keep me occupied for a bit. Got home and was really tired and while catching up on the paper mail I got attacked by the couch and the kitties. Oh, well, I needed a nap. Got dinner and then set down to weave. The family sat and watched episode 1 of Season 4 of The Guild and it was fun. Then I put in disk 3 season 1 of Castle. I need to send the disks back so we can get more...its left off at kind of a storyline cliff hanger. Darn it! I got my weaving done and then I started in on spinning some more. I got through almost all of the second half (of the first batch)of my fiber and then it was late. I'm having a horrible time getting in bed on time.

So pictures of progress..( Read more... )

It seems odd that yesterday as Thursday but for the amount of stuff I have accomplished this week I shouldn't be surprised that it was thursday. Work was good. Got lots accomplished and then headed home. I was worried that I was going to get rained out since it was spitting on me when I parked the car but I put more soil on my strawberries and then got changed to bike.

The monsoon only hit the mountains though even when I was biking I was fighting the wind a lot. It helped me part of the way. I really need to figure out why my bike comp is broke but my GPS said I went 14.9mph. I'm not sure how much I believe that since it had a longer distance and I went the same yesterday. I need to know what I'm doing. Anyhoo. I was quicker than Tuesday and that mattered. It felt harder but I was pushing hard to try to beat the storm which didn't hit.

Got done, changed and made us dinner. I really luv the fact that I can grill all year round in Tucson. It makes things so much easier. Mel was happy to have dinner waiting. He's been working hard on the project for Viktor and its coming along nicely.

I got down to working on the scroll and am very happy to say I have about an hour or so left of work to do on it. I have to fix a couple of callig oop's and paint smudges, ink around the fancy letters and I should be done...like a week ahead of time. WOW! I'm happy about that. While working on this I was watching the 2nd disk of castle. OMG...so much fun. After painting I got my fiber together, got the spinning off of my drop spindle that I had done at the retreat and at home and started spinning for Tour de Fleece. I got sucked into it and it was going really well. Still haven't gotten off park and draft but I'm going okay. YAY!

So, here are pictures of the progress from last night:
( Read more... )

Well, we had a really good time, so good in fact...I really wish I took today off to relax and get back in the groove. I had my laptop...I could have worked from home part of the day but I came in..le sigh.

Thursday we left about 4pm and got on the road. The drive was good and we hit no traffic or weirdness the entire way until we got about 40 miles from site. We stopped off in Blythe at the Courtesy Coffee Shoppe and it was a nice retro 60s diner. Good food and good service. Our troubles with traffic started with them closing a highway we normally use to short cut to an interstate in CA. We went further down I-10 and got directly on the I-5. We were very late compared to previous years due to leaving so late. I blame my work and my need for a chiro appointment. We now know to not leave any later than 2 pm. Its much better that way. Once we got on the i-5 we were stopped 8 miles from our hotel by an RV fire. We got past the it and a subsequent wreck and got to the hotel about 1230 am. They had our reservation goofed. I'll be talking with holiday inn about that and we finally got to your room at 1245am. Bleah. We slept okay...I was very restless and my side didn't hurt but it had pressure. Glenn fixed me really good an I felt really great after a nights sleep.

Got going with a good breakfast and got to site a bit after 10am after taking an unexpected detour. We didn't turn off at the right exit and had to turn around about 12 miles up the road. Got ourselves set up and then just relaxed. It was nice. It was odd without Bjo and John (who were in Montana for John's sister, she was dying). Had a good time and I taught 6 people how to crochet (well, one of them knew but needed help with some tricky bits). I was very happy about that and I got lissamc daughter, Michelle, addicted, I think. I mordanted my yarn for dyeing the next day, made 3 dryer felt balls and just chilled. I slept really well that night and had a good time working on my crochet and my knitting.

( Picture of me knitting and mordanting yarn and teaching )

The fiber retreat really needed to be another day for me. I have been feeling off all week and sleeping like crap and I only got a good night's sleep on Saturday night due to beer and benedryl. Not sure what is up but I'm sure all of the travel, the climate changes, the smog of cali and other things have been affecting my sleep. I slept good last night and that was a good thing.

I took almost all of the classes I signed up for. I missed the basketry class and I'm okay with that. I would have spent the entire weekend working on a basket versus working on other things but I'm still intrigued by baskets. Gonna have to see what I can do to make one soonish. I also didn't get to take the Knitting 101 class from mariamist having to run off. I'm okay with that. I can get some tips and tricks from books and scribe_ari but everyone who took her class was doing marvelously.

I learned to make PLARN and I started to make a bag. I'll finish that up sometime soon. The girls at work are going to make their plarn and then I'm going to show them how to make the bags.

I made a felted eyeglasses case and its cool. I need to do some sewing on it but its pretty awesome and I want to make more things felted. I'll have to get some supplies. I also dyed all of my potholders and the left over string. They are pretty neato. I also finished a multi-colored potholder on the way home and a started making a Hyperbolic Sphere which I want to use as a scrubby but I think I need more rows. Its cool though and makes me squee.

I got taught to spin a bit by cayswann and I bought a new spindle from Goshyarnit! and I bought some awesome fiber from The Dizzy Ewe called "gummi worms". I also got some optima from Chameleon Colorworks and that should be fun to spin as well. So, it was a good weekend and I'm glad I went, just wish I'd had a bit more time and I that I had slept better.

Not sure what this week will entail but I have a lot of work to do on the commission stuff and I need to get ready to teach on Sat/Sun. I might see if I can revamp my bead handout but we shall see. I also need to get my ass back in gear for the bike and the work outs and not let my asthma get me. Gonna clean house tonight and hopefully get the workout in before scribble. All good.

Oh, and cayswann thinks my job at work is to, I quote, "Make people fear me! SNERK!!! I guess that is true-ish...its more along the lines of being the voice of reason and making people see the easier path in things. Dunno...I'll need to think on that a bit.