The Great Grey Romney Massacre of '08:

Why SOs should not be left untended with sharp objects, pets, pets that can act as sharp objects, fiber or any combination of the above

having come back from great learning and cavorting at Madrona - well, maybe not cavorting since i was in the full throes of the Knoxville plague - i owe a post about my amazing classes, amazing friends, amazing yarn and fiber and amazing crafting progress. 

this is not that post.

this is the story of how one girl's passionate affair with a precious token of friendship came to a crushing and violent end.

as with cats and mice, while the girl was away, the SO did play. and play. and really really play. he totally rocked out even. so fabulously rockilicious was he, he did not note the profound and fearful effects on his high-strung and pathetically cowardly companion. 

until he turned round to find that said companion, afeard as only a big dog can be, had mustered his courage by marshalling round him the totems of his new mistress: two felted clogs, a teddy bear, an hypnotically soothing hank of handspun Merino,  and a lustrous and soft hank of Grey Romney to which he had heard his mistress whisper sweet nothings. 

the SO whose name shall not be spoken to protect his identity TRAVIS LAVERNE, being a Muggle, was dismayed to note that the hanks were no longer self-entwined  but instead were all floppy and disorderly. the yarn had not transmuted into another inert substance though, so he shoved it onto a shelf and limited his retelling of the tale to the endearing dishevelment of two hanks, sharing nothing of the loud rockin' out or interesting spaghetti like nature of one of the hanks.

narrowly surviving the plague, our heroine returned home from Madrona to settle back into to her daily life. after wholesale cleaning restoring order unpacking, she set to return her beloved handspun to tidy rightness.

Wolf's Eyes in Snow was easily sorted out and replace, but GAK! the horror, the insanity, the tragedy - her Romney love lay in ruins. so many sorrowful pieces she never had seen in one place. she recalled with hollow heart her care in loading the bobbin, her attention to the yarn's first bath, her joy at seeing the loft. now she would be lucky to have shoelaces! 

after firming tamping down the instinctual desires to kill the dog, yell at the dog, be mad at the dog, kill the SO for misleading her so, be mad at said SO, cry, throw things or check into the nearest hotel, our heroine gently carried her fallen love upstairs to place on the funeral pyre her swift. 

there it has waited these last 9+ days. tonight, emboldened by wine and her desperate need for an US 6 circular, our heroine re-entered the craft room mourning chamber. determined to make for a new tomorrow, she set about untangling the jillion remnant ends to salvage what she might from this once glorious hank. when she was finished, this was the scene:

and this was what remained:

sob! only these tiny balls were left of a once glorious hank of yarn. the unruly mess on the right is pieces so short i can think of no use for them besides tying hanks on the swift.

there are those who might say that the moral of the story is that one should not hoard handspun for tomorrow anything may happen. 

i would caution those types to hold their peace. the fact i didn't kill the dog or boyfriend does not mean an exception cannot be made now. 

its my birthday...

yes it's today.

i went and worked and taught and learned 

and then i got to play.

[to the catching tune 'It's not my birthday' by the notable They Might Be Giants]

so, yeah, today was my birthday. i got several super-awesome presentsL

1. Mom and Rol came for the weekend. we celebrated the miracle of getting to enjoy these moments together, laughed, and then celebrated some more.
2. Travy and i had a Super Bowl party. some friends were present, many far away though very present in my heart. the game was a rousing upset- testament that spirit triumphs best odds. i reflected on my blessings-again some far and some near-and sent a wellspring of love to those far and  deep in wells of grief right now.
3. Travy and i spent the latter half of the day together just enjoying. i would like to say we went out partying and dancing just because what is to follow sounds a couple decades past our dates... we actually watched silly movies and played backgammon (you heard me) with our kiddos curled around our toes. Mr Head even came out and snuzzled his catnip heart (courtesy of Denise's Toby from Yin and Yarn). 
4. Mr. Head's biopsy came back and he doesn't have cancer in his nose. we don't really know what IS happening, but i will take 'Not cancer' for today.

so there you go. a lovely, peaceful weekend and day of family, friends, love and reaffirmation of miracles and we even still have cake. what's not to like?

spinning progress, part 2

first, i delight in showing how the Romney displays its loft post-bath. it is just delicious!

after months in the darkness, i bring you Mango Sun - Sunshine from loop- an alpaca/merino blend with a WPI of 13 and 170 yds.


here we have Wolf's Eyes, Australian Merino from Woolie's Fiberworks. there is 8 oz with a WPI of 17 and 430 yds total.


last but certainly not least, this is 4 oz of Targhee top in Fruit Salad from Spinning Bunny, a gift from Lara. WPI 15.5, 280 yd.

spinning progress, part 1

in anticipation of Madrona i am working hard to achieve some closure on stagnant knitting WIP. still, they are growing as stagnant things do - slowly.

my spinning however has been visibly productive. first up is Grey comfort. this is 6 bumps of Grey Romney from Denise with a pre-wash WPI of 16. I ended up with two skeins: 182 and 196 yd apiece. the yarn is remarkably even and i anticipate it will full up a titch with its bath.

next is Blueberry smoothie. this is 4 oz of 50/50 Tensel/superwash Merino blend by Spinning Bunny. Sport weight with a WPI 10, 102 yd.

to the right is a delightful Shetland medley courtesy of Cathy. from top to bottom, we have Shetland, Shetland/Finn, and Shetland/Black Welsh Mtn. all ended up with WPI ~17 with between 50-80 yards per sample.

yet to photo are Sunshine, Wolf's eyes, and Frootie Tootie. stay tuned!

cats improved, house survives

thanks to everyone who has been pulling for Mr. Head and Elise. it has been a stressful time here - what with all the vomiting, unformed poop, and general 'anything could happen' atmosphere. in exciting news, i can report that the cats Elise has started annoying the bejimminies out of me - knocking [expensive] things off end tables to prod me into feeding her sooner, trying to steal my lattes, insisting on camping on my arms while i try and type. in addition, Mr Head has stopped leaving bodily fluids scattered about like flower petals by a fairy. he still has a ways to go to get to 'fighting trim', but he will probably be normal enough to have his nasal CT this week. after a weekend of spot treatments and overall cleaning, i can report the house has suffered no irreversible damage.

today is an official university holiday so i have decided to alternate reading papers for my research with working on Mystic Waters since it has lain stagnant for close to a month.

but first i thought i would share something positive from my working life. when i am on clinics, i require the students to write one multiple choice question about every case they see. i edit them for accuracy and psychometric balance and then add them to a freely accessible self-study file for the students' boards preparation. the students gain a better understanding of the challenges in question writing, greater ownership of their cases, and increased knowledge about the diseases they 'met' while on rotation. in addition, i often catch misunderstandings this way and can thus make sure they leave with the right take-home messages.

benefits to me are few. it is a time-consuming process for which i get no 'credit', the web form likes to change answers in weird ways, leaving me baffled and challenged in determining what the student might have typed, and the questions can require a LOT of work to be useable in the file.

however, it is fascinating to see what the student, coming from a very different place in his/her career, felt was important enough to score a question. sometimes, i actually get to learn something new in some way. most awesomely, some of the students write questions that reinforce all the effort spent on the floor, make me laugh, and are eminently usable.

this particular question caught me off guard and i almost choked on my coffee from the laughter and wisdom. the great thing is that it can be enjoyed without extensive medical knowledge. just ignore words that are unfamiliar - i blocked out a few to get you started...

Your favorite client brings their 1 year old dog, Brutus, in with a history of acute onset lethargy and weakness. On physical exam, the only notable abnormality is a chronically elevated temperature of 104.5. After performing many diagnostics - including thoracic radiographs, abdominal radiographs and ultrasound, CBC, chemistry, lytes and urinalysis – you still have no clue what the heck is causing Brutus’ fever. You decide the best thing you can do is refer Brutus to the local veterinary college.

Prior to sending Brutus to the referral institution, what is your best course of action?

A) Give Brutus a shot of dexamethasone - it’s got to make him feel better.

B) Start Brutus on doxycycline - you heard somewhere that tick borne diseases were common in the area.

C) Give nothing - even though it kills you to watch Brutus suffer like this.

D) Give Brutus dexamethasone and doxycycline - you may not know what is going on but this should be a good start.

Answer: C

this was a challenging case where we actually had to stop medications and let the dog get much sicker before we could get a diagnosis and thus a cure.

the typical student would have written, "What test should you perform next?" this student, however, took away something more valuable. he read about the disease in humans and learned that the time to diagnosis was nine days if the primary care doctor started treatments before a diagnosis was made but only five if the doctor referred without starting treatment. in his question, he validated the pressure the doctor feels to 'fix it' - this is big because it is easy to do nothing on paper when one is talking concepts but hard to do nothing when you have an emotional investment, have to meet someone's eyes, and still say no. finally, he made it funny, so any student reading this question will remember it and the lesson it contains.

this student is why i do these damned questions.

because PETA made it go away

i have been resisting posting this, but after Lara brought up one of the many many ways that PETA is satan-spawn evil sucks, i find myself helpless to resist. although they could not be bothered did not have the resources to find homes for 3,031 of the 3,042 animals they 'rescued' in 2006 and consider it 'okay' to burn lab animals alive to make a 'statement', they found plenty of time and money to strong-arm Traveler's Insurance to pull a clever, funny and not-the-least-bit-cruel advertising campaign: the Rabbit Foot Reattachment Campaign.

i loved this commercial and can only be comforted because my honey went to great lengths to score me one of the highly sought stuffed bunnies to shore up my morale in these ongoing sick-sick-kitty times.

oh, and i knew it would live on on You Tube... enjoy!

i can't believe we made it

thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts and wishes for Mr. Head. i was able to take him home with an indwelling IV catheter for antibiotic administration. he is doing a bit better since he got home, energy-wise, though his appetite still sucks. his bile grew E coli that is sensitive to the antibiotics we chose and his blood work yesterday was somewhat improved. hopefully, his appetite and strength will return now that the bacteria is being beaten back.

on the downside, Elise (my other cat) developed vomiting and anorexia one day after Mr. Head got sick. she had normal bloods the day before so i think it is stress/anxiety-induced. she is over the vomiting but still not eating well. if she doesn't turn today, i may have to drop in a feeding tube to try and stave off a life-threatening condition that strikes cats with sudden anorexia.

things here are strained - my two kitties lives are literally hanging in the balance after all - but we are plugging along. we got the abstract in in time Friday, so now that is in someone else's court. looking back, i still don't understand how we made it.

i met with the statistician Friday morning (while the intern was at a routine doctor's appointment) to go through the study design and hypotheses. she crunched through the database while i worked on clinics and was able to get results back to us around 3pm.

in the meantime, the intern involved in the study had to be rushed to a human emergency room for epinephrine and benadryl after eating something with nuts in it. he returned shaky and weak but still committed to getting the abstract in before he went home to collapse. we slogged through the stats (while i worried about him passing out) and managed to finish the abstract around 6pm. a couple of proofs by colleagues and in with a few hours to spare.

again i must say there has been phat spinning and knitting. (one of my students has been bringing in 'Ghetto Slang' flashcards.) but i have to go and coddle the kitties some more so pictures will have to wait. to tide you over though, here are some of the holiday knitting pix:



and a little spinning:

my Mr. Head is sick

even though it only started Wednesday, the week has been challenging. and now it has been a miserable, miserable day.

Monday i went to work to check a couple things. in a good news/bad news twist, i found an approved IACUC protocol waiting.

now, this is a good thing because i have been waiting, begging and pleading for weeks for this in the hopes of completing the study in time for the ACVIM abstract deadline. you see, i have been working with an intern that would like to pursue a residency and getting the abstract in would help his chances a lot. so getting the approved protocol is good.

the bad news is that the ACVIM deadline is Friday at midnight. Tuesday was obviously out. that means we had from Wednesday morning to Friday at midnight to draw samples on 30 animals, convince the lab to run them twice (60 samples when they normally only run two research samples a day), statistically analyze this data and then write up the abstract in time for the Friday deadline.

if that doesn't already sound like a lot to do... did i mention i came back on clinics Wednesday? that we are down one resident because she broke her foot trying to run down a car thief? (no. she did not succeed. the car was stolen, totaled and found at the bottom of a ravine.) that the other resident is quite sick and the students have started dropping as well?

then, last night, Mr. Head didn't want his breakfast.

my Mr. Head not wanting breakfast is like the Yarn Harlot not wanting to knit.

very bad. very bad stuff indeed.


so Bear came to work today to participate in the study... and Mr. Head came to work to find out what was wrong. then Bear came home from work, but Mr. Head stayed there to hopefully get better. we think he has a severe infection in his liver. he has been started on IV antibiotics and fluids. hopefully we have the right diagnosis and have discovered it soon enough.

[sigh]

before this all went to hell, there had been knitting. and spinning. and pretty pictures of knitting and spinning. those will have to wait for another day.

i leave you with a picture of my Mister:

Christmastime has gone and the goose has gone as well

another Christmas has come and gone, and i sincerely hope it has brought joy and love to all of your homes.

it remains strange to have Christmas without Grandma (Mickey), but otherwise our traditions remain fairly unchanged - even with celebrating in Knoxville instead of Nashville. this year, for the Cookie drop we made Tollhouse chocolate chip, peanut butter, chocolate peanut butter chip, oatmeal raisin, sugar cookies with icing, and pecan puffs. we also added on Ranger cookies - who knew dates and coconut would work so well together - and... [drumroll please] gingerbread cookies! it had been long enough since the great gingerbread debacle of 2002 that we were willing to try again. we used an entirely different recipe (which we completely screwed up the first time round anyway) and eventually ended up with cookies that behaved suspiciously like food!

we followed Grandma's approach to the puffs to the T [only use cake flour, sift three times before measuring, use room temperature butter, roll in Confectioner's sugar a second time once the cookies are truly cool....] and we came surprisingly close. next year we think we will nail it. the peanut butter cookies, Mickey's other specialty, were yummy but not nearly as close to replicating her genius. as we decided it should be. we do have some ideas for next year though.

after a last heroic push to finish and package all the cookies*, we had dinner from our 'Chinese place' - a wonderful Thai restaurant called Lemon Grass.

*don't worry- there were a few left for our own noshing...

because i was on clinics through Christmas eve morning, we were up awfully early and ended up too tired for the 11 o'clock Christmas eve service. instead, we all gathered round the table with Grandma's little ceramic tree, Mom told us how Grandma would read the Christmas story from Luke to them when she was a child, and then she read it to us by candlelight. it was quite special and really felt like Mickey was with us. we reflect about how terrifying it must have been for Mary, a teenage girl with no mother in sight, to labor amongst the cows to bring forth the Greatest Gift.

to bed we retreated, in hopes of sugarplums and reindeer and peace and goodwill. Christmas morning we woke to discover full stockings. A Christmas Carol starring Patrick Stewart (one of our favorite versions) played while Mom and I made the cranberry relish, bread dressing and prepped the turkey. then we all dug in to our stockings with glee. we listened to the Muppets Christmas with John Denver while enjoying scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. [and bacon!] we were going to have mimosas with our breakfast like Mickey loved so much, but we forgot to pick up Champagne!

after breakfast, we made final preparations for the Cookie Drop:



since it is the first time we have 'dropped' in Knoxville, it took a lot of legwork to track down our fire stations, ERs and police but we were up for the challenge. Roland drove and Travy kept us out of trouble. this year we visited my work (the animal ER is open for Christmas as well, you know), the Bearden Fire Station, City of Knoxville Fire Station on Portsmouth, Highway Patrol, John Duncan Fire Station, TSA screening at the Tyson-McGhee Airport, a failed attempt at the alleged police station near our house (bad intel on this one), Park West Medical ER and then - just for good measure since we knew they were open - the Thai restaurant.

we were a bit uncertain about how we would be received now that the terrorist 'threat' is a constant orange, but everyone was happy to see us and the firemen especially wouldn't have minded if we stopped to stay awhile! we aren't sure if the TSA people ate their cookies - they don't have history with us like they do at BNA in Nashville - but we enjoyed delivering them so either way it was a success.

home was a welcome sight as the clock rolled round to 3:30. it took no time at all to pop the turkey in and then finally it was time for presents. Roland loved his socks (whew!); Mom loved her stole, socks and footies; and Travy was totally shocked (in a good way) to receive his slippers. i was quite well-spoiled as well. Travy gave me wool and yak fiber, a special project bag for Madrona, DPN WIP tubes, and a generous supply of Woodbeams. Mom and Roland delighted me with both the slow and super slow whorls and another bobbin for my wheel.

after presents, i showed Mom the finished Comfort Shawl. she asked whether i might consider giving it to a member of her choir who has developed Lou Gehrig's disease and has great difficulty pulling sweaters on. it seemed a perfect idea so the Comfort Shawl is now on his way to a new home.

Kelly and Bill called from Ireland, where they are enjoying a wonderful holiday with Joanie Baloney, who is still going strong. it was wonderful to talk to them and hear all about Joanie. we have never met her, but she remains like family we have always known.

finally, we wrapped up our magical night with A Child's Christmas in Wales and Elf. [we were going to watch Amahl but the DVD player was acting out. if Christmas is here next year, we will have another plan in place!] it was a wonderful day, full of love and joy and the magic of the miracle.

so from our family to yours, here is hoping you had a magical Christmas and wishing you a Joyous New Year!

the seventh inning stretch of holiday knitting...

otherwise known as 'Next year I have got to make a schedule (and coordinate with shipping windows).'

here it is, one week and some hours before Santa hitches on the reindeer to bring wonder to children everywhere. my trees shine merrily, the bushes twinkle and our shepherd's crooks remind me of mono-color candy canes. the new Christmas movies battle for viewing time against the ever thickening crush of NFL games and 13.4* hours of Christmas music. the Christmas cards i almost never successfully send stare at me from a basket on the wall as if to say, 'This year? Could it be this year that we go to the show?'

holiday knitting has reached a new fervor as projects multiply like tribbles in the night and the shipping window completely closes. for unknown reasons, i have gotten out of the habit of making a Christmas list of my family (blood and otherwise) and their intended presents. as the year has gone by, i have bookmarked certain project ideas in my head for certain people and even stashed some completed objects in my 'gift hutch' as i went. my grasp on time, however, has been poor and it wasn't until the Yarn Harlot began posting her holiday knitting schedule that i recognized how the projects had been queuing up in the background and realized how quickly the month was getting away from me. it did not help that i spent last weekend in Georgia at a Continuing Education series - i could knit neither while driving the 5 hours each way nor while practicing advanced scoping procedures in a live animal lab.

so when this weekend came up fast and furious, responding in kind was imperative...

and respond i did...

but i can't show you any of it for fear of blowing the surprise.

the project list has been beaten back to semi-manageable, but the shipping window is sealing up tight as Mr. Scrooge's purse! there is no ducking the truth- some presents will be late reaching their new homes. sigh.


*my current iTunes tally yet to my bafflement it is still sadly deficient. example: although i have been 'given' it twice and actually received it once (right before the accident so not too shocking it disappeared), i still do not have the Muppets Christmas with John Denver CD.

---

thank you all for your kind comments upon my friend's wife's passing. after some discussion, i have decided to finish the comfort shawl and donate to a charity auction for breast cancer research funding.

Comfortless shawl

last night, the person for whom i was knitting this comfort shawl died.

though you know nothing of her, please keep her husband and two teenage children in your prayers.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat!

oh joy, oh contentment- how i love Christmas!

the decorations are finally up and this year there are so many. our place is so much bigger than my old apartment, so there is room, and i have many of my Grandma's Christmas things to bring her with us into the season.

downstairs is my big ol tree:

and now we have an upstairs for the little tree i got when i was an undergrad. i have decorated it with a bucket of nutcracker ornaments of Mickey's and her angel rests on top.



after chores, some work and decorating, Sunday was mostly free. Christmas is going to be here this year so i really have to start scouting a route for the Great Cookie Drop*, but that is the stuff of the workweek.

*somehow, we took no pictures last year! how strange.

Sunday i crafted. i cannot show my work, for it was almost all Christmas knitting! how very joyful. joyful enough that i can share a personal disappointment... i was really hoping to go to Madrona this coming year. i desperately wish to be able to knit the Mittens of Rovaniemi.

unfortunately, registration opened the day i started an emergency rotation right after i had to start work. by the time i could take 5 minutes to register, it was 2pm here and the page was broken. it finally reopened around 6pm but everything was full! i emailed Suzanne for advice and she said to send her my course requests and she would get back to me in a week. well, it has obviously been much more than a week (poor Suzanne). i threw everything out so i wouldn't get too bitter and yesterday i finally emailed to retract my time off request. :(

then, about 8:30 last night, i got quite a surprise when Suzanne called to say she could get me into my second choices and also my most important first - the mittens class. i can barely believe it. so, i will be seeing many of you this spring after all!

surviving the Fire Swamp and pansy showers

first off, thanks to everyone for the support after my last post. it appears to have been a drug reaction! i have been able to wean off of a couple medications since the longer-onset allergy/asthma treatments have achieved full efficacy and am happy to report that the pain has mostly lifted. i think Travy is even happier than i am - he says that i no longer seem to be struggling just to live through the day, that i seem a lot more like i am actually alive instead of just barely living. it will probably still be a long road to fully regaining my 'me', but it is nice to be able to see 'around' the pain.

because Travy will not be able to get time off at Christmas, i sent him home to Colorado for Thanksgiving. i couldn't go anywhere since i am on clinics, but it is not the first Thanksgiving i have spent 'alone'. my service ended up with a number of inpatients so i spent a fair bit of time at the hospital, especially Thursday/Friday. mainly i have spent my 'holiday' navigating the swamp of impending deadlines, lectures, and research work. it took most of Thursday, Friday and a good part of Saturday, but i finally feel i have tamed most of my ROUS's.

...enough so that i was able to make a run to Home Depot yesterday. i have been looking forward to Tennessee winter so eagerly because it brings the Tennessee winter annual. the pansy. i love pansies. actually, i love all of the flower-faced flowers- pansies, violas and violets.

with as poorly as i have been feeling, i was starting to worry i would not get to have my own pansies. it shouldn't come as surprise, therefore, that i kinda overshot with the flower purchases. not that it is possible to have too many pansies but the space available to me really does not wish to accommodate two flats each of violas and pansies with an additional flat of Dusty Miller for good measure. so i did what any sane person would- i planted every inch of space available in my yard and then rang my elderly neighbor's doorbell.

her: Yes?
me: Hi! I kind of overshot with the pansies and was wondering whether you would like me to plant some in your yard.
her: Um. It is a little chippy out. Are you sure you aren't catching a chill?
me: No, no. I'm fine. Plenty warm. But I still have a lot of flowers. So I was wondering whether you would like me to plant some for you...?
her: [trying to subtly place herself a little more squarely behind her door] So, what was your name? I seem to have forgotten.
me: Jacqui. So... would you like some pansies?
her: Well, I don't really take care of things but if you think they won't need care... I guess you could plant them.
me: Great!
her: [awkward pause] Well, you take care.
me: You too! Have a great weekend.

i planted a lot of pansies in her yard and still ended up digging out an additional flower pot to finish them off. i was going to put the pot on her porch but decided that might be a little too much for her.

last night, after i finished up my chores and a battled a few more ROUS's, i kicked off the annual 'Drown myself in Christmas movies' marathon. yesterday's new find was A Grandpa for Christmas with Ernest Borgnine. it seems wrong somehow to compare them, but his demeanor and mannerisms reminded me so much of Mickey that it was almost like she wasn't so far away. i miss her miss keenly this year... i think last year there was still so much shock that i couldn't exactly feel my response to her absence.

i was also able to finish up some spinning and take pictures of all my recent crafting... dig.

Meet the 70s sock weight:


No. 2 fingering weight (carbonized bamboo):


Rodeo skies sport weight:


Rodeo skies bulky:


there is knitting content as well.

Christmas socks:


Mystic Waters lace:


today i have some reading to do about Ankylosing Spondylitis for two of my dearest and most beloved friends. [no, i didn't forget. i just haven't been able to think well enough at the end of the day to do this sooner.]

where we celebrate the headache

today i went to see the internist who also took my headache seriously. so seriously, in fact, that she ordered a same-day CT scan. six stress-filled hours, three work projects, and the first half of a sock foot knit, frogged and rebuilt, later...

i am proud to report that although my mind may sometimes be dirty, my brain is clean!

so tonight i am celebrating that i have a headache because - although we haven't figured out how to get rid of it yet - headache is certainly a big step closer to healthy than brain tumor would be.

here i bring you Harvest Gourds... i'm calling it that because the colors are true to all those random squashes with which holiday tables are festooned. it is 4 oz BFL from the painted sheep in colorway Tiger Lily, final WPI=16. there is about 500 yards. it also is the first yarn i have spun on my new wheel (wheeeeeeee!) and my first experience with double drive. given those caveats, i am pretty happy.

odd ends

my productivity has been poor, both craft-and life-wise, because i continue to struggle with the headache that will not die. two weeks ago, i realized it had been pretty much six weeks with no respite. the allergy meds had finally kicked in but the pain remained...

bummer.

[copious whining redacted]

in the end, the allergist scripted me antibiotics for sinus infection. the pharmacist was impressed with the dose and duration. keep your fingers crossed.

which is a long way of saying, anything i have been trying to do the last two weeks is late and probably not done yet since my head still hurts.

craft updates:

Sweet Peas are blocked and lovely. blocking wires made the blocking so much faster and less painful.

Pumpkin Eater after setting the twist. 3 ply of Suffolk, Suffolk and tussah silk. 17 WPI. perfect for socks.

baby blankie for charity. brainless. allowed me to control nervous energy during meetings without herniating brain.


and i completely missed politics this election cycle. [tsk]

go vote.

here he is...

My first wheel!!
Originally uploaded by jacquichris

[or at least i think it is a he. ]

my first wheel.

SQUEEE!!!!!!!

SAFF was a delight overall, though i was shocked and somewhat dismayed to discover i came home with less than $100 of fiber and yarn, once presents were set aside. [Travy is very disappointed in my lack of stash accumulation, esp since i spent the entire night before planning and packing like i was headed on an arctic expedition.]

i was well-rewarded for waiting on a wheel until i could try them all. i really really thought i would be buying the Majacraft Rose but i did not like her, not at all. it came down to the Lendrum and the handsome devil you see here. after much debate, i ended up committing to my new boyfriend, the Schacht DT Matchless. while i was at it, i also picked up a superfast whorl and two fast bobbins.

Pumpkin eater
Originally uploaded by jacquichris

i had dragged my toes on plying up my October SAL and so was able to enjoy using my new fella and a tensioned Lazy Kate for the job. i am incredibly pleased with the yarn. it is 2 plies of the space-dyed Suffolk with one ply of tussah silk from Abby's Yarns. the twist is currently setting and the WPI to follow thereafter.

this weekend i also managed to finish the Sweet Pea stole. only blocking remains. hopefully my lace wires will arrive before i exhaust my tolerance for its current crumpled form. i cast on a crocheted baby blankie for charity and a a second project toward my Christmas goals. [bonus: i learned a new cast-on technique: the Lighter Circular Cast-on. Sweet indeed.]

it is these things that comfort me given the underwhelming interest in the PIF post. if i don't get more sign-ups, perhaps i will just gift Lara thrice?

Pay It Forward

... or if you stop lurking and comment already, you may receive a wonderful treat! :)

after signing up over on Maggie May's* blog, i am exciting to share the PIF game! here is the game:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

so here i am, promising three jacqui-made wonders... don't leave me standing all alone on prom night!

* i know her name isn't Maggie May, but with all the rain, i am in a Vega sort of mood.

Postcard for Burma
Originally uploaded by trudib1974

Courage is grace under pressure. ~Hemingway

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. ~Winston Churchill

Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow. ~Mary Anne Radmacher

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. ~C.S. Lewis

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer. ~George Smith Patton

when i was seventeen,

it was a very good year WPI,
it was a very good year WPI
with narrow gauge for sharp pointy sticks...

so yesterday i finally sat down and determined the WPI for all the yarns i have spun thus far. turns out i am very very consistent. perhaps a little too consistent. in spite of differences in fiber types, plying styles and plying speeds, my WPI were all 18 except for one 16.5. [i also had one 17 but i am pretty sure i subconsciously fudged that because i was disconcerted by all the consistency.]

i think i will be forced to try and spin my next yarn a little thicker.

this, however, is Mallard. it is a wool / silk blend that i bought at my first guild meeting. twelve ounces quietly minding its own business and waiting for me to be ready. i am going to try to keep up with a Spin Along on Ravelry. October's theme is:
Halloween colors / Plying with nubs / Silk (tussah, ingeo, hankies etc)

i didn't think i was ready to go full-on into the theme so i pulled out Mallard to gain some experience with silk. i have spun and plied 8 oz so far and am almost through the last 4. it is turning out quite lovely and a shocking 18 WPI. lol.

once i have completed Mallard, i will be spinning the Suffolk Linda and i dyed and then some silk i have that matches for a final ply together. perhaps afterwards, i will feel comfortable that i can spin the gorgeous silk Denise sent me without totally ruining it.

random joyfulness of the week sent to me from my dear friend Steinie: Snowball rocks out.

in other good news, my continued conscious attempt to limit typing appears to finally be bearing fruit- my arm is way less painful this weekend than it has been in weeks.

Hoover

Hoover
Originally uploaded by jacquichris

My fourth yarn. The wool is a sheep named Hoover, the product of a Romney/Corrie and [i forgot] cross. The roving nigh spun itself. I am pretty darn happy with the improvement in consistency. I forgot my little leftover ball (it wouldn't fit on the bobbins with the rest) when i plied Friday but finished him up Sunday.

Sweet Peas
Originally uploaded by jacquichris

i finally have hit the halfway point on this lace 'scarf'. although i like the pattern, i probably won't do another one like it. it is constructed in stages: knit 1st border, knot middle, knit second border. the borders are 30 stitches long for a total of ~440 rows and the center is 15 rows. the zillion short rows end up taking forever relative to the longer rows. in the future, i will probably try to stick with lace that doesn't have so many short rows.

Saturday i went to a dye-in with Linda. she brought roving from her Suffolk which we dyed in variety of happy yellows and oranges. the first of the rovings i kept is this, which i am looking forward to using for an Halloween themed SAL.

i also found time to start spinning a silk-wool blend that i purchased when i barely had started learning. it is spinning up quite lovely and may actually be fine and regular enough for lacework. we'll see... perhaps i will swatch it for the Mystic Waters KAL. hmm...