A Good Day Sept - Oct.

I have been neglecting my blog all summer, because life has been busy. I have my daughter living with me now and she is working full time, I have my girlfriend here too, as well as taking in two housemates! We have a full house, not counting the extra three cats and two dogs that are part of the family now. I love it.

As you know, the market as been tough and it seems that it is not getting any easier as so many of the banks and lenders are having such trouble. The future is uncertain in that regard, but I realized today: I have yarn to last me 2 to 3 years, at least! LOL

It is the simple things that keep ya going, ya know? Like looking forward to seeing fall leaves on my cruise of the west coast. We leave tomorrow. Like knitting with soft yarn in a great color. Like selling a house every now and again. So all is well in my world as of right now.

I took a look at my UFO's and decided which ones to continue with. I made a list of gift knitting and swap knitting. I also made a list of things I can knit to sell. I am having my knitting and spun yarn juried in November so that I can sell things at the Tucson Museum of Art Sale at the Weavers and Spinners guild booth. I know that the profit is small, but the joy is large.

Enjoy your fall season everyone. Ours is slow in coming but by Halloween we should be basking in 70 degree days and 45 degree nights. Another reason to love Halloween!

The head picture is of some yarn I spun in a Spin a long from the ravelry group Spin Big! I had a blast drum carding the batt and spinning a thick, even single! Great progress in my hopes to spin Malabrigo like yarn!

Great Gratuate!

Had a great time with the kids up in Bellingham WA and Sharayah Graduated with Honors from the Psychology Department! Enjoy, More later...
This is an example of WHY people move to the NW. ONE DAY in 20!

Me and my three great Kids!

New Tattoo!

Well, I finally took the plunge and got a tat on my lower back. I had been thinking about it alot a few years ago, but put it on hold when I learned from my daughter that they were called "tramp stamps". Put a damper on my enthusiasm. Well, with all the changes that have taken place in the last 3 months, I got the urge again to get another tattoo and felt that if I got one that you couldn't see with clothes on, that it wouldn't really be a TS, so here she is:



The dragon is my protector power animal and the spiral is the source of creative energy and spirit connection. I went to Maggie May's in Tucson and had Steve, their main artist help me with the design. I decided after seeing this picture, that he really has a special passion for his work!



Notice I am attempting to Knit! Hahaha! I got a few stitches in and realized that my tension would be waaay too tight if I continued. LOL So my friend AarYn helped to distract me while Steve was working on me.


Well, on Tuesday I am off to Seattle, then Bellingham, to attend my daughter Sharayah's graduation from Western Washington. She is being honored as the top student in the psychology department as well as graduating Magna Cum Laude! I will have lots of pics for the blog when I get back. I am also going to meet Hoptoad (Ravelry name) for some geocaching while up with my brother. Really looking forward to it! Sorry that I haven't done more blogging in the last few weeks. Life has been hectic, but happy. Sales are still going well and my financial future looks brighter by next month! Hugs to all, Kc

Learning to Weave!

Jill spining in the background
Lura, my weaving teacher.




This is my true begining into Weaving! On Tuesday,with my dear friend Lura's help, I got a warp on the warping board and got the table loom threaded. It did take a while, but I enjoyed the process, which, I understand is a really good thing!


Then, a few days later, I went back to Lura and Jill's house and got the warp tied on and began to WEAVE! Yes, really, folks. All I could do was sing "I am a weaver now" The checks began to appear as if by magic, and it is so fast! I think I am going to be hooked, if I am not already!

It was so nice to be there and all three of us kept chatting. Jill is my spinning instructor and now to learn weaving from Lura, I am twice blessed with such good friends. and they only live 5 minutes from me!

On the work front, things are going well. We are still selling and my company was number 1 in the Tucson market for home builders for the month of April! And a third of those numbers were ours, at our subdivision! Now, if the houses will close...I can get paid!

I will be going to Cats on Sunday night with Jill, Lura and a new friend, Chris. I have never seen the musical, just know some of the songs from Choir and such. Really looking forward to it. I am going to scoot out of work early and meet everyone for dinner and then the show. I am really pumped. Life is good. Hugs to all, KC

Trip to Show Low, or My friends are Aces!

I took off in a rented Mazda 5 on Monday afternoon. Fortified with Chocolate and water and a full tank of gas, I left my worries and bald tires behind, along with the desert heat.

The drive up was fun in the sporty sedan and as always, I enjoyed the scenery. (sorry, didn't think to stop for pics). Let's just say that the drive up has similar vistas to the Grand Canyon, but if you stop to do much looking, you stand the chance of getting behind a Walmart Truck and going REALLY slow! I did get a lot of zip in the passing lanes, they are right about the Zoom,Zoom on the commercials.

I stayed with my BFF Marilyn, who happens to be a Shaman. I got a lot of time to just be, and got some spiritual clearing treatments that were really beneficial. Marilyn and I went shopping on Tuesday and went to two thrift stores, two high end country style gift shops, the yarn store and the quilt store! I have purchases from each one, of course!

My favorite purchase was at the St.Vincent dePaul's: A soft as butter, wonderfully worn, Black Leather Jacket! I call it my "alter ego" biker chick coat!

Tuesday night we had a girls craft night where I worked on a beater for my drum, Marliyn painted on Coyote gourd rattles and Minda sewed some leather medicine bags. Barb kept up company and we all had a wonderful time.

As with all friendships, I got to learn something new about Marilyn this trip. She Loves to Weed her yard! Here she is enjoying her favorite past time!


The picture at the top is aview from her deck. Really a slice of heaven on earth.

The ride home was quick and I picked my car with the new tires on it and home I went. The dogs were glad to see me and the cat dissapeared as soon as I fed her. Cats!

I am going to give some more time tonight to the Amanda Hat, just so I can finish it. Not crazy about the pattern stitch, but the color of Malabrigo is outstanding. I haven't gotten my malabrigo swap yet, so I must have someone who is waiting for everything to come in before they send it. I need to check Rav to see if my swapee enjoyed her package. She got it and didn't post before I left. Back to work routine tomorrow. All is well.

Happy May Day

I have been extra occupied this last 4 weeks, but I have something to show for it. Mr. Greenjeans is done! This picture is pre-blocking and I think it looks Great! And it fits just right, too. I have it soaking in the sink and will lay it out to block before work.

My dogs, Hershey & Lucky are waiting anxiously with me while it soaks....


My Cat, Minkus, is not so enthused!


But they are my household now. I am single as of middle of March. My life partner and I went our seperate ways back in March and we are both doing just fine, if not better. We remain friendly and are trading dog sitting. She took Molly and Willie to live with her and I kept Hershy, Lucky and Minkus. She is living nearby in one of the furnished rentals that she owns and I will living here.

I continue to look forward to my oldest daughter, Sharayah, coming to live with me in July and I will be flying up to Seattle to attend her graduation in June from Western Washington University.

My work life has become wonderfully busy as well. I wrote up four contracts last Sunday. I haven't been that busy for sooo long. And my sales partner, Joan, wrote 4 over Saturday and Sunday. So the future is very bright financially, which helps my piece of mind soo much, as you can imagine.

I want to thank a special Ravelry friend, Spinknit aka Leanne, for her love and support. She and I have never met, except through Ravelry and yet we are so alike it is nearly spooky! She has been a rock these last several weeks as I would pour my heart out on the message post and she would respond with kind and gentle truths. Breaking up hurts, but the hurt passes. There are good days and not so good days, but day by day I will become stronger and better and more myself than ever before. And this is coming to pass. Thanks, Leanne.

Well, I had better get Mr. G out of the soak and block him so I can get to work on time and sell a few more houses! Hugs to all,

Fibers Through Time was Fabulous!

Some of our class. Anne Fletcher is showing her hand spun and how she split a roving and used each color in differend skeins.



I got back Sunday night and got the garage arranged better for a dye studio. I was so excited to begin dyeing roving to spin! I worked yesterday and wrote two contracts, Yeah! So today and tomorrow, my days off, I can concentrate on fiber and house cleaning :)

In our Color in Spinning class, the teachers were Jill Holbrook and Mary Snyder. We spent the first day carding 20 samples and blending colors to create a rainbow for our notebook! The only bad thing was all the fiber in the air made my allergies so bad that by the evening I was drugged up to the max and had to go to bed at 8 pm! Not like me at all! But the next day we spun hand painted rovings in different ways so my nose was much better. This is Mary showing us how to Handy Ply. It is like Andean plying but you don't go around your middle finger both ways.
www.knitty.com/issuewinter05/FEAThandyplying.html



We helped each other alot and I made several new friends. Marty (in the puppy shirt on my right) showed me how to wind a small skein on my foot!

We learned how to fractally spin our fiber for subtle striping and also navajo ply which gives a 3 ply yarn that has more color definition because you use just one bobbin and ply the yarn to itself. Image a large crochet chain, if you will.
I knit mine up and will make a small bag out it. The top is the fractal section and the bottom is navajo ply. I plan to embellish it with sea shells and drift wood for a beach scene. It really reminds me of the beaches in Washington where I grew up.


Also on my list of things to do today are weigh in at Weight Watchers and get my yearly mamagram. Then I will come home and get to some dyeing (I Hope!) Hugs to all! KC

Happy Spring!

Today is the first day I have begun to heat the pool. I am having some out of town family over this morning and promised the little guys that they could swim. I am going to take advantage of it myself, too. But Horror Of Horrors, My Pool Basket Ball is FLAT! This is a Major Breach! I have to go buy a pump, 'cause the one last summer broke.
For a flash back on pool fun, here is pic from September. Gotta Love a pool when it is over 100 degrees. Today won't get that hot, but hopefully up to the 80's so it will be fine for the boys. Me, I may whimp out unless the sun is beating down :)



That is my daughter, Ravel Rayah, (Sharayah) with the ball and my son Shad.

Last ditch efforts

I have been madly crocheting the handspun shawl that I am putting in the Fibers through Time Gallery. It is a great pattern by local fiber guru, Kathy Withers of Unique Designs. I was hoping to finish last night and block this morning, but of course, my friend Murphy showed up and said HA right in my face. I am about 4 yards short of yarn to finish the last row. I think I can spin more to match. going to give it a go here in a moment, but thought I would let you all know how it goes.

Had a great time with Sharayah here. We knit and watched movies and she participated in our Gansey study group and came home and knit nearly the entire teddy bear sweater in the following days! The girl is amazing!

She is back in Bellingham,WA now for a few more months to finish her BA, then she comes to live here, YEAH! She called yesterday and told me it was snowing up there. She was so dejected and is so looking forward to being here in the sunshine, it was rather sweet.

E is for Exact!

I was having trouble coming up with an example of E, until I dyed my Bare sock yarn from Knitpicks to match my Apricot Malabrigo. I would say, that for an hobbyist dyer, I got an EXACT match on the wonderful peachy color! My yarn is on the left and the Malabrigo is on the right. What do you think? Pretty good, Eh?

I ordered more of the Apricot so that I can knit up the Sunkist pattern that is on Ravelry. It is a cropped top down sweater that I am going to alter to have some open lacy texture. Malabrigo is a wonderful yarn, soft and warm. The pattern will help me have a sweater that will be easy to wear in the summer here in all the cold air conditioned places. And, of course, I will have socks that match! Too Cool.

I am making good progress on my Mr. Greenjeans sweater, but I don't think I will have it done in time to wear it for St. Patty's. I have to finish the second clog for the class I am teaching this Saturday first. then I can concentrate on Mr. Greenjeans. Then I have to crochet the shawl for Fibers Through Time by April 3rd! I must love the excitement that deadlines bring, or else I am an Excitement Junkie!

I will keep you all up to date as I can. My best friend comes tonight for a short visit and then Saturday my daughter, Rayah, comes for 10 days! Woo Hoo! I love having company, especially when we have our cleaning gal coming on Friday. LOL Plus I have the whole weekend off.

Hey, another thing to let you know, I can go back to a 5 day work week next week! I will have Tuesday and Wednesday off every week and boy, will I love it! I can go back to my Tuesday weight watchers meeting in the morning and I can go to the Weavers and Spinners guild meetings on the 4th Wednesdays! I just have to trade with my partner to be able to go to the knitters guild on the third Thursdays.
It will be so great to not have to work 7 to 9 days in a row anymore. Halle Lu :)

First Class a Success!

I really enjoyed teaching the fiber trends felted clogs class yesterday! I had two students and both got a good start on their first one. I had typed out the first 6 rows to be more readable with only the numbers for the women's medium. I really recomend this to you all. If you need it, I can email it to you.

To keep us relaxed, I brought my ipod boom box and played music from the movie "Emma" as well as some soundscape background music. And I brought some girl scout cookies. We drank tea and had a great time! We meet again next Saturday to go over the cuff and double sole and felting tips. Then I can join the spinning group there afterwards!

I got my first shipment of fiber from Spunky Eclectic's fiber club yesterday! It is South African Fine and is really soft. I will add a picture when Blogger let's me. It is on the blink right now. The colors are pink, yellow and a very subtle lavender.

Almost Malabrigo March!

Here are some photos of the swatches that I have been working on for Mmmalabrigo March for the Ravelry group. I will be participating in the Mr. Greenjeans sweater KAL
The yarn I am knitting it with is the Malabrigo worsted Merino in Emerald Blue. I got it from www.yarnzilla.com. They have great customer service and I recommend them, plus the shop owner is participating in the Mr. GJ KAL, which is a fun bonus for me!
The purple swatch will probably be for a hat KAL as well. The Malabrigo group in Ravelry is hopeing that with everyone casting on at the same time on March 1, it will push Malabrigo Merino up to number one on the Ravelry Yarn List!

I also finished Clara's Quant headband. I am really ahead with her birthday, which is toward the end of March. Her main present is already up in Everett! I just love internet shopping for long distance gift giving, don't you?

I have been battling a nasty cold that turned into infection this last week. Now that I am on antibiotics, I am feeling much better. I did get some knitting done while I stayed at home, but I had to rest alot and as well as feeling yukky and coughing constantly, I went through an emotional wringer. I got mad and cried and acted out. Being sick really can get me off my even keel. I am glad to be almost back to my happy go lucky self, today.

I also want to thank all of you who check in regularly to this blog. I know I don't respond to each post, but I want you to know how much your comments mean to me. They always make me smile and give me some good things to think about.

D is for DONE!

I finished the Noro vest! It steam blocked just great. I will show it at my knitting guild tomorrow and then take it to the shop to try to get students to sign up for the class. I think it will fit my daughter just fine.

D is also for Dragon. Here is my favorite guardian!


Tomorrow after guild, a few of us will be learning how to decifer EZ's rib warmer pattern. I am making mine out of cotton. I have knit a multi needle gauge swatch and washed it. The cotton really moves, stretches and relaxes when washed! The pattern calls for size 9 needles and 4 stitches per inch with yarn doubled. I think my best needle size to get gauge may end up being size 6!

ABC along

I found this group on Ravelry and decided to play! They started in January, so I am a bit late, but here are the first three letters to get me caught up:
A is for Amethyst and B is for Bird. This is the hand carved Bird that Ann got at the gem show last week. It is so lovely in our living room.

C is for Chiminea. We love having a warm fire burning on the back porch this time of year.
Cis also for Chakras. I feel it helps me to meditate on the different chakra's to align my body/mind connection.

EEk! I Steeked!

Well, I sucessfully sewed and steeked my noro vest! And I sewed up the sides and did the 3 needle bind off at the shoulders. It is amazing how Fear keeps a good knitter down. This is my first time really putting a garment together. So now I can really say that "I am a Fearless Knitter" Enjoy the pictures of my process. And,yes, that is a dirty vodka martini beside my sewing machine, with nods to EZ.

I am now knitting the ribbing around the neck edge, which did need to be restarted, as at first, I kept going in the round, rather than turning and going back. This will help create the overlap in the front for a nice finished look, I think.

We had a nice, quiet Valentines day here. We stayed home and watched "Becoming Jane" which is about Jane Austin's early life as a writer. I do reccommend it, but be warned, we both cryed buckets at the end.

Hope you all are well, and I want you to know that I do appreciate the few loyal readers who comment. I haven't forgotten our comment drawing. I will be coming up with a new one very soon! KC

Good spinning!

I wanted to share some of the pics of my weeks spinning. I really have appreciated having my spinning to relax me when the vest went south. I am getting better and am excited to start knitting some small projects with what I have. I am also thinking I will knit a swatch with the hand dyed commercial for the Mr. Green Jeans! Tell me what you think.
I have Monday and Tuesday off this week and will spend both days at the Tucson Gem and Mineral show. It is a huge, city wide event that is so much fun. On Monday, I will go with two beading friends to the bead shows and on Tuesday I will be with Ann and a new friend, Tonya, and we will do some of the rocks and imports as well as some beads. I hope I won't be tempted to buy too much, as I have most of my purchases from last year sitting in my bead drawers! I just love knitting too much right now to take out any bead projects. How do you handle having multiple craft loves?
Have a great week and hug a knitter this week! KC