Pre-Thanksgiving Randoms

This dandy little item is advertised as a tea cozy. There is also a somewhat matching hat pattern available. I would normally give credit where credit is due, but I'm not sure that the woman needs encouraging, although she might need some new medication.

This is a note received from a friend of mine:

A Love Story
I will seek and find you.
I shall take you to bed and have my way with you
I will make you ache, shake & sweat until you moan & groan.
I will make you beg for mercy, beg for me to stop.
I will exhaust you to the point that you will be relieved when I'm finished with you.
And, when I am finished, you will be weak for days.

All my love,

The Flu

Now, quit thinking about sex and go get your flu shot!

Her timing, was, as usual, perfect. My arm is bruised from Sunday's flu shot, given by the nurse who flunked "Giving Shots 101".

I swiped this from Mouse:

Thanksgiving Horoscope for Gemini

You're the sign most likely to bring up interesting and controversial topics at Thanksgiving dinner. Your signature dish: Sweet potatoes with marshmallows Your signature dessert: Pumpkin cheesecake This holiday: Play bartender. You're family is much more lively with a few drinks in them.

What's Your Thanksgiving Horoscope?

I'm not sure about the marshmallows, but I do know that having a drink or two sure makes my day easier!

Some Finished Stuff

How about that? Some finished objects and really cute kitty pictures. My spokeskitty, Bubba, says both beds are acceptable. They are both knitted from Cat Bordhi's Second Treasury of Magical Knitting. I made these quite awhile ago, but they just got washed, so looked pretty good. Different yarns felt at different rates, so the blue one has always been small and the gray one always large.




There has also been some spinning around here. The top one is some polypay that I got in a swap. This sample was somewhat coarse, but it spins easily. The bottom one is the silk that I spun earlier.

The two in the middle are totally lucious Fleece Artist, 50/50 merino/silk. This stuff is a dream to spin and the colors are lovely. I navajo-plied it to keep the colors more separate. It's a shame that the sun wasn't out today, because that would have made the colors really shine!

There is even a finished project: fingerless mitts for a Christmas gift from mohair. These are one of my latest favorite projects to knit. There's a lot of good going on:
--Not much yarn is needed
--You don't have to worry about how long the recipient's hand is
--It's quite surprising how warm they keep your hands and fingers

Time to stop blogging, the critters are letting me know, loudly, that it's way past feeding time!

A Bright Light

Something quite unusual happened today. There was a bright light in the sky. I almost didn't remember what it was called: the sun!

Gypsy and I took the opportunity of what turned out to be a very nice, Indian Summer day and went for a walk in the park.

She's laying in what is left of the lovely leaves of autumn. They don't last long, but sure are pretty while they're here.

We found a few things to take pictures of: Various kinds of berries...black, yellow and white, staghorn sumac and some deer prints.






From the size of the footprints I was seeing, there are some really, really big deer in the park and a lot of them. There were prints everywhere, little 3/4 inch ones right up to to a solid 4 inches long.

Our nice day was pretty short-lived. By evening, it was back to gray and it's raining again. The 10-day forecast says maybe we'll the sun again next Tuesday.

Excuses, Excuses

Well, this is just going to be a post full of excuses. I did not bother to take a Saturday Sky picture a few days ago. It was gray then, gray on Sunday, gray today...typical November around here. It's not even an interesting gray, just a solid, often damp, gray.

This, however, is a bit better. I finished spinning the Fleece Artist roving (pictures on a future post) so Trouble decided that she would occupy the basket. Isn't there a saying something like "nature abhors a vacuum"? Apparantly, this is our local version of it.

I was sort of planning on taking some pictures of some recently spun yarn and maybe an actual finished object. When I got home tonight from a knitting guild meeting, where I got very little knitting done, I found that we had no electric. However nice lamplight is, it's not very good for photography.

To finish off today's post, how about some parental bragging. DD did very well for her first year of barrel racing, pole bending and keyhole.

There just isn't anything else like a great big buckle to say that you done good (Novice Grand Champion).

Where did last week go?

Where did last week go? It's amazing at how quickly stuff of all sorts can fill your days. I've been keeping busy, but I think I'll post more often this coming week on specifics.

Gypsy went to her miracle groomer at Beauty in the Beast. Gypsy did her best to get messy (note the greenery and mud) and Cherry did her usual fanstastic job to make her look like an Airedale.

Gypsy says: "Do you have any idea what it takes to get this boo-ful?"

DH and I went on a road trip to an antiques mall where he shares a booth. Let me tell you, there are some really odd road names when you get out in the country. I saw names like Buckkill Road (which sounds like an insurance deductible waiting to happen) and Snake Run Road. Now just who is running: snakes or who sees them?

While wandering around the other booths, I found this very odd item. Yep, it is what you think: an alligator in a wedding dress.

Saturday Night Sky

I had a pretty busy day today. My Mom took me along on what I call "old lady bus trips". This one went to Hamilton, Ontario to see a play called Sexy Laundry. Very, very funny. Lunch was at a German restaurant called the Black Forest Inn. If you're ever in Hamilton, go there. The Wiener Schnitzel was fabulous and so was the apple strudel. It's 10 pm and I'm still not ready for another meal. The other good thing (besides spending some time with Mom) is that there was much quality knitting time.

This is my Saturday sky picture. It's the moon rising over Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. The lengthy wait to get through US Customs was made much more entertaining by fireworks over the falls. The falls themselves were lit up but were a bit hard to see as there was quite a lot of mist.

The last stop on this little excursion was at the the duty-free shop. Well, put me on a bus for the day and my resistence level will be pretty low by evening. I came home with some Canadian beer, much chocolate and am feeling pretty good right now.

Update: Another really, really good thing to come from Canada is Rogers' Pistachio & Cherry chocolate bars.

Some Actual Knitting & Spinning

It's been awhile since there has been some actual spinning and knitting content. I really haven't forgotten how.

First off, are a whole bunch of warshcloths from Mason-Dixon Knitting. Most of them will be gifted at Christmas. They are hanging on a nifty drying stand/rack thing that DH brought home from an auction years ago. It's been hanging around getting rustier, so I finally made the time to clean it up. All those bars on it slide down so that it takes up very little space.

As far as spinning goes; I'm in love. This is a merino/silk blend from Fleece Artist and it spins up effortlessly. The plan right now is to navajo-ply it to keep the colors more separate and then knit it into a scarf and some mittens for myself.

All I can say is that it's a good thing that it's not carried anywhere local and that Nova Scotia is a long ways away!

Laid-Off: A Good Thing?

After working for Kodak for 26-1/2 years, I was laid off a few months ago. They do have a really good severance package, so my first official day of being an ex-employee was yesterday. I'm sure that there are thousands, possibly millions, of people out there who have lost their jobs over the last few years. For any politicians out there: It's the economy, stupid! For everyone else, I have a few thoughts.

For years, I thought that getting laid off was the worst thing that could happen to me (career-wise). By for years, I do mean for years. There have been lay-offs at Kodak for almost all of those years. Not only were you subjected to the constant worry of job security, but raises were either very, very small or non-existent, promotions weren't and employee "contributions" to benefits got bigger every year.

Why did I stay? A good question that I'm not sure that I have a good answer for. I think I stayed because of Kodak's reputation (possibly undeserved) of being a great employer, optimism, inertia and fear. Fear is probably the biggest reason. I didn't know if I could find as good a job and be able to support my family. I still don't know, but am about to find out.

There are a few things that I have discovered over the past couple of months:
1. I love being home and pottering about.
2. I'm also starting to get a bit (but only a bit) bored
3. I feel really good. Really, really good. Apparantly, you have no idea how much stress you're under until it's gone. There have been no headaches, backaches, general aches/pains, heartburn, allergy symptons, etc. since I was told that I was laid off.
4. It's time to figure what I want to be when I grow up, or at least head in that general direction.
5. The thought of networking almost petrifies me. I have to get over this as it is obvious that it is one of the number 1 things that contribute to successful job hunting.
6. Job hunting takes a lot of time and I mean a lot of time. I read the business section, review company's web sites, review job search sites, review training opportunities, eliminate jobs/companies that I don't want to work for and try to figure out what I do want to do.
7. It was surprisingly difficult to apply for a position for the first time in decades. I managed and I sure hope that it pans out because it's a pretty nifty job.
8. No, I'm not pinning all my hopes on one job. There are lots out there and I just have to get out there and apply for them.
9. After getting laid off once, the fear is pretty much gone. If I should land a job that I really don't like, well then, I can either make it work for me, or look for another. I am going to take more control of my career.
10. My family is incredibly supportive: they listen, talk, offer suggestions, push, help network, help with wardrobe, etc. I am very lucky.

I'm thinking that getting laid off may be one of the best things (as least career-wise) that has ever happened to me.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween gets to be a pretty low-key holiday when your child grows up. I'll admit it; I do kind of miss the excitement of getting DD ready to go out trick or treating.

However, my pumpkin is turned on and I pulled out the stops and made some cut-out cookies to celebrate. There's even icing and sprinkles. That's quite the accomplishment for me; I am definitely not known for my cake/cookie decorating skills.

We live in an area where the houses are kind of spread out, so rarely get any little trick or treaters, but we still need some treats, right?

Another rainy Saturday

There is no Saturday Sky picture as it is, once again, gray and raining. We seem to be in a weather pattern that has 1 or 2 nice days, followed by a whole bunch of wet. It would be a really bad idea to stray from any paved or graveled area as you'll definitely get very muddy and possibly stuck.

Gypsy is contributing to the generally poor housekeeping around here by tracking in much muck (and whatever else attaches itself to her). The pic is from one of her cleaner days.

I spent part of today putting some finishing touches on DD's Halloween costume. She makes quite the fetching pirate. I hope I can manage to get a picture of her in it.

The rest of the day was spent on my "homework": Cleaning up the sock machine before it gets repaired. Well, after much scrubbing, wire-wheeling, buffing and oiling, the pieces look pretty good. Let me tell you this, there are many, many pieces to this thing. In addition the machine itself, there were accessories with it, like a spool winder, a ribber, most of a swift, tools, weights and bits that you use to start a sock and do the heel. I even cleaned up the old needles that were with it. New ones are available, but I'm just frugal enough to want to make the effort.

I did finish my first little skein of silk the other day. One of the things I learned was to never ever ply silk from both ends of the ball. It will be much better for your sanity to make the effort to put it on two bobbins, then ply it.

Is there any knitting getting done? Well yes, but the only finished item escaped without it's picture being taken. It was a wee little hat for a newborn. One of DD's friends has just become an aunt.

Saturday at Rhinebeck

Wow. I was completely unprepared for how big and how many people would be at Rhinebeck! You could not ask for a nicer day: sunny, the trees at peak color and just cool enough to wear a sweater. There were so many choices of fibers, raw, processed, natural, dyed, in batts and in rovings. There were thousands (maybe millions) of choices of yarns of everything from laceweights to super bulkys in every color combination imaginable. When you weren't looking at fibery wonders in the booths, you could watch people. It seemed like almost everyone was wearing something knitted. It was serious eye candy!

I played and participated in Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo. I didn't manage to check off everyone on my card (or even get a bingo), but I did find Beverly, Cynthia, Spider, Katy, Dana, Beth, Stacey, Cathy, Iris, Dawn, Deb, Sorka and, of course, Stitchy. I also ran into Amy, Juno and Stephanie. It was truly delightful to meet fellow bloggers, not to mention completely overwhelming at how many of us were there.

As far as stash enhancement goes, I was quite restrained. There is a ball of Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch in an appealing blue and red colorway, because, after all, I must get sock yarn whereever I go. A ball of fabulous looking (and feeling) laceweight from Skaska Designs. Galina cashed me out; I felt like I had met royalty! Last, but not least, 1 pound of CVM. It's washed and only needs a bit of flicking to be ready to spin. Want a closer look? Here you go.

Today brought two new additions to our household: a mom and baby chinchillas. DD adopted them from the local humane society today. Bubba is checking them out and they really don't seem too concerned at all. The mom is the largest chinchilla I've ever seen. It's a real shame chinchilla fur is short because they are one of the softest critters you can cuddle.

Rhinebeck, Here We Come!

Awhile ago, our spinning guild (GVHG) chartered a bus for a bunch of us to go to Rhinebeck this year. I had wanted to go there for quite a few years because it sounded like a great festival. I do have a largish stash, so my main reason to go this year was for fun and to try and meet up with other bloggers. Coincidently, Stitchy came up with the marvelous idea of Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo.

As I was gently reminded earlier today, I needed to put up a picture of myself. I really dislike having my picture taken, but here it is anyway. I plan on wearing my Olympic sweater unless it's raining. In that case, there will be a white anorak over the top of it. If warm, a white tshirt. In either case, I'll put a Bingo Square button on each shoulder. My hair, thankfully, doesn't show up well in the picture. It's dark brown, fairly long and quite frizzy; pretty much out of control; I usually put it up with one of those big claw clips.

Have fun everyone!

Belated Saturday Sky

I actually did take a picture of the sky on Saturday. Obviously, it didn't get posted until now. I spent Saturday at a friend's house. She has put together a group of sock machine knitters. This was quite convenient as DH had brought home a sock machine from an auction earlier this year. One of the other members is an absolute whiz at repairing them. He looked over my Auto-Knitter and declared it to be in very good shape and only needs one part fixed. My homework is to clean up all the parts and to try to put it back together myself.

I have been knitting some, but have gotten distracted by putting together this wallhanging. I've wanted something much more fall-like for above the woodstove for quite awhile. Bubba was my fairly constant "helper" with this project.

Now that it's definitely fall, the days are shorter and there's a chill in the air, it's feeling like spinning and knitting weather. I believe that it's time to do a bit of stash diving and see what appeals to me.

In the meantime, I dug out my fake pumpkin. As much as I enjoy carving out a real pumpkin (and that great pumpkin/candle smell), this one is much easier!

Friday the 13th

There was about 3 inches of snow on the ground this morning; however, our neighbors to the west (like Buffalo, NY) got almost 2 feet of snow. Let's all send them good thoughts that the snow will melt off quickly and that the electric comes back on even quicker. It's just not fun to have no electric for an extended amount of time when it's chilly out.

To give some scale to this area, it takes us approximately 1 hour to drive from here to Buffalo. In that fairly short distance, you can go from bright blue skies to raging blizzard and back again many times during that trip. Who gets clobbered with squalls is mainly dependant on wind direction and how warm the lake water is. Lake effect is like that. I imagine if you're not used to it that it could be a bit disconcerting.

Gypsy likes snow almost as much as she likes a big pile of leaves. She came in this morning with big snowballs stuck to her legs. I missed the picture with her face almost completely covered in snow.

WTF?

One of the ways we deal with our weather around here is by saying (and actually meaning it), "If you don't like it, wait 5 minutes and it'll change."

Sometimes it takes a little bit longer than that. Yesterday, we were comfortable in shorts. Today we have this. No, those aren't extra dirty windows, that's wind-driven snow. It's not accumulating at all, which is good since I have yet to get out things like winter coats, hats, mittens and shovels.


The other day when we were out and about, we found a door with various signage on it. Just what does this mean? Let's face it, this is not one of our finer moments!

OK, now that snow is starting to stick around. As you can see, the last of the peppers are "iced" with a coating of snow. It's looking like I might just have to dig out some winter gear after all. Now where did I stash that stuff last May?

A Very Blue Saturday Sky

Today was one of those picture-perfect fall days. There wasn't a cloud in the sky (really, I'm not making this up) and about 65 F. Gypsy and I went for a walk in the park, because, really, what else should you do when it's that nice out?

For absolutely gorgeous, it's hard to beat a sugar maple in the the fall.

We are really lucky to have a park like this nearby. Some of it is wide open cut grass and there are some nice pavilions. Best of all are the miles of trails through fields, woods and even swamps.

These bushes have lots of little white berries on them. Normally, the leaves are a very dark red in autumn. I have no idea what they're called, but they're everywhere.

Even fluffy milkweed looks cool. These were still on the plant, but there were some on the trail that looked like little angora bunnies sunning themselves.

And last, but not least, a single leaf on a bed of moss in the woods.

Random Wednesday

This Wednesday is particularly random as I've been having trouble sleeping, so bear with me. I found this little guy outside the other day. Praying Mantis' are just so cool; they have no concept of what size they really are.


Gypsy is her usual charming self. She chose to decorate herself with a flower. Actually, it just got stuck on her fur. It's just amazing what that dog can drag in on herself. Autumn is one her favorite times of year. She just loves to find a great big pile of leaves and burrow in it.

I found this quiz the other day:

You Are Half Baked Ice Cream

In reality, you're just a quarter baked

What Flavor Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Are You?

That sounds about right.