Knit and Spin with Susan

Somebody dig me out from under this mess!

I really haven't dropped of the face of the earth.  It is terribly sad that I haven't managed to update the blog in three weeks.  That was how long it had been since I picked up knitting too until yesterday.  It has been so hectic the last couple months, partly with starting my Pampered Chef business, although I make it more hectic than I need to.  I have this habit of when I start something, I have to go gung ho and full force into it.  Consequently, I was #1 in my cluster for July!  I was also the #1 Super Starter in Month One in California, #18 in the country.  See, I really have been doing something, not just hanging around!  August won't be quite as spectacular, but I've sold enough to earn my free products for August so far and will add to my extra goodies bank.  I'm up to like $400 in free stuff so far, and the month isn't done!  And they pay me too!  Wheeee! 

On the knitting front, there was 12 rows added to square two of the baby blanket yesterday,  but I have high hopes for a significant amount to be added in the next two days, since I am in Lovely Lake Tahoe at my best friend's house.  It is so pretty here, I love the mountains, but I give her serious kudos for living here year round, I can see how high the snow pole road markers are.  Now, it wouldn't be too bad if I was retired and didn't need to get anywhere in a hurry, but she has to get to work.  At least it is only a mile down the road.  Besides, if I'm going to live in snow, it has to be in a place I really love, like Yellowstone.  WHERE I GET TO GO IN THREE WEEKS!  Can I get a whoo hoo!  I'm such a geek, I'd rather go to Yellowstone than the Bahamas. 

Anyway, back to the blanket.  The sis-in-law is due on Thursday, but we'll see.  The did manage to get pregnant in the timeframe they needed to do so in, so maybe they'll have the baby on time also.   Timefame you ask?  Did I mention they are moving to Hong Kong soon?  He's a pilot and will be starting with Cathay Pacific in October, and based in Hong Kong.  Yet another brave group of people.  He leaves the second weekend on October for a month's training in Australia, and they'll meet back up in Hong Kong in November.  So I only get my nephew for two and a half months or so... :(  Darn, guess we'll have to take a trip to Hong Kong!

I am determined to clean out my craft room also sometime soon.  I really want to get down to what I really want to knit and spin, just the good stuff.  Since I am a slow knitter and spinner and seem to have less and less time these days, I see no point in using any materials I don't really love.  I also have decided to give up on the idea of doing this to sell handdyed stuff.  I don't have the time or facility to produce enough.  Back to dyeing for fun.  That's what this is supposed to be, fun, right?

Of packages and others.....

So, here I've been for the last few days thinking, need to post, but I did that one the other day, but really should post.  So I go and look at my blog today before I begin to post, and I managed to never actually post the last post I wrote.  Sheeeh!  I was doing drafts and never reset it to post now.  What a dork I am!!!

Consequently, I'll need to now do a bit of a double post here and redo, and oh heck, scrap the whole thing and start again!

Item One:  Packages!

   I got my final package from my Secret Pal who is Lynn from Chico, CA!  Thanks Lynn, you've been an awesome secret pal!!  She sent a pile of goodies, needles with a silk case, a bunch of dishcloths, a hand decorated tote, yarn and koolaid to dye, sock yarn, a teapot/teacup, crackers and some chai tea.  Phew, did I get it all???

I also got the next Socks that Rock Club package today:

   A little similar to last months offering, but pretty.  I was hoping for a drastically different one, but oh well.  I don't think I'll ever use the temporary tattoo, though.  There's a name that yarn contest too, but I suck at those things.

Item Two:  Knitting

  There is knitting behind the fuzzy head, really.  Zoe really insists on trying to help take pictures.  It got better with the next one:      Less fuzz.  Now for the cat free shot:     That's one and a half squares of Chelsea's blanket.  Only like 14 and a half to go.  Sigh.  The kid might be a year old before it's done. 

Item three:  Bog Mummies and Butterflies

Don't really sound like they go together do they?  But that's what you get with a trip to The LA Museum of Natural History.  We got to see the Bog Mummies, which were fascinating and walk through the butterfly pavilion, which I love.  Apparently, some of the butterflies were in love too:    And they thought Amy was an ideal place to mate.  Sorry about the slight graininess, forgot my camera and only had the phone.  I love these two also:

     Actually, I'm pretty amazed at the quality from my new phone.  They're pretty good photos for a camera phone.

Item four:  Forgotten picture

I took this at the hotel in Chicago, the King Tut exhibit is in town and to celebrate, the hotel chef made a chocolate mask:

   Chocolate Tut, anyone?

Up Next: Puppies and Halas Holiday!

OOOOPPPPPS!

OK, so I forgot to post before I left for The Pampered Chef conference in Chicago and never made it to a computer at the hotel.  They keep you moving at these things!  Anyway, just a quick blurb to let you all know I'm alive and well and more to come later.

I got minimal knitting done but I did complete one square of my sister in law's baby blanket.  I'll have to post a picture later since she is here working.  I'm using the 200 Knit Blocks book and it really does make nice square blocks following the directions.  If I had gotten more sleep at the conference,  I might have managed to make another on the plane home, but I gave up when I kept nodding off.

Miss Bella was a naughty girl and we were rotten parents and let her play too much after her surgery and she's irritated her incision quite a bit.  Tyson had to take her to the vet while I was gone.  But she's now on antibiotics and healing up slowly.  We are trying to force her to calm down but this is next to to impossible with her.  Sigh, you try and tell her that she can't run and jump.....

Crap!

How in the heck did this week get away from me??  I swear it was just Monday, where did Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday go??  The time thieves are at it again.

Probably because I've been having too busy of a week.  Here's a little rundown:

Friday:  My summer slave helper arrives!!  Cousin Amy has graciously lent us her son James for the summer.  There are many around the house projects he will eliminating in exchange for a slightly fatter wallet.  Amy, here's proof he's still kicking after week one.     No, he's not an angry young man, I just caught him unaware with the camera.

Saturday: LAZY.  Period.  Many video games played by men in house.  I worked on Pampered Chef stuff.

Sunday:  Repeat Saturday.  Some knitting accomplished.  The bunny gets bigger, but will not be done in time for shower.  Sigh. No idea where day went.

Monday: Crud, back to work.  Phones, files, etc.  Nothing thrilling until later in the day, when I had my Pampered Chef new consultant training.  Learning is fun!  I learned one great tip:  Cheese grates easier if you pop it in the micro for 10 seconds.  That was an "oh duh" moment.  Soften the oils in the cheese and it slider nicer on the grater.

Tuesday: Blur of work.  Can't honestly remember what I did.

Wednesday:  Blech.  Spent the day ping-ponging all over Orange and LA counties making deliveries with Bella.  Poor thing was driving with me from 10-4 until I dropped her off at my PIL's for a nap in the crate.  Tyson was tied up even worse, so she had to ride with me.  I quickly shopped for a gift for my friend Valerie's boy Josh, as it was his First B-Day party that night.  Got the cutest scoot along tricycle, it even had a cup-holder for his sippy cup.  Super cute!!  Neglected to bring camera, the dork I am.  Bella managed to be very good with 10 under-fives running around her and giving her all of their toys.    "Please, Mommy, not again!"

Thursday: Met up with my best-friend Sarah who moved to Lake Tahoe for my allotted three hour window in her very busy one day visit for her mom's Master's graduation.  Fun was had by all, and I managed to not buy any yarn at Tall Mouse, even though they had the new Louisa Harding angora and I kept thinking what lovely socks it would make.

That was followed by a very happy occurrence:  I managed to not only find a new Chiropractor near my house, but one that was trained by my old Chiropractor! Wheee!!  Random walk-in to an office that looked nice.  So excited, haven't had an adjustment in almost 6 months, and I could feel it.  My neck was so bad on the right I couldn't turn good, the normal bleh of my neck and back was made worse by the wisdom teeth thing and not being able to sleep right, it's been bugging me since then.   

And we're back to Friday.  Today I get the fun of general house tidy and then real fun later of dinner with Thailand family who are out for a visit.  I will be blowing my diet again for the hundredth time this week as it's at Lucille's, which is a Southern barbecue place in the Long Beach Town Center and there's nothing low fat in Southern food.

Next week is looking just as busy what with the Fourth, then Wednesday Bella  (look how tall she's getting!!!) is getting spayed, and that night I have my first Pampered Chef Cooking Show.  The rest of a short week, and I am off to Chicago for the Pampered Chef Conference. Monica has given me some yarn shop recommendations, but if anyone else has any good recommendations for Chicago fiber and food wise, let me know.  I'm staying at the Sheraton on Water Street, so short cab or L ride is best. 

Errrrr....

I'd like to know how this can possibly be comfortable:

   She has the weirdest sleeping positions.  I'd wake up with the worst stiff neck ever.   This week she figured out how to unzip her crate, so now we have to twist a piece of wire through the zipper when we put her in.  This morning, we forgot while we were in the shower, and she managed to get into some of the spinning wool had in the bedroom.  I missed it, but Tyson said she looked pretty funny with a big poof of wool hanging out of her mouth.  I don't think she ingested anything, but I've been keeping an eye on her poop all day.  Silly puppy!

I got my Dye O' Rama yarn the other day from Sherry of ShaylaCanKnit.  That's a skein of hand-dyed Cascade 220 in super perky colors, just how I like em!The little wood balls in the bag are lavender balls, to keep the buggies away.  Thanks Sherry, can't wait to start a pair of thick winter socks with this!  Those colors will keep any gray sky away! 

I got a little knitting done on the felted bunny I started a while back at The Knit Affair.  I'm determined to get it done by next weekend and give it to my SIL at her shower.     This is the Fiber Trends pattern, and it's really well written, easy to knit and understand even though there a are a lot of turns and increases and decreases.  It's a quick knit too, thanks to the big needles for felting.  I'm pretty sure I'll make it in time unless it's gets really hectic next week.  I just hope it dries in time....

Nerves? Not me!

Good front, that's it.  I'm doing my first booth for my Pampered Chef business tomorrow, on very short notice.  I just found out last night about it, so I spent the day finding things I'll need, like snazzy tablecloths and plastic table tents.  Hope I get some good business out of it, it's for our housing development only, so if I book any shows, they'll sure be close to home!  I plan on spending the evening memorizing the catalog and the handbook :)

There hasn't been a scrap of knitting or spinning this week, but there's been Secret Pal 8 gifts!

  An pretty box of beads, two neat foam scrubbies, very different, some cute painted wood cutouts, which also might meet the magnetic strips, and two skein of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk.  Ohhhhhhh, is this stuff soft.  It would make the most lovely pair of thick winter socks or a really nice pair of mittens.  Maybe the mittens, so I can rub it against my cheek all the time.....  There was chocolate too, but it didn't make it to the picture ;)

And for a Fear Factor moment, which is quite rare on this blog:

   He was sooooo freaky looking, and huge, bigger than my big toe.  Looks a little like a June big, but on steroids.  Weird.

New friends!

Say hello to my little friend!

  Yeah, another wheel to not have time to spin on.  We went to the Corona Heritage Park Antique Fair and this little beauty was sitting there, screaming, "Take me home, use me!  Don't make me become decor in another house."  This is an antique wheel, and I'm thinking it's pretty old.    The flyer is in great condition, the only issue I could find is that the bobbin is stuck on, and will need a little TLC to get it off and spinning.  Needs a new drive band, but I can probably make that out of what looks like handspun hemp on the bobbin.    The metal parts look hand forged, the orifice is a little rusty, but workable.     The nails look handmade or at least low production.     Overall, in pretty great shape and still usable.  Wheeeee!!  Now I just need a name for her :)  If anyone thinks this looks familiar or knows anything about it, let me know!

There has been minimal spinning and knitting, I did work this out of the pile and get a little done the other night:

   Hopefully, I'll have this done by the time we go to Yellowstone in September, I would like to wear it sometime.  The spinning I can't show, as it's heading off to someone as a surprise.  But it's pretty, fluffy and shiny...  That's all I can say. 

We got Bella in the kiddie pool yesterday:

   We had her putting her nose in the water finally, retrieving a stone.  She really doesn't like water much so far.  Bath time is a bit of a struggle.  This has to be the best shot I got of her:

 

Better than nothing!

Seems I've managed to get myself on this once a week posting rut, which is driving me insane.  This has a lot to do with the face that I like to put pictures in every post, and it's setting up photos that takes me the longest.  Need to learn to get over that...

First things first:

I am branching out on a new venture, and I am now a Consultant for The Pampered Chef.  I'd love to do a Kitchen Show for any of you all, feel free to contact me about it! I have loved their cooking tools for quite a while, so I am very happy to be representing the company and their products.  I would love to help you have the opportunity to earn free and half price items by hosting a show, either in person or by doing a catalog show.  I do need to complete four shows to become a fully qualified consultant, so you'd be helping me out, and helping yourself to some great kitchen tools!

I have actually managed to have spinning time this week:

This is March's fiber from Amy Boogie's Fiber of the Month Club.  It's superwash merino, dyed in shades of green with white and yellow patches.  Very springy in color, but more slick to spin.  It seems to spin best when really well drafted and airy.  I'm getting shades from light kelly to chartreuse and almost white, with lots of pretty barberpole action.  I know some people complain when yarn barberpoles, but I love it, I get disappointed when I don't get any.  I love Amy's dyeing, it makes for the nicest yarns.  Did you see her yarn tree this week?  I wonder if she's got cuttings or seeds?

I even managed to get some knitting in:

   That's that "so ugly, I couldn't resist" Regia I started a while back.  It's really making progress now that it's in my purse.

I also made it to a store I've been meaning to get to, La Petite Knitterie in Ladera Ranch.     I love the slogan on their bags:

  Knitting Artisan.  Love it!  I'm going to start telling everyone I'm a fiber artisan instead of fiber artist.  Sounds better :)  I only came away with a few things, some yarn and a pattern for my secret pal, and these:

   I've been loving Nancy's two color Koigu socks, and I decided I need a pair for myself.  I think the speckles on the heels, toes and cuff, and the stripy on the body.  Of course, knowing my knitting, it my change.

Bella wants to leave you with this:

This week, I learned how to get on the couch.  Now I know why you humans sit on these things.  Comfy.  Someone get me a bully stick.  I don't wanna get up.

I was going to...

**First things first:  A big thanks to my Secret Pal for the little cuties she sent me:

  I'm planning on adding magnets to the back and using them on the fridge!  Even floppy ears on the puppy!**

OK,... but it just didn't happen.  That seems to be the theme of life lately.  I can't seem to find time to get anything done, really.  I did get to go play Saturday with a bunch of the San Diego bloggers.  Wendy invited a bunch over for a dyefest, and asked if Bella and I would like to come down, me to dye and Bella to play with her Whippets.  Of course, we were both quite excited about it.  Bella really liked all the cushy beds on Wendy's balcony:

   That was one of the few time she stopped moving long enough to take a picture.  Somehow, I managed to not get any of her playing with Belu and Tahoe.

I didn't manage to get pictures of anyone dyeing either, besides Wendy doing her dye demo.    But I did get a picture of the massive pile to be dyed:   By the end of the day, it was much more colorful bunch of yarn.  Here's what I came away with:

  The colors are really a little darker.  The three skeins of sock yarn are Louet Opal, which is very similar to Socks that Rock, if not the same thing ans the fiber is some of my good old standard soft wool blend that I am almost out of.  The first skein I actually dyed last, it was all the leftover ends and odds of dye in stripes, for the second I was going for a oceany feel, and the last just celebrates my love of pink and purple.  The first two ounces of fiber was done by dripping the dye from the bottles, I'm curious to see how it spins up.  The last four ounces I striped, having folded it in four, and then putting two with ends one way, and two the other in a roasting pan, then striped with dye, added water and voila!  Stripey roving!

I did get one picture at lunch:   Now why would a picture of Wendy eating lettuce, Nancy putting her leftovers in a takeout box and the edge of Jessica's sleeve be interesting?  If you can, zoom in on the lady in the back corner (faces have been blurred to protect the innocent) and check out her finger nails.  The must have been close to a foot long if they were straight; they curl under quite a bit.  I cannot fathom attempting to function with those.  I mean, mine grow an eighth of an inch and break.

Speaking of Socks that Rock, I had this come in the mail the other day:

   Yeah, I'm a sucker for getting mail.  I signed up for the expensive Socks that Rock Club, partly because I like surprises and partly because you can't get Socks that Rock around here.  They sent out an email saying that there were additional spots available, since I missed the beginning of it.  I haven't seen a color on the site yet that I haven't liked, so I am hopeful that I will like all of them.  If not, I suppose there's eBay.

Tea Swap Rocks! and Lucy Neatby is an amazing knitter.

Well lookeee what came today!!!

            Can you see it all through Tiger and Zoe??  I think they felt Bella is getting too much blog time.  This is from the lovely Amanda of Clothesknit.  We have the tea, African Nectar, which I almost bought today while buying my Tea Swap gift, so good choice!!!!  Then there are Almond Thins, which I adore, another good choice, uberbright Cherry Tree Hill Potluck sock yarn, beautiful!!!  Two Cherry Tree Hill patterns, a cute Mardi Gras postcard and a bag of the most beautiful fiber, dyed locks of Gulf Coast Native from a sheep named Michael.  I love it when I know the sheep name.  Amazing gift, Amanda.  I am overwhelmed with the goodies!!! 

And then, there's Lucy Neatby.  I mean, I truly love her sock book Cool Socks for Warm Feet, if you don't have it, go buy it, but now I have firsthand proof...

   Because I got to take a class with her!  Monica and I signed up for her Phoenix from the Ashes class at Temecula Valley Yarn Company and it was the fastest flying three hours I've spent in a while.     We did many scary things to a swatch, like drop stitched and ladder back to make the opposite, dropped stitched to work in a cable, or re-twist a cable in the wrong direction and I even learned the mystery behind duplicate stitch.  Lucy showed us how to do her chimney toe, which involves knitting further along at the toe of your sock with waste yarn and then using basically duplicate stitch to graft it.  So much easier, very spiffy!!  Look at the lovely things she brought to show off:

      But best of all is Lucy's Purse!      That's right folks, Lucy carries a chicken!!  So stinkin' cute!!!!

Speaking of Stinkin' Cute, the Pupper-nutter is growing with leaps and bounds:

  Puppy meets tomato!  Tomatoes are not tasty, btw, however, portobello mushrooms are quite nice.    We also like Quackers the Goose and Bully Sticks:      Bully Sticks, for the uninformed are, well, Steer Pizzle, as one package so politely put it.  Yep, stretched and dried, and dogs love them, and so much less messy than pig's ears or not as potentially bad as rawhide.  We had a family trip to the vet today, where everybody got shots and the kitties a nail trim.  I wouldn't do this by myself, but with Tyson along, not so bad.