Aug 10 2010

Manic Monday (on Tuesday) #217:

Category: Internettage,Ramblings — Mistress Rows @ 5:17 pm

Right now, what’s on your mind?

What an amazing time I had at WOOL, and how I very much wish I’d taken Monday off to relax at home before returning to the rat race. No pun intended. Still, despite being tired, it really was a damned good time. If you were there, you know what I mean, and if you weren’t, I wish you had been!

My sparkly new end-of-season-clearance flop abouts.

I’ve gotten my photos edited and ready to share, tomorrow (depending on how busy things are) I’ll have my recap post written up and ready to post.

List 10 things you expect from a good friend.

 

  • Trust. I learned the hard way that no friendship can survive a fundamental loss of trust.
  • To laugh with you. The simple joy of laughing your ass off with a friend is one of life’s greatest pleasures.
  • A degree of generosity, or if you prefer, selflessness. Selfish friends can be hard to love. It isn’t about money, but about putting a friend before yourself every now and then.
  • To cry with you. My shoulder is there for you. Though I probably won’t actually cry, I’ll listen and try to cheer you up.
  • Back me up. I expect you to be loyal, and to have my back. I’ll fight with you, side by side. Just because I’m not in the room doesn’t mean it’s open season.
  • Space. I will respect yours, please respect mine. Absence makes the heart grow fonder! Life lesson there.
  • Honesty. Tell me, tactfully and with love, the truth unless I tell you I’m not interested in the truth. In that case, lie to me til you’re blue in the face.
  • Respect. We don’t have to agree on everything. We may even violently disagree. But we should do so with respect, and know when to agree to disagree.
  • Affection. I don’t need the sister I never had, or another family. But I will hold you in the spirit of friendship, which is a love of its own kind. Would I cry at your funeral? You betcha.
  • Play. 2/3 of our lives is spent working and sleeping, if not more. Will you play with me?

What’s something you’ve done that you wish you hadn’t?

I wish I never started eating compulsively as a teen. That downhill slide is greased with butter, let me tell you.

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Jul 26 2010

Stash Cat Says…

Category: Internettage — Mistress Rows @ 5:00 pm

(Manic Monday # 218)

What’s your secret recipe?
I guess I’d have to say my guacamole? Not that it’s any big secret, but people really like it. Oh! I know. My oatmeal cookies. Those are to write home about.

Imagine you want to write a book. What’s going to be in it and what is it going to be about?
Normally, I’d say vampires, no questions. But wouldn’t you know that yesterday I had a thought come into my head for a novel?

It started with thinking about how I struggle with wrath. It’s not just a regular side effect of a particular situation for me, it’s like a Calling with a capital C. I struggle with wrath in the same way that some people struggle with a violent temper or staying faithful. I’m fine until certain triggers are presented, then I’m stuck sucking back feeling like an avenging angel, and it takes forever to fade. So frustrating, so maddening! All that wrath, and no where to go. What a waste!

My idea would be a novel based around that struggle, a female character who is a fallen Angel of Wrath and who has limited powers, or is no longer immortal. What would she do in today’s world? How would she come to grips with losing what it is that makes her who she is? Would she give up and try to be human? Would she still try to do her job, even if it kills her? How did she Fall, and is there a path to redemption for her? Would she want it if there was?

I wish I was still writing because I’d love to flesh this out. I even have side characters and a nemesis, all waiting in the wings. I have a feeling the story should be told from two perspectives, hers and the person who helps her. I haven’t a clue how to write a novel though, so she’ll just have to live in my head.

Name 5 things in your freezer.

  • 2lbs of grass fed organic ground beef, a splurge from the farmer’s market
  • Sugar snap peas
  • Sirloin steak
  • Catfish filets
  • Stew vegetables

I love it when a plan comes together.

Tomorrow I’ll write up my post for the final TdF skein, complete with pictures. It’s lovely, and I can’t wait to share it. I spent the last day of the Tour demonstrating spinning at Jess’s hometown fair day, though I’m happy to say I was spinning birthday fiber from Into the Whirled and giving my hand carders a much deserved break. For now I give you the plying bobbin progress photo from Wednesday night and the elusive Stash Cat.

Stash Cat says: "Too! Much! Weekend!"

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Jul 19 2010

Navel Gazing & Locks of Wool

Category: Internettage,Spinning — Mistress Rows @ 5:00 pm

Imagine you have a hundred dollars, but you couldn’t keep it. You have to give it away to a person or charity. Who would you give it to? What would you want them to do with it?
My hundred dollars would go to either Planned Parenthood or the local food pantry. Both provide services that I consider to be critical on a local and personal level, and both have missions that I believe passionately in. I would hope my funds, if given to either organization, would go to programs and services that help people who are struggling to meet their basic needs. I can’t think of a better use than keeping a woman of limited means healthy and in charge of her life, or putting food in hungry mouths.

If you could cook any meal for your friends or family, what would you cook?
Easy! A spiral baked ham, topped with my spicy mustard and ginger glaze, homemade mashed potatoes, steamed sugar snap peas, homemade fresh beer bread right out of the oven, salad, and for dessert a chocolate silk pie topped with real whipped cream. As I’m not a baker, that last bit would be store bought.

List 5 things you want to do in your life.

  • Learn to speak Spanish well
  • Open a yarn store and dye studio (if doing so wouldn’t bankrupt us)
  • Travel to Europe or New Zealand
  • Lose 100lbs
  • Wake up feeling refreshed and pain free

Answering these internet meme thingeys may be the purest form of navel gazing (aside from having a blog at all), but when the questions are fun, I figure why not?  Since there are dozens of people reading who I have never met, it’s one small way for them to get to know me a little better. Now, what I’d love is to get to know YOU (anonymous blog readers) better, so if you’re moved to, why not answer one or more of the questions yourself? That would really make my day.

This was the weekend of rest, in which we tried to keep running around to a minimum. It still included a visit with Steve’s grandparents and the next town over annual garage sale, but there was resting. There were naps. There was catching up on True Blood, and Leverage, and White Collar. There was a whole bunch of spinning and knitting! Honestly, though? The naps were my favorite part, which is kinda sad.

Bobbin #2

I have finished the second of three blue bobbins, and I definitely don’t have enough wool left over for a third. My plan of having a multi colored bobbin will be one of necessity now, at least if I intend to have another three ply skein as my TdF goal states. There’s enough of the blue wool left over that I can choose to blend it half and half with the undyed silver, or I can play around with moving from blue to mixed to silver. That sounds like fun, so I’ll probably try that.  

Look at that crimp! I <3 Romney.

The shawls are coming along, slowly but steadily. I doubt that I’ll have even one of them finished in time to show off at WOOL, but I know they’ll be finished by October 1st. I don’t even remember what worsted weight yarn feels like between my fingers, so I think a pair of house socks will be just the thing.

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Jul 12 2010

Manic Monday #213

Category: Internettage — Mistress Rows @ 5:00 pm

Name 5 of the simple pleasures in your life:

  • Lying down to rest at night. The feeling of relief is intense.
  • Knitting, spinning, and the rest of my yarny pursuits.
  • Eating a green bean straight off the plant.
  • Reading a book that I’m really into.
  • Listening to music from singers like Azam Ali or Stellamara.

End of Days

What do you like to do on a rainy day?
Sleep in first, then read a book. Later I’d watch a show or movie while I knit or spin. You know, should said rainy day occur on a weekend, and even better (and more improbably) when I have nothing else that needs to get done.

I deserve a vacation*.
My time is often taken up with doctor’s visits or when I’m not feeling well. Living in a rural area, a visit to a doctor or specialist is a half day event, easy. It’s a rare thing, perhaps once every couple of years, when I get a whole week off in a row for myself. I end up using my PTO in short bursts to take a long weekend so I have time to visit friends or family. WOOL is kind of a vacation, but since I’m in charge and running the whole thing, not really/entirely. I would give just about anything for a paid two week vacation. Long enough that I feel like I’ve really gotten a chance to relax. Long enough that I can relax AND have and adventure. I’m grateful that I’ve gotten to do that once in my adult life, for our honeymoon. We spent the first week at home and then the second in the Florida Keys. We weren’t impressed with the Keys, but we appreciated the gift of the timeshare.

*Lest anyone think I’m an ungrateful wretch, I should probably state that I’m grateful for what PTO I have, regardless of how frequently it’s used for extended relaxation.

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Jun 08 2010

Ten on Tuesday: Favorite Children’s Books

Category: Internettage — Mistress Rows @ 5:18 pm

Reading was my best friend as a kid, and we took to each other like mint and chocolate. By the time I was in 4th grade I was tested at a college reading level, so in all honesty I really didn’t read a lot of “kid” stuff for very long. By the time I was 12 I’d mostly moved on to adult authors like Stephen King and Anne Rice. Young Adult reading was very different back in my day, and we didn’t have as many great fantasy options as kids do now, lucky buggers. When I was still reading Children’s/Young Adult I loved:

  1. The Dark is Rising Series
  2. The Black Cauldron
  3. The Hounds of the Morrigan (Still adore this book, highly recommended!)
  4. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
  5. The Adventures of Dr. Doolittle
  6. Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze
  7. The Princess & The Goblin
  8. The Dark Angel Trilogy
  9. Nancy Drew
  10. The Xanth Series

I’ve included links to the more obscure stuff, all of which are still good reads to this day. I actually read more YA titles now as an adult than I did when I was in the demographic. Sweet Valley High and the Baby Sitters Club didn’t do it for me, though they were incredibly popular among my age group. Not that I didn’t read one now and then, but the list above is much more indicative of my reading tastes.

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May 21 2010

ECF: Alpaca Silk Lace

Category: Internettage,Life & Stuff — Mistress Rows @ 7:20 am

8oz of Cognac Alpaca Silk Lace

Today feels good, just plain good, you know what I mean? The sun is shining, the weather is beautiful, and it’s Friday. What more can a person ask for? When I go home tonight I’ll have the house to myself and more blessings than I can fully appreciate. I can certainly share a few though.

  • After peaking at a 7 on the pain scale this Wednesday night, I am back down to a 2.
  • I am shipping out a multi-skein customer order tomorrow morning.
  • The yarn for both wedding shawls is in, and I paid for and downloaded both patterns!
  • I have a new-to-me Young Adult series to read, Inkheart & Inkspell, and I look forward to losing myself in another world.
  • Knitting Daily Season 1, not available on my local PBS station, is in from the library and I can’t wait to check it out.
  • I have finally finished the bobbin of Sugar Plum Fairy and can ply!

See? That’s far too much awesomeness to fit in one evening, guess it’s a good thing that my garden’s not getting built until next weekend when we have family coming to help. I will probably read a little, spin a little, and definitely dye a little. Both the wool/silk blanks and the cone above will get a dye job at some point this weekend. The Cognac Alpaca Silk is a little too beige for my needs, it’ll either get overdyed with orange to bring it to a coppery shade, or I’ll try for plum or wine.  Lots and lots of lace dyeing this weekend. Any requests?

Sunset yoga is good for the goose. Or is it gander?

One last thing… we now have a big flock of Canadian geese that hang out in the farm field across the road, and they crack me up. This guy was apparently practicing his yoga.

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May 14 2010

ECF: Sugar Plum Fairy

Category: Internettage,Life & Stuff — Mistress Rows @ 6:38 am

Sugar Plum Fairy BFL from Into the Whirled

Isn’t it lovely? I suppose it’s only fitting that I’m spinning a single just shy of frog hair. How fine IS frog hair? I have two braids of it, my plan is to chain ply this bobbin and see what my yardage is. If it’s enough for at least a modest shawl, I’ll be done with it and spin the second thicker for sock yarn. Just because I can  spin very fine doesn’t mean it’s always fun.

Speaking of bittersweet, I’m on the fence about keeping Emma, lovely as she is. It’s not her fault, she’s beautiful and spins very well. However, as I mentioned before, the ergonomics are challenging me (and my Fibromyalgia) in uncomfortable ways. If I treadle with both feet it makes me achey in the hips after an hour. If I treadle with just my right, the action isn’t smooth enough and it makes my leg tired.  When I spin, I spin for at least two or three hours, and even with breaks I’m not finding it comfortable. I’ll keep experimenting with chair heights and positioning because I don’t want to give up just yet. Jess has been extremely generous letting me have the opportunity, and I’d hate to lose it.

Most of these books have been read and returned already. Fiction on the left, crafting on the right.

Now that I’m back in the good graces of the library system, and have discovered Athen’s charming mock-Carnegie branch, I am reading like I used to read. You know, before yarn knocked me upside the head and made me her bitch. I’ve been in there every other day or so for two weeks and I forgot, I think, that I can read a really good novel in two days and hold down a full time job. Alas, I just can’t knit or spin while I’m doing it.

Still, I know that when the lace yarn for the wedding shawls comes in I will have to make a choice and books will lose. I’ll go back to reading only one a week. *sigh*  Podcasts will return as my mental companions, right now I’m in love with the sibling trio of EscapePod (sci-fi), PodCastle (fantasy), and especially Pseudopod (horror). Alastair, the host of Pseudopod, would have been one of “my boys” back in the days of my mostly male friends teens and 20′s, if proximity had allowed, I can tell. If you like to listen to short stories you’d do well to check any, or all, of them out.

Mom and I are having fun together tonight, we’ll pick up supplies to build my raised beds, grab a bite, and then paint chickens. Rockin’ the Friday night, mother-daughter style.

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Apr 09 2010

ECF: Sugar Skulls & Papaya

Category: Internettage,Knitting — Mistress Rows @ 7:35 am

Sugar Skulls & Papaya... yum.

This is me, remembering Eye Candy Friday! It was a tossup today. Do I share a majestic landscape shot or do I share my current WIP? Since the weather is craptastic today, but so gorgeous just the day before, my decision lands on the side of sunshine and color.

They're so happy. :)

Here we have two “latests”, my latest Jessalu bag (Sugar Skulls) and my current project, a new sock pattern I’m designing in my Guilty Pleasures sock yarn, colorway “Papaya”. Both make me insanely happy. Just look at those colors! While I’m not normally a “brights” kind of gal, I just couldn’t resist the happy Dia de los Muertos sugar skulls. I’m a sucker for the cutely morbid. What you can’t see in the photo all that well is that it has glitter outlining too. Be still my heart! I knew when Jess got the fabric in and I flipped through the stack that this bag-to-be would be mine.

It's not this bright in real life. Think earthier.

The sock, in truth, is much less brightly orange than in the photo, but you try and take an accurate orange photo with little photographic know-how on a blazingly bright day. In reality Papaya is a much more earthy orange with vibrant salmon, coral, and caramel bits. I’m thrilled with the way the yarn is knitting up, no pooling, flashing, or striping at all, just harmonious flashes of color that aren’t too much for a simple lace pattern. I’m just about ready to start the heel and looking forward to making it up to the cuff where it’ll get a little more varied.

 

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Mar 12 2010

ECF: Bees & Babies

Category: Gardening,Internettage,Life & Stuff — Mistress Rows @ 5:16 pm

Fly By Diner

Today’s Eye Candy Friday is brought to you by last weekend’s wonderful weather. Apparently there’s something bees find tasty in my bird feeder, perhaps the seeds are coated in a sweet glaze of some sort? Strangely, I didn’t remember my bee attack of last summer until after I’d gotten up close and personal.

Did I mention that I’d started my seeds? I can’t remember. They are referred to as “my babies” here in Tiny House, and I take unprecedented glee in watching them grow. I have two trays with 75 peat pellets each, which seems absolutely astonishing to me, but there you have it. The first one is entirely veggies, the second has a few rows of veggies and the rest are mostly morning glories of assorted colors, a row of columbines, and a row of passionflowers. I have planted all the really good stuff I enjoy.

Onward and upward cucumber baby!

On deck we have: Sweet basil, lemon basil, lime basil (who knew!?), chives, cilantro, dill, rosemary, cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, spicy mesclun salad mix, radishes (for Steve), rainbow pepper mix, heirloom tomato mix, green beans (bush), sugar snap peas, tomatillos… and I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten something. There are also a few stragglers left to start like squash, zucchini, spinach, and onions, but that’s everything I can think of.

Moving on to the knitting: I’ve been thwarted six ways to Sunday by my sock. I keep trying to find a stitch pattern that’s not ribbing for the cuff, and have ripped out two inches worth four times now. I could have been done with the damned thing. You know what it is? Instead of just picking something from a book, I get stuck in this trap of designing something myself. It happens to me EVERY TIME. I’m all “oh who needs a pattern, I’ll design something myself”, which is fine when the yarn is simple. But when it’s busier I often get in trouble. I don’t know why I feel this compulsion to pore over the stitch dictionaries and find that perfect stitch for busy yarn, but I do. I need to Create, not just create… does that make sense? Screw this puppy, I’m going to rip it out (AGAIN) and make the Spiral Eyelet Socks. So there.

I’m dyeing this weekend, though I don’t feel all that well. I’ve been putting it off, hoping I’ll feel better, but since that’s not happening and deadlines are looming, a girl’s gotta get it done regardless. I hope to dye up three colors of sock and lace, and three colors of superfine merino or BFL top. Clermont’s coming fast as can be, and I have to get my wholesale order for yarn4socks out the door just before the show. When it rains, right? I don’t want to start taking my Lyrica again, but I’m going to have to.

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Mar 09 2010

And The Award Goes To…

Category: Internettage — Mistress Rows @ 3:57 pm

Hey how’s this for a neat way to feel the love?

Elizabeth of Trailing Yarn nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger Award. Now, I’m not sure if this award means beautiful in the “whoah-mama” or the high brow “beautiful on the inside” way, so you know what? I will gladly accept in the spirit of both. Heh. According to the rules, I have to list seven interesting things about myself, as well as nominate 7 other bloggers. I’m going to skip my usual suspects (who get many a shout out in the normal course of things) and focus on some of the bloggers I admire who are also folks I haven’t met.

Yarndude, Carole Knits, JennaKate, Lehcar Knits, The Weaving Studio, Yarn Shop Thoughts, & The Panopticon. Yeah, I know I threw in a big name there at the end. Franklin seems awfully down to earth, really makes me laugh, and I admire his work.

And now, my seven interesting things:

  • I am often supercharged by the company of others, so much so that I can become giddy/manic in public, but when I’m home I’m quiet and enjoy solitude/the company of just my husband. We refer to this in our house as Tina being ‘on’ and ‘off’.
  • I would rather eat no chocolate than bad chocolate, and will almost always pass up a regular American milk chocolate candy bar. I haven’t eaten a regular Hershey bar in over 8 years. Life is too short for swill.
  • I didn’t think I’d live to see 30, and was really excited to mark the milestone.
  • In 5th grade I was in the same class as one of the winners of the Toys R Us shopping sprees. Yes, they really were legit, and she had a blast.
  • I haven’t had a smoke in over 6 years and I still miss it.
    I’ve never been drunk. I enjoy a drink now and then, but I have a sneaking suspicion that overindulgence would be like letting the genie out of the bottle.
  • My favorite outfit consists of a low cut top, boot cut blue jeans, dark red lipstick, and black combat boots.

 

 

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