I said I wouldn't do it...

...but I sorta learned how to spin this weekend. A little bit. Here's my overly twisted, extremely thick and thin, wobbly, hairy first attempt (Michelle can start snickering now):

All the imperfections are due to my extreme n00bness and not to the wonderful person who taught the class, who gave a really thorough spinning workshop in a short amount of time. And I got to keep the drop spindle, which was a happy bonus.

I can even knit with it like "real" yarn! I was somewhat amazed that it didn't immediately disintegrate back into a wad of roving as soon as I started working with it. (I did wash and dry it to set the twist first, as instructed.) I'm trying to think of a good use for this first yarn; maybe a little felted something for the fairy door.

On a more commercially-produced-yarn note, I've come pretty far on my Everlasting Bagstopper (now to be known as the "Rasta Hat Bag" at Jag's suggestion). Soon I'll be able to make purchases at Whole Foods without feeling guilty about getting a paper bag! Now I need to figure out whether to use fabric, ribbon, or knitted handles.

Once more, with feeling

I have not gotten one single stitch of knitting done this week. I'm thinking that some beads might go well here for the "eyes".

Too much time on my hands, yes, yes, I know

I present:

DISCO SHEEP

The stencils:

Why I shouldn't bring my camera with me in the car

The weird on-again, off-again stormy weather this evening resulted in quite a display of rainbows on my drive home today.

First up was a view on Mt Herman Rd, near Brier Creek. I happened to have my camera with me, which never happens, so I pulled over in a parking lot and took a picture.

The rainbow-age continued on Leesville Rd. Here's a pic I took balancing the camera on the steering wheel, complete with windshield reflection.

Unluckily for other drivers on 540, I had a really good view of the rainbow and a puffy happy cloud on the stretch between Leesville and Six Forks. This could have turned into a Darwin Award nomination, but I managed to stay in my own lane.

The rainbow even proudly festooned the roof of my local Harris Teeter! The only "Pot o' Gold" inside was a tub of fake cheese spread, though.

The half of the sky opposite the rainbows was very pretty, too.

The End.

More Nereides love

Thanks to a productive couple of hours at a crafty gathering on Sunday, Nereides has doubled in size.

I expect to see a whole lot more of these shawls/stoles now that Spin-Off magazine has published a very similar pattern in this month's issue. Which kind of irks me, because I hate jumping on bandwagons. Sigh.

Who rocks?

Michelle rocks! She got me a copy of Norah Gaughan, Vol. 3 !

I love the cover sweater. The neck construction reminds me of the Tzarina Wrap in Wrap Style.

I'm betting there's a decent chance of an Eastlake knitalong between me and Michelle.

Linear looks all comfy and cozy.

Calvert reminds me of something I would have worn in the 80s, maybe because of the blousy sleeves, but in a good way. BYOT(ree) to hide behind.

Despite the "Loreena Bobbit designs for IKEA" name, I also like Loppem.

It's been a fun and busy weekend so far. Me and Jag had a picnic breakfast and walked 3.5 miles of trails at Little River Park. Then we headed out to the Hillsborough Farmers Market to browse the vendors and meet Ana and Michelle for lunch. Alfie was particularly cute while discovering the wonders of the avocado. Afterwards, Jag headed out to gaming and I spent the evening doing a tiny amount of knitting on Nereides, but mostly playing with freezer paper stencils for t-shirts.

This method has been popular for a couple years on all the big crafty web sites, and I was kind of resistant to trying it because everyone else was doing it, and also because a lot of the examples I saw, although very cute, were printed in a single solid color and pretty boring, IMO. I got a couple jars of Jacquard Lumiere metallic fabric paints and some cheap t-shirts at Michael's and went to work on a solstice-y design. (I am ashamed to say that I ended up getting the freezer paper at Wally World, but they seem to be the only place that carries it around here.)

Freezer paper has a plastic coated side and a plain side. When ironed onto fabric, the plastic side forms a firm but temporary bond with the fabric, making it great for stencils, applique work, etc. It peels right off and leaves no residue.

I decided to start with a simple design (that ended up using 6 stencils, ha).

I used a combination of metallic turquoise, bronze and emerald green to avoid the flat one-color look.

Being impatient, I followed the advice on several tutorial sites and used a hair dryer to speed the drying process. The stencils came right off without a hitch, and I got an (IMO) really nifty shirt.

The paint is a little pricey at about $4.50 a jar, but with Michael's/ACMoore coupons, it's not that bad. And you can make many shirts with one jar. It has a nice flexible texture that bends with the fabric and I love the metallic sparkle. I have another shirt almost ready to have the stencils ironed on as I type.

In between painting and ironing, I made up some cinnamon roll dough for this morning. They were good. NOMNOM.

Spaced out

I got to work late this morning. The cause: I was listening intently to an audiobook (Patrick O'Brian's Desolation Island), looked around, and suddenly realized that I was driving on 147N, just short of the Briggs Avenue exit. After close to 5 years at Duke and 7 months at Motricity, I guess my brain is just wired to drive that way. The scary thing is that I have no real memory of the drive from around the time that I turned left onto Alexander from 70, which I remember pretty clearly because there was some slow-poke moron in a tan Honda Civic in front of me. After that, it's all a blank til I "woke up" on 147.

New obsession

Now that about 10" of the Nereides Stole is knitted (ripped and re-knitted on size 8s, that is), lawsy me, do I love this pattern in this yarn.

Peacock seed beads are definitely in its future. And maybe some bigger peacock beads for the fringe. Because, oh yes, there will be a fringe.

Summer knitting, herbs, bacon salt

After finishing mom's socks, I decided to work on something completely different. I had started a Cozy with the Art Fibers yarn Jag got me for my birthday, but the pattern just didn't seem to fit the yarn. I stumbled on the free Nereides stole pattern and decided that this was IT. I cast on with the recommended size 10s and did about 25 rows. I think the yarn and pattern are a perfect fit, but the gauge is a bit off.

The garter stitch around the dropped stitches needs to be firmer, IMO, so I'm going to drop down to size 8s and see how that works. This is a very easy/fast pattern, so restarting isn't a big deal. I'll be on the lookout for a really kickass shawl pin to wear with it.

My herb garden (populated from Wake Forest Herbfest purchases) is doing really well despite the ridiculous heat. I have, from left to right, Sweet Bay, Catnip, Spearmint, Chocolate Mint (iirc), Lemon Balm, Sage, Garlic Chives, Thyme, Oregano and Basil. The Oregano and Basil are LOVING the warmth. I give the cats a handful of catnip every couple days. It gets gobbled up (yes, they EAT it) within about 30 seconds. Everyone needs some leafy roughage, I guess.

The garlic chives are particularly tasty on one of my favorite hot-weather meals, rye toast with sour cream. My mom introduced me to this and I have no idea if this is a common combination, but it really hits the spot for a light meal. I've recently found that a little Bacon Salt sprinkled on the sour cream is even better.

Happy birthday Mom

In spite of a few hiccups, we managed to pull off a nice belated birthday celebration for my mom today. Robin's car became recalcitrant in the Crabtree Valley Mall parking garage, which necessitated a rescue mission because she was, after all, bringing the main course. Despite their longer than expected journey from South Raleigh to Wake Forest and the fact that the grill ran out of gas during the lighting phase, the ribs turned out wonderfully (broiled and basted in the oven).

The Mad Hatter Black & White Cake did not disappoint, especially once the visually stunning yet completely nasty-tasting dark purple bloopies were removed. Note to self: next time ask for something in a nice pastel shade.

I also managed to finish Attempt 2 of mom's birthday socks with just hours to spare. The second one was knitted over a personal best 3-day period. And they fit her feet. Success!

The size 1.5 needles I knit them with are the worst DPNs I've ever worked with, and I'm trying to figure out a method of violent destruction for them that will adequately compensate for their crappy blunt tips that made it impossible to pick up dropped stitches, the overly slick finish that made the yarn fly off the ends like ball bearings from an ice-covered drawbridge, and the fact that my left ring finger is still numb from using them.

Another mystery solved

Because I am a sucker for nice-smelling things, I recently bought a bottle of ultra-mega-concentrated Tide with some kind of lilac scent. It smelled good in the store when I opened the bottle to take a sniff, but all the clothes I've washed with the new detergent have smelled not like flowers, but like weird vaguely minty menthol cough drops. It's not really a horribly unpleasant scent, but it wasn't what I expected, and I figured I'd just try something new after the bottle ran out. Then I found this in the washing machine after clearing out a load of laundry.

Closer

As of last night, I'm more than halfway done with the Mom Secret Project! I now have til Sunday, so I think this is do-able.

Action-packed

A weekend that started out with a boiling-over radiator shouldn't have turned out well, but it really did. Jag and I drove up to Flat Rock, NC (in his non-boiling car) on Friday afternoon for the wedding of his good friends Abby and Aaron. As a very marginal participant (ie, the date of a groomsman), I pretty much just tried to stay out of the way. It was really a privilege just to be able to go. The setting was an extremely lovely resort, and an entire lodge had been rented out for the wedding guests. I got to meet a whole bunch of great people, the ceremony was the most meaningful and beautiful I've ever witnessed, the dresses designed by the bride were gorgeous, the food was fantastic, the weather was glorious. I have a few pictures of the event, but I'm too tired right now to deal with processing more than this one of me and Jag at the reception. He looked very spiffidelic in his tux.

While hanging out before the wedding, I actually got some knitting done on the Secret Mom Thing, as can be seen here. I'm thinking this project may have to be gifted in a semi-finished state.

Things went downhill a bit once we returned to the Triangle. After the drive back, we spent an hour and 20 minutes in my work parking lot waiting for the tow truck to show up to take my car to CarMax. The tow truck driver blamed AAA for "sitting on the call for 30 minutes". Who knows what actually happened.

(And yes, I'm back to AAA, because I let my Better World Club membership lapse, and when you join up it takes 3 frigging business days for BWC to activate your membership because apparently their membership processing system was written in 1993 and runs on DOS, or maybe they run a background check on you to see if you're recycling your glass and paper correctly. AAA lets you print out your info and use it immediately after they validate your credit card payment online, which is helpful in the rather common scenario in which someone might, I don't know, NEED THEIR CAR TOWED RIGHT NOW, which is the reason 99% of people join an auto club in the first place. So screw you, Better World Club, you sanctimonious crapheads. You make me want to buy 12 Hummers and run them on whale oil.)

On the plus side, the car rental place ran out of Intermediate cars, so I got a free upgrade to a Mazda5. It's kinda cute in a small-minivan way, but Jag's knees hit the glove box even with the passenger seat pushed all the way back, so it's out of the running as a possible Big Battered Wagon replacement.

And now I go to collapse.