KitKatKnit: December 2005

Happy Knittin' Knew Year

We are planning on watching the movie "Ladies in Lavender" this evening to bring in the new year. Went to see "Memiors of a Geisha" yesterday. Our first movie in a theater in years. Very good.

The Google your first name plus "needs" meme

I was reading knottieknitter and saw the meme about googling your name with the word "needs" after it, then post the results. It is fun! Here are my best:

Susan needs a room to rent No I'm ok with our paid off house.
Susan clearly needs demystification to help her recognize that she is much better at understanding language than she is at using it in school. Duh what?
Susan needs your help now to prepare for election day. I'm not running for anything but you can send donations to my PayPal account anyway.
Susan needs an automatic gearbox, power steering and front electric windows. Most importantly, she needs sufficient rear loading space. Sounds good to me as long as its in a Mini Cooper S.
And in a fridge or kitchen cabinet corner your susan needs a lip, otherwise smallthings disappear forever... Susan needs lips otherwise the food might fall out.
As Beethoven needed to compose, Susan needs to paint. Does painting rovings and sock yarn count?
Susan needs to work on writing better songs. I can't carry a tune so this one doesn't work. Though I guess I could strive to write better songs to not sing.

and my favorite, Susan needs to develop a strategy for the safe enjoyment of some of the more extreme forms of pleasure.

I want what ever Liz has left

I just received on of the (many) Christmas presents I treated myself to. My African Violets roving from Linden Lane Farm arrived in the mail. It is so yummy I can hardly contain myself enough to write this blog entry!! It's 70% Romney Wool and 30% Mohair. And no I want what ever they have left and you can't have any.

Here is a picture of the approx 145 yards/4 oz of the Rose Quartz merino I spun earlier in the week. 2 ply/8-9 wpi so a worsted weight. Now to figure out what to knit from it. I like the color soooo much better in natural sunlight (the little we had today) than inside the house.

p.s. Dear Readers (or reader as the case seems to be!! Hi Cristina!) Please comment. Do you like the pictures this size or would you rather see them larger? Thanks

Spinning Rambouillet

A guy I work with just found out that I spin (when we were talking what we got for Christmas). He said they used to have Rambouillet sheep, but farmed them out to other peoples pastures till the dog problem in his area got better. They're supposed to get their sheep back this spring or summer and said he'd give me Rambouillet fleece!!!! Now to look ahead and find someplace to have it processed. (counting chickens etc...)

KnitPorn, Lunch Pail and Booze

Oh my, Santa was really really good to me spin and knit wise. First of all, thank goodness Santa travels out of state and could get me a WPI gauge. I was thinking I'd have to search for one in Seattle or find one online. I've been going back to all my spinning and finding out what weight it really is. (I was guessing close)

In my Christmas stocking were two different gift certificates, one each to our local yarn shops. Under the tree was the Beatles Sargent Peppers lunch pail I had wanted to use as a sock project tote for when we go to Friday Night Knit Night. So cute!!!

Under the tree were the following books that I get to share with Santa, Felted Knits, The Knitting Experience:The Purl Stitch, The Knitting Experience: Color and Cakes from Scratch in Half the Time. Wait a minute, that has nothing to do with knitting.... and I don't often eat cake (not too into sweets or cakes). What could Santa have been thinking?

Santa also gave me alot of raspberry based things like preserves and tequila. If you love raspberries and tequilla and haven't tried Baja Luna liquor, let me tell you, it's heavenly!!! Excuse me while I pour some into a cordial glass. mmmmmm goood.

My guys got me the two most wanted wonderful things on my Christmas list. Dave got me a lens for my camera, with macro!! And Graham got me bike tires and a paninni press.

Aren't I the luckiest wife and Mom in the world! Hope everyone had as nice a Christmas as we did. I'm starting to get sad though since we need to drive Graham back up to college in a week.

Handspun mittenettes

Rachel stopped by last night and I had her try on one of the handspun mittenettes. Her hands are even smaller than mine. I've decided to give her the mitts since they will cover more real estate! Graham says she'll love them. The little ball of yarn was all that was leftover. (just a few yards)

Here is a picture of my yet to be named Lendrum DT. I was planning on taking a beautiful picture of the new Lendrum next to my Joy in the style of SweetGeorgia, but will wait till I get some sunlight in the living room. Meanwhile you get to look at my Christmast tree.

Wrist Warmers maybe?

I split the 46 grams of handspun corriedale into two 23gm balls wound on the ball winder. I love my little electronic postal scale for splitting yardage! I only knit 10 out of 12 ribbing rows hoping to save those 2 rows for the body of the mittenette. They may turn out to strictly be wrist warmers but at least will be fun and warm. After all, if you warm the blood as it comes through your wrist doesn't it help keep your hands warm?

I think I'll spend some time spinning from my bump of Thorpe Romney.

Obviously I haven't paid enough attention to the big guy. Rufus is being a, well I would say bad boy, but he is just being a cat. He's been doing sneak attacks under the tree and steaing bows. He's been averaging 3-4 a day. Last night when I was on the phone with Dave I heard Rufus under the tree and watched him pounce on a present, tear the wrapping off it and run off with the bow. For some reason he keeps stealing green bows. Funny since cats are supposed to be color blind.

I dug out my old copy of Homespun Handknit last night. There are some pretty, timeless hats and mittens in there that I may try.

Dave called at 7am to tell me his flight was over booked by 5 people and he'd negotiated a transferable voucher plus a rental car. By 7:15 he called back to say they'd put him on his flight. He was afraid he'd be stuck in SLC for Christmas!

Later that same day. WHOOHOOO the sun came out for the first time in about 2 weeks. I get so excited. At least it's a change. I took a few minutes to go to the post office and walk by the river. The birds were enjoying the sunshine too. This was the view at 11:00 am.

This was the view by 3:00 pm. We usually don't have the rain to go with it. Only low cloud cover. I like the winter temps much better than the summer temps around here. I can just never figure out why Seattle, Bellingham and Vancouver BC have sunshine during the winter and we, at a lower latitude sit in the dark!