Free, to a Loving Home

And no, it's not a puppy. If I find one of those, I'm keeping it for myself.

I didn't have the opportunity to finish up all of my works in progress this past month. I had lots of plans for those three day holiday weekends, but alas, I was led astray by new projects. In between Christmas and the New Year, I knit two neck warmers, one hat and a pair of mittens. I think it was defensive knitting, because let me tell you, cold is such a weak adjective to describe our weather lately. Frigid, biting and arctic come to mind as suitable alternatives.

So I've been using wool and indulging in knitting things to keep a human warm. Instead of the above items, I should have knit a hot water bottle holder, but there's still time.

These are Mittens Interrupted, pattern by Eunny Jang, and were featured in the Fall, 2008 issue of Interweave Knits. Knit with Manos del Uruguay, in two separate colors using linen stitch in the flat and in the round, I wouldn't call this mindless knitting, but neither would I call it difficult.

Do you like them?

Do you want them?

Leave a comment here sometime before Sunday, January 10th at 11:59 PM, and on January 11th, my blog anniversary date, I'll throw your name into the hat for a chance to win these pretty mittens. Since most of the world is in a deep freeze these days, I couldn't think of a better treat to thank you for being such loyal friends.

In My Dreams

Yesterday, my television was in use for football all day long. Worried I'd miss the premiere of the HGTV dream home, I recorded it on DVR and watched it as I fell asleep. I dreamt I won the house.

When I accept my prize this year, I'll be sure to extend an invitation to all of you to visit. Don't bother trying to win this yourself, as I have it on good authority that it's all mine. That little casita? Well I think I'll turn that into my fiber arts room, complete with a loom, a wheel and more yarn than you can shake a knitting needle at.

Wish me luck...

Flipping Out

When I bought my spinning wheel last spring, I had no plans other than to learn to spin. Although a work in progress, I think I'm doing fairly well on this front. There is a drawback to all of this yarn making business though, and that's figuring out what to do with all of the yarn I make. I've only used a little bit of it, and I've given even less of it away. Some spinners are selling their creations at the local yarn store, but I haven't. I'm hoarding it for some reason.

Needless to say, my handspun is piling up and threatens to take over the house. Some has been sacrificed for the learning process, such as learning cable plying techniques. That took a lot of fiber, and makes an interesting looking yarn. The final product reminds me of rope. I have no idea what I'll use it for, but the process of producing two 2-ply yarns then replying those together in the opposite direction was entertaining.

In part, I love the way the handspun looks when it's finally plied, skeined and twisted. I tend to fill a bowl on the table and display what I've spun as art and there it sits. Once it's knit, my yarn takes on different characteristics that I may not like as much as the presentation of the skein. What's a spinner to do?

Well there is a way to take my yarn and turn it into something that appears to keep the qualities that I like about my handspun, but to do that, I'll need some different equipment and a whole new skill set.

Enter Santa, suspiciously disguised as my husband. He gave me a loom. Though I've yet to receive this back ordered item, it's on its way. For now, it's OK that it's not here because, frankly, I need to study some new vocabulary so I can at least sound half way intelligent when I speak about my spiffy new Schacht Flip Folding Rigid Heddle Loom.

I mean, really, what's a warp? Or a weft? Or for that matter, a heddle? I see I have a lot of prep to do before I even take the loom out of its carrying case.

Those elves better step on it; I'm a very quick learner.

Happy New Year

I am making a resolution to laugh more often.

To that end, I'll leave you this year with this:

How to Identify a Deal Breaker

A couple of weeks ago, right when we got pre-approved for a mortgage, I called the realtor I worked like a beast of burden last year. I told her that I remembered I'd promised to use her services to buy a new home when we were ready, and well, we're there, or we would be in January. It's my way of paying her back for making her show me two dozen homes for rent. I felt badly when I found out she only earned a couple of hundred dollars for the work I made her do. She must have spent that in gas money driving to meet me at all those homes.

Since that time, she keeps sending me listings for homes I can't afford or ones that need way too much work. To be fair, I've ignored most of her emails and two of her phone calls. I mean I told her I wanted to start looking in January and to my knowledge, it's still December. Still, she works hard, so I'm willing to use her again. One email she sent says on the listing that financing may be a problem because, hello?... the house needs a roof.

Feeling badly (but not too much) that I've ignored her, I looked at some of the listings she has sent me. The one that needs a roof? If that's not a $40,000 kitchen in that home, well then, I might be a monkey's uncle. Can you say custom cabinets, granite that sparkles, glass tiled back splash, double ovens, gorgeous hardwood floors? I know an expensive kitchen when I see one--I drool over kitchen layouts in magazines and watch Bang for Your Buck on HGTV religiously. What I can't figure out is why they don't put a new roof on the house. I can so see myself creating in a kitchen that looks like that, but I don't want to inherit problems.

As I looked through the multi list for this home, I was ever so slightly undeterred by the possibly serious roofing problems and saw its fatal flaw right there in black and white: the cooling system is a ceiling fan. Ya right. Like that would work for a post menopausal woman.

Back to square one and once again, I'm ignoring all emails and calls until January.

Photos: swiped from the MLS (I totally could use those two ovens at least twice a year).

How Not to Host a Party

A. Stay up all night being worried about terrorists.

B. Get up to watch what the talking heads on CNN have to say about it all, even though you got the real story in the first place.

C. Fall asleep on the sofa--one floor and unknown amount of feet away from the alarm clock.

D. Wake up 25 minutes before guests arrive and realize the best you can manage is a quick shower, a fresh pot of coffee and throwing out last night's trash quickly before everyone arrives.

The above is a real life representation of just what I did. I was thankful that my guests were my friends from my Saturday morning spinning group and they, truth be told, are a group of women I feel completely relaxed around.

We had a great morning and I took no pictures. If I'd taken any, it would have been the one of the look on my son's face when he walked in and saw his living room had been taken over by a bunch of fiber hoarding, wheel wielding women all talking about every little thing and nothing, all in the same breath.

I live for Saturdays.

Thanks to all my friends for joining me on just another Saturday.

Rocking Christmas

Rachel and mom dancing while dinner cooks.

I think this was the best photo of the night. We've had Rachel here since yesterday afternoon. She went home tonight and while the visit was nice, I find myself wondering how we managed her by ourselves for so long. I was completely exhausted when she left. MLTL wasn't too bad, but then he's had my sister in law to torment for the past week. She's counting the hours until liftoff tomorrow. Can't say I blame her.

Fresh horseradish encrusted beef tenderloin with port wine reduction was our main dish. It's tradition here. My first attempt at buying the bottle of port failed when the bag broke while placing it in the back of my brand new sleigh. Now my vehicle smells like a wino drives it and the reduction sauce cost twice as much money to cook.

My son's favorite dish of the night was the broccolini sauteed in olive oil with garlic and sea salt. It was pretty tasty. I had to cook it in two batches and I kept thinking I bought way too much, but there wasn't a stalk of it leftover, except what we'd saved my husband who was working overtime at the local airport. If you saw the news today, you know why he missed his chance to have dinner with his family. I'm just thankful everyone is alright and this potential tragedy never came to fruition. Maybe we just shouldn't have holiday flights. While I know today isn't everyone's religious holiday, I think Christian holidays are probably irresistible to these dirtbags. I saw on the news that the suspect has third degree burns...I can only hope they're in an area where even if he did get his 72 virgins, he wouldn't have a way to entertain them. Now that would be a fitting end to his tale.


Alright, off my soapbox. True confession: I may be a bad mother. There I am laughing at Rachel stealing my beer. What can I say? Sam Adams Winter Lager IS a tasty brew. Who can blame her? She also stole Sara's cocktail and took a giant swig. You need many pairs of eyes, like a fly, in order to watch this child. Sheesh. You'd have thought as much liquor as she swiped tonight, it would have calmed her down. It did not. It just made her silly. But you know, she is 20 years old. I don't think it harmed her any.


It' wouldn't have been a holiday without a visit from my friend, Mr. Mocha Latte. He was soaked from the torrential rains we had today. He came in to dry off, warm up, eat a little smoked peppered turkey breast and have a good lie down. He went home after the rains stopped and his 4 hour nap was over.

All in all it was a wonderful day with lots of laughter and love. That's what it's all about. The house is clean again and ready for several women to descend upon it tomorrow morning. They'll be bringing their spinning wheels, fiber and good cheer. I'm looking forward to the break and a reason to spin some yarn.

I hope you all had a great holiday!