When Only Wool Will Do

It's my second blog anniversary. My how time flies. I'm truly appreciative of everyone who follows and comments. I'm even appreciative of those who lurk around but may be too shy or too busy to venture forth into commenting. Really. Feel free...I don't bite. The only people who get their comments deleted are those who spam me, or those who link their less than desirable sites (I swear, I don't need a Russian mail order bride, so would you please quit trying to sell me one?).

Borrowing from the Hobbits, I've begun a tradition here of giving away a gift when I'm the one celebrating. Last year, it was Brenda who won my Clapotis shawl. To hear her tell, she loves it and so does her grandchild.

A contemporary gift for a second anniversary is china and while I like china well enough, I don't make any. A more traditional gift is cotton, but I don't work with the stuff. Once I knit a baby sweater for a friend entirely out of Blue Sky Alpaca's Cotton. It was beautiful, and I hear little Ethan has been wearing that sweater, but I didn't enjoy knitting this. Cotton is hard on the hands, or at least it is on mine. No, I work almost exclusively with wool. Good wool. Soft wool. Once in awhile, I stray into silk or bamboo, and once, camel, but for the most part, it's wool that I like. I had great fun knitting my blog giveaway mittens and especially because I used one of my favorite wools: Manos del Uruguay. This is a special product from start to finish and I feel good when I buy this yarn. Click on the link to find out why.

There could only be one winner of these mitts and I can't think of a person who unexpectedly needs these more right now, but I didn't pick her. The random number generator site did.

Gail, It's freezing down in your neck of the woods, isn't it? I bet you're totally unprepared for weather like this. I'm pleased that when you make the rounds on your farm, your hands will be toasty in these mitts. Please, send me your address again. Even though I just snail-mailed you a thank you note, you'd be wrong if you thought I filed your address in a safe place! Good thing I don't work for the postal service.;-)

Congratulations! I hope they help to keep you warm.

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments and for entering my giveaway.

Last Chance to Win Mittens Interrupted

This is the last chance to win these mitts--quick--before I change my mind. It's freaking freezing here! Entry ends tonight (Sunday) at 11:59 PM. A winner will be drawn by random number generator.

All you have to do to win them is leave a comment. How hard is that? Just be sure to speak up on the original post here. Oh...it doesn't matter where you live. I'll ship. According to the weather map, these would come in handy pretty much anywhere lately.

May a little luck be with you.

Ixnay on the Ousehay

The adorable little yellow house was absolutely wretched. Wretched, I say. The living room, the size of a postage stamp, had room for perhaps two chairs. The remodeled kitchen? Well, let's just say that nothing was level and the granite is pulling away from the counter. The cabinets, what there were of them, were as cheap as they come. Now I'm no snob, but if those homeowners spent 9 months, and a small fortune on this remodel, then they were fools and so were the bankers who financed them.

The self cleaning oven was filthy, which completely escapes me since with the push of a few buttons, it can clean itself. And the fridge? I made the near lethal mistake of opening the door. The homeowners left it full of now rotting food. Blech.

The master bedroom was a bit larger than the living room and had an adjacent bath and toilet that were right there in the room. There wasn't a door. Now I love my husband, but even after 2,200 years together, there are still some things I insist can only happen behind closed doors. Can you imagine what would get on all of your belongings with every flush? Disgusting to even think about. The straw that broke the camel's back was when my very tall husband whacked his head on the door frame going up the stairs. I think his cursing was heard downtown...something about an effing doll house, or something in that vein. You get the picture.

Now that the bubble has burst, we're back to square one. We did go see another home and while it was cutely decorated, it was tiny, too, and needed work.

I don't get the hardwood floor thing. If you're going to have them, they should be finished. Worn finishes on floors really stretch the boundaries of shabby chic. But really? The chocolate chip cookies were a nice touch, so many thanks to the homeowner for that.

This evening, we're off to see a home that was a complete remodel (I'll believe it when I see it), but lacks a garage. The price seems fairly decent and it's quite a bit larger than the other two we saw.

How expensive can a garage be?

ETA: Well here are more questions: in addition to the garage, how expensive can the closets be (because in a 3 bedroom home, there was only one), or gutters, or landscaping, or hooking up the water supply to the fridge, or a hand rail for the steps, or a gate? Because to my eye, that's what's missing. I'm sure I'm only scratching the surface in respect to the complete remodel. We were told the yard was dug up to lay new gas lines. Any bet as to what's under the 6 inches of snow? All in all? Not such a great house. The kitchen was the smallest I've ever seen.

Reminder: You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince.

Yellow

I like yellow. It's such a cheerful color, don't you think?

Be not deceived by the appearance of what's hiding behind so much greenery. Since these photos were taken eight months ago when this house was first listed, someone has done something to tame the jungle. In their wake, they've exposed an adorable Craftsman style home built around 100 years ago. It's so close that I can see it from my bathroom window and I never knew it existed. Who could with that overgrown garden?

It's small, but I'm intrigued.


The last owner paid nearly $250,000 for this place and proceeded to gut this home. They put on the new, cheerful siding, a new drive and deck, a new granite kitchen and two completely remodeled baths. Now I don't know if the tub in the master suite is new or 100 years old, but I'm kind of charmed by the appearance. We were told by neighbors that the rebuild took nine months and the owners threw good money at their projects. The entire house is wired with surround sound--inside and out. The back yard is fenced and that's perfect for welcoming a new pup, or two.

We've scoured this city of ours for a couple of weeks and we're kind of tired of it all. So many are asking exorbitant prices for their homes. Insane by today's standards, but really, I think they're just asking to get out what they've put into them. In better times, I couldn't afford to live where we're looking, but these are not normal times. These homeowners, and undoubtedly, the bank, are all losing their arses. If we like and buy this home, we're the ones who'll be making out.

We're going to see it Saturday.

I'm putting all of my hope in respect to house hunting into one basket. It's exactly one block from our current house. I mean really, a couple of dollies and some strong backs, and we'll be all moved in. Who needs a truck?

Well, I might for the yarn.

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.