So this weekend was..interesting.

Saturday Cody didn’t have to work because he had to work an extra day at a different time so we went to the knitting group at Napoli for a while. I brought my wheel and had posted a note in the Tuesday group’s yahoo mail that I was going to be there with my wheel.

Then I worried that I sounded all egotistic because I was assuming people would care that me and my wheel were doing anything ever. But people actually showed up because my wheel and I were there! Whee! So I showed some spin-curious people a few tricks on the wheel. Beth was there with her wheel and a woolee winder which is a neato bobbin gadget that I haven’t been able to buy yet. And I got to see Adam who I hadn’t seen Ms. Harlot had been in town!

I also got to see Erin whom I haven’t seen since, geez I don’t even know. I’ve been mentally calling this “the baby knitting group” because there have been three pregnancies in the last year. Erin’s alleged girl (they’re not positive it’s a girl) is due next! And I got to meet a sweet little baby boy who’s just two months old I think? He was very cute.

Then Cody and I went to Village Wools to buy gifts for my knitflix swap partner (No worries it’s not a secret swap). And I spent too much. Again. THEN we went down to Los Lunas to see the in-laws and get haircuts. My mother-in-law is our hairdresser but it’s ok she’s a retired professional. It’s nice to have short hair that doesn’t tangle again. We also ate at a local favorite called Benny’s whose burritos Cody’s been eating since before he was born. Then we drove home and went to bed.

I woke up Sunday morning with a HORRIBLE stomachache. Blah! Benny’s tried to poison me!

So I was in bed asleep or awake and wishing I were dead for about 24 hours until Monday morning. I was better but woozy Monday but we did get a few errands run that we do on Cody’s “weekend” days (for those who don’t know he works a totally freakish schedule so our “weekends” are different than most people’s).

Tuesday I went back to the chiropractor who’s really surprised with how quickly I’ve been improving! Seriously, my neck is so much better. You wouldn’t believe the difference.

Then we mailed out my knitflix swap box, I hope she likes it!! I’ve been calling it an unashamedly girly. I don’t want to give too much away though so I’ll wait until it gets to Gwen to give the details. We also mailed out the vesper sock yarn that was snagged within hours of my putting it up for sale, which wasn’t a surprise at all. That stuff is like jade or somethin.

Tuesday night we went to the Stitch n Bitch at Flying Star where I felt well enough to have the Late Autumn Harvest again - although I had to send it back and have them cook it more the patties were a bit raw in the middle and I’m not gonna get sick again!

I had a great time hanging out with Ramona, Beth, Morgen, Cari (who gave me a present from Village and looked lovely in her new Clapotis!!) and our blogless friends who are on the verge of converting any day now. Hope I didn’t forget anyone I usually get a little slap happy at these things. Morgen, who had a really cool reconstructed sweater on, is our latest peer pressure victim! Welcome aboard!

We discussed blogs, the big Tilli Tomas pricing scandal, the upcoming Taos festival, Village’s new digs, a group trip to Good Fibrations in Edgewood, the Sheep to Shawl store at the state fair, creative export businesses, and someone talked about knitting underpants out of lavender-scented yarn. Oh yeah, that was me.

So today I’ve been finishing up the knit portion of my funky scarf. I’m being awfully vague about this scarf aren’t I? Well, it’s kind of weird and hard to describe. And I’m still not absolutely sure it’s going to work out. But don’t worry! I’ll write all about it when I finish it.

Then I put some handspun for sale in the etsy shop.

I put Sugar Plum Fairy back up for sale

Carnival Flirt

Schmoop

and last but absolutely not least,

Bernadette

It reminded me of the Seurat painting which made me think of Sunday in the Park with George so I named it after Bernadette Peters. But right now I want to dance around the house with it and sing that Four Tops song instead. Is it odd for one to fall in love with one’s own yarn? Is that some kind of weird fiber Pygmalion thing?

Bernadette!
You’re the soul of me!

Bernadette!
You mean more to me than a skein of yarn was ever meant to be!

I love that song. Ok you all think I’m really weird now.

If you’re going to run away why don’t you go look at the scarf Holly made using the Jackpot yarn! Isn’t it pretty?

Lay that yarn skein down, ma, lay that yarn skein down.
Yarn stash bustin’ mama
Lay that yarn skein down.

Noro Transitions # 19
Textiles a Mano La Perfecta Superwash in Purple
Textiles a Mano La Perfecta Superwash in Blue/Green
Vesper Sock Yarn in Midnight Knitter
Fiesta Watermark in Taos and Kokopelli in Turquoise Trail
Sandstone Ranch Santa Fe Rainbow thick n thin handspun

I have some handknit items to put up in the shop later as well as some of my handspun and some more scarf kits.

And check out my mom when she met Alexander McCall Smith today. How cute are they? We’re both big fans of his No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books. I just finished Espresso Tales the other day too. I’m so excited she got to meet him I wish I could’ve been there!

The good:

The Bad:

The Crackly:

I’ve had a bad neck/shoulder/back issue for years. Like, now that I’ve been thinking about it, fifteen years. Oops! I had a friend back at Birmingham-Southern that I would pay to massage my back. Then my best friend and roommate in Santa Fe got the honors since she went to a hippie school for a while and knew how to massage really well. She kept saying, “You really need to get an adjustment,” and I had no idea what that meant.

Cody is not a very good massager because he’s afraid he’ll hurt me. Believe me, it would take A LOT to hurt my neck and shoulders. I am one seriously tough woman in that particular area thanks to softball in my early years and stretches and stuff trying to fix my issues in the more recent ones.

So for years now I’ve been dealing with pain on the left side of my neck down into my shoulder and to this one weird spot in my shoulder blade. It comes and goes. But for the last year or so it’s gotten increasingly worse. Sitting at the computer for hours then going and sitting on the sofa to knit with really bad posture doesn’t help. And I’m almost positive I sleep “wrong” too although we bought a great bed about a year ago.

Monday we didn’t get to the fair which was disappointing. But I finally did give it up and go to a chiropractor. I’d just had it with the neck pain. We just went to a local chain that I remembered had a “Walk ins Welcome” sign. I was terrified. All those rumors about people being paralyzed and stuff. And this guy did take my head and crack the living shit out of my neck. Three times. Then did these little electronic stimulator things on my neck and upper back. It was scary but it felt a lot better! Not perfect but better.

When he asked me if I’d had a car wreck or something fifteen years ago I couldn’t really think of what had happened to cause this neck pain. I usually assumed it was a combination of bad posture and an injury from chiseling stone in sculpture classes. But Monday night I remembered what happened when I was nineteen: I was in the mosh pit at a Vomit Spots concert and someone jumped off the stage directly onto my head. I went straight down. Will was there and he probably even remembers. I got right back up but my neck was so stiff for days afterwards. And so it has been ever since on and off.

It’s a mosh pit injury! How totally punk rock!

I went back this morning and it’s a bit better. The chiropractor did the same stuff again and said we’ll be doing the same thing for a month or something then we’ll see how I’m feeling. But I’m not supposed to be sitting at the computer very much with all this going on so I’ll only be checking in every once in a while.

So that’s it..the good, the bad, and the crackly.

1. Knit Happens is having a sale on Nature Cotton and Wool. I’ve been knitting squares for a baby blanket with Nature Cotton this weekend and it’s very soft with a really interesting texture. Since it’s handpainted I’ve been alternating skeins every second row to keep the colors less ziggyzaggy. It’s looking really nice even with simple stockinette with a garter edge squares. The yarn is so textured I didn’t want to use a complicated pattern and make it a big mush. I’m really enjoying working with it. And it’s so springy for cotton!

2. This micro sculpture artist named Willard Wigan is totally amazing. He essentially sculpts dust, gold dust, sugar crystals, threads, fibers into tiny little representational sculptures. Check out this one he did of Henry VIII and his six wives in the eye of a needle.

3. Knit your own Converse Shoes!!!

4. This guy in Serbia was told that having sex with a hedgehog is a cure for premature ejaculation. Um. Hmm. I have no witty remark about this. I just hope the hedgehog’s ok.

5. We’re going to the State Fair on Monday! Mmm Navajo Tacos. And I’m going to do some present buying at the sheep to shawl store! My feet and tummy (and bank account) are aching in anticipation.

Believe me the second part is way more of a surprise. The last eight months or so he’s been listening to this stuff called nerdcore by a guy called MC Frontalot. It’s rap or hiphop or something about being a nerd. I’m sooo not kidding. There’s even a guy called MC Hawking who converts Stephen Hawkings’ voice recordings to rap music. Or something. It’s all very weird and believe me, there’s nothing cuter (or funnier) than watching my tall pudgy white nerd husband rap along with these guys while he’s out driving our little CRV.

Now the food. Wow. The other night he made Thai shrimp with couscous and fresh organic green beans. In about fifteen minutes. WE LOVE YOU TRADER JOE’S!

I’ve felt really swamped with stuff this week but if I look around at it all I feel like I haven’t accomplished much. I’ve sold a few skeins of the gypsy scarf kit which makes me very happy. I was worried that I was charging too much but everyone kept telling me to keep it at that price and it would sell. I tend to underestimate my prices.

I did put my gypsy scarf pattern up for sale in the shop in pdf or snail mail format. It’s only 3.25 and it has some great ideas in it. Including a fun yarn randomizing technique. Hee. I’m really proud of that pattern I think it would be a lot of fun for new knitters and experienced ones who want to try something new and weird.

I’ve also been playing around with our sewing machine (a 1960s Kenmore we got from an estate sale) making little bags to fill with a dried lavender rosemary blend I have. I like tossing in a little bonus gift in with my sold items. I’ve used up the stuff from the Japanese dollar store and this is a good way for me to practice some sewing. And lavender is a natural moth-repellant so it’s a great little bonus. Not the most technically well-done but who cares right?

I’ve been worried that I haven’t been very ambitious with my little shop. I’ve been selling on Etsy for a year now, since the Katrina fundraiser, and I’ve just stayed with Etsy because I think it’s a good website with a built in market of people who understand and appreciate handmade items. Those programmers work hard and probably deserve way more than they’re making, and I know how that feels. So I intend to stay with them until I have the time and energy to mess around with hosting a shop on my own domain. Since I do my own tech support that’s more trouble than I think it’s worth at the moment.

I did register a domain that will redirect to my etsy shop. It’s weird because it was my old domain way back when I first had a website in 97: http://www.noellesnoodles.com It was much, much cheaper to register this time.

Since it’s been a year I’ve been thinking about what direction I want to go in with the shop. If I want to just keep doing what I’ve been doing. To be honest this little enterprise isn’t about making the most money with my time really, it’s about art and self-worth.

Every yarn I spin, or paint, or put together is a piece of individual art to me. I can try to make something like it but the individual pieces can never be copied exactly. The fact that I can put it up for sale and people will buy it is like a friggin miracle. I’m not kidding.

After I finally finished my sculpture degree I never thought my work would be commercially successful. Remember I was in Santa Fe and had spent years competing with the “big power tool boys” in the sculpture department. My stuff wasn’t big and sexy it was usually small and intimate or largely abstract but in a way that was hard to explain and usually a bit brooding with a lot of background story to it.

I was probably most well-known for my nudes and had just started a series of self-portraits that reflected a whole new echelon of self-image and my own body acceptance. While festively plump women aren’t very well-received in the fashion industry, for the most part, plus sized nudes aren’t all that sellable in the art world either. I’d given up on commercial success with my artwork by 1997 but I’d also had a really great year in my personal life.

It was a trade off and really made me wonder if it was possible to be artistic and romantically happy at the same time so I started to design websites. LOL sorry that was just a hilarious sentence to me. I designed websites professionally until about 2000 when I got totally burnt out with having to keep up with the latest technology all the damn time while only getting to use a tiny bit of creativity.

Anyway, having a little store now where I can be creative, create something I consider art, and actually sell it..unbelievable. But I also am hell-bent on keeping this fun. I don’t handle stress well. So I don’t really court many special orders or advertise much. I just create stuff I think is cool and put it up for sale. I try to keep the attitude that if people don’t buy it that it’s ok I had fun making it. I just want to keep enjoying the process. I would like to pay for the cruise with what I make but we’re also saving up for it in other ways.

I don’t mean to be a big downer or anything, it’s just time for the annual stockholder’s review so I’m taking stock, so to speak, of how I feel about it all. All in all I feel pretty good about it. Maybe a little defensive of my decisions and actively remaining small but I’m pretty used to making decisions that other people might not make.

Except voting Tucker Carlson’s butt off of Dancing with the Stars. Must admit I felt some Schadenfreude watching that.

I had dragged all my yarn, all of it, into the den and spent several days going through it all, deciding what to put in a gypsy kit, which of the more complete or untouched yarns to sell or trade, what I might as well give away to a newb (hello lion brand homespun!).

Then the real fun began: I went through all that was left, the stuff I couldn’t bear to part with, and put them into gallon zip top bags with their sibling yarns, if they had any, sometimes even a copy of the pattern that I have earmarked for them. Oh my. So I have a big really embarrasing list now. Want to see? Of course you do!

These are current projects that I intend to finish within the next few weeks

1. Funky Scarf - this is a really interesting project that I’ll go into more detail later
2. Secret Pinwheel Blanket - for an undisclosed with-child recipient
3. Pink and red naturespun squares - for another undisclosed with-child recipient (one of the many)
4. Beaded Scarf - using the yarn from a few posts back - for a client

These are projects that are on the needles but I don’t know when or if I’ll finish them

5. Will’s scarf - a totally simple scarf in sock yarn but it’s pretty low on the priority list
6. Crochet scarf w/ Artfibers Gypsy silk yarn - Yarn from my best friend last year and at the moment just a very long chain. I will learn to crochet dammit
7. The Ugg Set - I just need to do the front flap and the ears on the hat but inertia has really set in
8. Shadow Shawl - I love this project. Really. But other projects constantly overshadow it - so to speak.
9. Baby Sweater - oh yeah! That one! I think we’ve found my oldest UFO here! The good part is it’s maybe a year old so that’s not TOO bad for a UFO. I guess.
10. Sprout Giotto Sweater - oh yeah! I forgot about that one too! I’ve gone back and forth about frogging it and making something else. But it’s actually kind of cute. I don’t think I have the stamina for “actual sweaters” because…
11. The Big Girl Knits Sandy Cardigan - I’m still on the first panel and it’s cute! The brown bear lion’s brand turned out to be way more red than the photos showed so back to kaleidescope it goes. I did go ahead and order the color cards for several knit picks yarns and I’m going to check out the Cascade at the LYS too.
12. My Fleur De lis shadow pattern - yeah, that. I hate that now.

Just wait until you hear about the ones I plan to do sometime…

1. Thuja w/ lt grey Trekking XXL - for Cody
2. Besotted w/ Jo Sharp - probably not until next January haha
3. Felted Clogs - also for Cody, believe me the guy’s earned some toasty feet with his wonderful fiber husbandliness
4. Booga - I have never done one! And with all the noro I have, I really should
5. Felted hedgehog - still haven’t gotten to do this one. Now I did knit a stuffed hedgehog toy last year for my nephew but that one wasn’t felted and this was before the FiberTrends pattern
6. Cabled Baby hat - yeah, there’s another one. This will be in the same pinky acrylic stuff as the bootie socks
7. Fair Isle Socks - the first fair isle pattern I’m going to try! That cool knitpicks pattern with the self-patterning sock yarn and the solid.
8. Knee High socks w/ koigu - these will be done sometime this fall
9. City Shawl - has been sitting around waiting. Ramona called me a shawl queen and I’m afraid that I am. Not the biggest, but I’m working on it.
10. Windy City Scarf - this is a simple ribbed scarf pattern with some cool handpainted loopy mohair. Stuff from Chez Casuelle always gets me.
11. Favorite scarf and hat patterns using some Maisy Day Handspun
12. A Felted pottery pattern from Plymouth using some Neutral Noro Silk Garden, sort of an experiment with some leftover noro
13. Multi directional scarf using grey manos
14. The Magknits multidirectional scarf pattern using some Jaeger Baby Merino
15. Sabrina Tam from Knitsimple using Berroco Optik
16. Something fun with some great handspun silk blend I bought from Greenwood a while back
17. Comfy Shawl using some handspun from Hello Yarn
18. Feathery Lace Stole using marmalade kidsilk haze
19. branching out using yellow la luz silk
20. Airy Scarf using a white blend from a local artist, Robin Pascal
21. Heartstrings’ Beaded Swirls beaded lace socks using Lorna’s Laces Yellowstone.

You can be honest. Does this make me look crazy?

Oh! I also put this site together for a friend of mine who’s hosting a knitting retreat at Ghost Ranch north of Santa Fe during the last week of October. I’m not sure if I’m going to get to go. All the discretionary funds are being saved up for the cruise and to be honest I’m a bit princessy about my sleeping and bathroom arrangements, and I’ve heard that they’re pretty rustic at the retreat. But it looks like it would be really fun and a beautiful landscape to explore if you weren’t a big ninny like I am.

So I’ve been going through all my yarn and putting these gypsy yarn kits together. I decided to guarantee the randomness (since this seems to be a challenge for some) by tying the yarn in at random times and skeining them up myself.

These will all come with my pattern for a “gypsy scarf” but, really, the way they’re designed you can just cast on and knit and you’ll get a helluva funky scarf. Each skein has a certain kind of color scheme but has a surprise or two to keep things interesting.

I have four so far but I’ll put some more together if there’s any interest. I brought them to stitch n bitch tonight and my friends there are predicting that there will be plenty of interest. They’ve also suggested the retail price of 35 dollars. What do ya’ll think?

Jackpot- 130 yds
this is jackpot yarn, it’s all handspun. Some by me, some by others, and even a bit of Manos de Uruguay
Mostly blues and browns

Teaches of Peaches ~150 yds
Vintage cotton linen yarn, a bit of chenille, debbie bliss cotton, some berroco suede, weird ladder yarn, and omg there’s some koigu in there too
Teracotta, green, blue

Blue with Suede Too ~196
There’s probably enough here for two scarves or one shawl. Lots of cotton in different forms - chenille, plied, mercerized, there’s also some ladder yarn, Berroco suede, and a great silk ribbon yarn from Artfibers
Mostly blues with creams and some greens too

Double Tall Vanilla Latte ~187 yds
Funky plied brown cotton (some of the first yarn I ever bought), burgundy wool, pink tufty rowan big wool stuff, lots of interesting textures in this one, I like this one a lot
Browns, cream, burgundy, pink

I’ll put all these up in the etsy shop tonight. I’m also putting together some kits with full skeins, leaving the randomness up to the knitter. This is the first one of those

Mrs. Slocombe
Suri Alpaca (knitpicks), Nylon Novelty (Takhi Stacy Charles), Kid Mohair w/ Silk (Plymouth Kid Seta)

I stayed up late last night finishing a custom spinning job for one of my best friend’s neilgaiman.com board buddies. This yarn is for the same lady that bought my drag queen grover shawl. So I know she has good taste, but is willing to go pretty far out there with the weird. I love people with those kind of qualifications.

This one’s a little more reigned in. She wanted a similar beaded yarn with neutral colors, which I’ll be knitting up into a rectangular shawl/scarf for her.

Does everyone else always look at their latest yarn and think to themselves: This is the best one I’ve done yet? I do this every time. I think it’s a good sign that I keep pushing myself, keep myself excited.

So this is 4 oz of handpainted Blue Faced Leister (Banff from Spunky Eclectic) spun thick and thin then plied with clear nylon thread that I had strung with wooden beads. I’m not sure if I want to dunk it in water with the beads so right now I’m setting the twist on my Goko Swift.

Purty.

I’m messing around with my site off and on this weekend. I’m probably going to remove the skinning option since I can’t keep up with which ones are and aren’t working with the latest version of Movable Type. I know the comment cookies are all whacked out (and have been whacked out for a long time, cobbler’s kids’ shoes kind of thing) and I want to fix that. So this site might suddenly shift to a new design without notice, it might go to a dull design for a while. If it’s totally crazy-looking, just hold the ctrl key and click reload on your browser at the same time.

I’m not very good with kids. I think they’re cute and stuff they just make me very self-conscious. Especially babies. I am totally not one of those women who wants to pick up babies and hold them and fawn all over them. I’m afraid I’ll drop them or make them cry, which they usually do because I’m holding them so tight out of fear of dropping them. Most people in my extended family have accepted this about me and have stopped trying to put babies in my arms to try to kick start my biological clock. I think this all probably comes from being the baby in the family. I never had to deal with a younger sibling and my older sibling is several years older than me so she was well out her diapers by the time I was around, or so I hear

I do have that crazy “oh my god isn’t she CUUUTE” kind of behavior with animals. Cats, kittens, dogs, puppies, little pocket pets, even a reptile or two. I don’t feel the urge to reproduce humans, instead I get the urge to adopt another animal.

It seems like I have been doing a lot of baby knitting lately because I swear one in every fourth or fifth woman I know is pregnant. And what kind of knitter would I be to not knit baby stuff for them? So here’s my latest baby knitting. From Ann Budd’s Better Than Booties Pattern from Interweave Summer 2005 This one is for a co-worker of Cody’s who just had a baby girl. I also wanted to get extra practice in with the reverse yarn over short rows on the heels and toes, which I’m STILL having to be careful with for some very frustrating reason. And I wanted some playtime with braided cables. Which are totally fun to do.

They’re cute. And easy to do These are in some kind of Bernat pink acrylic I had lying around. Yeah I know. Gasp! Acrylic! But this stuff is pretty soft and I really think it’s just mean to knit baby stuff as a gift with yarn that isn’t washable, at least for non-knitter parents.

So that’s the second pattern I’ve knit from that baby gift article from Interweave Summer 2005 and they’ve both worked out really well. I plan to do the koigu sachet sometime. Now onto the other baby knitting. I finally have the yarn to finish the old baby hunter’s cap to go with the ugg baby booties, some pieces to knit for a group blanket, and just started a pinwheel blanket, both of those blankets will be in unbelievably soft cotton. Babies babies everywhere.

As for my baby, I finally uploaded pics from Winter eating her birthday cake. The cake is from three dog bakery which I’d never been to. I’d tried to go once before but they were closed. The cakes are frozen so we don’t have to order in advance, we chose the cake, they put the decoration on top for us and we waited for it to thaw.

We cut a piece for her and she waited patiently for me to get a photo and tell her it was ok to eat it.

Isn’t our retro carpet great? Ok not so much but we certainly don’t get upset when she gets crumbs on it! I got that collar for her in San Francisco isn’t it cute?

I’m still working on the yarn sets! That’s taking a lot more time than I thought it would!