Duckies Everywhere

Christmas themed rubber duckies have been mysteriously appearing on my desk for the past week. The first one was a reindeer duck. I have named him Ralph. He was to go with all of my llamas. To truley understand that meaning you have to hear the llama song. The next one appeared yesterday morning. It is an elf duck, yet to be named. This morning Santa came as a duck. I looked online to see how many different types of rubber ducks there are, and this could go on for a while. I'll be interested in seeing how many duckies appear while I'm gone for Christmas. I have all ready dropped the hint to the rest of the office that I should have duckies for all the major holidays.

I have finished the family's Christmas knitting. Just in the nick of time, too. His family is doing Christmas tonight. I don't have a clue on what my family is doing. I know that I'm not going to my sister's. Neither one of us want to drive that far just for a free meal. I still have both sleeves, the front bands, and the neck band to do for the entralac sweater. It is looking like it will be a late Christmas present for someone. I'm still going to try to finish it in time.

New year will have new wars. Both have their sign up cut off dates coming up soon. The first one will be Head Games. It is all about making hats. I know that it will have cables and will use size 7 dpn. It is suppose to start on New Year's Day. If my intended victim is reading this, I have that whole week off from work and have nothing better to do than to knit, knit, knit. The second war I'll be in is from Death by Socks. They will be doing multiple wars in a year. When one war is done, then the sign up for the next one will begin shortly after. The only thing I know about the first one will be that I'll be using fingering or sock weight yarn.

Christmas is when????

I am up to my eyeballs in holiday knitting. I shouldn't be. Some of it I started to spin for back in April. And what was I thinking when I took a Christmas entralac sweater order. It is a good thing that I'm not a social butterfly. Still the boyfriend's family party and the sweater are all due at the same time. Much chocolate and caffine will be needed to get everything finished in time.

If that wasn't bad enough, I have signed up for two knitting wars. One starts on New Year's day. I will probably be huddled in a corner somewhere screaming no more knitting, no more.

Hey, I finally updated this thing!

Really, I have ment to update the blog soonner, but I never really seemed in the mood. Not much has been happening. I'm pretty much done with shows for the year. I am up to my eyeballs in projects mainly for Christmas. I made and sold my first pair of hand spun 3-ply socks. I have an order for an entralac sweater. Okay, I told the guy that it was going to be entralac, because I wanted to try the pattern. I have never made a sweater that way. I'm knitting a pair of socks with pencil roving. They are going to be really warm. That will be good for me since all of my toys and supplies are in the part of the house that isn't heated in winter. There are several pairs of socks to be made. Some in handspun and some in the other stuff. I'm looking for a wrist warmer pattern I like for someone else.

I was hoping to go to Frankenmuth for a day or so. Apparently, someone has forgotten they agreed to it. My classes are done for the semester. I took six online computer classes. Really that was too much. I passed all of them, but not as well as I would have liked. My highest grade was 4.0 and my lowest was 3.0. Most of the grades were 3.5. I haven't decide what I'm going to take next semester. I'm leaning towards a marketing class. It is nice when your employer is a college and they let you take any class for free. Now if they would only pay for books.

Oh no. I see another project I need to get done before the end of the year that I keep forgetting about. I better get back to work then.

Sock Dead, but Not Forgotten

I have died in Sock Wars. I have been dead since Tuesday. Killed by The Tooth Fairy in Alabama. The socks are red and black. They fit really well in my clogs. Before I died, I killed Hollyspinner in Michigan and Toes-ty in Kentucky. Toes-ty as it turns out is a Michiganar as well coming from Grand Rapids orignally. Since I'm dead, I have decided to join Socktoberfest. It is a month long celebraton of socks. I probably will try the double knitting technique I saw on Knitty after I get the 7 or 8 other pairs in progress done.

This weekend is Mountain Man and Fiber weekend at Bowen's Mills. Or as I like to call it, The Open Bar. It isn't that we drink heavly while the public is there. We just highly imbibe once they all leave. Mostly, it is a comparison of what we all brewed during the year. Besides my own brew, I am quite fond of Apple Pie. It combines cider, spices and rum. It tastes like an apple pie. Reg is trying to figure out how to add a crust to the receipe. We have suggested a bit a Amaretto. I'm going to try camping out up there. We have a converted box trailer that isn't too bad as long as we don't have house guests.

Sock Death to Come Soon

I just received an email from my assassin in Sock Wars. She is on my second sock. At least I got one "kill" in before my demise. Maybe if my victim's unfinished socks get to me before my socks arrive, I can knock someone else off. It sounds like my target was almost done with her pair. Or maybe I'll get lucky and the Tooth Fairy will be knocked off and I will get a brief postage repreive. It figures that I would get killed by a fairy. My rennie character is deathly allergic to them. My assassin's relative went to Austraila and brought back yarn. My socks my be made from it, so even though both of us are in the US it will still be an international event.

Hey Marilyn and Sue, see I did update my blog.

The First Victim

I've gotten the first pair of socks done for Sock Wars and I have my victim with their email. Due to a hurricane and other things, I don't have an address where to send them. So Hollyspinner should you be reading this, please kindly send me your mailing address. They were ready to be mailed on Saturday. Come Monday morning, post offices around the world are going to start to wonder at all of the socks being sent off. In the meantime, I'm resting my hands. They didn't hurt when I took my nap. They sure did when I woke up. People tried to warn me that would happen, especially after my Olympic experience.

I cooked a whole pie pumpkin for the first time. I've cooked squash before, but never whole. My friend Steve K gave me a bunch of pumpkins. This one is going to be a pumpking deluxe cake for my friend Kaylan's birthday. If there is enough, it might also be some pumpkin bread. I need to cook more of the pumpkins down and freeze them for future use.

Tomorrow is Sunday Spinning at other friend Steve's house. I know too many people named Steve. It is the first time we have gotten together since his friend Bill passed away. The spinning group always has a good time. There is lots of food, friends, and fiber.

Sock Wars

The war will begin soon. I've changed my mind several times on which yarn I'm going to use. I don't even know if I can sleep tonight. I can't get started soon enough. I almost feel sorry for the first person I knock out of the event. Maybe they will get a skein of my handspun as a guilt bonus.

All while the sock war is going on, I still need to knit several pairs of socks for other people not in the war, spin and knit a couple of sweaters, finish a couple of sweaters and shawls, and make a couple of blocks for the Post Office Quilt. It is a neat idea. All of 490 and 491 zip codes (southwest Michigan) will be represented. It is going to be raffled off, but I don't know what for. There is going to be a book that the local Post Offices will carry. I get Kalamazoo (they lumped all the zips together) and Hickory Corners. I also found out that they are going to do a second quilt for the Postal Museum in Marshall. I'm in the museum biz, and I didn't know there was a Postal Museum in Marshall. There is a really cool Magic Museum in Marshall.

Speaking of Museum's, this week's event is the Otsego Creative Arts Festival. I'll be there spinning, weather permitting, down by the Otsego Historical Museum or the antique tractors. Right now it doesn't look like the weather is going to co-operate. That's okay if I can't go. It will give me more time to get ready for Cider Time at Historic Bowens Mills over the next four weeks. More on that later after the first victim of Sock Wars.

There was a purpose to this

The main reason I started the blog was so folks would stop asking where my next spinning (that's as in yarn, not the silly name for an exercise)demonstration was. As this is my busy demo season, I might want to start announcements now. The next spinning will be at the Tiller's International Community Harvest Festival. This organization teaches almost lost skills of blacksmithing, horse plowing, and more to anyone, but mainly to take back to less developed nations. They are going to be processing sorghum. I've never seen that done before. I'm already planning on buying some and making cookies.

Sock Wars begin in a week. I almost have my arsenal assembled. I just can't decide on bright obnoxious acrylic or purple cotton. I can't quite get the exact gauge no matter what I try. I have some plans of attack, but I'm not foolish enough to voice them. I just found out there there may be another warrior in my town. I'm told she knits fast, but then the person who told me thinks that most everyone knits fast. The boyfriend is very supportitve of the war. He thinks that it should take awhile before someone kills me, and he thinks I knit fast. He should know fast as his mom knitted fast. I will say one thing to my fellow warriors who might be reading this - I can knit 8 inch long ribbed cuff and a 12 inch long foot sock in one day. Given enough pain killers, you're going down. Bring on your size 11 feet!

I'm Back

I know it has been awhile. Stitches Midwest took some recovery time, and then it was time for the Michigan Fiber Festival. Yep, I spent way too much money. I got these cool light up knitting needles. The don't just light up at the tip like some on the market. The whole needle lights up. I was into exotic, luxury spinning fibers like alpaca, quivit, and cashmere. I also got stuff to do breed samples with. I want to make a blanket or something with all the different types of fiber labeled. I wasn't any better at Michigan Fiber Festival. I got the first place dyed adult mohair fleece. It is a pretty blue ribbon color. I'm going to ply it with a lighter blue. I think it will become a mitered sweater of some sort.

On to the news - I've entered Sock Wars. I probably didn't do enough damage to myself when I was in the Knitting Olympics earlier this year. Folks can sign up until September 8th. If I understand it correctly, you receive information on your target and have to knit and mail a pair of socks to them to "kill" them before the person targeting you sends you a pair of hand knit socks. I have a nice stash of sock yarns so the arsenal is ready. As someone I work with says, if it envolves knitting, competition and killing, it is up your alley. I'm off to finish stuff so I can focus my knitting on socks when the war begins.

It's My Birthday

Today's my birthday. Normally, this wouldn't mean much. It never has. But this year, I have gotten myself on a bus trip to Stitches Midwest. I've never gone before. I just hope I don't spend too much money. I mean Michigan Fiber Festival is next weekend and I know the damage that will do to the funds. I've decided to make a three generations shawl. Two of the fleeces that I have been spinning really thin are mother and daughter. I have the grand dame, so that would be three generations. It will go white (Sheltering Pines Fiona), light brown (Sheltering Pines Marilyn), and brown (Sheltering Pines Diva). I haven't decided yet on the pattern. Probably, something round. I don't think the birthday fairy will be bringing me that digital camera.

Please Let It Rain

It's been hot here, just like every place else. It has been too hot to do much of anything. The air conditioner hasn't been working real well either. All of my projects are in the part of the house without the air. I managed to smuggle out one of my Russian support spindles and the camel and silk roving I got last year at the Michigan Fiber Festival. I'm spinning even thinner than I have been on my wheel. So thin that I'm amazing myself. I've asked the birthday fairy for a digital camera, but the fairy seems broke right now.

It's a Start

Well, I finally went and started a blog. I don't know how frequent the posts will be or if they will be interesting for anyone. I should probably explain the title. I'm the black sheep of my family and I'm a spinster in every sense of the word. I keep trying to convince the boyfriend that the spinster part he could help with, but he wants nothing to do with it. I also prefer to spin naturally colored Shetland fleeces. The latest things I'm working on is the a historic knitted sampler, lace stole, baby sweater, cross stitch sampler, bookmark, and probably a bunch of other UFOs buried someplace in my room. No wonder my carpel tunnel is flaring up badly.