Well, it's a big announcement for me anyway! Besides my little yarn store, I also fancy myself a writer. I was just accepted at the main blogger for a new blog - Marriage Diva. I'll be posting biweekly tips, stories, and musing about my experience as a married woman. I've been married for nearly 6 glorious years and I wouldn't change a thing. I hope that my simple observations can help others learn to laugh and love more in their marriage.
Fans of the hilarious sh ow Little Britain (which you can catch on BBC America, but it not on nearly enough so do yourself a favor and buy the DVDs) will recognize the title as the catch phrase of Vickie Pollard. But I have a picture to go with it!
For two days we had a praying mantis hanging out on the sage by our front door. I love finding weird wildlife. And yes, it is wildlife if you live in the suburbs. And discovering such oddities calls for 2 hours of picture taking goodness. What am I going to do with 250 pictures of a praying mantis? I'm going to share them with you! And the rest will sit on my hard drive for 3 years because I begrudgingly delete them or print them out. Who I am kidding? They will sit there forever.
Anywho....
I thought I'd share a couple picture and tell you why I wish I was a praying mantis. First, the pictures.
*In my best National Geographic voice* This first picture the mantis was sensed my presence. In true mantis form, he turned toward me in a defensive manner.
In other words, the mantis was giving me the evils.
Now, this second picture isn't for the faint of heart. As I'm snapping away Annie Leibovitz style, the mantis caught a bee! Ok, now I'm in major National Geographic mode. I felt like I was the first human EVER to see this. Squealed and everything. Remember - this is not for the squimish...
The praying mantis is one cool bug. Not just because they sit there like green monks, but because they can eat their body weight and still be skinny. Yeah, I'm jealous. Second, that little bug was staring me down! I can't even give evils to slow cashiers and people who cut me off, but a one ounce bug almost brought me to my knees with his icy little glares.
Oh and I can no longer hold out. I must make another hat. No, I haven't given up on my first part of socks but this Onion Dome Hat is just too cute. I've got the yarn already too - Glastnost Gold and Shaba Green. Those colors together remind me of a retro rec room couch. Fun!
I have never claimed to be an expert knitter, so it is with great pride and joy that I announce I'm starting my first pair of socks! Yes, I have never knitted socks before and I'm more scared than a cat in a room of rockers! But I will muddle through somehow.
No pictures to post yet - I just got the cast on done. At that point I was dripping in stress sweat and needed a nap. Melodrama anyone? I'm using a Midnightsky Fiber fingerling weight I set aside from the first shipment. It's great - it's yellow and green with just a teeny tiny bit of orange.
I'll post pictures soon!
Last week, the air conditioning took a dump on us. Earlier in the week my brother received a $500 dollar electric bill which led to the complete and total replacement of their air condition unit and furnace. I felt lucky with a paltry $300 repair bill. I even remember thanking the Air Conditioning Gods. I clearly remember telling them, “Thank you, dearest Gods of cool and non-sweatiness, thank you for your gift of cheap fixes.”
What did I get for my prayer? Let’s fast forward a week to find out, shall we?
So, Gentle Reader, if you are from the Midwest you might be aware of some crazy weather. Floods of epic proportions. Nasty stuff. Unfortunately for my brother and sister in law, they live in one of the cities affected. While I write this, my husband is there helping them salvage what they can from the house. Although I didn’t tag along, I did my part – I sent along chocolate for my sister in law.
Ok everyone analogy time. Brother – majorly broken air conditioning. Heather – minor broken air conditioning. Brother and sister in law – MAJOR Flood. Heather - ???? Let’s rewind to this morning.
I threw some laundry in because I literally had nothing to wear. Since I had nothing wear, I couldn’t very well change out of my jammies while the clothes were in the washer. Perfect excuse to hop back into bed! I wiggle down between the covers, finished a delectable donut, put on SpongeBob Squarepants and no sooner had Mr. Crabs fell head over heels for Mrs. Puff, I was out. Not even a twinge of guilt. It was Saturday and I was going to enjoy it, dammit.
I woke up about an hour later, refreshed and happy and ready to get that laundry into the dryer and start the day. As I turned the corner to the where the washer lives, my sleepy feet were suddenly wet. Can’t be cat puke – that would be squishier and warm (sorry non pet people but it happens). Can’t be a swimming pool because we don’t have one…and if we did, it wouldn’t be in the hallway. I looked down to see my carpet a horrible, sopping mess.
Do you know how many gallons of water a washing machine uses per load? The answer is 30. Now, I would have liked to figure out a way to use LESS water for the environment, but at the time all I was thinking was that’s a lot of damn water on my floor. And now the cats were intrigued. Cautious dipping their toes onto wet spots, looking at me to do something. I’M TRYING CATS!!!
I’m completely frantic now, I have two angry kitties, and I’ve been awake for 3 minutes tops.
I use every towel in the house, just to realize that I had just one rather musty towel to use for my shower. To make matters worse, I had to go out of the house in mismatched shorts and tank top to gather the necessary supplies. Even worse – I didn’t know WHAT the necessary supplies even are. I realized that after 6 years of marriage, we each only use half a brain and need to be TOGETHER for simple household tasks. For example, he had to return THREE times this morning for missing items because he did he own packing. For me, giant puddles of laundry water causes a minor melt down. I was ready to stand in line at FEMA for aid.
Lucky for me, I have the bestest friend in the whole world who joined me for an afternoon of water sucking fun. She did her job – brought chocolate, words of calm and laughter. I couldn’t ask for more than that!
Now, hours later, with the high velocity fan running the background I’m calmer (as are the kitties) and in a chocolate coma. Now my back…that’s another story. But, I’m happy. I realized I could fix a problem by myself but tackling it with someone else makes it a little better. I realized friends can become family you choose. And I realize I’m lucky. Bad sibling juju - you can’t control me! Oh and while I’ve been writing this, my J button isn’t working too well. Tim, Semra, Dan, Kerri, Allen, Kevin (and now Lorena) – if any of you had a computer breakdown and caused my J to get funny – I’m coming after you.
I'm proud to announce the arrival of Midnightsky Fiber to the Granola Yarn Yarn Shop. It's the first hand spun, hand dyed yarn at the store and it certainly won't be the last! Being that it is hand spun and dyed, I have limit quantities of each, so please come and check them out today!. I've listed my two favorites in my Featured area - Delphi and Recycled Country Club!
When I should have been working on photos of new yarn, I took a break to Simpsonize myself. For those of you who haven't seen it, you should check it out if you're looking for something funny. It's like a really really good episode. Plus Homer sings a song to the Spiderman theme called "Spiderpig". Hysterical. Stay for the credits and get a CHORAL version. Seriously, it's been running through my head for 5 days now.
Ok, enough talk. Here am I Simpsonized! And in a few hours there will be new yarn HERE!
I'm a sucker for books. I don't care if they are knitting books, non-fiction, cookbooks, whatever. I lurvs me some innernet wisdom but nothing will ever replace a good (or bad) book. I'm particularly fascinated by previously owned books. I'm not one for bargain hunting, but when I can find some cheap papery lovin' - I'm in heaven. I'm intrigued by their smell. You know what I'm talking about, that musty 1970's basement smell. It's great.
Anyway, besides loving books I of course love knitting! But I haven't mastered knitting quite as well as I have reading so I was on the search for some knitting books to help when I'm in a jam. I know that Vogue Knitting is oft thought to be a bible for knitters but it's also super expensive. While on half.com one day, I found an edition from 1989 for only 5 bucks. Don't tell me picking up stitches and circular knitting has changed drastically since the days of giant bangs and pegged jeans. So I purchased it thinking "How dated could it really be? Knitting goes back to the 13th century!"
Well, I found out how out of date a knitting bible can be. Don't get me wrong, instructionally it seems very sound so far. I think it will come in handy. However, I don't see myself trying out the patterns anytime soon. Unless I find a Delorean that goes back in time. Here are just a few examples:
Not even the best part. Page 224. Can you guess what instructions Vogue would never have been remiss enough to leave out?
Ok, have you figured it out?
I am well aware that the 80's are back. But I beg of you, Fashion Gods, please do not bring back shoulder pads. I'm already built like a linebacker and shoulders pads will surely make me number one pick on the NFL draft next season.
Oh, BTW, in 1989 Vogue Knitting retailed at 34.95. I guess knitting was only for the rich.
A couple weeks ago I started a hat made from Peace Fleece Samantha-Katya Pink . It was a one skein project I modified slightly for my noggin. I didn't want it to come too far down, but I still make it mighty big because I have lots of hair. This hat is specifically for "I'm-not-completely-angry-at-my-curls-today-so-I'll wear-my-hair-down-but-I-love-hats- so" days. Here I am!
I just got in my first shipment of yarn from Midnightsky Fiber. The artist behind these fibers, Jenn, is from the Pacific Northwest who specializes in creating unique vegetarian and environmentally friendly fiber related products. I'm going to work on pictures over the weekend, I want to do these babies justice and hopefully they will be up for sale on Monday. Have a great weekend!
In this heat, I still had the energy to get my new yarn and new patterns from Peace Fleece up today. I added two new colors - Soyuz Apollo Teal and Hemlock. The teal is pretty straight forward - it's a great deep blue teal with a bit of a greenish halo around the edges. The Hemlock can best be described as the offspring of Ancient Fern and Shaba!
I also added three, count 'em, THREE new patterns up from Peace Fleece as well. More to come!
