The Non-Thinking Week

I'm still at the lake, we'll be leaving tomorrow evening to go home.

This has been a disappointing week to me for several reasons. One of which is my knitting. I brought a knitting project and some spinning stuff with me. I've done some spinning and dyeing, but I just haven't been able to pick up the knitting.

I think it might be because it requires thinking and I just haven't been up to that this week. I seriously needed some non-thinking down time and I've gotten it, thank God. I should have brought a plain stockinette project instead of a lace one. Bad project for this week.

Would you like to see the view from the back porch of my folks?

Beautiful, Isn't It?

That's the party barge in the lower left corner. A little further to the left is the bass boat. My kids have changed the name and call it PawPaw's "fast" boat.

There are a bazillion spiders here that love to perform their art everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. You can't move without finding a web. I love the webs, But I seriously despise spiders with a passion.

A Gem of a Museum

I found a little jewel of a museum in the sleepy little town of Anniston, Al. If you're wondering, Anniston is about 2 hours outside of Atlanta, GA.

It's called the Berman Museum and guess what? It was founded by two honest to God spies. How cool is that? But wait, it gets better. The man, Farley Berman, worked as a spook for the CIA before it became the CIA. He was assigned to watch a French spy named Germaine. She, in turn, was assigned to watch him. That's how they met, then fell in love and then married. I absolutely love the story. They retired to Anniston (where he was originally from) and that is how this lovely museum ended up there.

Over the years they amassed one of the most amazing collections I've ever seen. All of it was kept in their home until right before they died. Your eyes will pop out when I tell you what they have there. There is no way that every thing was gained in a legit manner. I suspect a little black market stuff went on, but that's just my opinion. Over half of the collection is still kept in a vault and most of that will never be seen by the public.


So what did they have? (As always, click to enlarge the pics for better detail!)



The most amazing things to me were:


a. Adolf Hitler's Tea Service - When the looting during WWII occurred, this little gem made it's way to the States. Notice the engraved A.H. on everything and the Eagle and swastika. I am a tea fanatic and have quite a large collection of tea cups and pots, but nothing as pretty as this service.

This pic doesn't do it justice.

The Silver

b. Napoleon's Dressing Set - This set was with Napoleon in his exile on the island of St. Helena. The detail around the mirror is something to behold. It was very surreal gazing at myself in the mirror that he looked at every morning as he dressed. It is made of hand carved ivory. I always pictured him as sitting in a stone chamber with nothing but a cot and a bucket. Obviously his imprisonment was quite a bit nicer than I thought.

Cheese!

Notice the tweezers. Think he plucked his nose hair with those?

c. The spy guns were amazing. There was a belt buckle gun, throat lozenge gun, flute gun, pipe gun, tire gauge gun, etc. Most of those shot a .22 caliber bullet. There was also a fountain pen that shot tear gas.

Check out the screwdriver gun

d. The Coronation Crown and sceptor of the Czech republic.



e. Mussolini's Sword, bell pull that was by his bedside, his parents photos that were on his night stand, many of his medals and the original photo that was taken by American soldiers about an hour after he was hanged. This became an incredibly famous photo.

The Sword

Ma & Pa Mussolini

f. Stuff I don't have a pic of - a pair of executioner's swords from China, The Sword of one of the Persian Kings that was encrusted with tons of diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires. There was also numerous oil paintings, Remington bronzed sculptures of the old west, about a bazillion types of guns from every war and the old west.


I could go on and on. We had our own personal tour guide. We were pretty much the only visitors so one of the employees walked around with us and told us the stories of a lot of the stuff on display. If you ever get a chance to go see this, do. I was absolutely amazed. Fabulous!

Oops. Missed a day. I'm blaming it on the lake atmosphere. I headed out of dodge for the week and I'm still here. I figured that if I stayed at home I would just fret and worry about the camp that I'm not at. So, here I am at the lake.

But! Here's something cool that I dug up at my folks place. A pair of hand cards that belonged to my g-grandmother and possibly to hers. They were made in the mid 1800s or so.

There is still a stamp on them that is just barely visible. It took some time doing internet research to fill in the missing blanks, but it reads:

"The only genuine Old Whittemore Patent, Improved, No. 10 Cotton, L.S. Watson & Co., Leicester, Mass."

The tines are in horrible condition, but the wood (maple) is fine. I would like to replace them with tines for wool if I can find some. Not sure where to look. I'll ask on Ravelry to see if anyone knows.

Mama Poole's Cotton Handcards

Horrible condition
Here's some cuteness for you. She was "helping" me take pics of everything:

Miss Minnie

Something else that I did this weekend was dye more roving. The roving is from Sheep Shed Studio and is a merino/mohair combo. It looks like Mint Chocolate Chip to me, especially spun up. I'll show you some of that later.


Yum, Mint Chocolate Chip!



I'm not extremely pleased with the dye job. I may go back later and overdye the yarn, we'll see. I used dylon dyes in lime and bahama blue.

Glass Spinning Wheel Video

For those who haven't yet seen it in action, Here is the Youtube video of Andy Paiko's Glass Spinning Wheel:






Have a great Father's Day Weekend!

Scrap that thought.

You know when, in the last post, that I said things were better? Yeah, well. Scrap that train of thought. I resigned from the drama camp.

There comes a time when you have to know when to step away and this was it. The author refused to work with me, the staff person refused to do much of anything to defend me and I refuse to have children in an environment where the adults are all squabbling. It's not conducive to learning or fun.

I don't cry much, I'm just not that type. At least, that is, until I'm frustrated and angry. There have been quite a few tears spilled over this whole thing. I'm now feeling battered and exhausted. Physically and mentally exhausted. But at the same time, I feel vast relief that it's over.

As far as knitting goes, I'm working on my secret project now. I can tell you that it is an Alan Dart pattern cause the recipient won't know anything about that anyway. I'll show you the results as soon as I can!

Today

Today was a little better. Thanks to all those who listened/commented both on and offline on the whole drama camp issue. I worked a few things out with one lady. Unfortunately, during auditions today the author of the play showed up and proceeded to tell me who I should choose. She seriously needs to take a step back and let her baby go. It's up to me to interpret it now.

It's a lot like a knitting pattern. Once it's written, it's time to let the general public make it as they will and even change it. You can shorten or lengthen sleeves, add pockets, get rid of pockets, add stripes, etc.

Once a poet writes the poem and releases it, every reader reads it in context with their own lives and their own interpretations.

Now why doesn't she get that? I swear, if she stands over me the entirety of next week I will have a screaming hissy queen fit, I really will. A loud one. :)


More good news today, I got something for my reference library:


I was so upset and out of sorts yesterday that I didn't dare pick up anything yarny or fibery. Tension would have been right out the window. Hopefully I'll improve on that tonight. I have got to make my secret knitting project a priority. June 22nd is the deadline.

And, oh God, what about Father's Day? When will I ever be able to make the time to go shopping this week or next? AHHHHHH!

A vent, a FO and a WIP

I do have some knitting stuff and a spinning FO to show you, but bear with me a minute while I vent/agonize.

Summer drama camp season is upon us. It begins next week. Why am I agonizing?

First, the powers that be at our church are having power play issues. Two different departments, Music and Children, are arguing about whose turf this camp is on. Guess who gets stuck in the middle? Yep, me, the Director.

Second, I got pushed into doing a specific play. I had little say in the matter. The problem, is that the play sucks, it's absolutely awful. It was written by a local lady and the one that pushed me into it.

I've spent the past four years building this camp to be a full-on broadway style camp. I teach the kids everything, from set design, prop making, costume making, choreography, etc. This has become one of the most popular and most requested children's camp and I'm extremely proud of it. usually. Not so much this year.

It's difficult for me to get excited about having kids perform something that is sub-standard. The lady that wrote it is planning on sending this off to a publishing house. They're gonna rip it to shreds in it's current state.

Here's a couple of examples of what bothers me:
1. She makes jokingly makes references to prozac and bulimia. Not the subjects of choice for elementary children. I've already stated that I will not have those in this play. I really don't feel up to explaining in detail what those are to the kids. I find this especially inappropriate at a church camp. I'm not going to go all preachy here, I think you know what I mean.
2. No big production numbers. There isn't one time that the kids can get up and sing and dance together.
3. The level of vocabulary is way too advanced. This is not geared enough for the elementary crowd. It doesn't need dumbing down, just simplification.

There's a lot more where that came from, but I'll stop for now or I'll get all riled up again. If I could bow out of this play gracefully, I would. It's my reputation at stake here too you know.

The positives? Set design is cool as well as the props. I'm still working on the costumes.

Onward to the important stuff!

I know that I promised to show you a glimpse of this on Saturday, but when I promised, it was on a Friday, and I had no idea what day it was. I have lost all track of days now that school is out. And I was right too, it's completely balanced after blocking!

Anyway, here, as promised is the spinning FO.

Turned out pretty huh? Click to enlarge

Here is the state of the current knit, Elizabeth Zimmerman's February baby sweater:

The Terracotta Cardigan

Peanch

For the past two days I've been obsessed. Utterly obsessed with the new toy. I've been spinning like a mad woman.

I've come to the realization, which I could never do before since I didn't have a wheel, that the whole thing makes your legs hurt. Really. Of course that could be because I do a lot of sitting around all day and very little exercising. I'm allergic to exercise you see, kinda like I'm allergic to dpns if you get my meaning.

I decided that it's sorta like sitting in a recumbent exercise bike. You're sitting in a chair, leaning back and pumping your legs, except your legs go up and down, not around. When you do this for approx. 4.5 hours or so, you might get a little achy. I did take breaks (don't have a choice with rugrats around) but I finished the second set of singles and was determined to see them plied.

When I bought my wheel from Spunky Eclectic, she sent me some extra roving as a thank you. I neglected to take a pic of it and instead dove right into spinning it up. It was gorgeous, I promise. The name of the colorway was roving, but after seeing it all spun up, I'm renaming it to Peanch. Part peach/Part pink. I got a little over 200 yards from it. Its mostly balanced. There are a few little pieces that coil up on each other, but for the most part, it's balanced. You'll see in a second. What you'll see is the yarn before being blocked. The kinks should be all gone afterwards. I'll show you the finished skein tomorrow.

Ummm, pink spaghetti... Click to enlarge for better viewing

Progress has begun on the baby cardigan. I've finished the yoke section and have begun the lace work. I'll show you that tomorrow as well.

Terracotta baby cardigan

Well, we're finally getting a girl in the extended family. Yay! This family has been lousy with boys for way too long.

So, I opted to make a baby cardigan for the pending arrival. This was the project that I took on my trip to FL this past weekend. What progress did I make? NONE! I frogged the damn thing 3 times.

I was using one of Elizabeth Zimmerman's patterns (Baby Surprise Jacket) and for some reason just couldn't get the hang of it. I'm ditching that pattern and I'm going to try her February Sweater from the Knitter's Almanac instead. We'll see if I'm competent enough to do that one.

I'm not sure what happened. I looked on Ravelry and there have been thousands of these things made. So what's wrong with me?

I'm going to use Cotton Ease in Terracotta. This is perfect for this family. The mother is a real "back to nature" sort (nothing fru-fru about her) and the father loves orange.

I found these cute buttons to go with it. Aren't they cute?

Fish Bowl Buttons!

The yarn in the picture is way too bright. The actual color is really a pretty coral.

Cross your fingers that I don't screw this one up, 'kay?

New Edition to the Family!

After many long months of waiting, we have a new addition to the family!

Let me tell you a little about her.

I've been breathlessly awaiting her arrival to our home for months now. She was completely planned and she finally arrived yesterday a little before three p.m. Labor was only about an hour total. I hardly even broke out in a sweat. Easiest labor that I've had.

She's a lovely blond and quite petite. She's constantly, voraciously hungry and has/will require lots of feedings. Her brothers are so excited to have her home and have already spent quite a lot of time with her. I expect I'll be losing a lot of sleep because of her, but that's to be expected with newborns.

The Eldest's attitude toward her has been quite different than it was when we brought home his little brother. It's been much easier on him this time. He's already used to me spending a lot of time away from him and spending it on his baby brother, so this time around I don't think he'll mind at all when I spend my time with her. As a matter of fact, he's been pestering me to death to help feed her!


The Youngest just wants to play with her. I have to keep reminding him that she's just a baby and he has to be gentle with her, but he's too little to understand that. I think she's just adorable and I can hardly keep my hands off of her myself.




Would you like to see a picture of her?

Isn't she lovely?

The Shuttle Launch

The Shuttle Launch was fabulous!

We kept the Eldest in the dark about where we were taking him until breakfast on Saturday morning. It was absolutely eating him up that we wouldn't tell him where he was going. I had him almost convinced that we were traveling to Vermont though.

What was funny was that when we told him we were going to the shuttle launch he said, "And then what?" Aren't seven year olds great? You give them an awesome trip and they ask something like that. Of course, he was running on less than 4 hours sleep from the night before at that point. It didn't mean a lot to him until after he had seen it go up and after we had toured some of Kennedy Space Center.

Wait til I tell you where we watched the shuttle launch from! A rich friend of my brother's MIL let us view it from their condo. It was a SWEET condo. Like a couple of years ago cost $1 million dollar penthouse on the 12th floor kind of sweet .

Check out the inlaid mosaics on the floor of their foyer:Framed Textiles from India

Very Ornate Dining area from Korea

Their balcony

There was a whole lot more that was just as cool, but I'm running out of room here.

The view their pad was amazing too though.

We saw a mommy dolphin with her baby, manatees, ospreys, pelicans and stingrays from the balcony.

Awwww! You could also see the launch pad as well as tons of crowds.

Launch pad in the distance

An example of the packed crowds

My camera was not too great at the long distance pic of the shuttle launch, but the vapor trails it left came out great. By the way, this was as close as you could get to the launch pad unless you worked for NASA.

The Launch

Shuttle Vapor Trail

Here's a pic that I took from inside the car as we were leaving. You see, as a good devoted sister, I always try and take pictures of the hotties I see for my brother. Here's one of a hottie and her man (notice the matching arm tatoos):

If you enlarge the above pic, check out the front fender on the first bike to the left. This was the coolest paint job on a bike that I've ever seen. I was afraid to let them see me taking their pics. Of course, I might have watched a few too many movies in the past about bikers with bad tempers. :)

Last, but not least, my favorite pic of the weekend:

My parents and the Eldest pose as astronauts

It was a great weekend, hope you had one too!

Off to Florida

Well, The Eldest and I are off this afternoon to go watch the Space Shuttle explode launch in Florida tomorrow. He still doesn't know where we're going, just that we're going on a long trip. He's going to be so excited!

Keep your fingers crossed that the launch goes as planned, especially for those dudes on the Space Station that don't have a potty right now. How awful is that? It's not like they can step outside into the woods to do their business you know. How ever are they managing? :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thank God for Moms and Sewing Machines!

My Mom is a genius. Yep, a damn genius.

I had a problem with Soleil, a big one. I followed the pattern to a T. Um, that will be the last time that I do that, blindly following a pattern I mean. I'm going to have to break down and do the mathy stuff every time I do a sweater. Why? What went wrong, you ask?

It was about a 1/2 inch too big on both sides. I refused to rip it out and start over cause I want to wear it this weekend. So what did I do? Steeked.

This freaked me out a little because of the cotton/acrylic that I used instead of wool. Wool would at least grab onto itself. Not sure what will happen in the long run with the cotton. It could all turn into little tiny bits of purple cotton fluff tomorrow.

I ran a seam 1/2 inch down both sides to basically take out every m1 increase that I had made in the pattern. It was still bunching up under the arms though and I could not for the life of me figure out why. I called Mom to vent and lo and behold, she had the answer. Bust Darts! Perfect!

I didn't tell you that all the while in the above paragraphs that I had been putting on and taking off this sweater about a hundred times to pin, sew and check fit and redo what needed redoing. Same thing went for the bust darts. It worked beautifully. Tell me this sweater is not the perfect fit now? Thank God for Moms and Sewing Machines!

My Soleil

Interview with Andy Paiko

I've got a real treat for you today. A few days ago on Ravelry I saw a link for a glass spinning wheel. That's right, you heard me, a Glass Spinning Wheel! I encourage everyone to go see his fabulous wheel.

Man, do I wish I was independently wealthy. This baby would be mine to drool over. Although, I could never really get it. I'd be terrified of hearing an ear-splitting shriek followed by tiny glass shards hitting the floor due to a certain two year old menace that I live with.

But! I was so in awe of Mr. Paiko's work that I just had to beg for an interview and he was gracious enough to grant that request. I had all the questions laid out, but he does such a great job telling his story that I think I will just let him say it his way...

 Shea...

Thanks so much for your interest in my work... I am so happy that the
spinningwheel is being passed around on fiber arts websites and blogs.
I know it is a tight-knit community (HA!... I just made that up, but it's
probably very stale for you).

My wheel is made of over a hundred separate hot-sculpted glass
components, fitted and cold-fused with an archival UV-curing
adhesive and steel hardware. The wood ismexican cocobolo.
The piece can be dismantled for easier transport. With the distaff,
it is 60" tall. It took me about three months of  8-hour days and
many sleepless nights to complete.

To be perfectly honest, I am more interested in the mechanics
of spinning wheels and the metaphors that may be inferred by such
a well-respected craft than the act of spinning wool itself, which
I have only seen done, never done myself. My wheel can be treadled
in a normal and comfortable manner, and fiber which has been threaded
on the bobbin and flyer will certainly take many several twists per inch.

The model and it's proportions are all taken from Eric Corran's book,
"Understanding the Spinning Wheel", pg. 168. It will be on display in
the window of the Portland, OR, Museum of Contemporary Craft this
coming June with an accompanying video of it in use (which I am
editing right now and hope to post on youtube soon). It is for sale at
$22,000.

I saw this quote, right after I finished it, coincidentally, which rather
succinctly sums up the otherwise ambiguous reasons behind my
creative impulse: "EVERYTHING CAN HAPPEN. EVERYTHING IS
POSSIBLE AND PROBABLE.TIME AND SPACE DO NOT EXIST. ON A
FLIMSY FRAMEWORK OF REALITY, THE IMAGINATION SPINS,
WEAVING NEW PATTERNS." -August Strindberg, from "A Dream Play",
as interpreted by Ingmar Bergman in "Fanny and Alexander".

I have been making glassware and sculpture from glass since 1994
when I was 17. I have apprenticed several craftsmen over the years, but
have taken very few classes and for the most part, am self-taught. I do
occasionally take commissions if contacted.


Hope this answers your questions...   Feel free to post any of it.

Cheers!   -Andy

Thanks so much for the interview Andy and I look forward to the video!


UPDATE: Go here to see the video!

New Stitch Markers

I want to share with you a couple of things that I made this weekend.


First, I made these little guys. There are actually eight of them, but only three are camera hams.

Hippo Stitch Markers

I fell in love with these Blue Moon beads when I saw them. Here's a close-up shot:

And last, I was still in the mood to play and so made this little set of earrings:


Cute huh?

What I did on Memorial Day Weekend

What a fabulous weekend! Why?

1. I sold a fish tank and made $200.00!

2. On Friday I sold a barbie and made $203.50!

3. I sold a giant display cooler and made $25.00!

4.Thanks to the above three things,

I ordered my new Fricke Spinning Wheel!!!!

5. I did some more knitting!

I've split the neckline and I'm working my way up.

6. In a few minutes I'm going to see a movie!

7. I did some crochet!

Barefoot Sandal! Once I get the kinks worked out, I'll post the pattern.

What a great weekend!

Memorial Day Weekend Edition

I had the most amazing morning. We went to the Veteran's Cemetery here in Marietta for the placing of the flags on all of the graves. There were boy scouts everywhere. A slew of them.

Did you know that there are over 18,000 graves in there and that the oldest date from the civil war and go through every conflict since then? It took 10 minutes flat for the boys to have a flag on each one. I'm not joking, 10 minutes flat. Simply amazing.

The Eldest salutes the Soldier's Grave

They had some re-enactors there, but not the ones you usually think of around here in the South. Nope, not the civil war ones, these dudes were the first ones, Revolutionary War re-enactors. For your viewing pleasure, here's a posterior pic:

Revolutionary Booty Pic

How in the world did girl's ogle the gents behinds back in the olden days when they wore these types of uniforms? And don't tell me they weren't lookin' either, cause I won't believe it.

And not to be left out, The Youngest spent his time trying to uproot all the flags:



Sorry for the hazy pics, all I had was my camera phone since I forgot the real camera.

I swear that I've been knitting and will give an update soon.

Oh! Forgot to mention, I'm $203.00 closer to my wheel! Someone bought the barbie I had listed. Yay!

Awards, but they're just not for me.

There was little knitting today, but a whole lot of visitin' going on today. Today was honors assembly at the Eldest's school. He got several awards (all A's and a Reading award) and had grandparents on hand to watch him walk across the stage and get his certificates and medals.

Take a look at the pic I took of it. His school principal is an amazon woman. She's over 6 foot and wears heels. Even bending over to give him a hug she's huge, and I don't mean huge in a fat, mean way either. She's just a big, tall lady. I feel so short and small next to her especially when she wears heels too. But anyway, where were we?



I went into the class after the assembly and saw one of the boys just crying away at his desk. He didn't get anything at all, poor thing. He's had a tough time this year with his schoolwork, some of it because he has a hard time getting the concepts, some because he doesn't get everything done that he needs too. It's hard to know what to say to a kid in those situations. I just hugged him and told him that I loved him and left it at that.

Hopefully, if I get motivated and I am left alone long enough tonight, I'll have more knitting for you tomorrow.

Mother's/Father's Day Gift

It's a little late, but today I get to show you the Mother's Day gift that I had the children make for their Grandmothers. This would also make an excellent gift for dads for Father's Day.

This is Reverse Pen & Ink/Painting. You do all the writing and painting on the back of the plate:

The names have been removed, but I wanted you to see where they went instead of just blurring them out.

This is so easy! Here's how it was done.

1. Get a clear, glass plate. Ours was square, but round works great as well.
2. If you have any writing to go on the plate, do it first. It's a bit tricky. To get it right, I took a sharpie and a piece of paper. I wrote the Name 1 down. Then, turned the paper over and traced what I had written, again using the sharpie.
3. Next, I placed that side of the paper under the plate. Your plate should be face down! Trace the backwards name onto the plate. When I was done, I flipped the plate over and checked to see everything written the correct way. I continued with any other names or phrases and did them the same way.
4. Now for the next layer. I had the kids dip their hands into acrylic paint and then put their hands on top of where I had written their names. This did not go over so well with the Youngest. He absolutely hates getting stuff on his hands. I had a tough time keeping him from wiping his hands on his clothes. It was a full on wrestling match as a matter of fact. Acrylics and clothes don't mix well. I'm just sayin'.
5. Let that layer dry. Then I followed up with the background color.
6. Last step - Apply a sealant. I used spray on polyurethane.

Done! Simple huh?

New WIP

I have begun yet another WIP, Soleil, from Knitty.

Easy peasy so far. I'm adding an extra repeat of lace at the bottom to make it a smidge longer. I don't like where it's been falling on most folks who've made this over at Ravelry. See, that's the genius of Ravelry. You get to see how a pattern looks all made up on a bunch of different body types. Then you get to seethe and hate on all the gals that have nicer bodies than you. :)

I'm doing this in Knitpicks Comfy again since I love the way the last Comfy tank feels. The colorway on this one is in Blackberry. Usually my camera hates purples, but it seems to have gotten over it for this photo shoot. The color in the photo (at least on my monitor) is fairly close to the actual color of the yarn.


The first tank pattern I picked up was the Lelah tank. Very pretty, I was going to add wide straps to it. But. I couldn't get anything to go right on that one. I hated the way the lacework looked on the needles recommended. Way too wide. The pattern on the site is not correct either. I will revisit it later when I feel like sitting down with a calculator to get the needle/gauge/cast on number thing going. So, on to Soleil!

This tank could be similar if I took the lacework all the way up to just under the breasts, but I think I like this one as is.