Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I'm praying everyone has a blessed Holiday Season, whatever your preferred Holiday to celebrate is but I'm a believer so I'll say again...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Oh, and tomorrow I make my FINAL payment on Ashley! Yayyyyyy! She's my Ashford Joy wheel and I can't see spending this season without her!

Welcom Home Benjamin!

Benjamin is home at last! In case you're wondering Benjamin is my new Ashford spindle. I got him last night and oh what fun we had! Such a lovely job he did! I also got a set of the new Lantern Moon Sox Stix in ebony. Very nice. I even missed NCIS, Criminal Minds, and CSI:NY to play with him. Now, usually I have viewed my tools of the craft as female in nature, but Ben...well...there's just no getting around his very male attitude. I know...I'm a dork because I attach a live personality to inanimate objects. Sue me, I spend a lot of time with my nose in a book or reading Cat in the Hat...at some point something was bound to go wrong up there.

What the ........

WHAT prithee tell is UP with the stinking weather? This weekend it was sixty degrees. SIXTY! Now, I'm no stranger to warm winters. I spent the first six years of my life with shorts on on Christmas day and playing under the palm trees of Panama but THIS......! In southwest Ohio, this is just unheard of and quite disturbing. Oh well, at least it's supposed to get cold by Christmas Eve. We may even get SNOW! (YEAH!!!!) On a lighter note, the scarves were finally handed out to my co-workers by my boss today. Everyone oohed and ahhed appropriately and I was in fact given the one I'd been hoping for. It's the prettiest bright orange and yellow mohair and I just flipped when she handed it back to me at last (I'd been missing it so much since turning it in). Katie's Christmas socks are done and get this.....I knitted the second one in ONE day!(Okay I've got serious hand crampage because of it but I DID it.) Chris is okay with probably getting his sweater at his birthday three weeks from now as he's seen me slaving away on this thing and it's STILL not long enough to start the sleeves yet (another 10 inches and we'll be there. Did I mention he's 6'6"?) But his socks are almost a pair now and he's seen his other presents so he's happy. Actually, he's mostly excited about his socks. Hearing my family and friends ooh and ahh over how warm and comfy theirs are is really getting to him. He keeps moaning about how cold his feet are! = ). My spinning is coming along nicely now. I'm working on finishing a skein of ivory Corriedale to send to my Spin-to-Knit pal. I really need to find out what kind of colors she likes so that maybe I can dye the second skein. I really need to get another spindle. My Rosie is beautiful but she's just not the best to spin with. I plan to buy a good ole Ashford spindle from Arlene this week when I make my last payment on Ashley. YES, I said my LAST payment! YEAHHHHHH!!!!! Finally, I can spin without feeling guilty. Okay, I haven't felt guilty in four hundred dollars but you know what I mean. As soon as Christmas is over I can devote more time to spinning. That. Will. Rock. Oh, and classes start back Jan.2, so keep me in your thoughts as I try to stay awake through Statistics ans Political Science. Philosophy should be more intresting. I get to read Plato and Descartes. Sounds cool, huh? And oh joy of joys... I should be getting like a thousand dollars back in FA so I CAN GET MY OWN COMPUTER AT LAST!!!!!!!!!! Sweet.

Xenia preacher caught cross-dressing!

Okay...I think you really had to be in that sermon to get that joke but rest assured, my pastor is NOT a cross-dresser! So it's been almost a week since I blogged and I'm so upset with myself. I'm trying really hard not to slack off even though I'm the only one who reads my blogs. It's the principle of it ya know. So an update: Mom and dad showed up at the house Tuesday unannounced and informed me that my dad's PCP was making him get an early colonoscopy (it's early b/c he's only 49). They said they didn't want to alarm me by telling me ahead of time and they wouldn't have even stopped in but for the fact they thought I'd be upset if I found out. They were right. Everything was ok though so that's over and my dad doesn't have to do another one 'til he's sixty. My chrismas knitting and spinning is a little behind. I haven't even gotten half done on Chris' sweater so it might end up becoming a birthday sweater instead (his birthday is Jan. 13). His socks will be done at the same time although hopefully I'll have them done by the 25th. I'd hate not to give him ANY completed knitted items. My love of all things fiber (and especially those originating from a sheep) has forced me to believe if you can't say it with wool, it isn't worth saying! That may be a little out there but hey....I'M a little out there. I am starting to amass quite a collection of sock yarn and now my best friend calls me a yarn snob because I tend to turn up my nose (subconciously of course) at those yarns found in the unamed big box stores. Except Patons classic. Who could resist THAT stuff!?! School starts up again on Jan.2 and I couldn't be more thrilled. Taking a quarter off was necessary but I'm ready to go back. Not to mention the financial aid refund will be supplying me with my very own laptop with which I will become much more faithful in blogging. All for now. Merry Christmas (I can't stand that whole !@#%$ Happy Holidays crap!) !! and GOD BLESS YOU!!!

Joy to the World

Oh joy of joys the long torture of the scarf project is finally over. I turned them over and and have been happily knitting on socks and sweaters ever since. I have completed my first design successfully (DH's sock) it turned out beautifully and he's been harassing me ever since to finish the other one so he can wear them. He says to me, " You always talk about needing to cast on for the second one right away to avoid orphan syndrome!" I laughed so hard. "It's Second Sock Syndrome hunny," I tell him. Hey, can't blame a guy for trying right? But I love him for trying. NEway, so I did cast on for the second and it's on it's way nicely. On a more somber note, one of fav LYS is closing it's doors permanently. I thought it best not to ask why, I can only assume, but I did score 420yds of Cherry Tree sock yarn for like nine bucks! And two balls of Trekking XXL for about nine bucks each too! And a 40 inch US5 Addi for like ten bucks. I LOVE Trekking but I've recently discovered a lovely yarn that I can see myself becoming addicted too. It's Melody by Jojoland and y45 is the prettiest colorway EVER, okay maybe not EVER but it is fabulous! And as of tomorrow I will be only 100 bucks away from having Ashley paid off completely! YEAH!!!!! God I love that wheel. I love spinning period. I'm still not getting consistent results but I know that the more I spin the better I'll get. Just like knitting.
Well, that's it for today. Life is good. Yarn is better and wool is ......well.....the best!

12 Scarves of Christmas...and some Insight.

My boss has commissioned me to knit twelve scarves for he so she can give them as gifts to my co-workers. When I undertook this job little did I know what was to ensue. She gave me the money to buy the yarn and then I began to knit. And knit. And knit. Can I just tell you that even the most engaging scarf pattern is sheer torture when you A) HAVE to knit it and B)have already knit four just like it in different yarns. I'm so tired of knitting scarves, but they have to be done by Friday so I will hold off on my other WIPs just to finish the job, but I assure you that after this I will NEVER agree to knit more than ONE scarf as a gift and I will certainly think long and hard about THAT.

Now for some insight...

I don't know exactly when I first got bitten by the fiber bug. All I know is that one day I HAD TO KNIT and I didn't rest until I'd bought the kit and taught myself. I didn't have the time or money to wait for a class. I had to knit right then and there. So I did. My family thought it was a phase I was exploring. But then they gave up hope. The fiber began to accompany me everywhere. I kipped in movies, restaraunts, church, everywhere. I've yet to stop and now I spin too! I can't explain the love I have for this art that feels to me like coming home. I can be having the worst day of my life but as soon as I take yarn to needles or foot to treadle I am okay and everything will be okay. There is something inside me that only responds to these two acts. It is a phenomenon I will expound more upon later. For now....I need to knit! (Even if it is ANOTHER stinking scarf!)