Fiberaddict's Fiber Fumblings

Because I have a LOT of photos, I made a college. Kinda sucks, but hey - it's photos! :lol:



This is all the stuff I've knit and finished in January. The socks were started....in late September, but all the rest was started and finished in January. What can I say? Stress knitting at it's finest! Also, all the January stuff is knit in worsted weight yarn - which is thicker than my beloved sock weight, and knits up faster.

I am in the midst of another set of fingerless mitts......my kitchen can't be finished soon enough! I'd like to knit something...smaller. Like socks. Right now, though, I can't get to my ball winder, so I have to knit with yarn that comes in ready-to-knit packages. :shrug: I can always use another hat or two or three....:rofl: Especially "fashion" hats like the cloches - they're warm, and cute, and give me options. As do the 2 new geeky hats.....Star Wars and Dr. Who for the win!

Back to the knitting.......beats painting. Which I did yesterday - the kitchen has been redone AGAIN. I....liked the aqua-isa blue, but I didn't love it. It's now a nice Federal/French blue...and I LOVE it. It's a bit dark right now, but once the white cabinets go in it'll pop.

Have a great one!

Spent yesterday quietly freaking out - seems the Orthodontist accidentally ran Himself's downpayment thru 2x. Which, of course, caused all sorts of problems with my bank. :sigh:

See, I get paid 1x/month. I have everything budgeted and scheduled - I end payday with $50 (sometimes more, but always at least $50) to last the rest of the month, which, since I budget so tightly works fine for me. Except when someone takes $200 out that I wasn't expecting. :sigh:

After numerous phone calls (I actually held it together during them - thank the knitting for that!), they agreed to refund the $200. We're still "discussing" the overdraft charges ($134 worth. :OUCH!:)....I really hope they do the right thing. It's not my fault that I was assessed the charges, it was because of their error...but we'll see.

Meanwhile, I knit. And knit. Auntie's mitts are *done*, SG's Balmoral is fulled and blocking (he knows about it; I had to have him try it on. Sure enough, I had to full it a bit more.), and I am in the midst of a beautiful cowl for me. I have a pair of mitts for me, a pair of mitts for Herself, a pair of gloves for SG and for Himself, and a Balmoral for Himself in the queue.....those'll keep me busy for a while.

Chloe is a dream puppy. So far, no destruction (other than muddy paw prints). She likes to take stuff outside, but - so far! - she hasn't eaten them. She likes to get into the trash...so the can now lives on the counter. She's a total love-bug - which Himself needed. I think he chose (well, he was chosen!) a good dog.

Guess I should get back to knitting. School starts soon......photos later. :lol:

so this'll be light on content, but heavy on photos. Or something.

Snips: We had to take her back to our vet yesterday. She was Zombie-dog; almost totally catatonic. I had bugged him all day Tuesday, because of it, and he said - at first - it was attributable as side-effects of the phenobarbitol. Um, yeah, the drunkeness, the weak back end, the blindness, the deafness are all attributable to it...but this was something MORE.

Wednesday AM he told me, OK, he'd take a look at her, but it was probably just the normal things...until he saw her. Nope - this was MUCH worse. He thinks she is very very sensitive to the drug, and has taken her off of it and is flushing her to try and get it out of her system. :sigh: (What the hell, it's only money, right?) We went to visit her at lunch time; she's still out of it, but was actually responsive when we petted her. She's still not *there*, but she's eating now (a little, and only licking the food off of a spoon - she's not *eating* by herself yet). He's worried, but thinks she'll be back to "normal" at some point. No idea of when she'll get to come home - but we're praying.

To take my mind off of her, I needed something.....complex, yet mindless. Yes, such a thing exists - SpillyJane's "Prickly Thistle" mittens. Only, I don't need mittens, being in Texas and all, so I did some surgery on the charts...



This is the back of the hand. How could I NOT need this pattern - it has the Blessed Thistle of Scotland on it!

And the palm is just as lovely:



It definitely needs blocking, but it'll wait until I get the mate done. I removed 1 repeat of the leaves and changed the thumb to a gusseted one, instead of the "sore" thumb that SpillyJane loves so much. Me, not so much - it's not as comfortable on my hand as a gusseted thumb is. My chart looks like something belonging to Frankenstein, but it works. Hope I can read my scribbled notes as I knit #2. :lol:

This is the last set for me for the moment. I have 2 pairs I want to make for others (and more for me, but I can wait. :lol:)....and I need to work on SG's tam. But not now, because he's off all next week, and stealth knitting isn't possible when the recipient is watching and commenting on your current project. :sigh: and :lol:

I've got a post brewing, but am too brain-dead to make sense of it - but. Actions speak louder than words....and if you claim to be a Christ-follower, you need to keep that in mind. Especially this time of year. More later.....

Um. Err.... you know how I started the Alef Tav mitts yesterday morning? Well.....in about 6 hours of knitting time, they're....um....FINISHED. Seriously......I bound off the thumb of #2 around 3:30 this afternoon. :blink:

VERY fast to knit, very easy, well-written charts. I definitely want to do these again - but maybe spread it out a bit. :lol:

No photos yet - it's blocking right now, and I have to get Shabbat dinner started, but :huzzah!: They're DONE!!!!!!

Yes, I DID knit during a Biology test today, and Horrible Histories. And Brave. :lol:

Hope y'all have a great Shabbat!

chicks! Late last month one of our hens went broody. I sent Herself out with a Sharpie to mark the eggs, and told both kids to let her alone. Yes, it was late in the season, but hey - why not see what happens?

Yesterday, we had 4 new, cute chicks! She's still sitting on 3 eggs, but...they're not marked. Meaning that Himself, who has egg duty, didn't check as well as he should have - but, whatever. We're leaving them for now, just to see if they happen to hatch or not. Soon as the hen decides she's done, we'll toss 'em.

Yesterday was paperwork day - ALL of our farm receipts have been entered into Ranch Manager. :whew: I had let it slide - 3 months of receipts were cluttering up my desk - but now everything is entered, the receipts are filed, and we're all good to go. I have to say - I really like that program. We have the Goat module (of course!), but I've set up accounts to track the horse and chicken expenses as well. It's actually better than QuickBooks for this - because it also allows you to track breedings, kid dings, vet visits - all sorts of stuff.

Started another set of Celtic fingerless mitts yesterday; got the cuff completely done. These are mine - for work. The blue/green ones are too nice for outdoor work; these are brown/tan, and look nice. Next up, a color work hat with earflaps, then the matching pair of mitts, then the tam. THEN back to the sweater. And of course, the never-ending sock-knitting (those are my out-and-about project.)

The last day out, we hit Half-Price. I scored a copy of the original "Knitting Principles"....WoW. What a fantastic resource! It's not a book for reading, it's strictly for reference - and it's Fabulous! I need to skim the thing, because there's some techniques I'd like a bit more input on. :grin:

Well, back to Biology. Pond scum. Fun stuff! :lol:

and, once again, FA's office staff aren't doing their jobs. Not my problem....but he said "oh, you can just come in Wednesday instead". Um, no. No can-do, and No will-do. IF they don't have the stuff to me by tomorrow 2-ish (because I'm not a total hard-a$$ on this - I'll give 'em a little leeway, but the office closes at 4, and I figure I don't have to work past 4 either), his invoicing won't be done until NEXT week. :sigh:

Anyway. Fingerless glove #1 is DONE, and I'm about half-way thru the knotwork cuff on #2. This is fun knitting, and it's fast - for me! - because it's JUST knitting; no fancy stitches, no lace, just knit every stitch. Color changes are easy. I've already got plans for another set (because I'll have enough yarn left over - might as well use it!) AND I've got plans for SG's Auntie's b-day prezzie (but I need red yarn for hers.). And maybe a few other gifts, as well - Herself found a pattern for Alef Tav mitts....:lol:

We cleaned the Music/Game room yesterday - oy! What a mess! It's now tidy and put (mostly) back together. I found a set of Math books that need to be sent out - sorry! I put them in the chair, and they got covered by a sheep :face palm: (A stuffed sheep, not wool. Although that wouldn't have been surprising, here. :lol:) I also found *another* UFO :sigh: and some loose yarn. I swear, it breeds - I don't remember this stuff. (And it's mine, because it's not acrylic.) We also set the oven to self-clean, and almost burned up the microwave - for some reason, the interior of the microwave got hot enough to MELT the potato chip bags and to BURN the cake that was in there (don't ask - well, you can. We have large dogs. We have to put the stuff somewhere they can't reach - and the top of the fridge is full. So, the microwave becomes a "pantry" of sorts.) :sigh: I think it's just about time to replace it.....:big sigh:

Ah, well - back to knitting. And movies - we're working our way thru the Clone Wars cartoons. Fun stuff! (I love Star Wars. The cartoons, not so much, but the stories are still in the 'verse, and my favorite characters are in them (Yoda and young Obi-Wan.))