Spindle

pic borrowed from Babe's

Okay guys and gals...I ordered a spindle. These are from Babe's which is the same place I want the spinning wheel from. I saw one in action on you tube. Seems to be a good starter spindle. Cool thing is they make different weight pieces to customize your spindle. I thought that was neat. Also went to Lowe's today and got parts to make my own spindle. Thought I would give that a try. Oh, and you know what I think is really fun about the Babe's spinning wheel...you can paint the PVC whatever color you want. That's kinda cool. Anyway...can't wait to try spinning.

spinning

I want to learn to spin. I've been drooling over others hand spun fibers that are just so purdy. I guess I need to get a spindle. I can't decide what kind to get. It will probably be from an etsy seller. I like these.
Blue Jade
Carved Jade
Italian Resin

This is want I want for Christmas. It doesn't cost much and seems to be a decent wheel for a beginner who doesn't want to sink a lot of money into something when I don't know if I will like it.

Florida

When you live in a place for so long you can take for granted the wonders that surround you. Surfing the web yesterday I found a site that listed all of Florida's State Parks. Wow...there are a lot. I didn't know we had water falls. Well, granted they're not huge...but still that's cool. Oh and admission is stupid cheap. You are talking $2-$4 per person and some are $4 for a car full (up to 8 people). What a cheap little mini trip. I just want to thank Brianna (The Crochet Side Podcast) for posting pics of her trip to Washington Oaks Park on her flickr...this is what got me lookin' and thinkin'. I am really excited.

Lefty

I woke up yesterday morning and felt the need to clean my ears. Well...stupid left ear had to start bleeding. I tried to keep calm. It's not another tumor. It's not a polyp which would indicate another tumor. These are the things I was telling myself. A few tears fell, but I tried to retain my composure. By the time I got to work I was hysterical. I couldn't even tell my supervisor what was wrong, only pointing to my ear. She then guessed..."Is it you ear?". Shake my head yes. "Is is bleeding?" Yes. I called my ENT and made an appointment at 3:15. The day seemed to drag on and I just kept thinking "what if it's another one?".

Background. When I was around 7 yrs old I had my first tumor in my right ear. I think I was about 7...I can't remember. Anyway...this one effected my eardrum and middle ear. Oh...

it's called a cholesteatoma. So that one was removed. Then skip forward to early teens...yes another in the left ear. This one could have damaged my facial nerves. Again this was removed. Then sometime around 22ish a third, this time in the right ear again. This one was found the first morning of my honeymoon. I woke up and found blood on my pillow. I later found out that it was a polyp that was in my ear canal that was bleeding (polyp being a sign that there was a tumor). I was later told that this one could have killed me. Yeah...can you believe it? So this one was also removed and left me with a large ear canal.

So back to Friday. Bleeding ear freaked me out. Well I went to the ENT (the one that has done all my ear surgeries and fixed a broken nose). He explained that it was not a tumor. Sigh of relief. It is actually something like a bone spur in my ear that is covered by a very thin layer of skin. So when I was cleaning my ears it irritated the skin causing it to bleed. Stupid bone spur thingy. I felt like a real fool.

Photography

While in college I was totally into photography. I even had a darkroom in my house. There came a time when I made the decision not to pursue professional photography and eventually I stopped altogether. Well, I was married and I essentially allowed my husband at the time to pursue his hobby/business while I allowed mine to fall to the wayside. That was about 7 years ago. Digital photography and manipulation was just emerging as an alternative to the darkroom for the hobby photographer. I was so set against digital photography. It just wasn't the same. Oh how wrong I was. Well, it is not the same...its so much better. But in a different way...you know.
Strange how things in your life cycle around. After giving up on photography I dabbled in different hobbies. I can't sit still and I am a creative person...I had to be doing something. Stamping. Beading. Sewing (well I've been sewing for a long time). Whatever caught my fancy. Then Knitting. Knitting then initiated the desire to take photos of my progress and FO. Once a camera was in my hands again it was only a matter of time. At first it was a point and shoot. I have now gone through 2 point and shoot cameras. They were both good but there was an itch to have more creative control of my photos. You know that previously on my blog I showed off my new hotness. I like to call her Yummy Camera Goodness (totally stole that from my husband and Sara). It's all coming back to me now. I will admit there is a learning curve. Here is one issues I am having. Lighting. It is very hard to get good natural light in my house. We are surrounded by trees. It is great for our electric bill...no sun beating down on the roof during the summer heating up my house. But I don't have any windows that give a nice stream of filtered light. My loving husband bought me a little light tent with two lights, which works...but still not as good as natural light.

Lovin' a Noro Afghan v2

You know - there are just some projects that every stitch is a joy to knit. Well this is that project for me. I love working on this pattern. Since there are only 9 stitches to work across you really get to see the color changes with the Noro, which I just love. 'Course there are the usual Noro yarn issues, I'm overlooking these.
Things I love about the this pattern.
1. Because you are working from the center out, you can just keep goin' until it is big enough.
2. Much like a ripple blanket, you can use all kinds of colors and they seem to work together.
3. There is not seaming. This is done while you knit around.
4. Color. I'm just using random skeins of Noro Kureyon that caught my eye. Most have some form of turquoise/aqua color, but some do not.
5. Stupid simple, with only 9 stitches to work. The last stitch is slipped and you pick up an edge stitch and then knit the slipped stitch together with an edge stitch. There's a little short row action goin' on at the corners, but that is no big deal. So, in all...this is a great pattern. Well, the actual written pattern is not all that great, but if you've been knitting for a little while you can kinda figure it out.
So, I will just keep going around and once it is big enough I'm going to add a border. I don't know what kinda border...hmmm...yeah...don't know.
I was listening to the Yarn Harlot on Knit Picks podcast and she was talking about enjoying your knitting. How if you don't enjoy a project why do it. She is so right. I wasn't enjoying the first version of this afghan. Once I came to terms with my dread and restarted with this version...Much Love.

WARNING: Questioning Weight issues. Proceed with caution.

Can you be a Goddess sized women and be glamorous or sexy? I would like to think so. I've been struggling with this question for a long time. It's very hard to be a plus sized women and feel sexy. Is it just about self confidence? Is there a point that weight becomes automatically beyond sexy even with self confidence to back it up? If you are so overweight that you can't hardly move out of bed, how can even self confidence make you sexy at that point? So what would be the magic weight? At 5'9" and 230 would I have crossed over this magic line in the cookies? What...I mean sand. If the average sized women in America is a size 14, then does being a size 18/20 mean I'm just a little over the line? Should I call myself "Goddess Size"? If I started using that phrase would I really feel better about myself? I don't wear a lot of make-up and I don't do much with my hair. If I started doing these things more would that make my confidence go up? Or, would it just give me a false sense of confidence to only be shatter every night when the mask came off? What makes me question these things? Well...I work in a office of mostly women. All sizes of women. Seems though that so many women I know are getting gastric bypass to loose weight and "feel better about themselves". I personally could not put myself through this. But why do we as women feel this is needed? Health? Self Image? I can understand if it's a matter of health issues. But, is this the way to go about making yourself healthier? I'm not judging these women. By no means am I making a judgement call on the decision to have a surgery like this. To each her own. But for me...would this ever become something that might be necessary? I feel sometimes that the lack of confidence in women today is just so sad. I'm totally there with them though. My self confidence is a constant struggle. What is needed to correct these thoughts? Hypnosis? Constant pep talks? Societal changes? Make-up?
Well that went all over the place. Whatever...I'm done.

Noro Afghan v2

Pics taken with the new precious, like ya'll didn't know that. I'm really diggin' on this afghan. So freakin' easy.

Ordered the yarn for mom's cardi. Superwash bamboo from Elann. I was looking for something that would be warm but not too warm...we are in Florida after all. I wanted something that was superwash for ease of care. And it didn't hurt that it wasn't expensive at all. While ordering, I ordered some Callista which is a rayon/cotton/linen blend. Also a great price. I'm thinking Gigi from the summer issue of knitty.

Yummy Camera Goodness!

New baby. Still having to pet her nicely until she gives up all her secrets. I'm sure once we trust each other things are gonna go real fine.

Finishathon

I am going to have my own private self imposed finishathon. I have so many projects on the needles and I am still planning Christmas knitting. But how am I gonna get anything accomplished if I don't finish what I have going on right now.

Knitting for Florida

Years of knitting and I finally get it. I live in Florida. I can only wear wool sweaters about 5 to 10 days a year. Even if you get up in the morning and it is really freakn' cold, but mid day it is hot. So...I need to start thinking Florida knitting. Cotton, Linen, and Silk need to become my friend. This is what we can wear most of the time. So in thinking in this new way my Christmas knitting planning is focusing on things that will get the most bang for the buck. Me and Ginger went yarn shopping today and I picked up some yarn for my Christmas list that fits the Florida thinking. I also am going to buy some cotton blend for a cardi for mom (Dad, don't you tell her. Although I think she already knows). I found a nice cotton wool blend. This will be perfect for when she needs a little warmth. I picked up some fingering weight 4 ply cotton to make Orangina by Glampyre Knits. I'm also going to use some Silky Wool to make the February Lady by Flint Knits. Both are lacy which I think will be perfect. I will still make a wool sweater here and there for those 5 special days a year.