Good things

Good things in the last week:
-Still sticking with YMOYL
-The crazy Scottish kilt party Saturday night (don't ask what "butt quarters" is. I wish I hadn't!), complete with professional bagpipist. I can now say I have lost hearing to "Happy Birthday" on the bagpipe. Those suckers are loud!
-Being able to give away a pink toilet on Craigslist for free.
-Halva (also spelled different ways) from TJ's.
-cracking open a coconut almost perfectly, baking almost the perfect bread (just a touch too sweet) and making delicious iced coffee.





The bla:
-Dentist Appointment this friday early in the morning for cavities.
-Having to drive to Muktown to get to the appointment.
-Archeology.
-No really. Archeology.
-And again let me repeatL Archeology. So boring, and I have to have a discussion with the teacher about knitting in that class I think- much to the amusement of the handful of people I know in the class. Turns out there is even someone I went to highschool with in the class.
-8 hours in the car on Sunday and missing work.
-Still winding yarn at EH. This isn't bad for me, but it really should have been done awhile ago- the yarn takes 2+ weeks to fully mordant (how it is all going to fit in their fridges is beyond me!)
-The construction permit letting construction start at 6 freakin AM gah! I need my sleep gosh darn it.


Gloves in progress. Notice my even floats! Ok, so that shouldn't really be a surprise since I just spent 4 weeks teaching colorwork, but I love that you can see the vine pattern I am working on on the back. These are lifeline mittens- the palm of the hand is pinstripes that are loosely inspired by all of those mysterious creases, folds, and crannies present in your hand that tell your future and life. Or at least make for interesting patterning in pinstripe.

The business side:
O. my. god. do I have new dyes. I am in the process of making colorcards and I think I am going to have to scale down the current offerings for wholesale. I will probably just offer 1 and two ply 100% wool yarns. I will still offer a variety of weights and styles (textured, thick and thin). Mostly in my sort-of-solid colors with seasonal or popular multi color options. The amount of yarn andf fiber for making the colorcards though is making my head hurt!

I am tempted to have the cards divided as such (instead of one for each type):
-1 card for roving solid colors
-1 card for yarn in solids in a single ply handspun
-1 card with a space for each lightweight, bulky, thick and thin, two ply lightweight, 2 ply heavy weight, two ply in two colors (barberpole), two tone yarns, 3 tone yarns

Since I do multi colors in small more seasonal batches right now, I guess that would have to be a separate colorcard all together- the line sheet for this is making my head hurt, but I know how to set it up in my cart.

Wool Roving

Snip, upon discovering that there is a very, very large box of fiber in the front entryway.



Only minutes before LS (who was a fiber major from the UW about a decade ago if I remember correctly) comes over to hang a couple paintings, and is amused by the amount of wool roving now in my possession.

Incidentally, the roving page of the shop has now been updated to reflect the large influx of wool roving.

Magic Dragon Handspun Yarn Kits

Only 1 more day for the Magic Dragon Kit auctions on ebay

New shoes!

Aren't they just absolutely fabulous? (click the picture to see more...) I was threatened with my shoes being thrown out if I didn't find some new shoes that were appropriate for work. So...find shoes I did. I'm absolutely in love with these shoes, check out the soles on them!

As many of you might know or have already guessed, I have a penchant for dress clothes. I live in slacks-occasionally found off the rack, never in thrift stores, often tailored- and shirts that can only be deemed business-casual. People are often surprised when they meet me to find that I am only (I know, *gasp*) 20.

I'm having fun taking a bit of a break from classes, figuring out what I am going to do after the next 3 or 4 quarters of school, and eating lots of cereal (with milk, not good since I can't have a lot of dairy!). No sleeping in here though, I tend to get woken up early here daily.

5.more.credits. GoshDarn it.

After spring quarter I need 25 credits to graduate. Only one of those is an upper division class.

10 credits to get my minor.

And (drum roll please)-

ONE upper division class to complete my Anthro degree. ONE CLASS.

Well, I am finally home at my parents for a couple days- can you say free laundry that doesn’t kill your clothes? My week here will be spent mostly catching up on past due events- getting my car checked out (it is fine and fixed) and going to all sorts of fun doctors appointments.

Remember the one suggestion of the business advisors? Twenty minutes- most of which was standing in line waiting- and the problem of not having a credit card has been fixed! I love my credit union.



Being at home and running errands sans my own car for a day gave me a chance to work on my latest Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Socks. They have a simple two color purl braid at the top, followed by some corrugated ribbing, before heading in to an extra long gusset and a perfectly grafted toe. Be lucky that my slacks are covering my legs- I’ve been informed that it has been way too long since I have shaved, which doesn’t bother me in the least.



The table above is in the front of the shop…you will notice that it is Norwegian month where I work! What a great time to be teaching colorwork, eh?

(Gloves from left to right: freeform wrist warmers (no pattern), Fair Isle wrist warmers (pattern for the store) Naturespun gloves (my pattern for the store), Mittens (no pattern) that I knit awhile back during lecture classes)


I taught the first class for the intermediate level colorwork class on Saturday. We had a great class, and the students were able to pick up the techniques quickly. They seemed to really enjoy the pattern. We are using Naturespun Sport for the mittens, one of my favorite yarns to use for colorwork, especially when teaching. It is sticky as only a wool yarn can be, not hugely thick (thinner than Heilo, one of my other favorite colorwork yarns) so people have the chance to work on a small scale and produce a delicate pattern, and comes is a nice variety of colors.

For the class I am teaching, I wrote the pattern to reflect a more open gauge than what I would normally use in actual colorwork for the sake of speed. Naturespun of course lends itself quite nicely to this application, production a fabric that still looks nice but works up easily and relatively quickly for the students.




The qiviut scarf is done blocking- maybe you remember the scarf as it was blocking. Clearly, I did not have enough pins and was too lazy to block with string like usual. I am happy to say, it looks even better on the model. Maybe this will inspire some other people to try qiviut.


This was MAYBE 210 yards (most skeins are 220, this one had a couple breaks that were no fault of the yarn. I was really surprised not only by how much it blocked out, but by how much the yarn bloomed- I was worried that it wouldn’t bloom as much as it is “supposed” to.

Netflix love

Want to be my netflix friend?

Aloo and hemp

Aww no more being on the front page of LJ for my blog! It will be nice on my inbox to have a wee bit of a break though!

I’m really happy that my last quarter is done for classes- don’t really want to know how I did though! In all seriousness, it should be fine- 8 of the 18 credits at least will be good. Now, I get a bit of a chance to take a break- which really means I am teaching classes, going to doctors appointments, getting my car fixed, and trying but failing to catch up on sleep.

While sorting through some yarn, I found my aloo!



Made from nettles, Aloo is a coarser yarn best used for outerwear and washcloth type objects- though like linen it does get a fair bit softer with washing and use. Aloo is a bit hard to find in LYS’s, so I made sure to snap some up last time we got a new order in stock.

Hanging out with the aloo is Hemp, a hemp and wool blend of yarn. I’m using it for a sweater, though the main color of my sweater is black. I have to rip it out though, since I’m not quite happy with the gauge I am getting now.

Feminism

My site shows up when you google "feminist stickers". Go blog archives!

I just sent off my order for the mill. It will probably be a month or so before I get my yarn though!

Fibers and wheels

I've had an obsession with pudding lately. Ever since I made the Pudding that Alicia made, I have had a need to have pudding! Now as most of you know, I can't just grab a packet of pudding of the shelf at the grocery store- no gelatin for me! Besides, homemade pudding is actually not much more work for me to make- lots of dirty dishes either way!

Because I never have milk in the house, I usually use dried milk or soy milk as a base, and it seems to taste fine either way. Of course, it tastes the best with half and half or whole milk as the base, but how much pudding should one person *really* eat? (Answer: a whole batch of course!) I make my pudding with brown sugar and lots of extra molasses- I think both add a more interesting depth of flavor that I don't get with granulated sugar like in recipes for plain ol' vanilla pudding. This time I also added "chai" spices (redundant, no?) and cinnamon to the mix, which makes the warm pudding even tastier, as you can see by the already halfway empty teacup.



Too bad you can only "drink" the pudding for a couple minutes, otherwise I would probably eat a lot more of it while spinning. Here you can see part of a fleece a friend* gave me from Salt Spring Island. It's a nice cream color, and since it was light in lanolin, I only washed it once with a nice long soak before letting it dry. There is just a touch of lanolin left, just right for making socks, the likely end product, and just enough left to help keep my hands from cracking from all the calluses I have from spinning and winding so much yarn.



I haven't been processing the fibers consistently, my bad. I'll card a bit with my drum carder, a few with the hand carders, flick card a couple other handfuls, or just pick it up and spin right from the lock. You can't tell in the pictures, but there is still great lock definition in the fleece, and very little VM and second cuts, so it is nice to spin as is. I'll probably settle on spinning it after dying and running it through the carder a couple times- it is easier on my hands to spin long draw worsted yarns from the fold of batts.


*The one who painted that particular wheel that kick-ass color!

Magic Dragon

My Saturday class for the Wrist Warmers went really well. So well, that a couple of the people signed up for the intermediate level colorwork class. We will be doing one of two mitten patterns (that I still have to write/finish...). Details on the class here. (FG is timing out for me right now, hopefully it will load for you)



More of the Magic Dragon Kits have been added/updated in my shop, I know how popular they are with everyone! The kits are also on my etsy shop, along with some monthly yarn kits.

Also: check out Eunny Jang is the new editor of IK!

Showing off

Well, Rose Kim is showing off her shop projects, so I will too! You only get a sneak preview though, it's drying!


It's Qiviut
I was just mentioning to a friend that I kept skipping rows- which I noticed before rows ever ended. Their response? "You still fuck up in knitting? How is that possible?"
Ha.
Needless to say, they have been corrected.

Producton Dying

I've been doing a lot with production dying lately, so I thought I would post a quick snippet of what I do when I dye large lots, since I just posted this on another person's blog.

You know, I will thoroughly admit to NOT letting things sit till at room temp. I have been known to dump them in my sink or bathtub and let them cool a bit (after letting the crockpot sit open and off for a bit first)) before rinsing. I have yet to felt something this way, but if the dyes need time to set it won't work of course.

For production dying, what I do (I'm constrained by space to dry more than anything else- I have a bathtub!): wind skeins one day. Leave them to soak in the tub or giant bucket. Make up a bunch of dyestock if you dye using DOS (I don't, I make it up as I go along).

If I need to dye 10 of one thing, I will suspend them above the pot after thoroughly soaking them. For solids it is more complicated and involves turning the yarn a bunch*, but for multi shades I just lift them and turn as need be above my pots, adding dyes as I go along (start with the lightest). Or, I lay them out in a giant dish/pan to paint the yarns

I find it faster to dye in larger lots and then re skein if you are going to be reskeining- so if you skeins are each 8 ounces, dye them all at once, then skein them again. For roving, if I want the same dyelot as the yarn I will skein it up too and dye it right along with the yarn- I just figure 8 tie it in several places first before soaking.

*I wish I could find a picture of how they do this in Nepal with their dye vats- except there, they connect the skeins together with giant rings, and then turn this handle- something like this though that doesn't show it well. Needless to say, I don't have that equipment in my kitchen.

socks

I just finished the pair of socks I was making for a shop sample in this yarn:



I might have to rip out the tops though- I did toe up socks with a lace cuff just to see how fat 200 yards would get me, and the lace is just not quite doing it for me.

Rugs

The colors on a computer of course don't match the vibrancy that exists in the real rug colors, which are done in natural white tibetan wool and a natural abrash.

Whew! After a night of no sleep, the rugs are done! Now to just turn them in once I can get some good copies done. Not as exciting as the yarn I was spinning last night in procrastination (a lovely white Romney that has been drying on my floor for the last couple days!). Over 22 hours a week of client meetings and work NOT counting my internship at EH’s natural dye studio that ties in with the class to produce these rugs. There’s a six inch thick portfolio for this class.

The image above it a 1 inch to scale drawing on one of the runners I designed for Layne's class. The rugs are handspun, dyed, and woven over in Nepal. Our custom carpets are for clients who have agreed to help us learn the artist-client process, so they put up with lots of emails and meetings they wouldn't have to do if they were to pick out a rug from say Driscoll Robbins or Masins (both great stores of course). Then again, they get custom rugs at great prices. My clients have been great to work with despite their busy schedules and being in the middle of a move.

The rugs are being displayed at the Tacoma Art Museum on August 4.

These rugs are so outside of what I normally do- close long term direct contact with clients is very different from my retail and wholesale site, my production spinning and dying, etc. Seems like these days I am doing more and more work that relates to fibers- I just love every aspect of it so much.

I think I have finally found a mill to spin yarn for me. I will be starting with a smallish batch of sock weight yarn (a cost I don't want to add up in my head!) I spent some time calculating out what the costs would be for retail and wholesale, and ouch! Ok, really not that bad, I think I will be able to get away with doing a sock yarn at 400 yards/skein for under $30, but it's hard because the costs are much higher than buying from Louet or HA (not that I don't love the yarns, but I want my own yarn, dammit!)

Though, looking at L's prices for undyed yarns, I am pretty sure I will be able to get my yarn in just above their costs- I am aiming for a wholesale undyed yarn price of $12/skein.

And it's about time for me to order new dyes. This is not going to be a good month on my business account! Ah well.

Now to finish up my my rug designs! I've been putting it off like crazy, and I probably won't sleep tonight.

You know, I will thoroughly admit to NOT letting things sit till at room temp. I have been known to dump them in my sink or bathtub and let them cool a bit (after letting the crockpot sit open and off for a bit first)) before rinsing. I have yet to felt something this way, but if the dyes need time to set it won't work of course.

For production dying, what I do (I'm constrained by space to dry more than anything else): wind skeins one day. Leave them to soak in the tub or giant bucket. Make up a bunch of dyestock if you dye using DOS (I don't, I make it up as I go along).

If I need to dye 10 of one thing, I will suspend them above the pot after thoroughly soaking them. For solids it is more complicated and involves turning the yarn a bunch*, but for multi shades I just lift them and turn as need be above my pots, adding dyes as I go along (start with the lightest). Or, I lay them out in a giant dish/pan to paint the yarns

I find it faster to dye in larger lots and then re skein if you are going to be reskeining- so if you skeins are each 8 ounces, dye them all at once, then skein them again. For roving, if I want the same dyelot as the yarn I will skein it up too and dye it right along with the yarn- I just figure 8 tie it in several places first before soaking.

*I wish I could find a picture of how they do this in Nepal with their dye vats- except there, they connect the skeins together with giant rings, and then turn this handle- something like this though that doesn't show it well. Needless to say, I don't have that equipment in my kitchen.

favor?

Want to do me a favor? Or maybe you are just bored? There is a new site for Indie Designers and I would love it if you would take the time to post a review of my site on there. Killer Cotton is just starting out, but looks like it will be a great resource!

You can review sites here:Click me! I'll give the first several people $5 Gift Certificates to my site- just email me (midnightsky (at) midnightskyfibers (dot) com) to let me know who you are on KC.

My rug is going to be displayed in the Tacoma Art Museum in August!

New Yarns and Fibers at Midnightsky Fibers. We now have hand painted cashmere yarns, handspun yarn kits, recycled yarns, and hand painted rovings.

While looking through my site make sure to sign up for the Happily Handmade Giveaway if you haven't already- it's a (free!) way to support indie businesses and a chance to win one of 50 free gift baskets!

...Yes. That's 121,080 stitches. Those stitches are part of my last 2 months of in class knitting- in addition to socks, sweater (not finished), and other miscellaneous projects.



I still have to cut all the ends off the back- my scissors have disappeared temporarily! I wove the ends in as I went along, thank goodness. Lornas Laces is, as always, a pleasure to work with. Finished pictures soon.

Since I know you want to know the breakdown:
144 total squares
820 stitches in each square
118080 total number of stitches for squares
1,000 edging stitches
3 edging rows
3000 total edge stitches
121080 total stitches

This is maybe 3 percent, if even, of the yarn we have been winding for the dye samples. We have over 1,000 (yes! 1,000) skeins of yarn to wind, kilos and kilos of it in 5 different natural shades. Each skein in about 100 yards, and the yarn first has to be wound from these crazy-big balls of yarn, on to a ball winder, then the skein winder- thank goodness we can do six skeins a time. Once wound, the skeins are figure eight tied and taken off the winder, and ties are put on the skeins, as Teresa is doing here. Teresa is one of the awesome employees of EH who I get to spend tons of time with three days a week.

Since each skein is a different weight- ranging from super fine lace weight to dk weight (we won't go in to the quality of yarn, long drawn is not good for single plys, IMO), each group of three has to be weighed before being scoured- the skeins have until this point only been washed in a river and can smell well... sheepy. There is yarn hanging all over EH's studio now.

Now when you log in to my website it is secure (SSL and all that jazz). If it wasn't for TSB I never would have figured it out. Whew.

My cats are here! (So is my car! woohoo!) Snip- the smaller one- has spent most of the day hiding in the corner of the closet, and Splotch keeping her company or sticking his head in the fish bowl:



He's now taking a break and watching Family Guy with me, staring at the screen as though it was a LOT more interesting than it really is. I'm sad they are only going to be here a week!

I've been running around like a crazy person this last week, with the internship 3 days a week, classes, and work (I still think that shawl I posted earlier is ugly spread out- but that is another story. Crochet bind offs are the devil, but that's only half the problem).

I've finally managed to catch up on some of my missing sleep in the last two days, which is helping with getting over being sick for the last two weeks- still somewhat sick now, but I no longer have the high fever of before.

Spider Web Shawl from Victorian Lace Today
Half Hexagon size- about 900 yards
Yarn- Helen's Lace in "watercolors"
Needles- size 6
Notes- This shawl was a pretty easy knit, I got pretty bored with the pattern repeats in the end, but it blocked out much better than I expected it to. I actually thought it was pretty ugly before it was blocked. larger picture here and Shawl being blocked here

My chocolate has a lighthouse on it (Rose Hill Chocolate Company)!

The executive decision has been made that I am not horribly ill, just a horrible godaweful cold. On the plus, my fever is now no longer 102.5, but just low grade now. The really high fever has been replaced with a painful cough that has me waking up from dead sleep because I can't breathe, coughing so hard I puke (yea sorry if that is TMI). Refused the codeine cough medicine because it makes me feel even more icky- but if this cough keeps up I'll probably have to have it so I get more than 2 hours of sleep. And the constant feeling of something akin to the gag reflex is getting old.

The cough meds + related stuff makes me feel nauseous, so I can't focus properly on a computer screen, which is not helping my stress level with my rug design class, which I feel really behind in. There's just no time to be sick for this extended a period of time!

Argh.

Sock yarn for me. Later this week I'll be listing sock yarns- handspun of course- in my shop. I've been really in to pinks and greens this last week.




Happily Handmade has started again! For a chance to win one of 50 free gift baskets you can sign up on my site anytime in the next month. Did I mention it's free and supports indie businesses?

Our gallery and articles pages have been updated (yes, that’s the place where the free patterns are!). You can now find most of our blog archives on the site here. Blog archives
Which we hope will make it easier for people trying to find specific information on our blog, as well as just being something fun to browse.

Also, Happily Handemade Giveaway starts again the 12th, so mark your calendars! I’ll be sending out a newsletter telling everyone how to sign up once it gets going. For now, you can check out some of the cool items that will be in the gift baskets here:
http://happilyhandmadegiveaway.com/

I just accidentally felted a pair of socks in the washing machine- they made it through the dryer before I realize that *oops* there were 100% wool socks in there!* After a few minutes of wearing, the socks fit better now if anything, as they were a bit loose before.

*There were also locks of mohair...I am mystified as to how it got there! Were they somehow in my pocket?

My mystery symptoms that have been making me feel so tired and sick have been explained...because, well, I'm sick. Go figure, right? With a nice fever to be exact. Since it's under 101.5 I'm told I'm not terribly contagious, I just feel icky. I have a really nice, deep (painful! gross sounding!) cough and a splitting headache to go with as well.

Progress on the LL blanket continues- down to working 5 squares across on either side. Eventually people in my class will realize that no I don't just bring a very large lap blanket to school with me all the time! But really, it has been at the point of not fitting in my bag for a long time now.



Inspired by Hello Yarn's French Press cozies, my French Press needed one too! The yellow yarn is handspun turmeric dyed wool. Accents of wool needle felting, which I have been having way too much fun with lately. A magnetic snap holds the handle flap down- I wanted to be able to carry mine around. Bigger Picture here.

New Yarns at Midnightsky Fibers! The shop has been updated with new super bulky handspun yarns and handpainted recycled wool yarns in deep earthy colors. We have new thick and thin yarns, novelty super bulky plied yarns, and yarn dyed with turmeric and plied with natural colored soy silk.

Just for the record- tofutsies is, "non-toxic, non-allergenic, anti-microbial, and biodegradable" (sea Grant)- the Chitin in the yarn is from crab and shellfish but since it is extracted should not pose allergenic reactions. Just because I know you are all wondering, and that is a question I have been getting asked a LOT both in the store and about the tofutsies socks I knit a couple weeks ago (that I still have to weave in the ends on).



After a client meeting (see the above photo) today I got to go antique shopping with my mom. She made the asture observation that I would probably never buy new furniture (except mattresses and couches if I can find good used ones because of my back...) ever again. Of course, she is terribly right. I covet houses like Alicia has, the word minimalist does not exist in my vocab!



That being said, no new cool furniture for me- ask me where I would put it! But I did score some awesome shoe- I rarely seem ones with hinges, much less with anything that would allow someone to grip the forms while they worked on the shoe. They almost exactly match my antique glove/hands- which are of course still cooler.

For Fiber Friday-

A set of fibers dyed with turmeric, known more for its pretty color that it lends to dishes but bland taste that it imparts to food- leaving it open to lovely cardamom, allspice, cinnamon, and whatever else you can imagine (but not in my dye bath!) Beets were added to make a more mustard tone to the fibers with the exception of the cotton, which has no beet in the dyebath. Beets do no dye it orange as you can see, since I was not using a mordant past vinegar (which is great with Turmeric)which would really set the color of the beets.

The wool (back left) and cotton (front) were dip dyed slowly with no soaking to get an uneven effect- previous dying and spinning/weaving of the bright yellow as a solid to be a bit much. The mohair was soaked ever so slightly, but picked up much more of the deep yellow.

*I know they are called something else, but the name escapes me. Anyone?

edit* Thanks emma! They are indeed "lasts". hehe

O, the coincidences of the yarn world...

Monday, I was researching natural dyes as part of my independent study for some weaving in twill derivatives I was planning, while at the same time dying some cotton yarn and wool roving in a turmeric and a turmeric/beet bath (the beet only darkens it a bit, so I get a more mustard yellow).

Tuesday, I mention natural dyes to my instructor, who has quite a bit of experience in natural dyes. She gets really excited, and calls up her friend to see if I can get an internship in her natural dye studio. Her friend turns out to be this AMAZING person who is probably one of the most knowledgeable people in natural dyes.

Fast forward to Thursday.
I got the internship(starts in Feb), and will be working on mostly large production wool natural dyes- being able to replicate colors/hues/saturation over and over for large amounts.

I am SO stoked for this.

I got a really nice package a few days ago from a swap partner on KR!



She knows I love laceweight yarn, so she sent me some patterns and lovely teal yarn in just the shade I have been looking for lately.

I got to teach part of a sock class (for the heels) in the shop on Saturday, and even managed to avoid more sock yarn (mmm tofutsies is again calling my name, this time in the pinks- I just like the socks I am using it for now so well).

Seems like I've been doing nothing but reading and writing (well, and research) for the last couple weeks...O yea, and I've been sick for weeks now, which is really getting old, since there's not a whole lot to be done past coming how from classes and sleeping for hours. People like (above) and have been keeping me occupied and on track with school work though- which is basically lots and LOTS of reading of ethnography texts for one class, and writings on social constructions through matrices of realities in the creation of the metropolis (so- things like time, capitalism as a money system, stereotypes to identify people, etc).

That being said, on to the recent finished projects!


Pattern: Norberta from Knitty
Yarn: Green- cascade superwash Taupe/tan- Cashsoft dk
Notes: wrap the short rows even though the pattern says you don't have to- the difference isn't much since it's reverse StSt, but it still shows in a couple places where I didn't pick them up the next row. That being said, it's an easy pattern to follow, and made a great (though not super quick, sewing it up and stuffing it correctly takes longer than you expect it to)


Pattern: My own, twisted rib with cables.
Yarn: Shepard sock in Vera- my favorite colorway!
Notes: I really like twisted rib for the cuff and shank of my socks, I have really narrow ankles and it defies stretching more than most other patterns do, and the cables help further draw it in a bit (and keep my occupied).

New computer!

Meet my new computer!


That's a 17.5 inch monitor, baby! Thank you dell for replacing my computer with a *much* nicer one!

(and for good measure, my dad at the same time!) And not to be unfair, my mom is also pretty awesome (and she did my dishes, it's a close call between doing my dishes and setting up my computer...)




Like purple potatos from a recent (and all organic!) stew I made recently.


Flowers blooming on my kitchen windowsill.


Double weaves (before being finished)



And...

In the category of customer creations, and awesome hat made by M in my handspun yarn (and I think some of my fiber that she then spun herself!)

My computer has failed the lemon test of Dell tech support.

A LONG time on the phone with tech- who was more helpful then any other I've had to talk to, maybe because I was on confrence with my dad and her at the same time and people are always *really* polite to my dad...fun tests and resettings of the computer later, and...

My computer is not happy! They have a suspicion its probably my motherboard. Again. And the fan, the power cord, battery, and several other issues ("t" key) all come down to them wanting my poor overheating computer back! They did offer to send someone out to fix it (again), but were rather dubius about that being a good course of action, so I shall be getting a refurbished but newer version of my computer sometime...soon. Well, I will once it comes to my dad's work (thanks dad! the confrence call was really entertaining with tech!) and I trick him in to setting as much of it up for me as possible.

So just warning yall...computer issues are abounding! I might be gone a fair bit in the next week or two until I get the new computer up to speed.

/edit-update:
My computer is still, obviously, failing and just in general making me miserable! Let's hope the new computer comes quickly!