Because the wood is just so darn pretty.

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• Tags: Eye-Candy Friday • Permalink:Cedar Chest // Add Comment »

Yes, of course, 2010 is the year, but do you know what else it is?

The number of posts my Mom has written here at Chappysmom!

Two thousand ten posts, as of right now. Isn’t it nice of her to let ME write it? I hope you’re impressed. We … I mean, she started this blog in January 2005.

I’m just proud of the the posts that I’ve written. Not to blow my own horn, or anything. (Besides, that would make me bark, and that would just be silly!)

So, let’s see. Mom usually shows you a picture of her knitting.

She’s got both sleeves of her sweater done, and about 8 or 9 inches of the body. (That’s my foot, there in the corner.) She just started her second skein of yarn and said she’s glad she bought an extra in Susan’s sale last week–just to be safe. That means she has five altogether, which is good because the sweater has a hood.

Did she forget to tell you what the sweater pattern is? The Salem Hooded Jacket from New England Knits. (She really, really loves that book.)

She started plying her “Twist and Shout” yarn, too, which I find kind of boring. And drafty. So I usually sit about as far away as possible while she’s doing that.

Here, she took a couple pictures for you. (She won’t let me use the camera.) She was grumbling about how hard it is to get the yarn to wind on to the bobbin evenly with the plying head, and how she doesn’t like that she can’t get it all the way to the front, but I’m not really sure what she meant by that.

Oh! I almost forgot the best part!

In honor of her 2010th post, Mom’s giving away a PRIZE!

Her paperback copy of Mason-Dixon Knitting. She loves the book. I see her flipping through it all the time. BUT right now she actually has two copies. The one she bought when it came out, and the one that Potter Craft sent her for review when the paperback came out. She told me to tell you that, as much as she loves it, she doesn’t really need both, so she’s willing to give one up for YOU. Because the book is that good.

To win? Just leave a comment on this post with a guess about how many knitting and spinning books Mom has.

Here’s a hint.

• Tags: Chappy, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:2010 // 23 Comments »

How about that, my town has a farmer’s market now. Or, well, it’s been about a month now, but it’s still new–we never had one before.

The four of us went over this morning for the first time. It’s small, really, and not too many vendors, but they looked like they were doing pretty decent business.

It was not, though. Hot enough that Chappy even considered taking a drink from the flower-water at one of the booths. (Not that I would have let him.)

We also had one woman stop me to tell me that the heat coming off the asphalt could “burn his feet, poor thing.” Which I’m still kind of torn about. I mean, she was clearly trying to do a nice thing, and it’s possible that I could have (theoretically) been the kind of dog owner who didn’t pay attention to my dog’s needs. But, still. We’d only been there for about 10 minutes and Chappy was just panting gently. He wasn’t fidgeting in the sun and picking up his feet as if they hurt. His tongue wasn’t dragging on the ground. He was clearly happy and interested and looking around at all the new stuff and, yeah, panting a bit, but you try being out in the 90-degree hot sun covered with fur and not feel a little warm. Her intentions were obviously good, but her delivery came across as “I know best,” with no recognition that I might possibly know my dog and his needs better than she. Like, for example, how much FUR he’s got growing between the pads of his feet which protect them pretty well. Or that, yes, we had only been there a few minutes and no, I wasn’t planning on dragging him on a walk all over town. (Where, in fact, the pavement would have been just as hot.) Mom was standing right next to me and agreed that the woman’s delivery was definitely of the butting-in-because-I-can kind, rather than the “What a sweet dog, but do please be careful” kind of warning a well-meaning person might give.

And, frankly, it was the “poor thing” that got me–as if I was abusing my dog by subjecting him to cruel conditions because I am a heartless, unobservant idiot.

So, yeah, while I’m giving her intentions the benefit of the doubt, that annoyed me just a bit.

On the other hand, I DID abuse and torture Chappy today.

I gave him a haircut.

AND a bath.

On the same day.

If I had pulled out the nail grinder, I could probably have been accused of cruelty to animals.

You know, for a water dog, he really doesn’t enjoy baths very much. He doesn’t complain, exactly, but he stands there stoically, waiting for it to be over. … Actually, it’s not really the bath that he minds. It’s the being wet afterwards. He won’t stand still long enough for me to towel off anything other than the worst of the drips, and by the time we’re at that stage, I never really have the patience to force him, either. Hell, I don’t even blow-dry my own hair, and even when I did, the only way I could alleviate the boredom enough to get through it was to read while I blew-dry.

What? You think that’s weird? I’d sit on the floor with a book in my lap. Then I’d hold the blow-dryer in my right hand, lean over to the left and finger-comb my hair with my left hand while reading the book. My hair got dry, and I kept my sanity. What’s your problem? Even at the hair-dresser, I start fidgeting before my hair is halfway dry. I don’t like to dry dishes, either. Things dry on their own, you know. Unless it’s necessary, I’d rather just let them do so on their own … especially if the drying-off process means more work for me.

Which is something that Chappy and I agree on. I give him baths, towel him off enough for him not to be soaking, and then let him out of the bathroom. He often tears around the house (which we say is his way of blow-drying) and then curls up in a towel and tries to sleep off the rest of the “wet.” But if you pet him while he’s still wet, he almost looks sulky, like he’s saying, “I’m WET,” the same way a person would say, “I’m FILTHY.” Like it was something to be remedied as quickly as possible, but in the meantime, please, don’t look at me.

Anyway, he slept most of the afternoon, and I did some more spinning. It’s the end of the Tour de Fleece and I did meet my goal of spinning every single day. I got that pound of green merino spun, and most of these 8 oz of superwash merino. I finished the first bobbin on Friday and am more than halfway through with the second.

I spun a lot of that yesterday afternoon, watching “The First Olympics.” It was a mini-series back when I was in high school, shortly after we’d gotten our first VCR. (Yes, the early 1980s.) My best friend and I watched and rewatched and watched it again, over and over for several years, and every now and again I get a yen to see it again. Especially on particularly  hot weekends, don’t ask me why. So, while watching Robert Garret and Jamie Connolly doing their wondrous feets of athletics, I spun.

I spent time with this, too. My new computer–and this one’s staying. It’s a Toshiba A665 something-something and I’m ridiculously excited about the fact that it has a number key pad on the right. I’ve never had a laptop with one of those before. I’m still getting used to the keyboard, though–the keys are slippery and slick and my fingers keep wanting to slide off, which I would imagine would be particularly annoying if I wasn’t touch-typing–but is something I can adapt to. It’s much better than on the HP I had gotten last week, which had an annoying touchpad. I’m the only one in my family, mind you, who likes touch pads. In fact, I actively like them, and even at work I use a trackball rather than a traditional mouse. This one not only is more user-friendly than that HP one had been, but has those multi-gesture options, like being able to scroll by using a circular gesture, which I LOVE.

And did I mention it has a number keypad? And now my laptop and my netbook brands match, which I think is kind of sweet. One of these days I’ll take a picture of the two of them side-by-side (which makes the laptop look huge). And also hopefully, one of these days Mom will be used to HER new computer (my old HP) and will stop asking me questions about it (grin).

Oh, and did you hear the casting news for my favorite show, CHUCK? They cast his mother, who disappeared when he was a kid and apparently was/has been/is? a member of the CIA herself … a real kick-ass Mom … and the casting is? Linda Hamilton. As in, the original Sarah Connor from the Terminator. (Not to mention Catherine Chandler on Beauty and the Beast–or am I the only one who remembers that tv show?) I can’t WAIT. She’ll be in the season premiere (on September 20th) and will show up periodically through the season while Chuck searches for her … really. I can’t wait!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Now, I wonder if I could get the rest of that bobbin of yarn spun tonight… Or, no, I should really be working on my book.

• Tags: Chappy • Permalink:Marking // 7 Comments »

Moths are sneaky!

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I’m getting awfully close to having two sleeves–isn’t it exciting? Just a couple more inches. I only just finished my first skein of yarn, too, about 4 rows back.

And, yes, I’m still loving this yarn.

Here’s a look at my finished green yarn … with that single skein of golden-yellow adding a little accent (and taking me right back to high school, too).

I’m really happy with this. And I adore the color … hard though it is to photograph.

The current spinning, you’ll remember, is the Sock Hop in “Twist and Shout.” I love the blue-green thing, of course, and I’m loving how it’s spinning up.

I love watching the color changes. It’s one of the most fun and satisfying things about spinning multi-colored yarn.

Did you see the preview for the upcoming Interweave Knits? There are several designs in there I think are lovely, but the one that caught my eye the most?

The Hoarfrost Moebius by Annie Modesitt.

So, I’m planning ahead. Because this requires a very specific yarn.

Yep. Lion Brand Yarn’s Stainless Steel Wool. It looks pretty much identical to the Habu yarn that I’ve been looking at for ages but never quite sure what to do with. This pattern, though? I love it. Love the color, love the design, love the amazing drape the steel gives to it … so, I ordered some.

Yes, even despite the fact that I really shouldn’t be spending any unnecessary money at the moment. I told you the other day that I’d gotten a new computer because Mom’s had died, right? It’s the one I’m typing on right now, and it’s a perfectly okay computer … except … that’s all it is. Okay. For basic stuff, it works just fine–MS Word, checking email, tweaking photos. But for heavier-duty internet stuff? Like watching videos, uploading pictures, writing blog posts? Um … not so much.

I can’t upload more than 2 photos at a time on Flickr without it locking. Watching a video on Hulu.com, it freezes several times–which my old computer never did. I’m not fond of the touchpad, either–the buttons are part of the pad, not separate buttons. I know this is the new Mac thing and all, but I’m finding it annoying. It’s true that most of the time I just tap on the touchpad to click, and that works fine, but there are times when it’s helpful to hold down the button–like when selecting more than one file, or something like that. And then, when I lift up my finger to click on the button … the cursor moves, just enough for me NOT to click on what I’m aiming for. Sigh. Add to that the fact that the yellows are kind of weird on the monitor and the slow internet speed for God knows what reason, and … the computer’s going back.

The sad part, though, is that Amazon charges a 15% restocking fee for returned computers (unless they’re DOA), so that’s about an extra $90, plus shipping to return it, in addition to the cost of the new (faster, I hope) computer. So, buying more yarn? Um, yeah, that’s got to stop again for a while … but at least I have this pretty Stainless Steel yarn to play with, huh? Not to mention all that great Peace Fleece from the other day.

(And we won’t discuss the broken cap, right?)

Just … cross your fingers for me that this new computer behaves the way it’s supposed to, okay?

• Tags: Finished Spinning, General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Spinnin’ and Knittin’ // 1 Comment »

Today, I washed yarn. I soaked my three skeins of handspun and hung them to dry, and they’ve been dripping in the hallway ever since. I’ve got the lid for my soaking-tub underneath to catch the drips.

And I started spinning my Twist and Shout  “Sock Hop” roving. Blues, greens, splashes of pinkish-purple, and white to keep it bright. All so pretty.

Chappy, though, got a little bored and headed off to his crate for some napping. He does so love that yellow afghan of his!

Otherwise? I made pancakes for breakfast, and baked a cake. We took Chappy out for a walk before it got too hot. I spent some serious time reading this afternoon which was completely nice and relaxing, if not particularly helpful for the whole, Debbie-needs-to-write thing. But hey. At least the spinning looks good, right?

Now? I’m off to finish my review for New England Knits, a book which I LOVED. That brown sweater I’m knitting? Yep, that’s where it’s from. The book is just that good.

• Tags: Finished Spinning, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Spinning on Sunday // 2 Comments »

First … this looks like not one, but TWO skeins of finished green merino, don’t you think? Each skein is about 320 yards and the color is devilishly hard to photograph.

Next up? Eight ounces of superwash merino in “Twist and Shout” I bought from Crown Mountain Farms about three years ago.

Pretty, huh? It’s been sitting in my stash for far too long.

Knitting-wise, I finished my first sleeve of my sweater. It only took three tries. After the last picture I showed you, I tore it out and started again. The yarn, while Worsted weight, is getting a far different gauge than the Manos called for in the pattern, and there was just no way that  gauge was going to work, ultimately. So I started over again, on larger needles and this time I’m sticking with it.

Can I just tell you how much I adore this color? The flash actually makes it look a trifle washed out, but I keep looking at it and thinking I’m knitting  a tree, the colors are so natural, so gorgeous. I love them.

Oh, and I may have placed another order with Peace Fleece.

You know, just a few skeins of yarn. You’ll remember, the $100-minimum order for the wholesale rates? This order came in at $101.50 before shipping, so about as close as I could get to the minimum.

I’m not altogether happy with the way these colors photographed, either. They look way too bright and over-exposed to me. But then, I’m also working on a different monitor, so ALL the colors look a little different. I’ve never had such a difference in the way my photos look from computer to computer before, so I’m not quite sure how to adjust that.

And yes, you heard me. A different computer. Mom’s crashed and burned again. It’s been having problems for a couple weeks and got infected by a virus and since I don’t know how to actually fix a computer, I bought myself a new one and gave her my old. Not the most economical solution, I know, and I’m hoping I made the right choice because I’m not particularly liking the trackpad on this laptop. The buttons are actually part of the trackpad, which means that when I lift my finger to click a button (usually the right button), the cursor moves ever so slightly, which is kind of frustrating. I’ll adapt, though.

But, meanwhile, I can’t tell how close these colors actually are compared to the yarn. I mean, the camera hasn’t changed, and I know what I was doing with those pictures a couple days ago to tweak colors, and these suddenly look really bright, really over-exposed, so … I’ll have to work on that.

Now, if only I could get iTunes to download to my new computer. I have tried countless times over the last three days, but it freezes up every time. SO frustrating.

• Tags: Finished Spinning, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Just a Saturday Update // 3 Comments »

Doesn’t my skeiner make pretty shadows on the wall like this?

Text here

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You’ll be glad to know that I’ve been working very hard on my plying.

Even Chappy was impressed. Because, honestly, it really was work.

That’s about eight ounces, 320 yards there … and still with room on the bobbin, too.

But, man, this is a HARD yarn to photograph! No matter how much I adjust the white settings, it photographs as, well, gray, really.

Oh, I should warn you that I’m apparently having trouble with my web-hosting. They say I’m using too much space (?) and suspended my account for a few hours yesterday. I’m trying to figure out how to fix this with (I might add) basically no help from them. Their answer was essentially, “Talk to your web designer,” which, of course, I don’t have. But, I mean really. I know I’ve got all you wonderful, loyal readers out there, and all, but it’s not like you come by to visit in the thousands or anything. I don’t even use the webhost for the pictures–they’re all on Flickr. So, how can I be using so much space that they felt they needed to suspend my account?

Anyway … just in case it happens again, don’t freak out. I’m not deliberately going anywhere.

(And, if any of you have any guidance on what to do? That would be great, too. All I got from the lovely people at ANHosting was this link which, since I don’t even know what php is, really doesn’t help me at all.)

• Tags: Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Still Plying // Add Comment »

I finished all four bobbins of green corriedale. That’s a full pound there, four ounces per bobbin (give or take). Some of it’s a little over-twisted, though, with some dreaded coils, but hey … I was on a roll and I was happy just to be spinning, so I’m not really complaining.

You know what this means, though. Ready to start plying!

And here’s another look at my sleeve–restarted from the beginning on actually LARGER needles.

Would you believe that I’m actually getting a SMALLER gauge than called for? No, I don’t believe it, either. I am, nevertheless, happy with this sleeve. It’s about 10″ around instead of the 12″ that the pattern sleeve calls for and I think that’s more wearable, anyway, so no complaints. Before I start the body, though, I’ll try another gauge swatch … maybe the pocket … on a larger needle and see how that goes. I figure, even if I loosen the gauge (and I still don’t see how that can be possible with my knitting) … and I’m reminding myself that the body is knitted back and forth in rows, unlike the circularly-knit sleeves, and that will make a difference, too.  I figure it won’t really hurt too much when I join the sleeves to the body, if the gauge is slightly different between the two. Drastically, yes, but only slightly? Not worried.

Meanwhile, I LOVE the color of this yarn. It makes me feel like I’m playing God and making a tree.

In some sad news today, one of my parents’ oldest friends died, suddenly, last night. Mom actually went to high school with her, a few months behind, but it was once they were all working at the Howard Savings Bank in the early 60s that they all became friends. We don’t know what caused her death, but they’re still shocked, even allowing for the fact that they didn’t see her very often. Dad golfs with her husband a few times every year, and my parents see the other two of that group-of-six every few months, but still … Dad is a little shaken. He says it’s the first one to “go” from presumably old-age kind of causes rather than illness or accidents. Sigh. Rest in peace, Kathy.

• Tags: Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Plying Begins // Add Comment »