cosmicpluto knits!

my finger hurts now.

So I headed down to the basement to work out – I’ve been doing Jillian Michaels’ 30-Day Shred DVD. As far as the workout goes, it’s great! I’ve done nearly all of levels 1 and 2. You’re supposed to do 10 days of each level (there are three levels). I’m definitely feeling stronger, and there’s a bit of a visual difference as well, although I haven’t really lost any weight or anything. Today was going to be day 10 of level 2!

I picked up my shoes to put them on…and felt something sharp. I thought it was just something sharp in my shoe (I still had to put my orthotics in them) but then the pain increased! I dropped my shoes and saw…a wasp.

I got stung in the finger, an important knitting finger (left pinky; I knit continental) by a wasp hiding in my shoe in my own house.

And now I can’t work out (need hands for pushups and holding weights!) or knit.

This sucks. It also hurts!

home sweet home

Following a crazy airline scheduling thing that had me scrambling to find a flight on Monday (and thinking I might end up staying in Edinburgh a lot longer) I finally flew home yesterday! I have so much still to catch you all up on – all my adventures in India and Scotland, what I knit, and what I bought!

I have lots of photos to go through so it might be a few days of intensive posting, if I can manage it. I’m a homebody at heart and I’m so glad to be back, even though it’s barely changed a bit. Sleeping in my own bed for once was just awesome, with the added side effect of changing time zones so much that I able to sleep for 8 hours and still got up at a reasonable time.

In the meanwhile, take a look at my Errata page – there are a few corrections to the Amelia pattern and a few to Teach Yourself Visually Sock Knitting as well. And on my Classes and Appearances page, something new: I’ll be speaking at the Downtown Knit Collective guild meeting on March 18!

I guess I’d better start writing something to say! Also, I need to find myself a new project or two – as you can imagine I’m just a little bit sick of the 2 projects I worked on (intermittently) for the last six weeks. Time for a little stash diving.

2008 in review; here comes 2009!

Well I’m a little slow on the uptake, but that’s the way it goes around the holidays! I’ve been working a lot at the store this week, selling tons o’ yarn on our boxing week sale, and then counting everything that was left! Whew.

2008 was a pretty interesting year – tons of awesome stuff happened!

I wrote and published Teach Yourself Visually Sock Knitting and did all the stuff associated with it, including a business trip to Indianapolis. I also taught my first out of town class, at Shall We Knit in New Hamburg, ON.

I self published a bunch of patterns – the B-Side Cardigan, Simple Yet Effective shawl (version 2.0), Perimeter Skirt, Galileo Mittens, Waffles, a reissue of the Vino Cardigan, and of course, Just Enough Ruffles! Thanks to everyone who has purchased my patterns, I really appreciate it! I also started working on a series of hard-copy basic patterns for lettuce knit, hopefully soon to be expanded and available for wholesale (not for awhile though!).

I bought a new camera, and just now, a new lens! I also started the Flickr 365 self-portrait project on my birthday, August 1, when I turned 24. I spent a lot of time single (as in, not in a relationship).

I traveled to Europe for the first time ever (definitely not the last), my first time flying alone and my first big trip alone – although I wasn’t actually traveling along since I had my good friend Ysolda to go around with!

I think I did a little less knitting this year, but it was pretty productive – working on designs takes a lot longer than knitting someone else’s pattern! I did lots of weaving and a little bit of sewing too. I worked and taught a lot at the store, which continues to grow and be an awesome place to be!

Goals for 2009? Well, I didn’t really think I had all that much until I started writing this! There are lots of things on the menu for this year, including a ton of traveling. My round the world trip of course, for which I leave on January 18! There’s so much to do before then. To recap, I’ll be headed to Japan, China, Malaysia, India, and then a stop in Scotland on the way home when I head back in March. It’s crazy! I’m scared but excited, and everyone is telling me how happy they are that I’m doing this kind of trip. My wallet’s a little sad though!

In May I’m hoping to head down to the NYC and then the Maryland Sheep and Wool (anyone driving from NYC that’s willing to take a few passengers?).

In July I’ll be going to Hawaii for two weeks with my family – which should be interesting, since I haven’t been on vacation with them in a long time! Hopefully my mother will let me do my own thing rather than always doing the touristy things they do – if I’m on vacation, I need to time to chill out!

So what are my goals for all these trips and in between?

Sew more – possibly take a class so I can alleviate a little of my frustration with sewing!
Read more.
Be mindful in my knitting and designing.
Take lots of photographs and improve my photography.
De-clutter – I’ve been doing a lot of this over the holidays, but there’s always more to get rid of!
Design more, publish more. Market myself more.
Cook and eat well.
Move. Both in the physical sense and in the home sense.

There’s so much to do this year – I think I’ll be taking this weekend as one to relax and get ready for everything!

Happy 2009, everyone – let’s make it a good one.

a spinner is born

So back at Rhinebeck,my travel buddies Cheryl and Andrea both decided on Sunday afternoon that it was high time to look for a spindle and some roving and get spinning! Obviously I was rather pleased, having both of them turned by the wool fumes…buahaha.

With that goal and a tight budget for this whole spinning lark, we set out to find some inexpensive spindles (a bit challenging) and some pretty roving (not nearly as challenging) and I got ‘em spindling on our last night at our Rhinebeck house.

Fast forward a month, and both of them have finished their very first handspuns! I didn’t take a photo of Cheryl’s (I should’ve though, it was awesome) but I did take some photos of Andrea on Wednesday night at knit night!

Plying…which is my favourite part;

Stephanie helping Andrea with Andean plying;

And Andrea’s very first plied mini-skein! She ended up with about 100 yards or so. (From pretty Ashland Bay merino, in case anyone’s wondering!)

Awesome. I love seeing spinners being born.

I’ve been spinning a little bit myself, too – here’s some gorgeous 2ply worsted-ish weight that I spun up from merino/silk batts that I got at Rhinebeck. I haven’t counted up the yardage yet, and there’s another bobbin full that I haven’t wound off yet.

I’ve also finally managed to get a few woven scarves up in my Etsy shop. I’d wanted to get more done for this update, but I figure I’ll just add as I go – lots more to come, and you can always contact me if you have a request!

permission denied!

Does anyone use Google Reader’s “next” button thing? I’m moving more to the blog reader thing to keep track of what I like to read, but I also love looking at people’s actual sites! Ysolda told me about the next button, so I’ve been using that.

But every so often I reach a page that just says “permission denied” in the upper left corner that doesn’t let me go anywhere else! If I go to the main Google Reader page I still have unread posts, so it’s not the end of the internet – I’m thinking that one of the blogs on my list has some kind of block on this.

Any ideas? I guess I could go through and re-add stuff back to my list one at a time, but that sucks!

attention: I am the stupid

Went to the closest-by mall (which still takes a half hour by transit) to look for a dress for a wedding I’m attending next weekend. Found a suitable one at H&M, took a photo in the changeroom for my 365, and then went and bought the dress.

Did a bunch of other errands, came home…and realized once I was on the bus right near my house that I’d left my camera (my Canon point-and-shoot) in the H&M changeroom.

Fuck.

(I’ve called H&M and left a description; I’m thinking though if no one’s turned it in by now it’s probably gone. Sigh. At least it wasn’t my big camera, but then I’d be less likely to lose that one anyway! And now someone has stupid photos of me, too.)