cosmicpluto knits!

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.)

just a liiiitle more

My flight home was uneventful, if a bit long – the flight itself was about 7.5 hours, plus all that waiting around on either end (and it was far from the gate to customs and everything here in Toronto!). They showed one of the same movies as on the last flight (Ironman), which I thought was pretty lame – but this plane had leather seats. Did I mention that this flight was also delayed? I got an email last week from my booking agency with the details – it was delayed by almost 6 hours. At least, again, I knew in advance!

My sister apparently harvested a flying saucer (patty-pan-type) squash while I was away that had gone unnoticed – and when harvested it was the size of, I dunno, a smallish cabbage? The one thing I asked my family to do while I was away was to watch my plants, and they didn’t really do it. So now I’ve lost a few tomatoes and harvested a couple baseball bat zucchinis this evening. Sigh.

I think my attempt to beat jet lag is working, because it’s 11 pm here and I’m still (sort of) awake. I’ve been up for about 20 hours though, so I think it’s now time for bed!

Yarn photos shortly! I got some great stuff across the pond!

temptations

Really Must Stop Looking At Yarn!!

(Although if you like the colour of Silk Garden that I used for Rayne, it’s on sale at Littleknits under the word “looking” above :p)

Must not buy yarn! It’s tough when there are such pretty things out there, but I have GOT to save some money to spend across the pond. Also, I really, really, really don’t need any more yarn. I’ve got plenty. And I have lots of knitting to concentrate on for the time being.

I got all the way to the midpoint of the edging of the Mooi shawl (actual name: Niji Baby Cable Shawl) when I realized that something was off. Sigh.

I’d made a mistake wayyy back in the first pattern repeat (there are 17 on one side of the shawl). It bothered me enough that I ripped the edging all the way back and redid it. The shawl is a store sample, too, so I didn’t want it to look wrong! When I got to the middle again…still off. But only by 2 stitches, so I was able to fudge it a bit. Finished shawl photos soon!

Since that’s about it for the knitting, how about some food?

The now-infamous NY Times chocolate chip cookies:

It was a good time to make them this past weekend because my sister was having birthday parties (multiple!) so there were lots of people around to eat them! I made the dough on Saturday morning and baked some that night (7 hr chill), some the next night (32 hr chill) and some just last night (umm…50ish hour chill?). I must say that I wasn’t super blown away. I mean, it was a good cookie, maybe a great cookie, but the best ever? I don’t know. Anyway, they’re still really good.

Dinner Sunday night: tempura-style fried okra, spaghetti in roasted Ontario tomato sauce with goat cheese. Mmmm!

ow.

Well, I finished up the February Baby Sweater – my mom thought it looked too small, but the baby’s pretty darn small (she’s up to 7 pounds at one month old, she was a few weeks premature). I think it’ll fit just fine!

I gave it to the newest baby in the family last night at a family bbq, and the parents seemed to quite like it – I don’t have many babies to give stuff to, so it was nice! I didn’t get to finish up a hat that I was making to go with, but oh well.

Unfortunately just when I was heading into the backyard at my aunt’s to hang up my bathing suit (the pool was great!) I tripped and totally fell down.

And twisted my ankle. D’oh.

I took this photo after about fifteen minutes lying in the grass with a bag of frozen peas on my ankle (my left – it’s hidden by the towel and peas) and it’s not great, but whatever. I was in pain, man. I can hobble around okay, I don’t think it’s broken – but I’m off to the doctor’s to probably get some xrays and stuff. Last night I just kept it up, wrapped, and with ice on it, so I don’t think it’s too horribly swollen.

But judging by the ache this morning when I got up to go to the bathroom, I think I’m outta commission for a few days. Sigh. Usually I’m so careful with the walking to avoid just this!