Thursday, April 26, 2007

making me smile lately...

1. Apheresis, donating plasma/platelets through the American Red Cross. I used to do this for years, then stopped going for a while, then started again a few years back when a young friend of ours was diagnosed with aplastic anemia. I had to stop again about two years ago because my veins were not being cooperative, but Scott knew it was a good thing to do, so that's when he started going. The Red Cross in Farmington recently upgraded to newer machines, so we decided it was worth me giving it a try again. Donation takes a couple of hours, during which you sit in a comfy recliner with one arm hooked up to the machine, reading or watching a movie or whatever. I always joked that it was like a spa treatment combined with a mom's night out. ;-) Mission accomplished with the new machines and it feels as good as ever to volunteer in this way. If any of you out there want to give it a try, Scott or I could make an appointment at the same time and keep you company through the process as we both donate. The American Red Cross will also give veteran donors and any new donors they refer a free ticket to the movies. Bonus!

2. Baking soda and peppermint oil for toothbrushing. My teeth feel so clean after brushing with this mixture that I wonder why anybody ever switched to store-bought toothpaste. Our dentist also wholeheartedly supported the choice.

3. Clear buttons with star murrini, some made for a friend's pink/yellow cardigan-in-progress and some extras made for the fun of it. These and other glass buttons, beads, and baubles will be with us at the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival this Saturday. Stop by and say hi!

4. The real possibility of finally getting solar panels installed on our house, through CitizenRe's program that's coming to CT. We already signed up for an evaluation and are psyched enough about the program to spread the word. If you choose to do the same, please let them know we referred you.

5. Re-painting the upstairs has begun. The paint for the main room was bought over a year ago and just happens to be called Aegean Teal, purchased way before we arranged our recent adventure on the Aegean and admired its lovely shades.



6. When Leah's invited to a friend's birthday party, she immediately starts thinking of what she can make as a gift. All ready for tomorrow's party is this hat, the Madison's Hat pattern. This is the second time Leah knit this pattern, with the first one being her first effort at stranded knitting. We ran out of solid purple, so this hat doesn't pull down as far on the head as the knitter would like, so she whipped up some ear flaps and added them on. Turned out great.

7. Tonight's spontaneous knitting date at an eatery with friends ended up with us bumping into an enthusiastic and friendly knitting group at nearby tables. We spent much of the evening chatting with them about various fibery goodness and are looking forward to seeing many of them at CT Sheep & Wool this weekend. Maybe we'll even run into them for a knit nite again sometime!
Posted by Picasa

posted by livnletlrn at 8:10 PM 2 comments

Thursday, February 15, 2007

blogging the goob

The Santa Fe Sheep, our Spinning Supervisor, has been a busy little sheepie lately, keeping an eye on Scott's fun with wool and also watching Leah spin up a batt from Grafton Fibers.


Like everybody else, the Sheep can't resist patting the soft Corriedale and giving Leah some encouragement about her spinning lately. There's one more batt to go before we decide what this yarn will become, but I have a feeling it'll be used in some sort of Fair Isle design because...



The Goobergirl likes colorwork! Here is her first Fair Isle project, the Madison's Hat pattern, made as part of her participation in Fair Isle February. It's alpaca and a mohair/merino blend, so super soft and fuzzy and oh so warm -- perfect for wearing while we shoveled the driveway today. She has already decided that she needs a coordinating pair of mittens and I have a Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm thrummed mittens kit in the stash, so maybe we'll each do a pair (mine with the kit, hers with the variegated yarn from her hat and roving from the spinning stash).



We spent a little while yesterday morning sorting through that spinning stash. Oh, there are some treasures in there, still waiting to be spun up or wet felted, but Scott already informed me that it's not nearly enough for him and Leah to share. They're planning to enhance the stash and spin their hearts out by the pool (Jesse's destination) at Spa Knit and Spin this weekend.

p.s. Make sure to go to Fair Isle February because a certain somebody came in here after I finished this post and whined that it looks like there's a series of mistakes in the top variegated row in the picture above. What really happened is that the variegated yarn just gets very dark green there and you can see the contrast in real life, but it does look like a mistake in the picture. Anyway, she made me go outside with her for another photo shoot and I posted a diff. picture on Fair Isle February. :-)

posted by livnletlrn at 7:49 PM 2 comments

Sunday, August 05, 2007

muggles of Madison

As early as possible on Friday afternoon, Leah and I packed up our handknit hats for charity ...





and headed for Madison Wool, where we bought some beautiful handpainted yarn from Blackberry Ridge. We mentioned being in town for the Yarn Harlot event that evening and the owner of the store was surprised that we would drive "so far." She was planning to close at 5:00, as usual, but we told her she just might want to reconsider that plan because there would be a steady stream of knitters coming this way throughout the evening. Before we left the shop 15 minutes later, three more knitters had arrived and we passed another on our way up the lane. It is possible that the owner was beginning to realize this would not be the usual evening in Madison, as she was making phone calls and arrangements when we left.



We meandered along Madison's delightful Main St. and a sculpture trail, taking note of a pair of women up ahead, one of whom was wearing a lacy knit summer top and carrying a felted bag. She's one of us, we nodded to each other with a smile. We made our way to RJ Julia Booksellers, where Leah bought Knitting Rules and then we parked ourselves in the children's section upstairs to browse the books, finish work on a pair of mittens, and generally chill out. The staff members talked among themselves about how many calls they had received about the evening to come and that the store would be "crazy" later for the standing room only event. Other customers wandered by, some giving a knowing smile as they'd turn a corner and I'd notice a sock-knitting book sticking out of a purse or a Sockapalooza bag hanging from a wrist. One customer asked an employee what was going on with "all those people gathered downstairs," and was informed the author of a knitting book would be in the building for a book signing later in the evening. Yup, the muggles could tell something was up. We joined the knitters downstairs and played a game of "Hey, I recognize you from your blog!" and "Hey, I was talking with you on Ravelry!" as the party atmosphere overtook the previously subdued bookstore.



Eventually the store moved tables aside and set up chairs, which were filled almost as soon as they were set out. It was a little snug, given that they had to fit as many chairs in the store as possible to accommodate the pre-registered crowd and that every single one of us had a knitting bag at our feet, but they were gracious hosts. One of the store folks asked Leah to come up to draw the raffle winner's name for a gift certificate at Madison Wool, which she happily did. And it wasn't her own name or mine -- aw, shucks.
Stephanie was charming and entertaining, as always. Her prepared talk made us laugh, but her spontaneous comments made us howl. Afterwards, Leah had her book autographed and she was so proud to give Stephanie the original chart from when she designed the Imagine hat, so named because of a picture on Stephanie's blog. I remember when Leah was coloring in the peace sign squares on the graph paper chart, she looked at me and said, "I want to give this to the Yarn Harlot because she's such a nice and peaceful person." Mission accomplished and the girl was psyched.

I understand there was a steady stream of knitters doing a yarn crawl from the bookstore back to Madison Wool afterward, as they had stayed opened late into the night to accommodate the need. We had already purchased our yarn and were tired, and we knew better than to tempt ourselves again, so we headed home. It ends up we should have stayed, as there were friends looking for us at the yarn store and others who would have invited us to join them for pizza, but we'll have to catch up with them all again another time.

When I used to go on Grateful Dead tour, one of my favorite things was watching the locals' response to the influx of Deadheads. The more things change, the more they stay the same. :-)

Posted by Picasa

posted by livnletlrn at 7:27 AM 4 comments