So what have I been up to, well not much on the knitting front, only FO i have to show for anything is a pair of socks, Catoptrical (Ravelry link), for serveral months. What’s new in my house, well there is a lot of that, I really need to take some pics.  A while ago (ok, so that was at the end of May early June) I bought a Baby Wolf (Yup it’s a picture of my loom, but not in my house and not my picture) a weaving loom, not a real wolf, wouldn’t have anyplace to keep a real one.  So I took a weaving class, which led to buying a table loom as well.  DH picked me up another wheel, an Ashford Joy, which brings my wheel collectiong back up to 6 (Matchless, the Victoria, the Rose, Pocket, a Little Gem, and now the Joy).  Oh yeah, can’t foget the Bosworth Charkha or the Fricke E-spinner.  Yes I’ve been busy collecting tools.

So there has been lots of spinning, I still am buried by bobbins full of singles that need to be plied, I just need to take a weekend and ply ply ply.  Some of weaving lately, mostly samples for class, but I did manage to weave a rug and a scarf and now there is a table runner on the table loom .  There has been some knitting, mostly casting on, very little finishing.  My Everyday cardigan that I cast on on the 1/1/08, well the body is done, the sleeeves are done, shoulders are seamed and there is even 1 sleeve pinned on to the body, I just really need to finish that sweater, it’s so close. 

Oh well, I’m still alive and breathing, hoping to take some pics over the course of the 3 day weekend, but no promises, but i will try.

Memorial Day Weekend DH and I spontaneously decided to hop on a ferry and head out to Friday Harbor on San Juan Islands.  For those not local, it’s the biggest of the San Juan Islands and is about a hour drive, then another hour on a ferry from where we live.

We saw this little cutie:

Some of his friends:

There are more pictures that you can find on here, didn’t have much time, so I just dumped them all there.

The following week I went up to Whistler on a business trip, it was more of a retreat than a business trip, there were some meetings, but I went on my first Helicopter ride, then the next afternoon, I went zip trekking.  I have pics from the Helicopter ride, but I really need to go through those before uploading them.

Last week, my spinning group had a class with Judith Mackenzie Mccuin.  OMG that woman is wonderful, she had lots of knowledge to impart and does it in a great way.  If you are a spinner and can only take one class ever, it must be with Judith as the teacher.  No pics from the spinning class, but wow, my brain was exploding after 2 days with her, and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

Last, but only chronologically, I picked up a Baby Wolf Weaving Loom yesterday.

There has been some knitting, but not as much as I would have liked, lots of spinning.  OTN right now is a pair of socks, that isn’t mine to reveal, but as soon as the Nancy publishes it I’ll let you know, it’s a really fun knit.

Ok, back to work with me, I have a lot to catch up on not having been in the office for a full week in 3 weeks, amazing how much work piles up.

 So I’m in the garage this morning, the garage door stopped, so it’s open right, ok, back up camera says there’s no one behind me.  Mind you my SUV is quite large, and there is a support beam in the middle of my garage, so it’s a tight fit, so I mostly use my side view mirrors to get out of the garage without hitting the garage or the support beam.  Wel ok, so the garage door opener stopped, so the doors open right?  Of course it must be open, it’s always opened all the way up before, why should I think anything different now.  So I start to back out of the garage, and guess what, the door was open, just not quite all the way.  This SUV being quite a bit taller than my last car, I hear a thunk, fully thinking i’ve hit somethe side of the vehicle, I get out to see what I’ve hit.  Silly me, i look up and there the garage door and my rear window have now met each other. 

In my last car it wouldn’t have mattered if it was fully opened or not, so I have no idea if it’s been not opening all the way or not up until now.  Guess who’s going to be checking the garage door from now on. 

 No damage to either car or garage, not a scratch or dent anywhere, it was just the window that met the garage door, and it’s fine.  So I get to work and tell DH what happened….his response… “Again?” Now I know we’ve been together now for just over 9 years, but apparently he’s picked up on this car curse thing.  The thing is once I’ve backed into something it never happens again, so maybe I’m covered this time….knock on wood.

 Just so you know, I’ve only done any major damage once, the first time I backed up into a garage door and I’ve only hurt property, never any living beings.

 Every morning I hear the traffic report in the news before I leave for work.  As usual traffic is backed up to my on ramp, and here’s the part I don’t get, “traffic on the 405 is slower than normal”.  Granted some days they actually tell you to leave 15 to 20 minute early, what’s up with that, am I supposed to get up 15 to 20 minutes early every morning to listen to the traffic report to know if I have to leave earlier that day?  (BTW, very rarely, unless there’s an accident is it true that I need to leave 15 to 20 minutes earlier, I know this because I usually don’t pay attention to that and leave at my normal time anyway, and imagine this, get to work at the same time I normally do) That’s simply not going to happen.  I’m not getting up before 5 every morning simply because the traffic reporter doesn’t know what traffic is like before I go to bed. 

But I digress, what is this “slower than normal” crap.  If traffic is slower than normal 5 out of 5 days a week, at what point does it become normal.  And while we’re on the point, what does the traffic announcer define as normal?  I’ve accepted that as a result of where I choose to work and where I live, I’m going to have to commute.  Honestly, it’s simply not a bother for me, and I actually enjoy (yes I know I’m sick) the leisurely commute to work and back home again.  I’ve been known to go out of my way and simply not take the freeway, even though it takes longer, for some ME time. I find it’s a great time to refocus from my work life to my not work life, a transition period if you will. 

I left for work an hour early this morning, I was bored and decided to see if I could figure out what normal is by leaving an hour early.  Traffic report said that traffic was normal, well guess what, it took me just as long to get to work this morning as it does for me to get to work on a “slower than normal” morning.

So if you’re a traffic reporter can you define what “normal” is, so if I have an early morning meeting, I can acutally plan ahead of time and be awake to leave 15 – 20 minute early if I need to.  I need precious little sleep, but it’d be easier to know if I need to get to bed before 1 am so I can get my minimum 4 hours of sleep.  I know what my idea of normal is, but your idea of normal and mine don’t seem to match up.

Thank you for not hitting me this morning. 

While I realize that you probably have somewhere to go and traffic is not moving to your liking.  I also realize that you simply wanted to cross in front of me to get to the carpool lane that was moving.  You probably also had your turn signal on to let me know that you wanted in front of me, but I didn’t see it.  All I saw was you, trying to switch lanes in front of me, well except it wasn’t exactly in front of me, in was more like into my engine.  I truely would have liked to have accomodated you, however, the only way I could have done that was to put my car in reverse, and while it is a free way, I don’t believe that would include going backwards in the farthest lane to the left (except for the carpool lane) so instead I have that thingy in the middle of my steering wheel a tap to let you know that there was a car (mine) in the space that you wished to occupy.  A friendly little tap, just to let you know. Apparently, I was being rude and for that I apologize, since you saw fit to gesture at me with one particular finger and give me a dirty look.

 Let’s take a look at the facts, it was rush hour, traffic was not moving, as so often happens during rush hour.  You had just entered the freeway, I know this because I saw you switch lanes without regard for the other drivers you cut off, but at least the car in front of them was moving (albiet ever so slowly).  The lane I was in was not moving, I know this because I was not moving and neither was the car in front of me. So when you decided to pull into my lane, I’m sure you still had your signal on from the 2 lane changes you had just done, I do apologize for being in the space you then wanted to occupy.  I’m sure you had the right of way, since your turn signal was probably on, and that seems to give drivers the right of way here, but I really would like to see where that’s on paper, if that is the case I will gladly play by the rules, and be sure that everyone, including myself, has the right of way because they have turned on a turn signal, and next time it happens, I’ll be sure to throw my car into reverse to see that I’m playing by the rules, even if it means hitting the car behind me.

 I once again would like to express my sincerest thanks for not hitting me this morning, and I do hope you got to where you were going on time, I certainly did.  Oh and also my deepest apologies for being in the space you wanted to occupy on a freeway that wasn’t moving. I suppose next time I won’t hit that thing in the middle of the steering wheel, I guess I was being rude and should have just let you hit me, I will be sure to remember that next time I see a maroon Nissan Sentra.

To the Justice System in L.A. County:

I would love to do my civic duty and serve on your jury, however, it’s really not possible at this time.  You see, I no longer live in your county, as a matter of fact I have moved out of the state.  It would be a terrible inconvenience for me to be available for Jury Duty the 2nd week in July. 

I do apologize it has taken me so long to respond to your summons, but the summons was forwarded to my parents house, the postal system did get that right since that’s where I told them to forward my mail, but my parents saw fit to be out of the country when the summons arrived.  I have called your number to let you know that I will be unavailable that week, and any other week for that matter, to serve on your jury, since to do so would cost me great time and exspense at an inconvenient time.  I did also RSVP with said documentation to show that I am now no longer a resident of LA county.

Thank you for the invite to your “party” but I deeply regret I am unable to attend at this time. 

 P.S. Would you please remove me from your roster, for unless future summons coinside with a planned vacation, I will have to continue to decline your invites.

Now, you may wonder what exactly are we knitting for? Well wonder no more, I finally took a picture today. Hot off my spinning wheel, well ok, so it’s been off the bobbin and the twist has been set since Tuesday, but close enough, I present the prize of this little competition.

Fiber 80% Merino/20% Tussah Silk dyed by none other than our beloved Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Arts (sadly blogless and siteless, but she does wonderful work**)

Color: Tahitian Pearl

Details: 4 glorious ounces, about 14 WPI, so a DK weight, approximately 278 yards.

Let me tell you ladies, the yarn is gorgeous and wonderfully soft. Keep and eye out, those needles you hear clicking down the back of your neck, they’re my needles. No matter where the yarn ends up, I know it will be in a good home.

KNIT ON knitsters!

Y’all will have to wait until tomorrow to see what else came home with me with the new wheel. I’m off to play with my new toys and get some CPH’ing done.

** ETA: Thanks to Sandy, I can now tell you where to find Lori Lawson on the web. She’s got a blog, Paint Spin Knit that she has recently started. Go check her out.

So instead I’m issueing a CHALLENGE to both KnitDevil and Mehitable to finish before me. This will give you both at least a week, since I’m working full time and not knitting nearly as much and I’m picking up my new spinning wheel tomorrow.  First one done will get something from my burgeoning stash.  KnitDevil, this will be in addition to the other yarn we discussed as a prize for breaking your sweater curse upon completion.

Knit on knitsters!

Yarn: Trekking XXL, I’m not sure the colorway, the ball band is long lost.
Needles: Addi Turbo’s #0 – Magic Loop 2 socks at once.
Pattern: generic toe up.

This is for Christie (I think she’s sadly blogless and she’s not a knitter yet, but I’m working on it). Shes a friend from FertilityFriend.com If you followed my blog when I was on blogger this pic will look familiar, it’s my Christmas sock round up. I’m using it again because a question came up on hand painted yarns and how they knit up, so here goes:

The 4 socks to the right of the Clapotis are hand painted, 2 are Koigu and one is a local artist. The 2 to the top left are Trekking XXL, and I believe machine dyed, someone please correct me if I’m wrong on that. The Clapotis in the middle is machine dyed, as opposed to hand painted.

Hope that and the explanation on the FF board help to clear things up a bit for you Christie.

Anyone else?  If I have it I’ll post it.