The chair is finally done

Okay, so like 6+ years ago I started taking an upholstery class. Found a really nice chair at a rummage sale that was old and ratty looking. In other words, perfect :-). Then Wendy's (place of work at the time) decided that they had to make me close the nights I had the class. :-/. Here's some more background info on this poor chair

Then life intervened and here we are 6 years later. Well, last night DH helped me put the last of the nails on it and this a.m. I put the finishing stain on it. It's DONE!

Aaannnd, it's gonna go in my new office. Did I tell ya that this was an "office chair". What is cool about it is that it was sold at business office supply store in Duluth, Minn. It has a solid oak frame on it. It's really a nice chair and now that I'm finished with it, it's *perfect*

So, one more thing to cross off of my 101 in 1001 list.

Tour de Fleece

I had been spinning each day that I was supposed. I guess I didn't really "get" the rules of TDF. I didn't know I had to set goals, just that I had to spin each day. Well I did that. I've managed to get better at my spinning. I need to work on my plying. I tried plying yarn I spun during TDF and it was horrible. I didn't even do the whole thing. ...

But I'm going to end TDF early so I can focus on home and stuff. But it was fun while I was doing it. I can't wait to do it again next year. Hopefully I will be able to ply and spin even faster than I did this year.

taking a breather

I've decided to take a breather from everything that is not work and home.

So for the next few weeks I will not be on plurk that much or on ravelry. Probably won't be doing any spinning or knitting or posting as much. Everything else that is fiber-related that I wanted to do will have to be put on hold too. There are a couple things that I'm involved in online and I will continue to be involved in those -- just not as intensely.

Guess what I did today?

We went picking strawberries at a farm about 30 miles away. I don't know if $8 for 5 quarts is a good deal or not but we had a blast all the same. DS proclaimed to everyone that walked past us that he could eat all he wanted. Just slightly embarrassing, but he did eventually stop saying it.

DS gorged himself on berries and let out a few little belches and was "mmmmmming" almost the whole time. It was kind of like the bunny on the 7 UP commercial.

When we got home we almost immediately made strawberry shakes. There is something so yummy about making shakes with fresh, ripe berries. YUM!

Then the inner farmgirl in me decided to come out and play. I canned 4 pints of strawberry jam.

Aren't they pretty?

4 pints called for 5 cups of strawberries and 7 cups of sugar! Wow, that's a lot of sugar. I am curious why freezer jam doesn't seem to call for as much strawberries and sugar. The only thing I didn't do was skim the foam. But MIL told me that was purely for aesthetic reasons.



This is the first time I've ever canned anything or made jam or jelly. Was much easier than I thought it would be. I would definitely do this again next year though. We have about 2.5 quarts of strawberries left. I don't imagine we will have any leftovers though. This is usually time time of year we go gung ho on the strawberry shakes.

Seascape update

I have finished chart A of Seascape. It's all clicked and I seem to be cruising pretty quickly now.

Not sure how much I will accomplish this weekend. Got a new project to get started. One of my friends asked me to knit her up bellatrix socks. (ravelry link) Which I am happy to do. :-) I need to swatch a bit since it seems it's a bit tricky to get guage on this pattern. Plus I will be doing it on DPN's instead of two circs. Oh and it's gonna be this colorway or something similar if I decided to dye my own yarn.

Work news

Well, I got a shock this afternoon. I'm still kind of mulling it over. I'm getting my own office. For the last 5 years I've shared an office with the staff writer. However, I no longer have an office on the main level. It will be down in the basement.

I've never had my own office before and to be moved to an office that doesn't have windows is a bit much for me at the moment. What a way to end the week huh?

Meanwhile I keep trying to come up with positives to having my own office. And, of course, being moved is much better than losing my job. It's just that I'm not up for this particular change. I'm not gonna have an office mate anymore and that's gonna take some getting used to. In a way, this reminds me of the seinfield episode where George had to keep showing up to work because of his contract and his work kept making things more difficult for him and they ultimately moved him to an office supply closet. ... But we aren't the only office that's gonna be moved. ... but I don't know of anyone else who is being moved to the basement.

A quick check in

Well, I have no pictures but felt I should do a quick check in.

I'm currently working on Seascape from knitty.com. I have been working on this since last weekend and I gotta say I haven't progressed very far. It finally clicked this weekend and I finished the first part of the pattern. I am enjoying the pattern and discovered a Knit-a-long over on ravelry. Cool! I'm learning a couple of new stitches for it. Thank goodness for knittinghelp.com.

And I'm using some of my new options needles for this project. Oh, OH OOOOH, I love these needles. It is *so* nice to not have to fight with my needles. I bought the steel tip options rather than the harmony's. But I did get the harmony DPNs. Still haven't had a chance to try those out though.

I've also been spinning a little bit each night for Tour de Fleece. I still haven't finished a bobbins worth of my bluebell colonial top though. But that's okay cause I'm still working on making a more even yarn. I'm getting better at drafting though. It's nice not to have to draft a bunch before hand. Practice, practice, practice.

Finally, happy mail day!

Yes, it might not be much, but I finally got the interchangeable needles and the DPN's :-)

And 3 skeins of lace weight yarn and a dye kit.

Oh and a ball winder. O Mine gorsh does the ball winder work slick. Can you tell I haven't used one before? lol I used it to wind up some acryllic I'm using for a project. Oh is that nice!

This is my first *big* order of knitting stuff. The most I've gotten so far has been some fiber from Annie May on ebay. 2 lbs of fiber. :-)

Yeah, you might not be hearing from me for a bit. :-) My mind is just boggled. tee hee.

Bobbins for the spinning wheel

My neighbor made me a couple of bobbins. :-) I was so excited when he offered. Now I have three and can actually ply singles once I have more than one single ready to go, lol.

I bet you can't tell which is the new one :-)

New pretty thing :-)

It's an abbacus-style row counter bracelet. I figured out how to make one. Oh it makes such a pretty bracelet though. All the beads are from my birthday beads. It was so much fun making something that incorporated them. Well, other than the stitch markers. Two of those I decided to make into bracelets. Oh well, lol.

Hoping for a good mail day

Last month I ordered from Knitpicks for the first time. I can *not* wait. I ordered knitting needles. As soon as I get the DPN's I'm going to cast on Hedera's again. Since I've learned how to knit lace using other projects I can't wait to give them another try.

I also ordered some bare yarn and dye. Can't wait to play with that a bit too.

In the meantime here's a photo of my progress so far for Tour de Fleece.


See how even?!?!?!

Oh and here is a pic of the washcloth I did this weekend.

Just a wonderful little mindless thing I whipped together :-).

Happy Fourth of July weekend

I'm a bit late, but that's cause I've barely been online this weekend. I thought I would disconnect this weekend, but that's kind of hard to do when the computer is *right* there, lol.

For the most part it has been a super relaxing weekend. I had loaded some pics up on flickr but then it told me I'm at my max of 200 photos. So now I either delete some stuff or pay. Well, I'm not about to pay, so I deleted some stuff, but I'm gonna think of something in the meantime cause I do want to be able to link my projects over to ravelry from there.

I made some stitch markers. For my birthday I got some beads from a friend.


Tour de Fleece started yesterday :-( I had so much going on that I completely spaced it. My wheel is "resting" right now. So I will have to fluff some stuff up and break out the drop spindle tonite. Got some pretty stuff from AnnieMay on ebay. Colonial top in raspberry and bluebell. The texture is much nicer than the other stuff I've been spinning.

Anywho, not much going on otherwise. Better go clean up so I can start fluffing fiber :-)

a quick update :-)

Life the last few days has been kind of busy. I've been spinning every night since I got the spinning wheel. We are still working some of the bugs out, but I can see already that my spinning is getting more even and consistant. :-) Makes me super happy.

And just in time, I made a little button-thingy for Team LimeNViolet for the Tour de Fleece.


However, over on ravelry, selkieb and jeanous80 made *beautiful* buttons. Go check them out here.


Anywho, here are some shots of my spun yarn so far:

A photo of my very first spun yarn off of the spinning wheel. I apologize for the quality of the photo. Didn't realize it was such a crummy image.


Lots of over twist in this first ball, lol.

Here's my second skein of yarn. :-)



Here's a close up. As you can see, already much less over twist.



Here's my third bobbin full :-) Doing better ...



I don't have any photos of the bobbin I have on right now. But I predrafted that even more and it's coming out *really*nice.

Oh and here's a shot of my homemade niddy noddy. $3 for the parts. Can't go wrong with that. :-)



And between all that I'm whipping up ideas for stitch markers and making little sewing things :-) Life is never dull in my house, lol.

I've been kind of at a loss as to my next knitting project since I finished the branching out scarf.

I messed around with the traveling vines pattern, but I think I've settled on the seascape stole from knitty.com

Farmgirl Project #1

Introduce Myself.

I know, I know. That’s a little anticlimactic. Here were are, talking about changing the world from our rocking chairs on our porches with a little pie, and I’m asking you to just talk about one of the subjects you know best — you.

Well, to know me is to love me, lol. And for those who know me are probably wondering "huh?"

Well, I'm a farmgirl now. Added that title to the many titles I have. :-)

My name is Marcy, I was born and raised in a city that is on the south shore of Lake Superior. I met my soulmate when I was 18. We've been together for 11 years.

Currently work at a catholic newspaper. Greatly enjoy my job. Even though now is a slightly tumultuous times for all newspapers. I can't imagine *not* working.

Had a baby boy in 2005 the center of my life. Well, him and my DH.

I have a cat named CeeVee (Cat Vicious).

I have many interests. About a year and a half ago I found knitting (there it was behind the couch, lol) . I am now getting into spinning, dying yarn and making stitch markers. I hope to have an etsy store open at some time this year.

I love to garden. But I have a pretty shady yard so I have to chose my plants carefully. I don't have much luck starting seeds indoors. I did successfully grow catnip indoors all winter. My cat loved me for it.

The farmgirl sisterhood greatly piques my interest because I love community and women getting together who have the same ideas. I do belong to a great online group of mom's. We are so close to each other that our group is now closed to new members. However, I don't know too many people who share the same interests as me in regards to living more sustainably and not so much out of a "box". I'd say that for the last 10 years it's been my dream to get a little plot of land and garden, have some farm animals. Although not necessarily having the animals for food. I apologize to chicken as I'm cutting it up.

And when I'm home I'm little miss domestic goddess. I truly adore taking care of hearth and home (however it goes).

So I guess that's a little bit of me in a nutshell. However, by this time next week it might be different. I sometimes feel like I'm constantly changing and seeing new facets of "who" I am. I am me, a kind-hearted person, a great friend, and sometimes I have my head in the clouds. :-)