Tilt-a-whirl

Dog Bunnies

So, the phone was ringing off of the hook today and Vanessa sez, "Lisa, really, I am not trying to make your head explode". Of course she says this during the third phonecall. Ah, Vanessa...gotta love her, she was the matchmaker for ST and me. I don't know why the world is in such a tizzy, with so many families feeling such upheaval but I am believing Sheila when she says that it is planetary. No, Helle...it is not because I am knitting a sock.

Oh, speaking of the sock. The fabulous and talented Trish Fredrickson came by today to help me keep my promise to myself to never ever ever set up my knitting machine again. Now her poor house is littered with machine knitting paraphernalia and I have a tiny bit of empty space. Of course that space seems to fill up with this.

I keep wondering why my house is looking more shabby, on the flat plane beneath my feet and hmmm, when I whip out the Hoover, my outlook suddenly lightens up. Oh...there is shady black dog hair everywhere. Guh. These creatures are blowing their coats and aiding each other in that act by doing their Sumo act in the kitchen. Please you guys, can't you take this outside? Before long, I am going to be up to HERE in that stuff.

Ok, so back to the sock. Trish, it seems is actually a sock queen and a super sock queen with the cranker. (she called it a meat grinder but what do I know?) Look what pretty things came out of a bag of treats from the queen.

Nope, don't get excited...that is not Sock! but boy is it yummy and boy and I going to enjoy wearing those beauties this winter when the natural gas bill gets to be ONE MILLLLLLLLION DOLLARS. So, I am so lucky because the queen is going to crank some socks on her magic machine from said Sock! and bring them to me for display at my next show. Woo hoo. Oh yeah...so my sock. I have been informed that it is looking more like a sleeve and that I had better downsize my stitches...my feet are not that big. (blush) So, I am going to do just that. :o)

Trish not only brought treats for ME but she brought a toy to the Thundering Herd, which of course was immediately absconded by you know who. Tell me about it, Tank.

So, what is new? Ummm, I made another pass at Caroline's Biffle and a certain Blondie from Florida snatched it up...must make more for ME. Oh yes, I put 2 1/2 pounds of cashmere in a big big pot yesterday and did a run of Joseph's Coat and will spin enough to choke a horse or a certain cap maker as well as a new friend of his. We start here and also with what is behind Tank.

That is a lot of spinning, believe me.

Now for the Continuing Saga Fans, Prophane seems to be in the midst of getting Can You Hear Me Now to extend the contract for The Husband and six other people for one more month, under the guise of Hurrican Katrina problems. Ok. Fine. He seems to be alright with it but... ONE month. The other victims are just beside themselves because if they leave to take other jobs, they lose the severance. Evil business. Now, the other news is yet to be signed off on...a 6 month contractor position with Prophane, hopefully making a bazillion dollars an hour. I think that he should ask for two bazillion but I am just that vindictive. :o) Hey, this stuff sells popcorn and entertains The Husband's friends. Me? I am a cork on the ocean and grateful for all of the work that is coming my way. So, Vanessa...you can call me anytime, baby.

Knot Lying

Good grief. I did it...I sat and knitted for pleasure (it was pleasure only after I was done with that 4 needle ribbing nonsense...ugh) through one and a half TV shows until my chin hit my chest and I almost put my eye out with a piece of sharp bamboo. No, of course I am not following a pattern...just guestimates on sizing from some chart. I will be closed into a small room with no distractions when I go through the heel thing. (I actually DID knit a pair of socks for my daughter AGES ago but they were made from handspun and the needles were not toothpicks.) This is merely proof that I am doing it...making a sock. Happy now? NO LACE SHAWLS. I do not want to turn the earth sideways...

Did the earth move for you?

I figured that the space/time continuum was shaken a bit this afternoon because I balled up some yarn and started this.
I KNOW! All of my friends and clients are rolling on the floor laughing right this very minute, which is tipping the planet a bit. Knock it off, you guys. Hey, if I am going to hawk this stuff, I might as well have a pair of socks in my favorite colorway. Yup...Bird of Paradise. I have been getting some relentless teasing and rightly so...I swore that I would only make socks when I retired...does The Husband retiring count? Hell, he may be still working and working and working...I can't blame it on HIM! Ok, I'll blame it on Kerry. How's that? Still don't believe it, do you. Oh crap...I like it. (!)

I only got that itty bitty bit started because it is hobby knitting and I had to finish some work stuff first. Yeah, I will pick up the itty bitty's tonight when The Amazing Race theme song begins.

Here are some finished things from today. A rather chunky and hunky bittersweet chocolate cashmere kind of a thing that will knit or crochet up fast and be like buttah.

Oh yes and there is another thing. I told Prudence that I was not going to repeat the special request thing that she asked of me...it was a one time deal and that was that. Yeah, right. I am just glad that I wrote down what I did...

Emerald City Biffle, baby...yum. Thanks, P.

Vanessa...black black black black black. I know. sigh.

A barrel of monkeys

A fine time was had by all, this busy weekend. It all began on Friday aftenoon when after getting up at the crack o' dawn and riding planes, trains and automobiles, Miss Furballs herself, alighted from the BART platform.
Yeah, I had my little sign with PALM scrawled on it, trying to be clever, in case she forgot what I looked like. (I know, I need a new picture on the blog...my hair is growing out.) The laughing started right away and I was informed that it was time for a Martini. I was fresh out of such an animal in my purse but soon got her lubricated with an afternoon (it was happy hour on HER time) Margarita and all was forgiven. How can you not love this girl...she brings presents for me AND my dogs, who greeted her with gusto and a shower of affection, trying to help her through the separation time from her furry, feathery friends at home.

We had an afternoon of chat and fiber and settling in , getting ready for the full day of work facing us on Saturday...the dye day extravaganza. I have to say that I did a lot of tossing and turning on Friday Night, trying to sort through the colors and fibers and possibilities that Kerry had to choose from, when she walked into the nudie naked fiber storage, after ogling the dyed fiber and yarn stash. I was trying to map out the dance of the dye room, coming up the next day simply because I have not had a helper since this set-up was built for me. Toss, turn, toss, turn. I wanted to show Kerry a good time. :o)

Our day started early, to take advantage of the nice weather that would allow us to dye as much as we decided to and still get it dried for her to schlep home. Breakfast and then into the Dye-raj. Kerry fell right into step with me, after we went over our plan of attack and narrowed down her choices of fiber, yarn and colors. She allowed herself the luxury of a few ounces of Royal Cashmere and then put two pounds of Royal Baby Alpaca into a pot with a light celadon type of dyebath, which reacted beautifully with this luxurious fiber. Kerry stirs the pot like a pro.

We took a lot more pictures with HER camera and so you will have to lurk here until she fires them up on her blog.

I thought that I was going to be able to clear off the Spin-tech of my cashmere project before she arrived, simply because I promised that she could play with all of my toys and today, we finally accomplished it.

See what happens when a fiber fool comes to visit another fiber fool...fiber and foolishness piles up all over the place. We DID manage to tire the dogs out this morning, though, with a vigorous game of fetch. See Sasha bagged out at Kerry's side?

Now, while all of the hubbub was happening with the dogs and The Husband was readying himself to make his famous blueberry pancakes, in walks this tall drink of water.

Yup, there is the lovely daughter and her load...the grandsonfetus. I finally got to feel him kick today and I'll tell you, that was a thrill for this first time grandma-to-be! I whipped out a gift that I had in the "just-in-case" box and when she asked what the occasion was, I said that it was the "I Got To Feel The Baby Kick Day". Dorky, I know! Dorky but great.

The time came and after packing and trying to talk herself into taking just one more bag of fiber or yarn, it was time to take Miss Kerry back to the airport! I got The Husband to snap a shot of us framing the plate holder that I got at M$&W this year. The Goils.

It was a great weekend and the dogs were sad to see us come back from the airport without you-know-who. They did send a lot of their scent home for a couple of Minnesota dogs to have a grand time snuffling.

Time to wind up some Sock! and begin my first pair of eensy yarn socks. If your power goes out, it the shift in the planets because I am trying to knit with eensy, teensy, weensy needles.

kitty bed...sigh

Furballs blowing in from the midwest

Well, the prevailing winds are supposed to go west to east but something is blowing this way right this very minute. Kerry is coming from Minneapolis for a fibery weekend! I don't know exactly what we are going to do but I promised her that she could play with all of my toys and so it will go exactly the way that it supposed to. :o)

Oh, of course the other night, when The Husband told me the details of the whole severence package thing over dinner at Baja Fresh, I stored up some energy. So, what do I do when we come home from Safeway (have to mult-task our heads off around here and we have no KIDS at home...)? I put away groceries, fire up the rinse water on a load of roving and check my email. Can you hear the theme song from Jaws? Do you see further along than I did at that moment of being delusional, thinking that I was paying attention to ALL of the balls in the air? Of course you do...this wouldn't happen to YOU. My attention is grabbed by someone's email (foolish move) and then I hear The Husband say "did you have something important in the washer? I just stopped the machine. Shit, double shit...you big dumbass and all of the other blue words that I like to say to myself out loud when this happens. Dammit, double dammit...the usual stuff. I felted that beautiful Deep Sea merino roving within an inch of its now deeply dread locked ways. Hmmm, this stuff looks kind of interesting...hmmm, I could DO something with this disaster...yup. I let it dry over night and then hauled the medusa to the living room and had a go at creating a cat bed, first by just coiling it and doing the basket thing...nah, it looked lame. So, I braided three 4 ounce lengths together and then coiled them. I got a little lazy near the end, thinking that I should be plying that cashmere...etc. The bottom line is, I made this fabulous cat mattress. Yes...MATTRESS...the Princess Won't Feel The Pea mattress for The Princess and Catcher of All Things, Sugar Pie.
She accepts.

Rita

Now, the question is...did Tina get into the mess on the highway out of Houston. I can imagine that you might all have a "Tina" in your thoughts and prayers right now and are all standing on your tippy toes, trying to see their car in that nightmarish slog inland. It certainly sounds like army maneuvers brought Stateside, with a military commander talking about bringing fuel into the area for the poor shlubs caught on the highway in idle. Hmmm, the National Guard can do this duty standing on one ear...no getting blown up or shot at with THIS mission. SIGHHHHHHH.

I began and deleted a rant, a couple of times. You can't screw with Mother Nature, children. I remember droughts here in California, where you had to put a brick in your toilet tank to make it flush properly without using a lot of water and living through that showering with a bucket to catch grey water has made me a pretty much of a Zerascape gardener. I get it. My neighbor, on the other hand is watering day and night, this English cottage garden that she has had created, here in the chapparal region of California (golden hills and oak trees). She does not get it. Oh yeah and she drives a Beefmaster 5 to her job 40 plus miles from here. She does, however, have dual pane windows in her home and I would bite lima beans for this luxury. ( I REALLY REALLY HATE LIMA BEANS. Right up there with liver.)

I remember our run-in with Ken Lay and his Enron Bandits. We here in Northern California did not get shafted as high in the intestines as San Diego did but I will never go back to having a passel of incandescent bulbs in the house. I get it and California got it up the political keister. Helle keeps telling me that from the vantage point in Denmark, people can fold their arms, point and laugh at us for being such a society that lets this stuff happen. I get it...I see it...I take care of my own little part of it but The Husband sez that I have to keep my middle finger to myself when I see a Hummer. I say, let's lash some of these Gods of Prophane Industries to one of their dirt dots in the Gulf and see how fast they want to stop this Global Warming with the wind in their faces and the sea lapping at their adam's apples.

If you are a mind to, take a few minutes and read Molly Ivins column. I find myself talking to her out loud at the breakfast table and then either reading them to The Husband or cutting them out, as I did today, and putting them in his hand as he exits the house for a day on the campus of PI. Breakfast and then food for thought.

Yes, I have been dyeing, as my hands will show. I had a challenge sent to me by a certain Prudence who wanted me to translate what I saw in some dyed and then blended roving (my eyes saw LOTS of colors) into what I could do or would be willing to do with that information. I sat on it awhile, this request. I knew that it would take some serious thought processes, reserved for a day when I am firing on Snapple, Gingko and KFOG on the studio radio. I finally tackled it.

This reads a little too blue, partly because morning light has that effect, but the point is that I caught most of the ingredients in her mashed up mix, although I am afraid that the result may have too much life. :o) We'll see...Prudence likes blue, blue, blue and then blue. She is getting emerald green and blue and stuff. I get to keep two little bumps to spin, of this colorful Biffle. Yum.

Now, on that note...don't any of you start salivating over this...knock it off. I sold every last morsel of the Petroglyph and finally had a firm talk with my processed fiber enabler about sending me a little bit of something that will help to tide over the next wave of Petroglyph lovers. I want some for ME! (thanks again, Melanie...your last colorway will go into the soup when Kerry is here.)

For the lovers of soap operas...we have a new installment in the S version of the Perils of Pauline. (the Husband's buddy calls him for updates...he is hooked.) We have been waiting for the papers that will tell you know who what he will come out with, when he is put out to pasture in his non-dotage. We both made faces that shot our eyebrows up onto our foreheads, saying...wow...lucky. Can You Hear Me Now turns out to be a fine company, for a corporation and so The Husband is going to be let go with more than a handshake and a kick in the ass. One day at a time, people. So, the little boss over at Prophane finally tells The Husband to call a guy at this contracting agency and give them his hourly rate for coming on as a contractor. Yup...we discussed it, saying that this was the number and if they balked and said NO WAY, we would pick up The Husband's marbles and Dike Finger and go home to Lisaknit.com and play it our way. There was no wincing. We'll see, when a contract appears with his name on it. Stay tuned.

Oh yeah, then there's this

Thanks to Melanie "crawling around the website" and finding some cashmere yarn that I had made awhile back and asking for that colorway to be translated to merino. Here it is.

Petroglyph.

Prince Edward Island

No, this is not a travelogue. It is the home land of a certain someone and a certain something that arrived here this morning. Here is the certain someone.
This muscular fellow is the wonderfully personable Graham, the guy that you will meet if you ever buy a piece of equipment from these guys and have it delivered. Yup, Graham drove the big blue truck all of the way from Canada to California, to deliver this.

I know...the magical mystery thing, hiding under the blankie! The Husband decided that buying a robot for the business was an excellent choice and after meeting Graham and seeing what tremendous customer service these folks have, I would recommend them so very highly to anyone that has contact with them, whether for equipment or their beautiful quiviut yarn. Tom highly recommends their yarn.

So, this 200+ pound thing got wheeled into the house (yeah, the shop space is not ready for it yet) and into The Husband's office. It was HIS idea, not mine and so I guess that makes it HIS toy. Some toy... Here is Graham getting The Husband acclimated in the act of winding those skeins. Some fun.

Here is The Investment at rest.

Faaaaaaaaaaaaaabulous.

Speaking of fabulous, I have two more colorways translated into Sock! My favorite will always be Bird of Paradise.

And of course, the ever patient ones will now have Joseph's Coat.

Peanuuuuuuuut, peanut butter...

The sun is shining, the artists are assembled in downtown Lafayette and all is right with my tiny little corner of the world. We had peanut butter and blueberry jam on our toast for breakfast and I had forgotten that The Husband had refridgerated and saved the LAST peanut butter jar. Now that we were on the last legs of peanut butter jar number two, out came jar number one and there could be an event, a moment for two, one that was invented by The Husband and Sasha, lo so many years ago...Jar Day. Ok, you have to understand that Sasha has raised a brat...a barking brat...a whiner...gimme what you have baby boy. Yeah, the Tankmeister. I don't care if he is carrying around a set of you-know-what's, he is a big baby...bark bark bark. The husband figured that the way around the Jar Day barking was to save it for a day with the typical Libra gusto...FAIR. So, we have discovered that now that Trader Joe's has changed the peanut butter jars from glass to plastic, this is a doubly joyful day...Jar Day with toys. Yup, the empty peanut odor jar makes a great hockey puck and chew toy and all around good puppy thing.

I highly recommend this toy...Hey Tank! Where's the toy? Duh, wiggle wiggle wiggle. Lab.

Now, on to a finished object photo. Remember the picture of the angora on the Spin-tech? This is it in the finished skeins.

It is just delicious and I am finding that everything that I throw the way of this spinner is coming out just beautiful and soft. Right now, I have a cashmere project in the works, something that I just dyed and set aside during a really busy time...some natural brown that I overdyed for my Petroglyph colorway.

It is turning into yarn, quite nicely.

All is right with my portion of the world and Sasha is telling me (leaning against me with her bulk) that the postman has just come.