The usual...

A random update...

• I've been a little sick for a week or so... I thought at first that it was the crazy wet and cold weather we had last week, and then I thought maybe it was the weather and/or indoor allergies, which would be unusual but not unheard of, but it was just too annoying and persistent. It's probably a sinus infection, according to the nurse at the clinic... and now that I have antibiotics, I think it's getting better. I'll know better by tomorrow afternoon, as I've only been taking them for 24 hours and while I think I feel better, I couldn't say for 100% certainty.



• We just heard today that my brother is moving home from California to go to school. He'll be here on Monday. Not totally sure how I feel about that yet... I hope he does well.



• Meanwhile, I've been preparing my application for the Graduate Certificate program I want to do to get certified. It's due by March 15th. I have everything finished and together and sitting on my desk in an unsealed envelope, except the letter of interest/statement of purpose. They are quite vague about the requirements for it, and in fact, somewhat contradictory in the instructions, other than the very limited "250 words or less" specification. I've emailed the program requesting a clarification of instructions, but I have yet to hear back.



• I'm loving work... I find it rewarding and enjoyable and I feel valued, competent and helpful. I think that's important.



• I've been knitting a little bit. I just need to finish up a few decorative touches and I'll have two baby hats done for a friend who is expecting. She's a Firefly/Serenity fan, so I've made her a Jayne hat, as well as a hat for which I just happened to have yarn in my stash. I've also given her booties... Next is a blanket, but I haven't completely decided on a pattern yet. I have until mid-April. Other than that, I want to work on a few things for myself. I need a new pair of fingerless mitts. I think I want them to be a little longer than the Fetching mitts that I have already. The only problem with the Fetching mitts is that they aren't quite long enough to cover my arms to where my coat sleeve ends whenever my arms aren't just hanging at my sides, you know? I might make cuffs too. I also want some anklets, and another hat.



• I need to send my Hitchhiker to be converted into a double-treadle. I keep forgetting to pack it up and send it...



• I want to spin. My unspun fiber stash continues to grow unabated and is so very tempting. I'm running out of room for it too... I can't wait until I'm able to get to VA to try out a Mach II. The more I think about it, the more that little number is #1 on my list of potential new wheels.



• I'm obsessed with Star Trek again. I'm a Trekkie. I'd never deny it, just like I would never deny being a huge and hardcore fan of Jane Austen and the works of JRR Tolkien. I liked ST: Voyager for a while there, until it started to get silly toward the end. DS9, since it ended, has been my favorite ST series for the execution of the overall story (frankly, I thought it was masterfully done)... I remember using the philosophical concept of IDIC in some capacity in a paper during my sophomore year of high school. Never watched Enterprise because I thought it wasn't very well done. The writers of that show just weren't particularly interested in going along with previously established canon and just made things up as they went along if it served the story - lazy, tsk, tsk. And I was never into TOS very much until the new movie came out last Spring, but now I've watched every episode of TOS on YouTube (it's up there under CBS's shows) and I would be lying if I didn't say that I want to get some Vulcan ears and go to conventions. It's a sickness and I don't want the cure... Couldn't make it to DragonCon this year, when Shatner, Nimoy, Stewart and Mulgrew, among others were all there. It was unfortunate, but it was just too expensive for me. I'll get there eventually though.



• The garden needs doing, but the weather was awful for a while there, so I'm behind on that work. Hopefully, this weekend, I'll get a lot of work done. Can't plant things yet, but I need to redefine the planting beds and put in the soil amendments and figure out what I'm going to plant.



• I can't remember if I've written about it yet, but I'm taking Hebrew lessons on Wednesday evenings. I really like it and it's about time I learned...

Weekend projects...

My friend Joe and I planted fruit trees on Saturday. My mom has been wanting a yard full of fruit trees for the better part of 30 years and something has always happened, either to them once they've been planted or to prevent trees from being planted at all. But now we have them. An Anna apple tree, a Dorsett Golden apple tree, a papaya, a mango, a Florida Hass avocado, a Meyer lemon tree, a Persian lime, a Key lime, a Valencia orange, a Hamlin orange and a Brown Turkey fig. It was quite a day, filled with digging and hauling and peat moss. We already had an Anna apple, a Brown Turkey fig, a pink grapefruit and a lemon tree. The lemon tree and the pink grapefruit both used to be orange trees. They died back in freezes back in the 80s, their graphs died or something, and when they grew again, they started producing other kinds of citrus fruit. I think this is the neatest thing about citrus trees. Both are much more than 30 years old now because they were here before the house was built in '79 and the land was still an orange grove.

I took the subject area exam on Saturday as well. I'm confident that I passed it and will be very surprised if I didn't.

Today, I went to the yarn shop but forgot to take along the notes about projects that I want to get started on soon, so I didn't get any needles or yarn for planned projects. I did get some yarn though. I can't go there without picking up something. I got some Qina in Wisteria and some Angora yarn in peacock green.

And then this evening, I made banana bread. I hope that it will be delicious and strongly suspect it will. I should post the recipe. My mom has been using it for about 30 years.

I've been working constantly this month. There have only been two weekdays the entire month of October when I haven't worked. So very busy. It's good because more work means more money, but it's still been quite a lot of work and I'll be glad to have some time off. This week, I know I'm working Monday and Tuesday, but I'm not sure about the rest of the week yet.

Edited to include recipe:

My Mom's Banana Bread

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup mashed very ripe bananas
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Cream the sugar and butter together in a mixing bowl. Add vanilla and eggs. Beat together as if you were making scrambled eggs. This will help the bread be lighter. Add bananas. Stir until well mixed. Add all dry ingredients, a little at a time, stirring together in between. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan and pour mixture into it. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes. The very center of the bread will probably still be a little moist and the corners will look like they are too dry when it's done.

He's okay...

At about 11:20 this morning, my dad got into a car accident. If he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, he probably would have been killed (everybody, always wear your seatbelt!). Someone who was speeding ran him off the interstate (and they didn't ever stop), he lost control of his car, hit another car (apparently driven by a nice young woman who goes to USF - she wasn't hurt but her car was pretty badly dented on one side and it spun around on the shoulder of the road), went off the road, and then his car flipped over and landed on the driver's side against a barbed wire fence next to a cow field. He climbed out through the passenger side window. He's got a bruise and cut on one elbow, a cut on his forearm, and a cut on the top of his head, where he must have hit something, although he doesn't remember doing that, and his knee that he injured almost two months ago while working in the garden got banged pretty good against the driver's side door and now it's as bad as it ever was again. Poor Daddy... but no concussion and he's okay and glad to be breathing.

We don't know if the car is totaled yet. It's been towed to the Toyota dealership he bought it from back in '01 and we'll hear tomorrow or the next day from the insurance adjuster as to whether or not it will be declared "totaled."

The school secretary tracked my mom and I down in the teachers' lunchroom about halfway through our lunch period to tell us. Scared my mom half to death. Luckily, my dad had called the school and there was a phone in the teachers' lunchroom, so she got to talk to him right away. I was going to leave school and go get him to take him home, but my dad's cell phone died before he could tell her exactly where he was (isn't it awful when that happens? Like, that's what people have cell phones for, but sometimes they just die right when you really need them), and Mom didn't want me to go on a wild goose chase up and down the interstate trying to find him because he had been at the dentist in St. Pete and might be anywhere or might be picked up by the tow truck before I got there. He had said before the phone died that AAA was sending a tow truck to get his car, and that if his phone died, he'd call her again when he got to another phone, either the tow truck driver's or when he got to the Toyota dealership, if he couldn't get a ride home and needed me to come get him. However, (again) luckily, the tow truck driver very kindly offered to drive my dad all the way home even though our house is about 8 miles away from the dealership and he didn't have to do that, so Dad called once he was home, not much more than an hour and a half after the accident happened.

Home and getting ready for Autumn...

I got home late last night from my very long vacation. I had never been away from home for so long before. Two whole months. It's strange to be back. Good, but strange.

There will be pictures and details of the trip just as soon as I can figure out how to transfer the photos from the laptop to the desktop. Hopefully, it will be done by the end of the weekend or certainly early next week at the latest. *crosses fingers*

Seasons are changing, whether I can feel it in the air yet or not. The garden is totally finished for the warm season. I need to get to work on it for the cool season garden, but I have a few weeks yet until it becomes imperative. My dad has given me a headstart by getting rid of all the weeds that had invaded the planting beds while we were out of town.

I'm getting ready for another school year of subbing. Not signed up for classes myself yet, but at least I've figured out what program I want to do. The Grad Certificate program at USF for Social Science Education. *nods* For sure.

I may have two cavities in two of my bottom-right molars. I've never had cavities before. Must go to the dentist. *sighs* This is what I get for not going to the dentist for 8+ years... although I think the blame truly lies with the bout of acid reflux I suffered earlier this year and last. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Also, in much, much brighter news, it's almost time for more Supernatural. Based on this preview, I have a sneaky notion that this season just might kill me with its awesomeness.

Also, the gag reel from last season is out on YouTube. I lol'd a lot!



Season 4 will be out on DVD on September 1st. WOOT!!!

Random update...

Moved my doctor appointment up to today (well, yesterday now) because my acid reflux went a little nutz Sunday night. Still no closer to really having that under control, thanks to prescription drugs being crazy expensive and health insurance choosing not to cover anything since not having it won't kill me, but it was still good to discuss the findings (or not-findings) of the ultrasound I had last month in greater depth. Nothing to worry about there, and the chances that the pains are being caused by something life-threatening like some sort of cancer or serious like chronic appendicitis are pretty well diminished to as near to non-existent as possible without a hell of a lot more scans (just to be 100% sure)... so that's good.

Also the bursitis is improving as quickly as can be expected... It's just something that takes months and months to heal. He gave me some more tips to help it along. The stretching has been helping. I also need to minimize how much I drive as much as possible and adjust my car's seat a bit so that as little pressure as possible is put on my hip. I might also buy one of those posture support things for my car and one for home use and another for work because most of those "ergonomic" chairs at work are ironically painful to sit in, even for a few minutes, but not as painful as standing for over 7 hours straight. I need to get a new computer chair for home too. Really, really need to do that. I've found that using a straight-backed dining chair to sit in while spinning also helps because it's higher and straighter than my computer chair or any of the chairs in the living room. I might be able to return to more regular spinning... although not at the pace at which I used to work, where I was spinning about 6 ounces a day or more. Half an ounce a day, max, if I'm careful and cautious about it. But that's much better than nothing at all.

My left-over lung yuckiness from my cold is almost entirely gone. YAY!

Also, I've officially lost 10 pounds in the past year! \o/ This is a very good thing. I don't want to loose weight quickly, I just want to be headed in that direction - loosing, rather than gaining - without having to be working out like crazy or depriving myself of things I want to eat. It's working so far! Also, my doctor was able to discuss this with me, and express that if I could loose another 20 over the next few years, he'd consider that a perfectly healthy weight for me, BMI be damned, without offending me at any point. He's the first medical professional I've ever seen who has managed to do that. Kudos to him.

On to another random observation: I'm really liking Cupid on ABC. It's on late, at 10pm. But it's kind of a delightful light sort of show. A nice balance to all the heavy drama I tend to watch. If you haven't seen it, give it a chance if you would. It's cute... Fairly predictable if you know anything about Classical mythology, but still cute.

I'm coming out of my warmer weather induced desire to knit with nothing but cotton and now I want to make a shawl. Lace. Soon. I've got a hankering because several times this winter and spring I've wished for a proper shawl for times when a sweater is just too much and bare arms are just way too cold. Laminaria maybe? With cheap merino lace yarn from KnitPicks, I'm thinking? I would do the Danish Wrap Shawl that I've been wanting to make forever but I don't yet have the variety of appropriate handspun yarn I'll need for that, so it will have to keep waiting.

It's been forever since I posted...

Don't know why. I haven't been knitting as much as usual, and lord knows, I haven't been spinning (much - it's been rather miserable not being able to while surrounded by beautiful fiber). The bursitis in my hip is still giving me issues. I see the doc again on Friday. Hopefully he'll suggest another treatment that might be more effective. I have spun a little, just to test the waters. It hasn't seemed to make the pain any worse than casual driving does as long as I don't do any more than 30 minutes of spinning, which is about how long it takes me to do one bobbin's worth. I've been spinning the lovely Corri-Mohair blend I got in Greensboro at Gate City Yarns.

On the knitting front, I've not done too much since early March. Mostly granny's favorite dishcloths. I did finish the dresses for my niece. Pictures, such as they are, are on my Ravelry. I need to get more pics from my sister with the baby wearing them, but that might have to wait for a few more weeks until they fit her better and its warmer in Virginia.

I've also been working a lot. I'm still waiting to hear from the state about my eligability for certification. Could be several weeks still until I hear back. I know that there will be a lot of classes I need to take, plus internship and at least two subject area tests. Could probably arrange to take the subject area tests over the summer and get them out of the way. The qualifying scores are ridiculously low from what I've been told.

I got a book of children's fairytales (like cleaned-up-for-delicate-modern-children Grimms' stories) in Latin and I've been translating that with only the benefit of the glossery for help with the vocabulary. No help with the grammar. I think I've been doing an okay job. I should probably try to remember to take it with me to lunch with my Latin prof tomorrow (if we're able to go to lunch) and have her look at it. The reason I'm doing that is because I think a good deal of the Latin subject area exam is translating random passages with only the a dictionary for help with the vocabulary, so I thought this was a pretty good way to test myself... Although what I really need to do is get Caesar's De Bello Gallico, Cornelius Nepos' De Illustribus Viris, the Aenied and Metamorphoses, since those are what will actually be tested on the real exam. And I need to brush up on the particulars of Latin grammar so badly it's not even funny... But it will be good to know that I'm doing alright with translating without using a grammar guide.

*cough, cough*

Well, I feel as if I dropped off the face of the earth of late. I can't sit here too long, but I want to write something so I'll be brief.

I have the flu. I missed three days of work this week, but I should be able to go Monday. I'm getting better, but slowly. I also think I might have bursitis and/or tendinitis possibly in several location in my right hip (based on quite a lot of research this week while I've had little else to do). I went to the doctor last weekend about it, but the doctor wasn't in, so I had to see a NP. No offense to those out there who have taken that path in life, but NPs are and always have been utterly useless to me in private practice. They always tell me I have something I don't have and invariably misdiagnose me and then it has to be correctly diagnosed by the doctor at a later date. This time, it was no different. I won't go in to all of it because it makes me far too angry and I really want to scream at the woman what an idiot she is. Just one of the many things she did wrong, was that she gave me a prescription for the same GERD meds I've been taking over the counter that aren't working for me, but she didn't tell me that's what she had done because they have a different name by prescription. The only real difference is that they charge about 10 times as much for it. This after I explained to her what I had been taking and that it didn't work and I needed something else. Can we say, why do you have a job? I think we can. The NPs who work at CVS though, what gems they are. Always very knowledgable, polite and helpful. So as soon as I have a day free from working, I have to make an appointment with an actual doctor and go back to find out what's really wrong with my hip, as well as this stomach pain that my doctor has previously told me is scar tissue in my duodenum... Only problem is that the duodenum is higher up. The location is classic for the start of chronic appendicitis. I think I might have to demand some actual tests rather than just relying on his guesses. An ultrasound. Some blood tests. Something. Or maybe I should find a new doctor. That's a possibility too. *sighs*

As far as the flu goes, I'm mostly just coughing and sniffling now, but I don't want to get sick again so I'm taking it easy this weekend until I'm sure it's well and truly going away...

My hip is why I can't sit here for long. It hurts to sit at the computer. I don't know if it's the height of the desk, the chair or what, but I just can't do it. I also wonder if I originally hurt my hip by spinning too long and too vigorously. I wonder if others have had similar injury. Because the NP didn't believe me and looked at me like I was the stupidiest person ever to come in to her exam room. Hey, just because I don't get my repetitive motion injuries by typing, ballet dancing or running marathons, doesn't mean they aren't real, lady.

In other news, I have only the toe of the first of Jensen's socks to do. I'm waiting on pictures of his feet. ... Yeah, pictures of his feet. I want to know wheather he has particularly broad toes or not. I also got the handcards I ordered. Can't remember if I mentioned that or not. They're nice. I've been blending some of the alpaca Ilana sent me with some lambswool that wasn't carded to my liking and was difficult to spin on its own. It's fluffy and beautiful.

The garden is doing very well. With the flu, I haven't been able to be out in it at all since last Sunday, but it's doing all right. My dad's been watering for me, and that's really all it's needed. There's a lot that should be done, but nothing that absolutely must be done for at least another week, which should give me enough time to finish getting over this flu.

The new issue of MaryJane's Farm came in the mail today. It is beautious and filled with gardening stuff and recipes. *my eyes are all aglitter* Especially interesting to me is the article on people who are turning their front yards into vegetable gardens. What a fantastic idea that is for those who have soil in that location that will work for them. Us... all our good soil is in the back. Oh, sure, we could always amend the soil in the front to get it up to snuff too, and we are for the flower beds that are already established, but our front yard is the size of most people's back yards, so a full-scale effort there is not going to happen any time soon. Still, I had my friend Joe help me out today by putting down new top soil in one of the beds and planting it with the summer and winter squash seedlings that I never found room for out back. Now there are some of all varieties in both locations. :D

The Oscars...

Meant to post about the Oscars last night, but was so tired and it was so late! So now...

I really enjoyed the show. I'll tell you what I enjoyed the most (other than Hugh Jackman... seriously, I think I'd watch him read the dictionary if someone cared to televise it): I really enjoyed how as they were announcing the nominees for the acting awards, the presenters told each nominee what was so special about their performance. I could see that the nominees seemed genuinely touched by the complements and it just struck me as very special. Kate Winslet's was my favorite acceptance speech. YAY!! She won! :D (I <3 Kate!) Anyway, it seemed to me that this year's Oscars was a more intimate show... I don't know if it was just me, but I got that there was a sense of camaraderie and affection and... family really among a lot of the celebrities there, and I really liked that...

If you've got no idea what I'm talking about, watch this clip... It's good anyway (It's Kate! :D):



And OMG! I can't tell you how thrilled and moved I was that Heath was honored.



I cried. I won't lie...

Also - YAY! Sean Penn! I'm not a huge fan of him, but he gave a great speech:



Also - YAY! Penelope Cruz! I didn't see the movie, but I hear she is amazing in it and I loved her in Woman on Top years ago. And OMG! That DRESS!!! Did you hear the story? She saw it in a vintage clothing store 8 yerars ago and didn't buy it. She told herself that she'd go back for it when she needed it, and if it was still there, it was meant to be. She went back recently, and it was still there! 8 YEARS LATER! O.O Dude! The odds! The dress is 60 years old. *is amazed* Also, her speech rocks too...



On a completely different note: Today I started my 3 week long job. The teachers they have covering the classes really want me to actually teach instead of having them do it, but seriously, it's math and the FCAT (a standardized test in this state) is in a few weeks and I wouldn't want me preparing them for it if I were them. I know it's 6th grade math, but... still... Plus, they don't pay me enough to actually really teach 5 classes a day 5 days a week for the next three weeks. That's what the permanent teachers are getting paid to do.

Also today: My handcards arrived in the mail! YAY! *dances* Now I can start in on all the raw spinning fiber I've got laying around waiting to be processed.

A Sunday of randomness and gardening...

Gardening first... It was supposed to rain this afternoon, but it's 4pm and it still hasn't. Maybe tonight... But I've been out in the garden off and on since about 9 this morning getting as much done as I could. I moved bricks around to line the edges of the vegetable bed, and I planted the yellow summer squash seedlings in with the mustard greens that are going to seed right now. I also watered everything, thinned the parsnips, which seem to be just starting to really grow, and picked about 4 gallon-sized bags worth of mustard greens. We've got so much of that stuff, but it's yummy, so that's good. I also threw some annual seeds in the dirt of the flower beds in the front yard. With luck and water and sunshine, in a few weeks, there will be some marigolds, cosmos, zinnias and calendula coming up out there. I like those flowers because they do very well here and pretty much take care of themselves, freeing up more time for me to spend on the veggies out back.

On to the randomness:

• I got my first paycheck on Friday. \o/ Not a fabulous one, there was only one day's worth of work on it and the next one will be much better, but still, paycheck! *dances*


• I ordered myself a pair of handcarders today. Schacht brand. Made in the USA with some really nice features for longevity. I figured I'd use my Christmas money and a few dollars from my first paycheck on them before I forgot that I had Christmas money sitting in my account with a directive from my aunt to "buy something frivolous." Useful but unusual and expensive was about as frivolous as I could get. LOL!


• When the handcarders get here, I'll finally be able to start tackling the four pounds of raw llama fiber my friend Tareena sent me. YAY! \o/


• I'm annoyed with Lane Bryant. They sent my the clothes I ordered to Virginia, even though they had said they had fixed the address label and the order was certainly being sent to Florida before it left their facility. They obviously lied. Supposedly, it has now been forwarded through the US mail, but it still hasn't arrived and it's been more than a week. There were some really cute outfits in that order for work, and now they've sold out of my size, so if this is lost in the mail, refund or not, I'm S.O.L. Grrrrrr...


• I want to make strawberry jam. This sounds like the most wonderful idea to me.


• I haven't worked on Jensen's socks in days. However, I did make myself a steering wheel cover for my car. I finished it last night. Pictures will eventually be forthcoming.

Updates and news...

Short bit of business first! My sister, Lara, now has a blogspot blog... It may be found here. :D Be sure to check it out...

Also, Ilana, she's in love with the pumpkin soap you made. As part of her Christmas gifts, I gave her half of what you sent me this past summer and she's clamoring for more already. LOL!

On to updates and news:

So I worked my first day as a sub yesterday. I subbed for my mom while she had to go to a professional meeting downtown. 8th grade, physical science honors. Boy, was it ever exhausting! I slept for 14 hours after I got home... Kids, man- Oy! It wasn't bad though. I think it was mostly just that it was the first day and whatnot that it tired me out so badly... Still don't have another job lined up. But it's early yet...

I saw My Bloody Valentine 3D on Wednesday night with Joe. I loved it. I had never seen a movie in 3D before and I thought the effect was pretty cool. I don't usually like horror movies, despite my love of Supernatural, but it was precisely because of my love for Supernatural that I couldn't pass up the chance to see Jensen Ackles in the 3D on a big movie screen. (Slight spoiler here) His character in this, "Tom," was similar in many ways to his character in DeVour, "Jake," although MBV was much better. (End of spoiler.) Jensen can do no wrong in my eyes. I thought he did a fantastic job. Kerr Smith - who I last saw in Dawson's Creek - also was pretty amazing. Overall, a typical slasher flick, which lives up to the "Bloody" in its title... so if you go in for that sort of thing, or if you love Jensen, make sure you see this in the theater. I - being a bit of a wimp when it comes to this sort of thing - did not watch the death scenes, but I enjoyed the movie nonetheless.

I also have been spinning... the superwash alpaca-merino blend I got from etsy. It's very soft, but not so easy to spin. It's like a merino roving I got several years ago now that put me off spinning merino for the longest time. The fibers are so smooth and slippery that they have a tendency not to draft very easily, so it's a bit fussy... I can't tell you the number of times that the yarn has broken between the bobbin and my drafting hand and I've had to stop and pull it back out through the orifice and try to get it joined to the roving again... So totally not my favorite thing to spin. The resulting yarn, however, is very nice, and I think it will make some very yummy socks. I've spun 210 yards from 3 ounces, and now am on my 4th of the 12 ounces I bought. Pictures will be up on Ravelry, if not here, as soon as I take them.

Come on up for the risin'...

I've been watching Inauguration festivities coverage on CNN all day. I'm very much looking forward to Tuesday, though I won't be able to watch the Inaugural coverage live because I'll be in training to be a sub on Tuesday (O.O FIRST DAY!!! O.O) Right now, I'm listening to Springsteen singing with a gospel choir on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (points to subject line)...

Earlier today, one of the CNN correspondents got a bit... editorial... I guess, and said that there's the Washington Monument and there's the Lincoln Memorial, and the reason that it's the Lincoln Memorial and not the Lincoln Monument is because Lincoln is a more human figure in the American imagination and not this distant figure of the past like Washington. Ahem. *rolls eyes a bit* Acktuly, it's the Washington Monument because its construction was planned during Washington's lifetime and he knew it was to be built before he died, and it's the Lincoln Memorial because its construction was planned after Lincoln's untimely death, so he never knew that it would be built. Really, these are technical terms and have nothing to do with the historical figures' place or characterization in the collective American consciousness. See, I paid attention to the tour guides during my eighth grade trip to DC.

Now for the real reason I wanted to post something this evening...

I've been spinning this weekend. For Jared and Jensen's socks.

These first two photos are of the yarn I've made for Jared. It's custom dyed superwash wool from Blue Faced Leicester sheep.




I wanted a dark midnight blue-vaguely purple in certain light sort of color. Since it was hand-dyed, and hand-dyed things can never be completely and uniformly solid, there were some bits that didn't take the dye as completely as others, making some bits appear more gray than blue. To me, it sort of looks the way wispy clouds do in the night sky, so it works for me.

The last two pictures are of the batts I bought for Jensen (to be clear, both pictures are of the same wool, just at different angles to show what I'm talking about with the lighting). This is the first time that I've spun fiber from batts instead of roving, and I actually found that the batts were much fluffier than I expected they would be. The color is gorgeous and hard to capture. The pictures don't do it justice, but I did try. It shifts from periwinkle blue to a spring sky blue kind of color, depending on the light, but always it's a very deep, strong kind of blue. It sort of reminds me of Forget-Me-Nots. And it's superwash Merino.




I've spun about half of the amount I bought for Jensen, but that's drying after being set right now and so a picture wouldn't show the color at all accurately so I haven't bothered to take one yet. Will do that asap...

YAY!!! Finally!!! Something!!!

So. My application with the county has been processed and sent to the department that handles the hiring of substitute teachers. I just got off the phone with that department. I had called to see if I needed to send a copy of my resume or set up an interview or anything like that. No, the woman said, they don't take resumes or do interviews for sub applicants. All they do is review the application and then send a letter to the applicant as to whether or not they're hired. (That they don't even meet the applicants face-to-face before hiring them seems awfully strange to me, but whatever...) The woman was very nice, and took my application number and checked her computer to see when I could expect to hear from them. She said they have a large number of applications to review right now, but that they should get to mine by the end of this week and I should receive a letter from them sometime next week, if they're able to contact my references in a timely manner. Woot!! :D It's taking forever to get this done, BUT! It is moving forward, and that makes this little Capricorn ridiculously happy. *stops to do Shawn's Snoopy dance from last week's Psych*

Also, on a similar front: My GKT scores came in the mail on Friday. They were waiting for me when I got home from marathon shopping. I passed all sections of the test! WOOT! I have no idea what my scores were precisely because they only report the actual score if that section was failed, if it's passed all it says is "PASS." So, yes, YAY!! Now, I need to apply for my certificate of eligibility and get cracking on my grad school application. *is giddy, dancing and going with it*

New Knitty, New Day!

I slept most of today because my brother was freaking the hell out over the end of the world due to the particle accelerator outside Geneva and that made me freak out too and stay up to watch the sunrise. I hate it when this happens. My sleeping was already messed up, but now it's just really messed up. I think I'm going to try to see if I can take a nap sometime tonight, get up early in the AM and stay up all tomorrow like normal people do, and then I'll sleep normally tomorrow night. I really need a job so I can't do stuff like this anymore... Working on that. I went to see Prof. M yesterday to visit and to ask if she'd be a reference for me, which she was more than happy to do. Now, I just need to get a copy of my transcript, and get ahold of my next door neighbor, who's a neurosurgeon and so very diffiuclt lately to catch at home, to be my other reference, and I can send in the job application. Mission tonight, write an e-mail to my neighbor and order a transcript online if possible.

Anyway, a new Knitty was published today.

There are pretty patterns...

I especially like Versatility... It's like Wisp and Convertible, both of which I also like. Never made Convertible, but I did make Wisp... I just need buttons for it and to block it again because I screwed it up the first time.

Camden is interesting... I like the long fingerless mitts being able to be attached to the short-sleeved sweater. Makes it very versatile. And using KnitPicks yarn makes it much cheaper to make than most of the sweater patterns at Knitty...

Kinetic is fascinating!

Slither? I wants it, precious, yeas... I'm probably more likely to make these than something like Camden because it takes less time (I would hope)... Although I probably won't end up making either simply because I'm lucky if I ever finish anything for myself. LOL! Like many knitters, I make things for other people with much higher frequency than I make things for myself.

Hug is whimsical and delightful, if slightly disturbing... And Tatiana is also whimsical and made of love, but impractical for me since I'd never get any use out of them

Waves of Grain is so beautiful! I love it! I also love Abby. So pretty (and handspun)! I'd love to make either of these for my sister Lara. I think they would suit her so well! I think she'd also love Maple, and it's so on my list for the next time I just have to felt something and am brave enough to try colorwork again...

Garden Gate is gorgeous! But I'm no where near brave enough to attempt them. Baroque, though, looks exciting, and I am seriously tempted to try making those.

I definitely think I can find some handspun in my stash to make Oncleows with! Too cute!! And perhaps I'll be more likely to wear shorter skirts and capris more often to show them off.

OpArt! Is so on my list of things to make for my niece! I know Tim Burton will eventually come into her life, and this is wonderfully Tim Burton-esque without being so scary. LOL!

And cool features...

I think I need this from Knitty's list of Cool Stuff: Bramble. My friend Laura would freak out if she got one of these for her birthday! :D And OMG - look at these cute things at this person's Etsy!

Awesome 1840's knitted nightcap, translated pattern. YAY! :D

And silk reeling... tempting, very interesting, but I think I've got enough fiber related hobbies at the moment.

Vacation, all I ever wanted...

Vacation, had to get away...

That song has been in my head off and on since I booked my flight. I can't wait for my trip up to the Carolinas - and Virginia? - next weekend. I'm very excited that I'll get to see all my family and friends in the Carolionas and Virginia, and to catch up on their lives. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait! I am *so* in need of a change of pace and space and everything... I'm getting to be in a rut, which is bad. I've been waking up too late in the day and going to bed too late at night to be healthy. I need to stop doing that. I'm going to try to go back to aiming for a 11pm bedtime and a 9 am wake-up time. Yeah... wait a second, that's 10 hours... maybe an 8am wake-up time... I've still got some organizing to do in my room and bathroom. Maybe if I engross myself in that, the time will pass faster and I will have gotten something useful done in the meantime...

Oh, good news! I found out today that I still have a job for this school year. Yay! ::cheer for me!:: And being out of town for two weeks will not be a problem. Should have probably checked on that before booking the flight, but it all worked out anyway. I drive the son of a former USF professor from his after-school day care in the Westchase/Citrus Park area to his Bar Mitzvah Hebrew prep classes at the synogogue around the corner from my house twice a week. For this, I get paid $100 a month, 9 months out of the year. This year will be the third. It's not much money, but then, it's not much work. And it's good to have "pocket change," as my dad calls it... or "pin money," if you will. :D