Stressful Therapy...

Spinning is supposed to be relaxing. And plying on the wheel is, most of the time, the spinnerly equivelant of taking a Xanax. For all intents and purposes, it is. Except when you purposely make it not so. Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, my fave group in Ravelry, Sheep Shed Fiber Lovers, did a fiber swap. I sent out some lovelies to my swap partner, and in return, from another groupie, I got this bunch of lovelies:
In this package was 4 oz of hand dyed Sheep Shed fiber, four packs of alpaca fiber (totally yum!), goat's milk lotion (which is about gone, LOVE this stuff!), handmade soap, and four vials of beads. We are supposed to spin up the fiber using everything in the box. Except, of course, for the soap and lotion. But, it's on my hands before I spin, so I guess that still counts.

I have yet to learn how to use loose fiber like the alpaca I got, so I'm saving it for another project. And the beads, well, I made a concerted effort to use the beads. I really did. You see, beads and me have a strong relationship. I do a ton of beading...I've beaded the most intricate stuff imaginable, within reason. I crochet with tiny size 11o beads. This is the stuff I do with beads much smaller than the ones I got here:

Okay, so some intense stuff, right? Hell yeah, it is. To do this kind of jewelry, you have to string the beads in a very exact pattern; an exact sequence. It's not always easy. So, when I thought about plying my yarn, and adding beads in, I thought, "no problem! This'll be a cinch!!" String the beads onto the ply, pull one up as I am plying, boom, boom, boom, Right?

WRONG.

I strung the beads onto my second ply. Started spinning...kind of all excited. Tangled MESS ensued. I ended up with this:

There's my cell phone, from calling my mother and telling her my woes. There's the wrapper of the rice krispy treat that was intended to soothe my soul. And my ball winder that wound up the first ply of the yarn-to-be. And if you look closely, you will see a strand of beads...that was cut out of the second ply. Yes, eliminated. They are still laying there. And there they will stay. I was sad. The yarn is pretty...just no beads on the white ply:

So. I will add those beads into this project somehow. They might end up being...well....I'm not going to give it away. It's all spun up now, just have to set the twist, count the yardage, and them come up with something original to make out of it. But using beads is just something that doesn't go with spinning for me...not yet. They will go with the knitting. That's about as far as I can go, without getting out my beading needles and doing something really elaborate!

Finally on Blogger!

Well, it's been a long haul here. I finally got my Blogger set up, after having this account for quite a while. However:

I couldn't get my Multiply blog imported over here.
I couldn't get my Flickr slideshow on here.
I couldn't get my Etsy slideshow on here.

Sigh. Ah well. heehee! If you want to know more about what's been going on with me lately, please, please just click onthe link to the right and head over to Multiple and read away! I can't seem to get it over here. I'll keep trying, though!

I finally got my Clematic Bird's Nest Shawl up in my projects on Rav. I never even got Stora Dimun up there, but I am going to take pics after it is blocked and all beautiful. That is, if my blocking wires ever get here from Knit Picks! (I am horribly impatient!)


Photo storage has become an issue. I really have to bite the bullet and buy a Flickr subscription. PhotoBucket just doesn't seem to work, and I really need it to. Flickr just seems darned expensive to me, although I know I will feel that it is worth it. Twenty Five bucks a year. Man! Okay, so call me cheap...but when you have three kids and not much money to work with, every penny gets scrutinized. ((grin))

I got four ounces of yummy BFL fiber spun up. I am going to ply it with white Sheep Shed punta singles. It'll be interesting to see how much yardage I get from it. It's a great color...really unusual, too bad the photo sux:


It's hard to believe that Steve's been gone over a week and a half. We talk every night on the phone, and a couple nights ago, it was a little difficult. I don't honestly know how the heck we will survive this. But time will tell.

I started the low-carb diet (again). Seems I do this every February. But now is a great time. Steve isn't here to cook his delicious, horribly fattening food for me. I will have no guilt about turning him down after he has slaved away in the kitchen. Food isn't a big deal to me. I eat to stop hunger. And now, with him gone, it's even more so that way.

We have a new guest in our house...! Steve and I bought this little guy for Conner for his birthday:


Yes, this is a rat. I had severe reservations about RATS. YECH. Well, that was...UNTIL we brought little baby Remy home. This little guy is just WONDERFUL. He's like a little dog!! He has NEVER bitten us, he gives us kisses (well, he's cleaning us, actually), his cage does NOT stink, he LOVES to be picked up, held and petted....in short, he is a FAB little guy! Remy will come running to the edge of his cage when I come home, just like a pup. He's just adorable. He will grab hold of my finger with his tiny hands, lay his head on my hand, and let me rub his tummy. It's the goll-darned cutest thing ever!

Okay, time to get ready for work. There's a new manager there now, and she's brought in a new system for the tailoring department. Aparently, she's not used to seeing so much work to be done, so I'm going in an extra day to get it, ahem, "caught up". Hmmm....well, I wonder what she will say when it goes right back to "not caught up" next week?? That's what happens when you have a store with GOOD SALES honey. Obviously not like the store you came from!