The Zoo over Ambuscade Street

To anyone who ever felt like a complete wingnut during the Bush years, this goes out to you.

Note: I reserve the right to ignore and/or mock any serious responses to this entry. THIS IS A SERIOUS-FREE ZONE, YO!

The first day of Christmas is, in fact, December 25. Christmas Day is not the twelfth day of Christmas, but January 6, Epiphany, is.

That is all.

No baby + insomnia = four scarves done. And HOOBOY am I glad I picked a forgiving fabric - these are wonky as hell! Two of them aren't entirely my fault - I didn't realize how crookedly (and jaggedly) they were cut when I started sewing. Also, the fabric is way slippery, and stretchy in strange ways, which is...a challenge. But they're still AMAZINGLY soft and mostly scarf-like in the end, which is what's really important, I suppose.

ETA: I have the insomnia of the SUPER-Productivity. I may not be getting any sleep, but I've gotten more done today since the Ninja and Gray left than I've done in weeks. Combined. AND the rest of my fabric arrived, so I can hopefully knock out the rest of the scarves tomorrow and Friday. Awesome fabric is even more OMGAWESOME!! than I had hoped - Recipient will be Over the Moon, I hope.

EEEEE!!!! GMAIL THEMES ARE AWESOME!!

Probably because I've only had the time to check my email once a day since they started up, I didn't notice until yesterday that they changed to reflect the current time. I have the little Japanese tea garden fox one, because it's cute. And right now, while the fox sleeps, there are little ghostie foxes playing go in the garden!! OH but this delights me to no end.

Mmmm, antihistamines are love.

My dear friends, once you see this, it can never be unseen.

I so need to find someone who can knit for me, because whoa PIRATE SOCKS!! MORE pirate socks! ARGYLE pirate socks! FSM Pirate hat!

Also an UNGODLY number of kickass scarf patterns.

I'm going to have to suck it up and learn to knit eventually, aren't I?

ETA: Dear self. You need HALF A YARD of fabric for one particular scarf. Yes, this means that you have to suck it up and buy a full yard online, since no fabric store in the area stocks it and you need THIS EXACT FABRIC, NO OTHER WILL DO for this project. You don't need to order four more yards of not-exactly-cheap fabric to accompany it home. DO NOT. Might I remind you that you have SIX unfinished scarves at home already, to be done this weekend? This would bring the total up to SIXTEEN, and I don't think anybody needs that many scarves, no matter how awesome.

Sincerely, The Voice Of Reason

ETA2: Dear VOR. The fabric would be lonely. But you're absolutely right, five is a crowd. So there are only three yards coming home with me. In my defense, shipping was free, and the whole order was 20% off, making it cheaper than the fabric order I almost placed last week for a mere two yards. So I saved money! True, none of this fabric was the awesome pony print that was going to be destined for my inlaws, but they'll survive with camel-colored fuzzy softness. And...and...PURPLE!! Love, moi.

Do I know anybody in Columbia or Frederick, MD who wouldn't mind me crashing on a couch in early May?

It's 4:30AM. Gray has been awake and singing to himself for half an hour. GO TO SLEEP, LITTLE BOY!!

I'm so going to bed early. Erik can just deal. I'm cranky and tired and generally not wanting to deal with anything. Spinning's calmed me down a bit, and I've managed to finish the second half of the rainbow wool, and I'm working on the solid white now. Problem is that its fighting me horribly, and doesn't want to draft properly. Domestic top is not my favorite fiber. But I have to finish this already.

Speaking of happy rainbow yarn, any knitters out there willing to take on a small project that wants to be a Christmas present? My mom wants this stuff as a scarf, which is fine, but...I don't knit, so I need to find somebody to take a commission.

Bleh. Feeling very bleh.

I still don't have a "frabjulous joy" icon. I need one. Because UNEXPECTED HOLIDAYS ARE THE BEST HOLIDAYS OF ALL!! I thought I just got Thanksgiving, but YAY! AND WIN! AND YAY!

Plans: Spin yarn, write reviews, read, and generally goof the hell off. WOO! Although it's a damn good thing that all of my free-time fun activities are quiet ones.

Happy yarn! I'm halfway finished, and managed to hit 88 yards. I need 200 total. It's going to be interesting...

I finished the first half of my stripey rainbow Challenge yarn, and ended up with 88 yards. Which, while it wasn't the 100+ yards I was hoping for, is still a hell of an improvement. And the white single I spun second still has at least a dozen yards left, so I'm feeling fairly confident that I can get 112 yards out of the second half of this rainbow stuff.

SO glad I don't have to work tonight. SO glad. I'm just...worn out. And SO glad I don't have to work tomorrow - if that much stuff was broken at 2AM on Saturday and Sunday, imagine what's going to go wrong when everybody's back at work. Iiiick.

...I was going to post more, but I can't remember what. Brain = melted.

Night. From. Hell.

*rolls in fibery goodness to make it all better* Yes, need moar fiber. Merino next, I think. Or alpaca. Mmmmm, alpaca...

*whimper* Permanent account sale...but can't afford it. Boo. I have to just do a regular old renewal.

This is my new definition of badass awesomery!

Addendum: If you're waiting for something from me, I'm terribly behind because I've had no time to myself this week, and I'm practically dropping dead from exhaustion. That's a slight exaggeration, but not as much as you might think. So hit me up again if it's been a while, or ping me at work if you have that contact - I have something like time there, if I ignore some of the, you know, work.

This delights me to the bottom of my twisted soul.

I don't need to buy more fiber at this point in time. One, I don't really have the money for it. One income, lots of bills. (Although at least half of my Christmas shopping is done already - all nine nieces/nephews. They're getting personalized superhero capes, because superhero capes are the win.) Two, I do have some at home still to spin. But...but...but...shiny! And I bet it would be so much fun to spin! *lusts* (Neat fiber combinations! Bamboo! Sari silk! Pretty colors! SPARKLE!!! I've only spun regular, plain, non-sparkly coopworth, corriedale, and BFL wool thus far - randomeawesomebatts are reeeeeally calling me right now. I like randomeawesome.)

Somebody hold me, and take the mouse away so I can't click "buy."

While I'm at it, thus:



Skycoaster, 55 yards of BFL. This stuff is straaaaaange. In some lighting, it's straight blue and green, kind of swampy looking. In other lights it's shades of royal purple, with little bits of green accents, like a Nawlins Mardi Gras swamp. But the end result is so much prettier than I thought it was going to be when I was spinning it. This...wasn't the best wool. I think parts of it were partially felted, because sections would spin like a dream, then others...wouldn't, and I'd fight with the stuff, and generally want to scream.

I don't think I'm going to be able to finish any more yarn for another week or two, so you should be spared any more pictures for a while. ^_^

Since the polls in California are closing in about seven minutes, I'd just like to take a moment to point out that you read it here first. Although I was thinking 2012, still!

"Monet's Bluejeans", corriedale, 40 yards

I finished another skein, but it's still drying. Lessons learned? Ghetto lazy kate (bamboo skewers in a cardboard box, with toilet paper tubes as bobbins) makes plying so much easier than wonky balls of yarn in mugs, then falling out of mugs and bouncing around and getting tangled.

Stripy Rainbow won, mostly because I decided that I was going to try a Ravelry challenge, which requires 200 yards, and I think I need all of it in one single to make that at this point. But the REAL answer is "buy another damn braid of the stuff and do both!" Which I will at some point. Because I love the way this is spinning up.



That's a quarter of what I need to spin all finished up and purty. And pretty damn even. And pretty much not overspun. And hopefully not underspun, although I'll find that out when I go to ply. It makes me happy. I'm almost done spinning the blue/green stuff, too, so if I get the rainbow off the spindle I can ply that tonight. Woo!

[Poll #1290380]

So, after spending entirely too much time spinning last night, I have 40 yards of the pretty blue yarn, and I'm about 3/4 done with the green/blue. I have to wind off what's on the spindle now before I can finish the rest and ply, which I just Don't Want To Do right now, so I decided to start on this. You can't really tell from the pictures, but when it's all unbraided it's actually a bright rainbow-looking thing. Which has potential. I can see two things I possibly want to do with this, and I can't decide. Enter the Braintrust.

1) Chaotic Carnival - Spin half of it red to blue, the rest blue to red, and ply together in a mish-mash of colors.

2) Stripy Rainbow - Spin it all red to blue, then ply with some plain white wool I have on hand to make a stripy rainbow yarn.