Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has a great New Year! This one has been pretty busy, especially this last month! People definitely seem to like the fact that we're open seven days a week.

I got a lot of Christmas projects done and I thought I'd show you the highlights.

These are socks for my cousin Henry. I wasn't really thrilled with the red until I got the heel done and then I found myself quite charmed by them!
These are my cousin Katherine's socks. They are made from Socks That Rock silk and wool. They are handwash only (who makes a sock yarn handwash only??!!) and Katherine was the one I could trust not to throw them in the machine! I made a cotton dress for Big Niece, which she put on immediately after opening it, and a zipper hoodie for Little Niece. We didn't get a picture of Little Niece in her sweater because when we tried it on her, all she did was cry. I hope she actually likes it sooner or later. My sister promised to take a picture of her in it if she isn't screaming. Both girls picked out their own yarn this year! My brother-in-law ask for door snakes so I made actual snakes. The tongues are a little big and they look like they are giving the world a raspberry. Hey, well, sometimes the world could use a great big raspberry so it's nice to know they are on the job.My sister Margaret (she's gonna kill me for posting this picture. Hi, Margaret!) got a bag of yarn with a pattern which will, hopefully, be another sweater for her sometime before next fall.

I got some very nice presents this year! My current favorite is a roller style trainer for my bicycle. Usually, you clip your rear wheel to a trainer and it is like riding a very uncomfortable stationary bike. This kind, your bike isn't attached at all and you ride it like you are riding on a road (a very narrow road). It is fun but almost like learning to ride a bike all over again. Fortunately, they recommended riding in a doorway until you get used to it because you can loose your balance and fall right over. I've been doing a little every day for three days now and I think I'm getting the hang of it. I still ping pong back and forth between the sides of the door frame but not anywhere near as much as I did a couple days ago. My goal is to be able to ride it in the middle of the bedroom. I can't see the TV from the doorway!

So that's the latest. My New Year's resolution is to blog more regularly. We'll see how that goes.

Etsy Shop Updated

Finally! Thanks to Doria taking care of customers and yelling the numbers of different colorways to me from the other room, I managed to get my Etsy site updated. Phew!

Chores

Today I'm cleaning my bedroom. I have been ignoring it for a looong time and it has gotten really, really out of hand. Those who know me, know I am a pile maker. There has been a pile of stuff in the middle of my bedroom that has been getting bigger and more unruly and today it is going down! I have a very small living space since I share a one bedroom apartment with the shop but I don't think having a bigger place would help. I'd just fill it up with even more stuff. This way, things get out of hand fairly quickly and force me to deal with them.
So why am I sitting here blogging? Procrastination, of course.
So, now no more procrastinating. I'm going in!

The Verdict is In!

My sister finally has her sweater! I didn't get to give it to her in person. I sent it home with her husband when he came to pick up the girls yesterday.
The verdict is good! It fits, she loves it and thinks it will be an excellent addition to her wardrobe. This is good news because my sister is a bit particular about her clothes and I wanted to make sure I made her something that she'd get some use out of. Also, she promised to wear it to Thanksgiving so I can take pictures.
That success under my belt, I've got the next sweater all lined up!

Finished Object

I just finished my sister's Eris sweater!

It was her Christmas present for last year. Yeah.

It's my first time sewing a zipper into, well, anything.

Hope I did it right.

(I know the bottom looks a little crooked but it really isn't.)

I'll try to get a picture of her in it when I give it to her.

Now I feel the overwhelming urge to start another sweater!!

Back Track 2-Halloween

Warning: Extreme Cuteness!

In my continuing attempt to get caught up, I give you The Fairy Princesses! (a.k.a. my nieces).My older niece has always been very photogenic, a rare thing in my family. You say "Smile!" and she looks at the camera and smiles.

My younger niece, not so much.

Here's Little Nephew dressed up as Death. He was pretty scary! You'd never know he was wearing an old Van Halen t-shirt of mine inside out as part of his costume. It was apparently the only black t-shirt in the house.

They brought the dog, Milo, along dressed as a hardened criminal. I think my brother went as his parole officer.And, finally, we had some grown up trick or treaters. Here are Annie and Regina in their pirate garb. They were headed over to a party and stopped in to say hi.

Back Track

There's a whole bunch of stuff I never blogged about this fall and I wanted to do a little catching up.

First, I went on two great bike rides with friends using the tandem.

The first was the Hub on Wheels. My friend Stefanie rode stoker for that one. Years ago, Stef introduced me to the saying "Guess what? Chicken butt!" So for last Hannuka, I got her and her whole family t-shirts with that on it. For the ride, I borrowed back Stefanie's husband's shirt and we rode as Team Chicken Butt. Here you see us modelling our shirts! We had a great ride. It was well organized and had a well marked route and I'll definitely participate another year.

The next ride was the Cambridge Bow Tie Ride. I rode this one with my friend Phoebe.

It's called the Bow Tie Ride because Cambridge is vaguely bow tie shaped. The ride was a tour of Cambridge and we saw lots of places in town I'd never been. The drawback was that a lot of the route was on the sidewalk and there were a lot of bottlenecks that were kind of hard to manage on the tandem. I did enjoy seeing everyone with their bow ties, though!

I'll probably ride it again. I may ride it on my regular bike but I probably won't be able to resist riding the tandem again. It was so much fun with someone else. We chat, we laugh. Phoebe was even talking about getting cable installed in the back of the bike so she can watch tv while we ride!

The other event that I haven't managed to blog about until now is the Yarn Harlot's visit. As usually, she was funny and gracious and she even held my socks!

It is always great to see her!

I Got One Thing to Say

About the election

Hoorayhoorayhoorayhoorayhoorayhoorayhoorayhooray
hoorayhoorayhoorayhoorayhoorayhooray!!!

Don't Forget to

VOTE

The lines may be long so bring your knitting!

If you already voted, GOOD GOING!

Now all we have to do is bite our nails until we find out who's won.

Rhinebeck Pictures

I really enjoyed Rhinebeck. We had a great bus ride and the scenery was just beautiful. That's the Hudson River.
The fairgrounds is large but you don't feel like you walk forever to get from here to there.
The foliage was gorgeous and I saw lots of people I know. Ken from Dorchester Farms is the only one I managed to take a picture of. If you are interested in anyting Angora, see Ken!
And, of course, what's a sheep and wool festival without sheep. This guy looooved getting his head scratched!

As promised, here is a picture of my new spindle. I love it so much!

Today's project is taking in the legs of some cold weather cycling pants. They started out as ski pants with really flared legs. Now they are bike pants! We'll see if I actually go biking tomorrow. As much as I love to bike, I am a notorious wimp when it comes to the cold.

Rhinebeck was Great!

I had a great time at Rhinebeck. The bus there and back was great knitting time. I finished two, count them, two Christmas presents!
One nice thing about going to a fiber festival in fall is that I actually have some money to spend! In May, when things are slow, it is usually all I can to do scrape together enough cash to buy fleece for the shop and get it processed. To celebrate, I treated myself to a Golding spindle. Now usually, I'm not a spindle person but who doesn't like a Golding!? I got a gorgeous 2" spindle which I will post some pictures of. I don't have time for pictures now since I'm playing hookie from the bookkeeping. Then, of course, I needed something to spin so I got 2 oz. of white cashmere. This is going to be for a secret project and is getting spun very, very thin. I don't know that I've ever had this much fun with a drop spindle!
I also got some Socks That Rock silk and merino sock yarn and a nostepinde to wind yarn with. All so much fun!
Rhinebeck itself was great. I ran into lots of people I know. There were tons of vendors, tons. And the food was great! Sara and I indulged in some maple sugar cotton candy that was to die for! It is a good thing we split one because that was a lot of sugar, but, oh so yummy!
All in all, it was a great day. Thank you Kimberly for organizing the bus! I can't wait to go back next year!!

Headed to Rhinebeck!

I'm very excited! I've never been!

Technical Difficulties

I was off line for almost a week thanks to a faulty modem and lots of dithering around by Earthlink. I'm actually only online now because I got a wireless card for my computer and I'm using my mother's wireless upstairs. I think I'm probably going to ditch Earthlink at this point. They gave me such a run around.
One way or another, regular blogging will resume (as regular as my blogging ever is) shortly. I have not one but two fun bike rides to tell you about. I'm having so much fun with the new tandem! It shouldn't be legal!

The Amazing Shrinking Woman

My sister Elizabeth started out about two years ago at around the same weight I am now. She just emailed me this morning that she has lost a full 100 pounds!! Go Lizzie!!!!!
In other news, my friend Melissa called last night and asked me to be her Maid of Honor. I am so honored that I'm almost speechless.

Transition Clothes

It's that funny time of year where I'm wearing parts of both my summer and winter wardrobes. From summer, I'm wearing a short sleeved shirt and linen pants. From winter, I've got wool socks, shoes (as opposed to flipflops) and a wool sweater.
I'm resisting taking the rest of my winter clothes out since there's not enough room for both wardrobes in my bureau. I may break down and get out a long sleeved shirt if it gets any chillier, though.

My Pockets are Full of Tissues

And that is never a good sign.
I've got that stupid fall cold that's going around. I was going to go for a nice long bike ride tomorrow morning but I thought better of it. Sometimes I do have some sense.

Tomato Thief

All this summer, I've been thinking that it just wasn't a good tomato year because of how wet and rainy it was. And to a certain extent, it has been. Little did I know, however, that someone has been eating my tomatos.She looks so innocent, doesn't she? She is so busted!
And being another cool day, I get to wear the third pair of socks I made this summer. I just finished these a few days ago!
Tonight is the first meeting of the Common Cod Fiber Guild! We are having Franklin Habit speak and I'm so excited! Get more details here.

Another Chilly Day

Another new pair of socks!

These were finished in July and are made from the Noro Kureyon sock yarn. I love them now and I'll love them more when they are washed. They get all fluffy and soft!

Where did everybody go?

The shop has been incredibly slow this week. Things were riproaring along until about Monday then it turned into Deadly Deadola of Deadsville in here.
One consolation:
It is finally cool enough to wear wool socks. These are out of Arucania Ranco and were finished so late in the spring that I didn't get to wear them.
My other consolation, I'm getting a lot of work done on my bookkeeping...whoopee.

Annie's in the Shop!

It is Annie's second day in the shop and she's great!

Here she is giving the yarn some lovin'.

I swear, there is an elf yarn party in here every night and I am terrible at keeping up with the mess they make. Let's face it folks, I'm terrible at keeping up with any mess. It's a good thing I live alone.

Fortunately, we've got Annie on the job! Come see her on Sundays and Mondays!

Canoeing with the Buddhists

My nephews and I went canoeing with a bunch of people from the Zen Center. We paddled all day. I had a great time! The kids had a great time. The weather was perfect. The company was the best.
Now, I have to collapse. So. Tired.

Ah, back to school

Little Nephew is back to school this week and so we are walking together again every morning. I've really missed our conversations. This is one we had this morning:

LN: Auntie Lucy, I know what DNA is now.
ME: What is it?
LN: It means there's a little part of you in me. Your weirdness.
ME: Oh.

The kid thinks I'm the weirdest person he's ever met, which is fine. Gotta keep 'em guessing.

First Tuesday in the Shop!

This is the first Tuesday I've worked in over 11 years and it is a little strange. I keep thinking that it's Wednesday and the knitting group is coming tonight. But, no, I'm only working until 7pm. So strange!
Anyway, the trip to the MFA yesterday was great! For some strange reason, I love looking at jewelry but I have no interest in wearing it. I'm usually lucky if I can stand wearing my watch! The Art Nouveau jewelry was really, really gorgeous. Patience and I were both amazed that people actually wore this stuff. It's so ornate and expensive and BIG. I think that, by far, our favorite piece was a tiara that was essentially diamond encrusted antennae. You wore them with the tiara part hidden in your hair with just the antennae showing! Nifty!
Today's big adventure, other than opening the shop, was taking the tandem on it's maiden voyage. I met Stefanie up at Arlington Center and we rode together almost all the way to the Lexington line. It is real different riding with someone else. First of all, you have to coordinate coasting and stopping because everyone's pedals are going around at the same time. We worked it out, though, and had a great ride! I can't wait to take it out again!

Going to the MFA

Patience and I are headed to the Museum of Fine Arts for the day. We'll be checking out the art nouveau jewelry exhibit, having some lunch and then looking through the rest of the museum. It makes me feel so cultured and grown-up. I'm wearing my pearls and everything!

The Tandem Now Fits

The tandem has survived surgery and now fits me! I have plans to take it on it's maiden voyage with Stefanie on Tuesday! We will try to keep wobbling, cussing and barked shins to a minimum.
Anybody else want a ride??

Busy Week!

I've been having a busy and interesting week. On Monday, I got a tandem bike! I had been thinking of getting one for a while. I have a bunch of friends that either don't know how to ride a bike or, for one reason or another, are not super confident riders, especially on the street. Also, it is much more fun to ride a tandem than two bikes because it's much easier to chat. Now, this tandem is great but with one small problem. The front seat didn't go down far enough for me to ride it. The handlebars for the stoker (person in the back) are attached to the stem of the captain's (person in the front) seat post so it won't go very far down. I was able to ride the bike when we switched the captain's and stoker's seats. That was how I was able to figure out that the bike did actually fit me. Fortunately, the seat post tube is about 7" high and can be shortened about 3". It is up at Quadcycles having that done by the owner right now. Nobody else would touch it. You want to see a bunch of bike repair guys twitch? Ask them to cut part of your bike frame off! Hopefully, I will be able to pick it up tomorrow. I can't wait to go for a ride!
Tuesday, I took Darien to the beach. Can I just say WHAT HAPPENED TO AUGUST??!? I had thought I would have taken him to the beach a lot this summer but it just never happened. I think it is because we has so much bad weather. Anyway, I realized over the weekend that Tuesday was literally, my last chance to take him to the beach this summer! Fortunately, that weather was gorgeous. Unfortunately, I was a little cavalier about the sunscreen and got a hell of a burn on my shins and feet. Fortunately, it is almost all healed up and I even got a bit of a tan.
The rest of the week has been work, work, work. This was the last week that I have Tuesday off. Next week, we start the new regular winter hours with me working Tues-Sat and Annie doing Sunday and Monday. Weird.

Zen and Creepy Crawlies, Part 2

I just got back from a one day retreat at the Open Meadow Zen Center in Lexington. It is a beautiful place to sit and I really like it there except for one small thing. Whenever I go there, all this bug karma rises up! The last time I was there I came back from the long walk out in the Conservation Lands (aka the Pestilent Swamp) with not one but three wood ticks on me. Read here for the creep crawly details.
This time, I thought, I just won't go on the long walk and I'll be fine. Tells you how much good the thinking does ya'. As I was walking along during the first walking meditation (we alternate sitting and walking), I heard the click of beads as something brushed my head. I look around and figured my friend Maria, who was walking behind me, had brushed a mosquito away. I didn't think much more about it until we came around the room again and there's Maria with a couple of paper towels trying to catch a coin sized SPIDER! Apparently, it had been decending from the ceiling and was just about to land on MY HEAD when she brushed it away (the beads I heard was the mala in her hand). Later, she said, all she could think of was Miss Muffet as the thing came dangling down. Thank goodness she saw it!
I still plan to do other retreats at OMZ. We'll see what other creepy crawlies come my way. I shudder to think!

Something Funny

I recently realized something pretty funny. My dog is not a morning person! For years, I've been used to dogs that wake me up at the crack of dawn. Since I've had Wanda, that just isn't happening. What's more, I have to wake her up, usually by pulling the covers off her which she's burrowed under in the night. She yawns and stretches and eventually ambles her way to the door. When she comes back in, she makes a beeline for the bed and spends the rest of the morning as you see.
I'll remind you what she's like later in the day:

This is how she prefers to sleep anytime the temperature is below 75 degrees. See just the nose and paws sticking out?

I tell you, this dog leads a tortured life.

Congratulations!

Two of my favorite people just got engaged!!

Balissa and her beloved Andy

Hurry up and set a date you guys. I want to go to a wedding!

Mind's Eye Yarns, 2.0

Sorry for not posting for so long but this time I have an excuse. I have been trying to change over from using paper bookkeeping to computer bookkeeping. It is a noble endeavor but all that data entry is sucking the life out of me.

Changing to computerized bookkeeping is only the start. This seems to be the year that I'm going to be upgrading the shop in a lot of ways. My next project is adding some more shelves. This is the area of the shop right by the counter. It has looked like this since I opened.

Not very tidy and not the best use of space. So, I went out and got these. These are two seven foot high by two foot wide shelving units.

Now, one can't just get shelves this tall and narrow without securing them to the wall. So, I got all DIY with it! Any excuse to use my electric drill is a good one!

First, I attached some strapping to the wall.

Then I realized that it might have been a good idea to measure how high it was.

Fortunately, lowering it only took a couple of minutes.

I didn't want to block off one of the only accessable outlets in the room so I got myself a power strip. It actually took me two tries to get one with a flat plug. The first one had a sticky-outy plug and that wouldn't do at all.

It was pretty quick work to attach the shelves to the strapping. Then I mounted the power strip to the side of the shelves. I was smart enough to measure it this time so that I only had to screw things in once. She can be taught!All that was left was to take the mountain of yarn in the middle of the floor

and put it

all

away.Wouldn't you know, as soon as I get ahead of that batch, more shows up!By, hey, I'm not mad.

That done, the next big upgrade is coming after Labor Day. I've hired the lovely and talented Annie, knitter, spinner and veteran of many stints of covering the shop. That's right folks, after eleven years in business, I'm hiring my first employee! With Annie's help, the shop will be open seven days a week starting after Labor Day!

More upgrades are coming but may take longer. I'll keep you posted!